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  To his immense relief, two arms reached out, one blue and one tan, and wrapped around him as well. ‘Samil Cara Maru.’

  It was almost a chant, as though they were one being named Samil Cara Maru. Maybe they were, or could be.

  For the first time since they had transported these two onto the Crusader, Maru thought that it was going to be alright after all. He was even getting a sense from both of his beloveds that they were feeling the same way.

  And then, while they were still celebrating the discovery of the names, Caleb came into the room laughing. ‘Maru, you have an answer from your home triad already. They must have known Cara’s name before we did, which explains how Cara’s parent group knew he had a triad. You have to read this out loud. It’s priceless. I think I’m going to mount it on the wall …’

  “Blessed child, we are so happy that you found both members of your triad! We contacted Cara’s home triad, having their information from the Registry, and they are wonderful people. Cara is also a single child, so we have decided to set up a home together, for all three triads. This will give you much support through the healing and then when the babies start to come. We couldn’t be happier, sweet child. Blessings to all of you. Much love, all your parents.”

  Maru sighed. ‘Did I mention that my beloved home triad may be a little bit controlling? At least they didn’t specify when the babies were to be born, and who was to have them in what order.’

  Caleb was laughing too hard to answer.

  The next several days passed quietly, although Maru wouldn’t let himself be lulled into a sense of false security. His little ones became more comfortable with letting him touch them, and he came to look forward to the nights which he could spend in that big soft bed with them.

  Every night Maru curled up around both of them, protecting them, as he planned on doing always. That lasted until sometime in the middle of the night when he woke up wedged between his two beloveds, and with four hands exploring his body.

  He wasn’t sure what to do, but he didn’t want to scare the two, or have them think that touching was a bad thing, or that’s what he told himself. He purred and rubbed against the soft hands and ran his own hands gently down over the bodies that were so beautifully close to his. This was nothing to do with what he wanted, it was only about making them feel better. All about them.

  He could, he realized, quite easily tell them apart in the dark, mostly because of the soft hair that decorated Samil’s sweet body. They both moaned in pleasure when he touched them, and rubbed against him with increasing urgency. Samil hummed, and Cara purred, which was his other clue. His people purred when they were happy, and Samil had apparently decided on a hum which was really very close to a purr. Clever Samil.

  He didn’t have to ask if this was all right with them, he could feel their happiness through the developing bond. He let them take the lead, letting them touch and stroke him while he purred back at them.

  ‘Sweet ones? Will you nurse on me, please? That would feel so good …’ And it would help them to heal as well, but they had to want to touch him that intimately.

  Cara moved instinctively to nurse, and Samil followed his lead. Maru sighed with relief. Two breasts, two beloveds. There was a reason their bodies were built that way, he thought happily. He’d helped to nurse Tari’s beloveds when they had rescued those ones, and it had felt good, but nothing like this.

  They latched on and suckled and he cried out quietly, arching his chest up into their eager mouths. Cara purred and Samil hummed, and the vibrations shook him to the core. He moaned and rocked back and forth, trying to hold still but not succeeding. They both ran their hands over his body, probing and exploring, as though they wanted to learn every square inch of him.

  He fought down the desire to be selfish and take pleasure only for himself, although everything that brought them pleasure brought it to him in equal amounts anyway. Maybe double amounts. Great amounts of happiness, just from letting them find some pleasure. He moaned more loudly, and they brought their hands up to hang onto him, and their mouths moved up and nuzzled into his throat.

  They both cried out happily as they were filled with love and belonging, and Maru shifted his arms until he was cradling both of them, all three of them wrapped up together now, three soft bodies rubbing against each other trying to be one. They rubbed against him and pushed insistently, and then, in unison as they did everything, the two of them cried out and climaxed over his belly, one in blue froth and the other in odd white streams.

  He felt a brief sense of shame from them, left over from years of being told that they were wrong for being different just because of who they were, but he cut that off with murmurs against their throats, shifting back and forth between them.

