by Susan Hayes
“We should probably make this official at some point. You know, a ring, a ceremony, a cake and lots of drinks, but for now, this will have to do.” He pressed the injector against her skin and pressed the trigger.
She barely felt the sting as nanites entered her bloodstream. Her heart and head were too busy reacting to what he’d said. “Did you propose to me while you were shooting me full of tech?”
He grinned. “That depends on your answer.”
Her heart sang, and she was laughing as she answered. “You can’t take it back because my answer is yes. It’s too soon, and we could all die tomorrow, and I have no idea how to be married to three men at once, but yes. I must be crazy.”
“You’re our kind of crazy. That’s all that matters.”
There was a clang as the now-empty injector hit the deck and then his lips crashed down on hers. Euphoria and desire came together with the force of a comet strike. His hands slid under her shirt to lay claim to bare skin, and she did the same to him. Soon, they’d tell the others the good news, but not yet. She had already shared something special with Lance and Blade. This time was for Dirk.
This was what it would be like for the rest of her life; sharing herself with three men who all owned a piece of her heart. The thought made her laugh.
“What’s funny?” Dirk demanded.
“I was thinking that if I’m going to spend the rest of my days with the three of you, I’m not going to get much sleep.”
“Thanks to the medi-bots you’ve now got running through your veins, you don’t need to sleep for more than a few hours at a time.” His grin grew wicked. “Imagine all the extra time we’re going to have.”
“If I didn’t know better, I might think that was the real reason you wanted me to take that shot. And here I thought Blade was the sex-obsessed one.”
“We’re clones, Aly. There are some differences because we spent time apart, but deep down, we’re very much alike.” Dirk took her hand and pressed it over the hard bulge of his cock to make his point clear.
“You’re three of a kind. My three.” She nipped his lower lip and deftly unfastened his pants, wrapping her fingers around his thick shaft the moment it was free.
“I’ve got a better idea. Hang on,” he told her, his eyes aglow with lust and a hint of laughter.
She threw her arms around his neck and held on as he rose to his feet, taking her with him. “Where are we going?”
“Not far. Legs around my waist.”
She twined her legs around his hips and locked her ankles at the small of his back. He walked to the bulkhead at the rear of the cockpit, not stopping until she was pressed up against the cold metal surface.
The sharp chill of the metal behind her contrasted with the heat of his body where they touched. Especially the point where his steel-hard cock was trapped between them. He kissed her again, rocking his hips in time to the thrust and parry of his tongue as he slid his cock back and forth across her fast-slickening pussy. He lifted her a little higher, and her labia parted, letting him stroke directly over her clit.
“Again. Do that again.” She bucked her hips, trying to increase the pressure.
He groaned and pushed in deeper, grinding their bodies together until they were both shaking with need.
“Want you,” she whispered when she couldn’t take another minute without him inside her.
*
Dirk knew he was being greedy, keeping Alyson to himself, but he wanted to have this moment alone with her. She’d just agreed to be his for the rest of her life. His. Theirs. Ours. Forever.
He kissed her again as he shifted her warm weight in his arms, lifting her until the tip of his dick was lined up at her entrance. He filled her slowly, taking his time to enjoy every second of pleasure that came as her body gave way to his.
He had her ass in the palms of his hands, holding her against the wall with the weight of his body. Clothes still half on, limbs tangled, her scent was all around them, wrapping him in a cocoon of bliss.
“You’re mine,” he panted as he drew back and then drove deep inside her. “Mine to protect. Mine to love.” His claims were timed to the thrust of his hips, each one deeper than the last until he was fully sheathed in her sweet heat.
Her soft cries of need pushed him to the ragged edge of his control and words quickly failed him. Her nails scored his back, hard enough to sting even through the shirt he still wore. She was a wild thing in his arms, arching and scratching, her cries ringing down the corridor of the ship as she rode him hard.
There was no way his brothers would stay away for long. Their moment was coming to an end. He moved faster, abandoning any pretense of control as he took her in a series of hard, deep thrusts that had her inner walls squeezing tight around his cock.
There were footsteps coming toward them now, but he was too far gone to care. Nothing mattered but the two of them and the pleasure they shared. His cock thickened and his balls tightened as his orgasm hit hard enough to steal his breath and fill his vision with a thousand dancing stars. She milked every ounce of cum from his balls and then bowed her head to muffle her cries of ecstasy against his shoulder.
They were still locked together in the blissful aftermath of their lovemaking when his brothers erupted into the cockpit, crowding into the doorway at the same time.
“The wall? This ship has beds, Dirk. You couldn’t wait long enough to find one of them?” Blade asked.
“We were celebrating, and no, we couldn’t wait that long,” Alyson replied pertly.
Lance’s eyebrows nearly hit his hairline. “Celebrating what, exactly?”
“I’m bulletproof now. Well, almost.”
“She finally agreed to inject the medi-bots.” Dirk tweaked her nose. “Which is not the same thing as being bulletproof. Medi-bots don’t block pain, remember? So, no acts of reckless bravery.”
“Yeah, that’s my job,” Blade added.
