Tempest (Valos of Sonhadra Book 2)

by Poppy Rhys

  Why were they shifting? Was there a threat nearby?

  Their gazes glanced off me repeatedly. They weren’t paying attention to anything else.

  It was unnerving, being swarmed by all four of them. Their spiny fins mottling every limb, running down their backs and fanning behind their ears. Their nearly transparent scales flickered a rainbow hue in the rays of sunlight filtering through the surface.

  Their black gazes were no longer the onyx calm, but their respective choppy, churning storms. Blue claws lengthened to sharp talons that could split my soft human flesh so easily.

  Dason dove for me, ripping claws down my shirt before darting away, the action making me yelp. It echoed in my ears.

  Kahn shred my shirt from the back, the tatters falling to the pebbles in a red swirl of swooping fabric.

  Lonan and Zaid repeated the actions with my shorts until I was naked. I dropped my pack that I’d been clutching, and it softly thudded to the pebbles with my ruined outfit.

  “What ar—”

  Kahn struck, pulling my ankles out from under me as Dason grabbed my wrists and they pinned me to the smooth pebbles before my watery question could leave my mouth.

  Kahn hovered above me, his aquatic form instilling a fear in me that took the lead above my arousal that was quickly fading.

  His double fangs long, sabretooth-like, his mouth unable to fully close with how long they were. His short, silver locks moved around his head, softly whipping in different directions.

  I could hear a small buzz, and I realized it was his arms. They were sizzling, like he was resisting the urge to flare.

  His hands planted on either side of my body, humming against the pebbles, and then his head dipped, his tongue flicked one of my hardened, exposed nipples.

  I gasped, sucking back water.

  His hand hovered above my skin, and the heat of his palms popped against me. I’d be lying if I wasn’t a little freaked out that he’d electrocute me, but the sensations were overwhelming.

  They hummed against my nerves, flickering everything alive. I moaned, my hips undulating, bumping against his hardened cock that was still tucked inside his black thermals.

  In my peripheral, Zaid and Lonan continued to circle us like predators, ready to dive in and tear away at me.

  What the fuck was going on?

  I didn’t even care once Dason started using his tongue in addition to Kahn’s electricity.

  Dason leaned forward, his midnight blue hair a darker shade in the water, and his tongue traced my ear. The warmth against the cool water was mind-numbing.

  He twirled it over the side of my neck while Kahn’s fingers cooled down enough to tug at my nipple, testing it.

  “Stop teasing me!” I shouted, the sound muffled and watery. Lightning flashed in Kahn’s eyes and I could swear his lips tugged at one corner before it was completely gone.

  I watched as he pushed his pants down just enough to free himself, the tip of his erection spurting a milky blue jet that got carried away by the water, floating into nothing but a cloudy patch. Then it was gone.

  I was ready. I was beyond ready.

  My thighs spread to accommodate him, and he guided his hips down to mine, his cock probing my entrance.

  His hands dug into the pebbles on either side of me, and then he was lost, burying himself inside me.

  My slick coated him, and it was like my body knew where I was, what I needed, what we both needed, because my pussy felt like a furnace working double time to keep me lubricated as the water tried to wash everything away.

  I could feel the water around us being manipulated, making it easier for Kahn to fuck me like it was the last time he’d ever get to.

  I couldn’t touch him, I couldn’t kiss him—thanks to Dason pinning me, and their dangerous teeth—but I could feel. I could watch as his features turned even more predatory, his clawed hands digging into the ground beside me as he lit up, unable to touch me now without truly harming me.

  He pinned my hips, busting inside of me, and once again, I felt the link to his heartstone tighten.

  It seemed physically impossible, but it was real.

  And just like that, he withdrew, returning to the circle. Dason was next, fucking me for the second time today, and pushing me to the orgasm I hungered for. Lonan after him.

  They held me down, dominating my mind, my body, my existence.

