by L. M. Brown
Then there was Logan. Halor had no idea what was causing him to retreat from him and Kit, but something appeared to be troubling him, too. Halor had expected Logan to sleep with him and Kit, but instead, the human had taken up residence in one of the guard rooms.
There seemed to be walls between all three of them and Halor had no idea how they had appeared—or worse, how he could break them down.
Directly ahead of them, the first of the two ships from Earth was making its leisurely way towards the restricted zone without anyone on board being aware of the danger they were in.
“There she is,” Logan said. “Now, to board her and set her on a new course.”
“Will you have access to the systems to do that?” Halor asked.
“Not on my own. Everything will be secured. I’ll need to wake both the captain and the navigator for us to change the course. It takes three ranking officers, one of which must be the captain, to alter our route. I still don’t know how the slavers got past the security on my own ship.”
“Technology,” Halor said simply. “I think you’ll find ours is vastly superior to that of humans.”
“I’ve already noticed that,” Logan replied.
Halor made his first attempt to contact the computer of the Earth vessel. Logan watched the screen, surprised when Halor was immediately successful.
“Earth security is nothing more than an unlocked door, it seems,” Halor said.
“Can you alter the course from here?” Logan asked.
Halor attempted to access the navigation program but was unsuccessful. “It seems to be better secured than the main computer. Still, I would suggest we install some additional safeguards onto the main one before we go find the last ship.”
“Good idea,” Logan agreed. “Now, can you dock with her so I can get on board? I need to wake the captain and explain what has happened to my ship. They’re expecting to arrive on New Earth with a ground crew already established. Instead, they’re going to be the ground crew.”
Halor steered the ship towards the much larger vessel, communicating with the computer with one hand while navigating with the other. Logan had proved to be quite competent with the controls, but he hadn’t yet tried such a complicated manoeuvre and they couldn’t risk anything going wrong at this stage.
Once they had docked, Logan left Halor’s ship, with Halor promising to follow with Kit as soon as he had set up some security.
“All right,” Halor said once the upload had begun. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong, now that we’re alone?”
Kit, curled up in Logan’s recently vacated chair, shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong.”
“You are a truly dreadful liar. So, why don’t we try that again?”
Kit gave him a huge and obviously fake grin. “There’s nothing wrong,” he repeated with an over-abundance of cheerfulness.
“Kit, don’t lie to me.” Halor turned his chair to face Kit directly. “You and Logan have been acting strangely ever since we took off. I don’t know him well enough to demand answers, but I do know you. Something is bothering you and I want to know what.”
Halor left his chair and knelt at the foot of Kit’s seat. “Kit, baby, we’ve not had secrets from each other since our first night in the summerhouse. You made me a promise that night, Kit. You promised me honesty and I’m holding you to that promise today. Now, tell me what’s wrong?”
Kit rubbed at his face and Halor realised he was wiping away tears. “Kit, whatever it is, you can tell me.”
Halor stood and tugged Kit to his feet so he could take his place in the chair and pull Kit down onto his lap. “Talk to me, baby.”
Kit sniffled. “Please don’t be angry with me.”
“Never.”
“Promise me.”
Halor stroked Kit’s fur and looked him right in the eyes. “I promise.”
Kit buried his face in Halor’s neck and gave a soft mewling sob. “I had sex with Logan.”
Halor didn’t need to ask for clarification as to what Kit meant by that. Halor had watched Kit take Logan, claiming him in the feline manner. If Kit was upset now, it could mean only one thing. “Oh.”
“You promised not to be angry,” Kit whispered.
“I’m not,” Halor said, and he wasn’t. “But why did you feel you couldn’t tell me?”
Kit’s answer was barely audible with his face still buried in Halor’s neck.
“What was that?” Halor asked.
“You were supposed to be my first,” Kit said. “It’s the one thing we’ve never done, and you’ve been so patient with me, so understanding. Now I’ve ruined it.”
“No, Kit, you haven’t ruined anything.”
“But what if…?”
Halor shushed him with a finger over his lips. “If you are, we’ll deal with it.”
Kit sniffled again. “I don’t even remember it.”
“Logan’s cream?”
“Yes, what else? I drank so much that I don’t even remember my first time.”
“There’ll be other times,” Halor said. “So, now I know what the matter is with you, do you want to fill me in on why Logan is distancing himself from us?”
“That’s my fault, too,” Kit admitted quietly. “I asked him not to tell you what we’d done. I made him promise, but he’s like you. He doesn’t believe there should be secrets between lovers.”
“He’s right.”
“I know, but I was scared.”
“Oh, Kit, have I ever given you any reason to be frightened of me?”
Kit shook his head.
“Then why couldn’t you talk to me about this?”
“I know you wanted to be my first in all things. I’ve made you wait all this time and for what? So another man could take your place.”
“Logan hasn’t taken my place,” Halor said.
