Queens' Warriors

by Mari Byrne

  Chapter Five

  Theresa could not believe her luck. Yesterday, she had been at the local Vid/Sync store reporting the situation to her Commander and a twenty-four hour pass had come through.

  Thinking on it now as the transport made its way up the mountain heading for Naralin, she remembered the shouting her crew had done when she’d told them.

  “You aren’t playing us are you, Captain? Please tell me this isn’t some kind of joke we’re going to be the butt of when we wake up?” Corp. Dyden, their resident Medic-Tracker, questioned.

  He hadn’t received a pass, of any kind, in the last eight months he’d been at Camp Grenlak. They had all been scouting or stopping skirmishes, and Theresa and her crew were more than ready for time off. Even, if it was only for twenty-four hours.

  “No Corp. Dyden. You’re not dreaming and it’s not a joke. We have twenty-four hours as of the top of the hour. I’ve synced in our reports from Hetcha and let them know about the fighting that went on, so we’re free in about…”

  Theresa looked down at her time holder and did the math.

  “…eight minutes. In the meantime…”

  Before she could finish, Lt. Roberts interrupted her.

  “Sorry, Sir. What about the prisoners in the hold car? Are we doing anything with them, or leaving them as is?”

  “Actually, we’re letting them go.”

  The disbelief the statement caused was expected.

  “We busted our asses rounding those prisoners up! What the hell do they mean…” This was from Lt. Roberts.

  “…let them go my ass! I got a bladestem cut from the big one that’ll ache for days! That’s just frech…”

  Theresa cut off the curse before it finished. She had allowed her team to voice their displeasure, but orders were orders. Holding up her hand in a gesture to silence her crew, she waited for the outcries to cease.

  “Those were the orders. Last time I checked, this was the Queen’s Guard, and when we’re given an order, we follow it.” She raised her eyebrow inquiringly and got the response she had come to expect.

  In one motion and voice, her team came to attention and answered.

  “Yes, Sir!” The bellow turned heads all around them and Theresa saw the looks of respect and contempt. Unfortunately, she had come to expect the contempt also. The thought stayed only in her mind, but she knew her Aunt Sara had a lot to answer for.

  Being niece to Queen Sara through her deceased mother, Gwen, never stopped Theresa from knowing what her aunt truly was. An evil entity to her core.

  Theresa had then taken care of the prisoners herself explaining they were all free and it had been a bad misunderstanding. An inquiry would be convened soon, and she expected every one of them to be there. With Queen’s Guard or QG as it was often called, business taken care of, she would allow her team their freedom for the next twenty-four hours.

  * * * * *

  The following morning, her crew came back on time and ready for whatever lay ahead of them. All five of the men and women appeared to have come back renewed and enthusiastic. It relieved Theresa to see them a little more themselves.

  “Next stop—Naralin.” The pleasant voice broke into her thoughts. It was a good thing too. She had begun to sink deeper into the memories of just how she had spent the night.

  Shuddering in sensual delight, she got up to get her gear. She smiled as she thought fondly of the two men she had spent the night with. Strangers they may have been at the start of the evening, but by the end, she had been making plans to see Kyden and Dylan again.

  “Captain. Will we be taking any of this along, or do you want me to sync it up to the Camp?”

  The smile fading from her face, Captain Theresa Lawsai became Commander of her unit once more.

  “Sync it, Second Capt. Dresden. We’ve got a long way to travel, and the animals don’t need the extra weight.” Moving off the transpo, Theresa strode to the livery where they had stabled their animals.

  * * * * *

  Shan Lin came out the other side of the Tear into Aranak and immediately gained his feet. Looking around suspiciously, he spotted Vincent still holding Shari clutched to his chest. Making his way to them, he did his best to keep the expression he held on his face neutral. Knowing he had little hope of keeping anything from his brother, Shan Lin still did his best.

