And it meant I had a question to ask Valtin before we went to sing carols.
“I have an idea about that dress you wanted me to wear tonight,” I said. “Do you think you can make some changes to it while we’re out singing? I have one more favor to ask, too…when we’re on our way to the caroling.”
Valtin
“Lola,” I called out as she entered the room, ignoring the fact that Wex, the ugly green bastard, got to her first. She smiled at him and said something, but then ducked out from under his arm and made her way to me.
The aerial vidglobe followed her, only to be waylaid by Drindl, who began chattering into it about the process of getting Lola ready for our Christmas ceremony tonight.
“What did Wex have to say to you?”
“Him?” Lola glanced back toward the other warrior. “I think he wanted to apologize, maybe? I wasn’t really paying attention.”
I had to smile at that.
She grabbed me by the hand, her touch sending shivers up my arm. “Come with me.” Pulling me to the side of the arena, behind one of the more elaborate decorative trees, she bit her lip. “Can I tell you something important?”
“Anything.”
“When I got here, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a bride at all—but if it was going to happen one way or another, I decided I would rather it be you than anyone else.”
I nodded.
“But now…I want to be with you. I can’t stand the idea of ending up with Wex.”
I growled aloud at the thought of any other male touching my mate. “No one else will have you.”
She laughed. “Good. But Drindl and Plofnid say it’s not a given. If we choose each other, the judges can make us not be together, can they?”
“I’m afraid the judges can do whatever they want to.”
Lola paused, her eyes narrowed in thought, as if trying to decide how to say what she had in mind. “I have heard of…well, of something called the Khanavai ‘mating cock’.”
I nodded. “It’s something human males don’t have, right?”
“No, human men have only one penis.” Her eyes danced with amusement. “So here’s my question. If you use your mating cock while we’re together, is there anything they could do to us?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I don’t think so—but I have never heard of a groom mating a bride before they were confirmed.”
“Drindl told me it has happened before.” Lola glanced around to make sure no one was listening, then stood on her tiptoes and pulled my head down toward hers to whisper in my ear. “I want you to fuck me with that mating cock of yours. Make me yours. Don’t let them separate us.”
Her breath against the shell of my ear, slightly damp and burning hot, sent an ache down into my balls.
Not to mention the reaction her actual words caused. My cock hardened, straining to reach her, and I wasn’t sure I would ever not be erect when she was around.
“Lola? Valtin?” Plofnid peeked around the tree we hid behind. “It’s time to begin the singing.”
Christmas caroling with a hard-on.
I wondered if we could make that a new holiday tradition.
Chapter 7
Lola
When Vos had suggested we go Christmas caroling, I hadn’t realized that the Khanavai didn’t know any Christmas carols. We all had epaper with the songs on them. But the Khanavai didn’t know the words to the songs or the music. So as we all moved in a group from office to office in the station, our carols were horrible.
Despite that, Valtin sang with enthusiasm—loudly, slightly off-key, and absolutely adorable.
But then we got to “The First Noel.” And to my surprise, Valtin seemed to know that carol. As we sang, he reached down and took my hand.
Wex, on the other side of me, took the other. That lasted for about two songs before I shook him off.
As we left one office and headed through the central area toward another, I asked Valtin, “How do you know that song?”
“My best friend’s mother was human, and she used to sing it during Christmas.”
“So you already knew some of these Christmas traditions?”
He nodded. “I grew up with Kein on Khanav Prime. His mother decorated once a year—though with nothing as authentic as the decorations we have here. She settled for having the right colors of green and red.”
I wrapped my arm around his, my hand curving around his enormous bicep. “I like our choices better. I think purple and silver look really good together.”
“Even though my trees too big for the room?”
I snickered. “Yes. Despite that, I think we have the best decorations of all.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “We haven’t seen any of the others’ decorations.”
I shrugged. “I don’t have to. I know what I like.”
He paused for just a second, long enough to stare into my eyes as if trying to figure out what I meant.
“Come along,” Vos said, leading us past the now-cleared market space.
I glanced around, trying to figure out if what Drindl and Plofnid had told me about cameras was true.
It was. I could tell which panels they were behind from the way they reflected the light, just as Plofnid had told me.
This was going to make my plan for later more difficult — but not impossible.
I can do this.
Valtin
Lola didn’t notice when Wex left the caroling group, and I didn’t point it out to her.
He had already forfeited his chance with her, as far as I was concerned.
So when I left her to prepare for our holiday evening ritual, my heart was singing.
She’s mine. My mate. My love.
An hour later, I arrived in our designated—and beautifully decorated—room before she did. Carefully, I set my tiny, wrapped gift under the tree. I had spent my time since the caroling researching Earth holiday traditions.
This would be perfect. I hoped.
I glanced up and gasped as Lola entered the room.
She wore nothing but a giant, red satin ribbon wrapped around her body and tied in a bow that barely covered her luscious breasts. My cock stood at attention.
