I douse my flame in the earth beneath my feet and when I raise it again, the ember glows. The act is mimicked first by my Xhea and then by the rest of the tribe until finally the only light that exists is the light of our embers, representing starlight.
I stand stoic for the full length of the time it takes for the ember to sizzle out, becoming smoke. I then make my way forward, Kiki’s hand still trapped in my own in a strange fashion I read about in Svera’s human manual called hand holding. I have never had my hand held before, but I understand the sense of comfort it brings and that the manual describes so well. But the manual does not describe the accompanying knot of pain.
My Xanaxana has been compliant with me these past solars, allowing me space to breathe even as I touch her skin, or feel her hair against my hands. But not now. This solar has been difficult, and now her song has broken something open inside of me and I cannot close it, like trying to rebuild the fragmented shards of a glass tower.
We step out into the snowy world and we walk in silence — the only sound being that of our footsteps crunching over the snow, along with the footsteps of those whose embers have also died. They flank us now, some outpacing us and traveling into the center of the valley, or around its opposite rim, as they return to their homes. Meanwhile, my own corresponding steps have begun to slow. I do not wish to return her to Re’Okkari’s home. I want her with me in mine where I can ravage her and be ravaged by her in return.
She balls her hand up into a fist in mine, seeking warmth and I quickly unknot the front buckle of my okami and slide her hand inside. She makes a small sound and I come to a complete stop as her cold fingers burn me. I have tried not to look at her — not to stare — for too long and I turn to face her now.
She meets my gaze, her eyes round and wet. Licking her full lips, she says, “Did I dishonor you or the tribe?”
My response is nearly bellowed. “Nox. Quite the opposite.”
Her forehead wrinkles and the tresses of her hair flap in the wind. Lovely. I have never seen anything like them and long to inspect each and every one. They look so intricate. Spectacular. Again, I am overwhelmed by the grace of the goddess Xana. I was given a warrior for my mate, and of all the females in the universe, I was also given the most beautiful.
“Then why are you so still? You seem upset.”
I shake my head and close the distance between us by half. Dropping my face until our mouths are mere breaths apart, I say, “I am. I will have to give you up to Re’Okkari’s home.”
She shakes her head. “If it’s an option, I’d like to go back with you. And not just tonight. Every night. I can’t handle this anymore. The space between us is too much. I want to live with you…if that’s something you also want.”
Surprise peels the skin from my bones. My hearts begin to quicken their pace. I wonder if, against her hand, she can feel them. “It is of course an option, but the human manual states…”
“Fuck the human manual. I love Svera to death but by comets, she’s a prude. I can’t go on like this. I need to fuck you. I need to kiss you. Please.” She exhales, both laughter on her tongue as well as a hint of desperation. A large flake of snow comes down between us, and with my arm I clear it. “Don’t make me beg.”
I growl and close the distance between us entirely. With a fist, I snatch up the back of her suit and with my other hand, I tangle my fingers into her hair, securing her against me. She inhales sharply, her fingers against my chest curling, nails scoring the hardened plate of my pectoral.
Against her mouth, I whisper cruelly, “That is exactly what I will do.”
I kiss her hard, searingly, hoping that I have mastered the technique I only experienced once with her after our first training, and that she feels the same pleasure now that I do. Because that is all that I feel. Her mouth is truly like two pillows, decadently soft and warm and firm in its caress.
I melt into her, coming to the awareness that my people can see us here, but her tongue is a distraction that I cannot ignore. Not on this solar. I meet it with my own and she releases a soft sound that thrills me. I clutch her harder to my chest and am surprised when she jumps up and latches her arms and legs around me. Her body undulates against mine and she fights against me desperately, as if she intends to rut me here in the cold in front of all of our people.
