Awoken from the Deep

by Octavia Kore

  The heat of their female’s cunt and the arousal that painted her thighs scorched Ky’s skin and she moaned, letting her legs fall open as she lifted her hips. A giggle burst from Esme’s lips as she fell forward, her hands braced on the ground as Ky pulled her in for a desperate kiss. Tongues danced frantically and Ky grinned when she felt the shudder move through the female. She slid her hand up Esme’s side until she reached the swell of her breast. The peak was already stiff, and Ky rolled it between her fingers, tugging and plucking at it until Esme pulled back with a ragged gasp.

  Xuvri moved between Ky’s open legs, and she lifted her hips again in invitation. This was what she wanted, what she’d been waiting all day for. The tips of Xuvri’s claws pricked her skin as he lifted her, resting her lower body against the top of his thighs. The musky scent of their arousal swirled around them, filling the courtyard. Ky urged Esme forward, gripping her thighs and dragging her over her chest until Esme sat just below her chin.

  When Esme realized what Ky had planned, she tried to pull away. “Wait, Ky. I’m too heavy for you to—” But the protest died and gave way to a long, low moan as Ky buried her face between Esme’s legs, pressing her tongue up and into her female’s slit. “Oh, fuck. Ky…”

  Their female was hot and wet, and Ky groaned into Esme’s flesh. Slender human fingers fisted the white strands on Ky’s head just as Xuvri pressed his cock into her. She met each one of his slow, measured thrusts, seeking the promise of pleasure. If her mouth hadn’t been preoccupied, Ky might have actually begged him to go faster, to fuck her harder, but as it turned out, Xuvri already knew what she wanted.

  The outer petals of her sex vibrated with need as he surged into her and she rocked against him, her eyes rolling back as the stem just above his cock struck her sensitive clit. He wasn’t careful or tender with Ky this time, and while she’d already taken him once before, her body was still adjusting to the massive girth and length. There was pain, but it wasn’t the kind that made you want to run. This pain was sweet, and it consumed every single part of her.

  “Open, Ky,” Xuvri hissed as he pressed down on her inner thighs. “There’s a good female.” He growled as he pulled back and surged inside, bottoming out within her swollen cunt. His stem vibrated against her and she jerked, her fingers digging into Esme’s thighs as she tried to steady herself.

  Their female’s desperate cries filled her ears as Esme ground herself against Ky’s mouth, murmuring unintelligible words. She’d never expected to gain so much from another’s pleasure, but hearing the sounds they made and feeling them move against her this way was more exciting than anything she could have imagined. Xuvri’s hand slid up the front of Esme’s body, stopping to cup one of her breasts before continuing up to wrap around her throat. Ky watched from her position on the ground as Esme’s back arched and her head rolled to the side.

  “I like knowing you’re inside her,” Esme whispered into the darkness that surrounded them. “I can almost feel you.” She gasped, and Ky felt her pleasure thrum along the bond they shared. “Do you like how he feels inside you, Ky?”

  While she was fairly certain her female didn’t expect her to actually answer the question, Ky rocked her hips faster and flicked the tip of her tongue over the little bud at the top of Esme’s slit in response. When Xuvri pulled back, nearly slipping free from her body, Ky wrapped her legs around his waist in an attempt to keep him in place. His dark, deep laugh skittered over her skin, raising every tiny hair. Did he find her need funny?

  The laughter was still ringing in Ky’s ears when Xuvri surged up and into her, his hand still wrapped around Esme’s throat while the other gripped the side of Ky’s hip. “What about you, little female?” Xuvri asked, somehow maintaining his brutal pace. “Do you like riding Ky’s mouth?”

  “Yes!” Esme gasped, her hips jerking as Ky’s tongue moved within her. “Oh, God, yes.”

  “There is no God here, Esme,” Xuvri said. “I am the only male whose name you use when we are like this. You are mine. Ky is mine. You say my name.”

