by Mary Auclair
“You’ve already mated me.” She lifted her head to him, and those storm-gray eyes raged thunder straight to his soul. “I’m already yours.”
Her breath brushed his lips, and Karian’s seed stem twitched painfully, his seed sacks tightening. He had to explain it to her. He wanted to tell her about the bloodmating, the wonderful, terrible truth of it. She deserved it. She was so hot, so pliable and full of passion. He had to tell her, give her the chance to push him away.
Karian opened his mouth to talk.
And closed it on her lips.
Rose answered his kiss, pushing her soft, pliable mouth against his. Her lips parted, and the invitation sent a shock of lust into his brain. Karian took possession of her mouth, his demands aggressive, masculine in their absolute quest for surrender. Her taste invaded him, driving him to the edge of his wild desire. She tasted so good. Spicy and sweet, fresh and rich. Rose was layers upon layers of heaven.
Karian pushed his stiff stem against the supple skin of her stomach.
Rose moaned in his mouth, and her small hands ran over the muscles of his back, leaving flashes of heat in their wake. It was becoming harder and harder to breathe normally. He was drowning in his lust.
“Rose, if you want me to stop, you have to say so now.” The words came out, and as he said them, he wasn’t sure he could stop even if he tried. “I won’t be able to later.”
“I don’t want you to stop.” She whispered the words, her small hands running along his biceps. “I won’t be able to bear it if you stop touching me.”
“You’re so soft.” He closed his eyes. “I want you so bad it hurts.”
“I want you too. Take me, Karian, take me now.”
“No,” he said, smiling at her willingness. “I will not take you so easily. I have pictured taking you since the moment I saw you enter the escape pod. I will make you scream my name, then, when you think you can’t take any more pleasure, I’ll make you forget who you are.”
Rose began to talk, but he silenced her by taking her mouth again. There was no more room for words. Karian invaded her mouth with his tongue, a precursor of the possession to come. Rose moaned again and pressed her stomach on his stiff stem while her hands closed on his buttock.
He brought his hands up, his talons fully extended, then ripped the sheer fabric of her gown. She gasped when he looked down at her round breasts, where the dark, pink nipples stood, erect and hard. He dove in, closing his lips around the tiny nubs, then sucked greedily while his other hand closed around the second breast. Karian kneaded the soft flesh, at the same time sucking and flicking his tongue on the other breast. Rose was breathing hard, her chest arched for him.
When her moans became pained, he took pity on her and switched, attacking her other breast with his hungry mouth. She felt so good, was so aroused. The smell coming from her drove him wild, made his stiff stem pulse and ache with anticipation. He wasn’t going to give in just yet, though. He wanted her completely satisfied before he entered her body.
Her smell grew and grew, invading his nostrils. He couldn’t resist anymore, he wanted to taste her.
Karian lifted her in his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, grinding her sex on his stem. He laid her gently on the stone floor under him. She stared at him with her large, stormy eyes darkened by desire.
“I want to look at you.” His voice was a growl. “I’m going to see all of you, then I’m going to lick your sweet essence until you come for me.”
She didn’t answer, but her chest heaved faster. That was all right, she didn’t need to talk. She watched as he parted the fabric, revealing the ivory skin of her stomach. His eyes locked onto the dark, soft cover of hair hiding her moist, warm heat. This was the origin of that wonderful, intoxicating smell. His fingers sought the feeling of her sheath, and his stem ached to feel her tighten and squeeze around it.
He licked his lips in anticipation, then lowered himself over her body until his face was over her sex. His fingers ran up along the silken length of her thighs until they reached her sensitive lips. She gasped when he parted them, exposing her inner folds. She was glistening with her juices.
Karian flicked his tongue on her nub. Her taste was stronger down there, wild and spicy, driving him mad. He dove in again, closing his lips on her, sliding his tongue up and down, from her sheath up to the bundle of nerves giving her pleasure. Rose jerked her hips upward, whining softly under the sensation.
