Alien Promise (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Missy Lyons

  Lily gagged and hoped her one bite was going to stay down. Hope wasn’t enough to make that happen. She quickly covered her mouth and looked around for options. She grabbed a trash basket near the side of the table and released the contents of her stomach.

  It took her a moment to recover, and Saber to get over his shock. “Lily, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”

  “I don’t know. It’s probably just a bug. I already feel better.” She felt out of breath and reached for her tea to knock the bad taste out of her mouth.

  “We’ll have E.V.E. run some tests on you just in case it’s something more.”

  “No, that’s not necessary, Saber. I am fine. Really.”

  “E.V.E., do a body scan please of Lily.” He wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  She frowned but kept her mouth shut.

  E.V.E.’s voice was clear as day, “She’s fine, big boy. The only reason Lily threw up was a normal side effect to the fact that she’s just pregnant.”

  “She is?” The wide grin that spread across his face was infectious.

  “I am? That’s impossible!” But Lily knew it damn well was possible, especially with as many times as she had mated with her two sexy giants. She had sex so many times over the last few weeks that she lost track of the number of times she slipped into a blissful state of ecstasy in their arms.

  Saber swept her up in a giant bear hug, nearly crushing the breath from her lungs. She struggled to get the words out. “Can’t breathe.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” He kissed her face everywhere, and his hug grew ten times gentler, tender. “I am just so happy.”

  “Me, too.” She was going to have their baby. Which one had fathered the child was something she may never know, but she had no doubt the gentle giants would make wonderful fathers. They loved her so well that she knew they would be just as good to their children.

  She should have known earlier. Her breasts were sensitive. She was exhausted most of the time lately, and she had all the signs of being pregnant, but never being pregnant before, she had written the signs off to being oversexed.

  “Are you happy?” he asked her tenderly.

  She responded with the truth and a smile. “Very.”

  “We have to tell my brother. He has been waiting for this moment for a long time, and he should be part of it.” He swept her legs out from under her and picked her up in his arms. She hung on around his neck, and he began to carry her from the room.

  “You don’t have to carry me.” She laughed.

  “I don’t have to, but I want to.” His words were huskier than normal, and it made her think of how they would most likely celebrate. It was the same way they always seemed to come together when they were happy.

  From the lusty look he gave her, an intense sexual session would surely follow.

  Chapter Eight:

  An Unscheduled Detour

  “We will be landing on J-14 today.” Ryder did some kind of mathematical calculations and looking at a green grid on-screen. He sat in his favorite seat on the bridge. From the window, Lily could see a very boring looking gray planet which she assumed was a moon. Now she was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t a planet.

  “I thought your planet was called Cimera?” Lily asked curiously. The gray planet was closing in, and she didn’t see any human settlements on it.

  “It is.”

  “Then what is J-14?” She cocked her head to the side, not sure why they would be landing on what looked like an unfriendly rock. There were no plants and no water, and no life in general. It really didn’t look like a place she’d want to go.

  “It’s a prison planet. We have to drop off Girvan on our way home. We want to make sure he is secure before we do anything else.” His hand swept over the screen, and some numbers scrolled up. Then he gave her one of the smiles that melted her insides. She loved the way he could do that to her so quickly. It made her instantly feel safe and happy. Intensely happy. “Then we can get back to our personal business.”

  “You have a business? I thought you were princes?” Lily giggled, feeling just a little awkward. She wished she knew more about her lovers, and she would over time, but during the last few weeks, as much as they talked, it was never enough. Sex seemed to be the forefront on everyone’s mind. “I’m sorry. It’s just, on our planet, princes don’t do much.”

  “Our business is loving you. We were an extension of the military and worked on special missions as bounty hunters, but now that we have a mate, neither one of us will want to travel as much and our priority will be to stay close to you.”

  “Maybe you can put in for a transfer?”

  “I am sure that can be arranged.” He kicked up a half grin.

