Leaving Dreamland (7 page)

“Let’s hope.” Curtis knew it was the practical move. Shannon wouldn’t want to hurt anyone, but all of the secrets had frustrated her. The normally calm woman had run out into the open desert with an alien vessel hovering in the sky. If there was more danger, Curtis just wasn’t sure she’d be able to restrain herself and watch.

Milton frowned at Curtis. “What? You don’t think Ross is right?”

“I think she’s discovered her headstrong human side. I can’t imagine she’ll be willing to follow orders and sit back.” Curtis curled a strand of her long brown hair around his finger.

“Given that Bonnie is Shannon’s sister, I fear you might be right,” Gavin replied.

“So protection and containment is all we can do. I’d rather be fighting for our own freedom, but if she’s at all in danger, we must have our priorities straight. Protect her from the Keelons.” Ross sighed.

“We may be asked to protect other hybrids and their families. We’ll have to wait for Hastings to brief people on a plan of attack to see what we’re assigned to do. After what happened today, he’ll have to put together a full scale defense strategy and prep people.” Curtis kissed Shannon’s forehead and hoped she’d feel better when she woke.

“Whatever it is, we’ll do it. It’ll feel better to have a plan that waiting and watching the skies.” Gavin exhaled in frustration.

“Our Gavin is such a man of action,” Milton smiled at Curtis.

“We’d all feel better with the Keelons taken care of. What sort of a future can we offer her now? Stuck here for our own good.” Curtis shook his head.

“She likes the observation room. If she had a job here, too, it might make it easier,” Ross said.

“One step at a time,” Curtis said.

Chapter Seven

The conference room was packed tight with people the next day. The men stood behind Shannon who sat next to her sister. Gavin watched as whispered conversations around the table made Shannon nervous. The doctor was there, as were Meg and the leader of the pilots on the project, Samantha Montgomery. All three of them had group relationships with alien men and plenty to lose if things went badly.

Only Liz, the doctor, had had a child so far, and it’d caused a big stress in Dreamland. Thus far, the baby was healthy. Gavin doubted the wisdom of having a hybrid with all of the abductions and Keelon activity. He wanted children the human way, raising them and not training them for war, but until the world felt safe enough from the Keelons, nothing would make their group take that risk.

Hastings walked in, and the room fell silent. The large TV screen blinked to life and replayed the alien ship’s path and activity from the day prior. Shannon kept her eyes down.

“The incident shows an escalation we didn’t predict. Returning a large group of human women might be a distraction.” Hastings shook his head. “They know nothing. While the women are relieved to be here, they have no memories at all of their time.”

“Repressed due to trauma?” Bonnie asked Liz.

“Not that I can tell. Some of the women are shaken, but the uninjured ones know who they are, where they are, but they have a blank in their memories. They think the date is right around when they were reported missing give or take a day. We’re monitoring them.”

“Do you think one is an alien plant? Maybe, they have a listening device on the women?” Gavin asked.

“All of them have been DNA tested. They’re completely human. We scanned then and x-rayed them while they were isolated. Nothing was found that could transmit information back to the aliens. A couple of the women have been gone for more than a year. One has given birth recently, but there was no baby returned and she has no memory of any of that.” Liz shook her head. “They may be distracting us from a coming attack. We could spin our wheels for weeks trying to help the abductees piece together their memories.”

“If it’s a distraction, what do we do?” Shannon asked.

“The best move is to relocate all alien and hybrid citizens to another location.” Hastings sat back. “Then we’ll be able to tell if the aliens can find them through some long distance scanner or if they’re just assuming because it’s Area 51 that we have them all here. Don’t worry, you’ll be perfectly safe.”

“No way,” Bonnie said.

“This is the best way to keep your men alive,” Hastings snapped.

“Like the aliens won’t just move on and keep searching the planet? They’ve abducted people from all over the Earth. If you go to the trouble to move them, it’ll just get the alien’s attention.” Bonnie shook her head.

“She’s right!” Shannon piped up. “We’re not going anywhere. If they want a fight, we’ll put up a fight right here. If they want to take away the hybrids or aliens, we’ll resist. I’ll do whatever I can.”

“We all will. How’s the drone issue?” Gavin asked.