  ‘So beautiful, so good, sweet ones. A gift of love …’

  ‘Sweet Maru, part of us …’

  They both slid down his body to lick at his sticky belly, and then further, two mouths at once trying to nurse on his own erection, and he lost track of who was doing what. Their hands worked together, stroking his growing length and teasing at the soft sac that was developing at the base of it, and before he could control himself he too climaxed, adding the third release to the mix.

  To become fully adult in the arms of two such brave and beautiful lovers was everything he could have wished for and more, and he let them feel that satisfaction. His first orgasm, following on Cara’s first – and Samil’s, he was assured. All one.

  ‘You’ve made me complete, loved ones.’

  They crawled back up his body, kissing and licking as they went, and nestled in to either side of him, making happy satisfied noises that blended with his own.

  ‘Samil Cara Maru. All one.’

  ‘All adult now. All one forever.’

  And Samil, who’d had the most doubts, now seemed to be mostly over them. ‘All one. All three are one, aren’t we?’

  And together they all felt safe and loved, and Maru was – almost - able to forget about the troubles that stalked them.

  Chapter 5.

  If there had been a betting pool, and of course there was, the most likely order of giving birth would have been Oki, then Suki, then Caleb, based on the size of their rounded bellies. When Caleb staggered into Maru’s bed chamber holding onto his stomach and sweating profusely, Maru’s first horrified thought was that the Captain and Suki’s beloved human had been poisoned.

  ‘Karo!’ He wasn’t shielding anymore.

  Suki jumped up from the bed where he was playing games with Robin, Cara and Samil, and took his precious human’s weight on his shoulder, crying out in alarm.

  ‘Karo! We need you now! Emergency! Oki!’

  Oki was through the door before Karo was, and everything was chaos for a short time, until Karo made a happier diagnosis.

  ‘Caleb is in labor! The baby is coming!’

  Jevan appeared out of nowhere and handed little Eko over to Maru and his beloveds, who seemed to have become the designated baby-sitters, and when Kaji came through the door holding his own adopted baby, he did the same. As Second Officer, he would be in command while Oki was busy, and his triad lovers would know to find him to take care of their little Kennan.

  Cara hugged Kaji when he took the baby from him, which surprised Maru a little, but he was happy to see that they were relaxing a bit more around people they knew. Probably because of the babies? Jevan kept saying that babies were good for people, and obviously he was right.

  ‘Maru, help us here. You and Kaji are the only ones not bearing, who can take any weight ...’

  He tucked the babies in with some cushions so they wouldn’t fall off the bed, and was pleased when he got a hug from Samil in response. These two were definitely feeling more relaxed.

  By this time Caleb was holding onto the middle of his back and swearing, and together they helped him get through the connecting door and into the Captain’s bed chamber.

  ‘I think he’s close, we’ll have to do it here.’ Karo said, duck
ing when Caleb took a swing at him. ‘Easy, sweet one, don’t hit me. I’m not the one who got you this way.’

  That attempt at humor just got him glares from everyone.

  ‘I’m sorry, I haven’t delivered too many babies from humans. Well, maybe none. The manual said that humor may help the one who is in labor to relax.’

  Maru hoped that was humor as well. Oki looked like he wanted to shoot the Medical Officer.

  ‘Of all the things we got ready for all the babies, we had to end up with a comedian instead of an obstetrician.’ Oki grumbled. ‘Maybe with all the babies still on the way we should be doing something about that.’

  Caleb took another swing and almost hit his beloved Captain, but then doubled over with pain.

  They got him onto the bed, and then they were all very busy for a while, which was Maru’s excuse for not realizing sooner that his back-up weapon was missing from where it had been, tucked into a holster at the back of his pants. And then he realized that he knew exactly where it was.

  ‘Kaji, your weapon …?’

  Kaji looked genuinely shocked. ‘You can’t shoot someone for being in a bad mood when they’re in … Oh … Dammit!’ He checked the back of his waistband, and then was running, following Maru.

