Galactic Treasure (Quads of Galafrax) Read online

  “Come pet, time to depart.” He snapped his finger for her to come stand in front of him.

  This time, without hesitation she obeyed. From the corner of her eye, she saw both brothers nod their silent approval.

  “Such a change, little pet. If I had known all it took was a firm Demos hand to tame you, I would have sent for them earlier.”

  And if you were twice as smart, you’d still be dumber than primordial slime, asshole.

  Ruby had to bite her tongue to stop from voicing the insult forming in her mind. For the first time since her abduction, she felt better, mentally, although her hormones were in utter disarray. But it made her wonder, just how far she could stretch this ‘new’ friendship with the Demos soldiers.

  She glanced down her overweight body in disgust. Sure she’d come across a few men who liked big women back on earth, but none of her relationships lasted more than a few months. There was always an excuse. Your hair is too red, Ruby, you’re a nice lady but too bookish for my tastes. Ruby, you’ve got to let loose and live a little. Ruby, you’re just too frigid in the bedroom… the list was endless. In the end it was better to give up dating and enjoy the devoted attention of her two cats. She hoped they were doing okay.

  She heaved a silent sigh. Here and now her body and mind were all she had. It tipped the scales in her favour that they found her an exotic species. But could she seduce one of the Demos soldiers? Would one of them rescue her from the Ambassador, and then do what? Could or would they take her back to Earth?

  Fish face clipped on the gold lead to her collar, snapping her out of her thoughts, as he tugged her along beside him. She shivered as a cold chill raced up her body when her bare feet encountered the cold metal floor of the hallway. Following close behind as they walked towards fish face’s ship, she could feel the heated stares of Tev and Niz.

  Ruby’s mind drifted back to thoughts of escape. How far was she willing to go to be free from fish face? She’d never seduced anyone in her life, but had read plenty about it. Her bookstore was filled with romance novels, which were full of forward, bold heroines going after what they wanted.

  She swallowed, would they even be interested in her sexually? She glanced over her shoulder, gaining a wink and smile from Tev. She whipped her head back and kept her gaze lowered, trying to hide the heated blush spreading over her neck and chin. Damn her fair Celtic heritage. Pale skin and red hair had run in her family for generations.

  There was little choice, so she had to try. It was that or be stuck as a pet to fish face for the rest of her life.

  Now which one of the brothers would be the best one to seduce?

  * * * *

  “Hello, Ruby.” Niz couldn’t resist running his hand through her soft red curls. She stirred slightly and opened her mouth wide to yawn. He smiled. He moved his fingers to gently sweep the hair from her face, but she turned her head and nuzzled her face into his palm, in a sweet unconscious action, as if she knew she was safe. He inhaled her soft feminine scent. If his rod grew any harder he’d be able to drive space rivets with it.

  How could one small creature affect me so profoundly?

  “You really are beautiful.” Her lush pink lips curved up into a smile, her red eyelashes fluttering open. Her fathomless blue eyes focused on him.

  “Do you really think so?” Her voice husky with sleep pushed him to the brink of control.

  “I have never beheld such beauty, sweet one.”

  There wasn’t much time before they arrived on Zarnak Station. With Tev up front with the Ambassador, Niz was on pet guarding duty. For six hours he'd watched her sleep, taking pleasure in her every soft breath, every little sigh and shuffle as she slept.

  Not long into the trip she’d curled up and fallen asleep on the cushions the Ambassador had provided for her. Left alone, he caved into the temptation to move in close and touch her.

  “Niz?” She lifted her small pale hand, and touched the scar along his chin, sliding her hand down the ugly mark. “It looks painful, what happened?”

  Niz had never talked about that day on Chanalloinan Prime, the day he witnessed two of his brothers killed. But he couldn’t stop himself from answering her softly spoken question.

  “A war, something you do not have to worry about. Does it repulse you?”

