The Stars For Valentine’s Day (The Journeyman's Way) (3 page)

She tensed, expecting more agony, but when they helped her sit up nothing hurt anymore.

“Wow, I could have used that thing a couple of years ago.” She smiled in relief.

Knight frowned. “You were hurt before? How?” He and Raven helped her off the table, and she swayed, still weaker. Both men wrapped an arm around her, supporting her.

“It was a long time ago. Let’s just say my taste in men is horrible. Weren’t we going to get me some clothes?” she asked.

Saber shook his head. “No, you will not need them on the ship, and your taste in men just got better. Who is this man-human who hurt you? We will find him and take care of him.”

She saw the deadly gleam in Saber’s eyes and knew he would, too.

“No, he’s already in one of our prisons for something else. He can’t hurt anyone now, but thank you for offering.” She curled her toes and gave a little shiver. “Can I have my slippers? Your floor is cold and hard.”

“These?” Raven lifted her big, red fluffy slippers and gave them to Knight. “We will have the floors in our quarters made softer, cozier for you.”

“Yes, those are what I need.” She reached for them, but Knight shook his head and knelt down beside her. She braced herself with her hands on his shoulders while he lifted each foot and placed it in the slipper. He ran his fingers up and down her leg, casting her a devilish glance.

Her nipples hardened and Shantel squirmed and took a step back, releasing her grip on Knight. She wobbled, but Saber was there to catch her. She trembled not believing what was happening. Her thighs became damp.

“It’s okay,” Raven whispered. “Your body was made for us, and it’s reacting like it should.” He circled her nipple with his finger. “Beautiful.”

Knight leaned closer and rubbed his cheek on her thigh right below her pussy. “Your scent of arousal draws us. I think we need to keep you excited all the time.” His gaze lifted to hers. “What do you think, Saber, Raven?” he asked but continued to stare at her. He slid his hand up her leg to cover her mound.

They had her trapped between the three of them, excited, but a little scared.

Saber reached from behind her and cupped her breasts. “I think you are right. I can’t wait to hear the noises she makes when her body explodes from our touch.” His voice dropped a few notches, awakening something deep inside her.

A little whimper escaped her as they touched and explored her body.

“I don’t know you,” she pleaded, not knowing if she begged for more or for them to leave her alone.

“But weren’t you thinking earlier of having another one-night stand? Like that one so, so long ago.” Raven nipped her ear.

A finger slid into her pussy, and her knees gave out, but they held her up. “We’ve got you, little human. Let go. Give yourself to us. We’ll show you what it’s like to be owned, cared for by three Journeymen.”

Knight rose. He kissed her mound with its hair. Even though Saber had fur on his skin, he hated body hair that kept her from his view. They would see it removed soon.

“I like having access to all of you, and this little hair is in my way. Come, Shantel. Let us show you the ship now.” Saber kissed her shoulder. “But know we will touch you often. Do you give yourself to us? Do you not feel the connection that grows between the four of us?” He bit down hard where her neck joined her shoulder. Soon she would have as many marks on her body as he and Raven did the first time Saber marked them.

She reached for him, but he pinned her arms at her sides.

“No, you will only touch when we allow it. Are you listening to your body, Shantel?” Knight slid his finger back inside her. “See the signs that you are to be with us? Your pussy quivers when we speak and releases its fluid for us.”

“But a woman’s body does that when any man plays with her,” she sassed back.

“No, little human. Tell me, have you ever been as wet as you are now? Can you see yourself with anyone else?” he growled.

She smiled thinking of one man who’d had her blood boiling, but jerked when Raven captured her chin with his fingers.

“That man you see in your head.” He shimmered and she blinked, but he suddenly resembled…someone else. She jerked away from them all.

“What the hell?” She trembled. “If it was you, why didn’t you stay? Why did you leave me?” She was pissed off, but the hurt came racing back and she swallowed it down. “I called and searched for you.” Knight glared at Raven. “When the hell did this happen?”

