by Mary Auclair
Arlen’s vest.
A fire was glowing two feet from where she slept and over it, two large, bird-looking creatures were roasting on a spit. Her eyes locked with two pale blue circles reflecting the low light on the other side of the fire. Arlen was staring at her as she straightened up while he tended to the food.
“What is this?” She rubbed her temple and smacked her lips. Her stomach came roaring to life as the smell of food became stronger as Arlen rotated the birds over the flames. “Where are we?”
“I found a cave on the top north side of the mountain.” Arlen’s voice was gruff, but there was no anger in it.
“You found it?” Ava chuckled incredulously. “How?”
“An Eok warrior’s training is more than just weapons and fighting skills. Survival in any environment is integral part of what makes an Eok who he is. Finding the smell of a cave is not that hard when you know what to look for.”
The answer wasn’t really an answer, but Ava had nothing to counter, so she didn’t. Instead her eyes went to the plump bird creatures roasting in front of her.
“How did you find these?”
“There’s plenty of game in these woods.” The corner of Arlen’s mouth lifted and the smile made his face softer in the light of the fire. “When you know how to hunt it.”
“And you do know, Mister Big-Blue-And-Mighty, don’t you?”
“I do.” Arlen chuckled and something between them lifted. Something that had been heavy and oppressive, but somehow, in this dark, cold cave, it was gone. They could just be together. Even the silence didn’t feel heavy, it just felt comfortable.
“Now eat.” Arlen pulled the roasted meat off the fire. “You need to replenish the energy you lost.”
Ava took what he offered her, nearly burning her fingers on the crackling skin, then bit into it. The meat was every bit as delicious as it smelled, and she was more grateful for it than she had ever been. She ate and ate, not looking up, until she sighed with contentment.
Then she saw Arlen, still holding the second bird.
“What are you waiting for? You should eat. Unless this whole thing was a complicated plan to poison me, of course. In that case, you got me good!”
Arlen laughed, and his face transformed. She had been wrong before. His face wasn’t all harsh angles and hardness. There was something more. A softness around the mouth, a smile at the corners of the eyes. Arlen might be humorless and cold now, but he hadn’t always been. There were still traces of another time in him, in the way his face moved when he laughed.
“You really are a little warrior,” he said after his laughter died down. “Now sleep. You can eat the other one in the morning. You need it more than I do.”
“But aren’t you hungry?” She stared, incredulous, as Arlen carefully placed the bird—still on the spit it had been cooked on—high up on the wall in a crevice between the rocks, away from any animal who might wander in, lured by the promise of an easy meal. “You carried me halfway to the top of a mountain.”
“It’s not a case of how hungry I am, but of who needs nourishment the most.” Arlen smiled at her. It was the first time he’d looked at her like that: not wanting anything from her, not demanding submission or obedience. “You need it more. I can go about two weeks without feeling the effects of lack of nourishment. You, my Little Warrior, cannot.”
As her stomach was filled with food, Ava’s mind went back to their current problem. Her gaze wandered to the opening of the cave, from which a frigid wind blew in. The sky was like black velvet, covering the land in darkness.
“What’s the plan to get into the Vault?” She brought her hands over her arms, rubbing the bare skin. Despite the fire, she was still cold.
“While you slept, I went for a recon as well as my hunt.” Arlen’s eyes went to her arms and the goosebumps that covered her skin. He swallowed, and a cloud wiped the humor from his face. “There is nothing for miles around. This part of Aveyn is completely empty.”
“But I saw a transport vehicle before losing control of mine,” Ava said, remembering the moments before she lost control. “I’m sure of it.”
A quick burst of wind blew inside the cave, frigid and powerful. Ava’s entire body was enclosed in it and she shivered violently.
Arlen’s quick eyes missed nothing. “You are as intelligent as you are infuriating.” His tone was slightly reproachful. “You can’t follow directions, and you can’t admit to any weakness, can you?”
