Divided: Brides of the Kindred 10 (34 page)

Becca
didn’t know how long the encounter lasted. It seemed to go on and on with the
drive and pull of both thick shafts filling and fucking her, sliding deeply
into her pussy and ass over and over again until she thought she would die of
pleasure.

Though
she knew she was supposed to wait, she couldn’t help herself and came several
times as her men fucked her. The pleasure was simply too intense to bear and it
overwhelmed her as she gave herself to Truth and Far.

The
second time the pleasure overcame her, she felt Truth tense.

“It’s
too much,” he ground out, his face filled with need. “The feel of your sweet
pussy clenching around me…Gods, Rebecca, I want this to last but I cannot hold
out much longer.”

“I
feel the same way, Brother,” Far said, his deep voice strained. “Feeling our
lady’s pleasure is pushing me to the brink.”

“Then…then
finish,” Becca told them, moaning as they pulled out and thrust back into her
in tandem. “Fill me up, boys. I…I want you to.”

Her
invitation to let go seemed to be all Truth and Far needed. With a low groan
from Far and a muttered curse from Truth, she felt the two of them surge up
into her with a final, deep thrust. And then both thick shafts were pulsing
within her, filling her with their hot seed, finding the completion both men
needed so badly.

With
a cry of total surrender, Becca felt herself coming to completion one last time
herself.

And
as she did, she felt something
change
within her.

There
was an internal shifting—not in her body but in her mind. Becca didn’t know
what it was and she couldn’t put her finger on it but she felt
different
somehow.

Changed
.

Don’t
be silly,
she told herself uneasily.
How could you possibly be changed
just from…from doing what you just did? Everything is fine and now maybe you can
project a door and get out of here. So just chill out, Becca.

She
was still trying to catch her breath—they all were—and there was silence except
for their heavy breathing. Suddenly Truth spoke.

“What
is happening? Why do I feel so strange. So…different?”

“I
feel it too,” Far murmured. “I feel…complete.” He put a hand to his chest and
looked at Truth. “It’s almost like…”

“Like
an emptiness inside has been filled.” The dark twin looked at him in wonder. “I
feel it too, brother. And…I feel your joy in it.” He frowned. “How can I feel
that?”

“I
don’t know but I feel guilt coming from Becca,” Far continued as Becca turned
her head to look at him. “And maybe…some fear?”

“I
feel that too,” Truth said, frowning. But also…hopefulness. A hope that is not
my own.” He looked at Far. “Is it you, Brother? Are you hoping that now we have
shared Rebecca more fully I will come to the conclusion that the three of us
should be together forever?”

“The
thought
did
cross my mind,” Far admitted. “But how did you know that?
How can you feel my emotions? Did the pleasure we shared change us somehow?”

“If
it did then it changed me too. How are we doing this?” Becca was beginning to
feel frightened. “I don’t understand. I know that when the two of you get
closer together you’re supposed to be able to pick up on each other's emotions
and physical sensations. But why am
I
feeling what the two of you are
feeling too?”

“I
don’t know.” Far stroked her hair.

“Does
it distress you?” Truth sounded worried and more than that, she could
feel
his
worry for her as well as Far’s desire to comfort her.

In
fact, she could feel
everything
—the hopefulness, joy, uncertainty… A
torrent of emotions was flooding over her—washing through her like a river.
Becca felt like a glass that had been poured too full and was about to
overflow. Despite the mostly positive feelings, it was an overwhelming
experience to suddenly be filled with feelings that weren’t her own.

“I…I
don’t understand,” she said, her voice slightly choked. “What is this and
how…how do we make it stop?”

“You
don’t.”

The
new voice coming from the mist made all three of them jump. Becca felt a surge
of guilt and panic that anyone else might see her like this—still doubly
impaled by her men. Truth and Far obviously sensed her feelings—they leaned
inward instinctively, covering her nakedness from the intruder. Becca felt
protected in the nest made by their bodies but she was still freaking out.

“Who
spoke?” Truth demanded, scanning the swirling gray mist that surrounded the
bed. “Show yourself!”

“With
pleasure, my dear Truth.” Suddenly the small, rotund form of Vashtar appeared
before them. “Congratulations,” he said, smiling widely and blinking with all
three eyes. “The fact that you’re feeling each other's emotions proves you’ve
formed a bond—not a full one, of course, but enough of a bond to invoke the
OneMind—the unity all triumvirates strive to achieve.”

Becca
felt another surge of panic. “What—you mean like a partial bond? Isn’t that
supposed to be bad?” she asked, trying frantically to remember what Kat has
said about it.

“And
how is it even possible for us to feel emotions like this?” Truth demanded. “It
is not like we actually
did
…what we just did. We…we were in the
Mindscape.”

