Cian, whose grim face hid a nature of healing and unadulterated lust, was a potent lover. When they had joined as a triad, she could feel images in his mind of his healing and the way he dealt justice in his command. He was firm but fair. And hidden in the undercurrent of his mind was the need for his mate. For her. A deep, burning abiding need to be complete.
Keer glimpsed his admiration and borderline envy of Tirin and his easy laugh and gentle ways. She had also seen the part of the puzzle that Tirin completed with his own deep need for a mate, matching and exceeding Cian’s with each ebb and turn.
Tirin, with his quick smile and laugh, was as deeply possessive and needful as Keer herself. Glimpses she had seen in the blond
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warrior’s mind of his turns in battle had been shocking and slightly horrifying, even to a hardened bounty hunter. But Tirin had an ease and calmness that balanced the deep workings of Cian’s own thoughts.
These two whole, sexually demanding men wanted her, completely and utterly. And they were both convinced that no other female would do. In each of their minds, she had seen that they would never force her to do anything. While they each longed for children, they did not see or feel that she was a machine meant to breed. And for Keer, that was the one thing she needed to complete their triad.
Cian and Tirin stood in the bedchamber, waiting for her. Cian waited in his usual, arms over chest, proud stance. Tirin leaned a hip against the large chair, eating another piece of the fruit he favored, but his stance was a little too casual for Keer.
Keer had learned to read signs and body language as an art to keep her own skin intact while bounty hunting. Both of these men seemed tense, watchful. While Cian did not try to hide it, Tirin wore a mask over his worry that was unusual for him.
Keer walked to Cian and kissed him gently on the cheek, standing on tiptoe even with the heeled boots to reach him. He unbent stiffly to meet her. She noted his clenched jaw.
She reached out to wipe the juice from Tirin’s lips and brought it to her own, licking the sweetness from her fingertips. There was a flicker in Tirin’s eyes, but he forced a smile at her.
Reaching behind him to the table, Tirin handed her a carved oblong of black. It was alien marked, she recognized. A valuable piece of art. “It is from the market in Altuden. You know of it?” Tirin asked. The amber gaze was hot again.
“Altuden is a hotbed for the alien sex trade. I’ve heard of it. I once chased a runner there, through a slave house and into a local orgy.”
Keer shook her head, flexing her tender thighs together she felt the beginning of the burn. She really was a harlot, she thought. The alien art was phallic, there was no doubt. It seemed even that affected her.
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“You were in an Altuden slave house?” Cian thundered. Keer glanced at him, amused. If the two warriors thought she was made of imported Teeg glass, they were in for a surprise.
She let her own voice rise “Yes, you thickheaded hunter. I razor tied the runner and dropped him in a pod that the local prison ship provided. Of course,” Keer added, muttering, “that was after I left my skinsuit shredded at the foot of a Neld who wanted to investigate my
‘worth’ as a sex slave.” She cleared her throat and looked back at Tirin. “I doubt that he can yet raise his lizard-cock after the sting I gave him.”
Tirin was as intent as Cian, listening to her. “I also took his captaincy jacket, for my trouble. I had to have something to wear out of that hole.”
“You STOLE the captaincy jacket of a Neld Warrior?” Tirin was the one roaring. Keer wiped her mouth and looked at them eyebrows raised.
Tirin began to stalk toward her. “Do you know what they do with the sex slaves on Altuden? Do you know how they use this ‘art’ as you call it as?” He picked up the phallic looking object and leaned over her, talking through clenched teeth. “They wire tie them, Keer. They wire tie them to a slaver’s cross. Hands to feet.” Keer flinched mentally, but kept the reaction from her eyes.
The laughing warrior was outraged, his face a mask of hard intent.
“Don’t think I don’t smell your need again, you foolish Terran. I can taste it on my tongue before my mouth is on you.”
Keer watched him carefully, easing her legs apart. Her first instinct was to run, her next to throw herself at him and wrap her legs around him until his cock filled her. She had never had alien domination fantasies, but she’d been surprised at what the gods had offered up to her in the last moon turn.
