Venan: A Paranormal Sci-Fi Alien Romance: Albaterra Mates Book 7 (The End)

by Ashley L. Hunt

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  Venan stared down at her for a heartbeat longer, and then he reached down and helped her to her feet. When we resumed walking back toward Ka-lik’et, he held my hand in one of his and hers in the other.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Venan

  I stared at the palace’s entrance walk for a long time after Ola’s back had disappeared with guards flanking her on either side. The night had perhaps been the scariest one I’d ever experienced, and that included the night I was taken by my warrior peers from my parents’ house and brought to P’otes-tat Ulti for imprisonment until my trial. Yet, despite all that had occurred and the array of emotions I had cycled through over the course of the evening, I felt a measure of peace I had not known I was lacking.

  A soft hand came to rest on my forearm, and I finally looked away from the walk to see Octavia smiling gently up at me through her lashes. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes,” I answered. As the word slipped from my lips, I realized I could not have meant it more. “Yes, I am actually doing very well.” I turned, then, to face her frontally and lifted her hand from my arm. Intertwining my fingers between hers and repeating the gesture with her other hand, I leaned in and kissed her forehead delicately. “My concern is for you, though. How do you feel?”

  “A little sore.” She shrugged unconcernedly and grinned with ripe playfulness. “I could’ve taken more.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Do you find that a humorous joke?” I questioned.

  “Oh, don’t be like that,” she chided, splitting one of her hands from mine to swat me lightly on the shoulder. “I’d rather laugh about it than cry about it.”

  “Would you?” I swooped down and plucked her right off the ground. She yelped in surprise, now swatting me in protest with both hands, but I refused to release her and started strolling up the staircase to the front doors of the palace. “I must tell you, I do not find the matter laughable, but I certainly can think of a more appropriate way to put a smile on your face.”

  She giggled and then shrieked again as I hiked her over my shoulder and returned her many swats with a firm one on her presented rear. “Prove it,” she challenged.

  Hot tension started to build below my waist, and I lengthened my strides to quicken our arrival to the bedroom. “I intend to do just that, my darling,” I promised, smacking a kiss on her hip. I took the stairs at a jog, tightening my hold on her to make certain she remained in place and started toward my chambers when I reached the landing. Just as I took the first step in that direction, however, I was struck with a notion that had not yet occurred to me since my Elderhood coronation. My eyes were drawn to the other end of the corridor, to the set of ornate double doors with decorative draperies.

  I had not entered the Elder Quarters since I had taken possession of the palace. To my knowledge, it remained a stagnant shrine to Kharid, and I had felt extraordinarily unworthy to step foot in his domain. That feeling was gone. I knew who I was now, and I knew my value as an Elder and a mentor to those under my rule. I deserved my crown.

  I spun on the spot, and Octavia clung to my back to maintain her balance. “Where are we going?” she exclaimed.

  “To my room,” I responded. The peace I had felt when standing outside swelled further.

  Opening the door, I was struck with the lingering pungency of the herbs Kharid had constantly burned for relaxation. It was not an unpleasant scent; in fact, I understood why he felt it to be soothing. But I was not interested in being soothed at the moment. I was interested in engulfing myself in nothing but Octavia.

  I eased her back to standing, holding her carefully until both of her feet were flat on the floor. Her eyes were wide as she looked around at the furnishings, and I heard an awed whisper slip from her mouth. “Wow.”

  “Yes, it is quite exquisite, is it not?” I commented absently, flicking a glimpse around myself. The massive bed on the opposite side of the room looked as soft and inviting as a cloud, and the excessive amount of tapestries and artwork on the walls gave the space an even more regal, striking appearance. I was not to be distracted, however, and I looked back to her within a blink. “I can assure you, it is hardly the most exquisite thing in this palace.”

  She opened her mouth, and I could see her about to ask what was the most exquisite thing, but then awareness dawned in her eyes, and I saw the lovely rose color bloom in her cheeks. “Are you trying to charm me, Elder Venan?” she asked, a mischievous glint accompanying the awareness.

  “Always,” I murmured.

  I lowered my mouth to hers, and she accepted me at once. Her lips were tentative, but I was eager. I urged my tongue through her teeth to lap at her tongue, and the vibration of a budding moan from her throat rippled into me. Her bosom rose with an inhalation, flattening against my chest. The tension I had felt building in my groin surged to an intolerable need, and I lost control of myself.

  Seizing the hem of her shirt, I yanked my mouth away from her and pulled the top over her head in one rapid swoop. I discarded it to the side, and before the clothing item even reached the floor, I had her pants unbuttoned and halfway down her hips. Her fingers scrapped with the collar of my robe as she tried to tug it over my shoulders, but I was too engaged in stripping her of every bit of fabric to assist her efforts. Down over her thighs, her knees, her calves, and finally her feet, I wrenched her pants away and took her shoes with them. I was a starved beast, hungry for her and desperate. I needed the nourishment of her touch and her murmurs and her squirms and her moans more than I even needed oxygen.

  “Just so you know,” I breathed, reaching around her to finagle open the clasp of her bra, “you begin self-defense training tomorrow.”

