Night of the Zandians (Zandian Brides 1)

“No,” she whimpers.

Oh veck she feels so good.

“That’s right.” Somehow, I’m able to keep up my monologue. “When you’re being punished you don’t get to come. You’ll have to sleep all night with your pussy and nipples throbbing because we’re not giving you satisfaction.

She moans. Her muscles tighten around my cock.

“Are you coming?” I snap.

They tighten more. “Uh…”

“Bad. Girl.” I slam in so hard she has to brace her arms against Tarren so she doesn’t shoot across the mattress.

My words don’t matter, though, because we’re both coming. The chamber blurs for me, stars dot my vision. I give an enormous shudder at the end of my release and work to slow my breath.

“Don’t ever leave us again, Riya,” I croak.

I mean it this time. I’m not playing at punishment.

If she ever left us, I don’t know how we’d recover.

A shiver runs through Riya and something pricks my conscious. Something I should pay attention to, but I can’t quite figure out what it is.

All I know is that Riya requires something more from us, and not in the sleeping chamber. We’re missing some important piece to making her happy.

I need to solve it. Soon.

10

Riya

I step out to my lab, a small workdome where I start my seedlings and work on projects. The males set it up for me not long after we arrived, as a favor, not sure what I’d do with it. But their smiles, once indulgent, soon turned to looks of pride as I became adept at creating things. They enter with respect now, and nod with approval when I tell them of my successes. This is no longer just a hobby, but my mission, and every time I provide something new for the homesteaders, our whole team is proud. Lately I devote more time than ever to my efforts.

When they gently scold me for my late nights in here, trace the tired shadows under my eyes with concerned fingers, I laugh and look away, stating that I want to work as hard as they do and help our planet succeed. And if I don’t hide my mania completely, I hope they attribute my frantic need to succeed as my nature. After all, they are competitive at core, and understand ambition.

This planet rotation my mates occupy all my thoughts.

Thank our long-lost Mother Earth they showed me mercy in their punishments last night.

When Tarren first picked me up, I experienced genuine fear. My mates love me, yes, but I hadn’t tested them before.

Now I’m absolutely certain of their love.

Which only twists up my gut all the more. Every planet rotation that passes draws me closer to the day I’ll have to leave them. Closer to the day they figure out I’m not a suitable mate, because they deserve someone who can give them honesty… and young. In such a short time, they’ve become my entire universe. I seriously don’t know how I’ll survive without them.

But, on the bright side, my troublesome trip is yielding information fit for a king. I exclaim to myself as I tap the fine, white powder from my separation cloth, letting it fall in a chalky stream into a clean container.

“Mother Earth.” It’s a prayer, although I don’t pray, and a sign of gratitude to life for granting me this bounty.

I’ve figured out the Agrax and separated out the precious acid into a soluble salt. When added to a lotion, it will provide pain relief to wounds and aching muscles. When taken internally, it can cure pain. Dr. Daneth has so many amazing things from around the galaxy, but I’m sure that my concoction can stand alongside them. After all, it’s from nature, and it’s free from side effects. And it will scale nicely into mass production, if we choose, to be readily available to all Zandians.

I pored over Dr. Daneth’s holo file of known medicines, and this one is not in the log. It used to be used on Earth long ago, with only mild success listed, so it was never proliferated around the galaxy. But knowing what I do about how Zandian skin is far more sensitive to certain Earth botanicals than humans, I believe it will be ten times more effective than it was for human bodies. Maybe more!

Tired now, even in my exuberance, I stow away my equipment for later use.

“Riya?” Ronan knocks at the door, then enters. “You’re always in here. I miss you in the evenings.” He gives me a mock sad gaze. “You’re much prettier than my two cousins, and you know I would never want to veck them.”

I burst out laughing. “Yes, thankfully.”