Genus: Unknown Adaptation (8 page)

* * * *

You should not have used the name that Kate gave you, Dae said irritably. She is suspicious now.

Noo had been thinking pretty much the same thing and it still annoyed him to have Dae point it out. My name was too unfamiliar to her. Many on the space station shared the same names. There is no reason to suppose she will guess who we are only because I used a human name that happens to be the same as the one she chose for me.

She looked startled when you verbalized it, Rak said. What do you suppose this thing is? And where do you think it is taking us? I have to say I do not particularly like being closed inside such a small space or traveling at this speed. I feel like it will slam into one of the other things any time and shatter.

Do not look and it will not bother you, Dae advised him. Clearly the humans consider it safe or they would not pile into them and ignore the way that it darts at such crazed speeds and narrowly misses the others.

Rak glared at him. I do not see that it will help not to look when I already know what this thing is doing.

In any case, each time it suddenly stops and takes another direction, my belly knots and I feel the sudden change even if I do not watch it! My dick crawled into my belly the last near miss and I am doubtful I will be able to coax the damned thing out to breed even if we find a place for it.

I will have no trouble and I am alpha so that is not of any great importance, Noo said coolly.

It is of importance to me, gods damn it, Rak snapped!

You will have plenty of time to coax it out, Dae said. Noo is first and I am second.

Rak sent him an indignant glare. This darting and twisting and suddenly stopping does not bother either of you?

No, Noo and Dae replied almost at the same instant.

Rak did not believe that it did not, but he had already volunteered the fact that it did bother him and there was no retracting that now. It pissed him off, especially when he did not believe for a moment that it did not bother them at all. Maybe it did not unnerve them as much as it did him, but this was not the same as traveling in the humans' spacecraft! They could not feel the speed until the Earth mother had embraced them and even then there were no obstacles that the craft had to avoid! It had made him feel sick the way that thing had dropped toward the ground, but this was much worse! Even though it was not moving nearly as fast, the sudden shifts in speed and direction were far more disorienting and far more unnerving!

He transferred his attention to Kate after a few moments and saw that she was looking a little sick herself. "Wha dis ting?"

She flicked a startled look in his direction and stared at him blankly for a long moment. "You mean the taxi?"

Rak frowned, but he knew she had not used that word before. "Sut-tal."

She blinked at him, still looking blank. "They don't have shuttles where you're from?"

Dae slammed his elbow into his side, knocking the breath from him before he could attempt an answer.

"Hab tings like dis," Noo said tightly, sending Rak a warning look.

Kate glanced from one man to the next and returned her attention to Ronan. "The accent confuses me.

Where did you say you were from?"

The urge to choke the life out of Rak swept through Noo. He struggled for a moment to come up with an answer that would not make her more suspicious and decided that claiming any of the place names he recalled probably was not a good idea. He formed his lips into a smile. "No say."

Kate smiled back at him. "So … where are you from?"

Noo felt his smile stiffen. There seemed no hope for it. "Ra."

Her expression went blank. She frowned. "I'm not familiar with that. That's a town?"

She seemed more confused than disbelieving, which was some relief, but Noo could see that he needed to distract her. The trouble was, he could not think of any way to distract her. Ruefully, it occurred to him, belatedly, that his lack of facility with their method of communications was liable to create problems he had not anticipated. In the memory, none of the fathers had ever encountered such a problem so there was nothing there to aid him now. There was no comfort in the realization that the problem had not arisen because their clan rarely came upon a species that appealed to them that had intelligence to equal or surpass their own. He had to deal with the problem. "No say N'glish very goot."

To his surprise, relief, and delight, Kate chuckled.

He was a little miffed, as well. Even to his own ears, he was well aware that he had not successfully verbalized the sounds they made, but he had been convinced he could manage closely enough to pass for one of them.

"I think it's cute."

Discomfort wafted through Noo and heat traveled with it. The desire, he had no problem with. He had coveted Kate on many levels from the first and begun to want her on a sexual level even before his body had matured to a degree to allow him to breed.

The heat he felt in his face and ears was not a by-product of desire, however. It was directly connected to his discomfort and the dismaying certainty that he was not passing as human well at all.

