by Ann Mayburn
“I will give you the orgasm you want,” Chel murmured to their bride, “but only when Gwarnon’s thick shaft is stretching your sweet little bottom, my alyah. Push back, take him, and you will have your reward.”
Gwarnon could only pray he lasted long enough to please his bride as he held his shaft with one hand, her hip with the other, and Lacey slowly pressed back. She hesitated as the crest of his shaft stretched her, then moaned low in her throat as the telltale tremble began to go through her thighs. Taking over, Gwarnon slid in slowly, pausing only when she began to climax. His erection throbbed as he slid in deeper, her body stretching around him, flexing and clenching in a way that had him groaning in pleasure.
Chel sent him a mental message, and they both helped lift Lacey so Chel could be inside of her as well. Gwarnon shut both of them out of his mind, all of his attention devoted to the unbelievably good feeling of his bride taking both of them at once. Chel’s cock rubbed along his own, the thin skin doing nothing to dull the sensation. Reaching out, Gwarnon began to stroke his way up Lacey’s ribcage, leaning forward so he could toy with her ridged nipple.
Giving an experimental wiggle, Lacey groaned deep in her throat. “That’s good…that’s so good. More.”
They obliged their alyah, moving in tandem as they stroked in and out of her body, the musk of their combined scents filling the air.
Their pace began to pick up, Lacey stiffening as orgasm after orgasm rocketed through her. Opening the bond a little, Gwarnon reveled in the pleasure they were giving her, and savage male pride had him gritting his teeth and thrusting harder, determined to take her over the edge one more time. He could feel how much Chel needed to climax, how he was fighting it like Gwarnon, not wanting their pleasure to end.
Lacey was incoherent at this point, her hands gripped into fists in the bedding next to Chel’s head, her eyes closed and her cheeks flushed bright pink. As he watched, she gasped, then bit down on Chel’s shoulder, hard enough to make his blood brother start to orgasm. Vibrations filled Chel’s cock, the pleasure he was experiencing exploding through their bond, mixing with Gwarnon’s as the first burning pulse of his release surged out of his body. Gripping Lacey’s hips, both Gwarnon and Chel roared, her ragged scream mixing with theirs as the shuttled in and out of her, their swollen cocks making it hard to move in her tight, gripping passage.
Gwarnon managed to pull out before he collapsed. His still hard and glistening cock jerked in the air to the beat of his heart, while Lacey had one last orgasm, her breasts thrust out and back arched as she rode a gasping Chel to completion. When the last wave left her, she fell forward, her eyes rolling back into her head.
“Lord’s Balls,” Gwarnon said as he caught her, easing her off Chel as she smiled. “Is she all right?”
Lacey reached out, grabbing at Gwarnon, “Shhh, cuddle, sleep.”
The men shared a smile and Gwarnon cleaned both himself and his alyah before they did just that.
Tangled up in Chel’s arms, Gwarnon woke with a start, a burst of pain and fear coming through his bond like a strong mental slap.
Chel let out a shout in his sleep and woke up with a start, both men staring at each other in confusion.
Almost as one, their eyes widened as they both said, “Lacey.”
“Where is she?” Gwarnon asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
“I cannot reach her through her implant, or she is not responding.” Leaping from the bed, Chel tossed him a pair of pants as he said, “I have scanned the ship, but there is no sign of her.”
Gwarnon hurriedly got dressed, feeling as if he’d woken to a nightmare. “I can sense her faintly nearby, but her implant has been set to not receive any outside communication.”
“Her side of the bond is…bleary somehow? Like it is being masked,” Chel said as his gaze went distant. “Recordings show that Lacey left our room an hour ago and programmed a transport pod for the Baladium,” his lip lifted in a snarl, “and the recording ends.”
Disbelief roared through Gwarnon, loosening the cage of his soul around the beast bound to his heart. He let out a wordless roar, his rage all consuming, his soul screaming for his bondmate. Faintly, ever so faintly, he felt the answering ping of his alyah’s soul, but it was far away and growing further by the moment.
