by Dixon, Ruby
She says nothing, though.
“When my father first showed me how to pick up a spear,” I begin, “my hands were very soft.” I extend one hand out to her, and she places her smaller one into mine. I trace a finger along her knuckles, along her delicate fingertips. “Softer than these. My spear was made of a wood that scratched at my palms and was hard to hold. It tore at my hand when I threw it and I whined to my father as only a kit can.” I smile at the memory of my father’s stern face, the way he ruffled my mane with a big hand. Even after all these turns, I can see his expression clearly in my mind’s eye. “He told me that I must endure it because my hands must become big and strong and callused, and once they are, it will no longer bring me pain. That there was no way the healer could fix this for me, because her healing would take away the callus. It was something I had to just endure.” I rub my leg thoughtfully. “I am waiting for my stump to build calluses so it will not hurt when it strikes against the false leg. I cannot let a healer fix this for me, and until it is done, I will endure it happily because I like to show the others I am a fierce hunter, deserving of his fine, beautiful mate.”
She squeezes my hand. “I would love to be your mate. I’m just…scared you’re going to resonate to someone else.”
“But tonight there is no one else for me but you,” I tell her, turning to look at her lovely face. In the shadows of the tent, her eyes glow as she watches me.
“One day at a time,” she reminds herself. “I still owe you a shower of kisses.”
This brings a smile to my face. “Perhaps I will shower you with kisses this night and you can shower me when your head no longer hurts.”
Devi sighs, leaning back against the furs. “That sounds pretty good to me. Will you hold me for a while?”
“I will hold you all night,” I tell her, and pull her against me.
16
N’DEK
Devi sleeps tucked against my chest, and I hold her close all night. She feels perfect in my arms, and I stroke her mane from her brow as she sleeps, content to watch her and hold her close.
Most of me is content, anyhow. I wake up sometime before dawn, my cock stiff with need, and Devi’s hand on my thigh.
I want to touch her. More than that, I want to taste her. I want everything she has to give. I shift my weight, sliding down in the furs until our faces are even. I kiss her lips gently, my tongue coaxing her mouth apart and she moans into my caress.
“Mmm, N’dek?” she whispers against my mouth. “What time is it?”
“It is before dawn,” I say, nipping at her pretty ear. She shivers against me, and I slide a hand along her side, caressing the rounded swell of one teat. “How is your head?”
“Mmm, it’s good.” She sounds so sultry that I bite back a groan. “You’re very awake.”
“I was hungry to taste you.” I kiss her throat, licking the column of her neck.
She shifts onto her back, her hand going to my mane. Her fingers stroke over one horn and a sigh escapes her. “I like being woken up like this.”
“Then I will do more,” I murmur, kissing lower. Her tunic collar is high, but I press my mouth down her front anyhow, nipping at her teats through the leather.
Devi moans, her hips undulating in response.
When I get to the hem of her tunic, I grip it and lift it enough to press a kiss to her belly. She is just as warm and brown here as the rest of her, and just as soft. “Can I lift this and kiss your teats?”
Her response is to moan again, but her fingers tighten in my braid.
I drag the tunic up her slim body and get my first glimpse of bare skin. Her teats are small mounds, tipped with dark, dark nipples that are puckered and tight. Her belly is soft and gently curved and I lick her navel, fascinated by the dip of it.
Devi whimpers. “N’dek, I should be the one kissing you.”
I love the way she says my name. I love the way she shivers when I lick her belly, and I love the way her teats jiggle as I work my way up. “In time,” I say, and capture one nipple with my fingers, teasing the dark tip.
She cries out and drags my head toward her teats, and I gladly take the other nipple into my mouth, flicking it with my tongue. The taste of her is sweet, and the nub hard and yet curiously soft to the touch, and I tease it with lips and tongue before sucking on it.
“Oh,” Devi moans, her fingernails digging into my scalp. “Oh, that feels so good.”
I love her responses, as if she is constantly shocked as to what her body likes. “Do you ever touch yourself, my sweet mate?”
