by Lili Zander
Arax’s head dips once again between my legs, exploring every inch of my sex in a way that makes my toes curl. He spends what feels like hours lapping at my lower lips, circling my clitoris, dipping into my folds with his tongue, as if trying to imprint the taste of me into his senses. Every time my body knots up, ready to climax—or ‘peak,' as they call it—he backs off, planting soft kisses around my aching sex, and nuzzling my inner thighs.
After a while, I realize he’s playing with me.
“Arax,” I grunt, tugging his hair. Whatever the Draekons might think, this isn’t fair. Nobody should be allowed to torture me with so much pleasure.
He looks up, his eyes dancing with mirth. He’s laughing at me, damn it. I jerk my hips in obvious invitation. “Now,” I insist.
“Do not try to order a Highborn,” Nyx says to me, his tone amused. “It’s a waste of time. They always get their own way.”
Arax’s eyebrows rise. “One could say the same of a thief,” he murmurs.
“Mmm,” Nyx agrees. “Though we have a more efficient approach than the Highborn.”
“What?” Arax’s tone is outraged. “Thieves sneak in. We choose a full-on attack.”
Seriously? I’m lying on the ground, legs spread open, my body on the verge of a climax, and we’re chatting about thieves and attacks? Arax is not the only one who’s outraged. “Can you guys stop talking strategy and fuck me?” I demand.
Nyx chuckles. Arax’s hot breath gusts across my aching sex and I strain to press my pussy against his mouth, failing as he hovers mere inches away.
“Goddammit!” I curse, and when that has no effect, I change tactics. “Please,” I beg, throwing my head back and straining my hips up. “Please fuck me.”
Arax’s tongue thrusts inside my pussy. “Oh, yes,” I scream. Nyx grips my right breast, hard and possessive, and my pleasure spikes. I can’t hold back. I climax in a series of gasps, my pussy muscles clenching hard.
Arax doesn’t stop. His tongue is relentless, licking my juices, teasing my clitoris. Little mews escape my throat as my body quivers with aftershocks from the best orgasm I’ve ever had.
“My turn,” Nyx says. Before I know it, he and Arax have switched places.
“What?” I can’t move; I can barely blink. My body has melted into the floor. I many never move again.
Arax pulls me against his broad chest, tips my head toward him, and kisses me deeply. I can taste myself on his lips. “Nyx wishes to pleasure you,” he says. “It wouldn’t be fair to deny him your sweetness.”
“I thought the Draekon don’t believe in the notion of fairness.”
They chuckle. Nyx prowls closer, kneeling and parting my legs. His fingertips ghost over my clitoris and my pussy clenches. I ache to be filled by their thick, massive shafts.
“Fuck me,” I breathe.
“We intend to,” Nyx says, stripping naked with a smile so sexy, it should be illegal on all known planets. His cock is as huge as Arax’s, thick and hard, bronzed as if a sculptor wanted to immortalize it forever.
“Stroke me, sweet one.”
Gladly. Licking my lips, I close my hand around his erection. His shaft is warm and smooth to touch, and when I pump his length, he throws his head back with a groan of need.
“Viola Lewis.” He tugs free and pulls me close, and catches my mouth in a kiss. “Soon you will feel me inside you. Arax and I will claim every inch of your body. But first,” he tugs on his cock until golden fluid drips from the tip, and he coats his hand with the thick substance.
I can’t take my eyes off him. Watching him pump his shaft is such a turn-on that for a second, my vision turns hazy. “What are you doing?”
“Proving Arax right. Thieves do like to sneak in where no one expects it.”
He sets a slick finger at my asshole.
Whoa there. I rear up in shock, and this time, Arax restrains me. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I say, my eyes wide. There’s two of them. I should have realized this was going to happen, but until the moment when Nyx’s finger circled my tight opening, I hadn’t even thought about where two cocks would go.
“I’m not jesting, aida,” Nyx says calmly. “We intend to pleasure you in every way possible.”
