Kaji's Challenge Read online

  ‘Do you wish these to sleep in? However you are most comfortable ...’

  Deka chose to sleep naked, as most of their people did, but the human took the robe with relief. He turned his back to change into it, and Kaji couldn’t suppress his cry when he saw the network of scars across the human’s thin back.

  ‘Beloved, they did this to you? Gods, we should bomb that planet ...’

  The human looked uncomfortable, and hid his face. ‘I would not do ... what they wanted me to do, so they punished me. I’m sorry, it’s ugly ...’

  ‘No, beautiful. Marks of courage, my beloved.’

  ‘He protected us,’ said Deka quietly. ‘He took many blows meant for us.’

  Kaji risked getting close enough to the human to put an arm around him and kiss him lightly on top of his head. He had to fight back an impulse to do more, and settled for guiding both of his beloveds to the bed. The two of them, so newly freed, lay down, hanging onto each other, and he gently pushed both of them over to make room, and wrapped himself around them.

  ‘It’s all good, my beloveds. Sleep. Dream of love.’

  The human didn’t dream of love. Kaji woke up in the middle of the night with the human screaming and hitting out at him, seemingly fighting for his life.

  ‘Kaji?!’

  ‘It’s alright Deka, I think he’s having nightmares, bad dreams. Just dreams.’

  Partly to comfort the scared one, partly to quiet him so he didn’t frighten Deka any further, Kaji cradled the human and brought his mouth to his breast, hoping that he would nurse. At first he felt only fear and pain from his beloved, but as he stroked the human’s scarred back and ran his fingers through his silky hair the emotions he was feeling shifted. The human licked at the offered nipple and then as it puckered to his touch he latched on and sucked fitfully. Kaji arched his chest towards his beloved’s touch, delighting in being able to offer this for the first time.

  The human still moved restlessly, and made unhappy noises against Kaji’s nipple, so Kaji moved his soothing hand further down, and found a sweet and fully developed penis in a nest of the same soft hair as was on his darling’s head. It was already erect, and stiffened more under his touch, to his delight. His beloved recognized his touch, even in the terror of his nightmares. Kaji felt Deka curling in behind their human, holding him secure between them, stroking his back and keeping him safe.

  ‘Beloved.’

  ‘Yes, our beloved. He took care of us for so long, now we take care of him.’

  Holding the human to his breast with one hand, he used the other to explore between his darling’s legs, stroking the erection and the soft sac beneath that, so much like Kaji’s own. He fondled the balls in that sac, exploring, then stroked back up the hard length, pulling gently at the soft skin sheathing the hard flesh.

  His sweet human pushed into his hand, and sucked harder at his nipple, and the human’s hands came up around his neck and held on tightly. Gods, that felt good. Clever human. He gripped the swollen head of that beautiful erection, and longed for the day when he would take it in his mouth, or have it right inside his own body … He clenched in desire, and felt that need beginning in Deka as well.

  His long agile fingers worked around the rim of the head, and he stroked through the liquid beads forming at the tip. Soon, he would be able to lick those off, taste his beloved. He felt Deka in his mind, that one rejoicing in the echo of the sweet touch and in hope for the future.

  He stroked the shaft harder, and felt it begin to pulse, and then their beloved human shot streams of strange white seed over his hand, crying out against his breast as he did.

  ‘Kaji? Deka? My … beloveds?’

  ‘Yes, beloved, we are here. We’re all together now, and you’re safe.’

  ‘Gods, I hope it lasts, that whatever is between us lasts.’

  Kaji thought that was a strange wish. ‘It will last forever, sweet one. We bond forever.’

  He licked some of the white seed off of his hand, and then offered it to Deka to finish, both relishing the uniquely salty flavour of their beloved.

  ‘You don’t even know who I am.’

  ‘We don’t know your name, but we know who you are. You are our beloved.’

  They curled up to sleep again, wrapped around each other, and this time there were no bad dreams.

  Chapter 8.

