Salvation for Three (6 page)

Cian's grip on her increased. "Calm yourself, Keer Teho. No hunter will force you here." His voice rumbled, nearly a growl, dismissing her wariness. The burning between Keer's thighs had become a blistering agony. She felt Cian's mental warmth reach her and knew that he spoke the truth. It went against everything her mother had told her of men and everything she knew from her years of exposure to the corrupt sexual practice of the runners she hunted.

Cian lifted her and carried her back to the large bed. Tirin, ahead of him, pushed away the soft blankets. Cian laid Keer down. She ceased struggling, but watched them both warily from the bed as the lieutenant tucked the skins around her.

"Hear me well, mate, your fertility cannot be masked from us. I can sense it as sure as if my cock were buried inside you and you were screaming while I fill you." Keer knew her fear must be evident.

Cian bent over her, nose-to-nose as she had been earlier with his lieutenant, and then spoke through clenched teeth. .

"We hold
no breeders
here. Once found, our mates make their own choices."

Then he placed his large warm hand behind her head and lifted her mouth to his. It was a full assault. Her own need was raging in her ears and between her legs by the time he had finished stroking her mouth with his tongue and bruising her lips. Her hips thrust upward,

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pushing. She had taken her good arm and looped it around his neck, unconsciously drawing him closer, shifting to rub her nipples against him.

Keer thought the blinding agony had been great in past cycles.

This was like walking the gates of hell.

Cian's grip tightened. She felt his fingers lace into her hair, twisting her under his mouth. His tongue began to mimic the stroke his cock would take inside her. The heat, taste and feel of his tongue was an explosion to her senses. The fire in her skin skated the line between pain and pleasure.

Abruptly, Cian pulled away, those silver eyes a haze of desire.

Then she watched him stride from the room.

The blond hunter eased down beside her when Cian left, seating himself on the bed. She gasped for breath.

"You are well?" His voice was tinged with laughter. Anger roared up, displacing desire. Keer nearly came out of the bed after Tirin, but her legs became entangled in the bedding he had carefully wrapped around her.

"Don't you laugh at me, you cave-crawling son of an Endlands lizard!" She fought the covers blindly, furious at her own lust and enraged by Tirin's amusement. He caught her easily as she started to tumble out of the bed.

"Do not injure yourself or my commander will have my balls and my head. And I would like them to stay intact." He pushed her easily back down with one large hand. Once again she found herself watching the hunter warily.

"I don't trust either of you, and I want out of here. If I am truly your mate," she spat the words at him, "then you have to let me choose whether I stay or go according to your commander."

"You may well leave, my mate, but where you go, we go. And as I said before," he pushed her down farther into the bed with his hand against her uninjured arm and shoulder, ignoring the bionic implant as if it did not exist. "I have a desire to keep my balls intact. I may have
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a use for them. Perhaps later you will suck them for me. I would like to feel the lash of your tongue. It would give me the greatest pleasure."

Then he leaned down and followed the path Cian had taken before him, bruising her mouth with force, his tongue stroking hers. While Cian had tasted of spice, deep and heady, Tirin's mouth was fresh like the sweetest fruit she had ever eaten. As before, she clung to him, trying to push herself against his chest and pull him down to the bed.

His mouth moved down her neck, sucking hard against her skin.

Anger and lust mixed to combine explosively, moisture pooling and dripping down her thighs. She could hear herself making mewling noises like a Terran cat in heat.

"Perhaps you would let me taste you." The warrior growled against her skin, his teeth grazing her neck and pushing down to her aching breasts. Keer moaned, as one large thumb came up to roll her nipple, her pussy clenched in response. The burning was so intense, she wanted to sob. Tirin squeezed and rolled the point in time with the clenching of her inner muscles. The heat was blinding, she was so close to a roaring climax just from his touch that she panted for breath.

Suddenly, he pulled up and away from the bed, his chest heaving.

Keer saw the flick in his eyes as he blocked the desire she knew he'd shared with her.