  They almost tripped over each other in the doorways, both bolting back through the connecting door, past all the babies who were now barricaded on the floor behind all of the pillows and the folded-over mattress, and into the outer chamber of the joined quarters.

  Lying on the floor, quite dead, were two human beings who they didn’t recognize. One of them was holding a serving tray which partially concealed a weapon, and the other had a weapon lying on the ground just in front of his body.

  Cara and Samil, shaking and holding onto each other, were sheltering behind the table and clutching the two guns that they had lifted from Kaji and Maru.

  Kaji moved to kick the guns away from the two attackers, just in case they weren’t really dead, while Maru dropped to his knees beside his two beloveds and hugged them. This brought a matched pair of cries of pain, and he realized that Samil had a bloody wound on his shoulder, and was bleeding in a strange red color.

  A second cry, from Oki’s quarters, was that of a new-born baby, and Cara and Samil broke into smiles, despite the new injury that they shared the pain of.

  ‘Maru, another baby?’

  ‘Yes, sweet ones, one more baby. A brand new one. Would you like to come and see it?’

  ‘Karo? Can we come and see the new one, just quickly? My beloveds have just had their own excitement here, and we’re all a bit shook up …’

  They all ended up in Oki’s quarters, with everyone trying to explain everything all at once. Fortunately Karo had read the manual on dressing gunshot wounds, so that was easily taken care of, and Kaji called for a clean–up crew to get rid of the two bodies, and the other weapons still concealed under them.

  ‘Well armed, but poorly planned.’

  ‘They didn’t know who they had to deal with’, Maru smiled proudly at his beloveds.

  Caleb seemed to be in a much better mood now that he had a baby at his breast nursing instead of trying – as he said – to claw its way out of his stomach, and he was pleased to let everyone admire the new little one.

  ‘But what was all that commotion about, and how did you two even know that you were going to need guns?’

  ‘We heard, enough, that they thought they would kill all of us in here and take over the ship while we were all distracted. We kept all the babies safe, and our beloved, and our family. We had to.’

  Maru rocked back on his heels and stared at his beloveds. ‘You’re reading minds?’

  ‘No, we’re sorry, we’re not trying to read minds, we can’t do that. We just read very strong emotions, thoughts, maybe intent, maybe because there are two of us to read them together?’ They shrugged in unison.

  Suki stared at them, and then laughed at Maru. ‘You’d better look out when you have little ones of your own. You won’t stand a chance.’

  Maru stared at Cara and Samil, and they smiled back. He wanted to hug them, but was suddenly scared to.

  Oki didn’t have a problem showing them affection in public. He pulled both of them into a big hug, being careful of the freshly dressed wound, and they were careful of his rounded belly.

  ‘You saved my family. Thank you. We would have been dead before those ones found out that there are over a hundred warriors on this ship, and none of them would need orders from me to protect it from the likes of them.’

  Cara and Samil looked at Maru. ‘Good enough, now?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Good enough for you?’

  ‘Am I good enough for you? I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough for you, sweet ones. I’ll keep trying to be better, though.’ The events and what could have happened caught up with him and he swayed on his feet.

  Kaji looked over at Maru, and then cried out in alarm. ‘Look out, he’s going down …’

  Chapter 6.

  Maru woke up on their bed cradled between Cara and Samil. They stroked his head, and one of them said, ‘You fainted. Kaji said you fainted, and we have to keep you in bed until you feel better.’

  ‘I did not faint, and I feel … Come to think of it, I feel a lot better when you two are holding me safe like this. All the babies?’

  ‘Parents came and got them all, except new CalebSukiOki baby, who is with them, and Robin also, of course. Karo said you should have some peace and quiet.’

  ‘Sometimes Karo knows what he is talking about.’

  Both of them wrapped their arms around him and nuzzled into his neck. ‘He said you might need some loving when you wake up.’

  Maru stiffened and pulled away. ‘He told me to be careful, to not even think about, you know, loving, coupling, because of what you’d been through.’

