Radiant

by Naomi Lucas

  She didn’t know how long she’d been going on with frayed nerves until this moment. Suddenly, the exhaustion of the past day rushed over her and dropped her into the lilting throes of sleep.

  Yahiro always got to name the new drugs. The new dregs. The erotic stank of used-up pussy. It turned some men on. Spending enough time around it, it’d begun to turn her on too.

  “Cheez-its, man, Cheez-its. Can’t just eat one. Fuck, Smoothie, what’ll be the next one? Puppies?”

  She squinched her nose. “Puppies? Let me supply you retriever? Hmm... I’d have to think about it,” she murmured, looking around at the dungeon and the new supply. There was a little bit of everything. Drugs, guns, girls. She wouldn’t look at the last, not if she could keep her cover, because if it broke, their lifespans, hers included, would come to a grinding, winding halt. Their pain was temporary because soon she’d be supplying the villain to the pearly gates.

  Then she’d look at the girls. But until then...

  Yahiro thumbed through a wad of hundreds and pulled a bill out, only to return to the table and roll it into a joint for her and Snake to share. The cries and whimpers went on in the background but she barely heard them as her mind clouded over with fuzz.

  William sat across from them, watching, silently, waiting. His eyes, the eyes she knew so well were dead and calculating. Yahiro breathed in a puff but it did little to calm her nerves. Her nerves were frayed beyond repair, played with, set afire, and stomped into the ground. Sometimes she thought only death or a coma would give her the relief she needed.

  But that was too good for her. The girls in the background made it so.

  His eyes crinkled when he caught her eye and the side of his mouth quirked up in a smile she couldn’t read. Her insides shrank under his stare, like a turtle hiding from a predator. Her lungs filled with delicious hydroponic weed. Her nose filled with smoke. Her eyes watered. The Snake laughed.

  Her mother walked in.

  “Yahiro, wake up!” Her eyes jolted open like a shot to the heart.

  “Protect her!” Sundamar grunted behind a thick pair of wings as she tumbled off of Quist’s chest and to the side. Her skin was covered with a sheen of sweat and her heart raced so hard she could feel its beats in her throat.

  Something howled, high-pitched and bloodcurdling off in the dark, and the ground vibrated beneath her body. She was pushed back against the heavy bark of a tree and covered by Quist’s body.

  Her fingers wrapped around his wing stems and squeezed. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?” she screeched in fear. His back slammed into her and she was momentarily squished between him and the tree. Her whole back ached in one fell swoop.

  Quist lifted off of her in a hurry. He turned to check on her, but she was already pulling herself up his body. She peered out into the dark in time to see Sundamar thrown back, splintering a nearby tree, and a shadowy beast falling upon him.

  “Are you okay?” Quist shook her.

  “Y-yes.” Her eyes didn’t leave the alien as he shoved himself off the ground, pushing the monster with him, fighting it and its strength at the same time. Yahiro clutched her stone, its light casting everything in shadows, and threw it over Quist’s shoulders. The light bloomed and bled through the area, giving a gleam of sudden daylight throughout.

  Her eyes widened as the bear-beast startled by the glimmer and looked straight at her with eyes as black as pitch that sparkled with blood. It’s not a bear, definitely not a bear. Although it had the same build and fur pattern, its face was horrifically humanoid with a nose that flattened to hoggish.

  In that moment, she was more thankful than ever that she’d been found by Quist and Sundamar.

  “Look at me, Yahiro. Look at me,” Quist hissed and clasped her chin, guiding her to face him. “Don’t look at it!”

  Her eyes remained glued to the monster regardless, even when Sundamar rose up on one knee and unsheathed his giant sword. Her eyes stayed on the beast even when the sword drew in all the luster from the stone and burst into a blaze of sunlight. Quist pulled her into his arms and hid her eyes from the battle scene.

  Yahiro wrapped her arms around Quist’s stomach and buried her face, unable to keep the tears from falling. The comfort wasn’t lasting amongst the tremors and grunts, while the trees the cracked and splintered out of her sight. She was surrounded by wings made of steel, gone hard as a shell, but her thoughts were on Sundamar.

