by Dixon, Ruby
That makes my mood sour. As if I care what others think. But I nod, then slowly walk my way to the front of the hut. It is not worth arguing about, not when there is plenty of night left and D’vi is here with me, being my friend.
We walk down toward the water, each step taking an eternity. I do not use the spear this time, though I do have to hold onto her shoulder once or twice to get my balance. But I walk, and it is…nice. My muscles ache pleasantly, and I am covered in a fine sheen of sweat, but it gets better with every step, just as I told her.
I feel as if my life is starting over again. This time, when I look out on the icy shore, I do not see hopelessness. I see future hunts, and friends gathered around the fire. I see myself walking down the beach simply because I can, and perhaps a mate at my side. I see…B’shit?
That part does not fit, though.
It reminds me that S’bren is trying to claim D’vi and I look over at her, frowning. “Why were you so happy to see S’bren earlier?”
Her mouth purses into a circle, and then she snaps it shut again. “Oh,” she says eventually. “Did you notice that?”
“Everyone noticed,” I grumble.
“He found a fossilized vertebrae,” she tells me in a rush of excited words. “He’s going to take me to see them in a cave tomorrow, first thing.”
That does not sound like S’bren. He is a late sleeper, as R’jaal has complained many times. I scowl. “He wants to get you away from the others so he can mouth-mate with you.”
“He what?”
“You know what I mean. Kissing. He wants to claim you as his.” My jaw clenches. D’vi can do as she likes, but…she deserves better. “He likely does not remember where he got that bone. He just wants to be alone with you. You should not go with him.”
She hesitates, hugging her cloak to her chest. “Is he…bad?”
“Bad?”
“Like, bad news? Is he going to get weird on me like A’tam got on Bridget?”
“Are you going to pleasure-mate with him?” I ask, shocked.
“What? No!” She sputters. “Where did that come from?”
“What do you think he wants from you?”
D’vi pauses, and she looks utterly crushed. “You don’t think he’ll show me where the fossils are?”
I do not realize until this moment how badly she wants the fossils and not S’bren. Immediately, I feel like a fool. “I am just filling your head with worry. Apologies, D’vi. I am sure it is nothing.”
She bites her lip and studies my leg as I shift my weight, trying to adjust my false leg before it sinks too far into the sand. “Why did you ask me to help you instead of Mardok? Farli’s mate? You know he has prosthetics too?”
“He does?” I did not know this. I think of him, his darker blue skin patterned with strange, dark graphics. “Where?”
“Parts of his skin are slightly different in color. You can see it close up. He probably could have helped you more than I can.” She bites her lip again, looking uncertain. “I just study dinosaurs.”
I reach out and touch her shoulder. For all that she is taller than a lot of the other human females, there is a slenderness to her frame that makes her seem delicate. “I asked you because you are clever and can keep a secret. I was not ready to share myself with M’dok, because I knew he would share it with his mate.”
“Ah. Farli’s nice, though. And I bet if you asked he wouldn’t say anything…but I’m glad you trusted me. And I’m glad I could help. You’re doing amazing.” She gives me a sweet smile. “It’s Bridget, isn’t it?”
I do not pretend to misunderstand her. She asks who it is I think I will resonate to. “I think it is B’shit, yes…though I feel nothing for her yet,” I admit. “My khui is silent and in my eyes she is just another female, but perhaps there is something there.”
“She likes you,” D’vi offers. “She was all over you by the fire. Kept touching your knee like she wanted to climb onto it.”
Her tone is so sour that I laugh. “That is bad?”
“Not for you. She’s pretty.”
“She is attractive enough,” I agree, but are all the females not attractive in some way? Even H’nah, who I find irksome, is soft and pretty. “But I do not know her.”
Strange that I feel as if I know D’vi, even though we have spent little time together. But D’vi’s passions shine in her eyes. She is clear about what she likes, whereas I feel B’shit plays games and hides her truths.
“I’m supposed to help you understand human women, right?” D’vi says after a moment. “I have a hint for you.”
