by Ella Maven
His smile grew. “Lots of blooms.”
A few steps later, and the mountains on either side of us fell away. We came to a small ledge and stretched before us, down a small hill, was a massive flat plain covered in bright flowers, tall grasses, and leaves in every shape. “Oh. My.” I gasped. My eyes could barely take it all in. I swore I could have spent a year frolicking through this mopew, and I wouldn’t see every plant there was to see. “This is… why is there no one here?”
“Protected land,” he said. “There are mopew scattered all over the planet and must remain isolated. Penalties for violations are stiff. They provide breathable air for the planet. They also contain poisonous and venomous plants.”
I deflated. “So does that mean we can’t walk through them?”
“We cannot.”
I let out a sad groan.
“But… we will be.”
I perked up. “What? We will be? But you said—”
“Either side of this mopew is terrain that isn’t safe for either of us. We’re going through, but you cannot touch anything. I do not know what your biology would react to. I will cut us a path, and you stick behind me. Understand?”
I stared at the mopew, suddenly seeing fewer pretty flowers and more vines that threatened to choke me. Now that I paid more attention, the field was full of barbed stems, sticky leaves shiny with what I could only imagine was a poisonous oil. I swallowed thickly. “I understand.”
“We can do this.”
Cravus really was precious with his pep talks. “Yes, we can do this.”
We picked our way down the small rocky hill until we reached the edge of the mopew. Before entering, he wrapped a length of fabric around my mouth and nose and tied it at the back of my head. “Can you breathe?”
I nodded.
“That should filter any toxins. Keep it on, okay?”
I nodded again. “What about you?” My voice was muffled through the cloth.
“I’ll be fine.” He turned, jaw tight, and with his weapon, began slashing a path through the dense foliage. Everything looked so… beautiful. I wanted to touch the petals and sniff the flowers, but Cravus had given me direct orders. Hands to myself. Face masked. So, I stepped in his giant footsteps and kept on the narrow path he created for us.
Skags squirmed in his sling, and I thought maybe I should have let him out to pee before we began this trek. The mopew had seemed vast from above, but that was nothing like being in the thick of it. A vine seemed to reach for me, its thorns snagging on my arm. I let out a gasp just before Cravus sliced it in half with a small blade. A hissing whine released from the beheaded stalk, and I stared at it with wide eyes as it flailed before flopping onto the ground.
As if sensing the danger, more vines twisted and writhed among the flowers, but stayed away when Cravus let out a low growl.
What the hell? These plants seemed more animal than vegetation.
Slick leaves shimmered, their shiny surface shifting in a kaleidoscope of rainbow colors. I couldn’t look away, hypnotized by the colorful show. Reaching out my hand, I was a few inches away from touching the leaf when Cravus snatched my wrist and jerked me away.
“Bloom,” he barked, and I stared at him, feeling a little woozy.
“Hm?” I swayed a little on my feet.
“Yerk,” he cursed. “Stay with me. Don’t touch anything.”
“Okay,” I said with a loopy smile. I reached out and squeezed his biceps, feeling like I needed to touch. “You’re just so… big and meaty. I like it.”
He stared at me, before swearing again. I took a step forward just as Skags wiggled out of the sling and leapt to the ground. He took off like a shot into the dense foliage. I yanked down my face covering and inhaled deeply before shouting, “Skags! Come back!”
Too late, I realized my mistake. My head spun. My skin heated, and all the blood in my body seemed to rush south to pool in my core. I bent over, pressing a palm between my legs as a gush of warmth wet my pants. I moaned and tried to make my fingers work to ease the ache between my legs, but my hand wouldn’t work right. Everything was cramping up, and I blinked up at Cravus. He stared at me in horror. “Help,” I managed on a weak whisper. “I need… something.”
Another cramp hit me, and I felt a drop of liquid slide down my inner thigh. Cravus’s nostrils flared, and his lips parted. His chest heaved, and his fists clenched rhythmically. “Bloom, you’re… you need release.”
