Lunar Lovers (4 page)

“I-I think I’m sick.” She levered herself up on her
forearms. Her lower lip quivered as she blinked back tears. When she saw the
health pack sealed to the wall, she asked, “Do you have anything for cramps? I
think I caught a space bug at the station when I tripped over a trash bot.”

“You’re not sick, Achelle. Medicine can’t help you.”

Her exquisite celestial face crumpled, her wide-set eyes
searching his face for deception.

“You need me inside you,” he said softly. “Use your inner
eye to examine your body and you’ll see that I’m right.”

A wave of the coupling need
rolled over her and slammed into him. He took in a shallow, shaky breath and
fisted his hands to stop himself from taking her. He needed his brothers to
bear witness; he needed to wait until they arrived home.

“You’re right,” she moaned. “I
don’t know why but I need you. Gods, I need you.”

Satisfaction spread through him,
washing away the reasons he needed to wait. “You accept me within your body as
your mortal mate?”

Another wave pulled her under
and she hissed, tears shining in her eyes.

He bent down and brought their
faces close together so that all she could see was him. “You accept me as your
mortal mate?” he asked again with desperation.

Tears overflowed her magenta
eyes to dampen her pale-blonde hair. She nodded.

“Then take me in your hands and
guide me into your body.”

Timidly, she did as he demanded.
Her small hand wrapped around his shaft and everything inside him went still.
He felt as if time had slowed. The days of his life piled up behind this day
like a stack of expired credits.

Soft and sweet, she guided him
to her center. The slight tremor in her arm told him what she tried to hide
behind her lowered gaze. She was nervous, frightened of their coupling, but
resigned to the fact that she needed him.

When the head of his cock kissed
the entrance to her body, her hold loosened, her legs inching closed. Refusing
to lose ground, Samius straightened and pressed forward, slipping the first inch
or so inside the gorgeous core that belonged to his mate.

She gripped him tight—nature
guiding her body when her mind shied away—and rippled around him. As he pushed
forward, he pulsed inside her.

Fully seated, he stilled,
allowing her body to adjust to his length and width.

“Wrap your legs around me,
Mate,” he said.

Panting, she locked her ankles
at the base of his back and looked up at him with shy but lusty eyes. The sight
of her spread out before him, holding him inside her lithe little body, sent bolts
of lightning zigzagging from the top of his head to his balls.

Deep in his throat, a growl of
satisfaction rumbled. He bent down to taste her mouth, slipping his tongue
between the seam of her lips and coaxing her tongue to taste him as well. When
at last her tongue darted into his mouth, he deepened the kiss, glorying in her
acceptance of him.

He cupped her breasts in his
hands and ran his thumbs over her nipples in perfect synchronization. Her back
arched up off the console, straining for more of his teasing touches. She made
small mewling noises that broke their kiss and sent the hairs on his arms and
the back of his neck on end.

Achelle reached between their
legs and stroked his sac while her inner muscles clenched and unclenched around
him. With a fierce shout, Samius coated Achelle’s inner walls with pre-cum,
unlocking the last vestiges of reasonable restraint.

The coupling drive was in full
swing. For both of them. From this moment forward, Achelle’s mind would run on
instinct only until she was completely bonded to him and his family.

For the first time, he envied
his friends who had all sisters. When they found their mate, they would only
need to watch as their sisters bit her. Samius remembered his friend from
school, Sceor. The male had no siblings, no one to bond to his mate, no one to
share with even for one day.

Samius withdrew until just the
very tip of the wide head of his cock remained buried inside her. She whimpered
and writhed and raked her nails over his skin.

Leaning over her, he licked the
top of her breast, right over her heart, and bit while slamming into her hard.
She screamed, her lust-crazed voice calling to him to bring her release. And he
complied, driving into her fast and deep, holding her open to him as he savaged
her body, marking her, making her his.

She bucked beneath him, yelling,
shattering, tears spilling down her face, her heels digging into his ass, her
nails clawing at his hands and wrists, demanding more, demanding everything.

He gave her all he had, bringing
her to orgasm countless times, holding her to him as she fell apart in his
arms. Her internal muscles gripped him, milked him, made him groan.