Thankfully, before he could think of anything else to try to verbalize to distract her, they arrived at their destination. His interest was fairly caught when he turned to study the view beyond the bubble pod they had traveled in and saw a thick, luscious growth of plant-life. Pleasure wafted through him-not just to see something so reminiscent of the clan memory bestowed upon him of his home world, Ra-for even though he had never actually seen his home world with his own eyes, the clan memory was passed to each new generation as a matter of course-but because Kate had chosen such a familiar place to breed with them.

She would make a perfect queen for their brood!

As appealing as he had found her in so many ways, some of the differences between his clan and hers made him uneasy. He wanted, desperately, to bring the strengths of her clan into his own. He had not been greatly disturbed about the weaknesses he had also detected because he had believed-still believed-that the strengths of his clan would overcome. He had worried that Kate, herself, might have difficulty growing accustomed to their ways, though, and she would have to since humans, he had learned, gestated their young within their bodies-which meant that the only way they would be able to guard their 'nestlings' would be to guard Kate as the nest.

And they could not properly do that without taking her back to Ra.

That was a problem for another time, however. The craft that had brought them to Kate's world had taken humans back to his home world, he knew-which made it all the more imperative to his view to adapt traits of the human clan. They would have to find another to take them home, but breeding her was more vital at the moment.

He was ready for that-more than ready-eager! Impatient from the many months of waiting for an opportunity and more so because he had sensed Kate was ready and eager, as well.

He discovered when they emerged from the traveling pod she called a shuttle, though, that Kate was now wavering between the eagerness he had sensed in her before and the uneasiness he had also sensed-except that the uneasiness seemed to have become dominant.

"Uh … I don't want to sound mean … but I really only expected to have sex with you."

Noo was not unfamiliar with the word sex. The problem was that he had never entirely grasped the precise meaning of it. At times when he had scanned it in their minds, it had seemed to refer only to whether or not a particular entity was male or female. At times it appeared to be a reference to breeding and still other times it seemed some sort of recreation. He interpreted her current meaning fairly quickly to pertain to the breeding he had on his mind and although he was pleased that she had confirmed that she meant to breed with him, he was not particularly happy that she also seemed to be refusing to breed with the others.

Naturally enough, being the alpha, he considered his own seed far more important. He was more likely to breed an alpha being one himself than they were, but he had also begun to realize that three hybrids would be better for the clan than one. He glanced at Dae and Rak speculatively, but he did not see giving up the opportunity to secure the future of his clan only because she had become uncertain, now, that this was something she wanted. "Dese …." He hesitated, trying to summon a word she would grasp. "Broders. Goot …

uh … sexers."

Kate blinked at him and then abruptly struggled with a mixture of amusement, interest, and dismay when his meaning finally sank in. "Are they?" she managed to ask.

He nodded-they nodded vigorously-convinced that they could be regardless of a lack of actual experience.

"Yes, well …. Oh! What the hell! This should be interesting at the very least!" Kate said, abruptly capitulating and turning to lead the way inside. "Just so we're working on the same page-this isn't just for your entertainment! I expect plenty of foreplay."

She was nervous. Her buzz from the alcohol she'd consumed seemed to have completely worn off-a fact not supported by her decisions so far! Still, it was more because of her nervousness than eagerness that she went straight to her room as soon as she was inside without pausing to play good hostess and offer her guests-the invited and uninvited-any sort of refreshments.

A jolt went through her that was an interesting mixture of pleased surprise and dismay when she turned around and discovered that all three men were already naked and, from the looks of things, ready!

My god they were beautifully built, though! The exotic dancers didn't have a thing on these guys!

And hung like young stallions! There was definitely a strong familial resemblance on that part of their anatomy even though she'd felt somewhat doubtful about Ronan's claim that these were his brothers.

"Wha dis foreplay mean?"

The question brought Kate's focus from the magical horns to the 'trumpeteer' that had asked her about the taxi. She'd been too focused on Ronan to notice much about the two men with him-maybe a little too high, too-and it had been too dark inside the shuttle to tell much about any of them beyond the fact that they were all built like bouncers and at least appeared to be very muscular beneath their clothes.

His features weren't as harsh and angular as Ronan's. In point of fact, they leaned close to 'pretty boy'.

She struggled with the cliché that leapt to mind-pretty equaled dumb as dirt! But it was hard to set that aside considering the questions he'd asked even though she told herself that Ronan had already proven his grasp of English wasn't all that good.