  Ky latched onto the swollen, pulsing nub, circling it with her tongue as Xuvri leaned forward, his mouth hovering over her skin. He was hesitating, unsure if he should mark her, but Esme took the lead, pulling his head down and urging him on with a breathy plea just before he sank his fangs into the faded scars on her skin where her neck met her shoulder. Esme screamed his name as she jerked against Ky, her hands flying up to clutch at his xines and his arm. Goddess above, they were breathtaking. Ky moaned at the feel of her female’s cunt fluttering around her tongue, but a moment later, Esme was pulled away.

  Any protest Ky would have made died on her tongue the moment Xuvri began his furious assault on her. With his teeth still inside Esme, Xuvri clutched her to his chest and slammed his hips against Ky’s, dragging ragged, broken cries from her as she watched Esme’s lifeblood spill from the sides of his mouth.

  Ky couldn’t have said what it was that finally sent her over the edge, but when she fell, the world around her went silent for a moment and all she could see was her mates. She felt her body go rigid as the entrance to her cunt swelled, locking her and Xuvri together as she coaxed his orgasm from him. The first hot pulse of his seed against her walls pulled a scream from somewhere deep within her, and she smiled when she heard Xuvri’s roar echo through the courtyard.

  She was lost in the aftermath of her heat, in the bliss of her mating. If this was what handing over control to her male felt like, Ky wasn’t sure she ever wanted to regain it.

  Chapter 22

  Xuvri

  The bed shifted, and Xuvri cracked open one eye, watching as Ky and Esme crept quietly across the room. When the wooden door creaked, they turned to glance back at the bed, but Xuvri stayed still, pretending not to have noticed their absence. What were his females doing up so early? The sky outside the window was just beginning to lighten, but the sun had not yet made an appearance. He lay there after the door latched behind them, listening as his mates made their way through the home before he sat up.

  Maybe it was the hum of pleasure that still flowed through him from their mating the night before, or maybe his body was reacting to the loss of the warrior injections, but he felt as if he were moving through a dream. The thin blanket they’d used to cover themselves tangled around his lower limbs, and Xuvri tore it away, tossing it to the side as he rolled out of bed. Lifetimes of training allowed him to make his way silently across the room to the crib where Eina slept. The youngling was sprawled on her back, one hand firmly fisted within her mouth while her other hand gripped her tiny xine.

  Even though he could see the slight rise and fall of her chest, Xuvri felt panic begin to rise within him. Eina was so small, so fragile, that he worried he might wake to find her in some sort of distress. What if she suddenly stopped breathing? What would he do if something were to happen to her? Xuvri placed his hand over her chest and stomach, letting her warmth and the gentle beating of her heart reassure him.

  Eina is alive. She is safe here.

  It occurred to him that he’d never imagined he would worry over something like this. Before the loss of his other offspring, Xuvri had looked at parenting as something that would require minimal concern. What was there to raising a youngling besides making sure they were fed? It turns out he’d known very little about the entire process. None of his caretakers had ever worried over him this way, or at least he didn’t remember them doing so. They’d been hard on all of the younglings because that was the way of it.

  The few female Grutex who remained did not nurse the younglings to sleep like Esme did nor did they rock or hum quietly to them like Ky. They were not dams; they were caretakers. The female Grutex kept them alive long enough to ensure they were ready for selection, and that was it.

  Xuvri had been so caught up in trying to successfully produce an offspring that he hadn’t ever considered what would happen to them after Laurie birthed them. Would the council have allowed Xuvri to raise his offspring, o
r would they have taken them from him? Looking down at his daughter, Xuvri thanked the goddess that he would never have to find out the answer to that question. They were here in the village now, and Eina had two dams who loved and cared for her as if they had carried her within their own bodies.

  She might never be a warrior by Grutex standards, but his offspring was alive, loved, and safe, and that was all that would ever matter to him. With a soft sigh, Xuvri backed away from the crib and made his way out into the hall. The house was still dark, but his infrared vision allowed him to see far better than most species.

  After they’d returned to their room last night, Ky told them stories about what it had been like to grow up here, and as Xuvri walked the halls, he wondered what it would be like to one day watch as Eina ran through them. She would play in the courtyard like the offspring they passed in the streets yesterday, a smile on her face as she chased after her companions or perhaps her siblings. It was difficult to imagine such things when he hadn’t had any experience with that himself.

