by V. K. Ludwig
My feet lifted off the ground as he picked me up and draped me over his arms, strands of dark silver hair framing his high cheekbones. “The tribe is mine by right, and I’ve proven myself worthy when I went through the trials. What I need is the acknowledgment of the other warlords so I can access Noja.” Toagi held me tighter as he descended into the water and waded through the yoni with me. “Our souls are bound before Mekara.”
“That’s bullshit.” It had to be. “There’s no scientific proof that you can force a soulbond on me. Only rumors.”
“Each rumor carries at least some truth. Uresha senses our bond.”
My throat narrowed until nothing but little gasps of air struggled through, my mind going foggy. “If there was a bond, shouldn’t I feel different?”
His jawline hardened, probably because I’d hit a sore spot. “Perhaps it is delayed in your kind.”
So he had his doubts too.
“Or perhaps there is no bond at all.” No matter how I’d agreed to give up my life for the greater good, my soul was mine to give away, and nobody would just come and steal it. Not even half. “Sorry to burst your bubble, but your plan is flawed because it’s based on a rumor. And a false one at that.”
His arm disappeared from underneath my thighs, and he shifted me to wrap my legs around his waist as he brought me upright. My tendons pulled tight at the intimacy of how he wetted my hair, and washed the sweat from my temples as he bobbed up and down with me in the water. Each time he moved, the muscles on his stomach shifted against my pussy. He was too close, too confident, and too damn naked.
“I feel different,” he said.
I flinched hard enough he probably felt it. “I don’t. And even if I did, nobody would care when peace is at stake here.”
One of his hands dug into my waist while the other clasped my chin, bringing my eyes to lock with his. “You are right. The soulbond alone won’t help me achieve my goal, but it’ll pave the way.”
Cones of light penetrated from cracks in the stone, putting an almost iridescent glimmer onto his dark gray skin. A rebel he might have been, young and virile, but he appeared rather cunning. So what was this plan that fueled his fingers with such confidence, they slipped from my waist to the sway of my hip?
When I’d warned him of the consequences, he embraced the thought. If the sting alone was nothing but a way of means, what exactly did he—
All blood sucked from my face, cheeks tingling as I sensed myself go pale. Zovazay made me receptive to his seed. That was a proven fact. If he put his child in me, there was little chance they would kill Toagi, leaving the daughter of the Empire leader a widow pregnant with the offspring of a dubbed rebel. What a scandal that would be!
One splash to his face, and I wiggled myself away from his clasp, paddling toward the edge no matter the pain. “You will not put a child in me.”
The tunic caught on the stone, its weight wearing me down as I climbed out of the water.
Toagi grumbled as he made it out first, hard shaft twitching between his legs as he grabbed my arms and pulled me out. “The moment I seed you with my child, they will have no other choice but to support my rightful claim.”
“The fuck you will.” Everything around me spun as I pushed myself away, swaying backward until my shoulder blades rode up against hard, unforgiving rock. “Stay away from me!”
He growled low before he snarled, “If I wanted to rape you, I could have done so when I had you pinned underneath me.”
“Why haven’t you then? You’re clearly motivated.” A swat toward his arousal underlined my words.
“You don’t have the slightest idea how much control it takes not to spill my seed inside you this very moment.” As if to prove it, his fingers massaged a swollen, bulbous expansion at the bottom of his shaft, groaning as if in pain when droplets of white seed squeezed from the tip of his cock. “We claim our females when they are in heat and beg us to breed them. You are not in heat yet, and our bond is frail, but my cock did not get the memo. Therefore, I want inside you. But I will not force you.”
“Oh, because you have such honor?”
“No, Ceangal.” Slow, predatory steps carried him toward me, but his audacity reached new heights when he lifted his hand between us, fingers glistening with his cum. “I will not force you because I don’t have to. Once our bond strengthens, you will beg for my seed.”
Five
Toagi
Green, startled eyes stared at me.
