by Jade Waltz
“I know what I want for the future. For my family. And I think you do too.... We may not love one another yet, but I feel I could fall for you...” I looked away. “I don’t even know if your species is capable of love,” I whispered.
Two arms wrapped around me—I hadn’t even felt him move—crushing me against a smooth, felt-soft chest. I listened to the strange double beat of his heart—or perhaps hearts—as my ear pressed against his firm muscles. His voice rumbled through me.
“Our species do love, Selena, but usually it is reserved for the nestqueen and her Favored. The others are left in the shadows—bonded but ever on the periphery.”
“I don’t want that. You know I don’t. Whoever I take for my mates—nestmates, husbands, whatever—I don’t want to place one above another. I want to share my love equally,” I said, wrapping my arms around him and stroking the base of one of his vines.
“Yes, I do know. You said that, but now I can feel the truth of your words. I sense the kindness in your soul and feel your need to be accepted and loved.” He stepped back, searching my eyes. “Are you certain you want to accept my bonding spore right now?”
I burst out laughing, covering my mouth with my hands. He looked hurt.
“I’m sorry, Xylo. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just... I can’t believe you just said that. It sounded so weird.”
A strange expression crossed his face, and I lightly pushed him farther into the center of the nestbed. I glanced down at the apex of his legs, but there was still nothing to distinguish his gender.
“So, how do we do this?” I gestured at his lack of genitalia.
“You have to prepare me. But I do not know exactly—you are human.”
I looked up into his kind eyes and smiled sheepishly.
“I’m only slightly more experienced at this than you. We can learn together.”
Xylo smiled, then took the lead, lowering himself to the mattress, leaning back against the pillows until his petal-wings spread behind him like a blanket. His vines spread out on the nestbed as his arms lay loosely at his sides. The position of his waist petals formed a natural seat atop his thighs.
When he met my eyes, I felt again that instant pull, that awareness, that connection I felt when I first met him.
Caring. Gentle. Safe.
He mumbled something under his breath—a curse or a prayer, I couldn’t tell.
I lowered myself onto his lap, wiggling my ass against his smooth waist petals to find a comfortable position.
The contact of our bodies felt right—he felt right. I didn’t know how to explain the instant comfort I felt with him. Perhaps it was part of the court bond. Perhaps it was just him.
Xylo.
Whatever it was, I knew he wouldn’t harm me.
After a life of solitude, I was thrilled at the chance to be friends—to be more than friends—with someone of Xylo’s worth. Waiting, when I knew this was what I wanted, would’ve been wrong. I’d been telling the truth when I said I wasn’t going to sever my court bond with him. Maybe this wasn’t love—yet—but it had the potential to be, and I didn’t want to risk losing it—losing him.
“Will you be mine?” I whispered as I leaned in to touch my forehead with his.
“Always.”
Closing my eyes, I kissed him. The fuzz on his lips tickled mine. I nibbled, teasing his lips, tasting. I bit at his bottom lip, provoking a gasp, allowing my tongue to sweep into his mouth.
He tasted sweet—addictively sweet. I wanted more.
His hands tightened on my hips, holding me still as I felt his vines gently trace my body. Their soft touches flowed across my skin. My nervousness and apprehensions melted away.
I sighed against his lips.
Eyes closed, I focused on the sensations his vines were arousing. They danced across my hips, winding around my thighs, flowered tips teasing my center.
I kissed my way from the corner of his mouth, along his jaw, and down the side of his neck. His scaled skin felt cool beneath my lips. As I trailed kisses across his soft emerald shoulder moss, a powerful floral scent filled my nose.
I gasped at the sudden wave of arousal that struck me, hands tightening against his hard felt-covered chest.
Xylo slid his hand from my hip to cup the side of my face, pressing it to his shoulder. Tilting his mouth to my ear, he whispered, “My moss produces a pheromone-filled pollen. It is an aphrodisiac—one of the ways male Wudox assist their nestqueen to her climax.”