Midnight God, she was so sensitive, so responsive. No wonder males had waged wars to obtain one of these females.
Rose’s pleasure was building up, intensified by the mating compound responding to him, heightening her pleasure. He reached with his finger and inserted it into her soft depths. She gasped and her walls clenched his digit, sucking it in with convulsive motions. She was ready to shatter for him, release all that sweet essence he had dreamed of since that first time he had touched her.
“That’s it, Pretty Thing, come for me.”
“Don’t stop!” she urged him on, moving her hips around him. “Please, don’t stop.”
Karian dove back in, sucking and flicking his tongue on her nerve knot. On instinct, he reached with a second finger, stretching those soft walls, then rubbed the inside of the nerve knot, attacking it from both sides. Rose screamed, the sound filled with ecstasy as she released her pleasure, again and again, until she finally collapsed.
“You’re mine. My mate.”
Karian climbed on top of her, then grabbed her knees and brought them up, opening her channel to him. Rose stared, her eyes cloudy with her recent pleasure.
He lowered his face to gaze at her. She stared back, silent and unmoving.
Lowering his hips to position the tip of his stem at her entrance, he allowed his instincts to take over, lowering his mouth to her neck, flicking his tongue along the soft, sensitive skin. He could feel her heartbeat under his tongue, the vein pulsing, her arousal making it beat faster.
He ran his tongue lower, following the bloodstream to the round of her perfectly white shoulder, to the exact spot where he had bitten her a few hours ago. There, his tongue lapped at his mark on her skin.
“I can’t wait anymore,” she moaned in his ear. “Please, don’t make me wait.”
Her words broke the strange fascination the pulsing blood vessel had for him. Karian’s hands clenched on Rose’s hips, steadying her under him. He controlled his breathing, opening his mouth to encase the tender flesh between his teeth.
He let gravity push him down, the tip of his stem stretching the entrance of her female sheath. She was so hot, so wet and inviting, but he wanted to be careful, not hurt her in his haste. Slowly, he moved further inside her, and her slick walls enclosed his engorged flesh until he had impaled her to the hilt. His seed sack was tight against her skin, pulsing with a need to mount her with a savagery he could barely contain. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to control it.
Rose moaned again, pushing her hips up against his shaft as her walls quivered around him. Her pleasure was already building up again, with the Mating Venom raging through her.
Karian pulled back until his stem was nearly out, then pushed in again in one slow motion. Rose responded by pushing back, increasing the contact. Mating Venom rushed through his body, making his mind whirl with the desire to bring about his own release. He wouldn’t, though. He wanted her to have another release before he had his own.
Judging by the way her walls quivered around his stem, it wasn’t going to be long now. He gripped her hips tighter, and dug his fangs into her flesh without breaking the skin.
Just then, she exploded. Rose arched her back and screamed her pleasure, grinding her hips against his pounding stem. She screamed and squealed until she finally settled, her pleasure spent.
His seed sack was painful and full and, at last, Karian gave way to his desire.
Karian pounded harder, faster, deeper, allowing his instinct to drive him. One final push, and he embedded himself deep inside her bo
dy, releasing his seed with a powerful roar.
Rose yelled in rapture as the Mating Venom in his seed forced her into yet another orgasm. They rode the ecstasy together, sealing the mating that tied their lives together.
When his seed sack was empty and their pleasure was spent, Karian pulled up and stared into the striking gray eyes of his mate.
My bloodmate.
The word felt like it was always meant to be.
“What was that?” Rose spoke with a shaky voice. “This was incredible.”
“We are mated.” Guilt washed over him, tempering the elation of the pleasure they had just shared. He should have told her about the bloodmating. “Your body and my body will always crave each other, and no other.”
She swallowed, her eyes wide and dark.
“How?” Rose licked her lips and moved, so he lifted himself up from her and settled at her side. The physical loss sent a stab of pain through his chest, and he appeased it by holding her close to his body.
