“He’s mine,” Ruth stated, trusting her face and tone of voice to carry her intentions clearly enough for the alien to grasp what she thought was a fairly easy-to-understand concept.
Gron rumbled quietly and briefly behind her, a sound she had come to associate with his pleasure. The alpha said something and pointed at Gron, a clear “You do it then.”
Gron reached for her hand and slowly pulled it behind him. She knew he was heading for his tail, and she tried to be okay with it because he seemed to want it, but as soon as her fingers brushed fur, she fought her hand free. She couldn’t do it. She knew it was just a tail and not his dick, and it wasn’t like she was actually going to jerk him off in public, and it seemed to be totally normal to these people, but she had seen his face when she touched his tail when they made love, and that belonged to her. His tail made him feel really good, she loved to tease him by licking the end and stroking the fur and massaging the base while he tried to contain himself, and she wanted him to be able to let go like that with her. She didn’t want to remember this moment when she touched him.
They seemed to have reached an impasse though. It was clear that Ruth was not going to do the tail thing while everyone was watching, even if Gron appeared to want her to. It was equally clear that she couldn’t face off against the alpha forever. If she refused, Ruth suspected that would seriously negatively affect her future here. But she was not going to let that woman touch Gron. He was not going to be passed around like a toy.
Behind her, Gron growled her name softly, his hands brushing her waist, and his tail curling around her hips as if inviting her to touch it. She had to stop herself from stroking it absent-mindedly as she normally would. She was making a point here. The alpha continued to stare her down, and Gron called her again, pressing himself closer to her back. She risked looking away from the alpha to look over her shoulder at him.
“What am I supposed to do?” she said, bringing her hand up to stroke his hair as he bent over her. “I don’t want to do that to you.”
He just kept looking at her, his dark eyes with the large pupils soulful and imploring. He wanted it, she could see that, but what if it ruined something between them? Where she came from, people were expected to keep sex to themselves, for the most part. Certainly, she always had. She’d never considered herself sexy, or a good flirt. She’d done a bit of drunken table dancing when she was in university, but that was years ago. She wasn’t an exhibitionist. She’d been taught that sex was something private, to be cherished between two people.
She glanced at the faces of the people watching. There was a range of concern, confusion, patience and impatience. The male who had given her the fruit and sat next to her looked the most worried. The fierce female who had attacked Gron looked angry. The male who had found them in the forest was looking smug, and she didn’t like that. That was probably a bad sign. The male the alpha had aroused was still standing, and he didn’t seem any the worse for wear.
Shit.
What was the goal here? Touching his tail or achieving the erection? She wouldn’t do the tail thing. She wouldn’t. But if, for some reason, they needed to see her get him excited, and Gron wanted it too... This could be about her future, it could be about her life. So far, Gron had protected her, she knew he had. She wanted to pull her weight, maybe this was how she did it.
She looked at him, still watching her carefully. He wanted her to do it, but she knew if she told him to run, he’d do that instead.
“Do you really want me to?” she asked, stroking his hair with one hand and holding his hand against her stomach with the other. He replied, murmuring something to her.
Oh, fucking hell. It was his dick. He was free to do what he wanted with it.
But she wasn’t going to do it their way.
Sparing a final glare at the alpha, Ruth turned in Gron’s arms to face him, pressing her body against his as she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. He folded his arms around her too, supporting her, his tail tightening its grip.
“Like this, okay?” she said, looking into his eyes one more time to be sure. He looked pleased, and she gave in. “Fine, I just hope you don’t regret this.”
She led him gently down into a kiss. At first he seemed confused, and she was still very conscious of being watched. Well, too bad. They wanted a show so they were getting one. She tried to forget their audience, teasing Gron’s mouth open and dipping her tongue inside. His tongue joined hers and they deepened the kiss, his grip on her body tightening, almost lifting her off her feet. She buried her hand into the fur at the back of his neck and scratched the way she knew he liked.
She extricated an arm and sent it to dig into the fur on his spine, feeling his muscles twitch obligingly. She pushed a leg forward, probing between his gently, but it didn’t feel like they could stop yet. Ruth ran her hand around his side and down his chest, feeling the play of muscles that still amazed her. She hoped he knew this was supposed to be arousing him and wasn’t trying to control it, or they might be here for a while. She stroked over his hip and back up, then over his spine again. She thought they were getting somewhere now, she thought she could feel something against her legs. Just a little more and it should be enough.
Kissing him hard, she made sure he could feel her nails as they slid through his fur and down his spine, going lower this time. No, she wouldn’t coldly massage the base of his tail until he got hard like it was a medical demonstration or something, but like this she could touch it, when they were connected and together, both of them impassioned, enflamed by each other. She let her fingertips push against the base of his tail, and he jerked against her. That should do it.
She slowly ended the kiss, laying her hands against his chest and pulling away, settling herself securely back on her feet. Gron didn’t release his hold on her at first, looking dazed. She pushed him away enough for there to be small gap between their bodies, Ruth turning hers to shield Gron’s from the rest of the tribe before signalling the alpha to approach. Ruth wasn’t happy about it, no way. She hated showing anyone else Gron in this state, when she believed it should be solely hers, but she allowed the alpha to peer into the gap between them and verify Gron’s aroused state.
