Twin Addiction (Chaetdorian Mates Book 4)

by E. M Reders

  That was a question Hannah very much wanted an answer to as well. She had no doubt that the two handsome males would feature vividly in her fantasies over the coming months. It would be nice to be able to put a name to their faces.

  “Why would you need to know that?”

  “So I know who to hunt down and bash to death with my bag if Jessie doesn’t wake up. I’m guessing the stuff you gave her was the same thing we were knocked out with to get us here. And I’ll tell you, the headache that followed was not pleasant one bit.”

  Oh hell, Jessie was not going to be the best person to be around when she did come to. The woman had a temper, and she was going to be majorly pissed off when she woke up. And the twins would be at the top of her shit list.

  “Jepa.”

  Jepa? It was unusual - then again he was an alien – but it suited him. She liked it.

  Gazing at the other male, Hannah waited for him to tell them his name, but his mouth never moved. A sadness she did not understand filled her. She wanted him to speak to her, needed him to. Why wouldn’t he speak?

  “My name is Hecto,” came the same deep voice that had cracked a joke a few moments ago, but his lips remained unmoving. He had spoken straight into her head. What the hell? How?

  Wide-eyed, frozen in place, Hannah tried to communicate with him, calling out with her mind. She wasn’t sure if it would work, if she was just making a fool out of herself, but she had to try. “Did you just...”

  “Speak to you in your mind? Yes.”

  “But... but how? That’s impossible.”

  “Hannah, are you OK?” she heard Katie ask beside her. Nodding, she tried to form words, wanting to reassure her friend, but her voice failed her.

  “Nothing is impossible now that you are here.”

  Warmth filled her at his words and she had the strongest urge to move to him so he could wrap his arms around her.

  “And I would love nothing more, Hannah, if I were not carrying your hellcat of a friend.”

  OK, this was just freaky... and about to get even weirder.

  “Brother, now is not the time,” came Jepa’s voice.

  Wow. They were both able to talk to her in her head? Could all Chaetdorian’s do that? None of the others had, and Nora had said nothing of the ability.

  As they continued on their way, Hannah’s mind was in a spin. The voices were gone now, neither of them communicating with her in their strange mind-bending way. Maybe she had imagined it. Maybe Alice wasn’t the only one that needed her head checking. Had she hit her head at some point when they were abducted? It didn’t feel tender, but you never knew. She would have to get Katie to check for any signs of a head injury when they were alone.

  Arriving at their destination, the fabled deck seven, they found themselves in some sort of lounge area. It was filled with comfortable looking chairs and sofas, all facing a massive viewing window.

  It reminded Hannah slightly of the group home she had lived in after her dad had got sick, though it was in a much better state. The only thing that screamed alien was the peculiar machines that stood to one side of the room.

  “Joel?” Jepa shouted.

  “Who’s Joel?” Katie asked just as one of the many doors lining one of the walls opened.

  Head popping around the corner, a guy, a human, looked them over. “Oh hey,” he said, stepping into the room and smiling at them in welcome. When his eyes landed on Hannah, his smile widened.

  Now, Hannah’s normal reaction to the guy's obvious attraction to her would have been to smile back, maybe flutter her lashes a little and lick her lips in invitation. She did none of those things. For some reason, his blatant interest left her feeling extremely uncomfortable.

  “What can I do for you?” the guy asked.

  “We have three more residents for deck seven. They need rooms next to each other and showing how to work the consoles.”

  “And clothes,” Hecto growled, moving to stand in front of Hannah when Joel’s unwanted gaze moved back to her.

  “Thank you,” she whispered to him through the strange new way of communication.

  “He has no right to look at what is ours. He is lucky that I do not crush him,” came Hecto's angry reply.

  ‘Yes. Crush him. Kill him. Make his pay for looking at our mate.”

  Wait, what was that? Who was that?

  “Sure, sure,” Joel said with a smile. “Follow me.”

  OK, now she was even more confused.

  Chapter 8

  “What the fuck do you think you were doing mind merging with her like that? She’s human, there is no way you could have known if her mind could take it.” Or that it would work. How the hell had she been able to connect with them like that? Never in the centuries since they had been born had they been able to converse with another the way the two of them could. How could this small, fragile, beautiful human female be able to do what no other could?

  “I wasn’t thinking, it just happened. I could feel her, brother. I could feel her longing, her need to know our names and I had to answer. I wasn’t even sure if it would work but I knew I had to try. Don’t you get it? This seals it, Jepa. She is meant for us, both of us. She heard you too.”

  That she did, but it didn’t change the fact that connecting with her mind could have had serious consequences.

  Stepping off the transporter and entering deck seven, he called out for Joel, the human male that seemed to have claimed leadership over the human volunteers.

  “Who’s Joel?” the chatty, slightly annoying friend of their mate asked.

  Popping his head around the corner, Joel smiled. “Oh hey.” The male quickly took in the situation, his gaze travelling over the group, frowning slightly when he saw the unconscious body draped over Hecto’s shoulder. It was the look on his face when his eyes moved over his mate that had him wanting to smash the human’s face in.