“But we—”
Halor kissed Kit to halt his words. “Logan is part of our nest—a permanent member, I hope. Sooner or later, one of us was always going to be your first, and from the moment we took him into our bed, the possibility was there that it would be him rather than me. Logan being with us means things are likely to change. There are matters we must talk about, all three of us. I had intended for us to wait until Logan had made his decision, but I see now that was wrong. As soon as Logan has finished what he needs to do on board the ship, we’re going to have those talks, and one of the discussions will be about you and why you don’t allow men to penetrate you.”
“Too late now,” Kit muttered.
“No, it isn’t. Just because he’s taken you once, it doesn’t mean he will do so again—at least not before you’re ready. Did he say anything about you?”
Kit shook his head. “I don’t think he noticed or he simply put it down to the fact that I’m not human. Maybe I won’t need to tell him at all.”
Halor patted Kit lightly on the rump. “If Logan is going to stay with us, he has a right to know. Did you even tell him you were still untouched in that manner?”
“No,” Kit admitted.
“Oh, Kit, you have to learn to talk to us.”
Kit nodded, and when he finally drew back, Halor could see his face was streaked with fresh tears. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you are. Now, are you hungry?”
“A little.”
“Then I suggest you feed from me before we go find Logan. From what I recall of his reaction when he first woke, the other humans are likely to find us somewhat startling, and it won’t help if you have to feed from me in front of them. From what Logan has said, the exposure of the male sex organ in public is considered a criminal offence on his planet.”
“It is?” Kit asked as he slid from Halor’s lap, revealed his engorged cock, and looked at it appraisingly. “Did he say why?”
“No, but we don’t want to get in trouble with his people, do we?”
Kit ran a clawed finger along Halor’s stiff member, his head tilted to one side. “I can’t imagine why anyone wou
ld make it an offence to show off such a fine specimen of flesh.”
“Humans have strange customs,” Halor remarked. “No doubt we’ll discover just how strange in due course.”
Kit shrugged and lowered his head, taking the head of Halor’s cock between his lips and gently sucking. He closed his eyes and moaned eagerly.
Halor didn’t take his eyes from the feline kneeling between his legs. His Kit was back, the wall between them broken down. He hoped he could bring down the one between them and Logan as easily.
Chapter Seven
Logan sat at the control deck of the ship. The computer system was familiar and he quickly found the files he was searching for.
It would take a while for the crew to wake, so he spent the time inputting the new flight path, one that would bypass not only the upcoming restricted area but also a second one that Halor had estimated the ship would also infringe upon if it remained on the original route. He couldn’t set the course alone, but it would at least save time later.
He kept one eye on his task and another on the monitor that he was using to keep an eye on the vital signs of the crew members he had set to wake.
He had decided to keep the roused crew members to a minimum—one medic, the captain, and the navigator. He would leave it to the captain to decide whether to wake the rest of the crew.
Halor and Kit joined him as he was finishing the programming.
“How’s it going?” Halor asked. “Any problems?”
“No,” Logan said. “I decided that rather than wake the whole of the flight crew, I’d leave it to just the captain and navigator. Since they’re going to be going back into stasis, it seems rather wasteful to wake them all.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Kit agreed.
“If the captain wants to wake anyone else, that’s his choice,” Logan said. “I’ve set the head medic to wake, too, so she can check over the others and put them back under. I’ve never put someone into cryo before, so I’d rather not risk screwing it up. The head medic on each ship was the last one to go into stasis because they have a special pod that can be shut down from inside after they’ve secured everyone else.”
“Then we just need to wait for them to wake.”
Logan nodded. “How long did it take me?”
“I don’t know exactly,” Halor admitted. “I wasn’t sure what I was doing, so we were just pressing random buttons, trying to find the control panel and some way of communicating with my own ship. We didn’t realise we were trying to do the impossible.”
“Well, according to the briefing, it can take hours or even a couple of days to become fully awake and able to move about. I know I was pretty out of it when I first woke. I’m hoping it won’t take as long for the crew here, as we’re only two days away from the restricted zone.”
“I’m sure they’ll be up in plenty of time to change the course.”
“I hope so. It’s just a question of waiting and keeping our fingers crossed.”
“Fingers crossed?” Halor asked. “What will that achieve?”
“Well, nothing really. It’s just something humans do when they need some good luck.”
“How does crossing your fingers generate good luck?” Kit asked. “I’m not seeing the connection.”
Logan laughed. “It probably doesn’t help. It’s just an old human custom. All we can really do right now is wait.”
“While we do, we have some time to spare,” Halor said. He sat down at the table in the centre of the room and pointed to the seat opposite. Kit hopped into it immediately and curled up.
Logan twisted in his own seat so he was facing the others.
“We need to talk,” Halor announced. “Kit and I spoke before we came over here. He’s told me what happened back on Hawkri.”
“Ah.” Logan shifted uncomfortably.
Halor drummed his fingers on the table. “Kit, however, hasn’t told you everything.”
Kit cringed and ducked his head.
“What do you mean?” Logan asked.
“Kit was untouched in that way before you took him,” Halor said.
“He was?” Logan was surprised since his recollection of the morning in question was that Kit was most enthusiastic and seemed experienced.
