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Rhodes moved to stand beside the crate, and his tail moved over in front of me, supporting my torso as it tortured my breasts. I slid my hand from Xandros to wrap around what jutted toward me from Rhodes, wishing for my own pleasure-wreaking tail. All I had were two hands and?—

I lowered my lips to Xandros.

“Oh, yeah, my little drifter. That is it,” he rumbled.

I continued to stroke Zyair’s wing with my other hand, and every pass of my fingers over his hot scaled skin elicited an answering quiver through him. His hands clenched on my hips, and at last, he was there. Poised at my entrance, his breath hitching, his big body trembling with suppressed need.

Oh, yes . My entire being focused on that one, rapturous moment as I pushed back against him, and he entered me. He growled before he sank in, one glorious inch at a time.

It was—cosmic. The perfect combination of stretch and friction.

Before he was even fully seated, I was rocking onto him, my body tightening with each long slide.

Xandros thrust gently into my mouth as I danced talons over his brother, each of us linked to the sensations coursing through Zyair and myself.

Rhodes’s tail wrapped around my waist, helping to set the rhythm as his shaft jumped in my hand, and a split second later, Xandros’s did in my mouth.

“Shaftzzz,” rumbled Xandros, his eyes rolling back in his head. I nibbled beneath the burgeoning head of him, and he arched helplessly upward. “Enough,” he pleaded. “Bring it home, bro.”

But wrapped as he was in manticore venom, he needed something more. So I curled my fingers, and sank my talons into his wing membrane…

Zyair cried out and, with a strong thrust, swelled inside me. My body tightened around him. He held me close, lying overtop of my back and his brother’s tail. Once, twice, three times more…

And we shattered.

All of us. All at once. Wave after wave pulsed through us as the Drakes roared—the entire ship had to have vibrated with the power of it. At least, it certainly felt like it.

In the aftermath, Xandros lay back on the crate.

“The whole shaftzing universe moved,” he stated. “Of that, I am sure.” Another shudder ran through him.

“Not done yet, brothers,” Rhodes growled.

His tail supported us as Zyair lay along my back. The pain coming from the golden Drake had lessened, but only by a small amount. If we were looking for this to heal him, it hadn’t done it. My heart felt as though it might rip in two.

But then I felt him swell inside me. The locking. I welcomed it this time with little lifts of my hips that had him hissing between his teeth.

“Do you know what you do to me?” he husked. “You are my night, and my day. My everything.”

“ Our everything,” murmured Rhodes.

“You got that right,” confirmed Xandros.

Both of them remained rigid. I gasped and writhed and rode Zyair as he became so deliciously tight within me.

And then, his shaft began to vibrate.

Borne on the desire pulsing from all three, it carried me higher than ever before.

I licked Xandros, and he arched upward with a gasp.

When I closed my hand once more around Rhodes, the Drake who was always in control, groaned and pushed hard into my hand.

Their eyes were open and glowing with their dragons as the four of us climbed and climbed…

This time, when we shattered together, I swear time stopped. For at least thirty ecstatic seconds—or was it minutes? I couldn’t say for sure. All I know is that I hung there, suspended by Rhodes’s tail and held within the circle of Zyair’s arms, for what felt like forever.

As I breathed them all in, I was smothered by the scents of fresh rain, leather, and spicy forest breezes. Zyair pulled me back with him to lie on the mattress. Rhodes released his tail to let me go.

To my dismay, the pain wasn’t gone. We hadn’t cured Zyair.

“It is much better, little Draka,” Rhodes soothed. “He should be able to hold on, now, until we can get him to Amelia.”

“If he can shift, it might help,” Xandros added. “Our dragon is strong.”

Rhodes looked at Zyair. “Do you think you can? Xandros is right. Your dragon might fight off the venom much better than your humanoid form.”

Zyair held me close, and pushed his nose into my hair. Ah, that inhale. I’d never get tired of it.

“I just want to hold you,” he said.

“I’ll stay with you, if you can shift,” I told him.

Rhodes sighed. “Are you giving Zyair an order?”

“Is Xandros right?” I asked.

“Yeah. He is.”

I looked into Zyair’s eyes, and said, “Shift. NOW.” I waited for his nod before Xandros, Rhodes, and I moved to the doorway.

Zyair was too weak for the shift to be a pretty process. But within a reasonable amount of time, the aft storage bay was filled with one reddish-golden dragon.

