The Melier: Home World (Women of Dor Nye Book 2) (21 page)

Chapter 15

Lucia paced the main cavern while she waited for her mates to arrive. The pain in her leg was but a soreness, as whatever ointment the queen had stuffed into the grazed wound seemed to numb the area it touched. She cleaned it each day and the queen had reapplied the salve; it had become a wordless routine, and no matter how weird it was, she was thankful.

All this time, I just had to be locked in a cave with the queen so she’d be civil.

Why didn’t you think of this two months ago?

Right?

While the thought gave Lu a moderate amount of amusement, she knew the queen had been in the same boat as her. They both thought the people they loved were dead for a time, until one by one they caught sight of them via the comm vids.

Even once they saw they were alive, the possibility they’d be killed by the many Treps that roamed the palace was a constant worry. It sat like a boulder in her chest, just itching to drop through her body and devastate her being. Even now, that boulder was teetering precariously as she waited and waited for the princes to arrive.

Gi’Moy had taken over the mic for a time, speaking to Val’Koy and telling him their location. She said it in a way that only the family knew just in case the Treps were in fact monitoring the comms. But Lucia didn’t know how difficult it would be for the brothers to get to the gardens or past them. She wasn’t even sure how they had gone undetected for this long.

The hours passed and the soreness in her leg had turned worse with all the pacing. Even the best numbing agents couldn’t compensate for self-inflicted abuse. Lucia now sat in a chair after she fed Lenny and begrudgingly ate more tasteless soup.

The queen was calm, poised, and she wondered how many times Gi’Moy had been in situations like this one. She previously said she hadn’t been to this cavern since she was a child, so that made Lucia think an invasion like this hadn’t happened in a long time. Or at least, not so quickly that the royal family couldn’t get to a safe room within the palace instead of outside of it.

She was just happy she would never be queen. She didn’t think she could deal with wars, and the welfare of an entire planet. Just the thought made her feel exhausted and she felt a new respect blossoming for Gi’Moy. Even as the disturbing facts about her pairing with the king niggled at the back of her mind, she tried to remember it was their
culture
. She may believe it was wrong, but maybe if she had been raised on Melierun she wouldn’t view it that way.

Still fucked up.

Mhmm.

Her amber gaze swiveled along the rippled ceiling of the cavern, as it had a million times over the last four days when she wasn’t flipping through vids. A sigh slipped past her lips and then MoMo began chuffing incessantly.

Lucia and Gi’Moy went still and looked at each other, their ears straining to pick up any noise. Well, her human ears were, anyway. MoMo went a little nuts, chuffing and growling at the door which scared her into thinking maybe the Treps had actually found them.

“How did that mangy furball find them before us?” Val’Koy’s hushed, annoyed voice muffled through the door before Lucia heard a familiar grunt from none other than Gi’Ren.

She shot to her feet, wincing at her leg as she hobbled toward the door just as it slid up. Immediately Soren and Val’Zun slipped through the passage and were making their way to her.

Lucia felt her throat closing over and her sinuses stinging with that ugly feeling one got when they were trying to not let their emotions overtake them. She really was hopeless to try and stop it, because as soon as they both dropped to their knees before her, a lone sob ripped from her lungs.

Her arms latched around both of their necks as she hugged them close to her, altering between the sides of their faces as she continuously pecked kisses anywhere her lips would land on their skin.

“I thought the worst!” she sobbed, and continued pecking in between her words. Many hands moved about her body, rubbing and soothing. She hadn’t realize how much she missed that; their need to always touch and comfort her. Soren was the first to pull back, his black eyes boring into hers.

“Why did you run, Loo-Sha?” his voice was a mixture of anger, hurt, and confusion. “Did you not trust us to protect you?”

Lucia immediately felt a wash of guilt. It really had seemed that way, now that she thought about it. She’d just turned and ran thinking only of her fear of the Treps and protecting Lenny. But if she had never run, Gi’Moy might also be dead by now. An entire line of ‘what-ifs’ could be strung forth on what would’ve happened if she had or hadn’t run.

“I don’t know,” she said lamely and rubbed his cheek before kissing it and then doing the same to Val’Zun. She sighed, relieved they were safe now, and
with
her. “I was afraid and all I could think of was not letting them get Lenny.” Lu realized how cowardly that sounded, but she had been unarmed and had no idea where the safe rooms were in the palace. When she ran she really hadn’t even thought of where she was going. Ending up near the gardens was just sheer luck.

“Do not ever run again,” Val’Zun told her, a measure of desperation in his voice. His tail curled around her good leg protectively while Soren’s rubbed under her chin.

She sighed and pulled them back into her embrace, savoring their heat, and the mingling scents of their cleansed skin.

“What took you so long to get here?” she mumbled, not letting go of them.

“We had to wait for nightfall,” Gi’Ren supplied.

“This is all very touching, but,” Val’Koy sighed from the piece of furniture he was now lounging on, “how did you get through the Trepnils shield?”

Soren rumbled a chuckle and Lucia nearly purred as the soft vibrations tickled through her body. She exhaled softly.

I missed this.

“Well you see,” she grinned, not letting go of her mates or bothering to look at Val’Koy as she spoke. “Before I met your brother, I had a
very
exciting job.”

****

Later that evening, after another meal of chewy rations and water, Lucia kissed Lenny’s forehead as she slept on a cushion next to Gi’Ren’s slumbering form. He had hogged her most of the evening, taking turns with Soren and Val’Zun, visiting and holding her. She decided she would let them both continue sleeping as she made her way to one of the bedrooms she had claimed upon her arrival days ago.

