Terror and joy in equal measures burst in my heart. I thought my poor chest would explode. For a second I couldn’t breathe, much less answer him.
Somehow, I pushed the fear down. They’d come speeding to me when they thought I needed them. They hadn’t checked on who the message had come from or questioned why it hadn’t originated from my frequency. They’d not wasted a second to be by my side. Who in her right mind would not leap to be with such men?
I guess I’m in my right mind after all, because I replied, “Yes, my Dramok. For the rest of my life…for the rest of eternity, I belong to your clan.”
The next instant I was in Seot’s arms, lifted into the air with our gleefully squealing daughter between us. Cifa and Larten crowded around, everyone laughing and kissing and celebrating our newly forged family.
I stopped being afraid for the moment. It resolved into a desperate need to do my best to never give them a reason to walk out on me. No doubt that will have to be addressed in therapy. I’m sad to say that the desire to find fault and push away continued to show up throughout the day. Now that I realize what’s happening, I can work on ignoring those urges as best as I can. It’s just fear. I’ve gotten through that emotion before.
Once we calmed down and were able to separate ourselves, Seot wasted no time in filing our status via his handheld. I was officially Matara Shalia of Clan Seot within minutes.
We spent a while basking in the glow of being a unit. I could hardly believe it was happening. Cifa jabbered about a ceremony at sea or on one of the many beaches his line visits. When he mentioned Anrel, he called her his daughter, relishing the sound of it. Larten offered outrageous suggestions for the ceremony, such as trading vows naked as some species do.
“I have a few trainees whose worthless hides would deliver a fine rug for us to stand upon before the priest,” he added with malicious delight. “I’ll begin using that threat immediately.”
Seot simply sat holding me in his lap, his arms wrapped tight around me. He exhibited no need to do or say anything, his lips curling into a contented smile.
After an hour of soaking in our joy (in my case, adjusting to the fact that I had gone through with joining their clan), we commed our nearest and dearest. I had never spoken to my parent clans-in-law, so that was hair-raising. Cifa and Larten’s parents aren’t on Kalquor – Larten’s live on the moon Lobam, and Cifa’s reside on a colony on another planet in the system, about three days’ shuttle ride distant. Seot’s parents are on the other side of the continent. It was weird to be introduced to my in-laws as already having been clanned, but they took it with grace. They seem kind, and I look forward to knowing them better in the weeks ahead. In the years to come.
I got my mom on the vid too. “That’s not Al’s clan,” were her first words when she saw us.
“No, it’s the better choice,” I added, giving my guys a wink. They grinned. “They are my clan. Anrel’s fathers from now on.”
“You boys have my undying sympathy. Shalia is a handful,” Mom remarked drily. She broke into laughter when I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Shalia, you knew I had to bust your chops a little.”
An amazingly nice conversation followed. Mom was every bit as pleasant to Seot, Cifa, and Larten as my new in-laws had been to me. She even called my clanmates by their correct names instead of her preferred trick of giving everyone Earther names. It was nice, if a tad jarring to note the changes she’d gone through.
From there, I messaged my dads, Betra and Oses, Feru, Joelle, and Elwa. Then my clan – my clan!–visited Candy and Stidmun in person. They joined us when we trooped to the complex’s offices to tell Katrina the good news.
“How about I keep my granddaughter overnight?” Katrina offered, waggling her brows suggestively at Seot. “You can enjoy yourselves as loudly as you want.”
He laughed. “After a celebratory dinner with my clan and child,” he agreed. “Thank you, Matara Katrina.”
It was weird to have Seot render a decision on behalf of my baby…but I’d wanted Anrel to have fathers in truth. That meant they had a say. Besides, if I had any concerns or differing ideas, they would be met with respect.
It was unsettling but good. My Anrel has four parents. Wow.
We went to lunch. During our meal, Cifa mentioned arranging for the house staff to pick up my belongings and take them to my new home.
“Oh no. I’m not having people I barely know looking at my underwear.” I also didn’t want those I’d be encountering daily to spy the toys I own. Yikes.
“Okay, pack your lace and silk, label it in code, then I’ll have it picked up,” Cifa agreed, snickering.
“Thank goodness I don’t have much to move,” I sighed. “Again.”
As for lunch itself, I barely remember it. I was in a whirlwind of emotion, one moment elated, the next in shock that I’d gone through with joining Clan Seot. I lost count of the toasts. Other patrons at the cliffside restaurant bought our drinks and wished us well. There was a lot of laughter. I examined the happy faces surrounding me, as if to memorize my Dramok, Imdiko, and Nobek in that instant. I can’t recall what I ate, but their joyful expressions stand out clearly.
We walked on the beach afterward. We let Anrel play in the sand despite her pretty dress. As Seot said, we could buy her more dresses. We couldn’t waste such a sunny afternoon, when the world was so bright, over fabric and lace. When we moved on, the dress was easily enough brushed off, removing the worst of the sand.
We went to the underground market. We looked at furniture for the suites that would belong to Anrel and me in Clan Seot’s home. My home. I’m not sure, but I think I picked out a few pieces. I was floating from the change in my life and from lunch’s celebration. The whole while, I chanted in my mind, I’m clanned. I’m clanned. I’m Matara Shalia of Clan Seot.
