by Maven, Ella
“Nuh-uh,” he chided with a click of his tongue. “Other way. Cunt facing me.”
Jesus wept. My heart pounded, and I swore I felt a gush of warmth between my legs. On shaky limbs, I turned slowly until my ass faced him. In this vulnerable position, I should have felt uncomfortable, but now all I wanted was to see what he thought of me baring my intimate parts to him. I glanced over my shoulder to see his eyes glowing a bright violet. His chest heaved, a muscle in his jaw bulged, but other than that, he didn’t move. I felt his gaze like a laser as he stared unashamedly at my nakedness.
My arms shook from nerves, and I swore I was going to come out of my skin if he didn’t react soon. Just when I was about to snark at him, he moved.
Quick.
Like lightning. His body moved like a blue panther through the qua until he was right behind me, his face inches from my bared pussy.
“Mikko,” I whispered past a dry throat.
Finally, his eyes met mine, and what swirled there took my breath away. He wanted me with a reckless abandon. I didn’t think anything would stop him now. Nothing except my word. He was in charge of how this played out, but I was in charge that it was happening at all, and that made it even more arousing.
“What does a buffet mean?” he asked.
The question caught me off guard. “What?”
“You told me you’d lay yourself out like a buffet for me if I got you out of the Pit.”
“I-it means—” My voice cracked, and I swallowed. “It means what you want is available to you. And… you can keep eating. Until you’re full.”
“Until I’m full?” He flashed his fangs as if on a dare.
Ooo fuck, why did that turn me on so much? “Y-yes.”
“Then put your head down, my little warrior. Cheek to the stone. I want to eat what’s available to me until I’m full.” His tongue snaked out and touched the bottom of his chin as he let out a rumble of laughter. “It might be a while. I’m pretty insatiable.”
I bent my elbows and lightly touched my cheek to the stone. “Oh fuck, Mikk—” My words were cut off on a groan as that long tongue slipped between my legs. The tip swirled around my clit before he dragged it back over my folds to play around my entrance.
His hands gripped my thighs and his thumbs dug into my ass as he ate me at me like I was breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. His fangs lightly skimmed my heated flesh, and I slapped the ground because I couldn’t stop my hips from gyrating.
He didn’t bother to hold me steady, and let me push back against his face as I sought more. The pressure had been building for what felt like hours, and I wanted to come so badly, yet I didn’t want this delicious anticipation to end.
His tongue was a work of art working me into a frenzy until I was making foreign keening sounds. I couldn’t process anything but what he was doing to me. My arms no longer supported me, and I lay spread out before him like the buffet he’d asked for. I was positive my knees would have given out, but he held me up with a strong grip.
Head empty with nothing but bursting synapses of pleasure, I babbled his name and begged him not to stop. When he speared his thick tongue into me and began to vibrate it with a deep rumble from his chest, I screamed. My limbs trembled, my body shivered, and when my orgasm hit me, I thought I was going to explode. My vision went out, my voice failed me, and all I could do was buck against Mikko’s hold while he licked me through it.
When his grip left my hips, my legs collapsed, and I lay sprawled on my belly in a daze.
His heat coated my back, and I felt the thick head of his cock drag up the back of my leg. “I’m not done my buffet,” he murmured with a lick to the sweat-coated skin on the side of my neck.
I managed to move my muscles enough to smile. “Well, I’m available.”
His fingers skimmed the top of my ass. “I was worried I broke you.”
“Mmm,” I moaned. “You did, but a promise is a promise.” I managed to tilt my head enough to see his face. He held himself above me on muscled arms. His tail lazily curled around my ankle. And his cock hung thick and heavy near my pussy. “Take your fill, Mikko.”
With a long, low moan, he pressed the head of his cock against my entrance. He was big, but I was slick and stretched from his tongue and my own juices. He slid home on a long thrust, and the delicious drag of the piercing on the edge of his cock had me seeing stars.
