Blake, Abby - Keen Inclination [A Bride for Eight Brothers 4] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) (3 page)

The fact that the company the female scientists worked for had sworn him and his brothers to confidentiality, and threatened to withdraw the vitamin supplement if they’d refused, just made the whole thing more frustrating. The supplement was the only weapon they had to combat the mating musk’s effects. Add that to the fact that the company decided against arranging for security to protect their staff—effectively leaving the women vulnerable to attack—and Lachlan was ready to break their contract and get his family the hell off this strange jungle planet.

Unfortunately, he wouldn’t leave the three female scientists alone to deal with the raiders, and it would seem by the smug attitude of the decision makers at the medical research company that they knew it, too. It didn’t help that his time in the defense forces had left him with a publicly available download listing his exemplary service history and supposedly heroic deeds. He didn’t feel like a hero. He felt like a man who’d lived through a nightmare and barely returned whole.

The worst of the current situation was that sooner or later somebody was going to end up dead, and Lachlan sure as hell hoped it wasn’t him who had to pull the trigger. He’d had to kill enough people to last him a lifetime. He suspected Bryce felt the same way.

It took a little longer to locate the ship belonging to these guys—they’d hidden it under several layers of vegetation—but Lachlan’s tracking skills were becoming quite adept on this planet, and they found it eventually.

By the time they made it back to the three unconscious men, they were masturbating in their sleep. “We really should volunteer someone else for this part of the job,” Bryce said as he grabbed one of the men and swung him onto his shoulders in a fireman’s hold while trying not to touch anything that wasn’t inside the man’s clothing. Helpfully, the unconscious man still had his hand wrapped firmly around his dick.

With two heavy unconscious raiders of his own to carry, Lachlan decided to drag them both back by their collars. At least if they ended up with a bruise or two on their collective asses they might think twice about coming back.

The ship’s systems had been password-disabled, but it only took a few moments for Bryce to break into the software. Obviously, his time as an undercover cop had given him skills few would consider necessary for honest folk, but they were coming in very handy on this planet.

They stood back as the ship lifted off the ground and headed into orbit. Hopefully, the raiders would wake sore and sorry in a few hours and decide that the mouse tears just weren’t worth the risk.

* * * *

Brock found Mikayla in the bath. The headset from her music player was turned up so loud he could hear the song from the doorway.

“Baby girl,” he said as he knelt down and touched her hair softly. She practically leapt out of the bath at his soft caress.

“Shit, Brock,” she said breathlessly as she pulled the headphones from her ears. “Talk about giving a girl a heart attack.”

“Mikayla,” he said quietly, “what are you doing?”

At first it looked like she would give him some smartass answer, but then she took a deep breath, shrugged slightly, and said, “I just needed a little bit of time to myself.” She looked away from him, trying to hide the tears in her eyes, and he found himself wondering if she was understating her need to hide. It certainly seemed that she was hiding, and considering the half-peeled vegetables, she was having trouble concentrating as well. None of them had known where she was, and that concerned him a great deal. With raiders landing on the planet, it was very important for everyone to know where everyone was.

But he’d been especially worried about his wife lately. It wasn’t anything specific, just a feeling that she was pulling away from all of them in an emotional sense. Almost like she was rethinking the whole eight husbands thing. They hadn’t really discussed trying for another baby. He planned to raise the subject when their access to medical care was adequate, but he wondered just how she really felt about risking another miscarriage. Just because it was unlikely that she would suffer a second ectopic pregnancy, it didn’t guarantee it wouldn’t happen.

The trouble was Brock really couldn’t be certain how much was observation and how much was coming from his own insecurities, so he hadn’t said anything to her. Most women only had to deal with one or two husbands, not eight. What would happen if Mikayla chose to leave some or all of them?

As he tried to figure out how best to protect her—from the current raiders
and
her own concerns—John barreled through the door and came to a sudden halt behind him.

“Hello, princess,” he said with a lascivious grin. Brock didn’t need to guess what his brother was thinking.

“Call the others. Tell them we found her.” John gave him an annoyed look, but Brock just shook his head. Their brothers were busy dealing with intruders, so climbing into the bath with their lovely wife was probably not a responsible choice at the moment.

“Baby girl,” Brock said as he ran a soothing hand up and down her spine. “John is going to stay with you while we sort out this latest batch of raiders. And then we’re going to talk about what’s going on in your head.” She nodded and tried a sad smile, but it was obvious that whatever she’d been thinking before he came in was not good.

A knot formed in his stomach. Something told him things were changing. Somehow the idyllic life he thought they had together wasn’t quite as solid as he’d once believed.

He helped her from the bath, dried her off, and sat her on the bed. “Stay,” he said when it looked like she might follow him. John helped her get dressed and then lay down beside her and pulled her into his arms.

“I’ll tell the others you two want some alone time, but I can’t promise to keep Lachlan away. He’ll know something’s up the moment he sees me.” She nodded again, not even trying to reassure him that everything was all right. Brock made eye contact with John, and then left the room quietly.

In the hallway, he took a deep breath, preparing himself to lie to his brothers and pretend that everything was fine.

Chapter Three

“Seriously?” Ryan asked and then laughed harder.

Lachlan was still trying to
not
imagine how many splinters humping a tree would cause when Brock came into the room. The man smiled and laughed with the rest of them as Bryce gave them all a very comical description of the three raiders they’d just sent home, but Lachlan could sense something wasn’t quite right. He also realized that Brock wasn’t in the mood to talk about it.

