Kave: Warriors of Etlon Book 3

by Abigail Myst

  Sex with this beast would be… Humility got hot just thinking about it.

  “That’s if he lives, you dolt,” she said, cutting off those thoughts.

  Humility turned her attention to the fire that she’d started to roast dinner. It was small, but the coals were coming along nicely. It would do to heat a knife if she could figure out how to get hers out of him without him bleeding out.

  Wait a second - he was a warrior and had a knife of his own! Humility pulled the blanket back and looked at the toolbelt he had slung low across his hips, right along the edge of the tight black shorts he wore. They didn’t leave much to the imagination, and she couldn’t help letting her eyes settle for a second on the bulge in the front. There were rumors, so many rumors, about the grand size of alien meat, but she had dismissed them as gossip and propaganda. Humility was definitely rethinking that decision.

  His knife was beautifully carved and shaped out of some thin light metal. It was also wicked sharp. She put it into the coals of the fire then wrapped the meat that she had been roasting in leaves of this planet’s version of a plantain or banana. She’d eaten one yesterday and figured if she wasn’t dead yet, then the leaves were probably safe. Once the knife was heated, she’d put the package in the coals and let it cook through.

  She checked to make sure he was still breathing before she went to look through her clothes to find something that might make do for a bandage. Without antibiotics, alcohol, or disinfectant, Humility would have to rely on him waking up long enough to tell her where camp was or how he could call for help.

  Of course, there was no guarantee that he’d ever wake up, or that he’d not be in the mood to stab her right back when he was able. All thoughts toward romance had probably been quashed the moment her knife went into his chest. He’d void their contract and send her home, if she were lucky and probably kill her if not.

  Either way, she didn’t want a death of anyone on her conscience. Best to heal him up and hope that he’d realize it was just one big misunderstanding.

  Finally, she deemed the fire had heated his knife hot enough. Humility knew that now was not the time to get squeamish. She took three deep breaths then quickly pulled her knife out of his chest before stabbing him with the burning one.

  His scream caught her unawares, but she didn’t falter. She tossed his knife to the ground beside him and covered the wound with a t-shirt. She sighed with relief when she saw he wasn’t bleeding through it.

  His eyes were open, but they had a glazed, rather unaware quality to them.

  “I’m cold.”

  He sounded surprised. Humility lay down next to him, wrapping her leg over him while still managing to keep one hand pressing the t-shirt to his newly cauterized wound. She pulled the blanket around them.

  “S’better,” he told her. His hand pulled her to him and his eyes closed once again. Humility fell asleep listening to his steady heartbeat.

  Chapter Ten

  Kave

  Kave awoke with a hard on and a pain in his side. It took a moment for his memory to come flooding back.

  He wasn’t worried about the wound. If he wasn’t dead yet, then it wasn’t mortal. It would heal and in a few days would be as good as new. Except, what had she done with his knife? Stabbed him a second time with fire? Probably didn’t realize the Mahdfel clotted so quickly that removing the obstruction was all his body needed to heal. The fire? That might leave a mark.

  Kave would bear it with pride. His mate was resourceful enough to survive in the jungle alone for three days and he had the mark to prove it. He breathed in the scent of her hair. It did nothing to improve the condition of his cock straining against his shorts. He also caught a whiff of something roasting. His stomach grumbled on cue.

  It was apparently loud enough to wake his bride. Her head came up and she scrambled to her feet.

  She turned toward the small fire and slid something out of it. As she unwrapped it, the savory scent of josgrave emerged. He watched her move, with a graceful proficiency, finding beauty in every efficient slice.

  “Smells good,” he said finally as she held the first piece up between two fingers. She seemed startled that he was awake, but scuttled over to sit next to him, using a leaf as a plate.

  “I’ve been debating whether it was going to kill me all morning.”

  “Josgrave isn’t poisonous. I’ll eat first if you wish reassurance.”

  She looked at him, and then popped it in her mouth. “Tastes like chicken,” she said, giggling at some joke that he didn’t understand. Kave wanted to laugh with her. Laughing would probably hurt too much right now anyway.

  “Actually tastes more like opossum. It’s a marsupial we have back on Earth.”

  She offered the next bite to him. He opened his mouth and she fed it to him. She smiled down at him and he desperately wanted to taste her mouth, too. Kave wanted to explore her mouth with his tongue and not come up for air until they were both gasping.

  “Sorry about the mix up,” she said. “I thought you were its big bad mama coming to get me.”

  “It was my fault. I surprised you.”

  His admission seemed to surprise her. Kave lost no time in capitalizing on her guilt to relieve his own for leaving her there in the first place.

  “I have been so careless, you must forgive me,” he said. “I will be a most attentive mate.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you will be,” she answered, dubiously.

  “You doubt my word? I suppose I deserve that.”

  “I don’t doubt just your word. Just most of the male species.”

  “From now on, you shall be able to rely on my word, and the word of my warriors, for they will be accountable to me.”

  “You have many warriors?”

  “A few dozen, but for such a small isolated planet, there is no need for more.”

