Her mind blanked for seconds. They were offering her a job treating criminals but she’d be living in a highly guarded location where she’d never have to worry about NSO enemies coming after her for payback for her time spent at Homeland. She’d been warned of that possibility before she’d agreed to work for them. It was a good, fair solution. It just made her sad that she’d have to leave the home and friends she had made.
“You can think about it.” Justice rose to his feet. “We’ve hired your replacement and he’ll arrive tomorrow evening. We need your answer in the morning so we can arrange for you to move out of this house.” Sorrow filled his eyes. “It’s the best we could do. I hope you understand.”
“I do.”
Obsidian had been silent the entire time but he growled low, alarming Alli. She turned her head to stare at him.
“Don’t.”
He was too strong to hold on to when he stood, almost knocking her off her perch on the edge of the loveseat when he tore out of her grasp. “I go where she does.”
Fury stood. “Fuller is heavily guarded and secure but they aren’t equipped to have one of us live there. It’s in direct violation of its purpose.
We send our enemies there to be punished by fellow humans. No Species are allowed. It would be too tempting to kill the prisoners.”
“I go with Alli.” He snarled, hands fisting at his sides, ready to do battle.
She grabbed his thigh, clinging in case he lunged at one of the other men. “Obsidian? Look at me.”
He glared down.
“Stop. You don’t understand what is going on but I do. Trust me. It’s really nice of them to offer me this job and not send me to prison…on the wrong side of the bars.” She shot Justice a grateful look. “I’ll take the job. I don’t need to think about it. I know my contract clause says if I leave the NSO that I’m banned from here but can I visit him?” She glanced at Obsidian, then back at the NSO leader. “Please? Fuller is a subdivision of the NSO, right? That would mean the no-contact clause isn’t in effect, right?” Desperation clawed at her from the inside out, terrified he’d tell her she’d never again get to see the man she loved.
“Please?”
Justice’s features softened. “We could arrange visits.”
The tears wouldn’t be held back anymore and slid down her cheeks. “Thank you so much.”
Obsidian growled loudly. The rage refused to be contained anymore. He’d allowed it to build while he listened to his Alli talk to the two males.
She’d asked him to trust her but it was clear she had no control of the outcome of her fate. He did.
The males backed away, alarmed. They should be. He wanted to beat on both of them. “She is mine!” he snarled. “I go where she does.”
“Obsidian?” Alli hugged his thigh tighter, on her knees at his feet. “Don’t!”
“Silence.” He bared his teeth and growled at the males. “Try to take her from me and you will die.”
“Fuck,” Fury muttered. “I think Moon understated their involvement.” He raised his hands.
“Easy. No one is going to attack you.”
“He’s not feral.” Alli hugged his leg tightly enough to restrict the flow of blood in it. “He’s really possessive of me. I’ll calm him down and explain things after you leave. Please go. You’re only aggravating him. I’ll handle this.” She softened her voice. “Obsidian? Please look at me instead of them. Please?”
He glanced down. “Release my leg and go to your room where you will be safe. No one will take you from me.”
She frantically shook her head, refusing. “You can’t fight Justice North, damn it. He’s the leader of the NSO. That will earn you a one-way trip to the Wild Zone and I won’t be able to visit you there. No humans are allowed except one who is a mate. That’s where they keep the more irrational Species who aren’t social.”
“You’re my mate.” His head lifted and he snarled at the males again but focused on the one with the strange eyes. “I don’t care who you lead.
Not me. She’s mine!”
“Obsidian?” Justice remained eerily unruffled.
“She’s your mate?”
“Yes.” He snarled, tried to intimate them by drawing closer, but only dragged Alli along the floor. He stopped since she wouldn’t let go and he didn’t want to cause her harm.
“We won’t take her from you.”
They were trying to confuse or deceive him.
He glowered at the male in charge of the Species.
“You want my guard down to steal her from me.”
“No.” The male shook his head. “We’d never separate a male from his mate. We have our own and know how much they mean to us. We just thought you two were sharing sex. She’s considered one of us, as your mate. We won’t allow her to be a doctor here but no one would ask her to leave our lands.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Fury verified. “Your mate stays at Homeland with you.”
“Leave!”
The males backed slowly to the door. Justice smiled but it was tense. “I’ll have someone bring the paperwork. We fill out forms—Allison can help you with them—to make her officially your mate. It’s that simple.”
“Moon will bring them,” Fury offered. “You trust him and he will explain our laws regarding mates. You don’t know us well or trust us yet but you will learn to.”
“Good idea,” Justice muttered. “Let’s go.”
“After you.” Fury opened the door and both of them fled, closing it after them.
It was difficult to release the anger that raged inside him over someone daring to take Alli from him. He looked down at her and noticed how pale her features had grown. She just gaped at him but her hug on his thigh had vastly loosened.
“I can’t believe you did that. They think I’m your mate.” Her voice rose. “They are bringing papers, Obsidian! You don’t know what that means but it’s binding.” She released him and fell back on her ass to sit on the carpet, still watching him as though he’d done something so shocking she couldn’t wrap her mind around it. “Legal.
Forever.”
Alli wouldn’t lie to him. The papers must be real and so where the words the males had spoken. They wouldn’t take her away from him to be a doctor for the prison. He wouldn’t have to worry anymore.
“Good.” He inched away from her to stare in the direction of the kitchen. “I am hungry for food. You said you’d teach me how to cook.” He stared down at her and offered a hand to help her up. “Now is a good time.”
She didn’t take his help, unmoving except for blinking. Her little nose flared a few times as she breathed hard.
“Alli? I am ready to learn.”
“Do you understand what you just did? They are drawing up mate papers.”
“It means they can’t take you from me.”
“Mating is forever here, Obsidian.” She spoke low, her words slow. “As in ‘until we die’.”
“Good. Teach me to cook.” He faced her and offered his hand again.
She ignored it. “You will be stuck with me.
You won’t be able to be with other women—females of your kind.”
“Good. I only want you.”
“For now. What about next month? Next year?”
“I won’t want another. Take my help to stand.”
He bent and grabbed her hand, pulling but she refused to straighten her legs, instead just sliding a few inches along the floor. “I am hungry.”
“Obsidian!” She altered from shaken to irritated in an unsettling short span of time. “You have to tell them you changed your mind or just said that in the heat of the moment. I can’t be your mate. You don’t know what you want. You haven’t been free long enough to even leave Medical except to come to my house. That’s insane.”
“You’re mine.” He fought down his irritation.