“Exactly!”
Becca grasped the idea eagerly. “The Mindscape. So we didn’t really do anything
to form any kind of a bond because we’re still just floating in the slime
tanks. None of this counts.”

“Oh,
it counts, my dear,” Vashtar said gravely. “And the bond you have formed is
very real. It is the Mindscape which holds no basis in reality.”

“What?
What do you mean?” Truth demanded.

“He
means that he’s been manipulating us from the start,” Far said, his voice quiet
and deadly. He glared at Vashtar. “Isn’t that right?”

“I’m
afraid so, my dear Far.” The alien’s third eye blinked slowly. “I’ve been
controlling your thoughts for hours—your thoughts but
not
your actions.
Those
you are entirely responsible for yourselves.”

“Mother
of God,” Becca whispered as his words began to sink in. “You mean to say that
our physical bodies are
not
in tanks filled with nutrient slime
somewhere down on the surface of Orthanx?”

“Of
course not!” Vashtar laughed as though it was an excellent joke. “Your bodies
are where they have always been—here, aboard your ship.”

Suddenly
the gray mist around them cleared, showing the main sleeping cabin aboard the
shuttle craft. Becca had only explored it briefly when she first came aboard
but she recognized the large bed, made for Twin Kindred, which was covered in a
blue blanket they were currently sitting on, as well as the blank silver walls
of the cabin. Then her eyes fell on the half empty bottle of bonding fruit
juice beside the large bed and she had to bite back a gasp.

“We’ve
been here the whole time?” she asked, her voice cracking on the last word. “But…but
how…?”

“The
power surge we experienced when we first made orbit around Orthanx,” Truth
said.

“Exactly.”
Vashtar nodded. “Very good, Truth.
That
was when I took control and
began manipulating your perceptions. You never actually came down to the surface
of the planet or entered the underground holding center or climbed into the
slime tanks to enter the Mindscape at all. I simply gave you the
illusion
that you did. In reality, you have been here, aboard your ship, this entire
time.”

“We’ve
been
here
.” Becca ran a hand distractedly through her hair. “And that
means we actually did…did
this.”
She gestured to the way she was still
entwined with both Truth and Far.

Vashtar
nodded. “Yes, my dear. You did.”

Becca
shook her head. “No—that can’t be.
No.”

Suddenly
the strain was too much. Becca stood quickly, freeing herself from both men. It
was surprisingly easy as both of them had gone soft shortly after realizing
they could all somehow feel each other's emotions. Becca supposed she had an
explanation for that now—not that she cared. She was too focused on getting the
hell out of here.

Fleeing
the scene of the crime, are you, Becca?
whispered a mean little
voice in her head.
Doesn’t matter how far you run—you still can’t get away
with what you did.

But
even knowing that, Becca still couldn’t help running. She jumped off the bed,
trying to cover herself with both hands, and stumbled out of the room.

What
have we done?
she asked herself as she ran blindly to the other small
sleeping cabin and shut herself in.
Mother of God, what have we done?

Chapter Thirty-three

“Becca?”
The knocking on the door was getting louder and more insistent. “Becca? Could
you please come out?” Far called.

“We
are worried about you, Rebecca,” she heard Truth say, his deep voice muffled by
the sliding metal panel. “We need to talk about this—all of us.”

“Who
does ‘all’ mean exactly?” Becca demanded. “Just the three of us or are we
including that creepy, lying, three-eyed alien too?” Her emotions had run the
gamut from disbelief to guilt to fear and now to anger. They had been
manipulated,
damn it! Becca was sure she would never have gone so far if she had known
what they were doing was real. She would never have let Far and Truth…

Images
of the three of them locked together, the low murmur of her men’s voices and
the warm touch of their hands on her skin suddenly invaded her mind. Becca
tried to push the memories away but it was hard. Her first (and only, she
promised herself) foray into kinky ménage a trois sex territory seemed to be all
she could think about.

“Vashtar
has agreed to stay in the other part of the ship until you’re ready to see
him,” Far said, breaking into her guilty fantasies. “He realizes that you might
be angry at him—”

“Angry?
Angry?”
Becca pulled the big blue robe she’d found in the storage unit
of the small cabin close around her and slid open the door. “Angry doesn’t
begin
to cover it. I’m…I’m…”

“Enraged,”
Truth finished for her dryly. “Yes, we can tell. Far and I can both feel your
emotions, remember?”

“Yes,
I remember, just like I can feel yours.” Becca frowned. “And I was going to say
‘pissed off’ or ‘mad enough to spit nails.’”

The
dark twin looked mystified. “Why would being angry enable you to expectorate
building materials?”

