Suddenly the pod shifted, and he caught her as she was knocked off her feet. Geoff grabbed her arm to help steady her.
“We should strap in,” Krig said. “If this pod gets swept away we could be in for a disastrous tumble.”
“Right,” Geoff muttered as he helped Keirah to a chair. Before he strapped in, however, he grabbed hold of Krig’s arm. “Thank you. You probably saved my life.”
“I did save your life,” Krig agreed.
“Why? If you’d let me die, you could’ve had her all to yourself.”
“She would’ve mourned you, and I’m not very good at comfort.” He shrugged. “As much as I hate to admit it, there are things you can give her that I can’t.”
He and Geoff stared at one another and then Geoff nodded, and it seemed to Keirah something monumental had just transpired. She could feel the shift between them, although she wasn’t quite sure what that shift was.
“Hello,” Keirah said. “I’m right here.”
The pod shifted again, this time sliding further. Geoff sat down, and all three buckled their safety harnesses, and as soon as they were secure the pod rolled. Keirah screamed as they were turned into a giant pinball game, hitting rocks and trees as the heavy rain water washed them down the hill. And just when she thought she was going to throw up, they stopped. They were sideways, but they stopped.
“Holy shit!” Geoff muttered. “Everyone all right?”
“Yes,” Krig replied.
“Just ducky,” she muttered.
Krig reached over the console and hit a few buttons and then banged heavily on it. “Damn. We lost all power. We’ll wait this out and then have to do another perimeter sweep to see where the hell we are.”
He put a hand to his head, scowling.
“You need to rest.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” she argued. “Just shut up and let’s get you comfortable. There’s nothing to do but wait out the rain anyway.”
It was a point he couldn’t much argue with. They broke the bunks down and rearranged them on the floor, and Krig lay down. Although he closed his eyes, Keirah knew he wasn’t asleep, but she took the time anyway to study him. She still felt guilty over kissing him, over wanting him, but she couldn’t help her attraction. She’d never felt like this over anyone else, and she certainly didn’t feel like this over any other Alphan male.
“Hey,” Geoff shook her sometime later. She blinked and realized she must have dozed off. He stood over her, dressed, although his clothes were beyond wrinkled. “The rain stopped, so I’m going to have a look around.”
“No, it’s too dangerous. We don’t know where that landslide took us.”
“I’ll be fine,” he assured her. “I have my blaster plus … I’ll probably just stay outside the door. I think it’s time, Keirah.”
“Time? For what?”
He nodded toward Krig, who still lay on the rearranged bunk. “It’s time you mated with him.”
“Geoff! We’re in a life pod on a freaking weird moon and you want me to have sex with him?”
He took hold of her shoulders in a gentle, yet firm, grip and looked deep into her eyes. “Anything could happen on this moon, as we’ve learned, so we need to make sure you belong with him in every way. He and I … we’ve come to understand one another.”
“That’s wonderful,” she muttered. “Super. Go team us.”
He frowned at her before bending down and kissing her forehead. She closed her eyes and leaned into his body. God, she loved him. How could she do this? What if it tore them apart? What if he couldn’t deal and left her? She might care for Krig, but she was in love with Geoff.
But he didn’t really give her much choice because he pushed her away, pushed her toward the sleeping Alphan male, and exited through the hatch. She wanted to cry, but her body was too turned on because as much as she was afraid that mating with Krig might ruin her relationship, the reality was her body was primed and ready for the Alphan. Her pussy was swollen and wet and screaming please at her.
“Keirah,” Krig said in his deep, mesmerizing voice. She closed her eyes and savored her name on his lips. “Come over here, Keirah.”
She turned at looked at him and knew. Yes. It was time.
Chapter Nine
As soon as she reached him, Krig slid a hand under her curls to wrap around her nape and guide her mouth to his. Gravity helped as he gave a gentle tug and sent her sprawling upon his body. His mouth covered hers, his tongue gliding along her bottom lip for the barest moment before she opened, inviting him inside. Her taste was like the sweetest nectar he’d ever tasted, so potent his shaft grew hard and his fangs came down.
