by L. A. Casey
Kol’s brows furrowed. “No, it is still inside my head… why?”
I shouldn’t have laughed at him, but when he took what I said literally, it was too funny.
“I mean, are you crazy?” I clarified. “My lifespan is very short, Kol.”
He clicked his tongue. “Once we mate, you will receive my essence, and that will keep you alive for a very long time.”
Hold up.
“Your essence?” I repeated. “Like your freaking soul?”
He barked a laugh before he nudged himself away from the column, crossed the room, and sat a couple of feet away from me on the bed. I turned to face him and waited.
“I’ve never had to explain this before, so please be understanding… okay?”
I gulped. “Okay.”
Kol inhaled and exhaled. “When a couple mates, we males have instinctual needs that must be acted on for a mating bond to be sealed for life. If our instinct is denied, we do not mate the female, and no bond is formed.”
“Okay,” I said tentatively.
“When a couple shares sex, before or after an orgasm, the male will… he will… he has to… Please, keep in mind that he doesn’t want to do it, but his instincts are telling him—”
“Kol,” I cut him off. “It’s okay; you can tell me.”
He watched me, and I got the impression that he was scared I would run away from him.
“He bites the female.”
I gasped. “He bites her?”
“On the neck.”
“On the neck?” I repeated.
“And… uh… he doesn’t release his hold on the female until his essence has entered her bloodstream and—”
“Wait, what?”
“When his body recognises the female as his mate, it has a strong urge to claim her. He bites her, and this releases his essence through the tips of his teeth.” Kol winced when he looked at me. “It sounds a lot worse than it is, shiva, I swear it.”
“Let me summarise,” I said, holding my hand in the air so Kol wouldn’t speak. “If we have sex—”
“When we have sex,” Kol corrected.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “When we have sex, before or after we come, you’ll bite me on my neck and won’t let go until your essence is in my bloodstream. Do I have that correct so far?”
“Yes.” Kol sighed. “But let me explain why.”
“Please,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Go ahead.”
“On a Maji female, my essence would calm her uva contractions, which cause her pain and force her to seek a male to mate for sex to conceive a young one. It would not completely take the discomfort away, but it wouldn’t be much more than small aches every month after she receives my essence. It is nature’s way of telling her body that a healthy male is present in the female’s life, and he will give her offspring, so there is no need to contract so much to remind a female to get pregnant. It also is a chemical bond between us; her scent is all a male would ever desire and yearn for, and his scent would be the same for her.”
I scratched my head. “That’s all fine and dandy for your females, but what will it do to a human? In this case: me!”
Kol hesitated, and I dangerously pointed my finger at him.
“No bullshit answers, be straight with me.”
“It is hard to say it in terms you will understand.” He groaned and shook his head. “We have no way of knowing for sure, but Surkah is positive that my essence would enter your bloodstream, then your heart, and… recode it. That is the best way I can explain it. My essence would be like… a life potion to you. Once you have it, it will always flow through your veins, and keep you and your organs healthy for a very long time. It will dramatically slow down your aging.”
This is too much.
I lifted my hands to my temples and rubbed.
“Stuff like this doesn’t happen, Kol. It just doesn’t.”
“Yet here we are.” He tentatively smiled. “Two different species intended to be the other’s mate for life.”
I lowered my hands and frowned at him. “I don’t want your chance at a mate to be ruined if this doesn’t go right.”
Kol tensed. “I’ve never doubted my sister, and I won’t start now. If Surkah says it’s safe, then it’s safe.”
“I’m not talking shit about Surkah’s ability, but this is a big risk.”
He scooted closer to me and took my small hands in his large ones. “I would never hurt you, shiva.”
Not intentionally.
“What if something backfires, though, and my blood makes you sick, and you die?”
The thought of Kol dying felt like a sucker punch.
“You cannot harm me, my human,” he mused.
I glared at him, which only made him snort.