“Sure. Release.” I wasn’t sure what that meant. “Just help. I can’t…” my fingers wouldn’t work. My elbows seemed locked at my sides. “I can’t move.”
“Yerking aphrid.” He spat.
“Wh-what’s that?”
“It’s making you…” He swallowed heavily, and that was when I spotted the bulge in his pants. No, more than a bulge—a damn log. And was it pulsing? “It’s making you aroused.”
“Y-you too,” I stuttered out.
“No, I’m reacting to… you. Your scent. Driving me yerking wild.”
Another cramp twisted my entire right side and I cried out. “Please, Cravus!”
“I can’t… I don’t feel right touching you now. You’re not in your right mind—”
I launched myself at him, climbing him like a tree until I could wrap my arms around his neck. I pressed our foreheads together and panted against his lips while I ground myself into the hard ridges of his stomach. “Please. Take care of me, Cravus.”
With a defeated groan, he pressed our lips together. I clung to his shoulders, digging my nails into his scales as he grabbed my ass with one massive palm. His fingers kneaded me, but that wasn’t where I needed him. All the achy need was right between my legs, soaking my pants and his shirt as I sought relief that felt too far out of reach.
“I need to take care of you,” he murmured.
“T-too high. Lower me to your cock,” I panted against him.
He let out another pained moan. “No, I can’t.”
“Cravus,” I whined. “Please, I—”
“I’ll explain later, but I can’t do that.” He went down to his knees with me in his arms. “But I can do something else.” He unhooked my arms from around his neck, and I went into a panic.
“No! Don’t—”
“Shhhh,” he said with another kiss to my lips. “I know, Bloom. Trust me.”
He laid me down on the flattened path. All around me, flowers waved. Vines snaked. I stared up at them as I felt Cravus’s hands on my stomach. His lips pressed a kiss above my belly button before he lowered my pants. I watched as he pulled off my boots and then set them aside with my discarded clothes.
Just as another cramp hit me, he slung my legs over his massive shoulders. “Trust me, Bloom.” His mouth opened, and his long, dark blue tongue unfurled. There was a small hole on the very tip I hadn’t noticed until now. Slowly, that hole widened until the edges peeled back.
“Wh-what?” I whispered, just as he lowered his head and placed the hole of his tongue on the hardened nub of my clit. At first, I only felt a much-needed heat, and then the suction started.
His tongue undulated as he sucked and flicked my clit. I let out a scream that could probably be heard on his home planet. His fingers speared inside of me, and my inner walls rippled around the thick digits. I was a mindless thing thrusting against his face, gripping his head with my thighs, and tugging on the short strands of his white hair. All the while those fluorescent blue eyes held my gaze with a fierce heated lust.
“Cravus!” I called out, the earlier aching cramps now replaced by rollicking waves of pleasure, fluttering down my spine. My legs shook, my heart raced, and when he let out a rumbling moan that vibrated out to my every limb, I came on a silent cry.
My mouth opened, my back arched, but all I could do was ride the coil of relentless ecstasy. I vaguely saw Cravus finally lift his head and lick my wet slickness from his mouth, nose, and chin with that long tongue. I blinked at him, vision a little blurry, mind a muddled mess, and limbs completely useless. While
I was a pile of sated human, Cravus was still strung tight. Every muscle was bunched, and the veins in his neck looked ready to pop.
I reached for him. “You can—”
He shook his head, shifting quickly out of my reach. Still on his knees, he shoved his pants down and pulled out his cock. He wrapped his fingers around the bronze shaft, which shimmered with the same white swirls that covered his chest and neck. The white lines pulsed, and my pussy clenched just thinking about what that would feel like inside of me.
Cravus was in pain, doubled over with one hand on the ground and the other stroking his cock with a tight fist. I managed to roll on my side and shift closer. His eyes were clenched shut, and he let out a long moan just as the skin on the dome of his cock flared out slowly like a blooming flower. I wondered if it was my eyes playing tricks again, but then it began to rotate—the head of his cock spun as his fist moved faster. The swirls on his chest and neck flashed like lightning, and when he came, white spurts of liquid burst forth from the edges of his cock cap, spraying his seed about two feet in every direction.