  “A few dozen? On the entire planet?”

  “Yes. Noven 90. It’s just an outpost, and we are all Etlonian Mahdfel here.”

  “So all the warriors look like you?”

  “Not as handsome, but yes.”

  She rolled her eyes at that. “It’s not easy being green,” she said.

  “It will be your new favorite color.”

  She opened her mouth, but said nothing. Instead, she took another piece of meat and ate it, then gave him a piece.

  Kave took to wondering what she looked like without her shirt on. Round globes topped with pink nipples. He wanted to latch onto one and lick it with his tongue. He wanted to lap at the salty little bead of sweat that had formed on the side of her neck and taste her center.

  “You got a name?”

  “What?” Kave said, startled out of his cock hardening reverie.

  “A name? A designation? An appellation? What should I call you?”

  “Kavendish. Most call me Kave.”

  “Kave. Well, that’s at least something I can pronounce. I’m Humility, by the way.”

  “I know. It is an odd name for a Terran, I think.”

  “Blame my mother. You can call me Hue if you like. She hated that. Said it made me sound like a boy.”

  “You are not a boy.”

  “I hope not,” she said, sparing a fleeting glance to where his anatomy had begun tenting the blanket. “Though I was a bit of a tomboy growing up. You know, climbing trees, fishing, hunting, that sort of thing. Kind of had to be, you know, with the whole alien invasion thing.”

  “May every Suhlik rot!” he exclaimed.

  “Yes,” she replied, gritting her teeth.

  “You have lost someone to them.”

  “They killed my mother, and seriously injured my father.”

  “Mine, too.”

  A quietness elapsed between the two of them, a shared grief. She continued feeding him and as she gave him water from her canteen, Kave couldn’t help but think of the Mahdel ceremony, a simple meal, feeding your mate, before consummation. Without even trying, she was already becoming his.

  “I think I’v
e been lucky so far, to catch something and not have anything big come after me,” Humility said as she buried the meat wrappings deep in the fire. “I suppose we should wait until at least morning before trying to move you. I might be able to rig up some sort of litter and get you back to the transport pad.”

  Kave wasn’t about to be dragged along behind his mate.

  “There is a way… to move things along. To jump start, as the Terrans say, my healing.”

  “Great. How’s that?”

  “There are certain chemicals, hormones that are produced when mating for the first time.”

  She cocked her head to the side and gave him a curious look. She glanced down at his pronounced bulge. It was true, Kave told himself. The chemicals they produced, especially as they bit into their mates’ necks transferring the needed elements to prepare them for fertilization, did aid with healing. A female was marked, but not injured by such a love bite.

  “Uh,” she said, scanning his frame. “You want a blow job?”

  “It must be the full act.”

  His mate looked skeptical. A further explanation was apparently necessary.

  “It is the bonding experience that releases the chemicals. Here.” Kave pointed to his cheekbones under which his glands were already burning in overdriven anticipation. “Not the uh-” He looked down at his shorts, which were definitely showing his interest. It was probably only the hole in his center that was holding him on ground. No, that wasn’t true. He had more control than that. An Etlonian would never disgrace himself by losing control and taking a female without consent.

  “So I need to kiss you?”

  Kave smiled, hopefully not to broadly. Terran women could be startled by their sharper teeth.

  “That would be a good start.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Humility

  Humility stared down at the large hairless green man with the ginormous hard on poking out of his shorts. That was unfair. Despite being green and hairless, the man (if that term was even applicable) was still hot as hell.

  And here she was, sitting next to him, contemplating screwing him, something that would have never crossed her mind when she was back on Earth.

  Hue had only ever done it once, and that had turned into a disaster. Her one and only high school romance had been two months of dating, and when her teenage brain had been imagining their happily ever after, she’d spread her legs for two minutes of in-and-out. By the next week, he was already onto his next conquest without a single look back.

  Adult Hue could look back and see a quick escape, but the teenager had been crushed and withdrew even further into her home life as her father’s health had declined. The counselors had been kind, chalking it up to a delayed reaction to her mother’s death, but Hue relished in taking care of her little sister when times got hard.

  And this was the guy that was supposed to give Humility her own children to raise. And the one that held the key to greasing the wheels for a treatment for her father.

  She put her hand on his chest, and he froze. Hue watched as his skin morphed under her palm. When she lifted it, he was pink underneath, like some chameleon or one of those ancient mood rings that changed colors with heat.

  She traced a line up his chest with a finger, leaving a trail of color as she went. She drew circles on his skin and then pressed her thumb in the center. His tattoos started to glow. She hadn’t noticed them at first, mainly because his skin kept changing, but now they were really starting to put off light.

  “Breathe,” she told him, realizing he’d been holding it since she started touching him.

  Kave’s breath hissed out and then he forced more air in.

  “Is that normal? Changing colors and glowing.”

  “Yes. But the glow is a private affair, reserved for one’s mate. You will find that Etlonians are well suited for jungle camouflage, but have difficulty interpreting the desires of our females who do not wear their emotions on their skin.”

  A warning of sorts, Hue thought. “So this is desire?”