“Harder,” she demanded.

With a growl, he withdrew, stood
her up, spun her around and bent her over the console. Knocking her legs open,
he grabbed a handful of her hair, pulling her head up and stretching her long
neck as he pounded into her.

She met him thrust for thrust,
panted her desire as he drove into her.

Her body quaked. Her legs gave
out.

He lost his rhythm and came once
more, spilling his seed, drenching her womb.

Her body went limp and she would
have slid to the floor if his hips weren’t pinning her to the console. He
leaned over and smiled at what he saw.

His mortal mate had passed out.

Surely that meant he had done
his job. And then some.

He scooped her up in his arms
and sank into the pilot’s chair.

ETA—twenty-two minutes. Samius
prayed to the gods in all seven heavens that his mate remained unconscious
until they arrived home.

Chapter Four

Cannan examined the large emerald that the foreman had
brought him while his younger brothers pored over the sapphires, aquamarines,
garnets, rubies and quartz crystals. The other gems were of good quality and
would sell well but this one—the largest emerald he had ever seen—was flawless.
Deciding to make it his pet project, he pocketed the stone—to the ribbing of
his brothers.

“There he goes again,” Shome said, his brown eyes full of
laughter, “Hoarding another stone for his nonexistent mate when we could make a
fortune off it at market.”

Redell punched Shome in the arm as Faolan said, “Leave him
alone. It’s not as if we’re hurting for credit.”

Cannan preferred Shome’s teasing to his other brothers’
protective defense. He knew why they defended his pathetic habit of hoarding the
biggest and most beautiful stones—the accident he’d suffered in the deep mines
two months ago had left him permanently and hideously scarred. Chances were if
he ever found his mortal mate, he’d never convince her to bond with him. Not
even with all the gems in the galaxy to dazzle her eyes and distract her from
the ugly pitted and discolored skin on his face, neck and chest.

He reached over to lock the rest of the jewels in the stone
safe and froze mid-motion. The room went quiet. He slowly turned, tilted his
head to the side and sniffed. A tantalizing perfume wafted from the far hall
that connected the intake room they were currently in to the main living room
in their home.

He grew instantly hard, his cock straining against the seam
in his pants.

One look around the room showed that his brothers had
scented her too—Sam had found his mortal mate and brought her home to complete
the coupling to bind his mate to his family.

As the second oldest, he was in charge. Cannan’s younger
brothers waited for him to move, panting their desire but keeping their feet
rooted to the floor. Seconds passed. The brothers began to growl their
frustration. But Cannan was waiting on a word from Sam.

At last Sam’s strained voice sounded over the intercom.
“Where the fuck is everyone?”

They bolted, Cannan leading the way with his brothers
stepping on his heels and tripping over their clothing as they stripped while
running down the hall.

By the time they reached the living room they were naked,
their stiff cocks rudely pointing at the wildly flailing female in Sam’s
scratched arms.

Cannan had the thought that she was like a feral cat
surrounded by a pack of horny dogs and felt sorry for her until he saw her dip
two fingers between her lush thighs and bring them glistening to Sam’s mouth as
she moaned and writhed against him.

She wanted him and he was a package deal.

“How long has the coupling drive been on her?” he asked, his
voice coming out in a hoarse whisper.

“Almost two hours.” Sam sucked her offered fingers into his
mouth and licked the digits clean. “We coupled in the ship without witness.”

“Was the cabin camera on?” Errol and Essar asked at the same
time, something they did often, to the annoyance of their brothers.

“Yes,” Sam said.

“Then we can review it later to bear witness to your first
coupling but right now she needs relief,” Cannan said. As second oldest, he
should join with her next. “What is your mate’s name, Sam?”

“Achelle.” Sam took a step back as Cannan stepped forward.

“She is lovely.” Cannan studied his older brother, using
their familial link to read his emotional grid. The male was just as far gone
as his mate, his mind centered on claiming her for himself. Never mind that
tradition and biology dictated that his brothers become minor mates to his
female to ensure her ability to reproduce and bond them to her as her
protectors, therefore ensuring the survival of their race.

