by Zoey Draven
As they began their short journey, Lihvan went quiet. He was listening and scanning the black vine forest around them with a hunter’s intensity and Beks did her best to be as quiet as possible. She didn’t want to run into the creature that had made that warbling, yowling sound yesterday, that was for sure.
What Lihvan said was true. The fire falls weren’t that far away from their cave, maybe a little over half a mile at most. And when she saw them, she couldn’t help but stare in awe.
A huge rock wall faced them, nestled in a small valley, just on the edge of the forest. The jagged pebbles gave way into a soft pink sand that crunched gently beneath her covered feet.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “It’s beautiful.”
Fire—or at least what looked like fire—was literally tumbling down into a pool of water at the base of the rock face, like a waterfall. When it reached the surface of the water, the fire hissed and steamed, creating a shimmering silver mist that floated over the emerald-colored pool.
“But, where does the fire come from?” she wondered out loud.
“Below,” Lihvan rumbled next to her. “The mountain pulls it from underneath the surface.”
“Is it safe?”
“Tev,” he said.
Excitement made her anxious to jump in. This would undoubtedly be one of the coolest experiences of her life.
“Well? What are we waiting for then?” she asked, turning to him with a big smile.
Lihvan seemed amused. From his pocket, he pulled crushed black vine seeds and put them close to the edge of the pool for soap.
Beks wasn’t even a little shy when she whipped off Lihvan’s shirt that she’d been borrowing. He’d seen her body already—and couldn’t seem to get enough of her—so she had nothing to be self-conscious about. What she was most looking forward to, besides the opportunity to bathe, was seeing Lihvan in all of his naked glory. She’d had yet to see all of him, as unfair as that was.
A rumble built in his chest as his gaze locked onto her. His eyes ran from her face and lips, to her breasts and waist, until he stopped at the juncture of her thighs, where he’d spent more hours the night before than he had sleeping.
“Come on,” she murmured, stepping back to where the pool started to form. It was like a shoreline. Shallow at first before leading into deeper water. Cool water lapped at her toes, which surprised her. She figured the pool would be hot from the fire, but that wasn’t the case. “Your turn.”
From this distance, she would be able to see all of him in his full glory. Holding her breath, she watched as Lihvan’s hand drifted to his leather-like pants. Beks didn’t know what she was expecting, but when he pushed them down his long legs, carefully stepped out of them, and straightened…all she could do was stare as he approached.
With every step he took, his erect cock swung from side-to-side. Smooth and long and so thick that she wondered if she’d be able to get her lips around it, his cock was…impressive. More than impressive. Her pussy tingled as she practically eye-fucked him.
Her smile wiped off her face. Beks wanted him. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted another man in her entire life. But if he wouldn’t even let her pleasure him, what would he think when she asked about sex? Did Luxirians have specific customs when it came to sexual relationships like this?
Even when he came to stand a foot in front of her, so close that she felt his heat, she couldn’t stop staring. Ridges, she thought in disbelief. There was a line of hard knob-like ridges lining the top and bottom of his cock.
Her thighs squeezed together, wondering how amazing those would feel as he was thrusting inside of her. They would already be a tight fit and Beks imagined that the pleasure would be…out of this world.
“Female,” he rumbled, his chest purring. “Your scent…”
In a daze, she reached her hand out and fisted it around his cock before he could react. Lihvan growled and Beks watched as pre-cum pooled at his tip. Her hand didn’t fit all the way around it but she felt the heat of him, felt those knobs rub against her sensitive palm as she gave him a small stroke.
As quickly as she’d acted, Lihvan grasped her hand away and kissed her, hard. Their teeth clashed and tongues tangled. It was punishing, a warning, and nothing had ever felt more right.
When he broke away, he rasped, “You do not know what you tempt, female.”
“Maybe I want to find out,” she replied, rising to his challenge.
His gaze narrowed and then he picked her up, their skin sliding together. Beks twined her legs around his waist and he groaned when she brushed his cock. He walked them forward into the water until it came up to their shoulders. Still, she held on. If she let go of him, she wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom.
“Why wouldn’t you let me touch you last night?” she asked, tracing her fingertips down his strong back. His power and strength awed her sometimes. There was so much contained in his body. She’d seen firsthand what he was capable of.
“I would lose control if you did,” he replied, voice nothing more than a rasp, his strange, beautiful eyes trained on her, pinning her against him until she never wanted to be away from him again.
“Would that be such a bad thing?” she tested, perceiving his heat right below her pussy. She would only have to slide down his body a couple inches, wiggle her hips a bit, and he’d be inside her.
“I would mate you,” he growled, “if you touch me that way. I would not be able to control my Instinct. Already you tempt me beyond reason.”
“Your…Instinct?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “What does that mean?”
“Every Luxirian possesses one. It is a force within us…a need. It selects compatible Breeding partners for us and drives us to mate with them. Sometimes, there is an other knowing as well. A mate that the Fates have designed for us.”
Something about his expression made her skin prickle with awareness. Around them, the fire falls clouded them in a mist of silver and the steam clung to her skin and hair.