“You know we have a tradition of opening gifts on Christmas, right?” she said, sounding almost shy.
I swallowed, my mouth going dry at the thought of unwrapping this particular gift.
“You know the cameras are watching us,” I managed to say in a raspy voice.
“Then I guess we’ll have to go someplace more private to finish opening all our presents.” She winked at me.
“I’m afraid I didn’t bring you such an exciting gift.”
Her gaze dropped to take in the length of me, especially my cock jutting out against my chavan. “Oh, I think I can manage to unwrap something interesting.”
“Right.” The word came out strangled as her smile sent a shiver of anticipation up my spine. A slow smile spread across my face. “And I know just the place.”
“Where?”
I glanced up at the cameras and held out my hand. “I don’t want them to meet us there. Come with me.”
She placed her hand in mine trustingly, and I led her out the door. As soon as we hit the hallway, I started jogging.
I was fairly certain Vos Klavoii would send someone to stop us if he could—after all, he preferred to have the Bride Games be the final arbiter of which couples could mate.
But I wasn’t going to take that chance. Lola was mine—and I was hers.
Now we simply had to make it official.
“Let’s go.” I took her hand and led her out of the door, slamming it shut and closing the vidglobe inside.
With a laugh, she followed me, and we ran down the corridor.
Straight to the garden.
“Oh,” Lola said in wonder as I led her into the depths of the garden. “Drindl told me there were no cameras in parts of this area of the station.”
We left the path and pushed through to a sm
all clearing. “Exactly. I memorized the station maps before I got here.
I realized Lola was trembling.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked gently.
“More sure than I’ve ever been,” she said. “But I think we’d better hurry.”
At her words, my cock pushed out against the chavan. As if in wonder, she reached out and touched it through the fabric.
“How does this ‘mating cock’ thing work?” she asked. “Because I see only one here.”
“May I show you?”
She nodded wordlessly.
Carefully, I raised my chavan, exposing myself. Slowly, she ran a hand over my cock, sending a shudder through my entire body.
I took her hand, guiding it to the ridges that ran the length of me. “Feel that?” When she nodded and continued to stroke along the ridges, I swallowed hard before I could speak again. “During an actual mating, after I orgasm once, these ridges collapse, allowing my mating cock to emerge.”
“From inside your penis?” Lola asked, fascination threading through her voice.
“Yes.”
“From here?” She circled the tip of the head with one finger, sliding across the opening as my cock jumped at her touch.
“Yes.” My voice was strained as I fought to maintain control of myself.
“What does it feel like when that happens.”
“No idea—I’ve never mated with anyone before.”
She turned her gold-flecked eyes toward me. “Never? Can you be sure it will happen now?”
“I’m certain.” I couldn’t tell her how I knew, but I did. Lola was my mate, the one for me. Unable to wait any longer, I pulled her to me, kissing her deep and hard, our tongues tangling, our heated desire urgent.
“You say you have to come once before the mating cock appears?”
“That’s what I learned in our sexual education courses, yes.”
“Then lie down,” she whispered. “Let’s make that part happen.”
Pulling off my chavan, I spread it out on the ground, then stretched out naked on it under her hungry gaze. She knelt beside me, then leaned over to lick the tip she’d just been touching. My cock jumped toward her again.
“I want to feel your mouth on me,” I groaned, my cock straining up as if to meet her lips. Lola smiled a slow, hot smile, then ran her tongue in a circle around my belly button. My cock leaped up, bumping against her chin, and I heard her give a low chuckle.
And then she was taking the length of me into her mouth, softly at first, her tongue undulating against the underside, sweeping up and down the ridges until unbidden, a deep sound of satisfaction echoed from me. “Yes,” I whispered. “More.”
With that, Lola pulled my cock as far into her throat as it would go, until she’d taken me balls-deep into her mouth. I could feel the very tip of my cock pressed against my mate’s throat, and as I rocked against her, trying to drive myself even deeper, a swirling heat centered itself in my abdomen, rushing down to my balls, pulsing and aching to explode.
“I’m about to come,” I gasped out, and Lola’s hand came up to caress my balls as if she were milking them into her mouth.
It was enough to send me hurtling over the edge, the heat drawing into a white-hot pinpoint of sensation, then exploding outward. I cried out in ecstasy and pumped into her as Lola first sucked, then swallowed, then gently stroked my cock into her mouth, until the sensation was too much to take, and I pulled out of her to collapse, breathing hard.
Lola stretched out on her side, watching me. After a few moments, I rolled over to face her. She wore a slight smile. “Ready for the rest of it? Are you ready to make me your mate?”
I would have said I was completely spent, but at her words, I felt my inner cock—my mating cock—spring to life and emerge.
“Goddess, yes,” I breathed. “Please.”
Chapter 8
Lola
Valtin ran his forefinger along the underside of my breast peeking out from beneath the red ribbons crisscrossing and winding around my body. As the edge of his finger brushed against my skin, goosebumps popped up along my arms. My nipples tightened and my breath caught in the back of my throat.
