by V. K. Ludwig
Her tight walls squeezed around him, hot and wet, and the way she arched her back let hard nipples reach upward into the air.
Kerien lowered them onto the furs and lifted her thigh, driving in deep, giving her the full extent of his strength which made her clasp his horns so tight they heated.
When she sucked in a breath, he pinned her down with his hips, relishing how she squirmed and whimpered as she couldn’t escape her orgasm. It came with a violent scream and a punishing tug on his horns, and he growled in response.
Her cunt gripped him with such force he rasped curses that should never leave a Varac’s lips, and his body trembled underneath the building force. At his next thrust, his penis jerked, and his seed shot forward in several bursts, every single muscle in his body tensing.
Another tug on his horns and she pulled his mouth onto hers, kissing him fiercely as waves of his release still wrecked through him, filling her womb.
They kissed like starved for several minutes, sharing a ragged breath which took long moments to calm. But when it did, Kerien rolled onto his back and pulled her small frame against his much large body.
She nestled her head on his chest, blunt little human claws clasping to him as if she was scared he would leave. “I love you.”
Glancing down, golden eyes caught with hers, his chest filling with serenity. He’d known she loved him before she confessed to it, but hearing the words made his chest want to explode “When then? When will you become my Vekoshi?”
“Not sure,” she yawned out, eyes half-lidded, her body spent no doubt. “Maybe a few months after my birthday? I guess it depends on how quickly Gral accepts his place as my advisor.”
That came like a punch to the guts.
“My courting must be abysmal then.” He shook his head in disbelief, his throat going tight. “Why wait so long? We should have it before your birthday.”
She lifted her head, and a brow right along with it. “And take over Osacore as the Vekoshi of the Aurani? I’ll meet enough backlash as it is, Kerien. The media would eat me alive. The shareholders would be outraged.”
Old anger and distrust cracked through scars only recently mended, gripping his core with confusion. She would refuse his seed during her next heat. Fine. But why would she not pledge herself to him?
“It would be safer if you went there as my Vekoshi, along with seventy warriors sworn to protect you,” he said, his voice harsher than he’d intended.
She grimaced. “Protect me from what? It’s not like I’m going to war, Kerien.”
“Yet you asked me to supply warriors.”
“What?” she asked with a chuckle, so oblivious to how he ached for her commitment, for proof to ease his juketar’s concerns. “I never asked for warriors. All I wanted was you by my side.”
“As the Aurani Varac,” he snarled. “Not your Vekosh.”
“You always get so dramatic when you’re in a dark mood,” she said, once more curling up against him. “I’m just trying to do what’s best.”
Best for whom?
Fifteen
Ada swiped over light streams coming together in blues and yellows, the low buzz of the holograms turning her increasingly anxious. “This is frustrating.”
Kerien pulled a hessa fur from the bed and rubbed it over wet, black hair reaching well below his shoulder blades. It suited him so perfectly, offering such a bold contrast to his golden eyes. Too bad he didn’t carry it open more often.
“What is?” he asked.
“I logged into my dad’s personal comhub,” she explained, holding a hand against her forehead as if it might keep that headache away sure to follow. “The server keeps kicking me out.”
He sat down beside her on the bed, detangling his hair by raking his claws through it. “Perhaps you can find a copy once you have access to the Osacore archives.”
Ada only had a small smile to spare, her mind so caught up in preparing herself for a birthday only a week away. Alliances. Trade agreements. Embargoes. Kerien had filled her in as much as he could, but even his knowledge had limitations.
“The moment I announce that I will supply you with a core, they’ll freak.” Restless hands swiped through decade-old writings and reports. “If I could back up my decision by pointing out how Osacore has been in breach of contract for over a decade, I’d look less insane. Maybe.”
An arm slung around her waist, claws climbing to tease a clothed nipple. “Shut down the holograms and invite me to your furs.”
