by Renee Rose
Her body rocks, her back bows. She gasps as I rock into her again, a gush of heat coating me and making me groan.
“I’m yours.” Her voice is hoarse but filled with intent certainty. “I’m yours.”
At her words, my invisible tether snaps. I pound into her cunt until she tightens, spasming around me. I ignoring the tightening of my groin. The hardening throb of my knot grows, pushing against her clenching channel, and I ride her still.
Reaching between her legs, I find her bundle of nerves and grind it between two knuckles.
Ecstasy. Pain. She crests again, her mouth opens on a silent cry, no sound leaving her, until she’s gasping for breath.
I wrap myself around her, groaning into her neck. My cock pulls tight as my knot grows so large I can do no more than jerk inside her as my essence gusts out of me in burning torrents.
Her body shakes uncontrollably under mine.
I smile into her neck.
She quakes.
Reaching down, I unclasp her wrists from her knees and turn her, wanting to feel her soft hands on my skin. Still buried deep inside her, I lift her leg. I pivot her around. She groans and giggles at my maneuvering and my eyes squeeze shut, more essence pouring from me as her internal muscles ripple around me.
I nearly sigh when she wraps her arms around me, her hands stroking my shoulders, my back.
Clutching her to my chest, I roll with her onto my back. She moves her hands to my chest, tracing along my skin there, her eyes closed.
I brush the hair off her face, twining my fingers in the silky tresses, glorying in her flushed glow.
Never, never will I let her go.
Never will I let you go, either, she replies in my mind, reminding me how deeply we are connected.
Taking my hand, she kisses my palm. She entwines her little hand with mine and places them over my heart with a contented sigh.
Affection.
It fills my chest.
It aches.
It tears off me with jagged edges, untried and awkward.
Hers rolls over me and smooths it all out.
Chapter Ten
ALLYSON
“Is this a bad time to tell you I am awake and now stiffer than a hadir horn?” Kein complains from the hover pad across the space, his voice hoarse and groggy.
Cal’s chest rumbles on a chuckle under my cheek, where I’ve been contently resting. I’ve never heard him laugh. It sounds rusty and stilted and wonderful.
“You deserve it, after getting yourself blown up.” Cal’s words are mocking but his voice is gruff.
I whine as he eases away from me and stands. He shrugs on pants before padding over to his brother, running the medical scanner over him, and disengaging the table’s restraints.
Cal grumbles, giving me a side look as I clean myself and put on his discarded shirt. I’m not sure if he protests me cleaning myself or covering up.
He steps over to the control panel and it lights up as he starts bringing up maps of planets and solar systems that hover in the air and turn this way and that, disappearing and reappearing as new maps and unrecognizable symbols as he presses here and there.
On shaky legs, I walk over to Kein. He tries to push himself up. I put a staying hand on his shoulder. “Nu-uh, big guy. No getting up yet.”
In protest, he wraps an arm around my waist, pulling me in, seeming just to need me near. I take comfort and give it. He nearly gave his life protecting me. I shudder to think how close he came to death.
When Cal came for us, Kein had been ashen and lifeless. It had reminded me of my parents at their wake. Their waxy eyelids and lax lips sewn shut. I grip Kein tighter.
Running my hands through his hair, I get my first good look at his back and gasp in surprise. “You’re nearly healed.”
Where Cal has cut him open is already a sealed shut, a thin white scar down his back the only reminder. I trail my fingers over the new shiny pale pink skin that had been a charred mess.
“When functioning correctly, we are capable of regenerating things like skin very easily.”
“Is there anything the Monrok cannot do?”
“We can bring life, but we cannot deliver it.” He places his hand over my lower belly, his gaze tender, and I wonder again if I’m pregnant.
My heart speeds and my stomach twists with a bit of panic and something that couldn’t possibly be jubilation. I startle when Cal presses himself to my back. Resting his hands proprietarily on my hips, he buries his face in my neck. I jump when he nips me.