  Quist released her and stood, his whip out while his other arm curved and protected his wound. Her eyes landed back on the scene but the glint of light cascading off both aliens half blinded her. Sundamar was being thrown around, the beast faster than him, and dead set on getting through his armor. The only thing protecting his skin was the blunted shield of his massive sword.

  Quist left her side and snapped the end of his golden whip. It swirled through the air as if it had a mind of its own and wrapped around the monster, jerking him off of Sundamar, if only for a beat. It was enough time for him to right himself and raise his sword.

  Yahiro scrambled over the ground and ducked behind the tree that covered her. The best way to help was to stay out of it. She knew she’d only be a distraction.

  The bark at her back shook as she sucked in a breath and clenched her fists, turning around to watch what was happening. She licked her dry lips and squinted.

  Sundamar was slashing the creature, bloodletting it from side to side as it tore and rampaged from the whip that held it aloft. Quist was hovering in the air, out of reach, but was wincing and shaking from the effort of holding the beast off his brother.

  They’re winning. But not without an extreme amount of strength. Every time the monster reared to go after Quist, Sundamar slashed and stabbed it again—at lightning speed—to keep its attention on him. Even she could tell how weak Quist still was.

  An eternity passed before the ground roiled with its body, seizing and pawing at whatever life remained in its grasp.

  She stood but stayed where the aliens had put her, knowing firsthand that anything can fake a defeat. Her lips parted in fear right as the whip slithered from its body. Sundamar lifted his sword over his head and thrust it straight through the monster. One thrust.

  The strength...

  Blood spurted from the deep wound. He left his sword embedded in its body, and without taking a breath, he looked straight at her.

  Yahiro curled her arms around her frame, feeling her body heat up, up and over and outward. Every part of her was on fire as his gaze bore into her, feverish and wanting. She knew that look. She had seen the same in Quist’s eyes not long past.

  Before she had a chance to brush it off, he came straight for her. Her own bloody knight in shining armor. He stood, towering over her the next moment, glaring at her with hunger. Her heart pounded, her belly knotted. A wave of heat and raw excitement rushed through her. It’s potency had her lifting her hands and grabbing the ridges of his chest piece.

  Sundamar stepped forward, she stepped back. He did it again until her back was pressed against the tree. The hands on his chest piece strained, holding onto him but also a frail attempt at holding him off.

  “Undress me,” he ordered, his voice raspy, and slightly choked.

  “No.”

  He settled his elbow on the trunk behind her, leaning down and over her, and caging her in. She peered up sheepishly, in heat, but the thick smell of copper and sweat filled her nose.

  “I’m your commander. Don’t deny me.”

  She pried her eyes from his and looked at the gilt of his armor. “You’re not my anything,” she whispered. The wall of his body intensified and stiffened. His fingers dug into the bark above her head, causing the pieces to fall over her. “I’m with Quist.”

  Yahiro hated herself for wanting both men so desperately, feeling connected to both of them so vividly, that she was, once again, willing to break oaths made to herself. Tears beaded over her eyelashes but she made no move to wipe them away; Sundamar made no move of releasi
ng her.

  Why is he doing this to me?

  “Yahiro, take off his armor,” Quist said next to her. His words tore her body apart. He reached between her and Sundamar and refixed the sunstone necklace over her neck. For once, she didn’t want the light to illuminate her face.

  She turned to Quist, “But I’m yours. I choose you.”

  Sundamar stepped back and slammed his fist into the tree next to her head. She flinched away and pressed into Quist’s naked chest, hiding.

  I don’t deserve him. I don’t deserve either one of them.

  I’m a murderer. A drug dealer. A progeny of a monster.

  I’m... crazy.

  I... liked it. The last thought snapped something inside her. She knew she deserved going to the Concord, and even though she tried to do what was right, to break free from the cycle, it had all been a ploy. The moment she was born and William took her from her mama’s arms, he had plans for her. She never had a chance because he ruined her innocence before she even had any.