It wasn’t quite real. Not even a year and a half ago, I’d been fighting for survival on a dying planet. How had so much happened so fast?
My initial hours as a clanned woman went by in a blur. Before I knew it, we were having dinner again, on the rooftop where Elwa and I had lunched only days ago. Had I suggested it? I can’t for the life of me remember.
Some of the shock began to pass as we ate under brightly colored lights that sparkled and gave the surroundings a mystical, magical aura. The fountains and their rainbow arcs added to that sensation.
The sense of unreality ebbed. The occasional throbs of panic grew less and less. My dazed inner mantra of I’m clanned, I’m clanned, I’m Matara Shalia of Clan Seot started to sound more like a cheer. Despite the growing night, I saw my world as brighter. A weight I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying lifted. When my gaze met my clanmates’, my heart swelled with love. I had come to the right decision.
We stopped by my soon-to-be-vacated quarters and packed Anrel an overnight bag. We dropped her off with Katrina, all four parents kissing our daughter goodnight. Then the clan took me home.
Home. My first real home since Armageddon ended my old life, sending me on a long journey to a new one. I’d survived. After all that had happened, I was going to be okay.
The house staff made themselves scarce, giving us the opportunity to be alone as lifemates for our clanning night. My Nobek wasted no time; as soon as we entered the home, he put me over his shoulder and marched to the sleeping room. Seot and Cifa chased after us, laughing as they followed.
With such a primal beginning, I was sure I was to be ravished with unbridled passion. Instead, Larten set me gently on my feet on a soft, woven rug at the foot of the great sleeping mat. The clan gathered around me, and wonder joined their fierce joy.
“You’re ours,” Cifa whispered. “Really and truly. Someone tell me I’m not dreaming.”
“If we are, let’s not wake up.” Seot cupped my face. “Shalia, we are going to make you so happy. I swear it on the names of every ancestor I have.”
“I’ll keep you safe forever,” Larten vowed in turn. “No one will ever hurt you again.”
“Stop,” I laughed, though their words filled me with happiness. “You’re making my head spin.”
“My Matara.” Seot bent to kiss me.
His lips were soft on mine, moving in an exquisite dance to dizzy me for real. I fell against him, my wise, commanding Dramok. His tongue slid against my mouth, and I yielded, letting him taste me.
All my concerns, all my reluctance fled before that kiss. His tongue captured mine, twining about it, gently claiming as he’d claimed me. I was his. I was theirs. I had been for so long, but I’d been too blind to see it, then too terrified to admit it. I was still scared, no two ways about that, but I was in it now. At that moment, I was ecstatic to be caught in their clan, unable to extricate myself from them.
Cifa and Larten joined in, pulling carefully at the gown I’d worn to commemorate our union. Its soft folds fell from me, leaving me in painstakingly chosen underclothes. They left me in my lacy lavender bra and panties, their hands and mouths doting on bared skin. I was reminded of how exciting non-sexual flesh could be when kissed and caressed. The nape of my neck, the hollow of my throat. The bend of my elbow. My wrists. The line of my spine. The cup of my navel. The backs of my knees. They left no inch unsavored, claiming every part.
I stood in the midst of them, these amazing men I had chosen to spend my life with. I drifted in the sweetness of being at the center of their attention. Through the fabric of shirts and trousers, I could discern the cut of their muscles, the solidity of their bodies. Just as I was theirs, they were mine. The realization was heady, almost enough to leave me faint.
This was my forever. How had I gotten so lucky?
They tasted and touched me as if for the first time. I kissed and touched too…discovering these men I’d taken for my own. My lovers for all my life.
In the growing heat of the moment, my fears fled. I could be honest in my hopes for our future. I could indulge myself in loving and being loved.
Their passion heated, their caresses growing more demanding. My pretty lingerie peeled from me, exposing all to their burning strokes of fingers and tongues. They lifted me, setting me on my knees in the middle of the sleeping mat and crowding around me.
“Hold our Matara for me, my clanmates,” Seot breathed, kneeling before me. “Hold her so that I might enjoy our new lifemate.”
Cifa gripped the nape of my neck while Larten held my wrists behind my back. Seot pushed my knees apart, opening me for exploration. I trembled as I awaited my Dramok’s will.
“My love.” For an instant, the strong man looked overwhelmed. To witness him dazed over me – me! – brought tears to my eyes. If I’d entertained the slightest doubt of Seot’s love, it was decimated by that gaze.
He stroked my breast, his fingers lingering over the tip. My nipple hardened. Sparks flew between us at the point of contact. A jolt shot straight to my clit, making me arch and moan.
“That’s my girl,” Seot whispered. He cupped my pussy. Slid his finger inside. Found the spot that melted me. “No, don’t move. Stay still, Shalia. Stay very, very still.”
“My Dramok,” I whimpered. “Please.”
“You’ll come,” he assured me. “For me. For Larten. For Cifa. Yes, my sweet Shalia, you will climax for your clan.” He moved his finger to send surges of sensation through me.
