Their Rebel Mate [Helan Universe 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (11 page)

The relief that shot through him was almost comical. At least it made Thantos lose that haunted look and smile a little. “Can I ask what new announcement I need to draft?”

R’oan’s voice reflected his enthusiasm, even though they were only on audio. “Our Chief of Communications has just told me that his female mate has conceived.”

Oh gods, what a miracle. This was one announcement that he couldn’t wait to give. Now no one, not even the woman in the other room, could deny that humans were compatible with Helans. “That’s wonderful news, Consort.”

“Oh, it gets better.” R’oan’s voice actually went up an octave with his excitement. “D’Arik has sent a message. Apparently, Dr. Sathon has confirmed that Queen Jacy is expecting a set of twins. Both girls.”

Kerek almost fell off his chair at the news, and Thantos’s sharp intake of breath echoed in his ears. Girls. The Helan species finally had a real hope of survival.

The sonic shower was the absolute coolest thing she’d ever seen. Kim had had to stop herself from flinching when the beam crept closer to her toes, but she’d barely felt anything except a slight vibration. The sensation was not altogether remarkable, and she certainly would have felt fresher and more relaxed if she’d been able to shower with running water, but the sonic shower was lightning-fast, and her hair had come out clean and shiny, without even getting damp.

She’d wrapped a towel around her chest, right under her arms, even though there was no moisture on her skin at all. Grimacing at her image in the mirror, she leaned forward and tried her best to finger comb her hair into submission.

When her hair was as neat as it was going to get without a comb, she took a deep breath and walked into the bedroom. There, against the far wall, was a huge rack of clothing, just as Kerek had promised.

God, they were all dresses made of silks, satins, velvets and any other luxurious material she could name. Some materials she couldn’t even identify. She fingered one made of a lightweight jewel green, marvelling over the color. It matched Thantos’s eyes exactly.

The door slid open, and the man himself walked in, smiling apologetically when he saw her. “I’m sorry,
lira
. I would have given you some privacy to get dressed, but I really need to get dressed myself if I’m going to make my lecture on time this afternoon.”

He opened the closet door and extracted a pair of black pants and a slate-gray tunic-like shirt. The color should have washed him out, but she could already tell he would look gorgeous.

Thantos dropped the towel around his waist and bent over to shimmy on the tight pants, affording her a spectacular view of his naked backside. He turned around to grab his shirt and smiled when he caught her stare, causing her to blush. Crap. She was probably as red as a fire truck right about now.

Thantos chuckled, the rich, low sound sending shivers down her spine. “Don’t be embarrassed. I just forget how modest most humans are. As a rule, we Helans are quite comfortable in our skin.”

The shirt went on next, followed by a pair of socks and a pair of boots. Kim watched in fascination as Thantos quickly began to weave small braids at his temples. The Consort Varin had had the same braids, with little bells attached to the bottom when the Helans had first made contact with Earth. “What are the braids for?”

“Historically, they were to keep hair out of the eyes during battle,” Thantos explained. “The more braids, the higher the male’s rank in the military. I’m not a warrior by any stretch of the imagination, but my rank as Ambassador gives me the right to wear the braids.”

She nodded and played with the ends of her hair, cursing herself when she caught the nervous habit. “Is Kerek going to the surface with you?” She was torn about whether she wanted Kerek to be going or not. On the one hand, she didn’t want Thantos to go alone. On the other, she didn’t want Kerek to suffer from the shuttle trips again.

Thantos smiled and shook his head. “No. He’s needed here on board, so Consort R’oan has assigned me a couple of bodyguards while I’m on the surface. Plus, I’m going to see if I can arrange for the rest of my lectures to be done via satellite so that I don’t have to leave the ship quite as often. Because, just like you,
lira
, I don’t want Kerek to suffer any more than he has to.”

Lira
. They had both been calling her that since they’d first met. Now that she had the translator, she knew that the word meant “dear one.”