  She got the feeling that there was something he wasn’t telling her, but she didn’t have time to ask before she was knocked on her ass. The entire ship shook with shock waves as if a 7.0 earthquake hit, but Lily knew that wasn’t possible. They weren’t on the ground.

  She clutched onto the nearby console, stabilizing herself, and then the alarms sounded. A high-pitched, piercing noise blared, and lights flashed. Lily panicked and worriedly looked around her.

  “What’s happening?”

  Ryder pressed buttons and did things to the console in quick, jerky movements. The look on his face grew stone cold, and his concern for her was evident when he turned back to face her. “We’re under attack.”

  “What!” Lily didn’t sign up for any alien attacks.

  “Lily, I don’t want you to panic, but I want you to be safe in case something doesn’t end well. You need to lock yourself in our room.”

  “No. I can’t do that. I just can’t.”

  Just then Saber came in, and he had the same deadpan expression that Ryder did. He looked dangerous.

  “You have to go.”

  “I don’t want to go.”

  “You need to protect the baby, and I can’t fight if I know you are in danger.”

  Saber grabbed her by the arm to lead her away, but she couldn’t just go and hide. She’d be worried the entire time about them. What if something went wrong? What if she lost them in this attack? Then where would she be? How would she live without her soul mates? She and the baby would be forever lost.

  “No, you can’t do this to me. I need you.” She was desperate, and Saber was firm in his decision. He guided her away from Ryder and off the bridge.

  “No, Lily. This isn’t up for argument. I am going to keep you safe. You need to stay quiet until one of us comes for you.”

  “What’s happening, Saber?” She tried to calm her fears. This was just a precaution, she told herself.

  “It’s space pirates.” His tone was icy cold.

  “Are they invading our ship?”

  “They want to. I won’t lie to you. The ship is too valuable to destroy. They won’t hurt it, and they usually try to ransom the passengers, but they are kind of pissed at us for putting Girvan behind bars twice. They may want to see us dead more than the money.”

  “They are after Girvan, aren’t they?”

  “Probably,” he muttered, not losing a step.

  He brought her to the middle of the ship and pressed a part of the wall that didn’t even look like a door opener. There was no keypad, but a secret compartment opened. He finally let her arm go, and there were white marks where he held her.

  She looked hesitantly inside of it, not quite sure if he meant for her to go inside.

  “This is a smuggling compartment we used for contraband or to get arms past the federation when we were young and stupid.”

  “You were a smuggler?” She wondered if she would ever stop being surprised.

  “We’ve done a lot of growing up, but when we were young, we were different people.” He smirked at her as she crouched down to enter the secret compartment. “This still comes in handy sometimes.”

  “Wait! I need a weapon.”

  “You don’t need a gun, Lily. We’ll be here to protect you,” Saber tried to reassure
her.

  “But what if you can’t? What if—What if something happens? Let me have a gun so I can at least protect myself.” Panic increased her heart to a jackhammer speed.

  “Can you shoot a gun?” Saber asked quite seriously.

  “No, but I don’t care. I want a gun,” Lily insisted.

  “It wouldn’t do you any good. It would just give them a reason to kill you if they find you armed with something dangerous.” He shook his head in deep regret.

  Facing off with a pirate didn’t appeal to her, but she had to admit, he did have a point. If she pointed a gun at someone, they wouldn’t care if she pulled the trigger or not. They would shoot and ask questions later. She just hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Hopefully Saber’s little hiding hole worked and no one would even know she was aboard. “Just don’t forget I’m in here.”

  He leaned in close and kissed her. The kiss was rushed, but she appreciated the time he gave her to keep her calm. She never felt so loved or as desired by any other men. “We won’t.”

  She felt breathless when he finally let her go. Her heart swelled with unspoken emotion. The door closed on her almost as soon as he stepped away from the doorway, but at least she had light. She sat on the floor and clutched her knees up tightly against her chest and began to rock nervously.