“Yes. While Kit has taken me—and you, of course—we only ever tried it the other way round once, and we didn’t get very far.”
“I’m surprised about that,” Logan said. “When I took Kit, it went far more smoothly than I’d have expected for a virgin.”
Halor nodded and sighed. “I thought that might be the case. Kit is…unusual, you see.”
“What do you mean? Is this why Kit was so upset when he found out what we had done?”
Kit shifted in his seat, clearly nervous.
“About eighty years ago, the feline population were in crisis,” Halor said. “A sickness had swept through their females, leaving more than ninety percent of them unable to bear young. A cure was discovered, but when the next generation was born, a side effect soon became apparent. A small portion of the young kittens are now born with both the male and female sex organs. Kit is one such feline.”
Logan gaped at Kit, who continued to fidget and wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes.
“Kit is male in every respect, but between his legs, he has a woman’s womb. Logan, when you penetrated Kit, it wasn’t anally, was it?”
Logan cast his mind back to that morning and the moment Kit had lowered himself onto Logan’s cock. He had slid home so easily, the damp heat surrounding him unlike anything he had felt before. “No, I don’t believe it was,” he finally said. “And we weren’t using protection, either.”
“Protection?” Halor asked. “What do you mean?”
“Humans have various methods of birth control,” Logan explained. “We weren’t using any. It never even occurred to me.”
“We have no such protection,” Halor said. “We won’t know for a few more weeks whether Kit is with child, but it’s highly likely. The sickness I spoke of notwithstanding, felines are notoriously fertile, and for some reason, those like Kit are even more so.”
Logan gasped at the realisation that there was a strong possibility that he was about to become a father. “Kit?”
At Logan’s voice, Kit finally looked up. Tears streamed down his face. “I’m so sorry. I swear I didn’t mean for this to happen. You don’t have to stay with us, just because I was intoxicated. You can still stay with your people and carry on with your life as you wanted to before.”
Logan was at Kit’s side before he had reached the end of his speech. “Kit, listen to me. I have no intention of leaving you. I’ve spent the last two weeks worrying that I had driven you away, that I’d come between you and Halor, and that I’d fucked things up too badly for them to ever be repaired. I’m sorry I’ve put you into this position, but I will be right here with you for as long as you want me.”
“I’ll always want you,” Kit whispered, “but what about your own people and the colony you’re going to build on New Earth?”
Logan took Kit’s hand and squeezed his fingers. “The ships from Earth have been travelling for hundreds of years and have centuries still to go before they reach their destination. That’s why we were all put into the cryogenic pods. This ship and the last one won’t reach New Earth until long after I’m dead.”
“You could go back into the pod,” Kit pointed out. “We still have it on our ship. We’d just have to bring it to one of these vessels and put you on board. We could do it right now.”
“And leave the rest of the crew from my own ship to fate?” Logan reminded him.
“Those on board this vessel and the other might want to help rescue those who are enslaved,” Kit said.
“Maybe they will, and I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. Regardless of whether or not they choose to stage a rescue before continuing the journey, I won’t be going with them to New Earth. My place is with you, now.”
“Because I may be carrying
your child,” Kit said. “I don’t want you to stay with us because you have to.”
“My choice was made before this discussion,” Logan replied. “I was lost from the moment you wrapped those pouting lips around my cock. I just needed a little time to get accustomed to the idea.”
“Then it’s not because I’ve trapped you into this?” Kit whispered.
Logan placed his hand over Kit’s flat stomach, rubbing gently. Kit’s cock twitched below the fabric of his kilt and the garment began to rise. “I don’t feel trapped,” he said quietly. “I’m here of my own free will and this is where I intend to stay. I believe fate brought me to you and Halor. The three of us belong together, and if we’re soon to become four, then I intend to do my share in helping you prepare for the birth and the raising of our child.”
Kit continued to cry, but now he was smiling as well. “Do you mean that?”
“Of course he means it,” Halor said as he walked round the table and perched on the arm of Kit’s chair. “And so do I. This might not be how we planned on starting a family, but we are going to make this work…together.”
“When will you know for sure?” Logan asked. “Do you, um, menstruate?”
Kit shrugged while Halor snorted and hastily smothered his amused smile.
“What is it?” Logan asked. “What’s so funny?”
Halor smirked at Kit. “Kit gets rather moody at what we refer to as his seasons. He generally hides out for a day or two, curled up in bed, sleeping the days away rather than inflicting his temper on me.”
“That time of the month?” Logan asked with a grin. “How did I miss that?”
“I don’t do it every month,” Kit grumbled. “And I don’t get moody.”
“Yes, he does,” Halor whispered loudly. “The female hormones that are generated at such times have to be released some way, and in Kit’s case, it seems to be through bitching.”
Kit glared at Halor. “You’re going to make Logan think I’m some kind of freak.”
Halor laughed and leaned in to give Kit a long kiss. “You’re not a freak. You’re a delight to me, even when your claws are out.”
