Lovers of the Galaxy: Book Three: Raiders of the Lost Heart Read online

  Lovers of the Galaxy

  Book Three: Raiders of the Lost Heart

  © 2014 by Trinity Blacio and Ana Lee Kennedy

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  For more information contact:

  Riverdale Avenue Books

  5676 Riverdale Avenue

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  Design by www.formatting4U.com

  Cover by Insatiable Fantasy Designs Inc.

  Digital ISBN 978-1-62601-126-7

  First Edition October 2014

  Chapter One

  “Earth Base One, this is Miln, Head of Security. Volund, Jaxxon, come in.” The communication device crackled within the small command post inside the bank building that was the base.

  The door swung open with a thud as Volund made his way around the desk and flicked on the receiver. “This is Volund, did you locate Oshki’s route?”

  “Yes, a faint trail, but I may have forgotten to inform you that I have my kin, Acwel and Badden, arriving at home base within the next Earth hour or two. Since it’s obvious Oshki is not going to perform his position, I’ve taken the liberty of recruiting extra help for you to guard your family at this time. It will be challenging to keep the children I transported there from the 19th century safe. It is essential the extra help arrives as soon as possible.”

  He jumped up from the chair he’d been sitting in and it flew back, crashing into the wall. “You should have informed me before sending for them. You know how your kin and I do not agree on much of anything.”

  Miln’s distant laughter crackled through the speakers before he responded. “Don’t have much time before going into the wormhole. They are alpha males just like you. They were alone, Volund. I am all the family they have left, and I trust you.” The connection fell apart, and Volund knew there was no way to get him back until he was once more within communication distance.

  The sound of children playing behind him had him sighing. One thing he could say about his friend Miln was that he took his duty seriously, and if it meant that much to his friend to have the last of his kin here at Earth base, so be it.

  With nothing to do but wait, he went in search of Jaxxon.

  Stepping out of the small office and into the hallway, Volund snatched the Slicer out of the hands of one of the small orphan children. “No, little ones, you must not be playing around here.”

  One, a tiny girl who stood only to his waist, turned and looked at him. Her big, brown eyes glassed over and her lips trembled. The other child hid her face.

  Running his hand over his face, Volund knelt before the doll-like child and smiled. “I am not mad, sweetie, but there are many different things here that you do not know about. Ask us and we will tell you if it is okay to play with it.”

  Turning, he smiled at Venus. She leaned against the wall grinning. “I knew I’d lost someone. You’d make a good father.” She held out her hands.

  “Come, you, we have some food for you, then you need to nap. You’ve had a long day.”

  The one girl in front of him patted his arm, and he smiled down at her. “What can I do for you…?”

  “Angel, my name is Angel Copper. What’s that animal in the there?” She pointed at the lab door behind which Venus and Jaxxon kept the two Bone Eaters they had captured. There was movement in the lab, and not from the two creatures strapped down on tables.

  In two nano seconds, he transhifted and placed Venus and the two girls upstairs. Moving quickly, he locked down the upper floors with the alarms they’d set up, he prepared himself for the battle that lay ahead of him.

  Before he could transport himself downstairs again, Venus ran back into the room with her own personal arsenal attached to herself.

  “Where do you think you are going? You have children to watch.” He snatched the gun from her.

  She glared and held out her hand. “Give it to me, Volund, I’m going with you. We’ve closed off the upper floors. In lock down, the two sisters, Charlotte and Melinda, have been instructed to keep the orphan children up here. Plus, Jaxxon is with them working on their vaccines.”

  Everything in him wanted to demand she stay put, but he knew she would just follow him. He wrapped an arm around her waist and yanked her up against him. The top of her breasts pushed up, and he leaned down and ran his fangs across her cleavage.

  “You will listen to every word I say.”

  Muttering, she nodded. “I’ll follow directions.” She inched her hands up and around his neck, before she kissed his chin. “Let’s go before I climb on top of you. I swear, you two have made me a nympho,” she mumbled.

  “Nympho?” he questioned. He transhifted them downstairs and placed her behind him the minute they materialized.

  Leaning against him, she whispered into his ear, “Nympho: needing—no wanting—sex non-stop. Craving it, tasting it….” She whimpered and kissed his back. “See what you started?”

  His cock hardened, and he cussed mentally as he stalked towards the lab doors, but not before he scanned her from head to toe, stopping for an extra few moments on the swell of her breasts with a promise of more later.

  The little thing motion she did with her eyes drove him crazy. Venus did the little roll thing with her eyes and it took everything in him not to respond. If only she knew how hard his sapin grew every time she did that. He took a deep breath, snapped his jaw shut and adjusted his sapin as he proceeded towards their laboratory.

