Adaptation

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  Despite the fact that it seemed unlikely, to say the least, that another trio would single her out and that the three men were the same heights and builds as the Sirians, as far as she could see, a good bit of doubt lingered in her mind that they actually were the Sirians-until they started dancing.

  That was not only a dead giveaway, it was embarrassing as hell! She hadn't drunk nearly enough of her drink to prevent a painful blush from climbing all the way up to her hairline and all the way down to her toes.

  "Oh my god!" she muttered, wishing she could escape, struggling with the urge to leap to her feet and dash off or slide under the table and hide.

  She might have tried if they hadn't surrounded her, making escape impossible and she wasn't too paralyzed with discomfort to duck under the table.

  Chapter Seven

  Clearly we failed to breed her, Ronan said with a mixture of anger and disgust. She has come back to this mating place to look for another.

  I was not in favor of leaving before we had accomplished it, Dax pointed out angrily.

  Ronan glared at him in tightlipped silence.

  No. You would have died in the attempt if she had decided to alarm the others because you had no sense of the potential danger! Jarek paused, considering the situation. Not that I would not have been willing to stay and try a few more times before withdrawing. Now she will pick another and we will have to find another mate, he added glumly, and I do not want to pick another mate!

  I am not going to pick another mate, gods damn it! Ronan growled. I chose Kate and I am going to breed her.

  How will we do that when it is obvious she has come to find another mate? Dax demanded angrily.

  Ronan frowned, too angry for many moments to consider possibilities. It occurred to him after a little thought, however, that the situation might be a blessing in disguise. We will make ourselves look different and then she will not know us. Then we will be able to stay as long as it takes to breed her without concern that she will raise the alarm. I am not convinced that she knew that it was us, but this will be far safer if she was suspicious as I believe.

  Dax looked startled and then thoughtful.

  Jarek discovered he was not at all pleased with the notion but it took him several moments to realize why he was not pleased. Then she will mate with three males she believes are not us!

  What is the difference as long as she does, Dax demanded testily?

  I want her to accept me, Jarek said indignantly!

  She will be, stupid. She just will not know it.

  Jarek glared at him. I will punch you in the face if you call me stupid again! I know she will not know the difference. That is why I do not like it.

  You cannot fight here, Ronan growled. They will attempt to throw us out again like they did earlier! And then we will have to change our faces again and I like the one I have now!

  I do not know why, Dax muttered. It is a very unremarkable face. Mine is much more handsome.

  Ronan glared at him. What is wrong with it?

  Nothing except that the females are looking at me and smiling and not you. I do not think they consider it a handsome face.

  Maybe they are smiling because you have a stupid face, Jarek suggested smugly, and it makes them want to laugh?

  Dax slammed his elbow into Jarek's belly.

  If you two get thrown out, I am not going, Ronan said coolly. I will stay here and court Kate.

  I will beat the snot out of you later, Jarek growled, stalking off as Ronan left the two of them and headed toward the table where Kate sat with her friend from the space station. He glanced at Ronan uneasily as he caught up with him. What are we to say? I am not completely comfortable that I understand the mating practices of the humans.

  Ronan was not confident that he did either, but he was loath to say so when he was the alpha and expected to lead. I will tell her I have decided that she will suit me as a mate.

  The uneasiness on Jarek's face deepened.

  I have not heard any of the others say that, Dax volunteered as he fell into step beside them.

  Then what do you suggest, Ronan asked sarcastically?

  Dax shrugged. The mating dance, he said doubtfully?

  Ronan frowned. He was not convinced that she was favorably impressed the first time they had performed the mating dance for her.

  Jarek echoed his own doubts. She did not look terribly pleased the time before, he said slowly. In fact, it seemed to me that she was more uncomfortable than aroused.

  She accepted us, didn't she? Dax pointed out testily.

  Jarek and Ronan exchanged a questioningly look. Ronan finally shrugged. Perhaps she was uncomfortable before because she had already accepted and taken us to her nesting place? This is the mating place where the dance is performed.