  She blinked as she withdrew her hand, and sat up. Niz froze when she placed a hand on his knee, shuffled forward sitting between his legs. She leaned up and placed a soft kiss on his chin, before pulling back and tilting her head slightly to meet his stunned gaze.

  “I could simply say no, but sometimes actions speak louder than words, don’t you agree? Your scar makes you look even more handsome.”

  Her action and words decimated the fear she wouldn’t find him attractive because of the damage to his face.

  Niz swallowed hard, his hand shaking as he tried to keep himself from doing what he really wanted to do.

  “I agree. Can I show you how I feel about you?” His gaze dropped to her lips as they parted. A pink tongue swiped over them, leaving a gleam of moisture more tempting than anything he’d ever known.

  A precious, shy smile curved her lips. “I-I would like that.”

  Could she be any sweeter? It broke the last of his precious control. There was no thought of finesse, or tenderness, only a devouring need as he threaded his finger into her soft hair, tugging her forward. One of her hands pressed against his left shoulder, while her other hand curled around his bicep as he took her lips.

  Pillow, soft, and oh so sweet, when her lips parted on her soft moan, he pushed his tongue into her mouth, tasting her exotic, addicting flavour.

  Far in the back of his mind he knew the Ambassador or Tev could walk in on them at any moment. But he couldn’t bring himself to care.

  He possessively plundered her mouth, his arm slipping down to her waist, lifting her, pulling her tight against his chest. Her arms wound around his neck. Breaking the kiss, he heard her draw in a deep breath, while his lips moved across her jaw line, tasting each inch of skin, travelling down her neck.

  “Niz, oh Niz.”

  By the ice plains he even loved the way his name sounded like a breathless, reverent prayer. He would die a happy Demos male to always hear her say his name like that, for the rest of his life.

  “You know, it’s always the quiet ones you have to watch,” an amused voice from the doorway said.

  Ruby’s eyes widened in shock as her head whipped around. Niz was quick to cover her mouth, and clamp a hand around her waist before she screamed and tried to scramble off his lap.

  She fought his hold trying to twist away. “Easy, Ruby, settle down, it’s just Tev.”

  Her body relaxed. “I’m going to take my hand away, don’t scream, alright?”

  She nodded and he pulled his hand away. Her chest was heaving and her lips were slightly swollen from his kiss.

  “As much as I want my turn, we have ten minutes until we dock at Zarnak Station. The Ambassador will be her in sixty seconds.”

  With reluctance, he let Ruby go and she scrambled off his lap.

  “Straighten your top, sweetness,” Tev advised, his gaze riveted to her askew top.

  She stood up, staring down at her top in horror. Niz rose to his feet to adjust his overly tight pants, not that it would do any good. At least the looser black uniform would help conceal his hardened state.

  “Damn, I hate this stupid thing.” She started pushing at the tube top, with trembling hands, trying to get it back into place. Tev laughed, walked over and brushed away her hands. He tugged it back into place, leaning in to steal a quick kiss.

  “That, sweetness, is because I don’t have enough time to taste you properly.”

  Her eyes were the size of small asteroids. She glanced between him and Tev. “But have some pity on what you’ve done to our poor Niz. He has to walk around like that for the next few hours until our shift is over.”

  Ruby’s gaze dropped to Niz’s crotch and again the pale skin of he
r chest and face bloomed into a rosy red.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  Niz retook his position by the door, where he was meant to be instead of sitting by Ruby while she slept. Ruby sank back down onto her pet pillow.

  “I am sorry, beauty.”

  He met her confused gaze.

  “What for?”

  “Because there are a few things we need to explain before any of us go any further,” Tev butted in, as he took position on the other side of the door.

  Her gaze swung to Tev. “We?”

  “Sweetness, I don’t know what it’s like where you come from, but we are Demos males, we don’t come singular. You choose one of us, you choose all of us.”

  She blinked, her confusion clear in her furrowed brow. “Both of you?”

  “No,” Niz cut in. “We are quads. You have to take all four of us.”

  Chapter Four

  Ruby stood on dangerous ground with shaky legs as she followed closely beside fish face through the crowded intergalactic space station.

