“Don’t I know it,” Rafe muttered. He glanced from Drekk, his friend, to Erin, the woman he couldn’t help feeling so deeply for. “This is a sacred part of the claiming. We don’t usually have witnesses. It’s an intimate thing, and one you shouldn’t understand, though you obviously do.” When Drekk raised one brow and waited, Rafe sighed. “Okay, but don’t let Erin know about this. She wasn’t all that happy about you watching the last time.” Not that Rafe minded overly. Claiming her with an audience only reinforced his possession.
“Why are you really going to do it while she’s out of it?” Rafe opened his mouth and immediately closed it. “Fuck. Because you’re a pain in the ass, that’s why. Because you’re my friend and I feel like a dick because I left you to Gar.” Drekk chuckled. “And because I don’t want to give her the chance to say no.”
“Honest at last.” Drekk slowly pulled his trouser fastening apart to expose a thick cock.
Stunned, Rafe watched as Drekk began stroking himself, and to his bewilderment, a subtle, seductive scent enveloped him. It wasn’t Erin’s, yet its pull was almost as strong. As Rafe’s body hardened even more, he stared at Drekk in absolute shock. “No. No way. Not you, too? How the hell did I miss that one?”
Talk about the stunner of a lifetime. Most System inhabitants that had ever run across a Creation hadn’t lived to see their next breath, lost in a Creation’s violent madness. Yet not only had Rafe decided to mate and thus commit himself to one, he’d apparently been working with another for years.
“The first batch of us clearly didn’t take.” Drekk shrugged, the action accentuating the hard organ between his thighs. “But the scientists didn’t stop after the war.” His voice turned raspy as he watched Rafe begin to jerk off. “Fuck, Rafe. Do her and I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” The scent around them intensified, and Rafe saw a deep yearning in Drekk’s hard grey eyes that softened with need. “Please.” Rafe grunted, incapable of speech, and alternated his gaze between Erin’s beauty and Drekk’s glittering gaze, his pearling cock. The call of like to like overwhelmed him, and Rafe lost the ability to differentiate between Xema and Creation as he watched the woman he loved, knowing a man he both respected and trusted shared this moment. Rafe pulled the jacket covering Erin away. Kneeling over his woman, Rafe took himself in hand and focused on her, unable to block out Drekk’s presence entirely. Still, it was Erin’s scent that called to him. Erin’s body, the image of her deep indigo eyes with their glowing pupils that pulled him deeper under her spell.
Caught by need, Rafe raced to completion, panting as lust overtook him. Frantic with the need to come, to finally mark Erin with his seed and rub it all over her breasts, Rafe shook from the force of his primitive desire.
“By the universe, yes,” Drekk groaned, keeping pace with Rafe. “Watching you two fuck made me so damned hard. Feel her, Rafe. Love her as she was meant to be loved.”
“Erin.” Rafe could barely breathe, the intensity of his pleasure growing as Drekk suddenly spurted. Ropy bursts of come jetted from the man’s cock, and Drekk alternately cursed and prayed as he shot all over his hand and belly.
“Do it,” Drekk panted, stroking himself until he seemed utterly spent. “Mark her, Rafe.”
Rafe felt his balls tighten as a fist of pleasure centred at the base of his spine and blew through his body. Yelling Erin’s name, he came hard, covering her chest with his seed. A force greater than wainu wrapped around them, and he watched with pleasure as his seed seeped through her skin and disappeared, his essence now tied to hers for all eternity.
When he finally caught his breath, he felt Drekk’s intense stare. His friend’s eyes were no longer grey, but a complete black, no iris or white to differentiate. “Thank you,” Drekk said quietly, and Rafe sensed the peace of the moment as it affected his friend as well.
“So far so good,” Rafe breathed. “Now I just have to figure out a way to let her know we’ve mated.”
Drekk chuckled, a raspy sound that soothed Rafe even more. “I have a feeling she’s not going to mind your claiming much. Our kind don’t often experience the kind of acceptance you’ve already given her.”
Rafe stirred enough to cover Erin and clean himself, making good use of the small stream nearby. He alternated his gaze between Erin and Drekk while he donned his trousers, socks and boots, and he said the first thing that came to mind. “Tell me you’re a lot older than four.” He and Drekk had worked together five years ago, so Drekk had to be at least a year older than Erin.
Drekk looked surprised, and with that emotion his eyes returned to normal again. “Is that all she is? They must have really advanced the maturation process. Hell, I was Created over a thousand years ago. And even then it was touch and go. I think I’m the ugliest one they ever made.” He grinned, bringing attention to his scar. “But I blended in so much better than their earlier versions, the pretty ones, that they had a hard time letting go.” A thousand years ago? Yet the male didn’t look a day past thirty. Incredible. “Did they? Let you go, I mean? Because from the way Erin talks and the rewards Blue Rim is offering, I get the impression they’re very fond of their…assets.” Drekk smiled, but Rafe saw no humour it in. “I died. I simply refused to regenerate after one of the ‘tests’ they gave me. That’s how I got the scar. A near decapitation that went from one ear to the other. Just as they were about to torch my body, I found enough energy to evade my cremation and disappeared. One of my many talents, in case you haven’t noticed.”
Rafe stared, wide-eyed. “I thought you were using a micro-teleporter.”
“Nope. It’s just me. Though the teleportation was an accident. I scared the shit out of myself the first time it happened, when I suddenly caught a stray worm thread blowing by me. They’re all around us, you know. You just have to know how to tap into them.” Rafe glanced uneasily around him through the burning daylight. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“Unlike the Creations from the war and those made now, Blue Rim tinkered with real alien DNA when they made my batch. They found a rock from outside the System and cultivated samples from the life on it. I think my forbearers were spores,” Drekk joked.
“I’d believe that.”
“Drun.”
“Asshole.”
“See, now that I like. Assholes.”
Rafe laughed at Drekk, completely relaxed with the man as Drekk continued to open up about his past. At ease with his own sexuality, Rafe didn’t have a problem with those who lived alternate lifestyles. He worried more about protecting those he cared about. And he felt a connection with Drekk now that he hadn’t before.
“Weren’t you scared someone might find out?” he had to know.
“At first. Remember, I was Created right after the war, and tension was high everywhere. But because there was so much life lost, I was able to blend in with the growing population. Men and women were desperately wanted in certain sectors of the System, and I didn’t mind any job so long as it paid and kept me warm.
“It took me a while, but I eventually learned to live among those in the System. I made friends and lost them, shared women, men and loved a few of each in between. But until you, Rafe, I never felt much at home. I like this job. I like Cheltam, dammit.” Rafe chuckled. “Me, too. Never thought I’d say it, but I miss the bastard.”
“So come back. You got Gar on his feet. And I know Sernal is driving you crazy. As soon as Gar finds him, why don’t you mention how much you’d like to resume your duties?