He fell to his knees and Sam dropped beside him, cradling him to her. “Is it the mutatis? Tell me what I have to do.”
John shivered and then swore in felinus, avoiding her touch.
Time to seize the initiative, Sam, she thought. Lying back on the ground, she raised her knees, parting her legs. “Kuno…” She managed a deep and sexy felinus purr and John lifted his head. His pupils dilated and his eyes glowed.
The felinus ridges of his sex engorged. A flush raced from his head to his heels.
“It begins, Shari-mine. It may frighten you. I might hurt you. It is mutatis.” John crawled forward and settled between her thighs. The head of his erection parted her nether lips, skimming back and forth, teasing, tormenting. Edging closer, he slid inside her.
Sam waited for the thrusts. Time passed. He remained immobile, made no sound. Just joined.
“Kuno, saer wan naemis-al.” My name is Kuno and I exist for you.
Sam squirmed at the sultry whisper-caress. “Samantha, saeran wan naemis-alen.” My name is Samantha and I exist for you—she returned the pledge.
Slowly, the pressure built inside her, every cell flaring to life. He breathed into her, his thoughts caressing hers.
Reaching out tentatively her mind touched his, merging. His pain, the frustration lanced her. The passion burned.
Then, abruptly he withdrew, and lifted her upright, bringing her down onto his lap. His gaze locked with hers.
Even as Sam began to form the question, the answer came: fast and hot. His mind touched her, a caress as deep as it was fleeting. The blood in her veins ignited, swirled around her body. Stars formed. Then the starlight.
He was doing this just with his mind?
She fastened her legs around him, pressing her heels into the small of his back—one of his erotic zones.
He entered her, deep, home, in one thrust.
It stung.
She squirmed and John’s mind soothed.
It is my felinus self emerging, kitten. The discomfort will pass. The flanges undulated inside her, faster and faster, even as the rest of him remained immobile. Pleasure and pain became one and the same, a glorious unity.
She felt his fingers probing her ass, stroking back and forth, finding yet another sex-meridian. She mimicked his journey and John gasped. Inside her, his felinus self expanded; more stinging.
My body touches you, fe’ha tu. It unites with you. We change. We become One.
The words rippled outwards. Love washed over her, through her. At last she understood.
She touched his mind with her own: This is the gift of my body. Mutatis. It unites with you. We are One. She lifted up and then dropped down, pushing him hard into her. Again. Over and over, she controlled the direction and the rhythm. Stars swirled around them, as the starfire ignited in their veins. Convergence beckoned.
Too soon! Sam caught John’s frustrated thought.
He drew back and knelt between her thighs. Bending forward, slowly, his breath teased along her skin, soothing. He blew gently across her nether curls, cooling her heated, stinging flesh with kisses.
Lifting himself away he knelt over her, fanning her body with his breath, every centimeter of her. He exhaled across her lips and she parted her mouth to taste him, to receive his breath, his kiss. He breathed into her mouth and she took his inhalation deep in her and returned it, exhaling into his mouth. Back and forth, they exchanged breath for breath, tasting their mingled essences. They had become One.
Kuno brought her back onto his lap and Sam gasped as he thrust deep, his felinus sex rippling inside her. That burning sting was back. It was too much.
His gaze held hers. “Breathe with me, honey-cat.” He inhaled, long and slow. “Breathe,” he whispered against her lips.
She matched each inhalation. His phallus undulated. The sting retreated and in its place was pressure, the most intimate, exquisite pressure that sent ripples of pleasure racing through her body.
John lifted her, turned her, so she rested on hands and knees. He entered her from behind, his thrusts languid, but the deepest possession.
His tempo increased, then paused. She knew he was teetering on the edge of orgasm.
Again, he exhaled over her, inhaled deeply and exhaled. She mirrored his breathing, establishing a slow, steady rhythm.
John bent over her, his face pressed into the groove of her neck. His fingers slipped across her stomach and parted her curls, finding her nub. He gently rubbed, while his felinus body inside her, expanded and contracted. He caressed, he teased. The starlight built inside Sam and she moaned.
