Severed

  “I…I want you to,” I said. “To…to taste me, I mean. But, well…we’re all going to be going our separate ways soon. Don’t you think we should start laying off the kinky three-way sex?”

  “We could,” Drace said slowly. “Or we could take one more night to enjoy and appreciate each others’ bodies. Give ourselves one last memory before we sever our bond tomorrow.”

  “Oh…” I bit my lip. “Are…are you guys going to do that tomorrow? I mean, you’re going to use the Claw on yourselves? It’s all decided?”

  “I thought we were.” Drace looked at Lucian. “Isn’t that why you programmed a course for Y’brith? So we could give Mandrex back the Key after we, you know, severed our bond?”

  “I suppose.” Lucian looked deeply unhappy but then he seemed to make an effort to shake off the negative emotion. Looking at me, he gave me a slow, hot smile. “So if you want to have one more night to remember us by, maybe you should let Drace show me his excellent technique on your sweet little pussy, ma ‘frela.”

  I tried to let go of the sudden sadness that had overcome me at the thought that our time together was coming to a close. It wasn’t just that I would miss them or be sad when I was back on Earth—it was that I felt like a piece of me—two pieces actually—would be missing when they left. It was like they were talking casually about cutting out chunks of my heart, as though it didn’t matter.

  Stop it, I told myself sternly. You can’t force them to stay together. Just try to forget about tomorrow and live in the moment—make a beautiful memory to keep with you for always.

  “All right,” I whispered at last. “Drace can…can teach you his technique. I don’t mind.”

  “Many thanks, ma 'frela,” Lucian purred, pushing up the lacy hem of my nightgown. “Now, if you would be so kind as to spread your thighs wide and give my bond-mate access to your pussy?”

  Moaning, I did as he said, not protesting a bit when Drace got between my legs and began to tug off the lacy cream panties that went with the nightgown.

  “Look at that, baby,” he rumbled when he’d pulled them down. “Look how wet and ready your pussy already is. Gods, can’t wait to taste your creamy little slit.” He looked at Lucian who was on my other side, watching avidly. “Now look, the first thing to do is to spread her sweet pussy lips wide so you have clear access to her hot little clit…”

  I don’t know how long they worked on me—teasing and tasting, taking me right to the brink of orgasm but never quite letting me go over. Drace spent forever showing Lucian his favorite way to eat my pussy and then Lucian showed him his own favorite way to suck my clit and tease me with the tip of his tongue. By the time they finally let me come with Drace thrusting two thick fingers deep in my channel while Lucian lashed my aching little bud with his tongue, I nearly had an out of body experience.

  “That’s right, baby,” Drace growled as I cried my pleasure while they touched and tasted me. “That’s right—give it up for us. Love to watch you come, love to taste your sweet pussy while you lose control.”

  It was so good and the peak they’d brought me to was so high that the crash after orgasm was intense. Never again, I found myself thinking as I sank down, panting on the bed, my body and emotions wrung out by the incredible pleasure. They’ll never touch me like this again. My guys will be gone and I’ll be all alone.

  It was all I could do to keep from crying.

  But though I held back the tears, I couldn’t keep the sadness back any longer—the sense of impending loss that made me feel hollow inside.

  Drace and Lucian sensed my gloomy mood through our bond. Without asking, they slipped me between the covers and cuddled up on either side of me, lending me their heat, letting me feel their love. At last, worn out by the intense pleasure and safe in the cradle of four strong arms of the men who loved me, I fell asleep and dreamed…

  I was back home…back home in Tampa and I was all alone. A strange mist filled the streets and I was wandering through it, looking for something. No, looking for someone, but I didn’t know who. He…no, they, were very special to me…or had been special to me once. But now I couldn’t even remember their names. I only knew they were gone. They had left me alone. All alone.

  Tears came to my eyes, hot and hard as bullets. They tore me up inside, pouring out like a salty flood of poison. It hurt so much to cry but I couldn’t seem to stop, couldn’t ease the loss that filled me and ate pieces of my soul.