  When it was Zaid’s turn, Lonan stared into my eyes from above, pinning my wrists, while my thighs were spread wider to accommodate the mountain sized alien.

  ZAID

  Charlie was taking our claiming beautifully. None of us were sure how she would react, but it had to be done to solidify the heartstone link.

  This was the first time any of us had experienced the urge to claim—to dominate—a female.

  She was ours.

  It was easier, we’d all agreed, to let it happen. She could’ve rejected us, and we would’ve backed off.

  She didn’t. She opened for us, not resisting the pin at all.

  This female trusted us.

  I gripped the base of my length, already humming for the female below me, and pressed forward.

  Her little moans echoed through the water like ripples, making my sac tighten, threatening to spill my seed before I got a chance to join her.

  I pushed down, my tip squeezing into her fist-like grip.

  Sweet Ghi.

  I loved the human anatomy.

  Every inch I wedged into her, she resisted, her muscles trying to push me out even as her whimpers dragged me in.

  I curled over her body, brushing my cheek against hers. “Good female,” I groaned into her ear as she clenched around me once I bottomed out and our flesh was flush.

  Charlie turned toward me, kissing up and down the side of my face, her arms tugging in Lonan’s grip like she was angry she couldn’t touch me. Her words were mumbled and frenzied.

  I chuckled, pulling up to thrust back into her warmth.

  She stopped struggling, arching toward me instead, her body seeking mine.

  “Yessss,” she hissed, her fingers curling into her palms above her head.

  I gently raked my claws down the side of her body, my frame moving against hers in quick, rutting motions.

  My body was already tightening, my rod fiercely tremoring as I neared my release, needing to fill this female—my female—with seed.

  As if shocked by my scraping claws, she cried out. I felt the echo in my bones as her body clamped down on me, threatening to push me out like she did our first time.

  No.

  My hips pinned her, forcing her to the ground below us, not letting her break our tie. She thrashed under me, and I couldn’t resist the call.

  I emptied myself inside her, her muscles squeezing me, milking me. I didn’t need to move—just pin her as she drew my releases into her body.

  My frame quaked with the intensity of it, every ounce of fluid in my sac leaving in heady, pent up spurts.

  My female.

  Our female.

  My forehead rested against hers while I recovered when a strange sound fluttered against my ears. My shifted form allowed my hearing to detect slight variations, and everything was amplified underwater.

  I lifted my gaze to Lonan. He heard it too. I could tell by the way his ear fan tilted toward the sound.

  Charlie stretched below me as I floated above her, her eyes lazily blinking. She looked tired, and the water rippled with the low vibrations of our pride.

  I moved down her form, my ear trying to pinpoint the source of the fluttering, because it was resonating from her.

  Her heart hammered in its normal rhythm. It wasn’t that.

  I followed the strength of the sound, landing at the dip of her navel. My gaze met the others, and I could feel the subtle hum of their nervous excitement as Charlie lay there, half asleep and oblivious to what we were discovering.

  Gently, I flattened my ear fan to her abdomen, the flutter beating against my sens
es. It was barely audible under the rushing of her blood, and the strange intestinal gurgling.

  She’s hungry.

  I closed my eyes, Charlie’s fingers brushing over my head leisurely. Her human urges to feel and pet those close to her was one of her lovable quirks.

  My senses homed in, pinpointing not one, but two separate palpitations.

  Young.

  When I lifted my eyes, a low trill thrummed through the water to confirm with the others. I was met with incredulous stares that slowly morphed into uncontainable toothy grins.

  Dason trilled so loudly that it startled Charlie out of her half-awake state. He didn’t even notice, because he was too busy zooming circles around the rest of us.

  Idiot.

  Her brow wrinkled, eyes tracking Dason as he went round and round. When she swung her gaze to me, clutching at Lonan’s arm beside her, I knew she was wondering what was going on.

  She had such readable expressions. It had taken time, but we’d picked them apart. Right now, I imagined she was thinking, in her English words, ‘What the fuck is wrong with him?’