A deadly silence filled the room as Chel and Gwarnon mentally worked together, trying to locate Lacey, but to no avail. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a piece of paper that had been pinned to the door. His heart sank as he read the words, trying to understand what they were saying. The note was brief, and it simply said that Lacey was returning to Earth with the young Earth girl she’d ‘won’ from the Baladium.
Both Chel and Gwarnon let out pain-filled roars, their hearts shattering in unison at her rejection. Clinging to his blood brother, Gwarnon let loose the tears of absolute despair, his soul weakening, the beast within him stirring and testing the strength of the bonds holding it back. Chel’s love tried to help heal him, but it was a drop in an ocean of need.
“Why?” Gwarnon whispered against his blood brother’s damp neck. “Why would she leave us? I know she loves us. I know she intended to bond with us. Why would she abandon us now? Her note makes no sense.”
“Lady Roxy might know,” Chel said suddenly.
Together, they raced through their ship, passing their grim faced crew members who whispered promises of aid in finding Lacey.
After the door to Roxy’s room opened, they rushed inside as Gwarnon prayed that Roxy knew something about Lacey’s disappearance.
“Oh my God,” Roxy gasped and reached out to touch Chel with a concerned look on her narrow face. “What’s wrong?”
“Lacey is gone,” Gwarnon roared, then tempered his tone when Roxy flinched. “We think she left on the speed craft bound for Earth. The one with the young Earth girl from the Baladium that was being returned to her family.”
“What happened?” Nosa asked, his long black hair falling over his bare chest as he tugged on some pants.
Gwarnon threw his hands into the air, adrenaline, grief, and his inner beast tearing at his self-control. “I do not know. We made love then fell asleep. When I woke, Lacey was gone! She left us a brief note apologizing and insisting she wasn’t our true bride. Why would she do that?! Why would she leave us?!”
The last word came out in something close to a roar, and Nosa and Cormac reacted at once. While Cormac shielded their Matriarch, Nosa roared and leapt at Gwarnon with surprising speed and pinned him to the ground. Chel released a low moan of despair, but he helped Nosa subdue Gwarnon as he trembled, the beast using his pain and fear to gain hold over his mind.
“Do not give in to the madness!” Chel pleaded with him. “Hold on, please.”
“Why? Why should I hold on? She rejected us. Our bride left us. I cannot even feel her anymore.” His grief choked his voice. “She does not love us.”
“Yes, she does. Do not give up,” Chel urged. “Please, my brother, my beloved, do not leave me.”
“Then why would she abandon us? We were to be bonded today!”
From the shelter of her husband’s arms, Roxy yelled, “She does love you, but she is a mother. She loves her daughter more, and she knows she needs her.”
Shock filled Gwarnon as all the extra puzzle pieces began to fall into place in his mind. “What did you just say?”
“Lacey—she has a daughter. I think Lacey probably returned to Earth to get her little girl.”
Chel slumped against the wall, his eyes gone wide. “A daughter? Why would she keep this from us?”
“Seriously?” She poked Cormac, making him move an inch so she could see them better. “You guys have repeatedly told us that no one from Earth can come to Kadothia with us. No one. She didn’t share her plans with me, but I think she didn’t tell you so you wouldn’t try to stop her.”
“I would never separate a mother from her child.” Gwarnon took in a shuddering breath. “I knew she hid something from me, th
at something held her back. I never expected…a daughter? Who is the sire? Why is he not caring for his offspring when her mother is away?”
Roxy shifted away from Cormac with a frown darkening her already deep brown eyes. “The, uh, sire wanted nothing to do with the child, and Lacey hates him.”
Gwarnon, still heady with shock, asked, “Was it the soldier or the boy?”
“The boy.”
“I shall gut him myself,” Gwarnon muttered.
Chel slipped his arm around Gwarnon’s waist, giving him his quiet strength. “But, first, we must find our bride.”
“It won’t be easy,” Roxy warned them as Gwarnon mentally worked on rebuilding the cage that surrounded his inner beast, his madness. “She believes you’ll try to take her daughter away from her. She’ll run, and hide, and do everything in her power to avoid you. I know she doesn’t hate you, and I know she wants to be with you, but her daughter will always come first.”
