Covert

Wicked Missions 7

Covert Undercover agent Alayna Wilson agrees to genetic manipulation in order to infiltrate the chemical company believed to be providing the ingredients to manufacture patrile—the most addictive drug in the galaxy. However, she soon discovers that becoming Fraiquan is more than having blue skin and long, curly hair. It brings on the comchi, a fiery mating between her and fellow agents Will Rowe and Tanner O’Brien. As they assume the life of Fraiquan mates, she must deal with her growing feelings for Will and Tanner and the inherent dangers of uncovering a plot against the Fraiquan government. Though their love seems real, she fears it will not survive their return to human form. Can she keep her mind on the mission while losing her heart? Genre: Futuristic, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Science Fiction Length: 32,383 words

COVERT Wicked Missions 7

Elizabeth Raines

MENAGE EVERLASTING

Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

COVERT Copyright © 2011 by Elizabeth Raines E-book ISBN: 1-61034-778-1 First E-book Publication: August 2011 Cover design by Les Byerley All art and logo copyright © 2011 by Siren Publishing, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers Dear Readers, If you have purchased this copy of Covert by Elizabeth Raines from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book. The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment. This is Elizabeth Raines’ livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Raines’ right to earn a living from her work. Amanda Hilton, Publisher www.SirenPublishing.com www.BookStrand.com

DEDICATION To the readers who follow along on my Wicked Missions—thanks so much for all the support!

COVERT Wicked Missions 7 ELIZABETH RAINES Copyright © 2011

Chapter 1 I must be out of my fucking mind. Alayna Wilson glanced around the enormous lab. Three stainless steel tables sat in the center surrounded by various machines emitting ominous beeps and whirs. One table each for her and the other two guinea pigs who were willing to dive into science so new her heart kicked into a higher rhythm just thinking about what would be happening in that room. By the time the procedure was over, her DNA would be altered, the genetic coding inside her “shifted” from that of a human being to a Fraiquan. Her tanned skin would change to a dusky blue. Her short brown hair would darken to black as it went from fine and straight to coarse and wavy. Her amber irises would shift to indigo. The only thing the scientist couldn’t duplicate was a Fraiquan female’s ability to shape-shift. And although this change was only meant to be for the duration of the assignment, there was no guarantee the procedure could be reversed. In all her years as an agent for the Interplanetary Drug Enforcement Agency, Alayna had been asked to make a lot of sacrifices. She’d left behind her home back on the Australian continent, traveling from Earth to planets she’d never even heard of

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before she landed on them. She’d abandoned any chance of ever settling down and having a family of her own, not that those were high on her list of priorities. She’d also lost two partners she dearly loved, one who “retired” to marry—two men, no less!—and have kids and one who perished in the line of fire. Now, I.D.E.A. wanted to take away her humanity, too. A shudder ripped through her as she watched the nine workers, who were outfitted in full-quarantine gear, mill about the tables, setting shiny instruments out on trays and hanging plastic bags full of fluids that would soon be dripping into her body and the bodies of two men she hadn’t even met yet. She’d been kept in isolation for the last seven days to be sure she was free of germs and viruses. She’d had so many medical scans and tests, if anything was wrong with her, the doctors would surely know by now. The privacy had been nice. At first. After years of going from one undercover assignment to the next, she’d seldom had the chance to just…relax. As if she even knew the meaning of the word. Only a few hours of isolation, and Alayna had grown stir crazy. Despite having access to holoflicks and any digital books she wanted, she’d begun to feel like the walls were slowly closing in on her. As she now stood staring at the tables, one of which she would soon be strapped to, she wondered if claustrophobia was a better choice. Patrile—the reason for this desperate measure. The drug was the most addictive known, and it had begun to come from the Rhotan System with frightening frequency. Lives were being destroyed at epidemic rates, and stopping the manufacture and distribution of patrile had become the main focus of the I.D.E.A. After decades of civil war, the System was just now getting back on its feet. The planet of Fraiqua had suffered the most, but many now believed patrile was coming from Fraiquan chemical companies trying to assert themselves in the new Rhotan economy. Alayna’s job would be to infiltrate one of the chemical companies to discover if it was supplying the “cookers” who made patrile.

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The elaborate quarantine doors swished open—first one set, then the other. In walked two men dressed only in the same kind of sterile hospital gown she now wore that barely covered her ass. Despite the pale blue material covering them from shoulders to lower thighs, she got a good, long look at both of them. Her heart pounded harder. The first was taller. She’d guess he stood a full two meters. His hair was the color of sand and had been buzzed into a military cut. Not that it would matter after his transformation. Fraiquan men had the same wavy black hair as the women, although theirs usually reached their shoulders rather than tumbling down their backs. His beard stubble would be gone as well since Fraiquan men didn’t grow facial hair. When his gaze captured hers, Alayna’s breath caught in her throat. The blue of his eyes was the same color as the water over the Great Barrier Reef near her homeland. The intelligence reflected there only made the man more attractive. When he smiled at her, a dimple creased his right cheek. This one was a charmer. Her lips fell to a frown. She usually hated charmers because they were so damned phony. Shifting her gaze to the second man, Alayna had to shake her head in disbelief. Two men that handsome couldn’t possibly be agreeing to be genetically altered. Surely they’d have egos the size of Jupiter and wouldn’t want anyone fucking with their handsome appearances or well-toned bodies. Specimen number two had hair the color of a sunset—a pleasant mixture of red and blond—and wavy enough that it had to frizz in humid weather. Those gentle waves of hair curled around his ears, and damn it all if even those weren’t cute. His eyes were green, but they weren’t meeting hers. No, those emerald orbs were fixed on her breasts. For some odd reason, she wanted to run her fingertips over the cleft in his chin before she slapped his face for his audacity. “Well, well,” the tall blond said. “You must be our new wife.” His

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smile made something inside her melt, and she liked the way he stressed the word wife. “I’m Will Rowe.” The second man smiled as well. “I’m Tanner O’Brien.” His voice was a baritone as smooth as velvet. He held out his hand. The calluses spoke of someone who wasn’t afraid of hard work. “Alayna Wilson.” She shook Tanner’s hand then repeated the action with Will. Both had grips as firm as a vise. The men stared at her, making her cheeks heat as she dragged her bare toe across the cold tile floor to try to distract herself from the awkward silence. Instead of chattering away as some people did to fill the void, she always used it to size people up. Tanner was obviously the most impatient since he spoke first. “So what made you volunteer for this assignment?” “I didn’t,” she replied. He blinked a couple of times. “I.D.E.A. can’t force you to do something this…this…” “Dangerous,” Will interjected. Sure they can. “Let’s just say I decided it was in my best interests to accept this mission.” These men didn’t need to know her reasoning, and she sure wasn’t going to start discussing her work issues with two guys who were going to have to pretend to be her husbands. Make believe would be bad enough. She wasn’t about to open up her real world to two strangers. Tanner narrowed his eyes. “Look, Elaina, we’re going to be—” “It’s not Elaina,” she interrupted. Not that she was surprised he didn’t get her name right. Most people didn’t the first time, almost as if they’d never heard her say it. “It’s pronounced Ah-lay-na.” He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Since she’d seen that reaction far too many times, she couldn’t mistake it for anything other than aggravation. “Fine. Ah-lay-na. We’re gonna be spending an awful lot of time together. I hate that we’re getting off on the wrong foot.” “No wrong foot,” she replied. “I’m just kind of a…private

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person.” “Funny,” Will said, “but you’ve already got your guard up and we just met. How about we break the ice this way? I was born in a place called Fort Wayne in the Indiana province. Tanner here is from Vancouver.” “Old Canada?” While Fort Wayne and Indiana didn’t ring a bell, she sure knew Vancouver. Will smiled. “Yeah. He says ‘oot’ instead of out, and expect an ‘eh’ or two to slip out. You haven’t said much, but I’m catching an accent. Australian continent, maybe?” “Aye, mate.” She winked at him. “I’ve tried to drop it, and I’ve drilled out most of the colloquialisms, but when I’m nervous, they creep back in.” She nodded at the tables. “Supposedly, the DNA alteration won’t make the accent go away. That’s why we had all that vocal training.” Drawing on what she’d learned from the linguist, she tried to affect a Fraiquan accent. “So, is this a little more of what you might expect from your future wife?” Both men grinned, making her smile in return. Before they could exchange any more friendly banter, the doors swished open again. “Dr. Frankenstein’s in the house,” Tanner whispered to them. “Well, hello!” The geneticist strode over to them. With a sweeping gesture of his arm, he indicated the stainless steel tables. “Are we ready to begin? **** Alayna woke to the pounding in her head and the echo of her heartbeat in her ears. Groaning, she opened her eyes to mere slits. Thankfully, the light in the room was dim, but as she let her gaze wander, nothing looked familiar. Figuring she’d rub the tight muscles of her forehead to try to soothe the budding migraine, she reached up. With a gasp, she stopped both hands in front of her face.

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Crikey. I’m really blue! She looked at her palms and then rotated her hands to give a good appraisal to her fingers. Even her fingernails were a pleasant shade of blue. In her typical nervous gesture, she raked her fingers through her hair to make the spikes stand up better. No spikes remained as she threaded her fingers through long, wavy hair. They’d done it. They’d really fucking done it! Dying to see the extent of the changes, she jerked the white sheet from her body and tried to sit up. The instant her head came up off the pillow, the room began to swim and her stomach churned. She quickly lay back down. “Whoa, darlin’,” a vaguely familiar baritone called. “You’re gonna be dizzy if you get up too fast.” Alayna glanced up to find Will grinning down at her. At least she thought it was Will. The blue skin on that handsome face made her feel like she’d entered some sort of alternate dimension that reminded her of a childhood book about some lost girl visiting an absurd place called Oz. Everything the girl stumbled across there had been surreal, just as Alayna’s world was surreal now. “Will?” “So you recognize me. Good. My first look at myself in a mirror and I wasn’t even sure who the hell I was.” As if she wouldn’t recognize that handsome, cocky grin or his ever so appealing scent. His scent? When had she ever noticed a man’s scent before? Right now she sure as hell noticed Will’s, and for some odd reason, that wonderful smell sent heat pooling between her thighs, drawing her to him like an irresistible tug. Sitting up slowly, she began to purr. “You look great blue.” His grin grew. “So you do, darlin’.” Leaning in, he reached out to brush her hair over her shoulder. “In fact, you were pretty before. Now…you’re beautiful. Blue suits you, Alayna.” When he placed a kiss against her forehead that was so infinitely gentle, she closed her

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eyes and purred louder. “Hey! Don’t forget about me!” Tanner’s soft footsteps sounded on the other side of the bed. Alayna turned to look at him and smiled. “Blue suits you, too.” She placed a hand against his chest and smoothed her palm up to his shoulder and then down his arm. “You smell so good, Tanner. Like man and desire.” The mattress dipped beside her as he put a knee down and tilted his body closer. “That’s ’cause I desire you, baby.” He crooked a finger under her chin and lifted until their gazes were locked. Her womb did a somersault at the passion she found in his deep blue eyes. “I bet you taste as good as you smell.” His lips brushed over hers. Once. Twice. Then a growl rose from his chest as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulled her up to kneel in front of him, and then flattened her breasts against his muscular chest in a fierce embrace. Her nipples tightened in response. He dragged her from the bed until her feet touched the cold tile. Alayna looped her arms around his neck, letting herself drown in his sweet taste and intoxicating aroma. Fluids rushed from her pussy, and when his tongue slipped past her lips, she gave it a gentle suck. Never had she wanted to make love to a man as desperately as she did at that moment—at least until Will moved behind her, put his hands on her hips, and began nibbling at the tender flesh of her neck. The heat of his erection branded her buttocks. She’d die if she didn’t mate with both of them. Now! She reached one hand around to touch Will’s face as she tore her lips away from Tanner. Glancing back, she met Will as he moved to kiss her. His lips drugged her the same way Tanner’s did, and when she swept her tongue into his mouth, it brushed over his small fangs. The door swished open followed by feminine laughter. “I see you have already begun to feel the effects of the comchi. I had not expected it so soon.” Alayna, Will, and Tanner moved apart so quickly that Tanner

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almost fell on his ass and Will stumbled against the wall. All Alayna could do was pant to try to catch her breath and clench her hands into fists so she didn’t grab for the men’s gowns to drag them back. Her tongue couldn’t seem to stop tickling against the fangs she’d spontaneously grown, but at least they seemed to be receding after the splash of ice-cold water the new voice had represented. The three turned to face their visitor, and Alayna realized their “tutor” had arrived. The Fraiquan woman strode into the room, giving them all a nod but no smile. She wore burgundy scrubs and a no-nonsense expression. “I’m Betinsa Nungio. I’m here to help you through this transition.”

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Chapter 2 Tanner tried to pay attention. He really did. He’d always been a fantastic student. Third in his class at the North American Law Enforcement Academy. Trained under some of the toughest agents in the Earth Bureau of Investigation. Youngest guy ever recruited for the Interplanetary Drug Enforcement Agency. Since his father and all four of his brothers were involved in law enforcement, he’d always assumed it was in his blood. Now, he’d been asked to participate in the most important assignment of his career—to infiltrate one of the largest chemical distributors in the Prime Sector to try to discover the Fraiquan company’s reputed connections to organized crime and the manufacture and distribution of patrile. He’d even agreed to genetic manipulation, a drastic measure so he could “become” Fraiquan, since that species only trusted its own kind. His mind should have been focused solely on his role in this masquerade. Yet all he could think about was getting his hands on Alayna Wilson and fucking her brains out. Since when did his dick take control of his brain? Glancing over at her for what seemed like the millionth time, he sucked in a hissing breath. “Mr. O’Brien!” He snapped up out of his seat and to attention, sending his chair flying backward. The sound of it clattering against the tile floor echoed through the classroom. “Yes, ma’am?” Betinsa now stood in front of his table, her hands set against her hips. Her stare rivaled any of the drill sergeants at the Academy, and

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he’d been conditioned to respond with the utmost obedience. “What did I just say?” she asked. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I…um…I didn’t—” “Didn’t what, Tanner? Didn’t pay attention?” she snapped. “What could have been more important than learning about the company you are preparing to infiltrate?” Like he’d tell her that. “Sorry, ma’am.” Betinsa shifted her gaze to Alayna and then back to Tanner, obviously knowing what he’d been thinking. Since his stiff cock was pressing against his gray jumpsuit, it probably wasn’t that difficult for her to discern. “Sit down, and please pay attention from now on.” Hard to do when he could smell Alayna even though she sat at the other end of the table. He whirled to grab his chair, still a bit shocked to see his own blue hands as he reached out. Every time he walked by a mirror he stopped to stare, and he wondered if Alayna and Will had the same problem. Setting his chair back on its legs, he plopped down on the seat, scooted up to the table, and grabbed his e-tablet. “Sorry, ma’am.” With a weary sigh, Betinsa folded her arms over the baby bump on her stomach. Judging from the size of her, she had to be due to deliver soon. Like many pregnant women, she walked back on her heels, looking a little like a duck waddling. That thought would have brought a smile to his face if he hadn’t been trained to conceal his emotions so completely. “Now,” she said, “your contact has made all the arrangements for the jobs for the three of you, but it will be on your shoulders to find the financial trail.” “Yes, ma’am. I’ve done a lot of forensic accounting.” “Which is one of the reasons you were chosen for this undercover assignment, but you will also need to let them know you are willing to hide any illegal payments in their books.” She turned to Will. “We have achieved the level of security clearance you will need under your new name. Thanks to that new résumé, you will appear to be a

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shipping worker whose family is deeply in debt and ripe for the picking.” Will nodded. “I’m still concerned about using a pseudonym, though. Last time I went undercover, the guy they sent with me kept fucking up and not responding when someone called him by his fake name.” Betinsa leaned forward to press her palms against the table, leveling a hard stare at him. “You believe we haven’t considered that? We are allowing you to use your familiar names.” He shot her an incredulous frown. “You are? Hell’s bells, you people need to get this debriefing moving faster, or we’re heading into this operation entirely unprepared.” Her indigo eyes drilled into him. “That, Will, is why I am here now.” Standing back up, she settled her hands against her enormous belly again. “Fraiqua has been a closed society for so long, no one outside of the planet knows nearly enough about the culture to assimilate for an undercover assignment. I was brought in by the E.B.I. to help prepare you. What I need from all three of you now is to put your sexual attraction aside and focus on the job.” “So we can keep our first names?” Tanner asked. Betinsa nodded. “All of them can be considered nicknames for common Fraiquan names. Your family name will be Pariago. The false credentials we created were more than enough to get you hired in at Cosenki Chemicals.” Setting down his tablet, Tanner picked up the mock-up of the translator chip she’d given them earlier and stared at it. He’d had so many things done to him recently, one more procedure shouldn’t have meant a damned thing. But it did, because this time they were jamming one of those chips into his brain. “Are we still getting this installed tomorrow?” Betinsa nodded again. Her blue finger pointed to her left temple. “Directly into Broca’s area in your left frontal lobe. Trust me on this—Fraiqui is one of the most difficult languages to master. This

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chip will allow you to speak it fluently, plus we are adding an old Earth language—Hungarian—so that the three of you may communicate without being understood.” “Won’t that make people suspicious?” Will asked. “Not really. Fraiquans master languages so easily, they often learn nearly dead languages or even invent their own simply to keep family secrets. Speaking only to each other in such a way would not seem unusual. Don’t use it too often, however, or one of them might pick up your meaning. Save it for very important messages only.” Alayna crooked her finger at Betinsa. “Ms. Nungio…may I speak to you?” She glanced over to look at Will and then at Tanner. “In private.” “We have a lot of work to do, Alayna. Can’t it wait?” “I suppose…” Her gaze caught Tanner’s, the heat there unmistakable, and he felt his cock surge back to life. Damn, but he wanted her with an intensity he’d never felt before for any woman. This blinding need for Alayna was drowning him. Every time he caught her scent, all he wanted to do was grab her, throw her on the table, sink his dick inside that tight, hot pussy, and— “Mr. O’Brien!” His instructor’s angry eyes were hot enough to melt Canada in January. “Sorry, ma’am.” Tanner shifted in his seat, trying to get his erect cock into a comfortable position without touching himself too obviously. Alayna shook her head. “That’s why I need to speak to you in private.” “Because Tanner can’t seem to stop staring at you?” “Yes. I mean no. I mean…” She clenched her hands into fists and pounded them against the table before erupting like a volcano. “Why can’t I stop smelling them? I’m dying here! Every time I see Tanner or Will…every time I catch their scents…I…I…” Throwing her hands in the air, she let out a moan that sounded so incredibly sexy, Tanner’s libido responded, making him lick his lips simply thinking

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about how much he wanted to fuck her. A knowing smile spread over Betinsa’s face. “You want them.” Such a matter-of-fact statement. If Alayna was half as affected by his and Will’s scent as he was by hers, she had to be going out of her mind. He certainly was. Every thought was wrapped up in her—all the erotic things he wanted to do to her, all the erotic things he wanted Will to do to her. All the erotic things they could do to her together. If he stayed around Alayna too much longer, breathing in that intoxicating, feminine perfume, he was going to cream his jumpsuit. Alayna groaned. “I don’t understand this! I’ve never been this…I don’t think about…” She took a deep breath that didn’t seem to help much. Then she shouted, “All I can think about is sex!” From the moment Betinsa had come into their lives, she’d been nothing but business. Her expressions were severe, her manners abrupt, and every word out of her mouth about the mission. Yet at that moment, the Fraiquan looked as if she was going to burst out laughing. Such an odd reaction. “I understand.” “You understand? How?” “Alayna,” Betinsa said, putting her hand over one of Alayna’s, “I, too, have been through the comchi. I know how strong the need to mate can be. I wasn’t sure whether you would face it or not. Evidently, the genetic change truly made you Fraiquan.” “What’s a comchi?” Will asked, beating Tanner to the punch. “All Fraiquan females must take mates when they reach the age of the comchi.” Only one word registered. “Mates? Did you say—” “Mates.” Betinsa kept on smiling. “Oh, I get it. You’re talking about them pretending to be my husbands.” “No, Alayna. I mean mates—men who are bonded to you for the rest of their lives. I have two husbands because all Fraiquan women marry their two mates.” “But we’re humans!” Will insisted. “And we’re not really getting

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married.” “None of you are fully human any longer,” Betinsa replied. “Alayna, we can talk to Dr. Morton to see if perhaps we can control the comchi by blocking all your hormones. You have much to learn before we send you to Fraiqua. If you do not deal with the comchi, you will not be able to concentrate.” She nodded at Tanner and then Will. “Your pheromones will keep distracting them as well.” This whole thing seemed ridiculous. They were humans, not animals. “It can’t be pheromones,” Tanner grumbled. Their instructor arched a black eyebrow. “You believe not? Then tell me, what did I teach you this morning about how to react if Alayna tells you to bis mitard?” She had him there. All he’d been able to think about since the moment he’d stepped into Alayna’s room after the genetic change was burying his cock inside her. He finally answered with a shrug. “And you, Will? What would you do if your wife tells you to bis mitard? You learned it less than an hour ago.” Will heaved a sigh. “Beats the shit outta me.” Betinsa chuckled. “Pheromones. You must face the comchi or control it.” “You mean by doing something like lowering my hormones?” Alayna asked. “Actually,” Betinsa replied, “we would probably have to block your hormones altogether. By doing that, you could find some relief and perhaps give Tanner and Will some as well. Of course, we don’t want you going through the compassa…” A delicate shudder shook her shoulders. “Ah, well. We can—” “What’s the compassa?” Alayna’s blue eyes flew wide open. Betinsa seemed to think it over before she said. “It’s the change of life for older females. Very…distracting. Hot flashes. Night sweats. Sudden chills.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I imagine suffering all of those would be better than resolving the comchi with two men you’ve only just met.”