John gently drew from her, turned her and brought her back down onto his lap. She fastened her legs at his back and again his fingers stroked and teased.
“My name is Kuno and I exist for you, only for you, fe’ha tu. For you, only for you, forever.”
“My name is…” Sam gasped. “My name is Sharille-Samantha Lucas. I am fe’ha tu. You are Kuno and you are my faeth-tul-san. I exist for you, only for you, now, forever.”
The words passed between them. Husband. Wife. Forever. Soul-mates.
The starlight ignited in their veins and spread to engulf them. They moved together, minds and bodies as one.
Sam raised her cheek from John’s shoulder. About them, the swirling starlight had intensified to become the starfire—a myriad of shimmering colors, like a rainbow streaming between them.
John’s hair lifted, tendrils tickling her face. His hair was alight: golden blonde, streaked with sparkling red and shimmering black. In the time she had known him, and especially since arriving on Chizan, his hair had grown, altered hue. She fisted a length and took strands into her mouth, tasting, preening him like a cat..
He groaned. “Yes, dearest. Yes!” She sucked harder and he bore into her, long low strokes aimed beyond possession. To devastate.
Sam cried her release. Lightning swept through her veins. She heard a sound like shattering glass and John’s climax burned into her.
For a moment Sam opened her eyes and saw that beneath them light emanated from the ground, rushing up to envelop them.
This was the soul of Chizan and it greeted, giving them total acceptance. For the first time in her life, Sam knew she belonged. She was home. She was loved. She could love.
This was mutatis—soul-joined with her cat and soul-joined with her world.
Yes, kitten-mine. YES! John’s throaty whisper vibrated to her core.
The planet-energy coalesced, forming droplets of liquid crystal around them, spinning, defying gravity.
John’s seed spilled into her. She felt his heat and opened her body to receive it. And with it came more of the gift of belonging to each other and to the world. It rushed through them, crystal-energy and body essence.
A part of her in him and a part of him in her forever, and tied to the world a part of its soul in them. This was mutatis. Belonging. Home. One. Forever.
They flew beyond the levels of starlight ecstasy, and rapture, this was mutatis, a new convergence.
Never parted. Never alone. They shared the thought as they surrendered to the deepest release. Around them, Sam heard the sound of shattered glass. She saw more crystals erupting from the ground, droplets, alive, pulsing with light, chiming. She buried her face into his neck and sucked hard, drawing skin and blood into her mouth.
John’s teeth fastened on her neck and he drew forth a taste of blood as his phallus nestled deep inside, the ridges splayed wide.
“Yes, Kuno!”
The fire slowly died and the crystals solidified, landing onto the ground with dull thuds, like miniature hail stones.
The grass sparkled with the colors of Chizan: purple, green and silver.
With one long, deliciously slow thrust John spilled into her again and she bore down, opening herself, he finding her depth., she taking his length. She gathered the starfire within her and gifted him with her own seed.
“Yes! Oh, yes!” Dearest wife, mine. His mind caressed. He sang the felinus love-song a
nd her blood flowed heavily, thick in her veins. She sang for him, stumbling over the felinus words, substituting them with human-speak, promising him her everything. John wept with the beauty and the pleasure of her, her words.
Time ceased, only the pleasure and passion of the moment. Starlight Passion. The mutatis.
Lying side by side on the grassy bank beside the stream, Sam and John watched the shadows of late afternoon lengthen over the sacred ground.
John’s hand caressed her stomach, slipping lower to tease.
“When we go to Broome, kitten, I promise you, I’ll love you properly in the water. The dolphins and whales will sing for you.”
She raised her head to study him and smiled.
“I’ve kept something for when we reach home. Except,” he said, frowning, “for the first time in my life, I can call Chizan home, too.”
“That is the mutatis gift. We are part of the whole. Never parted, never alone.”
His eyes misted. “I knew you would understand, beloved wife.”
“I’m hungry,” Sam said.
“You want me again?”
“Later. I mean hungry. Food hungry.”
“You do need replenishing. Stay there.”