A mixture of resentment and resignation settled in her as she transferred her attention to the middle brother. This one looked like a cross between the first two. His features fell somewhere between the harshly male features of Ronan and the 'pretty boy' good looks of the 'dumb' one.

"Please tell me it's just the word you aren't familiar with," she muttered, then added dryly and a little more loudly. "It's called getting me ready. I hope you guys don't think this is going to be a wham-bam thing! I want to enjoy it, too! I need some warm up time."

The three exchanged a look she found hard to decipher, but she figured she'd made her point. Discarding her outer clothing, she climbed into the middle of her bed in her bra and panties and settled to wait.

Which was when they began to do the most peculiar thing!

Dancing!

Not just any kind of dance! They were imitating the exotic dancers!

Kate sat up and gaped at them for several moments, too stunned at first to do more than stare at them blankly. There was no question in her mind that they were imitating the dance moves of the exotic dancers. She wasn't certain of why they were-even the alcohol in her blood didn't make that seem at all reasonable-but she was certain that that was where they'd gotten the moves.

Actually, they were a good bit better at it than most of the dancers she'd seen-and that still didn't prevent an exquisite sense of discomfort from enveloping her. She felt herself blushing all over the moment her shock wore off.

She could understand foreigners having a problem with the language-even some confusion over customs-but this went way beyond incomprehensible!

She had to fight the urge to close her eyes or pull the cover up over her head to spare her own blushes. It was only the reflection that she would make them feel badly that made her clench her hands in her lap instead.

She was so relieved when they finally danced their way to the bed and climbed in with her, too grateful to have those embarrassing moments behind her, to consider pointing out that that wasn't her idea of foreplay.

In any case, she hadn't expected all three to pile into the bed with her at the same time! She had envisioned a night filled with sex and anticipated that somewhere along the way she was bound to get her cookie even if they totally sucked at foreplay, but she'd been thinking more along the lines of a parade of hunks.

* * * *

It was disturbing that the mating dance did not seem to have the desired effect and Ronan was still debating whether to continue or discard that effort to interest her when he reached the bed where Kate was sitting. It seemed to him that she was only becoming more tense rather than less-and not in the sense of preparing to receive him. She seemed to relax fractionally when he paused beside the bed, however, and it occurred to him that the mating dance probably had not been necessary at all. She had already accepted them.

He felt like a dunce when that occurred to him.

He decided to put it down to eagerness to claim her, his anxiety because she was an unfamiliar creature and therefore her particular breeding methods completely unknown to him, and the inevitable doubts that he was as physically prepared to perform as he was eager to try.

It brought to mind the fact that he was no more, at this point, than a visual imitation of the humans since he had not, yet, absorbed the essence that would allow him to complete the transition. He would not be able to successfully breed her until he did that!

It relieved him that she seemed ready to accept him when he settled on the bed beside her. There was something to be thankful for even if it did bother him that the human senses were so inadequate!

Expelling a pent up breath, he lifted a hand and settled the pads of his fingertips lightly on her bare forearm. Surprise flickered through him. As smooth as her skin had looked to him, he had not expected it to be so soft to the touch. Even the muscles beneath the skin felt far more malleable than he had expected.

He debated briefly, but although the male skin had seemed to be the same, the muscles beneath had appeared to be harder-or at least the muscles of the mating males had. Focusing, he manipulated his skin texture to match hers, leaving his muscles as they were. He was still debating what part of her would offer him the best opening to collect a sample of her essence when Dae and Rak decided peel her protective skins from her to examine her more thoroughly.

Noo tensed, more than half expecting Kate to object since she had not taken them off herself. Instead, she helped them remove them. The moment she settled back again, Noo focused on her mouth as his objective.

Capturing her face with one hand, he leaned down to align his mouth with hers just as Dae and Rak each grabbed one of her legs and pushed it out of the way to examine her genitalia.

She sucked in a quick breath, either to object or from surprise, but Noo forestalled her by covering her mouth with his. Triumph assailed him as he instantly detected the chemicals that were both unique to her clan and to her alone. He sucked at her mouth and tongue, absorbing her essence with a mixture of relief and pleasure as he felt his body changing, aligning itself to hers so that he could complete the mating cycle.

