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Saying goodbye to Molly and Elodie had been hard—possibly the hardest thing I’d done in my life. But I knew it was the best thing for them, and Leif had promised me he’d take care of them both. They’d all be put in cryostasis and wouldn’t notice the passing of time like I did on Earth. In six months, when Exodus landed safely on Athion, they’d be able to contact me again, and then they’d go on to live their new lives.
In the meantime, I was happy. I had four guys now—something that made me giddy with disbelief at just how lucky I was—and I still had a job to do.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I leaned over the top of Mike and placed a quick kiss to his ear. We always tried to remain professional while we were working, but since we now lived in the same place that we worked, the boundaries were often hard to define.
He twisted to face me with a smile. “Good, as far as I can tell. Exodus is well on its way. Have you seen any of the others?”
I knew exactly who he was talking about when he said ‘others.’
“No, I haven’t seen anyone recently.”
“Does that mean I get you all to myself?”
He spun around on his chair and pulled me into his lap. I let out a squeal but made no effort to get away. Instead, I looped my arms around his neck and then reached up a hand to ruffle his dark hair. “You certainly do.”
I leaned in and kissed him.
“Hey, are you monopolizing our girl again, Mike?” Casey’s voice came from behind me, but I could tell from his tone that he was teasing.
I stopped kissing Mike long enough to glance over my shoulder to see Casey standing there. For once, there was no one else around.
Casey approached and stopped behind me to join in the fun. He swept the hair away from the back of my neck and ducked his head to place a kiss at my nape. I exhaled a sigh of pleasure, leaning back into him, wanting more. He continued, his lips firm and warm. His tongue traced a track, hot and wet, up to my earlobe. where He gently sucked the lobe, and I squirmed with pleasure. I wriggled back into him, my body reacting to his attention, my nipples tightening and a tingle spreading between my thighs. I reached back to thread my fingers through his soft blond hair.
“Hey, what about me?” Mike said, tugging me back into him.
I giggled at them mock fighting over me. We all knew we were quite happy to share.
This was my favorite place to be—sandwiched between any combination of the guys. There was nowhere I felt more loved and cherished.
But a light suddenly strobed on the dashboard.
The fun was over, for the moment, anyway.
“We’ve got communications coming in from high up,” Mike said as I climbed off his lap.
I knew he meant the president.
I looked to Mike. “You’re sure everything is okay with Exodus?” I asked, suddenly worried. Molly and Elodie were on the spaceship, and even though she was safer up there than she had been on Earth, I continued to worry about my sister’s safety and knew that wouldn’t change until she had her feet firmly on Athion.
He double-checked the stats of the ship. “Yep, everything’s fine.”
“I’ll call the others up,” Casey said. “This might be important.”
“It’s important,” I confirmed. “The president doesn’t call for no reason.”
Casey hit the chip in his wrist to place a call to Aleandro and Irus. “You might want to get up here. The president is on the line.”
“We can’t keep her waiting,” Mike said.
“Nope,” I agreed. “Link us up.”
He hit the button to accept the video call, and seconds later, the president’s face appeared on screen.
“Madam President,” I said, standing straighter. “What can we do for you?”
“Congratulations on the launch of Exodus,” she said.
I ducked my head in a nod. “Thank you. It was a bit precarious there for a while, but we got there in the end.”
I noted how she hadn’t congratulated us on the success of Project Exodus. Until the transporter ship had landed safely, and the women were fully integrated, we couldn’t be sure that it had even been a success.
Behind us, Irus and Aleandro slipped into the room.
“Miss Harran,” the president continued, “I’d like you to head up a team that will oversee the whole of the process of transporting women to Athion, and make sure their lives on the planet are as they’d hoped. It’s a big ask, as it would mean you’d be splitting your time between Earth, space, and Athion. I realize that kind of life isn’t for everyone, but I’d give you the opportunity to choose your own team, and I’m happy for that team to include Athions as well as humans—in fact, I’d prefer it if you did, since an Athion would give us greater insight into how things worked on their planet.”
“You would?” I said, my mouth gaping. I could hardly believe it. What an amazing opportunity. It would mean I’d get to see Molly and Elodie even sooner than I thought. I realized what I’d said and corrected myself, “I mean, I’d love to, but it’s not only my decision.”
I looked around at the guys. There was no question that they would be my team, and if they didn’t want to take on the roles offered, there was zero possibility of me doing it either. I’d already almost split us up once, and I had no intention of doing the same thing again.
But as my gaze traveled over each of their faces, they were all smiling and nodding. I stopped at Irus. “What about you? Do you think your commander will allow you to take on this job?”
He nodded. “Of course. I’m here to help with Project Exodus in any way I can. It makes no difference to me which planet I’m on. As long as I’m helping you, that’s all that matters.”
I knew he wasn’t only talking about work. He meant personally as well.
I turned back to the president. “Thank you, Madam President. We’d be honored to take that role.”
She smiled in return, and there was something knowing in her dark eyes. “I thought you might. Stay in touch, Miss Harran, and good luck.”
“Thank you, Madam President.”
The line went dead, and I turned to the guys. “Are you sure about this? Traveling to Athion and back again? Living on a spacecraft for months on end?”
Aleandro moved closer and took my hand, lifting it to his mouth to press a kiss to the backs of my knuckles. “Where ever you are, Camille, we’ll be there, too.”
“You’re sure?” I asked him, still not daring to believe this was actually happening.
Mike got to his feet. “Absolutely. You know there’s no chance I’m letting you go to Athion without us.”
I grinned at him. “I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
“And I’ll look forward to showing you all my home planet,” Irus said.
“And you, Casey?” I asked him.
He leaned in and kissed me. “Are you kidding? A chance to get out among the stars and be confined with you for months? You couldn’t stop me.”
I looked around at their handsome faces, unable to prevent the stupid grin from stretching my cheeks.
This was going to be a new start for us all.
The Trads hadn’t gone completely. There was a good chance they never would, but we were going to have to adapt to that being our new reality.
It was far from perfect, of course, and our war wasn’t over, but the battle, for the moment at least, had been won.
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THE END
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LIKE WHAT YOU READ? Want to know what happened to Camille’s best friend, Tara? Watch out for Tara’s story in ‘Breeder: The Tradrych Strain, Book One’ which will be out on the 25th of June and is available to pre-order from Amazon!
Planet Athion is a shared world that once you’ve dipped into will have you hooked.
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TO IMMERSE YOURSELF in other stories about Earth women’s struggle against the Trads, find more fantastic reads from a whole bunch of awesome reverse harem authors by following these links.