With great pain, I pry her legs apart and lower her to the ground. She fists the front of my suit and tries to drag me closer. I block her arm. She lifts her knee into my upper thigh, sending a spasm rippling through my entire leg. And then in my fleeting state of weakness, she does the incredible — she punches me. Her fist finds purchase in the soft section of my abdomen between my plates, just as I taught her. My next breath rushes out of me and I stagger a half step back, but she has anticipated this and comes at me again, kicking out my leg and pushing on my shoulders, trying to drive me to the ground.
I cannot help but release pleasure sounds into the snowy world, my mouth open, my throat contracting, my face twisting as my chest rises and falls. “Will you hunt me now, Xhea?”
Her mouth pulls into an expression of exquisite pleasure that renders me just as weak as the punch she leveled to my ribs. “It seems only fair.”
“It does, most certainly. But it would equally be fair that I receive a head start.”
“Not a chance.”
She dives for me immediately, without giving me any quarter or time to prepare myself. Xhivey. As she shouldn’t. Her fists connect with my chest as she tries to pull the loosened buckle open, which she does — but not enough to free it fully — before I spin from her grip and dance over the snow, away from her.
The snow comes up to my shins and above her knees, but we have been practicing in the snow over the past several rotations and she is quicker now than she used to be.
She removes the skirt around her hips so that, in only hide pants, she can move forward faster. When she reaches me, she lunges for my left arm and latches onto it. She spins herself against my body and I am distracted by the pressure of her ass against my crotch for a moment too long, and that moment is all that she needs.
She thrusts her elbow into my abdomen in the same place she struck before. I bowl over, stepping back quickly and pulling her with me by the shawl she wears. She lets out a chirp as I drag her to the ground, but she rolls backwards over her own head and as she stands, she’s free of the shawl once again.
I dance out of her grip, luring her further away from the center of the valley as I chart a path towards my home. Our home. I weave between the valley floor homes, hoping to confuse her and slow her down so that I have time to reach my home and prepare myself for her before she catches me, but as I run, I realize she has fallen too far behind.
I stop and turn, following the destructive path I’ve created through the snow while ignoring the stares of the ones who pass me, watching me — their Okkari — with hints of curiosity and amusement in their ridges. To see their Okkari playing in the snow with his Xiveri mate is atypical, untraditional, some might even say wrong. Let them say it. Tradition be damned. Because, for perhaps the first time in all my rotations, I’m having fun.
“Xhea,” I call as I round the next bend and see the path I took, uninterrupted. At the pace she set, she should have caught up to me by now. “Xhea…”
And then it hits me — she hits me. Not from above, but from below. Dense enough to hide beneath, my Xhea has chosen a hiding place just off of the path of our feet beneath the top layer of snow. She is so small, it is not impossible for her to fit here, but it is impossible for me to see her and as I pass, she sweeps my feet with one of her own.
I fall and as I land on my back, Kiki throws one leg over me, straddling my chest between her thighs. Her core sits right over my sternum and the smell of her arousal renders me utterly blind. Her knees spear my biceps and her hands find my wrists. She grabs them and pulls them over my head, locking them there with all of her strength.
“I win,” she says as she arches
over me, her mouth coming so close to mine I think she will kiss me. I hope.
I feel my face form the pleasure expression and watch a mirrored pleasure light up her cheeks. My hearts thrum out of time. “Is this what you think?”
“Hexa. You’re mine for the taking, Okkari.”
“In this, you are not wrong.” Overpowering her is not difficult. Despite her ingenuity and her speed, she is still much too small to match me in hand-to-hand combat. I lift up and dislodge her knees and she yelps as I roll over her, reversing our position.
“Uff! You brute! That’s so unfair.” She pushes on my shoulder and I allow her to roll me onto my back, before quickly resuming power and pulling her under my body. We repeat this many times until soon my pleasure threatens my determination and I begin to make the pleasure sound and then she begins to make the pleasure sound and now we are simply an Okkari and his Xhea rolling through the snow like children. Nox. We are not leaders, not right now. Right now, we are merely Kiki and Kinan.
