by Draven, Zoey
“A witness said that you two had been in a relationship,” Cara began slowly, feeling disbelief rise in her breast, “and yet, you were still exiled?”
“It is up to the female involved to clear the male of charges,” Devix said quietly. “Without her clear account, it did not matter.”
Cara blew out a breath, trying to lessen her anger that rose inside her like a black wave. It left a sour taste on her tongue.
She drew the conversation away from Arvalla when her eyes caught on his scar. She traced it lightly with her fingertip and Devix’s eyes shut for a brief moment, leaning his cheek against her touch.
“I thought you said your brother gave you this,” she said. “For some reason, I had thought it meant you two didn’t get along.”
“He did give me this scar,” Devix replied, his eyes finding her own. “But I was proud when he did. Rixavox is my younger brother. He was one rotation behind me in training, but we always sparred against one another during warrior training, not only to hone our skills, but to spend whatever time we could with one another. I love him. And he risked much when he swayed Vaxa’an, given his high rank. He could’ve been stripped of his own, just by relation to me.”
Cara’s heart softened towards his brother. “He sounds like a good male,” she said softly.
“He is,” he said. “I have not seen him for many rotations. I fear we would be strangers to each other now, if our fates ever crossed again.”
“I don’t think that. You’ll never lose that bond you had with him,” Cara said softly, hating the way his voice roughened when he spoke those words. “Have you seen him since your exile?”
“Once,” Devix said, drawing in a deep breath. “Six or seven rotations ago. On Petrika. He tracked me there. I was not welcoming,” he confessed, raising his eyes, letting her see his every vulnerability. “I was angry. Drunk on Brew, with fresh wounds from the underground fights. I was broken, so far from the proud warrior I had been. I did not want Rixavox to see me that way.”
“What happened?” she murmured, tears stinging her eyes at that pain in his voice.
“I pushed him away,” Devix said. “I was ashamed, am ashamed of how I treated him. He only wanted to help me. He said he had connections, to get me off Petrika, to settle me on a better colony in the First Quadrant. I would not hear it. I had convinced myself that I was the villain Pidixa had accused me of, the villain Arvalla had accused me of with her silence. I began to question everything that had happened.”
Cara understood now why he’d reacted in anger when she’d accused him of being good. It was obvious to her that he continued to struggle with what had happened all those years ago.
“Oh, Devix…” she whispered, heart thumping in her chest. It all made sense now.
“Eventually, he left. I knew he’d be back. Seeing him…it woke me. I asked myself what I was doing. My fate at that moment would be to die on Petrika. After Rixavox left, I realized I did not want that.”
“And then Sarkon found you and gave you a different life, one away from Petrika, your freedom from that place,” Cara whispered in ending, the final piece of the puzzle. “And eventually, you found Rozun.”
His head bowed slightly, confirming her words. “I did not mind working for Sarkon. The jobs were an outlet for my anger. They kept me numb. They kept my skills honed.” He paused and then said, “Until you, Cara. Until I began to realize that I was becoming the being I feared, by keeping a female imprisoned against her will, by harming her with my direct involvement. I woke up once more. I realized I needed a different path.”
“And here I am,” Cara said softly, a shuddering sigh falling from her lips. She took a moment to process everything he’d told her, but it was a lot. She stared out at the lake, but she didn’t see it.
Softly, Devix asked, “Do you feel differently for me now?”
Cara turned to look at him, knowing what he was asking. Whether she was frightened of him now, whether she was regretting her decision to be there with him, whether she regretted letting him touch her and kiss her and hold her.
“Yes, I feel differently,” she whispered, rising to her knees at his side so she could face him. Something like despair flashed across his features and she added, “I feel that you are even more honorable, even more good than I originally thought.”
His brow furrowed and he stilled. “Rebax?”
“What will it take for you to realize that you were wronged so badly that it made even you, with all your strength, doubt who you truly are?” Cara asked him, feeling her heart beat so intensely for him in her chest. “You were a victim of a vindictive bastard and a female who couldn’t stand up for you when it mattered. You did nothing wrong, Devix. Why would I feel the same way about you, knowing all this now? I feel more for you. I admire you more. And I am so thankful that you told me all this so I could see you clearly for the first time. And I’m so thankful that it was you who Sarkon sent, because you are honorable and just and kind, even though others have not acted that way towards you.”
“Luxiva,” he rasped. “You are…”
“Amazingly beautiful, I know,” she teased, smiling. “And I can make a mean steak too.”
“I do not know what a ‘mean steak’ is,” he told her, but his shoulders finally began to relax, which Cara took as a good sign.
“You will tomorrow,” she promised, since she already had plans for their grocery purchases from earlier that day. She leaned in, hovering close to his lips. She brushed a soft kiss over them and the responding growl low in his throat lit her up. “But for tonight…I want you to take me back to your home and back to your bed,” she murmured, leaning closer. “Because I have some plans for you. And I don’t want to wait a single moment longer.”
He purred in his chest. “While you remain with me, female, it is our home and our bed.”
Cara sucked in a breath and she felt those words burrow sweetly in her chest where they wanted to stay…forever.
