by J. J. Lore
Mal turned to Edem and grasped his arms, the glint of his own descended tesak unmistakable. “Never run off like that again.”
“I won’t.” It was an easy promise to give. Right now he couldn’t imagine wanting to be more than a few centimeters from his kisero ever again, or from the woman sprawled on the bed, her delicate rosy folds exposed to them. The reality of what he’d done, how close he’d come to losing them ached in his heart. Need rose in him, the need to touch both Mal and Corrine, to feel their living bodies moving against his, the desire to fulfill them almost agonizing. He kissed Mal to bind the pledge, and tasted Corrine there, gently running his tongue along the points of Mal’s fangs then allowing his bondmate to return the intimate touch. It had been a long time since they’d been so aroused. A sharply indrawn breath interrupted, and Edem glanced down at Corrine as she sat up, her eyes wide.
“What’s that, there?” She gestured at her own mouth, and Edem realized both he and Mal were far too aroused to conceal their tesak from her any longer. He didn’t want to consider what the fang’s emergence indicated was happening among the three of them.
“They’re tesak, teeth that descend when we Alphans are, ah…”
“Really turned on?” Corrine quirked a lopsided grin as she rose to a seated position. “It should scare me, but it doesn’t. Can I see?”
Mal sent him a cautioning look. “Are our tesak all you’d like to see, Corrine?”
She shook her head, blushing. “I want to see all of you, from your horns to your toes and every part in between.”
Her honest desire, something she’d only recently shared with them, fired Edem’s blood, and he wanted nothing more than to rouse her to frantic begging for them. He reached for Mal’s clothing, as eager for his bondmate’s skin as he was for Corrine’s. With the speed of long practice, he soon had Mal bare before him to stroke and kiss. His bondmate returned the caresses with barely restrained force, communicating his desire with every grasp and nip. Mal grasped both his and Edem’s erections and pressed them together, gently rocking his hips to build warm friction between them.
He heard a slither from the bed and found Corrine crouched at the edge, staring up at them with wide eyes. “You’re both so handsome. I never thought I’d like to watch so much.”
Tentatively, she reached out and ran her fingers along their swollen shafts and culls. Mal sucked in a deep breath and turned her way to allow her more access, and Edem followed suit, wondering what she’d do next. As Mal pressed his tesak to Edem’s neck, tonguing at the vein pulsing there, Corrine scooted even closer and leaned her head their way. Her wet tongue slid over his corona and retreated. Then Mal’s body jerked, and Edem knew she’d done the same to his bondmate.
Also appreciating visual stimulation, Edem looked down and watched Corrine draw Mal’s thick shaft deep into her mouth, slowly releasing it. She then moved her head slightly and sucked him, the hot wetness engulfing his sensitive skin making his skin flush hot and his breath grow short. She ran her tongue along the underside as she drew back, then flicked it against his corona. She looked up at him with half-closed eyes, her parted lips reddened. Desire flashed through him, and he pulled back from her mouth to kneel before her, pressing apart her thighs as he plunged his tongue into her quonum. He lapped at her tart fluids and sucked at her tight somo as she squealed and writhed, her hands gripping his horns as she had Mal’s just before.
A powerful mixture of expended blood lust and arousal filled him, and he struggled to slow down and tease both Corrine and Mal with skillful foreplay. His body was demanding satisfaction, just as his rage had demanded Xyran blood earlier. With a groan he pulled away from her fragrant sex and leaned over her on the bed, heedlessly pushing apart her legs. Corrine stared up at him with flushed cheeks, her eyes searching his face as a slight frown bent down her mouth.
“I don’t understand. I need—” She gasped, but nodded frantically when he guided the head of his shaft to her entrance. Her body gave way before his, and she groaned deeply as he sank within her tight sheath. Arching back with her eyes closed, Corrine rocked her hips against him, her grip on his member sliding up and down forcefully enough to bring him to near completion. But he wanted more.