"I am commanded to leave you now, little huntress. Be sure we will return to you soon. And then we will talk of your need and your ability to scream like that Earth cat while you are under my mouth."

She watched him go in agony. She pushed her free arm down, her hand between her legs and realized that the hunter had said "we"

again.

She grabbed a cushion from the bed and pushed it between her thighs, crying out. It couldn't happen. There could be no relief from this nightmare. Two hunters and, gods help her, she did want them both. She began to sob at the agony of betraying her mother. The

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ever-present hunger that would not let her be was like a knife added to the burn. Finally she slept. Cian, hearing her cries had given her another mental push into the abyss.

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"She suffers, Cian. Can you do nothing for her? "

"She should have healed by now, I know, Tirin." They sat in the galley together over the heavy ale that the subter residents favored.

Cian rubbed his hands across his eyes. Tirin had never seen his commander look so frustrated.

"Is it the fever from the fertility? Her need grows stronger, but she does not heal. I thought the pleasure she took in her dreaming would ease her." The dark hunter stood and paced to the galley drone, refilling his drink, a crease developing across his forehead..

"You may be right, Tirin. I hadn't thought of it. She is human with but a few implants to aid her. My knowledge of human physiology is…limited."

"Limited, my commander, to our premonitions I think." Tirin set his own tankard down hard on the bench table. "She was healthy in those dreams." For a moment he and Cian shared the thought of themselves, arms and legs tangled around the small female they desired. The wave of lust was becoming a growing, tangible thing.

"We can heal her. Together, I think. We melded very easily when she pathed to us earlier as a triad. Why not use that melding for healing?" Cian answered, his eyes narrowed. "It would require great restraint. We cannot take her to mate if she does not agree, but we could heal her if she will allow it. We did not touch her physically in her dreaming. She may need that contact to heal. My cock burns for her, but we have this damned honor to abide by."

"How? Forced sleep?" Tirin was puzzled. "I want my mouth on

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her so badly I can taste her cream already."

"Our own strengths increase when we rest. You learned that on your first tour of duty as a young warrior. If we can give her the healing sleep, join her in it, all we need do is be touching in the same chamber." Cian began to think out loud. Pushing the tankard aside and rising, he headed toward the door, Tirin at his heels. "She sleeps now. If we join her, call a bot to guard the chamber so there are no interruptions. We should be able to heal the arm that pains her, and then she would be able to accept us." They strode down the cavernous hallway.

As the warriors reached the entry to the chamber, they were both blasted with the fragrant scent of pears and flowers. Cian stopped and turned to his lieutenant. "Enable your shield, my friend, or we will never make it past her scent." Tirin was already wincing with the pain of the release into his brain that would stop the flooding desire.

"Done," he replied through clenched teeth.

It took nearly an hour of watching Keer twist and groan in the bedding to talk her down from her fevered state of arousal and pain.

Cian finally pinned her with his own warm body to the bed and looked deep into her emerald eyes while he pushed her back to sleep.

The feel of her breasts and hard nipples against his chest was slow torture, but he had been called upon in battle to bear more pain than the bio-blocker would exert on him to dampen his arousal.

Eventually, Keer weakened under his mental push when Tirin touched her hand. He leaned over her as well and tried again to form the mental triad. Her eyes fluttered and she breathed deeply.

"Gods," she murmured as the sleep took her, "how can I want you both?" Cian relaxed against her. Rolling to one side, he pulled her with him.

"Tirin, join us. She may yet wake. I have never felt one so strong before. She would make a fine warrior, this mate of ours." Tirin slid into the bedding, careful of her injuries and took one small hand, then leaned over and kissed the female gently, his lips barely making
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contact.

"I can still smell the pears, Cian. I want to push into her and make her scream."

"I know. She fills our senses. Soon she'll ride both our cocks, and it will be her choosing." Cian pushed himself toward sleep and sent the urge to his lieutenant as well, "This will be the rest we have waited for, my friend. At last."

