Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Reke

N ina wraps her arms around my neck, and I breathe in her scent, intermingled with Vennkor's. The smell of chemicals has mostly dissipated from his skin, disguised by spent milt and the lingering aftermath of Nina's sated desire.

Nina. I tighten my hold on her, the one I will protect until my dying breath.

And Vennkor … I close my eyes, still trying desperately to deny what is slowly becoming undeniable, even as I listen to his slow and steady breaths.

We came so close to freedom. For a short while, I thought we had escaped. Here, trapped in a ship that is not within our control, the sheer impossibility of saving Nina from the Hov is nearly overwhelming.

And if I cannot even protect Nina, how can I also protect Vennkor?

Guilt and worry create a pit in my stomach.

Nina brushes a lock of hair back from my face, tracing the line of my ear and down over the back of my head to my neck. The tips of her fingers are colder than Vennkor's warm skin, and I breathe deep, wanting to coat myself in their scent. Wanting to lose myself in their touch.

I flex my hips in tiny thrusts.

"Oh." Nina pulls back a fraction to look at me. Seated on Vennkor's knees, the size difference between them is all the more prominent. "It's like that, is it?" And she rests a hand at my hip, her pale fingers splayed across my dark skin. "This is how you plan?"

"Rutting helps me think." The tip of my cock pokes beyond my slit, and I remember the combination of pleasure and pain I had felt when Nina had pushed her smallest finger inside of me, flush with my aching cock.

"Rutting takes all the blood out of your brain."

"It was your idea we rut in every room," I remind her as the internal itchiness cascades down my nerve endings, and I shiver in anticipation.

"It was, wasn't it. A show of defiance." She glances questioningly at Vennkor over her shoulder, but already I have noticed the sheen of sweat on his brow and the tight way he holds his jaw, clenched as he attempts not to move. The scent of his desire peaks, flooding the surrounding air.

Nina squirms on his lap, and it does not take me any effort to picture how his rising cock would look trapped between her back and his front.

"Strip and part your legs," I demand of Nina.

Her face darkens as her body heat rises. "What if Venn doesn't?—"

"What does Vennkor want?" I ask impatiently. If he was not here, I would not have to worry about him. If he was not here, he would not so often haunt my thoughts and cause so many uncomfortable emotions.

"I … " Vennkor swallows, and I watch his throat working, despite myself. "I am amenable to the suggestion."

"Nina." My voice is gravelly. "Strip and part your legs."

She could choose to refuse me, and for the length of a heartbeat I think she might, but then she is kicking off her breeches before raising her arms over her head for Vennkor to pull her sweater off so she is wearing only the smallest of her undergarments.

She leans further back against Vennkor, relaxed in his company, and spreads her legs. I crouch between her thighs and eagerly bow my head to rub one cheek against the dark hair that protects her quim. It is not as soft as the hair elsewhere on her body, but the scent of her clings to every strand, and I want to coat myself in this smell so that everyone who meets us knows I am her Mate.

"I haven't exactly had time to trim— Oh God!" Nina's legs clamp around my head as I lick over her sensitive button. It is nestled under her hair, a secret waiting for me to find.

Her taste is exquisitely and entirely Nina. My cock stiffens, fully erect, fully extended and trapped between my stomach and one of my own bent legs. I continue my exploration, not pausing to settle myself more comfortably, lost in the taste that is Nina. I lick over and between her folds, sucking at her quim, lapping up her juices, as I pry her legs open again.

At first she resists, her head thrown back against Vennkor's chest and her eyes pressed tightly closed, and so I dig the tips of my claws into her thighs, not hard enough to pierce the skin but enough to make her body jerk and for her legs to fall open.

I redouble my efforts. For a second time, her body stiffens. Her hands scrabble at my scalp, pulling my fur. Her taste floods my mouth. Her internal muscles spasm her pleasure, until my purring, Nina's panting and the grinding of Vennkor's teeth are the only sounds filling our tent.

Self-satisfied, despite my still stiff and aching cock, I glance up to see Nina blinking in a dazed sort of way. Dewy sweat coats her skin, and she brushes a lock of hair away from her eyes.

"Your tongue … " she begins, gasps another breath and continues… "vibrates when you purr. Did you know that?"

I open my mouth to respond, then sight how Vennkor has his knees bent so that he can press his feet to Nina's inner calves, having helped hold her open for me. His face is covered in green tinted shadows cast by the faint amount of light able to penetrate the cloth over our heads, and he stares back at me, his attention fixed on all the places where I am touching our Nina.

I straighten slowly, sitting back on my heels and narrowing my eyes in a glare.

