by V. K. Ludwig
“All this time, I pictured him all wrong.” Unrolling his nabu, Zerim grabbed one end of the woven uri rods, swaying a little as he balanced on a branch of our new mother tree. “I thought he was like the other Vetusian warriors we had met. Those who tried to capture us. With their black scales, their guns, and their glowing eyes.”
I took the other end of his nabu and tied it up, thinking back on the time Zavis and I rode the plains side-by-side. How we’d laughed and giggled, being neither Vetusian nor Jal’zar but… just us.
“Your grandmother once told me your father came to us to become who he’s always been,” I said. “The male beneath the Vetusian, who loves and longs like any Jal’zar. Those things are not exclusive to our kind but apply to anyone living within Mekara, even if we can’t see it. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
He lowered his head and stared at his fingers, competently tying a knot around the branch. “That he isn’t different from other Vetusians. There’s more beneath the scales of all of them.”
I tugged on the nabu, making certain it was tied properly. “If you continue to see them as your enemy, Zerim, then you’ll find yourself surrounded by them if you truly wish to travel to Earth with your father.”
His lips pressed into a thin line underneath the red hue of the moon, but he eventually nodded. “I want to go, Mother.”
“The peace between our nations is young and fragile,” I said. “Only time can heal wounds. Until then, we won’t be able to return to Solgad. It would be too dangerous and unpredictable.”
“Solgad holds nothing for me but a life in hiding.”
“Women on Earth are different, Zerim. As you mature, you’ll have to learn to control your rut around them. Finding a mate on Earth might be difficult.”
He scoffed, “Without a tailclaw, no Jal’zar female wants me. I can never offer them zovazay, and they would rather laugh at me before stinging me instead, like you did with Zavis.”
“So, this is your choice?”
His fangs, so dull they almost resembled teeth, tortured his upper lip for another moment. “What do you want?”
My gaze wandered high up to the nabu where Zavis rested after Mekara had gifted him true sleep through me. “To be free of hate.”
Zerim climbed into his nabu, weaving his tail through the gaps to keep himself centered. “Earth, then.”
“I’ll speak to him,” I said with a tap against his shin, then turned toward the trunk.
My toes dug into the furrows of the bark, pushing me higher as I climbed toward Zavis’ nabu. I balanced along the branch but didn’t wake him right away. Instead, I watched him.
Sleep rarely ever came to him. But when it did, his body remained unmoving throughout, his face so slack it smoothed all traces of tension from his features. He was not young anymore but still as handsome. Scars decorated his torso in intricate runes, all arranged around the one I’d left on him the first night we’d met.
“Zavis…”
When he didn’t wake, I climbed into his nabu. My tail wrapping around the branch behind me eased the sway, freeing my hands to roam over his stomach, chest, and shoulders. Still so strong after sun cycles of hardship — different than mine, yes, but harsh, nonetheless.
I leaned over him and cupped his cheek. “Zavis.”
He jerked awake, hands immediately gripping my waist. “Someone’s coming?”
“No.” I shook my head, watching how his head sunk back into the nabu, and his chest deflated with a long sigh. “You said time is against us, so I wanted to tell you our decision right away.”
His fingertips curled into my flesh and a tremble settled on his arms as if terrified to let me go again. “Tell me.”
One deep inhale bought me strength. “We’ll come to Earth with you.”
His lips parted, sucking in an audible gasp while tears glistened in his eyes. “You mean it?”
“Yes.”
Fingers darted from waist to wrist, and he pulled me down against his chest, his voice rough. “You’ll never know hunger or fear again, Naney, this I swear. I’ll take care of you and Zerim. I’ll protect you both with my life.”
“I know you will.” Because he always had protected me, saved me, even if it meant he had to give up on me. “We can leave as soon as everyone is settled at this new tree.”
He stroked along my cheek. “Is that all you came to tell me?”
My hands roamed over hard muscles as the warmth of his body pressed against mine. “My heat is over.”