“Oh God,” I moan. I should be running away, screaming at the top of my lungs, but I’m not. Something’s wrong with me. I must be really twisted because the idea of Arax and Nyx taking my pussy and ass at the same time doesn’t fill me with fear. It fills me with heat. Between Arax’s hard arms around me, and Nyx’s determined finger fluttering at my back door, my pussy is weeping with need. “I’ve never done this before.”
Fire leaps into Nyx’s eyes. “Good,” he purrs. “We will be your first.” The liquid from his cock—the Zorahn equivalent of precum—is thick and sticky. He uses it as lube, probing my back hole with his finger until my body responds, and I push back against him, wordlessly begging for more.
He finger fucks my bottom, each time pressing deeper, stretching the ring of muscle. At first, I squeeze hard, trying to keep him out, but sensation sweeps over me, and I give in to my desire.
“You’re too big,” I whimper, hoping I’m wrong. “You’ll never fit.”
“We will prepare you,” Arax soothes me, his hand stroking my nipples. “You never need fear us. We will give you only pleasure.”
My muscles relax, and Nyx’s finger slides inside. He smiles in satisfaction and teases my clitoris with his tongue. I moan, my whole body clenching as my orgasm burns through my body. Lights flash in the corners of my eyes. I try to speak, but my jaw won’t work.
Wait. That’s not normal. Something’s wrong.
Arax bends over me; concern etched into the corners of his mouth. “Viola Lewis?” His voice comes from far away and swirls away into darkness.
10
Arax:
In the darkness of night, I rage at myself. The kilpei toxin hasn’t left our mate’s system fully. I should be making sure she isn’t injured. Instead, I’m kissing her. Tasting her intoxicating sweetness. Craving her touch.
Though the creature inside me aches for the bonding, I reach a decision. In the morning, I will take Viola Lewis to our dwelling atop the Na’Lung cliffs. My cousin Vulrux is a healer; he will tend to our mate. Her safety is my primary concern. Everything else can wait.
Nyx is asleep, and I’m keeping watch when Viola Lewis stirs again. She sits up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, and when she sees that I’m awake, she moves next to me. “I fainted again, didn’t I?”
She sounds disgusted with herself. “This bothers you?”
“I’m not used to feeling frail and useless,” she replies.
I hand her the water sac so she may quench her thirst. “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself, Viola Lewis,” I reply soothingly. “Your body is still recovering from the kilpei venom. You can’t help your reactions.”
She drinks deeply and sits down at my side. “It’s not just that,” she mutters. “I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself against the Dwals either. If you want to know about the impact of rising planet temperatures on the wheat crop, I’m the woman for you. But ask me to get a drink of water on this world, and I’m useless.”
The translator tells me that wheat is an edible grain cultivated on Earth. I wrap my arm around her shoulders, and she rests her head against my chest. “Not everyone is a warrior, aida,” I reply, trying to think of a way to comfort her.
She sighs. “You probably don’t even understand why I’m upset. When something threatens you, you can just turn into a dragon and breathe fire on it. No need to be afraid, right?”
I take a deep breath. “We shifted for the first time when the Dwals attacked you.”
“What?” She twists her neck around to gape at me. “How? Why?”
Secrecy is second-nature to the Highborn of Zoraht, but Viola Lewis is my mate. Tell her the truth, my beast orders. “Draekons shift for the first time when they see their mate.”
Her body goes st
ill. “Oh,” she says in a whisper. “But both of you became dragons.”
“That’s the Draekon way. Two Draekons, one mate.”
“That’s why, earlier…” Her voice trails away as she understands why Nyx and I wanted to claim her at the same time. “Oh wow.” Her skin turns pink. “That’s kind of kinky, and kind of hot.”
My lips twitch. On the homeworld, anything goes, and it’s impossible to shock us. Judging by her embarrassment, the people on Earth must be more sexually repressed than the Zorahn.
But she’s not running away. She remains nestled at my side, and her hand rests lightly on my bare thigh. I don’t think she’s aware that she’s stroking me, but she is, and I have to force myself to breathe evenly.
“That’s exciting, isn’t it?” she asks, her voice a breathy whisper. “Now that you’ve met me, you can turn into dragons whenever you want.”
