by Ruby Dixon
I walk a little farther down the rows of huts and spot a few of the hunters standing near the mouth of one of the nearby canyons. The crevasse splits off in a few different directions before it gets to the village, as if they're living in one part of a big maze. I'm told there's a massive wall of dirtbeaks somewhere nearby, but I haven't gone to see it yet. I don't have much interest in poop birds, so I haven't really ventured farther than the last couple of huts. Maybe next time.
I spot T'chai's proud horns—so straight and indignant compared to the curling ones of the sa-khui—and my heart pitter-pats. He's got his back to me, his stance tall and proud, his shoulders mouthwateringly broad. His long hair flutters ever so slightly, and he's wearing a new tunic—one made of thick, fluffy white fur that was probably given to him by another hunter. It hides his ass from my hungry sight, so it's definitely not my favorite outfit, but dios, he still looks delicious and I want to take a bite out of him.
My mate shifts his weight, changing his stance, and just that small movement makes lust roar through me. My fingers flex and itch, as if they want me to move forward and just grab him. To latch onto that tail and force him to turn around and look me in the eye…and then run off into the nearest hut and make out like teenagers. The idea sounds amazing to me, and so I creep up behind them, trying not to interrupt the conversation he's having with two of the men. One is Zennek, I think—Marlene's shy mate—and the other is a stranger to me. He's tall and with longer hair than my T'chai, but the name escapes me. I think he's mated to Summer.
"So…you have five tribes from the islands? And all are living on the beach with you?" I hear Zennek ask.
"Three clans," T'chai corrects, and his voice is liquid chocolate, smooth and rich and sends a shiver right down my spine and makes me tingle.
"But you said there were five clans,” Zennek frowns, extending his fingers to count. "Horns, arms…fangs…? What am I forgetting?"
"I am Tall Horn," T'chai says, and I can hear the note of pride in his voice as he speaks. "There is Strong Arm and Shadow Cat, as well."
"Ah," says the other, turning to Zennek and gesturing at his jaw. "The fur."
"And then there was Long Tail, but they did not survive the death of the Great Smoking Mountain," T'chai continues. "That is all of the clans."
"You said there was an outcast clan?"
My mate huffs with amusement. "That is not a real clan. No one counts them. And it does not matter, because they are all dead as well." I take another step forward and my boot scrapes on the flagstones. T'chai twitches with alertness, and he glances over his shoulder.
The sight of that, of his eyes heavy-lidded as he casts a look over his shoulder, does something to me. A hot curl of need flares through my body, and it's like my pussy becomes instantly wet at the sight of the fan of his dark lashes and the beauty of his full mouth. My heart throbs again.
And again.
Then it's pulsing and pounding in my ears, so loud that it makes me pause. I put a hand over my chest, because I know what this is. Sure enough, my khui is humming so loud that it's making my body shake. T'chai looks down at his own chest, and then slowly turns—
With a squeal, I race the rest of the distance between us, launching myself onto him, arms wide.
I knock my mate to the ground in a tackle, kissing him wildly as the others laugh at us. I don't care if they laugh. I'm too full of joy to care about anything. With a grin, I sit up on his chest as he stares at me, incredulous. "Mari?"
"Do you hear it?" I say gleefully, and tear at the front of his tunic. I expose his chest, grinning, and then lick a long, sensual line between his pectorals, right over where his khui is singing loudest. "Do you feel it yet?"
He laughs, the sound full of delight as he grabs me by the waist and rolls us over. Then it's me on my back, and him over me, and I'm ready to tear my own clothing open so he can do the same. God, the thought of him licking a stripe between my breasts is so arousing that I wrap my legs around his waist. "It has happened!" he says fiercely. "Do I feel it? I can feel nothing but resonance, my Mari, and it is incredible."
T'chai leans down to kiss me and I meet him halfway in a clash of lips and teeth. I make a hungry noise as I lace my fingers in his hair and then he thrusts against the cradle of my hips, showing me just how much he wants me. We're devouring each other, oblivious to the cold and open air.
