As though by a mutual, unspoken decision, I felt both of them speed up. Lucian’s long, slow thrusts became faster and faster and Drace, who was fucking carefully and shallowly into my mouth, became more erratic in his motions.
“Gods, baby,” he moaned, stroking my hair as he watched me suck him. “Your mouth is so sweet. Gonna come soon—can’t help it.”
“I am too,” Lucian groaned. “But I want Rylee to come with us.” I felt one of his big hands slide from my hip down to where we were joined and then long, clever fingers were stroking over my swollen, aching clit. At the same moment, Drace twisted my nipples, pinching and tugging lightly to send lightning bolts of pleasure through my entire body.
I moaned around the thick shaft in my mouth and then I felt the wire that had been twisting tight in my belly snap and my pleasure was flooding me, washing over me in a warm wave that threatened to drown me with its intensity.
“Gods, ma 'frela—I can feel you coming. Coming all around me,” Lucian gasped hoarsely. I felt him swell even bigger within my pussy and then a gush of heat spurted deep inside me bathing my inner channel and the mouth of my womb with his cum.
At the same time, Drace groaned and I felt his shaft swell between my lips. He would have pulled away but I hung on to him. I’d never been much for swallowing before but this time I wanted to. Drawing close to him I took as much of his cock in my mouth as I could and caught the first hot salty spurt of his seed on my tongue.
Drace gave an inarticulate cry and stopped trying to pull away. Instead he held steady and still allowing his cock to spurt in my mouth as Lucian’s erupted deep in my pussy. And through it all my own orgasm seemed to go on and on, a shining river of pure pleasure that I thought would never end.
It did end at last, of course and the three of us collapsed on the bed together in a panting, sweaty, tangled heap. My head was pillowed on Drace’s broad chest and Lucian’s head was nestled in the curve of my waist, right above my hip. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so perfectly good—so at peace. I felt a warm glow of love suffuse me and it seemed to spread to both the guys and then come back to me—a closed loop of adoration and affection that just kept growing and growing until I felt like I was floating on a cushion of pure contentment.
“Well, don’t the three of you make a charming trio?” Looking up, I saw Mandrex standing over us. There was an unreadable look on his dark face and he had one hand in his pocket. “Are you certain,” he said, speaking to all of us. “Truly certain that you will be able to bear to sever the bond between you? You look so satisfied…so right together.”
There was a wistfulness in his deep voice that almost made me feel sorry for him. I wondered what had happened to him to make him choose the life of an exile so far from his home planet.
Drace, however, clearly didn’t share my sympathy for the eccentric Cantor.
“You got what you wanted,” he growled. “We did everything you asked—answering questions wasn’t part of the bargain.”
“My bond-mate is right,” Lucian said, sitting up and tucking his shaft back into his trousers. “We have given in to your demands. I would ask that you honor your part of the bargain.”
“Very well—if you still want to use the Key to be free of each other, it is yours to use.”
Mandrex pulled his hand out of his pocket and held out the strange triangular stone with its orange and blue markings.
I reached for it but he pulled it back, shaking his head.
“Wait—I have only one stipulation. When your quest is completed I want the three of you—all three of you—to return it to me.”
Lucian frowned. “Why do you specifically want all three of us? We’ll be separated at the end of this.”
“So you say but I want to see it for myself.” Mandrex looked at us thoughtfully. “I want to see the end of this story.”
Drace and Lucian exchanged a glance and then both of them looked at me.
I shrugged. “Why not?”
“Sure, I guess,” Drace said.
“Very well—it’s agreed.” Lucian held out his hand. “The three of us will return to give you back the Key. And our thanks for the loan of it.”
“Very well.” But it was to me that the fallen angel handed the stone. “Use it well…if you really think you want to, little Pure One,” he murmured. Then he turned away and left the room with a rustle of his tall, black wings.
I watched him go, safe between my two guys, and wondered what he had meant…and what he knew that I didn’t.
