Camille's Capture (17 page)

She provid
ed a soft buffer for the rough edges between him and Aegis. Without her their triad wasn’t whole. “We need to get her back. I can’t even sense her.”

“I know.”
Aegis met his gaze. His eyes were filled with so much raw pain the seventh level of hell seared Jaxon for reminding him their woman was gone.

An agonized groan grated from Aegis’s throat.

Damn, how could he forget mating frenzy still gripped his lover? This wasn’t the time for whining about missing Cami. He needed care for the mate he was with—Aegis.

“Let me help.” Right, like he was some noble hero instead of horny space jock.

“Lie down,” Aegis growled.

Oh yeah, I am absolutely on board with that plan
. Jaxon flattened himself on the pile of discarded clothes, facedown, and cocked one leg, stealing a glance over his shoulder at the very naked big guy.

Instead of taking what he offered, Aegis rolled him to his side and lay down beside him. He angled his powerful body so his package was right in Jaxon’s face. This had the extremely happy
perk of putting his junk next to the big guy’s mouth.

Aegis’s slick tongue
flicked out and wrapped around his rigid cock.

Whoa
. He bucked like a fish fighting the line. Aegis held all the excitement he could handle, and then some. Every breath he drew was saturated with the male’s intoxicating scent. Every touch heated his blood. And every intimacy stole another piece of his heart.

Jaxon had lusted after Aegis
for years. What he felt for him now made everything before seem like a cadet’s crush. He’d fallen hard for a demon. The insanity of his heart’s reckless desire scared the seven levels of hell out of him. Yet he couldn’t tear himself away from Aegis even if his life hung in the balance.

The choice to bet his
soul on his lover’s restraint was a whole lot less scary than diving off the edge of the space station. He knew Aegis right down to his monster bones and sexy green toes. The demon was everything he wanted in a friend, lover, and mate.

He took another deep breath, inhaling
the addictive fragrance and fisting his mighty shaft. He rested the side of his face on a massive green thigh while admiring the smooth texture of the paler scales covering the inner juncture of leg and hip. On an impulse, he licked along the seam. The sweet richness of melted chocolate covered his taste buds. A fiery aftertaste kicked in a minute later, revving his arousal.

Every centimeter of Aegis’s body exuded the
intoxicating flavor. Each lick accelerated Jaxon’s craving.

Hot, spicy chocolate was
his absolute favorite treat.

He lapped and nibbled his way over to
an impressive pair of balls hanging outside the built-in junk protector—standard equipment for Tethysians. If it hadn’t been for the distracting bath his own sac was getting, he might’ve developed an inferiority complex. Aegis lapped at his package like he was the best part of his favorite meal, there was no way a warrior could get unhappy.

One of Aegis’s nads rolled over his tongue, making him moan
at the fiery sweetness, decadent scent, and heady power of tending his most vulnerable parts.

Aegis groaned around
his cock.

Whoa, that
was almost too amazing. It took him a few beats to get with the program and rededicate himself to driving the big guy wild.

He explored
Aegis’s equipment, finally regaining some control. Thank the gods, ’cause otherwise he would’ve shot his wad ten seconds in and would have never enjoyed Aegis’s mind-melting tongue massage of all his favorite places.

His mate
made purring sounds, vibrating through Jaxon’s balls. The sensation buzzed straight up his rod, ringing a whole lot of joy-joy bells and overloading his pleasure center, making him loose suction. The big guy’s nad slipped from his mouth.

He arched, plunging his cock deeper down the willing throat.

Aegis swallowed everything he had. At the same time, his impressive ringed shaft nudged his face. Taking the thick hint between his lips, Jaxon gently nibbled the tentacles covering the flared crown, loving the way they writhed against him. He probed the underside, getting a sweet reward of his mate’s natural lube. Finally he sucked in the whole head. The silken fringe undulated, teasing his tongue and fresh spurts of intoxicating chocolate trickled down his throat. The liquid aphrodisiac roared in his bloodstream, fanning a new wildfire of erotic hunger.

Each hot lick from the Aegis’s mouth intensified, sizzling through him in a series of fine tremors. The sensation shivered through
him from the roots of his hair and to his flat soles. A tightening in the base of his spine warned him the point of no return had passed. Ready or not, the final countdown to blastoff has started.

Jaxon sucked harder and pumped
Aegis’s throbbing shaft faster, wanting to take him along for the wild plunge into ecstasy.

His climax accelerated up his cock, spurting into the Aegis’s
talented mouth. The powerful release kept coming, his cockhead so sensitive that each gentle lap pulled more cum from his balls.

Aegis groaned and ground against Jaxon’s face, forcing his massive stalk d
eeper.

He relaxed his jaw and
took more of the engorged rod.

