by J. J. Lore
“No kass for her, Tymon. She’s too small, and it will intoxicate her,” Deklan said, his voice as grim as she’d ever heard it. The big Alphan shifted his stance and stared at her. She could almost feel his hot gaze on her body, and she shifted her arms in front of her chest. Leo’s fist crashed into the tabletop next to the disputed cup, rattling all the plates and utensils around them, and the whole room went silent. Something hot and primal seethed between the men, filling her with anxiety, and she, too, stood, stumbling around her chair until she’d gained a meter’s distance from the rigid men locked in some sort of postured communication. Both Leo and Deklan seemed to have grown, their shoulders thick and tense, their legs braced wide as if they expected a tidal wave to crash upon them. The glowering Alphan, Tymon, lowered his head and flexed his arms. She could almost hear the sinews and muscles creaking.
A voice broke in, the older man’s, calling on Tymon to take his seat, for the other men to resume their celebration. The commander walked over to the three, his calm assurance somehow breaking the deadlock as Tymon stepped back, the beaker in his huge hands, as he gave her a long, considering look. Deklan and Leo didn’t relax, even as the commander indicated they should resume their meal. As Leo glared at the older man, Deklan turned his head and looked at her, something raw in his gaze as he stared. Without a word, he held out his hand, and she stepped forward and took it, shuffling to his side, relishing the contact she’d been pining for all day. The commander looked at their linked hands and frowned slightly.
“Good evening, sir,” Leo said, his arm reaching out to circle around her shoulders. “We’ll take Aura back and allow the men to resume their celebration. She’s going to have a busy day tomorrow.”
Grateful to escape, warming at the physical links with Leo and Deklan, Aura walked between them toward the door, careful to avoid looking at the warriors who watched her retreat.
Chapter Seven
Deklan seethed. He hadn’t felt such quick and intense rage since he’d been on active duty, and the powerful sensation of his blood heating and his body tightening with adrenaline was like the return of a long-lost friend. He’d have been happy to wrap his hands around Tymon’s thick throat and squeeze the life from his body, take a humble fork and smash it into his eye for the way he’d leered at Aura. Unreasonable, unwarranted reactions, he knew, but something he hadn’t been able to suppress. He knew Leo had felt the same, and the echo of his bondmate’s fury had synchronized with his own like in the old days, when they’d battled side by side.
They were out in the cooling night mist soon enough, the crescendo of revelry muted as the dining hall door closed behind them. He was very aware of Aura’s small, soft hand in his own, equally aware of Leo’s arm still curved around her back. He wanted to pick her up and carry her to the safety and privacy of their cabin. Instead, he increased his pace, mindful of Aura’s shorter legs and his bondmate’s old injury. They silently made their way back across the plaza and to the cabin. Leo flung open the door ahead of them, and Deklan rushed inside, turning to inspect Aura.
She didn’t seem too upset by the incident. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes glittered, but she wasn’t flinching or looking away. Instead, she kept hold of his hand and reached for Leo, capturing his arm.
“I…” she trailed off and swallowed. She sucked in a breath and raised her head. “I’m cold and wet.”
Deklan didn’t need any further encouragement. The rush of aggression had twisted into a different physical need, one just as primal. Knowing this was the last time he’d see her, touch her with the promise of a long night stretching before them made him shake with desire. He hadn’t made any overtly amorous gestures toward her all day, mindful of her upset and Leo’s absence, but those strictures no longer applied. With shaking hands he reached for her tunic, carefully removing the outsized garment. There was only a little moisture on the shoulders, and the warm scent of Aura overwhelmed him. She stepped out of her new boots, the ones Leo had managed to find for her at the bottom of a pile of discards in storage, then reached for the waist of her trousers. Leo caught at her hands and shook his head.
“I’m wet, Leo.” Aura faced him and stuck out her chin a fraction. Deklan didn’t draw a breath as something sparked in the air among the three of them. His bondmate held her stare for a few seconds, then pulled at the opening to her trousers, tearing the material away from her body. Her eyelids fluttered shut, and Leo reached out to grasp her shoulders as Deklan knelt and dragged the ruined pants down her pale legs. Leo hadn’t found any suitable undergarments for her, so she was bare to their view, curved belly, rounded hips, the fold between her legs drawing him like a planetary beacon.