Tirin’s mouth was a hard line. “You will not EVER do anything of that foolishness again.” Still excited but puzzled, Keer looked at him. It was apparent the normally mild mannered warrior was furious.
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“That, warrior, is who I am.” Keer thumped a finger against his chest, accenting each word. He growled and reached for her, his arms lifting her against him, hard enough to bruise. They stared at each other, green eyes flashing against amber.
“We have a visitor, little hunter.” Cian interceded, his words clipped. “He asks for you.”
“Drak!” Keer’s heart nearly leapt from her chest. She looked away from Tirin, all thoughts of the Altuden sex toys removed. “Is he alive?” She ran to the door, expecting them to follow her. “Take me to him, now. Please! Cian, please!”
“He is very angry, my mate. He had to be restrained. You understand.”
“Cian! Did you hurt him? Tell me you didn’t hurt him. Tirin!”
Tirin wore a pensive expression. Cian’s eyes were flinty.
“Look, you two Endland cretins. I may be in love with you but that doesn’t mean you can hurt Drak.” She kicked Cian solidly in the shin for effect and then punctuated the kick with an elbow to Tirin’s ribs.
Cian blinked once. The chamber grew quiet as he absorbed Keer’s words.
Tirin, was smiled at his commander’s expression. ” You knew this how, Lieutenant?” Cian demanded, pathing to Tirin but broadcasting his thoughts to both Keer and Tirin.
“He knew it because he allowed himself to know it!” Keer switched to spoken word “Dammit, Cian, never in all the moons did I think I’d find two men and one so thickheaded he doesn’t listen to his mate’s thoughts.” she shook her head. “Of course I’m in love with you!” she looked at him, disgusted.
“I want to see Drak now. We can talk about our…arrangements later. You don’t expect me to leave, do you?” The dark hunter looked doubtful.
“Gods Cian, why would I consider it? Think, hunter!” Tirin and Cian were unmoving.
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“No mate of mine will leave me to hunt for a Terran bondsman.”
Cian spoke through clenched teeth.
“I am your second, commander.” Tirin paused, his stare directly at Keer. “She admits to loving us. She chooses to be our mate.”
Keer sank into the large chair and reality hit her like a lightning bolt. How would they deal with this? How would she deal with these two giant men with matching egos? ” And matching sexual needs” a small voice spoke from the corner of her still-numbed brain. She had to survive and she had to continue to hide her existence from the human males, the barbaric human race that had attempted to defeat her at every turn.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter. The worrying about being a bondsman, staying alive, running from planet to space freighter to the next planet became minutia in the detail of her life. What had been so important to her survival now seemed insignificant. Without these two hunters, she couldn’t survive because her pitiful Terran existence would not be worth living.
Keer inhaled. “She chooses.” Then she threw her arms around the necks of two very pleased warriors.
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Chapter 9
It was a torturous trip to the brig to retrieve Drak Voi. Cian and Tirin were not convinced it was safe to take Keer to the cursing, stomping bounty hunter. Keer had finally assured them that their worries were for nothing when she regaled them with tales of Drak saving her life.
Cian’s expres
sion had been thunderous when she spoke of her trip into a Tarvian mine field, a holdover from the Alliance wars decades before.
She’d huddled for two days in a solar heat blanket after accessing her tracking chip and alerting processing that she was in trouble. The runner she chased into the field lay in pieces kilometers beyond where she stopped after he hit the first mine. It was a stupid move on the runner’s part, but as long as she could return with the wrist chip proving his death, they would be paid.
Many bondsman would kill the fugitive and remove an entire arm to return to the Alliance prison counsel, versus paying freight to take a live body back. Credits were credits, after all. Keer had not become bloodthirsty enough to resort to that, but the trip to Tarva almost changed her mind.
Drak had come to the rescue, blasting through the field, a mine droid detonating ahead of his land trawler. By the time he’d found her, the ice had seeped into her jump suit and her skin was turning creeping blue. Two nights on the Tarva plain were barely survivable even with good planning, and Keer had only planned for a few hours.