  I had not thought of that! Jarek exclaimed, relieved.

  You are right, Dax agreed. I had not thought about that either.

  Ronan still felt a niggling of doubt that he completely understood the human mating practices-or at least the choosing part-but the fact that Dax and Jarek had agreed with his assessment soothed the bulk of his anxieties. The important thing, to his mind, was that she had agreed. They must have done it right or she would not have. As soon as they had reached her, therefore, and caught her attention, he began to imitate the dance that he recalled that had won her favor before.

  She gave him the same glassy eyed stare as before, a myriad of emotions flickering across her features and began to flash color in her face. Relieved that she had reacted the same as before, he straddled her lap as he had seen the other males do and imitated the sex act to be sure she completely grasped his intent. He would have performed the sex act except that he discovered very quickly that the position not only did not allow him to align their genitalia, but the clothing she was wearing also prevented an actual connection.

  He discovered that she was staring at his chest and he could not read her expression to judge whether he had convinced her to accept him or not. "We go to your place and fuck?"

  She made a strange sound. Her friend, behind him, made an even stranger sound.

  Kate cleared her throat, fighting down the urge to giggle hysterically. Either she as mad as a hatter for feeling the urge to laugh when she could well be in extreme, deadly peril, or she'd had just enough alcohol to impair her judgment. She cleared her throat and struggled to steady her voice while she searched for a response. "I … uh …."

  "You aren't seriously considering going off with this Neanderthal, are you?"

  Ronan dismounted from Kate's lap and sent a confused look at her companion. Her tone was negative. He had no idea what a Neanderthal was, but he was certain he would not find the reference flattering if he did. The only thing he was sure of, and that was a relief, was that she did not seem to know that he was not human.

  "You don't even know his name!"

  Anger flickered through Ronan at that because he had been in such a rush to claim Kate before any of the other males could that he had not considered that he would need a name. He could not very well use the one that he had before when he had a different face. He searched the minds around him a little frantically for a name and finally smiled at Kate. "Shirley."

  Kate looked like she had tried to swallow something and it had stuck in her throat.

  Sissy uttered a choked sound that he strongly suspected was laughter.

  "Charlie?" Kate asked in a strange voice.

  "He said Shirley!" Sissy piped up, snickering.

  Kate frowned at her friend. "You must have misunderstood him. Shirley is a woman's name," she said, emphasizing the word in warning. "He said Charlie, didn't you? Or did you say surely?"

  Ronan frowned, trying to detect the subtle difference in pronunciation, but he was in no mood to sort through the problem at the moment. "Charlie."

  "And your two … uh … friends?"

  Ronan glanced at Dax and Jarek. She wants names. It must be part of the mating ritual, he prompted them.

/>   Dax and Jarek stared at him blankly.

  Say something, you idiots! She's waiting!

  "Jar …. Ugn," Jarek began only to have Dax knock the breath from his lungs with the point of his elbow to his ribs.

  "Jared?"

  Relieved when Kate supplied a possibility, Jarek nodded, ignoring the urge to rub his throbbing rib.

  "And your name?" Kate asked, staring at the last man.

  Dax grinned at her a little woodenly, struggling to pick up a name from the people around them. There was such a cacophony of thoughts, however, that he could not single out any sounds that he thought were name sounds. "Da …vi," he said finally.

  Kate beamed at him approvingly. They were actually getting very good at mimicking the sounds of humans, she thought absently. It was the Sirians. She had no doubt about that despite the fact that they'd changed the appearance of their faces-and she didn't want to think about that particular trick of theirs at the moment! "I'm Kate-should have been Kathryn, I guess, but I ended up with just Kate and this is my friend, Terry, but everybody calls her Sissy."

  The Sirians looked confused, as well they might. She had a feeling that it was hard enough for them to grasp one name without the confusion of nicknames.

