“Gods damned fucking Hyperions.” Mervan cursed us, but we didn’t bother to respond. I didn’t give a fuck what he thought.
Mervan looked down at the headless corpse and sighed. “Were the ship’s records downloaded for analysis?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Fine.” Mervan spoke to the Prillon, but he looked at me. “Get the fuck off this ship. I don’t want to see you again.”
I dipped my chin slightly in acknowledgement. “The feeling, Prillon, is mutual.” We both knew it was impossible. Blade and I were their contact to the black market, the pirates, the criminal elements in Coalition space. He needed us, and we needed him.
Didn’t mean we liked each other.
Mervan slapped a transport tag on his chest and disappeared, leaving the dead behind to burn with the ship. And if we didn’t transport out, we’d burn with it. Like Mervan cared. Our safety was not his problem.
Behind me, Cormac cleared his throat. “I win, Silver. Pay up.”
“Bastard.” Her voice was full of laughter, and she grumbled as we followed the Coalition team back to the transport pads. “Too many fucking aliens. Didn’t save any bad guys for me.”
Khon looked back over his shoulder. “If you want to choke something, Silver, my cock is willing and available. And hard, after this.”
“Shut up, Khon.”
Blade fell into step beside me, and we lagged back a few paces. “I couldn’t do it, Styx. I couldn’t let him live. Not after all that had happened, and especially after what he said.”
I grabbed his shoulder and squeezed my thanks. “I couldn’t kill him. It was too big a risk. But since we share a mate, I am glad it was you who claimed Harper’s vengeance. Your hands or mine, the deed is done.”
The fucker was dead, no matter who’d ripped his head from his shoulders.
Our gazes locked and he understood. Harper was ours. Every cell in my body demanded that asshole’s death. By my hand or Blade’s made no difference to me. But by Blade doing it, Mervan couldn’t blame me. The political ramifications were kept to a minimum. We’d offer our services to the Fleet someday in the future, but not before Mervan took time to cool off. We’d gotten what we wanted. Revenge. Our mate.
The ship was set to detonate; there was no more time to talk. We walked into the transport room, the others waiting on the pad.
“Let’s go home and finish what we started,” I told him, all at once ready to be back with Harper. The mission was complete. We had something else to focus on now. And how sweet it would be. My balls ached and my fangs dropped remembering how good her pussy tasted, how tight she was. How much tighter she’d be when she took both our cocks at the same time. As we bit her.
Blade smiled, his fangs still out. He shifted his cock in his pants as the pull of the transport made the hair on my arms rise.
Time to take what was ours.
Time to bite Harper and claim her forever.
Chapter Thirteen
Harper
They were here. They were whole.
Styx came through the door first, Blade directly behind. Styx’s green gaze met mine, held as he stalked toward me.
When I first met him on Zenith, when he’d approached me at the bar, he’d had the same intensity, as if there was no one else in the universe but me. It was unnerving then.
Now? Now, I wanted that unwavering attention. I wanted everything he could give me. Attention. Love. Obsession.
Maybe it was wrong or stupid or a hundred other things I didn’t want to think about or try to analyze, but for the first time in my life, I felt like someone saw me. I’d never really been alone in my life, surrounded by people who worked hard and fought as hard as I did. It took meeting Styx and Blade to realized I hadn’t been alone—but I’d been lonely.
I went around the control panel, all but knocking Ivar down and launched myself into Styx’s hold. He was all hard, lean muscle. Heat. Power. I felt it as one arm banded about my back, the other beneath my butt. I melted into him as if we were two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle clicking into place. I breathed him in. Closed my eyes and let his heat soothe all the jagged edges, the hours of agitation and worry and terror that they’d be hurt, not come back to me.
His breath fanned my neck as he breathed me in, and I felt the brush of his lips, the flick of his tongue and even the graze of his teeth. I whimpered at the feel. Innocent, but the meaning was clear. He would bite me. Soon. The promise in that light touch made my heart leap and tears fill my eyes. I wanted him. Wanted them. Forever.
