Much like the hut, mine and Arlynn’s hands ceased belonging to either of us separately, and became ours. Too many sensations pummeled me to even try to decipher who was touching whom, or which body part tingled from what touch. Our souls were eternally connected, our senses merged, truly completing us as one entity with two bodies. Nowhere in the known universe has a stronger bond existed.
“Oh God, Thrane. I need you so much,” Arlynn murmured. A shaft of sun broke through the canopy and beamed through a small window to suffuse her face in the warmth of the new day.
“I know you do,” I said, slipping a finger inside her.
She bucked against my hand and gasped in pleasure, and the urge to claim her grew even more urgent. But I held back. My mate deserved only the best.
Arlynn sought out my mouth with a whimper, but when our lips touched, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me to her with a strength I never would have suspected. I let her take the lead, but when she reached between us and tried to guide me to her entrance, I pulled back, panting like a beast in heat.
“Not yet, my heart,” I gasped, fighting off her and myself. “I have so much more in store for you.”
She whimpered again, but fell back and gave me free rein. Rolling onto my side, I took a few deep, calming breaths as I watched my hand roam over her luscious body. Her plump hips made my mouth water, her full breasts caused my cock to twitch, and her sex…it called to me in a way no other ever had.
To silence its siren song, I rolled her over on her stomach and explored every inch of her back. The tension which had been building inside her diffused and lengthened. Her shoulders loosened as I massaged her, and her moans were nearly enough to tip me over the edge, but by some miracle, I managed to hold back.
Working my way lower and lower, I kneaded her muscles until she was soft and pliable and utterly relaxed. Her plump ass felt like heaven in my hands, and my teeth ached to give one cheek a firm nip, but I didn’t want to hurt her — not after getting her so relaxed. Besides, we had the rest of our lives to learn the best ways to love each other.
Lifting her hips, I positioned her onto her knees and licked my lips in anticipation. Just to drive me wild, she wiggled her ass in my face, then looked back and grinned wickedly, but the smile quickly fell away, and her eyes grew wide at what she saw in my gaze.
“Do it,” she whispered. “Take me, make me yours.”
As much as I wanted to — needed to — I dove in face-first instead. I licked and kissed and nipped and devoured her. Blood pumped in my ears, drowning out all other sound…except for Arlynn moaning my name. It sounded as gentle as a flock of flutterflies flitting along in the breeze, yet as powerful as the mightiest waterfall on all of Thracos.
It sounds like your future.
Arlynn tensed around my tongue, her body spasming and her voice crying out in ecstasy, and I could no longer hold back. Moving into position, I held her hips in my hands and pressed against her slick opening. She cried out again, but instead of pulling away in surprise or pain, she pushed back, taking me deep inside her.
Once fully seated, I didn’t move, relishing in her walls pulsing around me, welcoming me home. But I needed to feel more than the last remnants of her orgasm. So much more.
Closing my eyes, purple and orange smoke filled my vision and wrapped around my heart, enveloping and protecting it. Eternity opened up before me as I moved inside my mate, letting her set the pace and matching every move.
My pleasure doubled, then trebled, then moved so far beyond what my feeble brain could ever have imagined. Not only was I feeling my own enjoyment, but hers became inexorably entwined with mine.
My hand dipped between her legs to thrum her most sensitive spot, and my reward was to feel her walls grip me tightly. Heavy heat built low in my belly, and I sensed it also building in Arlynn. If I timed this just right…
If we time it just right…
“Yes,” I hissed, even though I knew she could hear my agreement without the spoken words.
My other hand reached forward and cupped one of her breasts, which was bouncing so temptingly. I couldn’t resist lightly pinching one peak, and her body lurched again. It wouldn’t be long now.
Arlynn’s tiny frame allowed me to bend over her until I completely covered her body. We rocked together, each sensing the urgency in the other, until lights flashed behind my eyes. Her shouts grew louder, and I knew we were both on the brink. Now was the time.
As she tightened around my cock in the first wave of her orgasm, I sank my teeth into her mating mark. She threw her head back and screamed my name. All self-control fled, and I released my own joy. Wave after wave of pleasure broke over me, threatening to engulf me. Instead of fighting, I relaxed into it and rode the eddies of our union, until we collapsed in a heap, panting and sweaty and wonderfully exhausted.
It seemed impossible — Arlynn was so much smaller than me — but somehow, snuggling in our bed, her body fit so perfectly up against mine. Just like everything else about her. We fit — mind, body and soul — like puzzle pieces finally coming together. Working together, we’d not only defeated our enemy, but we’d ensured the survival of our kind. All without a single death.
“Told you so,” she murmured as she drifted off. “You should always listen to me.”
