My brain was crunching data like a computer. I could feel it, churning, thinking, putting the pieces together. This was what I did. I absorbed data, looked at the facts, and then I let them simmer in my head until my brain literally ached, until I became consumed with the puzzle. Until I solved it.
Ryston ran his fingers over the collar about my neck. “There are too many complications now. Too much chaos around us.”
I opened my mouth to protest, to assure him that I did want him, did need him, but I should have known. The collars connected us. I felt his empathy for me as clearly as he must feel my anxious need to get back to work. Something was wrong, and that fact made me want to alternatively cry and pull my hair out. But right now, I was too tired for either.
My mind, however, had no intention of allowing me to rest, and that was nearly as frustrating as the rest of it. On Earth, I’d often cheated my mind of its constant and insistent thinking with the use of a good sleeping pill. Here, I had nothing. I wouldn’t be able to rest. I knew it, and that was making me want to curl into a ball and whimper.
I needed a break. God, did I need a break. After ten hours straight, taking tissue samples, learning their stupid equipment, arguing with the doctor, and designing my own tests, I was ready to crash. But my mind? It was still running at full speed. Thoughts flashing through my head and disappearing like fireworks in a dark sky.
Ryston’s hand lifted to cup my cheek and I melted into him. I needed this. I needed to feel safe and surrounded by my mates, I’d never in my life felt more secure and protected.
“Let us take care of you, Rachel. You have done all you can for now. Captain Brooks, the testing, the mystery, it is bothering us all.” Ryston’s thumb smoothed over my bottom lip and I sighed as Maxim stepped closer.
“We have time. And we will not force you to choose before you are ready.” He moved behind me and placed his large hand at the small of my back, the heat like a brand and I wanted that heat on my bare skin. Standing between them, I let the stress of the day melt away as his deep voice whispered in my ear. “We will find out what is going on. And when you are ready, we will talk about the claiming ceremony.”
They understood. God, they always seemed to understand exactly what I needed. Were they too honorable? Were they sacrificing what they’d wanted all their lives, to have a claimed mate, because I was too weak? Was I being selfish?
“That doesn’t mean… I mean, I still want you,” I admitted.
Maxim looked to Ryston. Something passed between them. While I didn’t know the words, I felt a powerful flare of heat and dominance through the collar.
“And we want you. Remember, Rachel, to claim you, we must both fuck you at the same time, both fill you with our seed. You are not ready for that.”
“Maybe I am,” I argued.
Maxim turned my head and lifted my chin with a finger. “Yes, I sense you are ready to say yes, and it pleases me. Ryston, too. We can feel your desire. But your body is not ready. Ryston has been preparing your ass, stretching it, playing with it, but not enough. For now, we will take care of you. Your mind is like a storm. I can feel the tension in your body, see the way your eyes dart around. You need to let go, Rachel.” He lowered his head, placed the barest whisper of a kiss on my lips as Ryston’s hands dropped to my hips. “For now, we will take your mind off your troubles.”
My nipples hardened at the thought. “How?” I had to know. I wanted to hear him say it in that deep growl of a voice.
Maxim gave me a wicked grin. “You will ride my cock and Ryston will put a plug in your ass.”
The idea of taking Maxim’s cock with a plug in my bottom made me hot. The last time it had felt so good. I came unbelievably hard. I had no idea I’d like the dark, carnal act and at first I’d been embarrassed. But neither man thought less of me for liking it. The opposite in fact. It was the way of it with Prillon warriors. To be claimed, I had to take both of them together. Double penetration. And because of the testing, the match, I already knew I would like it. No, love it.
That reassured me just as much as how good Ryston’s play made me feel. And when it was time for his cock? I whimpered.
“Yes, I see you like the idea.”
“What about you?” I asked, looking to Ryston. “You need to come, too.”
“Yes, you can help me with that.” As he spoke, he began to strip. “In your mouth? I love when you suck me off. Or your hand? So light and gentle. You don’t have to be. I could even fuck your tits. Ever done that before?”
By the time he had tempted me with the possibilities, he was bare, his cock erect and dripping with pre-cum.