  Sundamar loomed somewhere, brooding and angry at her back, hearing him storm off into the shadows, but he remained close enough that her ears twitched with each branch he snapped in half.

  Quist tilted her chin and leaned into her face, darting his tongue over her tears. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m with you. I can’t be with him if I’m with you.” After everything she’d done, she’d never been a cheater.

  “Why not?”

  Yahiro gawked then pursed her lips. Why not? But his nimble hands clutched her lower back and his fingers ran up her spine, lifting her frayed shirt away. Quist pressed her skin to skin to him. His bulge and all its beads dug into her stomach.

  When she didn’t answer, he continued, “Are you afraid, little one? Is this something new for you?” His whispered words and caresses filled her ears and prickled her skin. “Let me back inside you. Your sex is deep and compatible, if not a little too tight. My brother wants it too.” His words sent her into a burning daze. “We can both press inside you and not harm you?”

  “Not at the same time!” she squeaked out through her tight throat.

  “Not at the same time,” he repeated with a laugh. “You had two holes between your thighs though, I can’t fill both at the same time. Sundamar doesn’t even know...” Quist tugged her shirt over her head and dropped it on the ground and she moved closer to him to ward off the night chill. “He’s never spoken to a female valos before you.”

  She literally felt her irises dilate. She wasn’t even going to go into alien-human anatomy with him at this moment.

  “But I’m yours,” was her only lame argument. Quist’s wiry hands clasped her bare shoulders.

  “You’re Sundamar’s as well. And Galan’s.” An alien I’ve never met. He turned her around and steered her toward his alien brother. She barely breathed and crossed her arms over her naked breasts. He came into sight, staring heated, poised daggers at her and through her. Her sex quivered from the fire in his eyes. Quist pushed down what remained of her pants, baring her to both of them.

  She stood naked between the two of them, shivering, and wishing she had more control over what was happening. Quist kept running his deft hands over the curves of her body, sometimes kneading her muscles in between. It didn’t relax her. Nothing about this was relaxing.

  “Yahiro,” Sundamar uttered her name, hoarse and deferential. A shudder rippled through her.

  She unbanded her arms and outstretched her hands for him.

  He stood there, unmoving, as she reached around his armor and untied the pieces strapped together. Her eagerness grew as piece after piece was taken off. Quist touched her everywhere from behind, his fingers tracing her lips, her ears, going through her hair, down to pet her nipples and rub across the seam of her quim. The dew of it spread over labia and clit as he explored and played with every part of her. Her legs were pushed apart when he pressed both hands between her legs.

  Sundamar watched Quist’s hands with a ferocity she’d only seen in him when he fought. Yahiro tried to keep her mind on the job at hand. Another piece of armor was taken off.

  When his chest was bare before her and the first ray of dawn crested the horizon, washing his rippling muscles in a grey-gold, Quist penetrated her with his finger. She startled forward and caught herself up against Sundamar, her hands flailing over his chest.

  Her pained moan synced with his groan.

  “She can mate with us,” Quist said from behind her, his finger probing and teasing her pussy. She clenched it, trying to find a measure of relief. It was hard with Quist: he was eager, enthusiastic, and ambitious. It made her want to bend forward and spread her quim for him and let him rut her, without foreplay, without anything but him and his gilded cock. It drove her mad. I’m already mad. A little more chaos wouldn’t hurt.

  Yahiro liked how he sought out revenge, but seemingly ended up taking it out on her body instead. She bent forward in spite, dropping lower over Sundamar’s chest, where he caught her arms and held her upright. A face and a tongue rammed into her sex.

  She shrieked from the shock.

  She was thrust away, tugged upright, but then two hands gripped her hips and pulled her back. A tug-of-war between the two valos. Her body wasn’t her own. She ended up on the ground and in Quist’s lap facing away from him, sitting on his shaft and her legs spread wide.

  Sundamar grunted as Quist cupped her thighs and parted her pussy for his gaze. Her hands hit the dirt on either side as a draft of cool air breezed over her sex. She was utterly exposed but had never felt safer between the two of them. She rocked her hips up, feeling even emptier in this position, and more desperate for fulfillment.

