by V. K. Ludwig
My fingertips itched with the foreboding heat of anger. Ceangal had been amicable and calm and too damn level-headed for a woman recently kidnapped. That she so willingly taught the children was probably a distraction, which made me feel like twice the fool considering how much joy and pride it gave me.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Where is Uresha? If she carries a transponder, the shimid should have noticed.”
“In the plains, reading the signs of the sun.”
“I will speak with her about it after her return, and will keep a close eye on the urizaya until then.”
I turned away from him and headed to Ceangal.
She dismissed the children in Jalut, her accent strong but her words mostly correct. “Tomorrow, I will speak you the oceans.”
“Bekta for speak, bejta for teach,” I said.
“I’ll remember it, thank you.” Just like that, she turned away and left me standing.
I followed behind her. “Where are you going?”
“For a walk.”
“You take a lot of walks.”
She smiled over her shoulder, the way it curved too perfect to be anything but false. “Yes, I enjoy the plains.”
Or perhaps she did carry a transponder and roamed the area in search of reception. “Then I will come with you.”
At that, her steps slowed, only to pick up again as she shrugged. “Sure.”
Non-confrontational as always, but that unease coming through our bond pulled on my wariness. She didn’t want me to come and yet didn’t say a word against it. Ceangal was… cordial.
I didn’t trust it.
She hid something behind a mask of calm, and I needed to yank it off before she endangered us all. “You are approaching your heat.”
Another hitch in her step, but she recovered quickly, trailing her hand over figures and runes carved into the rock. “Hmm.”
“That’s all you have to say to that?” It didn’t so much surprise me as it stirred desperation in my blood. “Do you sense our bond?”
“No.”
“It will come.”
“Hmm.”
By Mekara, that wasn’t what begging sounded like at all. “Where exactly do your nanites stop fusing into armor?”
“You’d be surprised.” She tapped against a ledge in the rock, then grabbed it and brought one sandal up to brace against it. “What is this? Slate? Obsidian?”
“What it is, is brittle.” And yet she pulled her petite body up, luring another wave of that damned pride into my chest. She climbed exceptionally well for her kind. “You’ll fall.”
“You’ll catch me.”
That she was right made all this so much worse. “What makes you so certain?”
“How did you phrase it in the yoni? I’m of no—” Her voice drowned under a cloud of grit and ash, raining down on her in crumbles, but she coughed it away. “I’m of no use to you drowned. Or smashed to pulp.”
Had I said that?
Perhaps I had when frustration got the best of me, coupled with the relatively short tempers of my kind. I shouldn’t have said something so degrading and—
By Mekara, why would I care?
Her gasp made my ears prick.
More rock broke off.
More dust thickened the air.
“Alright, this probably isn’t rock at all but some sort of sandstone, made of compacted ash.” One glance down, and she started her descent. “Bet it’s lovely up there.”
“Good for reception,” I mumbled underneath my breath and reached my arms to her in support. “Take that ledge down there. Good. I got you.”
I placed one hand beside her hip in support. The other, I wrapped around her arm, carefully guiding her down before I pulled her off the rock wall… and against me. Her vibrant green eyes caught with mine, chin lifting as she slid down along my body.
“Thank you.” Her voice was little above a whisper.
“My pleasure.”
Time ceased to exist as we just stared at each other, and my bond tugged underneath my sternum. Swollen and aching, my ava throbbed, and I gently pushed my stiff length against her belly. Seed trickled into my leathers as if I was some sort of immature male hit in the face by our females’ first heat.
Ceangal’s nipples hardened underneath the white silk of her dress, their pink sheen so alluring, I stroked my thumbs over it. I groaned. She moaned, but my attention rested on something else entirely.
Not a single nanite lifted underneath my touch, and I wasn’t sure if that pleased or upset me. “What game are you playing?” When her brows wrinkled, I pinched her nipple. “Where is your armor now?”
With a gasp, she pulled away from me, staring down at her breast in a spectacular display of fake surprise, lips parting and all. “I… I don’t know.”
