A cool blast of wetness startled Blythe. The sensitizer sprayer hovered over her mound. Hadlez smiled and shot more on her pussy.

  “It has an instant effect. A demonstration.” He leaned forward and delivered long, slow licks along the sides of her clit.

  “Oh!” Her feet kicked the air as incredible feeling consumed her. Her pussy tightened.

  “Don’t come unless I tell you to.” Hadlez stood, looming. His stare bored hers. His expression was stern.

  She froze under his regard despite her sex’s clamoring. His tone lacked the same command as Deram’s, nor was he as intimidating as Selt. He was too damned beautiful to pull such characteristics off. Nonetheless, she weakened beneath his gaze.

  He didn’t move again until she relaxed. When she did, he sprayed three fingers of his own hand. He slid them in her, provided eyerolling friction. Ecstasy shivered through her, and she moaned.

  His fingers weren’t as thick as the cocks that had filled her, but she was swollen and her cunt eagerly clutched them. She creamed, slickening his digits, inviting them to plunder.

  “So hot and wet. Remember, you need my permission to come. If you disobey, I’ll spank you.”

  Spank?

  He wouldn’t dare. The voice in her head was outraged, but her sex spasmed.

  His brow lifted, and a smile lifted one edge of his lips. “Yes. I enjoy the idea of you stretched over my lap, your pert ass wriggling as I turn it red. From what I’ve witnessed tonight, I’m sure you’d love it.”

  She wanted to protest. However, his fingers continued to stroke her sensitized flesh, confusing her senses. She knew of those who thrilled at erotic spankings, giving and receiving. She’d never allowed herself to consider such an activity for herself, however. Certainly not from the receiving end.

  He thrust continuously, rendering the idea of his heavy hand smacking her ass exciting. His thumb slid along the sides of her clit as he did so, and she couldn’t keep from twitching in an effort for better contact. She was so close, close enough that the threat of a spanking was more goad than barrier to claiming pleasure. A slight spasm signaled how on the brink she was.

  Hadlez pulled free. Blythe whimpered and pulled her legs wider apart, her hips tilting upward in supplication.

  “No, little girl. My pace. Stay very still now.”

  How could she? His every touch burned her to the core. She was desperate despite earlier climaxes for another. His fingers pushed deep, stroking the exact spot where she lived, bringing her to the edge.

  Then they were gone, and she wailed. She ached. She damned near hurt from yearning. She couldn’t take this teasing—

  A thickness invaded her, cutting her thoughts off cleanly. It wasn’t his fingers, and it wasn’t either of his cocks. She could see them, hovering thick and enticing over her as his hand pressed something else in her, something almost as thick as his secondary. Moving it in her, rubbing the electric place within. What…?

  A hum filled her ears, and delicious vibrations melted her. At the same instant, he pinched her clit. “Now you may come.”

  Ecstasy swarmed through her, excruciating pulses of rending power. She fell in a heaving abyss, shattering in its depths as heat billowed and surged. She fought emerging from its enthralling tides.

  At last, the luscious undoing quieted, leaving her splayed beneath Hadlez. She had no memory of releasing her knees, but she had. She gasped in the aftermath, warmth buzzing through her pussy.

  Fuck. He’d used the sensitizing spray on her, and she was still aroused. Climax hadn’t cured the gnawing yearning. It had only lessened it momentarily.

  “Beautiful,” Hadlez sighed. He bent over her and kissed her thoroughly, his tongue plunging as ardently as the vibrator he’d used.

  Blythe responded, clutching his broad shoulders, rubbing her breasts on his chest, her mound on the slick erections between them. His weight on her was enthralling. She had to have him in her. Nothing else would calm her hunger.

  Hadlez kissed his way from her lips to her chin, then along her jawline. He nipped her earlobe playfully before nuzzling the side of her neck.

  He bit. Sharp jabs of pain made Blythe gasp, but the hurt ebbed almost at once. It took her another second to realize what was happening.

  Kalquorians had hinged fangs, which usually stayed folded to the roofs of their mouths. Blythe had felt the hardness of Hadlez’s, Deram’s, and Selt’s when kissing them. Hollow, they injected a type of venom. Their saliva had an agent that anesthetized the small wounds they dealt, which was why Blythe wasn’t screaming in agony at the moment.