Before she could puzzle out the reason behind the fact that the two of them were referring to her by an endearment, Thantos bent down so that he could look her in the eye. “Don’t think too hard, Kim. We’ll talk when I get back if you still have any questions. Okay?” He kissed her forehead and left.

Soft words floated back to her, the men’s low voices arousing and soothing all at once. “You will be careful,” Kerek was saying. “And you will come back to me at the end of the day, ready for me.”

She crept over to the bedroom door and peeked around the opening. Kerek and Thantos were standing chest to chest, their bodies touching from thigh to shoulder. Thantos had his thumbs hooked into the waistband of Kerek’s pants, and Kerek had one hand cupped around Thantos’s cheek and the other tangled in his hair.

“Of course I’ll be safe. And I already can’t wait to be back home.”

Kerek nodded once and slammed his mouth down on Thantos’s. The pair of them groaned and ate at each other’s mouths until Thantos was shifting his hips.

The sensations that were wracking Kim’s body had nothing to do with simply watching their display. Nope, she could feel a hard bulge against her stomach, the eager anticipation, the soft slide of fingers through her hair, and the silken lips against her own, despite the fact that she was standing all by herself.

Shit, there really was something to this mating bond stuff. She was starting to see why the women had looked so happy. She couldn’t begin to imagine feeling the pleasure of not one but two men at the same time as they felt your pleasure. It was a wonder that any of them actually left their rooms.

Thantos’s reluctance at pulling away from his mate was nearly overwhelming, and Kim’s eyes filled with tears. The physical distance between the two men would take its toll on Thantos.

Finally, Thantos smiled weakly and straightened his spine with determination. “My guards will be waiting for me in the shuttle bay. I need to go. Have fun drafting your announcement.”

Kerek grinned and nodded as Thantos walked out the door.

What announcement?

“I see you, Kim. You don’t have to hide, you know. You can come out.”

She covered her embarrassment at being caught spying by sauntering out, chin held high. Instead of looking impressed, Kerek smirked. “You didn’t like any of the clothes,
lira
?”

Crap. She’d actually forgotten to get dressed. Worse, somewhere along the way, probably when the sensations of Thantos and Kerek making out started to invade her body, she’d dropped the sheet. It all resulted in her standing naked as the day she was born in front of Kerek.

The blush that crept up her chest to her cheeks was impossible to stop, but Thantos had said Helans didn’t have a problem with nudity. Raising her right eyebrow despite her probably flaming cheeks, she crossed her arms over her breasts in an aggressive stance and cocked one hip. “What if I didn’t like any of the dresses?”

Kerek crossed the few feet to her, looming over her with a sensual smile. “I find I quite like you nude,
lira
. You can stay just like this, should you feel the need.”

God, why was the idea of lounging around naked for him so damn arousing? Tiny goose bumps rose all along her body, and her nipples tightened almost painfully, and it was impossible to pretend the reaction was because she was cold. Not when her pussy was already wet and clenching.

Kerek reached out and feathered one finger down her breastbone, dipping it into her belly button and stopping right at the very top of her mound. He ruffled her neatly trimmed curls but never let his finger stray even farther down. “Be careful, Kim. Just because I haven’t bonded with you doesn’t mean I don’t desire you. And you will find that I’m not as…accommodating…as our Thantos.”

Holy crap, her clit was standing at attention, straining toward him, practically begging for that finger to drift down and give it a good, firm stroke. That was probably all she needed to explode anyway.

Kerek stepped back, putting a good six inches between them. “I need to work, though. Do both of us a favor and put something on before I decide that burying myself in your luscious little body is far more interesting than doing my job.”

She should have been insulted, but the idea that she affected him so strongly filled her with pride. Spinning on her heel, she walked back to the bedroom, swinging her hips for all she was worth, surprised when they didn’t dislocate. Kerek’s soft groan was all she needed to smile.

She stared at all the clothes and settled on the green number. It slid silkily over her body, leaving her feeling like a sex goddess. Of course, there were no underwear or bras in sight, and everyone who looked would be able to see her nipples pressing against the material, but hell, they were so hard, they’d probably poke right through a bra anyway.

