by Ella Maven
Her screams split the dark night, and I quickly yanked her out. She landed on my chest, and I fell onto my back, but I didn’t have time to celebrate because the sand beneath me was sinking too, the hole widening in a desert sinkhole. From beneath us, the ground rumbled, and a sound I never wanted to hear in my entire life bubbled up from the yawning hole. A screech. Teeth clicking. Black eyes surrounded by bright white pupils in a craggy face rose from the hole.
Bloom screamed again as the croyc’s tongue, forked and agile, flicked at us. I smelled the stink of its breath and curled my body just in time, so its venomous saliva sprayed my back and not Bloom.
Gritting my teeth against the pain, I hauled Bloom into my arms and took off across the sand. The croyc thrust itself out of the ground, blotting out the moon and stars before it collapsed on the ground on its belly. Spiked legs lined its rope-like body, and I heard the slicing plunge of them in the sand as it began to chase us.
Bloom was frozen in shock, eyes massive in her face as she stared over my shoulder at a predator that could take us both out with one clack of its mighty jaws. Its head was larger than me, and I knew it was licking its chops to have me for dinner.
Its hisses echoed in my ears, and its hot breath heated my back. Every screech sent my heart plummeting into my stomach, but I didn’t look back. I didn’t stop. All I had going for me was the slight head start. It would catch up to me soon. All I had to do was reach our rocky cave. The croyc wouldn’t be able to get inside.
“Cravus!” Bloom screeched just as I felt a downward gust of air. At the last minute, I turned and thrust up with my shoulder, catching my spiks on the delicate underside of the beast’s jaw. Its screech shook the ground, and its blood coated my back. I took off again at a dead sprint. I could see the rocks now. Almost there. Almost safe.
The croyc struck again, and I dodged at the last minute, but lost my balance. Falling onto my hip, I brought out my weapon. Standing tall as the croyc rallied for another attack, I shoved Bloom toward the rock. “Go get inside, now!”
She didn’t argue. Not a peep. She flung herself through the small opening just as the croyc went in for another kill strike. I dodged again just as I blanked.
The clicks of my scales renewed my confidence, and I didn’t miss the moment the croyc realized it had lost sight of its prey. It threw back its head on a mighty screech before righting its entire body frantically, no doubt looking for me.
I ran at the croyc and swung my weapon, once again striking it on the underside of its jaw where it was already injured. The pained scream hurt my ears, and I just narrowly avoided getting crushed by its head when it slammed it down into the sand. I didn’t hesitate and lifted the spiked tip of my weapon high above my head before bringing it down on the animal’s skull. I didn’t stop—pounding my weapon again and again until the croyc lay twitching in its death throes. My arms ached, my back stung, and my shoulder was in agony. I glanced to see one spik had broken off, the wound pulsing blood. I staggered and went down to one knee just as I could no longer hold the blank. My scales clicked, and from behind me, Bloom let out an inhuman wail.
“Stay inside,” I called, but it was too late. She was at my side, crying and tugging on me, dragging me toward our rock cave, which was a good thing. My legs weren’t working right, and my head spun. I stumbled inside and collapsed to my knees as she scrambled to renew our small fire. A small pool of water was in the back of the cave, and she wet strips of fabric to clean me up as I sat slumped against a rock, watching as the flames made shadows against the opposite wall. Skags skittered around me, rubbing his furry head against my hand.
“Sorry I got hurt,” I muttered.
“Shut up.” She was still crying as she fussed over me, cleaning my wounds and hissing over what I was sure were venom burns on my back. “This is all my fault. Shit, shit, shit.”
“Bloom, it’s okay—”
“It’s not okay!” she yelled. “I must have sleep-walked, but it was for a stupid reason. So stupid! I should have been focused on now. This. Instead, I was reaching for the past when the past doesn’t matter.”
I wasn’t able to fully focus on her words. “What are you saying?”