He was beyond beautiful, and I told him so.

“Like he does not already have a grossly swollen head,” Xandros complained.

“It’s not quite as swollen as it was a few minutes ago,” I pointed out.

Rhodes made a choking sound, and Xandros bellowed a laugh, adding. “Bet that can change on a moment’s notice.”

“He needs to rest,” Rhodes insisted.

Zyair’s dragon only fit by curling up tightly within the bay. But his head tilted as he regarded me, and he created a cradle with his arms.

He still pulsed with pain, but also with an emotion that joined with what coursed from his brothers to me. Pooling within me, it bridged, forging us together.

It proved that we were one.

Rhodes and Xandros helped me into the spot he’d created for my body. Xandros poked his brother in the ribs.

“I am not hugging you two,” Zyair complained.

“That would be correct,” Rhodes agreed.

“Yes, you are,” I commanded Zyair. I moved my gaze to Rhodes. “And so are you.”

Zyair breathed dragon steam all over me, but sighed before he moved his huge arms. Xandros stepped into them, and tucked me against him.

Rhodes stared at us.

I pointed to the spot on the other side of me. “Here. Now.”

He heaved a sigh. “Just so long as no one takes images.”

As I had no idea where Sookie was, all I could offer was, “No guarantees.”

His lip lifted off a long canine, but when I gestured again, he lowered himself into the space. Wrapping his tail around my thigh, he sank his nose into my hair.

I basked in a warmth that I’d never before known. It was a soul-deep thing, this. A merging. We were one, these three Drakes and I.

Beneath and around us, the Stardrifter’s engines rumbled as she took us to Nipslep.

I dozed in my warm circle of Drake arms. I’d never felt so—so whole .

A chime sounded, and Yani’s voice came over the comm.

“We’re coming up on Nipslep.”

I stirred reluctantly. By now, the Nirzks would have sent word of our escape to both of the nearest slipstream ports. There was sure to be trouble waiting for us.

Our little trip to paradise might be all we’d ever have.

Rhodes had rolled upright the moment the chime sounded, and now Xandros joined him.

“You two take the guns,” Zyair rumbled. He gently encouraged me to my feet.

Xandros’s eyes narrowed. “Who is flying?”

I pushed my hair off my face. “I am.”

All three of them went very still. “It might be better if I pilot,” Zyair said. “You are an excellent aviator, but?—”

I planted hands on my hips. “Won’t shifting back to human weaken you? ”

He gnashed his considerable teeth.

“Rhodes is the better shot,” Xandros said. “I can fly her.”

Both brothers didn’t so much as look at him. But Rhodes’s mouth straightened, and he uttered one word. “Comet.”

“Are you going to hold that against me forever?” Xandros complained.

Rhodes arched a brow.

“Listen,” I said, taking control of the argument. “I might lack combat experience, but we are linked, now. Zyair can stay here, as a dragon. But through our link, he’ll also be with me, on the bridge.”

Zyair’s talons clicked on the metal floor as he clenched his forefeet. But Rhodes, surprisingly, agreed with me. “She is right, brother. It is the best way forward.”

That Zyair agreed with him became obvious when he hissed in frustration. I raised a hand to his muzzle, stroking away the lines of tension along it.

“It will be all right,” I murmured. “You are with me, wherever I go.”

Before he could construct another argument, I spun and left. I heard the rumble of Drake voices in their native tongue—Zyair wasn’t going down without a fight.

His angst filled my mind as I jogged to the bridge. I was grateful that the venom’s pain was bearable enough for him to think through it.

Yani sat in the navigator’s seat with Sookie in her lap. Her fingers absently scratched the hedgegopher as her orange eyes scanned my face. “How is he?”

“He was able to shift to dragon. It’s helping to slow the venom, but it’s still there.”

She nodded. “Manticore venom is powerful stuff. I hope this Amelia woman can deal with it.”

Hope wasn’t a strong enough word. I strapped myself into the pilot’s seat as the Stardrifter dropped out of autopilot.

The navcube immediately gathered data from its surroundings, and spat out a holograph with various dots floating about.

Ahead of us was the slipstream port, with its attendant infrastructure and collection of waiting ships.

It resided just beyond the orbit of a gaseous giant planet whose purple-hued cloud cover spun restlessly.