“Do you wish to bring your mate into our family?” Cannan
asked as the younger brothers surrounded them, stroking their cocks, growling
their desire.

“Yes,” Sam hissed.

Cannan held open his arms. “Give her to me. I will place my
mark over yours. I will release my seed inside her to mix with yours to ready
her womb for young.”

Sam’s body trembled. “I can’t. I…can’t.”

Cannan cursed under his breath. “In
The Book of Rane
,
it says that if too much time passes between the marking from the main mate and
the marking from the minor mates—”

“I read that passage too!” Sam shouted over Achelle’s cries
as she damn near convulsed in his arms, her mating scent thick enough to choke
on. “I know why I’m acting possessive. And I know if all of you don’t couple
with her and mark her, she might become barren.” He blinked back tears. “I
didn’t say you can’t take her. I said I can’t give her to you. Understand?”

Cannan frowned. “You want me to take her from you forcibly
and mate her against your will?”

“Yes! Do it now, Cannan. Do it before I lock her in my
rooms. Do it before I have to drug away her pain. Do it before I make my mate
barren.”

“She looks part human. Was she raised with Rane customs?
Does she understand the ritual?”

“She doesn’t have to understand. Look at her. Her body knows
what is right.” Achelle writhed and moaned, obviously out of her mind with
need. Samius leveled his gaze on Cannan. “Just as your body knows what is right
too.”

Cannan stepped up and grabbed Achelle. Sam roared,
tightening his hold on his mate. Cannan punched him in the jaw, knocking him
out cold. As Sam slumped to the floor, Cannan snatched Achelle from his
brother’s limp arms and carried her to the nearest bedroom.

Her moon-shaped face and large magenta eyes were
breathtaking. Her lithe, petite body a vision to behold. But her beauty only
emphasized Cannan’s ugliness. He felt like a hideous monster about to defile
the fair maiden.

Not wanting to subject her to the massive scar tissue that
covered a good portion of his body, he set her on her hands and knees on the
bed and kneeled behind her. She was sobbing with need now. Desperate to couple
with her minor mates, her body undulating, her sweet voice choking on her
tears.

When she attempted to turn to look at him, Cannan gripped
the back of her head and forced her to look at the headboard instead. She
didn’t like that, twisting away from his grasp. He released her, not wanting to
harm the female.

“Shome—”

“Got her.” As usual Shome knew exactly what Cannan wanted.
He knelt in front of Achelle, cradled her head in his hands and brought his
cock up to her lips.

That caught her attention.

Achelle licked her lips before sucking the broad, mushroom-shaped
head into her mouth. Cannan took advantage of her distraction, burying himself
inside her moist heat with one forceful stroke. He closed his eyes as he
shuddered in ecstasy at the feel of her gripping him tight.

She thrust back, taking him deeper, squeezing him tighter.
He groaned long and loud.

“Is it as good as you imagined?” Shome asked in a breathy
voice.

Cannan opened his eyes to watch the female glide her lips
down Shome’s shaft then up to swirl her tongue over the glistening slit at the
tip of his brother’s rock-hard dick. He swallowed past the lump in his throat.

“So much better.”

And it was. The line of females he’d fucked in the past had
been poor substitutes for a mortal mate. He might as well have been servicing
himself as partnering with a female who did not belong to their family.

Achelle growled around the length of Shome in her mouth and
thrust backward again, trying for relief. Her body knew she needed the seed and
bite of her mate’s brothers in order to complete her bond and produce
offspring. Cannan knew he was freezing up because he’d been celibate since his
accident two months ago and Achelle was so far beyond his experience and
expectation.

Again Shome seemed to read his emotions.

“She needs you, my brother, and so does Sam. Let yourself
go. Release into her. If not for you, then for her and Sam.”

Cannan took Achelle’s hips in his hands and found a rhythm
that satisfied his brother’s mate. With every instinct he had shouting at him
that this was right, he was surprised that he still felt awkward and on edge.
Achelle gave no outward sign that she felt the same way. Her human modesty must
be buried under the thick layers of lust from the Rane bonding ritual. His
brother’s mate matched him thrust for thrust while sucking Shome until her
orgasm burst over her and she screamed her release.