Ecstasy Bound (17 page)

Hand in hand, Briggs and Brianna arrived at the conference room. At their approach, the doors slid open.
No going back now
, Briggs thought. Not that he had intended to disobey military orders and withdraw his participation. But being here again, in the room where they intended to hold the Initiation, lent an inevitability to the situation.

As soon as he and Brianna stepped within the entry, they both stopped abruptly.

“Oh!” Brianna looked around, a sound of awe on her voice.

Sam’s heart rate kicked up a notch. “Wow.” The whole area looked redone. He glanced back toward the corridor, making certain this was the right room. “Did we take a wrong turn?”

“I was wondering the same thing for a second.”

While they stood there like sightseers at a resort, the doors tried to slide closed behind them but hit Brianna in the butt and bounced against her. “Damn it!” she yelped.

Sam chuckled and automatically reached his arm around her waist in a steadying and protective gesture. “What? You don’t enjoy a little smack on the ass?” he whispered in her ear. He’d barely missed getting caught himself.

She punched a button on the wall, which caused the doors to fully reopen and apparently locked them in the open position. “Only if you would do it.”

His heart skipped a beat. “I’ll remind you of that later.”

She smiled sexily at him. “I look forward to it.” She leaned into his side. “Isn’t this incredible?”

His attention returned to the room. “Definitely.”

The lighting in particular, subdued and romantic, had transformed the atmosphere of the once sterile-looking room into something very easy on the eyes. The floor was covered with colored blankets and sheets and mats and pillows. Probably three times the amount they had before, when they’d first set things up in here. Colored sheets even hung from the ceiling.

The room looked almost like a harem. No longer did he see any medical equipment or tables, which were now probably obscured by the hanging blue and pale yellow drapery.

He couldn’t imagine where everything had come from. Probably medical. He knew of a supply area in there toward the rear of the room. He remembered seeing it on one of his nightly explorations. He’d never gotten the opportunity to look inside though.

“I feel a woman’s touch in the room,” Brianna said. “Leila must have redecorated for us.”

“I can certainly live with this.” A delicate scent of something that he couldn’t identify but enjoyed even wafted through the air.

They stepped farther into the room to look around more closely. The mirror along one wall made the area look twice as big and actually played well with one’s senses, giving the room a fantasy-like look and feel. Leila, if she were indeed the one responsible, had known what she was doing.

Sam suddenly wondered if Leila might help initiate him. She was Erik’s mate, a possessive man, if he’d read the Warrior correctly. Leila was a doctor, or rather Healer, as they were called on Xylon. A logical choice. She was certainly beautiful. Not anything like Brianna, of course, but a woman who could definitely turn a man’s head.

Speaking of whom… From the corner of his eye, Sam noticed Leila step inside the room and he turned in her direction. Laszlo followed close behind. The two came over to him and Brianna.

“I hope you approve,” Leila said with a smile.

At the sound of her voice, Brianna turned. “Oh yes. It’s beautiful, Leila. Thank you for doing all this.”

“Colonel Briggs?” she asked.

“It’s very nice. Your attention to detail is appreciated.”

He had to respect Laszlo and Leila for their consideration. This Initiation was a military duty. The Xylons could have simply performed it in the medical lab, or in this room as it originally was, and left it at that.

“We will need three for the Initiation,” Leila said, blurting the words awkwardly and changing the relaxed mood in the room to something more intense. An uncomfortable expression crossed her face and she twisted her fingers. “So, um, Brianna will lead as planned. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Brianna answered.

Sam nodded, wondering at Leila’s discomfort. Perhaps she actually had been chosen to be involved in the rite but didn’t want to be. He certainly didn’t want to have sex with any woman who felt forced into it.

Or maybe she simply wondered if he wanted her to be one of the three involved. Or wondered how her mate would react. Or wondered how Brianna would react. They hadn’t exactly kept their growing relationship a secret. Or maybe her discomfort stemmed from something different entirely.

A woman’s thoughts were usually a puzzle to him. Xylon women weren’t any different in that respect, he’d quickly learned. He expected her to say something further that might reveal her feelings about the situation but Laszlo spoke instead.

“We do have a problem.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked, his attention switching immediately to the man. He felt a surge of tension in the room. If Leila
and
Laszlo looked uncomfortable, something serious was definitely up.

“All the women here are Branded and you’re not a Warrior,” he said.

Brianna groaned. “Oh goodness. That’s right.”

“Meaning what?” Sam asked.

He’d noticed the marks on the back of each mated woman’s neck and Brianna had explained the significance of a Brand in general but hadn’t gone into detail. For an advanced civilization, he’d thought the concept of branding women more than a bit archaic, though he hadn’t expressed that feeling aloud.

“A Branded woman cannot engage in sex with a non-Warrior,” Laszlo explained.

“The Brand, in part, was originally intended to protect our females from the Egesa, but in theory, any sexual contact by an alien will trigger a release of poison into your system as long as you have sweat glands. Without the ability to self-heal at a rapid rate, the poison could be deadly. Definitely deadly for the Egesa, regardless. Even a Xylon male who is not a Warrior would be at risk, depending on his chemical makeup and levels of protection.”

“I don’t have the necessary equipment down here to test if you’ll be susceptible to the poison,” Leila added. “It would be too dangerous to take the chance.”

Brianna let out a heavy breath and her eyes held a tentative look. “So, I guess that means—”

“Yes,” Laszlo answered before she finished. “Not generally a problem for most Xylons but possibly a problem for the Colonel.”

“Excuse me,” Sam interrupted, wondering why they believed their Branded women were an issue when another option existed. “What about the other female? The unmated one? Josella.”