His fist slid off his cock, and he braced himself on both hands and knees while he caught his breath.
Only then did he turned to look at me, eyes half-lidded. “Mask on.” His voice was like gravel. “We need to get the yerk out of here before I can’t hold myself back.”
I could only nod dumbly just as Skags, the little shit, waltzed out from behind a flower with a blue-stained mouth, a fruit seed still stuck between two teeth. “This is all your fault,” I mumbled at him. But I couldn’t seem to find it in myself to be angry.
Cravus
I helped Bloom dress even though the scent of her slit was enough to harden my cock again in an instant. My whole body hurt, and my brain was muddled only with thoughts of throwing her on the ground and filling her with my seed until neither of us could move.
Her taste coated by tongue and throat, and I wanted to drink more, knowing I’d never be full of her. All I knew was that we had to get out of his mopew before the aphrid plant affected her again. I’d known as soon as her mask dropped, and she inhaled a lungful of the oily fragrance from its massive leaves that we were going to have a problem. A messy one.
The aphrid didn’t affect me like it affected her, but the smell of her arousal drove me near to insanity. While I’d had a few sexual encounters with Kaluma females, the nervous fumbling had never been like that. I’d been driven by single-minded need, and if I hadn’t released myself, I would have burst out of my skin. Even now, my cock was a solid pulsing length in my pants, threatening to act up again.
For once, I was grateful for Bosa’s oversharing when he smoked at night. He’d told me about the pleasure center for the human female, how to detonate their release. I hadn’t believed him, but when I’d taken off Bloom’s pants, that hard clit Bosa had talked about was right there, and yerk had she tasted good.
Bloom trotted behind me, her pale skin still flushed from her release, and her gait loose. She had a dazed look about her, and if her gaze strayed to my crotch one more time, I was going to lose it.
I wondered if there would ever be a time she came to me willingly. If she touched me because she wanted to. If she would invite me into her body. I shook my head as I slashed a path for us, Bloom at my heels. I wouldn’t ask. She’d been through enough. She chose to stay with me, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be my mate.
Were her dreams actually visuls or just… her memories of her past colliding with the present? It might be my own wishful thinking that she was my linyx. That we’d mate happily like Bosa and Karina. Bloom was with me now because she trusted me to keep her safe.
I didn’t stop as we came out the other side of the mopew, not until we were far enough that the pheromones of the aphrid were long gone. The ground was flat and grassy here, and I inhaled the scent of fresh air. A few rock formations were scattered around, and beyond that were the red sands of desert. This shortcut took us off course of the stream, which we’d meet up with later, on our way to Haliya, and while the way was treacherous, I didn’t want to risk the time it would take to follow the meandering stream. We’d need to rest before we encountered the desert. I squinted at the sky. The sun was about to go down, and that meant the desert predators would be up and about in the cooler air. We’d tackle that part of our journey tomorrow at sun-up. I was confident we’d reach Haliya in another two rotations if we kept this pace.
Behind me, Bloom shoved the mask off her face and collapsed onto the ground on her hands and knees. She shook her head rapidly, and when she lifted her head, I could see her eyes slowly coming back into focus as the aphrid lost its hold on her.
But her flushed color remained, and when our eyes met, the red seemed to deepen. She slowly stood as Skags hopped down from her sling and settled himself in the shade of a nearby rock. “I-I’m…” she bit the corner of her bottom lip. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Oh yerk, please. As much as I hadn’t wanted to touch her, it’d been the single best moment of my life. If she told me that she regretted it, or hated it…
“That won’t happen again,” she murmured as she rubbed at her forehead. “I’m so embarrassed.”
I clenched my jaw so tight that I heard my molars grate together. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“But you had to…” she waved a hand at the front of her pants. “And then you had to…” Next, she gestured at my still-hard cock. “All because I dropped my mask after you told me not to.”
I sank down on a rock. “It’s all right, Bloom.”