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Alayna blinked a couple of times, not believing what she was hearing. Was Betinsa actually telling her she’d be happier going through what sounded like the Fraiquan version of severe menopause rather than resolving this stupid horniness? Or was she playing her for some reason? Shit, Will and Tanner were cute. They were obviously every bit as sexually attracted to her as she was to them, judging from their constant leers, their less than subtle comments, and the tents they were pitching in their jumpsuits. Why didn’t they all simply give in, fuck their brains out, and get their minds back on the mission? “I’d rather resolve this stupid comchi. Can’t we just…fuck it away?” She caught the quick intake of breath by both men and figured that telling response said they were on board with her plan. Leveling a hard stare at Tanner and then Will, Alayna set the ground rules. “Look, it’s just this once. Doesn’t mean anything. Got it? We’ve just got to resolve this stupid hormonal…thing. That’s all.” “You are wrong.” Betinsa had folded her arms over her baby bump again. “Dead wrong.” “You’re Fraiquan, not human,” Alayna insisted. “Maybe you just don’t understand us.” “Oh, but I understand you very well. Both of my husbands are human. I have a unique view of your species, just as you are getting a unique view of mine.” “It’s just rut,” Will remarked, ignoring Betinsa’s announcement. “Like animals in season. Right?” She shook her head. “This is so much more than hormonal.” “What do you mean?” Tanner asked. Alayna had quickly learned he was the doubting Thomas of her new partners. “More than hormonal? What’s that mean?” “This is not simply about sex,” she replied. “It’s a…mating…a coming together of three people in way that I cannot truly express in words.” “But if it’s about mating, then won’t our…mating fix it and make

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it stop?” Alayna was in misery, physically and mentally. Never in her life had she been so ruled by her body. Everything inside her screamed to go to Tanner and Will, to make love to them until the three of them were too tired to move. It had been just about forever since she’d been laid, and even though they were now blue from head to foot, her new partners were still easy on the eyes. Now she was lying to herself. They weren’t simply easy on the eyes—they were, in her estimation, the most handsome males in the whole fucking universe. Everything about them appealed to her, calling to her body and her mind. A little voice in her head said her heart might be in danger as well, but at that moment she didn’t give a shit. They could have that too, as long as they quenched the fire burning inside her. Her tongue ran across the small fangs growing from her canine teeth as she stared at Will, loving the heated look he gave her in response. She shifted her gaze to Tanner, and his eyes widened as his growl matched her own. Crawling up on the table, Alayna stalked him like a cat. She’d barely begun to slink toward him when Betinsa’s hand came down hard on the table, having the same effect as an ice cold shower. For pity’s sake! She’d been ready to drag Tanner up on the table and fuck him right there in front of Betinsa. Perhaps menopause or compassa or whatever the hell it was would be a better choice. “Sorry.” She eased off the table and dropped into a chair, her face heating in embarrassment. Betinsa’s gaze moved from Tanner to Will to settle on Alayna. “This is a choice only the three of you can make. You are in…uncharted territory.” “Meaning?” Tanner asked. “To Fraiquans, the comchi means the three have taken each other as lifemates. After they come together sexually, they go through a ceremony called a joining, and they are linked for the rest of their lives.”

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“But we’re not Fraiquan,” Will said. “Precisely,” Betinsa replied. “Which means this mating might have less significance for the three of you. Perhaps it is, as you say, simply about hormones since you aren’t fully genetically Fraiquan. While you are undercover, you can simply act out the joining custom.” She gave them an exaggerated shrug. “I have no way to knowing the extent of how completing the comchi will affect all of you emotionally.” “What you’re saying,” Tanner said, “is that if we give in to this and”—he glanced to Alayna—“have sex, it might mean we’re fine? That this craving will just go away?” Betinsa nodded. “However—” “Then let’s do it.” Will sounded as enthusiastic as a new soldier being sent on his first mission. Alayna was every bit as ready, but she was trying to use more neurons and less hormones. “She didn’t say it would go away. She said it might go away. She also said we might be making a lifetime commitment.” Alayna was having a hard time wrapping her mind around that, probably because she might have a Fraiquan body, but her brain was still human. Human beings didn’t mate for life whenever they fucked. They just…fucked. Sure, some of her genetics might be Fraiquan now, but that was temporary. This stupid comchi thing had to be temporary too. “I don’t know…” “I should leave you three to discuss this,” Betinsa said, gathering up her e-tablet and sliding it into her briefcase. “It is nearly time for supper anyway, and you three need some bonding time.” She smiled again, probably thinking about the kind of…bonding the three of them would be doing tonight. That erotic notion sent a rush of heat straight to Alayna’s pussy, making her squirm in need. And why did those stupid fangs seem to pop out every time she thought about Tanner or Will touching her? A quick glance to Will’s open mouth showed the same fangs. A shiver of excitement ran through her body at the thought of the sexual

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pleasure those fangs could give her breasts and her cunt. No doubt about it—she was going to fuck Will and Tanner tonight or else her destination was Masturbation City. A nice place to visit, but she wouldn’t want to live there. “I will see you all in the morning.” And on that, Betinsa left them alone in the classroom, the loud swish of the mechanical door echoing through the room like the peal of a church bell. Alayna looked to Will and then to Tanner. “Why don’t we go back to my room and…talk about this comchi thing?”

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Chapter 3 The door slid shut behind Alayna, and she took a few deep, steadying breaths. All that tack did was increase her awareness of the two men who were now standing in her quarters. Their masculine scents whirled around her, dragging her down in an ocean of desire like a relentless undertow. Tanner and Will were close enough to her bed she could drag them over there and simply give in to the overwhelming attraction between the three of them. That purr in her throat started again when her gaze caught Will’s, and behind those dark-blue eyes, she saw the lighter blue they’d been before the transformation. In her mind’s eye, the black hair brushing his shoulders was blond again, and his skin was tan, not ethereal blue. Would she ever stop seeing them as they were and get used to them being Fraiquan? Staring at the men, she wondered why they hesitated to make a move to initiate sex. She’d made it crystal clear back in the classroom that she was ready to take their relationship to a sexual level, if only to relieve them all from this burning frustration that made it next to impossible to concentrate on what they should be learning to make this undercover mission a success. “Alayna,” Tanner said, taking a step closer but not reaching out to touch her, “I think you’re gonna have to call the shots here.” Cocking her head, she pictured that strawberry blond who’d made her smile back when they’d met. “Why do I get the choice? This involves all three of us.” Will shrugged. “I suppose, but you’re the woman. Aren’t we supposed to be deferring to you now? I mean…isn’t that what

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Fraiquan men are supposed to do?” “If you weren’t Fraiquan, what would you do?” She asked the question as she moved close enough to lay a palm against each of their chests. A jolt like lightning ripped down each arm, sending heat to her pussy and causing a surprised gasp to escape her lips. “I’d throw you on the bed and fuck you senseless.” He smiled at her, his white teeth so in contrast to his tinted skin. Sliding her palm up his firm chest, she tickled his neck before tangling her fingers in his coarse hair. “Who’s stopping you?” A growl sounded, drawing her to glance at Tanner. His hand covered hers, dragging it down slowly over his rock-hard abdomen, drawing closer to the stiff cock she saw pressing against the front of his jumpsuit. The movement was so maddeningly slow, she almost jerked her hand out of his grasp to hurry the process, needing to feel the evidence of his desire for her. The anticipation might be delightful, but she was past teasing. She licked her lips, causing him to growl again. “Say you want us, Alayna. You have to say you want us.” She decided to taunt them, loving being in charge. Perhaps the Fraiquans had the right idea in letting the women take the lead in everything. Her whole life had seemed like nothing but giving in to things guys wanted, as if their egos would never allow them to defer to a woman. Having two incredibly sexy men—regardless of whether they were human or Fraiquan—at her beck and call was intoxicating. “I don’t know…perhaps.” Tanner pressed her hand to his stiff dick. She could feel the heat of him through the cotton of his jumpsuit. “Perhaps? That’s all? Perhaps?” He pushed his cock against her palm. Alayna smiled, taking her hands away. Her first instinct was to strip out of her jumpsuit, order them out of theirs, and get down to business. But her humanity nagged at her. “Are you both sure you want this? According to Betinsa, there might be no turning back.” Will was already nodding while Tanner seemed to think it over a

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few seconds longer. “You know, it might not be…forever,” he finally said. “When we change back, who knows what we’ll feel? Right now, I want you so badly I’m not sure I care about the consequences.” He heaved a sigh hard enough to part her hair. “We don’t know what this could mean.” She nibbled on her lower lip. The thought of walking away from them now was agonizing. Everything inside her screamed to get closer, to make love to these men until all three of them were too exhausted to lift a single finger. But she owed them a choice. If Betinsa was correct, once they came together, there could be no separating them. The three would be…joined, for want of a better word. “I don’t even know either of you well.” Will shrugged. “In Earth’s history, it wasn’t at all unusual to have marriages arranged. The bride and groom—” “Grooms, in this case,” Alayna couldn’t help but point out. “Fine. Grooms. Sometimes they didn’t meet until the actual wedding.” She quirked an eyebrow. “Are you saying you’re willing to commit to me and to Tanner for the rest of our lives?” “We don’t know that’s what will happen. Maybe we’ll feel that way while we’re Fraiquan, but who knows what’ll happen after they switch us back to who we really are. Even if we got married while we’re altered, divorces happen every day.” “If they can switch us back.” Tanner’s words were a stark reminder of how scary this whole genetic engineering could be. “Look, maybe we’re kinda putting the cart before the horse here, worrying about changing back when that’s months and months away. All I know is that I want you, Alayna.” He glanced over at Will with a vulnerable smile. “And we already talked about us.” With a nod, Will smiled. “We did, didn’t we?” Alayna felt left out of some inside joke. “What does that mean?” “Tanner and I were already getting…close.” “You’re lovers?” How in the hell she’d found the courage to ask

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was beyond her, but she needed to know. Both men shook their heads. “We’d considered it,” Will finally replied. “It was probably gonna happen. Eventually. It’s just now, things have changed.” “Why?” “Because of you,” Tanner said, reaching for her hand. “Now, we’ve got to consider how this affects you, and we’re waiting to follow your lead.” Her ego loved hearing that. Since her chosen profession involved so many more men than women, she’d been conditioned to have to fight to simply get ahead, let alone to try to lead men who seemed to always consider themselves superior. “So whatever I decide, you’ll go along with it?” They nodded. Alayna’s pussy clenched as her fluids suddenly soaked her panties, her sexual need blending with the newfound power she felt coursing through her. Being in charge was a strong aphrodisiac. “Then if I say strip out of those jumpsuits and get in that bed, you’ll do it without any complaints?” Again, two nods. Will actually reached for his zipper, although he didn’t drag it down. Instead, he looked at her, his smoldering eyes full of anticipation. Instead of nodding or telling them to get naked right fucking now, she decided to relish having the upper hand. “I don’t know…what do you boys think you have to offer me that I might be interested in? Are you good lovers?” When they nodded yet again, she grinned and reached for her own zipper. Dragging it down slowly, she stopped when she reached her navel. Never one to wear a bra, she loved hearing how their breathing increased in rhythm as she uncovered more and more skin. The gray garment parted, revealing most of her cleavage without letting her nipples be seen. Since they’d hardened to pebbles and pushed against the fabric, their outlines had to be every bit as obvious as the erections

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stretching the guys’ jumpsuits. “Perhaps you should tell me what you’d like to do if I take this outfit the rest of the way off,” she suggested. “I want to eat your pussy,” Will blurted out. He still hadn’t pulled down his zipper, and she knew he was waiting for her signal. Damn, but it was fantastic to be calling all the shots. Tanner’s eyes had darkened to a blue so deep that she knew she could lose herself in those depths. “And you, Tanner? What would you do to me?” “I’d please you, Alayna.” “How?” He shifted the weight between his feet, clearly uncomfortable talking dirty. She’d have to rid him of that shyness because she longed to hear all the erotic things he wanted to do. “Do you have a big cock? Would that be how you could please me?” Although he was nodding, he wouldn’t follow her lead. “Tell me!” “I’d rather show you.” A quick tremor ran through her, making the muscles inside her cunt contract as she sucked in a breath. Their stimulating scents drifted around her, and she savored the smell of their desire. At that moment, she didn’t care if their coming together meant she’d be pledging them her heart, her soul, or her very existence. Fuck the consequences. “Get naked,” she commanded as she stripped away the drab jumpsuit. Only white panties covered her blue body. Those were quickly banished to the floor. The men scrambled out of their clothing, dropping the one-piece suits aside and then dragging their regulation white briefs down their muscular legs. Standing before her, they drew themselves to military attention, which made her smile as she stared at their incredible cocks. Tanner’s was so thick that she wasn’t sure she could wrap her hand around it and have thumb and finger meet. She wanted to trace the prominent veins with her fingertips and rub the spot of pre-cum glistening on the crown. Funny, but she didn’t see his cock as blue,

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only tan. Her brain was playing tricks on her, making her imagine what simply wasn’t there. Will’s dick wasn’t as thick, but it was the longest she’d ever seen, probably a good twenty-five centimeters. Shit, he might kill her if he fucked her with it, but she’d die happy. “My, my, my. Quite a display of masculine attributes.” Taking the last step forward, she reached for them with no warning, wrapping her fingers around their erections and stroking. Their incredible heat branded her palms. Two groans echoed through her room, and she smiled. “You like that?” They nodded in unison, but neither reached for her in return, instead clenching their hands into fists at their sides. How odd. She was so used to having a guy frantically fumbling around, attempting some foreplay that really didn’t excite her all that much, and then jamming his cock inside her before coming far too soon. Being in charge had its advantages because she could tell them exactly what she wanted and knew they’d do it. No questions asked. She released their dicks. “Get in my bed.” Tanner scrambled over the covers at the same time Will tried to turn them down, and they ended up getting in each other’s way. Their eagerness was so endearing, it made tears sting her eyes. She blinked them away. With some maneuvering, Will was able to pull the blanket away, baring the stark white sheets that seemed even whiter as the men stretched out on them, their blue skin turning almost iridescent. Looking at her own arms, she realized her skin glowed with a pearl sheen as well. A sign of excitement? Damn, she had a lot to learn about being Fraiquan, and she’d have to find out if she could control that response or everyone would know when she was turned on. Funny, she hadn’t noticed the change earlier. Perhaps this new development was part of the comchi? Tanner leaned back against the metal of the headboard while Will sat cross-legged at the foot of the bed. Their delectable cocks rose from their bodies, making her fear she’d have to wipe drool from her

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chin if she kept staring at them too awfully long. Walking to the bed, she knelt on the mattress, purring. “Who’s first?” she asked, almost laughing at her own question because she knew they’d make her choose. Her eyes moved to Tanner, and when she saw the desire in his dark eyes as he gently stroked his cock, her teeth began to sprout fangs again. “You.” Will let out a whimper that sounded like disappointment, so as she crawled to Tanner, she glanced over her shoulder. “Come here, Will.” He obeyed without question, hurrying to sit next to Tanner on the pillows of her double bed. She watched them closely, trying to figure out exactly how to choreograph this so neither felt left out. She’d never been in a threesome before. Hell, she’d never ever considered one. Now she had to run the whole show. “I want the three of us to truly belong to each other. Don’t you?” They smiled and nodded. “I want you to suck Will’s dick, Tanner.” Obedience was heavenly. Slowly leaning down as he grinned, Tanner grasped Will’s cock and took it deep into his mouth while Will hissed his approval. Alayna hadn’t realized how forceful guys could be with their equipment. She’d always handled her lover’s erection with such care and seldom touched his balls because she was afraid to hurt him. Yet as Tanner deep-throated Will’s huge cock and roughly squeezed his sac, she wondered if she needed to rethink the idea. The more vigorous Tanner got, the more Will seemed to enjoy it. Her fangs grew a little longer, and she was drowning in the need to join them. Lying on her stomach, she took Tanner’s wide cock into her mouth, scraping her teeth over the engorged head. He growled and increased the attention he was giving to Will. Alayna loved his salty taste, truly enjoying sucking dick for the first time in her life. Usually, the masculine odor seemed a bit…overwhelming and not horribly pleasant. But Tanner’s scent made her pussy tighten and nipples tingle, and all she wanted was to