Despite our recent intimacy, his casual liberties make me feel a bit off kilter and untried. My pulse still dances a giddy beat at his attention.
“You are upsetting our female,” Cal complains.
“I believe she just realized she is with child.”
“She did not know?”
“I did not realize she had to be told.”
Heat races up my neck covering my face. I guess I was the last to know. “Can you both stop talking about me like I’m not here?”
“We spoke in your language,” Cal says as if that should make it all better.
“Now it is you who is upsetting our female,” Kein grumbles as he weakly pushes himself up off the pad. I notice though his color is better, he’s still leaning heavily against it as if to steady himself.
“Should you be up?”
“I care not to lie around like an invalid.”
Shaking my head, I frown up at him. Stubborn male is truly a universal thing.
A series of thumps at the windshield and above us makes me jump and Kein groan. Those damn gremlins are jumping onto the shuttle, but it must have a force field around it because they are being flung back. Their chortling and growling is faint from inside the shuttle, but it’s an all too familiar sound.
Kein swipes a hand down his face, grimacing. “Let us be off this fucking planet, already.”
Wide, full back hover seats rise from the floor much like they did in our last shuttle. Kein plops down heavily in one. Cal pulls me onto his lap as he sits in the other. Kein automatically takes my hand, twining our fingers.
The shuttle shifts leaving the ground, and I clutch onto Cal’s arm and Kein’s hand. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere much preferable to here.”
Before I can react to Cal’s non answer, we shoot up into the sky. My breath rushes out of me so quickly, I cannot breathe to scream.
There is no shaking or rocking or turbulence. We just ascend like a shot, cutting through clouds and sky until we break through the atmosphere, into the constant night sky of space.
The pressure changes. Lightens. And I can breathe once more. I gasp for breath, heart hammering. I relax my grip on the guys, noticing my nails have left half-moons on Cal’s arm.
“Taking off from another planet is nothing like landing.”
“I would have let you sit on my lap again, instead. You had but to ask.” Kein wears a suggestive smirk. He brings my fist to his lips, gently kissing my knuckles.
The move is so innocent, but not.
My face warms as heat spirals through me and Cal gazes down at me with interest. “There can be no mating until we land at our destination.” My face warms at the reprimand, even if Cal aimed it at his brother. “We must be on guard. We do not yet know how far word of our rebellion has spread.”
“Likely the Zapex does not want word to get out.”
Cal nods once. “That is why we sent a message to the Galactic Unity informing them we have taken our independence and asking for clemency and sanctuary.”
“We have asked to be under the Treaty?” I have no idea what the Galactic Unity or the Treaty is, this is but, judging by his reverent tone and Cal’s solemn nod, this is a big deal.
Cal looks like he’s going to add to whatever he was saying but falls silent.
“Kaihan?” Kein asks.
“Terminated and dismembered.” I gasp at this, but when I think of all Kaihan had done to these men and had pla
nned for the humans, I suppose he deserved that end. “The vessel is being disassembled for parts.”
“Tracker sensors?”
“Destroyed,” Cal answers. “Her translator?”
Kein nods and I finger my scar at my temple.
They go on like this with their one worded volley of a conversation that speaks of their lifetime together. I try to follow, but my mind wanders and I tune out both men, staring out at space. There are no planets or moons in front of us, only stars and dark never-ending sky.
Things get quiet, and my thoughts turn inward. I find myself in the most bizarrely unorthodox relationship I’ve ever been in. I’m being shared by two men and I honestly care for both of them, despite their peculiarities. Or maybe because of them.
My face heats as I think of their sexually domineering proclivities. They are as gently affectionate as they are hard and demanding. Kein absentmindedly plays with my fingers, rubs strands of my hair between his digits. Cal’s possessive hand on my lower abdomen reminds me I’m having their baby.