She sniffled. “I’m saying that I don’t care about Lily. Or my previous life. I care about what makes me happy now. What I want in this life on this planet because this is the one I am living now.” She let out a little sob as she swiped at a cut on my chest. “Instead you had to come into my dreams and yell at me. And now you’re hurt.”
“Sure, but now I get to go home and brag I killed a croyc. Do you know how jealous Bosa is going to be?”
Despite the tear tracks on her face, she let out a blurt of laughter before swiping her nose with the back of her hand. “Are you in a lot of pain?” She bundled her cloak into a ball. “Here, lay on this.”
“Bloom.” I laid a hand on her arm. “I’ll heal fast. I just need to rest for a while.”
With a set jaw and bright eyes, she nodded fiercely. “I’ll stay awake.”
“You don’t—”
“I can’t go back to sleep now.” She nibbled her lip. “I don’t want to go back to sleep.” With her dagger gripped in her hand, she crept to the front of the cave, Skags on her heels. “I’ll keep watch. You heal that big body of yours.”
I didn’t even get a chance to answer. My eyes closed and in moments I was out.
Bloom
Cravus’s arm tightened around my waist, and he exhaled roughly, his breath tickling my scalp.
I was wide awake. I wasn’t lying when I said I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I’d waited at the opening of the cave with a dagger for a long while, wrinkling my nose at the stink of the dead croyc. The body drew some attention from scavengers, but nothing invaded our space, focused solely on the easy pickings.
Eventually, the cold of the night got to me, and my fingers could barely grip the dagger anymore. So, I retreated to where Cravus slept on his side and pressed myself against his front. The sun was rising now, creeping across the floor of the cave inch by inch. Skags kept chasing the sliver of light, settling his furry body on the warmed rock.
I rolled over to check on Cravus’s injuries. He’d been right—his body healed fast. Already his damaged spik showed new growth, and his cuts were now mere scars instead of open wounds. I would never forget every injury he had sustained since I met him. From getting his ear shot off, to the laser fire, to his arm, and now all the battle wounds from fighting the croyc. He’d endured all that to protect me.
I no longer felt the empty hole in my chest and head from my lack of memories. Lily in my dreams told me to let her go and to focus on the present. I’d get to know myself as I was now. I’d set my sights on a future with Cravus.
His lips moved and his eyes blinked open slowly. They were unfocused and a little dull at first, but once he realized how close I was, he quickly grew alert. “Are you okay?”
“I’m great.”
He let out a groan and stretched his arms over his head before scratching at a few scars on his chest. “Any activity last night?”
“Quiet except for a few scavengers.”
He nodded. “I should have moved the carcass. Sorry about that.”
“Nothing was threatening.”
He rolled back onto his side and ran a hand down the side of my head. “Did you fall asleep?”
I mocked gasped. “What? Of course not. I was on duty, and I took it seriously.”
He laughed, a husky sound that made my core clench. “And now you’re laying with me, not that I’m complaining.”
“It was getting cold.”
“Oh, so you only use me for warmth?” His voice took on a mock petulant tone. “I see how it is.”
“Cravus?”
He rubbed at his eyes distractedly. “Yeah?”
I gripped his face, and he blinked at me. Words failed me in that moment as he watched me with sleep-roughened eyes. His fingers flexed around my waist, and I was acutely aware of how
much larger he was than me. There were many times I had been able to tell that he’d had to work had to be gentle with me so he didn’t hurt me, from the way he gripped my hand as we walked to the way he hauled me into his arms. It had been evident last night when he’d bodily tossed me toward the cave entrance.
Even though it had taken my heart and head a little time to understand—my body had always known that I was attracted to Cravus. The way my blood heated when he looked at me, and the clench of my core when his hand clutched mine.
“Bloom?” he asked on a rasp.
I shifted closer and touched our lips together. The act must have surprised him, because for a moment he didn’t move, not until I angled my head and licked at the seam of his lips.
I couldn’t remember doing this before, but my body seemed to know as I arched my back and hooked a leg over his waist.