I smiled and snuggled even closer to her. “I will, my love. I promise.”
25
MERISSA
I drift around the village, barely noticed. Whelps run past me, oblivious to my deep and all-consuming love for them. For all of them. Everything I’ve ever done has been for them. Every sacrifice, every loss…all for their benefit, never mine.
Even as I think it, I know that’s not true. Now is not the time to lie, even to myself. The joy I’ve experienced watching my children grow and fall in love and start new families is the greatest gift I could ever have received. Their happiness is bestowed upon me tenfold. I am the luckiest woman in the universe.
I ease my tired body down on a log in front of the blazing fire pit. So many fires have burned in this spot, so many memories lost in the fog of time. I stare into the orange and yellow depths and simply listen to the ones I love most.
“I’ve run the numbers ten times, Markon,” Natalie says to her magnificent mate. “So has Jorek. Thirty Terran women have joined the tribe, and even if not all of them reproduce, and no more want to emigrate from the colony, we should have plenty of genetic material to thrive!”
I hear Markon sweeping his love into his arms and kissing her deeply, then laughing with a joy that fills my soul to brimming.
“You hear that, Katy?” he says to his daughter, gurgling happily nearby. “Your mama says we’re not going to go extinct after all.”
I have to blink tears from my eyes to continue staring into the fire. I’ve known for some time our species was no longer in danger, but some people need mathematical proof. I don’t mind, as long as they now know.
I search out another voice, one which never fails to comfort me with her goodness.
“Adrelia focused on psychology at the Center, and I think she’d be perfect for counseling the rescued sex slaves,” Sienna says, warming my heart with the care she shows for others. “I’ve already set up sessions for the ten women General Hawking has sent to us. He says he’s tracked down another eight, and they’ll be arriving any day.”
“I have to hand it to the general,” Solan replies, his own son cooing under his father’s voice, “he’s gone above and beyond what I ever thought he’d do.”
Sienna’s laugh is elixir to my weary soul. “I still can’t believe he sent Commander Wrent to Praxor. I know I shouldn’t find that funny, but what sweet karma. The man who sent so many innocent girls into slavery becoming a sex slave himself.”
Markon chuckles. “Yes, and I hear the mutants on Praxor are none too gentle.”
I leave them to discuss the tribe’s future and seek out my other dear-hearts. I find them in a moment, both heartbreaking and jubil
ant.
“Mother! Father!” Arlynn cries as she rushes into the arms of her parents.
So much crying, so much suffering, so much rejoicing. I force myself to listen, to hear the moment sweet Arlynn has anticipated for ten long years.
“Arlynn! You’re so…big!”
Arlynn laughs, and I hear Thrane wrapping an arm around her. Protectively, I assume, because he loves her more than his own life. Never were two Wargs so different, yet so perfectly matched.
“Binkor, one of our shamans, says I’m due next week with a girl. Bandrin, our other shaman, says I’m due tomorrow with a boy. I guess it’ll be a surprise.”
“Thrane,” says a woman, her voice cracking with a decade’s worth of pent-up emotion. “Thank you for taking care of our beloved daughter.”
“Yes, Thrane,” says a man, a man who clearly loves his daughter more than anything, “I can’t thank you enough. Where we failed, you succeeded. It’s a debt I can never repay.”
“Trust me, Mr. and Mrs. Farmer, it’s been my eternal pleasure.”
And it would be eternal. A love like Arlynn and Thrane’s could never be extinguished.
“Has General Hawking told you yet?” Arlynn’s mother asks.
“No, what?”
“He’s submitted a bill to shut down the Training Center and reintegrate the girls back into society.”
Arlynn gasps in surprise and relief. “That’s wonderful!”
“Reaction has been mixed,” her father explains, tempering expectations, but I know in my aching bones the proposal will pass. “There’s a lot of support in the outer enclaves though. It has a good chance.”
A voice pulls me back to the fire. “Why are you crying?”
I look down into the doleful eyes of Eileah, and am touched by her concern.
“I’m happy,” I reply and wipe away the tears, which eases the crease in her perfect brow.
The little girl, once a precious rarity with a heavy burden on her shoulders, but now just another carefree whelp, settles on the log next to me.
“Tell me a story.”
I have so many, I’m not sure which to choose. But in the end, there’s really only one.
“Back before remembered time, there once was a young woman of such profound beauty, men traveled from near and far to gaze upon her. This woman knew such beauty was fleeting, and had no use for men who only wanted her for that attribute. Instead of seeking her mate, she spent her days learning all she could from her elders. Cooking, fighting, remedies, carving, farming — the young woman learned it all.”
A few more whelps join us, some sitting at my feet, some snuggling in close to Eileah.
“Are you talking about the Great Beauty?” one asks.