“Then lead the way,” she whispered, smiling.
SEVENTEEN
They didn’t make it back to the bed. Hell, they didn’t even make it back to the house.
Because somewhere between Devix helping her back up the steep hill, with him purring constantly at the sight of her backside, possessively palming it on occasion, and him leading her back into the forest of strange, creaking, breathing trees, Cara didn’t want to wait. The walk wasn’t that far…but it was far enough.
Devix smelled her arousal. She knew that. His horns were ramrod straight above his crown and his chest rumbled with familiar sounds that set her blood on fire.
It felt right, to make love for the first time in that place, Cara thought. In the strange forest that surrounded them like sentinels, making her feel safe, despite the ‘monsters and beasts’ believed to be living near Devix’s territory. Cara didn’t feel frightened. She felt warm and safe and buzzing from Devix’s trust in her, letting her judge him and his past without attempting to sway her opinion. Her sex was wet and aching, remembering their kiss earlier that evening, knowing that Devix was aroused and ready for her.
Every step stimulated her more and she heard Devix’s sharp inhale, his warning growl as he said, “Luxiva, do not tempt me like this.”
“Devix,” she said softly, looking to him. “I—I think we should have sex now.”
He stilled in the darkened forest. The side of his face swirled silver, from the light that had managed to squeeze its way through the thick branches of the trees.
“Rebax?”
“I don’t think I can make it all the way back,” she confessed, feeling her need swell in her like a tidal wave. She’d long given up trying to explain her deep attraction to the alien male standing in front of her, that went beyond anything she’d felt before. She simply accepted it now.
His expression turned fierce, intense, like she was prey and he was the predator. “You do not know what you ask, female.”
“I do,” Cara contradicted, stepping close
r to him, running her hands down his chest. “It was inevitable, wasn’t it? We would have had sex eventually. Why wait anymore?”
Devix shook his head, but Cara got the sense that it wasn’t in rejection, but rather trying to get his thoughts straight.
“There are things you do not know, luxiva,” he rasped.
Cara’s heart thumped. “Like what?”
Devix stalled a moment to run his hand over his stiffened horn. “You do not know how possessive I will be of you if we mate. You do not know a Luxirian’s needs. I fear it will exhaust you.”
“Exhausted by sex,” Cara purred. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
And why did his mention of how possessive he’d be of her make a thrill run down her spine? Back on Earth, she was too independent to like overbearing men. But Devix…she had a feeling she’d enjoyed being a kept woman if she was his.
Just one more thing that didn’t make sense to her about their relationship…or whatever the hell they were doing.
“I will be…ravenous,” he warned her, his voice growing dark.
Cara licked her lips, her clit giving a series of throbs in response.
“I want you to be,” Cara murmured, a teasing smile stretching over her lips.
Devix was still trying to dissuade her with his hesitation. If it were any other male, Cara might think he was trying to give her the brush off. But this was Devix. His desire for her was evident.
“I might not ever let you go, Cara,” he finally admitted, even as his hands clasped around her waist, drawing her to him.
Again, that tingle raced down her spine, something like awareness, a confirmation of something inside her that had always known that.
But she wasn’t afraid.
“We will cross that bridge if the day ever comes,” she whispered, her eyes catching on his lips. She raised herself on her tiptoes, but she was still too short to kiss him. “Kiss me,” she ordered. “And then I want you to do what you said you’d do.”
He was caving. Devix growled, “What did I say?”
Cara changed tactics since he wasn’t going to kiss her. She reached up with her hands and forcefully gripped his horns, eliciting a strangled groan from him, pulling his head down until she could nibble on his lips.
“You wicked female,” he rasped against her.
“You told me you’d fuck me so hard I’d feel you in my cunt for the rest of my life,” she whispered, repeating every naughty word he’d said to her. “And that you’d spank me as you did it.”
The change in him was evident as she repeated those words. Her alien male liked rough sex, it seemed. Good thing for him that she liked it to.
His voice was nothing more than a dark, velvety purr as he said, “I am trying to be an honorable male, luxiva.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
He groaned, but his eyes told her she’d already ensnared him. “Ask me once more.”
One of Cara’s hands trailed from his horn to caress the erection straining his pants. It had seemed like ages since she’d last gotten her hands on him, but she intended to rectify that immediately.
“Will you please fuck me?” Cara whispered, trailing her fingers up and down the length of him, squeezing her thighs together as she imagined what he’d feel like inside her. She’d find out soon. “Right here, right now. Please, baby.”
The roughest of growls tore from his throat and his hands tightened around her waist, as if to hold her in place, to keep her from getting away. As if she’d ever try to get away from him again.
Cara gasped when he clawed through the laces on her pants and they fell in a pool around her feet.
Alrighty then, we’re doing this, Cara thought, excitement making her heart skip.
She stepped out of her pants just as Devix tore the shirt from her body, until she was completely naked, standing in the middle of the dark forest with him.
With a rasping purr, he picked her up off the ground, his strong arms wrapping around her waist, and Cara entwined her legs around his hips. She moaned when he dipped his head, careful of his horns, to suckle on the sensitive tipped peaks of her breasts.
