Wyst

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  “It is called a motorcycle and you will not call her by that horrible name.” Although Tyshar’s voice was quiet, it held enough steel to cause Rykhan to blink. “She is a hybrid female. The offspring of a human female and a Sulari.”

  “The Dani and her family are our friends, Rykhan,” Wyst offered, trying to reduce the tension rolling off the other males. “I would have gone into Gyed’s ether if not for the help of her parents.”

  Tyshar took another sip, his gaze never leaving Rykhan. “What was it you said? New planet, new rules? I think you are right…in ways none of us anticipated.”

  Wyst pulled out a chair at the large table and sat down as Rykhan let out a long, deep sigh. “I don’t know about either one of you but I am hungry. Do you think your mate is up to preparing food? My Leah and I have tried, but nothing compares to the magic your pixie concocts in the kitchen.”

  Wyst smiled and glanced at Tyshar, seeing his other brother grinning in what appeared to be relief at Rykhan’s redirection. “Wait until you taste what the Dani and my Pam can do together! It will, as the humans say, knock your socks off.”

  Rykhan lifted one side of his mouth in a half-grin. “I swear I will never fully understand English and its slang.”

  “You and me both, warrior,” Tyshar agreed.

  *.*.*.*.*

  “Guess you really can’t call yourself ‘besties’ until one of you feels the other one’s cervix,” Leah said with a laugh.

  Yeah, I’d done the internal exam on her which had squicked me right the hell out. That is, until with one eye on notes and charts Blythe loaned me, I realized my girl was fifty percent effaced. Dani’s nod of approval on my findings left me feeling proud of getting over my discomfort and doing what was needed. “Just because I did it doesn’t mean we have to goddamn talk about that shit, okay?”

  She was stretched out on the long couch and I was rubbing her feet. “Gotcha. But better you doing it than Rykhan. The thought of my husband and lover touching me there without lust is just wrong on too many levels to count.”

  I couldn’t disagree with her.

  “This is my backhanded way of saying I’m so happy you’re here.” Her smile was a little bit wonky and her eyes were wet. But from what I’d seen in the few hours we’d been at the ranch, Leah was not only riding the hormonal highway of her pregnancy, but speeding along it—laughing one minute and crying the next. And she hadn’t lied about how big she’d gotten, her belly preceding her into every room. However, her balance was off which Dani said was probably due to how fast her pregnancy was progressing; that her body didn’t have a chance to adjust to her increase in the three B’s: boobs, butt and belly.

  “I’m glad to be here too. Seems like I haven’t seen you in forever, Lee.” I switched my hands to work on her other foot while flicking my glance to the table where Wyst and her Rykhan were playing some sort of game with dice, speaking a mile a minute in Picari. From what I could feel along our link, Wyst was happy and had been since we arrived. But then he’d been without his friends for a while, something I didn’t know bothered him until he was reunited with them.

  “So what’s the dealio with Ty and that Dani girl? I mean, I like her, she seems nice and everything after I got over the blue lipstick and purple eyes. But do you think she’s the right one for our Ty?” Leah’s voice sounded sleepy and I wondered if she was resting as much as she should.

  “She’s good people even though she’s a little rough around the edges,” I murmured. “And I couldn’t tell you what’s doing between them because neither one of them will talk about it. All I know is every night after dinner, the two go for a ‘walk’…” I used my fingers to do the air quotes. “And come back with swollen mouths and shining eyes.”

  “I saw the way he watched her at dinner and it made me remember when Ryk used to look at me with that kind of intensity and awe.”

  I didn’t hold back my giggle. “He still does, silly girl. It’s just you’re used to it and no longer notice it.”

  “I don’t know, Pam. Feels like all the good parts of being with my guy are overshadowed by the baby.”

  I raised an eyebrow as I wondered what she meant by ‘all’. “Are you saying you two aren’t…I mean, that, like, in the bedroom, he doesn’t…”

  “No, we still share sex but we’re obviously more careful and have had to get pretty inventive with positions. It’s just that it doesn’t feel as…I don’t know. As wondrous and amazing as it used to be.”