There are three holes here, Rak said, a mixture of triumph and confusion threading his voice. We were right! It will require penetration. I wonder which hole is the right one?

The one in the middle, Dae said confidently, ignoring Kate's attempt to evade him and examining all three with his finger. These other two are too small.

How do you know, Rak demanded? She seemed to like it when you stroked this one.

The members of the mating males would not fit in either of these, Dae informed him impatiently. They cannot morph themselves into other forms. He pushed his finger into the hole experimentally and felt a surge of triumph.

There is no point in finding the correct hole, Noo said irritably, until you have taken her essence and completed the transition. You cannot mate with her as you are!

There is essence here, Dae said tightly. When he had examined the moisture on his finger, he poked the digit into his mouth and sucked it.

Rak dove for the place, but Dae blocked his attempt to take possession, shoving one finger from his other hand into the hole to plug it. Mine, he snarled.

Rak growled low in his throat.

Stop it, Noo snarled! Find another place to gather her essence!

Rak sat back, glaring at Noo and Dae in angry frustration for a moment, but he had detected pleasure wafting from her when Dae had stroked the little bud at the top of her cleft and there was no doubt in his mind that it was an entry into her body whether it was a mating hole or not. Unfortunately, Dae had decided to replace his finger with his tongue to gather her essence and he was blocking access. Leaning down again, he squeezed his head past Dae's and ran his tongue over the little bud. Kate stiffened. Doubt flickered through him but almost immediately he detected a wave of pleasure from her and he caught a trace of the essence he had been seeking.

Ignoring the waves of hostility wafting from Dae, he fought to get close enough to suck the bud into his mouth and pull her essence into himself. She bucked several times, but he was too focused on drawing forth enough of her chemicals to make the final transition to think past that need.

There are eggs here, Dae exclaimed, feeling strangely hot and light headed. Hundreds of them!

That news startled Noo so much that he broke off his exploration of Kate's mouth and turned his head to look at Dae. You are certain?

I smell them. Only one is close. The others are trapped within two little nests in her belly.

We need more!

Dae lifted his head reluctantly. I have detected a chemical that will bring more forth.

Then give it to her!

Dae studied Kate doubtfully. She cannot carry many in such a small nesting area. Maybe only one egg is free because she can only carry one?

While Noo considered that with a mixture of uneasiness and frustration, he discovered that Kate had begun to thrash and groan. Curious, he lightly touched her mind. The pleasure flooding her mind struck him like a punch to the belly, rolling through him and producing a reaction that seemed to magnify her pleasure many times within his own body. He began to shake with dizzying waves of heat. A sense of desperation seized him to enter her immediately. He struggled with it.

Three then, he said hoarsely. Surely if they are small she can nurture three? If you do not think so then the one is mine!

Dae was not convinced that even three small ones could be nurtured there, but he was torn between a building need to claim his own egg and his anxiety that she could not bring three to full fruition and his need rapidly silenced his anxiety. Leaning down again, he forced his tongue inside of her and focused on excreting the chemical he had detected. Even as he did so, Kate arched toward him, uttered a long, low groan and then began to shake all over and he could feel the muscles within her channel contracting, as if to suck the chemical deeper into her body. That discovery sent a heady wave of excitement through him.

Surely he had miscalculated, he thought, else her body would not so eagerly draw the chemicals in?

By the time he lifted his head, she was uttering hoarse cries that made his flesh pebble all over.

Noo planted his hand on Rak's head and shoved him away, rolling her toward him and searching a little frantically for the place. She is ready to breed! Move, he snarled, more worried that he was going to spill his seed outside her body if he did not hurry to insert his member than he was concerned that he would miss her breeding frenzy, for he felt as if it would erupt any moment.

Dae discovered he was in almost the same state. He nearly erupted as he watched Noo insert his member. A wave of heat and then cold washed over him as he struggled to hold his seed. He'd begun to think he might pass out from the effort when it occurred to him that, as tight as the hole had felt, the flesh was malleable.

If it was designed to accommodate the emergence of a fully matured off-spring he could not think of any gods damned reason it could not also accommodate two male members when two were not nearly as big as that!

