by V. K. Ludwig
“I need to spill.” Needed release to get myself off the edge of the rut, so I thrust into her mouth. “Make me come, Lia. Take my seed.”
Her lips hardened further, bumping down my ridges before they pulled back up with a pop…
… and disappeared.
Lia scrambled to her feet and left the shower, while her lips curled into a taunting grin I wanted to maul. She backed away, each of her steps so fucking deliberate the veins along my arms swelled, and each of my exhales carried a warning snort.
I bared my fangs, muscles already tightening in preparation to chase her. “Get back in here.”
Lia’s lips curled higher as she held my gaze. “Come and get me.”
Eleven
Lia
Zerim’s growl shattered from the tiled walls first before it battered into my bones.
Heart pounding, I turned on my wet heels and ran into the room. He chased right after me. Heavy footsteps vibrated the floor underneath me as I rounded the sleeping pod.
The tip of his horn scraped the doorframe when he stepped through, but he didn’t seem to notice. With the furniture between us, he came to an abrupt halt, giving me a good look at what I’d gotten myself into.
Lips peeled over his fangs, chest heaving, his pupils so blown I couldn’t make out the purple of his irises anymore… even I could tell he was in a full-blown rut. Anything else would have been disappointing.
One sidestep toward the lounging area, and he snarled in warning. He rolled his shoulders, and a vertebra cracked in his neck at the motion. Dark gray veins lined the sides of his neck, his arms, and his legs, raised and thick.
His tail flicked when he rounded the sleeping pod, trapping me between wall and mattress. “Enu gra adem.”
A strange sensation swirled beneath my sternum as if something at my core recognized the dark and dangerous words. But I didn’t, and I took a step back. That was my first mistake.
The second one was how I yelped when he suddenly gripped my arm and pulled me against him. His hum immediately resonated the room, smoothing away all doubts that this wasn’t what I wanted. Because I did.
My feet left the floor. With one arm wrapped around my waist, Zerim carted me around as if I weighted nothing. My knees sunk into the mattress, the soft fluff of the fur that brushed over my legs so at odds with that palm pressing against my neck.
Only when my sternum hit the mattress, ass high in the air, did he stop plying me into position. Soft and smooth, the head of his cock nudged against my wet entrance when he positioned himself there.
My breathing shortened. Nothing but little pants into the fur, and I might have whimpered when he gripped my hips with crushing strength. I’d wanted this, yes, but I had no idea he would be this out of it.
When his crown parted my lower lips, I dug my nails into the furs. “Easy, Zerim.”
His advance stalled.
He hissed behind me.
But his hum returned louder, deeper, and richer than before, and his grip eased some as he said, “Easy.”
For a moment, I thought I trembled because my legs, hips, arms… everything shook. But my mind was at ease, lured into a sense of safety by his hum. Zerim was the one who shook, as if that kind, gentle, caring male beneath the rut restrained his instincts.
He rocked inside me an inch at a time, and a deep, masculine groan accompanied each thrust even as his hum continued. Whenever I gasped at the demand of his thickness, his hum mellowed. Whenever I moaned at the pleasure of how his ridges worked along my walls, his hum deepened as if in reward.
Zerim stroked in and out of me like this for a while, grunting each time his knot hit my pussy. With each thrust, he buried himself deeper, the fullness it brought overwhelming at first, but fuck, the way he stuffed me so completely was nothing short of bliss.
“Lia,” he choked out behind me, rolling his hips each time he fucked me to the hilt, moving my clit so perfectly little spasms flicked around it. “Enu gra adem.”
I pushed myself onto all fours and arched my back, taking him deeper. “I don’t know what that means.”
Leaning over, he reached one arm underneath me and kneaded my breast. He tugged on my nipple, pulled it, pinched it, all while he kissed my shoulder blades.
“You… like it?” He bit out each syllable, the words so harsh it was clear it cost him true effort to speak.
“I love it.”
His fangs scratched over my neck, then he straightened once more, pushing to the very end of me, where he remained for a second. “Easy?”
“Yes, you’re still going easy.”
That earned me a grunt.
When I glanced back at him, his taut expression robbed me of breath for a second. A fine layer of sweat glistened above his white brows, between his pecs, and those dibs across his stomach. He hadn’t asked me if he was still gentle, but if I still needed him to be.
My pulse accelerated, and I straightened my arms, bracing for what I was about to unleash. “Don’t hold back. I’ll tell you if you’re too rough.”
He drew his hips back, then thrust hard and deep just as his hands pulled me onto his cock. There he kept me, his torso leaning back slightly as he used my weight as leverage. Quick pulsations of his hips shook me to the core.
Zerim fucked me harder, hungrier, while his hum fought his groans for dominance at the back of his throat. He rolled his hips, gripped my ass, and pounded inside me with savage strength, the male driven by impulse and instinct.
My insides tingled at the rawness of it, that urgency I spotted in his dark eyes each time I looked back at him. His jawline was taut, his brows furrowed, his features constantly shifting from pleasure to agony and back again.
Something flicked in my periphery.
His tail swished through the air.
