MenageLost (7 page)

No.
She mouthed, unable to deal with the rejection.

Yes.
Furu silently replied, jostling her again.

Mirian inhaled a ragged breath, removed Xan’s present from
her pack, and stood. “You might not care about your comfort but I do.” She
strode to Xan’s side and perched on the rock beside his. Her bare left knee
brushed his leather-covered thigh and he moved his leg away, his rebuff
cutting, slicing her heart into strips as deftly as if he’d wielded the blades
he grasped.

Why do I care?
She stared into the unlit fire ring,
seeing the truth there, truth she’d been denying for days.
Because I care.
About him. About Furu. I love these two stubborn males and I want them to be
happy.

“Here.” Mirian balled up the cock sling and placed it on the
rock. “You don’t have to wear it. It isn’t well made. Your cock sling is twice
as big as Furu’s and the seams are twice as crooked.” She turned her head away,
unable to see his disgust.

Leather wisped against rock. The silence stretched, Xan’s
body heat engulfing her, his musk filling her nostrils, the warrior physically
close yet emotionally across the galaxy.

“What is this?” He poked a long slim pocket no much wider
than his fingers, his voice gruff.

Mirian’s face heated to the surface temperature of the sun.
“My failed attempt to make a sheath so you could carry a dagger.”

“A sheath.” A strangled noise originated deep within his
throat.

“Yes, a sheath.” She folded her arms protectively underneath
her breasts. “I know the cock sling was a dumb idea. Your pants have places for
all of your weapons. You don’t have to—”

Xan swept her off her rock and onto his lap, pushing her
face into his chest, his heart pounding against her ear, his arms strapped
around her so tightly, she couldn’t breathe. She clawed at his skin. He eased
his grip, burying his chin in the sensitive spot where her neck met her
shoulders, his breath hot and fast.

His shoulders shook. Moisture dripped down her chest.
He
can’t be crying. Beasts don’t cry.
She wrapped her arms around his thick
torso and petted his back, seeking to comfort him.

Xan’s shaking stopped and the moisture on Mirian’s chest
dried. They remained entwined, Xan’s muscular form unrelentingly strong and
scarily still, his breathing leveling, his heartbeat slowing.

“You don’t have to wear the cock sling,” she assured him. “I
understand.”

“I won’t,” he stated bluntly and Mirian recoiled from his
verbal slap, pulling back from him. “I won’t ever wear it.” Xan captured her
face between his big hands, the cock sling balled in his right palm, and he
held her gaze, his eyes blazing red, salt tracks streaking his cheeks. “Because
it’s too precious to be soiled.”

Mirian’s breath caught.
He likes it.
“I could wash
it.”

Xan brushed his lips over the tip of her nose and she
blinked. “I can’t risk it. It means too much to me.” He drew her back into his
big body, holding her as though he never wished to let her go. “You mean too
much to me.”

Mirian glowed, basking in her gruff Dreck warrior’s
passionate declaration. “Will you act this way every time you receive a gift?”
she teased.

There was a pause as if Xan was considering his answer. “I
don’t know.” He shrugged.

He doesn’t know. Why wouldn’t he know?
Mirian’s heart
squeezed. “Hasn’t anyone ever given you a gift before?”

“Furu cooks for me,” her big male murmured. “I consider that
a gift.”

“Oh Xan.” She threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged
him, silently vowing to bombard him with tokens of her newly realized love.

Chapter Seven

“Isn’t there another test you can do?” Xan scowled down at
Furu, struggling to think of a reason, any reason to remain on
Viridi
.
“Or you could redo the tests. If the planet was unstable—”

“Redoing the tests would look too suspicious.” Furu crouched
close to the ground, wearing the pink leather cock sling Mirian had lovingly
made for him and nothing else, his pale skin gleaming, his body slender and
graceful. “We’ve been here three months. Captain Grok knows how long each mission
should take, and we’ve surpassed that interval.”