“I know.” He circled his tongue around the bite mark and let his fingers caress every inch of me, not neglecting a single patch of skin, or hair, or horn. “And yet here you are, in my arms, where you belong.”
And yet here I was, spreading my legs, pushing my pubic bone against flesh that swelled and hardened underneath his jeans. I sighed, but he swallowed the sound between his lips, nipping at my mouth until I kissed him back.
I followed his gaze to where he unbuttoned his pants. His cock twitched, then jutted itself free from the fabric as the shaft rose to his stomach. A bead of seed clung to the slit at the tip, which glistened underneath the sparse light, making my mouth salivate for a taste.
As if he’d read my thoughts, he gathered it with his thumb and stroked it into my mouth. “Nothing tastes sweeter to a female than her mate’s seed.”
I moaned at the taste, hungry for more.
Climbing astride his chest, cunt riding up against his face, I wrapped my fingers around his thick length. One lap over his crown and he groaned. When I took him into my mouth, a surge of blood pulsated against my lips, and his calves tensed.
“Suckle as much out of me as you want,” Zavis murmured against my cunt as he pushed my leather covering aside, then lapped over my slit with broad strokes. “Fuck, your mouth is a greedy little thing.”
My lips clasped tightly around him, and I crooned at every trace of seed he fed me, my entire body shivering with need. The veins on his cock thickened against my tongue, speeding up my pulse.
“Fourteen sun cycles,” he reminded me when his chest rose faster underneath my belly and he gripped my thighs. “Keep going like this, Naney, and I’ll spill in your mouth. Better slow down.”
But I didn’t slow down.
I couldn’t, and I took more of his length until his crown reached my throat, ripping one masculine groan after another from him. Tremors shook his legs, and I crooned at the sight of how his toes curled, the male trying so hard no to spill.
A sigh of relief left his mouth when I drew back and suckled the skin of his sack between my lips. I licked it, fondled it with my tongue, all while his cock jerked against my neck and his mouth feasted on my cunt.
His fingers dug into my hips. “Turn around. Let me see you.”
I did as I was told, but not without tugging his pants down until they caught on his ankles. He did the rest, stripping them off with his toes as he pushed himself up to sit. His hands guided the cotton of my tunic upward and over my head, exposing my breasts to the night.
“Such a stunning creature.” Lips suckled first one of my nipples between them, then the other, drawing circles around my dark areola with the tip of his tongue. “Stubborn, proud, infuriating Naney.”
I dug my fingers into his hair and pulled his face closer against me, enjoying how he rubbed it against my sternum. He inhaled deeply, smelling my skin, and let his fingers undo the ties on my leather covering.
Rising slightly, I let him remove it, then lowered myself to sit astride his shaft. “This brings back memories.”
“Mmm…” He leaned back into the nabu and stared up at me, but kept a demanding grip on my hips as he guided the back and forth of my pelvis, rubbing me over him. “You arched your back that sun in the yoni, your cunt so wet, my cock slipped right into that needy little hole.”
Leaning slightly forward, I let his cock nudge at my entrance and pushed back. “Like this.”
“Fuck, yeah… just like that.” He closed hi
s eyes, his expression almost tortured.
I arched my back, gasping as I fed my cunt with his cock. A whimper escaped my lips as I bore against his thick shaft, stretching the long-neglected muscle until he filled me.
While he didn’t let go of my hips, he eased his grip some, his body entirely still as if he gave me all the time I needed to get my bearings. Only his thumbs brushed circles near my waist, digging in slightly, encouraging me to straighten my back.
When I finally found the courage, seating myself on him so completely as my legs opened wider, a shiver spread across my entire body.
“How I missed this,” he rasped, folding one arm underneath his head. “Are you okay?”
The question coupled with his still hips brought a smile to my face. Because he cared and it was more than just lust; it was love that had grown in the unlikeliest of places. Each sun, he filled me with it, replacing one scoop of hate for the Vetusian with two scoops of love for the male he was within Mekara.