Someone clears a throat.
I look over at the same time T'chai does, but I'm only half-paying attention to the two hunters still standing a few feet away. My focus is on the hard length of my lover's body pressed to mine, the feel of my lips throbbing with the intensity of his kisses.
"Perhaps…a hut?" Zennek offers with a sheepish expression. "It might be more comfortable."
T'chai glances down at me. "Hut?"
I bite back a giggle. Something tells me if I said no, he'd just pull down his pants and mate me right here…and I'm tempted. Damn, am I tempted. But there's a lot of small children in the village, and the last thing they need to see is T'chai's bright blue butt as he pounds down on me. I reach for my mate's face and give him another fierce kiss, then let him go, but only for a moment. "Hurry," I tell him breathlessly.
Like lightning, T'chai is on his feet in a blink, and he scoops me up in his arms before I can even sit up. He glances over at Zennek. "Tell A'tar and his mate we are not leaving tomorrow. Something has come up."
And because I'm a giddy dork, I snicker at the pun.
Zennek just grins. "I will spread the word."
25
MARI
I wrap my arms around T'chai's neck, nuzzling my face under the crook of his jaw as he carries me toward our hut. He smells so good that I'm whimpering with delight, unable to take my hands off of him. I lick his skin, biting at the cords and sucking on every bit of him I can. I want to leave him branded with hickeys so everyone sees how desirable I find him. I want to mark him as my own. I love the taste of him, and I bite down and drag my tongue over the spot I've wounded. He sucks in a breath, and I can feel his body stiffen in response. His khui gets louder, and I squirm with delight.
"Are you hungry?" T'chai teases in a low voice as he crosses the village with me in his arms. "Do I need to feed my ravenous mate first?"
"The only thing I want in my mouth right now is in your loincloth," I purr at him.
The hiss of his breath makes me feel so sexy and beautiful. Irresistible. I'm so happy that it seems as if the breath is escaping my lungs, as if I'm forgetting to breathe with my sheer joy. I suck in a deep lungful, rubbing my nose against the soft skin of his throat, and nip at him again. This is what we've been waiting for, what I've been longing for. Nothing is going to steal this from us ever again, I vow. No matter what the world throws at us, we can handle it.
T'chai pushes the door flap aside, ducking in, and then we're back in our hut. The embers are cold on the hearth and I'm squirming with need despite the fact that we had sex just this morning. Something inside me had forgotten how intense resonance is, how it feels as if you're coming out of your own skin with frantic need. It's as if the world is going to end if you don't have sex right now, right this moment.
My mate sets me down gently on our nest of furs. "Wait here, and I will make a fire."
I make a noise of protest, clinging to the front of his tunic, preventing him from leaving. "No. Stay with me. We can keep each other warm."
He hesitates for a moment, his protective nature clearly warring with his own needs, and then he groans and moves over me on hands and knees, his mouth slanting over mine. Thrilled, I try to drag him down against me, my hungry kisses growing more insistent by the moment.
"No," he murmurs, breaking my embrace with a gentle caress. He runs his knuckles down my cheek, gazing at me with such tenderness that it makes me ache all over. "We have mated with such eagerness that I have not taken my time with you, my Mari. When we come together now, it will be special. This time, I will savor every bit of you as you were meant to be savor
ed."
"I'm fine with fast," I tell him, tugging at his tunic. "Fast is just as good as slow."
He shakes his head, a confident smile teasing his mouth. "So impatient, my mate. I promise I will make this good for you. Let me enjoy you at a slower pace. Let me memorize each moment of this so it will take away all the bad memories of the last few moons, when you wept with frustration and looked at me with sadness. We will fill those memories with something else," he promises. "We will make new memories of hungry need and yearning, and of tasting each other everywhere."
I moan, my body arching. "Okay, you make that sound pretty good. Savor away."
At my response, T'chai chuckles, and his fingers trail down my cheek again. "Have I told you this day that I am the luckiest of males?"