“Mal, please, I need you.” Edem begged, his voice slightly slurred due to the impediment of his tesak.
“We shouldn’t—” Mal’s tone was unsure.
“It won’t matter,” Edem whispered, desperate for his bondmate to join them. Corrine let out a wordless beg of her own as she rocked her hips, clearly desperate for more movement.
A groan from behind made him turn his head, and he saw Mal watching them as he applied lubricant to his hard shaft, his fingers shaking as he circled the bulbous tip and stroked down the ridged length. Edem’s ass clenched as he awaited what was to come. A faint voice whispered in his head that the three of them shouldn’t be joined by penetration, but the loud and lusty part of himself was sure that only mattered if Corrine accepted them both into her body. Mal had penetrated him many times; doing so now wouldn’t change anything between them.
Corrine continued to rock under him as Mal pressed slippery fingers between his ass cheeks, unerringly stimulating him. First one digit, then the other pressed inside, stretching him, relaxing him for what was next. As always, when his bondmate drew his hand away, Edem’s body tightened, but the novelty of having his own staff sheathed in Corrine’s sweetness heightened his anticipation of full penetration. Mal pressed his full, smooth corona against his entrance, and Edem groaned out a breath as he relaxed his muscles, accepting the thrust of his bondmate as his thick length slid within. Exquisite stimulation internally matched the pure ecstasy surrounding his shaft, and Edem lost himself, both his partners pleasing him so thoroughly he could only embrace it.
Mal thrust, taking on the pace of their coupling, and Corrine stared up at them both, her eyes taking in what was happening even as her sheath trembled around his shaft.
“Oh, Mal’s inside … that’s so amaze—oh!” Her trembling voice faded into a wailing cry as her climax hit her. Her eyes closed, and she sobbed loudly, obvious overwrought by what the three of them were doing. Edem’s tesak throbbed. All sense of control disappeared, and he acted with the same hot rush of instinct that had compelled him to leap into battle. With a growling roar he arched over her shuddering body and fastened his fangs to her throat, piercing her tender skin easily, drawing in her essence like he needed it to live. She quivered and clenched at his horns. A rush of her emotions filled him with joy and love.
Mal kept thrusting, although his movements were becoming more erratic and forceful. Edem pressed his mouth to the small wounds he’d made on Corrine and moaned as his culls tightened against his body and his skin flushed hot with prickles of sensation. With a strong grunt, Mal spasmed behind him, and Edem knew he was spilling his seed. As the euphoria of Corrine and his bondmate washed over him, Edem’s own climax exploded.
Trembling, he took as much of Mal’s considerable weight as he could, to spare Corrine any additional pressure. Sweat had slicked their skin, and Edem reveled in it, one more way he could sense them both, pull them into his very pores. With a deep sigh, Mal stroked his hands down Edem’s back and flexed his hips, withdrawing his softening shaft. His bondmate pressed a kiss to his shoulder, and he could feel the twin points of his still-erect tesak. Edem’s own, satiated by Corrine’s blood, were receding and even though good feelings still coursed through him, a slight niggle of worry intruded.
Corrine stretched luxuriously under him and dislodged his own spent shaft, their mingled fluids sticky along his entire length. Edem collapsed at her side and glanced up at Mal. His bondmate, scarred across the chest, stood there as finely proportioned as any mythic hero, from his broad shoulders to his thick, still engorged shaft. Edem was a lucky man.
Corrine’s eyes fluttered open, and she considered them both with a soft, satisfied smile. “That was indescribable. I can’t even wrap my brain around it, and when you
bit me, Edem, it felt like I had a climax in that spot. Just before I had one in the normal place.”
He heard Mal suck in a deep breath, and he reluctantly turned to face him. His bondmate’s eyebrows had drawn together and a deep frown compressed his lips.
“What did he do, Corrine?”
“Bit me, right here.” She gestured at two small red dots on her neck with a limp hand. “Would you like to bite me, too? I’d like it, I think.”