Laszlo shook his head. “She has no Xylon blood. We have no way of knowing how these altered chemicals will affect her.”

“Wait. You said the tests on females were simple to conduct to find out if they’d have complications or not,” Brianna offered.

“On full-blooded human females,” Laszlo responded. “And that was with the regular Initiation chemicals. These are different. They will react differently from what we’re used to in the systems of all involved. A full-blooded Xylon won’t consciously notice the differences. Josella could be affected severely. Even after Briggs goes through the rite, the protections and breeding preparations for him won’t be exactly the same as a Xylon Warrior because of the differences in the chemicals. But from the preliminary tests we’ve run, it should be sufficient for what we need.”

“We can try testing Josella,” Leila offered. “We do have the equipment to examine those results. I just don’t have what I need to test poisons. Since Josella doesn’t have mixed blood, the results shouldn’t take that long to ascertain. We might get lucky.”

After a tense moment in silent thought, Laszlo’s furrowed brow eased. “Fine.” He waved in a dismissive manner. “If you want to do the tests, see to it quickly while I finalize the other details. But if it takes too long or if the results are inconclusive, we’ll have to use an alternate. We do have a time factor to consider.”

As Leila rushed from the room, Laszlo paced, a look of concentration marring his face. Finally he came to a stop in front of them. “Even if Josella can attend, we still need a third.”

“Initiations have been done many times with two.” Confidence laced Brianna’s voice. “We can proceed the same.”

“With so many unknowns, it would be risky. We need a backup to make certain we’re covered. Or in case this doesn’t work with Josella. At least one, preferably two of the male Warriors will need to volunteer.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Briggs took a step backward. “The men? I do not swing that way. At all.”

“Swing?” Brianna questioned.

“It’s an Earth term, I believe,” Laszlo explained. “They are very repressed sexually, for the most part, especially the males.”

“Hey, I’m not repressed. I will fuck any woman you choose. Any way you choose.”

Brianna cocked an eyebrow at him.

He cleared is throat and did his best to avoid her suddenly pointed stare. He needed to stay focused. “I don’t fuck men and no man is fucking me.”

“Any male Warrior would only engage in an emergency.”

“It’s not happening.” He glared at Laszlo for what felt like an eternity. Laszlo returned the glare full force. When it became apparent neither of them was going to back down, Briggs knew this was an issue best solved in private—man to man.

“Brianna, could you give Laszlo and me a moment alone?” he asked, finally meeting her gaze. He couldn’t imagine her thoughts right now.

A surprised look crossed her face at his request but then she simply said, “Of course.” She looked to Laszlo and when he nodded, she left the room.

Briggs waited until he felt assured no one was around, then he turned toward Laszlo. “I’m not taking some Warrior’s dick up the ass. I don’t care what I agreed to or what my duty is.”

The fierce look on Laszlo’s face slowly faded and he actually chuckled. “You Earth people do amuse me. You will not be forced to do that. There are other ways.”

“I’m not interested in any way with a male Warrior.”

“If Josella agrees and is physically able to handle the chemicals, the ladies should be able to satisfy you sufficiently. The male Warrior, if only one is needed, will be here to help out mostly with the needs of the women, so do not stress so much.”

Should? Mostly?
Sam didn’t like the sound of those words. He didn’t like the sound of the whole thing. In more ways than one.

There was no way he would stand by and watch another man fuck his woman.

He paused in his thoughts.
His woman?
Well, hell. He supposed that’s exactly how he had come to think of Brianna, whether he had the right or not. This was going to get very complicated, very quickly. But there was no point in denying his feelings any longer. Not to himself anyway.

Worry hung over him like the threat of a pending storm. He tried to stay calm and think all this through. Could he basically sacrifice his soul if he had to, if none of the women besides Brianna could participate in the rite?

If some male tried to touch him sexually, he knew he’d punch the guy in the face.

He wouldn’t be able to stop himself.

“You will need to take a dildo up the ass—to use your words,” Laszlo continued.

“Brianna can do it. It is the only way to protect you internally so it must remain part of the rite.”

“I’m not happy about that either.” Though, if given a choice, he’d rather take the dildo than a cock. He remembered Brianna wanting to use a dildo on him in the Lair.

She’d never gotten the chance.

“Get over it, Colonel. This Initiation will be a transitional rite to create what we will need for the rest of your military. We have to follow certain steps for this to work.”

Sam pulled at the neck of his uniform. The air seemed thin to him. Must be the tension. Or maybe the strange scent was affecting him. “And what if this doesn’t work?”

Laszlo’s eyes burned into his. “Life as you know it on Earth will be destroyed.

Forever.”

* * * * *

On his way back down to the sublevel from one of the relief rooms, Braden ran into Erik. “Hey, what’s up?”

“I’m done with the transport-connector and the vid-comm.”

“Already?” Before he’d returned to working on the orbiters, he’d filled Erik in on what had happened with Halah and Kam and also about the possible power drain. He hadn’t asked about the progress of the transport-connector at the time, thinking the programming would take a lot longer.

“It wasn’t that difficult once I got going, since the TC was already set up for multiple transport. That part only had to be tweaked a bit. The computer had the coordinates I needed for the settings. And programming a pulse relay was pretty easy.”

He handed Braden the vid-comm. “Do you want me to explain to Alexa the plan and how to use the device?”

“We’ll both do that. Since you’re done with this project now, after we speak with Alexa, I’m going to head to medical and check the computer network’s security files for evidence of the traitor. You and Pitch can continue securing the ships and finish the programming. You know the coding as well as I do.” After thinking over Torque’s words and now finding that Erik had finished with the transport-connector and the vid-comm, he’d decided the change was a good idea.