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nails cut into his back where she was holding onto him. 
He could have cared less.
    His hands left her hair, finding the neckline of her tunic. He
grabbed it with both hands and tried unsuccessfully to rip it away from her.
    “Take it off.”  His voice was a heat blast of authority,
while his hands found the bottom of her tunic and tried again to yank it off
her.  Before he could, the coach jolted to a stop and unseated them. They
crashed into the floor with Nori on the bottom and Menelaus between her
thighs.  It was enough of a jolt for Nori to override the mating frenzy
briefly. 
    He was in a fine position to see her eyes change.  He
cursed, then leaned down and took her lips, a punishing and hot plunder that
ended abruptly when she bit him.  He cursed again, pulling back a bloody lip. 
His eyes promising retribution as he reached for her again.  She got her leg up
between them and kicked, sending him crashing back into his seat.  The coach
behind him actually cracked and there were shouts outside before the door was
ripped open and she was hauled out and away from the king. 
    She drove her fist into the windpipe of the man unlucky
enough to be holding her, busted the knee of another with a downward swipe of
her heel, and broke the nose of the man that grabbed her from behind with a
backward head butt.  He dropped her and she landed in a crouch, one hand on the
ground, one hand in the air for balance, waiting for the next attack.  Several
of the men were on the ground cursing or completely out of commission.  The
others unsheathed their swords, her eyes narrowed as she waited perfectly
balanced for whatever came next.
    “Enough!”  The king shouted, stepping out of the coach,
looking the worse for wear with cuts on his neck and a bleeding lip.  He also
looked extremely pissed, but that could be the sexual frustration.  Nori was
dealing with a bit of that as well, not to mention more than a little fear.  She
cursed him, and her own nature, and wished like hell she was still in the tech
prison.  He walked toward her with purpose, kicking away the groaning man that
was unlucky enough to be between them.  She stood up warily.
    He took her by the arm, pulling her into his side as he half
turned to look at his men.  Instinct should have been to strike out, take him
down like the others and run. But instead, she had to fight to keep from
rubbing up against him like a cat in heat.  She managed to stay still,  trying
not to breathe his scent in and wishing quite desperately that she was not what
she was. But if wishing could make it so, it would have happened long before
now. 
    “No one touches her but me,” he said.  His eyes touching
every man there, his grip on her arm cutting, but she ignored it and him as
best she could, trying to get herself under control.  The mating dance was upon
her and it was hard with him standing so close.  “She has defeated three.” 
    The men were quiet for all of three seconds as they absorbed
that and then they cheered, the ones that were conscious anyway.  The proof of
the new queen’s strength was all around them.
    “I present to you Queen Nori.”  He pulled her around before
him, his front pressed against her back, his arm slipping around her waist to
hold her tight against him, even as his hand slipped into her hair at the nape
of her neck. 
    She wanted to purr.  What the hell was she supposed to do? She
could fight anything but the mating dance, and somehow her body had chosen this
man as her mate.  It was beyond bad news, especially when she knew it would get
worse the longer she fought.  She would be a danger to herself and everyone
around her until she completed what her body had started in that coach.  Not
that she was likely to suffer all that long, by the feel of the erection
pressed against her back, it would be about as long as it took to get to a
private room. 
    At the thought, she did purr, and was really glad no one
else could hear it,