The Harvest: Taken

by M. A. Church

  John became quite animated talking about how we could keep journals during pregnancy to record all the various symptoms: mood swings, weight loss and gain, and even how it affected our sexual drives. I was surprised Doc had never documented any of these things, but then he'd only just now taken a mate of his own.

  "Hey! Maybe we'll end up pregnant at the same time." John laughed as he checked the glands in my neck and then my groin. He was completely at ease with the concept, and frankly his enthusiasm left me scratching my head. "How cool would that be?"

  "Cool isn't the first word that comes to mind." I cringed. "Let's not go there. Really. Knowing my luck, I'll end up having twins or some shit like that."

  "You're really tempting fate." Chad smirked at me. "You know that, right?"

  John entered information quickly on a spreadsheet, taking his own temperature and blood pressure before frowning and coming back over to scan my temperature again. That was the fourth time he'd taken it. John knew I'd been double-dosed, so it was possible that I was responding faster than normal. I was impressed with how well he was handling things. And dammit, I halfway wanted to kick him for it. But I had to admit John's excitement was contagious. I noticed the only time John seemed down was when he talked about the Tah'Narians' technological advances—especially the medical equipment.

  "Do you know what I could've done with equipment like this? The lives I could've saved?" Sadness echoed in his voice, touching me.

  "Look, don't start playing the 'what if' game in your mind. Concentrate instead on what you can do now—all the different life forms here you can help and learn from," I pointed out.

  John's face relaxed and the sadness left his eyes. "We fall in the different life form category ourselves now, remember?"

  John was shy, but he had a razor-sharp tongue. I had no doubt he'd fit in perfectly with Chad and I. We even had our guard laughing at one point at how we picked on each other. A few hours passed, and Chad and I prepared to leave. Doc walked us to the door, a big grin on his face, happiness shining in his eyes.

  "Give him a chance to settle some before you two start corrupting my mate," Doc teased. "Chad's misadventures are well known, and I can see Keyno's going to have his hands full, also."

  "Hey!" I exclaimed, an innocent look on my face. "It's Chad you gotta watch out for. He's the troublemaker."

  "Hooo, yeah right." Chad snorted. "If that ain't the pot calling the kettle black. Trouble just finds you, buddy."

  We both promised not to drag John into trouble too soon. As we left, the security guard was chuckling under his breath and shaking his head. I had a feeling Keyno would know everything said in that room before the day was done. We were halfway down the corridor, laughing and joking with our guard, when the emergency alarm was suddenly issued ship-wide. The corridor was cast in an eerie glow by the flashing green lights. Our guard worriedly tapped his telecastor.

  "There's no response," he muttered.

  "How can there be no response?" Chad demanded.

  "Sometimes when the command center gets bombarded by telecastor signals, it cannot respond to them all. I think on Earth you refer to it as getting a 'busy signal' on your telephone. Do not worry. I'll keep trying to reach the Captain."

  The silence of the corridor made the hair rise up on the back of my neck. Suddenly, I knew something was very, very wrong. We were several feet from the nearest electrolift, the Tah'Narian version of an elevator that allowed travel between ship levels.

  "Maybe we should return to Doc's." I didn't like that our guard couldn't get the Thryrr to respond. Something major must've happened to cause a shipwide emergency, and my first thought was of Keyno.

  Before we could move, the electrolift hissed open and several of the new mates, wild-eyed and desperate-looking, spilled into the corridor. They spread out in a noisy wave, heads darting back and forth. I immediately noticed several of them had blood splattered on their faces, hands, arms, and clothing. Before I could wonder if the blood was theirs or somebody else's, light blinded me and heat scorched the side of my arm. Chad grabbed me and yanked me off-balance. I stumbled back, my arms flailing. Our guard went down and didn't get back up.

  "Cholo, Iceman," a raw voice spoke, one that sent chills down my spine. "Search that puta for more weapons, then kill him."

