by Regine Abel
The Kryptids would have used her to devise an immunity to our venom and acid. That realization prompted us to warn the Miegly against possible raids. Fortunately, their people had embraced technology and would easily get advance warning of any potential invasion.
Our preventive efforts didn’t end there. Despite losing all her work in the explosion of the Striker, Ayana efficiently used the two days it took us to join her on Jaylon, and the following week we spent cleansing the planet, to rewrite her proposals and flesh them out with the aid of Myriam and Blujek. Under the expert mentorship of the human Ambassador on Jaylon, Ayana successfully negotiated the implementation of seven of her twelve recommendations for the increased presence of technology-based security measures that would remain invisible to the local population. I couldn’t have been more proud of my mate.
We finally returned home to Khepri only to be assaulted by the media and the Coalition’s high ranking officials. We also had to deal with the restructuring of the Vanguard and ESP training programs on Earth now that all of our black and brown-skinned Operators were confirmed as Portals.
To Chaos’ dismay, I left him in charge of handling the media and the Coalition, then told Raven we’d talk in the morning about the training program. For now, I’d just returned home and intended to spend some time with my bonded-mate.
First order of business had been moving all her belongings to my suite while she took a relaxing bubble bath. I’d taken a liking to cooking for her. She settled at her usual spot on the bar stool by the kitchen island while I prepared the meal. Wanting to honor her Haitian origins, I’d learned a few recipes; goat meat in a spicy red sauce, fried plantains, plus red beans and rice. For the salad, I took some liberties and mixed cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and mango with a dab of white vinegar and olive oil. Half of the ingredients had to be specially ordered from Earth. While we had equivalents on Khepri, they didn’t quite taste the same and I wanted this to be perfect for my woman.
I loved that she didn’t pick at her plate. My mate had a healthy appetite and seeing her utterly enjoy something I’d made for her gave me no small amount of pleasure.
“This is divine, Legion,” Ayana said, dipping a plantain in her small bowl of sauce. “I almost feel guilty to be sitting here stuffing my face while Chaos deals with the media. It’s almost as bad as back on Earth.”
I chuckled, not feeling sorry at all for my friend. “He needs to practice his public speaking anyway.”
Ayana giggled, giving me a ‘you’re so not nice’ look.
“This should make you happy. You may not be the first black Soulcatcher, but you have still established a revolutionary first. The media and the black community on Earth are ecstatic.”
I slightly recoiled in surprise at her careless shrug.
“There’s no question I’m proud to be a Portal, the first one at that, but the past few weeks here have taught me that there are far more important things in life than trying to get other people’s approval or living up to their expectations.” Ayana leaned back in her chair and looked pensively at her half-eaten plantain before shoving it into her mouth. I waited patiently while she reflected. “If I’d only turned out to be a regular Operator, people would have been disappointed for a few hours, maybe a couple of days, and then gone back to their usual routine. It was silly of me to beat myself up over things I couldn’t control. All that should have mattered was doing my best for the Vanguard.”
“Good,” I said reaching a hand out to her over the table. She grabbed it, and I ran my thumb over her knuckles. “I’m glad you finally realized that these people don’t matter. What we do here is what counts. You owe them nothing. They owe you for the sacrifices you make on their behalf.”
Ayana smiled and squeezed my hand before her expression sobered. She looked at me, her gaze boring into mine, and I braced for what would come next.
“I also came to realize that you were right. We need to wipe out the Swarm. Root them out and obliterate every single one of them before they infest any other world.”
I gaped at her, unable to believe those words would have come out of my compassionate Ayana.
“But I’m almost more convinced than ever that we cannot commit genocide on the Kryptids.”
“What?” I asked, utterly confused.
“The jury is still out on the Kryptid Soldiers, but we cannot slaughter the civilians, least of all the hybrids.”
I wiped out all expression from my face at that statement. The hybrids were a sore topic for us.
