by Ella Maven
His eyes burned even brighter as he took a step toward me. “Curious about something?”
I stared at him, unable to tear my gaze away as he drew closer until he was barely a foot away. The heat from his scales warmed my face, and my nipples pebbled as I imagined what it would feel like to be pressed up against his chest.
“Karina,” he nearly purred, and I had to break the gaze before I leapt into his arms.
“Stop,” I whispered, feeling feverish and so unlike myself. I hadn’t had much of an appetite for sex for years. I hadn’t wanted sex with any creature I met here, but this arrogant Kaluma was something else entirely…
The water swirled around him as he halted. “Does your shoulder hurt?” His tone shifted to one of concern.
“No,” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
“I—”
A loud buzz filled the air, silencing my words. I covered my ears with my hands as the ear-piercing noise felt like it was coming from inside my brain.
Bosa lunged for me, hauling me into his arms as he sprinted toward the waterfall. When we reached the alcove, the tops of the trees were shaking violently, like something was flying through the air. “Bosa!” I called out in panic.
“Inhale,” he ordered as we reached the alcove.
“What?”
“Inhale and hold your breath,” he whispered harshly in my face. “Trust me, Karina.”
I did, so I inhaled and held my breath. Bosa plunged us under the water. Holding me with one arm, he stroked with his other arm while kicking as he swam under the rock surrounding the wading pool. Realizing what he was doing, I kicked out too. I tried not to panic when I looked up and saw nothing but solid rock.
Up ahead, a beam of sunlight shone through the water, and we surfaced there in a small cave. Bosa hauled me out of the water, where I gasped to catch my breath for a few minutes. I felt like a drowned rat—naked and panting in a cave with only a small beam of sunlight from a hole about twenty feet above us. I peered up, seeking the warmth of the light as I shivered, but Bosa yanked me away from the patch of light. “They won’t come in here, but they’ll look from above,” he said as he smushed us as far back against the rear wall as he could.
My teeth chattered. “Who?”
“The Gattrix,” he said. “They were flying their hunting copters. They’ll send radar into the water looking for us, but their heat-seekers won’t penetrate this rock. As long as we stay hidden, they won’t find us.”
I shivered. “Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” he frowned at me. “Why are you shaking?”
“C-cold,” I murmured. It had to be fifty degrees in this cave, and I was naked and wet. My hair clung to my back and forehead like a drenched blanket.
Bosa wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight to his chest with one arm on the back of my head. “I’ll keep you warm.”
His words held no innuendo, only a promise, and I let myself relax in his hold as I pressed my cold cheek up against his warm scales. “Th-thank you.”
It didn’t take long for the heat of his body to warm my skin. And as my body temperature regulated, a different sort of heat spread throughout my limbs. His chest rose and fell with steady breaths, while his heart beat a strong, dependable rhythm. We were pressed together, with me straddling his massive thigh. I shifted my weight as the pressure in my lower belly increased.
“Don’t,” he rasped out as his muscles went tight.
“What?” My voice sounded breathless. That was when I felt a hardness pressing against my leg. A pulsing hardness. I glanced down. Why? Because I couldn’t help myself. Curiosity got the best of me.
There was no other way to put it—Bosa was equipped. He had a bronze cock-like appendage with a wide base and a shaft that was adorned with undulated, pulsing markings in the same pattern as his matz. I had thought they were tattoos, but in the dim light, they seemed to shimmer and glow. They were a part of him. But that wasn’t even the most interesting part of his cock, which ended with a flared head. And by flared head, I meant his cock was topped with a mushroom-like cap with frilled edges. It was almost pretty. But also, terrifying.
The entire Gattrix population could have rushed into our cave, and I would have shoved them out of the way to get a better look at his cock. I leaned back and he let out a low growl. His cock jerked and the markings pulsed faster. “Karina.”
I finally tore my gaze from his organ and looked at him from under my lashes. “Um. Yeah?”
His jaw was tight, but his eyes glowed with a smug satisfaction. “It’s only fair I get to look at you now, right?”
