Her Cold-Blooded Protector

by Lea Linnett

  His cock stirred insatiably as he remembered the look in her eyes as he thrust against her: hot and wanting and trusting. He willed himself to settle. He didn’t want to wake her yet, especially after she’d spent half of yesterday dragging his deadweight through the forest.

  He checked her over surreptitiously, looking for any of the dark bruises or slashes of red blood that signified human injury. He found nothing in his cursory search of her upper body, and hoped that he hadn’t gripped her too hard anywhere else. He’d tried so hard to be careful. As soon as she ground down against him that first time, he knew he’d be unable to resist her, but he thought he could mitigate the damage by refraining from entering her.

  “I want you inside me.”

  Yeah, that restraint had gone out the window. He was rough with her, he knew. He couldn’t help it. Every squirm of her body had made him desire more and she’d given it gladly. She didn’t wince when he dug his claws in, didn’t retreat from his overbearing size. If anything, she’d pulled him closer.

  Maybe it would be fine. He’d always thought a human would break in half as soon as he touched them, but maybe Lena was made of stronger stuff.

  He squeezed her tighter, absorbing her warmth.

  From her responsive body, to her quick, fire-building fingers, to her passion and expertise for machinery, she was nothing like what he’d come to expect of humans. With notable exceptions, most of the humans he’d met were dumber than teniisa, and almost always happy to shout about it. And apart from Malcolm, the smart ones were usually lazy and undisciplined.

  But Lena couldn’t be more different. Where he expected her to yell, she only murmured. Where he’d heard human women screaming their pleasure through the walls of Malcolm’s establishments, she moaned low, just for him. And where other humans used their quick fingers to steal from pockets, Lena put hers to hard work—fixing things, building things, turning her skills into something that could help her sister survive. Her body was soft, but it had still strained against his when he held her down, stronger than it appeared.

  And she’d saved his life. She was quiet and watchful—even funny—and she was attentive in a way that he’d been sorely missing.

  He frowned to himself. He knew he should be more careful about trusting her. The last human who’d shown him the same tenacity, the same intelligence, had been Malcolm, and he’d never used his abilities for anything good. Kormak worried, somewhere deep down, that he might be repeating his past mistakes all over again.

  But he couldn’t bring himself to believe it. Lena had none of Malcolm’s guile. There was no dark underbelly hiding beneath her exterior. With the benefit of hindsight, Kormak knew he’d always suspected Malcolm’s treachery; he’d just been too weak to accept it. But he didn’t have that same inkling now.

  Maybe he had been too quick to judge. Maybe there was more to humans than Malcolm and a city full of criminals had been able to show him.

  Lena woke then, cutting off his train of thought. She rolled her shoulders, turning her head to nuzzle him. One small hand came up and brushed absently at the skin of Kormak’s chest as she yawned.

  “Muh-morning,” she managed, eyes squeezing shut.

  “Morning,” he rumbled back, unable to keep from running a knuckle along her cheek.

  She smiled then, his fingers trapping her eye in a wink. Her dark blue eyes were soft as she gazed at him, staring openly at his scarred face. He returned the favor, unable to tear his eyes away from the gentle curve of her cheek, or the tuft of blond hair that was sticking to her forehead. Her nose was pink from where it had scratched against his scales, and the rest of her face began to glow the same color as she stared at him.

  But then, her hand paused on his chest, her gaze dropping down.

  She skimmed his skin again, doing a double take.

  “You don’t have nipples,” she said, voice flat with surprise.

  Kormak blinked. Of all the conversations to have, he hadn’t been expecting that one. “Nope.”

  She looked up at him, confusion spreading across her features. “How do you not have nipples?”

  Kormak snorted, the action quickly turning into a real laugh when Lena still looked nonplussed. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close again, and heard her mutter, “That is so fucking odd,” even as she ran her fingers along his pectoral for a third time.

  He drew his legs up, cradling her closer, and he heard a happy sigh as she ducked under the jumpsuit.