“I am listening.”
“Learn to say her name correctly.” When I look over at her in surprise, D’vi nods. “When you guys call her Bree-shit or B’shit, it hurts her feelings. Shit is…a word that means fecal matter back on earth. You use it as an insult.”
“Her name is hard to say.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s not worth learning,” she says gently. “Growing up, I always hated when people made fun of my last name.”
“Last name? You have more than one name?”
“All humans do.” She chuckles. “My first name is Devi, but my last name is Balasubramanian. Some Indian families have long names and people tend to make fun of that. I’ve been called Devi Abracadabra, Devi Alphabet, or they just start making words up. It really meant a lot to me when people learned my name and I didn’t have to correct them.”
“I will remember such things,” I tell her. “Can you help me?”
“Of course. Bridget’s name is two syllables—”
“No,” I say, interrupting. “I wish to learn to say your name first.”
“Oh.” She ducks her head and then gives me a brilliant smile. “That’s sweet of you. Can you say Dev-ee instead of D’vi?”
“Of course I can.”
“Then why don’t you?” She looks puzzled.
“Because it is your name. Names are always small and tight with my people.” I shrug. “It is how it is. When there is a hunt, I do not want to call out a long name that takes many breaths to speak when I need to tell someone to move quickly.”
“Good point.”
“Now tell me the rest of your name again, slowly, Dev-ee.”
She pronounces them slowly, taking the time to go over each pause with me. Bah-lah-soo-brah-man-ee-an. It is very long, but I repeat the sounds to myself over and over so I memorize them. If human females like for their names to be correct, then I want to learn hers.
“And what of gifts, Dev-ee? Devi?” I try to say her name like she does, and when her eyes shine with pleasure, I feel as if I have slain the fiercest kaari in her name. I grin back…and my cock stiffens.
“What about gifts?” she asks, curious.
“Do humans want them?” I try to think of ways a hunter could impress a female and I have noticed M’tok trying to give C’lie many things, but she turns them away.
“Gifts? I guess? Sometimes?” She shrugs. “I think they’re reserved mostly for holidays and special occasions, like birthdays.”
It seems odd to give a courting gift when a female is giving birth to your kit, but perhaps this is another peculiar human custom that will make sense over time. “So I should not shower a female with fresh meat and furs to show my prowess?” Not that I am capable of hunting right now, but perhaps in the future if resonance is slow to come. If I do not resonate, perhaps I will take a female like Devi to my furs.
I like that thought. A lot.
“A bunch of raw meat? Probably a bad call,” Devi says with a smile. “Is that how you court on the island?”
“No, we resonate. I am told humans require more than just resonance, though.” I think of H’nah and how she has ignored J’shel. Perhaps he should have given her gifts.
“What if there’s no resonance?” she asks, her bright eyes curious.
She asks of pleasure-mates? My cock grows even harder and I fight the urge to bury my face in her soft mane. She stands close enough t
hat I could pull her into my arms, and my fingers itch to touch her. “A pleasure-mating? Do you mean how do I show a female that I can bring her pleasure?”
“I guess?” She looks delightfully confused, her brows furrowing.
“I show her, of course.”
“Oh.” She considers this. “I guess humans are a little more difficult. You can’t just walk up to a girl and start touching her. We need to get to know each other before moving onto even something as simple as kissing.” Devi smiles. “Might get awkward otherwise.”
“But kissing is important?”
“Absolutely. I think it’s a staple of any kind of courting. If a man’s not a good kisser, you don’t want him…or so I hear.” She fiddles with her cloak nervously. “I am admittedly not an expert.”
“Humans find it pleasurable to press their faces together?” I push her for more details, because if a human expects this, I should know how to do it right.
She chuckles. “It’s more than just pressing faces together, N’dek.”
My body reacts the moment she says my name. I bite back a groan, wanting to hear it again. I look down at her and her long mane flutters in the breeze. She is lovely, I realize, and right now, I want to touch her more than anything.
