Chapter 2
CHAPTER
TWO
Rehz noticed it first, the slight increase in temperature and the way the previously clear walls clouded over and pulsed with alien energy.
“They’re coming. Let me do the talking.”
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Kai murmured.
“I’ll be nice.”
“You’d better be.”
Rehz tensed as the wall behind him undulated, releasing a tangle of tentacle-like probes, one of which immediately wrapped around his neck, neatly puncturing the old scar on his throat and creating the telepathic connection.
“Why are you here?”
“You have broken the treaty and taken more than your allotted Tributes. The Mitan government respectfully demands the return of its citizens Anna Lee and Aled Price.”
Kai yelped as a second probe shot out and attached itself around his throat.
Rehz said nothing as the tentacle tightened around his neck.
“The treaty is secure.”
“No, it is not. You were provided Tributes and returned them to us, only to take two of our people again. This is an act of aggression toward our race. Return our citizens immediately .”
He caught his breath as the wall in front of him exploded outward, gathering him and Kai within a writhing mass of probes and pulling them deep into Ungrich space. He gagged as his throat was filled, stopping his breathing and compelling him to rely on the Ungrich to survive the murky soup.
Forcing his eyes to stay open, he focused on a square of brighter light that they appeared to be heading for, which eventually turned out to be a series of transparent cube-like structures. He and Kai were unceremoniously thrust through the thick membrane of one of them and dropped to the floor.
Kai grabbed at his throat and started coughing. “There’s oxygen in here.”
Rehz took a cautious breath. “Yeah. Who knew? At least they didn’t kill us outright.”
“There’s still plenty of time.”
He went to the side of the cube and tried to peer through the thick, rubbery film.
He could see nothing but the glow coming from what he assumed were other cells, and the floating shapes of entwined Ungrich .
He had to assume they couldn’t insert themselves completely into the air-filled cubes.
His bare feet sank into the floor, which had the consistency of gellac.
“I wonder how they are getting the oxygen in here?” he mused. “It must come from the surface.”
“Or they can manufacture it.”
“Why would they need to do that when they don’t need to breathe?”
Kai’s smile was all teeth. “Good question. It goes right along with the one about wanting human DNA.”
The wall quivered and Rehz turned toward the dark red coils of the Ungrich who appeared.
He stood still as the creature’s probe found his throat and passed through his skin.
Yeah, it looked as if he was right. The Ungrich couldn’t come into the cube completely.
He wondered how long the Ungrich could survive in the dry atmosphere without needing to return to their more familiar liquid environment.
“Return our citizens.”
“They are well.”
“I didn’t ask you how they were. You have no right to hold them. If you do not release them, you will face the consequences.”
“You would go to war again over a series of experiments?”
“I would.”
“We have not invaded the surface world.”
“You have taken what does not belong to you. That is enough.”
“These test samples are not from your planet. The treaty does not, therefore, cover them.”
“You’re wrong. They are both full Mitan citizens. We will protect them as our own.”
“They are safe.”
“I don’t believe you.” He focused all his energy into his reply. “Return our citizens.”
The thought had hardly left his mind before the Ungrich moved in a blur of speed, wrapping both him and Kai within its heaving mass and catapulting them through the floor. He didn’t even have time to scream as he ended up in a tangled heap on another sticky floor.
“Humans.”
He opened his eyes and found himself staring right at Anna Lee. She looked exhausted, her body pinned under Aled Price, who seemed to be asleep. Emotions crowded his throat and he forced them down, only reaching out his hand toward her.
“Aled Price is not human.” Kai was speaking now.
“He has sufficient DNA.”
“For what?” Kai demanded.
“For our purposes.”
Kai crawled over to Aled and drew him away from Anna, cradling him on his lap. “What the fuck did you do to him?”
“He says he has no more seed.”
“And he won’t have any unless you rehydrate him,” Kai snapped. “What the fuck are you trying to do?”
While Kai argued, Rehz went over to Anna Lee, who was still watching him as if she couldn’t actually believe he was there. He touched her damp hair and then the corner of her swollen mouth.
“Anna.”
She turned her head and nuzzled his palm, tears shining in the corners of her blue eyes. “You came.”
He gathered her into his arms and simply held her tight, the complexity of his emotions threatening to choke him tighter than an Ungrich tentacle.
The tang of Aled Price’s come curled around them, and her thighs were sticky with it.
He didn’t fucking care. She was alive and he was with her. That was enough.
