Authors: Angela Castle
It was her turn to be strong for them. She would never
give up on them and never surrender.
Chapter Thirteen
Kue’s magnetic locks engaged, pinning him to the
second Jorval war cruiser. He watched in disgust as their ship blew apart in an
impressive blue and orange flash of light. Charred fragmented remains sailed
past him. He took a deep breath of his compact manufactured air. He hated the
taste, but these specialised suits only provided him basic requirements, and it
was better than no air at all.
“
I’ve never been so happy to see that piece of junk
gone, yet rather annoyed I wasn’t the one who got to fire the phase lasers.”
Raz’s voice sounded in his ear.
“
Zeb gave it a ninety-eight percent chance they would
do it,” Kue muttered, busy locating the spots on the ship he needed to get to.
“
Celeste is not going to be happy we didn’t let her in
on the possibility that this could happen,” Raz said.
“
Loc will be even more annoyed after all the work we’ve
put into it over the past several day cycles,” Kue noted.
“
At least he got to experience the paradise between her
soft thighs before this mess. I can’t wait to have my turn again.”
Kue ignored Raz’s first comment, even if he agreed.
“Celeste will forgive us, but the time invested in helping and courting our
sheraz
was more than worth it.”
“
I can’t argue with simple logic. It does sound good
doesn’t it? Belonging to her.” Kue didn’t fail to note happy dreamy tone of
Raz’s voice.
Yes, they were all addicted to their little soft,
sweet female.
Damn Fire Demons, now I’m
getting off track.
Kue sighed, pulling a charge out and attaching it to the
side of the war cruiser. “Stop space dreaming. We need to get this done and
perform a brilliant rescue, before they decide it’s time to leave the area.”
“
You’re getting slow in your advanced age,” Raz goaded.
“I’ve already outlined the main weapons tube, heading for outer thrusters.”
“
That’s because your target was closer than mine.” Kue
pulled himself along the ship like a
Tivarian
serpent. Each of them carried a large bag of explosive charges, larger than
normal gravity would have allowed, as the weight of the special undetectable
explosive was extreme even for a Demos. Each of their charges needed to be
placed in strategic spots, in order to cause a chain reaction when triggered.
Kue felt the creak in his bones and strain on his body. It had been a while
since they’d needed to climb into their space stealth suits. It cut
uncomfortably around his middle too much, not to mention every time he thought
of Celeste he grew hard.
“
I will be training more once we get back on Galafrax,”
Kue stated aloud, more for himself than Raz, who snorted in his ear.
“
I told Zeb he’d been growing soft since our
retirement.”
“
Brother, I wasn’t the only one struggling to close the
stealth suit. We have more of a reason to stay in the best shape of our lives.
How will we protect our Celeste if we grow too rounded and have little breath
to pleasure her?” He attached another device and moved to the next location.
“
You may have a point. The only one I want to stay soft
and rounded is our Celeste. Unlike you, I’m in great shape.”
It was Kue’s turn to snort at his brother. “I wager I
can finish this and board the head ship before you can.”
“
What’s your stake?”
“
Next to pleasure Celeste.”
“
Hardly a challenge, but you’re on.”
Motivated, they both moved faster in anticipation of a
fight and a fuck. Once they snuck on board the head war ship, it would be close
quarters, hand-to-hand combat. Bloodying a few Jorval faces and taking revenge
on the ones who dared attempt to take their
sheraz
was a sweet prospect indeed. It had been too long since they’d fought anything
other than training simulators.
Time was critical. The sooner they got the job done,
the sooner they could rescue their Celestial beauty, then rub it in Raz’s face
when he lost the bet.
****
Celeste shifted on the floor, sitting between her men.
Her shoulders ached, being weighed down by all that equipment strapped to her.
Gah, I’m an idiot
. Her natural reactions had been to protect her downed
men. Blowing up her men’s ship had made her temporarily forget she was a major
part of their plan.
Pull yourself
together, focus.
A gamma fourteen was a Demos version of the Trojan
horse story from Earth. Her being the horse, smuggling in the contraband. Her
men had been spot on. The Jorval had been so focused on subduing her men they
hadn’t bothered checking her.
Wiping the tears from her eyes she fished under the
black clothes to retrieve one of the medical devices strapped to her outer
thigh. Kue had told her to use it if any of them were injured or unconscious.
She followed his simple instructions and placed it over Zeb’s chest, pressing
the grey button. It lit up and bleeped several times, vibrating in her hand.
Zeb groaned, and his eyes fluttered open. She held her
breath as his glazed eyes cleared and focused on her hovering above him. They
said it was a pain worse than any, losing one of their bond brothers. He
reached up cupping her face, but she couldn’t see any sign of pain or anguish,
only concern as he gazed at her.
“
Are you all right, beautiful?”
She choked back a sob. He was asking about her when
his brothers had just been blown to bits. Tears blurred her vision and rolled
down her cheeks. “Th-they blew up your ship. Raz and Kue, they are dead.”
He sat up and cupped her face in his hands. “Hey now,
everything is fine. I would have immediately felt it if they had been killed. I
gave it a ninety eight percent chance they would destroy our salvager.”
It took a moment for Zeb’s words to sink in. “You
knew?”
“
I wouldn’t be much of a strategist if I didn’t factor
in many different scenarios based on the situations. I didn’t want to tell you
as you would worry. We have enough to deal with as it is.”
He wiped her tears with the pad of his thumb. “Kue and
Raz will be here soon enough. Until then let’s wake up Loc.”
She nodded and sat back as he removed the device from
his chest and placed it on Loc’s. It hummed as it had on Zeb’s, before Loc’s
eyes opened. He bolted upright.
“
Celeste!”