Gron said something to the alpha, who replied. Ruth hoped that would be the end of it, and it seemed to be. The huge woman stepped away and made an announcement to the tribe. Ruth turned to see their reactions. Most of them appeared to be happy about it, or at least relieved, but Ruth didn’t miss the dark look on the face of that one male, the one from the forest, who Gron had snarled at.
Chapter 7
The alpha seemed satisfied, and returned to where she had been sitting, settling between her daughter and, Ruth guessed, the father of her children. Ruth thought he was because of how he acted with the children, and she wondered if that was what the beads meant. So far, Ruth had only seen three Gandry wearing anything, and they were the three males wearing the long strings of wooden beads, two of whom seemed to belong to the older, secondary female. Maybe the beads meant they were princes or something? They seemed to be the ones that had fathered children. It was possible. So where were the older female’s children?
The alpha started eating again, so Gron followed her lead and returned to the food as well. At a loss, Ruth did the same. What had just happened appeared to be over, at least. Whatever it was meant to accomplish had been accomplished, but Ruth couldn’t just turn it off like that. She noticed Gron curl his tail into his lap, so at least he was decent at the dinner table. Ruth settled back down rather uncomfortably. She’d just given the most intense and most public display of affection in her life, and now it was as if it had never happened. She felt weird about it, to say the least.
Now she and Gron seemed to be getting congratulated, or he was. The two males nearest to them, the one next to Ruth and the one next to the older female both leant back to speak to Gron, who seemed relieved. Ruth was starting to wonder if proving she could turn him on was some kind of marria
ge ceremony. She also wondered why only this small group seemed to care. Everyone stared at her, but it was only the two females, and the males who gravitated around the older one who had really got involved.
Ruth suddenly had a moment of clarity. Of course, why hadn’t she realised sooner, it was so obvious. It made perfect sense. She’d been thinking of the Gandry as Gron’s tribe, but this was his family. Gron seemed to be about half the age of the female and the two males with the beads, it was possible he was their son. Now that her mind was on it, there was a resemblance.
She tapped his arm to get his attention, smiling now that she’d figured it out. When he turned to her, she realised she hadn’t thought of a way to ask him if she was right.
“Er...” She pointed to the female, who was now watching her curiously as was everyone else around her. She mimed a big round stomach, then pointed to Gron. She tried it again but he clearly didn’t get it. Switching tactics, she mimed rocking a baby instead of being pregnant in between pointing at the female and Gron, but he didn’t react. Frustrated, and aware she was making herself look increasingly silly, she paused to think. Her eye fell on the children across from her and found new inspiration. She pointed at the eldest boy, then at the scary alpha female, hoping she wasn’t offended. Then she pointed again at Gron and the woman she thought was his mother.
This time it seemed to work and he reacted with a brief spurt of happy chatter, laying his hand on the female’s arm, which she didn’t bite off. Okay then. This was Ruth’s mother-in-law. Ruth stuck her hand out, but the woman just stared at it. Of course they didn’t have handshakes here. That was stupid.
Ruth put her hand on her own chest. “Ruth,” she said clearly, trying to introduce herself. A beat or two passed when nothing happened, then she felt a tap from behind her, and she jumped and spun around. The male who had manhandled her, possibly Gron’s father she now realised - and wasn’t that awkward? – held out his hand in the same way she had. Ruth smiled at the gesture and took his hand reflexively, gripping it briefly and giving it a cursory pump. The man was clearly startled, and snatched his hand away, his eyes going to his female as if to check whether or not she had seen. She said something and he appeared to relax.
Looked like touching another woman’s man in any way was also off the menu. Ruth would remember that. She remembered how she had reacted when the alpha had gone for Gron’s tail. She’d never been possessive before, maybe now it was because Gron was her only hope for a future. She kept trying to tell herself she had to be okay on her own, had to know how to survive, just in case he ever left her or got hurt like he had on the other planet, but it was just so much easier to let him look after her and act like he always would.
Well, step one of being more independent was widening her social network. She needed names, and she needed to stop making Gron do all her talking for her. She wasn’t a child.
“Ruth,” she said, trying again with the chest-pointing. The male looked over her shoulder at Gron, who said something, presumably able to explain her intention as they had already done this once.
The male turned back to her, clearly excited. He laid his hand on his chest and said “Brur.”
Ruth kept her sigh internal and redirected some brain energy to her ears. “Ur?” she tried. God, if she had to go through this with all of them...
“Brur.”
“Brrr?”
Gron tucked himself in behind her, his face close to hers, and when she looked at him, he enunciated very slowly for her, “Brur.”
“Brur?”
The male in front of her said something and gesticulated. Okay. “Brur.”
Gron then turned his attention to Brur, saying something that included her name. He repeated it, dragging out the “-th” at the end. Brur struggled with it, but eventually he got it, and Ruth smiled at him. Brur exchanged words with Gron again, and then they were both doing the Gandry equivalent of a smile, an awkward baring of teeth that made Ruth laugh. She pressed a kiss to Gron’s cheek, which instigated another round of talking, and judging from Gron’s embarrassed expression, and Brur’s playful tone, she’d say Gron was being teased. She brushed her fingers over his throat just in case.