For a moment, I ponder whose sperm found the egg, but I doubt they’ll discriminate based on who biologically fathered the child. To them, they are one part of a whole, and I guess I’m part of that whole, too? The desire to claim us as a family grips me.
Whisper-thin threads of hope weave through my head, teasing me with idea I can choose love and happiness. That’s it’s right in front of me. I’ve been on my own for so long, can I let myself take it?
I realize while I was content with my life, I never let anyone in. No one loved me because I would not let them, too afraid I’d love them back and then lose them, like I did my parents.
I’m not sure if Cal and Kein love me, but no man has ever made me feel as much as these two. Every moment together they’ve shown me attention and care for my well-being.
Is it only because they’ve claimed me as their mate? Nervous butterflies flutter in my belly. Maybe all their attention is due to my newness.
Lost in my own world, I think nothing of the men’s silence until Kein gives Cal a sharp look before shifting his gaze away, as if they are communicating. Then I recall Cal answering my thoughts.
They are having a conversation.
Part of me feels excluded, but they’ve also been on their own for a long time. Much longer than I have been with them. Talking to each other this way is probably second nature.
Concentrating on both of them, I ask, Can we talk? I have a question burning in my gut that makes me cringe just to think it.
Startled, both men stare at me.
You can mind speak? Can you hear me? Kein asks.
“Of course I can hear you.”
Kein and Cal share a look over my head. They are so identical but different to me in many ways.
“I think it is the babe that makes it so,” Cal says, obviously answering some unasked question from Kein, and I wonder if he may be right.
But how can both of them hear me then? We won’t know for sure for nine months.
“We will not know until it is born.” Kein takes the thought right out of my head.
“Should we try to communicate with it?” Cal asks.
Kein shakes his head. “It is yet developed.”
“It is half Monrok.”
“Yet without cybernetics.”
“That does not mean the embryo will not have advances to that of an archetypal human fetus,” Cal argues arrogantly.
Exasperated, I roll my eyes. It may be a while before they learn not to talk about me like I’m not here. Even longer before they remember to include me in their conversations.
“Doubtlessly, the Zapex ensured so,” Kein continues as if in thought. “It is likely she carries twins.”
“With our essence, it is likely she carries more.”
“Hey.” I wave a hand putting a halt to their conversation. “Remember me?” I’m still wrapping head around one baby. “I have something I need to discuss with you. With both of you.”
With their full attention on me, I’m nervous and tongue-tied. “Uh, this thing between us…it’s really new. And when things are new, people are happy.” Their eyebrows go up like they’re wondering where I’m going with this, but they remain silent and let me talk. “I’m your mate now?”
They nod.
“Well, I think that’s kind of like marriage on Earth. And, on Earth, sometimes that newness wears off. And the people get tired of each other and they get a divorce. But we’re not on Earth, we’re in space.” I’m rambling now, and I break into a light sweat, so I just blurt it out. “What happens when you tire of me?”
Kein’s face draws into a questioning frown. “Why should we ever tire of you?”
Cal scowls down on me and shakes his head. “I do not understand this. You are our mate. Our lives are unsure, but we will do all we can to protect you and our young. This we will not tire of.”
What he says simplifies everything, and I’m not sure they understand my concern. “I know you both will protect me. What about love?” With trepidation and my heart on my sleeve, I ask, “Do you think you will love me?”
Cal face registers surprise. Grabbing my hand, he brings it to his chest. “We can sense your affection; can you not feel ours? I ache with my affection for you.”
Kein cups my face and leans down until his forehead rests on mine. “We want something of the lives that were taken from us. You, my zepka, are our joy. If this is love, we have it.”
My heart swells with their words, quelling all the worries I was letting eat at me. Nothing is certain in our lives. That I can’t change, but I can have happiness and a family for as long as we’re able. But, I know in my heart, come what may, we are a family and will always have each other.
Cal’s heart beats at my back and Kein’s at my front, and I do feel their love. I’m surrounded with it. I bite my lip wondering how set Cal is on keeping that no “mating” rule. My hands wander over two sets of masculine thighs.
