An explosive bang hit the door to the lab.
A small cry slipped past my lips as panic curled around my chest. I couldn’t breathe as I backed away.
“We’re trapped!” I whispered, my hands pressed to my chest. I wanted to scream and run, except I had nowhere to go.
Corran snatched a small cooler bag and placed a handful of blood vials inside, then rapidly typed like a maniac on the computer. I had no clue what he was doing, but he had to hurry.
Derrial took my arm and pushed me behind him.
“Corran,” Thane roared. “Is there another way out of here?”
Corran spun to face us, his face pale as snow. “At the back,” was all he said as he darted to the rear of the room. Fiddling with something on the wall, the next thing we knew, a door slid open before my eyes and led to a dark passage.
We didn’t wait another second and ran just as the lab doors burst open, slamming into the wall with a resonating boom.
I dove through the secret doorway, as did Derrial and Thane on my heels. My heart banged so hard in my ears. I frantically turned around to see Corran slapping a hand to the wall inside the dark passage, and the door slid shut. We were thrown into darkness.
In seconds, a small beam of light ignited from the pen Corran held, streaming light like a flashlight.
Without a word we followed him, traveling down a dark tunnel. Cemental walls and ceiling guided our path, and we descended down a set of circular escape steps. I held onto the cold, metal railing for dear life and rushed down the three flights of stairs.
My heart thundered when explosions detonated upstairs and the stink of smoke reached up. They were burning down the lab. So how long would it be before they discovered our escape route?
Corran led us left just as overhead, a boom shook the whole building. Voices came so loud now that I knew they had found our passage.
My feet moved faster down a passage, until Corran stopped and I bumped into him.
He fiddled with the control panel, and next thing, the door slid open to a back alley behind the building.
Behind us, the rush of feet pounded the stairs.
The hairs on the back of my neck lifted.
Feeling intense fear in my chest, I moved quickly outside, and we all ran like the devil chased us down the sidewalk. I didn’t remember ever running this fast in my whole life, but nothing was stopping me.
I moved on pure adrenaline. It wasn’t long before Corran soon had us careening back toward the quiet park. No one was around, just the trees swaying from the wind. We scrambled inside the cruiser, and I collapsed into a seat, gasping for air. I couldn’t keep doing this...running for my life. I was so tired of being terrified.
Derrial dove for the driver’s seat and had us ascending in record time. Thane rode shot-gun, while Corran stood nearby, staring outside as if expecting the worst. When he turned to me, his face was ashen, his thick hair the color of mahogany messy, and caramel eyes wild and filled with fear. Much like my own.
Once we had flown so high that we were practically in space, all I could see was a huge portion of the planet. It looked gorgeous from up here…lots of greens and yellows and purples like moving swirls covered the planet’s surface.
“What now?” I asked.
“Now, we need to hide out and make sure there are no side effects to you,” Corran explained. “To keep you safe because you are the most important thing to us.”
“Right now, I feel incredible,” I replied.
He half smiled at me. “Because you are still high on adrenaline from the chase. What you need is to take a hot shower and let your body relax so I can keep track of how you’re responding to the serum.”
“And your body is changing as it prepares for the baby,” Thane said. “We can’t risk you getting hurt now.”
I fought back the emotions that this ordeal still haunted me with. “You’re scaring me a bit. Is there something I should know about the upcoming birth?” I got to my feet.
Thane and Corran exchanged looks before glancing at me with soft smiles.
“Tell me,” I demand. “I have to know what to expect.”
Corran shook his head. “Not yet, kitten. First, you heal and nurture your body. That is most important right now.”
I hated not knowing, but I also knew how stubborn these Vepar were when it came to getting them to reveal a secret. I had time until the birth of my baby, so I’d keep working on convincing them.
“Have a shower and rest. Leave the rest with us for now, please.” Corran was at my side and he kissed my nose and my cheeks and chin, and finally my lips. “We need to see how your body reacts to the serum.”
When he nodded, I did the same, parroting him because I knew he was right.
