Lovers of the Galaxy, Book Two: Bounty Hunters of the Heart (9 page)

“That’s it,” Oshki wheezed. “Take all of me into you
and let my mirellae enhance your need to come,” he murmured and
humped faster. “I might have to share this position with you on a
regular basis.”

“Just shut up and fuck me,” he growled. “I want your
cock—all of it!”

“So my valiant warrior does have a passionate side,”
he quipped.

As his partner pumped quickly, the molten sensation
in Miln’s testicles rose up the length of his shaft. Before he
could say anything, he came, spurting his essence into the hay
strewn at their feet. Another wave of delight rushed through him,
and his cock twitched harder still. As he coaxed a few more drops
of cum from his body, he howled his release to the storm, which
rewarded him with a rumble directly above the barn.

“That’s it,” said Oshki. “Feels good, does it
not?”

Another growl ripped from him, but the moment it
passed his lips, that odd noise from earlier reached him again and
he stiffened.

“Oh, no you do not,” Oshki said and tightened his
hold around his waist.

Panting, he said, “You heard it, too!”

“I heard only the storm!”

He shook his head as sweat trickled into his eyes.
“You lie. You heard something as well.”

“You will not leave me again.” Oshki thrust again,
pushing his cock to the root inside him and holding him there,
skewered.

Despite the pleasure the action caused, Miln said,
“Let go. Something is wrong.”

“No.”

“Withdraw from me. I think the women need our
help.”

“They do not. You hear only the storm.” He pumped
harder into Miln’s body.

This time he felt something change and knew his mate
had willed his mirellae to produce more hormones. As pleasure
rolled through him, his cock hardened too, his balls tightened
painfully, and he turned lax against the doors. Behind him, his
lover murmured his victory at keeping him interested in the sex and
pounded into his ass. Oshki’s sighs, groans, and cries melded with
the rumbles around them.

Trying to fight the hormone spreading throughout his
body was almost pointless. His legs quivered. Oshki’s sapin fully
in his ass kept him a slave to his fleshly desires. Already he
wanted to come again and then throw his mate into the hay and fuck
him until he screamed for Miln to stop. The pressure in his cock
grew unbearable. He pushed back to dislodge his partner, but his
mate thrust, ramming him into the double doors. Before he could
stop it, Miln orgasmed a second time.

“Ungh! By…the…Twelve…Galaxies!” he shouted and rode
out one glorious carnal earthquake after another, his seed coating
the wooden planks in silvery-white strings.

He tried to pull away, but his partner kept pumping
into him.

“No,” Oshki said, groaning, his fingers biting into
his hips. “I am not done. I have not come. And I know you have a
third one in you.”

“I am done. Let go. I know something is wrong
outside.”

“No.” Oshki’s increased his pace.

Instantly angered, he yanked forward and succeeded in
unbalancing him enough that their bodies separated. The moment he
felt air between them, he whirled only to find Oshki rushing him.
He didn’t have time to do anything but catch him in his arms, but
the force and weight of his lover bore him backward. They hit the
doors with such force they buckled and the wooden latch burst
apart.

Disoriented and suddenly weightless, he felt cool air
and rain on his body. His backside connected with the ground, the
air whooshing out of him, and then Oshki landed on top of him, one
of his knees gouging the inside of his thigh. He winced in pain and
stared up at the loft as mud from their impact splattered his face.
Rain fell so hard he had to turn his head to the side to keep it
from filling his nose and mouth.

“What in the name of all that is powerful is wrong
with you?” he snarled up at Oshki.

“There is nothing wrong with me,” he countered
loudly. “You are selfish and always sacrifice our happiness for
that of others!”

Except for the lightning displays, darkness cloaked
the barnyard, and rain and thunder wrapped it in a cocoon of
sound.

He blinked against the downpour. “What are you
talking about?”

“You take your pleasure from me, and then when it is
my turn, you say something is wrong, that you hear a strange noise.
It is an excuse!”

Sitting up, he pushed Oshki off him. “Enough! I will
investigate and make sure everything is well in the abode.
Afterward, we will discuss our differences.”

