by Isabel Wroth
“Come.”
She took the hand he offered, choosing to lean on him a little as he guided her through the maze of tents, heading for the first unoccupied one available.
He removed the tag from the flap to further indicate the shelter was occupied, though Beast willing, the sounds they would be making from inside would be enough to deter anyone from entering.
They ducked inside and Kalix was pleased to see a small table heaping with nourishing proteins and a wide variety of fruits to help replenish what liquids they had lost in the hard trek across the desert.
Alec didn’t even ask him what everything was, just ate and drank her fill until she pushed her plate away and lay back amongst the cushions with a soft groan.
He licked tart juice from his favorite berries off his lips, watching her look around the intimately-sized space just big enough for a sleeping pallet, a small necessities chamber hidden behind a curtain, their dining table, and the square cushions they sat on.
“Tell me something,” she said, frowning at the ceiling of the tent. “Your world, your people, there’s technological advances all over the place, yet I’ve seen people living in tents like this, or in longhouses made of wood and grasses. Why is that?”
An odd topic of conversation when he could smell the rise of her heat, but if it calmed her to speak of such things and not be fearful or apprehensive of the mating soon to follow, so be it.
“The longhouses and tents such as these were our first dwellings. We use them still to remind us of our beginnings, and because it pleases our beasts to be surrounded by nature.
“If this were not the case, I’m sure we would all live in towers of ore and glass, or in quarters like those I had aboard my warship.”
Alec made a sleepy sound of interest, still frowning, still staring with unfocused eyes above her. He could sense her churning thoughts and asked her what was so troublesome.
“Nothing, it just occurs to me I haven’t exactly been interested in learning much of your history or culture, and I really should have been. I need a teacher or something.”
Kalix finished off the last of his meal, setting aside what he knew would please Alec as they took breaks in between furious bouts of breeding, wanting to smile when her nostrils flared and she suddenly squirmed a little.
Within such close quarters of the tent, there was no mistaking the scent of his arousal, or her own.
“There are many who would be glad to assist you, but you must know I will guide you in whatever way you need.”
“I do know. But you’re about to be up to your eyeballs in a new command post. The last thing you need to add to that pile is catering to my ignorance. I want to be a help, not a hindrance.”
A thousand words filled his mouth to promise his mate he would never see her as a hindrance, to assure her he would lift her up no matter how heavy his responsibilities became.
He could tell her every way he knew how that her presence alone was all the help he required. But his mate was no ornament to sit and simper beside him.
His mate was a warrior who demanded she pull her own weight and be at his side to share the responsibility of his new assignment.
What a blessing to someone who had expected to be alone his whole life.
“I will request a Records Keeper to accompany us to assist you in any way you require. Would you have blood, or pleasure this time?”
Sweat had just started to bead on Alec’s upper lip, her body flushing with the power of her heat, her beast rising to demand satisfaction, perfuming the air with the delicious scent of her desire. Kalix reclined, the predator within waiting to pounce as soon as she gave her answer.
Alec had gone still at his question, her throat working audibly, quivering under his scrutiny.
She turned to her side and pushed to sit up, her beast staring back at him from behind her eyes, hungry to be bred.
It was the human heart he could hear beating a frantic, uncertain rhythm in her chest.
He sat perfectly still while she let her gaze roam across his body, the tip of her tongue peeking out to touch the corner of her lips when she got to the unmistakable jut of his cock having lifted the material hooked loosely around his waist. Torturing him with her silence and her scrutiny.
Her answer was soft, but distinct. “Pleasure.”
*****
The moment the word left her mouth, Alec saw Kalix’s muscles ripple beneath his skin. As though just below the surface of his flesh, the beast had stretched with delighted intent.
She half expected him to grab her and throw her to the bed, but other than to offer his hand, he didn’t move an inch.
Alec set her palm in his, shaking with the uncertainty of what was about to happen, or perhaps it was the intensity of the craving she suddenly had to be touched.
Her skin felt insanely sensitive, stretched too tightly over her bones, a tingle that turned into a nearly painful ache.
She felt twitchy, as though she was packed full of restless energy, but the sweetness of Kalix lifting her hand to his mouth to touch a kiss there at the center of her palm made her breath catch.
Transfixed, Alec didn’t resist when he gently tugged her close her. Expecting to be scorched by the promise of absolute ecstasy in his gaze, she was shocked when he simply pulled her astride his lap and cuddled her against his chest.
Wordlessly he urged her to turn her cheek to his shoulder, rubbing his hands up and down her back, nuzzling against her as though he was content to simply savor holding her.
The purr rumbling deeply through him was erotic, rocking her body on waves of relaxation and arousal. A sigh shuddered out of her, along with any feelings of apprehension.
The moment Alec let go of her uncertainties and expectations, her beast reminded Alec of her presence, and she wasn’t interested in being soothed or silenced. The beast was hungry, empty, and demanded satisfaction.
Alec let the cat lead, feeling Kalix jerk and his soothing rumbles turn to hungry growls when she nipped at his throat, raking her teeth across the strong column, licking at his tough skin to learn its taste.