My inner walls clenched around him, and he groaned. “You feel better than I ever imagined.”
“That’s what every girl wants to hear,” I murmured. “Come on, fuck me Mikko.”
“Fuck you?” He pulled out and thrust back in, jolting my body on the stone. “Is that your word for mating?”
“Yes,” I hissed at the fullness of him between my thighs. “So, fuck me.”
His hips pulled back and he snapped them forward. I cried out, and he grunted. Then he did it again, and again, his rhythm perfect and mind-blowing. My body was a vessel for his pleasure, and I loved being used by him. His pleasure-filled sounds only made this hotter.
He still held himself above me with straight arms, as not to crush me, and with his knees, he pushed my legs wider, almost too wide, as he slotted his hips between them to get even deeper. With one hand, he held onto my hip and drove me onto his thrusting cock so hard my teeth clacked together.
I scrabbled on the stone as my body simultaneously sought to flee and get closer.
“That’s it,” he growled above me. “I want you completely open to me. You’ll be this vulnerable with me, won’t you little warrior? Only me. I’m the only one.”
“Only you,” I managed to grit out between powerful rolls of his hips. My pussy was on fire, and I could feel the beginning of another orgasm, one that felt so big I was almost scared of it.
“That’s right.” He continued to rumble as his head dipped lower to speak closer to my ear. “You’re my warrior Rian. My female. I’ll never get my fill of you as long as I live.”
His punishing grip didn’t let up. I’d never had sex like this, never thought I wanted sex like this, but with Mikko it was… unexplainably amazing.
He was getting close. His rhythm was frenzied, and he panted above me louder than when he’d climbed that shaft. Just then he changed the angle of his hips, and my orgasm rocketed through me with unbelievable force. I screamed, he roared, and as my walls clenched around him, his cock pulsed inside of me.
Only when the shuddering of my body stopped did I realize he was gently pulling out me. Fluid gushed between my legs, but I was too tired to deal with it. I could barely feel my limbs. My throat hurt, and I just wanted to sleep.
But Mikko… he had other plans. With gentle hands, as if I were a kitten, he lifted me up and pulled me back into the qua. He settled me on his lap, my back to his front, arranging my limbs like I was a doll. He pressed constant kisses to my temples and shoulders as he cleaned me with a gentle palm between my legs. His hands glided over my stomach and breasts, and he tutted slightly at the scrapes there. But I kind of loved them. Although they stung a bit, I liked knowing the evidence of what we’d done was on my body, mostly because the entire thing had felt like a fever dream.
I sighed as I leaned back on his shoulder with my eyes closed.
“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.
I could hear him swallow and when he spoke again, his voice shook just a little. “Thank you for what you just gave me.”
“Ditto.”
He let out a low chuckle that made me smile. “How do you feel?”
I yawned. “Like I could sleep for days.”
“You sleep,” he said, and his voice sounded far away as my body gave into fatigue.
“Okay,” I murmured. “I’ll sleep.”
The last thing I felt before I fell asleep was his hand in my hair, and a light kiss to my temple.
* * *
Mikko
When I pulled a shirt down over Rian’s head, she grumbled slightly and opened her eyes, but as soon as I once
again lay her down in the furs, she fell back asleep with her hands tucked under her cheek. The sun warmed the sand, even in the shade, and I watched her for a while to make sure she would stay asleep. I knew she needed her rest.
A voice drew my attention, and I looked over to the other side of the arch to find Fenix talking quietly to Zecri as they munched on some dried fruit.
I pulled on a pair of pants and walked to them.
Meri was there, snugged up against Zecri’s side eating out of his palm.
I glanced over to make sure I could see Rian from where I sat, and sure enough, her red hair was visible peeking out from the furs.
I raised my brow at Zecri as I sat down, and he ignored me as he continued to feed the hilphen. He even murmured a few words to it in a low voice.
“Seriously?” Fenix asked him.
He glanced up with a frown.