Oshki opened his mouth to reply, but a feeble light
played over them. His eyes widened, and his mouth flattened into a
thin line. Before Miln could turn, a hard kick to his ribs knocked
him over sideways. Mud oozed around him, and pain pierced his
muscles, slicing through his bones. Somehow he still managed to
roll onto his back and spring-kick himself into a squatting
position. He’d been so wrapped up in his partner he’d failed to
detect the sound of footsteps in the waterlogged barnyard.

“Well, if it isn’t the alien security brutes,” Randle
said sarcastically. “So you were sent to track me down after all,
huh? Shame your kind is so big and yet so stupid.”

Barking erupted from behind a low, squat building.
The big dog he’d seen earlier that night rushed around one corner
and charged straight for Randle. The man yanked something from an
outer pocket at his hip and fired. With dismay, he watched in
helpless horror as a ball of energy appeared in the air, flattened,
and sliced the dog’s head off. It dropped to the ground but the
body ran half the distance between them before it flopped to one
side and lay twitching in the shimmers of lightning.

“Brody, no!” a female voice cut through the rain.
“No, no!” Weeping followed.

“Shut up, bitch!” Randle snarled.

A series of flashes lit everything up long enough
that he could assess their situation and where everyone was
located. His partner hadn’t budged, but with Randle holding a
Slicer, any movement on their part would be suicide. Blood pumped
out of the dog’s corpse and pooled around its body. To his right,
he saw Charlotte standing near the corner of the barn, still in her
gown, the rain plastering it to her body. A rope ran from her neck
to her bound wrists and ended where he saw Randle held it fisted in
his opposite hand.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us,” the fiend said, “I must
be on my way. With your weapons, I can stop anyone who stands in my
way.”

“What are you planning?” Miln asked.

Randle snorted, his figure a dark shape in the night.
Only the glow of the sensors on the Slicer provided any light. “Now
why would I tell you that and have you screw up my plans? All I
want is Venus.”

“That will never happen. She belongs to the
Rolarais.” Dread flowed over Miln. “They will never let you have
her. She is their mate.”

“Then I’ll kill them. I’ll kill Venus, too, if I
must. I would rather do that than allow those two freaks to have
her.” He jerked on the rope. In moments, Charlotte stood just
behind him, her eyes glassy with fear. “I would love to chat with
you two, but I must be going.”

He backed across the barnyard with Charlotte until he
reached the well, where a saddled horse waited. There, he threw her
up in the saddle and then mounted behind her. She struggled, but
one hard cuff alongside the head knocked her out. He cradled her
against his chest, turned the horse, and said, “Follow me and I’ll
enjoy using your weapon”—he held the Slicer up as lightning pulsed
in the sky—”to slice off body parts before finally killing you
both.”

Randle spurred the horse’s flanks, and with a loud
whinny, the animal trotted off into the rain-slashed night.

Once the criminal was gone, Miln stood and raced into
the house. Bound and gagged on the floor, Melinda looked up at him
in fear but upon seeing his naked, muddy body her fear shifted to
shock. Realizing his error, he stepped behind her and unfastened
the ropes.

“Forgive me,” he said. “I don’t mean to upset you. I
was preparing to…uh…sleep and heard a noise, but Randle surprised
us before we could investigate.” He pulled the gag from Melinda’s
mouth and then started working on the knot securing her bare
ankles.

“That man took Charlotte,” she cried. “You have to
get her back.”

“We will, but we may need your help to do it.”

“Whatever you need. Take me with you.”

“Change your clothes, get a weapon, and then pack us
food supplies.”

“Do you know how to saddle horses?” she asked once
she’d risen to her feet. “If not,” she avoided looking at him,
“I’ll do it.”

“Meet us in the barn. Once we gather our things, we
will leave.”

Miln strode out into the rain and slipped and skidded
across the swampy yard to the barn. Once he’d climbed into the
loft, he found his mate already dressed and gathering their
gear.

“How do we follow him?” Oshki asked. “If we use the
ship, others might see it and terror will sweep the area.”

“Melinda will help us.”

“Is it wise to involve another female in this
matter?”