“It’s
just an expression.” Becca waved a hand in the air. “It means…well, it means
enraged. So I guess that works.” She looked at Truth more closely. “Speaking of
emotions, why aren’t I feeling any anger from
you?”

It
was strange—she would have expected the dark twin to be even angrier than she
was at the way they had all been duped and manipulated—not to mention the fact
that he had been tricked into breaking nearly every taboo he’d ever been raised
with. But instead of fury, she felt only a low hum of contentment coming from
him.

“Truth
and I have come to an understanding,” Far said. Becca focused on the light twin
and found that the same feeling of contentment—of
rightness
—was also
coming from him.

“What
kind
of understanding?” she demanded. “What’s going on with you two?”

Truth
shrugged. “We are together. And it is good.”

“Huh?”
Becca shook her head. “Run that by me again? What exactly does ‘together’
mean?”

“It
means our bond—the one the Goddess wanted us to form—has finally formed,” Far
said. “Always before when we were near each other, there was a feeling of being
disjointed—of being…” He shook his head. “I can’t even think how to put it.”

“As
though we were two gears in the same machine that were supposed to mesh but
didn’t quite fit together?” Truth suggested.

“Yes—like
that!” Far smiled at his twin. “We were grinding against each other, jamming
the mechanism instead of meshing smoothly.”

“Okay,
I think I get it.” Becca felt her cheeks getting hot. All this talk of
grinding
and
jamming
and
meshing
made her remember what the three of them
had done together all over again.

“It
was irritating. Frustrating—especially for me, because I knew we
should
fit
together and we didn’t,” Far said.

“While
I
was irritated because I felt my brother’s presence as something out of
place that couldn’t be put right.” Truth looked at her seriously. “But
you
put
it right, Rebecca. We think it was sharing you in such an intimate way that
finally healed our bond
.
For which we thank you.”

“Oh,
I…uh…” Becca didn’t know what to say. “You’re, uh, welcome I guess.”

“I
have never felt such a sense of rightness. Of
wholeness,”
Truth
continued. “It is as though Far is what I’ve been missing my entire life
without knowing it.”

“The
Twin bond is too strong to deny,” Far said quietly. “I had a hole in my heart
cut exactly to your shape as well, Brother.” He held out an arm to Truth. “That
emptiness is filled now.”

Truth
looked at his brother’s offered arm but instead of clasping it in a warrior’s
shake, he shook his head.

Far
frowned. “You will not clasp with me? I thought that we were done avoiding each
other’s touch.”

“We
are.” Truth cleared his throat and his cheeks went dull red. “Apologies, I do
not know exactly how to say this but I want to…to hug you.”

Far’s
eyes widened and he reached for his twin.

“Of
course I will hug you, Brother,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion.
“Gladly.” He pulled Truth into a warm embrace and the dark twin hugged back in
a way that was both clumsy and eager.

Despite
her confusion at the complete about face Truth had apparently done, Becca
couldn’t help the lump that rose in her throat as she watched the brothers
together. Both of them had lived such lonely, isolated lives, growing up in
loveless homes where they were outsiders—unwanted. Now they had both found
their other half—the part that made them whole. It was beautiful to watch, so
beautiful it nearly brought tears to her eyes.

This
is what I wanted—what I swore to do,
she found herself thinking.
To bring
them together, no matter what it took. Maybe…maybe what we did wasn’t so bad
after all. At least it finally healed their Twin bond.

She
felt the overwhelming guilt that had caused her to flee the “scene of the
crime” easing, just a little. And with it, some of her anger left too. After
all, how could she stay mad when her two guys were hugging it out right in
front of her?

“Becca?”
she looked up and realized that Far was beckoning to her. “Will you join us?”

“Yes,
Rebecca.” Truth held out an arm as well. “You brought us together. You belong
between us.”

“I…um…”
Becca hesitated, not because she didn’t
want
to join their embrace but
because she was afraid to.

She
wasn’t
quite
as upset as she had been over their sexual encounter but
that didn’t mean she thought they should repeat it either. Looking at their
open arms, she couldn't help thinking of what had happened the last time she
was between them. And though the many orgasms she’d had ought to have made her
immune to lust, at least for a little while, she found that the exact opposite
was true.

Just
looking at the two muscular bodies of her men, seeing the caring shining in
their eyes and feeling the love and longing coming from each of them directed
at her was making her want them. Not to mention the fact that they were making
that delicious, tempting scent again—the one they always made when they were in
close proximity to each other.

Mother
of God, how she wanted to join them! To let herself melt into the warm comfort
of their arms and feel how much they loved her. But common sense held her back.
She could practically
feel
the sexual electricity jumping off of them
and she wasn’t looking to get electrocuted.