She glanced back at Kerien, nuzzling his chin with her nose. “Are all Aurani this insatiable?”
“We have a very robust sexual appetite,” he moaned against the corner of her mouth. “It’s not in our nature to ignore when the body of our female is craving seed.”
And it had to be true, considering he’d mentioned it at least four times in the last two days. “Good thing my body came with a brain.”
When the playful wiggle of her brows didn’t catch on, she turned her attention back to the holograms. Ada expanded them with a twirl of her wrist, only for everything to disappear moments later. Poof. Gone.
“I’m about to pull my hair out…”
With a groan, she logged into the server for what must have been the thirtieth time, breath bursting in and out of her lungs she was that pissed.
The way Kerien sighed beside her wasn’t helping either, her body tensing the longer he stared at the floor. He’d grown quiet these last two days.
“There isn’t much time left for me to get prepared,” she offered softly. “At the very least, I have to fake competence, and having some sort of correspondence sure would help.”
Another blood-boiling sigh, then he lifted his arms and combed raven hair neatly between his horns, separating them into several strands for braiding. Why did he have to be so pushy? He seemed almost more anxious to make her his Vekoshi than Gral had been about making their wedding happen.
“I swear I’m so close to finding the outline of the original contract.”
No comment.
Only the monotone tok-tok-tok of claws clashing against his horns as he braided his hair, his jaw so locked the strain tortured scar tissue.
She stared at him long enough her chest grew dense. Didn’t he understand how much more resistance she would meet if she showed up there as his queen? The media would tear them apart, headlines sporting words like brainwashed, indoctrinated, and proxy war. Weren’t her nerves fried enough already?
One swipe, and the holograms disappeared. “Let me do your hair.”
She climbed behind him and rose onto her knees, carefully taking the separated strands from his fingers. “Five strand of fish tail?”
“Whichever way you prefer on me, Ada.”
Ada. Her own name ran a shudder down her spine. He hadn’t called her anything else in… well, ever since she’d told him the ceremony had to wait.
Her fingers itched at the thought, and she gave a not-so-gentle pull on his strand as she folded it across the one at the center. How could he expect her to pretty much marry him, take over Osacore, and have his baby all in the same freaking week?
She hated this tension. Loathed the way the very male who’d helped her prepare for this now somehow refused to see logic. Osacore had priority, because their very relationship depended on it.
“I don’t like this… whatever this is between us,” she said. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
He turned and took the tail of the braid from her, draped it over his shoulder, and finished the end before he tied his leather around. “Do I somehow fail at showing you my sincere love?”
She immediately shook her head. “No, Kerien, you’re amazing.”
“And am I not committed to you? Have I not asked you to become my Vekoshi in front of all Aurani?”
“Yes, you have,” she said, slipping off the bed to kneel before him, hands on his thighs. “And I agreed, didn’t I?”
He got up, leaving her there on her knees, and kicked his legs into
his trousers, impatiently tugging on the leather strings. “Words. Just words.”
Just words?
The nerve of that guy.
“Excuse me? I gave you my mom’s necklace so I could stay with you longer.”
“And bought yourself more answers with it as well, didn’t you? Do you understand that I’m risking my life coming to Xaleon with you? That warriors might lose theirs if anything goes wrong?” He scoffed and wiped an angry palm over his chin. “But you can’t become my Vekoshi?”
“It would complicate things,” she gritted out.
He parked one hand on his hip and swung the other up, gray veins protruding along his neck. “Maybe at first. But it would justify my decision to accompany you and give you the benefit of having my people sworn to you. My warriors would protect you with their lives.”
“Protect me from what, Kerien? Paper cuts and a pouting Klaxian?” She threw herself onto her bed, hands pressed against that pounding that started around her temples. “Why is this so hard to understand? I’m already freaking out, and you’re not helping. The easier I can make this transition, the faster I’ll get my hands on a core for you.”