I growled in response. I could feel myself growing damp as I nibbled at the spongy moss, my hips shifting against Xylo.
Xylo hissed in my ear, and I felt his vines writhing against my folds. They traced my clit and pressed against my opening in a frenzied rhythm. I felt the petal tips suctioning against my flesh, each caress a tiny kiss.
“I cannot get enough of your taste. I think it’s why my vines always sought you out, even against my own will—the instinctual need to sample my nestqueen’s essence and complete the mating bond.”
I could scarcely comprehend his words, the effects from his moss clouding my brain. I pressed harder against Xylo.
I needed. I needed to be filled. To climax.
Something prodded my center, and I rubbed against it.
Sliding a hand down his torso, I explored his firm appendage. It had a large head—two oval knobs side-by-side—covered with the same downy fuzz he had on his lips that tickled everything it touched. There was a deep cleft between the halves of the head, and the shaft was velvet over steel. I stroked, and Xylo groaned in response, his hand flying back down to grip my hip once more, pulling me harder against him.
“Lower me onto you,” I begged, my hand pulling at his hip. I’d waited long enough. He was driving me crazy. I needed him inside me.
He rubbed the knobs of his appendage back and forth across my soaked slit, and I moaned at the tingle it elicited.
Gasping, clinging to his hip and shoulder for balance, I rocked my hips, trying to lower myself onto him. His hands and vines prevented me.
I growled, biting his shoulder in frustration. The erotic taste of the moss and the fluid that filled my mouth was similar to the subtle sweetness of his mouth but stronger. I moaned again, writhing against Xylo in a frenzy.
“Can you feel that? That is my extract. The liquid aphrodisiac from my anther,” he growled in my ear.
My body was burning up. I was at the edge of my climax, and he hadn’t even entered me yet. I clawed at his back, trying to force him to enter me.
“Xylo! Please!” I begged.
He pulled his face away from my ear. His hands and vines lifted me, angling me toward his knees. I could feel what he called his anther trapped between us.
“Selena, look at me.”
Dazed, I turned my head, licking the last of the aphrodisiac from my lips. I met Xylo’s burning teal gaze. His hands tightened on my hips as his vines slid my thighs farther apart.
“Selena... I am on the last thread of my control. If we continue, we will be permanently bonded. Please tell me that I am yours,” he pleaded.
“Xylo! Yes! Yes! You are mine. I want you. Now, please!” I cried as I jerked in his grasp.
He lifted me, dragging his anther along my folds, the tingle of his aphrodisiac liquid as it soaked into my folds driving me mad with desire. I closed my eyes in ecstasy as I felt him lower me onto his anther, the bristles rubbing along my clit as he pushed inside.
I gasped at the nearly overwhelming sensation. The second head dragged along my walls as he pressed inside, and I moaned in delight.
I rocked against Xylo, driving him deeper. Our hips met as he fully seated within me, and I ground against him.
Xylo groaned.
I felt his anther expanding within me, sealing my entrance, and my arousal spiraled. I clawed at his back, trying to force him deeper still, rocking my pelvis against his, feeling him deep inside me.
Something expanded from within and attached to my cervix. The vines encircling my thighs flutt
ered along my folds as my insides flooded with a prickling sensation. The suction of the petals enhancing the sensation.
One latched onto my clit, and I shattered, lunging forward. My sensitive nipples dragged across his felted chest, and I bit his neck, stifling a scream.
He hissed loudly, and I felt his hot seed fill me, burning. A tingling sensation spread through my lower body, traveling along my spine to my brain.
I heard Xylo’s sharp intake of breath as I felt a pop in my mind. My senses expanded, my pleasure multiplied, and I felt his presence from within.
I removed my mouth from his neck and sighed, licking away the drops of light green blood I’d accidentally drawn. The taste was fruity, slightly tangy on my tongue. Drowsily, I laid my head on his shoulder and smoothed my hands up his back to cup his shoulders from behind, my chest pressed against his. With my eyes still closed, I focused on sifting through all the sensations, sorting through my feelings.
