“Children make excellent leverage. My brother wanted to use the child to stop Zion from interrupting our business. He’s had a bit of a vendetta against us ever since that unfortunate incident a few years ago with the EMP blast and the twins.” Paisley smiled evilly at the memory.
This was before Elaine had joined the crew, but Crimson had told her once that the space pirate Mechum had blasted Don and Juan with an EMP gun several years ago and nearly killed them. Despite what the general population thought, Cyborgs were still inherently human. They may have some impulses that have been altered by technology, but they were capable of feelings, emotions, and even relationships. Luckily, Don and Juan had an understanding captain who didn’t treat them as less than alive.
“Your brother? You’re Mechum’s sister!” Elaine gasped out. She ran through what she had learned over the past two years and some things were starting to make sense. Mainly that Mechum seemed to be actively avoiding the areas Zion was patrolling and how he had barely slipped though the crew’s fingers several times recently. “You’ve been letting him know our movements and tipping him off!” Elaine accused.
“Very good! You might be more valuable than just as a mechanic after all! Too bad you’re going to be caged and used for the pleasure of our crew while we torture Zion with the knowledge another one of his crew was damaged while messing with us!” Paisley threw her head back, laughing evilly at her plot. “This is going to be so much fun. I’ve spent months trying to get what I came for only to find out I didn’t have a chance in hades of getting it with how in love with you he is. I’m hoping they’ll be so busy cleaning up the nasty virus I planted in the system they won’t realize I’ve planted another that shares the recording data. It's going to be so delicious to see Zion’s face when I send him the vid files of what my brother has planned for you!”
“You will have to kill Zion, and probably the entire rest of the crew to stop them from coming for me.” Elaine was confident in her statement. Zion would have come for her even if she was only his mechanic, but now that she was his pair, he would tear the universe apart.
“As if that wasn’t what we plan to do anyway. If I could get off this ship without him alive, I would kill him now.” Paisley said venomously, she began slinking towards Elaine again.
In that moment, Elaine made a decision, grasped the heavy metal vase on the night stand next to her and launched it at Paisley’s head just as the door slid open. She was stronger than most people realized, she had to be to handle the tools and equipment in the engine room. This vase wasn’t much heavier than some of the oversized wrenches Elaine had to use regularly.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The hiss of the door opening startled Paisley into whipping around. She saw the vase coming out of the corner of her eye but was too late to dodge it. The metal hit her in the side of the head, knocking her unconscious at Zion’s feet.
Elaine looked sheepishly at her lover, his chest heaving with the effort of racing to her rescue, eyes blazing in anger over the danger she had put herself in trying to protect him. She was never leaving his sight again, who gave a flying class Z if she had saved herself, he wasn’t risking it ever again. Zion stalked towards his pair just as Jax flew into the room.
“Damn Zion, did you kill her?” Jax got each word out between great gulping breaths of air.
“Uh, that was me, and I don’t think she’s dead.” Elaine managed to say in an uncertain tone, “I threw a vase at her head when she was distracted.”
Everyone froze for a minute before Jax threw his head back, laughing heartily at the image. Elaine’s gaze left Zion and she stared at Jax in confusion. She hadn’t said anything funny, why was he laughing?
“Don’t look at him. Jax, get Paisley out of here and secured in plas-cuffs. Put Don and Juan on guard. As soon as we land, have her sent to the counsel prison. She’s going to stay there for a long damn time. Oh, and get the hell out of our room. I need to make sure my pair is alright.” Zion scooped Elaine up and carried her into the bathroom, the door whooshing as it closed behind them.
“Zion, I’m fine. I’m wearing your nano-tech armor and I was never any closer to Paisley than when you walked through the door. I’m completely unharmed. Did you know she’s Mechum’s sister?” Elaine tried distracting Zion as he methodically stripped her naked, inspecting every new square inch of skin.
“We just figured it out. A genetic comparison scan told us so a few minutes ago.” Zion responded as he finally had her completely bare before him. Finding no marks that weren’t easily attributed to his handling of her during sex earlier, Zion sank to his knees in front of her, wrapping his arms around her as he laid his head against her stomach. Elaine wrapped her arms around his head, holding him close. “I was so scared I was going to find you dead, I’m fairly certain I broke some sort of speed record trying to get to you. Why wouldn’t you hide?”
“Shh, my love, I was prepared to distract her, fight her, or hide from her. Whatever I had to do to try to protect you, just as you would have done to try to protect me.” Elaine soothed as she leaned forward to kiss the top of his head.
“I would die without you. You can’t put yourself in danger, I would destroy the entire universe if anything happened to you. Please, I’ve been alone most of my life, I can’t lose you just when I’ve found you!” Zion spoke against her skin, but she could hear him plainly.
“I’ve been alone a long time too, my sister died two years ago, she was all I had. Our father had recently come back into our lives long enough to gamble away all the money we had between the two of us before disappearing again. We were rebuilding our repair business when she got silver sickness. It’s not usually deadly, but she waited too long to get help because it’s expensive to treat. She was more worried about keeping our business afloat than she was about her health. She died and I sold the business before signing onto your crew. So, you see, I can’t let you be in danger when I can do something about it anymore than you can allow me to be hurt.” Elaine’s soft response broke the tension radiating off Zion and he relaxed around her.