His panicked yell made her giggle. His normally neat
hair askew, he turned to stare at her in confusion. His golden eyes blinked,
and suddenly he was back with it. “Did they hurt you, beauty?”
She shifted, moving into Loc’s welcoming embrace. “No,
sweetie, I’m fine. I was more worried about you. I didn’t get knocked out by
the Jorval. You two did.”
Loc groaned rubbing his forehead slightly. “I fucking
hate pulse stunners.” He lifted his head to glare at Zeb. “And the high and
mighty commander knew they’d try to pull this kind of deception.”
Celeste twisted in Loc’s arms, her eyebrow lifted, as
she added the statement, “Yeah, I figured he would.”
Zeb shrugged his large muscled shoulders, returning
Loc’s glare. “Shake it off, soldier.” Zeb climbed to his feet stretching out
some of his kinks. “We’ve got only moments before they realize we’re awake.
We’ve a crew to subdue and a ship to take.”
Loc sighed heavily. “They blew ours up, didn’t they?”
Zeb nodded, and Loc cursed. “All the work we put in—”
“
Worth it.” Zeb’s glare at his brother turned almost
murderous.
“
Yeah.” Loc’s arms tightened on her waist, his nose
buried in her hair as he breathed her in. “More than worth it.” She would have
been an idiot not to realise they were talking about her. She wisely kept her
mouth closed, even if her heart was bursting with love for her men. She now
understood that fixing a broken ship was only half their mission. They were
also helping to mend a broken Celeste. Everything they’d done and continued to
do since meeting her was for her.
When she tried to clamber off Loc’s lap, he tugged her
back. She gasped as he climbed to his feet with her still cradled in his arms,
before setting her down.
“
Show off,” muttered Zeb, closing in on her. “Arms up,
beautiful.”
She happily obeyed, letting them strip off her outer
layers.
“
Any other plans you have that you didn’t bother to
inform me of, or are you going to continue being an overly protective male?”
She met Zeb’s golden gaze.
“
No, I believe not. We just need to take over this ship
and set course to Galafraxian space as soon as Demosly possible.”
Loc found the layer of gadgets and weapons, removing
them with more ease than they had attaching them to her, making sure she could
move with ease. Raz had told her the substance hindered internal scanners from
picking up on weapons signatures.
“
You make it sound like a walk in the park,” she said,
watching Loc place his share of pilfered devices in his pockets, and push
something small into his ear. He glanced up and winked.
“
Don’t know what a park is, but right now I need you to
listen and obey.” She nodded, giving Zeb her full attention. “Once Loc disables
the cell forcefield, alarms will sound. We’ll be moving fast. When I tell you
to duck or move, then move, and try to stay between Loc and me, understood?”
“
Yes, commander.” She saluted for good measure making
Zeb smile. He nodded his approval before turning to Loc.
“
Right, here we go.” Loc aimed one of the gadgets at
the forcefield of their cell. It made a bright blue sparks shot out before
fizzling out with a
Bzzzz-pop!
A loud
woop,
woop
siren sounded, and she winced as her eardrums ached at the harsh tone.
Zeb took her hand helping her over the lip of the cell
and tugged her along after him to the end of the brig corridor. He released her
hand, and Loc grabbed her shoulders pulling her out of the way as Zeb charged
the first few Jorval soldiers who raced into the cell. They never had time to
draw their weapons, Zeb struck so fast with some fancy kind of martial art,
like a beautiful dance. Only his dance resulted in all four Jorvals lying unconscious
on the ground, within a few heartbeats.
Wow
. They weren’t exaggerating when they said Zeb was the
best at hand to hand combat. Zeb and Loc moved, removing all weapons and moving
the Jorval bodies into the nearest cell. “We need to make it through the ship
to engineering. It’s easier to take control of the ships functions from there,”
said Loc. Zeb opened the brig doors. “Raz and Kue will be heading for the
bridge.”
She perked up at Loc’s mention of Raz and Kue.
“They’re on board already?”
“
I can hear them on this.” Loc tapped his earpiece.
“They seem to be arguing over who won their bet.”
She rolled her eyes and let out a relived breath. “I
don’t even want to know what the bet was about.” Knowing Raz, it would be
something explicit concerning her.
Loc chuckled. “You’ll know soon enough. Ready to run?”
“
Of course, let’s go!” She grinned at Loc before
following after Zeb. The safest place on this ship was right next to their men.
No way was she not going to keep up or let them down.
****
A short time later, Celeste panted, her skin flushed
and her body burning with need, as Loc pulled off her for the third time. He
glanced down and winked, before taking her hand and tugging her along. She
wasn’t just hot from the running, ducking and dodging the plasma blasts being
shot at them. The Jorvals fought like the cowards they were—at a distance,
always trying to block or shoot or lob something at them, rather than fight
face to face. Any brave enough to attempt to fight Zeb or Loc were quickly
rendered unconscious.
The heat of her arousal came from the fact they kept
using their hot, sweaty bodies as shields, pressing themselves against her,
sandwiched between either Loc or Zeb and the bulkhead. It was so totally wrong
to be turned on from watching her men flex and fight, but she couldn’t help her
body’s reactions. Yeah, they were badass, and she loved it.
My men, my men,
mine, all mine!
Zeb knew where to go, following a map in his mind, one
he’d told her he’d memorized just before they embarked on this dangerous mission.
The ceilings of the Jorval war ship were low, and her almost seven foot men
were constantly ducking and dropping to their knees when firing back with
deadly accuracy, unlike the Jorvals’ haphazard attempts to subdue them.
Much like the trader ship, there were different
coloured panels on the walls and gadgets that seemed to have been forced in,
rather than customized to fit with the ship.