“Don’t,” she cried as Torin-Ka took a step forward. “Find...Macar-Na!”
The bug pierced her side with one of its talons, and Jayce screamed. Torin-Ka let loose with a loud roar and raced for his mate. His enemy threw her back into the warehouse, and blasts exploded from all around him.
Dirt and stone pelted him, but he cared little. He had to reach Jayce. To save her. To heal her.
As soon as he burst through the door and into the large building, something slammed into him, taking him down to the ground with a bone-jarring thud. A sharp sting to his neck made his entire body convulse, and darkness enveloped him. His last thought...he could not sense Jayce at all. Or Macar-Na. He’d failed. Failed them both.
9
Jayce
She couldn’t move. Whatever the Exogen had injected her with had paralyzed her entire body. Even breathing was getting difficult. What was worse? The scum had taken her tracking bracelet and the biggest bug—the one she assumed was the leader—was examining it with curiosity.
She lay fifty feet away from Torin-Ka, and had to watch, almost unblinking, as five of the bug-like creatures descended on him and proceeded to beat him with their long, thin legs and arms. His body flopped helplessly, and tears burned Jayce’s eyes.
If only she’d been faster.
When she and Macar-Na had retreated to the human command center in the hospital to watch Torin-Ka’s march across the destroyed lands on closed-circuit television, she’d felt an odd sense of foreboding, but had shaken it off.
Until the floor under her feet had given way, and she and Macar-Na—along with the President and six Secret Service agents—had fallen through the hole, and a bug had grabbed her, injected her with some sort of poison, and dragged her by one arm over the rubble and out of the hospital.
She hadn’t seen Macar-Na since then, and she prayed he was still alive and still free. If he was, he’d come for them. But would he also be captured? Tortured?
The bugs lifted Torin-Ka’s unconscious body and brought him over to a chain hanging from a conveyor belt-type device attached to the ceiling. Wrapping the chain around his wrists in a complex pattern, they secured him with his feet off the ground, hanging, and then activated the belt so it pulled him higher, towards the back corner of the room where the other human prisoners were gathered.
Four Exogens guarded the group, blasters pointed at them, and the humans had been bound with ropes hand and foot. No one was going to get them out of this mess. Not unless the army Torin-Ka had brought with them could somehow get through the doors.
Even then...the Exogens would kill the hostages and the king before giving up.
“Huuuumannnnn,” one of the bugs hissed at her as it approached, grabbed her by the hair, and hauled her upright.
Jayce made a small, pained sound...all she could manage...and stared into the ugliest yellow eyes she’d ever seen. It was as if they had a hundred individual eyes within each of the two large bumps on either side of their elongated heads.
The bug brought her closer, then bit her shoulder, hard. The pain was immediate, coursing through her body like acid, but just as she thought she couldn’t take it any longer, the paralytic seemed to wear off, and she took a deep breath and screamed in the thing’s ear—or where she thought the ear might be.
“Let me go, you piece of shit!”
“Youuuuu arrrrre preciousssssss to themmmm,” the thing mused as it carried her back towards the rest of the human hostages. “Youuuuu willll beeeee usssssefulllll.”
“I will not.” Despite the pain from the wound to her side, the bruises, and the poison, she fought with everything she had in her to escape its hold, and when a chunk of her hair tore from her scalp and she dropped to the ground, she grabbed the knife Torin-Ka had given her.
Strapped to her leg under the loose pants, it ripped through the material as she tore it free, and sliced through the Exogen’s ankle joint.
The bug stumbled and fell to the ground, but the injury barely slowed it down. She sliced at it again, cutting off an arm this time, then rolled away and scrambled to her feet. She had to get out of this building, find Macar-Na, and then work out a plan to save their mate.
There! A narrow garbage chute twenty feet away. It was too small for the Exogens to fit into, but maybe she could make it. The bug chasing after her was taller and faster, but he was missing half of his leg, so his gait wasn’t smooth, and though Jayce’s muscles protested every step, she pushed herself harder and faster, then dove headfirst into the narrow opening.
