Seemed that was wrong, too. They shared my body, but I had to take turns making babies with them? That felt wrong. I didn’t want to live like that. Maybe if I had three dark-haired little ones in a row, I’d take some time and try to go for gold, but right now, I didn’t want to think like that.
“You’re both commanders, you make the rules,” I practically shouted at them.
“We are a family,” Kaed said, finally. “Give our mate what she wants, Ronan. Fuck her. Fill her with your seed. Our child will be loved and protected regardless of whose seed takes root.”
I couldn’t stop my smile, or the jiggle of my hips as I teased Ronan closer to orgasm. This was huge. I wasn’t sure how or why they had this custom, but I felt the significance of Kaed’s concession, even if I didn’t fully understand it. Why shouldn’t Ronan enjoy this same pleasure? Why was there a value difference between the two of them?
“Thank you, mate,” I replied. “You just made me very happy.” And if I’d had the collar I was promised around my neck, he would know that.
Maybe they had to order them? Or wait? Maybe they had to claim me first? Fuck me? Make sure we were compatible? I didn’t know, and this wasn’t the time to ask, because we’d been talking waaaaayyy too much with Ronan’s cock deep inside me and Kaed’s thick cock so close to my lips.
Leaning forward so Ronan could fuck me harder, I moved myself deeper into Kaed’s lap, took his cock in one hand and his heavy balls in the other. “Now I will make both of you very happy, mates.”
Ronan fucked me then, hard and fast and deep, his driving thrusts moving my mouth over Kaed’s cock as he took me. The slap of flesh on flesh filled the room. Groans intermingled with gasps.
“Touch her clit, Ronan,” Kaed ordered. “Make her scream around my cock.”
Mouth full of thick, hot cock, I could only moan and writhe as Ronan’s hand slipped around my ass to my hip. Lower.
Then he was fingering my clit as he moved, driving me to distraction. The object in my bottom only added to all the sensations bombarding me.
My scream was muffled by Kaed’s hard length, but he must have felt it as Ronan pushed me over the edge. Hot, wet cum filled my pussy and my mouth, filling me, marking me. I knew that’s how these alpha males liked to think of it. I was very much theirs now.
But to me it was the opposite. They were mine. That cum was mine. Their cocks were mine. They gave me their seed, their essence, but held back the deepest darkest parts of their minds. They didn’t give me their collars, or their hearts. And that was totally unacceptable when I was willing to give them everything.
But I had time. Eventually, my stubborn warriors would give me what I wanted. A collar. Our connection. A real mating.
They were mine, even if they didn’t know exactly what that meant.
They would learn not to mess with an Earth girl.
9
Erica, Personal Quarters, Battleship Karter
* * *
I stared out the window at all the stars. There was nothing to see but blackness and… the entire universe. The lights in the room were dimmed, set by either Kaed or Ronan before they left. I vaguely remember being kissed on the shoulder and told to sleep, that they needed to go to the command deck.
I had no idea what that meant, and at the time, had been too tired to care. They could be belly dancers and I wouldn’t have minded. Maybe it was the amazeballs sex or the road-trip across the galaxy, but I barely remembered what happened after coming all over Ronan’s cock with the taste of Kaed’s seed on my tongue.
Sex had never been that good… or that disappointing. I bit my lip, the sting meant to drive back the stupid, worthless tears forming in my eyes. The sex? Awesome. Unreal. Completely off the charts. Out of this world. Ha! But our mating? I wasn’t so sure about that. I still remembered the way Kaed had looked at me in the shower, how he’d conveniently forgotten to give me his collar, despite the fact that I’d told him—told them both—that I wanted the connection, that closeness. I wanted them to claim me.
Maybe I was too tired to think straight. I remembered that they’d wrapped themselves around me in bed, made me feel safe and warm and completely protected. I’d never felt so exhausted or content in my life.
I’d slept and slept hard.