“Xylo. You are mine. Don’t ever doubt that.”
Pressure at my entrance decreased, and I felt his appendage slide free. His vines untangled from around my thighs, only the weight of his hands remaining on my hips. He slid lower in the bed, reclining with me still sprawled across him.
A blanket fell across my back, and I opened my eyes to see his vines tucking us in. They wrapped around the outside of the blanket, cocooning us in warmth.
A single vine reached for the table and turned off the lights.
I gasped, and Xylo jerked beneath me.
“What is it?” he groaned.
The patterns along his exposed body glowed with bioluminescence. His patterns reminded me even more of space in the darkness.
“You glow...” I murmured in awe as my heavy lids drifted closed. The darkness claimed me.
“Talk... tomorrow...”
I slid into a blissful deep sleep, surrounded by warmth.
Chapter Nineteen
Selena
A soft beep woke me.
I grumbled as I snuggled against whatever downy fuzz I’d fallen asleep on, rubbing the side of my face along it.
The beep sounded again.
A flash of memory.
A beep signaling another session on the Yaarkins ship...
Fear flooded me, and I jerked awake.
“Everything is okay, Selena. You are here with me. Someone is paging the door,” Xylo soothed against my ear.
Opening my eyes, I pulled my arms from around his body. I tried to lift off his chest, but the silver blanket was so tightly wrapped around us, I couldn’t move. The lights were still off, but light filtered in from the glass wall overlooking the terrarium.
“Can’t you tell them to go away?”
“If that is what you want. But I need you to get off me first,” Xylo chuckled.
My cheeks burned at the sudden memory of why I was in my current position, and I shifted on his lap.
Xylo untangled his vines from around our blanket cocoon and lifted me with a smile. Laying me back down on the mattress, he tugged the blanket over me with a soft caress.
“I will see who it is and be right back.”
Returning his soft smile, I nodded.
The beep sounded once more as I watched Xylo lock his wristband on and walk out of the bedroom.
I snuggled into the blanket’s silky softness and sighed. So much had happened last night, I wasn’t sure how to process it all.
Clearly, Xylo and I were compatible—I’d been able to trigger and accept his bonding spores. Sex between us had been entirely pleasurable. Much more so than with the father of my children. There had been no pain, and other than me leading the initial foreplay, Xylo had taken care of everything. As I thought back, I realized he hadn’t needed to thrust or move at all, unlike all the texts I had read on the Yaarkin ship or in my dreamscape.
Or during my one painful experience with him.
My stomach rumbled, and I realized I needed to get up and get dressed. I crawled out of the nestbed, dropping the blanket and headed over to the door I hadn’t opened yet. It opened to reveal a large walk-in closet, filled to the brim with clothes and accessories. Wooden chests sat on the closet floor, and I itched to explore the many drawers.
Another time.
At random, I grabbed a pair of black baggy pants and a loose emerald tank. Ignoring the rest, I searched for a pair of shoes. My eyes lighted on a pair of golden slip-ons. I scooped them up and headed to the bathroom through the connecting door. Given my newfound love of water, I was eager to test out the divine bathtub. I set everything on the shelf next to the tub, then paused to let Xylo know what I was planning.
I sought out the golden thread that connected us. Did it seem a little more substantial today? Thicker and shinier, the strand felt more refined, woven tightly throughout my mental shields—the mental shields he had taught me to build in our dreamscape. Following the strand, I connected to Xylo, testing our strengthened link.
“Is it safe to take a bath? Or should I get dressed and come out to you?”
“Kaede was at the door. He is wondering why you have not had breakfast yet. Do you want to bathe before we eat?” his deep mental voice stroked along my nerves, making me shiver.
I looked sadly at the tub, then shrugged. Food first. I was hungry and didn’t want to keep anyone waiting. And I wanted plenty of time to soak and enjoy.
“Let me get dressed. I’ll be right there.”
I washed and dressed quickly, then walked out of the bedroom, snapping my wristband back onto my forearm.