Chapter Twenty-one
Drace
“All right—we have the Key. Now what?” I said, looking down at the fist-sized chunk of triangular rock in Rylee’s palm.
We were back aboard Lucian’s ship, lounging in the master sleeping chamber in our sleep clothes, thank the Goddess. One more night in that fucking Y’brith…one more crazy encounter with another rich asshole…or even just another run in with my bond-mate’s parents and I might have lost it.
“You’re the one who said we needed to go to the jungle next—to K’drin,” Lucian pointed out mildly.
I looked at him speculatively but there was no anger in his words. We were getting along a hell of a lot better since we’d “literally kissed and made up” as Rylee put it. I didn’t know about that but I did know that sharing our female sexually had put paid to any bad feelings that had been between me and my bond-mate. Part of that was probably due to Rylee’s La-ti-zal power of binding but part was just that I felt closer to Lucian now that I understood more of his background.
I still couldn’t get over the fact that his parents had forbidden him to find a mate and a female because none of the Betas he’d found were good enough for them. It’s one thing to try and guide your child’s future but it’s something else to forbid them to have one just because they might choose someone you disapprove of. That was fucking cold hearted as far as I was concerned.
Of course, it wasn’t like my family would approve either, if they knew about Lucian and me. I felt a twinge of unease when I thought about that. We were going to be near my home village of Renth on the edge of K’drin Jungle—I would have to be damn careful not to run into anyone I knew.
I felt a little guilty about wanting to hide my bonding status from my family. But I told myself that Lucian had wanted to hide it from his family too—hell, any red blooded Alpha would. So he couldn’t blame me.
“Drace?” Rylee said, snapping me out of my guilty thoughts. “Are you all right?”
“Fine…I’m fine.” I cleared my throat. “And yes, we do need to head for K’drin. We’ll need to get supplies and a reliable nav-tracker. You don’t want to go into the jungle unprepared.”
Rylee groaned and rolled over on her side. She was lying between Lucian and me in the center of the sleep platform.
“Please don’t tell me this hidden temple we’re searching for is in another place we have to walk instead of fly to. What good is advanced alien technology if you have to abandon it to tramp through the desert and the jungle?”
“Sorry, baby,” I said. “But the jungle canopy is way too dense to admit a ship—even a small one. The only thing to do is to park the ship in the public port nearest the edge of the tree line and wade in on foot.” I frowned. “We’ll just have to keep a low profile.”
“What about your place?” Lucian asked. “Can we stay there? Keep out of sight until we’re ready to go?”
I shrugged. “I’d say yes but it’s about a hundred leagues from where we need to be. The temple is actually closest to my home village of Renth—if it can be said to be close to anywhere, that is.”
“Crap. Well, into the jungle we go, I guess.” Rylee sighed. “Can you at least promise we won’t run into any more of those awful goddess-insects?”
“The moratas dwell only in the Sands of Death,” Lucian said dryly. “But there are many other perils in the jungle, I am afraid. Though at least there are no more kr’awn to worry about—the K’drin jungle used to be c
rawling with them, as I understand it.”
“Kr’awn?” Rylee frowned. “Aren’t those the big, black eyeless predators that nearly killed off your whole race?”
“That’s them,” I said, reaching for the tray at the end of the sleeping platform and popping an Earth fruit Rylee had called a “grape” into my mouth.
After coming back from Mandrex’s mansion, she’d insisted on simming what she called “decent food that doesn’t taste like carpet liner or stare at me while I eat it.” I had thought the food at Mandrex’s dinner party was pretty good but I was enjoying the Earth fruits and delicacies Rylee had made in the food-sim, too.
“Do not worry, ma 'frela,” Lucian told her, nibbling a slice of crispy, juicy fruit called an “apple.” "They are all extinct now. Not a single one has been seen for over a hundred cycles.”