She could hear the sound of a shower running, but noticed Val’Zun was lying on the bed, breathing evenly. She slowed, quieting her movements after the door closed, as she didn’t want to disturb his rest. He was in a pair of sleep pants he’d found in the closet, most likely belonging to a member of his family from when his mother was a child, since that’s the last time anyone had been in the cave. Just as her sleep gown had been.

The lean expanse of his chest was exposed, unmarred by nipples or a belly button, and an involuntary sigh slipped past her lips before she sucked them in, biting down on the flesh to stop any further sound.

“Come here, Loo-Sha,” Zun said without opening his eyes. Her bare feet carried her to him before her mind thought to even register that she
could
say no. Not that she wanted to but her body just made the decision for her of its own volition.

She crawled across the large bed with its plain white sheets that were a little rough on her skin, and she was careful not to jostle her wounded leg very much, since it was still sore from all the pacing earlier. When she came upon Zun, he gently pulled her onto his chest so she was looking down at him.

“What happened to your leg?” he whispered.

She noticed his voice was often low whenever it was just the two of them. It reminded her of how different he now was to the cold and frightening version of him she’d watched on the vids the past couple days. His fingers pushed the hem of her sleep gown up over her thigh, and his fingers lightly grazed the gauze over the aching flesh.

“A Trep shot at me,” she whispered back, her lips kissing his chin when she saw his pupils begin to dilate. She’d seen enough of his black eyes for two days; she wanted the yellow right now.

When her fingers glided along his jaw and neck, rubbing and scratching at the glossy scales, she got her wish. Little by little, his pupils shrunk back to rounded diamonds and the rich yellow of his eyes could be seen clearly. Her lips curved up into a small smile.

“I’m alright,” Lucia reassured him. “Especially now that I have you and Soren back.” When he didn’t say anything further, instead watching her with a prying intensity as if he was trying to peer down into her soul, she leaned in to kiss him on his warm, thin lips. “Are you alright?”

A pair of Val’Zun’s hands moved further up her gown, gliding over the backs of her thighs and cupping the rounded globes of her bum. Lucia giggled and kissed a corner of his mouth.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she whispered down at him. She felt the hard swell of him against the inside of her knee and watched as the yellow of his eyes continued to dwindle and disappear, making her inwardly sigh and want it back again.

His upper pair of hands smoothed back her heavy curls that fell around her face, and then his knuckles brushed gently along the curve of her jaw. Lucia closed her eyes and leaned into his hand, reveling in his touch. It still surprised her how he could be soft when laying hands upon her, and yet devastating when his sights were set upon the enemy.

Val’Zun leaned up to kiss her plush lips with that same humble approach and restraint he tried so hard to practice around her. His lower hands massaged the flesh of her bottom and he whispered her name against her mouth, causing Lucia to open her legs and straddle his torso. She leaned up and he followed her, resting on two of his elbows while his other hands still cupped her ass.

“I need you,” he whispered, his breathing labored as he tried to move as little, and slowly, as possible. She knew he was still conditioning his discipline on how far he could trust himself with her in a physical way. Lucia could see it in every action near her when he was aroused. Things slowed down, he became reserved, and even more deliberate if that were possible. Though the last time they were together, he allowed himself to be more open, but she chalked it up to Soren being present. Maybe he felt as though Soren wouldn’t let him harm her if he did in fact, lose control.

It was okay though. She
now
understood on an entirely different level than their first time together.

Her hands rubbed up the textured ripples of his chest, and she watched as his head fell back on his shoulders just at that innocent touch. His body warmed further under her hands, and she could feel his heart pounding against the cage of his bones beneath the skin and muscle. Again he composed himself and watched her with that consuming gaze of his. Lucia’s lips kissed along his strong collarbones, tasting the skin and grinning to herself when Zun started purring. Her teeth nipped at the flesh she was just kissing, making him tremor and purr harder.

“Loo-Sha,” he groaned and the timbre in his voice as he said her name in that way only he and Soren did, sent chills rolling down her spine, hitting her straight at her core. She gasped when the overpowering sensations made the walls of her pussy clench while her slippery arousal continued to leak from her body.

Val’Zun slowly lifted her gown from her body before settling back as he was. His devouring gaze ate up her naked flesh, and when it landed on her breasts she watched with him as her nipples hardened under the intense examination.

Lucia brought one of his kneading hands from her bottom and settled it on a breast, pressing into his palm. For a few long seconds he turned into a statue, not even breathing.

“Zun,” she whispered, watching him take a jagged breath and come back to life. She bit her bottom lip to keep from grinning and instead, leaned in to kiss his lips again. He groaned into her mouth and his fingers squeezed the mound of flesh gently, plucking the nipple and making her moan. Her hands ran over his skull and down to his neck, where she curled her fingernails against his skin and scales. His purr that had disappeared a moment ago burst forth again with renewed vigor.

His hand left the cheek of her ass momentarily as he undid the ties of his sleep pants and freed himself. She was still devouring his lips when she felt his hand return and his cock spring against the crack of her bum. Another moan slipped past her and then she was breaking the kiss and lifting her hips. The tip of his cock slid through her slippery slit, causing not only Val’Zun to tremor, but Lucia as well.

Her hips lowered just a little, letting the tip enter her warm, clenching channel. Lucia threw her head back on her shoulders while her fingernails dug into Zun’s chest. He sucked in a hiss of air but didn’t dare move.

“Loo-Sha,” he begged, letting her know he
needed
her to sink onto his cock and allow them both the pleasure she was postponing.

“Yes, Val’Zun?” she breathed, looking at him once again. Her hips shifted, letting the tip slip out of her cunt before sinking back down on the first inch. A snarl fell from his lips as he closed his eyes to suck up the sensations that were roving his body.

“Do not play games,” he pleaded.

Again she lifted off his cock and slipped back down.