  “Maybe it’ll get back to normal after Starla is born,” I offered, wishing I had some words of wisdom or even of comfort to give her. But this stuff was as new to me as it was to her.

  “Yeah, maybe,” Leah whispered.

  We needed a change of subject and fast to prevent the next round of tears. “So tomorrow Wyst and Ty and I are gonna go to Rapid City for the baby stuff. Have you made a list of what you need?”

  “Yeah, it’s on the fridge. Sorry we didn’t get to it before you got here but Rykhan thought the ride to town would take too much out of me. But shit, we used to drive forty-five minutes just to get to the airport, remember?”

  Of course I did. But neither one of us were out-to-there preggers with a bladder the size of a grape. “Let him play the doting pops-to-be while you listen to your body. Do you think you could sit in a car that long?”

  “Probably not,” she admitted. “But he’s just gotten so goddamn bossy!”

  “Honey, I think that’s the Protectorate’s way. ‘Cause Wyst gets the same. Ordering me around like I’d actually obey him without argument.”

  She snorted knowing how I hated to bossed around as much as she did. “How’s that going? I mean, whatever kind of thing you’ve got between you.”

  “Okay, I guess.” I shot a glance back to the dining room to ensure Mr. Nosy wasn’t paying attention. “I like him a lot, much more than I used to but there’s still no real hearts and flowers stuff on the horizon. We can share thoughts and emotions and that’s about it.”

  “And your wahroms. Can’t forget about those.” She was right. “Let me see it again.”

  Shifting her feet off my lap, I got down on the floor and moved closer to her head. Pushing my thermal up, I held my wrist out. “It’s really pretty, isn’t it?”

  A huge smile crossed her face as she stared into my eyes. “Yeah it is. But you know once you recite the Tragyard it turns gold, right?”

  Wait…what?

  She came up on an elbow and pulled the neck of her huge t-shirt down off of one shoulder. Encircling her bicep was Rykhan’s wahrom but it had changed since the last time I’d seen it. Instead of the bronze colored metal from before, it was now a bright, shiny gold.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed, running my fingers over it reverently. She and I had spent hours trying to get the dang thing off before going to Urgent Care where even the doctors were flummoxed by the thing that had grown on her overnight. It had been beautiful then in a bad-ass sort of way but it looked even more awesome now that it was gold. “Wow. Did Rykhan’s change too?”

  “Yep. They still match and still carry the same charge when they come together.” She rearranged her top and dropped her head back down to the arm of the sofa. “Just a different color although Rykhan doesn’t know why it would change.”

  “And it happened after you exchanged your vows?” As if I needed another reason not to recite those bonding words because I really liked my warrior’s mark just the way it was!

  “Uh-huh.” She gave off a huge yawn and I heard Wyst’s voice in my head asking if I was ready to go upstairs at the same time she frowned and mumbled, “Stop being so damn bossy and help me up then,” which I knew wasn’t meant for me but her husband.

  Standing, I looked behind me to see Wyst waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Waiting for me to join him so we could head up to the room he’d cleaned while Dani and I made dinner. And I felt a sweep of goose-bumps run over me at the sweet smile he was wearing.

  Maybe we didn’t have he
arts and flowers between us, because we weren’t really hearts and flowers kind of people.

  But what was growing between us was starting to be pretty freaking awesome.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  “You feel so very good, pixie,” Wyst growled into my neck, his hips going faster, harder as he pressed me into the tiled wall of the shower. My legs spasmed around his waist, holding him tighter as if trying to get closer, the closest I could without actually fusing our bodies together.

  Our shower started innocently enough, me washing his back and allowing him to wash mine. Things changed when we decided our fronts needed to be clean as well, some portions needing more attention than others. As our soapy strokes shifted into caresses, our small tender kisses turned into deeper, more lascivious ones, all thought regarding cleanliness fell by the wayside.

  And we got dirty.

  As in downright nasty.

