Lovers of the Galaxy, Book Two: Bounty Hunters of the Heart Read online

“Oh, no you do not,” Oshki said and tightened his hold around his waist.

  Panting, he said, “You heard it, too!”

  “I heard only the storm!”

  He shook his head as sweat trickled into his eyes. “You lie. You heard something as well.”

  “You will not leave me again.” Oshki thrust again, pushing his cock to the root inside him and holding him there, skewered.

  Despite the pleasure the action caused, Miln said, “Let go. Something is wrong.”

  “No.”

  “Withdraw from me. I think the women need our help.”

  “They do not. You hear only the storm.” He pumped harder into Miln’s body.

  This time he felt something change and knew his mate had willed his mirellae to produce more hormones. As pleasure rolled through him, his cock hardened too, his balls tightened painfully, and he turned lax against the doors. Behind him, his lover murmured his victory at keeping him interested in the sex and pounded into his ass. Oshki’s sighs, groans, and cries melded with the rumbles around them.

  Trying to fight the hormone spreading throughout his body was almost pointless. His legs quivered. Oshki’s sapin fully in his ass kept him a slave to his fleshly desires. Already he wanted to come again and then throw his mate into the hay and fuck him until he screamed for Miln to stop. The pressure in his cock grew unbearable. He pushed back to dislodge his partner, but his mate thrust, ramming him into the double doors. Before he could stop it, Miln orgasmed a second time.

  “Ungh! By…the…Twelve…Galaxies!” he shouted and rode out one glorious carnal earthquake after another, his seed coating the wooden planks in silvery-white strings.

  He tried to pull away, but his partner kept pumping into him.

  “No,” Oshki said, groaning, his fingers biting into his hips. “I am not done. I have not come. And I know you have a third one in you.”

  “I am done. Let go. I know something is wrong outside.”

  “No.” Oshki’s increased his pace.

  Instantly angered, he yanked forward and succeeded in unbalancing him enough that their bodies separated. The moment he felt air between them, he whirled only to find Oshki rushing him. He didn’t have time to do anything but catch him in his arms, but the force and weight of his lover bore him backward. They hit the doors with such force they buckled and the wooden latch burst apart.

  Chapter Twelve

  Disoriented and suddenly weightless, he felt cool air and rain on his body. His backside connected with the ground, the air whooshing out of him, and then Oshki landed on top of him, one of his knees gouging the inside of his thigh. He winced in pain and stared up at the loft as mud from their impact splattered his face. Rain fell so hard he had to turn his head to the side to keep it from filling his nose and mouth.

  “What in the name of all that is powerful is wrong with you?” he snarled up at Oshki.

  “There is nothing wrong with me,” he countered loudly. “You are selfish and always sacrifice our happiness for that of others!”

  Except for the lightning displays, darkness cloaked the barnyard, and rain and thunder wrapped it in a cocoon of sound.

  He blinked against the downpour. “What are you talking about?”

  “You take your pleasure from me, and then when it is my turn, you say something is wrong, that you hear a strange noise. It is an excuse!”

  Sitting up, he pushed Oshki off him. “Enough! I will investigate and make sure everything is well in the abode. Afterward, we will discuss our differences.”

  Oshki opened his mouth to reply, but a feeble light played over them. His eyes widened, and his mouth flattened into a thin line. Before Miln could turn, a hard kick to his ribs knocked him over sideways. Mud oozed around him, and pain pierced his muscles, slicing through his bones. Somehow he still managed to roll onto his back and spring-kick himself into a squatting position. He’d been so wrapped up in his partner he’d failed to detect the sound of footsteps in the waterlogged barnyard.

  “Well, if it isn’t the alien security brutes,” Randle said sarcastically. “So you were sent to track me down after all, huh? Shame your kind is so big and yet so stupid.”

