by Stephan Knox
He shook the thoughts from his mind. “I’ll fetch the fire wood.”
When he came back Aari was waiting at the door with the last trap to be set after his return. A couple of food cans and a thin wire was all it was.
She set them in place while he started the fire and then came to his side and sat next to him on the hearth step and watched as he slowly fed the dry wood into it.
The air around them became awkward with the impending topic, but the burning lust seeping out from his sym like endorphins wasn’t going to allow him a choice to not bring it up. She seemed to know it and was waiting.
“I took you to find them.” Tannin threw another log in without looking at her. First, he wanted to test if she was going to fulfill her promise or not. It was a shitty deal but a deal nonetheless.
“I know,” she answered quietly.
He nodded and sat back on his heels and stared into the flames a moment, letting its building warmth hit his face. Why was he waiting? He scooted over in front of her then brought his hands up to her shoulders pushing her coat off then rubbed her arms to warm them, the whole time avoiding her eyes.
His cock was throbbing to life and with it the burning need to be inside her— to fuck and mate and fuck some more. He could hear her breathless moans in his head and his heart sped up, pounding his chest with blood that raced downward to fill his member. His sym eagerly prepping his body, so it would seem. Yet Tannin’s hands were all thumbs.
For all the unabated lust surging like a wild animal inside his body, in his mind, he was uncertain, and on the outside, he felt like a stumbling boy who didn’t know the first thing about making union. Which, in truth, he did not. Fucking— he knew how to do that— and he knew how to bring a woman pleasure— but Aari was not just a woman— she was a Symbiotai breeder— and untouched.
He leaned in, kissed the corner of her mouth then licked over her lips, tracing over them with his tongue. He slid his hands around her back and pressed the heel of his palm along her spine. Aari’s back instantly arched into him, she gasped with the stimuli, and he moved in to claim her mouth in a deeper kiss. She tasted like dark nectarine honey. Something that seemed to surprise him. After all the road traveling they had done, he expected her to taste as dusty as the roads they had set foot on. Instead, she was euphoric and evocatively sweet.
He lifted her from the hearth, pulling her to sit straddled over his legs as he sat back on his heels, hugging her tighter against his body, until he felt the heat of her thighs pressed against the raging erection in his trousers. He pulled on her hips, using her body to grind against him, and then lifted his own in a counter movement, creating a riding wave of pleasure intended to arouse her as well as torment him.
Every beast inside him roared, howled, and cawed for the mating. Sif rolled inside Tannin’s back, sending out charges of heat and lust down his spine and to pulsed in his groin. The rutting storm was quickly making Tannin drunk and what few thoughts didn’t involve sex, now seemed to ramble in his head. “Is there anything special you would have of me before I leave in the morning?” he whispered hungrily against her neck. He was just seconds from losing his mind, his control, and just becoming pure rutting stag.
The small framed female that was slowly melting to his touch as his fingers danced along her spine leaned back, looking into his face with a stumbling expression. “Leave me in the morning?” she repeated his words.
Tannin stopped, had he said that? Drenn, what fool hearted thing made him say that? “Yes. I figured after we mated that you should stay here where it’s safe, while I go to the soldier camp.”
“Were you planning to come back for me?”
Tannin could see the mixed feelings about that in her eyes. She was road weary. Surely a few days reprieve would be welcome. But it was more than a few days he was planning to give her. “Aari, my destiny is one that is not going to be as quiet as our trek has been so far. It’s dangerous and will become more so when I go after the remaining Blood Lords. Too dangerous for you.”
Aari jumped from his arms and stood stalk straight, haunted eyes glaring down at him. It was about the only time she’d ever stood over him and the beasts in him growled to reclaim his position of dominance. But even as Tannin stood to his full fathom, the argument that was building in her didn’t diminish in the slightest.
“I already lived in danger. How dare you!” Her eyes flared like hot coals at him. “I was a lead in the transport division as an Outland Gunner. That means transporting people and goods in and out of war zones and territories outside the district of friendlies. I took my shifts as point guard, patrolling the perimeters when I wasn’t out on a run. Fighting off the advances of men, one after the other. Many of them trained Guillotine Hunters. I lived in fear that one day they would find out what I am. Living in fear because a death sentence meant they would kill me over and over again because my body was able to heal. Or be raped then locked in binding to that shit!” she raged on, “Life was already dangerous. And if you expected me to be your union, you have to keep me with you! Those were the rules!”
And that spurred on a heated argument. Because unslaked lust in Tannin, ignited into rage and anger in an instant. “Rules‽ What rules‽ Since when did you become the know-it-all on mating rules?”
Aari spun her back to him with every intention of walking out, but Tannin caught her arm and yanked her to him, slamming her into his body where his arms trapped her against his chest, “Oh no you don’t! I want to hear this!”
Aari caught her breath and squirmed, but the movement did little more than grind her more sensitive parts against his firm body. “Don’t,” she let out a futile whimper.