I sucked in a breath as his gazed skimmed down my neck to my breasts. They’d previously been pressed against him, but now I’d leaned back and was on full display. I lifted my arms on instinct to cover myself but stopped at the last minute. Trust me. He’d said it in real life and in my dreams. His words echoed in my ear. So, I let him look his fill, which he did, eyes burning as my nipples hardened.
“Do your females look like me?” I asked.
“Somewhat,” he murmured. He gently leaned me back against the far wall and held two fingers in front of my face before separating them, a lewd smirk to his lips. “Spread for me, kotche. Let me get a good look.”
I’d been in this galaxy a long time. I hadn’t groomed. I was au natural, while he was hairless at the base of his cock. With a swallow, I spread my legs slowly with my knees cocked, my heels dragging against the rough stone.
His chest heaved as he inspected me, and I could have come right there just from his gaze on my pussy. I trembled, no longer cold but burning up from the inside out as he perused me like he was deciding which part to devour first. His head turned this way and that, and his cock continued to pulse. I swore the cap moved, but then he crouched closer, and my view was blocked.
“Will you let me touch, kotche?” he asked as his hands hovered inches above my shins. The eager look on his face was like a kid presented with a lollipop. And maybe I was crazy, but I wanted so very badly to see what he’d do with a sucker.
I nodded, and his hands immediately settled on my legs before sliding up over my knees to my thighs. He gripped me there and tugged me forward. I slid with a quiet yelp as he settled me in his lap, his knees bent and thighs spread. His cock hovered between us, and it was distracting as hell.
His thumb caressed the crease of my thighs, and when a claw grazed my folds, I let out a low moan. I was wet, I could feel it, and his flared nostrils made me think he could smell it too.
His gaze dropped to watch his fingers play in the skin of my pussy, sliding through the wetness. When he reached my clit, I jerked, and he immediately stopped. “What is that?”
“It’s…” I swallowed as his face hovered inches from mine. “My clit.”
“What does it do?”
“It doesn’t do anything, really,” I laughed huskily. “It’s where a lot of human females feel the most pleasure.”
He tilted his head. “Your uvum?”
“My what?”
“In Kaluma females, the pleasure spot is on the roof of their mouths.” He opened his lips and pointed behind his top front teeth. “There.”
I blinked at him. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
At first, I wrinkled my nose, but then a thought dawned on me. “So wait, you pleasure them with your—”
“My tongue.” He unfurled a dark blue tongue that looked similar to mine—if not ridiculously long—but then it transformed before my eyes. A small hole, nearly undetectable when he’s talking, widened on the tip of his tongue. The edges peeled back and away like a flower bloom. The hole began to undulate, and I stared in absolute fascination while my clit throbbed.
“Let me show you how it works,” he said in a deep voice that I felt in every cell of my body. I could only nod dumbly as he lowered himself between my legs and latched the hole of his tongue onto my clit.
When I felt a tug of suction, I cried out so loudly
he slapped his hand over my mouth. A chuckle rumbled up from his throat, which only caused me to let out a muffled shriek from behind his hand. His tongue worked its magic, pulling and working my clit until I was cross-eyed and my legs had turned to jelly. I was uttering incoherent noises from behind his hand. When his other fingers toyed with my entrance and a thick finger slipped inside, I came like a geyser, gushing into his mouth and onto his hand with an orgasm like I’d never had before. In my life. Ever.
I whimpered as he tugged on my clit one last time before giving my pussy one lick with the flat of his tongue. He reared above me, his tongue returning to its normal state as he panted, eyes burning with excitement. “I can’t wait to get you where I can hear your noises. I want your screams in my ear, while your nails dig in my back.”
And that was when I realized I’d clawed the shit out of him. I gasped and yanked my hands back, but he only laughed. Sitting back on his haunches, he helped me sit up since I felt like I’d just taken a handful of muscle relaxers. “How do human males pleasure your clit?”
I could only laugh. “Not like that.”