  “Oh baby,” I moaned into his hair as his ridged cockhead hit just the right spot inside. “Yeah, right there.”

  “I am close,” he warned. But I wasn’t worried since he’d already gifted me with two of my own—once with his fingers and the other with him plowing me from behind (a tricky position given our height difference). So if he needed to find his bliss without me getting a third, I was good with it.

  In order to help him get there, I did the little things I’d discovered he enjoyed, like playing with his nipples and whispering naughty descriptions in his ear (he especially went nuts when I called his cock, his tailpor—as if saying it in Picari was really something special). But because we were in the shower, I made a point of keeping my wahrom well and truly away from his. I was willing to save that particular brand of ecstasy when we were someplace less slippery; where we could lose control without fear of falling.

  He shuddered his way through his orgasm, shooting into me with a lion-like growl before carrying me to the king-sized bed after snagging one of the thick towels from the rack. Laying me gently onto the mattress, he used the towel here and there, dabbing at the water on my skin. But neither it nor the fire he’d started in the amazing fireplace did much to dry me. No, it was the way his heated eyes roamed over my body, warming me from the inside out.

  “You are very comely, mica leca purvya,” he whispered.

  “From your coti…” his fingers touched my hair.

  “To your blue sani…” He ran a thumb underneath my eye.

  “Vedi tecu…” That same thumb stroked my lower lip.

  His hand moved lower until he palmed my breast. “Your azjani desti with its sensitive peak…”

  I held my breath as his touch went lower still, skimming over my belly until he cupped me between my legs, using a finger to lightly trace my slit. “To your tersa tyad that gives me such delight.”

  Wow. As pretty words went, his were pretty freaking awesome.

  “I said that wrong,” he groused and a tiny wrinkle appeared between his eyebrows. “It is not just your body which delights me.” His palm came to rest between my breasts and he stared into my eyes. “It’s you. All of you. But mainly it is what is inside, the woman you are, the spirit your body contains.”

  I blinked and tried to swallow the lump in my throat. The ass-hat was gonna make me cry just by mumbling a few pretty words! So I tried to tease him out of it. “Are you saying you love me or something?”

  “I do not understand that English word since it is used for everything a human likes or finds pleasing,” he explained. “I am saying I care for you very much and very deeply.”

  My turn.

  And as I parted my lips to speak, one errant tear escaped and rolled down my temple causing Wyst to cover me with his beautiful, warm body. “I care for you too, my Wyst. Very much and very, very deeply.”

  A flare of strong emotion filled his eyes and he kissed me with a thoroughness that took my breath away. “Although we have these feelings between us, I still do not think we need to complete our bond just yet.”

  “Agreed.” I was being totally truthful. I didn’t want to promise him my forever. Not right then and perhaps not for some time. But another thought occurred to me. The only thing that might change my decision is if I get pregnant. I’ve got a Norplant, a birth control device, but Leah was on the pill when Rykhan knocked her up. If something happens and we make a baby, then I’m going to want the Tragyard, big guy.

  I liked that Wyst didn’t answer straight away but took the time to consider my request. I concur. Should we make a youngling together, we will immediately recite the sacred words to solidify our bond. I want my youngling to be birthed into a plyca, not tied to two separate souls.

  I liked not only what he said, but how he said it. “Thanks, babe.”

  “Thank you, my pixie,” he replied with a sexy grin.

  Giving me an idea of what was about to happen. And since we were no longer in danger of falling, I had an idea our next doing would include the clink of metal pieces meeting, ensuring my next orgasm was gonna be out of this world.

  But just as things were really starting to get good, he pulled back and looked at me, gazed into me with such seriousness my heart tripped a double beat. Moving a couple of curls off my forehead with his thumb helped to reduce some of my gathering trepidation about what he was thinking. “Though we will postpone repeating the ancient words to bind our lives together,” he began, speaking low and slow. “I will never leave you, my Pam-ah-lah. You are mine just as I am yours, and will take care of you with the same concern I have for myself. I will seek to make you happy and very safe for as long as I’m able.”

