by Becca Van
The fullness in her ass receded a little but her orgasm didn’t seem to slow down at all. Hakk shoved into her twice more and as he held still she felt the skin at the entrance to her pussy expanding as the base of his dick grew bigger. Cream gushed from her pussy as her walls continued to contract in the rapturous crescendo. As she started to come down from the peak, Hakk shouted and she felt his cock jerking and twitching inside her as he filled her with his cum.
Seconds later Palk pressed his dick into her ass a little more, until he was buried halfway inside of her, and then he roared as he too reached climax. His semen felt hot and as he shot her ass full of his jism she flopped down onto Hakk with a sigh as aftershocks continued to wrack her body.
River seemed to sort of float from then on. She was aware of everything around her but couldn’t find the energy to move, speak, or even open her eyes. She was floating on a sea of satiation and with each breath she took felt the bond with her mates getting stronger and stronger.
She knew the moment Stryk and Toak returned to the room but she remained still and quiet basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking. She was carried into the bathroom where her mates bathed her and then she was carried back to the bed.
Damk was called to check her out and she wondered what was wrong. She heard the beep of his scanner and listened as he gave his diagnosis. “Your mate is well, but exhausted. I think it has to do with the bond forming and the marking. I’ve never seen a female marked before. You are very lucky to have her.”
“She hasn’t moved since we bonded with her,” Palk said. “Are you sure she isn’t ill?”
“As sure as I can be, sire. The scanner doesn’t indicate any illness. Perhaps she just needs to rest.”
Damk is right,” Stryk said. “We don’t know how our mating will affect her body. Human’s aren’t as strong as Safurians.”
River wanted to snort at Stryk’s declaration but again she just couldn’t seem to manage it. Had their claiming affected her after all? Was there something in their seed that didn’t agree with her body?”
She hoped that Damk was right and this—whatever this was happening to her—would wear off in the morning. With a final sigh she let her body sink into a dreamless sleep.
Chapter Nine
Stryk was too worried about River to sleep. He spent the night pacing his office and trying to feel her through the bond but since Hakk and Palk had mated with her, what little he had felt from her had faded. He was scared that they had somehow harmed their mate but what was worse was there was absolutely nothing he and his brothers could do about it. Even though their chief healer Damk had said that she was fine, he wouldn’t believe that until River opened her eyes.
He turned toward the door when Toak came in and was concerned by the worried look on his brother’s face, worried that there had been no change with their mate.
“Is she…” Stryk didn’t finish when Toak shook his head.
“What the hell are we going to do?” Toak asked and then flung himself into the chair in front of Stryk’s desk.
“I don’t know.” Just as he finished answering his brother, Stryk’s comm unit went off. He didn’t really want to answer it, but by doing so and keeping his mind occupied, he would hopefully stop worrying about River, if only for a moment or two. “What is it Dryv?”
“I’ve just had official response from the leaders of Aeros and Zennox regarding the alliance. They’ve both declined.”
“Fucking tarik turd,” Stryk grumbled. “Set up another meeting. We can’t let them back away from this.”
“For when sire?” Dryv asked.
“As soon as possible,” Stryk snapped and cut the comm. He shouldn’t be taking his frustration out of his comm and security chief but he was just so damned worried about River. He would make sure to apologize when he saw or spoke to Dryv next. He turned to face Toak again.
“Why can’t we feel her?” Toak asked.
“I don’t know, Toak.”
* * * *
River sighed and rolled onto her side. She was so warm and relaxed she didn’t want to wake up, but something was niggling in her mind and wouldn’t let her go back to sleep.
“River?” Palk whispered against her ear. “Can you open your eyes for me, mate?”
“Why?” she mumbled her question.
“Get Damk in here,” Hakk shouted. “Stryk, Toak, our mate is awake.”
“Course I am,” she said grumpily. “How could anyone sleep with that racket you’re making?”
“We have been so worried about you,” Palk said as he sat down beside her.
River forced her eyes open and wondered why they felt so sticky. She didn’t normally feel like they were glued together after sleeping. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and then sat up against the headboard, taking the covers with her.
“Why were you worried?” she asked with a frown.
“You have been asleep for two days,” Hakk answered as he sat on the other side of her.
Toak and Stryk entered the room with Damk on their heels.
“What?” she asked in a whisper and stared at Hakk with stupefaction.
“I need to get closer to the female to scan her, sire,” Damk said as he stopped at the edge of the bed near Hakk.
Hakk sighed loud and long before getting off the bed to allow Damk close to River. Damk kneeled on the bed and just as he lifted the small scanning wand close to her head, Stryk, Palk, Hakk, and Toak began to make low rumbling growls.
“What the fuck?” River asked angrily as she stared from one man to the other. They looked like they were ready to rip Damk’s head off.
“I promise not to touch your mate, sires,” Damk looked at the other four men nervously before swallowing loudly. “But if you wish to know if she is well I need to be close to her for a diagnosis.”