  Barking erupted from behind a low, squat building. The big dog he’d seen earlier that night rushed around one corner and charged straight for Randle. The man yanked something from an outer pocket at his hip and fired. With dismay, he watched in helpless horror as a ball of energy appeared in the air, flattened, and sliced the dog’s head off. It dropped to the ground but the body ran half the distance between them before it flopped to one side and lay twitching in the shimmers of lightning.

  “Brody, no!” a female voice cut through the rain. “No, no!” Weeping followed.

  “Shut up, bitch!” Randle snarled.

  A series of flashes lit everything up long enough that he could assess their situation and where everyone was located. His partner hadn’t budged, but with Randle holding a Slicer, any movement on their part would be suicide. Blood pumped out of the dog’s corpse and pooled around its body. To his right, he saw Charlotte standing near the corner of the barn, still in her gown, the rain plastering it to her body. A rope ran from her neck to her bound wrists and ended where he saw Randle held it fisted in his opposite hand.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse us,” the fiend said, “I must be on my way. With your weapons, I can stop anyone who stands in my way.”

  “What are you planning?” Miln asked.

  Randle snorted, his figure a dark shape in the night. Only the glow of the sensors on the Slicer provided any light. “Now why would I tell you that and have you screw up my plans? All I want is Venus.”

  “That will never happen. She belongs to the Rolarais.” Dread flowed over Miln. “They will never let you have her. She is their mate.”

  “Then I’ll kill them. I’ll kill Venus, too, if I must. I would rather do that than allow those two freaks to have her.” He jerked on the rope. In moments, Charlotte stood just behind him, her eyes glassy with fear. “I would love to chat with you two, but I must be going.”

  He backed across the barnyard with Charlotte until he reached the well, where a saddled horse waited. There, he threw her up in the saddle and then mounted behind her. She struggled, but one hard cuff alongside the head knocked her out. He cradled her against his chest, turned the horse, and said, “Follow me and I’ll enjoy using your weapon”—he held the Slicer up as lightning pulsed in the sky—”to slice off body parts before finally killing you both.”

  Randle spurred the horse’s flanks, and with a loud whinny, the animal trotted off into the rain-slashed night.

  Once the criminal was gone, Miln stood and raced into the house. Bound and gagged on the floor, Melinda looked up at him in fear but upon seeing his naked, muddy body her fear shifted to shock. Realizing his error, he stepped behind her and unfastened the ropes.

  “Forgive me,” he said. “I don’t mean to upset you. I was preparing to…uh…sleep and heard a noise, but Randle surprised us before we could investigate.” He pulled the gag from Melinda’s mouth and then started working on the knot securing her bare ankles.

  “That man took Charlotte,” she cried. “You have to get her back.”

  “We will, but we may need your help to do it.”

  “Whatever you need. Take me with you.”

  “Change your clothes, get a weapon, and then pack us food supplies.”

  “Do you know how to saddle horses?” she asked once she’d risen to her feet. “If not,” she avoided looking at him, “I’ll do it.”

  “Meet us in the barn. Once we gather our things, we will leave.”

  Miln strode out into the rain and slipped and skidded across the swampy yard to the barn. Once he’d climbed into the loft, he found his mate already dressed and gathering their gear.

  “How do we follow him?” Oshki asked. “If we use the ship, others might see it and terror will sweep the area.”

  “Melinda will help us.”

  “Is it w
ise to involve another female in this matter?”

  Already having yanked on his trousers, Miln shrugged into his shirt and fumbled with the tiny buttons. Frustrated, he left the shirt half unfastened and focused instead on donning his socks, boots, and tool belt. “We have no choice. Besides, Charlotte is her sister. Do you think Venus would stay behind if it were her sister?”

  “Yes, she would. Venus is with child and the brothers would insist she remain behind.”

  “In this situation, I believe Venus would follow her heart.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Look.” He swept his hat off the hay mound. “I’m sorry about earlier, but you must see why—”

  “Let it go.” Oshki turned and grasped the top of the loft ladder. “I am beginning to understand that the most important thing to you is your duty. Right now, I have no desire to discuss any of it with you.”

