by V. K. Ludwig
The gathering fell away from around her. People. Chants. Torches. Everything disappeared until it was just them, and that was the only thing that mattered to Ada. They could have a family. A child. Many, if that hungry look on his face was an indicator.
“Wait a minute,” she said and leaned back, taking in that smirk of his that refused to go away. “Are you saying you smell when I’m ovulating?”
“Smell it. Taste it.” A shiver wrecked through him. “All Aurani males do, though your heat had an extreme effect on me. And I expect it to be just as strong during your next one.”
She ran her fingers along his braid. That would come in handy once a month until she established herself as CEO. While she wanted children, now wasn’t the time, and wouldn’t be until all that business was settled.
“Thank you so much for coming to Xaleon with me,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck, face leaning against his shoulder. “I won’t lie, Kerien. I’m scared.”
“Don’t let anybody push you around, Vekoshi, not even me.” He began gently rocking them from side to side, the chants nothing but a backdrop to what he whispered next. “I love you, Ada. I truly do.”
She smiled against the crook of his neck. “Is that part of your courting?”
Her head tossed on his shoulder at his chuckle. “Would you rather put my horns through more testing? We can leave if you wish.”
Ada lifted her head and leaned back, gleaming as she took him in as if she’d never seen this Aurani before. Handsome. Noble. Dedicated. Someone who’d taught her so much and opened her mind to the truth.
“You know what,” she said, head tilted. “I think I’d love to be your Vekoshi.”
Kerien gave a cocky grin, his demeanor downright playful. “Of course you would. Who wouldn’t want a prince? You might have the kingdom, Ada Alvarez, but I’ve got something you like even more.”
“And what would that be?”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “Ridges. Lots and lots of ridges.”
Fourteen
Thuran huffed out a sharp exhale. “My Varac, I have to urge you to reconsider.”
Kerien let himself fall into the threadbare chair in the corner of his quarters, the air stale no matter the tension crackling between them.
He’d traded for this room many years ago. Not only to save resources, but as a symbol that he was not above frugal living. Neither was he above counseling, no matter how he gnashed his fangs at it.
“I told her I would come to Xaleon, and I will stand by my word,” he said, locking his gaze with his juketar’s. “They will not be expecting her, and certainly not me by her side. Seventy warriors will be enough to give me the option to retreat before UFG troops arrive.”
Thuran turned away with a mumbled curse. His juketar had been tense ever since the gathering, his counsel mostly consisting of a grim face and swallowed opinions.
“Say what you must,” Kerien rasped, impatient to return to his mate. “I can’t take your silent aggression anymore.”
“Haven’t your warriors been through enough?” Thuran’s question came quiet, but with an obvious angry edge.
“They have, and yet accompanying her will assist in bringing about peace.”
Thuran shook his head and turned, his jaw tense. “Your warriors are loyal to you. They would give their lives for you, but you can’t expect them to do the same for a woman who may or may not be your Vekoshi one day.”
Kerien grunted out a deep huff in warning. “She agreed. What else do you want?”
“My Varac.” Thuran dropped his head into a bow. “It is my duty to advise you, even if you take offense at my words. The heiress agreed, yet there’s no talk about the ceremony. What if she isn’t truthful about her agenda?”
“Careful,” Kerien snarled and pushed himself from the chair, towering over his juketar by at least a head. “She might not be my Vekoshi yet but choose those next words you speak about the woman I consider my mate wisely.”
Thuran clenched his eyes shut, arms pressed tightly to his body. “You provided answers, discussed trade laws, studied trade agreements and embargoes with her each day. Now she secured herself a small army on her birthday, as if she’s planning for a bloody takeover at our expense.”
Kerien suppressed that next exhale, or it might extend itself into his claws wrapped around Thuran’s neck. Had his juketar gone mad?
“Your accusation is outrageous.” The words left Kerien’s lips, sharp and stabbing.