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climb onto his cock and ride him until they both climaxed. Suddenly, she couldn’t wait a moment longer. Grabbing Tanner’s shoulders as he released Will, she forced him down on the mattress and straddled his hips. She covered his lips with hers and pushed her tongue into his mouth, brushing over his fangs. Tanner wrapped his hand around Alayna’s neck, so lost in need that he couldn’t even think about anything other than thrusting inside that sweet pussy and pounding away until they came. He sucked her tongue deep into his mouth, dragging his new fangs along the rough surface and savoring the whimpers she gave him in response. Will had settled behind her, forcing his hands between them to palm her incredible tits. She sat back, rubbing her wet cunt against Tanner’s cock and making him grab her hips. He was ready to mate with her, but he simply couldn’t. It was the damnedest thing. Asking her permission because he wanted her to be ready was one thing, but this was different—like he was paralyzed until she told him what to do. Since he normally took the lead—especially in bed—this was an exciting turn of events. “Alayna?” “Fuck me, Tanner,” she commanded. “Yes, ma’am.” Gripping her hips, he surged inside her, almost coming from the tight, wet feel of her pussy surrounding him. “Oh, God…” Will backed away, stroking his own cock while Alayna’s attention turned back to Tanner, who loved the way her eyes sparkled and her skin practically glowed. He thrust up inside her, again and again, feeling his own climax starting to build from his balls as they pulled up tighter against him. She leaned down, baring her teeth. He pulled his lips back to display his fangs. Moving in a fast rhythm, he fucked her hard as she lowered herself until her face brushed over his neck. He nuzzled hers in response. He kissed the sweet-smelling skin where her neck met her shoulder before he felt Alayna sink her teeth into him and sucked

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hard. Acting on some kind of undeniable instinct, he licked her once and then pushed his fangs into her skin at the same time he slammed his cock hard inside her again. The orgasm washed over him the moment he tasted her salty blood on his tongue, his semen pouring out of him and into her with so much force, he wondered for a moment if he was going to pass out. The climax seemed to last forever as his ears rang and small lights darted around his field of vision. Pulling back his fangs, he panted for breath as he squeezed her hips, loving her muscles contracting around his cock. Will watched and waited, wondering how he could be so fucking turned on by seeing Alayna riding Tanner like a bucking bronco. He stroked his own dick, thinking about how wonderful it was going to be to have his chance to claim Alayna. Claim. It seemed like the only word to describe what he wanted from her. The purr rising from her throat as she turned to look at him hit him so hard his cock spewed some pre-cum. She crawled off a clearly spent Tanner and stalked Will like a hunter seeking prey. “I want you,” she said with a growl. “I’m yours.” He leaned back against the headboard and held his cock up to show here right where he wanted her. She kissed her way up his body, starting with the top of one foot then touching her lips and tongue to spots on his calf, his thigh, and when she reached his erection, she licked him from root to crown. Threading his fingers through her thick hair, he moaned his approval. “God, Alayna. That feels so fucking good.” She just kept crawling up his body, stopping to kiss his stomach, lave a nipple, and then press her face against his neck. “You smell so fucking good.” Her hand encircled his cock, guiding it to her pussy. Before he could thrust inside, she impaled herself on him at the same time she grabbed his shoulders and bit his skin. With a loud groan, he pushed his hips up, rocking into her and

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loving how tightly she squeezed him. His fingers were still tangled in her hair, so he brushed it aside, baring her shoulder. The marks Tanner made when he’d claimed Alayna made Will shift to the other side, and he dragged her long, coarse hair out of the way. He bit her right where her pulse beat wildly under her glowing blue skin. Alayna felt everything inside her contract again, the orgasm quickly building inside her. She drew in a long suck of Will’s blood, immediately memorizing its taste and knowing it was somehow branding him on her heart, just as it had when she’d claimed Tanner. Pulling back, she licked the stickiness from her lips before moving to cover Will’s mouth with hers. She stroked the roof of his mouth with her tongue as his hips rose, pumping that huge cock deep inside her. Then everything inside her shattered, making her heart pound a furious beat as her blood seemed to turn to liquid fire. Moaning against his lips, she scraped her nails down his shoulders. Will groaned as he shuddered, the heat of his semen bathing her insides, setting off aftershocks that were almost as delicious as her orgasms had been. Alayna stared into his eyes as they both panted for breath. The mattress dipped as Tanner crawled closer. Funny, she didn’t feel shy at all. She’d just been with two different men, practically putting on a sex show for each, but she didn’t hold an ounce of embarrassment. Instead, she smiled, thinking that for the first time since the genetic manipulation, she felt like she belonged inside this body. Gingerly removing herself from Will’s lap, she flopped to her back between the two men. They immediately snuggled up against her sides, draping heavy thighs over her legs. Although she knew they needed to talk about what had just happened, she was too lethargic and too damned happy to do anything except sigh in pleasure. Right before sleep took her, she realized that Betinsa had been right. Nothing between her, Will, and Tanner was ever going to be the same again.

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Chapter 4 Alayna plopped down in the chair, waiting for Betinsa to join her and the guys. A glance to them made her smile. Both looked thoroughly content, and she somehow knew it was making love that brought them that happiness. They’d done nothing afterward, merely slept, and then the men had returned to their shared room to shower. Breakfast had been quiet, but it hadn’t felt the least bit uncomfortable—not an awkward kind of silence. More like the kind of peace in a happy household, the kind she’d searched for her whole life. How odd to find it with two virtual strangers. She had to keep reminding herself this was only temporary, which brought a frown to her face and threw sadness back into her world. What she’d experienced with Tanner and Will had been beyond description, a fusing of their souls. But would it last once they became human again? Who knew whether what they had would survive when the Fraiquan part of them that spawned the comchi and their joining was wrenched from them. Watching the men talking softly, she still saw them as they were, not with the blue skin and jet-black hair of Fraiquans. Perhaps that oddity was because she liked them either way—the handsome Fraiquans she now saw and the humans she also knew. How did they see her? Did the duality of her thoughts mean that there was a bond beyond genetic engineering and that they would crave each other when they were human again? Alayna shook her head, deciding only time would answer all her questions. For now, she needed to focus on the mission.

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The door opened and in waddled Betinsa. She wasn’t alone. Two human men followed her into the large classroom, hovering around her as she slowly made her way to the table where Alayna sat. Although she didn’t know Betinsa well, Alayna could read faces, and at that moment, Betinsa was in pain. “Are you okay?” Her instructor nodded at the same time the men shook their heads. “You’re in labor, aren’t you?” “So it would seem,” Betinsa replied as she awkwardly lowered her body into a chair. “Then why are you here?” “My question exactly,” the more muscular of the two men asked. His dark hair was cut every bit as short as Will’s had been before his transformation, and his brown eyes mirrored his concern for Betinsa. “Tinsa, you should be in a hospital!” The other man had shoulder-length brown hair, and his expression was more guarded—at least it was until Betinsa grimaced. Then his concerned expression matched the one on the first man’s face. “Matt’s right, lamanna.” Betinsa waved away their concern with a flick of her hand. She glanced over to Tanner and Will. “Gentlemen…if you would join us.” They took a seat on either side of Alayna, making her heart race, especially when they scooted their chairs a little closer. Damn, but she loved how they acted like besotted adolescents, probably because she didn’t want to be alone out on the shaky limb of attraction. Giving them a grin that was followed by a grimace, Betinsa nodded at the men who’d accompanied her. “These are my husbands, Matt Newton”—she inclined her head at the darker man—“and Drake Keller.” She repeated the action with the thinner one. Matt reached out to shake each of their hands. “I understand you’re going deep undercover on Fraiqua. Takes a lot of balls.” “Sure does,” Drake added. “Fraiqua isn’t at all like Earth. You’re all in for a shock, which I suppose is why Betinsa still feels she should be here with the three of you when she’s giving birth.” He

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flashed his wife a concerned frown. She waved it away again. “I have plenty of time.” Alayna looked to Drake. “I understand you’re an ambassador from the United Continents to Fraiqua.” “Was an ambassador,” Drake replied. “I still intervene when they need my help, but since Matt and Betinsa have to travel so much working for E.I.B., I’ve gone into sort of a semi-retirement.” He chuckled. “Not that I’m old enough.” “You’re going to be plenty busy with the munchkin,” Matt added. Tossing a grin at Alayna, he said, “Drake’s gonna play stay-at-home daddy for a while. His choice, but we’re all happy with it.” “What can I say?” Drake shrugged. “I want to spend time with our little boy.” “No one’s complaining,” Matt said, clapping his hand against Drake’s shoulder. The notion of Betinsa being married to these men forced Alayna to vent her curiosity. “If you’ll excuse me asking, how did a Fraiquan end up marrying two humans?” Matt was the one to answer. “We crashed on one of Fraiqua’s moons. Stuff just kinda…happened.” “I reached the comchi when I was with them,” Betinsa added. “But I thought Fraiqua was a closed society,” Will said, jumping into the discussion. “I’d always heard they were a bit…racist about other species.” He frowned and lowered his eyes when Betinsa frowned at him. “Sorry, ma’am.” “In our case,” she replied, “it was simply meant to be. The comchi cannot be predicted, nor can it be denied, but you are correct, Will. It isn’t common for a Fraiquan woman to take mates from other cultures.” Betinsa groaned, making both of her husband’s faces fall immediately into frowns. Drake picked up her hand. “We should get you to a hospital.” With the shake of her head, she gave him a wan smile. “I have

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told you more times than I can count, labor for my species is different. It could be days before our son is born.” Alayna’s eyes widened. “Days? It takes days for Fraiquans to go through labor?” No one had bothered telling her that before they’d changed her into one. And fuck it all if the three of them hadn’t even thought about birth control last night. Fuck. Fuckety fuck. Trying to calm down, she kept telling herself that one romp in the sack, even if it was with two very virile guys, didn’t mean she’d get pregnant. No, one time didn’t mean she’d conceive. Shit, she had more than enough to worry about going to Fraiqua and infiltrating Cosenki Chemicals. This problem, she’d dismiss. Or perhaps she’d take a quick visit to the infirmary for a scan before they left the military base. She’d simply cross that stupid reproductive bridge if it popped up in her path. Since she’d lost track of what they were saying, Alayna tried to figure out what she hadn’t heard. Matt was talking, so she focused on his words. “Lukasi Arma will be your main contact. He’s been inside C.C. for nearly two years.” “How do you know so much about this?” she blurted out. “Where were you a minute ago?” he asked, his mouth pulling into an irritated line. “I told you, E.B.I. has had me on this since Betinsa was asked to participate in helping you plan the mission.” “But you’re human,” she couldn’t help but point out. “We’re supposed to be learning how to act Fraiquan.” God, she should have been paying attention. This wasn’t like her at all. Every mission she’d ever been on had received her full focus. Why was this so damned hard? Betinsa stepped into the exchange. “You are still affected by the comchi, Alayna. It will ease soon. Then your memory and your abilities will return.” “I hate that,” she grumbled.

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“Hate what?” “That you seem to be reading my mind all the time.” Betinsa chuckled before she wrinkled her forehead as if in pain. Her expression softened quickly back to normal. “I have been where you now are. I know what you are going through. The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking like a human and start trusting your heart—your Fraiquan heart.” Betinsa’s gaze locked with hers, and something inside Alayna seemed to connect to Betinsa at that moment. She could almost hear the instructor’s advice in her thoughts, the reassurance Alayna needed. All would be well. She trusted Tanner and Will. Trusted them as they now trusted her to lead them. As Betinsa trusted Matt and Drake and they trusted her. Alayna closed her eyes and nodded. Matt cleared his throat, probably to get their attention, so she opened her eyes and tried to pay better attention. “Now, as I was saying, Lukasi has been inside long enough to vouch for you. I know him. A good man. He lost his wife before he went deep undercover.” “He’s Fraiquan, right?” Tanner asked. “Then what about the second husband?” Matt sidestepped the question. “Luka’s on his own now. From what I understand, that’s why this undercover is so damned successful. Everyone thinks he’s got nothing to lose, so he leads with his balls. Rose up pretty quickly through the ranks of the badasses.” “What’s his official title at C.C.?” Alayna was trying to get the hierarchy down before she headed to Fraiqua to settle into her new position as head of security for the company. Since Will would be working in shipping while Tanner became one of their bookkeepers, she needed to figure out pretty damned quick how she could slip over to the bad side of the business. “You won’t be seeing him much, Alayna, unless you’re approached to help with the patrile,” Betinsa replied. “Your official

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job will be to keep an eye on all the guards, so you will meet everyone who has access, including Luka. But he will also be working behind the scenes to put out the word your family is hurting financially. It would seem,” she added with a grin, “that you have a problem with gambling far too often.” Alayna snorted a laugh. “Let me guess…I’m pretty bad at it too, right?” “Anything to make it look like you’re ripe for bribes,” Matt said. “We need you to give off vibes that you’re willing to do anything to help your family.” He nodded at Will. “You need to nose around for overtime and get caught pilfering some stuff. Give them something to hold over your head so they think you’re in their pocket. You’ve got to make them think you’re terrified that Alayna will be furious with you if she finds out.” Will flashed Alayna a heart-stopping grin. “Yeah, she scares the shit outta me.” His hand covered her knee and gave it an affectionate squeeze and, damn, if that didn’t make fluid rush to her pussy. How could such an innocent touch send her libido soaring in a room full of people? “You know your job,” Matt said to Tanner. “Let ’em know I can ‘fix’ their books and search for paper trails that lead to whoever’s diverting the ingredients used to make patrile.” Matt nodded. “And keep your eye out—all of you—for where they might be cooking the stuff and how they’re transporting it.” “So frustrating,” Alayna said, “that we know it’s coming from Fraiqua—” “From C.C. or two other companies, specifically,” Tanner interjected. “—and we can’t pin down how the shit’s getting made and moved.” Betinsa jumped back into the briefing. “There are undercovers at all three companies. We are going to figure out who is responsible for this…plague of patrile…” She took a deep breath and rested a palm

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against her swollen belly. “Kazom…that was a bit…stronger.” Placing a hand on her shoulder, Drake leaned down to look into her eyes. “If you’re saying fuck, then it’s time to go to the hospital. Are you going on your own two feet, lamanna, or are you going to make me carry you there?” When Betinsa smiled up and placed her palm against Drake’s cheek, Alayna could see the love between them like some tangible tether. As Matt stepped over and put his hand on Betinsa’s other shoulder, the three of them practically glowed. “Please, saramie, we should go soon.” She nodded and glanced over to Alayna. “I need a few moments to talk to you before I leave. Alone, if all of you gentlemen would please take your leave?” The four men obeyed, although Matt and Drake kept glancing back at Betinsa like they were terrified to leave her alone, even for a short chat. Were all expectant fathers that nervous? It wasn’t as if Alayna had any experience with babies or giving birth. She’d been the youngest in her family, and all her brothers were so busy with their law-enforcement careers, none of them had married, let alone started having children. Once she was alone with Betinsa, Alayna asked, “What did you need to talk to me about?” “I know it is not my business, but I wanted to ask if you, Tanner, and Will…connected last night.” She held up her hand when Alayna tensed and started to stammer out a denial. “I have been through the comchi, I know its power. I just thought perhaps I should have the same kind of talk with you my mother had with me—to explain reproduction to you.” Relaxing back into her chair, Alayna couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m kinda old for a facts-of-life lecture.” “Being Fraiquan is different. Our sexuality is not like that of humans. For example, when you are in comchi, I doubt you even considered something like birth control.”

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Her face flushed hot, and she wondered what shade of blue her blush looked like. “So I am right. You have been…intimate with the men.” Betinsa sat forward as best she could with her baby bump and pulled at the collar of Alayna’s jumpsuit to reveal the bite marks. “I see your mates marked you. Do you realize what that means?” “You said it was like pledging ourselves to each other, right?” She nodded. “It is, but it is also so much more. You’re mated now. You have a connection to them only the three of you can understand, but it also gives you some control.” “Control?” “You can only bear a child when you choose to.” “How is that possible?” A knowing smile crossed Betinsa’s lips before she tensed, fisting the hand that had been resting on her unborn child. “Kazom…” “Should I get your husbands?” She held up her hand as the grimace on her features eased. “You will only become pregnant when all three of you wish to have a child.” “Are you serious? How could that be?” Betinsa nodded. “Much of being Fraiquan is spiritual, and this is a gift the Creator gives us. Have you ever noticed there are no unwanted Fraiquan children?” She patted Alayna’s hand that rested on the table. “Trust me, you will understand the longer you live as one. Just know this…you need not worry about birth control. Enjoy your men. You may find after this undercover assignment ends, the three of you may decide to stay bonded. Would you like a joining ceremony?” Alayna shrugged. They were supposed have the translator chips implanted later today, but after that, there were no more things to do to prepare for the mission, especially no arrangements to marry. They had planned to simply pretend to be married. They never discussed making it legal.

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“I strongly suggest you all marry before you go. Once you have joined, your intimacy will not trouble you so much. And as I said, who knows what will happen when your work is done?” Both of her hands suddenly fisted against her stomach and she panted for breath. Alayna hurried to the door and called to Matt and Drake. “Betinsa needs you!” **** “A healthy boy? That’s great, Matt. Congratulations. Please give Betinsa and Drake our best. Bye.” Will flipped off his communicator, dropped it into the pocket of his jumpsuit, and turned to the two people watching him with anxious eyes. “Did you both catch that?” Alayna nodded while Tanner checked his watch and grinned. “So much for Fraiquans taking a long time to give birth. They’ve only been gone four hours.” She sat down on the bench. She’d been distant ever since she’d had her private talk with Betinsa, and he hated not feeling as close to her as he had from the moment he’d awakened in the lab in his Fraiquan form. He walked over to stand in front of her. “What’s wrong, Alayna? Are you afraid to get this translation chip implanted?” All she did was shake her head. Tanner strode over to stand next to Will. “I’m not relishing the idea of having that thing jammed in my brain.” “That’s not it.” Will waited for her to expand on the answer. When she didn’t, he sat down on one side of her as Tanner sat on the other. “Then what’s bothering you, Alayna?” She turned so her gaze caught his, and for a moment, he saw the Alayna that had been there before the transformation—brown eyes stared back at him, and her hair stood up instead of cascading down her back. Although she was beautiful as a Fraiquan, she’d been just as

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exquisite as a human. Either incarnation suited him fine. He cupped her cheek in his palm and loved how she snuggled a little closer, like a kitten looking for an affectionate pat. “Will you marry me?” she asked. So that was what was bugging her. After what they’d all shared, she wasn’t going to be content faking a relationship on the mission. She wanted to make the commitment between all of them real—at least for the duration of their time on Fraiqua. He didn’t have to give it much thought. “Of course.” “And you, too?” she said as her hand grasped one of Tanner’s. “Absolutely,” he replied. “After last night, Will and I aren’t about to let you get away.” All the softness in her vanished as she popped back up to her feet. “That’s why you’d go through with the marriage? Because we fucked?” “First of all,” Will said, trying to hold his temper, “we didn’t fuck. We made love. The three of us made love.” “Same thing…” Pacing in front of the bench, she fisted her hands at her sides. “Look, we don’t have to get married. We can just go ahead with our original plans and pretend. Then we don’t have to worry about a divorce after the mission.” Although he’d taken a less forceful role in their lovemaking, he wasn’t about to let her call all the shots now, especially when she had everything so wrong. Standing up, he grabbed her shoulders, pleased to have Tanner stand up as well and join him in glaring at her. “Stop. Just stop and listen.” She seemed taken aback that he had the audacity to order her around. Damn, but she’d taken to the Fraiquan female role very well. “What did you just say to me?” Will gripped her shoulders a little tighter. “I said stop.” “And I’m saying it too,” Tanner added. “You need to listen to us for a second.” Since he and Tanner had been so in sync from the moment they

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met as this mission was being planned, he could tell that Tanner felt the same about Alayna as he did. He also knew Tanner would follow his lead. “Alayna, we want to get married, and not because we made love last night. This mission depends on how well we can blend in and how well we can be Fraiquan. The three of us are supposed to be bonded in a way that only Fraiquans are supposed to be able to understand.” Tanner nodded. “We have to get married and live like a joined trio to make it work. If we just…play house, someone’s going to figure out that something’s not right, and that could blow our cover. Besides…” He shrugged although the intensity in his eyes told Will there was a wealth of emotion behind his words. “We all know there’s something special going on here between us.” Placing one hand over Will’s where it rested on Alayna’s shoulder, he smiled. “Let’s use this time to explore that.” Alayna kept switching her gaze between both men as if thinking the whole thing over. “I’ve never been in a…relationship like this before. I guess I’m still not sure exactly what’s going on between us. Is it because of this damned comchi thing?” “Or could it be something more?” Will asked. “I agree with Tanner. Let’s do this right.” While he wasn’t convinced that this overwhelming attraction could survive once they’d all reverted back to their human form, he couldn’t help but think there was something going on other than hormones. The door to the procedure room opened, and woman in teal scrubs stepped out. “We’re ready for you. Who gets to go first?” “Me,” Alayna said in a tone that brooked no dissention. She reached up to put her hand over the men’s. “Fine. We’ll get married.” Her smile eased his worries. “And we’ll say the vows in Fraiqui.” She kissed them both quickly and headed to the door. “See you both tomorrow.”