She jerked back for a second and stared at him in shock, so he slowly revealed them. She trembled in his arms, and for a moment he thought she was scared. But much to his surprise she leaned down and let her tongue scrape against the sharp point. He held very still, not wanting to hurt her. When he bit her it would be as he was coming in her hot core, pouring his essence into her just as her blood poured into his mouth. The exchange of fluids would mark her, scent her, proclaiming to all he was her mate. He took a deep breath, and slowly, the fangs retracted.
“What else turns you on?” she asked.
“Everything about you turns me on,” he replied. He took a deep breath and stared at her, his gold eyes liquid pools of lust. “Keirah DeWinter, you are my mine, and I am yours. Do you accept my pledge?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
She pushed to sit up, and he let her. She threw one leg over his body to straddle him, and he liked his position a lot. Most of the time he took a female from behind because there was always something he didn’t like about them. In the past, they were just a way for him to release his pent-up sexual frustration but now … Keirah sat upon him like she was getting ready to ride him. Her hot little quonum was pressed against his aching shaft, and all he wanted to do was tear their clothing off so he could bury himself deep.
But then she touched him, starting with his face to explore every hard angle. He didn’t consider himself that handsome—there were Alphan males far more rugged and appealing—but she seemed fascinated as she ran her finger tips over his skin. His golden tone looked beautiful against her paleness. Lost in his own perusal of her, he didn’t realize she was headed for his horns until she touched them, and then it was like a live wire going off inside his body. He bucked up, smashing his shaft into her, and he let out a strangulated moan at the dual sensation.
“What happened?” she asked a bit breathlessly.
“My horns are, ah, a bit sensitive during the mating bond,” he muttered.
“Oh. A pleasure spot, eh? What can I do to them?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can I touch them? Lick them?”
He almost came in his pants from the innocent questions. “Yes.”
Then he braced himself as she leaned over him and put her tongue at the base of his right horn. Krig couldn’t help the shudder that rolled through him at the first lick of her sweet little tongue. She really had no idea of the power she had over him, but then he noticed her chest right in his face and figured two could play this game.
Unbuttoning her shirt, he pulled up the tank top under it to free her breasts. They were small and round with rose tipped nipples that were begging to be suckled upon, so he did just that, bringing one ripe berry into his mouth. He became lost feeding upon her, loving how she moaned and writhed against him. She was licking his horns like crazy making him forget everything but his need to be buried inside her. He really wanted this to be a long, drawn out moment, but her hot little body was pushing him quickly past his breaking point.
With a great amount of self-control, he pulled her off him.
“Krig,” she whispered. “I want you so much. Please.”
She reached out to him, and he let her hand begin to undress him. “Keirah, if there is any part of this you don’t want, you have to tell me know.”
<
br /> “Take me, Krig. Make me your mate,” she said. “Fuck my pussy with your big Alphan cock so I come all over it.”
Her dirty talking washed over him and, if possible, made him harder. He felt fluid leaking from the tip as his pants became too uncomfortable.
“Take my clothes off,” he ordered, and she did just that, stripping him bare. When she got her first glimpse of his shaft her eyes went wide, and he noticed her hand couldn’t go all the way around him.
“I don’t know if you’ll fit,” she said.
“Oh, I’ll fit. Your pretty quonum will stretch over me just fine. Now, take me in your mouth. Suck me.”
She leaned down and tentatively licked him, tasting his essence before sliding her mouth over him. He fisted her blonde hair in his hand and began to gently fuck her face, mindful that he was large and her mouth was tiny. The last thing he wanted to do was gag her, but she looked so beautiful with his cock in her mouth that it made him want to fuck her faster. However, it was Keirah who picked up the pace, swallowing as much of him as she could.