  “Are you feeling better?” she asked before long, her head popping out again.

  Kormak smiled softly. “Yeah. I mean, I do have my own personal climate-controller here.”

  Lena’s face turned red again, and she hid her face in his chest. He felt her warmth spread through him, keenly aware that his own skin was probably still uncomfortably cool on hers.

  “Thank you,” he said, voice low.

  She peeked up at him. “For lying on top of you? It’s not much of a hardship, y’know.” Her grin was cheeky, but it dimmed somewhat when she saw his expression.

  “You… saved my life,” he murmured. “Thank you.”

  Her dark eyes fell down to his collarbone, her smile soft. “Well… You saved mine. I wouldn’t be here without your help.”

  They lay in silence after that, and Kormak pulled the jumpsuit tighter around Lena’s body. There was a comfortable peace about the scene, and Kormak found himself relaxing more than he had in years—since before he was imprisoned, even.

  The last thing he wanted to do was interrupt the quiet, but as the sun poked through the gaps in the trees, he felt a familiar discomfort rise within him.

  “It must be almost midday,” he murmured, voice soft.

  Lena stirred, turning to peer out at the forest. She tensed slightly with an unknown worry, her eyes scanning the trees to the east, in the direction of the city.

  “You’re right. Guess we better get moving.”

  She squeezed his sides once more and pecked a kiss onto his chest, before pulling herself to her feet. Her nude body was cast half in silhouette as she stood over him, the strong lines of her shoulders and the gentle swell of her ass and thighs standing out against the sky. She looked perfect to Kormak.

  But Lena faltered, wincing as she straightened. A hand went to her belly.

  His eyes widened, a surge of panic suddenly rocketing through him. “Are you alright?” he asked, rising off the ground.

  She blinked up at him, stretching her thigh muscles experimentally. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just… not used to taking… something so…” Her eyes dropped down to his cock, and she blushed again. “Big.”

  Something heavy and cold settled in Kormak’s stomach, his expression freezing. “I hurt you.”

  Lena’s blue eyes widened. “No, Kormak. It’s just new. I’ll get used to it.” She closed her lips tightly, as if she hadn’t meant to say that, and looked down at the ground. “Seriously, I… It was worth a little discomfort.”

  She smiled at him, and he tried to calm the tiny pith of worry still aching in his gut.

  He quirked his lips as he reached for her discarded panties, but the expression didn’t meet his eyes. “You gonna be needing these?”

  Lena frowned playfully. “Uh, yeah.” She snatched them from his loose grip and pulled them on while Kormak set about shaking out their jumpsuits, dislodging any leaf litter that might have stuck to them. They still had a ways to walk until they reached the outskirts of New Chicago, and they couldn’t loiter any longer.

  ---

  Lena watched Kormak carefully as they gathered their things and ate breakfast. He was still visibly stiff, and every now and then he rubbed at the muscles of his legs and shoulders as if trying to encourage blood flow. But she’d felt his skin earlier. It had been cooler than her own but not icy. More like room temperature, if they were in any room you could speak of.

  He’d also regained some of the sheen on his scales, his coloring returned to the sandy yellow that she was used to
seeing.

  She got the feeling he was trying to hide his illness from her still, and she couldn’t blame him. She’d been very careful not to wince whenever she twisted wrong, reigniting the small ache in her abdomen. It really was nothing, just the result of disused muscles being asked to stretch so suddenly, so Kormak’s reaction worried her. Better to just get on with things until the pain passed completely, in her opinion.

  But Kormak was worried about her. Which felt strange: she was more used to being the one doing the worrying. That’s how she’d been with Ellie. She always pestered her to find out where she’d be, if she’d be late, whether she had something on her to defend herself. They didn’t grow up in a bad area, but it wasn’t always smart to wander alone when you were human. Some people thought that made you an easy target.