“You are clever, I will give you that, but if you are to truly win against me, you cannot afford to be overconfident. You will never win strength-against-strength. You will need to read your opponent, analyze them, find their weaknesses.”
Her gaze is hooded, eyes half-moons and glossed with what I know to be her desire. I can feel her Xanaxana everywhere. “And what is your weakness, Okkari?”
We fall still, her underneath me, my body pressing hers into the cold, hard ground. My pelvis thrusts into hers and she spreads her legs wide for me. I grind against her and choke out, “I should have thought it obvious.”
She blinks quickly, eyes rolling back as I continue to hump her like this. I’m going to spill seed and I haven’t even rutted her yet. “Comets, fuck me Okkari,” she says, pleasure sound giving way to soft, whimpering groans. She arches up and tries to rub her core against my length, but I press into her, forcing her still.
With one hand, I cradle the side of her face. “Nox.” I bend low and place this kiss on just the tip of her nose.
Stunned or confused by it, she stops fighting me for a moment. “Why not?”
“Because I will never fuck you. You are too precious for that. Tonight I will breed you and I will do it as Kinan for this is my slave name and I am nothing if not a slave to you.”
Understanding dawns in her eyes and the pleasure expression sweeps her. “Kinan. Your name is Kinan?”
Hearing it on her tongue brings me new pleasures, before unknown. “Hexa.”
“I’m honored that you’re telling me.”
“You have earned it.” I wrap my arms around her fully, feeling like a madman as I attempt to rut her fully dressed out in the snow. “I will take you now back to our nest.”
“Kinan?”
I could hear her say my name again a thousand times more and never fail to be surprised and pleased by it. “Hexa, my Kiki.”
“I want to have sex with you…but I don’t want to get pregnant. Not yet, I mean. I’d still like to learn more about being a warrior first and fulfilling my role as Xhea.”
The disappointment I expect to feel at her proclamation does not come. Instead, I make the pleased expression and reach down the length of her body to cup her core through her pants. I long to shred them.
“An honorable desire, Xhea. Your request will be fulfilled.”
“How?”
“There is a plant-based herb commonly used by males to prevent the ejaculation of kit-bearing seed. I have some of this herb and will take it now before I rut you.”
“And why exactly do you have this herb?” Her eyes narrow and though she does not flash copper, I am still elated and thrilled by her jealousy. I massage her core through her pants with the heel of my palm. She clenches her teeth, fighting for control, but it is a losing battle. She whimpers when I release her.
“Krisxox was my guest the last time he visited Nobu. He left much of this herb behind.”
“Stars,” she moans, “thank the comets for that man slut.”
I make the pleasure sound and scoop her quickly up off of the snow-covered ground, surprised to see the faces of many Voraxians standing nearby, spying on us. I make the pleasure expression at them and release pleased sounds into the world at the veiled embarrassment echoed by all. They have not seen their Okkari like this ever. Not even when I was Kinan.
“We go now.”
She releases a squeal as I take off at a run, and clutches my neck in a vice grip. I feel the scrape of her teeth against the smooth, plateless section below my ear.
She whispers, “Since I was in the merillian, does this mean I’m a virgin again?”
“Hexa. Does this frighten you?”
“Nox. It pleases me.” I do not understand her answer and request explanation, to which she says, “When I got to start over last time, I ruined it by running. This time, when we start over it will be good for both of us. I won’t ruin it. It will be perfect.”
We arrive at our home and I bound up the stairs, open the front door and enter the overlook room. I throw her down roughly onto a mound of white Edena pelts and pillows and she squeals and laughs as she rolls across them.
Quickly sourcing Krisxox’s stone herb from my cooking area and taking it, I unbind the clasps keeping me caged and when I return to the overlook room, watch as she struggles to do the same. I drop onto my knees between her thighs and rip the rest of her clothes away, then cover her body with my own. I position my xora at her entrance and press forward without warning, spearing her until I feel the barrier within her pinch around me to the point of pain.