He was utterly silent, watching me intently as he slipped one arm behind my shoulders and lifted me atop him. As he pulled me in tighter against him, his mating cock jutting up between us, he pulled me down and brushed his lips against mine.
My attention split between concentrating on the feel of his mouth against mine and the stroke of his fingertips as they drifted downward, tracing a line from my hardened, sensitive breast down to the exposed skin around my belly button. There he used his fingers to circle my navel for several seconds before sliding them along the edge of the ribbon that circled my hips.
At every point he touched, the contrast between the slightly roughened skin of his fingertips and my own soft flesh sent chills racing out across every inch of me.
When he grazed his lightly stubbled chin across my cheek and took my earlobe in between his teeth, the sensation made me moan aloud.
He reached up to the bow on my chest, but I stopped him, whispering, “Not yet.”
Valtin was big—enormous—all over. It was a wonder I’d been able to take him into my mouth. And somehow, his mating cock was even bigger.
Placing his hands on my waist, he lifted my hips. “Are you ready?”
I nodded, still nervous, but unbearably aroused. “Yes.”
I slid down onto him, the sheer size of him forcing me to move slowly to accommodate him. As I settled him into my body, I could feel the head of his mating cock pressing against the most intimate part of me, where no one had ever reached before, touching me in a way that brushed up against the border of pain and pleasure.
I closed my eyes to concentrate.
Even when I had settled all the way down, the base of his shaft pressing against me and every inch of his cock buried inside me, my knees didn’t quite touch the ground on either side of his hips. Instead, I pulled my feet up onto his legs and hooked my toes between his thighs, pulling my own legs even further apart, as if I could sink down against him even further.
Leaning my hands against his chest and using my feet as leverage, I lifted myself up high. Finally, I opened my eyes to catch his gaze with my own, and slid down him, faster this time.
Valtin rested his hands against my hips without really holding on, letting his palms slide up and down as I moved against him.
“Now,” I said, “unwrap me.”
With a single tug of the ribbon, he untied the bow and began pulling off the ribbon it had taken Drindl and Plofnid a full hour to get right.
I moaned in pleasure, and that single sound was enough for him to begin matching our movements stroke for stroke. And as we moved together, I felt my orgasm building inside me. He reached up between us and ran his thumb gently across my clit, over and over again, until I felt I couldn’t take any more.
I tumbled over the edge, convulsing around him, coming harder than I ever had before. Valtin’s mating cock began pulsating inside me as his hands gripped my hips and pulled me down hard against him, our cries mingling as we came together.
Afterward, I collapsed against his chest as he stroked my back and murmured, over and over, “My beautiful, amazing mate.”
Vos was going to be furious, but I didn’t care.
This had definitely been the right choice.
The very best decision I had ever made.
“Merry Christmas,” I whispered.
“Merry Christmas,” my amazing, giant, purple Khanavai warrior mate replied. “And if I have my way, all the rest of our days will be merry and bright.”
Epilogue
Wex
“What in all the Zagrodnian hells have the two of you done?” Vos ranted as he marched up and down behind his desk.
Valtin shrugged. “We mated. That’s the whole reason for the Bride Lottery and Games, right?”
Vos seethed. “You were not suppos
ed to join with her. Wex was the one we had chosen for her.”
Valtin’s new mate raised one eyebrow. “But he’s not the one I chose for myself. And as I understand it, this is something you cannot take back, right? This whole mating thing?”
Vos spun to glare at her.
“It’s fine,” I said. “These two belong together, Vos. And I know you had plans for me. But…” I glanced at Valtin and Lola. “You two are right. Lola wasn’t the one for me.”
Vos turned his glare on me. “So I guess you think you have a better idea?”
I nodded. “Yes, but you’re not going to like it.”
He threw his hands up in the air and turned his glare back to Valtin and Lola. “Well, it certainly won’t be the first thing I haven’t liked today.”
I had to fight to suppress a snicker at that. I had known from the moment I saw Lola that, despite what Vos had told me, I wasn’t going to end up mated to her.
No. I had already met my mate.
And if Vos thought he didn’t like Lola and Valtin together, he was going to like this even less. I inhaled, then spit it out. “She’s a woman I met on Earth when I was on the search team for Zont’s mate.”
Vos spun around from glaring at Valtin and Lola to stare at me again. “Why didn’t you mention that sooner?”
“Because I didn’t think it was possible for her to be a bride.”
“Why not?”
“She is currently in an Earth prison for having attempted to violate the Bride Alliance Treaty.”
For a moment, I thought Vos was going to explode. But then he took a deep breath, visibly calming himself down, and leaned forward to rest his hands on the desk.
“You two,” he said, jerking his chin toward Lola and Valtin. “Get out of here. Go enjoy the end of the festivities.”
“So you will register our mating?” Valtin asked.
Vos heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Yes. Just go.”
Neither of us said anything until the couple had left the room.
A Very Alien Christmas Page 6