  She chewed absently on her lip as they set out, the sun already high in the sky and poking down through the trees at them. Thinking about Ellie made her ache to be home.

  If she could even get home.

  It was very possible that there’d be enforcers surrounding her house for miles. They’d been lucky to not encounter any as they trekked through the forest, but she couldn’t let that lull her into a false sense of security.

  At least she wasn’t alone, she reminded herself, and turned her gaze back to Kormak. He was slightly ahead of her again, rolling his shoulders every so often and working through the stiffness in his muscles. Her brows knitted together, wondering how long it would take him to fully heal.

  “So…” she began, and Kormak cocked his head to show he’d heard her. She bit her lip, unsure how to phrase her question. Finally, she blurted out, “So why did you freeze?”

  Kormak paused to look at her fully, looking only slightly confused.

  “I mean,” she tried again. “I know you fell in the river, but you were cold before then. You were shivering. Is that why the city centers are climate-controlled?”

  She’d only seen it once, when her parents took her and her sister for a trip one winter. They went to the city, just for the day, and they’d been saving for months to make it happen. It was nice, but the atmosphere was strange.

  She was used to the outskirts, where the further you strayed from the city, the more you were left at the will of the weather. If it was cold, you wore more layers. When it was hot, you stripped them off. No matter what, the air felt fresh and clean.

  But in the city, every single building had some form of air conditioning, and the temperature was always set slightly higher than Lena liked. Even stranger, the entire city center was encased beneath large glass domes, where people could mill around wearing sleeveless clothes and sandals in the dead of winter. They’d walked, briefly, under one of the tall domes, and the difference from outside had been captivating and bizarre all at once.

  “Yeah,” said Kormak. “We prefer the heat. I’ve been told our home planet was all desert. And we don’t regulate well internally, we need outside stimulus to help us out.”

  Lena blinked. The explanation was simple, and she’d assumed half of it, but the way Kormak put it, it reminded her of…

  “Lizards.” At Kormak’s raised brow plate, she scrambled for words. “Y-you’re kind of like lizards. And snakes. I’ve seen them sunning themselves…”

  Her heart stopped, embarrassed, but Kormak just smiled at his feet. “That sounds like the birth of a slur,” he joked. Lena wasn’t all that sure she found it funny.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

  “No, I don’t mind.” He walked on, but slowed his pace, drawing level with her. “My father had books detailing the similarities and differences, but I’m shit at biology. Went straight over my head.” He glanced at her. “It’s a coincidence though. We just started in different places and ended up with similar skin and the same really shitty heating mechanism.”

  Lena shook her head, smiling tentatively. “But you escaped so close to winter. Did you know this could happen?”

  “Yeah,” Kormak said. “I was banking on a lot of things. Like our vehicle not breaking down and being able to find shelter from the rain. And I couldn’t wait any longer.”

  They fell into a comfortable silence, while the cogs in Lena’s brain turned. She’d almost forgotten just how alien Kormak was. Once you got used to it, the brow plate and the slitted pupils were fairly easy to look past, and when you’d grown up around people with extra eyes and limbs to go around, some strangely-shaped heels weren’t enough to trip your brain up anymore. Learning that their bodies could be so different on the inside whilst being so outwardly similar was fascinating to her. It was the same way she felt when she slowly picked apart a machine and saw how it worked on the inside.

  She glanced at him, flushing faintly when he smiled at her.

  But as intriguing as the levekk was, the differences didn’t really matter, did they? She talked to him like she’d talk to anyone. He had a history, a way of thinking, dreams and goals just like she did. She wanted to get back to her sister, and he…

  What did he want?

  Lena blinked. She still didn’t actually know. In fact, she didn’t know much about him at all. He’d mentioned his father, a life of crime, and that he’d done enough to snag himself a fifty-year sentence—but the details? What he did, why he escaped, what he wanted to do from now on? He hadn’t said a word.