But he didn’t want to come in her mouth. He wanted his seed planted firmly inside her when he shot his load so he pulled her back. She let his cock fall out of her mouth with a plop and looked up at him.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured and quickly kissed her. Tasting himself on her tongue only set him off more, and he knew he had to have her. He craved everything about her. “Take off your clothes.”
In seconds she was naked, and he gave himself a moment to feast upon her beauty. Her skin was pale and creamy everywhere, and the curls at the apex of her thighs were only a shade or two darker than the hair on her head. She was his neraezah, his warrior angel.
“Bring your quonum here,” he ordered. “Over my face.”
Her pupils dilated, and he heard her breath catch at his command as she quickly obeyed him. She lowered herself down upon his tongue, and his hands each grabbed an ass cheek, holding her over him as his tongue rasped over her wet slit. Her flavor burst inside his mouth, and once again, his fangs came out. Not wanting to hurt her, he pulled back only far enough to find her clit and suck on it. She gasped and undulated upon his face, causing him to add a little more pressure. That was just what she needed as her climax tore through her body with a shudder.
“Yes!” she cried. “Oh God, yes!”
That was it. He couldn’t take any more. Perhaps if this wasn’t the mating bond, perhaps if he wasn’t so fucking hard, he might be able to play with her more. But he couldn’t. If he didn’t get inside her soon he was going spill, and that wasn’t what he wanted.
He lifted her off him and laid her down upon her back, and she looked up at him with passion-filled blue eyes. She reached for him, but he was beyond being soft and caring. He hurt something fierce, so he spread her thighs and thrust into her quick and hard. Hot tightness immediately gripped him as he buried himself to the hilt.
“Oh shit,” she moaned and arched up. For a second he thought he might have hurt her, but she wrapped herself around him like a vine, clinging to him, and it was all he could do not to spill too quickly. Rearing his hips back, he slammed home once more. She grabbed his ass cheeks as he pushed harder and faster into her. Sweat slicked their bodies as each strained and yearned for the other.
“More!” she cried out. “Give me more!”
His fangs were ready, he was ready, and the rippling of her inner walls around his shaft let him know she was coming. He pumped faster, knowing he worked her clit as she cried out again. And then he was coming, too, and just like that he sank his fangs into the curve of her neck. Her sweet blood burst across his tongue as he drank from her, at the same time his essence was filling her up, making her his. She screamed out in passion and came again, her cream mixing with his cum, bathing her with their combined scent. He poured himself into her until he was utterly drained and he collapsed upon her sweaty body.
“You’re heavy,” she said, and he immediately fell to his side, panting, as he kept her tight to him. The last thing he wanted to do was pull out of her body. His cock had found a home.
He had found a home.
“Mine,” he whispered.
“Yours … and Geoff’s.”
Right. And Geoff.
Chapter Ten
Krig left Keirah sleeping as he rose and dressed. He touched his forehead where the wound had been and discovered that it was gone. Her blood had healed him during the mating ritual. Usually there would be a formal ceremony later, with the right to challenge his claim issued to one and all. But being military he didn’t need the formality, and as far as he was concerned, he and Keirah were united. Right now, though, he had to find Geoff. As much as he loved being with Keirah, as much as he … loved her, something hadn’t seemed quite whole. And that something was Geoff. At the beginning, he’d had some unformulated thought in his mind that Geoff would be this far distant bump in the road that he could avoid, but the truth was he was very much a part of this mating, whether he’d been there or not.
As soon as the hatch opened he saw Geoff sitting on a boulder not too far away. The landslide had rolled them down the hill to land near some type of muddy swamp. Krig looked up, from where they had rolled from and saw a big swath cut into the vegetation. He had wanted the high ground but hadn’t even realized they’d already had it.
Geoff didn’t even glance at him as he settled on the boulder next to him. And for the first time in his life, Krig felt out of control of the situation because he had no idea what Geoff was thinking.