“Grok hates all Drecks.” Xan twisted his lips, the feeling
mutual. “He’d use my incompetence as an excuse to dispose of me.” He patted the
cock sling hidden in his jacket, a gift given to him, a Dreck, by his breeder.
“Or worse.” He glanced at Mirian. Their small human breeder tossed cubes of raw
meat to Steve, joking and laughing with the plant she loved, too far away to
hear their conversation. “The bastard could examine the planet himself.”

Furu followed his line of sight and his beautiful face
darkened. “If he finds her, he’ll take her away from us.”

“He’d have to kill me first,” Xan growled, every cell in his
body screaming to protect Mirian, protect their breeder. “You have the lock?”

“It’s concealed in here.” Furu straightened, a planet core
tester in his hands. “We should tell her, Xan. It’s a good plan. She might
agree to it.”

Unlikely.
Xan grimaced, their unnatural female
fiercely opinionated. “We don’t have time to argue with her. We have to be in
orbit before the warship arrives.” He tapped the handle of his favorite gun.
“We’ll act now and explain later. Mirian will understand.”
I hope.

“Did I hear my name?” Mirian wiped her hands on a broad
leaf, her curves barely concealed by her garment, a temptation no
Balazoid
could resist.

“We’re accompanying you while you perform your readings.”
Xan fiddled with his guns, not meeting her gaze.

“Are you?” She tossed the leaf away and leisurely surveyed
his form, her attention hardening his cock. “You’re heavily armed for a
reading.” Mirian narrowed her big brown eyes. “You have three guns and only two
hands.”

“I’m leaving a gun at the station.” He shifted his weight
from his right foot to his left. “Do you remember how to use it?”

“I’m not the one you should be asking,” she grumbled and
Furu’s face turned red, the
Balazoid
’s skill with a gun beyond all hope.

“Answer the question, female,” Xan barked, his good humor
having vanished the moment they’d detected the approaching warship.

“I know how to use the gun.” Mirian wrinkled her nose. “Is
this new paranoia due to that ship entering our sector?” She flipped back her
long hair, the brown tendrils curling around her ass.

How does she know about the ship?
Xan met Furu’s
gaze. His lover shrugged.

“Yes.” Xan held out his hand.

Mirian threaded her fingers between his, and Furu clasped
her free hand. They walked along the path, their small breeder tucked between
their larger forms. “I suppose you’ll be setting more traps.”

“How did you know that?” Xan stared at their female. Furu
chuckled.

Mirian smiled up at him, her lips luscious and alluring. “I
know you, Xan.” A flying insect landed on her shoulder, its red and green wings
fluttering. “I love you.”

She loves me.
Xan sucked in his breath, his muscles
flexing, his body instinctively reacting as though he’d been attacked, his
brain short-circuiting. “Uh. I…”

Mirian’s face flushed redder than Furu’s eyes. “You don’t
have to say it back.” She squeezed his hand. “I know we’ve only known each
other for three months but I told Furu last night I loved him and since I love
you too, I thought it only right I say something,” she babbled, her voice
flowing over him, light and feminine and uniquely hers.

She loves me.
Xan blinked.
This unnatural, unique
female loves me, a Dreck.
A warmth spread over his chest, her love and
acceptance settling over him.

“I shouldn’t have said anything now. You’re worried about
that ship approaching and thinking of ways to protect us because that’s what
you do, protect us.” She spoke faster and faster, filling the silence with
nonsense. “And that is one of the things I love about you. I feel safe with you
and with Furu. I never—”

“I love you.” Furu severed the stream of words, casting Xan
a hard look. “And he loves you too. He’ll never admit to it—”

“I don’t need to say the words,” Xan grunted, perturbed with
them talking as though he weren’t present. “My actions say enough.” He turned
to her and captured her face between his hands, her skin soft and golden,
kissed by
Viridi
’s single sun, its rays filtered through the
mist-covered sky.

Her gaze lifted to meet his, her eyes trusting, filled with
stark emotion.
I love her.
Xan brushed his lips over hers, tasting fruit
and love and willing woman. He touched her with tenderness and reverence,
grateful for her, for the love she’d brought the two of them.

