by Mima
He threaded through the bushes, still striding so fast KarRa was towed behind him. When he was out of sight of the path he stopped, fell to his knees and began to work at her leathers with frantic fingers.
“Rylan!”
“What? You said. You said I could. KarRa, just a smell, it’s been so long, I have to…” his voice halted as her leathers cleared her slight hips and fell to her calves in a whisper. Mesmerized, Rylan urged her legs as far apart as the pants would allow, and ever so slowly let his face fall toward her curly bush, until his forehead pressed into it tightly and his nose was pushed past her lips.
His hands were around her thighs, and he inhaled, at first deep and slow, but changing to harsh pants. She stood with her hands on his head, her heart pounding at the strangeness, but recognizing this was important to him. It was strange to her to feel him pressed against such an intimate spot. He’d never before touched her down there. He began to put out waves of heat, yet his skin shivered. Her skin shivered too.
After what seemed an eternity his breath slowed and deepened again, his nose nuzzling in her moisture, his breath hot across her core. He pulled back and looked up at her again, now appearing thoroughly drugged. This was the heavy lidded Truxet look of lust she had learned.
“KarRa,” his voice was a low growl, “Thank you. Let me repay you. A taste. A taste of the pleasure I owe you. I want to shower you with it.”
KarRa froze. She couldn't find the courage to ask her best friend to suck until she came. There was heat at her knees, feeling his fingers lengthen, nails scraping lightly as they extended. Her mind flashed to her finger being suckled in Merk's mouth and she croaked, “Blood?”
He shook his head, fingers trailing up her leg to brush against her curls. “Too dangerous. For now, this. Your woman's milk. Just enough of a taste to make you rise.”
His eyes glowed and she found herself whispering, “Yes.”
Using his hands to pull her lips open and pin them to her thighs, he stared at her soft pinkness until she squirmed. “Rylan!”
He looked up at her and growled, his eyes now radiating green. “I watched you touch this so often. No more holding back.” He leaned forward, then pressed the flat of his tongue to her and dragged it firm and smooth to the tip of her clit. Falling back onto his haunches he growled at it, then leaned forward, burying his nose against it as his tongue reached further back. He swirled it around in her moisture and pulled away again, panting.
“Oh Winds. That’s too much,” KarRa gasped out. “Let…” she squeaked as he surged to his feet, kicked one leg behind her to force her knees to unlock, and then lowered her backward to the grass.
With her feet tied by her pants she couldn't stop him. Propping herself up on her hands she was stunned as he ripped at her boot and wrestled one foot out of the pants. Not bothering with the other leg, he leaned against her, knocking her arms out so she fell completely flat, sweeping her knees up and back to her shoulders so her hips were rolled up high and her center spread wide.
He attacked her cunt, eating, sucking, licking, driving his tongue as far as he could into her depths, worrying her clit with his teeth. KarRa gasped, choking back screams as intense pleasure hit her out of nowhere. Once again, the inferno exploded through her body, triggering a pulse pounding lust. In heartbeats, she was heaving her uptilted hips against his mouth, unable to keep from reaching for more.
Crouched between her legs, he looked up her body. With a voice gone gravelly, he said, “This is just the beginning. You deserve so much. Finally, I can unlock you. I’m going to set you free.”
His hold kept the nails from her skin as he folded himself over, sealed his mouth to her, and began to suck hard. KarRa squirmed as his tongue lashed her wildly. The growl vibrating from his throat only drove her higher. The pleasure was harsher than anything she’d ever dreamed. In no time, she crested with a shudder, panting soft mews while her fingers twisted in his hair.
He let go of her legs when her body fell limp and she opened her eyes to see him on his feet, in complete battleform. His lower face glistened with moisture and he licked his lips awkwardly around his extended teeth. He stepped forward with each leg until he straddled her torso, staring down at her ferociously. His cock appeared to be trying to tunnel out of his leathers.
Immediately, KarRa rolled her head up, baring her throat, keeping herself still. Would Rylan hurt her in this form? He never had before, but it had never been directed at her before. He kneeled slowly, bending to lick with small, damp flicks along her throat, up her jaw, around her ear. He gripped her lobe lightly in his teeth and worried it. Then he set to suckling it, grumbling and growling and purring in her ear. She could smell herself on his skin. His breath raised goosebumps over her whole body.
A few moments later he pulled back and looked down at her, human Rylan again. “Hey,” he said hoarsely. “Are you well?”
KarRa smiled shyly, her heart still thundering from the sudden devouring of her cunt, and the unknown of him crouching over her. “I am very, very well. But we’re not done. I want more.”
Concern furrowed his golden brow. “Whatever you need, love. Anything.”
Her fingers swept around from his shoulders to burrow along his taut stomach, slipping inside his leathers.
The sound Rylan made as she brushed the silky soft head did not sound like pleasure.
“It hurts?”
“Yes, Elements, so good.”
“Kiss me.”
He pulled back from her neck, her cream showing damply on his face still. “My face…”
“Yes. Kiss me.”
He lowered his head and gently, softly, fed her her own taste.
“Is it all right?” he whispered softly.
An expert flip twisted them so that she lay along his torso.
