The need has never been this strong. Not even with Andrew.

I've been fighting the need to claim Dr. Rodney McKay as mine since I first looked up into his beautiful blue eyes and saw Constance staring back at me.

And today my need is the strongest it's ever been. The fact that I almost lost him, yet again, is partially responsible. Knowing that I couldn't, and still can't, protect him is like a knife to my heart.

We may not have bonded yet but I could still feel his pain as the knife was shoved deep into his arm and then twisted. I vowed at that moment that I'd find that son of a bitch and make him pay.

And Kolya...damn him for keeping me from helping my Mate when he needed me most. Torturing Rodney and threatening him, and Elizabeth, just strengthens my resolve to find him and kill him.

It also brought the need to turn Rodney so close to the surface that I now find myself standing in front of him trying to remember why I can't pin him to the wall behind him and sink my fangs into his neck, drinking my fill and making him mine for all eternity.

"Major?" Rodney questions with an almost undetectable note of fear in his voice.

"Yeah, McKay?" I respond.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" he asks as he swallows hard, my eyes following the movement of his throat muscles.

"Like what?" I ask back, barely refraining from licking my lips as the image of my fangs sinking into his flesh pops into my head.

"Like I'm what's for dinner," he answers as he starts to back away.

"Does it scare you? My staring?" I slowly stalk him across the room.

"Yes, it does," he replies with a tiny squawk as his back hits the wall and I step in close. "Major, really. Back off!" he orders with a shove to my chest that on any other day I would have allowed to push me back a step.

But not today. Today I almost lost my Mate for the fourth time. I swear, the man attracts trouble almost as much as Tim does.

"No," I inform him as I lean in even closer and scent his neck.

Need is thrumming through me now. I'm so close. Just another inch or two and I could slide my fangs in deep and make sure he never gets taken from me again.

With a low growl I lick a path from the collar of his shirt to his left earlobe. "I need you, Rodney. Let me make you mine," I whisper in his ear.

I can feel him trembling where he still has his hands on my chest; luckily he's too distracted to notice that I'm not breathing and that there is no heart beating under his palm.

I press my advantage while he's still speechless. "I know you want me, Rodney. I've seen the way you look at me when you think I'm not looking. Let me take care of you," I say as I bury my nose in the hair behind his left ear.

"Major…" he falters to a stop when I run the tip of my tongue around the shell of his ear.

"Don't make me beg, Rodney," I keep my tone light and feather soft just like when taming a horse.

Rodney is skittish from the scare of being held hostage and having his life threatened. One wrong move or too loud a word and he'll bolt and I'll lose what little ground I've gained.

Just when I think he's going to slip out from between me and the wall, he surprises me by raising his head and brushing his lips against mine.

"If this is your idea of a joke, Major…" he begins but I cut him off.

"The name's John and I'd never joke about needing you in my bed, Rodney," I state just before tilting my head to the side and sealing my lips over his.

His hands turn into fists in my shirt and he moans long and low giving me the opening I need to sweep my tongue inside to discover his taste.

"John," he pants moments later when he pulls back to take a breath. "I need to know."

"Know what?" I lean in to take his mouth again but he turns his head causing my lips to graze his stubbled cheek.

"Why me and why now?" he pushes a little on my shoulders and I lean back to stare into his eyes.

This time I see him, Rodney McKay, and not my Constance. That's when I know that this time I will not have to stand by and watch as my other half dies. The need is as strong as it is this time so that I'll fight my hardest to make sure my Soul Mate doesn't leave me again.

"Why you, I have no idea," I lie. Of course I know why him. He's the only direct male heir of Joseph McKay. "Why now, because you could have died today. I refuse to allow that to happen without having at least one taste of you," I reply as I lean back into him, placing my hands against the wall on either side of his head and pressing the evidence of my arousal against his hip.



"Major?" Rodney calls while snapping his fingers in front of my face.

"Huh?" I blink at him in confusion, sitting up straighter in my chair. Damn. I must have dozed off. Not something the head of the military for this expedition should do in a briefing.

"Were we boring you?" he snaps.

"Uh…" I stall while trying to figure out what to say and refusing to meet Liz's eyes and the knowing look in them. "Sorry. Just trying to wrap my head around what happened yesterday."

"Yeah. I was positive we were all gonna die," he agrees, the left corner of his mouth turning down even further. "But that doesn't excuse you fading out in the middle of the debriefing, Major. If we're going to prevent anything like this from happening again, it'd behoove you to try staying awake, don't you think?"

His snarky tone doesn't disguise the gray pallor of fatigue in his skin or the drawn look around his eyes. But it does reassure me that Rodney McKay is, in fact, here with me now, and somehow, someway, I'll find a way to get his attention before he has another chance to get himself killed. "Carry on, Doctor," I wave a hand at him, interrupting any further rebuke from him. "I promise, no more cat-naps."

At the rate I'm going, I may never close my eyes again, at least not until he's in my bed…