Leo slid his hand down her body, over the tank she still wore to the exposed skin of her abdomen, then lower to the curls shielding her quonum as Deklan watched, entranced, from his position on the floor. Aura leaned into Leo’s shoulder as he pressed his finger into her slit. Deklan watched his bondmate’s fingers move and Aura’s hips buck, until the ache in his swelling staff compelled him to join in. He leaned forward on his knees as he spread his hands on her upper thighs, his thumbs edging her lips back, exposing the delicate folds between her legs. Her skin was hot and damp, quivering under his touch.
He watched Aura huff labored breaths into Leo’s neck as he stroked her, his bondmate’s fingers now coated by her fluids. Her scent filled his nose, turning on primal neurons in his brain that urged him to suck, mount, even bite the woman before him. Deklan leaned even closer to her quonum, and he glanced up, a question in his eyes. His bondmate knew what he wanted, had to feel Aura’s accelerating desire heating his own blood just as her reactions were firing within him. Leo drew his fingers back, splaying his hand against her lower belly as Deklan leaned in and ran his tongue along the tender gathers of her flesh. Her rich, musky flavor exploded across his tongue, and unbidden, his tesak erupted with a burst of pain and pleasure. Aura drew in a sharp breath at his first caress, and he worried for a second he’d scratched her, but when she moaned and clutched at Leo’s damp tunic he knew she was simply overcome with sensation.
He was glad they weren’t talking, glad he and Leo were just doing what they were compelled to do. Amazingly glad Aura was letting them do it. He tilted her hips and drew one of her legs over his shoulder, Leo helping hold her up. Pressing his mouth to her hot quonum, Deklan dragged his tongue along her slippery puckers of flesh, discovering the opening to her body and boldly licking in as far as he could go. The intimate grip her body gave his tongue made his staff pulse so strongly he thought he was close to extremis. As he withdrew and kissed the tight nub at the top of her cleft, he looked up her body to see Leo had pulled her shirt up around her shoulders, freeing her breasts as he pinched her dinap. Aura lolled against his bondmate’s shoulder, her face pressed into Leo’s neck.
Breathing out irregular rasps, Leo nodded at him, the sharp glint of his exposed fangs visible in his mouth. Knowing his bondmate was as aroused, was as focused on Aura as he, made Deklan almost dizzy. He pressed his mouth back to her beauty and suckled at her until her hips shook under his hands, until her body shivered and she lost her footing, until she cried out low sobs of release. Her fluids coated his tesak, sending her essence deep into his soul.
Without waiting for her to say anything, he stood and picked up her pliant body, marching into the bedroom and laying her carefully on the sheets after Leo pulled back their plain blanket. She was blinking and twisting slightly on the bed, her gaze unfocused as she watched Leo and him shuck off their clothing. The fire to continue their intimacies burned through him, making his skin twitch and his muscles tighten. Once he’d freed his staff from the painful confinement of his clothes, he lowered himself to her side, his bondmate mirroring his actions. She reached up and stroked their chests, her eyes dark as she looked from one to the other.
“Please, I want you both. It’s our last time together—”
“Yes, Aura, it’s what we want, too.” Leo’s quiet assu
rance, his willingness to engage in a cooperative joining, shocked Deklan out of his haze of lust. Of course he wanted to penetrate Aura at the same time as Leo, in whatever positions they could imagine, but they’d been so determined not to take that final step. Exposure to another man approaching Aura had broken the last of Leo’s reserves. He needed, both he and his bondmate needed to have her, their primitive urge to possess too strong. Leo looked at him with taut features, which relaxed slightly when Deklan nodded his agreement.
“Aura, we differ from humans in another respect,” Deklan said, his tongue careful around his tesak as he spoke. She ran her fingers up his chest, his neck and buried them in his hair, her nails scraping along the sensitive skin at the base of his horns. His toes curled, and his staff strained against her soft hip. “We bite, when we join another.”