“You have said more words to that thing in one rotation than you’ve said to me in… five.”
Zecri thought about that for a moment before answering. “Three.”
“Fine, three,” Fenix huffed as he drew shapes in the sand with a stick.
“I listen to you, Fenix,” Zecri said, drawing Fenix’s head up. “I think that’s more important than talking myself.” With that, he lowered his head and once again fed Meri in a low voice.
Fenix’s mouth was open, and he slowly shut it before glancing at me with a chagrined look. “Yeah,” he said softly. “I guess that’s pretty important. And you probably have talked more, and I just haven’t remembered it. Right?”
Zecri nodded. “That’s probably right too.”
“Speaking of that,” I cut in. “Fenix said you think you know a way off this planet.”
“Is that what you want?” he asked. “To leave?”
I glanced at Rian again before meeting his purple eyes. “Look, when I first saw Rian, she was about to be killed in the bottom of the Pit. So, my first instinct was to rescue her. Then it was to keep her alive. And then it was to escape. I hadn’t thought past that because I needed to complete one step at a time. Now that I’m here…” I shook my head. “I know I want two things—I want Rian safe, and I want to destroy the Pit.”
Zecri was quiet for a moment. “You plan to do both of those things?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “I think you’re going to have to make a choice between those two.”
“Why? I can do both. I singlehandedly carried us out of the Pit. I can destroy it and make her safe.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Zecri snapped in a tone uncharacteristic for him. “How do you plan to do this? Will you take her with you? She will hate staying behind with us, and while I’ll defend her with my life, are you asking us to do that? Will you live with yourself if we die defending her while you’re off on a needless mission?”
“It is not needless!” I shouted. I quickly glanced at Rian, but she didn’t wake or stir. “It’s not needless,” I said again, softer this time. “You haven’t been there. You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Then make a choice,” Zecri said. “Destroy the Pit and everyone in it or save the life of a human woman.”
“That’s not a fair comparison,” I growled. “I can do both. I will destroy the Pit and then I’ll take her off planet, because I would do anything to keep Rian safe. Maybe we’ll go home. Maybe we’ll find another home. I just know she’s safest when she’s with me.” I swallowed as I glanced at Fenix, who still drew circles in the sand. “So, I’m going with her. And I won’t come back.”
“If you have to make a choice, just remember who you are,” Zecri said. “You’re a Drixonian warrior.”
“I’m a flecked-up version of a dying honorable race, Zecri.”
He made an exasperated sound. “Be stubborn then. Convince yourself you can have it all.”
“I don’t think I can have it all. I’m doing a favor putting those males in there out of their misery.”
“Did you ask them all that?”
I looked away. I had been in there. I would know. No one understood.
Zecri let out a heavy sigh and lifted Meri to his shoulder, where she perched with a contented sigh. “Fine. But I’m not involved in that. We’ll get you off this planet. And as much as it pains me to say this, I hope I never see you again.”
Fenix let out a gargled sound, and I shifted toward him. Rexor always had a soft spot for Fenix—we all did—but Rexor the most. Fenix and I had a habit of bickering like brothers, but that was because I did view him as a brother. I knew he was terrified of being alone. Again. I laid my hand near his thigh. “You can come with us.”
He shook his head immediately and gave me a sad smile. “Stop, I’ll be fine. I’m not a chit.”
“No, you’re not,” I agreed, hating I could see the pain in his eyes.
He itched his arm, his black gloves wrinkling just enough to reveal the ruined, scarred skin of his forearms. He immediately yanked the gloves back in place. “Don’t worry about me or Zecri.”
He itched again and then rose abruptly. “I’ll be back,” he announced, and then disappeared between a set of arches.
I dropped my head between my shoulders because I knew where he was going. A dose of Kixx would stop the itching—and the pain—for a little while. Until it wore off and he needed more. While ejecting my spikes hurt like fleck, I wasn’t in constant, chronic pain like Fenix. I didn’t fault him for his addiction. He hadn’t asked for his body to be altered. He was managing the best he could.