Toes braced against the nabu, I rocked in an even rhythm, grinding over him as our moans mingled underneath the thick foliage. Leaves shielded us from curious eyes, yes, but everyone could hear us. Could hear how a Vetusian and a Jal’zar made love to each other.
Gradually, I rolled my hips more ferociously, arching my back to take him as deeply as I could. My womb spasmed so violently, my breaths turned into nothing but little gasps whenever I drew back.
When Zavis placed both hands onto my hips and pushed me down on his delicious cock, the violent pleasure of it dislodged a little scream from my throat. “I love you.”
I didn’t doubt it.
It was so apparent in how he held my gaze throughout, shifting his pelvis as much as the nabu let him to meet me with each thrust, touching me deeper than ever before. And yet, he bridled that dark flicker of hunger in his eyes, watching me, letting me move at my pace.
Because I had come to him.
With my heat gone, I didn’t have a single excuse left for what we were doing. All that remained was the dark past we shared, which faded as my legs began to shake and his fingers clawed into my hips.
A noise wrenched from deep within my throat as my cunt convulsed so hard and fast all my muscles stiffened at once. His throaty groan and wide eyes told me he followed me into bliss, and I sensed his cock pulsate faster a moment later. With each release of seed, he throbbed and swelled, his hands shivering on my hips.
Just like I had fourteen sun cycles ago, I collapsed against his chest. But unlike then, I buried my face in the crook of his neck as he swung his arms around me and pulled me tightly against him.
I didn’t run from him.
Didn’t hide from us.
His whisper was frail, his voice taut. “More than lust.”
“More than lust,” I echoed, curling my fingers against his chest. “More than nature. It’s—”
I’d meant to say love, but claws dug into my core and squeezed my heart. It faltered to a halt, and that next beat suspended itself for what felt like eons as memories flashed before my mind.
Iron suddenly drifted on the air, and my skin pebbled at the unexpected drop in temperature. Black clouds hung around my vision as everything around me melted away and came back together all wrong.
The sweat of many males pushed into my nostrils, and grit crunched and rubbed between my toes. Something burned my wrists, but it had nothing against that explosion of pain as a gray fist crackled the cartilage of my nose.
I groaned in pain.
Adrenaline rushed into my veins.
My senses heightened to a point my ears pricked at Zerim’s muffled and unintelligible shouts. I watched him fight against two Jal’zar who kept him constrained. Beside him, lying in the ash, was I.
“It is time,” Mother’s voice pushed into my mind. “You have to decide, Naney. Naney. Na—”
“—ney!” Zavis shouted, his voice laced with utter terror. “Come back to me. What’s going on?”
A sharp inhale seared my lungs and I jerked, watching as the world returned around me. “Zavis…”
“Fuck, you scared the shit out of me.” His arm shook as he pulled my head against him, and I somehow sat astride his lap as the nabu swayed underneath us. “What happened? You… you trembled and groaned, and your eyes rolled into the back of your skull.”
“A vision,” I mumbled, fear gripping me tightly as I struggled from his embrace to meet his eyes, saying only one thing. “They’re coming for you.”
Twenty-One
Zavis
Females tossed ash into crackling flames, banking the fires to lower the risk of detection. Others, they suffocated entirely, and wafts of smoke hung low across the gathering area while the first streaks of sunlight lined the horizon.
Yral walked up to me with two saddled yuleshis, her knuckles almost white around the reins she clasped tightly. “These are the only two we have.”
“Naney can’t ride by herself in her condition anyway.” A glance over my shoulder confirmed it, because my kunazay still slouched against a boulder, her face pallid. “The vision drained her so badly, she can’t even keep upright without support. She’ll ride with me, no matter how it might slow us down.”
“It’s been so long since she last had one,” Yral said, concern narrowing her eyes. “Ride west, Zavis, until you reach the large ravine framed by two rock spires. It’ll lead you onto a plateau high enough you should catch signal.”
My veins froze over. “Or I won’t, but the elevation will expose us to every damn warband our there searching for me.”