She moans again, pulling my braid against her mouth to muffle her sounds.
“I think that is a yes,” I murmur, licking her nipple before moving to the other. I kiss my way back down her belly once more, and then pause. “Do you want to show me?”
“No!” Devi covers her face, embarrassed. “I…I don’t know if I can do that yet. I told you, I’m a virgin. I’ve never had sex with anyone. This is all new to me.”
“It is new to me, too, but I would show you how I touch myself,” I say, teasing her navel with my tongue. “Or would that be too much for you?”
She stares at me, fascinated, her eyes on my face. “You’d do that?”
Laughter rumbles through my chest. “I would do anything you ask, my Devi.”
Except let you go.
Devi bites her lip and gives me a shy smile. “I would like to see that, yes.”
“Good. I will show you,” I say, and then pause. “After.”
“After?”
I lick her navel once more and then tug at the ties that hold her leggings to her waist. “After I finish showering you with kisses.”
“Ohhhh.” She draws out the sound, and squirms when I pull the leather tie free. “I thought we were keeping our clothes on.”
“I promise to only lower them far enough to kiss your cunt,” I say.
Devi moans again, lifting her hips in silent agreement. As I watch, she pulls one of the furs to her face, clenching it against her mouth as if she has to muffle her responses.
I lower her leggings to her hips and reveal a thatch of dark fur between her thighs. Now this is new. Surprised, I pet her. “I had no idea this was here.”
Her hand immediately steals to her cunt, shielding it from my view. “You—you don’t have those? Your women?”
“No. Nothing like this.”
“Oh.” She sounds disappointed. “Is it bad that I do? I can’t exactly laser it off or get things waxed here.”
“Why would it be bad?” I stroke the soft fur over her cunt again. It feels different than the mane on her head, almost crispy and springy. “I like this. I like everything about you, my mate.”
“Y-you’re sure?” Big eyes peek at me from over the fur she has pressed to the lower half of her face.
She thinks I would lie? I push her hand aside as she tries to shield herself once more. “Just because I did not expect it does not mean it is bad. You are hot. You are wet. You are soft.” I glide my thumb along the seam of her cunt. “And you are mine.” I lean in and lick her fur. “And you are sweet.”
Devi chuckles. “I’m pretty sure most guys don’t lick that.”
“Then they are fools. I will lick you everywhere and enjoy all of it.” I lick her cunt-fur again just to prove it, and then dip lower, tasting the deep slit between her thighs. Here she is sweetest, the nectar of her cunt flooding my tongue. I growl low, pleased. I remember stories of the older hunters speaking of tasting their mates, but all of us that survived were too young for such things. But this? Now I see why they liked it so much. There is no taste quite like my sweet, juicy Devi on my tongue. I lick her again, and her thighs part, shuddering—only to jerk against the leather of her leggings, stopped halfway down her thighs.
“I…” she pants, arching against my mouth when I lower it again. “I…I think you should take my pants off, N’dek. But just for kissing, nothing more.”
“Just for kissing,” I agree, secretl
y pleased. I have made her hungry for more, and the fierce hunter in my spirit is full of joy that he is giving his mate pleasure. I slide one leg of her pants down her thigh, then the other. Her limbs are surprisingly long and utterly beautiful, and I kiss up and down one bare calf before moving up her thigh. “You are so soft everywhere, my Devi.”
She squirms under me again, but when I caress the inside of her leg, she parts them to welcome my touch. “N’dek…”
“Say my name as often as you like, my sweet mate,” I murmur. “I like the taste of my name on your lips.” I raise one delicate ankle to my shoulders and then slide her leg forward until my ear rests against her inner thigh and her cunt is but a breath away from my mouth. “Say it again,” I encourage, “and I will kiss you in all the places you should be kissed.”
“Oh shit,” Devi breathes, her hands clenching on the blanket again. I take one of her hands and guide it up to my mane, my horns, to give her something to hold on to. “N’dek,” she says finally. “N’dek. My N’dek.”