And when I woke up? Space. Beautiful. Magnificent. Brilliant. No light pollution or haze. Just me staring out this window at the stars.
For the first time in my life, after countless hours looking up, I finally felt like the stars were staring back.
Because outside this window was space, there was no night or day. I had no idea what time it was or how long I had slept. I didn’t care. None of it mattered. I had two mates who craved me as much as I craved them. Oh, they were a little resistant, it seemed, but still… orgasms made me see rainbows and unicorns in my mind.
I was happy, right? Two mates. Lots of crazy sex. And out the window?
Everything my little stargazer’s heart could ever dream of. I searched for familiar constellations, Earth’s moon, anything to give me my bearings, but it all looked as if someone had taken the stars and thrown them into a blender. Nothing made sense. There were no patterns I recognized. Nothing familiar. No constellations I knew. Just points of light, some big, some small. The planets in this star system were so close I could see the nearest one, and it was three times larger than Earth’s moon. And red, not silver. A fleet of smaller ships of all different types and sizes floated in and out of view, moving through the emptiness of space just outside the window. It was like watching a live action sci-fi movie through my window.
I really was in an episode of Star Trek, but I wasn’t the red shirt ensign who always got killed off. Not in this movie. I was the heroine. The movie star who got to fall in love with the commanders of the fleet and wear their wedding band—or collar—same thing here—around my neck.
Except I didn’t, and I had no idea why.
I stood wrapped in just the chocolate-colored sheet I’d pulled from the bed, since I couldn’t find any closets or any kind of clothes. I wasn’t sure if they planned to keep me naked for a while or not. The idea had some good points, but my big boobs needed a bra.
“Hello!”
I turned at the sound of a woman’s voice. The door had opened and closed behind her without making any noise. “There you are! Erica, right? Did you get a good rest?”
The woman was small, tiny compared to me. She looked like she was part Asian, with light cream-colored skin and straight, jet-black hair, but her accent was pure American and she was speaking English. Someone from home!
I smiled. I couldn’t help it. First real day and I’d already met someone from home. It helped, made me happier than I’d thought it would. I didn’t feel so alone. At least that was the case, until I saw the golden collar around her neck.
So, she was a Prillon mate. Like me.
Except her males had claimed her, made it official.
She was staring, her smile fading a bit, the brightness in her eyes fading to concern.
“I slept like the dead.”
Her smile said she understood, but her black uniform surprised me. She was dressed like the warriors I’d seen. She even had some kind of space gun strapped to her hip. A mate and a warrior? Did they allow that? Not that I wanted to fight, but my mates had made me think no female was ever allowed to be in danger out here.
This Earth woman proved that to be a lie. A big, fat excuse not to give me what I had been promised. Why would the commander not put his collars on us and make us a family? What was he trying to hide?
“I’m Erica. Erica Roberts.” I held out my hand. She pushed it aside and came in for a hug, a bear hug. Guess she was excited to see someone from home, too.
“I’m Chloe and I came from Earth. I apologize for the uniform. I just came off a ReCon mission.”
“What? You go out on missions?”
“When I have to.” She let go but kept talking. “I’m so excited to have another woman her
e, one who knows what a cheeseburger is and what green grass looks like.” She was warm and friendly and I immediately liked her. I felt relief, surprisingly, with her sharing my same customs and upbringing. I wasn’t alone in my past out here. Someone would understand me.
“I’m also thrilled that Karter was matched. He tested a long time ago and I think he forgot all about it.”
“He’s a busy guy,” I said.
She nodded. “Definitely a workaholic. As for your second, I’ve never met him before, even though he’s in the I.C. with me. Strange.” She thought for a moment, then shook it off.
I had no idea what the I.C. was, but it sounded like they both had the same kind of job. “What’s the I.C.?”
Her eyes grew round, but she tilted her head, as if judging me, then shrugged. “You’re matched to Karter, so you must be a badass.”
A badass? “Not really.”
