Awoken from the Deep

by Octavia Kore

  Sweat glistened on Esme’s pale skin as the glow of Ky’s fushori lit up their bodies. The tail between his mate’s moved in time to his thrusts and Xuvri watched, imagining for a moment that it was his inkei pounding into Esme, giving her the same pleasure he was giving Ky.

  My females. My mates.

  Xuvri’s hands gripped the swell of Ky’s hips, his claws piercing her skin as he pistoned into her cunt. Her lifeblood dripped over his fingers from the wounds and smeared it across his chest, marking her and himself.

  Ky was his now. She belonged to him just as surely as he belonged to her. He’d never done that before, never marked a female, never claimed one in this way. It was exhilarating.

  “You’re mine, Ky. Mine.”

  “Yes,” she whimpered, panting against Esme’s stomach.

  Esme clutched at Ky’s hand, crying out as she found her release, thrashing against the bed and arching her back. Xuvri hissed, his inkei jerking as he came, spilling inside of Ky’s heat. He pressed the flat of his tail against Ky’s mound, carefully laying the spines down as he stroked the swollen nub above her opening. Her entire body vibrated beneath him until she suddenly went still, her cunt tightening around him almost painfully, locking them together as she came.

  Xuvri slumped over his mates, all three of them panting. He stared down at the lifeblood on his hands and rattle with satisfaction. Many moments passed before Ky loosened around him and Xuvri stumbled backward, his legs shaky. Esme was watching him, her eyes roaming over his hips, making his inkei twitch with anticipation as her gaze lingered on it.

  She wasn’t ready for what it had in mind, Xuvri knew that, but maybe he could still show that she belonged to him just as much as Ky did. His little human swallowed as he approached, sitting up on the bed as Ky crawled in beside her wrapping her long arms around Esme. It was clear she meant to protect their female from him.

  “Will you let me touch you?” he asked Esme.

  She turned to Ky, her brows drawn together. “You’ll stop if I say so; If I don’t want to go any further?”

  “I made you a promise, and I mean to keep it. I will only go as far as you want.”

  Ky pulled the pillows from the head of the bed, propping herself against them before pulling Esme onto her chest. She nipped at Esme’s ear as one of her hands splayed over their mate’s belly. “You do not have to, but if you decide it is what you want, I will be right here. I will always have you.”

  Esme released a deep breath, her eyes locked onto Xuvri’s face. “I want you to touch me, but… I don’t want you to fuck me. I’m not ready for that.”

  Xuvri nodded, sinking down onto the bed and spreading their legs. The combination of their musky scents overwhelmed his senses, and he paused for a moment to drop a gentle kiss on the top of Esme’s mound. “One day, when you have given me permission, I am going to claim every part of you.” Esme gasped when he flicked his tongue over the nub in the same way he’d watched Ky do it. “You are my female. You belong with us, Esme.” Her arousal coated his tongue as it traced down the sides of her folds.

  Their little human mate groaned as her hips lurched up, but Xuvri pulled away, moving over their bodies until they were face to face. He could feel the heat of her cunt against the plates covering his torso and growled, leaning down to swipe his tongue over the peak of one breast.

  “Xuvri…”

  The sound of his name spoken so breathlessly spurred on his desire, and when she reached up to tangle her fingers in his xines, Xuvri thought he might lose his mind. He moved over her, grinding his abdominal plates against Esme’s cunt, making her hips buck and jerk. He nipped at the swollen bud on her breast, taking a moment to enjoy her gasps before sucking the nipple into his mouth. He drew hard on it, his tongue moving along the underside until warm, sweet milk shot into his mouth. Her grip on his xines tightened as he drank from her, greedily swallowing as his clawed fingers danced over her other breast.

  Xuvri’s inkei jumped, twitching with anticipation as he ground it into the bed. A grunt of surprise escaped him when Ky’s tail wrapped around the base, squeezing and moving in time with his thrusts, simulating the walls of her cunt. Ky’s fingers moved over Esme’s face and hair as she pressed her lips against their human’s throat.