“Are you saying that…” Beks licked her lips. “That your Instinct chose me as a…as a Breeding partner?”
“Tev.”
Her lips parted and another flood of arousal tightened her nipples even more. It sounded so…primitive. A force inside him, driving him to…breed her.
“Does that mean,” she started, “…that we’re biologically compatible? If your Instinct chose me for you? You could get me pregnant?”
His abdomen clenched against her and his cock pulsed so fiercely that she felt it brush against her inner thigh.
Oh my God…he liked that thought. The thought of her pregnant with his child aroused him.
And strangely enough, it lit her blood on fire too.
“The Prime Leader’s mate is pregnant. Luxirians and humans are compatible.”
Holy shit.
This was nuts, crazy. The knowledge that if they had sex, he could possibly knock her up should send her running. Even though she wanted children, many children, in the future, she didn’t know if she was ready for them now.
So why was her heart pounding so fast? Why was she suddenly fantasizing about him fucking her so thoroughly that he shot buckets of his seed inside her?
A sound escaped her throat, a cross between a moan and a whimper. Lihvan’s horn were fully straightened and, unbelievably, she felt his muscles start to expand underneath her hands. He was growing stronger.
“Luxiva,” he growled, his eyes slightly wild. “You must stop.”
“I can’t help it,” she whispered. For a brief moment, she wondered if humans had Instincts as well…and if hers had chosen Lihvan. It certainly felt that way. It would make sense why she’d always been so insanely attracted to him. She had masturbated in front of him the day she met him, after all.
Lihvan started purring and Beks’ eyes rolled back into her head. His chest was vibrating and her clit was pressed right up against him. Like a woman possessed, all she could think about was getting him inside her and she r
olled her hips down, searching.
His hands tightened on her hips, claws pricking her ass cheeks, stilling her.
“Nix,” he growled, gritting his jaw. “I am trying to be…honorable, female. You are not making it easy.”
Her pussy was on fire. She couldn’t stop squirming against him and when she moved again, she felt him. The crown of his cock brushed her entrance, ever so slightly. When Lihvan tried to pull away, she wiggled again and his tip wedged inside, just a little tease.
Lihvan hissed, eyes squeezing shut, and Beks leaned forward to nibble on his neck and ear. More turned on than she’d ever been in her life, she moaned, “Can’t you feel how much I want you? You’re going to feel so good fucking me, baby. Don’t you want that?”
Lihvan wrenched her head back and gave her that punishing, wild kiss again. Gone was her calm, broody alien. He was…undone.
“I want that more than I have wanted anything, luxiva,” he rasped. “I dream of mating your body, of shooting my seed in your womb, of breeding you over and over again until you are heavy with my offspring.”
“Then do it!” she cried out, frustrated, horny, out of her fucking mind. “Please!”
“I cannot,” he growled.
“Why?”
Lihvan shifted her up until his tip slid out of her and Beks groaned at the loss. “I promised that I would get you back to your home planet.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“You do not understand, female,” he said, shaking his head, his frustration growing with hers. She’d never seen him like this. “I told you before. If I claim you, I would keep you. Always. I would never let you return to your home. You would remain on Luxiria with me, until we both pass into the next life.”
Edges of clarity began to return to her hazy mind. “I would never go home again?”
“Nix,” he said, making a visible effort to gain control over his body. His muscles shook and he restrained him. “Never. When Luxirians find their fated mates, they never let them go.”
“Fated mates,” Beks whispered, going still. But the truth was in his eyes. “But…you said it was…you said Breeding partners. Isn’t that different?”
“Breeding partners can go separate ways after the offspring are born. Fated mates are for always,” he said, seeming resigned. “I am trying to make you understand why we must not do this. I want to be honest with you.”
“Have you ever…have you ever had a mate before? Do you get more than one?” she asked, trying not to let panic enter her tone.
“I have never had a Breeding partner,” he admitted and a selfish relief filled her. “Luxirians only have one fated mate. Most never find theirs. Only the truly blessed do.”
Ringing filled her ears as she stared at him.
“What are you saying?” she whispered. She already knew, but she needed to hear him say it.
He exhaled sharply through his nostrils, his gaze locking on hers.
“I knew from the moment I saw you.”
She was his fated mate.
Oh my God.
“How…how is this possible?” she asked, shaking her head. “We would have never met if I hadn’t been taken by those other aliens.”
“The Fates,” was Lihvan’s answer. “The Prime Leader’s fated mate is human. Perhaps other Luxirian males will find theirs in humans as well. We do not know why it happens, just that it is rare.”
Beks went quiet, but she didn’t unravel herself from him. There was a weird pull between them, that was undeniable. To know that it was something very serious in his culture…that was what she needed to navigate carefully.
“So, if we have sex…there’s no turning back?”
He didn’t have to answer. She saw the certainty in his eyes.
Okay. She could respect that. Sex was obviously important to Luxirians…they took it seriously. But, Beks still wanted to know, “And the other things…you pleasuring me…that’s not as serious? We could still fool around?”