“As it should be,” Chel said as all the men nodded. “I would expect nothing less from my alyah. But you should have told us. We could have assured you both that children are always allowed to come with their mothers, even from Earth. We are not monsters. We would not force you to leave your offspring behind.”
“But you do force us to leave everyone else we love, so how could Lacey have guessed that?”
All four men looked guilty as Nosa said, “You are right. Earth Matriarchs make an enormous sacrifice by agreeing to be our bondmates. Even acknowledging that, we cannot go against the galactic protocols. Imagine if we allowed brides to bring their families with them? How big of an impact would it have on your world, to have hundreds of millions of people suddenly vanish? It could devastate your planet.”
“I know. Logically, I understand, but I won’t lie and pretend the thought of never seeing my family—of them never knowing our children—doesn’t make me terribly sad.”
Gwarnon leaned closer so he could whisper to Chel, “We have a daughter.”
Blinking at him, Chel’s smile was tentative, his eyes still wet with tears. “We do. But Lacey still left us.”
Shaking his head, he whispered, “It does not make any sense. Lacey’s crystal implant must have let her know that children are always welcome to come with the mother. That we consider them our children as well.”
Chel laced his fingers together with Gwarnon’s, his worry scratching along their bond. “But she didn’t have that crystal implant until recently. Her reluctance to bond makes sense now, as does the odd sadness that always seemed to shadow her heart. I cannot believe we were so oblivious.”
“She hid it from us well,” Gwarnon felt a bit of pride stirring in his chest, pushing back the darkness in his heart. “A true Warrior, she did whatever she could to protect her child.”
Chel touched his forehead to Gwarnon’s for a moment, his sigh heavy. “We really, as Lady Casey likes to say, screwed the pooch on this one.”
“If that means we made grave mistakes, you are correct. But now is not the time to review the past, as the future needs our focus. We must find Lacey before she goes through the wormhole. Contact the Baladium and ask them what type of ship they are using, and for a tracking number. While I hope they will stop at the Kadothian wormhole station and await a transfer, I doubt Lacey will want to go through official channels. She will want to use a smuggler to get her through. I will start checking with my sources to see if she contacted any of them.”
Looking over his shoulder to find an anxious Roxy watching them, Gwarnon said, “We are going after her, and we beg you for your help.”
Chapter 9
Lacey
Her forehead itched, a little piece of hair swaying back and forth, just enough to irritate. Thickness filled her thoughts, the drugging lure of sleep begging her to return to her inert state. She was tired, so very tired. Surely she could rest just a little longer.
Except that damn hair kept tickling her skin.
And her mind kept sending electrical impulses to her hand, which twitched, but didn’t move from her side.
Frowning, she struggled to open her uncooperative eyelids.
A blurry, unfamiliar room came into sight, and she wrenched her head to the side, forcing her stiff neck muscles to move. Sloped, deep blue walls that had an odd pearlescent sheen made up a small room that reminded her of the command center on Gwarnon’s ship. Immediately, her heart began to hammer in her chest as she sucked in a quick breath. Gwarnon’s ship. She should still be on it.
While she was alone in the room, she was also bound to a comfortable black chair wearing a loose fitting washed out lime green dress that had slits up the sides and long sleeves that draped down over her hands.
The fabric protected her wrists from harm as she struggled with her bonds, unable to see what held her.
Tears burned as she wondered if she’d been kidnapped again. The last thing she’d remembered was falling asleep with Gwarnon and Chel, the silken cradle of their long hair covering her body like the softest blanket she’d ever felt. Then the door had chimed, but the men hadn’t woken up. Figuring they were exhausted, she answered it to find Orushel and a Kadothian male she didn’t recognize with red and purple streaked hair standing there.
Then…nothing.
A change in air pressure was the only warning she got before the man with the short red and purple spiked hair strode into the room. His pale gold skin caught the light with a pretty luminescence the women of Earth would have paid a fortune to achieve. She braced herself, waiting to hear what ill fate had befallen her. Was she kidnapped by a slaver again? Someone who’d want to hold her for ransom? Or some other incredibly terrible fate that she couldn’t even imagine.