  “Yes.” His breath was raspy and he was staring at her lips. For her part, Humility felt her body responding, growing wet for him, nipples hardening to points against her bra. So far, she hadn’t crossed the line. She could still walk away. And he would let her. But every touch was drawing her closer. Her natural curiosity was not helping any either. What color was his tongue? Would he taste different than a human male? Would they actually fit together, and if they tried to do it, could she kill him? What if she did?

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  He actually laughed. Then he smothered it and looked guilty, as if he wasn’t sure how she’d take being laughed at. She leaned down and kissed him. It was featherlight, just a touch, but that was all it took for a hand to reach out and pull her forward, deepening the kiss, tasting her properly and stealing her breath.

  Teenage sloppy kisses had nothing on adult alien ones. His tongue taunted hers, teased her into his mouth while still managing to explore every corner of hers. It was pleasurable play, without any further insistence, though when she took a moment to breathe, she realized his hand was under her shirt, on her bare back. But she wanted it there. She wanted more touching, not less. Her center was on fire and her jeans were more a chafing reminder than a comfort.

  Humility centered herself on him, straddling his hips. Her knee was still a good six inches from his wound, which relieved her. She looked down at him, and whipped her shirt off over her head. It was a move she’d scoffed at in the vids, but here, it just felt right. She reached behind her and unhooked her bra. She tossed it, but not far. It wouldn’t do to be lost on an alien planet without a proper bra.

  The thoughts that flew through her head as she just sat there above him, topless, and let him look his fill… The hungry look in his eyes made her cup her breasts and pinch her nipples. His hands skimmed her jeans but injured as he was, his movements were limited. He couldn’t touch her unless she leaned forward.

  She leaned forward and planted a hand on either side of his head. He took immediate advantage and played with her nipples.

  “Oh my, lovely, lovely,” he said, without any seeming intention of finishing his thought. Yes. Today in the jungle, she would be his to fuck. Neither one of them was under any pretense that this could be anything else. A mutually beneficial relationship with lots of pleasure attached. He pulled her in for another kiss and combined with his wandering hands, Humility was more than ready to move forward.

  She pulled up and rolled off of him, careful to keep pressure away from his left side. He had the gall to look disappointed as she stood over him. It faded when she peeled off her jeans and panties in one swift movement. Humility smiled and stood over him again, naked as a jaybird and surprisingly unabashed. She made no move to cover any bit of herself from his gaze. She bent over, intending to lower his waistband, but he stopped her.

  “No. Here. I want to see you first.” He patted the ground above his head. It was a slightly odd request, but Humility, in her new free and open spirit of things, let herself be guided down with her knees on either side of his head. It was then clear that his plan included much more than just looking.

  The first touch of his tongue had her gasping loudly. The next touch had her legs spreading wider, involuntarily seeking out more, deeper contact. His hands wrapped around her thighs, and his tongue lost its tentativeness as her hands reached out for a tree branch above them, trying to find something to hang onto.

  “Oh God! I! Oh!” Her screams of pleasure as his tongue penetrated her startled them both. He paused and she nearly cried from being so close to the edge of something that she’d never felt at the hands of another.

  “Don’t you dare fucking stop!”

  He restarted with abandon, repeatedly playing with her clit and then thrusting deep inside her with his talented tongue. Hue rode wave after wave of pleasure as she ground herself on his tongue.

  She was too lost in her own pleasure to get a warn
ing when she was lifted up and a moment later, his pulsing cockhead was pressing against her entrance. He held her there, for a moment, waiting for her, asking her silently for the last permission before he claimed her fully.

  “You’re gonna start bleeding again,” she warned, watching the muscles and color splotches ripple his skin.

  “You are sure?”

  She didn’t answer. Instead, Humility grabbed his cock and guided it into her. He lowered her slowly, but she was so wet from his earlier attentions that she slid onto his massive rod like butter.

  Humility was full, so wonderfully full. All worries that she wouldn’t fit melted away. She could feel her body clenching around the invasion, but there was nothing but anticipation coursing through her veins.

  “You’ll have to-” he ground out. He was trying to control his breathing, but she could tell, he was near the edge.

  “Ride you?” She rotated her hips around and he groaned.

  “Oh, my stars, mate. If you don’t give me a moment, I shall lose myself like a whelp spills into his hand at night.”

  The appeal of making this strong warrior lose control was a little too much. There would be time later, when he was at full health, to show her how much stamina he had. Now, she was just as ready to pop as he was.

  Humility was merciless in the rhythm she set, though she couldn’t manage much in the way of thrust because she was so afraid of hurting him. Instead, she wiggled and jostled and rotated and found enough friction to send her right to the edge in a hot minute.

  He roared under her, his cavernous howl dwarfing all of her earlier cries, and pulled her down to him. Before she could object, his mouth found her neck and his teeth were needling her flesh. Instead of the pain, there was a hot flush of pleasure that set white stars in front of her eyes and had her climaxing around his cock, adding her scream to his. She knew that he filled her, sending his hot seed deep inside her.