  Now it was just a waiting game.

  Lily tried to feel brave. She tried to be strong, but it was the last thing she felt. She feared for her warriors’ safety and for herself. No matter how much they tried to reassure her, she knew in her heart, Saber wouldn’t have put her in this hidey-hole unless they were concerned.

  * * * *

  Ryder tried taking evasive action, but the rogue pirate ship locked his ship in a tractor beam. It slowly dragged their ship closer. The first shot wasn’t meant to do much more than disable his defenses. The second and third shots knocked out his cannons then the death-rays, making his ship virtually helpless. When he couldn’t put up the shields, he couldn’t do much more than try to outrun the other ship, and now he couldn’t even do that.

  Saber came through the doors with vengeance on his face. “How much time do we have?”

  “If I’m lucky, five minutes. They’ll have our ship locked to theirs in another two minutes and board in four. It will take time for them to do any damage or find where they are going on our ship.”

  “What do you want to do?” Saber asked. It seemed like Ryder was already forming a plan in his head.

  “I’ve been thinking about that. This close to the prison planet, we can ask for help, but it won’t arrive in time.”

  “Just do it. If we need backup, I don’t want to risk losing Lily in this battle,” Saber said seriously.

  Ryder sent off the beacon and the silent alarm in case they couldn’t see what happened in front of their planet. It was a stupid place to have an ambush. The planet was stocked full of soldiers and military men, but getting help to the ship would take some time since they would have to launch a vessel. Maybe half an hour before someone could arrive at their position.

  Yet it was because he had not expected it to happen that they had any vulnerability.

  “E.V.E., give me two scimitars.” A drawer opened with two laser guns armed with a double sided cutting blade. The handheld weapon was notoriously vicious in close fighting range but also worked in small spaces.

  “Here you go, boys,” E.V.E. replied. “Can I get anything else for you?”

  They each grabbed a razor-sharp weapon and ran out of the bridge. On his way out Saber yelled to E.V.E., “Restrict access to all main floors and to the engine room, the brig, and Girvan’s cell.”

  “Already done,” E.V.E. answered.

  They didn’t have time to do much else but fight. The door shut and locked behind them.

  “You know they will just blow up the door to get wherever they want to go.” Saber held the scimitar at the ready with the blade facing outward.

  “I know, but I don’t mind costing them time. Bloody pirates aren’t doing me any favors by taking over the ship.” Ryder’s temple throbbed angrily.

  “I think they are after Girvan,” Saber added.

  Ryder gave a loud sigh. “You and me both.”

  “If we handed him over, they may not bother us and try to run before any real damage is done.”

  “I am not going to negotiate with common criminals.”

  “If they figure out we have a woman on board who is fertile and un-bonded, they may try to sell her to the highest bidder on the slave market.”

  “Lily is our mate,” Ryder gritted out before smashing a fist into the nearest wall. His knuckles dimpled the metal in a fist shape.

  “Do you think they will care? With a shortage in our world, she is very valuable,” Saber added.

  It was making him realize how dangerous having their woman aboard was during a battle.

  “No one but you and I know she is aboard the ship. She’s hidden safe away, and no one will be the wiser.” Ryder stroked the edge of his blade, testing its sharpness.

  “Girvan knows she is here. He’ll talk,” Saber said grudgingly.

  “Maybe in the excitement he won’t think about it.” Ryder gritted his teeth, knowing damn well that wouldn’t be the case. Girvan would love to exact his revenge, and this would provide him just the opportunity.

  “Over my dead body.” Saber’s voice deepened an octave.

  “I’m with you, brother. No one is taking Lily.” Ryder nodded.

  “So what are we up against?”

  “A Tiger fin ship. It probably holds forty clones. They wouldn’t waste the real men on this kind of attack.”

  “Is that all?” Saber laughed.

