by Ella Maven
My release began to slide down my spine to clench around my balls, pulling them up tight as my body sought to spread my seed. The node at the base of my cock extended to latch onto her clit and her mouth fell open in a silent cry.
“Come, little one,” I growled. “Come on my cock as pretty as you come on my tongue.”
“Oh fuck,” she gasped, her head falling back, that pretty, bare neck on display. I latched onto it, grazing the vein there with my fangs.
Naomi went off. She screamed out her release as her little body bucked and convulsed below me. Her inner walls squeezed my cock so hard I could barely breathe, and then I was coming too, pulsing inside of her as my vision blurred.
My cora pounded in my chest, a dull roar filled my ears, and then my body gave out, collapsing onto the soft pillow beneath me. For a moment, I forgot where I was, and it wasn’t until Naomi’s steady cora beat loudly against my own ribcage that I managed to pull myself upright.
She gazed up at me with half-lidded eyes, her lips parted. Her arms were no longer clinging to me, but splayed out on either side of her body, palms up. And her skin… I’d left marks everywhere. Her lips were swollen, tears dripped into her hairline, and various red patches and teeth indents marred her breasts and inner thighs.
I was a beast. And maybe yesterday, this would have made me ashamed, but now I could only feel pride, especially as a soft smile curved her lips and her body twitched, reminding me my cock remained nestled inside of her.
It all made sense now. All of it. Why our Drixonian society had been built the way it was, why my brothers now doted on their mates. Why we fought so hard for who we were. It was this, the gift the females gave us with their soft touches. When Naomi looked at me like she did now, I swore I could move mountains. Take on a whole army single-handed. I clenched my fists, resisting the urge to beat my chest and roar.
Instead, I slowly withdrew from her body, noting her wince. Blood streaked my cock, and I should have felt guilty, but instead I only felt pride, especially because a soft smile once again graced her lips as she let out a small sigh.
“How do you feel, little one?” I carried her to the portal cleanser.
“Tired. Not sleepy just … like I don’t wanna move.”
I tugged the nozzle of the cleanser out of the wall and positioned it above our heads and then pulled the curtain around us. I hit the cleanser power button and hot air rushed down over us. Naomi jolted at the sound, but then settled against me as the grime from the last few rotations sifted off our bodies to disappear in a small drain in the floor.
Satisfied we were clean, I turned off the cleanser and put it away. Naomi’s feet still hadn’t touched the floor, and I found I liked the weight of her in my arms. I knew she was safe there, unharmed, pampered. Like she deserved to be.
Glancing at the generator charging progress, I saw we still had over halfway until full charged. I pulled out the bed pallet, which was too small for us to sleep side by side and that suited me just fine. I lay down with my hand pillowed behind my head and arranged Naomi’s naked body on top of mine. She sighed and rested her cheek on my chest. Her breath blew hot over my scales, and my colors rippled as my cock, feeling the heat of her satisfied cunt, jerked to half-mast.
I had thought she’d fall asleep, but I could see her eyes blinking as she stared off into the small space thoughtfully. Her fingers played with the scars and marks all over my chest, occasionally grazing one of my nipples.
“Does this change things?” she asked quietly, her words breaking the stillness and peace of our paradise.
I closed my eyes as my brain mulled the words. I felt her shift on my chest, and I instinctively gripped her tighter so she wouldn’t leave my side. But she only humphed. “I’m just getting more comfortable.”
I loosened my arm at her waist and opened my eyes to see her wriggle into a new position with her legs straddling one of my thighs and her head propped on my chest with her fist. She went quiet and still then, watching me.
Oh right, she’d asked me a question. And I didn’t think too long on it because I didn’t have too. I should have agonized and fought, but I’d been fighting all my life. I’d fought enemies I could see and couldn’t see. But I’d never met an opponent like Naomi.
“Fatas will not bless me with a cora-eternal,” I said.