The end slapped against my side just as a primal shout ripped from the back of Zerim’s throat. His cock throbbed inside me as he came, each spurt accompanied by a struck of his tail.
“Enu gra adem,” he roared, followed by an angry, “Fuck!”
Zerim withdrew, wrapped his tail around my middle, and flipped me onto by back. He immediately lowered himself between my legs, his cock still as erect but his knot not as severely swollen anymore.
He pushed inside, and his lips parted as if in awe over how I moaned at the renewed intrusion. “Beautiful.”
Stroke after stroke, he slid in and out of me with an impulsive rhythm, alternating between deep, hard, and gentle. But no matter which one it was, he always rolled his hips when we met, working my clit until it throbbed in warning.
Zerim’s tail tightened around me just as he gasped. “You would be mine.”
I didn’t know what that meant either, but it resonated deep within me. As did each smack of his lips as he kissed my jawline, my cheeks, the bridge of my nose, the corners of my eyes.
Gradually, his pace quickened again, and moans drowned between our lips as we kissed. I braced my feet against the fur, lifting my pelvis slightly to meet his every beat, his every movement. When my pulse throbbed so violently I arched my feet, I stopped my movements as if to delay my orgasm. It rolled over me anyway, pebbling my skin, hardening my nipples, and stalling my next breath.
Zerim followed, once more growing thicker and longer inside me but he didn’t seem to notice. He held my gaze, lips peeled over his fangs. I cried out. He hissed.
His hum followed, accompanying those final movements where we rubbed against each other until they died away. We stilled in each other’s arms, but only for a moment.
“I want to...” He frowned for a second as if unsure of the word. “Want to wash you.”
I grinned. “Jal’zar males aren’t the most coherent when rutting, huh?”
“No,” he said on a laugh and wrapped my legs around his waist before he lifted me up. “But I tried.”
And he’d done so well, stopping himself when I asked. “I wasn’t sure how aware you were. When I asked you to go easy? You clearly heard that.”
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“I heard everything.” A voice command reactivated the shower, and he stepped underneath the gentle trickle. “Every moan. Every gasp. When you cried out.”
“And now the rut is gone?”
“For now.” He lowered me down until feet met wet tile. Drops of water ran down my body, mixing with his cum that dripped out of me in abundance. No surprise there. His knot was barely noticeable now. “But I could rut you again in a little bit.” His fingers massaged my scalp and he grinned. “Do you want me to?”
The soap dispenser put a blob onto my palm, which I spread across his beautiful upper body. “I might.”
He nuzzled my hair before he soaped it. “Did you like it?”
“Yes.” So much, the thought of leaving ached even more now. “For a virgin, you sure knew how to move.”
There might have been a trace of pink on his gray cheeks, but that didn’t keep him from pulling his lips into a sexy smirk. “The rut showed me. And um…” His lips pressed into a slash as he tapped his sternum. “Something in here.”
As if on instinct, my hand wandered to the same spot where something had swirled beneath my sternum earlier. “Zerim?”
He hummed right then.
“That’s not what I was going to ask for,” I said, and wrapped my arms around his neck, allowing myself a moment where I just stared into his gorgeous eyes. “What does enu gra adem mean?”
His chest stopped its expansion mid-inhale, and he stroked his thumb over my lower lip as he said, “You are mine.”
Twelve
Zerim
I clasped a strand of Lia’s damp hair between my fingers, crossing it over the other as I braided her hair the way I usually did mine. With no horns to get caught on, I could have finished this within minutes.
I took my time instead.
Something we had little left of.
She sat between my legs on the pod, knees clasped against her chest, naked and the most beautiful creature in all the galaxies. “Did you figure out why you saw me in your first vision?”
“No.” A kiss against the nape of her back, then I tied a leather around the end of her braid. “I’m not even sure anymore if I care.”
I climbed underneath the fur and lay down, and Lia was quick to snuggle herself against me. Her head rested on my chest, the scent of vasani blossoms from the soap almost bothersome with how it diluted the remnants of her heat.
“I don’t want to leave,” she whispered, and the tip of her nose brushed over my chest as she shook her head. “Do you believe in fate? You never told me.”
“I was born shimid, Lia, and therefore believe that Mekara guides us all. The goddess decides our fates, and she shows herself when we trail off or need a little nudge.”
Solid explanation, until she asked, “What’s your fate?”
“I don’t know.”
I just knew that I wanted her to be part of it, but that was wishful thinking. My mother had stung my father with her tailclaw and hummed for him. Both claimed they shared zovazay because of it, but the Warlords rejected the possibility and so, nobody ever spoke of it. Perhaps soulbonds between Jal’zar and those from Earth were possible. Not that it improved my predicament.
My eyes followed the movement of my tail as I stroked the tip around Lia’s shoulder blades. Each caress brought back memories of how I’d rutted her, some clouded, but the words I’d spoken rang painfully clear at the back of my mind.
Enu gra adem.
You are mine.
Not only had I tried to sting her again, but staked an actual claim, calling her out as my female. But she wasn’t, and she would never be. No female ever would.
The thought alone ached beneath my ribs, as if my heart shifted in dismay over the fact. Sure, we could be together at some point in the unlikely case her fated mate didn’t show. But how would that look?
