by Poppy Rhys
When she finally gasped for a breath, Soren unclenched his fingers from around her wrists and then withdrew his cock, settling it against her abdomen between them as it pulsed with his own gratification. The hot arcs of ejaculate sprung forth, shooting up and hitting her under the chin and along her breastbone. The green fluid slid over her body and she watched as his root extended and emptied itself, just as Val’Zun’s had.
Then he leaned in and kissed her with a tenderness that made her eyes sting with unshed tears.
“Okay,” she whispered against his mouth. “Okay.”
His eyes searched hers, both accepting the other and understanding. And then she was being settled on her feet and getting another scrub down.
When they dried her body with a towel and tucked her into bed between them, she didn’t complain about the heat that would make her sweat throughout the night. No, she savored their nearness as their arms and tails wrapped her up and their lips brushed along her freshly cleaned skin in reverence.
Chapter 16
When the morning came around, Lucia slipped from the bedroom and began cleaning her wound like she had every day upon waking. To her surprise the queen was awake and had the reeking ointment ready with fresh gauze. They didn’t smile at each other, rather just regarded one another with a mutual understanding. So while the princes and Lenny slept, Lucia and Gi’Moy began their routine.
She sat in a chair and lifted her sleep gown over the wound. It was slightly redder than it had been, with the pacing and the exercise from the previous night. Even days after initially smelling the foul salve, it still made her stomach flutter with nausea each time Gi’Moy opened the jar.
“Why does it smell like that?” she finally had to ask.
“It is made from an insect that does not smell pleasant, but its innards heal well.”
So basically, you’re being stuffed with bug guts.
Insect innards sounds less disgusting, I think.
Lucia shook her head, regretting that she even asked. By the time the queen was wrapping the gauze around her thigh, the princes were awake and eyeing them with curiosity as they shuffled through the kitchen and began heating water for the rations.
Val’Koy cleared his throat as he leaned up against a wall and took a sip of his hot beverage. “Am I the only one wondering how they both survived without killing each other in this cave?”
Gi’Ren grunted, watching Lucia and Gi’Moy as well. “It is strange.”
Gi’Moy tied off the gauze and left Lucia to discard of the old wrappings. Soren was there helping her stand, even though she was very capable of doing it herself. She didn’t brush him away though, as she welcomed any nearness he was willing to give. His expression was inquisitive, but he didn’t say anything.
“So how are we getting Melierun back?” she asked and her eyes landed on each brother as she waited for one of them to share an amazing idea. Instead she was met with silence and when the queen entered the room once more, they all stared between her and Lucia while they waited on something.
“We will need to contact our military fleet,” Gi’Moy began in her queenly tone as she spoke to the room. “Val’Qa and Gi’Calla are safe, yes?”
Val’Koy dipped his chin once.
“Good,” she nodded, a little relief entering her expression before she pinned Lucia with her eyes. “You were able to infiltrate the Trepnils communications shield. Are you able to make contact with outside communications?”
Lucia swallowed while she thought about how risky that could be, and her fingers rubbed along her cheeks as she nodded. “But it’s dangerous. As soon as I make outside contact, the Trepnils will know and will be able to locate this cave.”
“Then we will be swift,” Soren added.
Another two days went by as Lucia worked tirelessly to setup a way to get out a transmission without tripping anything and alerting the Trepnils before she was able to send it seamlessly. She was sure she’d never been so on edge in all her life, considering the fate of Melierun’s royal family seemed to lay within her hands.
She could feel the tension eating through everyone, especially the brothers. They paced, they fiddled, and they tapped their fingers, and toes, and tails. The four of them were like trapped Ro’Catta’s, roaming and climbing the walls for a way out without actually climbing the walls.
Yet, anyway.
She realized it was most likely because they felt they weren’t helping, and while they may not be helping with the transmission exactly, they had done a lot to keep those they loved safe.
MoMo didn’t like the extra stalking around the cave and often chuffed his displeasure as if to say, ‘sit the hell down already’. Lucia thought it was hilarious, but none of the brothers did.
“You tell ‘em MoMo,” she would encourage and he would lick the air happily and then chuff at whichever Melier was closest.
“MoMo is beginning to look delicious after a couple days of those ancient rations,” Val’Koy smiled in a not-so-friendly manner while his gaze narrowed on MoMo. Lucia scooped up the creature immediately.
“Touch him and I’ll cut off your--”
“Loo-Sha,” Soren warned as he paced.
“-earlobes…,” she finished lamely and a hint of a smile twitched the muscles in his cheek because he knew ‘earlobes’ was not what she really wanted to say.
When she was confident the transmission would get through in one piece, they all stood ready in the room while Gi’Moy recorded the message. Lu’s fingers were quick and steady, despite her nerves, and then when she was about to press the key to send, she paused.
“If this doesn’t make it…” she nibbled on her bottom lip.
“We will be dead within the hour,” Val’Koy sighed apathetically.
“Pessimist,” Gi’Ren scowled.
“Realist.”
