I cannot think. There is nothing outside her mouth around my cock, the slick slide of her tongue around my xof.
“Mmm,” she hums, and my balls draw up tight, my control razor thin.
“Ni-kee,” I moan.
“You like that?” When she smiles up at me, my cock still on her lips, my control snaps.
“More.” The word is ragged, and for a moment, I think my stubborn mate will refuse me, will not like the depths of my need. Instead, she lets out a moan of her own, her arousal growing stronger.
I curl my hands in her hair, and the scent of her desire fills the air.
Her lips fit over the tip of my cock, and then she’s working it hard, her lush, wet mouth pumping up and down, taking it so deep I can hardly breathe.
“My mate,” I groan. “Wait.”
She pauses, drawing back on her heels, my cock leaving her mouth with a wet pop.
“Get on your hands and knees,” I snap out, my need for her so strong, so immediate, I worry it will overwhelm her.
Her reddened lips part, and to my surprise and gratification, she obeys, lifting her ass in the air, her pretty cunt wet with her lust.
I lower myself to my knees, running a finger through her folds as she moans my name.
“Are you going to come hard for me, my mate? Are you going to show me how much your body loves being mine?”
“Yes,” she says, and I growl my approval, pumping my fist down my cock before lining it up with her core and thrusting in deep and hard.
I cover her body with mine, my tail winding around our legs, nudging down the soft hair to the center of her pleasure. When I find it, I run the tip of my tail over it again, using one hand to support myself and the other to tweak her peaked nipples.
“You’re mine,” I growl against her ear, and she rewards me by arching her back, driving me deeper inside her.
I work her with my tail, my cock hammering into her, my fingers tweaking her nipples hard enough that she cries out.
When she comes, it’s with a breathy moan and a flood of delicious juices.
I want to taste them all. Snarling again, I flip her onto her back and spread her wide, lapping through her cunt as she grinds against my face, making small, needy noises.
I have no gentleness in me, not this time. Not when I need to slake my desire in her, prove that her pleasure is mine alone.
The thought snaps something in me, and I hike her feet onto my shoulders, hammering into her body. She clenches around me, her eyes wide and locked on mine as she matches my hard, demanding rhythm.
“This is how it will be,” I tell her, my jaw tight, my fangs grinding against my lower teeth. “You and me, my heart. You are mine, and I will give you as much pleasure as your body can handle.”
She arches off the ground, tugging my mouth to hers and sliding her tongue inside.
It drives me wild, and I pick up the pace, my xof vibrating harder and harder. Her blunt fingernails scrape down my back, and I reach the peak of that delicious pleasure.
“Ni-Kee.” I yank myself out of her, then paint my hot seed across her trembling stomach.
I want to shove it inside her, push it deep in, and see her swell with our child. I don’t though, squeezing my eyes shut until the possessive impulse passes, and draw her into my arms instead.
She smiles up at me, a contented, sleepy grin, that fills me with a soft, gentle pleasure.
I would fight an entire platoon of Roths. I would move worlds for this small human.
Ni-Kee has my whole heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
NIKI
My recovery is slower than I would like. Three days since I woke up, we’ve been stuck here at the cave, waiting for me to be strong enough to leave.
“Keep going, my Ni-Kee,” Draz encourages.
Sweat drips from my temples, and I move through the martial arts stances I learned decades ago, as a child, from my mother. My breath comes in great heaving gasps. It shouldn’t be this hard, and impatience rips through me.
I sit down heavily, finishing the set, and press my chin to my knees.
Draz hands me a water canteen, and I drink it greedily.
“Your way of fighting is not so different from ours,” he tells me. “You could help train our warriors, if you like.”
I shrug, caught off guard. Rationally, I know that Sueva is my only option. But something about planning for the future makes me feel… weird. Draz is amazing, and it has nothing to do with him. In fact, sometimes, when he catches me staring at him, my heart squeezes so hard with affection it’s nearly painful.
But I can’t quite wrap my mind around my future here. Maybe it’s being stuck in this cave. Maybe it won’t feel real until I can check on my crew and see how they’re faring, make sure that they understand that the Federation will consider us persona non-grata if we return to Earth.
Thinking about the Federation opens up a dark, yawning hole deep inside me, but I shut it down, concentrating on the cool water on my tongue, the sweat sliding down my spine.
“What is wrong? Does your wound trouble you?” His voice is laced with concern.
“No. It feels better, thanks to you.” I pause, trying to decide if I should tell him. I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
“I can tell you are hurting,” he says, a note of reproach in his tone.
When I look up at him, his eyes are narrowed, his tail twitching from side-to-side.
“I am hurting,” I say slowly. “But not from that.”
“Did I push you too hard?” His face is thunderous, his fangs showing.
“No, no, not at all. It’s not physical.” I sigh. I know him well enough now to know he won’t stop asking, and there’s no way around it.
“It is mental? You do not like being weak.”
“I mean, that’s true, yes, but this isn’t anything compared to what I went through after taking that plas pulse to the hip from the Roth.” I point to the scar, grimacing at the memory. “It took me a month to be able to walk, and about six until I was back to normal. It still hurts when it gets cold out.”
“Then it is good that you will stay on Sueva, where it does not get very cold.”
“That’s true,” I say, a flicker of distress moving over me.
“Is it me, then?” Draz’s tail thrashes. “Have you changed your mind?”
“It’s not you, not at all. I care for you. I just… I started thinking about my crew, and about how I am going to have to explain to them that the Federation has closed Earth to us, and it makes me worried for them. I am lucky, because you’re the one who married me, and we get along really well. I’m worried that they aren’t having the same luck, and I’m frustrated, because I’m stuck here until I’m well enough to leave, and I can’t even check on them.”
“I understand this frustration. Let me make something clear, though.” He crouches down next to me, placing a hand over his heart. “I am the lucky one.”
“Draz,” I say, unable to stop the smile across my lips. He runs a taloned finger across my mouth, his gaze heating.
“I worry that my need for you is slowing your progress.”
“Well, it’s certainly stopping this conversation.”
He lets out a bark of a laugh, rocking onto his heels and standing up, offering me a hand. “I think you are ready for the journey to Edrobaz. When you get tired, we will rest. If you are still too tired, I will carry you.”
I cock my head. “Are you worried about the warlords and my crew, too?”