  “They’re gone,” I said, my words echoing in the mist that surrounded me. “Gone and they’re never coming back.”

  I was alone and I would be alone forever…

  “Baby? What’s wrong?”

  “Ma 'frela, you are having a bad dream. Wake up!”

  Two sets of hands were stroking me, two deep voices were talking in low, worried tones in my ear.

  I finally managed to struggle out of sleep but when I did, I found my eyes were filled with tears. And even though I was awake, I couldn’t stop crying.

  “Baby, what is it?” Drace asked, cuddling me close to his broad chest.

  “Ma 'frela, tell us—why are you crying?” Lucian pressed his warm chest to my back, stroking my hair.

  “I…I’m sorry,” I finally managed to gasp out as the tears ran down my cheeks and the sides of my face. “I just…I had such a horrible dream.”

  “Can you remember it?” Drace said softly.

  “Some…I think,” I whispered.

  “Tell it then,” Lucian urged. “In the Fang Clan we believe that dreams can be prophetic. Tell us what you dreamed, Rylee.”

  “I…” I closed my eyes, trying to remember. “I was back home but nothing was the same. I was…was wandering through a mist. I felt confused…disorientated. I was looking for someone—I think it was you guys. Only…” My voice started to waver again. “Only I couldn’t even remember your names. I just knew…knew that…” A fresh sob broke from me and I had to work hard to stifle it. “I just knew I was alone and that…that I’d always be alone. I knew I would…would never see you two again.”

  I broke down again, then, sobbing as if my heart was breaking. And honestly, it was. This was the last night I was going to sleep between my guys—the last time I would even see them. After they left me back on Earth they were going to go their separate ways. Our beautiful three-way relationship—our Triumvirate—would be dissolved and none of us would ever see each other again.

  “Rylee…baby…”

  “Ma 'frela…”

  Drace and Lucian tried to comfort me again but I was beyond comfort. All I could think was how I would never see them again and how I’d be lonely the rest of my life. Cold and alone without their love to keep me warm.

  I sat up in bed and pulled my knees up to my chest, trying to stop the trembling that shook my whole body as I sobbed.

  “Rylee…” The guys sat up on either side of me and rubbed my back but I was inconsolable, crying like I hadn’t since I was a child. An all out sobbing that left me feeling breathless and choked and so miserable I wished I could just die.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw them exchange a helpless glance and I could almost hear the nonverbal communication flying between them—What are we going to do? I have no idea! She’s really upset! I know but I don’t know how to calm her down!

  For some reason their exchange—the way they fit so well together and were able to almost read each other’s thoughts now—enraged me.

  It’s not fair! I thought, my pain turning abruptly to anger. It’s not fair—why do we have to be apart? They fit so well together and I’m their center. We’re perfect together—why do we have to be separated? It’s not fair!

  “What is not fair?” Lucian asked and I realized I must have said the last words aloud.

  “Yeah, what’s not fair, baby?” Drace echoed him.

  “It’s not fair that we have to be parted!” I burst out, finally giving vent to my sudden rage. “It’s not fair that I’m going to lose you both and you’re going to lo
se each other just because of what people say—because of what our families think!”

  “Come now, Rylee,” Lucian said dryly. “It is not your family who would not approve of our union. Drace and I are the ones who have to worry about that.”

  “You think my Aunt Celia would approve of us? Of this?” I made a motion with my hand, indicating the way I was naked in bed between two huge, muscular men. “You think she’d be okay with me shacking up with two guys at once? They have words on my planet for girls who do three-ways and none of them are very nice. And that’s for girls who have three-ways with human guys. I have no idea what they’d call me if they knew I’d…I’d fallen in love with two aliens! If they—”

  “Say that again.” Drace was staring at me intently—they both were.

  “Say what?” I demanded. “About how getting it on with two guys at once is frowned on down on Earth? Or how my Aunt Celia would most certainly not approve of our relationship?”

  “Say the part where you admitted you love us,” Lucian murmured. “The part where you said you had fallen in love with Drace and me.”