Yes, she did, and I would get to the bottom of it.
I turned on my heel and walked away. “Don’t get yourself killed. You’re of no use to me dead.”
Nine
Ceangal
Uresha frowned at my shoulder, slimy algae stuff dangling between her wrinkled fingers as she draped it over the red, enraged skin. “I have never seen such a heat upon one’s flesh before.”
“It’s just sunburn.” I pulled my knees into my chest, toes wiggling by the fire, the flames purple because of something in Solgad’s atmosphere. “The skin will flake and fall off. I simply stayed out too long last sun, and didn’t get into the shade before high heat.”
Across the fire, Toagi lifted a brow at Mayala, who sat beside me, and smacked his tongue. “What uiri lets her urizaya get burned like this?”
Mayala peeled her lips over her fangs. “My urizaya enjoys exploring our nature, and her skin wouldn’t have burned did this tribe not sit in the middle of a desert with little shade.”
Toagi brought a cup with mokhot to his lips, something similar to red wine, scoffing so hard a drop made it across the rim and ran down the black clay. “Shade is for the spoiled and weak, like those of Katedo’s tribe who—”
“Or maybe sunburn is for the stupid.” When Uresha left, I grabbed my mug of mokhot and took a sip, tongue curling at the tartness. “If you two wouldn’t get at each other’s throats every evening, this might actually be my favorite time.”
And that wasn’t even a lie.
As much as I hated high heat, evenings brought a cool breeze from the plains, which danced around the silk of my dress. Everyone gathered around fires to tell stories, drink, or play games, providing a serenity I hadn’t sensed in ages — if ever.
Yelim hid a chuckle, grabbed a skewer from the fire, and offered it to Mayala. “I’ve hunted young tendetu for you. The meat is very soft.”
A woman might have rolled her eyes, but Mayala stabbed her tailclaw into the ground. “If I wanted young tendetu, I would go and hunt it for myself.”
“My female does not need to hunt,” he said, and a beautiful hum rumbled from his chest. “I would provide for her. Care for her. Hum for her.”
“If I am still here when my next heat comes and you dare approach me, I will kill you.” Mayala showed her fangs. “Your hum is almost as jarring as that of your rebel leader.”
The fire hissed, and red drops speckled my dress. Before I realized what had happened, Toagi stood and stomped away, climbing the tree toward his nabu. His mug still rolled on the ground, and whatever hadn’t spilled when he’d tossed it seeped into the dirt.
Yelim dipped his head and rose. “The heat is getting to him.”
I shrugged. “It’s not even so hot anymore.”
“Not that heat, urizaya,” he said and walked away.
I cringed at his answer, and my eyes searched for Mayala’s. “What’s up with him?”
“Oh, urizaya.” She shook her head, fingertips massaging the base of her horns as if warding off a migraine. “We have to leave this place. If not for your sake, then for the fact that this… tasaho of a brute wishes to court me. And with his braids wild and unkept like this.”
“Toagi keeps following me around whenever he isn’t busy. Not to mention that he’s increasingly tense.”
“It is your approaching heat,” she said, confirming what he’d told me. “He can scent it, and I even witnessed him more aggressive when he spars.”
“Great.” If I hadn’t been motivated to find that damn com cube, a picture of Toagi chasing me across Solgad in a week or whenever I ovulated solved it just fine. “At least we know that we’re northeast and possibly near the Rehketu Plateau. Have you heard anything about the code?”
“Nafir mentioned it when he discussed something with Yelim about signal boosters, but they do not trust me, and went quiet when they spotted me. Have you found what Toagi carries on his loincloth?”
“No.” I’d only discovered what he carries behind his loincloth, which was a perpetual erection of varying degrees, even in his sleep. “The next time he bathes, perhaps we can get to it. I’ll go to sleep.”
“Yes, urizaya,” she said and quickly peeled the monhu leaves off my shoulders.