“Bane saved Tabitha and me; the Soulcatcher and the bonded-mate of the two Xian Warriors that are the face of the Vanguard. You know what a devastating blow this would have been for our cause and for morale.” Ayana leaned forward, her eyes pleading. “He’s the General’s son, and he reviles him. I told you what Khutu did to his mother, the same thing he had in store for us.”
“He could have lied to con you into trusting him,” I countered.
“For what purpose? I touched his mind, Legion. There was no deception there. Handing us over to his father would have raised his status among the Kryptids. From what little interaction I witnessed between him and the Soldiers, they do not seem to have much respect for the hybrids. Instead of delivering us to improve his life, he freed us and went home to face punishment.”
“Excuse me? What punishment? Where did you get this information?”
She averted her eyes and bit her bottom lip, guilt written all over her face.
“Ayana?” I pressed in a stern tone.
“I touched his mind,” she confessed.
“WHAT? Why would you do that?” I asked, releasing her hand in shock.
She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. I guess I needed to make sure he was okay, but he wasn’t. His father had just tortured him as punishment for losing the liveship with its crew, and for the failure on Jaylon.”
“He told you that? Fed on your compassion?” I sneered.
Ayana gave me an annoyed look which only fueled my own irritation.
“No, Legion. He didn’t say anything,” she snapped. “He told me to leave and not to mind-speak with him again. I saw it through memory flashes, the same way thoughts and emotions bleed during any mind-meld. They were genuine. He was tortured.”
I shrugged. “He knew the price of failure. That’s on him for going back there to get his licks.”
“He. Did. Not. Fail,” Ayana ground through her teeth. “Bane CHOSE to save Tabitha and me and to sacrifice his father’s ship and troops. He knew about the charges Chaos had placed. He could have disabled them but chose to let them go off instead.” She raised her finger to stop me from speaking when I tried to intervene. “Wait! Do not forget the other hybrid on that video the General sent you. I had Raven send me the feed to see if it was Bane, but he’s not. That’s two hybrids that have helped us.”
As much as I hated to admit it, her arguments had merit, but it still felt like too many assumptions and coincidences to consider getting in bed with the very people responsible for so many senseless deaths.
“Fine, I’ll give you that,” I conceded, “but they could be playing us so that we lower our guards, and then stab us in the back.”
Ayana rose to her feet, gestured for me to move back my chair, then settled on my lap. Her fingers threaded through my hair while her other hand cupped my face, her thumb gently caressing my cheek. All aggression bled out of me as I wrapped a possessive arm around her waist and rested my palm on her knee. She took in a deep breath and exhaled, before continuing in a reasonable tone.
“Yes, honey. You are right. It is a possibility. But it is also a possibility that they are genuine. I just want you to consider it. According to Bane, and as we could see on his body and the other hybrid’s as well, the General spliced their mother’s DNA with Gomenzi Dragons. You told me one of the reasons Dr. Xi included them in your own DNA was their unwavering loyalty to their people. The General could be building us a loyal army right in his m
idst.”
That struck a nerve.
“But who do they consider their people? Their mothers or their father?”
“My money is on their mothers.”
I raised a dubious eyebrow at Ayana.
“Think about it, hon. Soulcatchers all have a psychic bond with their children during pregnancy. The General has modified the women he captured so that they can carry his offspring. That means nine months during which the child is in constant communion with his mother. There’s no way they don’t form a bond of loyalty. The mothers ARE their people, and you better believe they will have communicated their hatred of the Kryptids to their sons.”
I stared at her, speechless, unable to find any flaw in her logic or any argument I could counter with. As much as I hated to admit it, we had to rethink some of our positions, at least regarding the hybrids.
“One last thing… Last thing! I promise!” she added when I gave her the ‘are you serious’ look. “You should also consider that the General might have gone rogue. He’s kidnapping Soulcatchers to breed himself a super army of hybrids. I’m pretty sure the Kryptid Queen would not be in favor of that. SHE should be the only one mass breeding Soldiers. So I bet you she has no idea what he’s up to, which means the rest of the population will be even more clueless.”
