Laura Jo Phillips (33 page)

Summer sighed softly.  She had been worried he was going to tell her something bad, but she had not imagined it would be this bad.  Their fathers and their brothers, all gone at once.  She could not begin to imagine how painful that must have been for them.

“No definitive explanation for the explosion was ever discovered,” Maxim continued.  “There were speculations and theories, but the destruction of the air transport was so complete that there was not enough left of it to examine.

“As you know, when we are in our alter forms we are able to communicate with each other.  Usually that only applies among an individual male-set but, occasionally, there are exceptions.  I was able to communicate with our eldest father when he was in his human form, and I was in my alter form.  It was an oddity, but useful at times.”

Maxim hesitated a moment, looked at his brothers and then back to the floor in front of him.

“At the time that the accident occurred, I was in my alter form,” he continued.  “There was no particular reason for it.  I simply felt like taking a run that afternoon.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard Father say,
Look to Mara, this is no axe
.”

“This is no axe?” Summer asked, remembering when Maxim had uttered those same words in the armory.  “But what does it mean?”

“I did not know,” Maxim said.  “I did not tell Ran and Loni about it because I wanted to understand what it meant first.  I didn’t learn until later that day that the air transport was destroyed.  I suspected that it happened just as he sent me that message.  That he used Mara’s name rather than referring to her as our Mother as he normally would have made me suspicious of her.  But I could not understand what he meant about the axe.  His favorite weapon was an axe, so I thought he was talking about that.  But what did he mean that it was not an axe?  If it was not an axe, what was it?”

Maxim shook his head.  “I thought I would go crazy trying to figure that out.”

“When Chandler stumbled in the cafeteria, and you said it was just an accident, he said, it
was no accident
.  And suddenly I knew, that was what Father had meant to say to me.  He did not mean to say
this
is no axe
, he meant,
this
is no accident
, only he didn’t get a chance to finish the word.  That must have been when the transport exploded.  His message was actually
Look to Mara, this was no accident
.”

Summer gasped.  Mara had killed not only her husbands, but her own sons as well?  How could anyone do such a thing?  Why would anyone do such a thing?  Could there ever be a reason good enough to explain such a horrible action?

“So when Loni and Ran went in to find out why you were in a blood rage, they got the full story from your head,” Summer said.  Maxim nodded.

“I am sorry, my brothers,” he said.  “I would not have had you learn of it in such a way.”

Ran shrugged, a tiny lift of his shoulders, and Loni nodded.  “There is no good way to deliver such news,” he said quietly.

“Why would she do such a thing?” Summer asked, unable to stop the question from slipping out.

“As we told you, Mara and our fathers spent over five hundred very unhappy years together,” Maxim said.  “It is a bigger mystery that such a tragedy did not take place sooner.”

“You think that your mother murdered your fathers
and
your brothers, her sons, in a fit of anger after five hundred years?” Summer asked incredulously.  “That makes no sense whatsoever.”

“What difference does it make?” Maxim asked softly.  “Whatever her reason, the result cannot be changed.”

“It makes a great deal of difference,” Summer insisted.  “For a woman to do such a thing to her own children, she must have had a reason.  Not a good reason.  I am sure there can be no good reason for her actions.  But at least a strong one.  Something that made her feel she had no choice.  Something really bad.”

Maxim merely shrugged.  Summer wanted to reach out and shake him.

“Why were they going to visit the ranch?” she asked.  “Did you know they were coming?”

“No,” Maxim replied, lifting his gaze to hers.  She was relieved to see a spark of interest in them.  “We had no idea they intended to come, no idea they were on their way.”

“Was that usual?” she pressed.  “Did they normally make surprise visits to you?”

“Never,” Ran said.  “They always told us when they were coming because there was always a good chance we would be traveling.  Our duties are such that we are rarely in the same place for long.”

“Nor did they ever travel without Mara,” Loni put in.  Summer was relieved to see that all three of them were showing interest now.