Her heart stuttered as he frowned at her, his silver and green eyes glinting oddly. “Do not be afraid, Lady Lacey. I mean you no harm. My name is Wythe mal’Trien. My Matriarch sent me to rescue you.”
“Rescue me? From what?” She struggled at her bonds. “You didn’t rescue me, you kidnapped me!”
“I’m afraid I had to. It is the best way to protect you and your mates.” He tilted his head to the side, a small smile crinkling the corner of his mouth. “The resemblance between you and your mother and daughter are strong.”
Panic seared her from the inside out, and she bared her teeth as she snarled, “How do you know about my mom and daughter?”
He raised his large hands, his whole posture softening. “Easy, my Lady. You have nothing to fear. I serve your mother, Lady Tara Taylor. She is my Matriarch.”
The bottom of her stomach dropped out, and Lacey had to swallow the saliva suddenly filling her mouth. “Say what?”
“I serve your mother as one of her personal bodyguards and head of her household guard on Kadothia. Your mother is bonded to two fine Kadothian Warriors, and together they rule a large and profitable Territory in the Cliffs of Goeth Region.” His firm lips quirked, and a dimple appeared in his cheek. “Though, do not tell her that. She does not like being referred to as a ruler. She insists she was born with a tin spoon, not a silver one, in her mouth.”
Choking on her laughter through her tears, Lacey nodded. “Yep, that sounds like my mom.”
Hesitantly moving a little closer, Wythe gave her a weary look before he said, “If I release you, do you promise not to attack me? Lady Tara said you would attempt to pummel my buttocks into next week.”
An edge of hysteria colored her giggles as she said, “I think you mean ‘kick your ass into next week’.”
“Yes, that is it. Will you promise not to attack me?”
“Prove to me that my mom sent you.”
He smiled, his sharp jawline becoming even more defined. “Of course. She left a message for you.”
Wythe gestured to the far wall and Lacey began to cry as her mother, looking like a woman who was barely thirty instead of forty-four, and dressed like some lavish sci-fi Queen, assured Lacey that she was okay. Tara went on to explain that, before Lacey was abducted, Phin and Karwin, two Kadoth
ian Warriors, had begun to court Tara back on Earth. She didn’t go into a lot of detail, but Lacey let out a heartbroken sob as Jillian joined her grandmother on the big screen, her normally bouncy curls dyed a soft baby pink that set off her sparkling brown eyes. She wore a lovely yellow and orange dress and had some kind of furry white and blue animal that resembled a squirrel and a rabbit held in her arms.
“Mommy!” Jillian shouted, holding her pet toward the camera. “I got a mellopper, and his name is Daniel, and he’s six months old. He’s tiny now, but like me, he’s gonna get big. Someday he’ll be big enough that I can ride him like a horse!”
For the next five minutes Jillian talked in a non-stop stream, filling Lacey in on all the things she’d missed. While being away from her baby sucked, Jillian would always leave her video messages in her email telling her mom about every aspect of her day. When Lacey was deployed, she’d lived for those messages from her daughter, and Lacey loved to record them. She was a bit of a ham, and very talkative.
Tara gave the camera a wry smile before she kissed the top of Jillian’s head and cut off her stream of chatter by saying, “Why don’t you take Daniel back to his Mommy, sweetheart? I bet he’s getting hungry.”
“Okay,” Jillian chirped before turning the full power of her adorable smile on the camera. “I miss you, Mommy. Please come home soon, okay?”
As Jillian scampered off screen, Tara watched her go with a fond smile before turning back to the screen. “There is much I cannot tell you right now, my love, but you can trust Wythe. We need to get you home to Kadothia as quickly as possible. Please don’t fight him, even if he can be a bit of a know-it-all and Mr. Bossy Britches. Reminds me of old man Evans down at the mechanic’s shop. He’s a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t take my car anywhere else.” Her mom’s now unlined and bright eyes began to fill with tears. “I have been so worried about you, Lacey. I love you so, so much, baby. I’ll see you soon.”