He’d been careful not to say bond. They weren’t bonding with her, no matter what their bodies were telling them. No matter what his pounding heart wanted. Aura blinked and ran her fingers across his lips, doing the same to Leo until they opened their mouths for her inspection. She drew in a deep breath and licked her lips as she pressed a fingertip to the point of the fang. Deklan jumped. No one had ever touched him there before. How could anyone have since they’d never fully emerged until he’d met her? She repeated the motion with Leo, who closed his eyes and lowered his head her way to follow the movements of her finger in his mouth. Pulling her fingers back and clutching at their shoulders, she rose up between them. She leaned close to him, staring at his mouth.
“I want to—” Without another word, she pressed her lips to his, then slid her tongue inside to brush its softness against his tesak. Power jolted through him, and he fought the urge to pull her legs apart and mount her unceremoniously. That brief contact with her filled his senses with her essence, and he opened his mouth wider, inviting her to caress him again. One more intense lick, then she pulled back, staring at him. “I taste myself on you.”
She turned from him to repeat the process with Leo. His bondmate relaxed as she explored, rolling onto his back and pulling her on top of him, his swollen shaft bobbing between them. Deklan shifted so he could see between Aura’s legs, transfixed by the sight of her reddened and wet quonum. Her scent and flavor lingered on his palate, and he sniffed deeply. She ceased kissing Leo and glanced over her shoulder at Deklan, then levered herself up on her knees as she edged back towards him, sliding down his bondmate’s body, her breasts dragging along his chest and abdomen as his hands traced along her sides. She stopped and leaned down to capture Leo’s staff in her hand, then circled her mouth around the corona before she drew half his length into her mouth. Leo’s legs shifted, and Aura spread her legs on either side of him, opening up her body to Deklan’s view.
In the grip of primal directives, Deklan rose up on his knees behind her, certain deep in his bones this was right. He heard Aura’s sucking sounds, Leo’s harsh breathing, and was suddenly desperate to join in their pleasure. Shuffling forward, momentarily overwhelmed at what he was about to do, he grasped his staff with one hand, and used the other to open up Aura’s quonum to him. She was still slick and hot, and as he positioned his corona at her opening, her whole body quivered. She enveloped the swollen head of his staff in her tight grasp, and something bloomed in his brain. His neurons fired and shivered as the reality of the three of them together hit him like a lash.
Aura tilted her hips, and without rational thought he thrust into her, halfway buried before he knew what he’d done. The wet embrace of her was startling, and he drew back but just as quickly pushed forward again. Somehow the rhythm jumping in his muscles was matched by Aura’s accepting body, her sway in counterpoint matching the movements of Leo below them both. The soft roundness of her buttocks cradled his hips as he burrowed his aching staff deep within her.
Deklan closed his eyes for a moment to relish the bliss rising in him, and then he reminded himself to attend to his partners. He could feel Leo’s legs alongside his own, and of course Aura’s body was a bounty enveloping him, so he moved slowly, mindful that Aura was smaller and in the most precarious position. The way he wanted to hammer into her softness would send her sliding across the bed, dislodging her beautiful mouth from Leo’s needy member. So he went slowly, carefully, relishing every sweet friction on his own swelling staff. Aura’s muffled moans inflamed him, and he ran his hand down her back even as he kept the other firmly grasping her hip so she wouldn’t slip away.
As blinding tension increased with every push and pull against her, Deklan groaned, unable to maintain any semblance of control as the silk of her sheath, the scent of her body, the softness of her skin undid him. His tesak ached anew. He sensed Leo’s arousal, and his bondmate’s pleasure enhanced his own. Losing his rhythm as his crisis approached, Deklan’s hips jumped against Aura’s, his body slapping into hers as he arched above her, his straining back and thighs tingling as his seed spurted from him. Light flared behind his closed eyelids, and he flung his head back, roaring as he climaxed, shudder after shudder, spasm following spasm as he poured himself into her.