  She should have been more interested in the dozens of different alien species flowing around them. Instead she couldn’t keep her mind off Niz’s words, nor could she calm the throbbing arousal of her body.

  Never in a million years would she have expected an alien’s kiss to utterly blow her mind and turn her into a quivering puddle of goo. She was surprised she could stand, let alone walk.

  Bir and Zay had met them at the airlock. Their heated silent gazes only made matters worse. She stumbled and couldn’t stop her hands from shaking. The red Gerard Butler look-alikes took point out front, while Niz and Tev guarded them from behind.

  “Pet, I see you are shaking. What is the matter? Are you ill?”

  Ruby glanced up at fish face, taking a moment to realise they had stopped and he was talking to her.

  “I, um, I…” Heck, she couldn’t admit that one of the men had turned her on like a light bulb, and her breasts felt heavy. Nor could she tell him how embarrassingly wet she was between her thighs. “Sorry, master, I don’t feel very well, all these, um, aliens and this tight costume, are making me feel lightheaded.”

  She lowered her eyes, hoping fish face didn’t see through her lie. Also feeling the stares of the men on her didn’t help her shaking any.

  “The banquet isn’t for a few hours, where I will want to show you off to some of the more prominent trade delegates. Zay, will you take my pet to my quarters and see she is not disturbed? I have back-to-back meetings with Morax.”

  “It will be my honour, Ambassador.” Zay accepted the leash from fish face.

  “Rest pet. I shall see you in a few hours.”

  “Yes, master.” She watched the rest of them walk away.

  “Can you walk or shall I carry you?”

  She glanced up at Zay and pursed her lips.

  “I can walk, thank you.”

  “Are you sure? Carrying you would not be a problem at all.” His lips twitched up in a grin.

  “Yes, I’m sure.” The last thing she needed was to get up close and personal with another of these Demos brothers. Did they really share women? Or Demos females? How the heck did that work? And why the heck couldn’t she get the image of all four of them…

  Oh no, don’t you dare go there, girl. Her libido had already been pushed into hyper drive and put into a total tailspin. How the heck had she gone from trying to be the seducer to the one being seduced?

  “Well?” She glared up at him.

  “What do you want, little red?”

  “Are we going to stand here all day or are you going to take me to the quarters?”

  “Oh right.” He gently tugged on her lead, but she wrapped her hand around it and yanked it out of his grasp. “You know, for once, I’d rather walk by myself, instead of being led about like a damn animal.”

  “As you wish, just don’t stray too far from my side.” They walked together in silence for a moment.

  “Don’t think it hasn’t escaped my or my brothers' notice, your most alluring aroused scent.”

  She felt the rise of heat flood her cheeks. “And you know it’s impolite to point out such things to a woman,” she snapped in a mixture of irritation and worry. Could they really smell her arousal?

  “If I know my brothers, which I do, one of them has said or done something to you.”

  Damn the man, she wanted to slap the smug smile off his handsome face.

  “It is none of your business.”

  “Oh that’s where you’re wrong, little red. Demos quads do not keep secrets from each other.” He moved in closer, sneaking an arm about her waist, suddenly pulling her into the heat of his side. The closeness of his body, the musky masculine scent drifting in her senses was quickly shutting down her rational thought process. “It is quite simple. What is mine is my brothers’, and what is my brothers’ is mine. So tell me, which one touched you?”

  “Niz, he … he kissed me.”

  Zay chuckled. “The sneak and his kiss left you, ‘unwell’?”

  “Um,” Her face burned with heat, and she couldn’t meet his gaze.

  “Then I must take over where he left off and care for you as my brother cannot.”

  He bent and scooped her up into his arms as if she weighed nothing more than a lumpy pillow.

  “Hey, put me down!” She struggled in his arms.

  “Where would the enjoyment be in that? Be still, little red, I’ve wanted to do this since I first laid eyes on you.”