“We are now tied together, you and I. The Mating Venom that links us makes it impossible for me to desire another female, and you shall never have pleasure with another male, for as long as we both live.”
“So it’s always going to be like that?” Rose brought up her hand and cupped his cheek. The contact jolted him with a rush of desire. “What about if we’re apart?”
He controlled a wild impulse to hiss in fury at the notion of having her far from him. The chemicals that linked them would only make this worse over time. He needed to let her know, warn her before she made a mistake that made her frightened of him.
“Now that the mating is done, every time we kiss, or even touch, the compound will activate our lust… until we consume it.” Karian made a point of speaking slowly, to control his mounting desire to take her again. “If we spend too much time apart, the call for one another will make us weak with it. I can never be too long away from you, or you from me.”
“I don’t understand.” Her eyelids became heavy as lust grew inside her, too. “Arlen spent weeks away from Maral, and he didn’t seem weakened by it.”
“Some matings are stronger than others,” Karian said, knowing he should explain the bloodmating, but not wanting to break the wonderful intimacy of the moment with his revelation. “Young mated pairs tend to have a stronger link.”
She nodded, then her face lit up in a teasing smile. “How do any of you have time to be fearful warriors, then?”
Her leg ran up his side, making his stem hard again.
“Do not worry yourself,” he growled down her mouth, taking it with a hungry kiss. “The mating lust subsides, little by little. In a week or so, we’ll be able to go about ten minutes between matings.”
“A week?” Rose looked at him with wide, scared eyes, breaking the kiss. “I can’t have sex that long! I’ll be sore before this day is over.”
Karian laughed, and she punched him playfully on the shoulder.
“You idiot! I believed you!”
“A male can only hope.” He took her mouth again, flipping her underneath him in the same motion. His hard stem pushed at her entrance, already craving another union. “But no. We will live a perfectly normal life after this day.”
After that, there was no need for talking.
CHAPTER 20
ROSE
T hree hours later, Karian and Rose were flying over the Eokian grassland in the direction of Karian’s family house.
“Your family will wonder where my gown went.” Rose flattened her palms on the pants of her old synthetic cotton clothes.
“We’ll just tell them the truth.” Karian turned to face her, a mischievous grin on his lips. “You couldn’t get enough of me.”
Rose laughed and punched him playfully in the shoulder. It felt so good to be relaxed and close to him again. To gain back the Karian she had met on Saarmak, not the Commander in Chief. It gave her hope for a future together.
“There!” He pointed in front of the transport. His face was split in a large grin, and he looked like a giddy child. “It hasn’t changed a bit.”
Rose followed Karian’s finger. There, amongst the tall grass of the plains, stood a round enclosure, large enough to fit all of her village back on Earth. The ground was covered in small stones and clumps of vegetation. In the center was a formidable dome slashed with openings, which she immediately understood was the house. The dome was made of a white material that looked like clay. There was no door, only an oversized entrance flanked by an ornate arch. On the sides were oblong slashes, clearly intended to be windows, and through which Rose could see a cozy interior. From the central and larger dome departed long hallways leading to other, smaller domes, fashioned in the same manner.
It was an impressive way of building a house, and spoke of the depth of the relations between the members of a family, as they all lived under the same roof.
Karian finally flew over the wall and inside the enclosure, into a large open area where another transport was waiting. Rose paused while Karian jumped out to help her on her feet. As she landed beside him on the ground, Arlia and Enlon came out of the house and walked toward them, strained smiles on their faces. Following Arlia, with constant exuberant jumps, was a strange creature resembling a small horse, with long, flowing white fur.
“Father!” Karian opened his arms and bear hugged him, then almost submerged Arlia in his embrace. “Mother!”