His eyes narrowed. “Better or worse?”
I thought for a moment of lying because he was getting kind of smug, but instead, I patted him on the shoulder. “Worse, big guy. Way worse.”
Between us, his cock bobbed, and as much as it scared me, I had to know if this appendage had any tricks like his tongue. I raised an eyebrow. “ So, since you touched, can I touch too?”
A muscle worked in his jaw before he nodded. “Touch me, kotche.”
I wrapped my fingers around his cock, amazed at the white markings which throbbed beneath his skin. He was so thick my fingers couldn’t wrap all the way round, and when I tugged, he let out a grunt. “You can touch, but beware there will be consequences.”
“Consequences?”
“I will spend my seed.”
“And I’m supposed to be scared of that?”
He watched me carefully and grimaced when I gave his cock another tug and pull. “I don’t want to scare you.” His matz shimmered brilliantly, and he closed his eyes as his body shuddered violently. I felt a strange sensation in my hands. I looked down to see the flared head of his cock had unfurled, the frilled edges now fanned out, and the end cap was rotating. His shaft pulsed, the head spun, and I swore I was going to orgasm again right then and there.
Nine
Bosa
I hadn’t been touched in so long—not since I was still a youth and snuck away with a female to the stream near our settlement. That had been fumbling and messy, and I clung to the memories long after everything changed, and I thought I’d never meet a mate.
I didn’t even take myself in hand, convinced I didn’t deserve to feel pleasure, not after what the Kaluma females had been through.
But when Karina wrapped her thin fingers around my shaft while my vurs pulsed against her palm, I couldn’t pull away. When my cap began to spin, and I knew I was close to releasing my seed, it took all my willpower not to throw Karina onto her back and plunge into that sleek, tasty heat of her slit.
“Karina,” I rasped out as I held onto my control by a hair. “Please.” The smell of her was all around us, and her flavor coated my tongue as if taunting me I couldn’t have more.
“Let go,” she whispered, her eyes shiny and glowing in the dim light as her wrist twisted and she squeezed the shaft right under my cock cap. “Let go, Bosa.”
With a surge forward, my cap erupted, spraying my seed from small holes in the flared end. My vision went white, and a dull roar sounded in my ears. Heat spread from my gut and groin out to every limb as I bucked into her hand. She gasped as the clear liquid coated our skin, and the scent of my release mingled with the aroma of her wetness.
I panted as I nearly collapsed, but at the last moment she wrapped her arms around me and drew me against her breasts. I lay half on top of her as I caught my breath while her fingers stroked my hair.
For a moment, I let myself wonder what it would be like to have this forever—a mate who cradled me in her arms. And that was when I jerked myself upright. Karina started below me, her eyes going wide as I peered down at her. Her stomach and thighs were slick with my seed.
“Bosa?” she asked quietly. “Are you okay?”
No, I was not okay. Because as I studied the brave creature below me, I came to the realization I didn’t see her as a human anymore. Or an other. Or as a non-Kaluma. I saw her as Karina, my brave kotche who fought back in a foreign galaxy against her captors to protect her fellow females. She couldn’t go home while I’d been avoiding mine. I’d previously seen her as less-than, but in reality, I wasn’t good enough for her.
So why did she make my matz shimmer and my vurs pulsate? Why was I appearing in her visuls? That was the beginning of the linyx bond, but there was no way that was possible… with a human.
The Kaluma males used to choose their mates—until Varnex tainted that ritual. Now, we allowed the females to choose. As much as I wanted to claim her, I couldn’t. It went against the new settlement rules I believed in whole-heartedly, and… even if I didn’t see her as human, my settlement would. No way would Sherif accept this.
My torso swayed as my head pounded with too many thoughts. I’d lived with one for many rotations—guilt—and it had become my best friend and worst enemy. It fueled me while preventing any real happiness. I’d covered myself in that guilt with a layer of disdain that proved to be an asset in my work.