  She snorted, but obeyed, glaring at his smug smile. “Serves you right if you break your back with my weight.”

  She felt his frame shake with laughter and scrambled to anchor her arm around his neck, fearing he’d drop her as he strode confidently forward, as if he wasn’t carrying anything heavy at all.

  “Funny as well as pretty, I get the feeling the males on your planet are not very strong.”

  It took a moment for her to wrap her head around just how strong, not only this Demos man was, but all the brothers were. Wow, no one had ever carried her, well not since she was three, when her mother promptly told her she was now too big to be carried about.

  “Um, no.”

  “Then I get to have all the fortune.” His grin had an infectious effect upon her, and she found her lips twitching up at the corners.

  She shook her head. “Why would you want to hold me?”

  “Why would I not? And I am pleased to find you are as soft as you look, and I bet if I delve deeper, I would find a lot more softness.”

  Holy moly, first Niz and Tev, now Zay. “Is it true what you and Niz said?”

  “What did he say?”

  “That you, um, share your females?”

  “We have not had the opportunity to prove ourselves to a Demos female since our bonding, but it is true. There is always one female among a set of quads.”

  His words confused her even more. She needed to slow down, to think.

  “On my planet it is customary to have only one partner, not four.”

  “I understand. You are a singular society. On Galafrax, all Demos males are born in sets of identical quads. The brothers when they come of age, when they find a female they desire, they have to fight to win her. If they succeed, she becomes the centre and whole life of their home. We call her our sheraz. It takes four males to bring a Demos female to her peak of pleasure and to keep her happy in the pod home.”

  Wow, Ruby didn’t think it possible to slip further down the alien rabbit hole, than she already had. Her head spun with all the new information Zay imparted. But something didn’t add up.

  “You said you were born as identical quads, but you’re not identical to Niz and Tev.”

  “No, Bir and I were born in to a set of quads, as was Niz and Tev. The eight of us were soldiers in the Demos army, and during a particular campaign we each lost two of our brothers.”

  The smile fell from his face, his eyes distant, lost in unhappy memories. Sympathy welled deep in her heart for him and the o
ther men. “I’m sorry for your loss. It must be hard, being so close to your brothers.”

  “You are as kind as you are soft, little red, thank you. Bonding together with Niz and Tev has helped all of us get through it.”

  Zay stopped and she glanced to find they were now in a large opulent room. Her heart sank as she realised they were again in fish face’s quarters. He set her on her feet, but didn’t release her from his arms, forcing her to tilt her head back to meet his molten gold eyes, burning with the same desire she’d seen in Niz and Tev’s.

  He reached up and touched his ear. “On alert, commander?” He paused. “Confirmed.”

  Ruby realised he had a small communicator in his right ear. Security detail with the works. He glanced down at her, and the seductive gaze on his lip and smile on his face told her she was in a heck of a lot of trouble. Dangerous ground indeed.

  “I’d say we have a good solid hour before the Ambassador returns. I’ve barred the main sleeping quarter door. No one can gain access except the Ambassador. Bir will warn me when he’s on his way back. Which means, little red, you and I are alone, for now.”

  A tremor ran down the centre of her body making her belly quiver. She’d seen a hint of a playful side to Zay, but the heated way he now stared at her, told her he was just as dangerous as his brothers.

  “Here, let’s get rid of this for now.” He unclipped the leash from her collar, tossing it aside.

  “Um, thanks.”

  She pulled away glancing about the room, much like the one on the other space station, muted grey walls, only fish face liked to put in as many colourful things as possible. The damp smell was due to fish face's aqua bed, which was basically a large tub of shallow water. She spotted her bed in the far corner of the room. It appeared solid and comfortable.

  “I think I should rest.” She made a hasty retreat over to her corner. She needed space to clear her muddled brain and breathe, which she seemed to be having difficulty doing ever since the Demos brothers had walked into fish face’s quarters.

  “You know it’s my duty to take care for you.”

  Ruby snorted. “Fish face paid you to guard me, nothing else.”