Ever since Toagi had a rope ladder installed, climbing into his nabu was a lot easier. When I reached the massive branch, the smoke of the fires faded away. The flowery scents of the foliage replaced it, like a mix between mint and lavender.
It wafted around me when I climbed toward the nabu, finding Toagi asleep. One arm rested beside him, the other angled and draped over his eyes, and his tail weaved through the gaps of the nabu. As expected, his loincloth didn’t drape flush over his groin.
Pictures of how he’d pressed his cock against me a few suns ago flooded my head, but it was the memory of how he’d pinched my nipple that quickened my pulse. My armor had always been unreliable at best, but at least it had formed at his touch. Why not then?
That couldn’t happen again.
Curiosity lured my eyes to where his shaft strained the leather, already turning a darker brown where it soaked up his seed because of his swollen knot. It would grow even thicker inside me, filling me completely, until my walls clamped down on it, and why the fuck was I even thinking of that?
Fighting the tingle between my legs, I brought my focus to the pouch attached to his loincloth, richly tooled. Not once had he taken it off, rummaged through it, or given a hint of what rested inside, but it was large enough for a com cube.
I stared at it, then at the gentle rise and fall of his chest. Toagi never went to sleep before me, so this might just be the best chance.
Rather than climbing into the nabu, I grabbed the branch above me, the bark rough against my palm. Right foot first, I curled my toes around one edge of the nabu, beside his thigh. The left one, I reached across him, sole balancing on the sturdy weave before I squatted down. Like that, I could tell him I simply tried to reach my side if he woke.
Leaves rustled above with the way the tremble in my hand transferred into the branch, but it wouldn’t wake him. Not with how, every now and then, the odd yelps and howls of animals resonated the night.
Slowly, so slowly, I reached my hand toward the pouch. Breath even, muscles relaxed so the nabu wouldn’t move, I poked two fingers into the opening. I spread them apart. I dipped deeper. I sensed for cold palathium, or a keypad, or the rimmed—
Slap.
One leg pulled out from underneath me.
Nails scratched along the branch, then air.
My ass collapsed onto his crotch.
Toagi catapulted himself up to sit, fisted my hair, and yanked until strands pop-pop-popped underneath the strain. That hiss cutting around his sharp fangs ripped a gasp from me, but I shrieked when his sharp tailclaw seared against my neck.
Each dry swallow let my skin scrape along it, and it took several of them until I found my voice. “It’s only me.”
His hum resonated the sliver of air between us, but only for a second. A low growl cut through it, letting it die in his chest before he said, “I know.”
“You were asleep, so I had to climb over you.”
If I’d expected him to release me, I was mistaken. My scalp burned with how he pulled my hair harder, angling me back a bit. His pupils flicked from one set of my toes to the other, over to where my hands trembled against his stomach, and lingered where my pussy rested snug against his loincloth.
Holding me still with one hand, he placed the other onto my calf. He palmed it, fingertips tapping along my ankles, up my knee, around my thigh. Then he crossed over and patted down the other leg, but it wasn’t until he stroked up along my waist that I realized his intent.
My voice pushed hoarse from a thickening throat. “I don’t carry a weapon.”
“I won’t take your word for it.”
“Where am I supposed to be hiding it? I’m barely wearing anything.”
His hand continued its search along my stomach, across my breast where he kneaded, ripping an unexpected moan from me. His hand froze. Stiffened above soft flesh because not a single damn black scale appeared.
I focused on my nanites. Imagined how they would spread across my body, shutting me away from the warmth of this touch I couldn’t possibly enjoy. A touch that seeped into my skin, permeated my flesh, and invaded my bones before it tied around my sternum… and tugged.
My skin tingled.
Nothing else.
No armor.
What was wrong with me?
When he’d taken me, at least I’d managed a flicker here and there. Why did my nanites fail me so completely? They’d never truly listened, but now they rebelled.
“Please let me go.”