“Not really.” It’s not like me to be so open with information. I’ve been taught from birth that knowledge is power, to be guarded and hoarded. “According to the ThoughtVaults, once we sight our mate, our full powers cannot be unlocked until the bond is complete.”
Her hand stops its tentative exploration, and her mouth falls open. “Let me see if I’ve got this right,” she says slowly, pulling away from my hold. “In order to become dragons again, you’re going to have to sleep with me.”
“Yes. Does that terrify you, Viola Lewis?”
Viola:
Something is wrong with me. They turn into dragons, Viola, I scold myself. You should be freaking out. You should not be thinking about their kisses from earlier, and you most certainly shouldn’t be wishing you hadn’t fainted.
My pussy throbs with need. Earlier, when I kissed them, I was attracted to them, but now, the ache in my body intensifies. Every rational bone in my body screams at me to pull away, but I stay exactly where I am, my back pressed against Arax’s chest.
I wish Nyx would wake up. I’d like to pick up where we left off. When he fingered my ass, I thought I was going to combust from sheer desire. I’d like to do that again, and more. I’d like to be completely filled by the two of them.
Where the heck is this lust coming from?
I give Arax a coy look, and I refuse to answer his question directly. “I overheard what you said to Nyx,” I confess. “You said that sooner or later, you’re going to have to mate with me.”
His eyebrows rise in a very human way. “I wish you hadn’t overheard us,” he replies, regret etched in his voice.
“Why?” I challenge him. “Are you afraid I’ll run away?”
“Terrified,” he replies. His eyes dance with amusement for a brief moment, then his mirth fades. “You can’t run from a Draekon, Viola Lewis. Especially not your mates.” He places a hand on his chest. “I can sense you here.”
I should be panicking about this because if Arax is right, my plans of sneaking away from them have just been foiled. Instead, I trace the outline of a tattoo on his bicep. “Do the markings have significance?” I ask him. “The Zorahn on the ship had them too. Except for Raiht’vi.”
“Female Zorahn do not mark themselves,” he replies. “The men though, what color were their markings?”
His tone is too casual. “Are you trying to wheedle information out of me?” I ask bluntly. “Why don’t you try asking me directly instead?”
His chest shakes with laughter, and I feel the grip of his arm around my shoulder tighten. “I don’t think I’ve ever been spoken to in that tone,” he says, his voice rueful. “You’re right, aida. I’m sorry. Zoraht is a planet with a rigid social structure, and the color of the markings have significance. I was trying to understand who was behind your expedition.”
Oh. I didn’t expect him to apologize. “Beirax’s head was tattooed with blue whorls,” I reply. “Mannix’s were black and brown.”
“A scientist and a technician,” he replies. “What color were the female’s hair shells?”
I try and picture Raiht’vi. “Blue,” I reply, my voice uncertain. “I think. Her clothes were white.”
“Highborn too,” he says tightly. “If her shells were blue, she’s a scientist as well.” His hand closes over mine, and I realize, with a blush, that I’m still touching his muscled arms. They’re warm and smooth, silk over steel. “To answer your earlier question,” he says, “These tattoos are from the testing. Zorahn men are tested yearly for the Draekon mutation.”
“And they found it in you.” I stroke his skin, counting the black bands. There are nineteen of them. “How old were you when you tested positive?”
“Twenty.”
“And the Zorahn exiled you to this world.”
It all makes sense now. Raiht’vi called this planet a prison. Beirax went on about the Draekons being sinned against. My initial instincts were right. The nine of us have been dragged into the middle of some kind of Zorahn civil war.
Then I put my botanist-hat on, and something else clicks in place. Right before Beirax crashed the ship, he said something about humans serving as seed for the Draekon race. His comment hadn’t meant anything to me at that time, but it does now.
Sometime in the distant past, the Zorahn scientists used human genetic material to create the Draekons. That’s the only explanation that makes sense. That’s why Arax and Nyx recognize me, a human, as their mate. That’s why the Zorahn came back to Earth for new lab rats. That’s probably even why the Zorahn scientists had a cure for leukemia in their back pocket—they’ve already studied our genetic matter.