  They would have to change the location of their lab, move it out of this building. He did not want the children living in a building that had experiments on infected Bone Eaters going on on the ground level. The thought of the children wandering down here sent Concosbumps up and down his arms, and he let a small snarl escape.

  “What?” Venus whispered next to him, trying to look into the room.

  “By the Twelve Galaxies, get behind me now,” Volund ordered and slid in front of her.

  A quick movement to his right stopped him in his tracks. Instantly assessing the threat he activated his armor with a push of a button. “Stay until I make sure everything is clear,” he said without looking over his shoulder. Quietly, he stalked toward the noise.

  From the doorway, everything appeared to be normal. The two Bone Eaters were strapped down on their gurneys, but something was off.

  The small cry from the corner of the room drew his attention. He spun around ready to destroy whatever threat that would harm anything that was his. What looked like half woman, half Bone Eater lay curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth.

  “Hurt,” the creature mumbled, her eyes closed. At the same time, she clenched her fists.

  “Do you think she’s the one that escaped after I gave her the antidote?” Venus stepped forward, but he pushed her back.

  “Don’t, she could still be dangerous. We need Jaxxon down here.”

  “I’m here,” his brother snapped and frowned at Venus. He slid up beside her. “You and I ar
e going to talk about how you always seem to place yourself in danger. Now stay put while we help her.”

  Volund grunted. He wasn’t about to take his gaze off the creature. Volund knelt in front of the half-changed woman. His brother stepped up beside him.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” Jaxxon said, “but we need to get you up on a table. We only want to help.”

  Jaxxon carefully gathered the woman’s arms, and Volund latched onto her legs. Cautious of the spikes on her back and the sharp fangs that now dangled from her open mouth, they slowly arranged her on the table and strapped her down.

  “This is for your protection and ours. You’re going through the conversion, changing back to human form. Do you understand me?” Jaxxon placed a pillow under her head.

  “Am I allowed in now? Or are you going to keep me from my work, too?” Venus inquired from the doorway, glaring at them.

  In the background, Volund heard the transmitter go off and knew a ship had arrived.

  “Our newest security team is here. Jaxxon…” He looked at his brother, who waved him off.

  “I’ll deal with this. Go and greet Miln’s kin, but Volund, try not to be argumentative with them. The last time you were around them, all three of you ended up with broken bones. I have enough to keep me busy right now.”

  “Miln notified you before he left? I’ll make sure to have a talk with him about who is in charge of this base next time I see him. I should have been informed ahead of time.” He clenched his hands and stood slowly.

  “He knew this would be uncomfortable and wanted me to be aware of their pending arrival.”

  “There will be no confrontation this time. I know what has to be done to keep the peace.”

  “ We should change passwords to the doors,” he continued. “That is the only way this Bone Eater…uh…female could have come through them, though, how she could have learned them is disturbing. That is, unless she never left the building. If that was the case, why hasn’t she attacked us before now?” Volund stormed out of the room mumbling about Miln.

  If the Bone Eaters were getting smarter, their security needed to be upgraded, if he was going to keep everyone safe. Venus would also have to quickly learn how to operate more of their technology. He smiled and remembered the time he tried to teach Venus how to use a Slicer. Even though she hit the objects, she almost zapped Jaxxon twice, swinging around with it in her hand after hitting each target.

  Stepping back into the tiny office he and Miln had set up for security, he made his way again to the small communication station.

  “This is Acwel and Badden calling Earth Base, come in,” the older officer, Acwel, said.

  The instant he heard the man’s aggravating voice, it set him on edge.

  “This is Earth Base. Coordinates are being sent to your ship now. Be careful coming in. Hostiles are stirring,” Volund ordered and sent their location to Miln’s kin.

  “Received. ETA, one Earth hour,” Acwel responded and cut contact.

  Standing, Volund turned his attention to the hand-drawn outline of the building on the wall. There were a total of four doors to the bottom floor of the bank. They would change all of the exit door’s security. He’d already replaced the windows on the second day here. Nothing would break through them. The Bone Eaters couldn’t see into the building, which helped keep their whereabouts safe, for now.

  Next to their position were three smaller buildings that could easily be connected to the bank. Tomorrow, he and Acwel would clean them out and secure their ground floors. Connecting the buildings would give them room to set up a more secure lab, a security office and other things they would need here in their new home.

  “Volund?” Venus’s soft whisper broke through his concentration. He turned to see her standing in the doorway looking at the floor.

  ***

  Volund had walked right by her without a glance, something he’d never done and it hurt her. Oh, she knew that his mind had been working overtime, trying to figure out how the Bone Eater got back in the building. She already knew the answer since she was the one who’d open the door.

  It was another reason for Volund to be furious with her, but the woman had been clawing at the outside door, wanting to come inside. She didn’t have the heart to leave her out there. Plus, Venus had been afraid all the noise would draw more attention to their location.

