Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga)

by Bethany Aan

  “So what are you, fearless leader?” Arianna asked Hunter playfully, taking his hand in hers and intertwining their fingers. She did the same with Jace, on her other side. “Of all on that impressive list, what can you do?”

  “All of it,” he told her. The serious look in his eyes told her that he was not kidding. She sobered and sat down on the bench where she and the ladies generally gathered. He sat beside her with Jace on her other side. Their big, warm bodies protected her from the evening breeze and kept the chill at bay for a bit longer.

  “All of it?” she asked softly, looking at him with new appreciation. He nodded.

  “The Commander, my brother,” Jace said quietly, proudly, “Is one of the very few warriors trained to single-handedly take charge of a group of people and instruct them in how to create a stronghold and equitable living situation such as this. He has been trained in advanced politics as well as all the other things we’ve mentioned, and many more beyond. Who do you think taught the men to spin and weave when we needed cloth for warmth?”

  Arianna looked up at Hunter with a bit of awe. He looked a little uncomfortable with his brother’s praise, his face coloring in a way that melted her heart.

  “And my brother,” Hunter said in his deep, sure voice, “Is second in command because he has been trained in all of those things as well, is our chief medical officer, and is fully prepared, at a moment’s notice, to step into my role, should something happen to me. Had he been a Reader, as I am, he could easily have earned the command of his own ship.”

  For a long time, as the sun lowered over the trees, the men told her about their military training, which was not so very different from on earth, though they seemed to have had much more of it, in many more areas. But then, they were older than she and the Earth ladies were, by quite a bit. They had had many more years to collect their knowledge, and from what Hunter told her, educational courses were still available on the computers, though the men tried to only research them when the sun was fully out, so that they did not use precious stores of energy for learning. When possible, someone actually held a class or workshop on how to do things the entire group should know, such as when they found new plants or animals and needed to know about them for food, medicine, or protection. Some of the plants were incredibly poisonous, and some of the animals were fierce and deadly. Instructing all the men at once on those matters was vital. Those classes would now include the women, as Hunter wanted to be sure that the girls were as adept at gathering food stores and avoiding catastrophe as his men were.

  “Funny,” Ri snorted lightly. “Back home, there is still the belief among some men that women don’t need to learn very much, that they have men to take care of them.”

  “Then how do your women teach their children?” Jace asked with a raised brow.

  “Oh, in my area, that kind of thing rarely happens. My mom home-schooled me and my siblings and had masters degrees in several subjects. My father was a self-taught genius and pretty much just learned things as he needed to or became interested in them.”

  “And you?” Hunter asked. She grinned up at him.

  “I’m not a great scholar,” she admitted, “But there are many ways to learn. I’m a very tactile, sensual person, so I learn by doing, by experience. Some people learn better by studying other peoples’ efforts. I have to do it the hard way.”

  “But you probably understand better, afterwards, why you cannot do things certain ways,” Hunter pointed out. She nodded.

  “I’m not as book-smart as my brothers and sisters were,” she said quietly, “And I don’t have a college degree. But what I do know, I know very well and can teach on a variety of learning levels, and to a variety of learning styles. I used to think I was not as smart as others because I didn’t have a university diploma on my wall. Now, though, seeing how inadequate these college girls’ educations are, I have to admit that my style has its merits.”

  “As long as you learn, you are intelligent,” Jace said quietly.

  “We do not have ‘diplomas’ such as you speak of,” Hunter added. “We achieve mastery over many years of experience and proven works. Anyone can read a book and take a test, but that same person might not be able to actually use what he has memorized. Once we are considered masters, we are given the respect due such, but we do not measure how many of those we carry.”

  “Those who simply memorize and spout back information do not make it into the military,” Jace said, grinning down at her. “It is telling that of my mother’s children that all of us were accepted as officer candidates before we were out of basic training.”

  “Even your sisters?” Ri asked. “Up until we started training with the girls, I assumed that since there were no women here, you just didn’t have them in the military.”