  The “venom” operated as an intoxicating aphrodisiac on humans. It rendered the bitten highly aroused and eager to couple…as if Blythe weren’t already stirred to a near-fever pitch, thanks to the spray.

  Her inquisitive reporter mind was curious as to what would happen next, but the idea of experiencing greater, perhaps uncontrollable lust had her shoving Hadlez’s shoulders. “Don’t!” she wailed when she couldn’t dislodge him.

  Deram appeared, hovering over them. “Do you wish to say sholt, Blythe? He’ll stop everything if you do.”

  All of it? No, he couldn’t stop when she was so desperate. She just didn’t want to be needier. Arousal was already driving her crazy.

  She struggled to figure out what to do. As she did, a glowing feeling stole over her. An ungentle joy to be with these men, to have Hadlez on top of her, ready to fuck her until the raging yearning ebbed. When had she ever felt so euphoric? No, he couldn’t stop. Ever.

  “Fuck me,” she moaned, rubbing harder against Hadlez. “Fuck me, please, just fuck me, I need you to fuck me so hard.”

  Deram disappeared, and Hadlez stopped biting. He gazed down on her. Then he rose on his knees and knelt between her legs, which were no longer dangling over the edge of the bed. When had he moved her to the middle of the cloud-soft surface?

  No matter. She reached toward him. “Hadlez?”

  “Yes, Matara?”

  “Why aren’t you fucking me?”

  “I’m unsure I should. Were you going to ask me to stop before the venom took over? Were you going to say sholt?”

  What was he talking about? Never mind the momentary fear from moments ago. She’d never been so sure she desired a man in her life. “I don’t want to say sholt.”

  “Think, Blythe. When I bit you, what were you afraid of? Was it the instant of pain? Or did you wish to call a halt to what was happening?”

  His words washed over her as she drank in his beauty. His chest was broad, his abdomen a gorgeously ridged plain, his thighs thickly muscled. His tapered cocks, full and thick, curved toward his stomach. Desire was so intense, it twisted in her gut.

  “I need the truth, Blythe, or we can’t go any further.”

  Go no further? Her startled gaze flew to his gorgeous but determined features. “I…I want you. With every cell, I want you.”

  “You do now. What were you feeling when I bit you?”

  She struggled to remember. Yes, there had been fear, but not of them having sex. “I was afraid I craved you too much. I was afraid it would give you too much power over me.”

  His concern eased into a smile. He and his watching clanmates exchanged glances. Blythe’s heart leapt. She’d said the right thing. He wouldn’t deny her desperate longing.

  “We’ll discuss how I only take the power you grant me later, since you aren’t exactly in command of your desires. Since you desire me, you shall have me…on my terms.”

  Yes. Being his to control wasn’t a terrible thing. It was everything she wished for.

  “Tell me what to do.” The foreign words felt right on her lips.

  He responded by lying on his side, his face next to her hip. His livid shafts were in front of her mouth, washing her in the spicy-sweet aroma of his excitement. He rolled her on her side and lifted her upper leg onto his shoulder. “Touch me. Taste me. Let me feel your pretty lips and tongue on my cocks while I play with your pussy.”

  She was eager to obey.

  She curled her hand around the smaller of his cocks. His slickness made it easy to stroke. As she did so, her thumb traced the prominent vein on the underside of his shaft. He was hot against her palm, a fevered sensation that raised her own temperature. His scent grew heavier, and her mouth watered. He couldn’t possibly taste as good as he smelled.

  She kept masturbating his secondary as she bent close to its twin. Starting at the base, she ran her tongue to the pointed tip of him. She heard him inhale as she rolled his heady flavor around in her mouth. Sweet, plus a sharp, almost stinging bite…the rumors of Kalquorians tasting similar to cinnamon were true. Hadlez was delicious.

  Her pussy responded to the delight she took in tasting him. It clamored for attention, and she remembered he’d said he’d touch her. Was he waiting for her to please him? Would climax be her reward for doing so?

  Stroking and squeezing his smaller length, she slid her mouth over his primary, sucking him down as deep as she dared. Her tongue swirled and darted over the thrumming surface of his shaft as she went, and he groaned.