Thuran bowed deeper. “I’m not accusing. Merely urging you to be cautious of the possibilities.”
“You pressed me to be less cautious almost a month ago.”
Kerien paced before his bed, the mattress covered in furs that hadn’t touched his body in days. He longed for his mate’s touch, her closeness, and the fact that his juketar kept him from it darkened his mood.
“Kerien…” The pacing stopped, his ears pricking at the sound of his name. Something Thuran reserved for when he requested to be heard, to be considered. “You cannot allow hate to guide your actions. But the same applies to love. We’re already short on warriors. There are too many unmated females as is, and now the most eligible Aurani chose a woman as his mate instead. There’s talk…”
“There’s always talk.”
“The hearts of humans can be feeble, Kerien,” Thuran said. “They don’t recognize one true mate as we do.”
Kerien shook his head and walked toward the door, stopping inches from it. “I never told you this, juketar, but I saw Drana in her eyes the day I took her. The goddess revealed her to me.”
“But she is not Aurani, her soul not guided by Drana. What assurances do you have from her that justify risking your life? Your warriors’ lives?”
“I thank you for your counsel, juketar,” Kerien said and opened the door, but his foot hadn’t even lifted yet when Thuran spoke again.
“Your people are uneasy. Not once in the history of the Aurani did a Varac take a Vekoshi from another species. She is not guided by Drana. We lost our home. Do we need to loose our traditions as well?”
Kerien’s hand tightened around the handle. “How many?”
“More than you might think.” Thuran said nothing else for many seconds while the pause permeated Kerien’s muscles with dread. “If you must make her your Vekoshi, do it before her birthday.”
Kerien dipped his head.
The ‘my Varac’ never came, and he left his quarters in silence, save for his thundering footsteps echoing along the corridor leading to his mate. His juketar’s wariness was tiresome. Hadn’t Kerien proven competence in his leadership? His choices? What did his advisor see that he didn’t?
His horns prickled, but it all fell away the moment he stepped into his old chamber. His eyes found Ada’s smile, drops of water speckling her lips since she was bathing. And yet some darkness must have followed him here, because green eyes narrowed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sitting up straight in the tub, water running down breasts that would soon feed their first child.
He forced a tired smile onto his face and approached, loosening his boots on the way. “Nothing. At least not anymore.”
With Aura Station working at sixty percent, the rose-scented steam climbing from her tub fed the air with heavy moisture. It settled onto his face, his torso, then on his thighs as he let leather drop to the ground.
“May I join you?”
Her warm smile pulled into a playful grin. “If you fit.”
A low chuckle vibrated through his chest, and he climbed into the tub. “My horns are long compared to most Aurani. I believe it makes me appear taller than I really am.”
“Aurani are tall in general.”
He lowered himself into the tub across from his mate, water sloshing and breaking against his chest. “It serves for when we have to pluck women from trees.”
His heart opened at her smile. Not the kind she’d arrived with, trained and the push of a mental button away. This one wa
s sincere. They came more and more often, though never lasted long as if they strained previously neglected muscles. How could Thuran doubt this creature’s intentions?
“Come to me,” he said, quickly receiving her in his arms before he pulled her back against his chest. “What did you occupy your time with while I was busy?”
She scooped water over his arm and rubbed it in, the caress lulling him into a state of calm. “I don’t have access to the Osacore archives, so I logged into our private server, going through dad’s personal correspondence.”
“Which explains why you needed a warm bath after,” he said and took her hand, guiding her palm across his chest in circular motions. “I assume the connection broke off every few minutes?”
Her exhale came as a huff of frustration. “Sometimes, it was seconds. At this rate, it’ll take me weeks to go through all the folders.”
“It cost me twenty hessa ewes to bribe the droid on the luxury cruiser to give me the date and time of your quarterly meeting. Information that would have been easily accessible to our programmer, if only the UFG wouldn’t block our signal.”
“Twenty hessa? And here I thought I was worthless.”