  “Yeah. Do you wish we had a full crew now?”

  Saber tried to shake off the seriousness of the situation with a laugh. “Two against forty? Why would I want to share the fun with anyone else?”

  “I am setting the ray gun to kill. I don’t want to take any more prisoners. Girvan has already fucked up this trip for us. All we need now is forty more prisoners, and I don’t even want to think about the paperwork we will have to fill out once this is over.”

  “If they use clones to help fight, they would be just killed anyway once they reach the court system. Clones have no rights.” Saber didn’t feel mercy for things that were never living to begin with.

  The entire ship shuddered, and both men went flying into the wall and then the floor when the ship slammed against another object. Saber got up to his knees with an oath. “Damn it! What the fuck was that?”

  E.V.E. answered his question, “They have attached the ship to theirs and are now attaching the airlock. They are also attempting to override my system.”

  “Well stop them! Encrypt your data, and do whatever it takes to keep them out!” Anger flared in Ryder. The vein pulsed in his neck, and his muscles flexed as he prepared himself for the coming fight. He didn’t like being this helpless, and he would much rather be the attacker than defending against God knew what.

  “Sorry, cowboy. The virus they uploaded is messing with my ability to compute logical responses. I can’t stop this, and if it takes over my central processing unit, I may not be able to help at all.”

  “If we lose E.V.E., you may as well bend over now because we’re fucked.” Saber’s face went a shade whiter.

  “Shut down and go offline, E.V.E. We’ll handle this.” Ryder knew the risk of losing her meant more than money. The virus could not only make her dysfunctional but invade parts of the ship and infect things like the air they breathed. They had to stop it before it was too late and take time to stop the virus when they weren’t in the middle of a battle.

  “You won’t know what’s going on without me or what part of the ship the intruders have infiltrated,” E.V.E. explained as if he was a small child incapable of understanding the consequences of his actions.

  Ryder didn’t stop walking until he got to the ladder leading to the lower levels and the jail cell. “I know what it
means. You have to isolate the virus before it destroys any vital information or it gets into our ship.”

  “They have accessed an airlock on the third level and are entering the ship now.”

  “Shut down, E.V.E.,” Saber ordered as he climbed down the ladder. “We’ll handle this.”

  “Shutting down now,” E.V.E. answered.

  An alarm sounded, and the airlocks on all the doors of the ship sounded. Saber hastened his step to a near run. “Damn it. We don’t have much time. Girvan is probably already free.”

  “Not for long,” Ryder answered.

  Thirty more feet and they saw their fears were justified. Girvan was outside his cell. He wore a blue jumpsuit issued to him before he went into his jail, and his short hair was combed behind his ears and gelled flat against his head.

  Girvan didn’t look happy to see them, and he wasn’t fully free. He wore ankle cuffs limiting his movements. “Damn it. Not you again. Why do you two always insist on ruining my fun?”

  “Just going for a little run were you?”

  “Yeah, or haven’t you heard? My friends are here to pick me up.” His toothy grin smiled back.

  Barking and snarling came from the hallway behind Ryder and Saber. Both men tensed for a fight.

  “Darkanians,” Ryder growled.

  The hair bristled on the back of Saber’s neck. On part of his home planet they had managed to thwart the virus by a gene mutation that combined their DNA with animals. The result wasn’t always pretty. Some of the beasts could control the changes between human and beast and shift at will, but others were stuck in an in between stage of neither human nor beast but took some traits of both.

  It was an abomination, and they realized their mistake when it still did not help their original problem of finding fertile females. The virus that threatened their planet still managed to take hold and destroy their families and their ability to procreate.

  The furry beasts that walked in were unclothed, and their thick skin was impermeable to most weapons. Their weapons were near useless on beasts like this. The laser guns wouldn’t do much more than singe their fur. The blades were the only part of their weapon that could cut through their armor-like skin, but they would have to wait until they were close enough to use it on the beasts.