“Okay, if I died during our mating, which I won’t, and my essence entered your bloodstream, then it will die, and then you will eventually die. My essence will only live in you and keep you alive as long as I live. Mates are nothing without the other, so it is a blessing when the female dies not long after her male does because it saves her pain. No one wants to experience a mate loss.”
“A mate loss is a bad thing?” I questioned.
“The worst pain imaginable,” Kol answered.
I sucked in a staggered breath. “Do males naturally die first out of a mated pair?”
“Always.” Kol nodded. “It is cruel to us males, but if our female dies, we can survive. But if a male dies, the female never survives for much longer.”
“But… why?”
“Our essence becomes part of them, and when the male dies, so does that essence. When it comes to death, even nature shows mercy to the females. We believe that Thanas does not want our females to suffer, so when her male dies, she will follow.”
I frowned. “Aren’t males important to Thanas?”
“Of course.” Kol smiled softly. “But males need to protect the people, and Thanas gives them the strength to live on after a female’s death. I think it is futile, though, because if a male lost his female, he would crumble from the inside out. His world, his life, his everything would die with his female.”
A shiver shot up my spine
“Could a male not find another mate?” I asked, feeling sad for any male who had ever suffered a mate loss.
“Never,” Kol instantly replied. “Even badly matched males and females still become the other’s everything. My aunt and uncle once hated the other, and I mean hated each other, and though their mating started out unstable, their bond is one of the strongest I have ever seen. We mate for life, shiva. Even if one life ends, the mate bond never does. The need for the other is instant after a mating, and love follows eventually.”
I was shocked at the knowledge, and my heart hurt knowing if I successfully mated with Kol, that he would eventually die, and I’d exist on my own without him even if only for a short time. It didn’t take long for tears to fill my eyes.
“Shiva,” Kol hissed. “I have saddened you? I beg your forgiveness.”
“I thought a royal never begs?” I whispered.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “You make everything possible, my Nova.”
My tears fell and splashed onto my cheeks, and right away, Kol leaned in and kissed them away.
“Please,” he rasped. “It causes me great pain to see you like this, Nova.”
His words wrapped around my heart like a blanket.
“I’m sorry.” I sniffled. “I’m sad at the thought of you dying and leaving me.”
Kol placed his hands on my face, brushing his calloused thumbs under my eyes.
“We will have many centuries together, and when it is my time, your time will follow. We give our hearts to our mates, which is why a male’s female joins him so quickly in death. She cannot live without her heart.”
This is it.
At that moment, I felt I was beginning to lose my heart to this male.
“This is crazy,” I said with a shake of my head. “How can
I care for you so much in such a short amount of time?”
“We’re destined mates,” Kol answered. “I believe you were made for me, and me for you.”
“Kol,” I whispered as a fire ignited in my core and spread to between my thighs. “I want to be your mate.”
He growled in response, and his hold on me tightened. “Can I have that taste of you now?”
Yes.
The need for him to taste me, to do something to relieve my body of the ache it was experiencing became my prime focus.
“I’m yours,” I told him.
The words were barely out of my mouth before Kol moved to his knees in front of me, and he did something I wasn’t expecting him to do. He kissed me with so much hunger it sent a jolt straight to the aching spot between my thighs.
This is what he means by tasting.
The force of his kiss pushed my body flat on the shockingly comfortable mattress, and he held me in place with the added weight of his body as he moved over me. I was grateful he used his elbows to hold most of his weight, but what I could feel of him was enough. He was toned, muscular, and hard all over… harder in one place more than others.
“Kol.” I gasped against his mouth when he wiggled his hips and pushed my thighs apart.
He didn’t answer; he only kissed me deeper as he pressed his pelvis against my throbbing core. I didn’t know what to focus on, his kiss or the feeling of him rubbing against me. The kiss won when he suddenly sucked on my tongue before he lightly bit it. He tore his mouth from me and attached his lips to my neck. He left no patch of skin un-kissed, and when I involuntarily moaned, he put all his weight on his left elbow and used his right hand to cup my breast, the friction of my clothing rubbing over my now hardened nipple caused me to shiver with delight.
