Kneeling behind me, Fiercely wrapped his arms around my middle then leaned his head on my upper back. “We will do better.”
Their strength surrounded me, supported me.
The apology offered wasn’t what I’d wanted.
It was, however, what I needed.
A flood of tears wet my face before I covered it with my hands.
I wept for what I’d lost, and all I’d gained.
Let it go, just let it go.
The desolation swept away as it hit me what the hurts of those early days bought me.
A family.
Love.
This is why Venomous would not repent.
He cradled me close, and led us inside our lair.
I leaned on him, my hand was enveloped in Fiercely’s warm palm.
As the lanced wound festering in my heart healed, the odd sad noise, or choked sob fell from my lips.
I could stay pissed, grow bitter and mean about their failures, and mine, or I could accept the past was past and move on.
Love them unconditionally.
Fiercely pulled on my arm, bringing us to a stop just past the threshold. “The lesser mating?”
My face crumpled, and I whimpered.
Venomous muttered, “As I a speak my deepest truths, I admit I do not want this.”
“What?” Fiercely hissed. “You leave what is ours vulnerable.”
My heart soared.
Is he saying....
Venomous rubbed his sloped forehead, the line between his brows deepening. “Lumen, it is wrong of me to wish this. To deny you the basic rights of protection as Rä’Na. As Rä.”
“Don’t care,” I said quickly.
“I do,” Fiercely snapped.
A muscle ticked in Venomous’ jaw. “As do I.”
“You just said you didn’t want it either,” I cried.
“Yesss, but I want you safe and protected.” He inhaled and his tense body uncoiled. “What I wish does not matter, only what keeps you safe does.”
The glimmer of hope shrivelled into a husk.
I could point out his mother had been dealt with, and I now had the time I needed, but that seemed cold. “When do you want the ceremony to happen?”
“In three moons,” Fiercely replied.
“I refuse to wait longer,” Venomous added.
We stood in a tight triangle.
They stared down at me as I struggled to think of a way to change their minds.
Slumping, I held their hands, my neck bowed. “Will you hold me? During.”
“A Rä’Na will guide you,” Fiercely murmured. “Do not worry all Rä females will forsake you. I received a message on the journey back from Cobra. She, Singing Water has offered.”
I mumbled, “Did she now?”
Covering her own ass, but whatever.
She had to live in fear with what she’d done, and the leverage I had on her guaranteed she’d tow the line.
I said, “I need you to be the ones who comfort me.”
“It is not done,” Venomous hedged.
“Since when does that stop you?”
Shoulders curling in, silent, Fiercely didn’t try to grasp for my favour as usual.
Apparently this wasn’t a task he wanted anything to do with.
Venomous’ breathing quickened. “You would suffer us close?”
“Yes,” I replied. “I’ll deal with how I feel after, and hope for the best, I suppose.”
“Hope for the best?”
“I might not feel the same about you after it’s done.” There was an ache at the back of my throat, a shakiness deep in my limbs. “I might not feel the same about either of you. That will be your consequence to deal with.”
“I will hold your hand as you bear your back,” Fiercely growled then stormed out the haze into the night.
Venomous remained, struggled with it. He wet his lips. “I do not want to.”
“So it’s okay for your friend to fuck me,” he flinched, “but you don’t want to watch? You get to separate yourself from it, but I don’t? You are refusing to stay with me and,” my breathing hitched, “hold my hand to give me strength?”
Lips pressing into a white line, he twisted his head to glare at the wall.
“You abandon me to this when I need you?”
Venomous swallowed, twitched, wanting to turn to me, but kept his face averted.
His body froze and he denied us both.
“That sick, ugly feeling crushing your chest? I feel it, times a hundred.”
“You know nothing of what I endure.” His voice was dangerous, low. “It is not natural for me to quake at the thought of a lesser mate gentling you. It is not Rä. It is not of a warrior to deny you the right of a widow’s protection.” Cords in his neck popped as he thumped his chest. “There is no honour in what burns here, yet I stand wishing with two hearts your custom was my custom. That he would never dare feel what is mine.” His fist pounded again. “His seed in your hot wet.” Another thump. “My Rä’Na.” Thud. “My hearts song.” He spun then roared, “Mine,” so loud the room shook.
Fangs dripping, his brille snapped open to reveal his true eyes.
His arm lashed out to smash through the wall.
Then he lost his shit, in monumental fashion, and trashed the place.
Eyes so round and big they were celestial freaking bodies in my face, I watched my reasonable, composed alien lover and doting father of my as yet unborn child have the Rä version of a complete and utter meltdown.
So....
Turns out, I was wrong.
Venomous did know what emotions he was dealing with.
He’d been controlling them as best he could, but my self-absorbed insecurities prodded the wound until raw and bleeding.
The only escape he had was to explode.
“Babe–”
“My female.”
Crash.
“Darling, put that down!”
“My hot wet.”
Shudder, boom.
Chaos whirled, I stood unharmed, in the eye of the storm.
I grew scared when his rage didn’t abate. “Venom.”