“I couldn’t move if my life depended on it.”
“My wife is replete with her husband’s passion?”
“Satiated.”
“You think?” He pushed himself to his knees and exhaled over her, his warm breath making her skin pucker.
Her stomach rumbled.
He laughed. “I see you are hungry and not for me at this moment.” John stood up.
She watched him walk away, his hair swishing across his shoulder blades.
John bent down to collect his robe. A twig snapped in the undergrowth. He turned. No one was permitted in the grove while he and Sam were completing mutatis. The steps were too heavy for an animal. Then he caught the scent of human. And…machine.
Moments later, the bushes parted and six dark figures hurtled across the clearing. They slammed into John, bringing him to the ground.
“Sam, run!”
Samantha, on the river bank turned at the sound, felt John’s alarm, his fear. She vaulted to her feet.
John was struggling in the grasp of two human-droid creatures. He tore free and faced them, a blur of speed, his hands extended, like claws.
He growled. Pure felinus. Enraged.
A male figure emerged from the forest, dressed from head to toe in a grey spacer-suit. The helmet visor was down.
He leveled a laser at John’s head. “Hold still, kitty-cat!”
“No!” Sam cried, racing across the clearing.
The helmeted intruder looked at her and then slowly, deliberately, lowered his pistol and fired point blank against John’s chest. Kuno crumpled to the ground.
Sam dropped to her knees at John’s side, sobbing, trying to stem the tide of blood from his wound.
John. Kuno. Mind to mind dearest! There was no response. Just black, a void. She touched his chest. No heart beat. She lay over his body and wept.
Harsh fingers bit into her skin, dragging her to her feet.
The touch galvanized her. She launched herself at John’s killer, clawing ineffectually at his suit. The ferocity of her attack sent him reeling; he dropped his gun and Sam dove for it. The man grappled with her, and they both fell in a tangle of arms and legs to the ground. Sitting astride her, he grasped her throat and her pearl necklace broke. She bit into his hand.
Weeping, Sam kicked and punched, finally bucking off her assailant. Her freedom was short-lived as other hands held her immobile, spread-eagled against the ground.
The man stood over her, his pistol aimed at her temple.
“Do it,” she said. “You’ve killed him, so what do I care.”
“Ah, my dear, you are what I’ve come for.”
Sam gasped. The voice. Familiar.
The visor lifted.
Horror made her mute.
It was him. Her husband. Dead… But now here, alive.
The bastard had killed John.
Screaming, her anger giving her strength, she launched herself at him, tearing free of the robot hands holding her. The pistol beam took her down. As he loomed over her, she struggled against the paralysis. His booted foot caught her in the ribs.
“You were once mine, you’ll be mine again. Eventually.”
She spat at him. “I’ll die firrrrrssssttt…” The darkness claimed her.
Taren entered the grove, laughing, followed by Kareena and Lenar. All were dressed in the white robes of mutatis, with the black sash embroidered with silver. Years before, each had attained the mutatis.
Taren carried two sashes, one each for John and Sam, now they had achieved mutatis—the deepest level of starlight passion.
“Kuno?” Taren called.
“Ready or not,” Lenar shouted.
“Have some respect!” Kareena punched him on the arm.
Taren’s assassin senses cut in. He scented the air. Something wrong. Blood. Anger. Death. Gut-twisting fear. Sam’s fear.
He discarded the two sashes and ran, even as he drew the daggers from his wing sheath.
Taren reeled back from the sight in the clearing. Instinct overcoming shock, he raced to John’s side. He dropped to his knees, placing his hands over the gaping wound.
Kareena knelt opposite Taren and put her fingers against Kuno’s carotid artery.
“I can’t find a pulse,” she whispered.
Lenar rested John’s head on his lap. “Where’s Samantha?”
“She’s gone. I can’t feel her emanations,” Kareena said.
“John’s not dead,” Taren said. “Trust me. His cat soul holds him. The human, however, is almost extinguished.”
Lenar’s hands fanned over John’s temples. “If he was pure felinus, I might be able to call him back. But he’s a hybrid. He’s fighting me, damn him. He’s dying.”