“Well, that’s some comfort I guess. So we know where we’re going but what about when? ‘By the light of the Quarreling moons,’” Rylee quoted. “What is that all about? Do we have to wait for a lunar eclipse or something?”
“The Quarreling moons is just part of the lunar cycle,” I told her. “It’s when our smaller moon, Frella, appears to be attacking the larger moon, Bantor.”
“Attacking how?” Rylee wanted to know.
“Every few solar months, Frella circles just a little too close to Bantor,” Lucian explained. “The overwhelming gravity of Bantor pulls rocks from the surface of Frella which makes it look like she is bombarding him with debris when in actuality, he is pulling it from her.”
“Huh. Okay, makes sense.” Rylee sighed and ate a grape herself. “Mmm…so much better than hairy noodles and eyeball-oatmeal!”
“I take it you didn’t enjoy the repast at Lord Mandrex’s home?” Lucian said blandly.
Rylee made a face. “Look, I don’t want to disrespect your cultures, boys, but I have to be honest—that was some nasty-ass food.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said, eating a slice of apple and enjoying the crisp, tart-sweet flavor. “Most of the stuff Mandrex was serving us was high holiday cuisine—not normal, everyday food like you’d get if you went to my mother’s house for dinner.”
Rylee arched an eyebrow at me. “Speaking of your mother, are we really going to be that close to your hometown down there by the jungle?”
I sighed. “I’m afraid so. Too damn close for comfort. We’re going to need to be careful from the time we park the ship until we finally get into the jungle.” I shrugged at Lucian. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. We want to avoid a scene like we had with my mother at all costs,” Lucian said, frowning. “The fewer people who know you and I are bonded, the better.”
Rylee sighed and rolled over on her back to look up at the ceiling.
“You know, it’s a shame everyone here is so narrow-minded about two Alphas being bonded. When you two aren’t snapping each other’s heads off, you actually make a really good pair.”
“I agree,” Lucian said in a low voice.
I looked at my bond-mate in surprise.
“You do?”
“Of course I do,” he said, frowning. “We support each other. We save each other’s lives…” He grimaced. “Even if it’s not always in the manner we might wish.”
“That’s behind us now,” I said roughly. “I don’t hold it against you and I hope you don’t hold it against me.”
“You know I don’t,” he said quietly.
“Then why can’t you two be together?” Rylee made it sound so easy. “I mean, you’re not limited to this one planet. Why not just move someplace else the way Lord Mandrex moved from Cantor to Denaris?”
“You’re overlooking a few little problems, baby,” I said, frowning. “Lucian and I might work great together—well, better than we did anyway—but there’s still the problem of sex.”
“Oh right—because neither of you is willing to do the Beta thing.” She arched an eyebrow. “You really won’t bend on that? I mean, I know it’s kind of kinky but you two kissed each other with no problem during our, uh, little encounter for Mandrex.”
Her cheeks went dark as she said it but I noticed she wasn’t shying away from what we’d done together—which was good. I wasn’t ashamed of anything we’d done and I didn’t want either of my bond-mates to be either.
“We kissed to share your juices, ma 'frela” Lucian pointed out to her. “And because Mandrex gave us no choice in the matter. In the normal course of a Denarin relationship, the males do not kiss each other. They concentrate on pleasuring their female.”
“Besides, kissing is one thing,” I growled. “Putting your face that near another male’s shaft is another. There have to be limits.”
“All right—I get it.” Rylee sighed again. “I guess I just thought, I don’t know…that maybe you could take turns. The way you do with the cooking.”
I gave a bark of laughter. “There’s a hell of a big difference between using the food-sim and preparing your female for bonding or breeding sex,” I pointed out.
“And even if there wasn’t,” Lucian said. “Even if Drace and I were willing to put our differences aside and ‘share’ the load sexually the way we do with other household duties, it still wouldn’t work for us to stay together.”
“Why not?” Rylee asked. “I don’t understand.”