  “What are you talking about?” She sounded airy already, and I had yet to do anything strenuous to her.

  “I am going to teach you to fight,” I replied. The bra separated, and I slid the loops down her arms. As her breasts were freed, they bounced slightly, and I could visibly see her nipples stiffening to peaks. I bent to lick one.

  She groaned, and through the groan, she asked unconcernedly, “Why?”

  I clamped my teeth around the hardening tip and looked up at her. “Because I love you.”

  She froze. Even her groan froze mid-tone. I retracted my teeth and straightened up again, slightly concerned I had frightened her with my confession, and studied her expression. She was staring at me through unreadable eyes.

  “You do?” she whispered.

  “Yes,” I answered genuinely. “How could I do anything but?”

  Her lips parted with a stunned breath, and she shook her head. “You’ve never said it before.”

  “No, but I have known it for a very long time,” I admitted.

  She was still for a moment longer, and then she was on me. Her tongue plunged into my mouth before I realized what was happening, and her arms circled my neck so tightly I was forced to hunch over. The sensation of her bare breasts against my robe was appetizing, and I was eager to feel skin-on-skin, but so frantic was she to swallow my flavor that I could only respond to her with passion of my own. I lifted her off the ground and carried her to the bed, and together we fell upon it with our limbs tangling and our breaths mingling.

  “I love you,” I told her again, brushing the words over her lips as she continued to seek me.

  Her hands dug under my robe again, but I helped her unclothe me this time. I pulled my arms out of the sleeves and ripped the free-form flaps from between us, but I did not bother to drop it off the side of the bed. Instead, I grabbed Octavia’s waist and rolled us over until she was lying on top of me. I lifted my head to join her in a kiss again, but she stopped me by holding up a single finger between my mouth and hers. I paused.

  “I love you too,” she murmured.

  Tingles scrambled from my head to my toes with the honest purity of her admission, and I took her.

  Chapter Fifty

  Octavia

  Beautiful.


  That’s what my life had become. Perfectly and utterly beautiful. I was living a dream not even a princess could’ve hoped to live, and that dream was looking up at me with love in his mystical eyes and lust on his able mouth.

  Venan’s words echoed over and over again in my mind. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” It was a phrase I’d heard many times throughout my life, from my dad before he died and from my mom even when I was being a brat and from guys who filled a void until we drifted apart, but they’d never carried so much meaning before. I’d loved, and I’d lost, and I’d loved again, yet nothing compared to this. I loved Venan, yes, but it was so much more than that. It was the Grand Circle’s design weaving the threads of our souls together into a single fabric and intertwining us beyond the possibility of separation.

  His thumbs slithered between my panties and my hips, and I wriggled my pelvis to help him shimmy them off. My belly grazed his hardness, and I was stunned to realize just how solid he was. If I’d closed my eyes, I could’ve easily imagined I’d brushed against a very smooth, very long cylinder of marble. He was bigger than I imagined too. The apex of my thighs seared with desire as I imagined him inside me, and I couldn’t wait anymore.

  “Make love to me,” I begged breathlessly.

  He growled his acquiescence and reached down to take himself in his hand. The helmet slipped the length of my slit, testing me, and I writhed involuntarily. As we met in another kiss, he entered me, and what little air I had left in my lungs was shoved from me.

  Inside, he felt even larger than he did before. He was only beginning to venture deeper, but already I felt full and stretched. His hips bucked upward. Immediately, he was completely within me, and I was rent with pleasure. His manhood stroked my sweetest spot and rendered me uncontrolled, and the only breath I could manage to capture was that which I stole from his mouth while our tongues swirled around each other. My nerves were singing, and when he withdrew halfway before plunging up again, I could’ve started singing too.

  “More,” I gasped into his mouth. “Please, Venan, more.”

  He increased his speed, and I felt the two fingers he still had wrapped around his base meeting my petals. I was slick with arousal, and that slickness coated his fingers only to be reintroduced to the source with every thrust. My brain wasn’t functioning properly anymore. I’d had sex before, obviously, and I’d even go so far as to say I’d had good sex before, but this experience was otherworldly. It felt like a pleasure reserved only for the most revered of deities. Nothing in my body seemed to be mine anymore; it had become his, and each stroke was further claiming me until I no longer existed on the physical plane. Tingles and shivers and quivers licked my spine while spasms and jolts struck my loins. Deeper and deeper he ventured, and I realized with surprise he still hadn’t fully filled me.

  I grabbed his arm to pull his hand away from his length, but his muscles grew rigid, and I wasn’t successful. “I want all of you,” I pleaded. “Let go.”

  He released himself, but he didn’t bring his hand up to hold me to him or help push me down onto him. Instead, he wove it between us and tapped down my mound, seeking my pleasure button. I gasped squeakily when he found it, and his brilliant grin of delight made my walls clench him tightly. He flicked the tip of his finger over the hooded bead and then began making delicate circles just like he’d done with his tongue in the middle of the desert after Zuran and Phoebe’s baby shower. Thinking about that aroused me further, and I was positive I was going to explode into a million pieces any second.