Her jaw tightened. “I don’t care about that,” she growled. “I don’t care what Fatas does, or whether I have loks, or any of that. It doesn’t matter because I’m choosing you. So now it’s your choice if you want to choose me—”
“I choose you.” Her jaw clacked shut and her eyes went big. “I choose you now. I choose you in my next life. I will always choose you Naomi.”
Immediately her eyes blurred with tears and her lower lip trembled. “So…”
“I will fight for you. I will fight for us. Until Fatas decides to take me. I don’t know when it will be. It could be this rotation or twenty cycles from now.”
She pushed herself higher on my chest until our faces were aligned. Her hands cupped my jaw. “Are you serious? What changed your mind?”
“I realized the only one I was hurting with my denials was you. My own hurt and pain I can live with. I can push aside my wants and desires. But I cannot hurt you or cause you pain. I cannot let you think that you’re not wanted, that you’re not the most precious thing to me in my life.” I nudged her nose with mine. “I’m yours. Just like you are mine. And it’ll be that way until Fatas decides to end us.”
Tears dripped from her eyes to land on my cheeks. “She won’t.”
“Naomi—”
“She won’t,” Naomi repeated, her voice stronger this time. “Because what we have is real and we will beat the odds. I know we will.”
She kissed me, and I couldn’t dwell on her words or ask her what odds were. I gave myself into the kiss. Letting go of the tightly held control I’d maintained all my life left my muscles loose and my mind clearer.
Without the cora-eternal blessing, she couldn’t see my aura. She couldn’t see the chaos that was my mind. And that was for the best. For her, I’d be her Gar. She’d never have access to the deepest part of me. I’d keep it separate. Forever.
Ten
Gar
The moon rose high in the night sky and the rippling qua above us made the stars wink and flash. Only the dim lights of the cockpit lit the inside of the cruiser. The cloaking shield would cover any lights inside, but I was too warm and comfortable to rise and turn anything on.
I liked the way the soft lights gleamed on Naomi’s skin where she rested on my chest. Her hair lay all around us in soft waves, and I enjoyed watching the shiny strands sift through my fingers.
“Do you want to return to Corin?” Her voice cut through the stillness and I paused, my hand resting on the back of her neck.
“I haven’t thought about what I want,” I said.
She lifted her head, and that small space between her eyebrows was wrinkled. “What?”
I shrugged. “The other warriors want to return, so I committed to fighting for that, but I never thought I’d live long enough to see it.”
Her lips parted and her eyes went sad. “Gar.”
“Corin is…” I gritted my teeth at the images. “A source of bad memories for me.”
Her hand slid up my chest to lay on my neck, her thumb slowly stroking the hard line of my jaw. “Tell me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I don’t revisit bad memories.”
She swallowed, and her hand convulsed on my neck. “I know you had a sister.”
“Nit!” I barked, and she flinched, nearly sliding off the pallet to the floor. I grabbed her and rose from the table, depositing her back on the pallet as I searched for my pants. With my back to her, I didn’t have to see the hurt on her face. I could just end the conversation here—
“Gar, I swear to your Fatas, if you end this conversation, I will make you regret it.”
I paused with my hand out, reaching for my p
ants. I straightened and turned slowly to face my fierce mate.
On her knees, with her fists clenched at her sides, she glared at me, eyes firing. “Don’t shut me out.”
I stabbed my thumb into my chest. “I should get to choose what I share with you.”
“And maybe I’d allow that if I thought you were just avoiding the pain of bad memories. But I don’t think that. I think something bad happened and you haven’t worked through it—”
“Something bad happened?” I spat as I stalked to the pallet. She jerked away like she meant to run, but held her ground, muscles tense. “Something bad happened?” I repeated, my voice escalating. “Of course, something bad happened. Mave was perfect. Beautiful. Kind. Smart. She could have been anything in our society. There was no limit for her based on her initial aptitude screenings. She said I was her hero, that I’d be a legendary warrior. And I believed that—I believed her—until the virus swept through our house. It took my mother quickly, but Mave… It ravaged her. For seven rotations I held her in my arms as she coughed blood, as she fought to breathe, as she begged me to put an end to the pain and kill her.” I inhaled sharply and roared as I thumped my chest, “She begged me!”