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Chapter 5 “Betinsa! I didn’t think you’d be here!” Although she knew she was speaking in Fraiqui, Alayna was still amazed her brain “heard” everything in her mind in English. The magical little chip was doing its job well. “I couldn’t miss you all leaving for Fraiqua.” Betinsa strode across the tarmac, her husbands following behind. Drake cradled their new son in his arms. Alayna couldn’t resist seeing the baby. When Drake came close enough, she leaned over to peer at the tiny face. “What’s his name?” “We are naming him after one of my fathers,” Betinsa replied. “His name is Ishalm.” Pulling back the soft white blanket, Alayna stared down into his dark eyes. They looked brown, but she’d heard baby’s eyes changed color as they got older. His skin was such a pale blue, it was clear he was only part Fraiquan. The baby’s hair also wasn’t nearly as dark as Betinsa’s, nor was it as wavy. “Hi, Ishalm.” “I came to see you off and wish you well,” Betinsa said. With a glance over to Will and Tanner, she gave a typical Fraiqua admonition. “Trust your wife. She won’t let you down.” Both men nodded as she inclined her head in return, a sign of mutual respect. Then she turned to Alayna. “It won’t be easy for you. Fraiquans don’t ask for advice from anyone except their mothers, so you won’t even be able to turn to other women. The responsibility rests on your shoulders, not only to make this mission a success but to keep your mates safe. I wish you could contact me, but you’re going totally undercover. You’ll need to take the lead—in all things.”

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Although the advice was good, and Alayna was taking it to heart, she already felt more pressure than she’d felt on any other assignment. Add the weight of her guilt for her partner’s death on the last mission, and she feared she might buckle. With a stubborn shake of her head, she straightened her spine. “I’ll take good care of them.” No way she’d let something happen to them. History wasn’t going to repeat itself. “I know you will.” Betinsa stepped back to join Matt and Drake. “I shall pray to the Creator to watch over you all, and I wish you much success.” On that, she turned and led her family away. Alayna took a deep breath before she led her own new husbands up the ramp. It was time for the Destiny to take to space. **** Tanner set the autopilot, checked the com one last time, and then left the cockpit. There would be no more hails from I.D.E.A., no more last bits of information, and no support. They were on their own now. All they had was this piece-of-shit ship, a little bit of cash, and a hell of a lot of work to do with no guarantee of success. He needed to see Alayna and Will, figuring they were both as tense as he was. All of them really needed to relax and just live in these new personas, but so much rode on the success of this mission. The free flow of patrile from Fraiqua was destroying lives, not only on that planet but on every other planet in the Rhotan System. And who knew how bad the epidemic of addiction could get if the drug wasn’t stopped? Whispered words of the wars beginning again had turned to shouts, and the other planets were threatening invasion if Fraiqua couldn’t stop the trafficking of the horrible drug. The people of Fraiqua wouldn’t survive another war. Their greatest enemy, the Dracorians, would be the first to take advantage of their weakness. “Will? Alayna?” Tanner called as he entered the galley. He’d expected the smell of dinner being prepared and was surprised to find

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the two of them sitting at the table just staring into space. “You two okay?” They both startled as if he’d awakened them. “What’s wrong?” “I think it’s all just hitting me,” Alayna replied. “We’re going to be alone. We’ve got about two thousand universal credits, and we’ve gotta find a place to live. Even after we start working at C.C., it’ll be weeks before we get paid. It’s not gonna be easy, and even when we have money coming in, I’m supposed to gamble a lot of it away.” Will nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. Might be eating a lot of refugee rations for a while.” Refugee rations—the food that other planets provided for the people of Fraiqua who were still trying to pick themselves up after the destruction. Most people who needed the help were unemployed and were willing to wait in line for hours to receive expired food to make sure their children didn’t starve. The notion of Alayna standing in one of those humiliating lines tugged at Tanner’s heart. Since money was his expertise, he’d do what he could with their limited funds to spare her that kind of embarrassment. “You’d be amazed what I can do with a few unis.” He loved Will’s responding smile. “I’d heard you have a knack for making one coin miraculously turn into twenty.” “Yeah, well. It’s a gift.” Alayna’s silver wedding ring spun in front of her on the table. He’d seen her do that at all their meals since the marriage, and he figured it was her way of focusing. He only hoped it wasn’t some sort of unconscious desire to get it off her finger because she didn’t want to be married. Were all newlywed grooms as unsure as he felt at that moment? Somewhere in his heart, Tanner wanted his mates to feel the same affection that had sprouted in his own heart for both Alayna and Will because it was frightening to be standing out on that shaky limb all by himself. How he’d let his feelings get entangled in his two spouses so quickly remained a mystery. Perhaps it was because they were

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Fraiquan and had completed the comchi ritual, but the connection was there nonetheless. He’d learned early in life not to fight the inevitable. “Alayna?” “Hmm…?” He wanted to go over and slam her ring down on the table to make it stop spinning. “Don’t be so worried. We’ve all been in worse situations before. It’s not gonna be easy, but we’ll make it work.” Taking the last few steps into the galley, he laid his hands on her shoulders. “Together.” She surprised him by plucking the ring up and sliding it back on her third finger. “Together? I thought I was supposed to be calling the shots.” Her tone was pleasant rather than authoritative, and he couldn’t help but give her shoulders as affectionate squeeze. Will reached across the table to put his hand over hers. “We’re a trio now, remember? You might be the woman, but we’re in this marriage and this mission, too. Lean on us when you need to, okay?” Instead of replying, she yawned. For some reason it was contagious because first Tanner and then Will yawned as well. “Look,” Tanner said, “we might as well get some shut-eye. We’re all exhausted, and sitting around worrying about problems that haven’t happened yet is just going to make us all crazy.” “Course is laid in?” Alayna asked as she scooted her chair back. Tanner nodded. “We’ve got plenty of time to get some sleep. Ready for bed?” Taking her hand in his, she gave him a lopsided grin and then cast a sultry glance to Will. “I’m ready for bed. But we’re not sleeping. Not yet.” His cock sprang to life, the blood flowing there so quickly that he got a little light headed. He caught the scent of her arousal and groaned. “Fuck, no, we’re not sleeping yet.” Instead of waiting for her to drag them both to the big bunk, he swept her into his arms. Will shoved his chair back and was striding toward them. “Are we, Will?” He answered by putting one hand over Alayna’s breast and

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pressing the other against Tanner’s swollen cock. The smile he gave them hit Tanner on a visceral level. He nodded at the bedroom, and Will pulled away to sprint ahead of them as Tanner carried their bride to their bed. Will got to the bunk first and had dropped his trousers before he even kicked off his shoes. Tanner chuckled as he set Alayna down and started to undress her. Since she was grabbing at Will’s shirt, the three of them ended up blocking each other. After they all laughed at their predicament, they each stripped themselves and then simply stared. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to seeing the two of them entirely blue. Whenever they were together, his thoughts constantly flipped between the way Will and Alayna used to look and how they appeared now. Did his partners have the same problem? Not that he didn’t like every delicious inch of their blue bodies. Alayna was slim yet muscular, her breasts high and topped with tight, indigo nipples that had probably been a pale rose once upon a time. Her hips flared from a trim waist, and her pussy was crowned with a tidy V of dark curls. Funny, but he saw them as brown. Will had a body to drool over, not an ounce of fat on the man. His muscles rolled under his skin every time he moved, making him look like some sleek jungle cat. Rising from a nest of black hair, his cock was thick and handsomely decorated with prominent veins. A drop of clear fluid leaked from the tip, and Tanner reached out to brush it away with his thumb, loving how Will groaned in response. Alayna took charge. “In bed. Now.” The men scrambled to obey. “This time, I want you both…at the same time.” She reached into a cubby by the bed and grabbed a bottle. Tossing it to Tanner, she said, “You’ve got a longer cock, but Will’s is too wide for my first time.” He blinked a couple of times, hardly believing he was hearing her correctly. In his experience, some men had no problem with getting a dick up their ass. Hell, they loved it, judging from the talk he’d heard over the years. He’d only had one affair with a man, and it hadn’t

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been a good experience because at the tender age of twenty, he’d been a bit confused about his own sexuality. And while he’d slept with quite a few women, they didn’t even seem to consider anal intercourse a possibility. Yet here Alayna was, asking for both men to penetrate her at the same time. His balls pulled up tight against his body, and he realized how close he was to coming already at the mere thought of being inside her tight ass while Will’s dick rubbed his cock through the thin tissue of her body. “Alayna...are you sure that’s what you really want?” “You heard me,” she added with a wink. “Lube up, hubby.” “Yes, ma’am.” Will knelt in front of her, pressing a kiss to her intimate curls. She tugged at his hair and spread her legs a little wider. Simply watching the two of them made Tanner’s heart start to slam in his chest. “Damn, that’s hot.” With a chuckle, Will stood back up, cupped his hand around her neck, and pulled her hard against him. His mouth claimed hers. Without breaking away from the tongue-dueling kiss, she crooked her finger at Tanner. He joined them, wrapping his arms around both of them while she stroked his erection. Nothing had ever felt as right as being with these two, and he was a bit surprised fangs didn’t spring from his canine teeth again. Perhaps the biting ritual was only the first time they came together, a symbol of them being joined by sharing blood and marking each other. This time was every bit as intense as the first time they’d made love, and he ran his tongue over his teeth just to check for fangs one last time. Nada. Lifting Alayna off her feet and away from Will, Tanner carried her to their bed. She scrambled to the middle and smiled in clear invitation. Will made it to her first and kissed her again while Tanner fitted his front to her back, grinding his cock against that gorgeous ass. Alayna didn’t want to stop kissing Will, but as Tanner combed his fingers through her hair and pressed his erection between her ass

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cheeks, she easily let him divert her attention. Turning to look at him over her shoulder, she wasn’t surprised when his mouth covered hers. His tongue slipped past her lips, sliding across hers as he growled deep in his chest, sending heat racing straight to her pussy. Her cunt tightened, needing to be filled by Will’s broad cock, and the anticipation of Tanner claiming her body at the same time had her squirming in need. Will dropped down to pull one of her nipples deep into his mouth to drive her mad with suction and the soothing licks of his velvet tongue. Tanner released her mouth and pulled his arms away to lean around her and tease her other nipple. By the time they were done lavishing her with attention, she was panting. Her head lolled back, so she didn’t know Will’s intent until his hand was between her thighs, his fingers caressing and separating her folds until he found her clitoris. She whimpered, which only seemed to make him more eager to rub her closer and closer to orgasm. “Enough,” she finally cried. She wanted the three of them joined, and she wanted it right fucking now. Her men seemed to have the same need. Will immediately fell, sprawled against the sheets on his back, smiling up at her. While Tanner reached for the bottle he’d dropped, Alayna straddled Will’s hips, rubbing her pussy against his cock and savoring the groan coming from his throat. Tanner popped open the bottle, squeezed out some lubricant, and started smearing it on his dick while she wrapped her fingers around Will’s erection and guided it to her entrance. He thrust his hips up to fill her body, drawing a gasp from them both. “Damn, that feels good,” she said before she started purring. He drove up into her, holding tight to her hips as he raised his to meet her. A warm hand settled on her back, pushing her forward until her breasts were plastered against Will’s chest. “Kiss me,” she begged Will. “I need you to keep my mind off of what’s happening back there.”

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“I won’t hurt you, baby,” Tanner said as he smoothed his rough palms over the globes of her ass. “Anything feels wrong, you just say so.” She couldn’t answer because Will had put his hand against the back of her head and drawn her mouth to his as he stopped moving. His tongue thrust inside to glide over hers at the same time Tanner’s slippery finger circled the tight ring of her most private place. Trying not to tense, she threw herself into the kiss, stroking the roof of Will’s mouth and then having him chase her tongue into her mouth so she could give it a gentle suck. A finger slipped inside her, and Alayna moaned against Will’s mouth. “It’s okay, baby,” Tanner said as a second finger joined the first. “Just loosening you up.” His fingertips brushed over a sweet spot, and her muscles contracted. “That’s it, Alayna. God, I can’t wait any longer. I need to be inside you. Are you ready?” She tore her mouth away from Will’s to shout, “Yes!” The blunt head of Tanner’s cock pressed against her, easing slowly in and out, in and out, until he passed the ring of muscles and entered her, his balls slapping against her buttocks. Alayna gasped at the pain/pleasure feeling of both her mates deep inside her body. Somehow, knowing the three of them were so close made her feel complete. Will moved first, withdrawing slightly before slipping deep inside her again. Tanner caught his rhythm, and the two set an easy pace that quickly drove her closer and closer to release. Tired of their teasing, she dug her fingers into Will’s skin. “Fuck me, boys.” They responded by picking up the cadence, pulling back and then slamming into her again and again as everything inside her drew into a tight knot. Just as her heartbeat starting roaring in her ears, the knot unraveled, sending spasms to rock her body as she shouted in release. Will pushed up into her, groaning as his hot semen poured into her. After two more hard thrusts, Tanner held on tightly to her hips as he spilled himself inside her with a grunt.

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Reality was a long time returning. Alayna was so spent, she fell to the mattress, closing her eyes and waiting for her heart to stop pounding. Will rolled over to snuggle up against her side, throwing a muscular thigh over her legs while Tanner disappeared into the bathroom. After a few minutes, he crawled back onto the bed and over to her other side. When he flopped down, the mattress jolted enough to make Alayna and Will bounce. “Wow.” Tanner wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her shoulder. “My thoughts exactly.” Will gently brushed her tangled hair away from her face. She didn’t have the strength to help him. Every muscle felt like rubber, and she simply couldn’t find the will to move. This feeling—this contented and sated feeling—was all she’d ever wanted in life. Sure, they had a rough road ahead of them, one that could last months, even a year or more. But she’d be sharing that ride with two men who were wriggling their ways inside her heart, and she wasn’t sure she knew how to stop them. Love wasn’t an emotion she knew much about. Loyalty, she understood. Dedication. Even courage. But love? If she wasn’t so damned tired, Alayna would have given her head a shake at her own stupid sentimentality. This mission was important. Patrile was running rampant through the Rhotan System, and her job was to put a stop to it. Love had nothing to do with it. Her own mission was to not only bring down the patrile makers and smugglers, but to protect these two men who had put their trust in her and had placed their safety in her hands. This time, she wouldn’t let her partners down.

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Chapter 6 Four months later… Tanner pushed back from his desk and stretched the stiff muscles in his shoulders with an exaggerated roll. Fuck, but he wished he could find time to get in some weight training. His muscles were begging for a workout, but he was pulling so much overtime, he couldn’t even find a break to take a nice long run. Besides, the three of them needed the money the extra time on the clock brought in. Will was taking extra shifts too, as was Alayna. She also had to go out a couple nights a week and waste a lot of what they’d earned. He knew how much that hurt her, and he could see the pain in her eyes each time she kissed them both goodbye as she left for another trip to an interstellar betting parlor or a casino. Appearances had to be kept up, and she was supposed to have a gambling problem. She had to act her part. Tanner wasn’t taking their circumstances as well as Will, and he realized he needed to learn to hide his feelings more. Alayna had enough burdens, yet he found himself leaning on her more and more—just like a Fraiquan husband should. Perhaps he was a little lost in his role. He was also the one who did most of the cooking since he had a way of turning the cheapest pieces of meat, even something as tough and stringy as cheap cuts of prolobeast, into a feast. Money was getting tight, however, and sometimes they had very small portions. Too small, but none of them complained. They weren’t desperate. Yet. But Tanner had made a point of going to get refugee rations twice this

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week just to let everyone know how poor the Pariago trio truly was. The worst thing was that none of them had even been approached by anyone doing anything illegal. They’d done everything they could to let their coworkers know how dire their situation was, both men not-so-subtly complaining about Alayna’s gambling even though it was horribly audacious for males to criticize their female. Since divorce was virtually unheard of on Fraiqua, the people they spent time with had to know there could be other ways of handling their dissatisfaction—hopefully by turning to crime to raise the family’s income. Alayna was the only one who’d met Lukasi Arma once before the guy seemed to disappear. The only time Tanner even thought about him now was when he was working on payroll and saw his name pop up. The payments were exorbitant, so the Fraiquan was obviously doing his undercover job well—acting like a smuggler who got payments under the table. When Tanner had made polite and hopefully innocent-sounding inquiries as to why Luka was getting paid so damned much, he was given no information from his superior, Gareth Pitrana, other than a snappish answer to authorize the payment and mind his own business. Trying to be the submissive bookkeeper, Tanner always obeyed, usually while complaining about his own pay and his family’s circumstances to prime the pump. “Hey, honey.” Tanner whirled to see Alayna leaning her shoulder against the wall of his cubicle. She was dressed in her security uniform—a pale gray shirt and darker gray pants. Her gun belt held her pulse pistol and a stun-stick. She hadn’t wanted to carry the black stick, especially since Fraiqua’s worst enemies, the Dracorians, used it for torture during their occupation of the planet and still wielded it as their weapon of choice. That damned stick always seemed to represent the sadistic nature of the six-fingered, universally reviled Dracorians. Her direct supervisor had evidently insisted Alayna should wear one to set a good example for the other security guards, so she complied. She grumbled that she’d never find a valid reason to

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question her superior, but she swore she wouldn’t use it unless it was on a Dracorian. She sounded so much like a Fraiquan, Tanner often wondered if she even remembered being human. God knew his own humanity seemed to slip away a little more each day. “Hey,” Tanner replied. He entered the last few keystrokes to finish his job before powering down his workstation. “Glad as I am to see you, I hate seeing you still in your uniform. You’re working another night shift, aren’t you?” She nodded, brushing her long, black ponytail over her shoulder. His gut tightened in response as he remembered the feel of that wavy hair as he ran his fingers through it. The only thing that he, Will, and Alayna had going for them was their growing relationship. Tanner loved them both. Deeply. And he was sure they loved him and each other just as much, though none of them had said the words yet. The fear was still there—the worry that when this mission ended and they were restored to humanity, this…joining would be broken. That they would become nothing more than three people who’d shared an incredible experience, some pretty damned strong emotions, and the best sex of their lives. If any of them broke down and admitted their true feelings, things would change between them forever. No, better to work the mission and simply enjoy each other. At least for now. “How late will you be?” Alayna shrugged, wishing she could answer him, but she never knew how long a shift would last because the security guards she supervised were so fucking unreliable. She’d begged the head of personnel—her immediate supervisor Eruda Pitrana—to let her come down hard on them, but Eruda always said to leave the discipline to her. And nothing ever changed. Eruda and her two husbands had worked for Cosenki Chemicals since it had reorganized after the wars ended. One was Tanner’s supervisor in bookkeeping, and the other Alayna hadn’t met. He was supposedly a salesman and was away from home often as he tried to rebuild C.C.’s clientele list. Eruda made Alayna’s life miserable, expecting her to fill in every

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time a guard didn’t show up for a shift. She tried to get her boss to see that with the high unemployment on Fraiqua, there were tons of better people out there she could hire. She was, after all, the head of security and complained that she should be allowed to choose her own team. Eruda overruled her—a common occurrence—which made Alayna keep a close eye on her. Something with Eruda simply wasn’t right. “I’ll save you some supper,” Tanner said. “Pitiful though it is.” He strode to the door and set his hands on Alayna’s shoulders. Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her lips. “Tanner,” she said, her cheeks heating, “you know we’re not supposed to have any displays of affection at work.” She laid one of her hands over his anyway. “Of course. But you looked like you could use a kiss.” Moving his lips to her ear, he whispered, “When you get home, we’ll make you smile. Will and I will fuck you stupid and then snuggle with you.” His hot breath brushing over her ear and his words made her squirm in need. “Geesh. Say something like that, and now this shift’s gonna seem like it’s twenty hours long.” He walked her to the main foyer where they met Will. “Rough day?” she asked when she saw the scowl on his face. His ability to hold his temper seemed to slip away a little more each day. The mission and all its hardships were clearly taking a toll on him, no matter how hard he tried to hide it from her. Today, he wasn’t even attempting to cope. “You could say that,” he said in a harsh tone. “Wanna tell me why Eruda Pitrana had her nose up my ass today?” Since her supervisor’s name just kept coming up, Alayna had put her in the center of her bull’s-eye. Whatever that woman had her blue fingers in, Alayna was damned well going to find out. “No idea. What did she say to you this time?” “She’s upset that we’ve got two shipments of betrathlomine we can’t account for.”