The cold had overtaken her during the second night. She was nearly mindless with hypothermia when Drak arrived.
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After sweeping the solar tent away, he bundled her up in a heat blanket. He’d pressed his body against hers and then run across the field with her in giant strides. As Drak placed her in the back of the trawler, Keer opened one eye in relief and said “Chip” through chattering teeth, still trying to cling to his heat.
“Aw, give me a hunter’s balls, you would think of the chip. Half dead and freezing in a Tarvan mine field and all you can think about is the job,” he muttered as he went. He sent the drone ahead searching through the gore of what was left of the runner.
Drak returned to the trawler to find Keer still conscious, holding out a shaking gloved hand to him. Drak deposited the chip, blood frozen to black on the shining surface, into her hand. “Chip.
Satisfied?”
She’d tried to nod her head, then used her remaining strength to lodge the prize into her suit. Collapsing, she listened to Drak continue to curse. “Next time take a droid with you, Keer. You’re my best bondsman. I can’t afford to lose your skinny human ass to the subzed.” He continued to rustle through the contents of the back of the trawler. He held her tucked under his shoulder, willing heat back into her frame as he searched.
“Vita-heat drink, open up.” Surprisingly gentle for a man his size, he cradled her head as she gulped the hot liquid. Unsure of her condition, Drak had packed carefully. The trawler held an aid box and hot packs, along with a stack of solar blankets. An inactivated nurse droid lay sightless in the forward seat. Drak punched one of the packs with a booted foot and then pushed it under Keer’s bottom, hot hands rubbing her vital parts as he went.
“Stop movin’, I know you’re freezing. It’ll warm you up.” He continued to fuss, and made her finish the vita drink. She began to doze as the heat seeped into her skin.
“Hang on, baby, we’ll get you home.” He soundly smacked her forehead with a kiss then strapped her in for the ride. Drak Voi definitely had her back
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The warriors saw the scene in her thoughts as she’d experienced it Earth turns before. Cian had grunted and Tirin had scowled at her, but they now owed a huge debt to the man they held behind laser bars in the brig.
When Keer rounded the corner into the secured area, following the two warriors’ long strides, it was to the sound of Drak Voi roundly cursing the Endlanders.
“Where is she, you grunting Endland bastards? I know she’s alive, and when I get out of here—” The sound of flesh sizzling against the solid force field of the secured brig echoed in the chamber. “Where is she? Touch her and I’ll blow this rock to the middle Ehta.”
Drak looked none the worse for the wear, Keer noted as Cian and Tirin parted to allow him a glimpse of her. “Keer! Did they hurt you?
What in the three moons and hell are you doing down here with these Endlanders?” Drak looked like he was ready to toss himself back against the force field when Cian lifted a hand and signaled the security bot to release the field.
“We apologize for your injuries, bondsman. We had hoped not to use force with our mate’s…colleague.” Both men stood with Keer, flanking her. .
“Drak!” Keer ran to the bondsman and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He wrapped her in a bear hug and kissed her soundly on the head.
“How many times do I have to come after your sorry Terran ass, Keer? Did they hurt you?” He hugged her again and then began to check her for injuries.
“Unhand her, Drak Voi.” Tirin’s inflection was steel. Cian silenced him with a look.
Listen to her thoughts, Lieutenant. Calm yourself. Cian pathed.
The blur of Keer’s racing thoughts swept through the two hunters and their stances relaxed visibly. Cian saw relief and happiness. Tirin heard concern for the dark bondsman and brotherly affection. Her fear of men did not, evidently, extend to this man. They stood silently as 82
she assured Drak that she was in good health.
“What is this Endland boarshit about mates, Keer? You didn’t…”
The big man was at a loss for words. He looked from Keer’s suddenly guarded expression to the two warriors. Drak’s grip on Keer tightened then he released her and stepped back.
“Gods, Keer, how could you?” Drak swept a hand through his closely cropped hair and began to pace the brig. “You’ve never been close to anything but a sex bot and you turned me down flat! I’d begun to think you desired females.”
The hunter was out of his element completely now. He looked to the warriors again. “Gods, bondsman. Both of them?”