  “Oh, uh…” I came to a stumbling halt, feeling like my tongue was too big for my mouth. “I…”

  “Is it true?” Drace demanded in a low, intense voice. “Really, baby? You love us?”

  “You know I do,” I said at last, unable to hold back any longer. “I told you—thought it at you—back when we were all, uh, bonding. You know.”

  “That was in the heat of the moment,” Lucian pointed out. “Many promises are made and many things are said during such times.”

  “Well, it wasn’t an empty promise to me,” I said softly. I looked down at my hands, twisting in the covers, because I couldn’t meet their eyes. “I love you, Lucian…and you, Drace. I love you both and the idea that I’m never going to see you again after you break your bond and take me back to Earth, well…it tears me up inside.”

  “It hurts me too.” Drace’s voice was low and choked. “Hurts so fucking much it feels like someone is ripping out a piece of my heart.”

  “I feel the same,” Lucian admitted softly. “I see the necessity of being parted from you both but it is like looking on the necessity of death. I do not…do not know if I can bear it.”

  “They why bear it?” I asked, daring to look up at them. “I’m serious—why are we doing this? Why are we putting ourselves through all this agony to be apart when what we really want is to stay together?”

  “That is a very good question,” Lucian murmured. “One for which I do not have the answer.”

  “I do.” Drace’s voice was rough. “We’re parting ways because it won’t work for us to be together. I mean, it might work on a personal level but our families will hate it. And society—”

  “Let society go fuck itself.” Lucian’s voice was low and angry.

  Drace and I looked at him, extremely surprised. We didn’t usually hear such language from him—dropping the F bomb was Drace’s department.

  “What did you say, bond-mate?” Drace asked him carefully.

  “I said Rylee is right—why should we care what society thinks? Or our families either, for that matter?”

  Lucian got out of bed and started pacing, a look of intense anger on his face.

  “Do you know how lonely I have been all these years? And not because I couldn’t find a Beta—I know that is a hardship too.” He nodded at Drace, who nodded back. “But that wasn’t my problem—I found several Betas that would happily have bonded with me. There was one in particular—Hylorn of the Scale-Clan. I met him in school and we were friends at once. I’ve never felt so close to anyone before—until the two of you, anyway,” he said, motioning to Drace and me. “But I knew—knew at once that Hylorn and I ought to bind our lives together.”

  “What happened?” I asked. “Why didn’t you?”

  “I thought I would be allowed to,” Lucian sighed and ran a hand through his tousled black hair. “The Scale-Clan are the Fang Clan’s closest allies—many fine alliances have been made between Alphas and Betas of both clans. And yet, when I brought him to my home to spend the mid-winter holidays…”

  “Your mom and dads vetoed the idea,” Drace rumbled. “Is that right, bond-mate?”

  “They treated Hylorn with a coldness that made me ashamed of them.” Lucian spoke in a low, frustrated tone. “And later my mother dragged me aside and explained that we could never be together. Something about an old scandal in his family—a tragedy that happened years before. But as old as it was, she was afraid it would taint our family name if I was allowed to bond with him.”

  “So you weren’t allowed,” I finished for him in a low voice. “God, Lucian, I’m sorry.”

  “I let them do it to me once.” He looked up, a savage expression of anger on his face. “I let my family ruin any chance I had of happiness in order to preserve their precious social status and reputation. Why should I let them do it again?”

  “It hurt you badly, didn’t it?” Drace asked softly. “I feel your pain through our link. I’m sorry, Lucian.”

  “I already thought of Hylorn as a bond-mate,” Lucian said dully. “I’d allowed myself to feel for him—to get close—because I was so sure my family would approve. I didn’t really believe, even then, that they would sacrifice my future and any chance I had of having a family of my own, just to keep up appearances. I didn’t understand until it was too late that their pride was more important than my happiness.” He looked up at us, eyes blazing. “Well fuck them!”

  “Lucian!” I exclaimed.