I bury my face between her thighs, licking her cunt hard.
A tiny scream erupts from her throat, quickly bitten back. She moans, arching against my mouth as I explore her with the tip of my tongue and my fingers. I part her cunt lips with one hand so I can gaze at all of her, and she is soft and wet and juicy, so I lap up all of it. She has a little pebble between her folds and when I touch it with one finger, she jolts up against the furs.
“Oh!”
“Is this your clit?” I ask, touching it again. She gives me a jerky nod and I study it. Tiny, and as dark and hard as her nipples. I like it. I treat it like one of them, swirling my tongue around the small bud and then sucking.
“N’dek!” She’s panting hard now, her thighs trembling against my ears. “Oh fuck. Oh my god. That’s…”
That is what she likes, it seems. I continue to tease it, toying with the bud even as I stroke my thumb up and down her folds. She is wet and dewy further down, and when I dip my thumb deeper into her core, I find her slick and hot. Her cunt sucks at me, as if trying to drag me deeper, and Devi rocks against my mouth, her hands fisted in my mane, a low moan rising in her throat.
“Please,” she whispers as I push my thumb deep into her honey. “Please, N’dek. Oh god, I’m so close.”
“Tell me what will make you come,” I rasp, my need growing difficult to ignore. Her scent is in my nose, her taste on my tongue, her thighs clenching against my shoulder. My cock feels as if it is made of stone, hard and unyielding, and I know the slightest friction will make me spill my seed everywhere. I must not, though. I must wait and show her how I touch myself, because her curious eyes will want to watch.
But first, her pleasure.
Devi moans again, the sound wordless and full of need. She reaches down between her thighs and I push her hand away. “I want to be the one that touches you,” I tell her. “Tell me what to do.”
“Two fingers,” she pants, then tries to show me. She pushes my mouth aside again and slips two fingers between her folds. She glides one on either side of her clit, rubbing against it but not directly on it.
I see. I do not interrupt, because I like the way she touches herself, so full of need. But I cannot watch idly, either. As she rubs, I lean in and tease the nub of her clit with my tongue.
She cries out, arching against me as she rubs even harder. “Oh. Just like that!”
I flick my tongue against her clit faster, trying to match the speed of her touches. Devi makes little, high-pitched grunts as she works her clit, and then lets out a deep, shuddering breath as her entire body quakes and her cunt floods with nectar.
Her fingers immediately go still, but I am not done with her. I clasp her hips and move my tongue over her folds, licking and tasting as she shudders against me. I lick her over and over until she gently pushes my face away, whimpering, and then I lower her hips slowly to the furs once more, pressing kisses along her thigh.
“I liked that,” I growl. I feel very possessive of her in this moment. Her mane is a dark cloud tousled around her face, and her eyes are soft with pleasure. She is so lovely she makes me ache. “I want to wake you up like that every morning.”
“Every…morning?” Her thighs quiver and she tries to draw them together.
“Every morning,” I agree. “You will be my shrimp tea.”
She bursts into surprised laughter, her hands flying to her mouth as she giggles. “Oh my god, that is so weird of you to say. Please, please don’t call me your shrimp tea in front of others. I’ll never hear the end of fish jokes.”
“Fish jokes?” I frown. “Why fish jokes?”
She gestures at her cunt, her cheeks flushed.
Realization dawns. I snort, rolling onto my side to give her space to stretch her limbs. “That is a poor joke. You taste much sweeter than that. And I do not want to lick a fish until the sun rises. You, however…”
Devi bites her lip, smiling at me.
So beautiful. Mine.
I prop up on one arm, and with one hand, I undo the belt that holds my loincloth in place.
Her gaze immediately drops to my cock. Her lips part, and she stares at me with wonder. “You’re so big. Every time I see you, so big.”
I feel myself growing harder at her intense gaze. I reach down and stroke my length, my thumb flicking at the underside of my spur as I push into my hand.