“Silence,” Gi’Moy said with finality. “We are ready.”
“Right,” Lu clapped her hands once and rubbed them together. “Well I’d say it was nice getting to know you Val’Koy, but that would be a lie.”
The brothers chuckled, except Val’Koy, and then Lucia pressed the key.
****
Val’Zun held Lucia tight to his chest as he slipped through the door and into the dark of night with the rest of his family. This time around, he and Val’Ja weren’t letting her out of their sight.
“I can walk myself,” she whispered in the dark. He knew she couldn’t see him, but he could see her just fine.
“You are slow even when you are not wounded,” he replied. His mates need to do things on her own made him proud and annoyed all at once.
“Bullshit.” Her harsh, incredulous, hushed tone made him grin. They moved swiftly, very little sound being made as their feet traveled with an ingrained proficient certainty. The cover of the pitch forest aided in their planned escape, but he could hear movement far behind them. He shared a look with Val’Ja, knowing the only one who wouldn’t be able to hear the Trepnils approach would be Lucia.
They pushed on rapidly, underbrush whipping against his skin as they pierced through the dense forest. The sounds got closer and he knew the moment they were too close, because Lucia stiffened in his arms.
A’Drast, let the transmission have reached them.
****
Soren was thankful Lenny slept peacefully in his arms, even as they were running through the forest. He was careful to move with a smooth, rapid gait.
He shifted direction, as the rest of his family did while they made their way to the hidden clearing only the family and guard knew existed. A small worry took up residence in his mind, wondering if the transmission even reached their fleet. Their military’s first priority would be to protect the queen, and then Gi’Calla, to ensure the throne would not be left without a monarch.
A guttural call pierced the forest as the Treps picked up their trail.
They ran faster.
****
That familiar fear twisted Lucia’s guts and a cold sweat
broke out along her skin when the calls kept sounding out behind them. The Trepnils had to be a good distance away, but it still made her nervous. She clung to Zun’s neck and hid her face so the thin branches they whipped through couldn’t slap her in the eyes.
The steady whirring sound of a ship got louder and louder the closer they got to their destination. Relief flooded her being that the transmission had reached its target, and she finally lifted her face again when she felt them clear the last of the brush and hit the sand. It was similar to the clearing they first landed on, but it was further away from the palace and more remote; no roads led in or out.
As they burst into the clearing the small, sleek, silver craft was just lowering to the ground, its ramp extending. The heat coming off the engines created an uncomfortably warm atmosphere on top of the evening heat of the planet, and the sense of urgency was overwhelming as the sound of the Treps grew closer while they watched the ramp inch further to the sand.
A blue energy beam sung past them and hit the side of the ship, doing no damage aside from leaving a black scorch mark. Another screech from the pursuing Treps curled the ends of her hair as they ascended the metal ramp into the craft the moment it hit the ground.
“Go now!” the queen commanded as the last of them boarded and the door slipped shut just in time to deflect another energy beam.
The pinging of beams bouncing off the outside of the ship continued until they were lifting from the ground, going up, and up until the dark clouds of the night lit by the bright blue moon drifted over the ship, and then they were leaving the atmosphere.
Lucia was still in Zun’s arms, as he hadn’t let her go. None of them moved from their positions until they were floating in space, the engines purring as the captain steered them to the waiting military craft in the middle of a surrounding fleet.
Once they entered the ships bay, a collective sigh could be heard and everyone relaxed just a little more.
Soren leaned his face down to rub the bridge of his nose along her cheek. He and Zun began purring as they surrounded her and Lenny, making Lucia think they were just relieved everyone was alive and well.
“You have done a great thing, Loo-Sha,” Soren breathed, his tail coming up to caress the spot his nose had left.
“I try,” she shrugged and grinned. Zun groaned as he was known to do, and she and Soren chuckled. Her palms rubbed his cheeks and pulled his face down to hers so she could kiss his grimly set lips. “Don’t be a grump, Zunny.”
That only made him bristle more, pulling a small laugh from everyone else and lessening some of the tension.
She turned her attention to Soren, her small hands bringing his face close to hers too. “I didn’t forget you,” she said as she kissed his full, warm lips.
“I may gag from all the cuteness,” Val’Koy said, deadpan, as he put MoMo on the ground. She found it highly hilarious that the queen stuck him with the Nobu since he’d hinted at eating the creature. Maybe the queen did have a sense of humor.
“But I really couldn’t have done all this without your mothers help,” Lucia admitted, sending a small smile to her mother-in-law. “She saved my life, and Lenny’s.”
Queen Gi’Moy’s reaction was subtle but appreciative as she gave a slight nod in her direction, acknowledging all that had gone unsaid between them over their time in hiding.
Her attention focused back on her beastly partners though, because she had a major bone to pick with them.
“This doesn’t mean you two get away with what you did,” she said more sternly, eyeing the both of them.
They sighed.
“I mean it. I’m still super pissed you didn’t tell me there was a war going on, or I don’t know, that someone was trying to kill me!”