Furu leaned forward, his bare chest pressing against
Mirian’s back, his perfect ivory muscles contrasting against her tanned curves,
and Xan expanded their embrace to include him, their tongues twisting, tangling,
their three essences mixing into one lip-smacking flavor.

I’d kill for this, for them.
Xan dragged his teeth
over their lips, reddening their flesh, marking his lovers.
And no one will
ever take them away from me, not slavers, not the council and not that bastard
Grok.

He reluctantly pulled away from them. “We have to get you to
the station.”

“Me?” Mirian frowned, her bottom lip plump with passion.
“I—”

“We don’t have much time.” Xan clasped her hand, dragging
her forward. Furu followed them, his tread heavy and resigned. “We have to
protect you.”

* * * * *

Two hours passed before Mirian tried to leave the station,
only to discover the door was stuck. She pushed. She kicked. She slapped the
surface. None of her efforts made any difference, yet she continued to try, her
males on the other side, their condition unknown.

“Xan! Furu!” Mirian pounded on the station’s thick door, her
hands sore and bleeding, her skin split and her voice hoarse. “Open the door.
Please. Anyone.” The space-proof alloy dented inward, an object hitting the
barrier with a heavy thud. “Yes. That’s it.” She yanked on the handle.

Metal scraped against metal. Mirian pulled and the door
unexpectedly swung open. She flew backward, landing hard on her ass. “Oomph.”

A vine slid along the tile. “Steve.” A shaky laugh tumbled
from her lips. “Where are Xan and Furu?” She groaned as she pushed away from
the floor, her body aching. “Are they in trouble?” Steve cocked a bloom to one
side, indicating that he didn’t know.

“They must be.” Mirian rushed through the door. Blue mud
oozed down the frame and dripped on the threshold. “Or they would have rescued
me.” She ran down the path, her lungs burning and her legs throbbing with pain,
frantic to find her males, the loves of her life.

An eerie silence settled upon the forest, no insects
chirping, no
sus
grunting, no large, sexy males jostling with each
other.
Let them be alive.
Mirian’s eyes stung with unshed tears, unable
to deal with another loss, another goodbye.
I’ll do anything, give anything.
Don’t take them from me.

A tremor shook the ground and a ship’s engine rumbled to
life.
Not their ship.
She sprinted toward their makeshift camp.
It
can’t be their ship.
“Furu! Xan!”

Steve’s vines reached out to her. Mirian ducked and his
leaves skimmed over her back. Her heart pounded, her fears bursting out of her
chest.
They wouldn’t leave me. It must be slavers.

She broke into the clearing and skidded to a stop, her feet
slipping on the flattened grass. The fire had been extinguished, Furu’s cooking
gear removed. Xan’s impressive rack of deadly swords and daggers no longer
leaned against the big tree. The vegetation had been cleared around the ship’s
landing gear, the ramp remaining open.

Too neat for slavers.
Mirian staggered backward, pain
piercing her soul.
They couldn’t. They wouldn’t. There must be a reason.
She
clung desperately to the last remnants of trust, unable to believe they’d leave
her. “Xan! Furu! Where are you?”

Xan stomped down the ramp, guns in both of his hands. “How
did you free yourself?” He glared at her, his red eyes glowing, his face dark
with an unsettling fury.

“She got out?” Furu appeared behind him, his forehead
creased with lines.

“I got out?” She sucked in her breath. “You locked me in.”
Her thighs trembled, her knees threatening to collapse under her.
“Deliberately.”
Why?
Her body temperature dropped. “You were leaving me
here.”

Xan looked back over his shoulder at Furu. Furu raised one
of his fine white eyebrows, and Xan shook his head, their wordless
communication excluding her.

“We were leaving you for a day at the very most.” Furu’s
voice lowered to that condescending softness adults used with animals and small
children. “The plan was to meet with the
Balazoid
warship and then come
back for you.”

They think they’ll come back but they won’t. They won’t
ever return.
“I’m coming with you.” Mirian hurried toward the ramp.

Xan straightened his shoulders and widened his stance,
blocking her path. “No.”