Meg nodded. “We’re good. I think we’ve got it finally. We’ll do a couple more tests this afternoon to make sure there’s a consistent explosion, but we’ll be ready to go whenever we get another visit.”

Hastings inhaled deeply. “Outfit all the ships flying against the Keelons with at least one drone.”

“That’ll take a few hours. The engineers can add on the launchers. But the alien ship will need to open a hatch, not just send out a beam. They need to give us access to the inside of their ship or we’ll have to blast our way in,” Meg said.

“We can do it if we have to.” Samantha nodded. “We’ve got to make the move while we have the opportunity and the surprise of the weapon. If we don’t get access, we won’t deploy the weapon. But after last time, they’ll be expecting more of a fight so it might be a challenge.”

“You need bait,” Shannon said.

“No!” Gavin and the guys exclaimed.

“Hell no!” Hastings said.

“Ditto!” Bonnie agreed.

“You need something they want. Either they want a hybrid or they don’t. It might not even work. They could’ve yanked me up to their ship yesterday, but they didn’t. If they want hybrids, maybe it’ll keep them from blasting our ships out of the sky?” Shannon suggested.

“It’s too dangerous,” Hastings said.

“What if we just use some tissue samples?” Liz asked.

“Put hybrid DNA samples on the fighters? Interesting.” Meg nodded. “Depending on how sensitive and thorough their scans are, it might fool the Keelons into thinking our fighter pilots are all hybrids.”

“I can live with that,” Hastings said.

“A little bit of dead skin? A cheek swab? Really? You don’t think they’ll see through it?” Shannon shook her head.

Samantha sat forward. “In the heat of a battle, no one will test too long or in detail. If that’s what they’re looking for and they get a hit, odds are they’ll act. What their action will be, we can’t be sure. Their technology is superior, no doubt about it, so they’ll be far more confident.”

Shannon frowned. “Well, you can have all of the DNA you want. But I’d rather help in a real way. I hope the aliens fall for dead skin cells.”

“You
will
help us. Everyone plays their part.” Gavin put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t relax at all, and he wondered if Shannon could handle the fact that people might die in the battle.

* * * *

Pacing her quarters, Shannon felt a little betrayed that her men were willing to fight but wanted to keep her under glass. Everyone wanted her locked up and hidden away.

“Putting yourself in danger is a very bad idea. Hastings’ focus would be on you and not the mission,” Milton said.

“Like he cares about me.” She rolled her eyes. “He’s a sperm donor, not a father.”

Curtis shrugged. “He knew about you all your life, but you haven’t tried to get to know each other.”

“He never tried. Never visited once. He let my birth mother die before I got to meet her, cheated on his wife and could’ve really messed up Bonnie’s life. Let’s not worry about Hastings in all of this,” she said.

“When he’s the one running the attack, you do need to take him into account.” Gavin folded his arms.

“He’s a professional soldier and leader. He should be able to block out personal issues for the greater good. Isn’t that what he did when he brought me here without any explanation? You guys had to force him to tell me the truth. I’ll do things my way, and he’ll do things his.” She smiled.

“You’re not exactly battlefield material. You’re an astronomer,” Ross told her.

“Fine, I’ll play nice. If he fails, don’t blame me.” Shannon had no intention of being a quiet mouse in the corner, but the guys needed to hear it.

“Good.” Milton hugged her tight.

“Now, I really could use some affection to get all this war crap out of my head. I’m used to gazing at stars, not talking about weapons.” She kissed Milton softly.

“You can’t use sex to win an argument,” Ross said.

She smiled and stripped off her clothes. “No? I don’t think anyone will win this argument anyway. I compromised so we might as well enjoy each other before we have to be serious and in danger.”

Without waiting for a reply, she headed into the bedroom and tossed out condoms and lube packets on the bed. Sliding onto the soft sheets, she watched as the men filed in and removed their clothing.

They might be alien soldiers, but she was a woman. Human or hybrid, she knew how men worked. She pulled Curtis onto the bed and kissed him, rubbing her breasts to his chest until he grabbed them. His rough hands made her press for more as her hands worked his cock. Once he was hard, she slid on protection and moved to ride him. Gavin lifted her up and set her on Curtis’ face.