That urge to turn Ceangal around and rut her from behind returned full force, the knot on my cock painfully swollen. Seed still leaked from the tip in abundance even after I’d stroked some out, dripping onto the dark stone underfoot.
How I managed not to succumb to an urge borne of instinct, I couldn’t say, but I had an inkling that disgusting pressure underneath my sternum was to blame. Sticky and constantly shifting, it swelled against my lungs and throat, robbing me of air. It was panic.
Not mine.
Hers.
As much as she claimed no change ever since I’d stung her, that soulbond had spread its roots into my core overnight. It wound around my organs, hooked around ribs, roped around my heart — and pulled tight when she experienced distress.
Like right now, so I took a step back, and another, until my lungs had room to expand. One inhale later, and that damned hum resonated the yoni unbidden, offering comfort where I just needed her to spread her legs.
Darkness flared in Ceangal’s eyes, potent enough something biting formed inside her. “I don’t want you to hum for me!”
“Trust me, neither do I.”
So why did my spine collapse? Nobody had ever hummed for me, and that scrape it caused within my chest was too strange, too unfamiliar, too… unexpected.
This wasn’t how I’d planned this.
Hadn’t expected zovazay to manifest overnight.
Where was her bond?
While I wouldn’t take anything from this female she wasn’t willing to give—aside from half her soul—I wouldn’t abandon my goal either. Couldn’t allow her panic to delay me from putting my child in her belly. But how if she refused me so completely?
“Urizayo.” Uresha walked up beside us, stalks of dried herbs tied to the belt of her loose skirt. “Has she bathed in the yoni?”
“She has.” And if the way she’d taken on a warrior stance was an indicator, then she’d recovered quite a bit. “Look upon her spirit and tell me we can finally leave this place.”
While Uresha patted Ceangal down, I grabbed my loincloth and struggled agonized flesh behind the restraints of leather. My kind lived in close-knit communities, which offered little privacy unless one sought the plains’ silence. Nudity was as natural to us as finding pleasure with someone unmated, sometimes in front of the entire tribe.
“The bond is changing,” I said in Jalut, not wanting to upset Ceangal further. “Her distress chokes the air from my throat, and the swelling on my knot won’t ease.”
“It is only natural that you seek to breed her now that the bond is fresh, and the urge will likely increase when she comes into heat.”
By Mekara, if my body reacted like this now, I didn’t want to consider how much worse this could get. “You said the bond was frail.”
“It is stronger already.”
“She says she feels nothing,” I snarled, sexual frustration getting the best of me, along with the fact that Katedo might slit my throat at any moment. “How long until she opens to let me into her soul?”
And her cunt…
Uresha shrugged. “That is up to—”
“If you wish to say Mekara, keep it to yourself.”
And she did, mumbling a prayer as she smudged the air, until Uresha finally said, “Yes, yes, she can travel.”
For once, the goddess favored me. “We will ride this instant.”
I washed my hands and face in the yoni, my body weary from lack of sleep. All night, I’d remained by Ceangal’s side, humming until my throat num
bed and the tang of metal seasoned my tongue.
“Your uiri will help you dress for the journey home.” I walked up to her as close as the bond let me, only stopping when something shifted in my chest. “We will ride into the night, only stopping if we have to.”
Ceangal reached only below my chin, but she held my gaze with renewed energy, baring dull, harmless teeth with convincing determination. “I will not bring a child into this world whose existence is based on politics, the sins of my father, and the wars he waged.”
“Here’s the thing with the sins of our fathers, Ceangal: we inherit them. And if we don’t repent and satisfy fate, we will pass them on to our children. You will carry my child.”
When I cupped her cheek, all warmth disappeared from her skin, the softness replaced by black scales of nano armor that spread across her face and down her neck. Ceangal startled, green eyes growing wide as she stared at me.
I stroked my thumb over her lower lip, also scaled and trembling. “Retreat them.”
“I… I can’t.”
“Retreat them, Ceangal, and you have my word of honor I will remove my touch.”