  “No, I mean it—fuck them!” he growled, sounding more like Drace than his own smooth, sophisticated self. “I’m not going to let them ruin my happiness a second time. I love you.” He stabbed a finger and me and then Drace. “Love you both. And I want to stay with you. If…” He cleared his throat, some of the anger leaking from his eyes to be replaced by uncertainty. “If the two of you want to stay with me.”

  “I love you too, bond-mate,” Drace admitted in a low voice. “But I didn’t think…I didn’t like to ask. You’ve got so much more to lose than I do,” he said to Lucian. “Your family is rich and influential and—”

  “Didn’t I just finish telling you I don’t give a damn what my family thinks or what happens to them? Let them watch out for themselves,” Lucian growled. “I’m through letting them tell me who I can love…who I can be with. I choose you, Drace…and you, Rylee. If you’ll have me.” He looked at me. “Will you?”

  “You have to ask?” I was half laughing, half crying as I put one arm around Drace’s thick neck and reached my other arm out towards Lucian. “Come back to bed.”

  Lucian came willingly and before I knew it, we were entangled in the sweetest, three-way embrace imaginable. The kissing and caressing was beginning to turn into something more but suddenly Lucian sat up, looking serious. Reaching out, he put his right hand to my chest, just over my heart. And then he did the same to Drace, putting his left hand over the other man’s heart.

  “I pledge to you, bond-mates,” he said in a low, serious voice. “I pledge my time, talents, and my treasure…my love and my loyalty. Even in death, may we never be parted.”

  I wasn’t sure what was going on until I saw the awed, almost shaken look on Drace’s face and felt a surge of emotion going through our bond.

  “You’re sure?” he whispered hoarsely, looking at Lucian. “You’re giving us a heart-pledge? You want to go that far?”

  “That far and farther.” Lucian wore an intense look on his face. “I never want to be parted from you, my bond-mates. And I’ll never let another come between us—this I swear.”

  Drace nodded and placed one hand over Lucian’s heart and one over mine. “Then I pledge as well,” he said, his deep voice rumbling with sincerity. “My time, talents, and my treasure…my love and my loyalty shall all be yours, my bond-mates. Even in death, may we never be parted.”

  Then both of them looked at me but before I could say anything, I had to
wipe some tears from my eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered to both of them. “I…I don’t mean to get all girly. This is just so…so beautiful.”

  “It is a heart-pledge,” Lucian said simply. “It is about love and honor and sacrifice and loyalty—there is nothing more beautiful, no promise more enduring.”

  “That’s what I want,” I said. “Enduring—I want to be with you guys forever.”

  “Then make your pledge, baby,” Drace said softly, “But remember, it’s our most sacred vow—one that must never be broken.”

  “It won’t be,” I swore softly. Lifting my chin, I placed my hands over their broad, muscular chests and repeated the words.” As they left my lips, I felt a surge of power flash out from me to encompass both of them.

  A Binder, I thought deliriously. I’m a Binder and I think this just tied us more tightly together than ever.

  It was an amazing feeling—a closeness I had never felt to another person and now I had it with two other people—my guys.

  “I love you,” I kept telling them both. “I love you so much—I never want us to be apart.”

  “We won’t be—we’ll never be parted,” they promised. They took turns kissing me and then pretty soon, kissing turned to other things. Before I quite knew how it happened, the three of us were bonding all over again, the two of them holding me between them as they filled me with their thick shafts and spilled their seed inside my pussy for the second time.

  It was even sweeter this time—a gentle, slow lovemaking that was still extremely passionate. We weren’t just coming together out of necessity as we had been the night before. This time our three-way bonding was about affirming our love. It might have lasted hours—the rest of the night—I’m really not sure. Time seemed to blur into one long endless caress as Drace and Lucian held me tight and showed me how much they loved me, promising wordlessly that we would never be parted.

  We came as one—all three of us—which pleased the guys. Apparently perfectly synced orgasms were the sign of an exceptionally strong Triumvirate. I didn’t know about that and I didn’t care. I just knew that when I finally drifted off to sleep a second time, held in the four strong arms of my loves, there was a smile on my lips and peace and contentment filling my heart.