“Mate,” he growled.
“Mine,” I replied.
I pulled my head back enough to look into his eyes, then over his shoulder at Blade. I reached out my hand, and he took it, felt his strength, too.
Needed it. It was as if I’d lost the connection, their energy, when they left Rogue 5. But now, god, I was addicted and didn’t want to live without this feeling, without them, ever again. Every minute they were away was agony. I’d been restless, nauseated. Panicked, even. Scribe and Ivar had done their best to reassure me, to tell me of their fighting prowess. They’d even gone so far as to say my mates’ blood lust, their need for revenge would protect them.
I saw it as blinders, potentially putting them in harm’s way. But I’d been wrong. Thank god.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, looking them both over as best I could. I didn’t see any blood, no dirt or torn clothes. It didn’t even appear they’d been in battle at all. Not any battle I was used to.
I felt Styx’s chuckle. “Harper, we know your healing nature. We would not come to you injured or bloody. You’d take one look, start fussing over us, and we would never get you between us in bed.” He squeezed my bottom with his hand, the message unmistakable. “We won’t wait to claim you, Harper.”
I heard what he wasn’t saying, that they would bite me soon, but that wasn’t what I focused on. “You mean you came back injured and went to the med unit to be healed so I wouldn’t worry?”
Styx rolled his eyes. I’d never seen him do it before and I had to assume I was the only one who could frustrate him like this. Or he’d picked up the very human body language from me. Seeing an alien warrior mimic the motion made me grin.
“Harper,” he growled again.
Blade released my hand, came around and pressed into me from behind. “We were not injured, mate. We promised to come back to you. Did you doubt us?”
I turned my head to look at Blade over my shoulder, but instead he kissed me. His lips were hot, firm and eager. It seemed he didn’t really want an answer.
“You are mine, Harper,” Styx said. “I gave you a choice. You could have refused us. You could have gone back to the Coalition. You chose to submit. Willingly. I am done waiting, mate. The bite will make you mine forever. I am not human. There are no second chances.”
I heard his words as Blade’s mouth was on mine, his tongue delving, learning me once again. When Blade lifted his head, he held my gaze. “Forever, Harper.” I nodded. To the kiss, to Styx’s words, to Blade’s promise. To everything.
“Willingly,” I repeated, breathlessly. “I wanted you before you went with Doctor Mervan.”
Styx’s voice was quiet, calm, but brooked no argument. “We heard the truth in your words, wanted you with a desperation you can’t imagine. My balls ache with the need to claim you. But we would not be deterred from finishing the Kronos traitors. They stood in the way of more than us being together. They would have brought down all Rogue 5.”
His voice carried the tone of authority, that of the leader of Styx. While I saw the heat in his eyes that was solely for me, I knew, deep down, that if I wanted Styx, if I loved him as he was, I couldn’t stifle his need to be in control. It was who he was at the core. And if I were to be the mate of the Styx leader, I had to understand that Rogue 5 would be his mistress. The names inked into his flesh a weight he would always carry, that I would be expected to help him bear.
I was fine with that. I would allow him to be
the leader he was born to be, and he, in return, would allow me to do what was in my heart, what was in my nature. To help others. He would not deny me that, and Blade would be beside me to keep me safe as I healed those in need. Like at the mating feast, I’d healed Kronos who’d tried to kill all of us, but he’d watched over me as I did. Perhaps that was why we were perfect for each other. We fed each other’s needs, and in this instance, I didn’t mean sexually. I was someone Blade could protect, Styx could be bossy and dominant with—and I did mean sexually. And I would be there to heal them, to soften their heavy burdens of running the legion. The dynamic worked.
We worked.
“They also were a danger to you. The rogue Kronos,” Blade added.
His pale hair was long down his back, not pulled back as usual. Neither appeared to have come from a battle. They were clean, their uniforms crisp. Either it was a tame fight they’d gone off to or they really had returned and cleaned up before coming to me. I had to wonder if they had been injured and wouldn’t tell me. That was taking the whole protective thing a little too far. I would find out the truth, but not now. I knew which battles to pick, too.