  My heart surged at his words, given with such sincerity I took them as a promise. With wet eyes and talking around the lump in my throat, my reply came out as a whisper. “I am yours too, big guy. You’ve got all of me: heart, body and soul. I’ll try to make you as happy as you do me, and I won’t ever willingly walk away from you either. How could I? We’re tied, my goofy alien. Which means we’ll somehow and in some way always be in each other’s lives.”

  We grinned at each other before our lips slowly came together with a reverence that speared me deep. And as his mouth met mine, the metal on my wrist began to itch and heat while my arm inexplicitly moved of its own accord around his shoulders.

  He groaned and at the sound, a wave of euphoria washed over me, as well as an overwhelming sexual need to have him inside me at the soonest possible second. As I scrambled to open my legs, tilting my hips upward in an undeniable plea to join with him, Wyst was frantically moving as well—seemingly in the clutches of the same driving desire as he sought, then finally found, where I absolutely had to have him. In one hard, lusty thrust he sheathed himself completely inside, filling me with his full length. Causing me to loudly moan my pleasure at the undiluted beauty of being joined with him. So much so, I was barely aware when our wahroms came together, my much smaller one almost magnetically clinging to the one on the back of his neck.

  But as soon as our two metal tattoos touched and held, it was like every molecule in my body melded and meshed with the ones in him. That we’d actually become one unique being, a ‘whole’ when before we’d been two separate people. And the wholeness of the two of us was so right and felt so perfect and was so amazingly beautiful…it defied description.

  I couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except feel, to experience the wonder of that joining with him; one so much more than anything I’d ever had anyone before. Because it was a fusion of our minds and spirits as much as it was our bodies.

  And just when the pleasure was almost too much to bear, we hit our bliss. Both of us. At the same time and at such a level, I swear I passed out for a few moments afterward. Or maybe I didn’t, because I was aware of his face in the crook of my neck, his panting breath on my skin and the racking shudders of both his body and mine as we came down off the momentous high from our shared orgasm.

  Oh yeah, I’d felt his just as sharply as mine. Had there been a flash of bright light too? I didn’t know if that portion of
it had been real or just something my mind conjured, signaling the height of my bliss at that particular moment.

  Wyst shifted, pulling out and sliding to the side but lying in such a way he continued to touch me, stroke my skin as if he was just as loathe to be separated as I was. Turning towards him, I lifted my hand and brushed his hair of his face. “That was the best yet, babe. The way you—”

  His fingers grasped my hand, bringing my wrist up to his eyes and as a look of horror crossed his features with such chilling clarity, I froze. “What did we do,” he whispered, his stricken gaze slamming into mine. “What the frack did we do, pixie?”

  I didn’t have a clue what he meant and I slid my eyes to see what he’d seen to shatter the mood from before. And I gotta say, my guy hadn’t overreacted.

  Not. At. All.

  Because there on my wrist, where five minutes earlier I’d seen my pretty ice-blue piece of steel, was a different one. Not in style. My wahrom still looked like the tree of life. Only now it was gold.

  Bright gleaming gold.

  Oh shit.

  Wyst was right, although I couldn’t give him answer, couldn’t tell him what we’d done to cause my wahrom to change. “Dunno,” was all I managed to muster. “But whatever it was, I guess your goddess has her own timeline regarding our bond.”

  Swinging his legs to the edge of the mattress and sitting up, I caught the glimmer of gold through his messy hair and sighed. “There’s a hand mirror in my makeup case, baby. You’re gonna need it.”

  His over-the-shoulder glare I knew wasn’t meant for me, but for having our decision circumvented. And as my eyes caught and held on his naked back and buttocks while he stormed to the bathroom, I sighed deep and long.

  We could argue all we wanted, throw a fit or two (as Wyst was already doing at the sink) and yell as much as possible (which he was doing loud and in Picari), but I didn’t think it’d do any good.

  Because honestly…how in hell do you argue with a goddess?