“Loo-Sha,” Soren warned.
“Don’t ‘Loo-Sha’ me, Soren,” she said, a small chill crawling over her skin as she realized how much like her mother she sounded just then.
“It was for your own protection,” Val’Zun tried to reason, scowling down at her. She snorted and poked his forehead which only made his pupils do a jig with surprise at her strange gesture.
“Listen closely,” Lucia narrowed her eyes at both of them. “The next time some psycho is trying to kill me, you tell me! It’s only fair that I know since it’s my neck on the line, don’t you two think?” When they began to protest she held up her hand. “It was a rhetorical question.”
They groaned.
“And a war!” she shook her head, incredulous that something so massively important slipped under her radar for so long, as if she’d been living under a rock. It made her wonder if they had all specifically avoided conversation about it when around her. That was the only thing that made sense, since she never really ventured anywhere alone and none of the other Melier folks spoke to her willingly most of the time she’d been at the palace.
“You hid a war from me!” she shrilled at them while everyone else stayed quiet, letting her have this moment with her mates. “How would you two feel if the roles were reversed?”
Soren at least had the decency to look a smidge guilty, but Zun didn’t look remorseful in the least.
“We did not want to worry you,” Soren said sincerely, his puppy dog eyes imploring her to understand while he held their adorable youngling in his massive arms, and Lucia’s insides were threatening to melt into goop. His furry blue tail stroked her jaw softly and she was on the verge of forgiving everything.
Snap out of it!
It’s another distraction!
Error. Exploding ovaries in three… two…
“Stop!” she batted his tail away. “I know what you’re up to and it’s not going to work this time.” Her eyes narrowed further and she swept her gaze between the both of them, catching onto their game. They thought they could trick her again. They were using her emotions against her.
The little shits.
“Loo-Sha,” Zun said in that tone and her thighs squished further together.
“No!” she smacked his chest and then Soren’s. “Stop that!”
They began to purr.
“That’s it!” she shrilled. “No more oral pleasures for either of you!”
The purring stopped. The puppy dog eyes stopped. The tails stopped.
They both let out a strangled sound, eyes wide.
“What are oral pleasures?” Val’Koy whispered to Gi’Ren who only grunted and shook his head like Val’Koy didn’t want to know.
And as their group moved into the main ship, Lucia snickered to herself at how both of them were falling all over themselves apologizing and promising to never keep secrets from her again.
Score one for Lucia. Zero for team Beasty.
Chapter 17
“Does anyone have any idea how they got planet side?” the queen asked wearily as they crowded into a command room with high ranking officials.
“We are in the midst of figuring that out, Your Highness,” a stocky, green Zi’Com replied. He looked frazzled, but mostly composed as he flipped through text on a CID and shook his head like he was trying to make sense of what the communications team had given him. “The only thing we can pinpoint is that someone from within the palace aided the Trepnils.”
A chill swept over Lucia, and Soren who stood behind her laid a pair of hands on her shoulders, and squeezed gently before he draped them around. Her own hands lifted to settle upon them underneath her jaw and she leaned back against his body when he bent forward enough to kiss top of her head. Being wrapped up in him brought her some comfort after what the commander just said.
Everyone in the room quieted and let it sink in that someone within had committed a traitorous act.
“I mean no offense, Your Highness,” another Zi’Com, this one red, threw a distasteful glance her way as he spoke to the queen. “But why is the human here?”
Soren and Val’Zun stiffened and growled at him then. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at how the commander thought her presence, of all things currently go
ing on, was something to worry over right now.
Eyes landed on her from around the room, including the queens as people waited for an answer. Even the war couldn’t sway the Melier people from their prejudice, and she wanted to slap each one of them at that moment and tell them to pull their heads out of their asses.
They’re truly getting on my last goddamned nerve.
“If it were not for the human,” Gi’Moy finally replied and then corrected herself. “Loo-Sha,” she said stiltedly in English, and Lucia was just trying to not let her jaw hit the floor with shock. “I may not be alive.”
Confusion ran rampant on every face in the room while some shifted and looked at one another before Gi’Moy spoke again. Zun, who stood beside her and Soren, smoothed his hand over her cheek, and brushed back her heavy curls, his expression just as confused as the others.
The queen relayed what happened with the attacking Trep and the statue, which Lucia was really glad at that moment her terrible aim had actually even hit the monster and not Gi’Moy.
She didn’t voice that though.
“She showed strength in a time of pandemonium,” a gleam of respect shown in Gi’Moy’s expression. “She brought my sons back to me a second time, and for that, I will always be grateful.”
“So you see,” the queen gave an appreciative nod in her direction for the second time that night, “without her, I might not be here speaking to you lot right now. The human, who you will address as ‘Princess’, stays.”
Her queenly tone was frosty as she raised her brows and stared the room down, waiting for anyone to try and challenge her.
Lucia stood in stunned silence with the rest of the room, no longer able to keep her jaw hinged and it hung open as if awaiting insects to buzz right on in.