  A fist snarled her hair, and he pulled her onto him, making her take him until she gagged. When she did, his cock jerked. A spurt of his essence, which possessed a saltier tinge, danced on her tastebuds. He drew out so she no longer felt she choked.

  Her sex pulsed in excitement. So that was what he liked. Blythe set about giving it to him.

  Her head and fist bobbed on him. She took him until she gagged, earning precious drops of pre-cum to swallow. His fist tightened in her hair. Backing off, she sucked so her cheeks hollowed, claiming all she could of him. His wetness fairly leapt from his pores, a decadent feast she couldn’t get enough of.

  From far away, a hum trembled the air. Blythe had no time to wonder what it was when the vibrator entered her again and Hadlez used it to fuck her.

  She moaned against the flesh in her mouth, and it jerked in response. She hardly noticed as the instrument plied her swollen pussy, stealing sense from her.

  If Hadlez minded her sudden inability to perform, he didn’t deem it worth punishment. Instead, he continued to pump the throbbing vibrator in her hungry cunt while holding her head still and feeding his cock into her mouth. Each thrust brought her choked response.

  His control also increased her excitement. Her hips undulated, meeting the plunging thickness thrumming against inner tissues that clutched desperately. She verged on ecstatic realization, needing only a little more to send her over. It hovered just beyond reach, teasing and tantalizing until she squalled against her fleshy gag.

  The twitching shaft on her tongue and in her throat withdrew, as did the vibrator. Blythe had no opportunity to catch her breath and protest the loss. Hadlez pushed her on her back. He grabbed her ankles and held them high, lifting her ass off the mattress.

  He lined up his cocks. She had a moment of feeling them at her thresholds, then he shoved in. He claimed her in a single thrust, her position allowing him to go so very deep. The breath woofed from her lungs.

  She writhed helplessly as he drove in, out, taking her mercilessly. The thuds of his groin meeting hers were a heartbeat; a steady, quick pulse. She was certain the orgasm poised to overcome her would do so at any instant, but it remained a fraction of an inch away.

  She squalled, reaching for him. Her fingernails scored Hadlez’s chest. His lips wrinkled back, displaying long, thin fangs. He was a monster of bestial beauty, a fact Blythe registered before climax leapt on her.

  As it verged on eclipsing her vision entirely, she saw his jaw tighten and tendons stand rigid in his neck and shoulders. He jerked in her, coming as she fell into decadent rapture.

  She didn’t know if it was seconds, minutes, or hours later when she found herself curled between the three men. They crowded in a circle of which she was the center. They stroked her, smiling as she blinked back to awareness.

  “Water?” Selt offered the familiar pouch.

  Blythe drank greedily, noting she was finally free of the arousal that had ridden her as hard as the men. Mostly. Being in their midst, petted and fondled, warmth still curled in her lower belly like a contented cat.

  They didn’t ask her to speak, seemingly glad to simply caress her as they basked in the afterglow of what they’d shared. Blythe was grateful as myriad emotions assaulted her…amazement, shock, and concern.

  Nothing remotely similar had happened to her in the past. Part of her wanted to jump up, grab her clothes, and run from Clan Deram. At the same time, she ached to wrap herself around the three, knot herself so they couldn’t escape her, and never allow them to be untangled.

  What have they done to me? Could she escape? Did she want to?

  Chapter Sixteen

  Kalquor

  Ilid and his parents followed Degorsk into the spacious office in Fleet Headquarters. The young Dramok’s gaze darted everywhere, searching endlessly though he hadn’t spotted a Dark in weeks…except for in his dreams. There, they crowded in seething masses.

  The office appeared fine, showing only nice but functional furnishings. The art hanging on the illuminated wall panels was made up of soothing seascapes, as if Admiral Tranis couldn’t get enough of the window-vid showing the view of the green sea outside. Pictures of a clan, including the admiral and Dr. Degorsk, a handsome brute of a Nobek, and a gorgeous platinum blond woman, gave a sense of warmth Ilid had rarely noted from high-ranking officers.

  He and his parent clan bowed to Admiral Tranis as the officer stood up behind his desk. If the admiral was surprised or irritated by the sudden visit, he showed none of it. He motioned to the chairs on the other side of his desk. “Matara, anyone who wishes, please make yourselves comfortable.”