He walked them over to one of the massive trees covered in white moss and he set her down, making her lean her back against the trunk as support. He fell to his knees in front of her, his eyes so dark that they appeared black when he looked up at her.
Cara bit her lip, her body humming in anticipation, feeling the softness of the moss against her bare back. It felt sinful and delicious to be naked like that in the forest, while Devix remained fully clothed.
Devix took one of her legs and draped it over one of his broad shoulders, exposing her pussy completely. Tingles traced over her skin when he gently nuzzled his horns over the flesh of her inner thighs, like he was marking her as his own.
“Ohhh,” she moaned, her eyes squeezing shut when he finally lapped at her pulsing, swollen clit, before giving it a teasing little suck.
Cara’s head swam. He’d pleasured her enough by now to know everything that she liked and already, she could feel herself nearing the edge of orgasm. Her alien lover knew all the right buttons to press to get her there swiftly.
“Devix,” she moaned, her whole body jerking when he inserted his tongue into her pussy, licking in her as deeply as he possible could. “Ohhhh, right there!”
She shivered when the ridges lining his tongue brushed her sensitive inner walls and she had to grasp his horns to keep herself from toppling over. Cara’s chest heaved as she gripped his horns tightly in her fists, stroking the smooth bone from base to tip like she would his cock.
His rough growl and the way his tongue worked harder inside her told her just how much he enjoyed her touch.
But she was impatient. She’d waited long enough to feel his cock inside her.
“Dev,” she whispered, her throat tight with pleasure. “I’m ready. Enough foreplay.”
He shook his head against her, pulling back just enough to say, “You are tight, female. I could rip you in half if you are not prepared. You will cum twice and then I will mate you.”
Twice, she thought, her head swimming, groaning. Her head fell back against the tree trunk, but her grip never left his horns. With unseeing eyes, she stared up at the canopy of the forest, watching the swirling silver light dance through the shadows as Devix returned his attention to her clit.
Cara was growing wetter and wetter between her thighs. So wet that she felt it drip down her legs, only to be lapped up by Devix, the wicked, wicked male.
Her whole body stiffened and she screwed her eyes shut when her first orgasm of the night crashed down on her, making her back arch off the trunk of the tree.
Her cry echoed around the clearing, the sound being carried in all directions of the forest. Even her nipples tingled with pleasure.
And as Cara came down from the edge, only to realize that Devix would not let up from her sensitive clit, she knew that it was the beginning of a very long night.
* * *
Devix could not get enough of his mate’s taste.
“I would live off your cunt if I could, luxiva,” he purred up at her, on the heels of her first orgasm.
She gave a shaky laugh and Devix savored the sound. And then he savored her gasping moan when he delved his tongue back inside her delicious cunt, lapping at the tight, hot walls he’d soon feel wrapped around his cock.
Devix growled in anticipation and the sound vibrated his tongue inside her. Devix knew his female’s body well and she was approaching her second orgasm swiftly. Her cunt was wet with arousal and her cream and he just wanted to make sure she’d be able to take the thickness and length of his cock without hurting her.
His Instinct was a purring, excited beast within him. It rumbled mine, mine, mine, as he licked and laved her cunt. He hadn’t been lying to Cara when he’d told her the possessiveness he’d feel once they mated fully. Luxirian males were notoriously protective of their mates and coveted them like no other species he knew
of.
The only thing he regretted about their first mating was that it wasn’t happening with the Fates’ blessings. On Luxiria, fated mates were revered since their occurrences were rare. And fated mates always received the blessings of the ravraxia ceremony before the first mating.
The Fates’ presence was not on Rozun. Only in the sacred places of Luxiria could one seek out their power, could feel their touch.
Devix would have liked to honor his mate with the ravraxia, but fate had other plans for them. And Devix accepted that.
Their bond was not any less special just because they were not participating in the customs of his culture. Devix would take her any way he could.
Cara’s second orgasm tightened her body, making her leg draped over his shoulder tense, making her grip on his horns tighten as he rocked them into her touch. The beginnings of his seed soaked through the front of his pants, dripping from his engorged tip.
More cum soaked her cunt until it was dripping from her, the taste so delicious that Devix’s eyes rolled back in his head with every lick.
Cara tugged at his horns, his impatient little mate. “T-that was two. You promised.”
“Did I?” he rumbled against her, dragging the tip of his tongue across her throbbing clit.
“Devix,” she protested, her tone notching higher and higher as he tormented her. “No more. I need you now!”
His mate was not to be denied for long. Devix knew that. She always got what she wanted, so Devix decided he’d teased her long enough. Her cunt was drenched and her muscles were relaxed enough that she might be able to take all of him.
The moment he unhooked her leg from over his shoulder, she was on him. Delighted, he purred as he pushed him to his back on the moss, the effort making her lush breasts bounce and sway. And Devix watched them, rapt, as she straddled his hips and tore his tunic over his head, the material ripping on his horns, until his chest was bared for her. Next, her hands fumbled, shaking, at the lacings of his leg coverings. Devix aided her and soon, she got him as nude as she.