“Shiva,” Kol rasped.
I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his hips, squeezing him as an ache pulsed between my spread thighs. I arched my back when goosebumps broke out over my skin, and a tingling sensation covered the breast Kol held in his large calloused hand.
“Almighty,” I panted. “I need to see you. Take off your clothes.”
Kol growled, and before I realised what he was doing, he was standing up off me and stripping out of his clothes at a rapid pace. I leaned up on my elbows so I could watch him. I wanted him to slow down, so I could take his body in leisurely, but when he was naked as the day he was born before me, my pussy throbbed.
His cock was huge as it was thick and hard. The tip of it glistened, and a milky white substance seeped from the tip and slowly trailed down the length. The urge to lean forward and lick it away frightened me.
“You’re perfect,” I whispered and sat upright, moving my attention to his chest.
I reached over for him, and without my having to ask him to move, he came closer to me. My hand instantly went to his muscular chest and skimmed over the white claw marks that were slash across it.
“What happened to you?” I whispered.
“A borak attacked me when I was forty years old,” he rasped. “I was on my first hunt with my father and brothers; it marked my entrance into malehood.”
The deep slashes made me wince.
“How come you didn’t heal?” I quizzed, my hands now sliding over his stomach, feeling the curve of each abdominal muscle.
Kol kept his hands at his sides as I explored him with my touch.
“Boraks are nasty creatures,” he said, tensing more with every passing moment. “Their talons hold a poison that prevents the body from clotting a wound. The purpose is to bleed out their prey. My older brother, Ezah, is a healer like Surkah, and he was on the hunt with us. His ability helped seal my wounds, but did not prevent scarring.”
“I’m sorry.” I frowned.
“Why?” Kol chuckled, tipping my chin up with his fingers. “Scars are marks of honour to the people; it means I survived a great beast. It makes me even more desirable to females.”
I playfully rolled my eyes. “You males are such idiots.”
“Is that so?” he mused.
I squealed with laughter when he dove forward and pressed me back against the mattress. My legs automatically went around his waist. Without kissing me, he had shuffled his way down my body and gripped the hem of my trousers, pulling them down to my knees in one fluid motion. I sucked in a startled breath and stared with wide eyes as Kol lifted my legs from around his body and pulled my trousers down the rest of the way off my legs. Kol’s eyes locked on the centre of my thighs as he threw my pants over his shoulder without so much as a backward glance. It was when he bent forward and brought his face level with my pussy that my hips bucked involuntarily.
“What are you doing?” I cried out with embarrassment and tried to scramble up the bed away from him.
Kol’s hands clamped down on my thighs and, not so gently, pinned me in place. He brought his mouth to just below my belly button and planted kisses over my skin.
“Tasting you,” he growled against my abdomen.
He moved his mouth lower, and lower, and I nearly lost my ability to breathe.
“You can’t mean to taste me there!” I shouted in dismay and tried desperately to shut my legs.
Kol angled his hands and applied pressure to my thighs, forcing them apart as wide as they would go. I felt like I was frozen with shock, but it only lasted for a moment because the second I felt Kol’s soft, hot, wet tongue slide over my aching pussy lips, my body nearly sprang up from the bed.
“You’re hairless,” he commented.
“I had it removed,” I panted. “My father won some credits, and paid for it. I couldn’t bathe often so having no hair made things easier.”
He made a sound somewhere between an appreciative hum and a vicious growl. He unhooked an arm from around my right thigh and spread it over my stomach, using it to pin me down like an anchor. He kept the elbow of his other arm placed against my inner thigh and used it and his right shoulder to keep my legs apart. With his fingers, he spread my pussy lips apart, and after he had inhaled deeply once more, he brought his mouth down to the very spot that ached so badly and sucked the hardened throbbing bud into his mouth.