“Gar,” Naomi’s voice had gone soft, and she reached for me, but I took a step away from her.
“I didn’t do it.” I could still hear Mave’s gasping pleas. They haunted me at night. “I didn’t do it because I selfishly wanted more time with her, so I refused to end her pain. When she finally died, she weighed as much as a welf pup, cracked three ribs from coughing, and rotted all her teeth from vomiting.”
Naomi had collapsed onto the bed, bracing herself on her hands with her legs bent to the side. She didn’t look at me now, her gaze rested on the pallet. She looked defeated, and my cora pounded as my angry voice seemed to echo in my own head. I was such a fleck.
I fell to my knees, the thud making Naomi gasp as she scrambled to the edge of the pallet. Even after I’d unloaded my burden on her, she still checked to see if I was all right. I didn’t deserve her.
“Is that what you wanted to hear?” I asked, my hands resting on my thighs, palms up. I was exhausted, wrung out, my brain a maelstrom of memories and darkness.
“No,” she whispered.
I shook my head and lowered it. I’d had her for barely any time, and I’d already turned her away by showing her who I truly was…
Fingers brushed my shoulder, and I glanced up to see her standing above me, holding the covering to her chest with one hand. “What I didn’t want to hear was you blaming yourself for the way your sister died.”
“She suffered, little one.” My throat hurt, and my voice was rasped like I’d inhaled too much smoke. “I had the ability to end it, and I didn’t.”
“And I’m sorry that she suffered. I’m so sorry for what you all went through. But I refuse to let you blame yourself for not taking your twin sister’s life when you were a child yourself.”
“I was old enough—”
“You were not full-grown,” she said. “You told me you weren’t. You cannot punish yourself for loving your sister so much that you held out hope she’d recover. Because you did, didn’t you?”
“I did,” I whispered. “Ward told me she would not, but I didn’t want to believe.”
“And you think this is what Mave would have wanted? For her hero to torture himself over something he couldn’t control?”
My jaw clenched. “I could have saved her pain—”
“Maybe,” she said. “But I’m also sure there were moments at the end where she was glad to have that extra time with you. Can you recall anything good? Any words you exchanged that weren’t her pleading with you to end her pain?”
I forced myself to think back to that time, something I refused to do since the rotation she took her last breath. I had to search to the depths of my mind and cora, shoving aside the steel walls I’d placed there to hide all the thoughts that could cause me pain.
Finally, the image of her on the bed appeared in the dark recesses where I’d shoved Mave. I closed my eyes, recalling the way her bony hands had grasped mine, the coughing fits, the spots of blood on the furs…
“What do you think your chits will be like, Gar?”
I’d frowned at her. “I don’t want chits. Females are annoying.”
She’d smiled. “I’m annoying?”
“You don’t count. You’re my sister.”
She’d laughed which turned into a cough. I wiped her brow, nearly hissing at the heat of her skin.
Her hand grasped mine, and she squeezed with what little strength she had left. “You’ll have chits. A girl first. And you’ll name her Mave.” She smiled then and closed her eyes as she seemed to sink into the bedding. “Yes,” she murmured to herself. “And you’ll be her hero, just like you’re mine.”
She’d died before sundown.
I sucked in a breath, having forgotten that conversation all those cycles ago. How could I have forgotten that? I’d hidden Mave away. I hadn’t honored her memory. Was I living up to being her hero?
I blinked my eyes open to see Naomi standing above me, her eyes bright. “She told you to name your daughter after her?”
I must have said the story aloud. I nodded. “She did.”