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“Seriously? Shit, that’s the best news we’ve had since we got here!” Tanner exclaimed. Since betrathlomine was used to make anything from vaccines to something as awful as patrile, the fact it was going “missing” meant they might have finally found a solid trail to follow. “I know,” Will said, “but she wants me to hunt it down.” Alayna suddenly knew why Will was frowning. “That means she’s not the one diverting it.” Will nodded. “I had her and her boys at the top of my list of suspects.” “Just because she wants you to account for it doesn’t necessarily mean she’s not the one diverting it,” Tanner pointed out. “Might be a diversionary tactic.” “We need to explore that angle.” Their frustration was hers, and it never ceased to amaze Alayna how their emotions all seemed to intertwine. “Speak of the devil…” She inclined her head toward Eruda, who was striding across the tile floor toward the trio. Although by Fraiquan standards, she was a beautiful woman, Alayna still cringed at the sight of her. “Alayna,” she snapped as she drew closer. “You’re on the clock.” Swallowing back a sarcastic retort, she simply nodded, showing the deference a good Fraiquan should give her boss. “Tell your husbands farewell and come with me.” “I’ll see you both at home,” Alayna said in Fraiquan. Switching to Hungarian, she added, “I’m going to stick my nose up her ass for once.” Will and Tanner gave her handsome smiles, bowed their heads, and headed out of Cosenki Chemicals together. Not a word was exchanged until Alayna and her boss reached the loading dock. Then Eruda focused her intense eyes on Alayna, sending a shiver through her. This wasn’t a woman you crossed. “I called Josen off tonight because I needed you here.” “Why?”

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Eruda drummed her fingers on the guards’ podium, a semicircular table equipped with the viewscreens for the security cameras. “I understand you have some…money problems, that you might have some trouble with gambling. Was I misinformed?” Alayna’s face flushed hot. “I don’t have a problem. So I like to bet on races and play a few machines.” She affected a nonchalant shrug. “I don’t lose all the time. Besides, I’m due.” The gambler’s fallacy—a mantra for all who lost the majority of their bets. She tugged at the collar of her shirt, trying her best to look uncomfortable and then realizing she truly was. The undercover role was starting to get the better of her. “Why are we even talking about this?” “I’m offering you a chance to make some extra money.” “How?” “C.C. has been contracted to act as a private supplier for an offworld client. We’ve been helping them for almost a year.” “And?” “This client doesn’t wish to be named, and the work C.C. does for him is…off the books, so to speak.” Swallowing her desire to shout a “hallelujah” that after four long months the snake had finally crawled out from under its sheltering rock, she settled in to do her job—her real job—and bring Eruda and her smuggling ring to justice. “Off the books? That doesn’t sound too…legal. I mean, what with Resources Administration’s agent always going over our shipping books and constantly monitoring our exports.” Eruda waved that concern away with the flip of her hand. “An R.A. agent is of no concern.” Probably because you bought her off. She wanted to dance a happy little jig at knowing they might bring down someone inside the Fraiquan government as well. Could this reach all the way to the head of Resources Administration? R.A.’s job was to supervise the export of all the planet’s resources to be sure profit wasn’t earned at the expense of the planet’s ecology. “No concern? How is that possible?”

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“Do you need the money or not?” Eruda snapped. “From what I’ve heard, your husband was in line for refugee rations this week. Twice.” Her pride felt smacked. Sure, she was playing a role, just a fucking role. But the implication that she wasn’t taking care of the men she loved hurt all the same. “I need the money.” “Good. Then I want you to meet some associates of mine. I’ll be back”—she checked her watch—“in about two hours.” **** It came as no surprise when Eruda returned with Lukasi Arma as one of the people she obviously wanted Alayna to meet. She’d introduced him, along with several other people, on Alayna’s first day. She hadn’t seen him since. Damn, but it was hard to hold back her enthusiasm. Everything was going to start happening. Finally. “Mr. Arma. It’s good to see you again.” “Please. Call me Luka. We’re going to be working together, after all.” He offered his hand in greeting, something that might have been seen as a slip if the Fraiquans hadn’t quickly taken on the practice since Drake Keller had been ambassador. They’d courted the United Continents for more and more trade and had quickly adopted many of Earth’s customs as well as embracing their music, art, and fashion. The only thing that hadn’t seemed to catch on were holoflicks and holoseries. Fraiquans evidently didn’t want to see humans on their viewscreens. An odd sort of discrimination in Alayna’s estimation. Sound like humans. Dress like humans. Just don’t look at humans. She shook his hand and then reached for the other male Fraiquan. He held up a large hand that was covered in a thick, black leather glove that probably made it difficult for him to move his meaty fingers. Since many Fraiquans wore gloves, she didn’t give them too much thought. “If you’ll forgive me, I don’t follow human customs.” The last two words were said with a sneer and a bit of a lisp. He gave

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her a half bow, something more in tune to his species. “A pleasure, Ms. Pariago.” “Alayna. Please,” she said with a bow of her own. “Call me Priam,” he replied. “You work for Resources Administration?” Eruda actually gasped, making Alayna turn to stare at her. “Priam Sisson doesn’t work for Resources Administration,” Eruda finally said. “He’s the director of R.A.” Alayna needed every ounce of her training to hold her emotions in check. Sure, I.D.E.A. knew that patrile was killing all the good that had happened after the horrible Rhotan System wars. And of course, they knew that Fraiquans, despite their reputation for being the “goodguy underdogs” of the galaxy, were involved in the patrile epidemic. But to find out this conspiracy to spread the drug reached all the way to the Fraiquan government at the ministry level? The mission had just taken on a whole new level of importance. Eruda settled a hard stare on Alayna. “Starting tonight, twice a week, I need you to authorize nighttime shipments of betrathlomine. These shipments will be paid for in universal credits by Luka.” She nodded to him as he nodded in return. “You will bring those unis to me the next day. After you subtract a thousand for yourself, of course.” “And you don’t want me to log any of this?” Alayna asked. She swept her hand toward the viewscreens. “If those shipments are leaving the dock, how am I going to avoid having them recorded?” “That,” Luka replied with a sly smile, “is what you’ll be receiving the thousand unis for.” Through an ongoing discussion on how she was going to help these people steal one of the main ingredients in making patrile twice a week, Alayna watched Priam. The way he leaned against her station made her think he was downright bored. His hands rested against his sides, but something about them bothered her. While she’d dismissed them earlier, now, she couldn’t seem to stop staring at them. Was it

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the gloves? The fact those fingers were so damned big? Those stupid mitts of his made it hard for her to concentrate. “So,” Eruda finally said, “we’ll start here and see what happens. Know this, Alayna…if you let us down, there will be repercussions. Not only for you, but for your mates.” “Deadly repercussions,” Luka added. Ah, finally the threat to her men—the thing that was supposed to keep her in line. “I won’t let you down. I can do this. I have to do this. I can’t let Tanner go wait for refugee rations anymore. It was…humiliating.” Her boss gave her a curt nod. As the three conspirators each gave her a bow or a shake of their hands, Alayna again faced the director of Resources Administration. Priam surprised her by reaching out to tap her stun-stick. “Such an unusual weapon,” he said before pulling back his gloved hand. “To see a Fraiquan wield one, a surprise is.” On that strangely worded comment, they left. **** The transport arrived not long after the second sun set. Once she knew which dock would be used, Alayna quickly rigged the cameras covering that area to record several minutes of footage from the night before in a repeating time loop. The official C.C. log would show no activity on Dock 5 that shift. Luka was supervising the loading of the boxes of the fragile tubes of betrathlomine. He played the part of the smuggler well, and she wondered for a moment if he was truly Fraiquan or if he’d been genetically engineered the way she, Tanner, and Will had been. No one had ever said they were the only ones to complete the experimental process. As the truck drivers secured their loads, Luka brought a small satchel to the guard station. As he handed it to her, she caught the

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worry in his dark eyes. “A pleasure doing business with you,” she said in Hungarian, hoping he had the same translation chip programmed with the covert language. He relaxed, giving her a wan smile. “Stay safe,” he replied in the ancient tongue. On those words, he whistled to the drivers, crawled into one of the trucks, and left Alayna staring at them moving quickly away until she finally faced an empty loading dock. When her replacement showed up an hour later, Alayna gave him a briefing, grabbed her satchel, and headed for home. She hadn’t even made it three blocks when her thoughts finally settled enough for her to focus on what had bothered her most in the whole dirty transaction. Priam Sisson. Sure, he was a drug smuggler. Worse, he was an elected official who’d literally sold his soul for the unis he could make trading patrile. But those weren’t what disturbed Alayna. It was his hands. Those enormous hands. What is he hiding beneath those gloves? Then she remembered his words, the way he’d reversed them in same way she’d heard somewhere before. Skidding to a stop, she almost screamed in denial. How naïve she’d been, assuming the science she was now a part of was reserved for good! The glove and the strangely-worded comment about the stun-stick gave the secret away. How had no one else noticed, especially people who worked with him daily? The revelation hit her as if someone had snatched her stun-stick and zapped her with it. Although she wasn’t entirely sure, her intuition was screaming. Prima might be hiding a sixth finger—something they evidently couldn’t eliminate entirely when they’d genetically engineered him to be a Fraiquan. Priam Sisson could be a Dracorian.

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Chapter 7 “A what? You think he’s a what?” Will was having a hard time not blowing up and knocking a hole in the paper-thin wall of their crappy apartment. The notion of a Dracorian infiltrating his slimy way into the Fraiquan government made his skin crawl. Sure, he, Tanner, and Alayna had been genetically engineered to be Fraiquan, but surely no other society had achieved that lofty level of science. The implications were staggering, especially in the hands of such a vicious culture. The species was, as a whole, despicable. Greedy. Brutal. Destructive. Their cruelty against the Fraiquan people during their occupation was well documented, and although all the treaties called for peaceful coexistence, no fewer than three Dracorian attempts to overthrow the current Fraiquan government had been uncovered. The lust of the Dracorians for the abundant natural resources on Fraiqua would probably never be quenched, nor would the long-standing prejudice that Fraiquans were inferior be easily ended. Was this revelation going to increase that count to four? He was probably jumping to conclusions—this Dracorian bastard could want nothing more sinister than to destroy the Fraiquans by getting them hooked on patrile and then fleecing them of every last uni-credit to support their habit. “We’ve gotta figure this out.” “No shit? I figured we’d just ignore him,” Alayna said. She was clearly exhausted when she flopped down on the mattress with her weapon belt still around her curvy hips. “Sorry, sweetheart.” She gave him a crooked smile. “Didn’t mean to be flip to you.” “No offense taken.” Will leaned in to unbuckle her belt. “Sit up.

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Let me get this stuff off you so you can get some sleep.” “Who said I’m ready for sleep?” The husky tone of her voice made him smile. “I need you two to make me forget this god-awful day.” Lifting her hips, she let him take away her weapons. As he set the belt aside, his eyes fixed on the stun-stick. He’d been hit by one back in his Academy days. The instructors figured every potential agent needed to know what to expect from various implements of incapacitation so they would be able to plan how to respond should it happen in the field. He’d learned that stun-sticks hurt like bloody hell, knocked the victim paralyzed, but allowed him to remain conscious. From the stories he’d heard about the occupation of Fraiqua, the Dracorians had used stun-sticks to get their victims at their mercy before inflicting all sorts of atrocities—from lopping off limbs to plucking out eyeballs to burning their prey alive. The only crime they weren’t accused of was rape because of an oddity of the Dracorian males. They could only mate with Dracorian females and only during certain times of the year. But had they possessed the ability to physically attack the Fraiquans that horrible way, Will had no doubt they would have. The hatred between the races went back so far that no one was sure exactly where it began. The histories of both planets were filled with stories of Dracorian aggression against the spiritual Fraiquans. Sometimes the Fraiquans held their own, and other times they ended up subjugated, as they had in the last war. Only tenacity and dedication allowed them to overthrow that Dracorian occupation, but their self-rule was still fragile at best, which explained why the Dracorians might be trying to stir things up again. “What are we gonna do about this guy?” Tanner asked. His arms were folded over his bare chest as he leaned his shoulder against the wall. He and Will had just been waking up when Alayna got back from her shift. Tanner was the sexiest man Will had ever known, even when he was blue. The outline of Tanner’s erect cock

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and the sight of Alayna stretched out on the bed made Will’s dick spring to life. Neither slept well without her. In fact, almost everything between him and Tanner seemed to need her as a bridge. Although Will had awakened with a cock stiff as an iron rod, he hadn’t even reached for Tanner this time. He wanted him—the same way he wanted Alayna. He’d made love to Tanner once before when their wife had been at work, but the encounter, while physically satisfying, had left them both feeling a bit cheated in the emotional connection. She was the glue that held this “marriage” together, and none of them knew what would happen to their family when this mission ended. Right now, Will wanted that connection, needing to feel the three of them come together in a way that seemed almost…holy. “I think you should feel sick tomorrow, Will. You know, take the day off to get over whatever’s got you ailing.” Alayna gave that pronouncement as she winked at him and started unbuttoning her shirt, making more blood surge to his cock. “Maybe the next couple of days.” “You want me to follow him.” Since her legs were dangling over the side of the mattress, he put himself between her thighs, spreading them farther apart, and reached for her pants, popping open the button and dragging her zipper down. Tanner pushed away from the wall and came to the bed. Crawling up on the mattress, he brushed her hands away so he could take over the chore of removing her uniform shirt. Since she was always the forceful one, he loved having an opportunity to express his desire for her. One of those ways was by undressing her. Hell, it was foreplay. “Yeah, I think you should. Tanner?” “Yeah, love?” “I want you to see what you can find in the books. I need information on any money getting into this guy’s hands, over and under the table.” “Anything the wife wants,” he said. Then Tanner made her lean

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up so he could take off her shirt. Popping the front clasp on her bra, he grinned before dropping to take one of her dusky blue nipples deep into his mouth. Alayna arched into him, lacing her fingers through his long hair and moaning. Her eyes caught Will’s as he eased her pants and then her panties down her legs. The last thing he did was peel off her darkgray socks. Quickly dropping the boxers he’d slept in, he decided to reward her for all her hard work. Settling his hands against her knees, he spread her legs wide. Damn, he loved seeing Tanner sucking her tits. Will separated her folds with his fingers, easing one inside her, smiling as she writhed in pleasure. “God, you’re already wet.” “State the obvious,” Alayna said before Tanner shut her up with a kiss. Will pulled his fingers back, forcing his tongue up her slick opening and savoring her unique taste. She squeezed his head with her thighs. With a muffled laugh, he forced those slender thighs farther apart and went right back to trying to drive her out of her mind. Alayna knew she’d never tire of her men. Never. When Will sucked her clitoris, she gasped and almost bucked right off the bed. Tanner gripped her shoulders to hold her down as he covered his mouth with hers, sweeping his tongue past her lips to stroke hers, capturing her contented sigh. No matter how awful things got at work, no matter what hardships they endured because of this mission, her men could make her body sing and force her to forget the stress and strain that weighed so heavily on her shoulders. Every time they touched her, she wanted to shout out her love for them, and somewhere in her heart, she knew it didn’t matter if they were Fraiquan or human. These men were her mates. She wouldn’t tell them that, though. She wouldn’t burden them with the knowledge of her love, making them feel forced into staying

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with her after they were restored to humanity. No, that bridge was in the far distance, and she wouldn’t worry about crossing it until she faced it. For now, she’d drown in the passion they all shared. “I can’t wait, Alayna,” Will said, rising to settle between her thighs. He grabbed his cock and stroked her cunt. “I need you.” “Tanner,” she said, “you’re going to fuck Will while he fucks me.” Both men grinned. “Gladly,” Tanner replied. The mattress shifted as he crawled off. Grabbing a bottle of lube, he squeezed some on his palm and smeared it on his dick while he moved to stand directly behind Will. Will bent forward as he plunged deep inside Alayna. She squeezed her eyes shut and moaned in pleasure. Forcing her eyes open so she could watch the men, she laced her fingers through Will’s long hair when he bent forward, pressing his chest against her breasts. Tanner loomed behind him, rubbing his hand over Will’s back. His eyes caught Alayna’s, the passion there burning all the way to her soul. She could tell the moment he entered Will’s body because his eyes widened and a groan escaped his lips at the same time Will grabbed her shoulders and hung on for dear life. The three began to move, Tanner pushing into Will as he pushed forward, deep into her pussy. She lifted her knees, trying to take every inch of his cock inside her as her muscles coiled in anticipation. The cadence sped up, making her men pant for breath just as she was. And then everything inside her uncoiled, pleasure racing through her as her inner muscles clenched against Will’s cock. The heat of his semen bathing her womb made aftershocks rock her body at the same time Tanner groaned, held on to Will’s hips, and slammed into his ass one more time. At that moment, Alayna knew that this was all she could ever want from life. Both of their faces were filled with happiness, and she felt more sated and at peace then she ever had before. And in that moment, she realized that her life would end if she ever lost them.