“You are priceless to me,” he whispered against her ear, letting his hand knead the soft flesh of her breast.
His mate let out a little gasp of pleasure, which dropped into a moan when he clasped her nipple between his fingers, pulling it taut.
He parted his lips and sampled the air. “You are no longer with your bleeding days.”
“I can’t hide anything from you, can I?”
Turning his hand around, he trailed the back of his claws down her body until she shivered. Once between her legs, he rubbed her little bud, relishing the way she writhed until water sloshed over the rim of the tub.
“What you definitely can’t hide is how your scent is slowly growing headier again,” he rasped against her ear. “You’ll come into heat soon, and this time, I want to plant my seed deep inside your belly.”
She panted, hand wrapped around her arm as if she needed something to hold onto before she drowned herself with how she jerked and tossed at times.
“Goodness you are in a rush.” Another moan and then, “I can’t change history if I’m clinging to the toilet all morning.”
A perfectly legitimate reason to wait, so why did his muscles tighten? Why did Thuran’s words of caution flick through his mind? His juketar had not once offered bad counsel, and his urging for the ceremony was legitimate, the reasoning behind it solid.
“I haven’t properly tended to your body’s needs in a few days.” Kerien wrapped his arm around Ada’s middle and pushed himself up to stand, the heavy fall of water resonating the chamber. “I better remedy that because, clearly, my courting hasn’t been sufficient.”
Caged underneath muscle, Ada dangled pressed against his hip, giggling. “I find it very convincing.”
“Then let’s discuss the ceremony. I’ll make the first point.” He carried her over to the bed, where drops of water speckled fur a shade darker. “Try not to move.”
“Why no—” She squealed when Kerien parted her legs with a shove of his horns.
Pulse racing, his tongue glided along the inside of her thigh, bathwater running down her soft skin in thin rivulets. He’d never allowed himself to taste her sex, fearful of the damage his fangs might inflict.
“Do not move,” he repeated once more as a warning to them both.
Tension coursed through his veins, but he ignored it. Hadn’t he learned how to please his human mate without drawing blood? He hadn’t grazed or chafed her ever since he’d scraped his fangs over her shoulder.
He dragged his tongue over her entrance.
Big mistake.
The moment he sampled the viscous fluid sitting on pink flesh beneath her closed lower lips, his taste receptors tingled, the way his tongue flicked against his gums an uncontrollable instinct. He wanted more. Needed to taste all of her.
“Five to seven days,” he groaned, his shaft going so painfully hard at the thought he ground thick flesh into fur, traces of seed probably stringing along the fibers. “You will have to lock me up during your next heat if you don’t wish for me to seed you with our child.” Because there was no way he could ignore it a second time when her body begged to be bred.
Consumed by savage instincts, he parted her sex with the tip of his tongue, lapping until her translucent juice turned into whitish cream. He dissected it, taking in the intoxicating tang of her approaching heat, and the sweetness of her growing arousal.
“Kerien,” she moaned, the sound guttural with how she restrained her movements, though her legs shivered.
“So delicious,” he rasped, clasping his lips around her bud, squeezing until it swelled and throbbed. “You have no idea the things your cunt is telling me. How you want to be mounted. Fucked.”
The back of his claw replaced the clasp of his mouth, stimulating where his mate was so sensitive. His lips pouted, keeping fangs away from her thin skin. He suckled on her labia until her breathing turned labored, until she panted, dipping the tip of his tongue as deep into her entrance as was safe.
Ada’s legs trembled from how she restrained her urge to grind against his mouth. “Don’t stop!”
Kerien kept his movements rhythmic, the pressure even, lapping and slurping and flicking until his mate sucked in a gasp. Only when she released a small, tortured cry did he slow, allowing her to ride out her peak of pleasure against lips draped over fangs.
“You scared me,” Ada said with a breathless laugh.