  “It’s all right, Shan Lin,” he heard Vincent say. “You can take her from here. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think we’d actually found our mate rather than the bride we were commanded to take. But that can’t be as I don’t seem to have the same covetous feelings you’re showing.”

  Smiling smugly, Vincent gently transferred Shari into Shan Lin’s arms. Immediately Shan Lin’s inner-self shifted to a righted position. He could now look at his brother with everything inside him as it should be. There were no thoughts of violence running through him. He was at ease once more.

  “Vincent. I wish I could explain…” Grimacing with shame, Shan Lin knew he need not. Vincent had already rifled through his mind.

  A look of teasing tenderness covered Vincent’s face.

  “You have a trant, don’t you?” Vincent asked, even knowing the answer already. Immediately, Shan Lin’s cheeks pinked then turned vivid red.

  Shan Lin stood in front of his brother with Shari held tightly in his arms, and watched as Vincent, the one whom Shan Lin would kill and die for, the brother of his mother’s womb and his own heart, began to laugh uproariously at him.

  A growl escaped Shan Lin’s throat as he took a step toward his brother. Before he could take a second step, he remembered the weight he held in his arms. The scowl curling his lips quickly turned into a look of joy as he juggled Shari’s unconscious body to free up one of his arms. The anger drained from him as he cradled the woman’s head on his shoulder as if she were a sleeping child, and used his free hand to stroke her face.

  “She is truly lovely. I don’t think we could have found a better bride for this mission if we had scoured the seventy-five Realms for a decade.” The softly spoken voice came from Vincent and had Shan Lin lifting his head.

  Smiling now, Shan Lin stopped stroking the woman’s face and used his free hand to lightly sock his brother on the shoulder.

  “Seems I’m not the only one with a trant.”

  Vincent, loath to admit aloud what his brother already knew he felt, gave a snort and started for the road leading to their horses.

  And further on to Naralin. Home.

  Yes, brother. It’s time our bride saw her new home. Us as well.

  His emotions too close to the surface for further conversation, Vincent set off to reclaim their beasts.

  * * * * *

  Theresa set a pounding pace as she and her crew made their way toward Camp Grenlak. She knew they would pass through the town of Naralin on their way back to the camp, and she also knew she was going to call upon her family to accommodate her and her crew for the night.

  Besides, it was not much further, she and her crew were tired, and they deserved a night of fine lodgings and amenities. It would be a long time before any of them got anything better than barracks or a tent. At the rate her aunt sent missives to General Kristoky for battle movements, Theresa knew this war could drag out long after her own grandchildren had left the Realm.

  Grandchildren.

  Theresa shook her head and grimaced. It was so unlikely she would ever have children of her own, grandchildren would never even enter into her life. Shaking off the melancholy, which so easily crept in with those thoughts, Theresa spoke to her crew through the earmics the team always wore when on duty.

  “We ride for another hour. We’ll stop in Naralin where we’ll find suitable lodgings. In the morning, we should have sufficient time to reach Camp Grenlak.”

  “Aye, Sir.” The affirmatives came as Theresa cleared her thoughts of personal baggage and concentrated on what the report she had sent to the general hadn’t said instead.

  Yes. Her aunt indeed had muc
h to answer for.

  * * * * *

  The modest lodge stood before the riders, a fence with a locked gate surrounding it. Shan Lin, barely reaching it before Vincent, spoke a few words, and the gate opened before them.

  Still mounted on their horses, Shari tucked securely against Shan Lin’s massive chest, both men rode toward the home they’d shared for the better part of twenty years.

  I wonder if she’ll see it as we do? Vincent asked Shan Lin absently as they rode through the cultivated lawn.

  Shells of tarkey fish crunched under their horses’ hooves along the flower-bordered drive as they made their way to the front door.

  Don’t know. Shan Lin shrugged causing Shari to mumble, but not to wake.

  Hushing the woman, Shan Lin looked once again at his home and wondered just what she would see.