  Quist trapped her ankles with his and she leaned back into him, flushed and ready, almost on the verge of taking what she wanted from these valos men. It was as if her body was meant to be here, at this moment, to bond with them. She suppressed a shudder when Quist ran his palms back between her thighs and his fingers probed her open.

  Sundamar leaned in and his hair fell in silken waves over her legs.

  “Please...” she whispered, tightening her channel around nothing, knowing Quist’s fingers dipped in and out and pinched her lips. She needed so much more.

  “She has the same hole that the female valos are rumored to have. It fits our sexual organs,” Quist said.

  Sundamar slipped his own finger into her and watched her face. A blush painted her body. His was so much thicker. The heated look in his eyes deepened as he pressed deeper, excitement in his eyes.

  “You’re tight,” he groaned.

  The sweat on her brow beaded and she moved her hips. “It fits. I’ll fit you,” Yahiro mewed, anxiously, rocking in jerky movements up and down. “Quist and I... I can. We’re compatible.”

  “It’s deep,” Quist petted her, flicking his fingers over her clit over and over, making her body twitch. “Deep, tight, very warm, and incredibly wet. Moving in and out of her is... good,” he coughed on his own word, and his cock stabbed her butt.

  She was on the verge of climaxing with an alien’s finger probing and exploring her body in a way that was beyond the boundaries of a human sex ed class. It twisted her stomach is the most wicked, incredible way.

  Sundamar slipped his finger out of her and pressed into her anus roughly. She struggled and called out. “No!” But his finger pushed into her to the hilt.

  “No?”

  Yahiro tried to dislodge him but Quist held her tight. She shook her head. “It’s not for sex.”

  “Mating?”

  “Yes.” She gulped. “Wait, no.” But he continued to explore her backside as he had her pussy. Quist replaced Sundamar’s fingers in her quim, stroking her back into a frenzy. His pads would knead her g-spot then leave, knead, then leave, before long rational thought left her and she was squirming between the two aliens. She needed more. More. But they kept her teetering on the brink.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Sundamar pulled his finger out and g
ripped her hips. “Yahiro?”

  “I need—”

  “She needs to mate now, brother, she’ll die if she doesn’t.”

  Her eyes widened momentarily but she didn’t correct him.

  Sundamar shot back in horror. Worry blanched his features. “Die?”

  “That’s what she told me!” Quist lifted her hips up and as her body still shook with need, lined his baubled cock up to her entrance. He plunged into her in one thrust.

  Like how Sundamar killed the bear-monster.

  Yahiro shrieked as she came. Her whole body jittered as Quist moved her up and down on his cock, her mouth open in a long, strung-out gasp. He pushed her forward into Sundamar’s chest, where she gripped his shoulders and held on. His hands moved up to band around her, catching every one of Quist’s thrusts.

  She placed her cheek against his and gave him her whimpers. The aliens moved together, kneeling, and pressing her between them, held up by their bodies and their hands. She stopped trying to make sense of it all as her body was pushed over the brink into another climax because the only thing she was aware of was the uncoordinated pistoning of Quist’s cock slamming in and out of her, and her hips being bruisingly pushed into Sundamar’s armored pants.

  “You’ll be okay,” Sundamar whispered in her ear. “We won’t let you die,” he cooed.

  Yahiro bit down on the curve of his neck.

  “You’re in my sight,” Quist grunted from behind her between thrusts.

  Sundamar gripped the back of her head and pressed her mouth harder into his skin. Her nails dug into him as Quist gripped her waist and pushed her back into his lap, pulling her teeth from Sundamar’s neck. She was now half-straddling Quist, her knees aching and rubbing in the dirt, but stopped abruptly when his baubled cock jerked inside her, and gushed hot alien seed deep into her womb.

  He released her and fell onto his back suddenly, pulling out of her, and letting it run down over her inner thigh and the tops of his. She glanced back, feeling heady, to see the molten gold of it coat the both of them and his still hard cock sprouting out more, spraying her quim, and his cockhead twitching against it in rhythm.