She screams and arches her back, hands reaching for furs to fist. I wait until she tilts her chin up to look at me. The black wall of my hair creates a curtain around us. I am nothing but fire, an unsetting sun. Through clenched teeth, I tell her, “It is always good for me when I am with you. Every moment.”
Her face is pinched in concentration and pain and her hips are revolving beneath me, eager for reprieve or release or both. She grips my shoulder with one hand and with the other, grabs hold of my hair at the root. She pulls until I feel sharp pain too. “Same. But right now I need you to fuck me, Kinan.”
I growl. Her core is dripping wet and pulsing around me. Every emotion rips me apart. Just as she promised, I am unraveled. Through clenched teeth I spit, “It is almost as if you desire to be punished.”
“Hexa,” she says impishly, torturous pleasure on her tongue, “I do.”
I square my hips and the most fleeting fear crosses her face. In its presence, I slow. I hold her cheek, smooth her hair behind her ear. I kiss her deeply.
Her miaba mouth is divine, distracting me for the moments I need to be able to regain some modicum of control. “Kiki,” I whisper between her mouth pillows.
“Kinan,” she responds.
“I will break it now.” And I remember when I said these words to her before. Then, white light of the mountaintop made her look like some ethereal being. Now, light of the ioni makes her look like ioni itself, seconds before it implodes. Though if she does, then she will only succeed in taking me with her.
Her core is clenching in little pulses around my xora, gripping it like a fist. Hot and wet, I feel myself slip into insanity. The things I would do for this female. The things I will do to this female…
“Wait,” she whispers.
I fight to focus on my gaze on her face, hoping to relay to her that I understand her apprehension and will do my best to make this painless for her. But instead of seeing fear in her eyes, she cradles the side of my face.
“Xivoora Xiveri,” she whispers, and then the ancient words tumble from her lips. “I cover your flesh with my flesh. I cover your heart with my hearts. I am claiming you. You are my servant, you are my king, you are my blade. And I am your Xiveri, Xhea to your people, future mother to your kits. With this union, I promise to be your shield. I promise to honor you. Forever.”
“Kiki…” I cannot believe she says these things to me, now and like this.
I have no reply. None whatsoever.
She beams up at me, all radiant light. She would make Voraxia’s suns jealous. “Now I’m ready…”
I nod, mute, feeling every bit a boy. Feeling every bit a king. I brace my forearms on her either side and I press my hips forward. She tries to keep her eyes focused on me, but the pain becomes too much for her as I finally meet the last of her virgin body’s resistance.
I push and slide home and we bellow out our mirrored agonies to the room. I do not allow her the reprieve she may need however, but continue to rut her, all the while peppering many of these kisses across her face and holding steady until her pain passes and gives way to pleasure.
As it does, I roll forward, coming as close to her as I can while still being able to move. Our mouths are fused, our tongues are tangled, sweat ripples across my skin.
“Xivoora Xiveri,” I tell her in the heat of our passion, instances before my first release rolls over me and seed shoots out of my xora and into her womb. Though it will not take yet, I know that it will on a solar when we are both ready and when it does, I will fill the world with more warriors just like her. Just as savage as they are beautiful.
She closes her eyes as she screams her own pleasure to the room. Her impossibly tight core clenches even tighter around me, milking me for everything I have. And when she breaks my gaze, I cannot help but make the pleasure expression down at her. Her eyelids flutter. She knows what this means.
“You have broken my gaze. Now, my Xiveri, ready yourself for punishment.”
“Please,” she says, her arms splayed to reveal her full, soft chest mounds.
I dart forward, moving quickly enough to make her jolt, and latch onto one of those darkened peaks. I suck on it hard and when I bite gently on the side of her breast she releases a soft scream.
Taken to Nobu: A SciFi Alien Romance (Xiveri Mates Book II) Page 18