As Gavin kissed her mouth, Curtis ate her pussy, Milton sucked her breasts, and Ross worked her ass. Their tongues ruled her world, and she rocked for more. When Curtis’ tongue wasn’t enough, she pushed back and Ross guided her onto the cock. Curtis was curved just right, and she moaned as she pressed all the way down on him.

Milton joined Ross behind her, and she relaxed as they lubed her ass. Milton pressed to her body, and she held still to enjoy every stretch. He was pushed into her even more as he took Ross’ cock, and she felt the weight and angle shift in Milton’s position.

“Like it?” she asked him.

“I love being in the middle.” He kissed her cheek.

Gavin stood, his feet on either side of Curtis and rubbed his erection over Shannon’s lips. She licked and kissed it playfully before grabbing the base and sucking the thick member in her mouth. Savoring the moment, she noticed they weren’t moving too fast. Everyone wanted to enjoy the passion and calm.

Hands squeezed her breasts, but she had no idea whose. Ross and Milton’s moans echoed her feelings, but her mouth was full. Twirling her tongue around the head of Gavin’s shaft, she loved the sound of his groans. Curtis lifted, and she gasped, grabbing Gavin’s tight ass as she rocked harder.

“You like all this attention?” Gavin teased.

She nipped at his balls. “I love the group thing. It’s so natural.”

The men sped up, and she was overwhelmed with heat and friction. The spark started deep inside her and spread slowly. Her hips snapped down on their two cocks as she pressed her face to Gavin’s erection and licked. She’d bite him if she wasn’t careful as she shuddered with a strong orgasm.

Curtis reached up and stroked Gavin’s cock until he came. Lost in her pleasure, she lapped at the cream but listened to Milton and Ross shout in release. She ground down on Curtis and tightened her cunt around him until he grabbed her hips.

His grunts sent shivers through her, but the way he lifted her off the bed felt wild and desperate for release. When his thumbs rubbed her clit, she screamed at a fresh round of throbbing throughout her body. Her nails dug into Gavin’s thighs.

He knelt down and kissed her then kissed Curtis. Shannon grinned and rubbed the cream into Gavin’s body as he moved to the side. Milton eased from her body, and her muscles ached in a wonderful way. Rolling on the other side of Curtis, she watched Milton and Ross kissing.

One day, she’d make them all just screw around and let her watch. It sounded like heaven right now. Of course, when she got the show, she’d want to join them. The right time would come, but now, she’d needed her brain fully occupied with hot men. No time to think.

“Feel better?” Milton asked.

“A little. For now. You might need to spend all night keeping me busy so I don’t plot a way to get more involved.” She hugged Milton to her body and kissed him as Ross slid in between Gavin and Curtis.

“I think we’re up to the challenge,” Gavin chuckled.

“Definitely, we’ll wear you out!” Ross agreed.

Chapter Eight

Sitting in the lab as Liz took the cheek swabs for DNA samples to plant on the ships as bait, Shannon hoped they had some time before the Keelon’s next attack. The planes were outfitted with the weapons and ready to go. Still, Shannon’s life had gone from dull and quiet to insanity in one night. She wanted more time with her guys before bad things happened.

Samantha surveyed the small tube with a cotton swab in it. “It can’t hurt.”

“I’d rather go. I feel so useless.” Shannon sighed.

Samantha shook her head. “You’re not a fighter or a pilot. You’re better off here. There’s only room for a pilot in a standard fighter jet.”

“What if it’s not DNA they recognize? What if it’s me? Who knows what will trigger them? Do we want to take that chance? I want to get that weapon in there,” Shannon told Samantha. “Is there room in the jet?”

“No, really, you just need to stay here. The aliens will attack. We’ll make it work.” Samantha gathered the tubes in a bag.

Shannon had the feeling she had to see the ships. Had to do something more. Like a passive fool, she’d pretended there was no problem here for months like a passive fool. “Can I see the ship? Just to be nosy.”

“Sure. I know it’s hard not to be part of it. My guys are furious they’re grounded, but the powder could kill them.” Samantha led the way to the hangar.

“Do you think it’ll be long?” Shannon asked.