by Wells, Juno
“You can instruct your AI to send your location to us every now and then, to make sure we know where you are,” Aavik suggested. “It’s not perfect, but it should keep you safe.”
“I’ll stay,” Wraxic said. “Just tell me afterward that you’ve found nothing, and that’ll be fine.”
“You’re coming with us,” Veiko instructed.
He couldn’t ignore a direct order from a superior.
He stepped forward and realized only when he saw her shrink away from him that he was scowling at Hannah.
“Let’s go,” Aavik hissed, and snatched his arm.
They’d teleported out of the bedroom before Wraxic could protest or apologize.
“What the hell do you think you’re playing at?” Aavik said, squaring up to him.
“Just because you’ve fucked her now doesn’t mean you have to act overprotective,” Wraxic hissed.
“That’s what this is about?”
“No.” He shook his head and took a step backward, holding his hands up. “I just don’t like any of this. It’s got nothing to do with Hannah.”
“It looked like it had something to do with Hannah,” Veiko said, teleporting in and immediately standing between them.
“You don’t trust her anyway,” Wraxic said. “Now you’re standing up for her?”
“Not trusting her and looking like I want to hurt her are very different things.”
Wraxic felt the shame like a kick to the balls, and he recoiled. “I really looked at her like that?”
His horror softened the anger of the other two men, and Veiko gave him a clap on the shoulder. “Just chill out about all this. We’ll find out the truth and work from there.”
Wraxic didn’t want to find out the truth, because deep down he knew that Hannah wouldn’t have made up something like this. He trusted her absolutely—she was his mate.
But two fundamental values clashed within him, and he was trying desperately to cling to both of them.
They’d teleported to the front of the temple and walked in to pretend to be seeing the sights and paying their respects for a while, too. They looked to see if they recognized anyone, or to check whether anyone was out of place.
After making sure everything was okay, they left the temple and headed for the tunnel.
They didn’t come across anyone and didn’t hear anything from inside.
Wraxic’s feet were planted to the floor even as the others started walking in.
“I’ll go and check on Hannah,” he said, even though the AI had reliably informed them every five minutes of exactly where she was and they’d had no alarm message from her.
“Stop being stupid,” Veiko said. “And come in here.”
Again he couldn’t resist the direct order and followed the two of them into the tunnel. It was surprisingly long. Its existence had to be a coincidence. It wasn’t even that close to the temple.
That was probably why it went on for so long before they came to a cavern that had been dug out. They were right beneath the temple, he was sure.
And the cavern had mining equipment in it.
It was working right now as they spoke, mining such little amounts at a time, scraping at the walls with tiny needles, so that there would be no disturbance to the temple above.
“Motherfucker,” Veiko said, walking over to one of the machines but not daring to touch it. “I can’t believe that bastard is mining beneath the temple.”
“It’s not—” Wraxic was trying to say, but words failed him.
He couldn’t deny what was right in front of him, could he? Yet his brain still begged him to argue with what he was seeing. “We still don’t know what’s going on here. No one says it’s the king that’s doing this.”
“You heard what Hannah said about where she heard them speaking.”
“We don’t know a single thing for certain, except for that someone is mining beneath the temple, and that we have to stop it.” Wraxic paced back and forth, staring at the floor to avoid looking at the robots mining all around him.
“Would you stop sticking your head in the fucking ground,” Aavik said. “Both of you. She’s your mate, you should have taken what she said at face value when she first fucking said it.”
He managed to aggravate both of them with that remark. “I just wanted to some proof,” Veiko said. “She might be my mate—” it was the first time he’d admitted it, and it made Wraxic’s head snap up “—but that doesn’t mean she has my immediate trust.”
“The goddesses obviously approved. That should have been good enough for you.”
Veiko surprised them both further by saying, “Yeah, you’re right. It should.”
Aavik and Veiko came in for a hug then, giving each other a clap on the back and then nodding to each other.
Wraxic stood on the outside and watched.
He wasn’t convinced just like that.
“I don’t think she’s lying,” he said carefully, “I’m just not sure that she knew exactly what she heard.”
They both turned on him, but then Aavik paused, standing completely still. “Shouldn’t we have had an update about her location by now?”
All three raised hands to their necks and spoke to their AI.
“There has been no communication from AI#1206932,” Wraxic’s AI confirmed.
“Shit,” he hissed. “We need to go, right now.”
20 Hannah
Hannah could do nothing but pace the room her room and wait for her mates return.
She both hoped and didn’t hope that there was something in the tunnel. All being on the same page, and being believed, would be nice, but she didn’t want to be in a position where she’d caused political instability within a week of being there, either.
Neither scenario was ideal.
There was no communication back from her mates’ AIs, but she wasn’t expecting it. They would just appear again in the room, probably sooner rather than later, and tell her what they’d found.