“Hey,” she reached for me again I allowed her to lay me down beside her. “Talk to me. Is this a physical thing? Do you need to sleep after you come? I understand that. I could go for a nap too. Or are you working through something in your head? Bosa?”
Her words pounded my skull until I felt like it was going to split open. I’d just experienced the best pleasure of my life, and yet I couldn’t just enjoy the aftermath because my mind had decided now was the time to think every thought.
I finally sliced through her questions. “I haven’t been home since I started taking off-planet missions.”
She remained silent, but her hand slid up and down my back slowly in a caress.
“I haven’t felt worthy to face our females who suffered the most from our inaction. I downplayed my guilt earlier. It eats me up, kotche. Every day.”
“Oh Bosa,” she whispered, and just my name on her lips in that heart-aching tone caused my heart to lurch. Her fingers flexed and I felt her drop a kiss on my head.
“I didn’t lie when I told you why I was helping you. I do like destroying things. I do want to absolve my guilt. I also wanted to avoid going home, since my pardux told me I had to return after this mission.
“Okay,” she drew out the word as her fingers once again toyed with the ends of my hair.
“At first you were a female I could help. It was about me and my selfish need to relieve my guilt. And now it’s not that anymore, kotche. Now, I’m staying for you. Because I don’t want to leave your side. Because I think…”
I finally forced myself to close my jaws before I admitted that her visuls made me believe we were linyx. It didn’t make sense to me. How could I be linyx with a human? It seemed … biologically impossible. Our bodies formed a linyx bond with our mates, but usually it developed over time. Everything about her visuls made this feel urgent, in a way that concerned me.
All I knew was I couldn’t leave her. Not now that I’d tasted her.
“Because you think what?” she prodded softly.
I shook my head, unable to speak what was in my head.
“I don’t know what this all means,” she whispered. “You keep appearing in my dreams. You’re either saving me or … touching me.”
“Touching you?”
“Yes.” I heard the click of her throat as she swallowed. “Possessively.”
My heart thumped in my chest as I lifted my head to look in her eyes. She watched me with a wary vulnerability I was sure no one in this galaxy had seen from her. Brus
hing her hair from her forehead, I pressed a kiss there. “Don’t worry. Let’s focus on staying alive long enough to destroy Frenz. Then we’ll worry about us.”
Her lips twitched into a smile. “Okay, I can do that.”
I slowly rose to my feet, casting a hungry gaze down her body. All I wanted to do was stay in the cave and bury myself in that hot slit of hers. But this wasn’t the time, and I doubted she’d ever let me spend my seed inside of her. It was probably better that way. “I’m going to check to make sure the Gattrix soldiers are gone.”
She sat up quickly. “Alone? No, I’ll go with you.”
I motioned for her to stay where she was. “Yes, alone.”
“But—”
“Stay, Karina. Please. Trust me.”
For some reason, those two words made an impact. With a heavy sigh, she settled back down and pressed her knees to her chest as she hugged her arms to her herself. “Okay.”
“I know you’re cold. I’ll be back soon.”
“Just be careful,” she warned, this time with a murderous glint in her eye, like she’d kill me again if I failed her.
With a nod, I dove into the water.
Karina
I shuffled over to the water hole and peered down, but he was already gone. Shuffling back into the safety of my corner, I shivered as a chill swept over my skin, and not just from the temperature. I was scared, an emotion I hadn’t admitted to myself since the day I woke up in another galaxy. I felt Bosa’s absence like a physical thing, and I marveled at how fast I’d come to depend on him.
When I’d first met him, I’d seen nothing but a monster and killer. In only a few short cycles, he’d become my friend. My partner. My … lover. Just the memory of his tongue between my legs warmed my blood and eased the chill in the air. That tongue was something else. I swore I could smell the scent of cinnamon whisky in the air.
I dipped a hand in the water and washed some of his seed from my skin. That had really just happened. I’d given a hand job to an alien with a rotating cock head. The way his seed had spurted from the edges reminded me a bit of those swing amusement park rides. Where the top spun and the swings flung out. Except the swings had been his come.