She gasps, her breath catching in her throat. “Oh. Do that again.”
I do, stroking myself the way I always do, starting slow at the base, dragging my thumb against my spur, and then pausing to squeeze at the crown of my cock. Later on, I’ll be working my cock so fast it is a rough tug, but I always start slow, savoring the sensation. It feels good, but it feels better knowing that her curious eyes are on me and that she watches with fascination. That she likes seeing me stroke myself. That she watches how hard I am, how the head of my cock drips with need, and her lips part as if she wants to touch me herself.
I groan, imagining such a thing. Devi’s small hand on my thigh, Devi’s brown fingers dancing along my spur, then caressing my cock like she did last night…but in my mind, there is no fur to separate us. The thought is intense, and I jerk my cock hard, unable to help myself. I want to go slow, but I’m aching too much, my thoughts too full of my mate, her taste still on my tongue.
As I work my cock, I glide my tail up her thigh, tickling her skin.
She gasps and then parts her thighs, spreading them slightly as if to invite me in.
This female. This glorious, beautiful female. I groan again, watching as my tail moves up her thigh, winding along her soft skin and then I lightly flick the furry end of it against her cunt. The pale blue of my tail tuft looks stark against the black curls between her thighs, but I like it. I like it so much I cannot stop staring at it.
“Can I taste you?” she whispers, even as her fingers move to her cunt and she holds her folds apart, as if inviting me to caress her clit with my tail.
I choke out a sound; it might be a yes. Devi takes it as such. She moves forward, her fingers lightly skimming over the head of my cock as she lies next to me, and I groan again as she drags a fingertip through the wet pre-cum, then lifts it to her mouth. I rub my tail against her clit, and her legs jerk in response.
“Oh,” she breathes. “You’re salty.”
“Devi,” I rasp, my gaze locked on her pretty cunt as I feather my tail over it, back and forth, trying to pleasure her with it, to make her come again before I lose control.
“Mmm, that feels good.” Her eyes close as she licks her fingers again, and she rocks her hips as I tease my tail against her pebble. She adjusts the fingers holding her cunt folds apart, her middle finger rubbing in tandem with my tail. Her breath quickens, and she opens her eyes to meet my gaze. “I want to watch you come, N’dek,” she says. “Do you want to come on me?”
I growl at such a suggestion. I have never wanted anything more. “You—want that?”
“I want to try it.”
Her eyes sparkle with anticipation. “It sounds so naughty.”
I can hold myself back no longer. I jerk my cock furiously, my hand ripping up and down my length as quickly as possible, stroking so forcefully that it is painful. I do not care. All I know is that I need to come, to paint my female with my seed on her belly, her little tuft of fur between her thighs…where my tail teases her even now…
I feel the tingle in my sac. It moves up to my spine, and then pleasure ripples through me even as I bite out her name. Hot seed spurts from the head of my cock, and I keep working my length, watching in fascination as I leave trails of my seed on her belly, then paint her thighs with my spend. She gasps in pleasure, working her clit, and in the next moment, she shudders with her own release, her fingers coated with my seed.
Mine.
I stare down at my female, my seed on her beautiful brown skin. It makes pale trails over her body, and as I watch, she slides a fingertip through it.
“How fascinating,” she whispers. “To think there are millions of sperm all over my belly.” She chuckles. “Or do you not produce sperm unless you resonate?”
I do not know the answer to this. All I know is that my seed looks thicker than it has in the past, the color milkier.
Devi smiles up at me, and I force myself to smile back. I do not know what this means, this thicker seed, but I can guess. I suspect our time is limited…and it fills me with dread.
Just when I have found the perfect female, I worry I will lose her.
17
DEVI
N’dek is a heavy sleeper when I’m curled up next to him, it seems. I wake up way before he does, lie in bed for a bit, and then get up. I’m one of those weird people that only needs five or six hours of sleep to feel completely recharged, and my brain won’t shut off once I’m awake. I ease out of the blankets, and N’dek grabs me and kisses me.