Her heart squeezed almost painfully and her stomach made a somersault as he walked toward her. Her mouth was like sandpaper as Arlen came to sit behind her, then grabbed her shoulders. His hands were big enough that his fingers wrapped around them completely and reached to the front of her chest, just above her breasts.
“What are you doing?” There was a tremor in her voice that she couldn’t control. Suddenly, she was completely aware of his tall, powerful male body pressed at her back. A female need simmered below the surface and Ava squeezed her legs together as a warmth that had nothing to do with the fire spread between her thighs.
“You need to keep warm,” he answered, his breath fanning the side of her face. “You won’t last the night otherwise, and making the fire any bigger risks exposing our presence.”
Ava stared at the fire, its heat radiating on her face, and Arlen’s spreading at her back. Her body filled with delicious sensations as she smiled, anticipation of what was coming already leaving her tingling in all the right places. She turned her head to meet his gaze and was lost in two pools of a blue so pale it was almost lost in the white.
“Lie down, Ava.”
Arlen’s voice was stern and there was something heavy and dangerous in his eyes. She obeyed, her body answering the domination in his call, arousal spreading under her skin as she settled down on the mattress of leaves. Arlen’s leather vest was under her head, his scent mixing with the earthy smell, making her ache to touch him. Behind her, he settled down, his large body covering hers, his arm coming around her waist.
Adrenaline coursed through her veins at the physical contact and Ava started to pant. Her breaths came short and shallow as a familiar wetness spread between her legs. Arlen’s arm moved and his hand came to rest on her stomach, his long, strong fingers digging into her flesh. As soon as he touched her a flood of sensations ran inside through her and a small, tortured sound left her lips.
That sound seemed to rock through Arlen as well. A low, deep growl reverberated at the base of her neck. His hot breath fanned her skin, and she molded her body against his. A hot, impossibly hard bulge pressed against her ass as she wriggled her hips into it.
Arlen’s hand moved lower until he cupped that place between her legs that ached and begged for more. Sensations filled her as he tested her arousal, his fingers digging inside, finding only wetness and need there.
She moved, reaching behind herself and closing her hand over the width of a muscular thigh. She wanted—no, she needed—to touch him.
“After all that disobedience, you’re playing a dangerous game.” Arlen’s voice was hoarse, his lips just grazing her skin as she moaned involuntarily. “You have to be sure you want to play.”
Ava twisted, turning around in his tight embrace.
She locked gazes with him, and it nearly made her falter. His face wasn’t cold and controlled anymore. It was full of an all too male hunger, unbridled and bold. His eyes glowed with a light from within, pale like a full moon.
“Oh,” she said, “but I do want to play.”
Arlen
Her body was below his, all female softness and yielding flesh. His seed stem pulsed with need, the ache low in his belly. He wanted to bury himself in her depth, feel that hot wetness quiver around him as she screamed her pleasure.
But tonight, most of all, he wanted to make her his. Because he had almost lost her, and because, for the first time in his life, he had been truly afraid. The need to claim her body and share pleasure with her was an overwhelming impulse—to
make sure she was still there, unhurt, whole.
He bent his head and she whined as he his fangs nipped at her throat. His tongue lapped over her jugular vein, the pheromones on her skin making his seed stem grow harder, the need for release becoming a jabbing pain in his groin.
But he needed more than release. He needed something she had never given him. He needed Ava to surrender herself completely, to trust him with her body and her soul.
He was starving for her moans, for her skin and the sweet female essence between her legs. He needed her to be his like he needed the bones in his body, the breath in his lungs. Ava was everything.
And he would make her his tonight like she had never been before.
Wordlessly, he pulled away from her. He grabbed her synthetic cotton sweater, pulling it roughly above her chest, then throwing it away, exposing two opalescent white breasts to his view. He growled, the Mating Venom dripping in a steady flow on his tongue, whispering its intoxicating suggestion inside his mind, pushing him to follow the instincts written in his genes, the male domination that wanted to bend her over and rut her like the animal he was.