  With a heavy sigh, Miln followed him. Below in the stalls, he heard Melinda enter the barn and murmur something to the horses.

  She had three horses saddled in a short time. “Ready?” she asked as she led the animals outside.

  “Yes.” He mounted his steed like he’d seen Randle do, but hid his smile as Oshki sat in the saddle of his gray. The animal almost wore a look of horror as his partner’s weight settled on it.

  “Thankfully the storm is moving away and the rain is almost over,” Melinda observed. “Otherwise, we would’ve had to wait until daylight.”

  “Randle could not have gone far,” his companion said. “He has no light.”

  Melinda clicked her tongue, and her horse began trotting out of the barnyard. “It won’t matter. He’ll make up for lost time now that the storm is over.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  The feeble light of dawn began filtering through the tree limbs. Miln felt ridiculous riding such a small steed. He was accustomed to battle beasts, huge animals in comparison to the delicate, long-legged equines. They’d ridden across the saturated meadows and into the forest where water dripped and the aroma of wet earth and trees overwhelmed the olfactory senses.

  Next to him, his partner stared straight ahead. He hadn’t said one word since leaving the farm.

  Breaking the silence, Miln questioned Melinda. “Any signs of their passage?”

  She shook her head. “That man must’ve taken a different route. Either way, the only place of substance on the other side of these woods is Rocky Meadows. It’s a tiny growing town in the foothills. If he went the other way, he’ll arrive at the mouth of a canyon that comes out about a mile east of the town.”

  They continued in silence until Melinda reined in her horse and said, “Stay here. You two obviously can’t go into town looking like that, so I’ll ride in and see if I can find out anything.”

  She adjusted her skirts around herself and then withdrew a faded green cotton bonnet from a saddlebag and pulled it over her head. After tying the chin strings, she nodded to him and then Oshki and urged her horse through the thinning trees.

  Birds tweeted in the colorful autumn leaves. Several of them, nuthatches and wrens, from the study screens he’d viewed, flitted about in the undergrowth. Trying to occupy his mind, he focused on them and also recognized some as titmice, which stymied him. They were birds, so why had humans named them after rodents? Snorting, he caught movement over by a large, dripping oak and spied an adult fox. Raindrops adorned its vibrantly red fur. Its puffy tail twitched as the animal watched them with small, suspicious eyes. With a high-pitched yip, it disappeared into the woods.

  A sigh drew his attention. He looked over at Oshki.

  “What troubles you, my warrior?”

  “Do not use endearments with me.”

  Miln gaped at him, raising his eyebrows. “Are we back to this again?”

  “You do not love me.”

  “Yes, I do!”

  “No,” he shook his head vigorously, “you do not. If you did, you would not constantly put your duty as head security officer before our relationship.” He issued a sound of disgust. “Not that there is a relationship.”

  Miln’s frustration quickly transformed into angry despair. “Why do you have to be so stubborn and immature? Can you not use your common sense and realize that lives depend on us?”

  “Can you not see that we have nothing if we have to always serve everyone else?” his mate countered. “I am sick of always having to be careful because of Tapio’s need to persecute us. And if not Tapio, all I hear is that we must do this, we must do that, we have to check on that person or patrol the base….” He shrugged. “This is not how love is supposed to be.”

  “How would you know?”

  His gaze flew up to meet Miln’s. “What?”

  “How would you know what love is?” he asked. Everything inside him shook from stress. Stress of his partner’s selfishness and stubbornness. Stress from their long journey to Earth. And stress from their current task. He didn’t know how much more he could take.

  “I know love is not like this.”

  The disdain in his voice pushed Miln ever closer to the edge of snapping. “You are an adult, but you do not have the mental maturity of one.” He glared at his partner. “Love comes in many forms, and it’s not always easy. Take Venus and the brothers as an example. Despite the fact Venus feels her mates are too bossy and overprotective, she realizes that it’s part of who they are and they love her and want her to be happy and safe. The brothers know she is fiercely independent, but they try to respect her will and feelings because they know it is one of the many big things that make her so special.”