“And now?” I asked, picking up on the word “were” in Blade’s statement. They would not be standing before me, heat in Styx’s eyes and the hard press of their cocks against me if it wasn’t over.
If I wasn’t safe.
If it wasn’t time for them to bite me, claim me, make me theirs.
Maybe being whole and clean was a good thing. Nothing stood in our way—just as Styx had said—of being together. Not even the time it took to bathe. I was quickly becoming overheated. Both their bodies were so warm pressed against me. And the kisses. God, I was going to burst into flames once they got me in bed. My nipples pebbled against Styx’s chest, my pussy ached, and my panties were ruined. And we were still fully clothed.
Ivar cleared his throat, prompting me to his presence, and Scribe’s.
Holy crap. I was plastered between my men, and I’d completely forgotten their presence.
Styx inclined his chin and thanked them. I didn’t look. I didn’t want to see laughter or annoyance or any other emotion in either of the men’s eyes. I was mortified, and that was enough.
However, out of the corner of my eye, I saw them offer a deferential nod, then exit the room. Their job was done. I was safe, and their protection was no longer required.
“And now we will continue to protect you and dominate you,” Blade responded, flexing his hips which slid his cock with exquisite friction up the seam of my ass, prompting me to what he was most likely going to do soon enough. I was a little embarrassed by what Ivar and Scribe had overheard, but Blade wasn’t. Nope. I had to let it go, because while Blade and Styx had said they didn’t share any part of me, I would have to get used to them staking their claim in front of others. If that meant heated looks, kisses, carnal touches, then they wouldn’t be denied.
And I had no interest in denying them anything. I clenched my inner walls at the thought and squirmed in Styx’s hold. “I’m yours, mates. Please. Take me. Bite me. You can have anything. Anything you want.” It was more than a promise, it was surrender. Complete. Total. I gave them everything.
Styx growled, spun me about and carried me out of the room. He only lowered me to my feet before them when we were alone in his quarters, in front of his big bed. “Strip, mate. I have been longing to see your soft skin.”
Styx’s command made me shiver. While they hadn’t held their true selves back when we’d been in the back hallway of the canteen on Zenith, we’d been in a not-so-private place. And at the mating feast, they’d made me come on their fingers with a ruthless precision and a bold dominance, but they’d still held back because we’d again been in a hallway, in a semi-public place. Even when they’d fucked me for the first time, knowing I was their mate, they’d held back because their true nature as Hyperion had been to bite me. They’d had to stifle that innate need because I hadn’t been ready.
I hadn’t begged.
While they’d been wild and bold, calculating and so dang dominant they’d made me come on command, I hadn’t seen the real Styx or Blade.
Now I could. I would. No, I did, with just the word “strip”.
My entire body shivered, grew shaky with anticipation, at what might come next.
I’d never imagined I’d want someone like Styx who gave orders that were meant to be followed, not questioned. Then again, I’d never been aroused as I was with them. Orgasms? Yeah, never like this. Maybe it had taken a trip halfway across the universe to discover I was into kink.
Into two men at once. Dominance. Whatever else they had in mind.
I wanted it all.
So when they stood before me with fierce gazes and hard cocks pressing against their black pants, I didn’t argue.
I stripped. Naked. As fast as my fingers could fly over the fabric.
Yeah, my fingers shook, but it wasn’t in fear. It was with anticipation. I wasn’t the only impatient one. Waiting for them to return had been horrible. But now…I’d forgotten about everything but them. This. Gods, I was going to come just taking off my clothes. It was as if they had pheromones pumping off them.
Two big, fierce, brooding, crazy aliens were standing before me, their eyes raking over every inch of my body. They wanted me with a need and intensity I’d never known existed.