Her smile was patient, as if she knew I was lying to her. I wasn’t. “Whatever. You’re his, and Commander Wothar’s, so there’s no reason not to tell you the truth. The I.C. is the Coalition Fleet’s Intelligence Core, kind of like the CIA in outer space. I joined a few years ago, when I volunteered to serve in the fleet. I’m Commander Chloe Phan, at your service.” She bowed at the waist with a grace and flare that said she knew how to move, and probably how to fight.
“So, Ronan is in the alien CIA?”
“Yes. Doing shit so secret even I don’t know about it. He had something to do with the Varsten being wiped out. That’s why Karter’s so pissed off at him. That and they were friends from way back. Ronan has been off the grid for about five years. Everyone thought he was dead.”
“Even Kaed?” I asked, stunned.
“Kaed? Who’s that?” Her nose scrunched up in an adorable way that I envied. She was everything I was not—petite, thin, a fighter.
“Commander Karter.”
She chuckled. “Name’s Kaed, huh? That’s news I can sell for some extra tech in requisitions.”
“No. Makaed Karter. But Ronan calls him Kaed.”
“And you?” Chloe saw too much. Either that or she heard the hurt in my voice. But then, she was an outer space spy, trained to notice everything. “What do you call him?”
“I don’t know yet.” Staring at her collar was making me wonder if I’d made a mistake coming out here after all. Who knew I’d have collar envy? Yes, it was a pretty gold color against her perfect, light brown skin, but still. Collar envy? That was just weird.
Thank god she changed the subject, joining me to stare out the window. “What did you do, back on Earth?”
“I have a master’s degree in astronomy.”
“Awesome. A science geek.”
“Totally.” I laughed. “Didn’t expect to ever hear that term again.” I looked down at her. She had a calm manner that put me at ease. “What did you do?”
“Military first. Then I served in the Coalition Fleet. They sent me home—long story involving a self-serving asshole who set me up—”
“I hate them,” I said.
“Me, too. But I got the last laugh. Was a 9-1-1 operator for a while, back on Earth, then volunteered as a bride. Soon as I got here, Commander Karter looked up my fleet record and I was right back in the mix where I wanted to be.”
“And your mates? They’re okay with you being in danger all the time?” I needed to know, because that was the exact opposite of a ton of words Ronan and Kaed had said to me.
“No. But I outrank both of them, so they couldn’t order me not to fight. It was ‘take me as I am’, or choose someone else.”
Damn, I wish I were half as confident as she appeared to be.
“Nice collar,” I offered. The proof of their choice—and acceptance of their female—was solidly around her neck.
Her hand drifted to the golden collar, her fingers running over it almost absently. “Thanks.” She sighed and we stood in silence for a few minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. “The view is amazing, isn’t it?” she asked.
“It’s beautiful. I don’t recognize anything you’d see on Earth, but I’ve been making up my own constellations.”
“Of course you’d be into stars.”
“I worked at an observatory for a few years doing research on the Supergiants, especially Sirius. We think it’s over two hundred billion years old. Part of the reason I wanted to be a bride was to see if I could access the Coalition’s star charts and astrological data.”
“They’ll have a lot of that. They’re all over the galaxy and have been for centuries.”
“That’s what I was hoping.” My smile was sheepish. Yes, I wanted amazing mates and babies and a happily ever after, but I wanted more than that. I needed knowledge like I needed water, but I couldn’t explain all that in the first five minutes. Probably scare her off, and she was the first human I’d met out here. “Stars are kind of my thing.”
“So where are you on the Big Bang?” she turned and looked up at me.
Loaded question. “Undecided.”
She laughed. “That sounds like a really cool job. You must be ridiculously smart. Math makes my head hurt.”
I shrugged because test scores and college rank didn’t really matter out here. I pointed. “See those five stars in a row. They’re vertical?”
“Yes.” Her chin was tipped up and she was following where I aimed my finger. “Then it turns to the right, then back up.”
