Omega Run, page 8
“How old were you in your other life?”
She blushed. “I don’t want to say.”
He laughed. “Older that Himyana?”
She grimaced. “Older than her mother, probably Imko’s, too.”
Kresso laughed. “That explains that no-nonsense look in your gaze. Well, the soul is experienced, but the body is learning.”
“Uh, the soul isn’t experienced. I was what you would call asexual. No attraction for males or females, though I could appreciate a nice physique, I never wanted any part of it inside me.” She looked up at him and made a face. “That particular urge is new.”
He grinned. “I am glad that I am one of the targets of that urge.”
“Where’s the other one?”
“Atoning for his sins.”
“What?”
“He still feels bad for putting you into that fight-or-flight situation.”
“You twits are too big to fight, and pinned under you, flight isn’t a possibility.”
He nodded soberly. “You are very small.”
“And yet, I am a standard-sized omega.”
He wrinkled his nose. “It does feel slightly perverse to have this reaction to you, but instinct drives us, and I feel better having you in my arms.”
“Better?”
“Relaxed, at ease. Happy, I suppose.” He chuckled. “With your heat coming so quickly, there is also excitement there.”
“How long does the heat last?”
He shrugged. “With the previous omegas, it could be up to a week. It stops when you are pregnant or when it runs its course. Four days used to be average.”
She blinked. “Four. Days.”
He kissed her forehead. “We will take care of you. You won’t want for anything.”
Lyra closed her eyes and felt the security of his body against hers. She realized, “But the marks first?”
He nodded. “The marks first.”
“Oh.”
He chuckled. “Dinner first. Mahel is cooking.”
She blinked. “He can cook?”
“He can cook, play an instrument or several if I recall. He reads poetry and is a keen sportsman. He’s also a masterful tactician and the pride of our fleet.”
Mahel’s voice came from the doorway. “Flattering? I would not have been as kind about you, Kresso.”
She looked at him and smiled. “You are cooking?”
“It’s ready to eat, but can I come in?”
“Sure.” She held her hand out to him, and he crawled in, settling against her back.
Mahel kissed her shoulder. “This is like being wrapped in an omega.”
She chuckled and squirmed back against him.
“With an omega.” Mahel nibbled at her shoulder.
She sniffed and bent her head to his. “You smell good.”
“I have been cooking.”
“No, this is different.” Lyra turned her head and sniffed Kresso. “Oh, that’s good, too.”
She pressed her lips to his neck and started licking. When she gently bit him, he growled. “Okay, dinner quickly. She’s losing control.”
Mahel chuckled. “That sounds fun.”
“Do you want her to remember being marked or just wake up in a few days with them on her?”
Mahel scowled. “Right. Up we get.”
He left her and stood up.
Kresso eased her head away from his neck. He sat up and handed her to Mahel. She licked her teeth, still tasting him. Her fangs weren’t down, so it was her incisors that had gotten a grip.
Mahel set her down on a chair at a dining table with five covered dishes waiting under a current of warm air. She shivered, and Kresso brought a throw from her nest and wrapped it around her, and Lyra smiled. “Thank you.”
Mahel scowled. “Why is she cold? It’s warm.”
“Her blood pressure is not stable. A meal will help.” Kresso sat.
Lyra picked up her eating sticks, and they were shaking so much that she set them down. “I am gonna get a fork.”
Mahel took some of the fluffy starch, the meat, and a vegetable strip and held it to her mouth. “Here you go.”
She took the first bite, mumbled thank you, and then Kresso had the next one. This did not bode well for the rest of the vacation. It seemed they had no trouble taking turns.
She didn’t have a chance to say anything else. Whenever she finished one bite, there was another one waiting.
She held up her hands when she swallowed the last bite she wanted. “Enough.”
They were laughing. Kresso chuckled. “You can take a lot, Lyra.”
She sipped at a glass of water. “Stop leering when you think that.”
Mahel grinned. “So, how was the food?”
“Really good. I have no idea which vegetable does what yet. Can you teach me to cook?”
“Of course. Whenever we are here or on a world that has fresh food, I will teach you.”
Lyra perked up. “We are going to other worlds?”
Kresso gave Mahel a serious look. “He will be. We don’t know how fast your gestation will be, and if it is too rapid, you may have to remain grounded, Lyra.”
She sighed. “Right. Small people.”
“They are called babies, Lyra,” Mahel chuckled.
“Ah. Right. Glad one of us knows.” She sipped at her water.
Kresso laughed.
She sighed. “Pity. I want to see the stars.”
Mahel reached out and took her hand. “I will take you. We just have to work on the timing.”
She nodded and smiled slightly.
Kresso asked, “Do your people trade with other species?”
“Nope. We are stuck on our world. No one around us as far as we know. It’s quiet.” She shrugged. “We are about seven hundred years behind MaKorith development. Two sexes. Male and female. They occasionally overlap but nothing like this species.” She pointed at herself and them. “Sexual dimorphism is also prevalent.”
Kresso blinked. “You just started talking like a professor.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I used to lecture new arrivals at the dam. Sorry. I have a tone.”