  “Are you kidding?” Jace asked, laughing at that. “Women can be more ferocious in battle than men sometimes, and far more cunning, considering that, at least among our race, they are smaller and not as physically strong. Our sisters are brilliant, Readers, and they each had command of their own ships when we escaped Thorsan.”

  “Ours was a battalion ship,” Hunter interjected. “The battalion ships are usually male-only, but that is because we value our women far too highly to put them in dangerous situations, not because we think them incapable of handling themselves. Battalions go into a war zone first, to secure the area and to prepare the way for the main bulk of the military. A good portion of our warlords and generals are women.”

  “So you’re like the Marines?” she asked. Hunter pulled the definition from her head, then nodded, smiling warmly at her.

  “First ones in, last ones out. That about sums us up.” He rather liked the saying.

  As the cool breeze turned chilly and the shadows faded into darkness, individual warriors lit the torches outside their quarters, and the entire compound was soon bright again with firelight. Not wanting to go inside yet, Arianna linked her arms through the men’s, tugging both of them closer to keep her warm. Neither man complained, but shifted so that they were both touching her along her sides, their body heat seeping into her. She laid her head against Hunter’s shoulder, content, as a small smile touched her lips.

  “What makes you smile, little one?” he murmured near her ear, not needing to see her to know her expression.

  “I’m just happy,” she told him. She squeezed Jace’s arm, letting him know that he was included in that happiness. “I’ve never been this… content. Not in my entire life.”

  Jace tugged his arm free and wrapped it around her shoulders as Hunter leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  “Then all is as it should be,” Hunter assured her.

  Hunter was unable to restrain himself. Tugging her into his lap, he pulled her astride him and hugged her tightly, crushing her to his chest as he kissed her witless. Jace started to leave them to it, then decided not to. Dammit, she was his woman, as well. Settling down beside them, he leaned in and began kissing Arianna’s neck.

  Shocked, she gasped and leaned back, looking at the two of them. Hunter stared at his brother for a moment, then grinned and nodded. As one, they rose. Hunter carried her back to their quarters and straight into his bedroom, her legs locked around his waist. She giggled all the way home. Jace stripped his clothes off as he went through the living area, then took over kissing her breathless as Hunter dumped her on the bed and took off his boots and pants. When the men were naked, they went to work on Arianna, leaving her gasping in constant surprise when one of them nipped a piece of flesh or kissed something he’d just bared to his view. Within minutes, they were all naked and she had a man on either side of her, looking down at her with twin expressions of desire.

  “Oh, wow,” she whispered, looking up at both of them, her heart pounding in anticipation.

  “If you do not wish this, little one,” Hunter breathed, his big, warm hand on her stomach. Jace was nibbling on her shoulder where it joined her neck, “Now is the time to say so.”

  Sh
e couldn’t speak, so how could she possibly say no? Instead, she threw back her head and cried out softly, as Hunter took one of her nipples into his mouth, and Jace plumped up the other breast and feasted on her hardening flesh. She moaned and writhed beneath their mouths, glorying in the twin assault on her senses. She stopped trying to keep track of whose hand was whose, which mouth was driving her insane and which mouth was kissing her. She simply closed her eyes and enjoyed it, unable to do anything else.

  A hand reached down and parted her nether lips, opening her to the evening air, and she shivered. A long, warm finger delved into her, spreading her juices on her folds, and she whimpered into Hunter’s mouth. Her hips jolted toward the fingers, but then she felt the bed shift, felt her body lifted. She opened her eyes to see that she was sitting astride Hunter now, her back to his chest, and he was lowering her very slowly onto his cock. She sucked in a shivering breath as he filled her, then his legs, between hers, opened her more widely.

  Jace knelt before her at the side of the bed and leaned forward, parting her folds. As she watched, with Hunter filling her, Jace opened his mouth and tongued her clit. Her body bowed in reaction and her arms went up and wrapped as best they could around Hunter’s neck as her head fell back in surrender to the incredible sensations. Hunter’s mouth latched onto her earlobe and explored the shell, his breath hot, his voice murmuring words of encouragement as his hands came up to capture her full breasts and tease the tips between his thumbs and forefingers. When he pinched her nipples, she cried out and clenched around his cock.