“Kuno is my brother,” Taren snapped. “His life is my responsibility. I’ll do what it takes.” No matter the risk. He took in a deep steadying breath.
“I’ll be his monitor,” Kareena said.
“I’ll be his strength,” Lenar said.
“I’ll be his initiator,” Taren said. “But we could all die. A hybrid’s never been changed.”
“Shut up bird-brain and get on with it,” Lenar hissed.
Taren flung off his robe and drew his energy, his awareness to his body, his engorged sex. He lay back on the ground and Lenar carefully positioned John. As Taren placed his hands on Kuno’s temples, his erection slid inside the body of his beloved. He splayed his hands and his ridges, anchoring.
“Aaaah,” John moaned.
“Rest easily, clan-brother-mine,” Taren whispered. His mind soothed before he sent the first ripple of shifter energy into Kuno’s body.
Kareena placed her spread palms over John’s chest, the blood oozing between her fingers. “I can feel his heart, now.”
Lenar straddled John’s body, his hands cupping the semi-erect penis. “I can feel his soul.” He bent his head.
The three linked minds and touched consciousness, found John’s flicker of life, and held it. The soul-touch. Schahor. They built it layer upon layer, weaving it, a tapestry of life, of power.
Taren grasped Kuno’s felinus soul and coaxed back the human spirit. Two halves to be held and joined. In response, John’s body shuddered.
Hurts. Kuno mind-whispered.
Of course, brother-mine. You are a virgin felinus.
A derisive snort. Not a virgin. We’ve shared before.
You are for this, sweeting, Taren sent gently. His love flamed. Let me touch you, all of you. His phallus expanded as his mind probed. John shivered. It will not hurt like this again. First and last time, cat-boy.
The initiating pulses pounded into Kuno’s flesh. He wept.
And then, to Taren’s shock, Kuno rejected the power. Rejected! Such was Kuno’s strength. Mind, body, felinus and hum
an spirits fought against Avenor.
Can’t let you do this. You could all die. I’m hybrid, not pure. You can’t change a hybrid. You can’t save me.
“Hell we can’t,” Lenar said. “Shut up.”
Taren forced more power into Kuno. The pain lanced them both.
John’s mind leapt free, seeking. Samantha, Shari-mine. Where are you? So many things to tell you…
“No, Kuno! Do not dare try to say goodbye. You are going to live. I am Taren, saer-tan! Your clan brother. We are Avenor. I call you, clan brother to clan brother. Listen to me!” He dug his nails into Kuno’s flesh.
John moaned, fighting the hands and bodies restraining him. “Samantha fe’ha tu. Where?”
“Your wife has been stolen,” Lenar said.
John was silent, cold. Sammi! His scream shattered stars.
John woke, cold, aching. He forced open his eyelids. Beneath him, Taren was out to the world, and lying across his body were Lenar and Kareena, still intimately joined, also unconscious. He touched each of them, his beloved friends before easing himself away.
What had happened? He ran his hands through his hair. The world felt strange; smelled strange. His body tingled from head to heels. He ached where Taren had anchored him.
Raising his head, he scented the air. Blood. He smelled blood. His blood and…Sam’s. Memory returned in a gushing tide. He looked down at his body, only a slight red seam showed where he had been shot.
How close he had been to the Blessed Realm! Had it not been for his friends and the power of Kari’s mentoring, Len’s strength holding him, while Taren had initiated the Change, he would be dead.
Sam, where are you? Kitten-mine, where—? He caught her faint vibration.
Following it, he ran forward, halting moments later as he hit the wall of pain—her pain. At his feet, he saw the pearl necklace.
Kneeling, he carefully picked up the broken strand, spattered with Sam’s blood. He growled, deep and low in his throat.
The world turned inside out.
When he became aware he was standing on four paws, tail swishing, nose lifted high, scenting the air. He smelled the unknown human and his Sammi. He could follow her trail. His claws extended. He would find the man who had done this and rip out his heart. He threw up his head and yelled to the sky.
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