Mahel cocked his head. “I had a teacher with that tone. She was old and had the same kind of calm that you associate with meditation on a mountain.”
She blushed. Busted.
Kresso chuckled. “How old are you, Mahel?”
He frowned. “Forty-eight. Same as you.”
“Our mate is fifty-eight.”
She smiled brightly. “And I look brand new.”
Mahel’s eyes gleamed. “You are older than we are?”
“Well, my mind is. I have no idea when this body was built.” She shrugged.
Kresso nodded. “The research team is being very quiet about where the blanks came from.”
“Why do folks keep calling them blanks? This is fairly well filled out.” She looked down.
Kresso laughed, and Mahel explained, “The original blanks are generally shaped like you. The same size, same pale skin, but the arms are fused to the body, and the thighs are fused together. There are no features.”
Lyra and Kresso looked at him.
He shrugged. “We found them twelve years ago and reported them to the government. We brought the blanks in and turned them over to the researchers. Twenty-four in total. You are part of the last batch from what my sources tell me.”
Lyra blinked. “Huh. Do you know where they got the consciousness from?”
“We found some refracting equipment and brought that to the research team as well. I have no idea how they caught you, but I am glad they did.” Mahel smiled.
She frowned. “But I died.”
“And ended up in a living body, shaping it to your will.”
“The blue hair, sure, but the purple eyes? Not even a little.” She grimaced. “The body is familiar but shorter.”
Mahel chuckled. “Travel-sized.”
She snorted and giggled.
Kresso grinned. “I like that she is portable. Easy to fly with.”
“Indeed.” Mahel chuckled. “I have dessert. Back to the nest.”
She tried to look for dessert, but Mahel winked and headed back to the kitchen.
Kresso picked her and her comfy blanket up and carried her back to the nest.
“Where is the large bedroom?”
“Other end of the hall. This was set up just for you.” Kresso chuckled. “There hasn’t been an omega here for quite a while.”
“How will you know if I am pregnant?”
He gave her a droll look. “The old-fashioned way. Scanners.”
She snorted and settled in with the blanket over her. “What did they do before scanners and bloodwork?”
“They would watch for the omega to start nesting. When you start stealing our clothing and weaving it into the nest, that would be a sign.”
“Why would I do that?”
“The chemical signature we leave inside you will make you seek out our scent, and if we can’t be there, our clothing can.”
“Huh. Nesting in dirty laundry. Interesting. That wasn’t covered in the history I have gotten to yet, either.”
Mahel came in with a tray containing some dessert cream and fruit along with a sticky syrup.
She looked at it and got nervous.
Kresso caught the folded cloth that Mahel tossed to him. “Ease to the side, Lyra.”
She scooted over, and he spread the cloth out. “We don’t want to mess up your nest... yet.”
He picked her up and set her squarely in the centre of the cloth. Mahel set the tray at the edge and climbed in. Apparently, like vampires, they only needed to be invited once.
Her blanket was removed, she was eased back, and a splat of dessert cream covered her navel. “What the hell?”
Mahel continued to dollop cream on her, and Kresso added the berries. Mahel said, “We are having dessert, and if you are good, we will share.”
“What does being good entail?”
Mahel knelt back and cocked his head. “Don’t spill the cream on the nest.”
She watched as they did some sort of rock-paper-scissors, and Kresso leaned in to take his dessert off one breast. Her breath rushed out of her lungs, and he placed a berry between her lips before Mahel took his swipe at her lower belly. They took turns and fed her intermittently, but the cream began to melt, and they had to work faster as it dissolved in rivulets down her body. The backs of her knees were particularly sensitive, as were her inner elbows.
When she was clear of dessert, she breathed heavily, and her body was sticky. Kresso wiped her down with a grin and got rid of the sheet. When he finished, he looked at her, and she lunged at him with a feral growl. She took him to the nest and got him inside her, writhing wildly on top of him. He gripped her hips and rolled her beneath him, stroking slowly for about a minute until her frantic sounds and the pawing of her hands made him pin her, and he growled as he thrust hard until she felt the heat inside, and then he bit her on the right side of her neck, making an obvious mark that couldn’t be missed.
His knot swelled, and he wedged it inside as his bite continued. Kresso freed a hand and worked it between them, rolling a fingertip around her swollen clit until she screamed, and he groaned.
Lyra was held, and when she came, her teeth told her what to do. She snapped forward and bit him on the shoulder. He hissed, and she felt more and more heat flowing into her. Whatever was in her bite was having an effect on her mate.
She whimpered as the heat kept building until she felt full. She kept her grip on him as another climax rippled through her, and he pushed even deeper into her. She finally let him go, and he groaned, releasing her and then licking at his bite. She did the same, but her bite had already closed.
He looked down at her, his chest heaving. “What was that?”
She chuckled and stroked his cheek. “Scan yourself and find out.”
“I think I am fused to you.” He chuckled.
Mahel growled. “You had better not be.”
Lyra giggled. “I think I emptied him out.” She winced. “Feels like it anyway. Is there a towel around? This is going to be embarrassing.”