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While Tanner retreated to the bathroom, she caught Will’s eyes. He was still inside her, although his cock was slowly softening. “You’ll be careful, right?” He kissed her once, hard and quick, before pulling away. “Of course.” She grabbed his wrist. She’d never told them about her former partner, Earl Bruner, and what had happened on their only ill-fated mission. But losing him haunted her more than either of her men could ever know. Now it was her job to protect Will and Tanner. “Promise me you’ll be careful.” He kissed her hand, and she released him. “I promise, Alayna. Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’ll figure out what’s going on with Priam Sisson, and I’ll come back to you.” Then why was she so damned afraid? **** “Glad you could meet me here.” Alayna jumped at the deep voice. Sure, she’d expected Luka to show up—she’d asked him to find a way to meet with her in private. But she’d been on edge ever since figuring out Priam Sisson might be Dracorian. Now that Will was tailing him, her nerves were even more frayed. Her intuition had been screaming at her for the last hour, making her normally cool disposition bubble and brew like some ancient witch’s cauldron. The disastrous mission with Earl kept playing in her mind. It hadn’t been her fault. At least that was what her boss kept telling her. She’d repeatedly told him to wait for backup, after all. No way should they have gone into a buy between two known dealers who never traveled without bodyguards. The stubborn man refused to be patient, wanting to show everyone just how big his balls were on his first undercover assignment. She should have stopped him. She should have done more to keep him from charging in there. Shit, if

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she had it to do over, she’d hit him with the stun setting on her pulse pistol and face dismissal from I.D.E.A. instead of letting him go. At the time, she’d felt she had no choice except to protect his back while frantically calling for their reinforcements. Earl had been shot the moment he confronted the suspects while Alayna ducked back into the shadows, trying not to get killed. Like a coward. “Are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack?” she finally said. His smile didn’t help much. Neither did the fact he was pulling a lunch out of his tote bag and calmly unwrapping what looked and smelled like a liverwurst sandwich—something Earth had introduced that the Fraiquans took to like ambrosia. “I figured you’d expected me.” “Well, I did. But you didn’t have to sneak up on me.” Although the ancient plant conservatory where he’d asked her to meet him was all but deserted and she knew he was coming, she’d still startled to his voice. At least this was a place they could meet and look like nothing more than people wanting to have a calm and quiet location to eat their lunch. About to take a bite of his sandwich, he threw her an incredulous scowl. “Not sneak up on you? Are you serious? I’m a spy!” She took a deep breath, too antsy to even open her own meal, let alone eat it. Tanner always tried his best to make something edible, but her stomach was already in an uproar as she worried about Will, and she simply wasn’t up to cold prolobeast disguised with some spices and stale bread. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I don’t want you in danger. Look, I’ve got some news, something I’m not sure you’ve figured out about Priam Sisson. He’s a—” “Dracorian. I know.” “You know? Why didn’t you say something to I.D.E.A.?” “The same reason you didn’t—neither of us is sure he’s been altered, and we’re both no contact.”

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How could Luka be so damned calm? She struggled to keep her voice low. “Crikey, Luka! He’s a Dracorian, I’m sure of it. And he’s acting as the Fraiquan Resources Director!” “Careful, Alayna. Your Australia is showing.” She narrowed her eyes, hoping he realized she wasn’t in the mood for teasing. “You know,” he said, “Fraiquans are too fucking trusting. Always have been. Naïve, too. Up until a year ago, they didn’t even monitor one of their own moons. I’m amazed no one figured out about the bastard yet.” “But…but…we should do something!” “Until he shows me he’s here for something more than dealing patrile and making some money, I’m not blowing my cover to nail him. Not yet. The information I’ve gathered covers three planets, and it’s gonna bring down more than just this drug ring. I’m staying in this cover to see just how far I can take it.” Although she hated to admit it, Luka made perfect sense. There was a lot at stake here, and stopping the flow of patrile was probably more important than revealing the deception of the Dracorians in getting one of their own inside a part of the Fraiquan government, especially when there was no real proof Priam Sisson truly was Dracorian. Right now, Fraiquans dealing drugs seemed like the greater threat. “Fine. I’ve got Will on his tail. We’ll see what we can find out.” “Besides,” Luka pointed out with a shrug, “we’re not entirely sure the guy’s Dracorian. It’s just a guess. Our job is to stop patrile, and we know he’s part of that, regardless of his true ethnicity.” She nodded, although in her heart, she knew she was right about him wanting to do more than deal drugs. No, it wasn’t obvious that he was truly Dracorian, and lots of Fraiquans wore gloves because the skin on their hands was very sensitive, as she’d learned firsthand. Yet…she just knew. “Will’s gonna find out for sure.” Glancing around the area, he chewed the rest of his liverwurst

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before he finally spoke again. “I need to be going. We’ve got a shipment tomorrow, so I’ll catch you then. If Will finds out any solid proof, we’ll talk more about what to do. But don’t get your hopes too high. Dracorians are fucking slippery suckers.” On that chilly pronouncement, he wadded up his sack, stood up, and strode away. Then it dawned on her. When Luka had been talking about Fraiquans, he’d said “they” and not “we.” She’d assumed he was Fraiquan, but now she wasn’t so sure. Had he been transformed as well? And if he had, what species was he? Human? Since no answers would be coming soon, Alayna pushed the mystery aside and headed back to work. **** Alayna was just putting on her weapon belt when the door to their apartment slammed open. Will stumbled inside, holding his side. His bloodstained shirt made her gasp as did his pallor. Her heart stopped for a moment before it suddenly kicked into a frantic rhythm. She needed all her concentration to push aside the images of Earl’s death and focus on one of the men she loved. “Oh, my God! Will! What happened?” “Got…shot.” His breathing was shallow and rapid, but she couldn’t tell if it was because of the injury or because he’d been running. “I’m getting the bugger bag and getting Tanner. We gotta move.” When all he could do was gape at her, she sucked in a deep breath. “We’re leaving! Now!” She moved like lightning, punching a hole in the special wall as she screamed for Tanner. Jerking the crumbling drywall she’d used to create a safe place to stash away their emergency kit, she reached around inside the wall until her hand brushed the canvas bag. Grabbing the strap, she jerked it against the hole until enough of the

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drywall broke away to allow it to pass through. Tanner stumbled into the room. He gaped at Will and took a step toward him. “Get the first aid kit,” she ordered. His blue eyes fixed on her. “Get the kit!” she screamed before taking a deep breath. “Get the kit. Then grab some clothes and get dressed. We need to bugger out.” As he reached for a shirt he’d draped over a chair earlier, he kept staring at Will. “Fuck. What happened?” Will pulled his hand away from his side. “One of the security guards got off a lucky shot with a pulse rifle when they caught me inside the restricted ministry offices.” He managed a weak smile. “But not before I discovered a lot of interesting stuff.” When Alayna tried to reach inside the hole in his shirt, he swatted her hand away. “It’s just a flesh wound. I’m…I’m fine.” “But—” She tried to help him again, worried about the blood on his shirt and hand. “You’re hurt.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist to keep her from tending to him. “Later, love. “They’re probably not far behind,” Alayna said. “I’m getting you two out of here. Time to run.” Picking up the bag they’d prepared and jokingly called the “bugger bag” since they’d assembled it in case they ever had to “bugger out” of the mission, she rummaged around inside. Everything was there. Uni-credits. Forged identity papers. Cloned communicators. As he shoved his feet into his boots, Tanner buttoned his shirt. “Where we buggering out to, boss?” Boss. The universe settled on her shoulders as the mission crashed down around her like trusses falling through a burning building. She’d failed. Again. There would be no arrests, no stopping the flow of patrile, and no preventing other planets from coming after the Fraiquans. All she had to offer her superiors were the names of some underlings who were working for a government official who might or might not be Dracorian.

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No, her mission had been an utter failure—and it was all her fault. Fuck, she was tired of being in charge. She was tired of kissing the asses of crooks. And she was tired of being someone she wasn’t. “We’re getting back to headquarters just as soon as we can. This undercover is over. I want to be human again.”

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Chapter 8 Alayna looked up when the door to the exam room opened. “How is he?” she asked. It seemed like forever since Will had been taken into the treatment area, and with each passing minute, her stomach churned a little more. The place wasn’t more than a small infirmary. What if he needed surgery? What if his life was in danger? He couldn’t die. She couldn’t lose him. “He’s fine. It’s a clean wound, and he didn’t lose much blood.” The Fraiquan doctor bowed before striding away, leaving her behind with her worries and fears. Even Tanner holding her hand while they’d waited wasn’t much of a consolation. If she’d done a better job, Will wouldn’t have been hurt. No, she should have followed the Dracorian herself instead of sending a man who relied on her for his safety. She’d let everyone down, just like she’d let Earl Bruner down. After they’d found a place to send a message, they’d been retrieved and taken to the closest I.D.E.A. safe point. They were still on Fraiqua, albeit in an area near the southern pole that was nothing but a barren desert. I.D.E.A. had set up a small holding underground, but it was nothing more than a few small sleeping suites, some conference rooms, and an infirmary. She’d been so worried about Will, she didn’t want to risk going all the way back to Rozale and the doctor who’d changed them into Fraiquans. Now that she knew his life wasn’t at risk, she wanted him to see someone who knew him better and could be sure there were no lasting problems from his wound. “Can he travel?” she called after the doctor. The doctor turned, nodded, and then continued down the corridor and through the door to exit the infirmary.

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Breathing a sigh of relief, Alayna tried to stand up, intent on going to see Will. Tanner stopped her with a hand on her thigh. “You want to go back to Rozale, don’t you?” She nodded. “You want Doctor Frankenstein to change us back.” Since he’d stated that as fact rather than asked her, she didn’t bother to nod this time. Her mouth set into a thin line as worry after worry tumbled through her thoughts. She’d failed Earl—she wouldn’t fail Tanner and Will. She had to fix everything, to get these men she loved with every piece of her heart back to their real lives. Then, although she had no idea how, she’d get her ass back to the capital city and deal with the Dracorian. “What if we don’t want to change back?” Tanner asked. Alayna brushed his hand away and jumped to her feet. “Don’t be ridiculous. You don’t have to stay like…this. It’s time to get your lives back.” Without waiting for Tanner, she headed to the treatment room to check on Will. Soft footsteps sounded behind her, which came as no surprise. Tanner had to be worried about Will too. What would happen once they were changed back? How quickly would the bond between them dissolve? Damn, it would break her heart when they served her with annulment papers, as she was sure they would. Somewhere in her busy mind, she wondered if the two loved each other enough to stay in touch after they became human again. Will sat on the table, looking no worse for the wear. Although he had a bandage taped over his side, practically covering half his waist, there were no other visible injuries. He glanced up and smiled at her. That smile quickly dropped to a frown. “What’s wrong?” “Nothing,” she lied. “You feeling okay?” “Yeah. Just a small through-and-through shot. The pulse cauterized the wound as it passed, so it didn’t even bleed all that much.” He moved as if to show her he was okay, but his grimace told her otherwise. “I’ll be fine. Are we going back to the city now? We

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need to think of a story for why in the hell I was in a restricted area and find a way to explain it away.” Alayna shook her head. “No fucking way. This is the end of the road for you two.” “Look,” Will said, leaning to support his weight on his good side, “I panicked, okay? The guard wouldn’t have fired if I hadn’t run. We’ll figure out a good cover story. Might look a little suspicious with a hole in the wall and all, but…We’ll think of something to tell everyone. A burglary, maybe? A family emergency?” “You’re not going back,” she said, wanting them to simply accept her decision as good husbands should. She knew what was best, and they would stay someplace safe while she went back to repair the damage. She might not be able to end the flow of patrile now, but she could stop the Dracorian threat. Funny, but the fangs that had appeared at the comchi began to grow again as thoughts of ripping Sisson’s throat out danced in her mind. She’d never been one for bloodlust before, but at that moment, that was the only term to describe what she felt. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Tanner’s voice was loud enough that she shut the door and ensured at least a little bit of privacy. “That means,” she said, “that you two are going back to Rozale. The doc can flip you back to yourselves, and you can take a nice vacation. You’ve earned one. I hear Remiza is beautiful. You can lay out on the beach and tan your skin when it’s back to pink.” “You’ll go with us. Right, Alayna?” Will asked. She shook her head. She’d remain Fraiquan long enough to slip back into the city and get close enough to kill her prey. Then, if she survived, she’d see if Dr. Frankenstein could change her back to herself. Perhaps she’d work up enough courage to follow Tanner and Will to see if there might still be something between all of them. One day. The first task, she realized, would be the easier of the two she faced. When they both started to sputter, probably to protest, she held up

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her hand. As good Fraiquan mates, they immediately ceased talking to listen to her. Their reaction made tears sting her eyes. They weren’t Fraiquan. And no matter how much she wanted them to be, they weren’t her mates. She had to let them go, to set them free. Hell, once they became human again, all the feelings they’d shared—the bond that had come from sharing the comchi—might simply…disappear. Somehow, she knew her own feelings would remain, but she couldn’t count on theirs lasting after the transformation. They were, after all, simply men. And experience had taught her that human men thought with their dicks. The sex had been great. Better than great. Fucking fantastic. They’d remember that. But the love she felt for them? No. They might leave that behind with their blue skin and black hair. Besides, they’d never given her a single word of encouragement or told her their hearts were involved. Her heart, on the other hand, was breaking like crystal smashed against the floor. She should have worked up the courage to tell them how she felt, but she simply couldn’t make herself that vulnerable. Not back when they were undercover and not now. Alayna swallowed the hurt coursing through her. “Look, you two were great, and you did a really good job. I’ve still got one more job to do, and you need to go back to your lives.” On that chilly pronouncement, she tried to turn to leave. Both men gripped her biceps. “That’s it?” Will held her tight, his shout so loud, the door probably didn’t help muffle much. Hopefully, the rest of the infirmary was still empty. “We get to go back to our lives? You think that’s fucking it?” Tanner’s fingers were digging into her arm. “What’s wrong with you, Alayna? Why are you being so damned cold?” Cold? She felt like her face was on fire as her anger at herself swelled inside her chest. She used that anger to do what had to be

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done. “Let go of me.” Obviously still in their obedient Fraiquan bent, they complied. She took a step back. “I fucked this mission up something royal.” They started to protest again, but she shook her head. “I’m going back to find out if that fucking Dracorian is trying to start another takeover of the planet, and then I’m going to kill him.” In her haste to exit, she slammed right into Betinsa Nungio, smacking their foreheads together. “Quite a welcome,” Betinsa said, rubbing her brow. “What are you doing here?” That’s all she needed, her old teacher here to witness her failure. “I came yesterday. What happened, Alayna?” “Why?” “I’ll explain just as soon as you tell me why you’re running out of here like your hair is on fire.” “Look, I don’t have time to explain. The guys will fill you in. I gotta go.” She turned to look at the men—her men—one last time. Instead of bursting into tears and begging them to love her as her heart wanted her to, she gave them a scowl meant to earn their compliance. “Don’t follow me.” Not even replying to Betinsa’s protest, Alayna left the room, shutting the door behind her. Tanner watched her go, fighting everything inside him that told him to go after her. She’d told them not to follow, and damn it all if he couldn’t seem to make himself disobey his wife. “Fuck.” “Yeah,” Will said, splaying his fingers through his hair. “Fuck.” Betinsa set her hands on her hips and glared at them. “What happened? I only heard Will had been injured and you had all bailed out.” Tanner frowned at her. “How’d you get here so fast?” “I arrived yesterday. Something told me you might need some help.” “Something?” Will arched a blue eyebrow. “Or someone?” Her smile answered his question. “Luka sent a coded message that you’d encountered a few…glitches.”

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“Glitches?” A snorted laugh slipped out before Tanner could stop it. “Yeah. We had a few…glitches.” “I’ve only heard the bare-bones story, so you’ll have to fill me in. There is one thing I would really like to know. Do you truly believe Priam Sisson is Dracorian?” she asked. Both men nodded. “Alayna sure does,” Will added, “and I trust her judgment. She thinks this mission was a failure because we couldn’t find out what he was doing, other than moving the ingredients to make patrile. I got some interesting information before I got shot, but I haven’t been able to share it with anyone yet.” “She thinks the mission failed?” Betinsa asked. Both men nodded again. “How ridiculous.” Then she knit her brows. “I suppose she’s still thinking about Earl Bruner.” “Who?” both men asked. Then they exchanged a hesitant smile. Would they still be this in sync once they became human again? “Earl was her last partner. She was training him on his first assignment out of the Academy. He rushed into a buy no matter how hard she tried to stop him, and he got himself shot. Alayna has always blamed herself, but no one else does. I.D.E.A. did, however, use her guilt to get her to agree to this assignment.” Betinsa gave them both a hard stare. “Where was she going?” “She’s heading back to kill the Dracorian,” Will replied. “Then perhaps we should stop her until we can figure out what we’re really dealing with.” On that pronouncement, Betinsa punched a few commands into her communicator. “She won’t be leaving the compound. Not until we have a chance to talk to her.” “Damn, she’ll be pissed.” Tanner frowned at Will. “This is about more than that fucking Dracorian.” He grunted in return. “You mean it’s more…personal?” Betinsa asked, but her knowing smile said she already knew the answer. “Yeah, it’s more…personal.” He’d sensed Alayna’s fear, and that fear had nothing to do with facing down a Dracorian. She wasn’t

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running to confront him. She was running away from facing Tanner and Will and what their lives would be like now that the mission as over. “She’s doing more than going after Sisson. She’s leaving us.” Tanner folded his arms over his chest. Damn her anyway. Didn’t she know he was just as worried about what would happen now? But he wasn’t running away. No, he was sticking around to not only finish the job but to see where this connection between the three of them would lead once they all became “themselves” again. “You know her fears?” Betinsa asked. “I think so. We got…very close while we were undercover. I think she’s worried that what we shared will change when we become human again. She’s might even be thinking we’d want to end the marriage now. That and she’s being what she thinks a good wife should be—a protector. Now that she knows we’re safe, she’s going back to finish the job.” “Understandable. Being Fraiquan might have made the bond between all of you stronger than it would have been otherwise, but I think what the three of you share, you shared from the beginning. At least that was what I felt when I was around you.” She shrugged. “I suppose you could all blame it on the comchi.” “It wasn’t just the comchi!” Tanner wanted to hit something. Never in his life had a person frustrated him as much as Alayna. My wife. How dare she give them all she had to give, ensnare them both so completely, and then simply walk away without even giving him or Will a choice in the matter? His hurt was rapidly giving way to fury. When Alayna was prevented from leaving, she’d come back to find out what her men had to do with it, and Tanner feared he’d unleash his rage on her. “We had something more,” he finally admitted, his anger rapidly deflating like a balloon when he realized where it had spawned. The anger came from the terror of losing her and Will, and that terror made his heart pound a rough beat. “We have something special.” “We love her,” Will said as he stared at Tanner. “Just like we love

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each other.” He turned his gaze toward Betinsa. “It doesn’t matter if we’re Fraiquan or human. We still love her.” “Have you told her that?” Such a simple question—one that zapped Tanner like a hit from a stun-stick. He couldn’t even find the will to utter an embarrassed no. Was that why she was so afraid? Because neither of them had confessed their love to her? They’d obviously assumed she knew, perhaps because of their own stupid fear that their relationship might wither and die when they were restored to humanity. He should have found the courage to tell her—and to tell Will—how he felt about them. “Fuck.” Will’s curse hung in the air for what seemed like forever as he raked his fingers through his hair again. “She should have said something. We should have said something. It was easier to just take it for granted.” “So you didn’t tell her. Yet you wonder why she ran away?” “We made love to her almost every night!” Tanner figured she should have known. Couldn’t she feel his love in his touch, in the way he kissed her? “A woman needs more than making love. She could easily believe the physical act doesn’t require deeper feelings where men are concerned. He thought he heard Betinsa mutter something about men and their stupidity, but he was still in too much of a stupor to respond. “Then we’ll tell her.” Will tried to get off the examination table, grimacing with each movement. Putting his hand under Will’s arm, Tanner helped him ease to stand on trembling legs. “You okay?” “Yeah. Just a little sore.” “Need a hypo-spray for pain?” “Nah. What I need is to talk to Alayna.” “Well, then.” Betinsa grinned at them both as she replied to something on her communicator. “You’re in luck. Because right now, she’s waiting at the exit, screaming both of your names.”