Keer sighed and spooned herself between the two warriors, her splinted arm laying over Cian's broad chest. After the first hour, Cian roused himself, sending a mental command to Tirin. They both listened carefully for any disturbance in the field around the underground compound. Normally, sleeping in forty-eight minute cycles would have rested them both the equivalent of hours of a Terran sleep. Smelling the Telaura vine, he felt the creeping smile that had begun to soften his features regularly in the day since finding Keer. His lieutenant moved closer, easing the woman against him, and his feeling of well-being increased. He pushed them both back into the sleep that his little Terran so desperately needed.

* * * *

Keer woke to feel her arm being unbound. The split unraveling, she tried to sit up, cold suddenly after having been cocooned in warmth while she dreamed.

"A moment, female. Let me rid you of this. You are healed."

Cian's rough voice was firm. She could sense, as if she hovered in a corner of his mind, that he fought the rising need to throw her to the bedding and stroke his cock into her. Keer watched him rub her arm carefully, pushing the skin and focusing on the area of the break. He knew she felt no pain. He was in her senses as surely as she was in his.

"
You know it does not pain me.
" She tapped the mental gateway tentatively. The dark-haired warrior continued to massage her arm up

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to her shoulder. Keer puzzled that she felt no burning haze with the large dark hands caressing her.

"I have dulled your senses so that you would not suffer while you slept, my mate. The fever will return soon, but this offers you time to…reflect on your wishes."

Keer leaned back into the pillows and watched the dark man as he bent over her arm. She was so small compared to either of them. She thought briefly of the vision she had of Tirin slamming into her. She remembered the lusty dream distinctly. The two warriors had thought only of her needs

She turned to look at the bedding and then she knew. They had both been there. His scent rested on the covers next to her. She looked closely at Cian.

"You slept here with me. Both of you." She was not accusing. It felt right somehow, that they had stayed to protect her.

"You are in no danger in our quarters, bondsman. But above ground we could not be sure you would be safe. If Tirin and I sensed your need, surely others would as well."

Keer flinched at the comment. The pressure of his hands was increasing. He began to massage even her fingers, leaving a rippling warmth in the fingertips.

"In twenty earth turns since my cycles began, no one has ever scented me. You are not human. My mother protected me. You must have some special…alien strength."

Cian pursued his careful assault on her arm, moving up to her shoulders. She tilted her head to allow him access to the bruises from the freighter crash.

"Our senses are heightened, yes. We are not human completely.

Let me say we are cousins to you. And older race than the Terrans, our fathers watched as you discovered the science that led you past your own galaxy. We had been to Terran ground long before your people advanced to the skies. We are an old race, a race of warriors.

Our genetics are a heightened version of what humans now have
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evolved to."

The metal door hissed open and Tirin came in, once again followed by a galley bot, laden with a tray of food They ate companionably, Keer unusually silent. The men did not open the mental path and left her to her own thoughts.

Both warriors were gracious, slicing fruit for her. Tirin gorged himself on sliced fruit that smelled very sweet. He offered a piece to Keer his eyebrows raised. "It is a Devorian pear. You will like it."

Keer took the dripping slice biting into the sweetness then licking it from her lips. Cian's grim face flicked slightly. Keer wondered if that was the fierce man's version of a smile

Once again, she was given a small portion of what looked like Terran beef, accompanied by a fluffy mound of eggs of some kind.

She tasted them tentatively and found the flavor rich. Whatever she may have thought of the underground city, they did not suffer from lack of resources.

A bot arrived unannounced and startled her as they finished eating. "It brings bathing linens. There is a heated pool beyond that wall," Tirin told her. "Press the stone and it will open. You might find a bath to your liking as you recover." He showed her how to open the hidden doorway into the bathing chamber. "If you have any other need, call to us with your mind. Cian must report and I should accompany him."

She blanched at being left alone. The warning Cian had given her of other warriors scenting her flared in her mind.