She couldn’t live on Solgad. Zovazay eased the scent of a female’s heat, but I couldn’t perform one. Keeping her safe from other rutting males would be an ordeal. And Earth?
Even if she waited until I was no longer a ward of Solgad, living on Earth with her would increase the risk of her running into her fated mate. Either way, I was fucked.
Because I wanted her.
Wanted her for myself.
Wanted her forever.
A sudden beep pulled me out of my thoughts. Above us, the centralized communication system made an announcement. Someone would bring her a meal soon and discuss her departure.
“Let me get dressed.” A kiss to her forehead, then I slipped out from underneath her. “Look, Lia, I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, but—”
“They shouldn’t find you with me here,” she said as she climbed off the pod, and grabbed for the cotton dress hanging over a chair that someone must have prepared for her. “I know you’re having a hard time with this tribe.”
Of course she did. Not much escaped her attention. Which was likely the reason why she never asked why I tossed my tail at her, almost as if she sensed my shame over it.
She slipped into the dress while I had no other choice but to put on my soaking wet loincloth. Then she walked up to me, and my arms closed around her all on their own.
“I’ll miss you,” she whispered, no, whimpered. “Can I see you again before I leave?”
I kissed the top of her braid. “I’ll come back tonight. Let me try to convince Warlord Razgar that I be the one who escorts you to the skyport the next sun. Yes?”
She nodded but wouldn’t look up, and instead pushed harder into my embrace. “Okay.”
“We’ll stay in touch.” For some reason, my arms shook slightly, muscles going stiff as if something told me never to open them again or she might just… slip away. “When I come back tonight, I’ll show you how you can send me messages over the satellite. I can only respond whenever I’m in Noja every few rotations. But I will. I promise.”
“I’d love that.” She stepped away from me, her eyes glazed over with unshed tears, but still she gave me a little shove. “Go before you get in trouble or something.”
I grabbed my chest holster, but didn’t bother to buckle it when I stepped outside. The door hissed shut behind me, and the alluring scent of Lia was quickly replaced with—
“Finally.”
My eyes snapped from the floor to Warlord Razgar, all blood draining from my veins. He leaned with his back against the palathium wall, one black boot braced against it, and balanced a tray on his hand. Of all the people who could have brought her a meal, I sure as fuck didn’t expect him to be the one to do it.
“I, um, I checked on her and she’s, um—” An involuntary swallow cut through my words. “The female is—”
“Getting dressed, I hope?” He must have spotted how I flinched because he scoffed and shook his head. “I came by earlier, but turned around when those grunts coming from behind the door made it clear you were busy rutting the shit out of her.” He smacked his tongue. “Not that I expected any different.”
This had been so much more than just rutting. “She wanted me to.”
“Of course she did, she’s a whore.” He pushed himself off the wall. “Did you just hiss at me?”
I had. Loudly. Openly.
If anyone would have witnessed it, they would assume I’d challenged Razgar for his title as Warlord. That would result in a fight without weapons I couldn’t win. Not against him. Not without a tailclaw.
Fighting the stiffness in my neck and the rage pumping through my veins, I sunk my head. “I’m not challenging you.”
He scoffed as if the thought of the possibility alone amused him, which was probably the case. “Honestly? I wasn’t even sure if a hybrid like you can rut. Guess that’s settled. In any case, why do you think I allowed you to stay out there with her?”
“Because… you thought I can’t rut?”
“No, because I figured that, even if you can, you can’t sting and put a baby in her and cause any true damage.”
My stomach convulsed
at his words as if they’d physically punched me in the guts. He called it damage. I would have called it an honor. But, definitions aside, he was absolutely right.
I couldn’t sting her.
I couldn’t seed her.
Could never give her what she wanted and deserved.
Warlord Razgar took a step toward me, the male himself a good half head shorter and yet he managed to sneer down at me. “Do you have any idea how volatile this situation is, politically speaking? Her father happens to be the CEO of the largest weapon manufacturing company on Earth.”
“I had no idea.”
“Neither did you have any idea how much responsibility I entrusted to you when I let you stay with her,” he snarled. “When that torrent raged through the area and our satellites caught it? I immediately sent a scouting party to check on you. And where were you? Riding across Solgad. She could have gotten injured or died, and then what?”
My arms turned so heavy they dragged my shoulders down. “That was irresponsible of me. I know that.”
“We both know I have no respect for you, but this blatant disobedience of yours is an entirely different matter altogether,” he said. “I should never have accepted you into my tribe.”
“Then perhaps it is time he joined my tribe once more instead.” Warlord Katedo leaned with his shoulder against the corner of a wall, arms crossed before his chest. “What in the name of the goddess is going on here?”
“That is none of your concern,” Razgar hissed. “Why are you in Noja? Your tribe isn’t supposed to occupy the city until the next rotation.”
“When I heard of the crash, I decided to offer my advice and assistance.”
Razgar’s posture tensed. “Not needed. They leave for Odheim on the next flight.”
Katedo dipped his head, then his eyes blue found mine. “My shimid is old and suffers from bouts of fatigue. If Razgar releases you, you could return to my tribe with me.”