“So … it’s over?”
Krig took a deep breath. “How do I answer that without sounding crass?”
“I think you just did.”
He looked briefly at him, and that’s when Krig noticed Geoff’s swollen eyes. “Your eyes are red.”
“If you make one disparaging remark about being sissy to cry I will beat your ass. Humans have emotions, and yes, sometimes we cry.”
“Alphans have emotions.”
“That’s not what you said a while back.”
“I know what I said a while back. I was … wrong.”
Geoff narrowed his gaze. “Wrong how?”
Krig was silent for a moment as he tried to articulate his thoughts. “My mother died in childbirth when I was thirteen, and I cried for her loss. I cried because I loved her and I was sorry for myself. My father didn’t like my weakness, said I wasn’t Alphan enough, so he beat the love out of me.”
Geoff gasped. “Jesus.”
“I am a strong Alphan warrior,” Krig continued. “I had no room in my life for any other feelings except duty. Until now.”
“Until Keirah? Yeah, I kind of felt the same way when I met her.”
“Geoff, I had this vague notion that you didn’t matter, at least not to me. I wanted Keirah, and you were a nuisance.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“No, hear me out. What I just shared with her was amazing, but it didn’t feel whole.”
Geoff cocked his head. “What do you mean?”
“You were missing.”
For a moment Geoff looked like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing in shock. And then he sputtered and shook his head.
“I’m not gay!”
Krig narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure how you’re using that word. Gay means happy, correct?”
Geoff shook his head. “On Earth it also means preferring men over women.”
“Oh. There is no stigma on Alpha to prefer a male over a female, but I’ve already told you that I’ve never wanted a male lover.”
“Then what did you mean about me being missing?”
“I meant that Keirah isn’t whole unless she has both of us. I’m talking about sharing her.”
Geoff gave a short, bitter laugh. “I thought I already was sharing my wife.”
“I’m saying this wrong,” Krig said. He took a deep breath. “We take her together next time. We both mark her as ours, have our scents mixed.”
“A ménage à trois,” Geoff said. “You fuck her pussy while I fuck her ass.”
Krig grabbed hold of his shirt and yanked him close to snarl in his face. “Respect her, Geoff, or, husband or not, I’ll issue you a challenge in the battle arena.”
“Let me go. And I didn’t mean any disrespect.” Krig let go of him, and Geoff went on. “We talked about it, of course. Keirah is surprisingly kinky. But I never could bear to share her.”
“Share her with me, and not because you have to. Share her with me out of love.”
“You love her?”
Krig nodded. “I do. And she loves you. I understand this. I can accept this, and I hope you can, too.”
They stared at one another until a loud boom shook the grove. Both looked up, and Krig saw a shuttle flying overhead. He jumped to feet.
“That’s a Xyran scout ship.”
“Are you sure?” Geoff asked.
Krig nodded. “Come on. We have to get Keirah up.”
They rushed into the pod, and while Geoff woke Keirah up and explained the Xyran ship, Krig tried to resurrect any power in the pod. Shields would be nice, but no such luck. He reached for the under counter compartment and pulled out the fourth blaster. When he turned around, Keirah was dressed and glanced at him almost shyly. He spared a quick look at Geoff before rising and cupping the back of her head to bring her in for a quick kiss.
“Stay in here and arm yourselves,” he told both of them and then headed toward the hatch.
“Where are you going?” Geoff demanded.
“I’ve got to end this. Keep Keirah safe. That is your mission.”
“No, we stand together,” Geoff said.
“You’re not a warrior. You’ll never last against a Xyran. Like me, they’re trained to fight and kill.”
“We’re family now, Krig. Family sticks together.”
Something inside Krig clenched tightly. “I thought you hated me.”
“I did,” Geoff admitted. “But not anymore. Damn it, you made me respect you.”
He smiled. “I, too, have learned you’re not the puny human male I once thought you were.”
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