This...was going to hurt.
Macar-Na
He fought with his blades and his blaster, cutting down as many Exogens as he could, until he could barely stagger through the bodies. There were so many more than they had anticipated. The Exogens had brought thousands, and they had all been hiding inside the structure his mate had called a “steel mill.”
He had to find her. Had to get to her. When the Exogens had taken her, he’d felt her terror, but now...he sensed only his own pain. The pain of his heart cracking into small pieces as both of his mates suffered.
Did they even still live? Would he know if they had met their ends?
He was almost at the back of the mill when he heard her. His mate. Her scream was barely audible over the roar of the battle, but his heart picked out the sound above all others.
He stopped, focused all of his energy on her, and listened. A set of windows low to the ground. That’s where she was. Macar-Na kicked at them, shattering the glass, and Jayce’s pleas for help grew louder.
“Jayce! I am here mate.” He stuck his head through the window, peering into the darkness.
“Macar-Na? Oh God. You’re...here.”
His eyes struggled to adjust to the darkness, and when they did, he saw her. Blood stained her clothing, a large, dark patch on her side. One eye was swollen shut, and she limped closer to him, dragging one leg behind her.
Banging came from over her head, and she flinched as she tried to move faster, but the pain on her face...it tore him apart.
“I cannot fit through this opening, Jayce. You will have to give me your hands.” He thrust his arms towards her, and she tried to jump, missed, and collapsed to the ground with a whimper. “Try again, mate. Please.”
Jayce peered up at him. “I can’t. Macar-Na...I can’t. You have to find a way to get to Torin-Ka. They’re going to kill him.” The ceiling behind her exploded in flames, and Exogens poured into the room.
“Jayce! No!”
The Exogens dragged her away, and Jayce met his gaze. She raised her left arm, and Macar-Na saw the abraded skin where her tracking bracelet had been. “Destroy it!” Jayce cried as the bugs hauled her up a set of stairs, and then her agonized scream made his blood run cold.
He had to save her and Torin-Ka. Now.
Torin-Ka
He struggled to free himself from the chains wrapped around his wrists, but they were too tight, and whatever had been done to him left his muscles weak and sluggish.
Until he saw his mate. They had torn her clothing, biting her over and over again, piercing her flesh with their talons, and shredding her flesh.
The one who had poisoned him dragged her by one foot, and a large swath of blood smeared the floor in her wake. She was no longer moving, no longer fighting, but he could still see her stuttering breaths.
When she was tossed at his feet, he cursed the Exogens with every foul word he had ever heard in battle, but they seemed to care little. Their leader, the one who had held Jayce in his arms and used her as bait, chittered with others of his kind at the other end of the warehouse, while the grunts, smaller but with blasters and shock sticks, guarded the humans and Torin-Ka.
Jayce forced her eyes open and stared up at him. “I’m sorry,” she mouthed, and he begged her to stay with him, to fight, but though the humans behind and below him were whimpering and moaning, he could still hear Jayce’s heartbeat, and it was slowing down.
“Do not leave me, mate.
Please.” Torin-Ka looked away for just a moment, staring up at the chains in desperation, searching for some weakness. Some way to free himself. He was hooked to some sort of conveyance, and a conduit ran along the ceiling, all the way to the far wall.
And then he saw it. A button. It would move him. And perhaps...lower him enough he could stand. “Mate. You are the only one who can save me. Save us.”
Jayce’s eyes flicked to the button along the wall, and she managed the briefest of nods. Her body was so broken, so weak, and Torin-Ka did not know if she had the strength left in her to traverse even half the distance she needed.
He sent everything he had through the mate bond. All of his strength, all of his hopes and dreams and his intense need and love for Jayce and Makar-Na.