A huff accompanied the way the mattress shifted as Kerien climbed onto the bed, gently rubbing his forehead against hers. “I apologize. It’s just… I don’t know.”
He pressed his lips to hers, his kiss rough and demanding. Kerien groaned into her mouth as he rolled her onto her side, and quickly climbed behind her.
“I hate this tension between us,” he rasped, hard shaft pressing against her ass. “Whatever this nasty feeling is I have clinging to my ribcage, I will get rid of by rutting you for hours.”
That would solve nothing, but Ada couldn’t control the way she arched her back. “Fuck, Kerien. We shouldn’t.”
“Yes, we should,” he whispered. “You want me. I can smell it.”
“I do, but…” One of them had to think straight, so Ada called it. “You said I’m ovulating soon. Not sure if Aurani seed can survive for a few days, but we can’t take chances.”
The bed stilled.
Behind her, all of Kerien’s heat disappeared. He rolled himself off the bed and stood tall, his nostrils flaring, but he wasn’t scenting. The rigid posture. The claws curling into his fist. He was fucking angry.
“By Drana, woman,” he grunted loud enough Ada flinched. “Not actively pursuing a child is one thing, but you seem very eager to avoid it at all costs.”
Ada’s entire body froze, stiff like a game piece, as if she expected a shove or a push and desperately had to brace against it. She would have none of it.
“And you seem very eager to knock me up as quickly as possible,” she hissed back, lips peeled enough it appeared she’d spent too much time among his kind. “I’m not like an Aurani female coming into heat only twice a year. I ovulate once a month, so why are you this impatient?”
He dug fangs into his lower lip. “Because I am committed to us.”
“What the fuck.” She shot him a cold look. “I gave you my necklace. For weeks, I cut up my arms. I saved seeds. And you question my commitment just because I’m trying to be smart about this?”
“It’s not enough,” he said. “The life of everyone on Aura Station is at risk, Ada, and I have no assurances from you.”
“Well, guess what. You won’t have assurances when I’m your Vekoshi either. Perhaps even less so because it would weaken my initial position at Osacore.”
“Or perhaps you will neither return, nor ensure us a core.” All warmth in his eyes extinguished, leaving behind a daggered stare as he added, “Many humans do much talking.”
But don’t act true to their words…
The very first conversation with Vohri pushed into her mind, her throat growing so tight she almost choked on her next swallow.
“So, basically, you don’t trust me.”
Kerien neither confessed nor denied it. He didn’t have to. That guy in front of her? That was the Varac all over again, his eyes so cold and cutting she shivered.
She shook her head and hugged herself. “Wow. That’s sad.”
“I cannot, with good conscience, justify sending seventy warriors to Xaleon,” he said, taking a deep breath before he added, “Unless you become my Vekoshi, I won’t accompany you. My juketar has advised me against it. And my people… like I told you once before, they are very wary of humans.”
Ada felt her heart physically shrink inside her chest. He hadn’t called her that in a long time.
“This has shit to do with your people,” she said, hugging herself tighter to hide trembling hands. “It all boils down to the fact that you don’t trust me.”
He didn’t even bother denying it, and instead straightened his spine. “Become my Vekoshi before your birthday.”
Birthday aside, did she even still want to become his Vekoshi? Why would he even want her, if he expected her to cut and run, never to show herself again?
“No.”
Fangs glistened. “It’s the Aurani way.”
“And this is my way,” she said, voice cold, unwavering. “I won’t be pushed around anymore, Kerien. Not by Gral, and not by you either.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I don’t know what messed with your brain. You can’t come with me? Fine. I’ll go alone.”
A knock on the door shifted their attention.
Thuran poked his head through a small gap. “I apologize for my intrusion. My Varac, there’s been a development. It is urgent.”
“I will join you on the observation deck,” Kerien said, his hand already reaching for his boots. The moment the door closed, his eyes pinned her down. “Since you don’t wish for my touch, I will spend the night in my own furs.”