“Just ignore them, Damk.” River waved her hand for the chief healer to get on with it.
Damk ran the scanner from the top of her head to the tip of her toes and tried to ignore her mates, too, but it was damn hard when she could feel and see how tense Palk was, and when she looked over at Stryk, Hakk, and Toak they looked just as anxious. The moment the scanning wand beeped Damk moved away from her and the bed and she watched in awe as symbols and pictures appeared and hovered in the air. She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to their amazing technology but it would certainly be fun trying.
“Your mate is well. As I said a couple of days ago, her body needed rest for the bond to form.” Damk flicked his wrist and the images disappeared and then he hurried toward the door, closing it behind him without looking back once. River felt sorry for him because he was only doing what her mates had ordered him to.
“What is your problem?” she asked testily. “You called for Damk to check me over and when he tried to do what you ordered you growled at him.”
Stryk sat back on the bed next to her, gave her a sheepish look, and cleared his throat. “We are sorry, River, but we don’t like other men close to you.”
“You’re just going to have to get over that, then aren’t you?” River clutched at the covers and frowned. There was no way in hell she was going to let her four men treat her like she needed to be coddled. She was used to being alone and doing everything herself, and there was no reason for them to be jealous of her when in the presence of other males. She’d never been a flirt and or a cheater. Their reaction made her think that they didn’t trust her and although it made her mad as hell, it also hurt her.
“Sweetkins,” Toak sat on the end of the bed and placed his hand on her shin beneath the covers. Although he wasn’t touching any of her skin, her body began to tingle and the left side of her neck began to heat. “We are sorry if we came over as overbearing but our mating is new and even though you now bare our mark we cannot feel what you are, and if I had to hazard a guess you aren’t sensing any of our emotions either.”
River frowned and shook her head. She remembered them telling her that once they were true-mated tha
t they would all share emotions. She’d had a sense of Stryk’s and Toak’s feelings after they’d made love but now that she’d made love with all four of her mates, she couldn’t feel anything. That made her think that she was flawed somehow. She could see by the expressions on their faces that they were concerned. Was it because she wasn’t one of their females that the bond hadn’t formed cohesively?
“It’s because of me, isn’t it?”
“We’re not sure,” Stryk answered. “Maybe we just need more time for the bond to strengthen.”
“And if it doesn’t?” River questioned, not sure what to think or how to feel. Her mates didn’t look they were trying to pin the blame on her and that relieved her mind and the knot of anxiety which had begun to form in the pit of her gut. She sighed and felt some of the tension in her muscles release.
“Then we will worry about that when the time comes,” Hakk said.
The moment Stryk reached out and clasped her hand in his she felt a surge of emotion so strong that if she’d been standing it would have brought her to her knees. She heard him gasp and wondered if he’d felt it, too. His next words confirmed her thoughts.
“All of you need to touch our mate. Make sure you have skin to skin contact,” Stryk commanded.
As each of her men’s hands connected with her bared skin she felt each and every one of their emotions. She could sense their concern, turmoil, and their determination to be protective of her. However, that wasn’t all. She experienced the warmth in their hearts, their desire to make sure she was happy with them, and their resolve that she eventually would have the awareness for them that they already had for her.
If she’d had to put a name to it the only one that came to mind was love, but she wasn’t sure she should even be thinking that word let alone voicing it so she clenched her teeth together and inhaled deeply through her nose. Moisture burned the back of her eyes and for the first time in her long lonely twenty five years she felt accepted and cherished. She wanted to cling to them and never let go, but she’d vowed to never look needy and desperate to anyone and she felt the walls around her heart and psyche building even higher. The more she reinforced them, the less bombarded she was, and slowly their emotions faded into the background, until she could only feel a smidgeon of what they were.
“River, don’t close yourself off from us.” Palk’s voice held disappointment but there was another tone underlying his words, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.
River immediately felt bad, but it was all too much too soon. She had agreed to be their mate but she wasn’t sure she could handle the barrage of emotions. How would she ever be able to do anything if she was being distracted by their emotions all the time? These were questions she would have to work out alone, but later. For now she was just relieved that she wasn’t defective and that the bond had taken. She figured because of her upbringing and her lack of trust in humanity that she’d built natural walls around herself so she would never get hurt again. They were effective and although she didn’t want to hurt her mates, she needed to process.
There was still so much she didn’t know about them or their world and sometimes she felt like she was sinking in the deep end.
“I…” she hesitated, trying to find the right words to speak without making things worse than she already had.
“Talk to us, mate,” Toak squeezed her foot. He’d pushed the covers up from the bottom of the large bed so that he and Hakk could touch her skin with their hands.
“I just…”
“If you opened yourself up to us, you wouldn’t have to explain what you’re feeling”—Palk said pithily —“we would feel it.”
“That’s the problem.” River’s voice was strident and she had to take a deep breath to calm down. “I’ve never had to deal with any of this before. I–I don’t know if I can handle being able to feel what you all do as well as dealing with my own emotions.”