  “So beautiful. So brave,” she whispered soft encouragement. “My sweet Esme… our Esme.”

  Breed.

  Hunt.

  MINE.

  Esme trembled as he clutched her hips, his claws pressing into her delicate skin. She was so fragile… so easily damaged. Her breath quickened, and her grip on him tightened as her mouth fell open.

  “Don’t stop! Please don’t,” she begged. “God, Xuvri, please!”

  There was no chance of that happening.

  Xuvri could feel his release building anew, curling through him as he drew Esme’s other nipple into his mouth and showed it the same attention he’d given the other one. Ky turned Esme toward her, capturing her lips in a soft kiss a moment before both of his females cried out, their bodies jerking beneath him as he thrust against Ky’s tail. The claws on Esme’s hips sank into her skin, piercing her flesh as Xuvri roared, his inkei sprayed his seed across the bed, coating his stomach as well as Ky and Esme’s cunts.

  She was marked.

  Esme was his.

  My females. My family.

  Xuvri pulled back, raising his hand to swipe Esme’s lifeblood against his chest just below Ky’s. Something on her skin caught his eye, and Xuvri frowned, tracing his finger over the old scars he’d somehow missed before now. She’d been marked before. His female had been hunted, scarred by another male. Who had dared to mark his mate?

  The look in Ky’s eyes as he glanced up at her told him she felt just as murderous as he did. One day, when Esme finally gave him the name of the scientist responsible for her suffering, Xuvri was going to wipe him from existence forever.

  Chapter 18

  Kythea

  The sound of Eina crying across the hallway pulled Ky out of the fog her heat created in her mind. She wanted to stay in bed with her mates, curled around their bodies and breathing in their scents. For the first time in so long, Ky felt at ease.

  Esme groaned, struggling to untangle herself from the arms, legs, and tails draped over her body. “Ky…” the female chuckled, tapping the long pearly white tail around her waist. “You have to let me up at some point.”

  “No,” Ky murmured, tightening her grip on Esme as her mate twisted and wriggled.

  “Eina’s probably hungry, and Trakseer has no way to feed her,” Esme said, her hand going to her breast. “Either I get up and go get her or Trakseer brings her in here while we’re all in a naked heap on the bed.”

  A low growl from the other side of the bed made Ky shiver in anticipation. They’d mated multiple times in quick succession and still her heat raged through her body, begging to be mounted and bred over and over.

  “The male will not come in here while either of you are undressed,” Xuvri hissed, tugging at Ky’s tail until she released their female. “Let her retrieve our offspring… clothed.” He stressed the word as if their female needed to be reminded.

  “If you insist.” Esme sighed dramatically, slipping the repurposed pants over her hips before commanding her suit up. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  When the door slid shut behind her female, Ky was filled with such a strong sense of loss and longing that she was up and out of the bed before she even processed the movement. Her clothes were still in a pile on the floor near the end of the bed where she’d stripped out of them.

  “Are you going somewhere?” Xuvri asked, propping himself up on his elbow to watch Ky as she stepped into the pants.

  “Esme will be back with Eina in a moment. We should be up and ready to start our day as well.” Ky grinned when their male rolled out of the bed, a pout pulling at his mouth as he grabbed his clothing.

  He didn’t want to cut this time short and neither did Ky, but this mating wasn’
t typical among her people. Not only were they a triad, but they had a youngling already to care for. This was something no other female she’d ever known had gone through during their first heat.

  “Thank you for keeping your promise to Esme,” Ky said as she watched him dress. “I know that it must have been difficult in the moment, that the heat can cloud your mind, but I… I am sure it meant a great deal to her.”

  Xuvri grunted in response as he fastened the pants, his eyes not quite meeting Ky’s. Perhaps her acknowledgment made him uncomfortable, but she felt it was important. Seeing Esme with Xuvri, feeling her desire for him was something Ky hadn’t expected to see so soon, but clearly there had been some change during her sleep. It filled her heart with happiness and hope that this was the start of their healing.