“Zerim spent all his life going undetected, even by scouts. He’ll know where to find a place to hide, should you need it.”
I nodded and took the reins. “Thank you for helping me.”
“I’m not helping you,” she said, jutting her chin toward Naney. “She cursed your name as much each sun as she whimpered it in her sleep. Zovazay is a blessing when souls are united, but it’s a curse when they’re apart, slowly wilting away without the other to make them whole.”
“I’ll take good care of them.”
Her nod was curt but defined, betraying no doubt in my intentions. “If they find us first, we’ll tell them you rode north toward the freeraiders.”
I turned away and led the yuleshis to Zerim, who shoved dried strips of ushti into a leather pouch. Three waterskins rested on the ground beside him, along with two rolled-up nabus.
I reached a set of reins to him. “We have to leave.”
Provisions stacked on his arm, he jumped up and tied them to the saddles before his shaky fingers wrapped around the reins. He was nervous, scared, and had every reason to be.
“In an argos from now, we might sit on a stargazer to Earth.” My hand settled heavily on his shoulder. “But if something goes wrong, you take your mother and yourself to safety, do you understand?”
His head sunk. “I’m sick of running.”
“I’m not asking you to run but to protect her when I can’t. Like you’ve done for me over the last fourteen sun cycles. Even if they capture me, they won’t kill me and risk this peace treaty.” But they wouldn’t treat me kindly, either. “That’s where things turn political, and we’ll have to see what can be negotiated. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Let me grab your mother.”
A weak smile lined Naney’s lips when I walked up to her and draped the reins over our mount’s neck. Her arms flopped about when I picked her up, but at least she gripped the black mane once firmly seated on the woolen saddle.
“Hold on to the saddle with both hands,” I said and swung myself up behind her, then immediately wrapped my arm around her belly. “I’ll hold on to you and keep you safe.”
Her hand settled atop mine. “You always have.”
“Because you were always meant to be mine.” I’d never been a religious male — Three Suns, Mekara, or otherwise — but there was no denying her goddess wanted us together.
The moment I kicked our
yuleshi into a walk, Yral hurried up to us. Silence passed between the two females for long moments as they held each other’s hands, squeezing tightly once before their fingers parted and we trotted out of camp.
Zerim rode up beside us, tapping each handle of the knives sheathed on his chest holster. “The storms are strong along the bottom of the cliff. If we approach them straight and follow them, the wind will hide our paw prints.”
That was the strategic mind of a Vetusian right there. “Good point. Let’s see who makes it there first.”
His scoff diluted on the breeze as he clicked his yuleshi into speed and took off in all his youthful cockiness. He didn’t bother dodging smaller boulders and took most with leaps, only sometimes swerving around them, which kicked up clouds of dust. Zerim hunted, rode, and fought like a full-blooded Jal’zar, but had the strength and thinking of a Vetusian — the best of both worlds.
“You’ve done so well with him. Now hold on tight, my love.” One hard kick against my yuleshi’s rump, and I pulled Naney closely against me.
The beast’s haunches angled, and we shifted slightly backward before, with one massive thrust, it anchored us deeper in the saddle. Wildflowers, baked earth, and fine ash all lingered in the air as we sprinted behind Zerim, and Solgad presented itself in all its rare beauty.
This planet held my best memories.
It also held my worst deeds.
I held my kunazay in my arms after fourteen sun cycles of longing, thundering across the plains behind my son, heart quickening at each jostling stride. I had a family, and the thought poured undiluted joy into my chest.
Naney turned her head to look back at me as if she’d sensed it. “Remember when we rode the plains together?”
“I remember every second I ever spent with you. Some moments might have been mundane, but the female was always extraordinary.”
Her smile stretched wide enough to be recognized as such, though it didn’t last long. “I’ll miss this.”
“This won’t be the last time you see Solgad,” I said and placed a kiss behind her ear. “Once you’re safe on Earth, word will spread that my mate is Jal’zar and that there’s a child. It will force the Empire and Jal’zar alike to reconsider our relationship.”