Not nearly as much as he’d scared himself. “We will repeat this often. Your scent is strong, but your taste is bringing me to the edge of glorious insanity.”
She pushed herself up to sit and tugged meekly on his shoulder. “Let me return the favor.”
Kerien let her guide him onto his back. “Are you planning to mount me?”
She didn’t.
Instead, he watched Ada lowering her head to his groin, and a not unreasonable amount of worry flooded his veins.
He cupped her chin, forcing a mouth shut that had flashed white teeth only a moment ago. “What are you doing?”
Confusion fleeting across her features, she pulled from his clasp, saying, “This?”
The hard tip of her tongue trailed from the bottom of his shaft upward, bumping across ridges, then twirled around his crown.
Kerien flinched, the sensation so foreign his testicles clenched. “Aurani don’t do this. We have fangs, and I am not thick-skinned everywhere, Ada.”
She gazed back at him from half-lidded eyes, her voice so alluring his crown bobbed. “But I’m not Aurani, am I?”
No she was not, and Kerien held his breath when she presented that advantage as lips clasped tightly around his shaft.
“By Drana…” He pushed himself onto his elbows, watching most of his shaft disappear inside his mate’s little mouth with waves of dizzying pleasure. “We will do this often, too. I like how you’re tasting me.”
She worked her lips down hard flesh, greedy for every lick over his crown whenever she came back up. Her small hand wrapped around the base with a determined grip, but the gasping sounds coming from a mouth stuffed with him inspired his growl of desire.
“Ada…” His hands gripped her hair, pushing her throat onto a crown pulsing with the urge to release. “Suck me in deeper, Vekoshi. Mmmh, yes, like that.”
The more he moaned the harder she sucked, licking with abandon, her breathing hard and heavy against his strokes.
“You take all of me so well,” he groaned.
He thrust upward, slow and controlled. Faster once he had the courage, those dull teeth of hers only adding to his pleasure if they scraped him ever so slightly.
When her tongue traced around the flared crest of his crown, he cupped her cheek. “Enough. I want to look into your eyes when I release my seed.”
Ada wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. “Did you like it?”
He pulled her underneath him, climbing between her thighs while her hair settled like a halo around her. “Open for me, Vekoshi, and I might show you how much.”
Kerien cupped her cheek with one hand and stroked her hair with the other. Tilting his pelvis, the tip of his penis found her entrance, no guidance needed because one thrust, and she sucked him right in.
He worked his hips deep between her thighs, pulled back, and slowly drove back inside until all of him was seated entirely in her tight cunt. “This is where I want to be all day.”
Ada gasped, but he couldn’t allow her to catch her breath even if he’d wanted to. His shaft pulsed with his arousal, his need for her, his love. He kept his movements slow, but his strokes were passionate and deep.
“Your ridges,” she moaned, dull nails clawing at his shoulders. “They feel so good.”
They looked even better from Kerien’s angle, gray ridges alternating with dips slathered in her lust. “Your cunt squeezes me so well, Vekoshi.”
He rounded his back and lapped on her nipple, pulsing his hips with quick, intense thrusts, falling into a haze with how her walls clenched in response.
“More,” she demanded, her needy moan only heightening his need for her. “I need more of you, Kerien.”
“You have all of me, my love. But we will keep this slow. I’ll fuck you after if you want me to, but right now, I just want us to become one.”
He pulled back and drove in agonizingly slowly, his shaft hard and his ridges unforgiving as they rippled along so close to that sensitive bud of hers.
“I love you,” he pledged before he sealed it with a frenzied kiss against her lips, swallowing her moans, her little wails. “I love you, Vekoshi. My Vekoshi.”
There was a yank on his horns.
His mate had gripped them, and when he lifted his head, he lifted half her body right along with it. The crown of his penis tingled, so aroused by how she accepted him and made use of what he offered, his seed only waiting for her to draw it out.
She lifted her pelvis and met him beat for beat, her breathy “Fuck!” telling him she was close.