Tirin and Cian stood, glowering at Drak.
“You think we are not good enough for your small hunter, bondsman?” Tirin spat the words.
“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t!” Drak was at a roar and nose-to-nose with Tirin. By the time Keer squeezed between them, and then again between Drak and Cian, she was weary of the shouting. “Fine.
I’m going to the galley. Let me know when you’re done.” She turned on her heel and stalked down the hallway.
The three of them had the good sense to follow her.
“You’re sure?” It was the fourth time he had asked. They had finally left Keer alone with Drak after she insisted that she would call for them if she had need. Now all she had to do was to convince her friend and boss that she was fine.
“I need time to find out, Drak.” Keer was gentle with him. As her protector and her friend, she felt the need to explain herself to him, something she would do for no other man. “I’ll be safe here, Drak.
They won’t let anything happen to me. And I need a break. The runners know me now. We’ve lost that Terran element of surprise that we had for so many years.”
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Drak rubbed his face with his hands, sighing wearily. “I don’t like it, Keer. They had you hidden for three days. How do I know you weren’t brainwashed?”
Keer took the hand of the man she had come to respect and squeezed it carefully. “Do I look like I’ve been brainwashed, freak hunter?” Drak examined her face carefully, staring at her until she began to blush.
“Give me a hunter’s balls, Keer Teho, you’re as red as Endland dust!”
“I have to stay with them, Drak. I can’t explain it, but there are things that you don’t understand.” She wasn’t sure she completely understood herself. She couldn’t think of being without them now, disconnected from them. Cian and Tirin inhabited her mind when she would let them, and they were certainly in her heart.
“What? That you’re a fertile female?” Keer felt like she’d been slapped.
“You knew?” Alarm filled her. If Drak Voi knew, then who else was aware of her secret? Gods, this was a disaster! . Her heart began to race, and she jumped from the chair.
Drak glared at her. “Relax, bondhunter. I knew because I was informed.”
“Informed by whom? Tell me, you freak hunter! Who else knows?” The fear was nearly overwhelming. The door to the galley shimmed open. Cian and Tirin moved in, nearly at a run.
“What disturbs you, small Keer?” Cian’s look was of unadulterated anger, jaw clenched he came to stand on one side of her. Tirin stood behind her, guarding her back. While the solid wall of warrior surrounding her was reassuring, she was intent on Drak.
“You will answer her question, bondhunter. Now.” Cian was icy.
Drak raised himself to his full height and stood nearly eye-to-eye with the warrior.
“I’ll answer her when I’m ready, Endlander. I was asked to protect her and I didn’t drag her into my bed when she was in the heat.”
Drak’s eyes flashed sparks. “And I didn’t force her to mate with 84
my…colleagues.” He looked at Tirin with repulsion, and his hand reached automatically for the sting gun that had been taken from him.
Keer heard a low growl come from Tirin’s throat.
“Cease!” She pushed herself between Drak and the wall of Cian’s chest, brushing her hand against the dark warrior to ease his wrath.
Let him speak please. He is still my friend.
“He will answer you or go back to the brig, and Tirin and I will beat it out of him.”
“Drak, please. Does anyone else know? For the gods’ sake, you asked me to hunt fertile females! And you knew?” Keer felt a sudden, unusual urge to cry. The bondhunter couldn’t be capable of this betrayal. “I didn’t ask you to hunt females. I gave you the opportunity to stop hiding from me.” he grunted at her. “It was Lhan.”
Keer gasped. “Mother? How did you know my mother?” To the best of her knowledge, her mother had never confided in anyone about her own daughter’s state.
“She was educated with my sister, my older sister. They were friends before her time came and they took her away. She begged me to protect you before she died. I had thought…” He looked hesitant and uncomfortable but then cleared his throat and continued. “I had thought to mate you myself, if you would have me. It was the only way I could think to protect you from the ones that would lock you up for a breeder. But then, I met you and you…” He inhaled and directed his looks to Tirin and Cian. “You toppled two Nelds without taking a breath. And I knew you could care for yourself with the right support.
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