“Like a box!”
“I see it as a gift box. The cluster at the top is like a curly bow.”
“I see it! Constellation Gift Box.”
“Sure.” Not exactly what I had in mind for a name, but at least she was seeing what I did.
“Well, Earth girl, you’ve seen out into space, had your body rocked by your mates and caught up on your beauty sleep. So how about a tour around the ship? I mean, you’re Lady Karter now, in charge of the entire civilian side of things, so I’d think you’d want to see the inside of the battleship you run now. And it’s named after your mate’s family.”
Battleship Karter. Suddenly, all those third person references made more sense. Kaed hadn’t been talking about himself, but about the ship with the same name we were on.
“Wait. Did you just say I’m in charge of something?”
My disbelief must have been clear on my face, because Chloe laughed. “Oh, yeah. You’re the boss now. Anything not military will have to go through you. School. Food. Social events. Civil disagreements.”
Holy hell, this was in introvert’s worst nightmare. “Like what?”
“Not a lot happens around here to argue about, but let’s say two people are bickering over personal quarters, or someone is playing their music too loud.”
“Are you kidding me?”
She shook her head. “Nope. As the commander’s mate, you’re like the mayor of the battlegroup. The only person who outranks you is Karter himself, and only because he’s the military commander. You’re like the civilian commander. He only outranks you because we live in a war zone, but most civilian or not-critical decisions will be yours to make.”
Not a big deal, right? I could breathe through this. “How many people live in my little space town?”
“Just over five thousand. But with the incoming survivors from the Varsten, it’s more like nine thousand at the moment.” Chloe’s grin was absolutely unrepentant. She was enjoying this. “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll do great. You’re brilliant, so you’ll adapt.”
So much for having someone from home who would understand me. She was just as crazy as the rest of them appeared to be. “I don’t know anything about any of that. I’m a total introvert, Chloe. I’m serious. I’m more comfortable with a calculator or a telescope than people. And stars don’t talk back. They don’t change.”
“Won’t matter. The people on this ship will come and ask you anyway. And you have a lot of personnel around to help you.” She punched me on the shoulder and I was proud of myself for not flinching. “Come on. Let’s get o
ut of here so you can meet your devoted fans. Everyone wants to meet you. You’re a celebrity.”
A celebrity? Was she insane? Only one way to find out. I was Lady Karter now, mayor of a space town in a war zone with nine-thousand aliens depending on me for answers. Holy shit. Warden Egara hadn’t told me a damn thing about this. But I was not a coward. Just because I didn’t like to be around people didn’t mean I couldn’t do it when I had to. And no way I was going to hide in this room for the rest of my life. “Okay. I’d love to look around. And I’m starving.”
“I’m an I.C. Commander. I think I can handle a tour and lunch.”
“Lunch? How long was I out?”
She checked something on her wrist, some kind of data display built into the arm of her uniform. “Looks like you transported back to the Karter about sixteen hours ago, give or take.” She tapped something and shrugged. I noticed she did that a lot. Nothing seemed to bother her. “They run on a twenty-five-hour day out here, so it’s not a bad adjustment. Really similar to what your body is already used to. You’ll adapt in no time.”
“I never sleep that long.” But it did explain why I was so hungry. I hadn’t had a real meal since before the processing dream on Earth. And then… well, Kaed and Ronan had worn me out.
I knew I blushed as the thought crossed my mind, but Chloe just laughed. “I bet you were busy. Post-battle adrenaline plus new mates. Wow, must have been explosive.”
I didn’t respond because I had a feeling she wasn’t digging for dirty details, just stating fact.
“I’ll start at the beginning then. Karter asked me to come and check on you since you were zonked out. I can’t believe you transported twice and still were conscious enough for sexy times.”
I had no idea the effects transporting had on other women from Earth, so I didn’t think anything special about my supposed accomplishment. But I didn’t have time to explain any of that, because Chloe kept talking.
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