"Do not worry, my mate. A guard bot stands ready outside your door. No one will enter without your permission." Tirin kissed her, latching onto her mouth and stroking her hard with his tongue until she sucked and moaned, squirming against him. He smiled and was gone, following the grim-faced Cian out the door.

Keer felt slightly numb as she stepped into the rock-lined pool in the bathing chamber. The water bubbled, the scent of minerals and salts coming up through the mist. The pain from the crash was gone

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now. She looked at her arm wonderingly. Even the bruising had faded.

The pool was deep and wide. She swam and then floated on her back, relaxing for the first time away from the burning scorch of her own need. She realized that was probably Cian's doing. He had doused her with ice as surely as if she had jumped into a cold spring, something she tried once on earth to put out the burn in her younger years.

Keer was disgusted by the amount of control both warriors had while she was at the mercy of this damned peak. On the other hand, at least there was relief from the blinding pain of the need. She grudgingly admitted that the warrior had given her that instead of fucking her like a rec port paid whore, when both he and Tirin had the opportunity.

. The bot whirred into the room, this time bearing soaps and scented oils. Most were too heavy to suit her but she found a mild, fragrant gel soap with a gentle musk-like scent and lathered it into her hair, reveling in the bath. Her own quarters held a steam shower but that was the limit of her luxury. The rock-lined pool felt decadent, something she rarely enjoyed in her own stark life. She wondered at the two warriors' ability to warm her in bed and silence the raging fire that had burned her in the hours before. A flick of need was beginning in her belly again. On cue she heard the door whish in the bed quarters.

"Keer Teho, you are well?"

Instinctively, Keer blocked the mental path that seemed so intimate in her naked state.

"
Hunter, I am still in the bath." She ducked her head under the water, rinsing the foam and came up spluttering. Tirin stood in the doorway, watching her. Keer carefully kept her shoulders under the water, then ducked back to wash the hair from her eyes. As the water streamed from her face, she heard a silent splash. The blond hunter was in the pool with her. "
What
do you think you're doing? I don't
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need company, Endlander."

Tirin swam to the corner of the pool and removed a bar of soap from the tray the bot had left. She watched the water streak across the rippled muscles of his shoulders. The blond man ignored her and began lathering his chest and arms. "Did you hear me, Tirin? Go find a sex bot to swim with." Keer splashed water at him, indignant. He looked puzzled.

"Why? We always bathe together here in the subter. The water recirculator must work twice as hard if we do not. Cian and I often use this pool."

He did not approach her or look directly at her, but continued to bathe, rubbing the soap over his skin and against his face. She noted her also bore the scars that she had seen on Cian's upper chest.

Warrior's stripes, she thought. They were scarred like a brand of some kind, or an initiation. Tirin wore the marks like a god. Keer watched him silently as the water moved over his body. She had seen Neld Warriors with fewer battle scars. One lay over his ribs, the length of a large knife. Another striped across his back.

As she found a ledge to sit on, she heard Cian enter the bathing chamber. He began to remove his leggings, obviously preparing to join them in the bath. Keer had heard of planets where entire families bathed together. Still, this was culture shock. She eyed the drying robes which would require a dash across the floor to the door.

Cian slid into the pool noiselessly and then under the water, only to rise again like a tawny brown idol from the water. He refused the soap offered to him by Tirin and looked closely at what else was available. "You enjoy that scent?" Cian asked, motioning to Keer with the musky gel in his hand.

Keer blinked at him. She had been focusing on keeping herself under the water up to her chin and establishing how quickly she could make it to the linens.

"I just…picked one," she stuttered, cursing herself for her nerves.

She could topple a Neld Warrior, but couldn't focus with these two

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beautiful giants so close to her. All that muscle and warm skin in the bathing chamber was mind boggling. But neither warrior had an erection when they jumped into the pool. Both of those beautiful cocks she longed to see were safely pointed downward.

Cian looked to Tirin as he spoke. "That scent is a combination of a Devorian Pear and the Telura vine. Tirin and I find it appealing."

Keer shrugged. It was soap. It was pleasant. "Have you always been able to heal?"