  They had a quiet conversation with each other. ‘Those people, they did many things to us, but one thing they didn’t do. They never loved us. And you mustn’t think our life was always bad. It brought us to be here with you, so it had purpose.’

  Maru longed to touch his beloveds, to the extent that they were comfortable with being touched, but was terrified of hurting them, of going too far and being really stupid.

  ‘So, maybe we could cuddle again?’ he finally asked. ‘That was good, wasn’t it? I thought it was very good. If I let you two take the lead, and we only do what you are ready to do … Where would we start?’

  ‘We long to touch you as well, beloved. Maybe start at the top? With taking the clothes off, and bare skin to touch?’

  Maru managed a laugh. ‘I think I can stand that. Soft blue skin, and soft brown skin, and both my beloveds close beside me. May I rub some of this salve into you now, please? Maybe just to give me a reason to touch you …’

  He rubbed it into Samil, and Samil rubbed it into Cara, and then they traded places and applied it lovingly to necks and shoulders and backs.

  ‘Sweet ones? Is this good?’

  ‘Oh yes, very good, beloved.’

  He loved the sweet herbal smell of it, and thought that all his life he would associate that smell with his two and this moment in time when they finally bonded. Or maybe the moment in time when he finally grew up and trusted himself to love them?

  He bent over and nibbled gently on a soft brown ear lobe. ‘I’ve wanted to do that …’

  Samil hummed happily at him. ‘And I’ve been hoping maybe you would, because I thought it would feel good. Maybe there are other things you could nibble on? Or I could?’

  He nuzzled Maru’s throat, and kissed his way down to one dark blue nipple, latching onto it happily. Cara did the same down the other side, and it was everything that Maru could do to not cry out in happiness.

  ‘Is this all right, beloved?’ Cara asked, laughing.

  ‘Oh yes, better.’ He ran his hands up their ribcages and realized that they were healing and putting on weight already.

  ‘Oh y
es. And Karo said that with the nursing and the loving, we’ll finish healing quickly now. And that more loving, coupling, is possible if we are gentle with you.’

  Maru tried to figure that out. ‘You mean if I am gentle with you?’

  ‘No, if we are gentle with you, so you don’t faint again.’

  Maru choked on a laugh, and then pulled his two beloved heroes into him for a big hug, a happy tangle of arms and legs and bodies of different colors.

  The passion escalated softly, slowly, until all three of them were overwhelmed with need, and he lay back and let them love him at their own pace. They had fewer doubts than he did, and Cara’s own morphing and need had been progressing just as his had. Samil, of course, as an earth human, was already fully developed, and more than happy to play with both of his blue lovers.

  ‘We get to bond now, beloveds?’ Samil asked. ‘How does that work? Sharing seed, sharing blood to seal the bond?’

  Maru purred. ‘It starts with you doing whatever you want to do to me. What we did last time was good. Lots of kissing, lots of touching.’

  He heard Cara laughing, and suspected that Suki had been talking to both of them.

  ‘Babies? We can make a baby?’

  ‘Not yet, sweet ones. Not until you’re healthy enough to bear.’

  ‘But you are.’

  Mar choked again, then realized that Cara was right, and he could be the one to bear their first. Obviously he wasn’t entirely over being stupid yet. And they could go home to Cerulea, and to their collective family groups, and have a reunion there, and his beloveds could get healthy, and he could have their baby, which would be the first of many, if they were lucky. He started to feel dizzy again, and latched his mouth onto the closest nipple to steady himself. The nipple was dark brown, and the milk was rich and sweet, and it was happiness beyond belief. He raised his head to kiss the nearest lips.

  ‘How is it that I got so lucky, to get two clever beloveds? Not to mention brave? Not to mention ….’

  Lips closed over his while they were free, and he didn’t even see what color they were. Another set of lips teased down his stomach and found his erection, and his hips jerked up in response. He tried to remember why this baby thing might be a problem, and writhed happily under the mouths of his beloveds until it came to him. Not that it was a problem at all.