by Celia Kyle
Sevith chuckled once the doors were closed, but Jenna looked a little uneasy.
“They’re not upset that we’re here. Are they?” she asked.
“Not at all, my Oso,” Hiren said. “The look on those faces was envy.”
“It has been a long time since many of those warriors have seen a proper family,” Sevith said. “Seeing children is a rarity, let alone children that are not Drokten. It is a sign of pride, to be able to have what we have.”
Hiren took one of Jenna’s hands, and Sevith took the other, both of them smiling down at her. “You will all be treated in very high regard while you’re here, Jenna—and even more so when we return to Drokt and move into family quarters.”
“You will find our home much more spacious than you three are used to,” Sevith said, unable to contain his pride.
Hiren knew that Sevith had quickly warmed to the human children, and his Azi was eager to show off the surprises they’d created for their fledgling family.
“When are we moving to Drokt?” Noah asked.
“Not for some time,” Sevith answered. “Hiren and I still have our positions here in this solar system to complete. But we did both let the Drokten Council know that we’ve changed our commissions to family status and requested placement on Drokt. We do not anticipate this transfer to take affect for at least one of your Earth years. Until then, we will all live here on the battleship.”
“Oh, that actually sounds good. It gives us all time to get used to each other before we make the big move,” Jenna answered.
Warmth swelled in Hiren’s chest, knowing that their female was now wholly ready and prepared to spend her future with them on their planet.
The elevator doors opened, and Hiren led the group down the hall to a pair of doors on opposite sides of the private corridor. He stopped, turned, and beamed down at the children, extending a hand to both doors. “I hope you do not mind,” he said to the humans, “but we have taken the liberty of having two rooms renovated for the children here on the officers’ deck.”
Bea and Noah’s jaws dropped, and Jenna looked surprised, blinking at both doors in confusion. “That fast?” she said.
“Drokten ships must be adaptable, and our engineers are highly suited to that kind of design,” Hiren explained with a smile on his face. Impressing humans never got old. “That said, we only did what we could with a military vessel to accommodate for something human children might find pleasant. If you do not find it suitable, we can make adjustments. On the right are Beatrice’s quarters, and on the left are Noah’s. Here, let me show you how to calibrate the locks to your handprints.”
Hiren guided them through the process, and within moments, each door slid open.
“It’s as big as a hotel,” Bea gasped.
“It is decorated with some of the finest Drokten art.”
A small window showed the darkened surface of the earth dotted with artificial lights. Under it was a large desk beside a small couch.
“These are human books,” Sevith explained excitedly as Bea walked in. “All of various subjects because I was told by Hiren that human adolescents often like a variety of intellectual pursuits. I had them brought to the ship in a hurry, but the human consultants claimed it would be difficult to read through them all during your time here on the battleship, and during the trip to Drokt. On the off chance that you do, your tablet is connected not only to Drokten digital libraries but also to Earth’s internet database, allowing you to stay in touch with your acquaintances on Earth.”
“Oh my god,” Bea breathed, running her hand over the bookshelf before moving to the window and staring down at the vastness of the planet below. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I can’t believe…”
“I also had Drokten officer training materials installed,” Sevith added casually. “There are a number of tactical simulation exercises to test yourself on, if—”
“Maybe we should wait a little while before trying to turn her into a warrior, yeah?” Jenna chimed in, and Hiren tried not to chuckle at the anxiety he felt radiating off her.
“We didn’t know what they liked,” Hiren whispered to Jenna under his breath, “so we cast a wide net.”
“This is perfect,” Jenna breathed, blushing at him. “She’s at her ‘hates everything’ age right now, but when our parents were around, it was impossible to get her out of the library. I just never had time to try to encourage that more. Good instincts.”
“No way!” came a voice from across the hall, and all four of their group looked around and realized they had let Noah slip out from their sight in the few moments they had taken their eyes off him. Hiren wheeled around to see the door to his quarters open, and Sevith laughed as he followed the boy inside and saw him marveling at what he found.
Noah’s room was similar to Bea’s, except that it was clearly designed with a younger person in mind, with a somewhat more bright and vivid design. There was what looked like a small platform that almost looked like a big pod to sit in.
“This is like a virtual tutor,” Sevith explained, crouching down beside Noah. “Anything you want to learn about Drokten history or culture, you can hear it told by a Drokten narrator the program ‘makes’ in the computer. You can even see it acted out and see what daily life is like among Drokten your age while learning.”
“For example,” Hiren quietly explained, “you can upgrade to an interactive setting. If he were to ask about the Zignill War on Earth, the program would summon up a holographic Drokten warrior dressed like the warriors you’ve been seeing to walk him through the lesson. We thought something more interactive would be more appropriate for a younger boy. Sevith wanted to give both of them that technology, but I thought Bea might find it condescending.”
“Very good call,” Jenna said.
Sevith went on to show Noah how to work the pod to let him see what some of the massive wildlife on Drokt was like. Both of them grinning as excitedly as schoolboys.
Jenna pointed to the bed at the far end of the room. “That looks a little different from Bea’s,” she said, referring to the gadgetry surrounding the headboard. “What does it do?”