“Will you get in trouble back home? Do you have a mate?”
I took a moment to process her words, and then gently pulled her to stand in front of me I gripped her thin wrist. “Bloom, did you think I didn’t want to do that?”
She wouldn’t look me in the eye. “You said you didn’t want to.”
“I never said that. I said I couldn’t sit you on my cock.”
Her cheeks flushed again. “Right,” she whispered.
“Bloom, please look at me.”
Slowly her eyes drifted to mine, and I drew her closer until she stood between my legs, which didn’t help the situation with my cock. “I don’t have a mate. I haven’t desired one, content to work and fight for my Kaluma while others did their duty to repopulate. But I need to be very clear, that there is nothing I’d like more than to feel your tight body squeeze around my cock, to hear you scream my name, and to release my seed inside of you over and over again until you swell with my child. But I won’t do it until you ask.”
Her mouth dropped open, but no sound came out.
“You weren’t in your right mind back in the mopew—you were drugged by the aphrid plant, and I did what I knew would ease the ache. The aphrid plant did nothing for me. I had to take myself in hand because of how you smelled and tasted. Even now I can still feel you on my tongue and the way your tight heat squeezed my fingers.”
She still didn’t speak, only stared with wide eyes. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, I-I understand now. Thank you for your, uh, thorough explanation.”
I snorted a short laugh, and her face finally relaxed as her lips stretched into a smile. “So, it w-was okay? I grabbed your hair kind of hard.” She grimaced as she eyed my shoulders. “I think I scratched you too.”
“Next time, pull harder and scratch deeper.”
She let out a choked gasp before saying quickly. “Sure, I’ll, uh, do that.”
Seven
Bloom
Cravus handed me the hand-picked bouquet with a sheepish smile. “I wish I knew what a lily looks like.” I sat on a rock near a stream, me feet in the water.
I sniffed the flowers and couldn’t resist rubbing the soft, drooping petals. “This is close, actually.”
His face lit up. “Really?”
“Really,” said another human. I knew her—my mind told me she was my friend, but I’d never seen her before. She walked toward me wit
h a warrior at her back—a smirking one with his long white hair in a braid. I knew him too.
“Hey there, Bloom.” She gave my arm a squeeze before sniffing my bouquet. “You two and flowers. You’re going to pick everything on this whole planet, I swear.”
“You want me to leave you some?” Cravus grinned.
“Karina prefers weapons over flowers, isn’t that right, kotche?” Her warrior mate said, squeezing her waist.
She beamed up at him. “That is correct.”
“Come on my little warrior, time for batting practice.” He hefted two spiked bats over his shoulder, one slightly smaller than the other. “See you for dinner,” he nodded at Cravus, and they walked off.
Cravus sat down next to me and draped his arm over my shoulders. I nuzzled into his chest, content, warm, and feeling oh so safe. “I’m so glad no one questioned that I prefer to be called Bloom.”
“And you can always change your mind.”
“I don’t think I will,” I murmured.
“You’re Bloom to me. But a part of you will always be Lily.”
I jerked awake as one word bubbled up from my throat, choking me until I spit it out into the dark sky. “Lily!”
Next to me, Cravus came alert immediately. “Bloom?”
“My name,” I choked out through the tears spilling down my cheeks. “It’s… Lily.”
I could barely see his face in the dark, but I could hear his heavy breathing. “You just remembered now?”
“You… you told me. In my dream.”
He let out a choked sound before drawing me into his arms. “Lily. This is good. Now you know.”
But it wasn’t good. Lily was just four letters. Two syllables. “No,” I sobbed against him. “That’s the problem. All I wanted was to remember my name. I had a dream when we first met where you told me that you knew my name, that if I stuck with you, you’d tell me. I thought that was all I needed to remember my life. But you told me and… nothing. It doesn’t matter. I’m not Lily. I’ll never be her. I’m just… this person with no memories, no nothing.” My voice gave out on me then as I cried into his chest, letting out the sorrow and anguish. I was a lost soul in a strange galaxy.