  There were voices coming from the courtyard, and Xuvri hurried forward, quietly slipping out the door. He stuck to the shadows, falling back on his training as he crept closer. Throughout all of his lives, Xuvri had used his knowledge and skill to kill and conquer, to strike fear into some of the finest warriors the galaxy had, and now he was using it to sneak up on his females. If the thought wasn’t so amusing, he might have found it pathetic.

  What would it have been like if Xuvri had been born in a place like this, or even on Earth, where offspring weren’t forced into cruel, demanding training the moment they were old enough to hold a weapon? Who would he be now if he hadn’t gone through all of that?

  You would be the same as you are at this moment, the darkness within his mind taunted. Weak, soft, unable to properly protect your family without your injections.

  Ky and Esme stood facing one another in the middle of the courtyard lit only by the torches that stood near the outer wall. Esme’s brows were furrowed in concentration—or perhaps it was confusion—as Ky approached her.

  “Remember, you do not want to be too close to someone if you can help it. Putting distance between you and your attacker gives you the opportunity to see what their next move will be.”

  “And what if I don’t get the choice? What if they come at me and I can’t get away?” Esme asked.

  Ky’s arm shot out toward their mate’s throat, the side of her hand stopping short of the underside of Esme’s chin. “A quick strike to the throat should at least stun them long enough for you to get away and find help.” His hybrid female flexed her clawed fingers. “My sire taught me to dig my claws in as well.”

  “Well, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t have claws, and while I think that move might be something I could pull off on Earth, I’m not sure how well it will work here.” Esme reached up, placing her hand near Ky’s throat. “I’m not as tall as you are. There’s no way I’m going to be able to hit them in the same way unless they’re pocket-sized.” She laughed as she stepped back. “I’ve never seen a Grutex child, but I imagine they are just as terrifying and deadly as the full-sized ones.”

  “You never had the chance to see Gulzar or Trakseer as younglings.” Ky snickered. “They were all long limbs and strength they had no idea how to use. I cannot imagine the Grutex younglings being so clumsy.”

  Esme shook her head as she wiped her palms on the black suit she wore. The material clung to every curve, hugging all of the places Xuvri wished to touch and taste again. Ky had changed out of the things she’d fashioned from his clothing and now wore a more traditional dress similar to the ones the other females in the village had on. The dark green color complimented her, and although he’d enjoyed the fact that she’d been wearing his clothes for so long, he couldn’t deny that this garment pleased him even more. Xuvri’s eyes traced the lines of their bodies. They’d mated in this courtyard mere hours ago, and it took an immense amount of willpower to resist the urge to take them out here again.

  “The Grutex are not allowed to be clumsy younglings,” Xuvri said, stepping out of the shadows at Ky’s back. The bright blue light of her fushori raced over Ky’s body as she spun toward him. “Clumsiness would be beaten out of us.” His gaze slid to Esme, and Xuvri couldn’t help but wonder if he was the cause of her desire to learn how to defend herself against his people.

  He slipped his hand into the folds of Ky’s skirts, plucking the blade he’d given her in the forest from its sheath. “Teach her to use this. You told me you knew how to get under my plates,” he teased, his voice low and husky as he dipped his head and inhaled the scent of her pheromones. Maybe this desire to bask in her pheromones made him a weak male, but Xuvri couldn’t find it within himself to care anymore.

  “Under your plates?” Ky asked, her voice soft as she gazed up at him. He wasn’t sure if the look in her eyes was embarrassment over being caught or if she was feeling the same pull to mate as he was.

  Xuvri flipped the small dagger and held it out handle first to Esme. “You can practice on me.”

  Esme hesitated before reaching out and taking the blade from his hand. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips as she stared up at him, and Xuvri drank in the sight of her. The suit covered the mark he’d left on her neck, the one that now covered the old scars on her skin.