“Right now, it’s just us. No drug overdose, no testing, no analysis, no meddling mothers. This is life. The bad and the good. We know we must take the good when we can get it.” Maxim’s words hit me hard.
He was right. Even with death and destruction, sadness and heartbreak, even the frustration of being framed or wrongly accused, life moved on. We had to find happiness where we could.
I’d only said yes to transport so I wouldn’t die in prison. But now, on the Colony, I’d accepted my new life. I’d accepted these warriors as mine. Claiming wasn’t today, but they were mine just as much as I was theirs. Whatever happened, we would find comfort, joy, pleasure in each other.
Like right now. Grabbing the hem of my shirt, I lifted it up over my head. They watched me intently. It wasn’t a very sexy striptease, but I sensed they were pleased nonetheless. Ryston was stroking himself as he watched and Maxim took off all his clothes too, so we were all bare.
Maxim reached out a hand, tugged me over to a plush chair. He sat, then pulled me down so I straddled him.
“That wasn’t a very arousing conversation. Are you wet for me?” he asked. I saw the concern in his chocolate-colored gaze. They wouldn’t take me until I had my head in the right place.
I smiled coyly and shrugged. “Maybe you should find out?”
Maxim kept his gaze on mine as his hand slipped between my spread thighs, running gently over my bare pussy lips. One thing about the processing for the Colony I really liked was that I was bare. Permanently. I wasn’t sure how that was possible, but I’d never thought transporting like a Star Trek character was possible either. Having them touch me or lick me was so much more sensitive now that all my hair down there was gone. It could have been just them. Everything they did was so much better than any man before.
“Mmm, she’s wet, Ryston, but not enough.”
Ryston moved so I could see him and held up another plug from the box. This one was wider than the last, longer too. But it wasn’t as big as either of their cocks.
Maxim grunted. “She just gripped my finger at the sight of it. Got wetter, too.” He met my eyes. “What will you do when he slips that inside? Drip all over my hand?”
I leaned forward and rubbed my breasts against his bare chest. “With your finger in me, too? Probably come.”
Maxim grinned. “Good girl. Let’s make that happen. Then I can fuck you.”
He didn’t say anything more, just used that one finger inside me in amazing ways. Besides the fabulous act of just being finger fucked, his thick digit sliding in and out and mimicking what his cock would soon—hopefully—be doing, he also had a knack for finding my G-spot and pressing on it in such a way that had me crying out. It was like a magic button he pushed.
And when I felt one of Ryston’s fingers press all slick and cold against my bottom, I groaned. The sounds they pulled from me were loud and they were nothing I could hold back. God, I was a screamer and I wasn’t even coming.
“That’s it,” Ryston said. “Let me in. Just one finger, all nice and slick. Yes, good girl. Deeper now.”
My eyes fell closed and I felt my nipples harden.
“How does it feel to be finger fucked in both holes?” Maxim asked.
I couldn’t respond, it felt so good.
“Imagine what it will be like when it’s our cocks.”
Oh god, it was going to wreck
“Two fingers, mate,” Ryston said. Both men slipped free for a second and then each added a second finger. It was so much more.
My hands went to Maxim’s shoulders, my fingers digging in, holding on for dear life.
“Yes!” I cried. “More.”
As Maxim continued to play, Ryston slipped from my back entrance and put the blunt tip of the plug there instead. He’d coated it in the lube thickly, for when he began to work it into me, it slid deep without much effort.
I couldn’t help the groan that escaped. God, it was big. It was deep. I clenched down on the base, clenched down on Maxim’s fingers.
“Ready to come, mate?” Maxim asked.
I nodded, my hair falling in my face.
It only took a simple brushing of his thumb over my clit. It was hard and swollen, eager for the touch. Once, twice on the left side—who knew that was the perfect spot?—and I came.
My whole body shook from the pleasure, squeezing and clenching down on the plug and Maxim’s fingers. I felt myself get wetter, dripping onto his palm.
My body tingled. My muscles went lax. Most of all, my brain went blank. I only felt the orgasm and my mates’ growing need.