The thoughts swirl in my head in a confused, tangled mess. What the Zorahn did to Arax and Nyx is horrible and cruel. Being exiled to a prison planet because of something you were born with seems vicious and vile. Then again, Arax and Nyx transformed to dragons and burned the Dwals. Maybe the Zorahn know something I don’t.
The human women will restore the Draekons to the glory that’s their birthright. Those were Beirax’s words. He wants to breed us, mate us to the Draekons. That’s why he crashed the ship on this world.
A frisson of anger trickles down my spine. Beirax didn’t ask us for permission. He didn’t care for our consent. To him, we’re no better than animals.
And Raiht’vi? I don’t feel particularly kindly to the female Zorahn either. She knew about the prison planet. She’s complicit in exiling the Draekon.
If it were up to me, I’d sleep with them.
I don’t know where that thought comes from, but it’s true. Even now, I’m leaning against Arax’s chest, touching him, my pussy aching with heat at the thought of the two of them taking me and claiming me as theirs.
But I can’t. If Beirax’s theory is right, then sex with Arax and Nyx will get me pregnant. I can’t afford to take sides here. I can’t antagonize the Zorahn scientists. Even though it was too late for my father, they cured leukemia on Earth. If they’re happy with their Earth lab rats, they could cure other diseases.
If they’re unhappy because I’ve mated with the Draekons, then who knows what they might do.
A chill runs through me. This isn’t a choice I can make lightly. The fate of millions of people on Earth rests upon my decision.
Arax’s arms suddenly feel like bands of steel. I start to struggle, and he frees me instantly. “Are you alright, Viola Lewis?”
“Tell me why you said you wish I hadn’t overheard you.” I twist around and look into his eyes. “Because you will take me by force, and you prefer that I live in ignorance of that fact?”
His face goes carefully blank. “I don’t know what will happen,” he says. “To the best of my knowledge, no one has transformed into a Draekon for a thousand years. The ThoughtVaults are incomplete. What you overheard was a speculation.”
His hands clench into fists at his side. “I am a man as well as a beast, Viola Lewis.” There’s an edge of pain in his voice, and I want to wrap my arms around him and comfort him. It bothers me to see his distress. “I gave you my word earlier that you will be safe. Even from me.”
I’m about to open my mouth and tell him that I trust him when I see it on the horizon.
Three rockets of light shoot up from the direction where I left the space ship. One white flare, followed by a red one, and then a white one again.
A grim expression fills Arax’s face. “That’s a Zorahn flare,” he says, his voice utterly cold. “Tell me again, Viola Lewis, how many of you survived the crash?”
I’m in deep trouble.
11
Nyx:
Our mate lied to us to protect her fellow humans.
Her logic is deeply misguided. The ship has crashed in the lowlands and will get swept away in the floods that are almost upon us. Even without the threat of the rainy season, the human women will need our help to survive on this world.
I don’t understand what she hopes to gain by keeping them a secret, but one thing is certain. I can’t fault Viola Lewis’ heart. She means well.
“They’re in mortal danger?” Her voice rises in panic as she paces at the mouth of the cave. “We have to go to them. What was I thinking? Harper was injured, damn it. I should have never left them alone.”
Arax and I exchange uneasy looks. “What happened to the human?” This is a dangerous world. A woman the size of our mate will not be able to protect herself. The dwals are vicious during the day. At night, the hairus swarm the air.
“Harper brushed against some kind of fungus. An orange one.”
Bast. “Growing on the bark of a tree?” I demand.
“Yes,” she says nervously. “Why?”
“Because it’s very poisonous,” Arax replies, his expression grim. “Rorix brushed against it. He went into a coma for three months.”
“Rorix is Draekon? What could possibly hurt one of you?” She pivots to us, a stricken look on her face. “Sofia and Ryanna were going to help her back to the ship and put her in stasis, but if she became a dead weight…” She shivers at the thought. “What if they’re still outside? What if they can’t find shelter? I have to go to them.”