By the time she was dressed, Kerek had sat down at his desk. The vidscreen was on, and he was typing away frantically. “Hungry?” he asked without looking up.

Her stomach growled loudly, saving her from having to answer.

He smiled and stopped typing long enough to gesture to the table behind her. “There is a selection of fruit, and the chef sent down a bowl of
majtai
. If you’d like anything else, we can go over to the mess hall, but I am due on the bridge in a little less than half an hour.”

Mouth watering, she picked up the bowl of the creamy Helan porridge, selected a few delicious looking berries, and carried it all over to the small couch next to Kerek’s desk. “This is great. What are you working on?” She popped one of the berries in her mouth and moaned at the sweet taste. Shit, these things were better than candy.

Kerek groaned again and shot her a heated look before clearing his throat. “We got some good news a few hours ago. Queen Jacy is expecting twin girls.”

Kim grinned. Even she understood the significance of that. “That’s awesome.”

“It is, but it gets better. There is another confirmed pregnancy, right here on this ship actually.” Kerek smiled and began typing away.

Well, there went one of her key arguments against Earth’s agreement with Helan. It seemed that Jacy’s pregnancy wasn’t a fluke after all.

Surprise raced through her as she ate quietly. She hadn’t thought about the rebellion she’d been spearheading on Earth once since coming aboard. Not that there had been much time to do anything other than absorb everything that had happened in the last couple of days, but still.

“Tell me the truth, Kerek. How bad is the crisis on Helan?”

He closed his vidscreen and pushed his chair back from the desk. “I’m not a scientist or a mathematician, but there are several theories floating around that say we have another eighty years or so before we die out. Sathon feels that it’s even lower than that, and I’m inclined to believe him.”

Wow, that was bad. “If this works, will it be enough to save your population?”

Kerek smiled at her, apparently pleased she was asking these questions. Then again, maybe he was hoping that she would encourage human females to sign the registry instead of avoiding it. “It depends on a lot of factors actually. The number of females to sign the registry and who are taken to mate. The number of children the women end up having. Even the number of female children that are born. At least Queen Jacy has proved that at least some males still produce the female gene.”

She dipped her finger into the
majtai
and sucked the mixture off thoughtfully. “How did things get so bad?”

“It’s kind of complicated. See, we’ve always bonded with our mates, though historically, ménage relationships were rare. As males, the easiest way to protect our female mates was to be the strongest male possible, and so bearing the strongest males became imperative. Think of it as selectively breeding positive traits. Eventually, of course, our ancestors’ incessant attempts to breed the strongest males affected our women, too, eventually rendering it impossible to for them to support a female fetus.”

Before she could comment, Kerek glanced at the strange clock on the wall. “It’s time for me to go to the bridge,
lira
. I’m on duty there for the next six hours or so. The ship’s communications officer is mated to the newly pregnant woman, and apparently, he wants to take the day off to celebrate with his family, so I agreed to step in. Feel free to wander the ship. Just please, don’t stir up any trouble. King Jaron and Consort R’oan took a risk bringing you on board with the other women, and I don’t want to prove their risk a bad one.”

Any other time she would have taken offense at the implication that she didn’t know how to behave, but she let it slide this time. She had gone out of her way to make things difficult for them on Earth, so she really couldn’t blame him. “I promise to be good,” she said, crossing her heart and smiling at his confusion.

He shook his head but smiled. “Okay. Most of the males will either be sleeping or on duty, but you’ll see plenty of women around. Have a good day.”

“You, too,” she said, standing on tiptoe and tugging him down to kiss his cheek.

He pulled away and placed his hand over his cheek, looking as surprised by her kiss as she felt. That slightly bemused look was still on his face when he left.

She wandered over to the window and looked out at the stars. Everything was so bright up here, but most of the stars still seemed so far away. There was one thing that she could see in detail, and that would be Earth. She suspected she’d never get enough of the view on the green-and-blue ball. Unfortunately, it seemed that the room she, Kerek, and Thantos had been assigned did not come with a planetary view.