When I lifted my head, Zecri was watching me. “I won’t leave him,” he said.
I pursed my lips “I didn’t intend to leave him either.”
He inclined his head. “Fatas will not cross my path with a human female.” His jaw tightened, and he looked down and away.
My fists clenched, and if an Uldani would have been in front of me right now, I would have slashed him to pieces. “You don’t know that.” Except I did. And so did he. Fatas wouldn’t be so cruel to Zecri after all he had been through, would she?
“I won’t leave him,” Zecri said again. “But you and her…” his gaze drifted to where she slept, and a small smile crept across his face. He rarely smiled, but sometimes I thought that out of all of us, Zecri was maybe the biggest sucker for a perfect mating. “You were meant to meet. She is a match for you, and you were for her.”
“You think?”
“I know.”
I grinned. “Yeah, I do too. I just wanted to see what you’d say.”
He let out a snort that might have been laughter. He handed his last piece of dried fruit to Meri, who munched it happily.
I leaned back on my palms. “How come she likes you so much?”
He shrugged. “Animals have always liked me. Chits too.” I blinked, and his hand froze from a moment before he resumed petting Meri. He cleared his throat and so did I. Talk of chits was off-limits usually. “Maybe I just have a weakness for the ones who don’t require me to make conversation.”
“You talk to Meri.”
“But I don’t have to.”
I fell silent at that and watched him tend to the small hilphen. When Fenix returned, the sun had stretched high in the sky. His steps were a little sluggish and his eyes were a bit hazy, but he also moved with less tension, probably because he couldn’t feel pain. I wasn’t sure he felt much of anything.
He plopped down on the rock next to me, leaned back, and closed his eyes. I thought he was asleep until he spoke up after a while. “Hey Mikko?”
“Yeah,” I answered him.
His head rolled to face me. “Say hi to Rexor for me.”
His eyes closed, and I reached out to flick a strand of orange hair that had fallen into his eyes. His lips turned up, and I pulled my hand back before I touched his face and ruined his peace. “I will, Fenix,” I whispered softly to my sleeping friend.
With Meri sleeping curled in his lap, Zecri leaned forward. “So about leaving.”
I focused on him
. “Yeah?”
“I know a way. It’s risky.”
I chuckled. “Is there anything without risk?”
He nodded. “Good point.”
Ten
Rian
I munched on some jerky that tasted a little sweet and game-y. I actually hadn’t asked what animal this came from. I didn’t really want to know, just like I didn’t want to know what was really in that muhs I’d eaten in the Pit.
When I’d woken up from my nap, Mikko had been sitting beside me with his knees bent staring off into the distance where the Pit was located. A pile of food and fresh qua sat at my side. While I ate, he absentmindedly curled a strand of my hair around his finger.
“Can we stay here?” I asked after I’d eaten my fill.
“No,” he said softly, his gaze still on the horizon.
“Where are we going to go?”
“There,” he pointed with an outstretched arm and I squinted my eyes to try to see what he saw. But all I could make out was a series of rocks and more red sand.
“I don’t see anything,” I frowned.
“No?” He gave me a confused look.
“Sorry, buddy. Your eyesight is better than mine, I think.”
“Hmmm,” he hummed. “Well anyway, there’s a Pliken docking station at the top of the Pit. Tomorrow, there will be a Pliken cargo ship arriving with the food drop.”
I sat up. “What does that mean for us?”
He turned his head. “We’ll be leaving this planet on that cargo ship.”
“What?” I squeaked. “We’re leaving the planet?”
He turned back to face the horizon. “Yes.”
“Why? Where are we going to go?” He flinched at that question almost imperceptibly, but I caught it. “Mikko? Where are we going to go?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t…? So, we’re just going to cruise around outer space for a while?”
“Maybe.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I have ideas of where we can go. I haven’t decided on them yet.”
“Do I get to be involved in this decision making?”