  From where he sat, he could see what appeared to be a modest hunting lodge. Spacious, not nearly the size of a palace, and it would undoubtedly fit into Queen Sara’s personal chambers with room left over.

  The outer walls were fortified with steel from the Klakin mines and provided both relief from intemperate weather, but also from invaders. There was more to the house than just what the eye saw, and the temperature could be better regulated in the underground portions of the house.

  The windows shone in the afternoon sun, his favorite view of them at this time of day. Looking behind him, he found the sun shone brightly in the colorful sky. Glancing back to the windows, he discovered them strewn with the various colors of their world.

  If you start to tear up, brother mine, at least let me take the woman. Wouldn’t want you to sob and accidentally drop her.

  The sarcastic voice echoed through Shan Lin’s mind, but he ignored it. He would remember the words next time he and Vincent sparred. Smiling, he urged his horse toward the solid wood door.

  Vincent was the first to reach the steps leading up to the door of their home. Dismounting, he left the reins on his saddle and murmured softly to his horse to find its own home. Patting it gently on the rump, the horse bumped its head against Vincent’s chest then turned and made its way toward food and shelter.

  Before he took another step, a bald man dressed in a shiny, flowing shirt, butter- soft leather pants and knee-high boots stepped out of the door and began speaking.

  “Ah, my Lords. It’s good to have you home. And I see you’ve brought a guest. Wonderful, just wonderful! I’m always grateful to have company. Will you be wishing a suite made up for her? Near the both of you, of course.”

  Ignoring the hand stretched out toward him by Vincent, the man strode past Vincent and down the steps toward Shan Lin and his horse.

  “Do get down off the beast and let me have her, Shan Lin.” Before Shan Lin could protest, the man stepped up to him and grasped hold of Shari. Taking her with a reverence he normally reserved for infants and children, the man cradled the woman carefully, then turned and made his way back up the steps.

  “Do be so good as to wipe your feet before you come in. Mistress Lichen has just finished cleaning the carpets and you know how she is about them. Don’t forget to bring in all your baggage as Josef isn’t quite up to the task. Poor man has suffered from another bout of the grimes.”

  Even as the man spoke, he continued toward the door, bent down to reach out his hand to the doorknob without jostling the woman he carried, opened the door, and on his last word, shut it behind him.

  Shan Lin and Vincent looked to each other, shrugged their shoulders then went about the tasks they’d been ordered to do. A smile lingered the entire time they worked. Whether the woman knew it or not, the man who had practically raised them, along with their parents before their mother’s death, had just accepted Shari as the brothers’ possession. Winters had just stolen their bride out from under their noses.

  The woman didn’t stand a chance.

  * * * * *

  Shari awoke slowly, a feeling of contentment running through her as she stretched her body languidly. Remnant feelings of her orgasm tingled through her, while her sleepy thoughts steered toward the wonderful dream she’d just had. Absently, she wondered why she felt so much better. Nearly all the pain had left her body.

  Shrugging cautiously and not about to discount possible divine intervention, Shari remembered the two men gratefully and with benevolent thoughts. Apparently, they had worked a miracle. At least the one beyond the unbelievable orgasm.

  Two of the most gorgeous men she’d ever laid eyes on had just finished giving her the best orgasm it had been her privilege to partake of. Finishing her stretch, she reached her hand back under the sheet covering her to run her hand down her naked body.

  I’m alone in bed, still slightly aroused from my dream, and it’s not as if I’ve had anyone to share it with in awhile. Might as well indulge.

  Following those thoughts, she closed her eyes as her fingers found the springy hair surrounding her pussy and she began to run them back and forth. She circled the hard bud of her clit bringing even more pleasure to herself. The image of two men standing at the door and beckoning to her to let herself come ran through her mind.

  Each of the dream men stood stroking their shafts simultaneously as they approached the bed she lay on in her imagination, and her mouth watered at the thought of one of the men coming up to her and allowing her to suck his cock until they both came.