She crossed her arms under her breasts, hugging her torso.
“I’m your breeder. You said I was your breeder.” Xan’s lips flattened, his
primitive face hardening, and a wild desperation rushed through her. “I’ll do
whatever you say. Have anal sex. Anything.” Her gaze lifted to Furu. “If you
don’t want me to talk, I won’t talk. I’ll—”

“You’re staying here,” Xan bellowed, and she winced, her
ears ringing.

“You have to, Mirian. It’s safer for all of us.” Furu placed
one of his palms on Xan’s leather-clad arm, both men in their full uniforms. “
Balazoids
may share breeders.” He rubbed his hand over the Dreck warrior’s biceps. “But
we don’t.”

“And if one of those bastards touches you, I’ll rip the
verme
off his head, one by one, squishing them between my fingers and thumbs.” Xan’s
face grew frighteningly fierce. “Then I’ll gouge out his eyes and pop them
like—”

“Yes, yes, you’ll gleefully kill any male touching her. We
get the transmission, Xan.” Furu’s lips twitched. “Do you see, Mirian? If you
don’t stay here, he’ll lose his temper and get the three of us killed.”

“I’ll hide on your ship.” She gripped her hands, knowing
they wouldn’t return. “I’ll be quiet. No one will know.”

“Until they perform a scan of our ship’s life forms.” Xan
holstered his guns and moved forward, crowding Mirian backward.

“I’ll slather myself with mud,” she argued.

“They’ll smell you.” Furu grasped her right wrist, his
fingers surprisingly firm. Xan gripped her left wrist and they pulled her arms
back. “Steve, hold onto her.”

“No, don’t.” Mirian struggled. “Please don’t, Steve.” The
damn plant, her supposed friend, sided with the other males, wrapping his vines
around her arms and legs, holding her securely.

“Stay here.” Furu curved his palm over her cheek and skimmed
his mouth over hers, his touch frustratingly brief, his expression cool and
aristocratic, his red-eyed gaze rising to a point above her. “We’ll be gone for
less than a day.” He backed away from her, snapping the vine Steve had curled
around his ankle.

“This is for your own protection, female.” Xan grabbed her
hips and pulled her to him, brutally smacking their bodies together. “We can’t
lose you.” He kissed her hard, driving her head backward. Mirian sucked on his
lips, trying to hold onto him, to keep them with her, to make this last embrace
stretch into forever.

Xan wrenched his body out of her reach, breathing heavily,
his chest rapidly rising and falling. “We’ll be back for you,” he grumbled the
exact same words the captain of the USS
Fitzgerald
had uttered.

“No you won’t,” she whispered, sagging against Steve, every
drop of passion drained from her.

Her two males, the loves of her life, strode into the ship
without a backward glance, the ramp closing behind them. The ground quaked as
their vessel lifted, the roar of the engines thundering in her ears, the wind
whipping her hair around her face, Steve’s leaves striking her skin. Mirian
embraced the sting, the pain, her punishment.

The ship disappeared into the mist, and Steve released her.
She fell forward, jagged shards of agony shooting over her knees and up her
thighs, and she waited, kneeling, for Furu and Xan to return, knowing they
never would.

* * * * *

“Your father is more tolerant than I am.” Captain Grok
relaxed in his silver metallic chair, a tiny cup of rare
Balazoid
nectar
clasped in his wrinkled hands. The huge viewscreen behind him revealed the
black expanse of space, distant stars sparkling,
Viridi
’s solitary sun
to Furu’s back.

Furu sat, facing the elderly military man, his legs crossed,
one ankle dangling limply in the air, his expression conveying carefully
cultivated boredom, his churning emotions smothered under layers of ice.

More tolerant?
He stifled his snort, his bastard
father deeming his transgressions unworthy of notice, considering his sons as
replaceable as his breeders.

“If my son had followed your unnatural path, I would have
disposed of the Dreck immediately.” Grok flung the declaration into the chamber
with a malicious glee, his red eyes gleaming.

“I’d like to see you try,” Xan growled, his rash response
threatening to close the opening Furu had been waiting for.