  Faster and faster, he barreled into me, and I was quickly losing my mind. Sensation had taken over reason. Need had taken over want. My head rolled back, and my fingers clawed the blankets and my back arched without my knowing any of it, and still, I was able to hold onto my sanity enough to continue enjoying him. I wasn’t ready for release yet.

  But he was determined to rip it from me.

  As his finger scribbled and his saber pummeled, he lifted himself into a halfway-sitting position and secured his mouth around one of my nipples. I started to shake at once. He mimicked the movements of his finger with his tongue, swirling and circling and spinning around my nipple, stimulating the thinnest and most sensitive skin. No part of me was safe from his assault.

  “I’m going to—”

  “No,” he interrupted. He didn’t let go of my nipple as he said it and the word sounded incredibly muffled, but he said it so sternly that it was unmissable. “Not yet.”

  “Venan, I can’t wait!”

  He suckled the peak and stilled his finger, then fell back against the mattress with a pop as his lips unsecured from my breast. “I have not seen the smile I want to see yet,” he purred. His eyes were hooded and thrilled as they peered up at me through the darkness. “And your cheeks are not quite crimson enough.”

  I hadn’t even realized how hot my face felt until he said it. The only thing I could concentrate on was the constant streaking of utopic bliss rocketing through me. Even without the stimulation of his finger and his mouth, I was trembling at the edge of the cliff and quickly losing the ability to keep my balance.

  “I have to—”

  He flipped me over before I understood what was happening. The next thing I knew, I was looking up at him instead of him looking up at me, but he wasn’t finished yet. His hands secured around my middle, and he flipped me again. Now, I was face-down on the bed, and he was hovering over me from behind. His hands slid down from my waist to my hips, and he wrenched me upward until my rear was presented to him.

  “Do you remember the dance?” he asked, bending low over me to speak directly into my ear.

  I could hardly think straight, and I had to wrack my brain for a second before I knew what he was referencing. “Yeah,” I whined. I wiggled my behind tantalizingly, silently urging him to reenter me.

  “Do you remember what I told you?”

  “Venan, please!” I moaned desperately.

  A hard slap met my butt cheek, and I cried out into the blankets, not because it hurt but because I was startled. “Do you remember what I told you?” he repeated.

  “No!” I exclaimed.

  His teeth grazed the top of my earlobe, trailing nibbles around its curve. Then, in a dangerous whisper, he growled, “Give me everything.”

  Suddenly, I was full of him again, and my entire body detonated into billions and billions of pieces. My existence was no more; I was just a spirit made up of the most incredible pleasure I’d ever known. I wasn’t aware of Venan’s tightening grip on my hips. I didn’t hear his guttural groan of release. I couldn’t even feel him spilling himself deep into my core. The only thing I knew was euphoria, bliss in its truest form.

  It was violent trembling.

  Ecstatic moaning.

  Helpless writhing.

  And it was beautiful. So dangerously, delightfully, deliciously beautiful.

  The first sense I regained was hearing. Venan was whispering in my ear, and I hadn’t even realized until my brain started to unscramble after my clutching climax. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” I was starting to feel the smooth, gentle caresses he stroked down my back, and I noticed I now felt distinctly empty as he’d withdrawn himself from me. “I love you. I love you. I love you.” He was sliding down slowly next to my side on the mattress and pulling me down with him, guiding me to lay with my back flush with his front. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” I whispered.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Venan

  There were more heads than I could count sprawled out so far that the most distant looked only as big as a fingernail. I stood at the front of it all, overlooking a mass of A’li-uud and humans. They were crowded together tightly enough that elbows were bumping and feet were mashing, but nobody seemed irritated. The aura of the gathering was angelic, light and positive and brimming with excitement. Chatter from a thousand mouths blended together to make a melodious din I found pleasant to the ear, and fac
es spun left and right to identify acquaintances or overhear neighboring conversations or peer toward the podium where I was standing to determine when the address would begin.

  “I have never seen so many A’li-uud in one place,” Katil muttered in awe. “Even the number of Elder coronations we have had over the past couple of years has not brought out an audience of this size.”

  “Perhaps I am still an idol of infamy,” I quipped. I did not truly believe it, but it was nice to be able to make a joke out of something I once would have taken very personally. It was probable a percentage of the crowd still had a less-than-favorable impression of me and had decided to attend only to pass additional criticism, but I no longer was perturbed with that unfortunate reality.

  Katil, however, was affronted at the thought. “If anyone is here for a reason other than to celebrate with you, they should be removed.”

  “No,” I disagreed. “The naysayers are as welcome here as anyone else. They will either come to see the truth of my intentions, or they will continue to live in their resentments and misconceptions. The hand with which I rule will not be changed.”

  Footsteps sounded on the hollow stairs of the raised platform, and I turned to see Zuran puffing up to join me. “Pardon my tardiness,” he said, flashing me one of his distinctive grins. “Phoebe is remarkably uncomfortable today, and I did not want to leave her without making certain she was as comfortable as possible.”

  “She has not come?” I asked as I took a brief scan of the nearest faces for her familiar mask.

  “Her back has been aching her for days; she finds walking difficult,” he explained. “Do not fear, brother. I will recite every word you say for her later.”