So I do.
I reach down and touch her chin, tilting her head up to meet my gaze. “Will you show me how it goes?”
Devi looks flustered. “To kiss? I’m not sure I’m the best person for that.”
“But you are the one helping me,” I murmur. “So you are the one I must kiss.”
“Oh.” Her gaze focuses on my mouth. “I…guess I can’t argue with that logic.” She does not pull away, and when I rub my thumb along her soft skin, her breath hitches. “Okay, let’s do this.”
Her smell is lovely, both of the sea and of human female. Her slight form fits perfectly against my body, and I want to touch her everywhere…but she just explained that humans do not wish to be grabbed right away. “Where do I put my hands?”
“For a kiss?” Her voice is dazed as I skim my fingertips along her jaw.
“It is important?”
“I…I don’t know. I haven’t kissed many people.”
She looks so soft-eyed and distracted that it makes me want to lick her all over. I bite back a groan. I know she is trying to convince me that I should practice this “kissing” with someone else, but there is no one I want to put my mouth on but Devi. “You know how it is done, yes?” I rub my knuckles lightly against her skin, shifting my color to match hers in the moonlight. It is a small thing, but it makes me feel closer to her. Like we are together.
Like she is my pleasure-mate, mine to drag into the furs and taste all over, mine to caress, mine to hold.
I like that thought far too much. I try to imagine B’shit and her face, but all I can see is Devi and her bright, curious eyes. Devi and her smile and her long, soft mane. Devi and her graceful body pressed against mine.
“I do know how it’s done,” she breathes, her gaze flicking to my mouth again as I slide an arm around her waist and pull her closer. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve had a lot of chances for practical application. Very few, actually. I—”
“Then you should practice as well,” I murmur, and lightly press my mouth to hers before she can continue using her complicated human words as a shield.
She moans, the sound the most erotic thing I have ever heard. Her hands move to my chest and flutter against my stomach as if she wants to touch me but is afraid to. She does not move from my grip, though. She looks up at me with those curious eyes and waits, lips parted.
So I kiss her again. I know I should ask if I did it correctly, or how I can improve, but all I want to do is put my mouth on hers once more and get her to moan again. I need to hear that sound again. Need it. Need to taste her again. I tuck her close to me even as I put a thumb on her chin, tilting her head so our mouths meet perfectly for the second kiss. My lips play against hers, brushing lightly, and I stay there, just breathing in her scent and enjoying the caress of her soft, full lips against my mouth.
Her tongue brushes against the seam of my lips.
I jerk back, surprised.
“Oh,” she blurts, flustered at my response. Her hand goes to her hair, raking it back nervously. “I’m sorry. I just thought we were doing that.”
“I want to,” I say quickly. “Humans use tongues?”
She looks flustered, her face shadowed in the moonlight. “I mean…yes? That’s what a kiss is. It’s more than just lips. It’s everything. I—”
“Everything,” I murmur, and put my mouth to hers again before she can stall. I like the thought of everything. I like the thought of putting my tongue into her mouth. It is like I am tasting her in order to share pleasure, which is strange but excites me. I do not know how to go about this, though, so I slick my tongue against the seam of her mouth, and when she parts her lips, I go deep.
Licking her mouth is…exquisite. She is hot and wet, and her smooth, sleek tongue brushes against mine, as if we are playing. Devi makes little moans in her throat, her body sagging against mine, her hands moving to my waist and gripping me as if she has lost all ability to stand upright. I stroke my tongue into her mouth again, lost in the sensation and as I do, my cock throbs in response.
No wonder humans like doing this. I thrust into her mouth as if I am mating it with my tongue.
I like her taste, though. I like the softness of her skin and the scent of her. I like the sounds she makes, and I like how her eyes flutter closed as I drag my tongue over hers, and she gets an expression on her face of pure ecstasy. She makes me feel like the strongest, biggest hunter in the land as she leans into me and my tongue claims her mouth, our lips meshing.