  Without a second thought, I reeled around and slapped my hand on the access panel for the Freight Bay door next to where we stopped. I nearly pulled Chad off his feet when I shoved him, hard. He stumbled several steps through the open door, his face a mixture of surprised shock and anger when he figured out what I'd been doing. I would've laughed if the situation weren't so dire. I had to get Chad gone and try to keep these guys from killing our guard. I sealed the bay door closed just as hands dug hard into my shoulders and spun me back around, violently slamming me up against the door.

  Fists caught me across the jaw and cheek; stars exploded in front of my eyes as the headache I'd been flirting with for the past several hours roared back with a vengeance. I made the mistake of bending forward to try and catch my breath, and caught a kick to my chest that had originally been aimed at my gut. Pain exploded, and I saw red. Fuck if I was just gonna stand there and let them beat the shit out of me.

  I dropped into my stance and it was on. I took down three of them because they were stupid and didn't know fighting from ballroom dancing. Hell, one of them punched with his thumb on the outside of his fist. I traded blows with a short mulatto guy whose hair was in cornrows and who had a killer roundhouse that nearly caught me twice when I heard a sound that chilled me. It was the stunner being ratcheted up to kill level.

  "Hey, white boy," the raw, rasping voice said. "Why you fightin' us, eh?"

  My opponent warily stepped back from me, his mocha skin glistening, eyes flashing. My skin crawled as I slowly looked at the speaker. My God, he was breathtaking, and scary as hell. As I stared at him, I thought, damn. Just... damn. He looked like a Mayan god come to life standing there in the corridor, with his rippling muscles under all that bronze skin and his long, jet black hair. And just as dangerous. His eyes were black, honest to God black, and he was covered with tattoos. He just screamed 'badass'. But more than that, he looked very familiar.

  "You too good to answer me?" His teeth were very white and very straight, and made his mouth look like a shark's as he stood there easily, as though he weren't leading a revolt on a starship in the middle of space.

  "You attacked him." I pointed at the security guard. It didn't look like they'd gotten around to killing him yet, thank God. "I thought I was next. Whoever shot him burned me with the stunner."

  He nodded slowly and stepped closer to me. "What's your name?"

  "Dale."

  "I'm known as Colt."

  Oh, shit. This is the one Keyno told me about. And if this is who I think it is, Keyno doesn't know the half of it.

  "Open up that door for us, esse."

  I shook my head, my heart thumping as I face Colt. "I can't. I don't have upper clearance."

  He sighed and shook his head. "Wrong answer." He cocked his head, looked at me, and his eyes zeroed in on the necklace I wore. Then a crackle from his wrist distracted him. He turned away, raising a... oh, hell. He had a telecastor.

  "Tell me what I want to hear, Cowboy." His relaxed posture abruptly shifted to one of irritation. "What do you mean?" He paced and I took the opportunity to subtly look around the corridor. All of these guys looked like hardcore criminals. These weren't guys like Chad, John, and me. As I stared at the multiple tattoos, the tiny teardrops next to their eyes, the spiderwebs over elbows, and the scrollwork numbers and stars on necks, icy dread spread through me. They were prison tats. Gang tats. What in the world had my government done?

  "Dude, you tryin' to tell me you can hack the fuckin' IRS and rip off the damn Bank of America, but you can't jack one lousy boat's security system?"

  Mr. Badass was getting more and more agitated and unhappy by the second, and the angrier he became, the
more upset and angry his subordinates became as well.

  "Colt..." Corn Rows tried to get his attention. Colt held up a hand and Corn Rows backed off, throwing me a distrustful look.

  "I don't care how you do it, just do it. If you have to crash this whole fuckin' ship into the muthafuckin' Atlantic Ocean, then do it. But you get us access to one of their shuttle boats!"

  He whirled around, and the look on my face must have given me away because he laughed softly, reaching up and running his hands through his sleek black hair.

  "Your boy not tell you about the emergency boats they got on this starship?" Colt asked. "Yah, I bet he didn't. Wants to keep you right here, doesn't he?" His voice had an odd quality to it, like someone had tried to strangle him and damaged something in his throat, so his voice was perpetually raw and raspy. It was disturbing, but sexy, too. Everything about him was disturbing and sexy. I looked away from him and hoped fervently Chad had gotten to safety.

  "So which one of these aliens gettin' to tap that fine white boy ass?"