  Shari’s breathing came faster as her finger traveled rapidly over and into her now wet pussy. Her other hand reaching back up to grasp an abundant breast as she teased and pinched her nipple into a hard bead of aching need. Her sleepy mind awakened further as the heat of her imagination took over, she knew the two men she saw in her mind were going to do anything she asked, willingly be at her beck and call, and make her come at a moment’s notice.

  “Anything you desire, we shall oblige.” The breathless whisper sounded in her ear as a second, then a third finger joined the initial one. Pinching her nipple and stabbing at herself, she barely noticed the voice was actually speaking into her ear of the wicked things it wanted to do to her.

  “That’s it. My fingers are three times the size of yours and will stretch your gorgeous cunt for my cock. I’m going to thrust it so deep and with such power into your creamy pussy, you’ll feel it in your throat.”

  The voice dropped in octaves and became choppy in its speech, and Shari heard heavy panting, but hardly felt the hot breath on her ear as a second voice spoke into her other ear. Sleep vanished completely as the second voice, just as harsh, deep, and breathless as the first, joined in and began to describe a long list of sexual positions and things it was going to do to her. The orgasm, which had hovered just out of her reach, suddenly crashed through her, resounding and vibrating around the fingers jammed deep into her cunt. She let out a stifled screeching moan as her body went taut and her mind wrapped itself around the pleasures snaking through her body.

  When all that remained of the release running through her were pleasant tremors, leaving her feeling relaxed and partially sated, she let the air out of her body and snuggled deeper into the pillow under her head.

  “That was beautiful,” a deep, gruff, and very excited voice whispered into her ear.

  Shari screamed as she shot up in her bed, throwing the now tangled covers off of herself and leapt to her feet, landing in the position of a fighting stance she’d seen recently in a movie. She wasn’t a trained fighter, but her male cousins had seen fit to teach her everything they knew and then some. She could, and would, hold her own with the best of them.

  Her recently relaxed muscles now snapped instantly into a tense and prepared-to-die stance. She faced the same two gorgeous body-hardened men who had starred in her self-pleasuring imaginings. Her jaw dropped open as her mind took in the two naked men. Her quick glance took in their identical looks, chiseled features stamped no doubt from some genetic perfection running in their families.

  Short, sable-colored hair, which looked thick and capable of sustaining many runs of a w
oman’s fingers through it. Eyes, two different colors. Prominent, slanting noses, mouths which begged a woman to run her tongue over the pouting bottom lip and suck on the top one. Their chins rounded and pronounced.

  At the moment, those two different colored eyes shone, almost literally shone, with scorching looks of hunger at her presently exposed body. Shari watched in disbelief now as their stiff cocks, strained slightly past their navels, twitched in unison, and seemed to stretch longer before her eyes. Looking up quickly, she saw both men looking once again at her face, their eyes full of lust, as they began to advance on her.

  Her mind scattered at the sight of the men who stood before her, her mouth watering at the bulging flesh so readily available. But she hadn’t a clue who these two men were.

  She put up a hand hoping to, at the very least, stop their forward motion, and at the most, make them magically freeze so her mind could settle into some form of order. It didn’t work. Their forward progress continued, and her mind finally realized it would have to order her mouth to speak.

  “Wait!” Shari tried to put as much authority into the command as possible, but the word came out as barely a squeak. She tried once more.

  Doing her best to look the identical men in the eye, rather than at the more tempting objects jutting from their lower halves, she again spoke.

  “Stop!” There were still remnants of huskiness in her voice, but the volume had increased at least. Both men stopped, coming to attention as if to wait for her next command. Their lust-filled eyes remained glued to her naked form, but at least they were no longer bearing down on her.

  She cleared her throat discreetly, gathering her thoughts, then tried not to stutter her questions.

  “What have you…why are you…and those!” The questions seemed clear enough to understand in her mind as she pointed at the magnificent straining cocks the two men displayed so readily to her.