****
Mal thought he’d been angry before, but it was nothing compared to the boiling rage that filled his gut as he looked at the irrefutable evidence that Edem had just bonded with Corrine. Bonded with her despite their express agreement not to. Bonded with her impulsively, with no thought to what it would mean for her, for all of them. Bonded with another without him.
“No, Corrine, I cannot. It’s forbidden. Edem should never have—” He choked to silence, the enormity of what had just happened rendering him speechless. That stunning wave of awareness that had flooded him when Edem and Corrine climaxed had been the bond forming. He never should have entered Edem at the same time he was joined to Corrine. The passion had proven too much for his bondmate to control.
She rose up on her elbows, her breasts swaying back and forth, and frowned. Edem wouldn’t meet his gaze and instead studied the tangled blankets as if he was considering a career in textile design. “Why? What’s going on between you two?”
“Corrine, we should have discussed something with you,” Edem spoke up and gathered her hand in his, his most soulful expression on his handsome features. Mal wanted to break something. “Alphans bite during sexual intercourse.”
“I know, you bit me, and Mal is welcome to do the same,” Corrine said with a quick nod. She ran her hands over her body as if searching for the most succulent part for him to impale. “Your fangs are still out. Does that hurt?”
Her curiosity was understandable, and she was almost certainly in the midst of the euphoria that came with first bonding. Her requests for him to bite, which she probably thought were motivated by lust and desire to share, were in fact her body’s craving to complete the act with his participation. “Please, Mal, I want you to. I don’t want us to do anything that leaves you out.”
Her plea, which matched so closely with his innermost desire, almost moved him to ignore Edem’s transgression, but with brute force of will, he turned from regarding her naked form and focused on his bondmate.
“What do you propose we do, Edem?” He ground out the words past his aching tesak. His bondmate shot him a quick look, his expression full of chagrin, and Mal almost shouted at him, almost disrespected his prince. Throttling back his frustration and sense of betrayal, he instead retreated, rushing into Corrine’s former cabin and shutting the connecting door, desperate for some solitude so he could regain control and try to formulate a plan for how to handle this dilemma. They couldn’t bond with Corrine. It was simply impossible considering Edem’s rank and the current political situation on Alpha. Was it possible for a bond to break if the third member refused to engage? The idea of keeping his distance from them made his heart thud and his stomach roil with dismay.
Just as an intense wave of nausea overtook him, making him lean against the wall, Corrine slipped into the room, her eyes clouded with dismay. She saw his distress and rushed to his side, slipping her slender arms around his waist and murmuring soothing words.
With a shudder of fatigue he lowered himself to the floor as she pressed her body to his, stroking back his hair.
“You look so pale,” she said, as she stared at him. “Are you ill?”
Edem appeared in the doorway, his features drawn with concern. “Mal, I could feel … why are you in such pain?”
Another bolt of agony ripped through him, only slightly alleviated by the presence of Corrine and his bondmate. His tesak seemed to swell anew, and with a bolt of understanding he realized that by failing to gather Corrine’s essence when Edem had, his body was undergoing some sort of withdrawal. A wave of despair overcame him.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” he muttered under his breath just as a wave of dizziness sent him toppling onto the rug. He heard Corrine cry out, and then there was nothing.
Chapter Eight
As Mal’s eyes rolled up in his head and he expressed disbelief, Corrine could have heartily agreed with him, but she was soon grappling with the weight of a very large and well-muscled man. Edem rushed to her side, and they soon had Mal propped up as the big man blinked at them.
“What’s come over him so suddenly?”
Edem frowned and studied his bondmate, even as he rubbed his hand across Mal’s chest to rouse him. “Corrine, there’s a lot we haven’t told you, hoping to keep things simpler between us when we all knew this was to be a pleasant interlude. My moronic actions have turned it to the worst sort of folly.”