A mighty roar shattered the air as the
heavy cock jerked in his throat while hot chocolate gushed in thick blasts of cum.

He swallowed, moaning with
erotic pleasure from the scent, flavor, and the deep thrill from his mate’s satisfaction. He should have been exhausted after coming like a supernova, but he wasn’t. Somehow he never lost his hard-on.

Neither
had Aegis.

Jaxon twisted around until he was nose to nose with him. Their cocks, trapped between their bellies, rubbed against each other. The erections
were hot and slick from Aegis’s natural lube and their combined climaxes.

Damn but those
wet tentacles felt good rubbing his sensitized crown. He grunted with approval as the silky tendrils slid past his swollen glans. He angled his hips to bring their hot crowns together.

Within minutes, the rub and retreat game turned serious. Both of them panted for air. He was slippery with sweat, and Aegis’s scales glistened.

The big guy levered away from him. “I need to be in you.”

Eager for the ultimate connection, h
e arched and lifted his legs, hooking them over Aegis’s broad shoulders and pulling him tighter.

Aegis surrender
ed to his tender pressure, easing closer. He grasped his mighty shaft, dragging the moist, silken crown across his back door.

The fiery lube coat
ed his nerve-rich portal and drove him wild with a fierce need to be taken. Before Jaxon begged, his mate caved and plunged into his dark passage with a satisfying groan of surrender.

Excited precum oozed from his cock while u
nmanly tears leaked from his eyes at the raw possession of his body. Something inside tore as the massive rod rammed through his too-tight channel. Pain and fear prickled over him. He clenched his jaw to, willing to handle a whole lot more than a ripped asshole to give his lover the release he needed to stay sane.

Jaxon surrendered to his brutal possession with pride and
finally a wild, erotic pleasure in the burn of possession. He came in long spurts, making a marvelous mess between their hard bellies.

The big guy pounded into him.
“Cannot stop.”

Though Aegis was huge and invasive and intimidating as a
blasting enemy fighter, nothing had ever felt as sweetly satisfying than the moment he lost control.

He
smoothed an unruly tentacle from his forehead, found the knobby horns, and teased them. “Don’t ever stop.”

His mate’s responded by
rearing back and thrusting at a different angle. The new position scraped against the still-tender rip in his ass. At the same time, his shaft rings rubbed a hot button deep inside Jaxon’s dark passage. A sensation worth a whole lot more pain than the slight sting. His flagging cock jerked to rigid attention.

Aegis locked eyes with him. “You are mine.”

Long, hot blasts of demon cum filled his channel. The spurts of release bathed his burning channel, healing the small fissures Aegis’s forceful lovemaking caused and flooded him with bliss.

Tethysian lovers flat out ruled.

Aegis’s rod slowly softened to semi-rigid, the time between spurts lengthened and his shields crumbled and vanished.

Jaxon
was inside Aegis’s head. The final waves of the demon’s incredible release flooded through him as if they were his own. He’d never been a guy to hold back. Another climax exploded from his cock. The soul-searing fulfillment swept him into a free fall of rapture.

He could’ve floated in the exquisite pleasure forever, or at least for
few more rounds of screaming hot sex. A truly excellent plan smashed to atoms by the unmistakable whine of metal scraping that only came from an opening dock.

Jaxon turned to say something about the racket.

Apparently Aegis caught the noise and made the same leap of reasoning. He moved so fast he blurred.

Damn, maybe some of that speed will rub off on me. A warrior can hope.

“Warship docking,” the big guy growled.

In the time it took for the words to register in Jaxon’s head, Aegis was already entering commands into the bay’s system.

“What are you doin’? You’re releasing the women’s ship?” Jaxon yanked on his one-piece, not understanding Aegis and fuming at
his solo act. To his horror, tears threatened to spill. “If you let them go, they’re gonna jump into subspace and be heading for Earth in a flat nanosecond.”

Aegis glanced at him
. His forehead pleated. “What’s wrong? Did I injure you?”

“No, and quit lookin’ so worried.” Actually he was still a little tender, but the minor
owie was healing at a surreal rate.

Unlike Cami, the big guy didn’t follow orders worth a damn. H
is gaze remained locked on Jaxon while his frown deepened.

“I’m damn close to getting insulted over here.
It’s not as if I’m a weak-kneed cadet.”
Except when you look at me like you wanna lick something
. He cleared the lust out of his throat. “We’re gonna lose Cami.”

The bay doors began to creak open.

He blinked away the unmanly tears, got right in Aegis’s face, crossed his arms, and planted his feet. “Reverse the damn sequence.”

The thickheaded male acted
as if he hadn’t heard, entering the final command strokes. He angled away from the console, swept Jaxon up, tossed him over a shoulder like he weighed no more than a wayward oxygen pack, and sprinted out of the booth.