She dimly heard him say her name, but was too focused on filling her hands with the thickness of his hair, twisting up on her knees so she could bury her face into the coarse strands, discovering the scent-rich hollow behind his ear.
Kalix peeled her off of him and the thing inside her went ballistic, hissing, and growling to get back to that spot she wanted.
He chuckled, driving the breath out of her when he rolled and shoved her back on the pallet.
He grabbed her hands in one of his, pressing them above her head, his other curled firmly around her throat to keep her from reaching up to bite at him.
Her beast was writhing beneath her skin, furious that Kalix was refusing to give her what she wanted.
The hold on her hands was unbreakable, his fingers around her throat firm yet nonthreatening.
He knelt over her thighs, his knees squeezing to keep her from kicking up or getting any leverage to take what she needed to soothe the growing need.
The muscles deep inside her contracted and released, her thighs grew wet with her arousal, yet no matter how she strained to find relief, Kalix held her right where he wanted her.
Kalix coached her to breathe slowly, just like he had done the other day by the lake, murmuring to her softly, soothing her until she was no longer hissing and snapping at him. Once her snarls were softer, the sounds around them amplified.
The screams of those who hunted had changed to deeper, throatier cries of completion and joy, further infuriating her beast.
He held her pinned, vulnerable beneath him, the scent and pressure of his own struggle to hold onto his own beast so thick Alec could almost taste it.
His beast was audibly answering her demands, but Kalix held himself in check, giving her his control, his refusal to hurt her no matter how angry it made her cat.
Her whole body quaked with want. She wasn’t cold, but she was so on edge and needing her teeth
were clacking together.
The ache between her thighs was unbearable, to the point where it almost hurt. Before she even realized it, Kalix released her throat and had bent to nuzzle at her cheek, feathering little kisses up to her temple, his free hand wandering up and down her side.
“Give me more than your heat. Give me your trust, Alec. I vow, you won’t leave this tent until you and your beast are well satisfied.”
Alec managed to nod, moaning softly into his kiss. She could feel his desire, the quiver of his muscles as their tongues dueled for dominance.
His appreciative growl filled her mouth, his hand twisted at the knot of cloth he’d made between her breasts.
The soft material fell away with barely a whisper and Kalix’s lips were everywhere. Tracking down her throat, over the swells of her breasts, his rumble of approval came moments before he dragged his tongue flat across the rigid peak of her nipple, pulling a cry of shock from her as sensation Alec hadn’t ever thought her body could experience shot through her.
He shifted, pressing a thick thigh between hers and Alec eagerly spread her knees, her hips rising and falling, trying to gain enough friction to soothe the frantic throbbing between her legs. Kalix rumbled to her to be still, but she couldn’t obey.
“Please, please do something!”
Her plea spurred him into motion.
He bent and drew her breasts back into his mouth, pulling a ragged sound from her she hadn’t ever known she could make.
Alec hadn’t expected it to be like this, hadn’t ever thought she could die from the need to find release.
“The sounds you make for me, so sweet,” he purred, and pushed back onto his heels, kneeling between her spread legs, his eyes flaring with passion and want.
His body was hard, his muscles defined, shoulders wide and strong, watching her while he unknotted the sarong from around his hips and threw it away.
Alec had a moment of absolute certainty. She stared at the intimidating club of flesh rising from between his strong thighs and thought, that can’t possibly be real and then he can’t possibly think that will fit inside of me.
The stroke of his hands over her inner thighs, the heat of his touch, momentarily dulled her fears.
His hand pressed down above her head, his lips melting over hers as he slid between her legs to press all that hardness against her, making her writhe with the feeling of him slipping up and down her cleft.
He must have read her thoughts, or perhaps her expression is what gave her apprehension away. Kalix curled his hands around hers.
“Don’t worry, mate. You were made for me, just for me,” he murmured.
A sharp inhalation jerked through her at the probing of his iron hard flesh against the fluttering entrance of her sex.
The heavy head pressed against her opening, parted it, and pushed past the tight ring of muscle, his thighs widening hers as he rose up over her, allowing her to watch what he was doing to her.
His hips moved, shifted, pressing relentlessly until she thought she would burn alive from the slow, steady impalement.
He growled low, his expression tightening, his eyes locked with hers, watching her as he worked his cock inside of her.
The feeling of him stretching her so wide, watching him, feeling his hunger melding with her own, feeling his body become part of her own, feeling how he shook as he tried to be gentle, the sensations wrapped around her, flooded her senses, left her gasping for air, burning from the sheer power of his body invading hers.
The stretch teetered between pain and pleasure, but even the pain couldn’t stop the wealth of need that roared through her.
He kept moving forward, fighting to part her fisted muscles to take all of him, rocking and rounding his back to get there. Those deep-seated nudges sent her headfirst into an orgasm so intense her toes curled.
When the room stopped spinning, she registered the feeling of Kalix’s tender kisses as her body continued to quake and shiver.
His face was a stark mask of desire, his chestnut hair falling around his forehead, sweat glistening on his brow as he stared back at her like he was waiting for her to see him.