  The bathing pools would be soothing for all of them as well as a good place to introduce his beloved human to the physical stages of morphing, Kaji decided, so the next morning they bundled Kennan up and went off to get clean and to relax. The pools weren’t as large as they were back on their planet, of course, but there was still room to stretch out and roll around in the water, and the warm waters would help their darling’s scars to soften and heal. He had already asked Karo for some salve that would help heal the scars. The outer ones, at least.

  Crew members in all stages of development were there, from physically mature but still androgynous warriors like the giant Atu, to Jevan, small in stature but sexually mature and fully hermaphroditic. Kaji found it amusing that his human was trying not to look as others’ genitals, as though there was something unnatural about having them, or not having them, depending on the stage of morphing. Those that joined them in the pools were not shy about looking at the human’s fully developed genitals, and the unusual light colored hair that he had on his head and elsewhere. Bodies were all good and normal – after all, everyone had one.

  Kaji’s own genitals were developing quickly now, and he was pleased to see that Deka’s were not too far behind. His beloved had been able to offer nursing to Kennan last night, and already he had a small penis, which would grow rapidly, the more so as they played and touched each other. And as the warm water of the pools swirled around them, they played happily.

  Kaji let their human watch and decide for himself if he wanted to join in or not. Choice was important for that one, he knew.

  Kaji and Deka rolled around together, rubbing their bodies together and exploring each other’s mouths with agile tongues, hands pulling each other closer, long fingers seeking for eager holes.

  ‘Gods, so good, beloved.’

  Kaji flipped Deka over onto his back and found his growing penis with his mouth, sucking on it as though he was nursing. Deka cried out and thrust up into his mouth, laughing, grasping at his head to hold him closer. His beloved, laughing! They both moaned as Deka’s erection grew, and Deka writhed under Kaji, demanding more.

  ‘Beloved, yes …’

  Kaji caressed Deka’s dark sac, and explored into his hole with long agile fingers, and Deka lost control, jerking and releasing a blue froth of seed into Kaji’s eager mouth, celebrating his first climax.

  ‘Gods, yes, now you, it just gets better …’

  Kaji rolled into shallow water, opening himself up for Deka, but the mouth that came down over his hard length was not Deka’s, it was their human’s. Their clever human licked and sucked and pulled with his mouth, all the while teasing Kaji’s sac with one hand and stroking down Kaji’s crease towards his aching hole with the other. Kaji couldn’t even think anymore, he could only thrash around in the water and cry out in pleasure.

  His cries were shut off by Deka’s hungry mouth, and he sucked that one’s tongue in just as his other beloved sucked in his cock. He shuddered and climaxed into the human’s mouth, overwhelmed by the joy of his first orgasm. In the aftermath of so much happiness, there wasn’t too much to say. The three of them floated quietly, wrapped in each other’s arms, nuzzling and kissing whatever parts of each other that they could reach.

  ‘Gods. There may be something to this bonding after all.’

  Kaji laughed. ‘Indeed! It just keeps getting better, sweet one. The bond just keeps growing, strengthening. We’ll practice …’

  There was some small quiet laughter from the end of the shallow pool where Jevan and Suki were minding all their babies. Kennan, having opinions? The little one was not fully bonded to all the triad yet,
but still connected to them through a formal bond with Kaji.

  Tad appeared, without the flute this time, but looking excited.

  ‘We’ve found some old recordings of whale songs, the songs of ocean mammals from the humans’ earth, and they might be the right frequency. May we play them to you, in the water?’

  ‘They won’t hurt?’ Kaji pulled both his beloveds into him protectively.

  ‘No, these sounds are very soothing, even for the babies. This has been known since the beginning of time.’

  Kaji settled down into the water with Deka and their human on either side of him, and waited. The sounds that reverberated through the pool were eerie, the deep slow songs of some huge underwater mammals, and they echoed through his whole body. He sank down even further, and let them wash over him, and felt his beloveds doing the same.

  He felt the joy in Deka, and then something else from the human, some release, and then his human was wrapped around his neck crying.