I snorted and shook my head, annoyed, impressed, and overwhelmed all at once. “Yes, Madam Ambassador. I concede victory before the mastery of your argumentation. I will take your very valid concern under advisement.”
Ayana threw her head back and laughed, the throaty sound doing all kinds of naughty things to me.
“Why thank you, Sir. But I’m not an Ambassador, yet. Not sure that I want to be right now.”
“You will be. I have no doubt you will be offered positions soon. If you don’t take it now, there will be plenty of time once we both retire from active duty… in about one hundred years from now.” Her eyes widened and her lips parted. I laughed at her shocked expression. “You’re my bonded-mate, my love. Your lifespan now expands to mine. I still have one-hundred-and-forty years ahead of me.”
“Right, I knew that, but I guess it never really sank in until now. Above all, I want to believe this war isn’t going to last another hundred years,” she mumbled.
“Time will tell,” I said, with a shrug.
“Either way, I’m not asking for us to get in bed with them. Just promise me you’ll keep what I said in mind going forward, okay?”
“I’ve heard you and will heed your wisdom. But… the only person I’ll get in bed with is you. The rest of the world can fuck off.”
Ayana pursed her lips and drew little circles on my chest with her index finger. “I second that, except, you’re not in my bed.”
“A failure I shall rectify at once.”
Lifting her up, I carried her to my bedroom… our bedroom, and carefully laid her down on the mattress. I straightened to remove my shirt while toeing at my boots to tear them off. Eyes locked with mine, Ayana kicked off her shoes then sat up on her haunches. She grabbed the hem of her short dress, and hoisted it up and over her head before tossing it across the room. A surge of desire exploded in the pit of my stomach, and my loin plate began to part even as I struggled with the clasp of my pants.
Ayana did quick work of removing her bra, sending it flying in the same general direction as her dress. My mouth watered at the sight of her perky breasts taunting me. She was already halfway done slipping her thong off when I finally managed to unclasp my wretched pants, my fingers having turned on me in lust-filled impatience. Growling with annoyance, I yanked down the waist of both my pants and undergarment. Giggling at my clumsiness, Ayana got up and shoved me towards the bed. Pants down to my calves, I lost my balance and flopped onto the bed with a complete lack of elegance, barely managing to land on my back instead of my face like a rookie. My outraged look quickly melted when Ayana grabbed the infuriating garments and pulled them off.
I opened my arms, beckoning her, but Ayana dropped to her knees and buried her face in my groin. She nuzzled my cock, the softness of her skin setting my blood on fire. I gasped with pleasure and my abdominal muscles contracted as her nails raked the scales covering my pelvic area. My mate had no idea how fucking good it felt when she clawed at me. Her warm breath fanned over my shaft, which ached for her attentions, but the evil tease only drew a straight line with the tip of her tongue from its head down to its base, then gently nipped at my balls.
I growled with need, my hand finding its way to her soft curls. Despite my aching desire, I resisted the pressing urge to direct her where I wanted. My body belonged to her to do with as she pleased. If this exquisite torment was her will, then so it would be. Blissful heat sent even more blood rushing to my painfully hard cock as Ayana sucked one of my balls into her mouth.
“Yes!” I moaned, reveling in the sensation of her tongue rolling over it.
She shifted to my other testicle while her dainty fingers closed over my length. I hissed with pleasure, my hips moving in response to the slow stroking of her hand. Her tongue eventually found its way back to my cock, licking its length, circling the head, and teasing the slit before finally wrapping her lips around me. My back arched off the bed, an animalistic growl tearing from my throat. Hearts pounding erratically, my blood boiled, rushing through me in a searing flow. Ayana bobbed over me with relentless greed, the sinful inferno of her mouth propelling me to the edge of the precipice. With a savage cry, I pulled her off me, my stomach twisted in a tortuous cramp from the excruciating need to climax.