The beast was unleashed tonight, and Arlen welcomed it.
He bent over her fragile, supple flesh. Ava’s tiny cry of surprise was laden with fear as his mouth closed on her left breast, his fangs just past the point of breaking the skin. The taste of her blood entered his mouth and he lapped at the tiny wounds, mixing it with the Mating Venom as she quivered beneath him. He could hear the crazed beat of her heart, full of arousal but also fear. He knew he should stop, make sure she wasn’t terrified by him, but he was past the point of stopping.
His mouth freed her breast and he licked the tiny trail of blood from her skin, flicking his tongue over her nipple. The sudden sensation made her squirm and he grinned against her flesh.
“So sensitive, so responsive.”
She didn’t answer, but her hips bucked up to grind against his, the scent of her arousal growing stronger. Her eyes were closed and her mouth hung open as she surrendered to the sensations.
He loved each of even her tiniest reactions to his touch, but he wanted more. He wanted so much more.
Arlen trailed his mouth down her body, licking and nipping, pausing just enough to massage the Mating Venom into her skin as he made his way down to her navel.
Her body quivered as he pushed her pants down her shapely legs. As soon as she was free of her last item of clothing, she spread her legs, her eyes set on him like two purple beacons of pure temptation. Her scent hit him strongly and he gazed at the two folds of skin at the center of those milky thighs. Wetness made her soft skin silky and glistening. Arlen’s mouth watered, saliva mixing with the remnants of the Mating Venom.
He lowered himself over her, grabbing her knees as she began to pant in anticipation. He parted the lips of her sex, revealing the pink, engorged flesh inside.
“I am going to feast on you until you cry for mercy.”
His tongue lapped at the delicious wetness between those soft lips, then he sucked, hard, on that tiny bundle of nerves that had the power to give her such pleasure. Ava cried out as the Mating Venom in his saliva entered her bloodstream through her hyper-sensitive flesh.
He kept sucking and licking, lapping at her essence, the taste of her making him wilder by the second. The Mating Venom whispered louder and louder as Ava began to writhe beneath him, until it felt more like a shout.
He wanted to take her as rough and as feral as his feelings for her were. Make her his until she could never even think of leaving. Until she was spent and sated, purring at his side.
One last time, Arlen slid his tongue from her entrance to her bundle of nerves, then sucked hard. At the same time, he pushed two fingers inside her, pressing on the other side of her bud.
Ava screamed, her cry of pleasure echoing off the stone ceiling as her greedy channel squeezed and sucked him in deeper. Her climax was long and hard and she screamed for a long time, until she fell silent.
He looked up to see her staring at the ceiling, her eyes lost in a daze and her chest heaving shallowly in the aftermath of her release.
He pulled away from her quivering flesh, licking her essence off his fingers.
“I’m going to take you as roughly as I wanted to take you the first time.”
He grabbed Ava’s hips, then flipped her over. She lay on her stomach as he raked her body with his eyes, from the plump shape of her ass to the slender curves of her shoulders.
“Mine. Ava, you are mine.” Arlen brought his body over hers, his large form covering her like an animal, his seed stem pushing between her thighs as she wriggled her ass higher to give him better access. “Don’t ever forget it. You are mine till the Midnight God separates us, and then, even in the Night Lands, I will find you. I will always find you.”
He thrust his hips forward, piercing her body with a single stroke. Ava cried out as she stretched to accommodate his large member, but he gave her no respite.
Arlen withdrew completely, then pierced her again, embedding himself deeper, faster. She tried to move, to brace herself against his punishing blows, but he snarled and she stopped.
He felt the feral grin on his face as she submitted to his lust. His hands rested on her hips as he lifted them up to give him better access. He thrust into her again, and again, no longer master of his own impulse.
Ava panted, her hands flat on the mattress of leaves, her red hair catching the light from the fire as he fucked her roughly. Each stroke of his seed stem brought him closer to the total possession he wanted, each thrust making her tight channel clench and quiver.