"You might have said it when my mouth was on your cock earlier," I pant, biting at the pad of his thumb when it moves closer to my mouth. "But I was distracted and don't remember."
"Then I will say it again." He leans in and gives me the lightest, tenderest kiss. "I am the luckiest male on this planet to have been gifted a mate such as you. No one else has a mate as lovely and strong and brave."
Brave? I let out a shaky laugh, even though his words thrill me. "I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I'm the one that hides, remember?"
He shakes his head slightly, leaning in and rubbing his nose against mine. It's the strangest position, him leaning over me on all fours while I sit up on my elbows underneath him, but it feels…intimate. Sweet. Right. "Everyone feels fear from time to time," T'chai says, then gives me another light, fluttering kiss. "But I remember on the beach when you tried to come for me, even though it was dangerous. I remember the strength in your eyes when I lay dying. You took my hand and smiled at me, and you told me with your eyes that everything was going to be all right. That you weren't going to let me die. I do not remember much about those days, but I remember waking up and you were always there with me. You never left my side, even for a moment. You never gave up on me." He presses a kiss to the tip of my nose. "You have faced down everything to protect me when I was helpless. So tell me again that you are not brave, and I will tell you once more that you lie."
The words are achingly sweet. Of all the things I expected T'chai to see me as, brave isn't one of them. For some reason, it makes my eyes well up with tears, and I cup his face in my hands and kiss him, my lips hungry on his. I want to show him all the things I'm feeling in this moment. I want him to realize how much I love and adore him.
When I was dropped on this planet, I didn't give much thought to resonance. It was just another danger lurking around the corner in a strange, inhospitable new world that was terrifying in all ways. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be tied down to another person when I was still trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do with myself. But…even if I could choose again, I'd still pick him. He's everything I never realized I needed—patient and strong, kind and protective, and with a wry sense of humor that sometimes rises up when I least expect it. He always makes me feel beautiful and special and understood.
He's perfect.
"I love you," I whisper as I kiss him over and over again, quick presses of my lips against his. "I love you so much."
"Let me show you how much I love you, my mate," he murmurs, rubbing his nose against mine one last time before moving down to kiss along my cheek, and then my jaw. "Let me cherish you."
Cherishing me sounds pretty good. I nod and remain still as he kisses along to my ear, leaning over me. His hair, long and thick, glides over his shoulders and falls onto my tunic like a cascade of dark water. His horns rub against my skin as he nips at my ear, and when he nudges me onto my back, I go, reaching for him even as I do. I'm going to need to touch this man at least a dozen times an hour for the rest of my life, just to make sure that he's real.
T'chai gazes down at me, a hint of a smile on his lips, and he reaches out and touches my jaw, caressing it lightly before stroking my hair. He fans it out around my head, studying me as if I'm the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen. The sheer lust in his eyes makes my pulse pound, the sensation focused between my thighs. It feels as if it's keeping time with my frantic khui, the song between us so loud it permeates the air.
My mate reaches for the ties on the front of my lovely new tunic and considers it. Instead of the normal laces, it's got big, fat, decorative knots that run down the front, and he considers them for a moment before grabbing his knife out of his belt. I let out a squeal of protest, shaking my head. "No! This is new! Don't you dare!"
His mouth twitches, and I realize he's teasing me.
"Oooh," I mutter, even as I grab a handful of his thick, silky hair and tug. "You're a naughty one, T'chai of Tall Horn. That is just wrong of you."
He tosses the knife aside with a smirk, and then picks at one of the knots. "It is a sad, sad day when my mate chooses her tunic over her mate."
"Oh please," I say indignantly. "Use your fingers. I know you know how to."
T'chai's mouth twitches again and his shoulders shake, as if he's holding back laughter. Carefully, he undoes the first knot and pulls the material apart, exposing my collarbones. The next two knots are quickly undone, and then my breasts are in the open air, my nipples tightening at the chill. The playful expression disappears from his face and he gazes down at my body. "When R'jaal first brought you back to us, I thought he was hallucinating. That he was making up stories, because no females were on our island at all. But then he laid you down in the sand and showed you to us, and I could not believe what I saw." He brushes his fingertips over one aching nipple, then goes back to undoing knots. "I thought you were the most beautiful, most delicate creature I had ever seen, and in that moment, I hated R'jaal because you were his and not mine." He glances up at me, his expression rueful. "And then you resonated to me and R'jaal was left alone."