“I’m just glad it was a tree. I swear we’re liable to find them humping each other one of these days. What part of ‘quarantine’ don’t these dickheads understand?”

“Is the vitamin supplement still suppressing the pheromones’ effects?” Brock asked, sounding very serious.

Lachlan glanced around the rest of his brothers. None of the others seemed to have noticed Brock’s strange mood, so Lachlan answered the question quickly and resolved to get answers to his own questions later.

“It’s still effective, but maybe not as effective as it once was. Either that, or the mouse tears are getting more potent. I would suggest that we consider not taking the supplement unless we’re planning to leave the building. I don’t want the only thing that inhibits the effects of the mating musk losing its potency.”

“True,” Ty said, still laughing. “Hell, we could all end up humping trees.” He acted out a rather crude version of what could happen, and the rest of his brothers laughed with him.

“I suppose it makes sense,” Ryan said, looking thoughtful. “I’ll let Misha know.”

“No, I’d rather the medical consortium didn’t know. We’ll continue to accept the weekly allocations, but we’ll just store the excess. The way they have been acting lately, I wouldn’t put it past them to cut off our supply if they felt it were in their company’s best interest.”

“We probably need to hire more security ourselves,” Bryce said, concern creasing his face. “So far these raiders have come in small numbers. If we get a larger raiding party, we could be in trouble.”

“Or the trees could,” Ty added, still laughing.

“Oh, shit, what if there were enough of them to make a daisy chain?” Ryan added.

Lachlan shook his head in an effort to dislodge that image. He hoped like hell he’d never have to try and break up a group of mating musk affected men humping in a circle. Today’s experience had been unpleasant enough.

“Where’s Mikayla?” Bryce asked curiously as he finally stopped laughing.

“Spending some quiet time with John,” Brock said, projecting a calm Lachlan was certain the man wasn’t feeling. He watched as his brother tried to force a relaxed smile onto his face. “I volunteered to cook dinner.”

They all groaned as Brock knew his brothers would and Lachlan watched curiously as Brock headed into the kitchen, thereby forestalling any more questions about their wife. Obviously something was amiss, but even more concerning was Brock’s unwillingness to share.

He followed Brock into the kitchen and caught his brother’s disappointed sigh.

“I think we should renegotiate our contract,” Brock said as if to override any questions from Lachlan. Lachlan noticed the tension in Brock’s shoulders and really wanted to demand answers. But Brock was a far better Dom than Lachlan, and if Lachlan pushed too hard, Brock would simply shut down and keep his secret forever.

“Sure,” Lachlan answered carefully. “It’s probably a good idea. We are spending more time on security than surveys and research.”

“True,” Brock said as if he hadn’t actually considered that angle.

“Okay, I’ll contact our lawyer,” Lachlan said, watching his brother closely. Brock looked over at him but waited for Lachlan to elaborate. “If nothing else, it might at least alert the mining company to the medical consortium’s attitude toward protecting its staff.”

Brock nodded, and Lachlan could practically see his brother looking at the suggestion from all angles.

“Okay,” he finally agreed. “In fact, it might be a good idea for John to head back to earth for a while. Maybe he could take Mikayla along.”

“Only if you go with them,” Lachlan said. He sure as hell didn’t miss the relief in his brother’s expression. Whatever was going on, Brock and John seemed inclined to keep it from the rest of them.

“Okay,” Brock said again. “I think that would be a good idea. John and Mikayla and I will head back to Earth for a few weeks, renegotiate the contracts, and hopefully get us extra help with security.”

Lachlan nodded, watched his brother’s body language closely for a while, and then turned to leave the room.

“They’re in my bed,” Brock said quietly. Lachlan raised an eyebrow. It wasn’t uncommon for the brothers to do a certain amount of bed-hopping to be with their wife, but usually, intimate alone time with Mikayla was done is their own beds, not someone else’s. He waited for Brock to elaborate, but it seemed that he’d said all he was going to say. Lachlan nodded his thanks for what he expected was a cryptic clue and headed to his and Brock’s living quarters.

* * * *

John lay on the bed, his arms wrapped around Mikayla. He’d held her for less than a minute before he realized she was trying hard not to cry.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I just can’t seem to fight it. I’m not even sure why I feel so sad.”

Remorse cut through him, and he pulled her closer. He hadn’t even noticed how much she’d withdrawn from them until today. With all the chaos of the mouse tears, the female scientists, and the constant arrival of raiders, he hadn’t given any thought to how his wife might feel in the center of it all.

He was still trying to figure out what to do when the door opened quietly. John wasn’t even surprised to see Lachlan. If any of his brothers had picked up on Mikayla’s unusual behavior, it would be Lachlan. Irrational anger tromped through John’s mind, unfairly blaming his brother for not alerting him to concerns he himself hadn’t seen.

“Little one,” Lachlan said, managing to sound both sad and annoyed at the same time. He leaned over and smoothed the hair away from Mikayla’s eyes. “John and Brock are going to take you to Earth. We want you to see a doctor first and then spend some time relaxing.”

She nodded tiredly, her eyes still closed. John couldn’t help but wonder if Lachlan had noticed her gradual withdrawal why he hadn’t done anything until now. His ability to read body language was sometimes a little freaky. But then again, the change had been so gradual maybe even Lachlan hadn’t realized just how far she’d moved away from the vibrant, sassy woman they’d all fallen in love with.