Kein smiles wickedly. Cal pulls me back by my hair. “Behave, my little human,” he breathes at my lips. There’s a gleam in his eyes begging me to step out of line so we may both enjoy the consequences.
I was always such a good child. I think I’m going to enjoy misbehaving.
Chapter Eleven
One Month Later
On my knees, I wait in anticipation. The leather strip bites across my ass again, and my sex clenches. I struggle to keep my jaw relaxed around Kein, who fills my mouth.
We’ve been on Kadeema for a few weeks and the Monrok across the globe now have sensors in place alerting us all if anyone enters our airspace.
I was not to venture out until the sensors were in place, especially not on my own. But I had wanted the blankets and furs, so I went to Hannah’s shuttle-hut to retrieve them. She is the woman who was crying in the shuttle bay the night of our escape. Her mates, Situs and Jual are the unofficial leather tanners of our little Monrok community, and the makers of the wonderful bedding we’re enjoying, at this moment.
My men were not happy when they discovered I snuck out, but I knew they wouldn’t be. That’s why I did it. I’m now kneeling on to take my punishment I’ve been looking forward to. The heady scent of my new coverings fills my senses even as Cal’s new strip of leather scorches over my upturned flesh.
I cry out around Kein’s cock.
“Careful not to bite, zepka.”
I suck greedily until he groans low in his throat, moisture spilling from me on the next strike across my ass. He scoops my hair out of my face to see my expression and guide my movements.
“I think we make your punishments too enjoyable, my Allyson,” Cal says. There is smile in his voice, and I know he finds them as pleasurable as I.
Cal drops down behind me and I still at the feel of his hard body near mine. He palms my welted ass before his hand cracks down. Tears sting my eyes, and I jerk and struggle over Kein’s cock. He holds me in place, chuckling. The stark new pain, along with the reminder of my immobili
ty, makes my clit pulse in need.
The men have to work in shifts to guard and dig safety tunnels. One or the other keeps me with him at all times. This is the first time the three of have been able to be together intimately since we landed, and I think I know what they have planned. Both men have been preparing me. Stretching me.
A familiar scent fills the air as Kein glides me slowly up and down his length. Nhu oil from the bak.
“Have you been longing for this as I have?” Cal’s voice a dark taunt, his hands pull my tender bottom cheeks apart, exposing me. Oiled fingers circle. Retreat.
I tremble with nerves even as I ache with anticipation. I have longed for this. To have them both filling me again.
Kein swells under my tongue and I suck harder, knowing he’s close. He pulls me up by my hair, tsking. “It is my mouth that will make you spill this time, little one.” His hands go to my sides, lifting me up his chest as he lies back, until I straddle his shoulders.
Cal’s hands between my shoulder blades push me down, even as Kein scoots me forward until my sex is against his mouth. His tongue laps at me as I’m once again spread apart. Fingers circle my nether hole, and push in before retreating. A little at a time, I’m stretched. Worked over, while my mind numbs from the pressure building in my clit.
Kein sucks and nibbles at me everywhere but there, keeping me strung tight on the edge.
“Please,” I beg.
“Please, what?” Cal asks.
“I need you,” I pant. “I need you both. Inside me.”
Cal’s cock leaves a hot sticky trail over my thigh as he pulls me back. My sex feels bereft at the loss of Kein’s warm mouth. A hollow ache has taken hold. Needing to be filled.
Kein holds his cock upright as Cal lowers me over him. Once he’s lodged just inside me, he takes my hips slamming himself home inside me. On a breathless cry, I grind down on him, so close to orgasm. My internal muscles twitch, almost there.
“Not yet.” Cal lifts me up. I cry out, losing my completion even as he pushes me down over his brother’s hard chest and lifts my ass in the air. His slicked cock easily glides into my wet core with a teasingly slow stroke. “Naughty mates must wait for their pleasure.”