  ‘Oh my gods, I can’t believe this, it is … ‘ And then he cried some more, happy crying, and then not-so-happy crying.

  Kaji was vaguely aware of the babies squealing in delight and splashing around, but his human took up all his attention right then.

  ‘Beloved?’

  ‘Our ship was shot down, so many died, others dragged off into slavery and any that were injured were just killed. The old one found me where I had crawled off, and saved my life, but then later we were caught and made slaves as well …’ He sobbed against Kaji’s neck.

  Deka helped Kaji sooth their human, and waited until he had time to deal with the memories.

  ‘We need to talk to Oki, beloved. We erred in only freeing the blue slaves, there must be many more there.’

  Kaji’s human, who said his name was Adam, and the old one, whose name was Ivan, had a quiet meeting with the Captain, and then were put through on a direct link to the Council. The Interplanetary Council had already been investigating, it turned out, because there had been too many ships going missing near that planet. The testimony from the two humans gave them the additional proof they needed to take action.

  The earth humans, whose ships had been frequent victims of the attacks, were already preparing what they called a task force, which sounded like a full scale invasion to Kaji, and they would do whatever needed to be done. The humans said they were grateful to the crew of the Crusader for the information, and asked only that the Crusader not do anything to alert anyone on the planet. They would find their own people and any other slaves, take responsibility for all of them, and take care of them. And, in a different way, take care of those who had killed or enslaved the citizens of other worlds.

  Kaji looked at his beloved, and felt something in himself tying into a knot. ‘Beloved? Do you want to go back to your own people?’

  Adam stared back at him. ‘Do you want me to go back? Was that your version of forever?’

  There was a long tense moment, and then Deka laughed at both of them. ‘You are both silly. We are one, and we all go together, wherever we go.’

  ‘My name is Adam, and I am part of a triad with Kaji and Deka, and we are the parents of Kennan. That is who I am. And I think there is something about bonding that we need to do?’

  Chapter 9.

  Kennan went to stay overnight with Suki’s triad and their baby, and then the three of them were alone in their quarters staring at each other.

  ‘Where do we start? What do we do?’, Deka asked, bemusedly. ‘I’ve been a slave so much of my life, I’ve have only just got my self back.’

  Adam looked embarrassed. ‘What I know of loving is from long ago and far away, and I don’t think it‘ll be of any use here.’

  Kaji stared at them, and wished he had guidelines to go on now. Act assured? Pretend you know what you are doing? That advice seemed from so long ago. But this was not acting, or playing games, except the very best kind, and this was forever.

  ‘Deka and I are both newly morphed, sweet Adam, as are all of our people who come into bonding. I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to proceed. Maybe with holding onto each other, and giving thanks than we are here together?’

  Holding onto each other was easy, and mouths started nuzzling and kissing at necks, and hands stroked everywhere they could reach. Suddenly close wasn’t close enough, and eager hands were pulling tunics off, and then Adam pushed the other two backwards onto the big bed, and it turned out that their bodies knew what to do after all.

  Deka nursed tentatively at Kaji’s breast, and then with more enthusiasm as Kaji cried out in pleasure. The nursing gave Kaji an erection, as nursing always did within a bond, and Deka’s hand went down to caress that, so Adam offered Kaji a breast, and his cry was one of astonishment.

  ‘Gods, so good!’

  It became a tangle of hands and mouths exploring everyone everywhere, and constant redundant enquiries.

  ‘And this, sweet lover? How does this feel?’

  Cries and moans and sobs filled the room, and an occasional startled gasp.

  ‘You do not lubricate, sweet one?’

  ‘Um, no. Your people do, I’m told. And my people do not have barbs on our penises, so maybe careful using those, please?’

  ‘Suki said to use our tongues to lubricate him, since our long tongues will do just that. And our Adam should have a special gland, a sweet spot inside of him right about … ahh, there.’