They materialized behind her surprisingly quickly, but when she turned around it wasn’t her mates. Three Vaherians she didn’t recognize—armed to the teeth—were in front of her.
“What the—”
One of the men stepped forward and pressed a device to her neck. She expected an electric shock, or to be knocked immediately unconscious, but she didn’t feel anything.
“You’ve been granted an audience with the king,” he said.
“I don’t—”
She was cut off again by the man on the left snatching her wrist.
“You—”
The sensation of teleporting stopped her speaking and when they reappeared in a room she’d not visited before, the words had died on her tongue.
She recognized the king from her first day on Vaher when she’d watched the tournament. He’d given a speech in Vaherian that she couldn’t understand. He sat now in an extravagant chair that wasn’t quite a throne. It was pulled up to a table, with another chair on the opposite side.
She bowed automatically, until she was at an almost ninety-degree angle.
“You may stand,” the king said.
He looked younger than she’d expected. He couldn’t have been much older than Veiko and Aavik.
“Not just stand, come and have a seat,” he instructed, beckoning to the empty chair.
She hesitated briefly because the guards who had brought her to the king’s quarters looked askance at the idea of her sitting with him. The king nodded though, and she took a seat at the table.
“You can leave us,” he said to the guards. “Go and fetch the food and drink, and then wait outside.”
The followed his instructions and soon the smell of freshly brewed coffee was filling Hannah’s nose. “No way,” she said, looking at the teapot. “Is that coffee?”
“It is. I hear it is well-loved on Earth. I requested my men to bring me some back so I could try it when they went to retrieve you. Please, help yourself.”
She didn’t normally
drink it black, but she definitely wasn’t complaining as she poured herself a large mug of strong coffee. “Thank you,” she said.
The king lowered his head in a surprising gesture of respect to her. Her heart was thrumming inside her chest, sure she was here to be threatened, or taken out completely, but if she was about to get assassinated then she would definitely enjoy her coffee first.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” the king said, pouring his own drink.
She looked longingly at the dried meat on light bread he’d had brought in too. What were the chances of that being poisoned?
As if to allay her fears, he picked up one of the canapes himself and ate it hungrily.
“I’m honored to get to meet you,” she said carefully, putting a piece of bread and meat on the smaller plate in front of her.
“How are you enjoying Vaher?”
“Very much. It’s a beautiful planet.”
“And your mates?”
She dithered on her response. “They’ve treated me perfectly,” she said.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
They lapsed into silence and Hannah sipped on her coffee even though it was too hot.
“I understand that you heard something you weren’t supposed to.”
Her blood ran cold. “I don’t know what you mean.” Ignorance and denial had to be the soundest strategy.
He produced a tablet from somewhere beneath his chair and handed it to her. She watched the footage of herself stood outside the room where she’d overheard the king speaking to the Hystian.
“Ah,” she said. “My translator wasn’t working properly then, I don’t think. It had only just been inserted, you see.”
The king smiled, but it wasn’t kind. “I’m sure that you’re right,” he replied, eating another canape. “Certainly it would be a shame if you told anyone what you thought you’d heard, considering it was obviously entirely inaccurate.”
“There’s no point in sharing inaccuracies with people,” she agreed. “I wouldn’t want to stir up trouble based on false information.”
“Especially not when Earth is such a vulnerable planet,” the king continued, fixing her with a piercing stare that left no room for imagination as to what he was insinuating.
“Especially not,” she echoed, hollow.
The king didn’t know it was already too late, then. He didn’t know her mates were underneath the temple examining whatever he was doing there right at that moment.
“More coffee?” the king asked.
“No, thank you.”
He poured himself more and didn’t seem to notice that it was scalding as he drank deeply.
She watched him in silence, forcing her face to remain calm. She wasn’t going to give away how terrified she was.
Her mind raced with how she was going to convince her mates to drop this inquiry into the king’s movements. Her whole planet was in danger now, it wasn’t just her life anymore.
Hopefully the tunnel had led to nothing. She could admit she’d been lying, and Veiko and Wraxic would easily believe her. Aavik might take more convincing, but she would convince him.
The thought of lying to her mates sent a cold spike of regret through her. She didn’t want to upset them. It was the last thing she wanted.
The king finished his drink and dragged her back to real life. “Did you have any questions about what we’ve talked about today?” he asked.
“No, your majesty,” she replied, and bowed her head again.
He repeated the gesture. He’d threatened her in a completely polite way. She got the impression that he still respected her status as a woman even if she was threatening his leadership.
“Then you can go. It’s probably best that you get back to your room before you mates wonder what’s happened to you. I know they’re protective. I’ll take you back.”
She balked when he stood up and gestured for her to follow suit. He rested a hand on her shoulder. Unlike her mates’ touch, this was ice cold.
They teleported back to her room and were met with three pairs of anxious eyes.
All lowered their heads in respect when they saw the king. Hannah knew she was white as a sheet.