“To touch what is mine in anger.” He snarled and slashed apart a divan. “No one looks upon what I have mounted and seeded with life in disgust. No one. How dare she? How dare they!”
I shut my mouth.
This release of anger was about more than the lesser mating.
He’d tamped down the fury at finding me gone as best he could to stay logical, speed up my return to his side.
Aggressive as he was, emotions didn’t rule my man, he ruled them.
Now we were alone, and I was safe, he threw it all out there, caught in a helpless rage over his mother’s betrayal, and the narrow-mindedness of his people.
“It’s okay,” I whispered. “I’m safe. She didn’t harm us.” My hand came to my belly. “I’m safe here with you, with Fiercely. I trust you. I know you’ll never let it happen again.”
“No one takes what is mine from our lair,” his muscles swelled, “from our nest,” his body shook, and his voice trembled at the notion someone dared breach the sanctity of our home, “where she rests to breed my young and does beg for mercy as their innards bleed. What was done was not enough. I want to hunt her down and–”
“Babe,” I whispered again to stop him saying words he couldn’t take back.
Maybe I’d pushed him a wee bit far beyond what he could take.
“I will stay with you,” he bit out switching to the other thing pissing him off. “I will hold your eyes as he takes you. I am glad of it. Your beautiful gaze, your soft touch, will remind me why I must not rip his entrails to shreds when he releases.” Venomous clicked his teeth. “Speak of it no more.”
Shaken, I nodded fast.
Turning his head to face me, he looked at where I stood, where he stood.
Then he looked at the ceiling. “She hurts my hearts.” His tone turned guttural. “My Rä’Na will not even hold
me.”
I sucked my lips into my mouth and blinked back even more tears.
Heart filled to bursting, I tripped and stumbled over the broken debris strewn between us then did a solid face plant into his chest.
He cupped the back of my head, and a tremor passed through his hand.
He’d leashed the fury.
Barely.
Claws unsheathed.
Eyes unveiled.
The full force of his anima turning his scales into lethal spikes and blades.
Yet he held me as if I were precious.
“There is darkness in me. I am not as I was.” He paused, the scales around his eyes bunching. “I frightened you. I know you think me cruel for doing that to her. To send her into the wilderness without food or shelter. To deprive her of a future, or hope of reconciliation. So do I.” His voice thickened. “To those who harm you, the darkness grants no mercy. I fear had you not been there, I would have done worse. Acted in ways you would not forgive.”
“Venomous.” I cupped his face, ran my thumb over his bottom lip. “I will love you no matter what you do. Okay?”
“Promise,” he rasped.
“Always, babe. Always.”
Arm tight around my waist, the possessive hold on my head moved to beneath my chin.
He pushed so my face lifted to his.
Our lips brushed.
“Do you wish to invite your friend?”
I ran my nose along his throat, breathed in his earthy scent. “Beowyn?”
“Our kindred give permission.” Tension threaded his frame, still roiling with emotion. “This has not happened in living memory, my Lumen. It is a great honour.” I went weak in the knees at the livid twitch near Venomous’ mouth. “If you were with the Great Alpha, you would not have to do this.”
“I’m not with the Verak.” I refused to let him think that way. I couldn’t bear it, and neither should he. “Rä warrior hearts beat for me.” I held his gaze. “There is nothing that could make me renounce Fiercely. You. Nothing. Not the males who protect me. Who make me laugh. Who rage at the thought of another touching me. Who think I’m asleep when they whisper names to our hatchling as I lie between them. And no, we are not naming our child Terror from Above.” I gripped his chiselled jaw. “Who set aside their jealousy to ensure my safety in case of their demise, even when I fight against what they consider best. Nothing.”
I was done.
The venting of pain had been cathartic.
We were stronger for it.
There was enough to deal with the next day.
Right then, I just wanted to curl up beside them.
“Invite Beowyn,” I decided. “We’ll need all the support we can get.”
Venomous’ tongue dabbed at my neck.
His piercing was smooth and warm, causing a shiver of lust I was too exhausted to indulge. “Our hatchling is well?”
“Oh, la!” My palms rubbed my tummy. “It’s so small, I doubt it knows much of anything.”
His hand closed over mine, as it often did when I touched my stomach. He couldn’t help himself. “Tomorrow we will see Nāga. To be certain.”
“Whatever you say, babe.” I yawned into his shoulder then rubbed my nose and cheek on it. “Let’s go grab Fiercely then go to nest.”
“Yesss. I ache to love you.”
I snorted. “I’m going to sleep.”
“Thsst!”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
“What I wouldn’t give for an icy bottle of Russian Standard, and a tall shot glass.”
Naked, using my bonding robe as a blanket, I ran a shaky hand across the side of my neck and bent my head.
In the festival hall, over six hundred Rä and three Verak envoys waited for me to gather enough courage to climb onto the nest, and consummate my mating, in the ancient tradition as defined by the way.
Other than royalty, who invited that many freaking bodies to the equivalent of their wedding?
I couldn’t decide if all these people had turned up because Venomous and Fiercely were so well liked, or because they wanted to see a ‘grotesque’ human bare.