I screamed as a sensation I had never experienced shot up my spine.
It was pleasure, raw pleasure, but it was too much for my body to handle. I couldn’t control my limbs. It was like they had a mind of their own and moved with every flicked of Kol’s hot, wet tongue. He did a good job at keeping my ass on the mattress, but he had no control over my hands that had buried themselves in his hair and tugged on the strands that were tangled around my fingers.
Kol growled, but he didn’t slow the movement of his tongue or lessen the suction he applied to my clit; if anything, he increased them. My breathing was laboured, my heart was pounding erratically, and my screams were so loud I was sure the entire ship could hear me… but I didn’t care. All I could care about was the pleasure I felt, and whether it would kill me.
“Oh, oh!” I cried out a moment later when the pleasure built up to a point where it almost felt like searing hot pain.
My body fell apart the second Kol’s teeth scraped over my clit, which was the final nudge my body needed to be flung over the edge of sanity and into a pool of bliss. I held my breath as a new pulsing overtook my body. Instead of the pulse aching, it sent ripples of satisfaction over my body, soothing my tense joints and turning them into soft, relaxed pieces of flesh.
Almighty.
“Need you,” Kol suddenly snarled, his voice breaking through my cloud of desire. “Now.”
Even through my haze of pleasure, I knew what that meant.
“Oh, Kol,” I trembled beneath him. “I’m so scared.”
Kol surprised me when he said, “Me too.”
“But you’ve had sex before.”
He slowly nodded, his eyes now aglow with a ring of light as he said, “Yes, but I’ve never had sex with you before, and I desperately want to make it special for you.”
His words touche
d me and wrapped their way around my pounding heart.
“I trust you,” I told him in a shaky breath. “No matter what, I trust you.”
“Shiva,” he murmured as he reached between us. “I’m so sorry.”
He didn’t give me a moment longer to worry about our impending lovemaking as he gripped his shaft, rubbed it up and down my pussy lips, lined it up with my entrance, and with one more whispered apology, he thrust forward. I arched my back and screamed out when pinching hot pain cut through me. Above me, Kol went deathly still.
“I’m so sorry, shiva,” he rasped.
I looked at him, and it looked like he was in pain too. His face was twisted, his eyes were squeezed shut, and his body trembled.
“Are you hurting?” I asked, alarmed despite my own pain.
“Not like you,” he growled. “A different kind of pain has me in its clutch, shiva.”
A different kind of pain?
I couldn’t focus on what he meant because sensation became me. I was acutely aware of the length inside me; it was thick, long, and to be honest, it hurt. I tried to focus on my breathing, but the foreign sensation of being filled and spread to within an inch of my life was I could think about, all I could feel.
“It hurts,” I moaned when I involuntarily moved my hips. “I don’t like it, Kol.”
The sound he made in response sounded close to a whine.
“It will ease,” he rasped.
I worried for him. He was struggling greatly with something, and I wondered if the pain he felt was worse than mine because it sure looked like it was.
“Breathe,” I told him. “My papa used to always tell me to breathe through the pain.”
Kol tried my method, and it didn’t escape me that he looked so adorable whilst doing so. I focused on him and felt my body shiver when I adjusted my hips once more. It wasn’t pain I felt. It wasn’t exactly pleasure either, but it wasn’t pain, and that was enough to calm my spiked nerves.
“You can move,” I whispered to Kol. “Slowly.”
“Slowly,” he repeated.
It took twenty whole seconds for him to withdraw from me, and before he withdrew completely, he moved his hips forward and stretched me once more. It still hurt, but the pain wasn’t as consuming as before. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around Kol’s trembling body. I lost count of how many times he thrust in and out of my body, but when I opened my eyes, I felt no more pain, and Kol’s cock was sliding in and out of my body with so much ease it began to feel… good.