“Shower sounds perfect.” I headed into the rear of the cruiser where our living quarters were. I had spent so much time on spaceships that they felt like a home, which was a strange thing to think.
By the time I showered and dressed in fresh clothes, I felt somewhat normal. What just happened came crashing down on me as I entered my shared bedroom with my husbands. A large bed in the middle of the room waited. Deep blue bed sheets looked crisp and so inviting. Except I found myself returning to the built in wardrobe behind me. There, I pushed my head inside and inhaled the faint smell of my Vepar, even the slightest smell of them calming me. Derrial’s woodsy and musky scent stood out the most, and I savored the way the smell made me melt with comfort.
I couldn’t explain it, but I needed my Vepar next to me. But they had to work out where we were going and our next steps. I’d join them as soon as I had a small break. So, I grabbed an arm full of their clothes and tossed them onto the bed. Then I climbed into the bed and curled myself in the middle of them, drawing the shirts and pants and jackets closer to me like a cocoon. In my head, I knew this was crazy behavior I couldn’t explain, but something about having their clothes around me put me at ease.
As exhaustion wracked my body and mind, I refused to make sense of it all and just closed my eyes.
Six Weeks Later
The antidote Corran created with the healing flowers from the Arcathian waters worked. They more than worked… they cured me of everything from the ache I’d always had in my elbow, to the sore neck pain I got when I didn’t sleep well, and even the spider veins on my thigh vanished. Most importantly, the bite I got never infected me.
I rubbed my now huge belly as the baby kicked, restlessly. The pregnancy moved so quickly that I still couldn’t believe how large my stomach had grown in such a short time. Both excitement and fear sat on my mind, and I was left unsure exactly what to expect for the birth. And none of my men would elaborate on what I was to expect, which only made my mind go wild with ideas on what would happen.
After escaping from the lab, we’d been hiding out in a safe house away from the city to keep a fair distance from the council. Just us four in a small undetectable house while my baby belly grew bigger and the three Vepar worked tirelessly on mass producing the antidote serum. Along with figuring out how to best distribute it to the greater population. The process of mass production had taken them longer than expected due to the constant trips back and forth to the beach to collect the healing flowers and remain undetected. Then they ran across problems in making larger batches.
Recently, they had sent squads of a small handful of family and friends they trusted to administer the antidote. To themselves first, and then everyone they knew. It was a small start, but it meant the serum in their bloodstream made them immune to a bite. All this under the nose of the council. They’d been slowly building a team of supporters with the hope they would spread the word once they were ready with more serum.
From what they’d told me, and what I’d seen on the news, Veon was wrecked and would need to be rebuilt. It was horrible to see the planet fall apart at the seams.
I let the three of them focus on the solutions while I dealt with my growing belly.
The baby was coming in two weeks...according to Corran, though by my size, I somehow doubted there was any more space for the baby to grow inside me.
Fear built in my chest as I still had no clue what to expect, and they always changed the topic when I asked questions. Which of course, made me worry a million times worse.
I stepped in front of the mirror in the bedroom, standing sideways, looking at how large I looked.
“You look more beautiful today than I’ve ever seen you,” Derrial said as he stood in the doorway, admiring me. Just having his eyes on me heated me instantly. Since settling in this house, our sex life had intensified, and the majority of the time, I instigated it. I felt constantly horny lately in their company, as if their presence alone ignited my arousal.
“You have to say that as you’re my husband,” I teased him as I looked at my reflection once more. My long dark hair had grown so much longer since I left Earth, and I looked so puffy, I sighed. “Gosh, I look like a giant marshmallow.”
Derrial stepped close and stood behind me in the mirror, his arms looped around my wide stomach. His lips found the tender curve of my neck and kissed me up to my ear.
“All I see when I look at you is an incomparable beauty. My heart beats faster. And…” He pressed his groin against my ass, and I gasped at the hardness of his cock.
“That’s what you do to me, my pet, from just looking at you. You are the love of my life, Ella.”