Arlia closed her eyes and hugged Karian for a long time, her face torn in a storm of strong emotions. Finally, they broke away from each other and she cupped Karian’s cheek in her hand, caressing the skin with her thumb in a loving gesture that was all too familiar. Karian had done the same to Rose at times. Seeing so much love churned emotions inside Rose that threatened to overflow, and she had a hard time suppressing the trembling of her lips.
“You’ve got a new meerit!” Karian bent down and allowed the creature to sniff his hands, then rubbed its head with apparent affection. “What’s this one’s name?”
“That’s Maak,” Arlia answered with a laugh. “He’ll be one year this month. He’s quite the little rascal.”
The meerit left Karian and lifted its head to stare at Rose. It had large, deep blue eyes and long lashes over a snout resembling the beak of a duck, giving it a mellow, sweetly comical appearance.
Rose smiled at the creature and extended her hand to it. The meerit bounced forward and lapped at her hand, its entire body shivering with excitement. Rose laughed, unable to restrain herself in front of the creature’s obvious good nature.
“He likes you,” Arlia said with a smile. “He doesn’t always take to strangers.”
“Well,” Rose straightened up and watched Maak bounce to Arlia’s side, “I like him too.”
“Welcome to your house.” Karian grabbed Rose by the shoulders, pulling her alongside him. “This is the house where I was born, and where our own first youngling will be born.”
Karian’s parents looked down at Rose with warm, generous eyes. She was reassured that their attitude was no longer the same as it had been after the mating, as she didn’t think she could have stood to live in a house where everyone hated her.
“Welcome to our home.” Arlia smiled and reached for Rose’s hands in her much larger ones. Her skin was soft and warm, and it felt good to touch her.
“Thank you.”
Rose watched with a pinch in her heart as Karian’s parents turned and walked toward their house. Enlon’s arm circled his mate’s shoulder with a tenderness born of long held affection.
As Rose followed them inside the house, Karian’s arm around her body, she wondered if she would ever share that kind of easy, warm love with her new mate.
AN HOUR LATER, as the second sun was fading over the grassland, the family was sitting at the table for their first meal together.
On the long table was an impressive display of food. It was more than Rose had ever seen, even in her village’s Fall Harvest’s feast on a good year, where the does were f
at and the garden had yielded loads of produce. On the table were roasted meats, steamy grains, and heaping plates of vegetables dripping with tasty sauces. It was dizzying to see, and her stomach contorted painfully at the sight.
The only one who seemed be immune to the contagious atmosphere was Maral. She sat with her back straight and her eyes darting heinous looks around, eating tiny morsels fit for a songbird. She turned the food on her fork a long time, eyeing it suspiciously before bringing it to her mouth, a perpetual air of distaste on her lips.
Rose had never disliked a person more in her life than she loathed Maral at that table. How dare she turn up her tiny, beak-like nose at the feast Arlia had worked so hard on? Was she always like that? How terrible it must be for them all to live with a creature like her.
“Is it good enough for a human palate?” Maral spoke for the first time since she’d sat at the table. “This is a feast worthy of a bloodmating.”
“Hold your tongue,” Arlen cut her off. “It’s none of your business.”
Maral fell silent and looked at Arlen with narrowed, resentful eyes.
The clacking of forks on the plates was the only sound filling the sudden, heavy silence. Rose’s gaze went from Enlon to Arlia, but they kept their eyes stubbornly on the food, chewing each morsel scrupulously before swallowing. They didn’t want to answer her stare.
For once, she was eager to hear what Maral had to say.
“A bloodmating. What is that?” Rose asked, measuring her words. Karian dropped the piece of meat that hung from his fork with a wet splash. All eyes went to Rose, wide and uneasy. Maral’s glimmered with unveiled satisfaction, and she shoveled a blood-red piece of meat between her tiny, pointy teeth.
“Don’t concern yourself about that.” Karian tried to smile, but it came out as a sneer.
“I’d like to know.”
All eyes skittered away from Rose.
“It means you’re special,” Maral spat out the words. “And that Karian had better do his best to keep you safe.”