“Sorry to have worried you,” the king said. “I wanted to take the opportunity to meet our honored guest while you were busy. I’ll be going now, I have lots to do. Tomorrow we have a full day. I’ll need your protection for most of it.”
He disappeared before they could respond.
The chill left Hannah’s body with his hand, and she stepped forward into the embrace of her mates on instinct.
She let out a shuddering breath and accepted their warmth as three pairs of arms ensnared her.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said, burying her face into the chest in front of her, Wraxic’s.
They held her tightly. “We were worried,” Aavik said.
She nuzzled further into Wraxic’s chest and the kissed his bare skin. It was the first time she’d tasted him, and it sent a jolt of heat to her core.
Suddenly, the thought of ignoring all the tough decisions she faced and going to bed with the men who she knew would complete her was too tempting to resist.
She kissed from his chest up to his neck and then his lips.
She didn’t even want to know what they’d found in that tunnel. She was beyond grateful that Wraxic hadn’t pushed her away even though he didn’t believe what she’d said about the king.
Their bond superseded everything else.
His kiss was intense, dominating her lips with surprisingly confident movements considering he was the youngest. A pair of hands found her hips, and she didn’t know whether it was Veiko or Aavik.
She hoped it was Veiko just because that would allay her fears that maybe Veiko wasn’t her mate after all.
She felt just as close to him as the other men, but he continued to resist it all. He was still refusing to admit anything.
Maybe that was because he just didn’t feel it. Maybe she only had two mates, not three.
The hands on her hips tightened and moved down until they were on her ass. Her jeans were tight around her hips and he tried to get his hands under them to feel her before giving up and pulling them down instead.
She moaned when a large hand cupped her sex and fingers found her clit. She had to break the kiss as her hips rolled in time to the finger rubbing her agonizingly slowly.
It was only two sets of hands on her body though and that wasn’t enough. She needed her third mate to touch her too. She was desperate to know what it felt like when all of them ravished her at once.
When she looked to the side she wasn’t surprised to see Veiko stood watching them.
His face was dark, his lip curled. His hands were clenched into fists at his side. He’d backed away from the hug he’d been giving her before she kissed Wraxic.
She pulled away from her two men and walked over to him, shimmying her jeans off completely as she went and leaving her just in plain top and panties.
She rested her palms on his bare chest and looked up at him, forcing him to meet her gaze. She knew she must look lusty. All she could think about was the hard cock straining against his pants.
She pressed her lips to his chest, tasting him with the tip of her tongue. There wasn’t enough skin for her to bite him—it was all pure muscle.
Veiko groaned, fists tightening until his skin turned a dark navy there.
Still he didn’t break.
Unlike with Wraxic, she started kissing in the other direction, going further down over his hard abs and to the top of his pants. She sunk to her knees in front of him and pulled at the button on his pants.
He watched her with dark eyes and a clenched jaw.
He didn’t try and stop her until she’d pulled his pants down and freed his cock. She wrapped her hand around the base and pressed her lips to the tip.
“You don’t—”
But she wanted to, so she took as much of his cock in her mouth
as she could. Normally she would have teased him, played with his tip and worked her way up to having him at the back of her throat.
But right now she wanted to have immediate impact. She wanted to rid him of his doubts in one stroke.
She wanted all four of them on the bed together.
Veiko groaned as she moved up and down on his cock, taking him further and further each time as she trained her gag reflex not to react. He finally unclenched his fists and took a hand in her hair, guiding her movements with an iron grip.
She was sopping wet between her legs and when she was sure Veiko wasn’t going to startle and disappear, she pulled her head back.
She looked up at him from her knees and saw him breathing hard. There was no doubt left in his eyes, and it made her shiver.
He was her mate.
Veiko was her mate, too.
Of course he was.
She got to her feet and moved to the bed, laying with her head on the middle pillow and looking at her mates, who stood at the end of the bed in various states of undress.
Aavik was the first to make a move—maybe he was the most confident because they’d already slept together—and he came to lay beside her. He kissed her and it consumed her.
Their tongues battled together when she felt the bed dip as someone else climbed on. She had her eyes shut, determined to experience every touch to the max.
Besides, she liked the idea of not knowing which of her three mates was doing what. It added an erotic edge she hadn’t expected.
Her panties came off and someone spread her legs, burying their face between them. She gasped into her kiss as pleasure rippled through her.
Someone else pushed up her shirt and pulled down her bra, then attached their lips to one nipple and rolled the other between their thumb and forefinger.
The sensations were too much. She wriggled and writhed, half in an attempt to get away from the overwhelming pleasure, and half to try and get more and more.
She fell apart with a sharp cry, arching her back and screwing her eyes even tighter shut as she tried to catch her breath.
“Fuck,” she said. Her men had taken to kissing the rest of her body as she recovered from her climax.