I ignore him and continue, “The Great Tribe was led by twin brothers, Tooibas and Vanter, neither of whom had taken a mate. At that time, males stupidly refused to believe females could possess equal powers as they. Do you boys believe that?”
All the boys surrounding me cried out, “No!”
Satisfied, I continued with the tale they’d all heard from birth. “These brothers took one look at the young woman, and both instantly wanted her for their mate. They argued day and night, each insisting he was the woman’s fated mate.”
“We’ve heard this story since we were little whelps,” moans one boy.
“Ah, but have you heard all of it?” I ask. When their eyes widen with curiosity, I go on. “Tooibas and Vanter each believed they were the woman’s fated mate, but neither asked the woman herself. Instead, they argued for days, then fought for weeks. One day, a much greater fight broke out between the brothers, all over a woman neither had ever even spoken to.”
The whelps and adults who’ve joined us while I spoke, gasp in surprise. They’ve never heard this version of ancient history.
“Upon hearing of the battle, which could break apart the Great Tribe, the young woman ran as fast and as hard as she could through the dense forest to the commons.”
“You mean here?” a boy named Krit asks.
“Right in this very spot,” I answer, brushing my finger down his painfully silken cheek. “The two stubborn brothers faced each other down, knowing such a duel would surely fracture the tribe, but they allowed their desire for the woman to cloud their judgment.”
“What happened?” Eileah breathes, eager for more.
I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear and smile down at the tiny love. “You know what happened.”
“But the woman…?” she asks.
My heart glows that she is more concerned with the woman, her sister, than the silly men. Eileah will be a great leader one day, and very soon.
“The woman,” I answer, “was too late. She’d hoped to talk sense into the brothers, but by the time she arrived, Tooibas had already demanded Holmgang. Who knows what Holmgang is?”
A little boy jumps up, eager to be the first to answer, to prove himself as little boys have for time immemorial. “It’s a fight to the death!”
“That’s right. Tooibas demanded a fight to the death over the woman. Vanter was all too eager to accept. And so the two were already locked in a battle to the death when she ran into the commons. She screamed and begged them to stop, to speak with her before continuing with this madness, but they ignored her pleas. Only the elders were able to break them apart before either killed the other. The brothers agreed to go their separate ways, and split the tribe and its territory down the middle.”
“What was the woman going to tell them?” Krit asks, his eyes wide.
“Well, that’s an interesting question. The woman had never sought out a mate, and she’d never spoken to either brother, yet deep in her soul, she knew who she belonged to, and who belonged to her.”
“Who?” a young Terran-turned-Warg woman sitting up front asks. “Which one of the brothers?”
I pause for a moment, reveling in the last story I would ever tell my loves, my children. After locking gazes with every single Warg sitting in the circle, I smile softly.
“Neither.”
They all gasp, some cry out, and I smile at their confusion.
“You see, the moment the young woman ran into the commons, understanding washed over her like an ocean wave.”
I know most of those present have no idea what an ocean is, but I can’t think of a better analogy. They don’t care, they just want to hear the rest.
“The young woman belonged to the tribe,” I explain to puzzled faces. “The tribe belonged to her. Once she saw the brothers fighting over a woman neither knew, she made a vow no single person would ever come between her and her tribe. Her life would be dedicated to its protection, its preservation.”
Weariness trickles down to my bones. This story — one no one else has heard before — has taken its toll, and it’s almost time to take my leave.
“But…but the tribe split,” notes a young man.
I wish I could remember his name, but my memory has been failing me of late.
“And every day, every moment of her life after that fateful day, was spent watching over her tribe, working hard to bring the descendants of the brothers together again. ”
“Wait, legend says she threw herself off a cliff,” says Chorn, who’s joined the gathering with his mate, Nell.
I grin and see the fear in some of the whelps eyes. I’ve grown old and haggard, but that’s to be expected after nearly two centuries of life.
“She didn’t,” I say, struggling to keep my eyes open. “She retreated into the forest, until her beauty had faded enough, no one would ever again fight over her. She planted a sapling in the forest in memory of the Great Tribe which once was. She carved the tribe’s story into a great slab of moarkwood so she would never forget her life’s mission to bring brothers and sisters together again.”
Now that my purpose in life has been fulfilled — and so spectacularly — it’s time to go. I have called this forest my home for so very long, it seems strange I must now leave it, but my children hav
e outgrown me. My time is at an end. I’m no longer needed, and I couldn’t be happier about that.
“How do you know all this, Ouma?” asks a voice through the ether that gathers around me, blinding me, soothing me, guiding me into the Great Beyond.
“Because I am me. I am Merissa. I am the Great Beauty. And I love you all.”
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