He stomped out of her chamber, not once turning to look at her.
Freezing cold crept into her core, and spread into every single sinew from there, turning her limp, paralyzed. A braver woman would have become his Vekoshi and marched straight into Osacore with a ‘fuck you’ on her lips.
But Ada wasn’t that woman.
With no idea if she would finally manage standing up for herself, how was she supposed to stand up for the both of them? She’d just now started thinking for herself for fuck’s sake.
Her inexperience had never been as evident as it was right at that moment, her entire chest nothing but a turmoil of fear and utter confusion.
Fighting gravity and shock, she slowly sat up and inched toward the edge of the bed. That Kerien wouldn’t come with her to Xaleon hurt, though she understood the reasons. The fact that he didn’t trust her? It put things into painful perspective. Perhaps putting their ugly past aside wasn’t as easy as it had first appeared?
With one swipe, she conjured up the holograms again. She logged into the server for the thirtieth-something time. If she allowed herself to agonize over this, even for a moment, she would waste precious time better used preparing herself.
No matter how much the idea of facing Gral alone scared the shit out of her, there was no changing it. Five days until her birthday. She better get ready.
Sixteen
Kerien stepped out of Ada’s chamber, his heart shrinking away from the cold bricks erecting a new wall around that maimed organ of his. The woman refused to become his Vekoshi, avoided his seed, and now even his touch. It was more rejection than he could handle in one day. Could she blame him if his trust suffered?
He followed the hallway toward the observation deck, fully expecting to find Thuran with a grim face and unwanted counsel. Instead, he stepped into the room and found Gral’s hologram floating above the table.
Thuran hurried over to him, his juketar’s expression so at ease it turned Kerien’s stomach. “He wishes to negotiate.”
A tremor ransacked his body. That was as unexpected as it was absurd. He’d probably noticed she was logging into her family server. Gral knew Ada was alive and well, and about to challenge his position.
Kerien placed both palms onto the edge of the glass table, lowering his head
as his eyes searched for the flash indicating the start of the transmission. “I’m in no mood for your games, Gral.”
“Varac Kerien, son of Saradok,” Gral said, his proper address making it clear he was desperate. “I’m afraid I’ve been… narrow-minded during our last conversation.”
Kerien lowered himself into his chair, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Indeed? How so?”
The Klaxian flashed a politician’s smile and stroked wrinkles from his black, tailored suit. “I’ve once more underestimated my fiancé.”
“Ex-fiancé,” Kerien ground out. “I doubt the heiress still wishes to marry you in her human custom, considering you’ve left her here to die at my hands.”
Perhaps she reconsidered him just the same. The shock. The disappointment. The fear. He’d seen it all in her face when he told her he wouldn’t accompany her to Xaleon. When he’d sunk so low, so desperate, he bribed her. Stubborn woman.
A moment of silence as Gral’s skin tightened over his features, his voice returning concise and hard. “The way I know my Ada, I am certain she was perfectly in control of herself and the situation.” His tone dropped deeper as he added, “She was trained for this, after all. The fact that she is logging into personal servers only offers proof of her… resourcefulness.”
Tension crackled the air, mixing with the increasing stench of doubt creeping from Kerien’s pores. Resourceful in what way? The part in Kerien that urged him to trust her decided not to ask.
Instead, he flashed fangs in warning. “My juketar said you wish to negotiate. You have my attention.”
“My offer is very straightforward,” Gral said. “I’ve got a five-hundred-pound core waiting here at Osacore HQ on Xaleon. Send someone to retrieve it in the next twenty-four hours.”
His fangs clenched so hard his gums burned, and even Thuran shifted beside him. A core that size would support all of Aura Station for a century, assuring his peoples’ survival long after he joined Drana.
He remained as still as nervous limbs allowed. “In exchange for the heiress? A mere couple of days away from her birthday? Forgive me, but that alone makes me suspicious.”