“Then you will.” She cupped my face. “We will. We’ll have a daughter, and we’ll name her Mave, and you’ll live, Gar. You’ll grow old and get a bad back and chase Daz’s son away from our daughter when he comes sniffing around.”
My lips curled. “Daz’s son better treat her right.”
Naomi ducked her face into her shoulder to smother a laugh. “I think we have a while to worry about that.”
I parted the covering hiding Naomi’s body with my hands and gripped her waist, tugging her toward me. I nuzzled her stomach and dipped my tongue into her bellybutton. She gasped and gripped my hair.
“You are so smart, little one. How do you always know what to say to me?”
Her hand soothed my hair as I fluttered my lips across her belly. “I don’t always know the right things to say. I was never good at standing up for myself. At work, I faded into the background because I didn’t want attention. Back at the camp, I do the same thing, but with you… I want you to notice me. And I want to see you smile. I…” her voice broke off and she cleared her throat. “I want to make your life better.”
I paused and tilted my head back. “You do make my life better. You made it better from the first time I laid eyes on you.”
“Gar,” she whispered.
“You have given me so much. I will devote my life to you and your safety.” I ran my thumbs over the indents below her hip bones. “I’ll ensure Mave lives a long life with her mother at her side.”
A tear slid down Naomi’s cheek.
I cocked my head to the side. “Do you think she’s there now? Did we make a chit, little one? Did my seed take root inside of you?”
“I hope so,” she whispered, and those three words made my cock jerk and harden between my legs.
I slid a hand lower, until my thumb rested over her clit. She shifted her legs, and her hand holding the covering at the top of her breasts shook. “I think we need to fill you again.”
Her eyes fluttered, and she let out a long moan.
Naomi
He was teasing me, and if someone had asked me a week ago if Gar was capable of kneeling before me with a mischievous glint in his eye while slowly stroking a thick finger between my thighs, I would had said no way in hell.
But now, he carefully parted the blanket I’d wrapped around me, revealing my naked lower body. He stared at me hungrily as he swiped that long wicked tongue across his full lips.
As his gaze slowly lifted to me, he stretched out his tongue and flicked it across my clit. I gasped and would have toppled over if he hadn’t grasped my waist to hold me steady. With a growl, he buried his face into my pussy and began to eat me in earnest. My knees wobbled, and my head spun as he lapped at me, sucking the
hardened nub of my clit into his mouth as I moaned and wiggled. I dug my fingers into the braids on top of his head to help my balance. I wanted to thrust against his mouth, but his strong grip on my hips kept me steady, still, and at his mercy as he speared me with that thick tongue and began to prush.
The vibrations zinged through me like an electric shock, stealing my breath. My hand could no longer grip the blanket and it fluttered to the ground at my feet. Gar’s eyes were closed, and he kept up a steady growl with the vibrations that sent my body into orbit. I came hard, crying out as I bucked against his face. When my knees gave out this time, he lowered me to the floor onto my back where I panted while the tremors continued to course down my spine, to throb in my clit.
He held himself above me, face shiny with my juices. “You get so wet for me, little one,” he murmured, and the pride in his voice made me smile.
“It has nothing to do with you.” I smirked. “It’s just your tongue.”
He blinked in surprise, and then a wicked grin crossed his face. “Just my tongue?” His fingers probed at my entrance and then I felt the blunt head of his cock there.
“Well, something else too,” I mumbled.
“What’s that?” He pressed against me, but then pulled back.
I wiggled, eager to get his cock inside me and feel that fullness again. “I said there’s something else too.”
“Tell me what it is.” He plucked at my nipple, making me gasp. “Say what you want, little one.”
I huffed. “You know.”
“I want to hear you.”
“Your cock!” I shouted. “I want your cock!”
With a roar of victory, he slammed inside me. I was still sore from earlier, but I held back a wince, knowing the pain would soon be replaced by pure ecstasy. As he reared back and plunged into me again, pleasure washed away the twinge of discomfort.