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**** Pacing the length of the living area of the small suite she’d been led to, Alayna turned over in her mind exactly what she’d say to Will and Tanner. How dare they tell Betinsa Nungio to order her held at the compound? She didn’t need a damn debriefing. She needed to rip out Priam Sisson’s throat while she watched the life ebb away in his fake blue eyes. Seeing her men would be agony. It was the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life to walk away from them at the infirmary, knowing they could no longer share the love they’d known while Fraiquan. Now, she had to face giving them up a second time, and she couldn’t have felt worse if someone had ripped her heart right out of her chest and slammed it on the floor at her feet. The door slid open. Before she could shout, she saw Will’s uneasy gait and Tanner at his side, assisting him. Her anger evaporated as she hurried to them. “You shouldn’t be up yet,” she scolded as she took Will’s free arm and draped it over her shoulder so he could lean on her. “I wouldn’t be if my inconsiderate wife hadn’t run away.” She winced at the words she knew she deserved. What a coward I am! “I wasn’t…running away. I was going to complete the mission.” Will snorted at her while Tanner just continued to burn her with his angry eyes. “The mission wasn’t to kill someone.” A technicality she hadn’t considered… Betinsa followed them into the suite. “The mission was to stop the flow of patrile, and it involved all three of you—and me. It was not to commit a political assassination. I have a stake in this too, Alayna. It wasn’t your place to decide where and how to end it, and the end shouldn’t come by endangering yourself for no reason other than to simply shield your heart and your pride.” “My heart? My pride? You think that’s why I was…?” Alayna

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shook her head, letting go of Will as he sank into a chair. Clenching her fists at her side, she took some deep breaths, trying to stay calm in the face of the truths being flung at her. “You didn’t give a shit about our hearts,” Will scolded, his hands tightening on the arms of the chair enough that his fingers blanched to sky blue. “Did you? You just left and didn’t even think about how much that would hurt us!” “I didn’t—” “That was cold, baby. Damn cold,” Tanner added, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “But…but…Why does it matter anyway? The mission ended when they came after Will. We can’t work the Cosenki Chemicals angle anymore!” “Sure, you could have,” Betinsa said. “From what Will’s told me, all he is guilty of is checking up on a person who’s paying his wife money under the table. You might have weathered that storm.” “We had to bugger out!” “No, you didn’t. You’re the wife,” Betinsa countered. “It was your place to make the decision.” Alayna wanted to tear out her hair. The truth hurt, but Betinsa was right. It was her decision. She should have gotten some help for Will and still kept their cover. Once she’d seen his wound and feared she might lose him, all she could do was think with her hearts—her human heart and her Fraiquan heart. Because she both loved them and wanted to keep her mates safe, she’d blown months of covert work. “I didn’t want to fail again,” she said, bowing her head. “Especially not both of you. I let Earl die, and I couldn’t let that happen to either of you.” “You weren’t at fault, Alayna,” Betinsa said with a shake of her head. “Earl was at fault.” “But—” “I’ve listened to the tapes. He went in no matter how much you told him not to. I.D.E.A. should never have used your guilt to get you

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to agree to this assignment. It’s time to let Earl go.” Easier said than done. “Look, I can complete this mission. I don’t need Will and Tanner. I can go it alone. That’s probably why I buggered out. We’d reached the end of the road.” “Why, Alayna?” Tanner asked. “Why didn’t you want to stay with us?” “Tell us!” Will demanded. “Tell us why you ran away!” “I don’t know!” She pictured herself lying on the floor, kicking and screaming like a child having a tantrum rather than answering their drilling questions. “Yes, you do!” Tanner shouted. “Alayna,” Betinsa said, catching her gaze, “these men are your husbands.” Like she needed a reminder. “You owe them the truth, and you can’t blame what happened to Earl anymore.” With a strangled cry, she moved to face them and threw her hands up, giving up all control. The floodgates opened to their relentless pressure. “Fine! Fine! I ended the mission because I didn’t want to get my heart broken! I love you both, but you won’t love me when you’re human again!” She whirled to look at Betinsa. “And I don’t want to be a failure again, so I was running away to go assassinate Sisson! Then this mission would be seen as a success. I might not bring any drug dealers to justice or stop the patrile, but I’d kill a Dracorian who’s trying to hurt Fraiqua. Are you all fucking happy now?” As she turned around, ready to flee again, Alayna was suddenly dragged back against a hard body. Tanner’s breath brushed her ear. “Why do you think we’d break your heart?” With a bow, Betinsa left, probably knowing the “official” part of the debriefing was over for now. The door swished shut behind her.

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Chapter 9 Will knew someone had to break the tension, so he dove right in. “We need to talk.” Alayna eyed him warily, the anger still plain in her hard expression. “There’s nothing to talk about.” “Bullshit,” Tanner said. He took her hand and hauled her over to where Will sat in the chair. She frowned the whole way. Will had never seen anyone look so defeated. While he wanted to get up and take her into his arms, he was far too tender, and moving only made the pain in his side worse. A hypo-spray to banish the pain sounded better and better with each passing moment, but he wanted a clear head while he and Tanner tried to figure out exactly what was going on in Alayna’s mind. They needed to convince her that they meant for what they shared during the assignment to be permanent, regardless of being Fraiquan or human. Patting the arm of the chair, he said, “Sit. Please, sweetheart.” She sat down with an angry snort and crossed her arms over her breasts. As if he didn’t know what that body language meant… He’d just have to work around the walls she was erecting to keep them away. Trying not to wince from the pain, he pried one of her hands loose and dragged it down to rest on her thigh, interlacing their fingers. “From the moment we all met, haven’t we always worked on everything together? Haven’t we shared everything—from changing ourselves into Fraiquans to eating refugee rations?” All she gave him was a curt nod. “Then what makes you think we’d let you just run back to take on this guy without us? Hell, what makes you think I.D.E.A. would even

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endorse that plan?” “This was my mission,” she insisted, trying to pull her hand away. Will wouldn’t let her. “This was my failure. I shouldn’t have cut and run like that. I was just so worried about…and you were hurt…and…Shit. Fuck I.D.E.A. Just let me handle this.” She shook her head as her teeth tugged at her bottom lip. From her ragged sigh, he could tell she was close to tears. Seeing a woman as strong as Alayna that close to losing her composure made Will’s heart hurt. “I was the one who panicked. I told you to grab the bugger bag. Remember? Shit, I’ve never been shot before. It hurts like a son of a bitch. I overreacted.” Tanner took her other hand. “I wasn’t much help, either. When I saw the blood on Will’s shirt and hands, I was every bit as ready to bugger out as you were. This wasn’t your fault, and it sure as hell wasn’t a failure. If you’re right about Sisson being a—” Her head snapped around so she was glaring at Tanner, and a low growl rose from her chest. “What do you mean if I’m right? I know he’s Dracorian! I know it!” “C’mon, baby. I didn’t mean—” She growled again, but Will gave her hand a squeeze. “We think you’re right, Alayna. That’s what we need to talk about. Well…that’s one of the things we need to talk about.” Alayna’s eyes caught his. “What do you mean that you think I’m right?” “Quit being so literal.” She heaved a weary sigh that told him her patience was at an end. Will got to the heart of the matter. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you and Tanner. When I was plowing through the files in the restricted area, I found several encrypted communications on Sisson’s personal computer. Actually, I found several ghosts of encrypted messages. Took some work to bring them back from the dead, let me tell you. Every one of ’em got bounced off of several satellites, but they all ended up in the same destination.”

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“Dracoria.” She raised his hand to her lips to brush a kiss over his skin, sending heat racing through his body despite his wound. “You’re a genius, honey.” “Won’t deny it,” he replied with a smirk followed by a hiss of pain when he tried to shift in the chair. With a frown, Tanner said, “I’m gonna get you a hypo-spray, pal.” He started to walk to the door, but Will stopped him. “Wait. Please. Painkillers put me to sleep, and I want to finish this conversation first. Besides, it’s not really that bad. Just kind of achy.” Alayna pulled her hand away to stroke his hair back from his face. He was sick of the long stuff and was ready to get his short hair back. And his tan skin. And his identity. When she kissed his forehead, he smiled at her to try to show her he was okay. Damn, but he loved her scent—so feminine. He breathed her in, branding everything about her on his heart. This woman was his mate, exactly like Tanner was. Now, he and Tanner had to convince her of the sincerity of their feelings. “Fine, but you’re getting some relief soon,” she said. Oh, he wanted relief, all right, but not the type he could get from a hypo-spray. “After we talk. Look, we’ve all been pussyfooting around this, but it’s time to put all our cards on the table.” Alayna tilted her head. At least he had her total interest. “All our cards on the… What in the hell are you talking about?” “We love you, Alayna. Tanner and I love you.” If her eyes got any wider, they’d probably pop right out. “You…love me?” She kept shifting her suspicious gaze between him and Tanner. Tanner nodded. “I love you, Alayna.” He smiled at Will. “And I love you, too, Will.” “Back at’cha, Tanner,” Will said with a grin and a wink. “The three of us are inseparable, Alayna. How can you not know that?” “But…but…” She shook her head. “You don’t mean it.” “Why would you say that?” Tanner asked. He raked his fingers

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through his hair before settling his hands on his hips to glare at her. Her breath came in shallow pants, her fear radiating around her like an aura. “Well…because! Just because!” “That’s not an answer.” “Because you only feel that way because we’re Fraiquan. Once we’re human again, well…who knows? You two might just decide I’m really nothing special. You’ll probably want a divorce. Or…or we can get an annulment.” Trying to hold his temper because he knew her comments came from her worry and not her heart, Will gave her hand a squeeze. “It doesn’t matter if you’re blue or purple or green or pink. We love you.” “It’s just the comchi,” she insisted with a decisive nod. “That’s it. It’s just the fucking comchi and this stupid being-Fraiquan stuff. Once we’re changed back, you won’t feel that way anymore. Neither of you will feel that way anymore.” With a snarl, Tanner stood up and started pacing. “Don’t you dare tell me what I feel and what I don’t feel! I don’t care if you’re our wife or not, you don’t get to tell us what to do now. I just told you I love you, and you damn well better learn to accept it. ’Cause we’re not letting you go.” On that promise, he stomped back, grabbed her upper arms, and hauled her to her feet. His mouth covered hers. Before the three of them had become lovers, Will had never realized how erotic it was to watch other people touching, kissing, making love. The moment Tanner started to kiss Alayna and stroke her body, Will’s cock sprang to life. His pain was quickly forgotten until he tried to stand up and join them. Sucking in a breath, he eased back into the chair. Alayna broke away from Tanner to crouch next to Will. Her hands settled on his knees. “You should be in bed.” “Actually,” he said, trying to give her a smile, “I was thinking the same thing about you two.” “What are you talking about?” Her eyes searched his.

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“I want to make love to the two of you, but I’m a little…indisposed.” “Now’s not the time.” “Now’s the perfect time,” Tanner said. He leaned down to put his hands on Alayna’s shoulders. “If we make love to you, you’ll be able to see exactly how we feel.” She shook her head. “Will’s too hurt.” “I could watch,” he said. “I’d really like to watch.” “It wouldn’t prove anything.” Alayna tried to stand up, but Tanner held her in place. “Why not?” he asked. “Because we’re still Fraiquan. Once we’re human—” Tanner’s hands were suddenly under her arms as he lifted her to her feet. Spinning her around, he kissed her. Hard. Watching their tongues mate forced some fluid from Will’s cock. Sure, he was in pain, but right now, he wanted his lovers—his spouses. Somehow, they’d find a way to make this work. “You two help me to the bed.” Alayna broke away from the kiss. “Will…you can’t mean—” “Fuck, yeah, I mean! This might be the last time we make love as Fraiquans. I’m not about to miss out on it ’cause some fucktard shot me.” As he eased up, Tanner and Alayna each grabbed an elbow to help. Then they got him settled on the bed. “How’s this supposed to work when you can’t move?” she asked as Tanner started undressing her. While Will loved how concerned she was for his health, his cock was demanding release. “Tanner’s going to fuck you from behind while you suck my dick. Sound like a plan?” “Oh, yeah,” Tanner replied as he threw Alayna’s shirt over the chair. His hands reached for her waistband as she started undoing his pants. Since all Will had on were boxers, he peeled them off, hating how doing something that simple made him pant for breath. Alayna came to stand by the mattress, her beautiful blue body bare. He gave her a

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weak smile as his gaze traveled from her face to her pert breasts to black curls crowning her pussy. For the first time, he saw her as she was now, not as the woman with short, brown hair and alabaster skin—probably because he knew he’d never see her this way again. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” “So you like blue?” She winked at him. “I love you,” he replied, “and I don’t give a shit what color you are.” He patted the mattress. “Get on your knees, sweetheart.” He gripped his stiff cock and waggled it at her. “I need you.” Tanner came up behind her, grinding his erection against her ass. “I love you, baby.” Reaching around, she grabbed his butt, pulling him harder against her. The worry was still in her gaze, mingling with passion that turned her eyes nearly black. “Are you sure you wanna do this, Will?” “Oh, yeah, I’m sure.” He nodded at his dick. “Suck my cock, Alayna.” “Gladly.” Crawling on hands and knees, she reached him. Her long hair brushed over his groin as she pressed a kiss to each of his thighs, skirting around his cock. Tanner joined her, fitting himself behind her hips and leaning over to kiss her back. Watching him touch her was so damned sexy, Will felt his dick swell even more as his balls pulled up tight against his body. “Tell me what she feels like, Tanner. When you get inside her, tell me how her pussy feels.” As he dragged a finger down her spine, making Alayna suck in a ragged breath, Tanner grinned. “Sure will, if you tell me how that sweet mouth of her feels when she sucks your cock.” Alayna wrapped her fingers around Will’s erection and stroked, knowing she’d never tire of the feel of her men. Her body was drowning in sensations. The silky skin of Will’s dick. The tingle from Tanner’s fingers moving down her spine before his palms cradled her ass. Suddenly, Tanner sank a finger deep inside her cunt, and her inner muscles contracted, squeezing him tight. While she wanted to

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tell Tanner how good it felt when a second finger joined the first, she decided to pour her desire into pleasing Will. Licking him from root to head, she twirled her tongue around the swollen cap of his cock, capturing the drops of pre-cum leaking from the slit. He tasted wonderful. Tangy. Salty. She took him into her mouth as he tangled his fingers through her hair and hissed in approval. Tanner’s clever fingers moved to find her clitoris, and the faster he rubbed it, the faster she sucked on Will’s cock. The musky scent of him filled her nostrils. “Are you ready, baby?” Tanner asked. Since she didn’t want to stop what she was doing, she simply wiggled her hips and then pressed her ass back against his groin. Taking her hint, he rubbed his erection against her pussy and then slid inside. “She’s hot and wet,” Tanner said. “Shit, she’s tight, too.” He held her hips and started slamming into her, somehow knowing she was already close to release and needed him fast and furious. “Her mouth is heaven,” Will added. “Oh, fuck, Alayna. I think I’m going to…” His fingers tightened in her hair, making her suck a little harder, hoping to force his orgasm before her own claimed her. Just to be sure she dragged him along for the ride, she reached between his thighs, squeezed his sac, and then raked her fingernails up the sensitive skin. His hot semen poured into mouth, and she swallowed hard to capture it all before her own climax started deep inside, making her muscles begin the wonderful contractions that rocked her to her soul. She leaned forward to rest her cheek against Will’s thighs as she let herself drown in the love she felt for her husbands. Tanner gripped her hips tighter, pounding into her again and again until he shouted her name. The heat of his essence bathed her womb, making her body tighten in delightful aftershocks. In the aftermath of their passion, the three lay side by side. Alayna loved how the men always wanted to cuddle after making love. Will

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held her against his good side while Tanner spooned against her back. Right before she drifted off to sleep, she whispered the words she’d held in her heart for so long. “I love you both. With all my heart.”