"I'm not sorry," I whisper.
"Neither am I…though I do regret that moment of hatred. He is a good male…but you are mine and no one else's." His expression takes on a possessive cast, sending shivers of delight up my spine. "These are my teats to touch, my skin to caress, my mate to fill with kit." He opens the last knot holding my yellow tunic together and then pushes the butter-soft leather aside, exposing my torso. "I vowed to myself when we resonated that if I had to leave behind my Tall Horn brothers, I would. You were mine and mine alone."
His words shouldn't be nearly as arousing as they are, but paired with the intense look in his eyes? I've never been more turned on in my life. "No one would come between us," I promise him. "They just want you to be happy."
"So they do." T'chai puts a big hand on my stomach, stroking it lightly. "But I cannot help but be possessive of you, Mari. My clan is my family, but when I met you, you changed everything." He leans down and presses a kiss to the valley between my small breasts. "I realized when you smiled at me that I would follow you anywhere."
"Then it's a good thing the only place I want to be is where you are," I tell him softly.
He leans over me and presses a kiss to my forehead, then my nose, and then claims my mouth. One big hand cups my breast, his thumb stroking the nipple back and forth, teasing it until I'm aching. I whimper into his kiss, squirming on the blankets. I want to wrap myself around him, but when I try to put a leg around his hips, he eases it back onto the blankets. "Mine to savor," he murmurs. "Let me taste you everywhere before I put my kit in you."
I moan at those words, shocked at how hot they make me. I've never been aroused at the thought of becoming pregnant, but something about it coming from T'chai's mouth makes it the filthiest of compliments, and I love it. "More," I tell him. "Give me more, then."
"You want more?" He pinches my nipple between his fingers, and I gasp. "You want me to claim all of you?"
Oh god, yes. I nod, my breath coming in sharp, jerky pants.
He moves down my body, tossing his long hair aside as he does, and I see the small, dark-colored bruises my mouth has left on his neck
. I love the sight of them there, and I want to wear his on my skin, too. I cup my other breast, raising the nipple toward him as he kisses his way down my body. "Taste me here."
"So fierce," he tells me. "So demanding."
Maybe I am. I don't care. All I know is that my words get results, because his mouth latches onto my breast and then I'm keening with hungry little whimpers, my fingers digging into his thick mane as he drags his textured tongue over my nipple. It feels so good I'm rocking my hips against nothing at all.
"Patience," he says, soothing my skin with more kisses. "You know I will fill you up and make you feel good, do you not?" He sucks on one nipple, even as he teases the other, until I'm panting and clinging to him, needing more. My khui is so loud that it feels as if it's making my entire chest vibrate, which adds an entirely new layer of sensation to things. I'm so ready for him to push my legs apart and shove his way deep, but I can tell from his expression—and by the sheer control he has right now—that he's going to draw this out.
And that turns me on even more.
"When I first saw your teats, my Mari, I did not know what to make of them," T'chai murmurs as he swirls his tongue around one sensitive nipple. "You had no kit in your arms, but your teats were swollen and seemed so soft. They move when you move, and I love watching that. It makes me imagine touching them, rubbing my face against them and tasting your skin." When I moan, he does just that, burying his face between my breasts and squeezing them tight, making the valley deeper. "But you taste just as sweet here as anywhere else." He looks up at me with a wicked expression on his face. "And so I must continue exploring."
"Oooh," I whimper. He thumbs my nipples one last time before he slides lower. He kisses my belly, his mouth indolent and lazy as he licks a leisurely path down my skin. I know he's dragging it out now to make me crazy…and it's working. I'm practically coming out of my skin by the time he reaches the waist of my skirt.