When she did nothing, eyes growing glassy, I trailed my fingers down along her neck. Black scales followed wherever I touched. Sternum, shoulder, arm… rough and cold, my fingertips never reached the warmth of her skin.
An unsettling heaviness collapsed onto my posture, and my stomach hardened. Why hadn’t Ceangal willed her armor when she pointed a knife at me, when she now claimed she couldn’t make it retreat at something simple like my touch?
None of this made sense.
* * *
As if the effects of the bond weren’t daunting enough already, now she started to encapsulate herself at my touch? Nano armor was impenetrable — as in, the opposite of penetrable.
Fucking fantastic!
The idea of rubbing my cock along those scales sent a shudder down my spine. “This is getting worse by the second. Take her back and gather your things while I discuss the route with Nafir.”
I fled the yoni, each stomp toward camp pounding with the weight of my frustration. What if Uresha had been wrong, and this soulbond was corrupted? Even shimids made mistakes and, from the start, the outcome of my sting had been unpredictable at best.
“Urizayo.” Nafir jumped up from the bottom of a tree and fell in step beside me, following me toward the cliff overlooking the valley. “Has the female recovered?”
“You will refer to her as your urizaya.”
I flinched at the aggressive undertone of my voice. For the better part of my life, I’d doubted that I would ever claim a female, least of all an urizaya. Now that I had, what if this soulbond only worked one way? Had I bound myself to a female who would forever despise me in a cruel twist of fate?
Nafir lowered his head. “Of course, urizayo. She is my urizaya, and I pledge my life to keep her safe.”
I planted my hands on my hips and jutted toward the valley. “How many scouts?”
“At least three groups, but we lost them as the storm picked up,” he said, tugging his chest holster back into place. “The visibility is poor.”
“That’ll serve us just fine. I suggest we follow along the western cliff where we can find reprieve from the cutting wind.”
Nafir dragged a set of fangs over his upper lip, which had always been a sign of disagreement with him. “It will slow our journey.”
“True, but your urizaya is still weak, her body neither used to the heat nor the bite of grit against her thin skin if we brave the storm. Katedo wields the largest force of warriors. If you spotted no more than three scouting groups, he likely sent the many others he has at his disposal toward the northeast.”
“It was wise of you to let your warriors drive a leap of wild yuleshis that way. Imagine the warlord’s face when he finds not a warband to cut down, but a bunch of beasts roaming the ravines.” His chuckle eased some of the tension I carried in my muscles. “Still, if we happen across a scouting party, we can easily kill them.”
I answered with a non-committal grunt.
Even though my warriors had pledged their loyalty to me, their blades ready to defend my claim, this planet had seen enough bloodshed. As a warlord, it was my obligation to guide and protect my tribe. As a Jal’zar who’d suffered loss at the hands of my own people, it was my fate to do better than kill when avoidable.
Beside me, Nafir shifted from one leg to the other, unable to hide how his pupils flicked to my loincloth. “Have you, um… have you seeded her?”
As if the wet spot on the leather wasn’t answer enough. “When you claimed Seren, how long did it take for her soulbond to… snap into place?”
“I struggled to pull my claw from her ribcage with the way she pushed me to the ground and impaled herself on my shaft.” His next chuckle died the moment he must have spotted how my jaws clenched. “If she refuses you, I am certain one of the females at the tribe will be more than willing to—”
“You should know me better than that.” That he’d suggest such a thing made my fangs gnash as I turned away. “We will take the route along the cliffs. If we keep at a sprint and pace our yuleshis, we might reach the mother tree by nightfall.”
By the time I returned to camp, my warriors had disassembled Uresha’s tent. Our yuleshis stood saddled and ready, one of them carrying sacks of rations, the shimid’s belongings, and the supply packages from Noja.
Mayala walked up to me with her chin held high since I wasn’t her warlord and all that. “My urizaya is ready to travel and wishes to ride with me.”