“Do you love me?” He asked her quietly, “You called me ‘my love’. Did you mean it?”
“Of course, I meant it. I’ve been in love with you for months if not years, but I never thought you could possibly want to be with someone who looks and acts like I do.” Elaine responded simply.
“I love you too.” Zion lifted his head, allowing her to see the truth on his face before he kissed her deeply. It wasn’t a sexual kiss, but a physical connection of souls, their breath mingling as the caress continued.
Zion pulled away from her, kissing her nose gently, before taking them back to the tub. He wouldn’t be coming out of there for a while. Luckily, his second in command was more than capable of running this operation without him. Jax and the others could scour Xelem 3 for clues about a load of undeclared cargo that had been stolen from the King of Jorem a few weeks ago. Zion hadn’t felt this trip was interesting enough but Jax had insisted on this one, said he had a feeling about it. If that was the case, let Jax handle it while he handled his wife’s body.
Chapter 11
7 months later…
Elaine giggled as she left the medical bay. It had taken three days to get away from Zion long enough to go for the scan. She was finally pregnant. It had taken several tests to finally figure out what was needed for her Terran womb and Jax’s mutt sperm to procreate. It had taken an infusion of Zion’s blood for her body to prepare itself to carry his children. The specialist they had seen believed they would need to continue to do so every couple of years to remain compatible. It had also explained his continual mating fangs; they had continued to drop until Elaine received her transfusion, completing the mating.
Elaine thought it was pretty cool that they had natural birth control built into their genetics. She knew damn good and well Zion would never use a condom, and her body had never responded well to hormonal based birth control methods. Unless she wanted to
spend the next 15-20 years pregnant at the rate her husband was trying for babies, she had feared she was going to have to try surgical interventions. Now she just had to sneak back to their quarters before Zion discovered she was gone and set up her surprise.
Not only was she pregnant, she was pregnant with twins. The genetic scanning told her there was one girl and one boy growing inside her womb. She was going to have to alter the dinner menu slightly to accommodate both blue and pink colors on the cake, but otherwise, she was prepared. Smiling as she dashed down the hall, Elaine turned the corner to A-4 and slammed into her husband’s chest.
She began to fall but his quick reflexes and strength saved her from having an uncomfortably bruised bottom. The smile fell from her face as she realized she wasn’t going to get to surprise him the way she wanted. She had hoped his task in the command deck would keep him occupied for at least another thirty minutes, but she should have known better, Zion couldn’t stand to be far from her for any length of time.
“What are you doing wandering around wife?” Zion growled out, lifting her into his arms and heading back to their bedroom.
“I just wanted to go for a walk.” Elaine tried, hoping her lie passed muster only to be met with a guttural, “Try again.” Elaine paused for a moment, trying to weigh her options before sighing, “I went to medical bay.”
Zion paused just inside the door to their room, “Are you okay? What happened? Was I too rough with you last night? Did you need the nanobots to heal you?” Zion began stripping her clothes, looking for injuries. He had insisted on using the nanobots the day after her transfusion; the hormone fluctuations had made them both nearly insensate with lust. They were both raw and wearing claw marks from grasping hands by the time her body settled down.
“Zion. ZION!” She had to yell to get him to pause long enough to listen, “I’m fine. I just wanted to check, to see if the blood transfusion worked.” Zion waited for her to say something else, but she just wiggled out of his arms and walked over to her closet.
He was confused when she walked inside, but she returned a moment later carrying a large hand painted sign. There was the outline of a mother nursing a baby on one side with the words, “Is it a boy or a girl?” swirled across the rest of the page. Zion was contemplating where she had gotten such materials when the question hit him.
“It worked?” a smile broke out across his face, “You’re really pregnant?” Zion asked as he walked towards her.
“It may have worked too well; my sign isn’t actually correct.” Elaine pouted.
“What does that even mean?” Zion queried, trying to determine if something bad had happened to his little wife. Nothing he could come up with made sense with her statement.
“It means, we are having twins. It also means, there’s one of each gender.” Elaine said carefully. It took a second for his brain to process her announcement before he pounced. Zion lifted her into his arms and twirled her around, whooping and cheering as he went.
“We’re going to be parents! Oh, my love, this is the second-best day of my life!” Zion squeezed Elaine as he covered her face in kisses. “I can’t wait to take you home and raise our babies together! It feels like we’ve been waiting for years.” Zion told her in such a happy tone.
“We have been, my Captain. Almost three years from the time we met. I’m so happy to finally be moving forward with our family.” Elaine said, kissing him gently on the mouth. Zion growled at the reminder of the time they had wasted apart from each other before ripping the slip she had on under her sweater dress from her body only to find she was bare underneath.