****
Leo could see them both, couldn’t tear his gaze away even though watching Deklan slam into Aura as she sucked his own staff was such an erotic sight all he wanted to do was join his bondmate in a powerful orgasm. He sensed Deklan’s imminent release and reached up to cup Aura’s cheek, her mouth distended around his corona. She met his gaze, her eyes dark with passion, and blinked once, shifting her hand pressing into the mattress at his side to steady herself against Deklan’s uncontrolled movements. His bondmate’s eyes were unfocused as he looked at Aura’s smooth back, and he arched, bellowing out inarticulately, the vibrations of his climax shaking through Aura and echoing down Leo’s own swollen shaft.
Aura held still, her eyes slightly closed as she absorbed Deklan’s seed, took in the last spasms of his body as he bucked behind her. The warm pressure of her mouth on Leo’s corona remained no matter the shocks the rest of her body was undergoing, and the small, rational part of Leo’s brain marveled at her poise. As Deklan’s ragged breathing quieted and he went still, Leo slid his fingers into Aura’s hair and helped hold her steady.
With a grunt, his bondmate leaned forward, angling over Aura’s back as she closed her eyes and pulled his shaft inside her mouth again, returning to licking and sucking at his sensitized flesh. Deklan brought his mouth to her shoulder, his eyes closed, and in the instant before he sank his tesak into her soft skin, Leo knew perfection. As Aura flinched and murmured deep in her throat, the sound vibrating in his shaft, he climaxed, hot cum spurting out of his body into her willing mouth.
He saw sparks of light as his muscles contracted with pleasure. Even as he relished his own release, he sensed Deklan’s pleasure and Aura’s joy. They had to feel his own sensations as well. As his shaft pulsed and eased, his tesak sent a bolt of pain from his upper jaw into his cranium. It hurt so unexpectedly he groaned, and Aura left off licking him clean to look up at his face, concern in her eyes.
Deklan disengaged himself from her, and she lowered herself into Leo’s lap even as he rose up, his body acting of its own volition. He curled his arms around her and bent her against his chest. She stared at him for a moment, then flung her head back, exposing her neck to him. Under the grip of an overwhelming impulse, he lowered his head, sniffing in her scent and the tang of the fluids from their coupling. As he settled his mouth over her pulsing throat, he tried to slow down, relish this intimate act, but his jaw and neck tightened in a primitive thrust and her blood hit his tongue. She shook and cried out as her own climax found her.
Leo tightened his hold on her as he licked the tiny holes he’d made in her smooth skin. Her arms wrapped around his neck, her hand slid into his hair, and he breathed, content in this place, with these people, complete. He opened his eyes briefly when he sensed Deklan’s approach. His bondmate eased against Aura’s back as she curled in his own lap, then bent his head to lap at the mark he’d made on her should
er. They stayed bound together, arms entangled, legs entwined as he and Deklan drew in as much of her essence as they could. Aura relaxed in their arms, her eyes closed as she gave out breathy little pants, completely at their mercy. Their shared climaxes had been amazing, but these quiet moments after the bonding bites filled him with trust and love. This forbidden act had laid him open and exposed his soul to Deklan and Aura. His life would never be the same again.
****
Her face hurt. She could blame residual pain from the injury she’d suffered what seemed to be weeks ago, but in reality she’d been holding her expression as still as she could because if she relaxed even a second, she knew she’d start to sob and never stop. She was waiting on the landing deck for a signal to enter the ship, Deklan and Leo on either side of her, just as they had been at the dinner the night before. The night that had changed her life.
What should have been an exotic sexual experience had somehow morphed into a heartbreaking loss she didn’t quite understand. When she’d taken them both into her body her nerves had sizzled beyond the convulsions of climax. She’d so intensely been aware of Deklan and Leo, their every touch, their taste and sounds, even their unique musky scents, that she’d lost track of her own reactions. She’d come back to herself with first Deklan’s, then Leo’s tiny bites. Each had burned her skin, but the soothing licks they’d applied to the faint marks they’d made had broken down the last of her defenses. It had been so sensual, so comforting to be held between them, their big warm bodies cradling her from all the anxiety of her uncertain future as their warm mouths gently calmed her. Some essential part of herself had been altered, expanded in a way she couldn’t define.