If only I could’ve allowed it, sparing my cock the torture of rubbing against her ass for an entire sun. But Mayala would only further compromise this one-sided bond with her poisonous talk, muddling Ceangal’s thoughts with lies.
“She will ride with me.” Tolerating no objections, I swung myself onto Canja’s back, then plucked Ceangal from where she stood beside a tree. “How are you feeling?”
Her stomach hardened with nanites when I placed my hand there to keep her steady as I turned my yuleshi, but she managed a curt, “Better.”
I tapped the waterskin dangling from the leather strappings. “Make certain you drink.”
Even sitting behind her, the way she angled her head told me she paid the waterskin no mind. No, the female’s attention rested on the gun she’d so skillfully pointed at me, and likely on my set of knives dangling beside it.
So I did what no freshly mated Jal’zar warrior had ever done before: I grabbed the gun, gave a sharp whistle, and handed it to Nafir. My knives went next, removing any potential weapons from her immediate surroundings lest she tried to shoot or stab me.
I kicked Canja into a sprint, allowing Ceangal a few moments to let her movements melt with the gait. “You went to the warrior stratum, did you not?”
As though my question had placed an invisible weight onto her shoulders, her shrug came slow. “Haven’t you heard? Ceangal da taigh L’naghal failed her finals, and the entire universe watched.”
Even with limited access to interstellar broadcasts, I knew she’d been the center of the media’s attention ever since her birth. “Because you can’t control your nanites?”
“It’s not that I can’t control them. Just that I… I don’t know…” Her voice faded into the breeze, which carried the scents of baked earth and faint wildflowers, taking long moments before it recovered. “A warrior unable to will his or her nanites is deemed unfit.”
Her embarrassment vibrated through the bond loud and clear. But there was something else, too. Something more subtle, hiding in the deepest layers of her soul, locked away and guarded.
It stirred wariness at my core.
Solgad was no hospitable planet for its native race, but it could kill her with something as simple as a pride of ushtis trapping her inside a yoni. It was the very reason why only females genetically outfitted with nanites were considered for these political… marriages, as they called it. So why was she accepted?
>
Something wasn’t right here.
Six
Ceangal
Dry wind blew over my chapped lips, carrying traces of hearty spices, grilled meat, and the tartness of berries. It lifted the excited voices coming from the tree looming before us, tall enough its crown vanished into the night sky. Lanterns dotted the foliage with a purple gleam, often nearby one of the hundreds of hammocks hanging from thick branches.
“Welcome to my tribe,” Toagi whispered behind me with a smile sitting on its undertone. “Everyone is excited to meet their urizaya.”
“This is no place for any urizaya, least of all one from Earth.” Mayala rode up beside us, her silver hair tousled around her horns from riding across Solgad all day. “How am I to wash my urizaya properly if we passed the last potential yoni many paces ago? This land is unruly, and I spotted at least three ushtis roaming too close to the tree.”
Toagi brought his yuleshi to a stop and dismounted into a cheerful crowd. Children bounced up and down, some so young their horns were nothing but little nubs, their voices a chaotic mix of laughter and singing. Females dipped their heads, reaching their hands to him without touching, while males stomped their heels.
“Alde’e!” he said as Mayala leaned into me, translating his words. “I brought your urizaya, the female who will help her urizayo gain peace and prosperity for our tribe!”
Males stomped louder, and females hollered a cacophony of shrill yelps into the cooling night, sending an uncomfortable tingle across my skin. Hundreds of faces gleamed up at me, believing this lie Toagi told them as if I wouldn’t get out of here the first chance I got.
“He is telling them that your travel was long and that you are exhausted,” Mayala said and slipped off her mount, only to help me down from Canja’s back. “That you will receive them after you had a night full of rest, but he asks them to restrain their curiosity for tonight.”
No sooner had Toagi spoken these words, did his tribe retreat to purple fires crackling here and there underneath the tree, although most climbed into the tree with astonishing ease.