  “You and me both, brother.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “We have three more residents for deck seven. They need rooms next to each other and showing how to work the consoles.” Rooms far away from his own.

  “And clothes,” Hecto growled, his rage bubbling barely contained below the surface. When the male’s gaze strayed back to Hannah, Hecto moved to block his view.

  “Thank you,” came the sweet, timid voice of their mate.

  “He has no right to look at what is ours. He is lucky that I do not crush him,” Hecto replied before the evil and tainted voice of madness washed through the connection.

  ‘Yes. Crush him. Kill him. Make his pay for looking at our mate.”

  Dread filled him. He had hoped that with finding their mate the voice would have gone, that his brother would be sane of mind again, but if anything, it was stronger. Never before had he heard it so clear in his mind.

  “Sure, sure,” Joel said, tearing his eyes from their mate and walking down the deck. “Follow me.”

  “So what’s the plan?” Hecto asked as they followed Joel down the deck to the rooms the females would call home for the foreseeable future.

  “Beats me.” He had dreamed of this day for a very long time, centuries even, but he had no clue how to proceed now that the day had finally arrived.

  The human male showed the women to their rooms while Jepa surveyed the deck. He hadn’t spent much time in here and he wanted to make sure the place was safe for their mate until they could claim her and move her in with them.

  After depositing the unconscious female in the room Joel had said would be hers, Hecto returned with a scowl on his face.

  “I know what our first port of call needs to be... Get Hannah a new fucking room! The bastard has only put her in the room next to his.”

  “Our room. Our bed.”

  For once Jepa couldn’t argue with the voice. Their bed was exactly where he wanted their mate too.

  She didn’t know them, they were nothing but strangers to her... so why did she feel such despair when the twins left? Her chest felt ti
ght and she wanted nothing more than to chase after them and chain herself to them so that they would never leave her side. What was wrong with her?

  For the past hour, Joel had been showing them around deck seven. It had been especially adapted for human use. He also introduced them to a few of the other humans on board and they seemed a friendly bunch, if not a little too friendly in Joel’s case. He kept staring at her, smiling in what she was sure was an innocent way, but to be truthful, it was kind of freaking her out. It was his eyes, there was something in them that unnerved her.

  Standing in front of one of the food consoles – the weird machines situated at the side of the main lobby of the deck – she prodded at the so-called food that Joel had just removed from one of them.

  “The food actually wouldn’t be too bad if it had some flavour,” she commented. While not very appealing to look at, Hannah had found some of the stuff they had been given in the holding bay edible. It just lacked... something. Just like every relationship she had been in to date.

  “Maybe it needs some salt, or maybe a little pepper,” Katie said. “Let me guess, they don’t have any, do they?”

  It turned out that while the aliens had altered the deck especially for their use, there were a few things they had overlooked.

  “Nope. A lot of these aliens have never stepped foot in the human world, never mind tried any of our foods. I’m afraid we have tasted our last enjoyable meal.”

  Shaking her head, Hannah took the tray over to one of the tables and sat down to eat. It might not have been very appetising, but at least it was food. When Katie sat down beside her, she asked, "So what's the plan?"

  "The plan?"

  "Yeah, you know, what we are going to do now that we are stuck here, on a space ship that is not in space, with a bunch of seriously hot alien males."

  Her comment caused a giggle to escape from Katie's lips, but Joel seemed less than impressed.

  As he walked away, heading over to talk with a few of the others, Katie asked, "What's his problem?"

  "No idea. So what are we going to do?"

  “I guess we just wait for Jessie to wake up and see if we survive the destruction, because when she wakes, there is going to be hell to pay.”

  There certainly was, especially now Hannah had no real desire to leave, at least not the ship. She had an extremely strong desire to leave the deck so she could track down Jepa and Hecto, but leaving the ship would mean never seeing them again. And after only being in their presence for a few minutes, she couldn’t stomach the thought.

  Chapter 9

  After Jepa finally managed to drag Hecto away from their mate – not that he wasn't reluctant to leave her himself – they found themselves back on a transport shuttle heading back to the warehouse. With the humans staying they could leave Earth as planned. Teks just wanted one more sweep of the warehouse, just in case.

  Mandy, the young female that had gone missing during pickup had been well liked by all and excited about travelling with them. Jepa doubted she had suddenly changed her mind. Not Mandy.

  Landing the shuttle on the roof of the building, Xandr turned to speak to the team that had been assembled. “Netoi, you scout the perimeter. Kentope, guard the shuttle. Twins, you come with me.”

  They started on the ground floor, splitting up to cover more ground. Teks’ orders were simple, get it done and get it done quick. Their commander was more than ready to blast off this rock.

  When they reached the third floor, having found nothing on those below, the strong scent of blood assaulted their noses.

  “It’s hers,” Hecto growled out loud.

  “How do you know?” Xandr asked, eyeing his brother quizzically.

  He didn’t answer.

  Jepa knew how. Mandy was one of the females that Hecto had come near to attacking. During her last meeting with him, she had cut her hand and Hecto had reacted violently to the scent of her blood. He would never forget its perfume.