"It is a gift that I have had since birth. I cannot heal all wounds, but your injuries were not as severe as they were painful. While Tirin does not share it, when we complete the triad with you, it makes us stronger in our gifts."

Both men had moved toward her casually, drifting in the bath.

Keer was guarded, but did not feel an immediate threat. The two men settled on either side of her, continuing their bath. Keer relaxed slightly as both of them talked without looking at her, ignoring her nakedness as if it were the most natural thing in their universe.

"If you are rested, small bondsman, we will take you out to see the subter city. It will be safe to take the mobile so that you may see where you are. The few warriors that house in the city have gone to check on a disturbance outside the Colony."

Keer listened without commenting. It occurred to her that the disturbance might be the arrival of Drak Voi, who no doubt wondered what his best bond hunter had gotten up to. She would have been sure of it if she had activated the sensor in her arm to alert him to an emergency. She crossed her arms over her chest and slid her hands down to her wrists, feeling for the chip with her fingers.

It was there, the small metal piece under her skin. She realized that Tirin and Cian had stopped speaking and now leaned closer to her. Each with one arm behind her, they effectively blocked her into the corner of the pool. Cian's eyes narrowed as he reached to slide a hand across her crossed arms. The faint burn returned under her skin and pooled between her legs. The peak was returning, nudging at the
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edge of her body's defenses. Tirin moved close enough to lean his hip against hers in the warm water.

Keer closed her eyes and inhaled. Another flash of her under Tirin's mouth, her legs splayed while Cian pumped his cock, slick with her saliva between her lips as she moaned, burst through her brain.

The blast of heat between her legs was immediate and scorching.

She began to leak her cream into the bath. Keer panted, trying to remember her last thoughts before the sexual haze had fallen into her mind. Drak, she needed to get Drak. "You would leave us without knowing if we speak truth?" Cian grasped her hand under the water, stilling her ability to activate the sensor. Keer's heart pounded hard against her ribs. There was no way to tell if it was from the proximity of the two beautiful men or the fear that she would be trapped in the godforsaken depths of the Endlands.

"Do I have a choice? You said you did not hold breeders." She hissed the words at Cian. He relaxed his grip instantly, but his hand remained, brushing against her skin, creating small electric sparks.

The pounding in her chest continued.

Tirin stirred against her. She moved toward him for protection.

"My commander will always give you choice, woman. But we would not want to kill your colleague should he breach the underground fortress."

She turned to Tirin and hissed, "Touch Drak, and I will have your balls. And you won't have a need for them. They will be between your teeth." Tirin did not have the sense to hide his amusement. He watched her, eyes dancing.

"Cease teasing her, Lieutenant. Keer, we will wait for your partner to arrive above-ground. You will come with us. Activate the chip if you must do so. It will be easier for him to find us and know that you are safe." “
Now is time. Do not taunt her.” He added silently to Tirin.

"But I like to play with her fire, my friend." Tirin's teeth glinted in the dim light of the bathing chamber.

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Keer's hand shot out and Tirin caught it in midair. "You wish to strike me, little hunter? I think you do not." His mouth was on hers before she could move, hot and slick. He enveloped her in the kiss, holding himself away from her, not allowing her to feel his skin yet.

He began to stroke the inside of her mouth with his tongue, stirring the heat and fanning the peak that Cian had subdued.

Every rule, every warning and every stern lecture her mother had given her flew from her head. Her body began to burn, and she moaned into his mouth. She let the pleasure take her, sucking his tongue and then catching his lips with her teeth as she wrapped her hands in his hair, trying to pull him closer.

Cian pulled her from Tirin, and she cried out, squirming against him as he held her to his broad chest and stepped from the bath. Tirin wrapped her in the bathing linens as she kissed the dark-haired warrior. Cian's mouth was hotter still. He poured his dominance into the kiss, plunging his tongue in and out of her mouth mimicking the strokes his cock would make. They fell onto the bed, Keer between them. She was writhing in the sexual heat now, burning out of control.