He wanted her to scream again. He needed her to.
His hands went to her stomach, then he lifted her so she was straddling him, her ass tight against his hips as he thrust into her. He held her close, one arm against her chest, going up to her throat. He wrapped his fingers around her throat, delighted at the fast, erratic beat of her pulse.
He could feel her channel quivering, squeezing him as she neared another, more powerful release.
His free hand went to her front and he brushed over her nerve bundle. Ava cried out at the direct contact and he knew all he had to do was rub it and she would come for him.
But not yet.
Arlen kept rutting her as she lay in his arms, powerless, suspended in his lap as he fucked her deeper and faster. The release built inside him, pulsing from his seed sack, inevitable now.
Just before it came, he rubbed her tiny nub with his thumb, rough and fast.
Ava screamed mindlessly as her channel pulsated to the rhythm of her ecstasy. Then all thought deserted him as he thrust inside her, rutting her with a soulless purpose, his seed stem impaling her as he lifted her up and down.
He roared as he came, the hot, powerful jet of semen spilling out of him and into her, coming in tandem with her as she finally collapsed in his arms.
Arlen put her down gently and Ava panted, curled up on the bed of leaves, her face flushed and her expression blank. Finally, after a long time, she rolled onto her back and looked up at him. Her pristine purple eyes settled on him and his gut twisted with an unfamiliar emotion.
Suddenly, he was ashamed. He had rutted her like a beast, using her body roughly for his own pleasure. He didn’t deserve her.
“That was… different.” Her mouth stretched in a sexy smile.
“I’m so sorry.” Arlen stared at her in shock, his gaze moving from her flushed cheeks to her hips, where red marks the shape of his hands were rapidly darkening. “I hurt you.”
“What are you talking about?” Ava laughed, the sound pure and crystal-like. “You did the exact opposite of hurting me!”
Arlen ran his hand over the curve of her hip, his mind oblivious to her reassuring words. Because he knew. He knew what he had done.
“I rutted you.” Shame burned through him and he lowered his head. “I should never have lost control like I did.”
Laugher rang above him and Arlen looked
up sharply.
“You don’t get it, Big-Blue-and-Mighty? You could never hurt me. You told me so yourself.”
Arlen watched her face for signs of deceit. For signs of resentment, signs that she was holding back her true feelings, but found none.
Ava was telling the truth. Arlen found he couldn’t talk. All he could do was watch her as she shook her head, still laughing.
Then he gathered her in his lap and held her against him. He savored each beat of her heart against his own, and suddenly he understood. He understood what that ripping in the fabric of his very soul was, what that terror that had invaded his body and mind when he’d thought he had lost her meant.
It meant he wasn’t just linked to her by the Mating Venom. He loved her with every fiber of his being, with the blood in his veins and the breath in his lungs.
Ava made his life whole in a way he hadn’t thought possible for so long, he didn’t even remember what hope felt like. Now that she was in his life, he had found something it had always lacked. A meaning, a purpose other than duty.
She was his reason to live, his reason to fight.
And as long as he had breath in his lungs, he would not fail her.
“When I saw your transport fall into that lake, I thought I was going to see you die.” Arlen spoke in a low voice, studying the elegant line of her jaw, the way her lower lip was just a tad too full for her upper lip. Perfect. Everything about Ava was just perfect in his eyes. “The thought of losing you… death would have been a sweeter fate.”
Ava locked gazes with him then. Emotions passed between them that didn’t need words, that could not be expressed by words.
“What were you doing out there?” Ava frowned slightly, then shook her head in disbelief. “How did you find me?”
“Some girl named Edmila harassed my men until they contacted me aboard the Mantrilla flagship.” Arlen bent over her throat and nipped her exquisite, silky skin. “I rushed back and looked everywhere for you. It was by only sheer luck that you didn’t think to deactivate the locating chip in Knut’s transport. I can’t even think what would have happened if you’d known how to deactivate it.”