Giving Rak a shove to get him out of the way, he scooted up behind her and began probing with his member, thinking that he might at least manage to wedge it partially inside before he spewed his seed and lost it altogether. Noo uttered a warning snarl, but he ignored it for once, struggling until he managed to wedge his cock into her alongside Noo's. Dimly, he heard Kate utter a sound that might have been one of distress, but he was as near to blacking out as made very little difference at all. His instincts took over, his hips jerking as if they had a mind of their own to pump into her. He felt a sudden rise in the heat and moisture inside of her as Noo's cock began to spew. It set his own organ off and a mixture of agonizing pleasure and relief filled him as he felt his body yield up his seed.

Feeling alarmingly weak and exhausted once his body had finally stopped convulsing, he sucked in a shuddering breath and rolled away, pulling Noo's now flaccid member out of Kate even as he withdrew his own.

I will kill you when I have the strength, Noo growled, panting for breath.

Dae discovered he was too weak to care about the threat at the moment. Unfortunately, he also discovered the moment he settled against the surface of the bed that there was an unpleasant wet patch beneath him. What the fuck?

I spilled my seed while I was watching, Rak said, climbing over Dae and sprawling on top of Kate's limp form.

Gods damn it! You could not have spewed the fucking mess over the side? You had to leave a sticky puddle for me to roll into?

If you have lost your seed what the hell are you doing, Noo growled?

There is more, Rak snarled. I will get this inside her!

Your member is limp! You will never get that inside her!

Was! It is hard again, Rak corrected him, pumping furiously even before he had managed to get completely inside of Kate. Pleasure instantly assailed him, making his member as rock hard as it had been before. He discovered that, whereas he had not been able to hold his seed before, however, he had to work hard to produce more. The effort made him hotter, made moisture erupt from the pores of his skin. Before he had quite reached the explosion point, Kate began to thrash beneath him and groan. Abruptly, he felt her body squeezing his, massaging his cock in a milking motion that drew his seed from him in a sudden rush that took his breath.

A groan escaped him at the sheer magnitude of the bliss that overtook him. It was like nothing he had ever imagined and it seemed to suck every ounce of strength from him. He almost felt as if he melted over Kate when his body finally ceased to seize with the paroxysms of pleasure.

He was barely conscious when Noo uttered a challenging growl, bounded over him and seized Dae by the throat. Struggling for dominance, the two of them rolled off the bed and landed on the floor.

Kate, who'd given every appearance of being as near death as he was, jerked all over at the sound, trying to lift her head. "What? What's going on?"

Discovering his reasoning abilities had sunk to lowest ebb, Rak wrestled with his instinct to try to roll off Kate when she began shoving at him and the dim realization that, as alarmed as she seemed at the moment, she might be more alarmed by the battle Noo and Dae were engaged in if she could see what was going on. He compromised by shifting most of his weight off of her, but keeping her pinned to the bed with one arm and leg.

"Noo's alpha," he muttered.

"News alpha?" Kate echoed blankly. "What?"

Discarding the idea of trying to explain the situation to Kate, Rak focused on Noo and Dae instead. You are alarming Kate!

Noo, who had one hand around Dae's throat and his other fist drawn back to punch Dae in the face, halted mid-swing and flicked a look toward the bed. Dae used his distraction to punch Noo in the belly, knocking the breath from him. Noo uttered a growl of rage, punched Dae twice in the face in quick succession, shook him, and then released him. If my seed does not capture an egg, I will carve your heart out of your chest, he snarled.

Stalking around the bed, he flung himself down beside Kate, shoved Rak out of the way, and gathered her close to examine her scent. Dae grabbed one of Rak's limp arms, dragged him off the bed, and then stepped over him and climbed into the bed behind Kate, sending Noo a challenging look when he lifted his head to glare at him.

Kate uttered a groan when she felt herself sandwiched between the two men again. "That was really something else, guys, but I'm not up to another round right now," she mumbled, patting both of them to soften the blow. "Later, ok? I'm sleepy."

Noo felt some of his hostility wane when he realized Kate did not seem to have taken exception to both of them mating with her at the same time. That had been responsible for at least part of his anger-the fear that Dae's frenzied coupling had been totally unacceptable to her. She had sounded … pleased, though. "Kat like dat?"

Kate's lips curled upward at the corners. "Mmmm, Kate liked that a lot. I came three times! Wow! Now I want to sleep. K?"