When she heard Stryk sigh, she glanced over at him and felt guilty when she saw his eyes were closed, but there was a pained expression on his face. She quickly looked away and surreptitiously looked at the others. Her heart clench and she felt despondent at seeing the same expressions in their eyes. She had done that. She had put that sadness and pain in their gazes.
“I’m—ˮ River was interrupted when Stryk’s comm went off. Instead of answering in her presence like he normally did, he rose from the bed and stalked out of the bedroom. She had to stifle a sob when Palk, Hakk, and Toak followed him, closing the door behind them. River covered her mouth to stifle the sob forming in her chest. Tears leaked from her eyes and although she was sad and hurt, too, she knew she only had herself to blame.
She got up and headed to the closet she'd spied earlier and rummaged around in it for something to wear. She held up the smaller pants and wondered whose they were, but shrugged dismissively before searching for a top. The one she found had jealousy searing into her heart and soul. There was no way the clothes she'd found could belong to any of her mates. They were far too small, and that made her think of the females they must have had sex with before ever setting eyes on her. When she saw the small pair of boots in the bottom of the cupboard, tears welled and trickled down her cheeks before she angrily brushed them away. The pain in her heart was bad enough to nearly have her doubling over, but after taking a deep breath, she pushed those dreadful thoughts aside. She had no reason to be envious of the women who'd come before her, and she had no right to be angry or hurt.
A humorless chuckle left her mouth, and guilt assailed her once more. Hadn't she just done the same to her mates—made them feel as bad as she was?
River headed to the bathroom, hoping she would feel better once she was refreshed. When she was showered and dressed she was going to go and explore. Maybe she would learn more of her men’s culture and about their world from some of the warriors she’d seen training outside the other day. She needed to understand more about where she was going to spend the rest of her life and since her mates hadn’t been very forthcoming she would find out on her own.
The moment River stepped out on the balcony the pain in her taut muscles eased and she breathed deeply of the clean fresh air. She was still in awe of the oversized flowers and trees, but what captivated her the most was the sweet fragrances emanating from the blooms. Her eyes widened as she looked at the thick stems and followed them to the top. The flowers were huge, at least a meter in circumference, and they were so tall, she would be able to hide amongst the plants and flowers and not be seen. She could see trees in the distance, and they looked like they were at least three times as big as the tallest trees back on Earth. Yet the plants, trees, and flowers didn't look weird or alien except for the sizes. They were so similar to Earth and although she had thought she would get homesick, she wasn’t.
She felt like she belonged for the first time in forever and she had fucked it up by closing herself off from her mates. Surely when she talked to them after they had calmed down they would be able to see reason. The fact that she could feel what they did wasn’t normal to her, or any human. She’d been confused by feeling their emotions and at first hadn’t been able to work out who was feeling what, including herself. But now that they had walked away from her and after only sensing their sentiments for such a short time, now that she wasn’t, she felt as if a huge piece of herself was missing. She was downright miserable and didn’t know how to fix it.
Yes you do, River. All you have to do is lower those walls.
River skirted the thick, tall hedge and stopped in her tracks when she saw all the warriors training hand to hand. As she looked to the far side of the field she caught sight of blue flashes and realized that those warriors were using weapons for target practice. Further to the back of the group were another bunch of men using what looked like weird shaped swords. Although the cacophony of sounds was loud it wasn’t enough of an assault on her ears to drive her away. Instead she moved along the hedge wall and took a seat on the grass in the shade. The sun was
warm, not overly hot, but she didn’t want to risk getting sunburnt by remaining in its rays for too long. She had no idea if their sun had UV rays or if the light would be damaging to her skin. She looked up in the sky and stopped breathing when she saw not one but three small suns. They were much smaller than the Earth’s sun but no less spectacular. She had no idea how she’d missed seeing them the first time she’d ventured outside but supposed she been too amazed with all the plant life.
Several of the men watching the hand to hand combat glanced her way but their gazes didn’t linger for too long, and she relaxed even more.
River didn’t even realize that the more settled she became the more the walls she’d built up began to dissipate. The moment she was assailed with anger and fear she knew they weren’t her emotions and she concentrated on following the tenuous tether she had with her mates back to them.
The moment she joined to them she felt four pieces click into place filling her heart, body, and soul. Her whole body heated, the whooshing in her ears became so loud it even drowned out the noise of the training warriors, and she saw stars before her eyes. Her mouth opened on a scream, but she wasn’t sure if she gave voice to the ecstasy surging through her body. Her pussy spasmed, clamping around an emptiness she needed desperately to be filled as she came and came and came. Juices leaked onto the small pair of leather pants she’d found in the back of the closet, and she wasn’t sure if she should tear them off or press them tighter against her needy, swollen cunt and clit. And then she didn’t need to.
Her mates must have been in tune to what was happening to her and she felt their phantom touch as if they were actually surrounding her and caressing her naked body. She wanted to tell them to stop so she wouldn’t give their men a show, but she needed their hands on her more than she cared about making a fool of herself.