  His posse laughed as I blushed. I couldn't help it. Corn Rows spoke up. "That's what I was trying to tell you, Colt. His collar—the captain wears one just like it."

  All the mirth went out of Colt's eyes. The speed of the change was frightening. I was suddenly staring into the eyes of a stone-cold killer.

  "Well, well, well," he drawled. "Maybe it won't matter if Cowboy can't hack their computers, not when we have the captain's precious mate right here." His eyes bored into me. "You his mate, papi?"

  When I didn't answer fast enough, he made a motion and Corn Rows came at me, fists and feet flying. I tried defend myself, but I'd been stupid. I'd been staring at Colt and two other males had gotten around behind me. They grabbed and held me. I had little choice but to hang there against the wall and take the beating, my headache like a thousand angry hornets in my brain.

  "Now, papi, answer me so I won't have to mark that pretty face of yours up. Are you the captain's mate?" Throughout it all, Colt was calm, even pleasant. The unsettling thought crossed my mind that he wasn't just a killer, he was a sociopath.

  "Yes," I coughed. My stomach cramped from the hits. God, it hurt to breathe, and I felt like throwing up. I didn't see the point in denying who I was.

  "Excellent. So you listen up, white boy. We wanna go home. We want a shuttle boat turned over to us, and we don't want any lip from the pussycats. Your boy wants you back in one piece, he'll give us what we want." He smirked at his friends even as he stared at me. "These aliens seem to be fuckin' possessive about the piece of ass they fuck." He leaned in close enough to rasp in my ear. "'Course, if I was tappin' that ass, I'd be possessive, too. Too bad you let a filthy alien touch you first."

  With no warning, crew members swarmed the hallway, coming through access panels all over the corridor with stunners raised and aimed. The guys holding me let go and made a mad dash down the corridor, only to be stunned to the floor by growling security officers. Colt, distracted by the sudden chaos, pulled back from me and turned his attention to the ever-increasing number of security officers in the corridor. It was the chance I needed. I quickly brought my arm up and wrapped it around the hand holding the stunner. Turning my body slightly, I slammed his arm into the wall as hard as I could, and heard the sickening sound of one of the bones in his forearm snapping as he dropped the weapon and it clattered noisily to the floor.

  Yelling like a wounded animal, he swung back around to face me, his eyes furious. I smashed the heel of my free hand into his nose, and he staggered several steps away from me, shaking his head like a boxer trying to clear out the cobwebs. He rolled his shoulders and shook himself out, then bounced on the balls of his feet and took up a stance I'd only seen one other fighter use: a guy trained in Krav Maga. Oh, fuck me. If he really knows Israeli fighting techniques, I'm going to get my ass handed to me.

  I came away from the wall as Tah'Narians dealt with the new mates. The wider range of motion was exactly what I needed. Colt rushed me, his body strangely graceful.

  I got lucky. I brought my leg up in a high kick and caught him under the chin, right in the sweet spot. His head snapped back, his body completely leaving the ground as he flew back. He was stunned and barely conscious by the time he hit the floor. I dropped back into my stance, fists raised, furious.

  "Anyone else want to put their fucking hands on me?" I shouted, squinting. It felt like the pain in my head was going to explode out of my eyes as it thumped in time to my pounding heartbeat.

  A vicious roar, full of sound and fury unleashed, thundered down the corridor. The savage anger had crew members hurrying out of the way. The sound terrified as well as soothed me as my furious mate stormed down the corridor heading straight toward the male on the ground. This was not the Keyno I knew. This was a warrior who was pure predator, and was moving in on the kill. Snatches of conversation floating around me started to reach me—comments about how a royal family member had been attacked. Shit, who else have they attacked besides me?

  "You dare touch what is mine?" Keyno bellowed.

  Keyno's voice shrieked down the corridor, his ferocious growls shaking the walls and the doors as he wrapped his hand around Colt's throat. I had a passing thought that something like this was probably how his voice had gotten fucked up to begin with. Then even I shrank back. With a roar that sounded just like an African lion, Keyno tore Colt up off the floor and shook him as though he weighed nothing, as though he was insubstantial. Before I could stop him, Keyno had one hand on Colt's throat and the other on his belt, bodily smashing him headfirst into the ceiling, then against each side of the corridor, leaving huge dents in the panels. He lifted Colt above his head and I watched, horrified and fascinated, as all the muscles in Keyno's back rippled and bulged, doubling in size as he slammed Colt onto the floor.