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Chapter 10 “Wake up, beautiful.” Alayna’s eyes fluttered open, and although she felt disoriented, the familiar voice calling to her made her smile. “You’re finally awake,” Will said in English. The chip that allowed her to speak Fraiqui and Hungarian had been left behind since it could be useful in the future, but hearing her own language again was music to her ears and helped bring back the memories of getting ready for the procedure to change her back to a human. A warm hand encased hers and gave her fingers a squeeze before letting her go. “I really like your hair better like this. The color suits you.” This time Tanner spoke as he tousled her hair. “It’s brown again? Is it short?” She reached for the hand mirror on the table tray next to her bed. Holding it up, she hardly recognized her own face. After months of seeing her skin blue and her hair long and black, her pink skin and spiky brown hair seemed…out of place. She tore her gaze away from the stranger in the mirror to look at Will and Tanner. Damn, but they were handsome. Her blond and her redhead were back. She’d loved them as Fraiquans. She loved them even more as humans. But did they still love her? Now that their Fraiquan bond—the one they’d formed in completing the comchi—was gone, had their love vanished as well? Setting the mirror down, she reached up to touch the scars on her neck and shoulder that showed where they’d marked

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her in their first mating. Those scars would always be reminders, permanent signs of her undying love for them and how they’d loved her once upon a time. Her heart felt as fragile as spun sugar, and she was terrified they’d break it into a million pieces. “So what do you think?” Alayna finally found the courage to ask. “Can you deal with a tomboy who has hair almost as short as yours?” “I always thought you were beautiful,” Tanner said with a smile that made her heartbeat race. “You know, back when you were blue.” “And now?” she asked as she combed her fingers through her short locks. The gesture was so familiar, she started to feel herself reconciling into being human Alayna instead of Fraiquan Alayna. Seeing the men as they were now, she quickly acclimated to what they looked like, letting their Fraiquan incarnations start to fade to memories. This was how she always wanted to remember them— young, virile, and too handsome for words. “Now,” he said with a broad smile, “I still think you’re beautiful.” “So do I,” Will added. He squeezed her hand again. “And I still love you, no matter what color you are.” “Me, too,” Tanner said with a nod. “Fraiquan, human, whatever. I still love you.” “You do?” Her feelings were every bit as deep as they’d ever been—maybe even more so now that she saw her men as they truly were supposed to look. Leaning in, Will pressed a kiss to her lips. Alayna lifted her hands to frame his face, loving his growl when she tickled his lips with her tongue. He opened up to her, and she stroked her tongue across his. After a moment of savoring his taste, she pulled back to look into his handsome blue eyes. “I like you like this.” “And me?” Tanner asked. “I’d forgotten how red your hair was.” She grinned at him and winked. “With that temper of yours…I should have remembered.” His green eyes twinkled as he moved closer to brush a kiss over her mouth. When he tried to pull away, she lightly grabbed his ears to

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bring him back for a deeper kiss. He smiled against her lips before he pushed his tongue into her mouth, letting it lazily mate with hers. When he stood back up, he was still smiling. “Now can we get past this stupid fear we all had that changing back would change the way we feel about each other?” “I don’t know,” Alayna said, pouting her lip and trying not to laugh in her happiness. After all her worrying, her husbands wanted to stay married to her, which was all she could ever want. “Until we make love as humans, we’ll never know.” They both laughed at her, obviously seeing through her fake sulk. About to suggest they give her theory a test, she stopped when someone knocked on the door. “Come in!” she called. Betinsa came into the room, followed closely by her husband Drake. “I thought you had baby duty,” Tanner teased. “Matt’s with our son.” His words were clipped, so in contrast to the warm personality Alayna had met back on Rozale. Drake directed a hard stare at her, forcing a shiver to race over her skin. “Are you absolutely sure about Sisson being Dracorian?” “Positive.” “What’s going on?” Will asked. “’Cause I can feel the tension from you and Betinsa.” “I think we’ve discovered exactly what his mission is,” Drake announced, showing a strong side that spoke of his years as an ambassador. “And it’s not just making money selling patrile. Did any of you know the vice president of the United Continents is scheduled to sign a trade treaty with Fraiqua tomorrow?” “You know this because?” Will asked. “Because I’ve just been asked to escort her,” Drake replied. “I’d heard something about Earth negotiating with Fraiqua, but I hadn’t heard they’d reached an agreement,” Alayna said. “Chelisa Garner is really coming here?” With a nod, Drake said, “The plans were made very quickly. I’ve

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only known since her shuttle left Earth. She’ll be here in a few hours. I don’t think she was the original reason for Sisson being on Fraiqua, but there’s no way a Dracorian wouldn’t take advantage of something this big.” The ramifications of one of the most powerful women from Earth visiting Fraiqua slammed into Alayna full force. “Sisson’s plotting to kill her, isn’t he? And since he looks like a Fraiquan, the U.C. will blame the Fraiquan people. He wants to start a war between Earth and Fraiqua. Fuck!” Drake set his mouth into an angry frown and nodded. “That’s what I think too, but it’s just a gut reaction on my part. I have no proof. In fact, I have nothing but your assurances he’s Dracorian and my own suspicions, nor am I sure he wants to kill Ms. Garner. For all I know, he might just be out to make a shitload of money selling patrile or is plotting some kind of coup somewhere down the road.” “I trust your gut,” Will said with a nod. “Good enough for me, too,” Tanner added. Alayna’s thoughts whirled, and she worried how Luka would be caught up in this turn of events. She looked to Betinsa. “Is Luka still staying undercover?” “No,” Betinsa replied. Alayna waited for her to say something else, but she didn’t. “Can I ask you something about Luka?” “I should not be discussing him with you.” “I know. I just…when we talked, he referred to Fraiquans as them, not us. I thought he was Fraiquan. Was he changed the way Will, Tanner, and I were?” “That’s a story for another time,” Betinsa replied. Her glare suggested the topic should be dropped. Tanner brought them all back to the problem at hand. “What are we going to do to stop Sisson from hurting the vice president?” Alayna couldn’t believe he had to ask. “We’re going to keep Chelisa Garner as far away from the guy as we can.” Surprisingly, Betinsa shook her head. “We have another plan.”

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**** “I still don’t like this,” Alayna whispered loud enough the men could catch her words through their earpieces. Both flanked the vice president while Will kept vigil over Drake. “Nope. Don’t like this one damned bit. Someone’s going to recognize us.” “You worry too much,” Will whispered back. “Gotta give Betinsa credit though. She looks just like Garner. That shape-shifting stuff is creepy. Glad you couldn’t do that when you were Fraiquan, Alayna.” She wasn’t going to let him charm her out of her fear. “If there’s anyone here from Consenki Chemical, they’ll recognize one of us, even if we’re not blue anymore. They’d still recognize our faces. I just know it.” Tanner winked at her. “Relax, baby. No one will know it’s us. They’re all looking at Betinsa or Sisson.” Drake narrowed his eyes enough to make her realize he was getting tired of their chatter. She was extra nervous since her guys were putting themselves in the line of fire again. While Betinsa’s assurances helped Alayna no longer blame herself for Earl Bruner’s death, she couldn’t help but worry about Tanner and Will. Yes, this risk was for a damned good reason, but she hated it nonetheless. Once this was done and they sent Priam Sisson to prison or hell, her husbands were retiring. No arguments. No debate. No long talks. They were going to do something less dangerous and settle down. And that was that. Priam Sisson joined them on the dais, smiling and waving to the large crowd that had gathered for the historic treaty. A sea of blue faces was broken by only a few other colors. There had to be at least five thousand Fraiquans there to celebrate this joining of Earth and Fraiquan cultures. It took every bit of Alayna’s self-control not to draw her pulse pistol and shoot the Dracorian so this whole nightmare was over.

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“Don’t even think about it.” Will’s voice buzzed in her earpiece. “How would you know what I’m thinking?” “You keep running your fingers over the butt of your pistol. Stop it. Now.” Giving him a curt nod, she let her gaze fall on Sisson. He seemed to be milking this appearance for all it was worth, like some celebrity. Fucking Dracorian. She almost reached for her pistol again until Tanner shot her a glare. Sisson stepped up to the podium and waved again. “Thank you! Thank you!” “Asshole,” Alayna muttered. “Shh…” The admonishment came from Betinsa, so Alayna obeyed. “My friends,” Sisson said, “thanks to all my hard work, we have come here to celebrate a new era and a new relationship with a planet that is not only going to be supplying us with their natural resources, but purchasing our products.” He waited for the applause and shouts to die down again. “Thank you. Thank you. I am here to sign the treaty with the vice president of Earth’s United Continents.” His arm swept out to indicate the fake Chelisa Garner. “Please welcome this wonderful lady as she visits our…beautiful planet for the first time.” The way he choked on “beautiful” only added weight to Alayna’s suspicions. To a Dracorian, Fraiqua was about as beautiful as barren Charos, the planet from hell. All they wanted was to rape the place for its natural resources. Betinsa stepped up to the podium as Sisson moved to the side. “Thank you, Minister Sisson, for the warm welcome.” Her words were spoken in perfect Fraiquan, which made Alayna smile. The crowd had to think she’d spent hours learning their difficult language. “I hope in signing this trade agreement, the United Continents has helped establish a lasting peace and friendship between our two peoples.” Stepping back, she took the ceremonial pen offered by Drake.

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Betinsa signed the agreement with a flourish, and then she handed the pen to Sisson, who grabbed it with his enormous hands, fumbling to keep it in his grasp. Betinsa’s smug grin belied the dangerous nature of the mission. That grin grew into a full-blown smirk when Sisson dropped the pen. But he didn’t bend over to try to pick it up. Instead, he hit the ground. All hell broke loose as a shot came from the left of the crowd. Alayna instinctively threw herself in front of Betinsa, accepting the shot against her protective chest plate. Although she didn’t take the burn of the pulse, the force of the blast pushed her back. She sprawled on her ass on top of Tanner, who’d also moved to protect Betinsa. Sisson crawled over, a small version of a stun-stick in his hand. The damned thing was charged, and he aimed it right at Betinsa. Drake kicked it away as Will held off four Fraiquans—all of whom had huge hands and gloves just like Sisson—as they rushed the stage with their weapons drawn. His shots took down two of them, but the other two jumped over their fallen comrades, clearly heading toward the woman they thought was U.C.’s vice president. Right before they reached her, Betinsa leapt, fangs bared as she morphed back into her own shape. She ripped out one of their throats before the other fell to a good shot Tanner fired from where he lay on the ground. Everything was over as quickly as it had begun. The crowd watched in stunned silence as Drake signaled the Fraiquan police who had been standing to the side of the dais. Betinsa was the one to step up to the microphone, and Alayna watched in awe as every Fraiquan in the crowd bowed when she raised her hand. “She’s considered an Oracle,” Drake said. “The Fraiquan people revere her because she saved their planet a few years ago.” That news didn’t surprise Alayna one bit. She’d quickly recognized Betinsa’s strength and intelligence. If her husband said Betinsa had saved Fraiqua, Alayna wouldn’t doubt him. “She’ll have to tell me that story sometime.”

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Drake and Tanner dragged a now-docile Priam Sisson to stand close to the podium. Not a surprise because Dracorians turned into nothing but sniveling pussies once they lost their advantage. “My friends,” she said, “I am sorry for the deception. It was done because of my love for this land. This man”—she pointed to Sisson— “isn’t what he appears to be.” She nodded toward the man Tanner liked to call Dr. Frankenstein. He stepped up onto the stage, carrying an enormous hypo-spray. “We’re here to reveal his deception,” Betinsa said as the doctor stepped up to Sisson. Drake and Tanner had to hold the Dracorian still while the doctor jabbed the hypo-spray against his neck. In a matter of moments, Sisson began to change. While the injection was only a small step toward changing him back, it would be enough to show the Fraiquans what he truly was. His skin faded from the brilliant blue to a puke green and then a dark yellow. Not the vivid Dracorian yellow, but once his nose morphed from two nostrils to four and his blue eyes changed to red, the crowd seemed to understand. The angry shouts began, growing louder and louder until Betinsa raised her hand again, forcing them back to silence. “Now that we are aware of the ability for races to change, I call for a universal treaty to never allow this type of genetic manipulation. Although agents from the Interplanetary Drug Enforcement Agency have also used this technique to uncover this plot against our beloved home, we believe the problems that can occur, the deceptions that can result, are not worth the benefits. So now, I ask all the planets in the Prime Sector to send delegates to Fraiqua to forge a new era of cooperation as we come to an agreement that genetic manipulation be banned for the good of us all.” **** “God, what a day,” Tanner said as he tossed his chest plate on the floor. “Are you okay, baby?” He’d worried about how Alayna had

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fared from the moment that shot had hit her. The chest plates were a fairly new invention, and although they’d been tested, they’d never been used in a real-life situation. He sure as hell hadn’t wanted Alayna to be the first one to take a pulse-pistol shot directly to the chest. “I’m fine.” She rolled her shoulders before she started unlacing the ties holding the armor against her body. “Just a little sore.” Tanner brushed her hands aside to help her remove it. The damn thing practically smashed her breasts flat since they hadn’t had time to make one molded to her curvy shape. She’d surely be glad to get it off. “Lift your arms, Alayna.” She obeyed, and he swept it over her head. Bruises had already formed on both her collarbones, close to the rings of scars left when he and Will had claimed her as their mate. “Oh, baby…” Leaning in, he pressed a kiss just above each purple mark. “Do they hurt?” “Not really.” When her hands went to the waistband of his pants, he believed her. The door opened, making both of the jump. “Hey! You started without me.” Will strode into the room, shutting and locking the door behind him. As he turned back to face them, he frowned. “Oh, love. You’re hurt.” “I’m not hurt. I’m horny. Don’t you guys get as worked up as I do after a scene like that? I feel like I’m on some kind of adrenaline high. I need you two to fuck me. Now.” She shoved Tanner’s pants over his hips. His cock sprang free. “Damn, it’s even better looking pink than blue.” With a salacious smile, she dropped to her knees and took his dick into her mouth. So surprised he could barely breathe, Tanner laced his fingers through her short hair and let his love for her wash over him as he enjoyed each lick and suck she so lovingly gave him. Will, who’d dropped his clothes faster than should have been possible, joined them. Holding his dick, he smiled at Tanner. “How can I get in on this party?” Without a hesitation, Tanner wrapped his fingers around Will’s

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cock and started pumping, savoring the groan Will gave him. After only a few strokes, Will thrust his hips against Tanner’s hand. “Fuck, that feels good.” Tanner could only take so much provocation, and between Alayna’s sweet mouth and the feel of Will’s rock-hard cock against his hand, he knew he wouldn’t last long. Since this was the first time the three of them would come together now that they were restored to their humanity, he wanted it to be special. Coming in her mouth wasn’t exactly what he had planned. “Enough.” Alayna stared up at him, and he loved how her eyes were glazed with desire. “Didn’t like it?” “I like it too much. C’mon. Let’s get in bed. I want to make love to you two.” He grabbed her under the arms and pulled her to her feet. Capturing her mouth for a long, wet kiss, he gasped when Will’s hand cupped his balls. “You two are going to kill me.” “Yeah,” Will said, giving the testicles a squeeze before releasing them, “but you’ll die happy.” Tanner swept Alayna into his arms and carried her to the bed. Will followed right behind, giving Tanner’s ass a couple of slaps that made his cock twitch. His two mates could get him so damned hot so fast. At that moment, all he could think about was sinking his dick into one of them—didn’t matter which. “Who do I get to fuck first?” “You’re both fucking me. End of story,” Alayna said as he dropped her on the mattress. She bounced once before crawling over and patting the comforter. “Will, you’re still sore. Lie down and let me ride you.” Then she flashed Tanner a heart-stopping smile. “And you know what to do. Right?” “I get to fuck your ass, don’t I, baby?” Alayna laughed, so happy her men knew exactly what she wanted and weren’t afraid to talk dirty to her. “Damn right. Be a good husband and get the lube.” “Yes, ma’am!” While Tanner fetched the bottle from the nightstand, Alayna

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straddled Will’s hips. “Are you ready for me?” she asked as she rubbed her cunt against his cock. Instead of answering, he growled and grabbed her hips. “I’ll take that as a yes.” As he held his dick, she settled over him, taking him inside her pussy slowly, trying to drive him out of his mind. Will was clearly past teasing when he thrust his hips up, filling her completely. She rode him slow, trying to make the moment last and waited while Tanner squeezed out some lube and quickly spread it over his erection. He moved behind her, running his hand down her spine as he pushed her forward. Will greeted her with a tongue-dueling kiss while Tanner swirled his wet fingers around her tight hole. She squeezed her inner muscles as she pushed back against Tanner’s hand, anticipating the pleasure that came with two hard cocks deep inside her. “I don’t want to hurt you, Alayna.” Tearing her mouth away, she practically shouted, “Fuck me! Now!” He entered her in one thrust, his balls slapping against her. “Oh, God. I’m not gonna last long.” Tanner pulled back then thrust inside her again just as Will’s hips rose to push his cock inside her to the hilt. They quickly found a rhythm that made her body sing, and far too quickly, she felt the tension building inside her. She fought it, wanting this special moment to last and last, but when Will’s mouth covered hers and he thrust his tongue inside at the same time, both men slammed inside her again, and she lost her battle. Wave after wave of bliss washed over her, making the world swim in her eyes and her heartbeat roar in her ears. Will and Tanner cried out in their own orgasms as their heated semen poured inside her. When Alayna came back into herself, she was sprawled on the bed, one husband on each side. She hummed, content to just lie there

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and let the rest of the world go by. “You know, I got a message from your old partner, Izzie Szabo,” Tanner said as if doing nothing more than making idle chitchat. The notion that Tanner had reached out to contact the only woman Alayna had ever called a friend seemed odd, to say the least. “You called Izzie? Why?” “Actually, she called looking for you. I was just there to answer the hail.” “I can’t believe she’s got time to even think about me.” Izzie had to have her hands full. For fuck’s sake, the woman was now a princess on Bromond—a desert planet mired in a male-dominated society that was struggling to liberate the women. Izzie, of course, was leading the feminist movement. “Why would she contact me?” Will answered her. “She’s putting together the first Bromondi coed police academy. Seems she needs some experienced officers to become instructors.” “You talked to her too?” “We were both there when the call came,” Tanner said, “and when we told her we were thinking about getting away from I.D.E.A. and undercover work, she offered all of us jobs.” Her head was spinning. While she wanted nothing more than to keep her men safe, she’d never had time to consider what they would do to earn a living once they stopped being I.D.E.A. agents. “Jobs? On Bromond?” Both men nodded. “What do you say, baby?” Tanner asked. “It’ll be great. Izzie said you’re the best woman she can think of to be the commandant.” “Seriously? She wants me to run the place?” “We’d help.” Will grinned at her. “Think about it, love. The three of us. Together.” “No more undercover,” Tanner said. “We could have a home.” “And maybe even a family,” Will added. “Someday.” She should have known Izzie would come through for her. Sure,

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Bromond was a bit…backward. But once Alayna and Izzie paired up again, they would change that world for the better. Plus, Izzie was also blessed with two husbands. Alayna would finally have someone to talk to who understood what it was like to share her life with two men. “Fine. I’ll call Izzie later and let her know.” “We…um…sorta…” Will couldn’t seem to finish his thought. “You what?” she asked. Tanner averted his eyes, evidently focusing on the blank wall behind the bed. “We kinda…told her…” “You already told her we’d come, didn’t you?” Not that Alayna was surprised. She was, however, pleased. “I’m guessing that I’m no longer in charge of this marriage, am I?” Tanner’s chuckle warmed her heart. “Since none of us are blue anymore, I’d say no.” “Does that bother you, Alayna?” Will asked. “That’s not the kind of marriage I wanted anyway,” she replied. “What I want is to be with the two men I love, even if it is on Bromond.” “You’re not angry?” Tanner asked. “Nah.” “You’re taking this mighty easy.” Will eyed her suspiciously. She couldn’t blame him. By now, he had to know she always liked to get in the last word. She didn’t disappoint him. “Just remember…” Alayna kissed each of her husbands before smiling. “I’m still going to be your boss.”

THE END WWW.ELIZABETHRAINIES.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Elizabeth Raines makes her home in the Midwest. A fan of all genres of fiction, she enjoys blending her love of science fiction with romance in the books she writes exclusively for Siren Publishing. Her favorite movies are Pride and Prejudice and Love, Actually, and she spends far too much time watching shows like The Tudors and Mad Men. Elizabeth has been happily married for almost thirty years and tries to express that kind of enduring love in all her stories, hoping to help all her heroes and heroines have their own happily ever afters.

Also by Elizabeth Raines Ménage Everlasting: Wicked Missions 1: Locked In Ménage Everlasting: Wicked Missions 2: Marooned Ménage Everlasting: Wicked Missions 3: Bounty Ménage Everlasting: Wicked Missions 4: Sold Ménage Everlasting: Wicked Missions 5: Wanted Ménage Everlasting: Wicked Missions 6: Captivated

Also by The Sextet The Sextet Anthology, Volume 1: Sharing The Sextet Anthology, Volume 2: Dirty Dancing The Sextet Anthology, Volume 3: Occupational Hazards

Available at BOOKSTRAND.COM

Siren Publishing, Inc. www.SirenPublishing.com