  Tranis could have been in a towering rage over them showing up after Degorsk’s com telling him they were coming and he needed to see them right away. Ilid wouldn’t have been bothered by it. The fact the man had no Dark riding him minimized everything else.

  “Apologies once again for the abrupt interruption to your day, Admiral,” the doctor began, sounding formal, as if they weren’t clanned. “However, I understand time is of the essence—”

  “If Ensign…I’m sorry, it’s Dramok now, isn’t it? If Dramok Ilid is willing to help us and now is when he wishes to do so, I’m glad to accommodate him.” Tranis actually smiled at him. No, he wasn’t offended in the slightest.

  “It’s now or never, sir,” Ilid said, hating the tremor in his tone.

  Tranis nodded. “The team working on the issue is on their way and should arrive shortly. Does anyone need refreshments?”

  “What’s the strongest drink you have?” Degorsk’s formality changed to light teasing, earning a few chuckles. Tranis shook a finger at him, but his smile remained in place as he went to the nearby cooling unit to fetch water.

  Ilid’s gaze continued to rake the office. No Darks. Not yet. He prayed when he saw the vid the admiral wished to show him there would continue to be nothing there to fear.

  His gut told a different story. It told him there was nowhere left to run, and he had to face the horror again, right there on Kalquor, his very home.

  * * * *

  “Whatever you see, whether there’s something or nothing, it can’t be spoken of beyond this gathering.”

  Ilid nodded at Tranis’ warning. “You’re afraid of setting off a panic.”

  “If a Dark has shown up, I don’t want it warned before we try to capture it,” the admiral corrected.

  “Capture it?” Ilid gaped in disbelief.

  “We have hope we can do so.” The man who spoke had been introduced as Chief Engineer Lokmi spoke. Ilid had been surprised to see the green trim on his fleet uniform. Lokmi’s aura of control was that of a Dramok.

  The group had gathered in a conference room in what appeared to be a seldom-trafficked area of Fleet Headquarters. Tranis had mentioned the vacant offices in the wing were a result of admirals who’d left to fight against those loyal to the empire during the civil war. A trio of lonely computers on a long conference table and surrounding chairs were the sole furnishings.

  “Not only do we need to keep this quiet to avoid any Darks discovering what we’re up to, it’s Rear Admiral Hobato I’m spying on,” Tranis continued. “If he’s free of a rider, I’m guilty of a high crime against my commanding officer. I’ll turn myself in for disciplinary action, but I don’t want anyone else harmed by this. This is my mission, especially if I’m wrong about what I think is going on. No one else’s life has to be ruined by my actions.”

  There was a weariness to his expression and voice, as if he bore the cares of the world. His Nobek, introduced as Agent Lidon, scowled. “You know I won’t let you take this on alone.”

  “Your clan needs you.” It was the first instance the admiral had used a sharp tone. He looked at Ilid’s Dramok father. “Will you agree to the terms?”

  Codab glanced at Diju, then Ilid. “My clan will be silent about this issue unless you ask us to speak out.”

  A vaguely familiar admiral, whom Tranis hadn’t introduced by name, cleared his throat. “Admiral—”

  “No. The fleet had you do the unthinkable five years ago, and you spent five years in exile because of it. You’ve paid your price several times over,” Tranis said.

  The captain Ilid knew as Kila added, “We have another mission, my Dramok. Guarding Earth, especially if the empire is compromised, is our priority.”

  The unnamed admiral frowned, but he snapped a nod.

  “All right.” Tranis looked to the small dark-haired Earther woman among them. “Specialist, if you’re ready?”

  “Yes, Admiral.” She turned to the computer on the center of the conference table. “Computer, play loaded vid, max screen.”

  A holographic display, the length of the table, beamed from the computer. It showed an office similar to Tranis’. The first difference Ilid noticed was a number of commendations hung on the walls. No clan portraits.

  His attention centered on the imposing man seated behind the desk. Ilid had seen him on vids from headquarters and news vids: Rear Admiral Hobato. He sat apparently speaking on his desk com, his voice steady as he told someone, “I’ll need you to consult my aide as to when we can schedule the meeting.”