Corrine ran her fingertips across Mal’s temples and detected no sign of fever. She’d gone from the most intimate and fantastic sex of her life to this confusing jumble of words and emotions. She could barely keep track of what was going on around her, and the slightly swoony feeling she’d experienced since Edem’s sex bite was only growing stronger as it played with her ability to reason and cope. But she might now discover what was behind the vague sense of secrets kept by the two men. “Explain yourself.”
“Mal and I are bonded, bound together body and soul. We support and strengthen each other, sense each other’s moods and needs. It lasts for a lifetime and is triggered by the bite. The bite I just shared with you. You and I shared our souls in that moment.”
Edem’s voice went soft, and she halted her consideration of Mal to stare at him. “What did you do to me? Will that happen to me?” His answer almost didn’t matter; she felt the truth of it in her cells. For some time now, she’d been noticing little flickers of awareness of the two men well apart from the connection she’d expected with her new lovers. The bite he’d given her had been an overwhelming physical sensation, but with his explanation, she now understood she’d also experienced a shadow of Edem’s climax as she’d reveled in her own. “Is it permanent? How could you do that without my permission?”
Edem sent her an agonized look and lowered his head.
“He’s not much in practice with that sort of courtesy,” Mal croaked. He’d regained a bit of color in his face, but still looked out of sorts. His fangs flashed behind his lips as he spoke. “And yes, it’s permanent.”
“I have wronged you both, and I pray you will forgive me,” Edem said in a quiet and sincere tone as he looked first at Mal, then her. Tears glittered in his fine golden eyes, and Corrine was moved. His remorse and pain was almost palpable, and with a start, she realized if she’d truly been linked to him as he’d implied, she might indeed be feeling his emotions. He kissed her hand gently. “I had no right to betray your trust, Mal, or take away your choice in the matter, Corrine. I behaved with complete selfishness and no honor.”
“You were overcome by passion and a lifelong habit of easily obtaining whatever you want.” Mal sighed and tried to sit up. Corrine slipped her arm around his muscular shoulders and for the first time realized they were all still naked and entwined on the dressing room floor as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “Primal urges are impossible to ignore, and bonding is the most powerful force we Alphans possess.”
“Mal, you’re so weak.” Edem stared at his bondmate, clearly discomfited by Mal’s sudden decline. “Your tesak are still descended. Are you suffering from not joining our bond?”
Mal nodded slowly and laid one hand on her hip as if to steady himself. “I’d come to that conclusion myself. There’s nothing written about a failed bond, likely because everyone welcomes and revels in them as soon as they occur.”
“You are the only man I know strong enough to resist.”
“Not so strong any longer.”
“Will this kill you, to not bond with me?” Corrine knew her voice had gone high and squeak
y, but she couldn’t hold back her sudden fear. To see him suffer so, just because he refused to bond with her, made her ill with despair. “Why don’t you want me?”
Mal shook his head, and Edem crawled close to her, pulling her into a tight embrace. “He wants you as much as I do, as much as life itself, but certain problems will occur if we are bonded to a human woman. We’d agreed earlier to avoid it, to save ourselves the negative ramifications and to make it possible for you to return to Earth.”
Not go home? For an instant she went cold with dread, but the warm male bodies surrounding and supporting her chased that away. Return to a hostile, disintegrating world when there was a whole galaxy to explore with Edem and Mal? She’d be a fool to throw away the love they offered. Just like that, she’d aligned her destiny with theirs. The realization that her entire life was going in a strange new trajectory made her lightheaded for a moment.
“I’m not rejecting you, Corrine. My body and heart long to join yours, but our situation is … complicated.” Mal watched Edem as if waiting for a sign, and a long quiet moment stretched between the two men. Corrine knew something was being communicated, something being decided so she kept quiet. Her own longing for Mal’s teeth to pierce her was strangely compelling to contemplate. She needed it like she needed to eat and breathe.
“I want you to bond with us.” Edem said. “Whatever the consequences.”
“You know what you’re saying?”
Edem nodded and picked up one of Mal’s hands to kiss the palm. “Yes. Having you and Corrine as my companions to the end of my days is the only thing I want.”