  The door to the room slid open, and Esme slipped inside, a fussy Eina wriggling in her arms. “I know,” she cooed after commanding her suit down. “We made you wait so long, huh? You’re a hungry girl.”

  Ky rushed to rearrange the pillows and fix the bed that they’d made a mess of during their mating. She would change the bedding later, but this would do for now. She watched Eina suckle, the youngling’s legs kicking excitedly as she fed. Eina blinked up at Ky as she leaned down to kiss the feather soft hair on the little one’s head. These were moments she’d missed during her sleep. Xuvri lowered himself to the foot of the bed, and Ky wondered how long it would take him to realize he was more than just a protector or a mate, but a sire as well.

  “There’s something I wanted to talk to you both about…” Esme said when she switched Eina to her other breast.

  Xuvri immediately went stiff, and Ky felt the uncertainty and shame rolling off of him. “I went too far?” he asked, his jaw clenching so hard that the muscle there began to twitch.

  “No.” Esme shook her head. “No, you were—everything you did was—” their female’s cheeks turned a bright pink. “It’s not about any of that. It’s actually about the nightmare I had the other night.”

  “You had a nightmare? During my sleep?” Ky asked. Esme nodded, looking down at their youngling as waves of anxiety washed over Ky. What else had she missed during that time? Clearly a good bit judging by the fact that her female trusted Trakseer enough to leave their offspring with him. “How long did I sleep?”

  “Three sols,” Xuvri answered, but his gaze was focused on Esme. “You didn’t want to talk about the nightmare then. Are you going to tell us now?”

  “I was afraid to tell you about it that night, but I think it’s important that you know. In the beginning of the dream there were hands coming out of the darkness. They were choking me. I couldn’t breathe, and then I was on the ground scrambling to get away, trying to get to the two of you, and I realized I didn’t have Eina with me.” Esme swallowed thickly as she lifted the youngling to her chest, patting her back gently. “When I looked back, Eina was in the arms of this shadow figure. She was crying so loud, and I tried to get her away from whoever this was, but… he was there, the scientist.”

  Ky rubbed her hand down Esme’s arm when the female paused to take a breath, offering her silent support.

  “He said horrible things… told me I wasn’t fit to be a mother. There was something about it, something that made me feel deep in my soul that I wasn’t going to see Eina again. It told me she was gone and I—” Esme’s voice broke as she stroked their daughter’s head. “I’m scared something is going to happen to Eina.”

  Xuvri stood and a growl rumbled up his chest as he began to pace, his long tail swinging behind him as his hands clenched into fists at his side. His xines thrashed around his shoulders, and Ky knew something about this didn’t seem right. Their male was worried.

  Ky tried to project her calm, to soothe Esme and Xuvri’s nerves. “I am sure it was only a bad dream. Eina is still so young and so small. It is not uncommon to experience dreams like this.”

  “I don’t think it was,” Esme whispered. “It was so real, just like the dreams I had of Eina before I came to Venora. It felt like… like a warning or something.”

  “I knew it,” Xuvri hissed as he paced, his eyes unfocused as if he wasn’t seeing, as if he wasn’t with them.

  “I’m sorry,” Esme said. “I should have told you, but I knew you were so afraid to––“

  “No!” Xuvri shouted, his voice bouncing off of the walls as he turned his back on them. He slid the door open so hard that it made an awful crunching sound and stalked from the room without another word, leaving Ky and Esme to stare after him in shocked silence.

  What in the name of the goddess had gotten into him? Had Esme’s nightmare really upset Xuvri so much?

  Trakseer appeared in the doorway, his xines wriggling and his gaze sweeping the room. “What is going on?”

  “Nothing.” Ky said, sliding out of the bed. “It has nothing to do with you.”

  “Well, hello to you as well, Kythea.”

  Ky growled, baring her teeth as she brushed past him and stepped through the broken doorway.