His mate used one leg to push herself along the ground, leaving more blood behind every time she moved. She was utterly silent, and Torin-Ka prayed to the ancient gods. She must live. If she did not, he would die as well.
When she reached the wall, he could scent her tears. Yet she grabbed on to the fence that kept all of the humans prisoner and pulled herself up by one hand’s width at a time.
She had to shove her arm through the links trapping them to reach the button, and a sharp piece of metal sliced into her skin, making her whimper.
One of the Exogen guards fired, hitting her in the shoulder, but she managed to slam her fingers against the button before she collapsed into a heap.
Torin-Ka started to move, heading towards his mate on the conveyance. Lower. Lower still. When his feet touched the ground, he used the last of his strength to jump, and the chain slipped off the hook.
The guards fired at him, but he swung the chain—still looped around his wrists—at them and caught one of them around the throat. Yanking back hard, he snapped the thing’s neck.
With a battle cry, he tore the chains from his hands and leapt onto the other guard, twisting its elongated head until it too, snapped.
A blast of heat knocked Torin-Ka back, and he threw his body over his mate, desperate to protect her. Hissing screams reached his ears—dying Exogens.
As the sounds faded, and only crackling flames could be heard, he raised his head.
A Kivari shuttle hovered above the structure, and where the Exogens had been gathered, only smoke and ash remained.
Kivari warriors poured into the building, led by Macar-Na.
They were safe. As long as Jayce could be healed, they would all be safe.
Torin-Ka gathered her into his arms and kissed her bloodied lips. “You saved us, my beautiful female.”
“Torin-Ka,” she rasped as she started to choke and wheeze. “I’m...sorry.”
10
Jayce
The afterlife was too bright. She’d never thought about the visual. She’d expected clouds and silence and maybe puppies, but not this. Not pure white. Not this constant, low hum. Not...warmth.
She wasn’t dead. How was she not dead? Her fingers twitched, and on either side of her, the warmth increased.
Could it be? Her mates were here? She was here?
“Shhh, Jayce. Do not try to move. You are still in the healing cycle.”
Torin-Ka. His deep voice was unmistakable.
“We are back on our ship, my mate. All of the humans lived. Thanks to you.” This, from Makar-Na. His voice was softer.
She made a small sound, hoping they’d understand her. That she was relieved. That she was okay. That she...needed them.
When her mates climbed into bed with her and wrapped their arms around her, she let herself float on a sea of emotion. Of love.
Much later, when she woke, her mates were still curled on either side of her. A glass of the restorative tea steamed on the side table of their bed, and Jayce reached for it, finding more strength in her limbs than she thought she’d have.
When the cup was empty, she lay back down and snuggled closer to her mates. They’d lived. Survived under the most impossible odds. And now...she had to tell them she loved them.
“We know, mate.” Torin-Ka’s words rumbled through his chest as he opened his eyes to stare at her. “And we feel the same.”
Macar-Na pushed himself up to sitting, gathered Jayce close, and waited for Torin-Ka to sit up as well. Her two males positioned themselves so she could see both of them, and Jayce teared up. “You…?”
“We can sense your emotions,” Torin-Ka said. “You cannot sense ours as well?” He rested his hand over her heart, and Macar-Na placed his on top of Torin-Ka’s.
Pure love flowed through her, and she nodded. “I can.” The words were hard to force out over the lump in her throat, but she added her hand, then looked between the two of them. “I love you. Both. I don’t understand how or why. It’s only been a couple of days. But…you’re mine. And I was so scared I was going to lose both of you.”
Torin-Ka’s growl made her flinch, but Macar-Na started to hum to her, and her emotions settled.
“How do you do that?” Jayce asked.
“It is something all Kivari can do,” he said as he leaned closer to brush a kiss to her temple. “It is useful with…our young.”
Young? Jayce gasped. She hadn’t thought about the possibility that she could get pregnant with these two very…virile males.
“Not yet, my mate,” Torin-Ka said. “But soon, I think.”