I tossed the black shirt over my head. I looked down, saw my hard nipples through my thin bra. They saw them too, and Blade’s hands clenched into fists as Styx groaned. He rubbed his cock through his pants as if it hurt him.
Feeling empowered, I toed off my boots and pulled off the rest of my clothes. Knowing these two big, brawny and controlling men were reduced to cock rubbing and clenched fists made feel like I was the one who led them. Perhaps around by their blue balls.
Some of my insecurities flared to life when they stood there unmoving, still as statues and just stared at my nakedness. Even with the soft lighting in his bedroom, I was sure they could see every imperfection, the slight dimpling on my hips which no exercise would make go away. My boobs, while I was proud of them, hadn’t defied gravity. Then there was my—
“So beautiful,” Blade murmured, running his tongue along his teeth.
“Do you know why we’re standing here, not touching you?” Styx asked.
I placed my hands on the sides of my hips to cover myself, even a little bit. “I thought maybe it was because—”
Styx sliced his hand through the air. “I know what you’re going to say and I’m cutting you off. If you mention any kind of imperfection on your body, you’ll be over my knee with a red ass.”
He meant it. My cheeks flushed at them knowing me so well.
“We’re standing here trying to calm down enough not to bite you right now. To pull out our cocks and claim you with two quick thrusts and our sharp teeth.”
My mouth fell open at his very honest words. I knew they were attracted. Eager, even.
They looked at each other for a second, then back at me.
Grinned.
“Oh.”
They had fangs. Like vampires. Their incisors were long and pointed and dangerous looking. I froze, like a deer in the headlights. Prey. I was prey.
I wanted to be caught.
A slight sheen built on the tip of Styx’s fang, and I stared, trying to figure out what I was seeing.
“Serum,” he said, as if reading my mind. “Once that’s in your flesh, you’re mine.”
“And mine,” Blade added, running his tongue over his teeth again.
“Arousal, desire, need. All of it will swirl together in the most incredible pleasure you’ve ever imagined. And that’s just the first orgasm. From then on, you’ll be needy, achy, begging for us.”
I was wet, and when Styx took a deep breath, his pale green eyes went dark. He picked up the scent of my arousal and groaned. If they looked down, they’d see it coating my pussy.
“I could live between your thighs
. My mouth on you for hours,” he continued.
I wiggled my hips at the thought. They were both quite good at oral and had done it as foreplay every time they’d fucked me. And they weren’t quick about it either, lingering on me until I came for them several times. Only then would they fuck me, saying they needed me nice and soft and swollen, nice and wet for their big cocks. The tally of orgasms was skewed in my favor. It wasn’t even close.
“You want my mouth on you?” Blade asked, opening his pants and pulling out his cock. “You want this?”
I stared at him, his hand gripping the base firmly, the thick vein pulsing up the whole length. The tip was flared, a ruddy red and fluid seeped from the narrow slit. My mouth watered to get a taste of him.
I could only nod.
“Where do you want it, mate?” Blade’s gaze wandered over me, and he was grinning again.
I opened my mouth to respond, but words? What the hell was a word? I had none. Images flooded my mind. Images and memory and sensation. Hands. Mouths. My hot, wet pussy feeling stretched and pulsing with release. The smell of their skin. Heat of their hands. Being caught in the center of the maelstrom that was them. “Everywhere.” Hands. Mouths. Cocks. I was going to jump them if they didn’t move soon. “Now.”
Styx’s eyes darkened with pleasure at my eagerness, his focus absolute. “Turn around. Slowly.” As if he could read my mind, Styx continued, “Not everywhere. Pussy and ass while we bite you.”
“Okay,” I completed my turn. They hadn’t moved closer, but as least Styx was taking off his clothes. When he was fully naked, it was my turn to be frozen in place. He was so gorgeous. Tall and broad, muscled and hard. The tattoos were a visible reminder of his role, of his honor. My name on him only made me wetter knowing I belonged to him. And the piercings…I shouldn’t even think about the piercings or I’d come.
Her Rogue Mates Page 13