  Colt laid there, a broken pile of bleeding flesh, and didn't move.

  Keyno rounded on Corn Rows, who was being held by two security officers. I saw his eyes flick to their faces and I caught a brief nod from them, some kind of acknowledgment. Before I could say anything or even move, Keyno crossed the intervening space in one leap, grabbed the man by the head, and—I gasped and choked.

  Keyno snapped his neck like a twig. He was growling and snarling, throwing off a scent that seemed... wrong to me. It wasn't sweet or horny like I was used to; it was bitter and it stung the inside of my nose. Keyno's eyes traveled over the corridor. "Who else laid hands on my mate?"

  Oh, no. We were not going there. He was not killing every man who touched me. Colt groaned, and Keyno's eyes shot to him. He tensed as if to jump, and I moved. I quickly laid a gentle hand on the bulging muscles of Keyno's back. In this frame of mind, I wasn't sure what he'd do, but I didn't think he'd hurt me. Even with everything he'd done, I wasn't afraid of him.

  "Hey! Hey, hey, hey—I'm okay. Chad's okay. Your security guard looks okay." I spoke fast but quietly, hoping to bring him down as Colt groaned and struggled to breathe. "Please, Keyno. I need you, my mate."

  It was like my words flipped a switch in his brain. Keyno launched himself to his feet, and spun to look at me, wild-eyed and panting hard. The power that poured off him made me tingle. For the first time, I called him what he was: my mate. I wanted to get his attention and it worked. As we stared at each other and the scent pouring off him subtly changed—that bitter, acrid tinge bled away and a sweet, lush scent replaced it—I wondered which one of us had been more surprised by my admission.

  Keyno lifted me off my feet and held me tightly in his arms. Long purposeful strides took us to the electrolift, and I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his long, silky white hair. His body still vibrated like a bass string with the strength and depth of his anger, but I knew it wasn't directed at me. In moments we were in our quarters, the mad dash through the corridors leaving me dizzy. He dropped me on the bed and swiftly followed me down.

  "I'm okay, Keyno," I kept repeating, hoping to break through to him. "They didn't hurt
me that badly."

  Chapter Nine

  My shirt was ripped open, the thin material no barrier against his desperate need. Jerking my pants off, he hurled them across the room. Low growls filled the room as he wrapped a hand around my limp shaft, stroking me urgently. His bonding scent flooded our room, a screaming warning to all who might dare to enter. I could almost taste his fear, his anger, and his desperation. Once I was hard, he swallowed me to the root, humming around my shaft. The smell of cloves engulfed us, his arousal driving mine to insane heights.

  "It's okay, I'm okay," I moaned as he bobbed up and down my length. He still hadn't said a word, his silence a sure sign he was not fully in control. "God, Keyno." I arched on the bed as he worked me.

  "Come for me, my chosen..." Keyno growled urgently as he released my cock.

  "Together..." I begged as I drew closer to the edge he'd frantically pushed me to. "We come together, as one."

  He ripped his uniform off, and sinuous big cat that he was, curled around me, putting his hips up by my head as he lay down next to me. With a quick, needy tug he pulled me on top of him, swallowing my shaft straight to the base. I moaned loudly as I lowered my head to his cock and sucked the crown hard and fast. This had always been one of my favorite positions. He sucked a finger into his mouth, wetting it, as he bobbed up and down my shaft. A gentle nudge and his finger eased into my entrance, pressing against my hot spot.

  I swallowed his perfect cock, sucking him hard and fast to get him as close to the edge as he had me. Together we exploded, each swallowing all the other had to give. I lay panting on top of him, waiting for him to gain control of his emotions, as mine finally settled. There were things I needed to talk to him about, but first I wanted to enjoy his closeness. My eyes drifted shut as I lay still. The pounding headache backed off a little as my breathing smoothed out.