“Bloom,” he said again on a pained groan as his fingers dug into my hips.
His tongue sucked on mine, and I bucked into him, my desire rocketing from minor to full force in mere seconds. “Cravus.”
“Bloom, we—”
“I know,” I panted against his lips as I ground onto the bulge in his pants. “You explained it to me. This is me telling you that I want the bond with you.”
He swallowed. “What if you get your memories back, and you change your mind?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. Those memories will be just that—memories. This is now. And I know in my heart if I had someone like you in my life, I wouldn’t forget you—cross-galaxy travel or not. I would never, ever forget you.”
His lips parted on a soft exhale, and it seemed like every bone in my body went liquid as he rolled me onto my back and stretched his body on top of mine, careful to hold his weight off my chest.
He kissed me again, deeply, licking into all the corners of my mouth as his fingers roved my body. He undressed me gently but efficiently, but I didn’t miss the way his hands shook as if he was holding himself back.
“You can let go,” I murmured, feeling a little out of my head with desire. “Give me all of you, Cravus.”
With a soft growl, he sat upright and pulled me into his lap. While I was naked, he still wore his pants, and the rough material rubbed on the inside of my legs. I squirmed as he flicked his tongue against my nipple before sucking the hard bead inside.
I threw back my head, and I felt the ghost of my long hair brush my back. I’d done this before—my body remembered, but the pulsing in my core, the constant ache of release felt wholly new somehow. It’d never been like this—I knew that with all my soul. It would never be like this with anyone but Cravus.
He tugged down the front of his pants, and I sucked in a breath at the sight of his hard cock. I’d seen it before but knowing now that this was going to go inside me in the very near future made it seem impossibly larger. The white lines snaking around his shaft rippled and pulsed. All I could think about was what that would feel like against my inner walls.
With his jaw clenched tight, he squeezed below the head of his cock until the color went a light gold. “I need to be inside of you before my cock cap flares too much. I’m sorry, Bloom. This is… too much for me. I spent all this time imagining what I’d do if you let me touch you, and now that your scent is already surrounding me, I can barely hang on.”
I lifted up on my knees and nudged his cock against my clit before sliding forward until he reached my entrance. “Take me, then.”
Growling, he slammed me down onto his cock, and I felt the full force of his strength as his massive head surged inside of me. I cried out at the sudden invasion while Cravus’s entire body shuddered. He pressed me against his chest, unmoving, while he heaved giant breaths. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I can’t—”
“It’s okay.” I wiggled my hips, marveling at the way his cock seemed to be alive inside of me, from the pulsing of his marks to the slowly rotating cock cap. The frills fluttered against my inner walls, and I whimpered. “Fuck, that feels good.”
He shuddered again, and his arms loosened from around me. The veins in his neck were livid. “I need to move, kotche.” His voice was so deep I could barely make out his words. “Let me move inside of you.”
“Move.” My voice was a squeak. “Please.”
His hips snapped up, and my breath left my lungs. At first, he was nothing but brute strength, slamming into me until I could barely see straight, but then he began thrust on a roll, his cock pistoning in and out of me on a rhythm that had me seeing stars. I could no longer control the words coming out of my mouth.
He let out another growl before spinning me on his cock, so my back was to his front, legs spread over his thighs. One hand at my throat, the other working my clit, he continued fucking me. His lips played with the rim of my ear before he nipped my lobe. “I’m so full,” I moaned as I reached back to grip his short hair.
“So pretty, my Bloom. Taking my cock like you were meant to.” The blunt edge of a claw prodded my clit and I cried out. “You like being full of me?”
“Oh fuck, yes.” My words were slurred, my tongue too thick in my mouth.
“I’ll always keep you full. Everyone will know that I keep my mate dripping with my seed.”
His words were like sparking currents directly to my clit.
“This is who you are, Bloom. You’re mine, just like I’m yours until the day I die.”