"Reke?" Nina reaches for me.

I do not shuffle forward so that she can take my cock in hand, as she clearly wishes to. "I want to taste Vennkor too."

Vennkor's eyes widen, and his mouth opens to emit a small "Akh."

"Oh." Nina climbs limp-limbed off his thighs. "Reke, are you?—"

"Yes," I huff. "It is annoying, wanting this when I already have the most perfect Mate."

"Wanting more isn't a crime." She glances at Vennkor. "It's also not a crime for you to say no, if that's what you want."

But he is already fumbling with the clasp of his breeches. Then his cock springs free, considerably larger than my own. Too large, I think, for me to wrap my hand all the way around.

Nina

My heart beats a stampede in my chest as Reke studies Venn's erection. He's got his head tilted to one side, and his tail's flicking. I'm holding my breath, waiting for when he pounces on Venn, and I think Venn is holding his breath too, he's that quiet. We all might have turned to stone. Or maybe time has stopped, and we're trapped in this moment, standing on the precipice.

I've had my suspicions, wondering if Reke and Venn had ever thought about how us being together might eventually turn into something more than just Reke and me, and Venn and me. Although I hadn't been confident Reke would decide to act on his feelings.

I suppose Reke still might change his mind. But then closes one hand experimentally around Venn's massive cock.

Venn's eyes snap shut. He's holding himself so still that a muscle twitches in his cheek. Maybe he's also afraid Reke will change his mind. Or maybe he's afraid of Reke, and who could blame him? He'll forever wear the scars of where Reke almost killed him—and saved him. But with his eyes closed, he misses the way Reke is staring at him—with unguarded fascination.

I know this moment can't last. Despite how much we hide under this flimsy pretense for a tent or how still we sit there's no escaping the very real possibility that this moment right here, right now might be the last time the three of us are (almost) alone and (almost) free.

I purse my lips, worry and panic and sadness wrestling with my post-orgasmic sanguine. But I'm not about to let the Hov steal this moment from me, to add to their collection of other stolen moments, so I lean forward, all the better to see.

Reke squeezes, trying but failing to touch his fingers to his thumb around Venn's width. Venn jerks, his hips lifting off the floor.

"That hurt?" Reke straightens, tipping his head the other way.

"No." Venn's answer comes from between his gritted teeth.

I'm not entirely sure he told the complete truth, but he grabs hold of Reke's shoulder, tugging the smaller alien closer to him. Reke's pupils are so wide they're practically perfect circles.

My mouth is open, and I'm determined not to blink, not wanting to miss a single second. Like this, my two Mates are hot as fuck, but it's so much more than just the physical. It's about them beginning to trust each other.

Reke squeezes again, causing another shock to jolt Venn's body. Venn pulls me against his side, bowing his head to bury his face in my hair, as Reke, clearly unused to touching another man's cock, begins a slow examination of the pre-cum gratuitously leaking from Venn. Mesmerized, I watch as Reke swirls his fingers through the drops, rubs them between his fingers and then licks his fingers clean.

I'm honestly not sure if I moan, or if it's Venn who's making that sound. The way Reke's eyes fluttered closed like he just tasted heaven is causing tingles to accumulate between my legs again, enhanced by the memory of how it felt to have Reke tasting me with an equal amount of reverence. I wrap my arms around Venn, relishing the feeling of skin against skin, as both of us remain transfixed by a curious (and rather obstinate) Reke.

Vennkor

This moment—Reke's hand around my cock; Nina naked in my arms—is so beyond any reality I could have imagined for myself that I hold myself stiff, unsure of how to react.

I want this. My body has made that blatantly evident, but there is a difference between physically wanting something and being mentally prepared to accept what is offered. But then Reke strokes me, and what sensibility remains flies straight out of my mind.

His movements are jerky and inexperienced. My hips buck as uncontrollable pleasure gathers beneath his touch. I grit my teeth, knowing I am not going to last long but wanting the moment to last as long as possible.

He leans forward to lick at the hollow of my neck, where his teeth permanently marked my skin, and then he leans lower and laps at my tip.

I scrabble at the floor with my free hand, trying to find something I can squeeze, wanting somehow to release a little of the tension building up inside me.

As if sensing my desperation, Nina kisses my sweaty forehead. "It's alright," she whispers. "It's all alright, Venn. You're safe with us." It is such a blatant lie, after everything that has happened and everything that is bound to happen, but I let myself believe her, just for this moment, just while we three are still together.

My back arches, and I come in long pulses, splattering Reke's deadly, beautiful hands.