Already having yanked on his trousers, Miln shrugged
into his shirt and fumbled with the tiny buttons. Frustrated, he
left the shirt half unfastened and focused instead on donning his
socks, boots, and tool belt. “We have no choice. Besides, Charlotte
is her sister. Do you think Venus would stay behind if it were her
sister?”

“Yes, she would. Venus is with child and the brothers
would insist she remain behind.”

“In this situation, I believe Venus would follow her
heart.”

“I suppose.”

“Look.” He swept his hat off the hay mound. “I’m
sorry about earlier, but you must see why—”

“Let it go.” Oshki turned and grasped the top of the
loft ladder. “I am beginning to understand that the most important
thing to you is your duty. Right now, I have no desire to discuss
any of it with you.”

With a heavy sigh, Miln followed him. Below in the
stalls, he heard Melinda enter the barn and murmur something to the
horses.

She had three horses saddled in a short time.
“Ready?” she asked as she led the animals outside.

“Yes.” He mounted his steed like he’d seen Randle do,
but hid his smile as Oshki sat in the saddle of his gray. The
animal almost wore a look of horror as his partner’s weight settled
on it.

“Thankfully the storm is moving away and the rain is
almost over,” Melinda observed. “Otherwise, we would’ve had to wait
until daylight.”

“Randle could not have gone far,” his companion said.
“He has no light.”

Melinda clicked her tongue, and her horse began
trotting out of the barnyard. “It won’t matter. He’ll make up for
lost time now that the storm is over.”

The feeble light of dawn began filtering through the
tree limbs. Miln felt ridiculous riding such a small steed. He was
accustomed to battle beasts, huge animals in comparison to the
delicate, long-legged equines. They’d ridden across the saturated
meadows and into the forest where water dripped and the aroma of
wet earth and trees overwhelmed the olfactory senses.

Next to him, his partner stared straight ahead. He
hadn’t said one word since leaving the farm.

Breaking the silence, Miln questioned Melinda. “Any
signs of their passage?”

She shook her head. “That man must’ve taken a
different route. Either way, the only place of substance on the
other side of these woods is Rocky Meadows. It’s a tiny growing
town in the foothills. If he went the other way, he’ll arrive at
the mouth of a canyon that comes out about a mile east of the
town.”

They continued in silence until Melinda reined in her
horse and said, “Stay here. You two obviously can’t go into town
looking like that, so I’ll ride in and see if I can find out
anything.”

She adjusted her skirts around herself and then
withdrew a faded green cotton bonnet from a saddlebag and pulled it
over her head. After tying the chin strings, she nodded to him and
then Oshki and urged her horse through the thinning trees.

Birds tweeted in the colorful autumn leaves. Several
of them, nuthatches and wrens, from the study screens he’d viewed,
flitted about in the undergrowth. Trying to occupy his mind, he
focused on them and also recognized some as titmice, which stymied
him. They were birds, so why had humans named them after rodents?
Snorting, he caught movement over by a large, dripping oak and
spied an adult fox. Raindrops adorned its vibrantly red fur. Its
puffy tail twitched as the animal watched them with small,
suspicious eyes. With a high-pitched yip, it disappeared into the
woods.

A sigh drew his attention. He looked over at
Oshki.

“What troubles you, my warrior?”

“Do not use endearments with me.”

Miln gaped at him, raising his eyebrows. “Are we back
to this again?”

“You do not love me.”

“Yes, I do!”

“No,” he shook his head vigorously, “you do not. If
you did, you would not constantly put your duty as head security
officer before our relationship.” He issued a sound of disgust.
“Not that there is a relationship.”

Miln’s frustration quickly transformed into angry
despair. “Why do you have to be so stubborn and immature? Can you
not use your common sense and realize that lives depend on us?”

“Can you not see that we have nothing if we have to
always serve everyone else?” his mate countered. “I am sick of
always having to be careful because of Tapio’s need to persecute
us. And if not Tapio, all I hear is that we must do this, we must
do that, we have to check on that person or patrol the base….” He
shrugged. “This is not how love is supposed to be.”

“How would you know?”

His gaze flew up to meet Miln’s. “What?”