“When Mara was caught trying to get a sample of Princess Rayne’s blood, did she offer any explanation for it?” she asked, hesitant to bring up yet another unpleasant incident, but sensing it was important.

“We didn’t let her give one,” Maxim replied. 

“I have a feeling the two events are connected,” Summer said.  “Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know.  Maybe its because it seems so unbelievably foolish that anyone would try to do what Mara did in full daylight with guards all around.  It makes no sense at all.  Unless she was desperate.  People who are desperate sometimes do desperate things.”

Maxim’s eyes widened.  “Oh,
squilik
shit,” he said, causing Loni and Ran to look at him in shock.  Maxim never swore.  Not ever.  And most especially not in front of a lady.

“You’re right, Summer,” he said.  “Mara must have done something.  Something bad enough that our Fathers immediately called Liam and the boys to give them a lift to the ranch.  Not to see us, or they would have called first.  They were going to talk to the Princes.  For them to do that, whatever Mara did was something very bad, and something of extreme importance.”

“Mara knew of the
moztu-oku
,” Loni said suddenly.  “When we spoke it after she attacked Princess Rayne.  She said,
no, not that again
.”

“Our Fathers renounced her,” Ran said, his eyes wide with shock. 

“That is why Father called her
Mara
when he spoke to me that last time,” Maxim added. 

“What kind of actions would cause them to do that?” Summer asked.

“Betrayal,” Maxim said at once.  “There are other reasons, but the only one that seems as though it could possibly apply in this case is betrayal.”

“Yes,” Ran said, “you’re right.  And whatever it was she’d done, Mara was scared.  So she contacted someone with enough power to obliterate the air transport.  Someone with the ability to hide their presence in Jasani space.”

“The Xanti,” Loni growled.  “It had to be, there is nobody else with that power.”

Maxim and Ran both nodded in agreement.  “But the Xanti don’t do things for free,” Maxim continued.  “So Mara had to make a bargain with them.  That is why she suddenly started visiting the ranch every few weeks.  It must be.”

“That is why she got so mad the other day when I picked her up and drove her to the guest house,” Ran said.  “I could not understand it at the time.  She was furious that she had not been invited to stay in the Dracons’ home.”

“Thank the stars that she wasn’t,” Loni said. 

“What could she possibly have done that would make your fathers feel it was necessary to hop on an air transport straight to the Dracons?” Summer asked. 

“I can not imagine,” Maxim replied. 

“She had to have contacted the Xanti almost as soon as they left the house,” Ran said.  “The explosion took place about an hour and a half into the flight.”

“She must have been working for them,” Maxim decided.  “I cannot think of any other explanation.”

“Working for them doing what?” Summer asked. 

But that was a question that stumped them all.  After a long silence, Maxim shrugged.  “We will soon learn,” he said.  “I will send a message to Eldar Hamat.”

Maxim rose and held out a hand to Summer.  She reached up and took it, letting him help her to her feet. 

“I would ask you a question, if you do not mind,” Ran said as he and Loni stood up as well.

“Sure,” Summer replied as she pushed open the sauna door and stepped out, breathing in the cool air with relief after the heated steam.

“How is that you knew to sing to us last night?”

“Doc told me that the only way to calm your blood rages was to either wait for you to run them off in a couple of days, or to sing to you.  So, I sang,” Summer replied.  She headed straight for the shower and reached in to turn on the taps.

“I mean, how did you know what to sing?” Ran asked.

“I have this music box that my Cajun Great-Grandmother gave to me when I was a child,” she explained.  “I made up words to go with the tune, which nobody seemed to know.  I hadn’t thought about the words in years, though I still have the music box.  For some reason, it just came into my head that I needed to sing those made-up words.  So I did.”

“I would like to see this music box some time,” Maxim said. 