The scent of her arousal swam over him, made him drunk again. Rage and rutting now fused together that quickly. His cock had already been hard-pined for the ready. Invoked by the kissing and rubbing, she’d allowed him to get away with— his mind was now consumed with little more than being inside her. But by destiny, he wanted all of it and he wanted it now.
Not thinking, he lowered his lips, crashing against hers, demanding entry into her mouth. His fingers tangled into her hair, fisting so tightly until it stung her scalp and she opened up, letting him in as before. She had to have felt it— felt his intentions, felt they were meant for each other. She belonged to him and he was going to do far more than kiss her this time.
Tannin licked over her lips, her tongue, even the roof of her mouth, and sucked her lips into his before biting them, leaving his mark on them— on her. Everything of hers was going to be his and he was going to bite every inch of her flesh along the way just to prove it.
He coiled his arms around her, grabbing the backs of her thighs, and then hoisted her up and to wrap around his body. Now she was more accessible for his baser need to mark her. “Is this how it’s done?” He worked his way along her jawline towards her neck and nipped her there too. The sound of her hiss excited him even further and he bit her several times more, licking then sucking at her skin. “Huh, Aari? Tell me, is this how it works?” By Destiny, he was going to lose control any minute. He wasn’t even aware he was talking to her. Need and hunger were frying his brain— coursing through his blood like distilled fuel.
“Works?” Aari’s question came from a fog of arousal and her body shifted from respondent to suddenly rigid in his arms. Then he felt her fist slam against his chest then shoved as hard as she could until he released her, and she went flying to the ground.
She landed with a hard thud on her tailbone then scrambled to her feet as quickly as possible, clearly capable of a rage of her own, written all over her face. “You’re asking me how it works? Why the hell would I know how it works?!”
It was more a screaming accusation than a question and drenn if he knew the answer. He stepped towards her, snatching her arm, and he lifted her on her toes. But just then her fist came flying out and caught him directly in the temple. The strength in the punch surprised him and once more he let go,
a hand coming up to rub at the side of his head.
“Don’t you touch me!” she hissed at him. “Never touch me again if all you intend to do is abandon me to be picked up by someone else. You’ll not send me off to live with strangers!”
“Tell me, Aari. How is a man to get invited between your legs?” Tannin bellowed back at her. Clearly more enraged, now that it was clearly impossible to seduce her or even win her complacency.
Just like that, she was back to acting the cold wall that she was well capable of. Silencing off the emotions caused by her Symbiotai. The extent of her ability to do so both frustrated and astounded him. “Is that all this is about? We’re back to you needing union with a breeder?”
The lust raged so full throttle in his loins and his veins at this point that if he could not fuck he would fight, and the anger tooled over inside him, breaching his control for tact. “That is all it has ever been about!” he bellowed, “What did you expect? That we’d run off together, fall in love, set up house, and forget the world is bathed in blood and despair?”
Aari stilled, his cold baritone voice filled the room and her ears with his crass answer until it slammed her heart into the dirt. She never thought to expect anything. Even more, she certainly didn’t expect to feel the hole that now occupied her chest where she should have had a heart. One she didn’t think could feel for anyone, but somehow it snuck up and picked Tannin. And now he had made it vividly clear, her heart had nothing to do with their arrangement.
“I offered nothing but to protect you, Aari! Nothing more!” he went on, slamming her with the dread of reality. “You’d be wise to take it! I’m done waiting for your compliance. There is still another breeder, and so I am told, she is willing to accept a union with me.”
“Then you should have left me where you found me!” she growled through jaws clenched so tight they ached— like everything else in her.
Tannin spun, slamming his fist into the wall as he stormed out of the hut, and headed off into the over grown thicket of brush that filled the landscape behind their hut. He kept going, storming and feuding the whole way. The farther away from her, the better for the moment. The briars gave way to rocky ground and still he kept on going.
He never looked up, paid no heed to his direction, just as long as he could get some distance between him and the arousing scent of the breeder. The frosty evening air adding aid to cool his temper down a few degrees. But just as it was starting to ebb, he got slammed with it again. Alarms inside his senses went off with the traitorous scent and his hackles went up, clipping his anger into a renewed spike.
He stopped, snapping his attention up. There, in his path, stood a woman as though expecting him. Behind her like guardians stood two robed priests. Dangerous times to be out in view in their temple robes. Even at night.
Tannin tested their scent then the girl’s. One whiff and there was no mistaking her scent was that of a breeder like Aari. Lust betrayed his rage and he stepped up to consider her a moment, only to fall still with disdainful regard.
Thick dark hair with tints of red was groomed to a polished smoothness and hung about her shoulders. Her fur lined coat bulged in ways to show off her hourglass shape, giving hints of a healthy bosom and hips. Her lips were already blushed red and swollen with arousal. He could smell it all over her. She was primed meat like a polished whore set on display. They left nothing out to bait him. Only, lust wasn’t all that surged inside him.
A war was going on, trying to refuse the draw this new woman’s scent caused against the one he’d enjoyed from the first moment he picked it up. The problem was, Aari had refused him time and time again. Whatever this one’s name, she leaned towards him, batted shy lashes, and she kept a steady deep breath that rose and fell on her breasts like an invitation. She was ready— and she was willing. The pheromones her Symbiotai gave off was hard to refuse in his rutting condition.