And the number was those who hadn’t turned down their invitation because they were busy, or opposed to the idea of and offworlder.
Trembling had turned into outright quakes as I, let’s face it, hid inside a meditation pod.
I had sidled into the hall then frozen as a sea of dark eyes locked on me.
I’d fled like a pusillanimous fool.
Yes, I needed that big ass word to convey the depth of how not well I was handling the situation.
Fiercely sat, watching me.
Down on one knee, Venomous gazed at me, eyes and mouth soft. “My Lumen, I know the beauty of this act seems incomprehensible to you, but do you know why I kneel before you the happiest male on Rök?”
“Because you’re about to gangbang me in public?”
He eyed me, chin dropping. “I do not know what that means.”
“Why are you happy, babe?’
“I am about to declare to all,” a slow smile, “how perfect you are to me. This is but another of many steps I take with you.” He cupped my face. “Walk with me, and know my joy.”
Rapt, my lip wobbled. “I don’t know how you make the weirdest things all right, but you do.” I clutched his shoulders then pressed my forehead to his. “Is there anything I need to know?”
“It is important certain traits of your species are hidden.” Venomous’ thumb swiped over my lips. “You must never tell anyone how we make you feel. Understand? It must remain secret.”
Breathing shallow at the hot look in his eyes, I jerked a nod.
Worry flipped my stomach over.
“I do,” I swallowed, “but I don’t know if I can hold still ... during.”
Spectators or not, Venomous had a habit of turning me inside out.
“We will take care of you,” Fiercely promised, sliding close.
Venomous nuzzled my temple. “Trust us.”
Then they were touching me.
I don’t think there was a part of my body not connected with a large, brawny hand.
Warm, rough palms, calloused fingertips, light scratches of claws.
They rubbed and squeezed, stroked and pressed.
Need engulfed me, their touch fire that burned a trail, left radiant joy instead of devastation.
I drew a short, sharp breath as the flames rose ever higher and set me ablaze.
Dragging me flush to his heaving chest, Fiercely cupped my face. He searched my eyes. “If only you wanted me as I want you.”
Placing my hands over his, I gripped his fingers.
I held his bottomless gaze. “If you don’t know how I feel about you, you aren’t looking hard enough.”
Grip tightening, his mouth descended to mine.
Thick fingers tunnelled into my hair to hold the back of my head.
Claw tips pricked my scalp, and I shivered.
His raspy tongue plunged past my parted lips and twisted around my own in a delicious, bold stroke.
There was no give in his kiss.
It was a taking, a forceful claim that seared his mark upon me, a claim I surrendered to with a groan of conquest.
Venomous’ finger probed my cleft.
It slipped into my folds and circled the swelling bud it discovered there.
Questing lower, it dipped into the opening of my core and swivelled.
Fiery pressure built under the surface of my skin, a million needles nicking my flesh, sparks of pleasure hiding behind shadows of pain.
Clouds of reason rolled back to leave me a hungry void.
The throb of my clit, and sucking ache hollowing out my pussy expanded.
The powerful cravings forged new universes of passion, exploded into unfamiliar dimensions of need.
I rolled my hips to increase the contact, felt the pulsations quicken, and my thighs grow slick with wet.
Greedy, famished, I rocked, succumbing to my baser insti
nct to allay the rising tide of bliss before I drowned in it.
The surges of pleasure filled me up, spilling over to douse my shaking limbs in rivers of ecstasy.
Fiercely broke the connection of our lips to mouth the arced length of my neck.
Hot breath kissed my skin.
His closed fist pulled on my hair, drawing my head back to endure his dangerous, yet sensual play.
Lethal fangs scored my pulse, followed by a stroke of his barbed tongue.
Stunned, I realised unlike my first alien lover, Fiercely needed no direction from me.
He chartered the hollows, curves and peaks of my landscape with an eager confidence that contrasted sharply with his emotional restraint.
I hadn’t been alone in thinking on our first kiss, and embellishing it in my imagination, it seemed.
Venomous’ attention arrowed to the triangle of my sex. “Dearest, so hot, tight and wet you are. We are to prepare you now. Be still.”
His fingers petted crisp, dark hairs.
He fondled my swelling cunt lips, rubbed, and teased the wet inner core until I writhed between them.
I tugged hard on Fiercely’s short quills as he sucked my breast into his mouth on a rushing hiss.
Head rolling on Venomous’ chest, I looked down my straining body to the other male ravishing me.
How to describe the decadence of watching him feast on my wanton flesh?
Long, strong limbs flexed a lure to stroke.
Broad shoulders begged me to grab hold, and brutally honed abdominals pulled into a tight curve as he bowed over me, as if knelt at the foot of an idol in sensual worship, demanded my touch.
Hard ridges bracketed his groin, and my eyes latched onto the veined, jutting shaft straining towards me.
His penis was the same vivid sapphire as his scales until it reached the apex were the colour darkened to a deep indigo, and the slit in his bulging crown wept lucent cream.
Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) Page 44