Her body knew what to do, and she lifted up into him. Skin to skin they rocked, writhed, their hips finding the perfect rhythm, his body surging harder and faster into hers, deeper with every lunge.
Each one more desperate than the last, his fierce thrusts sent shock waves through her body, and all the while she was too mesmerized to look away from the sensual intent on his face.
There was nothing, and no one but Kalix in her world. Nothing but his body pounding into her, nothing but the frenzy of desire she hadn’t ever felt before. Flying free of everything but pleasure in Kalix’s embrace.
He bent and suckled at her breasts, adding another debilitating layer of pleasure to the maelstrom building inside her, until she began to fight back the dark threatening to take her over.
She wasn’t frightened; she just didn’t want it to stop.
Alec could hear herself gasping and crying out with every surge of his cock inside her, writhing, thrusting her hips up, trying to find whatever it was she was supposed to find to gain that glorious feeling of release again.
He kissed her, his lips slanting over her mouth, let her suck his tongue into her mouth, not telling her to stop or that it hurt when her claws bit into the backs of his hands, trying to hold on as she began to crack and shudder.
“Don’t fight, Alec,” he rasped, his voice ragged with his own pleasure. “I won’t let go.”
She struggled beneath him, not understanding what he meant, thrashing because he was thrusting harder, his pace quickening, slamming into her so hard her teeth rattled, and it was perfect, almost what she needed.
She arched, and he hit that spot again, so deep inside her, and every muscle seized.
Blinded by her tears of relief, Alec felt him licking at her shoulder. Another wave of crushing bliss moved through her through her, cresting, and just as her body began its last desperate rush to release, she felt his teeth slide into her skin.
~ Mark you. Make you mine. My mate.
It should have hurt like hell, but instead, it shot rockets off behind her eyes. There was no part of her he wasn’t touching, their bodies entwined, wedded as intimately as possible, nothing else and no one else mattered.
Alec felt the throbbing of his heart against her chest, and the accompanying pulse where his cock was buried inside her. How his muscles flexed and quaked beneath her thighs.
Lost to the life-altering feelings, Alec was dimly aware of Kalix letting go of her hands. She didn’t even feel him pull away until he was lifting her against his chest, guiding her face to his throat with a tender murmur.
She felt like she had no control of her limbs, her body so weak it was all she could do to breathe, but inhaling his musky scent caused another round of quakes and shivers to race through her. He wrapped his arms around her, and all she could think was:
-I belong.
~Yes, love. You belong. Right here.
THIRTEEN
Kalix stretched, rubbing the heels of his hands deeply against his eyes. He was exhausted, but his mate was even more so.
He left the small communications cubicle in their quarters and went back to find her in exactly the same spot he had left her in, deeply asleep, curled on her side with her hair spread wildly around her shoulders.
Her lips were shiny and swollen from his kisses, her cheeks flushed with warmth, with bruises of fatigue beneath the golden fringe of her lashes.
They had spent two full days and one night inside their little tent on S9, locked around one another, lost to the frenzy of their breeding heat.
They had stopped only to eat and relieve themselves, and once Kalix had been able to talk Alec into returning to the spring to soak in the heated pools.
The hot water had helped, but as much as his body still ached, he knew Alec had to feel even worse. She didn’t complain, and she hadn’t refused him thi
s morning after he had brought her aboard the ship and tumbled her down into the bed.
They were on their way back to S1, back home, and in two days’ time Kalix was to appear at the citadel for the meeting Tarek called to officially assign him the task of governing S6.
Records Keepers were waiting to be chosen to accompany him and Alec and anyone else who chose to go with them.
He carefully reached out and picked up a tight curl where it had fallen against her cheek, smiling crookedly when she frowned in her sleep and burrowed deeper into the blankets.
Something else had happened to his mate during their heat. There had been an infinitesimal moment that passed between them, Alec had been in his lap, her arms and legs wrapped around him, their heat having faded to a dull burn and allowing them a slower, sweeter, more intimate coupling.
Their thoughts and been as deeply connected as their bodies, not a single emotion barred from one another. Kalix had seen her heart, naked and vulnerable in her gaze.
There had been no way for him to mistake the gaping wound left behind, the deep gouges of grief carved deep into her soul created by the loss of her sister.
He could ever truly heal make such pain go away, but she let him in enough to see it. The scars that had hardened her heart, the anger she used to keep herself from drowning in her grief, he had felt it soften. Felt her subconscious decision to trust him with everything she was. To give all of herself and hold nothing back.
Kneeling beside her now, he swore he would do everything in his power to ensure he never gave her cause to regret it.
Though, from the way she glared at him several hours later as they disembarked and she moved down the ramp with extremely purposeful steps, she was at the very least regretting to have been so accommodating to him this morning.
~It would be my pleasure to carry you to medical for a healing session within the regeneration gel.
~I think you’ve had enough pleasure.
~More than I ever thought possible. He sobered when she started to climb the stairs of the citadel and winced. You’re hurting, let me carry you.
Alec snorted at him, refusing his care with a proud lift of her chin. ~I’m fine. I don’t think I’ll walk right for a year, but I’m fine.