I bucked against his hand as a rod of pleasure slammed down my spine to explode in my core. I screamed, and Cravus growled. His cock seemed to swell inside of me, and the cock cap spun rapidly against my inner walls before I felt one more pulse of pressure before his hips stuttered.
He released inside of me, and I could feel the warmth of him filling me from the inside out until I glanced down to see the rest leaking out to spill down the root of his shaft and low-hanging bronze balls.
For a moment, neither of us moved. I turned and pressed my forehead against his neck as I sought to catch my breath. His matz colors shifted almost violently, glowing and pulsing across his scales.
His hand slid up to cradle my stomach. “Kotche,” he whispered, and that one word sent a shiver down my spine. I clenched around him, and he let out a gasp before slowly lifting me off his cock, which hadn’t seemed to soften much. I turned in his lap to face him. When he speared me with his intense eyes, I nearly lost my breath. “You honor me, Bloom. I admired you from the moment you snapped your teeth at me in your cage. I knew you were one of a kind. I knew our paths would cross again. I didn’t know we’d end up on the same path together, but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”
I fluttered my lips across his strong cheekbones. “I was terrified and alone except for Skags. I dreamt of you after we met, before the ambush.”
“You did? That soon?”
I nodded. “That soon. We were intimate. And you said you knew my name. There was another warrior there, and a human woman with him.”
“You probably dreamed of Bosa and Karina,” He smoothed the swoop of hair off my forehead. “You’ll meet them soon.”
“Are we almost at our destination?”
“Yes, another rotation or two and we should make it to the council to seek sanctuary and passage home.”
Instead of dreading each day, I suddenly felt like I was on the beginning of an adventure. Dangerous and scary, but full of orgasms at least. “So, we are bonded now?”
“You are my linyx.” He opened his mouth as if to say more but hesitated.
“What?”
“There is another possible side effect to our bond.”
That didn’t sound good. “Oh no. Am I going to grow scales? Is my hair going to fall out?”
He huffed a short laugh. “No. And I’m not sure it’s possible for all Kaluma and human linyx bonds but…” He blew out a breath and inhaled as if gearing up for a big reveal. “Karina can blank.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“She can blank. Camouflage herself fully. Just like us.”
That was not what I expected him to say. “She can?”
“None of us knew it was possible, and she still can’t explain how she blanked the first time, but she did. I saw it with my own eyes. When her and Bosa escaped from her former captors and crash landed on our planet, Bosa was injured. She guarded over him, completely camouflaged.”
I glanced down at my hands and wiggled my fingers. “I have no idea how that’s possible.”
“We’re not sure either.”
“Will you be disappointed if I… can’t do that?”
He huffed. “Never. Don’t even think that. I just wanted you to be aware.”
“How do you blank?” I was going to think about this nonstop now.
“I just… do. It’s like moving a body part. My scales click over and that’s that.”
I frowned. “That doesn’t help me much. How can I tell my body to do something it’s never done?”
“Bloom don’t worry about it. I don’t want you to blank anyway.” His grin widened. “I like to see you at all times.”
I laughed. “Well, if you put it that way.”
His hands spanned my rib cage, and his thumbs rubbed the underside of my breasts. I sucked in a breath, feeling my core heat again and knowing that if we didn’t get some clothes on, we’d never leave. Already Skags sat with his back to us, but his ears were turned back, clearly annoyed we weren’t paying him any attention. “Cravus.”
He swallowed thickly. “Right, we should go.”
“Yes.”
He made no motion to get up and either did I. His jaw ground. “Right now.”
“Hmm mmm.” I leaned in and brushed our noses together.
With a groan he threw me on my back, and we most definitely did not leave the cave as early as we wanted to.
Nine
Bloom
“Sometimes I worry I’ll lose my memories again,” I confided to Cravus. “My recent ones. The ones of you.” We were tucked under a heavy fur, me laying on top of him with my head rested on his chest. His fingers ran up and down my spine.