“We’ll never
get her back.” Jaxon whimpered, fighting to ignore what a huge turn-on it was to be manhandled as easily as if he were a fragile blossom.

Aegis
released the women’s ship even though they kidnapped Cami and he gave Jaxon the means to kill him just in case he lost control. His lover was a warrior of honor, bent on doing the right thing. Still packing Jaxon, he stepped into a broad corridor that teemed with friendly troops.

Wherever they’d come from,
Jaxon was glad to see reinforcements. The stream of New Eden warriors silently swarming into the station didn’t slow.

The big guy
stood within a meter of the incoming soldiers. No one reacted to their presence. Jaxon figured his bud had cloaked them, at least he hoped so. He sure didn’t want to explain why he was slung over his shoulder like a coil of cable. Demon magic definitely had value.

Aegis set him on his feet and
whispered, “The station is going to be a battle zone. This is no longer a safe place for Cami. Her best chance for survival is as far away from us as possible.”

’Kay, he had a valid point. Jaxon
bobbed his head, but agreement didn’t lighten his mood. He hated letting her go.

The demon
strode through incoming men.

Misery rounded Jaxon’s shoulders as he followed in his wake.

Aegis had made the right call.

Jaxon’s
chest ached as if someone had ripped out his still-beating heart. Lost in his gloom, he only just kept from crashing into his mate when he stopped suddenly, snapped to attention, and saluted.

For a moment, Jaxon blinked unable to figure out what was wrong then it dawned on him Aegis had dropped their invisibility and resumed his human mask. The dark curls and tanned skin seemed subtly wrong. Somehow he’d grown fond of green scales and tentacles.

“As you were, Lieutenant.” Commander Krieg kept his voice low and patted the big guy’s shoulder. “Good to see you. Could’ve used your help piloting the pile of syn-scrap over here.” He tipped his grizzled chin toward the battered warship in the bay behind them.

“Permission to speak, sir?”
Jaxon asked, wishing the home team had shown up a couple of hours earlier. Cami might have still been with them.

Krieg
ignored his request, directing his response to Aegis. “Have you finally beaten some sense into him?”

“In a manner of speaking, sir.
I am certain Lieutenant Farquhar wants to report we are responsible for damaging that particular warship.”

The c
ommander’s lips twitched. “This shines a different light on the scrap heap. Good for you, son. Way to go, both of you. There’s a story I want to hear another time. Right now we have a station to take back and a lot of Baldorean ass to kick.”

M
inutes later the roiling troops turned into a grim attack force. Krieg used hand signals to deliver the orders, probably to preserve an element of surprise. He motioned for the men to fire at will, give no quarter, and take no prisoners.

Aegis and Jaxon both started forward.

“Trykol and Farquhar, you’re with me.” The commander called softly over his shoulder, “Get these warriors armed.”

An aide dashed off to make his order reality.

Seconds later Jaxon and Aegis were both fully accessorized with the latest in blasters and duranium power packs. They waited for orders. And waited some more.

Caught unprepared, the Baldorean troops made a last stand outside the entrance to the space station’s master controls. A hastily erected barricade provided the enemy’s only cover.

No blue lights of truce shone from the Baldorean’s position.

Jaxon hated watching. Not fighting was
bad enough. Not fighting and losing Cami made him murderous.

Aegis
didn’t seem to be handling the frustration any better. He looked like he was ready to chew through the hull.

T
he commander finally craned his neck far enough to make eye contact. “We’re winning. Won’t be much longer now, but I’m not waiting. You two take the utility access passage to the station control room. The mage and his guards are pinned down in there. I don’t want that bastard H’nai figuring out there’s a service exit to the starboard bay where he stashed his cruiser and sneaking out of here alive.”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.

“Watch your backs. Now getcher asses outta my sight.”

Aegis took point, sprinting to the closest portal.

Jaxon covered his back.

The big guy moved through the narrow passage like he was lubed.

Even with his recent growth spurt, Jaxon was still smaller than Aegis, and he scraped his knuckles a couple of times, barked his shins twice, and banged an elbow taking a corner too fast. A few scrapes and bruises weren’t gonna stop him from killing Baldorean bastards.

A sudden
sweetness he associated with Cami slowed him to a crawl and gave him an infusion of fresh hope. He put on some speed until he got close enough to whisper to Aegis. “How far does the bond between the three of us stretch?”

Aegis didn’t slow. “No way of knowing. I have never been mated before.”

“Yeah, me neither, but Cami is with me again.”

“
I sense her as well.” The big guy quietly released the control room exit.

A blaster hit rippled through the syn-steel of the frame just as Aegis stepped
over the threshold. Jaxon stumbled backward. He caught his balance and scrambled to get his feet under him.