I trembled to hear him say that. I shook harder as he stroked in and out, as Larten dipped his fingers in the wetness flowing from my pussy. A few seconds later, he pressed them into my ass, scissoring to open me.
As Dramok and Nobek concentrated their erotic attack on points below, Cifa cupped a breast. He bent to it, kissing with ardor. The other breast was treated with the same worship. Back and forth he switched, occasionally rising to kiss my whimpering lips as well.
I was lovingly mauled, held helpless so they could be assured that I would accept all they wished to give me. Seot’s thumb scraped over my clit as he finger-fucked me, rewarding my surrender with lightning bursts of passion. Larten’s grip on my neck held steady, supporting and controlling at once. Cifa alternated tender kisses with careful nips, knowing what served my needs best at any given moment.
“You’re ready for more.” Seot’s touch left, and I whimpered, bereft. He gave me a consoling kiss before leaving the bed to open the drawer containing the many toys the clan kept in the room.
As he did so, the other two distracted me from wondering what he was up to by continuing to arouse me. Cifa moved his attentions to my empty pussy. He lapped at me with lingering licks, making me enjoy every nuance of his rough-silk flesh. I gasped at the thrills cascading through me, my body awakening so that each cell alerted. I cried out when Cifa suckled on my clit, drawing it in and rubbing his tongue over it.
I could have sobbed from loss when Seot returned and Cifa retreated. “Easy, my Matara,” Seot chuckled at my despairing moans. “There is plenty of pleasuring to come.”
I quieted, having no choice but to accept his word on the matter. My optimism grew as he handed Cifa black leather cuffs with clips.
“Wrists to ankles?” Cifa asked.
“That would do nicely,” Larten agreed. “What of a spreader bar, to keep her open?”
“Excellent suggestion, my Nobek,” Seot approved.
Larten’s fingers slipped from my ass, leaving me emptier than before. I had their assurances that I would not be left wanting, so I bit off the whimpers that wanted to be voiced. Larten left us as Cifa and Seot cuffed my wrists and ankles, clipping them as Cifa had suggested.
Larten returned with a solid metal bar that he attached to my ankles, holding them apart. My breath caught as Seot showed me the vibrator with the rectangular pussy and clit pad attachment. “Let’s see how fast we can make you fall apart.”
Cifa and Larten fell on me, ravening beasts kissing and licking and biting. I sank into acceptance as they tasted my lips and breasts and belly. The sound of the vibrator switching on, its eyewatering hum insistent, had me trembling as I waited to be destroyed. Or would Seot only tease until I screamed entreaties for release?
I wasn’t given a lot of opportunity to worry. The thrumming pad settled against my sex. It pressed hard against me, demanding my descent into sexual oblivion. With my legs held wide, my body bound so I couldn’t resist, I had no escape. Brute lust tore into me, clawing at my insides, driving me into exaltation.
The rise to rapture was fast as Larten’s grip switched to my throat, holding me still as his face loomed over me. He watched me as a gloating tormentor might, his eyes wide and dark as I screamed with helpless need. My womanhood clenched as Seot bore down harder and Cifa squeezed my breasts hard.
“Nowhere to go,” Larten gloated. “You have no choice but to come for us.”
The orgasm began, a heightening of acute bliss that ballooned larger and larger. Then a pinpoint of extreme pleasure hit, blooming wide all at once. Another flex from my cunt, and climax crashed through me, snapping my head back with the force of its joy. My hips jerked, but Seot held the vibrator against my crotch, keeping nirvana at its peak.
“More, little love,” Seot crooned, and a fresh spasm took me, sending ragged cries spilling from my throat.
They continued until tears streamed down my cheeks and I begged for mercy. Only then did Seot withdraw the vibrator from my throbbing cunt. I would have collapsed if not for Larten’s hold on my throat.
“What a good pussy to come for us,” Cifa murmured as he licked and nipped my breasts.
“It’s swollen and hot.” Seot stroked my trembling sex with fingers, and I cried out at the jolt he delivered. “And quite tender. Let us celebrate our new Matara with the ultimate taking, my clan.”
Their expressions enhanced my excitement. Tutlito tolp, the ultimate taking. I’d had it with others, but not with this clan. My forever clan.
They rose and stripped themselves naked. Larten, with muscles so carved and cut that I could have traced the veins crisscrossing them with my tongue. Cifa, strong without too much bulk, simply delicious an
d beautiful. Seot, chiseled to glorious perfection by nature itself. All of them, so unabashedly masculine, breathtakingly stunning to behold. I could scarcely believe they were mine to adore for all of eternity. There they were, ready to join with me as my clanmates. A joining we would repeat untold times in our hopefully long, long future.
Mine.
Seot crawled toward me, his muscles rippling enticingly as he came, his eyes dark with intent, his gaze steady. As if he could read to the very depths of my soul. Yet it was a lover’s gaze too, delving for secrets because he cared that nothing should be amiss when it came to the happiness of his woman. How I loved him then! Not that I hadn’t loved him before; I was more aware of it right that second.
He knelt before me. His arms cradled beneath my ass, lifting me up, bringing me to him. His gaze never wavered, drinking in my expression.
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