She pulls back ever so slightly and we break the kiss. Devi gasps for air, gazing up at me with hot, hungry eyes. I cup her face with my hands, my other holding onto her waist. I love the look on her face right now, the dazed expression, the glazed heat in her eyes, the wet, plump softness of her lips. I want to claim her again.
I must be sly, though. “I am not sure I did that well,” I begin.
“No?” Devi’s lips part and she seems to sag even more, as if she cannot handle a better kiss, and my masculine pride knows no boundaries. “Oh, I think it was pretty good—”
“I must practice more,” I say. “So I can get it right.”
But mostly because I want to put my mouth on Devi, to rub my tongue against hers. To feel her shiver with need.
The wonder in her eyes disappears, and a look of horror crosses her face. “Oh, no, N’dek, we shouldn’t be doing this.” She puts a hand to her lips, touching them, and then slips out of my grasp. “This was a bad idea.”
“Why?” I ask, as she staggers backward. “Come back here.”
“No,” she blurts, clutching her cloak to her chest. She looks upset, as if she has done something wrong. “I can’t be kissing you. Not if you’re going to resonate to Bridget. We’ll just forget this ever happened. Are you good? Because I think I should go.”
And she turns and leaves, hurrying down the beach, shoulders hunched under her cloak.
I watch her leave, frowning. Part of me knows she is right—if I am to resonate to B’shit…ah…Breedchet…Breesht…Brechett…then I should not be kissing Devi. I should not be thinking about warm brown skin and excited eyes. I should be thinking about…whatever her name is.
But I am disappointed that she is leaving. More than anything, I want to go after her, but that will not solve anything. I want to show her that I am a strong, fierce hunter, capable of being her mate…except that I am to be B’shit’s mate.
I should leave Devi alone. Let S’bren chase her. Let him woo her and let him be the one she practices human kissing upon.
My hands tighten to fists at the thought. If he touches her, I will…I will…
I look down at my false leg, scowling. To S’bren, I am no threat at all because I am lame. In the eyes of the tribe, I am one to be
pitied.
I think of how Devi looked at me this afternoon, how her eyes gleamed with pride when I threw perfectly in the game. I rub the muscles of my bad leg absently, wondering if I am good enough on this false foot to wear it around the others.
In my mind’s eye, I see S’bren touching Devi possessively again, leading her away. Dragging her to a cave and trying to kiss her.
I growl, my body tight with anger.
My khui has not yet sung to B’shit’s khui. That does not mean I belong to her yet. It might be many turns of the moons before my khui wakes, if it ever does.
Until then…I want Devi.
And I do not care if that is wrong.
7
DEVI
What the fuck am I doing?
I touch my throbbing mouth, horrified at how aroused I am.
That was the best kiss ever. That was…oh god. I can feel how freaking wet I am as I trot back to the sleeping cave post-haste. My pussy lips glide against themselves with every step I take, until it feels as if the entire world would know I was a horny beast—if they were awake, that is.
I can’t believe I just made out with N’dek.
I can’t believe how good it was.
I can’t believe I’m so stinking attracted to him and he’s going to resonate to Bridget. Why is life so unfair?
I can’t believe that even knowing this, I still want to race back to the beach, fling my arms around his neck, and kiss him again. I hate that about myself. I never thought I’d end up the Ice Planet Ho, yet here I am, macking down on a guy who told me flat out he was pretty certain he was about to resonate to Bridget.
I make it back to the cave and slip under the covers silently. No one even rolls over, and I stare up at the ceiling, unable to sleep. I can’t. My body is throbbing with awareness. I’m aching. I put my hands over my pussy and it feels as if it’s blazing heat.
Oh god, I am the worst.
I deserve for everyone to hate me. Closing my eyes, I try to go to sleep, but I keep seeing N’dek’s handsome face. N’dek cupping my face and leaning in, so intent on kissing me. His big arms around my waist. N’dek’s tongue and all the ridges gliding against my tongue.