By the time he cleared the passage,
Aegis was gone.

* * *
* *

“What have you done?” Cami wrenched, trying to free herself from the cruel hands pulling her farther away from her mates.

Aegis and Jaxon had kept walking until they’d cleared the sisterhood’s ship. Obviously neither of them aware she was no longer with them.

“A simple illusion.
They will notice you’re gone when they remove their space suits,” Captain Winifred said calmly.

Angry tears threatened to spill
. Cami blinked hard and squared her shoulders. “We are mated. I belong with them.”

The captain’s lips thinned. “You forg
ot your mission and abandoned the sorority.”

“I didn’t forget
—”

Winifred cut her off. “Did you breed with the human warrior?”

“Yes.” Cami met the older sister’s hard gaze defiantly.

After a brief consultation with one of her advisors, the c
ommander faced Cami again. “My truth sensor says you were honest. Did you breed with the demon too?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but Captain Winifred held up a hand. “Think carefully before you speak, breeder. Your life hangs in the balance.”

Raising her chin a notch, Cami said, “I don’t need to think about telling the truth. I have bred with both Aegis and Jaxon. There is no shame in intimacy between mates.”

The captain’s face tightened. This time she required only a glance toward her truth sensor for confirmation.

“No shame? Did the monster bespelled you so thoroughly you don’t understand that you befouled the very definition of breeder by lying with evil?”

Cami
kept her head high. “The sorority sent me to New Eden to breed. I did so. I am mated to those warriors, and, by their customs, a citizen of their world.”

The captain p
uffed out her chest and slit her eyes, speaking slowly as if Cami were too stupid to understand her words. “By consorting with a demon, you have broken the Goddess’s laws of decency and defied the sorority’s will. Hence, in accordance with our statutes and divine guidance to preserve the purity of the human race, you are hereby sentenced to be returned to Earth, sterilized, and banished from Bon Sorority.”

Two disciples grabbed her arms and hauled her away.

Cami opened her mouth to protest, changed her mind, and snapped her teeth together. Anger and logical argument were both useless weapons against the closed minds of the captain and crew.

Left on her own, she fumed and paced three steps across the cabin she’d been confined to and turned and
walked another three steps to the opposite side. At each turn she stopped, plugged her ears, and closed her eyes, blocking out distractions as she tried to connect with Aegis and Jaxon.

Sterilized! She
fumed, covering her belly with a protective hand. The sorority was so prejudiced they would kill the babe she carried because she’d been “tainted” by breeding with Aegis. For a few incidental physical differences, they planned to banish her to the desolate wasteland outside the sisterhood’s domes.

Even an ignorant breeder recognized Aegis was a male of honor.

She had not broken the Goddess’s law, but she’d ignored the sorority’s rules. In turn they’d stolen her from her mates, imprisoned her, and sentenced her to banishment. Outside the shelter of the compound, she would die.

All her life she
’d been taught she had only one function—to breed. And now she had been condemned for fulfilling her role. The captain’s pronouncement severed the last ties of loyalty she’d felt for the sorority.

She’d become more than a breeder with
Aegis and Jaxon. She stood beside them during a Baldorean attack. She helped move a wounded Aegis to the safety of the fighter. She bound Jaxon’s injury. She knew how to use a replicator and a blaster, which was more than most of the snooty disciples could claim. And she could cook. 

With those
vital skills, she wasn’t going to sit there and wait to die.

The walls
were shielded with magic or some technology she didn’t understand. Whatever had been done blocked even their mating bond. She couldn’t sense either Aegis or Jaxon, but she refused to believe they’d died. How quickly she’d grown dependent on the steady hum of the bond they shared.

For the umpteenth time, she closed her eyes and plugged her ears, trying to
connection with her mates. All she sensed was the dull roar of her own blood whooshing through her veins.

The silence made her want to scream. Worse, it made her question
if she was their true mate. Her warriors had made no attempt to retrieve her. Perhaps she’d been a temporary convenience.

She scratched the
tattoo marking her as theirs. The welcome itch was tangible proof she was more than a breeder. She was the warriors’ mate.

A sharp pain stabbed her temple. Automatically she rubbed the sore spot
, triggering another illusion too real to doubt. A tall man accessed the twinkling virtual space station interface suspended at eye level. Slender fingers tweaked the brightly colored matrix. Long dark hair hung loose, obscuring his features. His robes were a rich brown edged in gold. He corrected a setting. A heavy ring winked from his left thumb.

Apparently satisfied with his adjustments to the system, he stepped back and tucked his hair behind his ears. His right cheek carried three jagged scars so deep that
his eye tilted downward at the outer corner. Then his damaged side angled away from her while he spoke with someone outside the range of her vision. “It’s done. The station will implode in twenty minutes.”