Raven sighed. “It was right after I was given the okay to join you. Before I could do that, her pain was so great, I had no choice but to go to her. I couldn’t leave her alone. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the fates pulled me back, away from her.” He shook his head and focused on Shantel. “I’m sorry, little one. All I wanted to do was help.”

She considered his words, reflecting on that time. “You were right. It was the lowest time in my life. I wanted to die, but you came along and made feel beautiful….” She grinned and stepped up to him. “Even then you called me beautiful. You saved me that night. Thank you.” She lifted up on her toes to reach him, but Raven was too tall.

Knight laughed and lifted her up high enough to wrap her arms around Raven’s neck. “Thank you,” she whispered again kissing Raven.

“See, it was Raven that your body listened to. No one else.” He kissed the back of her neck.

“The thought of someone else touching you is not a pleasant thought.” Raven lowered her to the floor. “Go on your sightseeing trip. I need to check on a few things.” He kissed the top of her head and nodded to the others then strode out.

Knight and Saber each took one of her hands and squeezed. Once more they proceeded to lead her through their temporary living quarters, the ship. Even though they showed her what things were there, the little human was very aware of them. The three of them rubbed up against her, caressed her every chance they got, showing her how much she needed them.

Knight watched her expression when they stepped into the main control room. She sucked in her breath and inched away from them, staring out at the stars. “We’re really in space?” Her voice held a trace of fear. They both moved to her side.

“It’s nothing to be afraid of. See over there to the right?” Knight pointed and she nodded. “That is your planet. We’re staying away from it till we hear from our supervisor.” Knight turned his chair around and sat down bringing her down onto his lap before he twirled in his seat. “Saber, call Bane and see what he wants us to do.”

Saber turned to the communication board.

“I have a life on Earth. I have friends and a job. Not to mention I had plans this week.” She squirmed on his lap as he turned to stare out at the stars. “Plus, we’re totally different. Are we even compatible?”

Knight had known the questions would come, and he was ready. “Yes we are different, but we are very compatible.” He rubbed his hard
voyflen
against her butt. “This has been hard since we found you. We have packed your belongings. They are in the back of the ship. I personally wrote a letter to your friend Zandra, telling her what I could. I also sent her the box you had made for her.” She sat forward and turned to glare at him.

“You had no right to do that. How did you know the box was for my friend? What if I had been married or been seeing someone? You can’t come into my life and tell me I’m going to be with you. In my world, this would be considered kidnapping.” She crossed her arms over her chest, which only lifted her breasts up showing them off.

He licked his lips.

“Stop it!” She jumped off his lap, glaring at him. “This is why I need clothes. You’re not listening to me. You’re staring at my boobs!” She stomped her foot, losing her slipper.

Saber leaned forward, and Knight knew he was about to correct their woman. How would she react? “Tell me something, Shantel. Do you think that
tribop
would have fled any of your human officers? Remember, he can materialize anywhere you are except here on the ship. Are you certain he’d let you live if we sent you back?”

Her bottom lip start to tremble and she clumsily dropped to sit on the floor, curled up to hide her nudity, her vulnerability. His heart ached for her. “Why? What did I do to draw this thing? He was going to eat me and not in a good way.” She hugged herself.

Before he could stand, Saber was up and scooping her up in his arms then took his seat again. “I’m sorry, Shantel. I didn’t mean to upset you, but we didn’t bring you here like this just because you are our woman. If there was no danger, we would have courted you like humans do, but we had no time. As for why you…I’m afraid he sought us out for some reason, a vendetta as Earth people would say. How he knew you were our woman we don’t know. Are we so bad you don’t want to be with us?” Saber wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly against his chest.

“Shantel, look at me please.” Knight turned his chair to face them. He leaned over and touched her chin, drawing her watery gaze. “Please don’t cry. Your tears hurt us inside here.” Knight covered the left side of his chest where his heart was. “We can be with no other female. You are our softer side in this family, I believe humans call it. Out there, we have no choice but to do our job. Destroy those who would have hurt you. If we could have given you time, we would have. I’m afraid our job is a little different from human officers. Once we are assigned a job we don’t leave it till it’s done, which could be years. That’s why this ship is our second home.” He leaned back and smiled. “But there is no reason we can’t give you a Valentine’s night like you dream of.”