  Had he scared her? Had his bite dredged up those terrible memories? He’d made a promise to do only what she felt comfortable with, and both times they’d mated, Xuvri had marked her. Esme had a right to say no, to deny him or anyone else. If it made her feel better to know how to stop someone, then he would help Ky teach her. Even if that someone was him.

  “I don’t know, Xuvri…” Esme bit her lip as she gazed down at the dagger.

  “Is this because of me? Did I misread you last night?” Xuvri asked, reaching out to brush the back of his finger over the part of the suit that covered his mark.

  “No! That’s not—that isn’t why I asked.” Esme’s shoulders sagged as she looked to Ky.

  “She had another nightmare,” Ky told him.

  “The same one?”

  Esme nodded. “I just wanted to learn a couple basic things, but I’m not sure if I’m comfortable using an actual knife on you.”

  “I will heal,” he told her, crouching down and taking hold of the hand she gripped the dagger in. Xuvri placed the tip of the blade against the shifting plates that covered his throat, the same place Ky had held it on the ship. “If it will help, you can imagine I am him… the one who hurt you.”

  The muscles in her jaw clenched, and Esme shook her head. “I don’t want to ever equate you with him, Xuvri. I don’t want him to touch any part of us.”

  The light from the torches danced in her eyes, drawing out the yellow flecks scattered in the rich brown depths. Tiny, thin lines near her eyes and her mouth reminded Xuvri of something Laurie had once told him. She’d called them ‘smile lines.’ The Grutex didn’t have these, not just because their plating didn’t wrinkle but because his people weren’t exactly known for showing any emotion besides anger. One of his people had taken that from Esme, and Xuvri wanted to bring her laughter back, to be there when she created more of these smiling lines.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. Isn’t there some other way to show me how to do this?” Esme asked, trying to pull her hand away.

  “No.”

  “I doubt anything we teach you will cause any lasting damage. Xuvri has already proven he is capable of healing quickly.” Ky nodded toward the scars on his chest as she stepped up, retrieving the dagger from their female’s hand.

  Xuvri allowed Ky to position him as she instructed Esme on the easiest and most efficient ways to quickly get away. Esme was small, and many of the things Ky was taught by her sire were difficult for her. Xuvri showed her the softer, more vulnerable areas on the Grutex: eyes, xines, mouth, underarms, and groin, but of them would require her assailant to be close… too close for his peace of mind.

 
“Again,” Ky said, gesturing at Xuvri. Esme set her jaw and lunged, aiming for the space between the plates on his side. The dagger glanced off him, and before she could adjust her grip, Esme’s hand slid down the blade. Her sharp, stunned gasp filled the air, and she barely had time to drop the weapon before Ky was snatching her hand up. “That’s enough for today.” Their hybrid female made a sound of distress as she frowned down at the tiny cut. “Come, we will clean this.”

  Xuvri opened his mouth to tell her it was part of learning, that Esme would be fine, but their little human surprised him when she tugged her hand free and shook her head. “I’m all right, Ky. It was bound to happen at some point.” She picked the dagger up off of the ground and took up her position. “Okay, show me again.”

  They practiced until the sun began to peek up over the tops of the trees, and by then both Esme and Xuvri were sporting cuts and scrapes all over their bodies. He watched her with newfound respect and appreciation. Perhaps she wasn’t as defenseless and helpless as he’d once assumed her species to be. Somehow, out of all the females in the galaxy, he’d ended up with two fierce warriors as mates. While Esme looked proud of her new marks, Ky was glaring at him as if she wanted to pry a couple of his plates off herself.

  “Can we clean up those wounds now?” she asked, her fushori pulsing softly as her tail whipped back and forth across the stones.

  Esme stepped forward, smiling as she wrapped her arms around Ky’s waist. Her hand slid around the base of their female’s tail and Esme craned her neck as she gazed up. “Maybe you could show me how to use that big tub?”

  The agitation on Ky’s face melted away almost immediately, and Xuvri caught the unmistakable scent of her arousal as she brushed a few wayward strands of golden hair from Esme’s forehead. “What about Eina?”

  “I think we’ve still got some time.” Esme’s lashes fanned her cheeks as she glanced his way. “Are you coming, Xuvri?”