  Charlie liked that word. Fuck.

  Slowly, I placed my palm against her freckled abdomen, and her dubious expression turned to one of horror before her shriek vibrated through the water.

  “WHUT?!”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  I KICKED OFF THE PEBBLED ground and shot to the surface. Graceful I was not when I ejected all the water in my lungs and sputtered like a drowning chipmunk. Water leaking from my nose was the worst sensation.

  Clearly there were some wires crossed, because these valos were trying to kill me. They couldn’t just lay hands on a woman’s stomach like that and imply something so... crazy.

  I made a swim for the shore. I needed to get out of the lake. A current moved me and I wanted to growl, but in two seconds I was in knee high water, sloshing to the shore where Rezz was waiting patiently, fur half dry. The valos trailed me.

  I stopped and turned around, taking a minute to collect my thoughts and get used to breathing dry air again. Momentarily, I was distracted by the beauty of forest and mossy mountains closing in the enormous body of glacier hued water. It was... amazing.

  My brain switched gears, gaze darting over the four valos.

  “What. The fuck?”

  I meant to formulate an actual question with substance, but my mind was splitting in various directions, and I was having a hard time thinking straight, never mind talking.

  “You’re carrying our young,” Kahn grinned, beating Dason—who snapped his mouth shut—to the punch.

  I cracked up. “Ha ha ha ha... haha...”

  My brow pinched when none of them spoke. Their excited, semi-serious expressions had me taking a few steps back. The water licked at my ankles, thoughts moving at breakneck speed.

  “But it’s only been... a few weeks...” I calculated it in my head.

  Shit.

  “And it was only one time...” my fingers interlaced, “...that we...”

  That’s all it takes.

  Shit.

  “No.”

  Shit!

  “But I’m human, and you’re—” I arced an arm, encompassing all of them, “you.”

  What the hell did they do to me in the lab?

  “My body wouldn’t betray me like that.” I shook my head, my eyelids blinking at an abnormally rapid rate, my gaze darting around as all the pieces started stacking against me. “No.”

  Goddammit!

  “You’re all fucking with me, aren’t you?” I growled, and I was all too aware that I was standing naked on some lakeshore, telling four valos they didn’t knock me up. “You’re all banned from mouth hugs.”

  Maybe if I’d given more mouth hugs, I wouldn’t be in this situation.

  Fuck.

  They all stood there, grinning like fools. “Stop looking at me like that.”

  Their grins didn’t disappear. They only grew!

  “But Zaid told me no one would procreate without Ghishwy’s blessing.” I pointed an accusing finger at his chest.

  “You’re not valo.” Zaid said it so simply, like it was completely obvious. Which, it was, but dammit, I was grasping at anything!

  “I’m the most unfit person to be reproducing!”

  That was the truth. The honest to god truth.

  The silence thickened, and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t know what to do.

  Splashing drew my attention as Zaid approached me, the grin gone and sincerity hanging there in his hurricane stare. My feet were glued to the pebbles.

  His shadow drew over me, blocking out the sun that warmed my cooled skin, and he gently tossed my pack further up the shore. They were all back to their normal forms, the intimidating fins and teeth gone. I craned my neck when he chucked a finger under my chin.

  “Everything will be all right,” he murmured, his big hands framing my face, thumbs smoothing away the droplets of water that dripped from my lashes.

  Would it? Why did every fiber inside me calm when he said that? It was the link. It trusted his words.

  I trusted his words.

  Zaid’s big arms coiled around me, pulling me up into a bear hug. I draped my limbs over his wide shoulders, squeezing him to me.

  “Don’t crush her,” Kahn griped, “there’s precious cargo in there.”

  “I’m two seconds away from punching you,” I growled.

  They obviously didn’t take me seriously, else they wouldn’t be laughing. I got passed around, getting more hugs and kisses than I’d ever had at one time. I wasn’t sure what I thought about all that. It did funny things to my chest that weren’t gill related.