“This is Yves. She is yours to claim,” a soft-spoken male voice offered from the shadows. Shadows that held a slight vapor, one that swirled then slowly took the form of a man.
But this one was not the Keeper Tannin had grown familiar with in their previous encounters.
“I have a breeder already with me,” Tannin contested, gnashing his teeth as he did, warning them to stay back.
“And she has continued to withhold her gift. Destiny awaits the Titan’s arrival. And it should be mentioned,” the Keeper went on with an added tone of urgency, that was unnatural for them, “your Symbiotai needs a mate before the rage evolves into madness.”
“What are you talking about?” Tannin snapped at him again, his glaring attention rolling away from the woman to the intruding Keeper.
“I speak of your Symbiotai, Carrier host. He has already taken position, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Then he must mate soon or you both will die.”
“Just a late puberty growth,” Tannin despised the warning. “I am his second host.”
“No, Carrier. Only a breeder female has a puberty stage. The males take mating position only when they are in acceptance of taking a breeder female that is made available. Now you host a male who is in position but with no breeder for him to join with.”
The woman, just a girl, barely of age stepped up.
Aari had told him, they are sometimes as young as sixteen if the host is to take on a breeder Symbiotai. To him, sixteen was but a child.
He looked her over more thoroughly. She was tall, much taller than Aari, and she was big boned with good solid hips that would clearly bear strong children. Only, Tannin wasn’t looking for children. Not yet anyways.
“How many cycles are you?” he asked her directly.
“Nineteen summers,” she answered with a sweet voice. Except it tasted like stale poison on his tongue that even the Keeper grew noticeably uneasy.
Mated for life, he recalled.
Hard enough for him to accept that, but he knew for certain he didn’t want to be mated to this one at all. Her scent— her size— her hair— even her lies were all wrong.
“Look at me, breeder,” Tannin ordered the girl.
The young woman glanced up. One blue eye— and one green. They, too, were all wrong.
Just like the Keeper said, the greatest gift the Divine Creator gave them was Choice.
“By Destiny, take her away, priests. I have no use—” her scent shifted in an instant.
No — not this one’s.
Then he smelled the choking fumes of high-octane fuel and that’s when he heard her screams.
Aari’s.
A blood curdling scream that said she was in a world of trouble greater than her fearless skill could take on, and it filled the air and bounced off the adobes.
Tannin spun, bolting for the hut. He called on every strength he had, summoned the rage and lust to contribute before someone made off with their mate.
He came across the broken segment of perimeter wall just past their hut, he jumped the rubble and kept going, following her screams as she continued to call out for him.
“TANNIN!!!” He heard her up ahead.
“AARI! Fight them! I’m coming!” Tannin roared but before the rocky trail led him to the overhang, he heard it—
The rumble of jet engines and just then, the machine that created the noise came up over the edge and hovered over his head.
Tannin skidded to a full stop, pulled his gun, and opened fire on the Scion MV4. He would see it down in a fireball of flames then dig her out to heal before letting it get away. But the heavy armor of the fly-about would not be penetrated and no shot found a weak spot.
Even in his full engaged to continue to fire upon the ship, his ears picked up on the new sound coming from Scion revving higher.
The craft rotated in mid-air, bringing its side canons into range, and fired.
Tannin lunged to his left just as the boulder and shrub where he’d stood exploded into flames. Before he could get back to his fe
et, the MV4 pivoted in the sky, and then shot off for the dark horizon— taking Aari with it.
“NOOOOOO!!!”
INTO THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
Aari had given up her fight once the two men had been successful in dragging her inside the steel machine that came from the sky. Tannin had not lied to her about the mv-whatevers, after all. More importantly to her predicament was why had she been picked out amongst them all from the colony? Making lots of noise and struggling to slow their escape had been beneficial when she heard Tannin calling out for her. However, to continue her fighting inside the machine would only endanger her identity. If she sustained any injuries it would be only a matter of minutes and they would know. Her only chance was to stay alive and unwounded until an escape route presented itself.
Her stomach flipped with the first surging movement, sending her nerves and her sym into a fretful state as the flying machine took off with her in it. While the concept frightened her, she almost hoped the pilot would crash. Gauging by the way he was operating it, there seemed a significant chance. At least this way they died too. She at least faired a better likelihood of resurrecting than they did.
“Where you taking me?”
“City of Maegray,” one of the scrubby men answered her.
“Why for? I hear Lord Maegrethe is dead.”
“You best watch your tongue, or I might have to cut it out.” The man pulled out a rather large broad handmade shiv from behind his back.
Aari bit her tongue back to prevent more of what she would dare to say. Now probably wasn’t a good time to test limits.
If it were not for the rough sway and rolling of the fly-a-bout, Aari likely would have drifted into exhausted sleep, but the aerial banking and sudden drops were enough to jar her awake constantly, to which she was silently grateful; however, the nausea she could have done without.