Alyson wiggled in his arms. “You should probably put me down now. I need to go find more clothes, and you…” She grinned. “You might want to tell your brothers what else I agreed to.”
He withdrew from her body and set her back on her feet. He took a moment to adjust both their clothing, so they were more or less respectable.
Alyson paused just long enough to kiss both his brothers and then squeezed past them into the corridor. “Break it to them gently, but remember, no takebacks!”
“What did you do?” Lance demanded.
“More importantly, are we going to have to kick your ass for whatever it is?” Blade added.
“I uh, might have proposed to Alyson while I was injecting her with the nanites.”
They stared at him in unblinking shock.
Lance burst out laughing. “What is it about our woman that breaks all your fraxxing filters?”
“No kidding. First, you tell her you love her before we even start our first date, and now this? She’s broken you, Dirk.”
He knew that wasn’t true. “She didn’t break me. She made me whole. We’ve talked about this before. She’s the one. She’s always been the one.”
Both of them nodded, but it was Lance who spoke first. “That’s true. Which means when this is over we’ll need to ask her again. All three of us.”
Blade poked his finger into Dirk’s chest. “And you don’t get to say a damned word this time, mister I-already-proposed. I’m supposed to be the impetuous one, remember?”
“Like I was telling Aly earlier, we’re clones. Deep down, we’re very much alike.” He grinned at his brother. “I’ve just got a little more restraint than you two clowns.”
“Except when it comes to Alyson,” Lance and Blade said in unison.
He nodded. “When it comes to her, all bets are off.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The time for planning was over.
Blade had so much adrenaline coursing through his veins he was on the verge of vibrating. Ward’s ship had appeared on long range scanners hours ago, and they
had the Sprite’s AI tracking his approach and relaying the information to them in real time.
They were gathered near the center of what remained of the automated resupply station, though it was in such rough shape that calling it a space station was a stretch. Phaedra had been right about there being an active AI and breathable atmosphere, but she hadn’t mentioned the AI’s program had degraded to the point it was downright temperamental and prone to fits of irrational behavior.
Even the newest resupply stations were little more than a place to store parts, goods, and supplies until they could be sold to long haul crews who had no other option but to pay exorbitant prices for the simplest items. The station they were on was far from new. It had been abandoned for years, maybe even decades. The AI that ran the place couldn’t even tell them how long it had been in operation.
There were entire levels of the station where the hull integrity had failed, leaving it open to the vacuum of space. Judging by the scorch marks and damage, not all of the failures had been structural. The station had either been used for firing practice, or it had been involved in at least one full-scale firefight.
They’d chosen one of the internal storage bays as the place to make their stand. It was a wide-open space with a pair of massive double doors at one end, and no other access points, at least not once they finally convinced the AI to lock down the ventilation tunnels on the whole level.
They’d spent hours hauling whatever loose debris and furniture they could find down to the bay to form a series of barricades. Everything from tables and chairs to massive pieces of broken machinery and replacement parts had been piled up. The only way they’d managed it in time was by lowering the gravity enough to be able to push the damned things around, but it had worked. The obstacles would act as a funnel, directing Ward to them through a maze that would maximize their chances of ending this without bloodshed.
Their attempt to bring this to a happy end would have been a long shot, but last night they’d received a heavily encrypted message with some good news that gave them hope. Thanks to the work of Lieksa and the others, a way had been found to work around Victor’s program blocks and obtain the override code that would render Ward unconscious. It was nothing more than a couple of innocuous nonsense words, but they’d been assured it would work.
The plan was simple. Get Ward to come to them and find a way to bring him down, unhurt if possible. Alyson would park her ass behind a second barrier at the far end of the bay, as far from the door as possible. She was the cheese in the trap, but there was no chance in hell any of them were going to let Ward get anywhere near her.
“Ship, scan the incoming vessel again and report all life signs.” Dirk had made the same request numerous times since Ward’s ship had appeared on the scanners.
“One lifeform detected.”
The answer hadn’t varied, but they needed to be sure. Ward’s handler was still out there, somewhere, and she was an unknown variable.
“He seems to be alone.” Alyson was pacing the space behind her designated shelter. Her normal serenity was gone, replaced by a need to stay in constant motion. Blade felt the same way.
“She might have left the ship after they left the Drift, or she might have never been on board at all. I wish we knew for sure.” Lance was leaning up against a chunk of rusted machinery. His hand rested on his holstered blaster and his eyes were on the doorway despite the fact they still had a few minutes left.
“Or she could be there with him, and one of them is hidden from our sensors. According to Zura, the Sun Sprite’s cargo bay is specially designed to deflect scans. It’s possible they’re both on that ship.”
Dirk was the only one of them that appeared calm, but Blade knew it was an illusion. He was as tightly wound as everyone else. A calm man wouldn’t be wearing the arsenal of blasters, blades, and weaponry that Dirk, and the rest of them, were outfitted with. Even Alyson was armed. She’d learned basic firearm handling from her grandfather, and after a few quick lessons in how the more advanced weaponry worked, she was ready to go. Their plans didn’t include her ever needing to defend herself, but what plan survived contact with the enemy?