Hiren beamed. “That,” he said, “is our medical staff’s pride and joy right now. My medical team has found that Noah’s lung condition is not unheard of among our own species. This sleeping chamber will administer a completely noninvasive treatment in the air each night that will make it easier for him to breathe throughout the day. Paired with the sterile air here on the ship, Noah should have no further problems breathing until we arrive on Drokt, where he can undergo a med bay procedure that will give him a permanent cure and leave him symptom-free.”
His Oso had tears in her eyes. “Thank you. You don’t know how much that means to me.” She slipped her arms around Hiren, and he returned the gesture.
Bea appeared in the doorway of her room with wide eyes. “There’s music!” Drokten war chants echoed from her room, and Sevith laughed as he approached.
“Of course there is! Hiren and I will be glad to show some of our favorites. You might even find an instrument you would like to learn.”
“You’re going to spoil them, you know,” Jenna said with a broad grin.
Hiren hugged Jenna to him, and Sevith joined immediately after, squeezing her between them so tightly she squeaked.
“All to spoil you by extension, of course,” Hiren teased. “Is it working?”
“Maybe.” She laughed, blushing furiously, and Hiren grinned to Sevith.
“Closest we’ve gotten to a ‘yes’ so far,” he said.
“She’ll be ready soon,” Hiren said with a meaningful look at Sevith. “You can sense her arousal too. Can’t you? Tonight is the night.”
“Sssh,” Jenna said. “You guys…”
“We’ll take it,” Hiren said out loud to Jenna with a kiss on the cheek as the kids disappeared into their rooms. Afterward he added in a husky whisper, “And you, too.”
Twenty-Three
Barely an
hour later, Noah and Bea were in bed asleep for their first night aboard the Avash.
Jenna walked between Hiren and Sevith, wrapped in the warmth of their combined love. Neither of them had said that word yet, and she hadn’t either, but she clearly felt their deep emotions for her, which was comforting.
She’d agreed to move here today and start this new life together. She wasn’t visiting this time—this was for real. This battleship was her new home. And Jade was coming over tomorrow for a visit.
Jenna had been expecting the shuttle trip over with Noah and Bea to be utterly nerve-wracking, but her men had gone above and beyond to make them all feel welcome. And the rooms for the kids had been amazing. It made her heart swell with joy to see her brother and sister both so excited and to see the care and attention her two husbands, and the Drokten crew had taken in trying to create spaces that were perfect for each of her siblings.
Ever since their parents had died, Jenna had wanted nothing more than to give those two the childhoods they might’ve had before the Zignill invaded. And now she understood that the Drokten could give them something better, which made her happy about their future for the first time in a long time.
Noah would be cured of his illness and she’d never again have to worry about either of them being taken from her. This was the gift these two men had given her and her small family. And now, Hiren and Sevith were also part of that family.
“Where are we going?” she asked as they stepped out of the elevator to a lower deck and rounded a corner into a narrow hallway. “I guess I thought we’d go to your room. Or my room? But now we’re really far away from where we left my brother and sister. How is this going to work? Whose bed do I even sleep in?” Sevith had mentioned that they would have a massive family bed on the Avash that was made especially for them and she was curious to see what it looked like.
“Our combined family room is on the deck we left, around the corner from where Noah and Beatrice are quartered,” Hiren said with a smile. “You will see it later. For now, we wanted to show you something special.”
“Something special? If you’re about to show me a Tuk race, Sevith already beat you to that,” she said, grinning up at Sevith, who burst out laughing.
“Not quite,” Hiren replied as they came to a stop in front of a large, important-looking door marked with Drokten text across a flickering screen. “Though the technology is similar. Allow me to welcome you to the officers’ holodeck...which we preprogrammed with a special treat this evening.”
Ooh, this sounded interesting.
He put his palm on the panel and the door slid open to reveal a breathtaking sight. Her new husbands each took one of her hands and led her out onto what looked, felt, smelled, and sounded like a gorgeous vista on a spring-time mountain peak, the likes of which she’d never seen before.
The door closed behind them and disappeared.
She dropped their hands and stepped forward, turning around to take it all in. Her skirt fluttered in the breeze. “What...where is this?” she breathed.
“Welcome to Drokt, Jenna,” Sevith said.
“Oh my god. This is what your planet looks like?” One moment she’d been inside the narrow confines of a space ship and now she was standing atop an alien world.
“Parts of it,” Hiren answered. “This is a famous destination on our home world.”
Her brain began to process the stunning location. They stood on a mountain with its top sheared off, replaced with a vast field of lush grass. A trail cut through it and led up to what looked almost like an ancient altar made of stone. Two blazing orange suns were quickly setting on the horizon.
“This way,” Sevith said.
She followed as they all started up a slight incline to a small open air “room” that was perched on top of the meadow. As they got closer and stepped inside the altar, she could see that it had four pillars holding up an ornate roof. An enormous, soft-looking bed dominated the area. Four thin walls of sheer fabric separated the outside world from the bed. A small table held a bottle of wine with a human label, which was a dead giveaway that they’d gone out of their way to make her comfortable.