Mahel tossed a towel to Kresso, who put it under her hips. Two minutes later, he eased out of her, and the surge followed. Kresso sat back, and to her horror, he watched. He placed a hand over her belly and pressed gently. More trickled free.
“Sorry, Mahel, I have to do some scans.”
Mahel growled and moved to support Lyra’s head, lifting her into his arms so that her lower body was free for Kresso’s instruments.
He scanned himself, he scanned her, and he sat there. “All male sperm are gone. There isn’t one left. I knew what I was looking for, but I am still shocked.”
Mahel nodded. “That is what we signed up for. Now, out of the way. I need to mark her.”
“Make sure she can mark you.”
Mahel chuckled and pulled her into his arms. She draped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his hips. He settled her back gently to the nest and slid into her with a happy groan.
She chuckled and kissed his neck, jaw, and lips as they moved together until their huffing and thrusting were at the edge, and then he leaned back and sat on his heels while she slid over his knot, and he came when she did. The teeth sank into the other side of her neck a moment later, and she sobbed while her body throbbed around his.
Lyra waited until he stroked her clit to bring her with him again, and then she marked him on the right shoulder and hung on while he endlessly pumped into her. She groaned and let him go. “You are worse than Kresso.” She ached but tended to the small marks.
He laughed, his teeth still in her neck, making sure her body recognized him for her heat and that her new scent was reserved for her mates or matching candidates.
He released her and licked at the marks while they waited. When he had done that, he kissed her, and she sat on his lap, fused to him while they waited for the knot to let her go. The kissing was sweet, and she lost track of time as they went from purposeful sex to lazily entwined.
When he started to come loose, he grabbed the towel that Kresso handed him with a grin. He tucked it under her, and the rush was caught when he lifted her away.
Kresso tidied her up and then curled up with her in the nest. Mahel joined them, and they slept together in a group while they occasionally tended to their individual marks.
By the time she woke, she was in heat and had pulled them along with her.
Chapter Seven
Lyra woke up in Mahel’s arms, floating in the pool in the woods. Kresso had his kit nearby, and he looked exhausted.
She looked at Mahel, and he was in the same shape. “You look like a transport vehicle hit you.”
He looked at her in shock and started laughing. “I feel like it. You have a lot of stamina, Lyra.”
She smiled and yawned. “You gave me a bath?”
“Yes. You were showing all of our attentions. The bots are busy cleaning and rebuilding the nest.”
She blinked. “It’s over?”
“It’s over. Well, this heat is over. If you didn’t catch, there will be another.”
Lyra looked at him and then at Kresso. “You guys need a nap. When will the bots be done?”
Kresso grunted. “In half an hour.”
“Go sleep in the bed.”
Mahel chuckled. “We tried. You would only sleep in the nest.”
“Well, I am sober now, so go to bed.”
Kresso looked at her. “You need to eat.”
“I can feed myself.”
They both growled. She wondered what the hell they had been doing with her while she was in heat, but it seemed that they were attached to her at the hip, so to speak.
Lyra sighed. “Fine. Feed me, and maybe the bots will be done by the time we finish.”
Mahel smiled. “We can do that.”
He walked out of the pool and down the path back to the house. Kresso followed with his kit.
They went to the kitchen, and she ate some fruit, cheese, and crackers. The guys looked rough. She had a few aches and twinges, but in general, her body just felt smug.
She got up and said, “You two, wait here. I will be right back.”
She went to the room where the nest was, and the bots were still busy. She grabbed a fuzzy throw and carried it with her. “Come on, guys. I have a portable nest if you two are on either side. Let’s go. You look like shit.”
They got up wearily, and she led them to the bedroom, pulled back the top sheet, and crawled into bed with the fuzzy throw under her. They thudded to the bed on either side of her, pulled the top sheet over them, and sandwiched her in place. They both groaned low and slept.
She chuckled silently and held onto them as they slept. Apparently, her heat was rougher on them than it was on her. Poor babies. She let their even breathing lull her into sleep. May as well. She wasn’t going anywhere.
She woke when the next day dawned, and her mates looked rested. Lyra tried to get around them to use the restroom, but Kresso gripped her waist.
“Where are you going?”
“To the necessary. We have been asleep for a while.”
He sighed. “Hurry back.”
She grinned and went to do what she had to do. Her new biology had taken some getting used to, but now, it was all over and done in one disconcerting moment per day.
Tidying up was easy, and she washed her hands, then returned to the room and looked at the two men waiting for her with sleepy expressions.
“Hey, guys. Did you want to get something to eat?”
Mahel chuckled. “Later.” He toppled her to the bed, nestling her between him and Kresso then stole a lingering kiss.
Her body melted, but her stomach growled as if on cue. That insatiable hunger was still there and quite noticeable now that her hormones seemed to be on more of an even keel. “No. Food now, sex later.” She batted her eyelashes at Mahel. “I’m starving, and I know you can cook.”
“Food it is then.” He sighed and left the bed.
Kresso bundled her in a blanket, followed Mahel to the kitchen, sat at the table with her on his lap, and nuzzled her neck. “Your scent is enticing. I want to eat you up.” He nipped her neck where he had marked her previously.