I adored the way he stared at me with such admiration, but underneath lay a sliver of fear for me. I couldn’t help but love how much he struggled to rein in his emotions around me. My heart squeezed. I shouldn’t have expected that reaction, but it still took me by surprise.
His mouth dragged across my neck as his hands swept to my shoulders and pulled down the straps of my dress. He pushed the fabric down my arms, and the material shivered all the way down to my feet. I wore nothing underneath as I had just come out of a shower.
Derrial swiftly grasped my breasts and squeezed, his fingers pinching my hardened pebbles. I moaned against him, heat already pooling between my thighs at his touch.
His breath hitched as he rocked his hard-on against the ass. Next thing, he took my wrist and turned me around before guiding me to the bed. He swept me off my feet and into his arms, then he lay me down on the mattress, my ass still to the edge of the bed.
“Spread your legs for me, my pet.”
I quivered when Derrial spoke to me with such authority. I pried open my knees. His gaze lowered down my body, and the way he stared at me with such primal, intense hunger that it sent a flame of heat through me. He dropped to his knees between my legs, and his mouth was on my heat in seconds.
I arched my back, a moan streaming past my mouth. Fuck. Damn. The flat of his tongue rubbed over my clit, and desire overflowed over every inch of me. I couldn’t breath as he devoured me, my mind whirling with desire, my heart racing.
My head grew dizzy from the building climax. I writhed, loving every velvety lick. My heart thundered. I was on the verge of exploding when he pulled back, as if sensing my build up.
He rose before me, already peeling off his shirt up and over his head. He was so muscular, from his strong jaw, clean and shaven, to those angles cutting across from his chest and powerful biceps. My body reacted, nipples hardening.
“Shuffle farther up on the bed,” he asked as he unbuckled his pants and dropped them before stepping out.
I pushed myself up but never looked away from the stiffness of his large cock. I inhaled and exhaled forcefully at the sight.
“I want you so damn much,” he murmured as he climbed onto the bed, crawling toward me with his hands and needs. He gently rolled me onto my side as he positioned himself behind me. His chest plastered against my back. His hand reached down to lift my leg as he slid his thigh between mine. His fingers found my drenched heat while his mouth kissed my neck.
“It feels amazing,” I purred.
His hand moved up to the curve of my hip and maneuvered himself for easier access. I felt the thickness of his cock sliding between my ass cheeks and to my slick heat.
I gasped, my body responding instantly, liquid fire coating the insides of my thighs. I was breathing harder and faster.
Derrial guided the tip of his cock to my opening. My whole body tensed, anticipating, craving him. “I want to be balls-deep in you. I can’t get enough of how delicious your taste and smell, how your soaked pussy sucks on my cock. I dream about fucking you most nights.”
A shiver coiled tight in the pit of my gut. Derrial’s words completely undid me. I shook with need. “Please take me,” I said. “I can’t stand it any longer.”
His hot breath skated over the burning flesh of my neck. He leaned in close and ran the tip of his tongue around the outside of my ear. Then he pushed into me. I cried out from the pleasure it brought to have him stretch me. All thoughts dissolved as only the two of us existed at that moment. He thrust into me, in and out, faster, the friction igniting a fire inside me. He fucked me like he’d been holding out for months. It had only been days.
His body grew so hard and tense against my back.
The groaning sounds that came from him drove me insane with need.
His fingers found my nipples and pinched them as he fucked me from behind. I grew wetter the deeper he drove into me, my body completely at his mercy.
He pulled out of me then slammed back in, his fingers deftly flicking and tugging at my nipples. I moaned, dying for more as I rose to a peak. The harder he took me, the quicker I escalated, and he pushed me over the edge.
I cried out as I shuddered with the orgasm rocking my body. In that same moment he groaned loudly and pulsed inside me, filling me. He held me tight as we both floated on pleasure. Our bodies pressed together, covered in sweat.
“You are so perfect, Ella. You are everything I want.”
I opened my mouth to respond when I spotted Corran and Thane near the doorway, watching us. Their hands were on their cocks, and I loved the way they stared at me.
Today wouldn’t be an overly productive day for me, but what a day it would be.