  She peered at him out of the corner of her eye, the questions burning on her tongue. She felt… close to Kormak. He was easy to talk to, once you broke through the intimidating exterior, and after that morning…

  She wanted to know more.

  And while she didn’t have a concrete plan for what to do once she got back to Ellie, or where to go…

  She found herself wondering if Kormak might go with them.

  The questions she was guarding died on her tongue when Kormak glanced at her, his large, bone-covered hand reaching down to clasp hers gently. His grip was cool, but it made her feel all the hotter, her entire face lighting up red again. She bit down on a smile.

  The questions could wait. Just a little longer. She couldn’t bring herself to break this peace.

  17

  Kormak’s gaze followed Lena intently as she set up the fire that night. Since his near-death experience, he’d felt less shy about watching her, and he was taking full advantage of that now.

  With her sleeves rolled up to the elbows she was the picture of a worker. She moved quickly, setting out her tools and gathering materials with the meticulous rhythm of someone who worked a trade. Once she began, the confidence with which she maneuvered her tools was eye-catching. She moved quickly and expertly, placing her whittled stick into the notched bed of hardwood again, and wrapping the string of the bow-like tool around it.

  “You’re good at this,” he remarked, unable to keep from smiling.

  She chuckled self-consciously, but her eyes lingered on him when she looked up. “Eh, you pick it up pretty quick after the first time.”

  “Yeah, but you remembered how to do it the first time. It’d been a while, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Lena said, shrugging. “I’m good with this kinda stuff. Show me how something works once, and I’ll probably remember it.”

  “That’s impressive.”

  She smiled at that, glancing up at him through her eyelashes before focusing back on the repetitive motion of lighting the fire. With the bow string wrapped around the stick and tinder placed at the base, she used the bow like a lever, pulling it in an arc so the string turned the central stick, the rock on top pressing the whole apparatus down to create friction at the base.

  “Can I try?” Kormak asked, surprising himself a little.

  Lena looked up, face mirroring his. “Uh, sure. Don’t snap my tools though, strongman.”

  Kormak snorted. “Was that a compliment or…?” He took the bow from her, and their hands brushed. He felt a tingling sensation as her gold-dusted fingertips touched his, and their gazes held, his breath halting. Lena’s eyes flicked away, but
Kormak’s small smile was echoed on her face.

  He set about lighting the fire, following Lena’s directions. Soon, a modest flame was puttering into life, and Lena cracked a grin. “Nice job, big guy.”

  They settled beside it while they ate, Kormak tucking in too. He’d been hungrier since his dip in the river, and assumed he needed to build up his strength again. He’d have to build it quickly too, if he was going to do what needed to be done in New Chicago. He flexed his fingers, violently, but stilled them when he caught Lena looking.

  She didn’t comment. After a while, she flopped down onto the forest floor, staring up into the sky.

  “We’re getting close to the city, aren’t we?”

  Kormak followed her gaze. “Yeah. Might be a day, day and a half before we get to the outer districts.”

  Lena blew out a breath, her small eyebrows raising. “We’re almost there, and I still have no idea what to do.”

  “I thought you were meeting your sister.”

  “Yeah. But after that. I won’t be able to stay.”

  Kormak looked down at his hands. She was right. They’d been lucky so far, but the lack of an enforcer presence here upped the chances of them lying in wait in the city. Family was the first place they would check. They’d both have to be careful if they returned to their old haunts.

  “You could go anywhere,” he murmured.

  “Anywhere?”

  He met her eyes. “Yeah. Where have you always wanted to go?”

  Lena’s eyes widened thoughtfully, her gaze drifting towards the sky again. “I mean… I never really thought about going anywhere, to be honest. Thought I’d be stuck in that factory forever.” She paused, grazing a hand along her stomach. “I-I guess… a small part of me… always wanted to go up there.” She lifted a hand, pointing it straight up into the air above her. “Which is stupid.”

  “S’not stupid. I’ve been.”

  Lena shot to attention, her eyes on his. “You what?”