Kaede wore the same uniform as yesterday and stood in the center of the room, whispering to Xylo.
“Good morning!”
Both males turned toward me and a smile crossed Xylo’s face. He seemed different—perhaps happier—today. Was completing our bond the cause of it? I hadn’t realized it would make such a difference to him.
“About time you got up. You shouldn’t be skipping meals,” Kaede fumed.
“What time is it?”
“Past lunch, which is the reason I’m here. I didn’t think babysitting was part of my job description.”
Rolling my eyes, I lifted my chin and stared Kaede down.
“I am twenty-five years old. I am fully capable of taking care of basic functions and knowing my own needs. Plus, I have Xylo—a Master Scholar who knows even more than perhaps I do—to make sure everything’s all right.”
Kaede grunted and looked away. When his eyes lighted on the side of Xylo’s neck, Kaede exclaimed, “What in Fate’s name happened to your neck?”
Xylo had a white mark on the side of his neck.
Stepping closer to get a better view, I stared.
Grabbing Xylo’s chin, I turned his head to the side, using my other hand to trace the mark. When I’d bitten him in my frenzy last night, I had left a mark. It was slightly raised, its ridges white above the charcoal skin. It nestled between two of his blue and green splotches, almost like a constellation nestled in his space-patterned scales.
A beautiful mark on his gorgeous body.
“I did this?” I asked, releasing him.
“You think I am gorgeous?” he countered, shocked.
Standing on my toes, I placed a quick kiss on his soft lips.
“I have mentioned this to you before,” I said before glancing at Kaede, my eyes landing on his visor and drape. “Unlike Kaede, who’s decided no one gets to see anything about him other than his hair and ears.”
My stomach decided to make itself known with a vengeance and growled loudly.
“How about a late lunch? Perhaps at the cafe? I want to see if Odelm is playing.”
The three of us had lunch in the cafe. Sadly, there’d been no sign of Odelm or anyone else I knew. Then Xylo had insisted on a trip to the infirmary. The four healers had inspected me, discussing how to get a more accurate image of the offspring growing inside me. They had explained Circuli had no need of imaging technology since their pregnancies lasted only three days. The sexual organs di
dn’t develop until after they were born. Gender was known from their birth color—females were born a pure white while the males were pitch black.
As they huddled in the corner and Kaede paced, I pondered my pregnancy. They kept referring to offspring, but I wasn’t sure that felt right to me. I wasn’t sure what term to use for whatever was growing inside of me. Children is what I had read about in my Earth studies—but they were not entirely human. Cubs, as the feline Aldawi used? I would need to give it some thought.
Xylo’s voice broke into my thoughts.
“Kaede. Can you come over here?”
Kaede strode over to the group clustered around a display panel and looked at the screen. He tilted his head to the side as the room fell silent. I couldn’t see what they were looking at—were they intentionally blocking it from my view?
My anxiety started to climb.
“What’s wrong?”
Kaede disconnected from the group and walked over to me. Xylo followed while the other three males simply stared at me.
“Congratulations are in order. I was clearly correct about this ship being outdated—or more like, they weren’t fully trained on its equipment.”
“What does that mean?” I squeaked, trying not to panic.
Kaede placed the large, thin, transparent screen they’d used yesterday over my stomach and turned it on. The digital image I’d seen yesterday appeared. Kaede’s black-gloved hand moved across the screen and the image disappeared. A moment later, the room dimmed. A colored three-dimensional projection of my womb appeared above my bed.
“Looks like the size of your litter is three—not two. Your twin sons were blocking your daughter in their initial scans, which detected only two heartbeats. Aldawi identical twins are a rare phenomenon—not much is known about them—but it seems the hearts of your sons beat in unison.”
My mouth hung open as I stared at the projection.
I reached up, trailing my fingers through the image of my unborn children. My other hand rubbed my growing stomach. I blinked. For the first time, the fact I was pregnant—that I was going to have children—hit me hard.