  Ronan-she was almost certain just by his behavior that the one who'd picked the name Shirley was Ronan-grinned at her. It was a surprisingly sexy smile. "We go fuck now?"

  Kate compressed her lips, struggling with the odd mixture of amusement and fear-and anticipation, as much as she hated to admit it-that she'd felt from the moment the Sirians approached her. "Why don't we do that?" she managed to say shakily.

  "You aren't serious?" Sissy objected.

  Kate gave her a look and then smiled tightly. "Sorry. They look like the pick of the litter, though. I don't see that I'm likely to do better by hanging around longer."

  Sissy gaped at her. "But …."

  Kate got up. "Sorry," she said again. "I'm going with them."

  "All of them?" Sissy gasped after staring at her speechlessly for several moments.

  Kate looked at the men questioningly. "We're all going to my place, right?"

  The Sirians all nodded.

  Kate felt her belly clench. A tingling mixture of heat and cold washed over her from the combination of dread and anticipation. She felt weak, as if adrenaline had rushed through her and then abandoned her.

  Did she really want to do this, she wondered?

  Did she actually have a choice if she wanted to prevent bloodshed?

  "We're going to take the party to my place," she said decisively, suggesting she would explain all later. "I'll give you a call tomorrow."

  Sissy stared at her blankly but finally nodded at the silent communication.

  Kate had no idea what sort of explanation she was going to concoct, but she figured she had time to consider it and come up with something that sounded fairly reasonable.

  Maybe she could just tell Sissy that she'd discovered she had a 'thing' for multiple partners? Of course, from what Sissy knew of her, her current behavior bordered on the bizarre. It had been excusable the first time since neither of them were aware that all three 'men' intended to follow her off and both of them had been flying high from way too much booze, but then maybe Sissy would imbibe enough that she wouldn't be very clear on what had happened by tomorrow?

  Dismissing that problem for the moment, gathering her courage with an effort, Kate led the way out of the club and summoned a taxi. All sorts of thoughts and emotions pelted her as she waited for the shuttle to arrive. Foremost, however, was jitters over her decision to play bait-most specifically the part where she had accepted that she would use sex to lure them onto the ship.

  She realized that she hadn't actually accepted that that was what it was going to take and that her decision to act as lure really left her no choice at this point. She'd carefully shuttled specifics to the back of her mind and focused on the main objective. Finding herself standing among them now, though, images of their first time kept pelting her. Interspersed with those memories were images of the Sirians as she had known them-as beasts.

  She couldn't reconcile the two, she discovered. She couldn't conjure images of having sex with the beasts. She remembered fairly vividly having had sex with Ronan, Dax, and Jarek, but her mind neatly divided the two into imagination and reality. She knew it was the same. Regardless of their form at the time, she had had sex with the Sirians, but although her mind accepted that on one level, on another it was fixated on the human forms she'd seen and interacted with as if that was their true form and the other was merely a disguise.

  For all she knew, she still hadn't seen their true form, she realized abruptly.

  What were the odds, now that she'd begun to realize their abilities, that the form she'd considered their true form actually was? Would they have had the ability to change their form so drastically from birth? Or hatching, as the case was?

  Assuming they had, why would they have appeared to them as they did?

  Had they sensed that form would be more acceptable? Less threatening?

  Before she could follow those thoughts off and analyze them, the shuttle arrived and she was completely diverted. The fear that she would have the long ride to her place to dread what was coming dissolved upon the discovery that they had no intention of waiting. She'd barely had time to instruct the robotic driver when Ronan hauled her across his lap.

  "Dis work," he muttered, planting a hand along the back of her neck and dragging her close to plant his mouth firmly over hers.

  Work how, she wondered briefly?

  Logistically according to their anatomy!