“More,” I begged when I was able to catch my breath.
Carefully, Maxim slipped his fingers from me and lifted me up enough to turn me around. With his hands on my hips, I settled once again, straddling him, this time facing away.
“Now I can fuck you and you can make Ryston come,” Maxim said, his hand stroking down my back. His fingers coated in my arousal left a streak of wetness along my spine.
Ryston stepped in front of me, wiping his hands on a cloth, then tossing it on the floor. With one big palm, he cupped a breast, flicked a thumb across the nipple. His free hand went to his cock, gripped the base.
“I want to fuck your mouth while Maxim fucks your pussy.”
I could only nod and lick my lips. Yes, I wanted that. I wanted to please them both. While I didn’t have a problem with Ryston fucking me, fucking my pussy, Prillon rules didn’t allow it. Yet. I sensed how much he wanted to do so, but he didn’t seem bothered by the idea of coming in my mouth. It seemed all males, whether on Earth or a distant planet in space, liked to have their cock sucked.
“Yes,” I said.
With my approval, he stepped forward, but waited until Maxim lifted me up, aligned his cock with my opening and lowered me down. He was slow and careful about it, his cock big and the plug more than I’d ever handled before.
When I was seated on Maxim’s lap once again, I squirmed, not having all of him in me. With a hand pushing forward, I leaned toward Ryston’s cock. That shift had me taking the rest of Maxim’s cock and I gasped. So full.
Ryston put his cock right before me and I licked the pearly fluid at the tip, the taste of it salty on my tongue. I worked him like an ice cream cone until he tangled his fingers in my hair and pulled me gently toward him. He wanted in my mouth and I wasn’t going to refuse him.
Only when my mouth was open wide around Ryston and I began to move up and down his length did Maxim begin to fuck me. When he lifted me up, I shifted closer to Ryston, then away when he pulled me back onto his lap. With every move of Maxim’s hands, he had me fucking Ryston’s cock with my mouth. So thick, so hard over silky-soft skin. I didn’t have to move, didn’t have to do anything but let them take me.
No thinking was needed. Only feeling, and that was incredible. I sensed Ryston’s desperate pleasure at being sucked off. Maxim was proud to see me satisfying his second and taking him so well, especially with the plug.
I understood now about his earlier comment. I held all the power. While Maxim was moving me as he wanted and Ryston was controlling my breathing by pushing deeper and deeper into my throat, I could say no. I could tell them to stop. I could tell them I wanted other mates. Our relationship, our match, relied completely on me. It was my decision.
I had both of them by the balls and I wasn’t letting go.
It was heady, knowing I had so much power over two virile, dominant males. In that, they made me stronger, knowing I was protected, sheltered, cherished. I could handle arrogant jerks like Dr. Surnen. I could handle whatever evil was hurting people on the Colony. With Maxim and Ryston, I could handle anything.
And so could they.
I gave over then. Held nothing back. I opened my body, my mind, my heart completely. With our emotions and desires swirling between us, it didn’t take long to come a second time. I couldn’t hold back, even if they demanded I do so. I sensed their need was just as great and yet they were waiting for me.
I toppled over the edge, milking Maxim’s cock with a ruthlessness that had him gripping my hips tightly, pulling me down on him and burying himself deep.
My scream was stifled by Ryston’s cock. Maxim groaned his pleasure and I felt the hot pulses of seed filling me. My pleasure brought on Maxim’s, which destroyed Ryston. Tugging on my hair, he pulled me onto his cock, and with a tight hold, he came, flooding my mouth with his essence.
It was too much. They were too much. We were perfect. There was no question that when we worked through the troubles the Base faced they’d claim me. I’d let them, too. For while we hadn’t gone through the official claiming ceremony, and whatever that entailed, I was already theirs.
Chapter Fourteen
Maxim
My mate slept between us. She was on her side and I wrapped my body around her like a protective blanket. Her chest pressed to Ryston’s side, their legs entwined and her hand rested on his neck, caressing him even in her sleep.
I could not sleep. Pain, insistent and growing in strength, coursed from my Hive implants to my shoulder and down to the tips of my fingers. The ache had spread to my back and the base of my skull like hundreds of tiny, biting insects devoured me from within.