“I told you I would never let you go,” he murmured into her tangled hair. “Whatever happens next, we’ll face it together.”
She burrowed into his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her, rocking her against him. Her hand came to rest on his chest, and she nuzzled his ear.
“They only understand what we’re saying when we communicate in thought, so we can still talk,” she whispered. “We told them that we were more likely to conceive if we were reunited with our indispensable, mated pairs. Our equivalent of their Other.”
“That’s probably why they let us live. Good thinking.”
He turned his attention back to the Ungrich who had brought them into the cube. “We will leave with our citizens now. Do not try to stop us.”
“You will not leave.”
He set Anna behind him and stood, as did Kai. “We will take our citizens home. You have no authority to conduct experiments of any kind on them.”
“Palk.”
“What about him?”
“We have authority.”
“Palk doesn’t speak for the Mitan government.”
“You cannot leave. We will keep you alive as long as you serve our mating purposes.”
“That is not acceptable.”
“Then we will kill Kai Mexr. He is the least useful one.”
Kai yelped as he was lifted off his feet, his face contorting as he tried to tear off the tentacles that were strangling him.
“Put him down,” Rehz yelled in his mind. It was becoming easier the more he tried it. “Aled Price will not function if Kai is not present.”
“He will function. You know we can force him to perform . If necessary, we will keep Kai Mexr in stasis and only produce him when required to ensure Aled Price’s obedience.”
“I will not!” Aled shouted. Clearly the Ungrich controlling him had let him hear the threat through their telepathic connection, so he continued in thought mode. “I’ll fucking kill myself if you take him away from me.”
“Don’t worry, Aled. I’ll kill you myself if Kai is taken away,” Rehz snarled.
“Leave Kai here. If you won’t release Aled and Anna, we will all stay .
But I warn you that our government has been informed of your actions and will be coming after you regardless of what Palk has said .
He does not speak for the entire surface. ”
Kai fell to the floor, his chest heaving as he sucked in deep lungfuls of air. The dark red Ungrich retreated, leaving them comparatively alone. Aled had come up on his knees and was staring at Kai and Rehz as if he didn’t believe they were real.
“Kai ?” he whispered.
Rehz averted his gaze as the two males locked in an embrace that seemed destined to last forever. He turned back to Anna.
“I’m sorry I can’t get you out right now. I didn’t know what else to do,” he confessed. “I need Kai alive. I can’t do anything until I understand what’s going on here.”
She stroked his cheek. “We’re together. We’ll find a way.”
He bent his head and kissed her, threading his fingers through her hair and just breathing her in. “I’ll die before I let them hurt you.”
“I don’t want you to die for me.” She pulled away from him and looked him right in the eye. “If we can’t get out, we go down together and we take them with us, okay?”
He smiled. “That’s my Anna Lee. A troublemaker to the end. What do you think they want?”
She pressed her mouth against the side of his throat and whispered, “They want offspring—human offspring. And Aled says the pair inside him really get off on humans mating.”
“We need to find out as much as we can. Can you stand it for a while longer?”
“Being fucked? I was trained by the best. Of course I can.” Her mouth quivered. “And with you here next to me, I can stand anything.”
Kai reluctantly released Aled’s mouth. “You’re exhausted. You need to sleep.”
“I still can’t believe you came for me.” Aled shook his head, not quite trusting his own eyes. “I knew Rehz would come for Anna, but you? I thought you’d disowned me.”
“Hell, I tried.” Kai nuzzled his cheek. “What the fuck would you want with an idiot like me?”
“An idiot who came into Ungrich space to find me?” Aled kissed Kai’s fingers. “You’re my fucking hero.”
“Don’t say that.” Kai shifted slightly away from him, but not before Aled felt the ridge of Kai’s hard cock rubbing against his belly. He reached down and grasped Kai’s shaft.
Kai’s fingers closed around his wrist. “You don’t have to do anything. I’m kind of ashamed of myself for even getting hard.”
“You’re always hard around me. I make you want to fuck me blind. You have no idea how much I’ve missed this. Missed you.”
“I’m not fucking you right now.”
“Then let me use my hand,” he argued. “I need to feel you.”
Kai sighed but kept his fingers locked around Aled’s wrist. “Do it gently. Do it how I want it.”
He guided Aled into a smooth, slow rhythm that soon made his breath catch as Aled kissed him with his swollen, well-used mouth.
“Gods, I want to fuck that mouth,” Kai muttered. “Want my come all over your face.”