Once they had confirmation that Ward’s ship was docked, they took their positions. They weren’t hiding. Finding them would be easy, and that was the point. Ward’s only advantage was the shield device he carried. With it activated, he’d be damned near invisible. To nullify that advantage, they were forcing Ward to come to them.
Blade’s sole job was to watch the doorway and let the others know when Ward was inside the maze. He would scan for heat signatures and any other sign he could see that their target had arrived.
Five minutes passed. Then ten. The tension mounted with every second that ticked past. Where the fraxx was he?
A faint footfall broke the silence. It was barely audible, even to Blade’s enhanced hearing, but it was enough to confirm they weren’t alone. Ward was in the corridor outside.
He tightened his grip on his blaster and waited. A painfully long minute later, there was another noise. This one much louder.
“Did he just trip? Whoever heard of a clumsy assassin?” Lance asked via their internal comm channel, and Blade had to fight the urge to snicker. On the heels of that reaction came another one; this guy was too good to screw up like this. Something was off.
Before he could relay his thoughts to the others, the target appeared in the bay doors. Fraxx. He didn’t have his shield activated. Nothing about this felt right.
Still, he stuck to the plan. It was too late to ad lib now, anyway. Once Ward passed his position, Blade would move in behind him, sealing off his only escape route.
Ward walked into the bay as if he were taking a stroll through a meadow instead of stepping into an obvious trap. As he passed by, Blade got his first real look at their target. He was definitely related to Jaeger and Toro. Same dark coloring, similar features, and there was something about the faint smile on his lips that reminded Blade of Toro when the big man was fighting in the Nova Club cage matches.
It wasn’t a friendly smile.
Two steps into the maze, Ward started to whistle. It was a slow, eerie tune that sounded vaguely familiar. It took a few more bars before Blade recognized it: “Ring Around the Rosie,” slowed down to a dirge-like pace.
“Guy sure knows how to make an entrance. Once he rounds that next bend, I’m moving in,” Lance sent the message to his brothers.
“Stay sharp,” Dirk replied.
They all focused on Ward as he made his way through the maze. Once he reached the designated spot, they went into action. Blade slipped through one of the carefully hidden gap in the barricades, raised his gun and waited.
Lance popped his head up only a few feet away from Ward. “Hey there, Ward. I’ve got a message for you. Your batch brothers, Jaeger and Toro, want you to come home.”
Ward didn’t respond. He turned and fired, but Lance had already dropped back behind the barricade.
The moment he turned and fired, Dirk made his move. In a loud, clear voice he spoke the tongue-twisting override code that Victor had given them. “Uthvas baythad.”
It was as if they’d flicked a switch off in his brain. Ward dropped to the deck in a lifeless heap, and all of them stared in horror. What the fraxx had been done to him? Could they do it to any cyborg?
“We need to secure him. Fast. He should be out for hours, but we can’t be sure,” Lance said, reappearing from behind the barricade.
“Is it over? Are you all okay?” Alyson called out.
“We’re fine. Stay put until we’ve got Ward secured,” Lance called back as he started helping Blade stretch Ward out on the floor so they could bind him.
*
Alyson breathed a sigh of relief. It might not be over yet, but it should be soon. Her men were safe, and they’d managed to capture Ward without hurting him. Things were working out better than she’d dared to hope.
Somewhere on the other side of her makeshift wall, some
one tripped. They landed against the barricade with a muffled curse that sounded distinctly feminine.
Adrenaline dumped into Alyson’s veins. She wasn’t alone. She shot to her feet, snatching her gun out of its holster and pointing it at…nothing.
“This was too easy.” A woman’s voice came out of nowhere.
There was a flash of red light, a searing pain, and Alyson staggered backward into the back wall of the storage bay. Pain tore through her, too much for even the adrenaline to block.
That’s when she finally saw it. A shimmer in the air. A shield. Ignoring the agony radiating from her hip, Alyson lifted her blaster and fired. According to Vic, the shield could only absorb the energy from one shot.
She’d just have to stay alive long enough to shoot her attacker twice.
The shield distorted, flickered, and died, leaving Alyson face to face with a sharp-faced woman with dark hair and a sneer on her lips. The sneer rapidly faded as the woman realized what was happening.
“Stupid fraxxing tech!” She slapped at a small device clipped to her waist, but all it did was buzz and sizzle.
“Don’t move.” It took all her will to push herself off the wall and back onto her feet, but Alyson made herself do it while keeping her gun pointed at the woman standing on the other side of the barricade.
She heard the hammering approach of footsteps as two of her protectors charged across the storage bay.
“Put the weapon down and then raise your hands in the air.” Dirk barked the order as he drew his blaster and pointed it at Ariel.
Ariel didn’t move, but the sneer returned to her face as she uttered two strange words. “Ked Vada.”
“I don’t know what the hell you said, but unless it means ‘I surrender,’ you should probably shut up and put the weapon down. This is your last warning,” Blade said.
Dirk glanced over at her and his gun dropped as he saw she was injured. “Alyson! Dammit, you’re hit. I thought I told you not to let that happen.”