  “So?”

  He wrestled with his temper, but as quickly as it surfaced it vanished. Oshki wasn’t happy and nothing Miln could ever do would change that fact. If his mate couldn’t see the point in what he just said, his narrow-mindedness and self-centered ways would tear them apart—and probably already had.

  “Never mind.” Pain laced his heart and a lump formed in his throat. “I see Melinda riding this way. Hopefully she has a clue to Randle’s whereabouts.”

  A few yards before reaching them, she called out, “No one in town knew anything about Randle and Charlotte, but one rancher I bumped into mentioned he’d seen a couple riding a horse deeper into the foothills.

  “Let’s go,” Miln stated. “The longer we wait the more distance Randle puts between us.”

  ***

  His ass couldn’t take much more of the hard, unyielding saddle. Miln studied Melinda’s straight spine. How could the female act as if horseback riding was as easy as breathing when his buttocks, thighs and back muscles were killing him? For the thousandth time he wished for his treasured battle beast he’d left behind on Azutu.

  Following him, Oshki rode in silence, but every now and then he’d hear a groan or an irritable sigh.

  Earlier, Melinda had found signs of a horse’s hoofprints. She’d shown them how to track such animals and what to look for. He had caught on quickly. Many aspects of tracking were different than theirs, but many were the same, too.

  “Hold up,” she called and held her fist in the air. “I think I’ve found another clue.”

  “Good,” Oshki muttered. “I could use a break from this uncomfortable riding seat.”

  Grinning, Miln dismounted and approached Melinda.

  “Look there and there.” She pointed. “The horse left prints along the edge of that spring and there are several willow branches broken on the other side.”

  “Come here and learn this,” he called to Oshki, who stood drinking from a flat, leather-clad container.

  His companion shook his head and twisted the cap back on the strange bottle. “I am not interested.”

  “You are a security officer and bounty hunter. It will benefit you to learn how to track in various environments and learn the animals, flora, and fauna.”

  “I do not think I want this duty anymore,” he stated without looking at Miln. He made a show of looping the container’s strap over the saddle’s strange head. “
My life is mine to do with as I wish and I am tired of pleasing others.”

  Grinding his teeth together, he sucked in a steadying breath, but the sound of his grating molars drew Melinda’s attention. Somehow she sensed the turmoil.

  “Is he your younger brother or a son?” she asked.

  Her questioned shocked him. Prickles swept over his skin. The female didn’t realize that he was his partner.

  “No, he is neither.”

  “He sounds like a younger sibling or maybe an eldest son who is mad at you. I just assumed you were family.”

  “He is angry with me, yes, but he’s my….”

  His reluctance to finish the sentence urged Melinda to approach him. She craned her neck to look up at him, the rising sun illuminating her from behind. Her quizzical brown eyes studied him in a serious manner that almost made him smile.

  “Is he a nephew, then? I know several farmers and ranchers who’re raising kin. Many succumbed to a strange fever that swept the plains.”

  “No, we are not related. We were warriors on our world. Now I am the head of security for the new Earth Base of the future, and he is a one of the guards who serves under me.”

  She continued studying him. Her gaze wandered over his face and down to his chest. Glancing over at Oshki, she watched him for a moment.

  Somewhere up the slope, birds squabbled, the sound loud and startling.

  “Damn crows,” she mumbled. “Seems like they always make a racket when you need to be quiet….” Her gaze met Miln’s again. This time her eyes widened and sudden comprehension filled them. “Oh.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “You two are…together?”

  He nodded. “But I fear he has decided otherwise.”

  “I see.”

  “Is that knowledge going to affect our task of finding Randle and your sister?”

  “Uh, no. What you are is none of my business.” She whirled, her skirts whipping around her odd lace-up boots. “Let’s get going before the heat of the day becomes unbearable.”