He frowned at her wording of ‘fooling around,’ but said, “I give you pleasure because I wish to. To Luxirians, while important, it is not as,” he searched for the right word, “sacred as consummating a mating bond. There is a ceremony. It is…intense from what I have been told.”
“What kind of ceremony?” she asked, sliding her arms tighter around his neck. Lihvan swallowed, his cock bobbing just below her.
“It takes place on the Ravrax’tor, where we first came into the world. You ask for the Fates’ blessing and if you receive it, you will know. It is said to be one of the purest forms of carnal pleasures.” His voice deepened, growing rough. Beks heard, rather than saw, his longing and she felt it inside her, expanding. “For many spans, you eat and sleep and mate. That is all you do. The Fates’ blessing lasts for a long time and you must see it to the end for the ceremony to be complete.”
Her breath hitched. Days of mating? Days of orgasms? Beks wondered if she could even survive something like that with him. Last night had almost killed her.
Something about the way he spoke filled her with understanding. Arousal still pulsed within her, hot and urgent, but it became something softer, something more important as she looked at him.
“You want that for yourself, don’t you?” she asked quietly. The fire falls sizzled around them, hissing and spitting, but the black vine forest behind them was silent. “You want a mate? Children?”
And I could give that to him, she thought. It was a dangerous thought, but it settled deep inside her.
His eyes slid away from her. He did not answer. Instead, he said, “We should hurry, female. I would still like to hunt before the sun descends further.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Her damned heart started aching again.
THIRTEEN
After a quick, but thorough washing of his female at the fire falls—which she’d seem to enjoy—Lihvan led them back to their cave, making sure to keep his ears pricked and his eyes careful. As the sun descended, more dangerous creatures emerged from their shadowy dwellings and Lihvan did not want to chance an encounter, especially with his female so close. Even though she drove him to distraction, he needed to ensure her safety above all else.
She’d been quiet since their conversation, when he’d finally told her that she was his fated mate, his luxiva. He hadn’t meant to, but in the moment, it had felt right and only natural that she should know. Or else she would have convinced him with her addictive kisses and teasing touches. He would have mated her right there in the washing pool had he not told her, had he not put some kind of barrier between them.
She wishes to return to her home planet, he reminded himself, over and over again. It wasn’t fair to her if he acted on his lusts and desires.
The knowledge that she would soon leave him, however, was becoming more difficult to cope with. A part of him wished to remain on this hellish planet for all time because it, selfishly, meant keeping her with him. But the honorable warrior in Lihvan would not allow him to do this. His female deserved happiness, even if it meant sacrificing his own.
So why did a part of him believe that, when the time came, he wouldn’t be able to let her go? Would he throw away his honor, his honesty to keep his female with him for the rest of their lives? Or would he keep to his word and see that she returned to her home safely?
He pondered that question once they reached their shielded cave. It was cooling down inside as the sun began to descend and the fire was still steadily burning. Beks had left a water crystal to boil while they were gone and he watched as she knelt to check on it.
He imagined her inside his dwelling in Kroratax. He imagined late, peaceful nights lounging in the central hub next to the fire pit, of bathing her in the wash room in his large, sunken pool, of waking next to her as the twin Luxirian suns began their ascent and pinkened the sky. She would warm his sleeping platform and be tucked in his furs and he would wake her by lapping gently at her slick cunt.
The memory of
her squirming in his arms, trying to impale herself on his cock in the washing pool, made him jerk and he straightened, tearing his mind away from such unattainable fantasies.
Calming him body and thoughts, he murmured, “I will attempt to hunt, female, before the sun journeys any further.”
She cast him a look and bit her lip. “I should go with you.”
“Nix. You stay here. It is safer. I will make sure nothing approaches the cave. I promise.”
“Okay,” she said, a little hesitantly, rising from her kneel to approach him. “Be careful, Lihvan.”
He inclined his head and she gave him a small kiss. His heart stuttered in his chest, a sensation he’d never felt before until her. Not even in the bloodiest of battles did he ever become nervous or flustered. And to think that she worried about him going on a small hunt warmed places of him he didn’t know existed.
He left her then and didn’t venture far from the cave. Lihvan made sure to cover their scents just in case any beast ventured too close and he always listened for signs of life, no matter how small.
He also scanned the skies as he waited. With every passing moment, he felt certain the Jetutians weren’t continuing in their search for them. Gribrak’s pride would be bruised after their escape, but he didn’t think the Jetutian would waste precious and dwindling fuel and resources searching for them. The planet was too vast and he’d destroyed the tracker on the escape pod.
It would, however, be easier for his people to find them. When Luxirians hunted there, a common practice during warrior training, they kept to this side of the planet, where life was more plentiful. Lihvan had tried to steer their escape pod to where he knew and he’d been successful enough. With the Fates’ guidance, Lihvan believed that his warrior brothers would know where to look for them when they eventually did reach the planet’s surface.
It could be any span now. Vikan would have alerted the council about Lihvan’s abduction and the message that Lihvan had sent to Luxiria from the escape pod would’ve been received by now. He knew that there was a Luxirian vessel journeying to rescue them. Perhaps right at this moment.