Lucian and I exchanged a look and I felt an instant of connection that all bonded mates get from time to time.
“Because, baby,” I answered in a low voice. “The only way the two of us can work is with you in the middle.”
“That’s not true,” Rylee denied, her cheeks going dark pink under her smooth, creamy brown skin. “You guys don’t need me—you’d find another girl. Someone—”
“There’s no one like you, ma 'frela,” Lucian said quietly. “You’re a La-ti-zal and a Binder. Do you honestly think it’s a coincidence that Drace and I finally started getting along after we found you? Before you came into our lives, we couldn’t stand each other.”
“You didn’t know each other,” Rylee protested. “You never gave each other a chance.”
“We didn’t fucking want to know each other before you, baby,” I said softly. “Lucian is right, without you, he and I would fall apart.”
“I…I just don’t believe that’s true.” She sat up on the sleeping platform and crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly. “I think there’s more affection and understanding between the two of you than you even know. But you’re too…too male to admit it.”
Lucian and I exchanged another glance.
“What does our gender have to do with it?” I asked.
“Never mind.” Rylee shook her head. “Look, forget I said anything, all right? We all know you guys need to get separated and then I have to go back to Earth and live my life.” Her face lit up. “I’m going to start up a Wedding Planning business when I get back. Start putting people together instead of tearing them apart. I’ve always wanted to do that.”
“I’m sure you have, ma 'frela. You have a way of drawing people together,” Lucian said, smiling a little. “Even those that don’t want to be drawn together in the first place.”
“Enough about that.” Rylee reached for another grape. “Let’s just relax and take it easy our last night on the ship before we have to head into the big, scary jungle.”
“I agree,” I said. “The K’drin is no joke. We should conserve our energy.”
“So…” Lucian cleared his throat delicately. “What are the sleeping arrangements for tonight?”
“Oh…um…” Rylee bit her lip and I felt a rush of uncertainty coming from her. It occurred to me that I was starting to pick up her emotions now as well as Lucian’s but I didn’t say anything about it. It didn’t matter if our bond had gotten stronger since we were ultimately just going to break it.
Clearly Lucian felt our female’s uncertainty too.
“Speak your mind, Rylee,” he said. “Neither of us will be upset. Do you not wish to sleep between us?”
>
“Do you guys want me to?” she asked, looking at first him and then me. “I mean, I guess I thought you weren’t going to…”
“Share a bed?” I finished for her. “We never did before you came into our lives. But now…” I let the sentence trail off but Lucian finished it for me.
“It feels wrong not to,” he murmured.
“It feels wrong to me too,” she said softly. “To not sleep with you guys on either side of me. I was…” She cleared her throat. “I was miserable last night.”
“I think we all were,” I said. Leaning across the sleeping platform, I took one of her small hands in mine. “Baby, will you sleep with us tonight? Sleep between us, I mean?”
“It doesn’t have to be in any way sexual,” Lucian hastened to tell her. “I had the skizix problem taken care of while the ship was docked in Y’brith so there is no need to raise a dream-shield around you tonight.”
She gave that soft, throaty laugh of hers I swore I could feel all the way down to my balls.
“After the show we put on for Lord Mandrex you think I’m worried about the two of you getting handsy?”
“We just want you to know there’s no expectation…no obligation,” I said earnestly.
“But there will be warmth and safety and comfort.” Lucian took her other hand and immediately I felt a tingling current of connection running between us. It was like he and I were power sources and Rylee was the conductor between us through which vast amounts of energy could flow.
Lucian felt it too—I knew because I felt him feeling it. We all felt it. It was fucking incredible.
“Yes,” Rylee whispered, squeezing both our hands. “Yes, I want to sleep with both of you tonight. Let’s get ready for bed.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Rylee
“So this is Drace’s hometown.” I surveyed the bustling marketplace from under the cover of the multicolored shawl I was wearing on my head.
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