My attention, however, was instantly drawn to a group of dots coming from around the far side of a small moon. The navcube had colored them green.

Nirzk power signatures. Six, and by their size, they were trouble.

“Watch them,” Yani said, tucking Sookie into her protective pocket.

“Will do,” I answered. The Nirzk ships—fast moving, vicious little starfighters—were on us in an instant.

“Let them make the first move,” Zyair stated over the open comm channel. His voice was hoarse and didn’t sound at all like him.

“What?” exclaimed Xandros. “Has the venom reached your brain?”

“We are within range of the port’s scanners,” Rhodes said patiently.

We were, but only just. They might not care what happens this far out.

Stardrifter shook with the effects of a phaser blast off our bow.

“How will that matter if we are annihilated to spacedust?” Xandros snarled.

A harsh voice emerged over the airwaves. It wasn’t in a language I understood. “What did they say?” I asked.

“Drake vessel. Standby to be boarded.” Rhodes interpreted. “Which we will not.”

Another phaser blasted across our bow. The ships were faster than the Stardrifter and orienting to capture us in an EMF net.

A third blast had Xandros snarling, “Can we shoot them now?”

“Hold,” Zyair said. His voice was hardly more than a whisper. To me, he added, “Talk to the port officials.”

I dove the Stardrifter , pulling her out of the circle of fighters. “ What good will that do?”

“The Untriks will not tolerate any interference with their slipstream clients,” Rhodes said. “We are close enough that they might intervene, if they think these are pirates.”

The Nirzks did regularly stage attacks on merchant vessels. It just might work.

“But what if the Nirzks have told them we are criminals?” I asked.

“I doubt the Untriks would take their word for it,” Rhodes rumbled over the comm. “They do not trust the Nirzks at all. We will be given a chance to state our case.”

With the dots converging, I opened a channel to the slipstream port. When the voice replied in heavily accented Primal, I didn’t have to fake my panic.

“We need to slipstream an urgent medical case to Earth,” I said, “And we are under attack by pirates. We require assistance.”

I couldn’t even breathe as we waited. Would they accuse us of being criminals? Hand us over to the Nirzks? Or would they look at our lack of response to the attack, and believe our story?

It wasn’t exactly an untruth.

Finally, the official answered. “We are sending ships to investigate.”

Okay, so they didn’t entirely believe me. But at least they were coming. I closed the communication.

“Can we shoot them now?” Xandros asked.

“No. We must appear helpless,” Zyair answered. He was sounding increasingly weak.

Xandros yelped at another close call. “What?”

“Not much of a stretch against these fighters,” mused Rhodes calmly.

“Okay, Princess Jazmin,” Zyair growled over the comm with a hint of his usual grit. “Let us show them what we can do.”

Suddenly, he was there with me. Not just in my mind, but a part of who I was. His hands were with mine on the controls, and his confidence flooded through me .

The Stardrifter came alive. She ducked and dove, flipped over, banked and swerved. Even sick as he was, Zyair’s talent was breathtaking. He did things with the ship that would have never occurred to me.

My heart, spirit, and soul sang with the power of it.

I’d always longed to fly like this. We pushed the Stardrifter to her limits and beyond, and the Nirzk ships, despite being designed for such maneuvers, couldn’t hope to catch us.

In response, their phasers switched from warning shots to deadly intent.

But he was faltering, I could feel it. His contact pulsed in time with his heart as the orange blips that were the Untrik port authority drew ever closer…

and then they were there. The antics of the Nirzk fighters had clearly confirmed their status to the authority—they formed a protective phalanx around the Stardrifter , and two pursued as the Nirzk fighters sped away.

The Untrik ships surrounded us and escorted us to the port.

“Thank you, port authority,” I said with relief.

“We have medical care available at headquarters,” the voice intoned.

“It won’t be effective,” murmured Yani.

I swallowed my sudden burst of fear. “Thank you for your offer. Our patient requires the specialized care available only on Earth.”

A pause. When the Untrik replied, his confusion was clear. “Since when is there specialized care available on Earth ?”

Most alien races considered Earth a backwater of primitives, despite the Drake occupation. So, I schooled my voice and answered calmly. “A talented healer accustomed to treating this particular condition,” I replied. “If we could be granted priority, it would be helpful.”

They put us at the front of the queue. Forty minutes later, I kicked in the slipstream drive.

As soon as it took hold, I rose and headed for Zyair.