Ayana squealed in surprise, then once again when I grabbed her off the floor she’d been kneeling on. I tossed her onto the bed, her giggle as she bounced turned into a strangled moan as I returned the favor.
“Legion!” she moaned, her hand fisting my hair brutally.
Fuck, I loved the sting of my scalp almost as much as her nails on me, but nothing compared to the throaty sound of her voice calling my name with such desire. I clasped my hand at the base of my cock to squelch its aching need for release as I feasted on my mate. Her taste and heady scent drove me insane. Even as my tongue dipped voraciously into her opening, spurred on by Ayana’s sexy moans, the pain of the shift wracked my spine and shoulders. I welcomed it, including the pool of lava swirling in my groin, making my seed fertile.
After feasting on her essence for a while, I teased her glistening petals before sucking on her swollen nub. Ayana chanted my name, hips swaying in tandem with the two fingers I’d slipped inside of her. Legs shaking, her breath caught, telltale signs of her impending orgasm. My cock throbbed in anticipation while Ayana’s inner walls clenched around my fingers. I arced them up, finding her sensitive spot. A few more strokes had my mate falling apart, screaming my name in the sweetest music known to man.
I looked up, my thumb replacing my mouth on her clit, so that I could admire the mesmerizing spectacle of my mate writhing and trembling from the pleasure I’d given her. As her tremors receded, I kissed my way up her flat stomach, licking at her navel, then rubbing my face against the silky mounds of her breast. I sucked in one of her dark, impertinent nipples, standing erect, taunting me. Ayana hissed at the sharp nip I gave it, a well-deserved punishment for how often her breasts made me salivate.
As I turned my head to show her other breast some attention, she yanked my hair hard enough to make me hiss this time. Eyes smoldering, pupils dilated, she looked at me with a rabid hunger that had my cock jerking in response. She circled her legs around my waist and lifted her pelvis, making her meaning clear.
“I need you,” she whispered, her voice thick with desire.
My chest vibrated with a rumbling growl which I let shift into my mating song. Ayana’s body shuddered, as the resonance increased the sensitivity of her nerve endings. I didn’t need it to make my woman soar, but I wanted her mad with pleasure. I crushed her mouth with a hungry kiss, my cock rubbing against her core, coating itself with her juices before I pressed into her opening.
No words could ever describe the ecstasy of joining with my mate. The heat, the tightness of her grip around me as her inner walls caressed and squeezed my length with each stroke, the softness of her body writhing beneath me, her strangled moans and labored breath in my ear, her hands clutching, clawing at me. I could stay like this forever, losing myself in her.
Even as I increased the pace, my woman met me thrust for thrust. She didn’t only welcome my feral side; she begged me to unleash it. I didn’t have a beast inside me, but my Gomenzi Dragon genes made me as wild and savage as them in my mating heat. Ayana’s much smaller constitution compared to mine had concerned me at first, but she once again proved far stronger than I ever could have hoped for. She craved my unbridled passion, and unleash it I did.
I pumped into her with complete abandon, the sound of our flesh meeting and mixing with our sighs of pleasure. Time faded. Eternity began and ended with her as I gave her all of me. Back arched, chest pressing against mine, she took it all and demanded more. Ayana’s mind reached for mine, her inner-self wide open. Bliss, joy, love, and so many other emotions for which no word existed exploded inside me as our souls became one. Exacerbated by my mating song, her climax slammed into her with earth-shattering violence, then crashed over me through our soul-bond, wrenching my own release from me.
Throwing my head back with a bestial roar, my body shook with devastating pleasure-pain as I released my seed in blistering spurts inside my mate. Her inner walls clenched around me, greedily squeezing every last drop from me. I collapsed on the bed next to her, pulling her into my arms, spasms of ecstasy still coursing through us.