  Adam gasped and couldn’t talk for a while after that, but Kaji continued to try to bring him and Deka every bit as much pleasure as possible. That, it turned out, was the answer they had been looking for. Just try and bring your lovers as much pleasure as you can, in as many ways as you can.

  When the passion overwhelmed them and they all needed completion, Kaji hesitated again. Nestled between Adam’s legs, the human’s knees up ready for him, Kaji kissed him and teased at his tight hole one more time with his fingers.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you, sweet one.’

  Deka laughed and pushed at Kaji from behind, urging him on. ‘He is ready, beloved, can you not feel that? Can you feel his need, and mine? You will not hurt him …’

  Kaji played with his thick blue length at the entrance to Adam’s tight hole, and felt Adam gasp and open his legs even more, welcoming him. He braced himself and pushed through a tight ring, and then sank into the warm channel of his triad lover, crying out at the sensations, hearing Adam crying out under him. He looked down into Adam’s sweet face, the soft brown eyes that had seen too much pain, and all he saw was love.

  ‘Beloved!’

  He began driving in harder and deeper, remembering not to release his barbs, but feeling his sweet one clenching around him in a way that must be every bit as good, and held him just as close.

  Behind him, he felt Deka moving into place between his legs, and teasing at his leaking hole.

  ‘Gods, yes, now!’

  Deka shifted and brought his hands to Kaji’s waist, and then thrust into Kaji with all his strength. Kaji cried out in joy, and Adam gasped and cried as well when the motion drove Kaji further into him.

  Deka set the pace, pounding into a beloved he had never thought to have, each thrust pushing Kaji into Adam, and Adam rocking back and forth crying out in joy. Deka released his barbs and shot his seed deep into Kaji, pulsing over and over until he was empty. Kaji screamed in joy and exultation, and nearly released his own barbs but remembered in time. He climaxed, shooting his seed deep into his human lover, filling them all with hope for the future.

  He felt Adam reaching for his own throbbing erection, needing to bring himself to release, but Kaji stopped him.

  ‘Patience,’ he gasped, ‘patience, sweet one. Now it’s your turn.’

  He pulled Adam upright, as Deka knelt on his hands and knees in front of the human, more than ready to be mounted by their beloved one. Adam, lost in a fog of need and desire, didn’t need any more urging than that, and sank his length into Deka’s eager hole. He pulled Deka back up against his che
st and sucked and bit at his neck as he thrust into him, and Kaji wrapped himself around both of them and pulled them ever closer together, driving Adam deeper and deeper into Deka.

  Deka cried out in joy, and then all of them gasped as the full strength of the bond hit them, locking them all together as one for all time.

  ‘Gods! The bond …’ Deka was crying in joy and happiness and relief, pushing back against Adam.

  ‘Yes, the bond, beloveds!’

  ‘Gods, whatever this is, yes, yes …’ and then Adam climaxed, filling Deka’s warm channel, thrusting against him repeatedly until he was empty, then collapsing over him.

  ‘The bond, now we seal the bond.’ Kaji bit gently into Adam’s neck and then Deka’s, and offered his throat to Deka.

  ‘We must each share a drop of blood with each of the others, to formalize the bond …’

  ‘Beloved!’

  ‘Beloved!’

  ‘Beloved!’

  It was done, and the small wounds were sealed with gentle tongues. They all fell into a breathless sweaty pile of loving beings, all one now and forever

  Adam hummed happily as the other two purred. ‘It doesn’t get any better than this, does it?’

  ‘Oh yes, it does, sweet one. It just keeps getting better.’

  Chapter 10.

  The jacket was not so silly this time, and it fit much more comfortably. There were no strangling neck ties, and there were a few – discreet – places to conceal weapons. One never knew.

  Kaji stood with his beloveds at either side of him, as would be correct on his home planet, and Adam held their adopted baby, as Deka was far along in bearing. Four beings, three species, one family. He let the peace wash over him as the President of the Human Earth stepped forward and bowed to him. He bowed back, and then they shook hands in the manner of the humans.