“Okay,” Summer replied easily.  “It’s in my luggage at the Lobos’ right now.”  She stepped into the shower and sighed as the cool water poured over her.  A moment later Maxim, then Loni and Ran all joined her.

Summer stepped beneath the shower and turned her face up into the cool spray with a sigh of pleasure.  A moment later, she felt a hard body, still hot from the sauna, press up behind her.  The contrast between the hot flesh behind her and the cool water caused her skin to pebble and her nipples to harden.  She shivered as a pair of large, warm, soapy hands reached around from behind and ran slowly over her breasts, squeezing gently, as a soft, warm tail-lock wrapped loosely around her neck and rubbed lightly against her throat.  She leaned her head back against Loni’s shoulder and closed her eyes, just letting herself feel.  Ran stepped in front of her and ran his hands down her body as he knelt down on the shower floor.  He gently spread her legs wider, then leaned in for a long, slow lick of her throbbing pussy, his rough tongue increasing the friction against her most sensitive flesh causing her to shiver helplessly. 

Maxim chose that moment to take one of her long hard nipples into his mouth, nudging Loni’s hand aside, while Loni carefully pinched her other nipple between his fingers, as he licked and kissed her neck.

So many intense sensations all over her body at once had Summer racing toward orgasm almost before she knew it.  She moaned softly, her body tensing as it neared a climax that she couldn’t quite reach.  Summer shook her head in growing frustration.  They had to stop.  It was too much.  She placed her hands on Ran’s head, ready to push him away when all at once he nipped her clit gently, while at the same time Loni nipped her neck, and Maxim her nipple, throwing her up and over the peak into a body shuddering orgasm that went on and on.  Summer screamed her pleasure, her fingers gripping Ran’s hair tightly as she jerked and shivered, bright lights flashing behind her closed eyes. 

Loni, Maxim and Ran eased back as Summer’s orgasm faded, their caresses more soothing than exciting now.  It was long moments before Summer opened her eyes and realized that without the three of them holding her, she would be a lump on the floor.  She smiled as her body shuddered with another aftershock of pleasure, and waited for it to pass before standing up on her own again. 

Maxim lifted his head and Summer stretched up to kiss him.  It was a long, slow kiss of exploration, the first she had initiated.  She loved the way his lips felt against her own, the way his breathing sped up when she ran her tongue lightly over them.  She slipped her tongue delicately into his mouth, and shivered as the taste of him flooded her senses. 

She left his mouth and trailed kisses along his jaw, down his neck to his chest and shoulders, taking her time, licking and tasting as she went.  She found his flat, male nipples and spent a few moments exploring them, enjoying the differences between them and her own, as well as the similarities.  She moved further down, kneeling on the floor as she explored his belly button with her tongue.  Her hands wrapped around his hard, thick cock, and she caressed it gently, loving the contrasts between the silky soft skin over the hot, hard flesh.  She bent her head and licked the tiny slit at the top, taking the pearly drop of moisture into her mouth with a soft moan.  She circled the head with her tongue, then the ridge beneath, then traced the pulsing veins, memorizing every inch of him, his taste and scent and texture.

When she was sure she had explored him thoroughly, she took him deep into her mouth while reaching out on either side for Ran and Loni.  Their cocks were almost the same as Maxim’s, but now she knew each ridge and bump, and her sensitive fingers felt the differences. 

She stroked Loni and Ran with her hands as she took Maxim as deep as she could, then swallowed as he had taught her.  The feel of him popping deep into her throat caused a new wave of arousal to race through her and she shuddered again.  When she could not hold her breath any longer she pulled back, then took him deep once more.  Again she waited until she needed to take a breath, the sound of Maxim’s groan of pleasure cause her pussy to gush hungrily.

She lifted her mouth from Maxim and turned toward Loni, taking him as deep as she could in one stroke, swallowing as he reached the back of her throat.  Loni groaned at the sudden, intense pleasure of being deep inside of Summer’s hot throat, struggling hard not to climax instantly.