  He pulled out slowly, then drove himself back into her, seating himself deeply within her body. Jace kept her clit captured between his lips and teeth, torturing her wildly, until she was sobbing for release. Jace finally sat back, breathing heavily, and watched as Hunter took command and thrust powerfully in and out of her body, driving her to her peak and over. Her body shuddered wildly in his arms as she came. Jace, wanting to share in the moment, rose and leaned over her, taking her breast into his mouth and suckling her, hard. She wept their names as she shook between them.

  Hunter ground himself into her as he came, but lowered his fingers to her slit to send her over another peak. When he pulled out of her, spent, he laid her down beside him and took over lavishing her breasts with kisses and bites as Jace slid her legs apart at the edge of the bed and drove into her.

  She was actively weeping as the men loved her, Jace gliding into her body with firm, slow thrusts that only built her passion again. Hunter concentrated on her breasts, listening for her cries, using their mental bond to know when to suck, when to lick, and when to delicately bite. Hearing the breathless panting that signaled she was near her release, he clamped his teeth onto her nipple and sucked as hard as he dared. At the same time, Jace impaled her fully, his hips jerking into her, grinding against her clit as he emptied his seed into her body.

  Sobbing in ecstasy, Arianna exploded, crying out the sweetest cry either man had ever heard, her body shaking and spasming for a very long time, since neither man would allow her to come down from the peak. They kept her so high for so long that they were each able to love her again in short order, taking turns filling her, pounding or slowly gliding… it didn’t seem to matter. She was so lost in sensation that all she could do was obey their orders and allow them to position her like a ragdoll for their pleasure. And hers. Oh, god, her pleasure was indescribable, and she was a mass of burning nerve endings and incredible sensation by the time they were finished with her.

  When they were all completely sated, she finally dropped, exhausted. Her thighs were quivering wildly and she was having trouble moving her legs at all. As he had once before, Jace got up and lovingly bathed her. Hunter was there to dry her body thoroughly before tucking her, naked, under the covers. Then, as they had the night they’d discovered she might be able to have children after all, both men climbed into bed with her, sandwiching her between their big, warm bodies.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “I’ve been wondering something,” Arianna mused several mornings later as they enjoyed a leisurely breakfast on the balcony. The men chuckled indulgently at her.

  “You are constantly wondering, little one,” Hunter pointed out, but his admiration for her curiosity and quick mind assured her that he didn’t mind her questions at all. She grinned at him. “It is one of the things I like best about you.”

  “I like your lips best,” Jace said, taking a huge bite of his eggs and wriggling his eyebrows suggestively at her. She blushed as she recalled how they had awakened her that morning, with Hunter’s mouth between her legs and Jace’s cock near her face. Her ‘boys’ made a very nice alarm clock, indeed.

  “No, really,” she said, tossing a three-lobed grape-like fruit at him. He snatched it from midair and tossed it right back at her. Feeling playful, she managed to almost catch it in her mouth. She laughed, shaking her head when it bounced off her chin instead. “I was thinking about it the other night, before you guys distracted me in a most delightful way, and I wanted to know… Where is your ship?”

  The men were silent, looking at her as though not sure how to answer.

  “It’s a logical question,” she pointed out, shrugging. “I mean, was it so damaged that you had to scrap it? Did you tear it apart for use in the compound? I’m just curious. I’ve never really seen a space-ship, other than the one that brought us here, and I wasn’t awake for most of that.”

  “It is in a valley nearby,” Hunter told her after a moment. “We have been working to repair it, but without the proper manufacturing equipment, we have to rebuild or make parts by hand. And we simply don’t have the precision technology built back up yet to repair it fully. However, with the addition of the parts from the slaver’s ship, we may actually be able to get the power plants back up and running, possibly get some of the more important systems back online so that we can start making the necessary repairs. I do not know yet. We have only just begun salvaging the slave ship.”