“You walked through the halls smelling like a fertile goddess without any panties on!” Zion’s possessive side flashed before her eyes as he stalked to the bed. She had forgotten his rules about covering her body as much as possible when she wasn’t locked safely in their bedroom. After the Paisley fiasco, Zion had added some extra security to Blaze to stop anyone from being able to mess with the system without express clearance from him, Jax or I.
Zion gently tossed her onto the bed before stripping off his shirt and pants. He rarely wore shoes these days, stating they just got in the way of taking off his pants quick enough to get inside her. He refused to have sex with her with either of them wearing any clothing at all, wanting only skin between them. That didn’t stop Elaine from occasionally replicating racy lingerie and prancing around in it. Zion always tore it to shreds before taking her.
She was dripping by the time he was fully on top of her, lining his cock up with her opening and thrusting deep inside. Rather than his usual race to give her as many orgasms as he could manage before cumming himself, Zion just held himself fully inside her.
“You’re carrying our children inside you Elaine.” Zion spoke in a reverent tone as he slowly began sliding in and out of her depths.
“I know my love. You’re going to be such an excellent father.” She whispered to him, cupping his face as she drew him to her for a deep kiss.
“If we are having twins, that means we will be tied with Jax and Audrey once their babies are born. Think we can manage twins twice?” Zion asked, thrusting in full strokes, almost leaving her body before gliding back inside.
“What? Why is this a competition?” Elaine gasped out, feeling her orgasm rising carefully.
“It’s not, but they beat us to gestation when we’ve known each other years longer. It’s only fair we get to win at something too.” Zion pouted. Jax and Audrey’s relationship going from zero-to-sixty so quickly was a constant reminder to Zion of the time they had wasted by not communicating.
“Let’s discuss it after the babies are born. Right now, I just need to feel your cum inside me!” Elaine cried out. Zion grinned evilly as he focused a thumb on her clit, sending her into orbit. The strength of her contractions and the knowledge their attempts had been successful sent Zion right along with her.
Later that evening, after a round of gentle love making and a bath, Zion fell asleep with his arms wrapped around Elaine, two of his hands resting on the lower curve of her soft tummy. He couldn’t wait to measure its growth each night with the span of his hands, to see his children growing inside their mother’s womb. He was such a lucky bastard. He was also looking forward to taunting Jax with the fact they were also carrying twins. Now that they know how to make sure pregnancy was possible, Zion planned to keep Elaine pregnant as often as she would allow it.
That night, they both dreamed of their potential futures. They were in different locations, on different planets, but they each dreamed of being surrounded by their enormous family. They both failed to notice the iridescent shimmer off to the side, their guardian angel watching their dreams happily. Claire smiled as she returned to her rest, her work caring for her sister was finally complete. As for Jax and Audrey, that tale is a story for another day.
The End
◆◆◆
Coming Soon
Lieutenant Rescuer
By Lauren Brooks
When Terran Audrey Trefz decides to take her very first vacation, she quickly learns a good deal is not always what it seems. Boarding the ship to the leisure planet Audire was simple, waking up to the slavers arguing over broken cryochambers and knowledge she was to be a sex slave for some man they called King Jorem was not. As events continue to unfold, and possession of Audrey changes hands again, dreams of the man-beast who will rescue her manage to keep her calm.
The crew of Galactica never takes on undeclared cargo recoveries, but Lieutenant Jax is unable to let go of this particular task. He feels a pull to this job that he cannot explain. Luckily, his Captain, and best friend, is distracted from asking to many questions by crew issues and his new wife. Is Jax making the right decision? Who is the fire-haired woman he keeps seeing in his dreams? Will the powerful enemies stop Jax from his task? Find out in Lieutenant Rescuer, coming soon! Read on for an excerpt of the second book in the Recovery Galactica Series by new author Lauren Brooks.
Lieutenant Resc
uer
Prologue
Audrey sank into the comfortable chairs on the jumper transport to Audire. She was looking forward to spending quiet time on the leisure planet for the next week as she made decisions about her future. Audrey had never taken a vacation before and she was hopeful it was worth the scrimping and saving she had done since her foster parents had told her she “aged out” of their home. In all reality, her foster father had taken an unseemly interest in her budding beauty and, rather than risk losing their foster home funding by sending her away through proper channels, they kicked her out of the house and continued to collect the checks for her until her 18th birthday.
Audrey barely remembered her parents, they had both worked in the headquarters of a mining company when she was born. The Bellum-Pre company was destroyed by environmental terrorists when she was 6. With no family, she entered the Intergalactic Orphan and Protective Services System and spent the next 11 years being passed from one Foster situation to another. The trauma had left her with selective mutism until she was in her mid-teens. She could now talk when she wanted too, but it was rare for her to do so.
A jerk from the undocking procedures pulled Audrey from her reminiscing as the ship took off. She glanced out her window before looking around the room. She was surprised by two things; one was all the different species represented by the passengers, and two was the fact every one of the passengers was female. She scanned the cabin once more and a sense of dread filled her. There were only male workers in the cabin, and none of them had the clean cut and androgynous looks of the staff from the brochure she had perused before paying for this trip through the travel agency.
Captain Rescuer Page 4