Hiren pulled back one of the panels, allowing her to step out and take in the view the went out to the horizon. She walked forward, mesmerized, and stood near the edge of the cliff, leaning against a sturdy ornate railing. The altar overlooked a field of grey, craggy mountain peaks that poked past a layer of pale violet clouds.
Her hand went to her stomach. They were up so high they were above the clouds?
The clouds were more ‘defined’ than Earth clouds somehow, but they were definitely clouds. Up above, the starry sky was winking to life, so vividly different from that of Earth’s that it was almost disorienting to look at. Several massive, shimmering spheres in the sky above shone down on them.
“Those are the moons of Drokt,” Hiren said, following her gaze. “And yes, those lights you see on them are cities.”
Sevith picked up a long, black decorative stick and scraped it against the side of a fire pit, causing the tip to spark into flame. She watched as he slowly walked to each of the four fire pits at the corners of the altar and lit the shimmering liquid within, causing a warm glow to infuse the darkening area.
“We brought you here because this location has special significance to us,” Hiren explained as he placed a hand on the small of her back and guided her back inside the room. “This peak is a place of meditation and difficult to reach for all but the most hardened warrior. Doing so on foot is an accomplishment, a rite of passage.”
“Most Drokt access this location via holodeck simulation, but I have knelt on this actual summit. I reached this peak the day before I boarded the Avash,” Sevith said wistfully, “on the trip that would become a rescue mission for Earth. Avash means torment in your language, and that was on my mind as I watched the moons drift by in the sky that night.”
“The true torment would have been to miss this chance,” Hiren said, as he uncorked the wine and began pouring it into the three glasses. “I made it up here before I left the academy and joined the military. I was a young Bahn without my Azi. I prayed to the multigods that day to show me the path toward my triad.” He turned to smile at her. “And that is exactly what happened.”
“What do you think of this place?” Sevith asked her. “This is considered one of the prime locations on our home world for Oso claiming.”
She bit her lip. “Oh.” And now she understood what they’d done. These two had crafted what they considered to be the most meaningful and romantic location for their wedding night, because to them that’s what this was—the moment when they would all become one, when their relationship would lock into a life-long commitment. And they wanted it to be special.
Her heart melted and her body warmed with anticipation. “I think…I love it and it’s beautiful…and…” she murmured, approaching the table, “I could use a drink to take all this in.” Because, in a matter of minutes she was going to be claimed by these two huge Drokten and dammit, she needed a drink before this happened.
She put her hand under Hiren’s to help him keep pouring the third glass, and when it was about three-quarters full (“a big girl glass” as Jade would have called it), she brought it to her lips and took a massive gulp.
“No!” both Hiren and Sevith blurted at once, rushing toward her.
Jenna yelped and spilled some onto the white marble floor. “What?!” she said, eyes flitting between them. “Is this...is this stuff real? It’s not just grape juice, is it?”
“It is very real, I swear,” Hiren said, still looking concerned. “We know that humans enjoy a bit of inebriation, which is why we brought this for you. But we do not wish for you to drink too much too quickly and...then think we were trying to make you do anything you did not wish to do,” he explained.
Jenna stared for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Don’t worry about that. I…” She quickly gulped more wine and took another deep breath before cont
inuing. “I want ‘this’ to happen, I just need some liquid courage to get my mind off my nerves. I mean, it’s not like I’ve ever had sex with two men at once before,” she explained in a hurry as she set her glass on the table, unable to believe she was even saying such things.
She knew the logistics. They’d both want her at once and that was what she wanted too; it was just intimidating. She bit her lip. She had three bodily openings and she had no idea which ones they’d choose to fill tonight.
Her words seemed to stun the two Drokten to silence, and for a moment, she wondered if she’d broken them. The triad was silent for a beat before something in the peaceful setting...changed. She felt an urgent, pressing need to be close to them, and she felt it echoed off of them in return.
“If that is the case, my Oso,” Sevith said, stalking around Jenna as if she was his prey, “then allow us to take your mind off your nerves.”
Hiren stepped toward her, and before Jenna could speak a strong pair of hands squeezed her hips from behind. She gasped when Sevith instantly spun her around to face him. He pulled her hips against his, and she felt the thickness of his shaft under his clothes.
He lowered his lips to hers and took a possessive, hungry kiss. Jenna’s body shivered as she felt the subtle yet powerful growl from deep within the alien warrior’s blue chest. His tongue pushed through her lips and met hers while he ground his hips left to right against her, slowly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all the passion locked inside of her.
A second pair of large, strong hands reached around from behind her and cupped her breasts. Her heart fluttered at Hiren’s skilled touch. One husband was pressed behind her, and the other in front of her. It was wonderful, being taken by two Drokten warriors. Sevith’s motions were strong and primal, while Hiren moved with precise, sensuous care. The only thing that was exactly the same between them was a burning desire for her that Jenna could very literally feel. That was the most shocking part of being between them. She had been sensing their lust whenever she was close to the guys, but now, it was more pronounced than ever and even more impossible to ignore.