  He looked at her thoughtfully for a long moment, then nodded in decision.

  “I need to go to the ship this afternoon, to get a progress report and see what they need from me. Would you like to accompany me?”

  “Her leg-“ Jace began, but Hunter shook his head.

  “You said that she was fine, and she has been walking on it for days now.” His eyes took on a satisfied gleam. “And if she was able to handle what we put her through last night, my brother, then certainly she will be able to sit on a rider for a few hours. I will take it slow, so that she can see more of this world as we go. I will not let our little warrior come to harm.”

  Jace sighed and looked like he wanted to protest a bit more. Arianna gently touched his mind and found that what he really wanted was to go along, to see her face as she got her first good look at the world outside the compound. He was frustrated at being left out of the excursion, but he had duties today, as well, and they did not include going sight-seeing. However, he also knew that their mate needed to get out of the quarters a bit, get some air, and start exploring her new world. He understood the psychological advantages, but he was still sorry he would miss her first real look at an honest-to-gods space-transport.

  He started when she laid her hand on his arm, and he sighed. He’d managed to forget that she was a Reader. He smiled sheepishly at her and squeezed her hand with his big one.

  “There will be other firsts,” she assured him softly. “But I can wait until you can come, too, if it matters that much to you.”

  “Little one,” Jace said, smiling at her compassion, “If both of us accompany you on every outing, much as we would enjoy it, nothing would get done around here. I will be all right. I just wanted to spend more time with you.”

  She leaned up to kiss his cheek, then rested her head on his shoulder in comfort as they finished eating. He wrapped his arm around her small shoulders, his fingers unable to stop touching her, even if only on the soft skin of her upper arm. She snuggled into his side a bit
more as they talked of their various plans for the day.

  “I hate that he has to miss this,” Arianna said a little while later, once Jace left for the med center and she and Hunter were making their way to the stables to retrieve his mount. “Actually… Hunter?” she stopped and he looked down at her sweet face. “Could we invite Bev along? She is just as excited about space travel as I am, and I know that it would thrill her to join us.”

  He grinned at her and nodded toward the stables, where Trey and his team, along with a very excited Beverly, were all waiting. Ri let out a tiny squeak and hugged Hunter’s waist tightly, pressing a kiss to his chest, which was all she could reach when they were standing. Chuckling, he lifted her up to his level so that she could give him a proper thank-you kiss. She grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. He decided he liked her there so much that he carried her like that the rest of the way to the riders, kissing her the whole time. She laughed against his lips, holding on tighter.

  Trey was grinning and Bev was giggling at them when Hunter and Ri got to the group of riders. But nothing was said as Trey angled Hunter’s mount so that he could get up without putting Ri down. She was startled at first that she didn’t have her own mount, but the ‘riders’ were large enough to hold three or even four of the large warriors. Trey’s team had two mounts between them, with Bev secured happily in front of Trey, and his men Erik and Rom on the rider behind their leaders’. Ri didn’t mind one bit being wrapped in Hunter’s arms for the trip. She leaned back against him, loving the feeling of security she got when he took the reins, his strong arms surrounding her.

  Hunter clicked to his mount and they were off.

  Now that she was conscious and not in horrible pain for a ride through the forest, Arianna could better appreciate all the colors, sounds, and smells of her new world. Trees did not have green leaves here. Instead, they were more of a dark teal color, which she personally loved. It was one of her favorite colors. Always had been. And it was late-spring, so many of the trees still had leaves sprouting in lighter shades of teal and aqua. Many of the lower level plants were flowering in pastels and brilliant, iridescent rainbows. Creatures that she decided to call birds simply because they looked somewhat like birds back home, flitted and flew through the branches overhead, hopped through the underbrush, and chittered and chirped at the group moving through their woods. The smell of loam seemed to permeate the woods, but above it was the sweet scent of flowers whose names she didn’t know… if they even had names.