  Following the scent, they moved down the corridor towards the last door on the right where the scent was strongest. Bracing himself, knowing that what awaited them on the other side of the door was not going to be pretty, Jepa grasped the handle and opened the door wide.

  Stepping into the room, gazing down at the broken and battered body upon the floor before them, they all voiced the same thing.

  “Fuck!”

  It wasn't’ very often that Teks ventured out of the bunker and tunnel system that their ship was hidden in, but the moment they had contacted him and informed him of their find, he was on his way. Twenty earth minutes later their commander strolled into the room. Pain and sadness flashed in his eyes as he took in the sight of Mandy’s broken body.

  “I want to know who did this and when they brought the body back here. Have you found anything?”

  “Nothing. Both the room and the rest of the building is clear,” Jepa informed him. They had searched the rest of the building while they'd waited.

  “What of the body?”

  Stepping forward, Xandr informed him, “Initial scans show extreme internal trauma to the body.”

  “Obviously,” came Hecto’s sarcastic response.

  “Other than the obvious external injuries that you can see there are numerous bite marks on the neck. My guess, going on what we can see here; this was a madness induced attack.”

  Shaking his head, Teks crouched down, looking closely at the bite marks on the young woman's neck. “All males have been accounted for. None, other than you lot, have left the ship since the last sweep of the building. Fuck!”

  “There is no sign of a sexual assault,” Hecto growled, his eyes never leaving the body.

  “Is this what I will do to our mate?” The pain and worry radiating through the bond he shared with his brother let on just how upset Hecto really was by the night's find. Since the discovery, externally, he had seemed unaffected. Internally, despair had him in a tight grip.

  “No, Hecto. She is our mate, you will not harm her.”

  “But the voice, it has not left. Even now it is screaming at me to return to her and claim her.”

  “You are not the only one dying to do that. I too would enjoy nothing more. I have been thinking about it and I don’t think the madness will lose its grip on you until you do claim her. As soon as we get back to the ship and are relieved from duty, I think we need to make tracks on claiming her. It will not be easy, these humans do not understand what it means to be a mate and the urges that drive us. We will have to tread carefully, gain her trust first.”

  Rising to his feet, Teks shook his head. “Even so, we cannot rule it out. The body will need to be transported to the medibay for a complete examination. In the meantime, I think we need to proceed with the mental assessment of every male. We cannot leave this planet until we have dealt with anyone suffering from madness. The maddened are a threat to everyone on board, and now that we have one mated pair – two if what I believe about Torq is true - it is not a risk I am willing to take.”

  “Torq?"

  "He's been acting strangely since his initial run-in with the females, maybe one of them is his mate.”

  “I don’t care about that right now. Hecto, you cannot go for assessment. If they find out that you have the madness, they will not allow you anywhere near our mate. They will detain you before disposing of you.”

  And more than like himself too. It wasn’t unknown to their fellow Chaetdorians that they shared more than their looks. If they found out that Hecto had the madness, they would automatically assume that he did too.

  This was not good.

  Chapter 10

  Hannah couldn’t sleep, at least not in the room she had been given. She didn’t know why but she just wasn’t comfortable in there. It was pleasant enough, but she just got a strange feeling, like there was someone watching her. It was because of that feeling that she found herself curled up on the floor of Jessie’s room waiting for her friend to wake. It was probably best that someone was there when she d
id; the woman was going to be pissed.

  “Are you there?”

  The sudden voice in her head had her jumping to her feet, her heart beating wildly in her chest.

  It was him, the near silent one, Hecto. Since the twin’s departure that afternoon she had not heard anything from them. She had begun to think that maybe she had imagined it. That she had hit her head at some point during either the abduction or the attack. Katie had promised her she could see no signs of any head trauma when she had asked her to check, but still.

  "Hannah, are you there?"

  Well if this was hallucinations brought on my head trauma or stress, she might as well go along with it. If was honest with herself, she couldn't not. There was something about Hecto and his brother, Jepa, that drew her in.

  “Yes, I’m here.”

  Instantly she sensed his relief, his need to hear her voice, to be near her. She didn't understand it, did not even attempt to try, but she felt the same way in that moment. Hearing his voice just brought her need to be near them to a whole new level.

  “Good. Take her. Claim her.”

  “What?”

  She had heard that voice before, the one that was Hecto but wasn't all at the same time.

  A sense of panic that was not her own blasted through her and she felt him begin to pull away, retreat from her mind. She tried to fight it, but she had no idea how any of this worked so she knew there was no stopping it. The instant he was gone, she felt it like a blow to the chest.

  What was wrong with her? She didn’t know these man, these aliens, but she wanted nothing more than to bask in their presence, to be close to them both mentally and, dare she admit it, physically.

  Knowing that he would not be communicating with her again soon, she plumped up her pillow and attempted to get comfortable. Though it did no good, she just couldn’t relax. She felt agitated.

  Hearing a moan coming from the bed, she sprang up and leant over a now conscious Jessie. “How are you feeling?”

  “Like my head has been smashed in by a tonne of bricks. What the fuck happened?”