Episode Forty-Six The Trip

L ylah

"No!"

"Come, love," Zoron coaxes. "The sun is up already. We need to leave."

This isn't the first time he's said that this morning.

"No," I say again, loving that my life has changed so much in the last few days that for the first time in all my years I'm able to say that word out loud. But I'm already moving, trying to roll onto my knees in a two-step process of rising from the furs on the floor.

"What did you males do to me last night?" I ask, my voice full of irritation, though I feel none. I certainly know what they did. I perfectly remember every heart-pounding minute of being taken in a dozen different ways.

Even my jaw hurts. It takes me a moment to realize that opening wide enough to get my mouth around three different shoulders, then biting hard enough to break the skin wasn't easy on me. And, well, sucking all three cocks more than once.

"Sore?" Eldar asks, his head cocked in the picture of innocence.

"You little devil," I say as I slap his perfect, naked ass.

"I love it when you call me names," he says with a smile as he steals a kiss.

My life today is so different from how it was a week ago. It's as if I woke up on a different planet. I have three mates! Who care about me! And I can tease them and not fear retribution!

Maybe this isn't another planet. Maybe it's heaven itself. Either way, I never dreamed I could be this happy. I should tell them.

"I'm so happy!" I say, then I fling my arms wide and announce again, "I'm so happy!"

Eldar mimics me, but there's no derision in his expression when he opens his arms wide and says, "I'm so fucking happy, too!"

We all laugh as I limp around the room looking for my clothes among everything that was torn off in passion last night.

"Starving," I complain as I wonder how I'll be able to tolerate riding Zoron today. I was so well used last night, I think I'm raw in places.

"You can eat this on the ride," Zoron says, handing me a stick of dried meat.

"Ugh!"

"You're grumpy, mate," Hazlan says with obvious concern. "Was Eldar right? Are you sore?"

All three heads snap toward me to hear my answer.

"Yes."

"We'll leave you alone tonight. Let you heal."

That doesn't please me at all.

"Don't you dare," I threaten and get three masculine chuckles in response.

They promise me the ride to the Village won't take long.

"We should get there by midday," Zoron says. "Because the Village has swelled since we left, now filled with the children, freed slaves, and human females we rescued from the Works, I'm not sure what we'll find. When we left, there was always a communal firepit where people cooked. I imagine someone will offer us something warm to eat when we arrive."

I've been so consumed with my three mates, I haven't had time to worry about the Village until now. Fear comes toward me like a hover at full speed.

"You say they're amassing an army to attack the Tower? They want to kill humans? Will they…?" I can't even put words to my question.

"We want two things, love," says Zoron. He's the calmest of my mates, the steady one. "We want them to stop stealing our young and forcing them into slavery. That's not too much to ask, right? Not an unfair request?"

"Totally fair. And the second thing?"

"They must treat females with respect, just as we do Down Below. We won't accept anything less."

My stomach lurches as my mind casts about, trying to imagine what that would look like. I can't picture it.

Eldar jumps onto his back, then Haz scoops me up and sits me across Eldar's lap with a knowing smirk on his handsome face. He's facing forward so he can't see the confusion on my face. Perhaps he feels it through the matebond.

Zoron reaches back and holds my ankle, stroking it with affection.

"That would mean females are educated just like the males are. They wouldn't be sold, they could wear clothes."

He stops and shakes his head as if he can't even fathom the idea of a woman being unable to wear clothes.

"The bride auctions would immediately cease. A male would only earn a mate who he courted, a female who wanted him and didn't fear him."

I swallow convulsively as I force my brain to wrap around this concept. I guess it's not too hard to picture. It's mostly what happened with the four of us. My mating with Eldar, though consensual, wasn't exactly what I'd wanted, though I adore him now.

"And if they don't meet your demands?" I ask.

"We do whatever it takes to liberate the females. At whatever cost."

His tone got harsh on that last sentence. I don't like it. But he's right. It must be done.

Hazlan is walking beside us because we're not in a hurry today. He grips my hand as he says, "I need to know more about all of this. It sounds dangerous, but from the little I know about Up Above, it must be done, Lylah. They can't be allowed to enslave my kind—or yours—forever."