Rachel was exhausted, yet even in sleep I felt her mind working, her energy a constant buzzing awareness through the collar.
Unwilling to disturb my family, I gently untangled myself from our bed and rose. I would put on my uniform and search out Doctor Surnen. Perhaps he would have some answers. I knew Rachel would be angry with me for leaving her behind, but both Ryston and I had sensed her complete and total exhaustion. A few hours’ rest would do her good. I would wait, for I doubted there was anything she could do in the moment to ease my pain.
I was halfway to the doorway when she bolted straight up in bed. “They were moving.”
Turning, I returned to the bed and sat on the edge. “Hush, love. Go back to sleep.”
Her eyes were wide, her dark hair a tumble of soft temptation around her shoulders. Gods, she was too beautiful to be real, to be mine.
“They were moving. They shifted position. They aren’t supposed to be moving, right?”
Ryston groaned and rolled onto his side, wrapping an arm around her waist from behind. “Rachel. Go to sleep. You’re too tired. Your exhaustion is beating inside my head like a drum.”
Rachel wrapped her hands around his forearm and stared into space. I wasn’t sure if she was awake, asleep, dreaming, or out of her mind with fatigue. “Rachel?”
Not looking at me, she shoved Ryston’s hand from her body and scurried to the edge of the bed. “They shouldn’t be moving. What were they doing? How old were those implants? He said they were neutralized. But they were doing something. It was on the right. And when I looked again, it was on the left. That wasn’t me. Why were they moving? How are they moving?”
“Rachel?” Ryston sat now and we both stared as she tugged on her forgotten medical uniform and boots, still rambling.
“I need a sample.” Rachel’s eyes finally focused on us, leaping from Ryston to me and back again. “Get dressed. I need you both to come with me to the lab. Right now.”
“Why?” I pulled my pants on even as Ryston rolled out of bed with a groan. If I was expecting an answer, I would have been sorely disappointed, for Rachel left us behind, winding her hair up into some kind of twist. She lifted her writing utensil from her book near the door and shoved it through the mess as an anchor. “Maxim’s infected. Ryston’s not. The Quell in Brooks’ system wasn’t normal. It wasn’t normal. And it wasn’t black market. The chemical composition was slightly off. They’re making it. They’re alive, and they’re making it.”
She paced in front of the door, her emotions locked away completely. Where my kind, caring mate’s emotions normally washed through me like a warm, comfortable blanket, or a hot, raging lust, all I felt from her now was satisfaction. Completion. Curiosity. Fear. “Rachel?”
I stood before her and Ryston joined me. At the sound of her name, she looked up, her eyes focusing on us briefly before she turned away with a nod. “Good. Good. Come on. We gotta go. I need samples.”
Ryston shrugged when I met his gaze and we followed our mumbling mate all the way to the medical station like two pets on a leash. Not that I minded. I’d seen sex-crazed Rachel. I’d seen her kindness and trust. I’d seen her angry and defiant. But this new side of her was equally fascinating.
“What is she doing?” Ryston paced beside me and I smiled. I couldn’t stop the reaction.
“Being Rachel.”
The door to the medical station slid open and she led us into the dark, mostly abandoned research area. Built for emergency triage and to deal with battle wounds or mining accidents with equal efficiency, we’d modeled the station after the medical areas on board the Prillon battleships. Thank the gods, we’d never had a need to utilize the space.
The area was dark except for one station, where Doctor Surnen sat, his eyes glued to an odd-looking contraption I’d never seen before. He lifted his gaze when we entered. “Governor.”
“Doctor.”
I didn’t need to ask what he was doing. Nor did I comment on the obvious fatigue lining his face, nor the exhausted slump of his shoulders. But his gaze held intense focus, a driving desire to solve the puzzle. I recognized that look, for I’d seen it in Rachel’s eyes not long ago.
When Rachel walked up next to him, she set her writing pages, a thing she called a notebook, down on the table next to the doctor, who finally turned his attention to her. “This is a fascinating device.”
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