Purple eyes searched for mine, and Solgad’s red moon cast an almost pinkish sheen across Toagi’s irises. “I hadn’t meant to fall asleep but must have been too exhausted.”
His gaze dropped to my neck.
He frowned, and his chest rattled.
For a moment, I thought his hum would return. It didn’t. He lowered his tail, but he didn’t let go entirely, although he eased his grip on my hair. Instead, he tilted my head, and slow, rapid breaths tingled along the side of my neck. Warm and gentle, his tongue lapped at me. It burned, so he must have cut me with his tailclaw, but it dulled away a moment later.
“Mmh,” I moaned, then again when he grabbed my hip and pulled me onto his hard cock. “Toagi, I told you I won’t—”
“This will make the pain go away.” He kept lapping and pushed me down on a shaft that swelled and twitched against my pussy. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Never sneak up on me in my sleep, Ceangal. Not like this. Twice, someone tried to kill me, one of those times when I was asleep.”
The more I braced against his hold and tried to slip off him, the faster he lapped. His tongue trailed toward my earlobe, and licks turned to nibbles along my jawline, his breathing ragged. He thrust upward, let our hips roll, and each of his deep groans coerced a traitorous throb from my clit.
Which bordered on insanity.
Damage control looked different.
I grabbed his horn and gave a gentle push to get his mouth off me, holding it firm enough to show that I meant it. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
It took a bit of wiggling, but he let go of my hips. I slipped off him and lay down in the nabu, pretending my heart didn’t thunder away in my ears. Neither did my clit try to compete with it, sending flares of heat along my inner thighs. And there absolutely wasn’t a soulbond to explain all this.
The nabu shifted.
Like every night, Toagi’s tail draped around me.
He cleared his voice, but it didn’t take the slight rasp away. “Is my hum truly jarring?”
“I know nothing about hums.”
Silence stretched between us, my mind already drifting into sleep as he said, “Neither do I.”
Ten
Toagi
Uresha had returned a few suns ago, bringing concerning reports about solar flares along one of the escape routes I’d mapped out if Katedo tracked us down. She stood by our mother tree, white-tipped finger painting runes of protection onto the trunk as if they
kept warbands away.
She didn’t bother to look my way but instead dipped her finger into the wooden bowl balancing on her palm. “Ah, urizayo. The storms are relentless in the plains, but the darkest cloud looms over your spirit.”
“Because I have taken your advice, and claimed a female who cannot sense her bond to me. It is corrupted. The woman refuses me even as her heat approaches.”
“Bonded yourself to whom?”
I stared at her. “Ceangal.”
“Who?”
“Have you lost your wits? Put the paints away and pay attention to my words.”
“Female. Woman. Ceangal. Are you paying attention to your own words, Toagi? You want her to be your mate, but not once have you called her that.” Her dry chuckle ended on a cough, her spine rounding with the weariness of age. “Perhaps she cannot sense it because you will not let her. Drop your loincloth, and still you can hide your hopes, your fears…” Her pupils flicked my way so fast I could have imagined it. “…the pains of your past.”
“I’ve made peace with my past.”
“And yet you don’t fill her missing pieces. Won’t listen to what that void needs you left behind in her soul. Almost as if you don’t want her to come looking for yours.” She finally turned to face me. “Zovazay strips you down to your very soul, a place more vulnerable than the skin which can scar, or the heart which can ache.”
“You said she would open herself as her heat approached. Said the bond would strengthen and, in that, you have been correct. This one-sided bond is slowly turning Ceangal into the beginning and end of my existence. But to her, I am…” My voice thinned when a pain gripped me deep within my core. “… nobody.”
“You need to have patience.”
“Patience?” So many solar cycles, I’d struggled to find pride, dignity, and a sense of worthiness, only to feel unwanted all over again. “I’ve had patience. Ever since she arrived, I’ve given her space. Stroked seed from my ever-aching knot. She feels nothing. What am I supposed to do? Force a child into her belly?” I scoffed. “My upbringing might have been questionable, but even I have more honor than that.”