Saber purred and rubbed his cheek against hers. “Oh, little human, we are going to have fun,” Saber said once more turning up the heat and drying her tears.

Gibberish broke the heated tension in Shantel. This had to be the navigation room. Two seats sat in front of the huge window that stared out to the stars and her planet. Lights lit up the dashboard below the window in front of the chairs.

A Syfygeek would be in his glory at all the weird things she noticed in the room. She almost wanted to reach over and start pushing buttons.

Saber picked her up, his fur soft on her skin as he placed her onto Knight’s lap then turned to the radio thing and spoke in the language they used when speaking to one another. Shantel jumped when something cold was placed on her skin.

“Hold still and allow the language instrument to connect to your thought process. It’s sort of like a little computer, but it’s also an organism that will grow with you.” Knight hugged her as the cold turned to hot. “It will only be a few more seconds. Then you’ll be able to understand Saber and our leader.”

She nodded. Sure enough, as the warmth faded, seconds later, Shantel could understand them. She almost wished she couldn’t. Her face heated and she glared at the machine that spoke.

“Bane, if you could see our little human’s face right now, you might be backing up. I believe she does not like hearing you talk about her pussy and if my
voyflen
will fit into her,” Saber teased. Her gaze flew to his. She refused to look below and draw more attention.

A low voice from the radio laughed and responded in kind.

“Not to worry, Bane. I’ll fit. You know our species has its ways. Back to business. We need an
alerassa
brought onto the planet. We don’t know if the
tribop
left any samples of
vatacore
on their world,” Saber stated as she worked on figuring out what a few of those were—perhaps English didn’t have translations for some of them.

Knight stroked her hair back from her face. “A
valacore
is the plant-like vine that bound you and scared you. It grows fast and will take over your planet if it’s not eradicated. We have special men or you would call them hazard units that clean up dangerous things. While these men are hunters, like us, they are also equipped to clean up large messes.”

“That is the second time you knew what I was thinking, how? I don’t understand. Is that thing that attacked me called a
tribop
? Or is that his name? Was there more than one of him?” Her voice squeaked the last part. She started to shake, thinking of more than one of those on Earth. The old movie,
The Blob
came into her mind, and Knight grinned.

“I don’t know about this thing that popped in your head. I really hadn’t thought of other
tribops
being with the one we were tracking, but a good question. We were so worried about you and yes, I can read your thoughts, silly. You are our woman.” Knight nodded to Saber who reached over and flipped on another panel. “And no, you won’t be able to read ours. You just aren’t built like that.”

Knight placed her on her feet and started to work on the board in front of them. “Do you see his transport? It has to be around here somewhere—” Just as his words were out, the ship jerked to the left and threw her into a bank of instrument panels. Sirens and lights flashed in the navigation room, but then again it could be her head. Right now, she was not feeling too hot.

“Get her to the medical lab and strap her down before she gets hurt. Then I need you up here,” Knight ordered.

Shantel couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Come, Shantel you’re hurt and need to be strapped down while we deal with his threat.” Saber gently picked her up off the floor. “I’ll turn on the
mizule.
It will help your head and any other injuries you have while we are working.” He kissed the top of her head and moved fast through the ship.

His speed had her groaning as everything to seem to spin. “I need off this ride,” she said. He placed her once more onto the table she had wakened on earlier.

“Not to worry. When you awake again, the threat will be gone. We will have a nice Valentine’s Day surprise for you. Sleep well, our human.” He kissed her lips softly before reaching above her. A flimsy but very warm white sheet covered her, starting with her toes and moving up.

“But I don’t want to sleep,” she groaned. Her head throbbed as the table formed to her body. A soft, warm material surrounded her head, immobilizing it along with her arms and legs, leaving only her face exposed.