Electrocuted?
Don’t you mean impaled?
whispered a judgmental little voice in her
head.
Either way, you know it isn’t right. You’ll be punished for this,
Becca. Just wait and see.

“Becca?”
Far asked again.

“I’d…better
not.” She crossed her arms tightly over her chest to keep from reaching for him
and Truth. “I can’t…I don’t think I can trust myself right now,” she admitted
in a low voice.

Truth
frowned. “She fears our closeness—I can feel it. Why?”

“Because
she fears her own desires.”

The
voice, which was right beside her, made Becca jump.

“Oh!”
Putting a hand to her pounding heart, she turned to see Vashtar standing there.

“Hello,
my dear.” He smiled at her. “I hope you’ll forgive my intrusion but I have
limited time and resources. I cannot wait forever for you to get over your
anger with me.”

“I…what
do you want?” Becca pulled her robe even closer together. “Why did you bring us
here and make us do…what we did?”

“I
did not
make
you do anything. You came up with the idea to merge your
bodies all on your own,” Vashtar reminded her gravely. “In fact, I believe it
was
you,
my dear Becca, who first submitted the idea.”

“I…you…”
Becca felt her whole face getting hot. “I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t
threatened us with being dissolved in the slime! How else were we supposed to
pull together and get out of there?”

“There
was no other way—you did exactly what you were meant to do,” the little man
said. “A sexual merger was the only way to heal your triumvirate and initiate
the three-way unity that my people call the OneMind.”

“But
why?”
Becca persisted. “Why trick us by promising a solution to our
problem just to get us out here and play Interstellar Cupid? It doesn’t make
sense.”

“It
makes perfect sense if you look at it from my point of view,” Vashtar said
mildly. “What I told you about my society being based on threes was true. And
what I showed you of the holding tanks and the nutrient slime…”

“Also
true?” Truth raised an eyebrow at him.

The
little man nodded. “Even the Mindscape was based in reality. Though you never
actually entered it, it
was
the way that most of my people chose to
survive when Orthanx was flung out of orbit.”

“You
said
was,”
Far said quietly. “Is it no more?”

“It
is…significantly less populated now than it was when we first entered our
tanks. In fact…I am the last.” A single tear slipped from Vashtar’s ruby red
third eye. “I get lonely, my dear,” he said earnestly to Becca. “And since the
eye gives me the ability to project my consciousness, the only pleasure I have
left is in bringing people together.”

“Seriously?”
Becca said blankly. “So you really did bring us out here to play matchmaker?”

Vashtar
nodded proudly. “And I succeeded. Your case was incredibly complicated but I
knew that if I could allow you to share your memories, I could draw the three
of you together.”

“Well,
it certainly worked,” Truth said dryly. “Although what you put us through was
so real we had doubts as to whether they were memories or if we had somehow
stepped back in time.”

“Back
in time? Oh, my no. That would be quite beyond my power!” Vashtar protested,
but Becca couldn’t help noticing that his third eye was blinking very slowly,
almost like someone nodding up and down. The dichotomy gave her a headache
somehow and she tried not to look at it.

“Well
either way, you really put us through some awful things,” she said sharply.
“Things none of us wanted to relive.”

“You
had
to see those things, my dear,” the little man said gently. “You had
to empathize with each other. Feeling the pain of the others brought you
closer.”

“It
did,” Far said, nodding. “Though Becca is right—it was agonizing to go through
the worst experiences of our lives all over again.”

“I
would pay the price again if there was no other way—for myself, I mean,” Truth
said. “I wouldn’t wish it on Far or Becca. But to me, the cost was cheap
considering what I gained.”

“I’m
glad you feel that way, Truth.” Vashtar nodded gravely. “It was you I worried
about the most. But I knew if you could be brought into harmony with your
brother you would not retreat.” He looked at Becca. “And I knew that
you
were
the only one who could bring these two into harmony, my dear.”

Becca
didn’t know what to say. “I
wanted
to bring them together I just…I never
thought…” She cleared her throat. “I guess I imagined doing it some…some other
way.”

“You
brought them together in the only way possible,” Vashtar assured her. “Nothing
short of giving yourself to both of them at once would have healed their bond.”

“I
am grateful for your healing, Becca” Far said quietly. “You did what I thought
was impossible—you brought my brother back to me.” He looked at Vashtar. “I
should be angry that you manipulated us but…I can’t be. Not with this result.”

“Yes,
well Vashtar might have gotten the two of you back where you belong, but he
still
didn’t
do was what he promised.” Becca was still irritated by how
neatly they’d all been maneuvered and it was even more aggravating that neither
Far nor Truth seemed very upset about it.

“How
so, my dear?” Vashtar asked, raising an eyebrow—the one above his third eye—at
her.