  “Wait! Suit up!” Esme shouted. “Take her for a minute!” Ky assumed this was said to Trakseer because a moment later her female appeared at her side without their youngling, her face flushed as she struggled to match her steps. “I’m sorry. I knew losing Eina scared him and that the dream would probably upset him, but it didn’t feel right to keep it from you any longer.”

  “Do not apologize for sharing your concerns. Something is not right with Xuvri. I can feel it.” Ky said as she headed toward the lab, hoping they would find him there and that he hadn’t walked out of the ship and into the forest beyond.

  The running lights along the lower half of the wall were dim, even by her standards, but Esme seemed to have become accustomed to them, making her way through the halls right on Ky’s heels. For whatever reason, the power, like before, was being redirected. Light spilled out into the hall from the open doors of the lab, and Ky sighed, thanking Una that their male was still inside.

  “Was that display really necess––” Ky began, her temper rising, but she stopped short, stepping into the room just as Xuvri stabbed himself in the leg with a long silver needle. She rushed forward, yanking the object from between the large plates on his thighs as he stared up at her from the floor where he crouched. “What are you doing? What is this?”

  “Nothing,” he ground out, trying to grab the needle from her hands and frowning as she lifted it out of his reach. “This is not a game, female.”

  “You hurt yourself with this?”

  “No. Now give it back.”

  “What was in it?” Esme asked. “Was it a drug?”

  Xuvri’s xines slapped against his plating, and he narrowed his eyes on their female as she approached. “No.”

  “Is it medicine?” Esme questioned, reaching out to place her hand on Xuvri’s shoulder. “Is it something you need?”

  “Need, little female? Yes… I need.” His hand shot out, clawed fingers gripping Esme’s hair and pulling her into his body as he buried his face against her neck. “Mine. My female. My mate.”

  Esme’s fearful gasp echoed in Ky’s mind, setting off every protective instinct in her body. She’d made their female a promise. Ky snarled as she ripped the blade free from its sheath and slipped it against the plates at Xuvri’s throat. With her teeth bared and her xines thrashing against her face, stinging her skin, Ky wrapped her arm around Esme’s chest. When their male’s eyes met hers, Ky growled, a low and threatening sound.

  “You will release her,” she hissed. “Do not think I am unaware of how to get through this plating.”

  “Wait your turn,” Xuvri rumbled, his gaze clouded and unfocused. “I will have you as well.”

  “You will have nothing if you do not fight whatever it is that is poisoning your mind.” Ky warned, digging the tip of the blade into one of the crevices that connected his plates and twisting until a sickening crack echoed in the room. The male immediately stilled, his eyes going wide as his grip on their m
ate slackened. It was like watching someone wake up from a dream.

  Xuvri frowned as Ky pulled Esme away, wrapping her tail around their mate and using her body to shield the female from him. “Is this what happened to you the day Eina was born? Was it this poison?”

  Xuvri’s gaze locked onto the object in Ky’s hands. “I need that, Ky.”

  “You still won’t even tell us what it is.” Esme spoke up between terrified pants. “Every addict needs their drug. If that’s what this is, then you need to get it out of your system.”

  “You don’t understand. Warriors need them. They make us stronger, heal us faster, make us harder to kill. I went too long without them…” His voice broke as he stared up at Ky. “This is how I can protect Eina, how I can protect you and Esme.”

  If there was something she could take that would aid her in keeping their offspring safe, in protecting Esme, would she do the same? Maybe. Would she put it in her body knowing it would do this to her, knowing it would make her a risk to the very people she was trying to protect? No.

  “Do you not see how it changes you? What is the cost of this power you believe it gives you?”

  “It’s supposed to change me! It’s supposed to make me stronger and take away my weakness!”

  “Your weakness?” Ky asked with a frown.

  “In here,” Xuvri snarled, jabbing one clawed finger into his scarred chest. “I’m weak here! I will not lose another offspring, and I will not lose my mates!”

  Ky took a step back as her mind fought off the fear and anger that rolled off of him. Did he truly believe that the things he felt for them made him weak? “You want to keep us safe?” Ky asked as she stepped to the side, running her hand along the back of the chair that sat in the middle of the room.