More voices from behind them and Gron turned them to face the rest of his family. Soon Ruth was being introduced to everyone, starting with his mother who clearly demanded to be first, though she didn’t seem happy about it. As far as Ruth understood, Gron’s mother’s name was Gryla, the male with the greying fur and beads was Griss, then the male from the forest was Kranu, and the young one was Mruin. Mruin was a tough one to get right. The boy seemed shy too, not really contributing much while everyone else tried to teach her how to say it. Kranu remained surly throughout.
Eventually Ruth had it hacked out that, yes, Gryla was mated to Griss and Brur, though mimed enquiries as to which one was Gron’s father were met with confusion and blank faces until Ruth gave up. She learned that Kranu and Mruin were actually Gron’s brothers, with him being the middle child. She had to double-check that Kranu was Gron’s brother, since he’d been such a douche to them, which seemed to amuse the family. Guess the guy had a reputation.
The alpha was also introduced. Her name was Grasta. Ruth couldn’t figure out how Grasta and Gryla fit together, with Grasta being the tribe’s alpha but Gryla clearly ruling her own family group within that, including mates. It wasn’t suggested to Ruth that the two females might be sisters or otherwise related, so she didn’t know what the history there was.
As the night wore on, when introductions had been completed and the Gandry around her began talking more amongst themselves, Ruth had the opportunity to examine what looked like a big bald coconut. Everyone seemed to have one, but it was solid as a rock as far as she could tell, and there were no implements on hand to get into the thing. Almost all of the other food was gone and a lot of people had wandered away from the feast as the light was beginning to die.
Eventually she touched Gron’s arm and held it up questioningly. For a minute he didn’t get what she wanted, clearly expecting her to know what to do with it. Then a frown crossed his brow and he looked at her mouth. He took the coconut off her and bit into it, using one of his massive fangs to pierce the shell like a hole-puncher. He twisted the coconut off his tooth and held it back out to her helpfully.
Ruth was floored. “Are you kidding me?” she yelled. “That’s what those teeth are for?”
Gron looked startled at her outburst, clearly thinking he had angered her somehow. She took the coconut off him and looked at the hole he had made. The shell had to be an inch thick. She could wriggle her finger into it, and it came away wet with the liquid that was sloshing around inside. Even if they weren’t for killing prey, those teeth were fierce. The crushing force alone of his jaw probably meant he could take a bite out of her arm if he wanted to. Maybe the fangs were used to fight amongst themselves? Something their ancestors had used that hadn’t quite gone away?
She heard a pop and looked to see that Gron had done the same thing to his coconut and was proceeding to drink from it, presumably in demonstration to her. He looked encouragingly at her and she had to smile. She drank to appease him, the liquid inside tasting almost exactly like water with a hint of some plant sugar. She hoped this wasn’t all they had to drink because she didn’t want to rely on him opening her drinks for her for the rest of her life, though she knew he’d probably do it until his teeth fell out anyway.
Chapter 8
The feast had long since ended, and Ruth had sat patiently beside him for the whole thing. Gron had been concerned that Grasta or Gryla might challenge her, but that hadn’t happened. It had come close, when Ruth had slapped Grasta’s hand away when the Queen had reached for his tail, but luckily Grasta hadn’t reacted badly. She had been seeking for proof that he and Ruth were Bonded, and her possessive reaction had been a good thing, as far as that was concerned. Grasta was in the wrong when she tried to touch him; he belonged to Ruth. He hadn’t wanted Grasta to touch
him, but had forced himself to hold still, believing Ruth needed the demonstration. She had saved him from that though. He should never have doubted her.
Gron felt his face warm as he remembered Ruth pushing their mouths together in front of the whole tribe. Everyone had been very curious after that, and he hadn’t really had an explanation for them. It was something Ruth did, something his Queen liked, so he did not argue. He did not tell them he enjoyed it too. They thought it was strange enough, it was easier to let them believe it was something Ruth took, rather than something the two of them shared.
Gron didn’t know why Ruth hadn’t simply pulled his tail, the way Grasta had showed her. It was much simpler and more effective, and he knew she knew it worked. But she had acted strangely, worn a troubled expression on her face that Gron couldn’t understand. He wished he did, he wished to know if she was still upset. He wished he could have taken her hands in his and explained to her with words what Grasta wanted from her and why, let her know that it was safe and she shouldn’t worry.
He wondered if this was how all Bonded males felt, the constant yearning to touch and hold their Queen, to comfort and please her. If it was, he felt sorry for them. Other Queens would never allow their males to coddle and care for them the way Ruth allowed him. Perhaps he was lucky that way, he certainly thought so. Then he considered how he would feel when he inevitably had to allow another male to touch Ruth in the same way, and thought maybe he was wrong. At least the Queens he was used to took equally little from their males. Watching Ruth take from another as much as she took from him now would be excruciating.
She had shouted at him when he had pierced her watershell for her. He continued to make mistakes, and she continued to forgive him. He should talk to his fathers about how better to please Ruth.
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