  That didn’t mean she hadn’t kept a very close eye on the woman. She had let the woman in and watched as she proceeded to the lab where she had been before. At that point, Venus had made sure the door had closed behind her and it had locked, or so she thought. When it turned out that two children had gone missing right after she let the woman in, she thought for sure her life was over.

  The thought of these children being hurt, because of her carelessness, brought fresh tears to her eyes. Once more, Venus knew she should have asked for Jaxxon’s or Volund’s help.

  If she thought they were angry with her now, they would be furious with her when she told them what she’d done.

  Jaxxon had sent her out of the lab, afraid she would come to harm. Unsure of herself and her feelings hurt, she couldn’t concentrate on anything right now. So she stood staring down at the ground afraid to look up. Her belly seemed to be in her throat, but she had no other choice than to inform Volund of what she’d done. Her mates were in charge of their protection and needed the truth from her.

  “I know how the Bone Eater got inside.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I released the lock for the exterior door. I’m sorry if I worried you. I just got so excited about the woman coming back. I know once I saw her on the monitor I should have called you two, but I just wasn’t thinking straight. Then when the little girls went missing…” She let out a little cry and hiccupped at the same time. Tears ran down her cheeks and blurred her vision.

  His boots appeared in front of her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. Slowly, she lifted her head, taking in all that was Volund. With the armor gone from his body, he wore no shirt, and his chest muscles rippled as he moved. She wiped away the tears.

  Needing to touch him, she placed her hands on his chest and raised her head to stare into his gaze.

  “When will you learn to trust us? Venus, you can’t keep doing this. Someone could have been hurt or killed.” He shook her gently before hugging her tightly to him.

  “We’re lucky that little ones weren’t attacked. Why didn’t you inform us?” He stepped back and looked down at her. “We would do anything for you.” The last part of his sentence was harsh like a whip’s bite. He turned away from her and swung a chair out to the middle of the room and sat on it.

  “Strip and lay yourself over my knee, Venus.” He didn’t look at her, his voice void of all emotion as he waited.

  Jaxxon appeared behind her and ordered, “Go on, don’t make him wait.”

  She’d been so focused on Volund, she hadn’t heard Jaxxon come into the room behind her. Both of her men were right. It was past time for her to rely on her men more. Unbuckling her jeans, she shoved them down and stepped out of them. Not wearing any undergarments, she was bare from the waist down as she walked over to Volund.

  “Top too,” he said, his gaze meeting hers.

  Seeing the pain and disappointment in his expression, she flinched.

  She lifted the sweater over her head before she chickened out, and lied down over Volund’s lap. Her fingers barely touched the floor.

  He cupped her buttock. “I’m disappointed in you, Venus. Since we’ve been here, you have never done anything so stupid.” One hard smack rained down on her butt cheek.

  She jumped, an excited cry bursting from her.

  “We have gone out of our way to include you in the decisions we make, but you continue to behave like you are alone. This will not happen again!” His voice continued rising, but he caressed her ass instead of spanking her.

  “Stand and go upstairs, Venus.” He lifted her off his lap and moved purposefully out of
the room, leaving her there in the middle of it with Jaxxon.

  With one look, Jaxxon shook his head and turned to follow his brother, but stopped. “In all my years, I’ve never seen Volund so furious.” With those words, he was gone. She stood there and let the tears roll down her face. Venus would never forget the wounded expressions on both Jaxxon’s and Volund’s faces.

  Plopping down in the chair Volund had just vacated, Venus didn’t even flinch when her sore ass touched the wood.

  For three months, Volund and Jaxxon had been with her. Each night, they would hold her and love her. During the day, they slowly worked at eradicating her small town of Bone Eaters.

  “What have I given to them in return?” she whispered into the air only her ears heard the sadness.

  Determined to make it up to her men, she grabbed her top and slipped it on, followed by pulling on her jeans before she headed back up stairs.

  Chapter Two

  In their quarters she had made on the top floor of the bank, Venus began chopping up the rabbits Volund had skinned earlier. Neither he nor Jaxxon would talk to her. Whenever she entered a room, they would usually leave. Finished, she placed the pieces in the sink to drip.

  The children from the orphanage were all fed and tucked into their new beds on the fourth floor, below. Venus admired the closeness the sisters shared. When she’d left them two floors below, Charlotte slept beside her sister as she recouped from her injuries. Venus turned and admired the two new men who sat at her table going over the map she’d drawn earlier. Acwel had black hair to his shoulders while Badden’s was pink and down to the middle of his back. Both men were at least six and a half feet, almost as tall as Volund.

  “Venus, what is this building here?” Acwel asked. He pointed to the old church on Fourth Street.