  “If I’m having your guppy—"

  “Guppy?” Dason tilted his head.

  “Yeah, your fish baby—”

  “Babies,” Zaid corrected, and I did a double take.

  “WHUT?!”

  They crowed at my expense while I tried not to die of heart failure. I wasn’t prepared for one, never mind two.

  What about medical care? Didn’t women need prenatal vitamins or something? Who would deliver the babies?

  What would I do with them after they were here... born and squirming in my arms and dependent upon me for survival? Damn near everything on this planet wanted to kill you and snack on your toes.

  Would this even be a normal pregnancy? These were aliens I was reproducing with. Who knew what was growing inside me...

  Lonan stroked my curls, and Kahn nibbled on my shoulder from behind, pulling me out of my own head. “We won’t let anything happen to you, little human,” Lonan promised, and leaned in to brush his cheek against mine and kiss the curve of my ear.

  I nodded slowly, my brain still computing. “One day at a time...”

  “One day at a time,” he echoed.

  I pulled back, my irritation rising for a different reason. “And what the hell was all that back there?” My finger pointed toward the lake. “I’m down an outfit—an outfit I loved. If you guys wanted me naked, all you had to do was ask. Or, I don’t know, strip me—not shred my clothes.”

  Their cheeky grins pissed me off.

  “It was a claiming,” Kahn whispered at my ear, and I hated how my body wanted to shiver, betraying me. “You’re our female now.”

  I blurted, “I wasn’t before?”

  They chuckled, and a little bit of my irritation died, because I realized his words were the truth. Each time one of them pinned me down, I felt something in me tighten, click into place, solidify. An unseen pull that connected me to the four of them.

  “Charlie?!”

  That voice...

  I quickly turned in the circle of valos, peering around Kahn’s arm.

  No...

  My jaw dropped, my blood gushed through my veins, and my legs started carrying me up the shore at a run before it registered I was barreling toward her.

  Preta.

  I crashed against her, my arms flying around her fra
me—

  She wasn’t thin anymore. I squeezed. She was... normal. Healthy!

  “Holy shit!” I pulled away, taking a split second to confirm it was her face before we embraced again. “It’s really you! How— Where—”

  “You’re alive!” she squealed, and nothing we said computed because we were chattering over each other, asking half-questions, and exclaiming obscenities in excitement and relief because she was alive, and I was alive, and we’d found each other!

  The hope I’d been holding onto wasn’t in vain, it wasn’t irrational—against all odds, my sister was standing right in front of m—

  A roar shocked us apart, the whirl of air whipping us in the face as a dragon swung its enormous tail and hit Lonan square in the chest.

  I watched in horror as my valo was catapulted into the air, his body twisting, his battle form shifting in the next blink.

  He landed in a crouched position further down the shore, the momentum from the impact causing the soil to turn up beneath his hands and feet until he halted to a stop.

  The silence was deafening for one nanosecond—and then all hell broke loose.

  Lonan thundered a bellow so deafening it stung my ears and sent goosebumps down my body. It was like he was calling the strength of a thousand storms and the memory he shared with me instantly keyed up in my mind.

  Thunder cracked above, the clouds brewing, and two more dragons appeared, vines snaking along the ground toward Lonan as vegetation around us seemed to thicken menacingly.

  It all happened so fast.

  Lonan’s feet ate up the ground and he launched himself at the offending dragon, Dason and Kahn joining the fray as lightning flashed and the lake water rose up to crash around us, conveniently missing me and Preta by inches.

  A horror movie unfolded before our eyes, and it was like the last battle Lonan showed me had never ended—only we were in the middle of it this time.

  Zaid gripped my arm, his churning eyes boring down into me. “Are you hurt?” His voice shook me.

  A deep, menacing growl sounded from behind Preta, the third dragon’s nostrils flaring, his lips pulled back over a maw of glistening teeth. Claws tore at the ground, as if he were getting ready to charge Zaid.