Macar-Na cupped her cheek. “We love you, Jayce. And now that the Exogens have been defeated and it is known Earth is protected…we will be safe here. Our people are even now meeting with your government to arrange our settlement agreement.”
“So we’re safe?” Relief washed over her, along with something else…pure, raw need.
“Yes, mate. Safe and alone,” Torin-Ka said as he pulled back the sheet to reveal his massive erection. “And by my calculations, it is Christmas now on Earth. A holiday you celebrate, yes?”
“Y-yes.” Jayce blushed, and thought about all the times she’d been alone on Christmas. And now…she had everything she’d ever wanted.
It was only then Jayce realized she was completely naked—as were both of her males. “What are we going to do about that?” she asked, nodding towards his cock.
“We are going to claim you,” Macar-Na said. “And each other.” He leaned over her to slant his lips over Torin-Ka’s, and they each palmed one of Jayce’s breasts as they kissed.
The little zings of pleasure running through her intensified as she felt their passion grow, and when they both turned their attention to her, she sighed and lost herself to the pleasure of her two alien mates.
Other Works By Tempest Luna
Bound By Her Alien
Claimed By Her Alien
Owned By His Alien
Saved By Her Alien
About Tempest Luna
Tempest Luna is the pen name of a popular romance author who wanted to stretch her wings—all the way to the stars. She loves the idea of green, blue, and purple aliens who strive to win their human women’s hearts.
The First Tradition Of T’lugot
A Galactic Seduction Novelette
Lula Monk
When a handful of human survivors from the Hub arrive on the icy surface of a no tech planet in the Adrasta Galaxy, they hope they've found a new home. But something is lurking in the snow. Will the beast in the shadows be the human women's ruin or their salvation?
1
Clea
When the bay door opened, a blast of frigid, crystalline air assaulted Clea. Small tufts of white fell from the sky, and a soft wind carried them floating into the bay where Clea and the other survivors stood. She took a deep breath, savoring the pure, frozen scent that surrounded them. Her eyes had closed on the inhale; she opened them once more to the bracing field of white that stretched as far as the eye could see, just outside the confines of the spaceship, broken only intermittently by dense patches of evergreen trees.
Many months had passed since the Hub, the space station where Clea and scores of other Earth women had been so
ld as breeders to creatures from across the universe, had fallen. And in all that time, the wide expanse of ice before her was the closest she had come to seeing anything that even vaguely resembled her home planet.
The babe in her arms squirmed, and a deep, rumbly voice spoke beside her.
“I do not like this place.”
Clea laughed, turning to grace her mate with a smile. “You wouldn’t.”
Ignis’s flames swirled around him gently as his narrowed eyes surveyed the grey sky overhead. As he surveyed this new planet upon which they had just landed, his frown deepened.
“Are you sure this will be safe? For the boy, I mean.”
Clea tucked the blanket more snuggly around Kyus, tracing her finger over the infant’s fat cheek. Ignis’s concern was a valid one, she supposed. While the baby in her arms looked as human as any other she had ever seen, there were times when his Ardan nature shone through. Shortly after he was born, Kyus had surprised Clea and Ignis both by bursting into an angry, squalling ball of fire, burning the skin of Clea’s breast while she tried to get him to latch and nurse. Ignis had taken the boy then, while Samantha—Clea’s closest and dearest friend—had tended to her wounds. Fortunately, the depth of the burns wasn’t so great, and Clea had learned to read the signs of when her son was near the edge of anger.
And it was those moments of Ardan anger, when Kyus’s flames would burn as hotly and as angrily as his father’s, that made Clea reconsider her plan.
She knew raising Kyus on Arda was not an option. The months she had spent on that planet while pregnant were some of the most grueling and uncomfortable of her life. Even the women who weren’t growing a fire alien baby in their wombs found the heat stifling and oppressive. This planet, which Ignis’s people had not visited in eons, was the closest habitable planet to Arda. It would have to suffice.
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