  She barely managed that coherent thought, however. She had expected to be repulsed now that she knew what they were. It didn't happen that way. Her mind sent up warning flags, flashed a brief image of the Sirians through her mind, and then the image of the Ronan she'd accepted, and that was the end of even token resistance. She experienced spontaneous combustion almost as quickly as her mind registered the feel of his mouth on hers and his taste invaded her. It was like combining the key ingredients of TNT. She struggled against the heated tide of desire that enveloped her almost instantaneously, but the fight was woefully brief. Her body knew his chemical signature and remembered the pleasure he'd given her before and responded with keen anticipation. He didn't feel or taste alien. His touch, his scent, his taste registered in her mind and body as human animal, as a perfect match for her own physiology.

  She wondered, briefly, how he could possibly grasp the human kiss, let alone execute it with such devastating effect, but the euphoria scouring her blasted rational thought, leaving her at the mercy of her own basic instincts-those assuring her that he was perfect mating material.

  She was dimly aware of the tug and pull at her clothing while she drowned in Ronan's kiss, but that merely prompted her to help rid herself of the impediments to experiencing his touch. A flicker of surprise went through her when her bare skin coasted along his and she discovered that Ronan had somehow rid himself of his own clothing without any difficulties whatsoever. Alarm flared briefly when the tug at her clothing reached a point of discomfort to distract her and then produced a tearing sound when her position astride Ronan's lap prevented simply removing it, but it never moved to the next level. He pulled her tightly against his chest so that they were plastered together breast to breast and divine sensations moved along her nerve endings to soothe the beginnings of alarm with heated desire.

  She was as eager as Ronan was when she felt him glide a shaking hand along her cleft to find her opening, or perhaps to test her readiness. She was ready, almost embarrassingly so. The moisture her body had produced to ready itself for him was abundant enough to make a wet, sucking noise as he sawed one thick digit in and out of her passage a couple of times and then replaced it with the far thicker member she'd begun to crave. A conflicting mixture of emotions rattled her when she felt the first probing of the head of his cock, felt his flesh stretch the mout
h of her sex. Her heart fluttered madly in her chest in response to the mixture of anticipation and anxiety that swept through her, forcing the breath from her lungs in harsh pants. She couldn't contain the mewling, animalistic sound that scraped from her throat as her body struggled to accommodate his girth.

  "Is an assault in progress?" a mechanical voice asked abruptly.

  The question was asked in English and then translated into several other languages before Kate's mind could make any sense of it. "Oh god!"

  "Is that an affirmative? Shall I summon the police?"

  The word 'police' cooled Kate's blood sufficiently to jog her mind into operation. "No!" she grunted as Ronan finally achieved full penetration. "I'm alright. I don't need assistance."

  Not that kind of assistance, god forbid! The intrusion of the robotic driver's voice briefly dried up all moisture, however, and when Ronan lifted her it felt for several moments as if his cock had welded to the flesh of her channel. Thankfully, the stimuli was enough to prompt her body to produce more, though, and he glided more smoothly into her the second time because he didn't seem to notice the brief lack of lubricant.

  Her mind switched tracks from alarm at the possibility of being caught by the authorities screwing in the backseat of the taxi to an awareness that Ronan hadn't been distracted as she was and that he was going to achieve climax before she could. For a few moments she wavered between a reluctance to pursue what began to seem like an impossible to achieve goal at this point and the determination to reach it before he could leave her behind. Jarek or Dax decided to participate at that moment, however, and shoved a hand between them, teasing her clit with a fingertip. The touch on her clit slingshot her over the hump, erasing her doubts that she could reach the finish line before Ronan's cock deflated and left her with nothing to get her there.

  She groaned as the first tremor quaked through her, promising Armageddon, teetered for a moment between sliding back down the hill and pitching over the mountain top and then soared over it when she felt Ronan's cock jerk with imminent release. His driving thrusts and grunts of pleasure as he achieved release thrust her into intense rapture. Waves of such powerful euphoria quaked through her that it made her skin pebble all over. She shuddered, gasped for breath, and then leaned weakly against him as all of the tension left her at once.