“Rylan, I love the taste of me on your lips.” Her fingers quickly unbuttoned him. “I had to know…” She opened the flap and his cock lifted into the air. She could feel a wave of heat escape. The smell was familiar, yet she’d forgotten it. She drew in a shaky breath. “I wanted to know that taste, so that I could compare it to this.”
She swooped down, opened her mouth, and closed her lips around the round head of him.
Rylan shouted. It was still a sound of pain, but this time it held a note of triumph.
“Your turn,” she murmured huskily.
Her hands traced the veins, feeling their give. She squeezed, and squeezed harder, fascinated at the way her hand seemed made to clasp him. Her mouth rolled over his tip, her tongue lazing along the faint edge flaring around the head. His skin was as soft as her own inner skin.
“KarRa, you don’t have to. I wanted you to have the pleasure…”
A particularly long lick seemed to distract him from his thought. “And I do. You said anything I need.”
His hands were now in her hair, their position a mirror of the one they’d just shared. She squirmed down farther between his legs, braced her hands on his bare hips, and began to lower her mouth, raise and lower, twirling her tongue where there was room.
His voice was so low, rumbling from her ears to her stomach. She couldn’t make out the words over the thunder from her own heart, but she knew the tone. Don’t stop. She continued to rise up to the fascinating dimple at the top, and lower as far as her throat would allow. She played with changing her lips, dragging her teeth, fluttering her tongue.
She played. As she had never allowed herself to imagine it, she was surprised at how naturally it came. It was perfect. Perfect to feel his cock jerk, grow longer, harder, throbbing. Perfect to feel the first wash of his taste, similar to hers, but stronger, tarter. Perfect to hear his voice rise in pitch, feel his hips thrash beneath her hands. Rylan’s pleasure wasn’t just beneath her hands, but in her mouth. The thought made her throb between her legs.
She straddled his leg and ground against his knee. Her hairs were crisp and her cream flowing. It was fascinating to feel the textures against her.
H
is hands were so tight in her hair she could feel the draw on her eyes. She was making the same slurping sounds he had as she struggled to breathe around his increasing depth.
When he bowed beneath her, driving his crown into the constriction of her throat, she choked. Her mouth was full of liquid, creamy, tangy. She closed her eyes, sucking hard at his tip. He screamed her name and drove his knee deep into the cradle of her pelvis. Nearly sobbing, she swallowed and swallowed, her eyes closed against the pleasure.
Moments later, she patted the moisture from his nest of hair.
“I messed up your leathers.”
“No. You marked me. Wonderfully.” His voice was scratchy.
“You kept it together this time.”
“Not really. I think we should go. I really don’t want to stop.”
As she watched, his long limp length twitched under her breath.
She looked up his torso and smiled at his amber eyes.
“It was so good, Ry. So good.”
He smiled back. “Keep in mind it’s just the beginning.” He pulled her up and buried his face in her neck.
“Mmmm. You know how I said it was good to be the only scent on you?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’m just as proud to have your scent all over me. You’re the strongest person I know KarRa. I won’t fail you with this chance.”
She took a deep, shaky breath. He rose and helped her dress.
Looking into her eyes as he led her away, he said, “Just for the record, I remember every minute.”
He chuckled when she blushed.
That night a rather subdued Cro and Merk came to her room. She thought Merk looked tired, and didn’t meet her eyes as he greeted her. The three settled at the table with the tea they had brought.
“KarRa,” Cro began, coughed and choked then started again. “We need to talk to you about your mating ceremony. I already told you there would be guests, besides the mages guiding you, and Grif.”
KarRa nodded unhappily. She had forgotten until now that Grif would be there. To be watched by Grif and Merk while Rylan took her…
“You should know that many women wish for bedplay with their promised before the ceremony. To come together your first time in front of others can be awkward for a human woman.” Cro was clearly awkward explaining this, although her dark skin showed no blush.
“The men have no trouble?”
Merk shrugged. “The men are incredibly excited about claiming their mate, they are proud to have their important people near, and it is an important experience for our Beasts. A public claiming establishes a possession we crave. Animals do not see the world in terms of embarrassment or modesty. It is only once, and it is done with the highest honor. No one will participate, and no one will ever talk of what they see.”
Cro said, “What magics would you like to ground you?”
“You mean, the other mages? I can choose the elements?”
“Yes. Grif chose earth and sky for Rylan's first Change, thinking his human experience would find common connections to them. A spiritmage is always the third of the triad. It is a popular combination for women.”
KarRa studied the table for a minute. She shook her head. “I will choose water and fire.”
Merk raised an eyebrow at this unsettling combination.
KarRa shrugged. “It is a combination that I feel right with.”
Merk held up a soothing hand. “All combinations of elements can achieve peaceful balance. This combination is just harder than others. I think it fits the road you have chosen.”
KarRa had a thought. “Does Rylan have a spiritmage?”
“Grif acts as his now. Later, when he becomes a warrior, he will souldance with one. He will tell Grif if he wants anyone else at the matebond ceremony, but he has no family to stand with him. During the ceremony, we will lightly link and Grif will link with Rylan. The triangle is empowered, and with this force in place, you will meet the Owl in Rylan's body, in battleform. Your bond is already so strong the mirror will build quickly, I'm sure.”
At her signal {Question} he said, “Your path to Rylan will become a flow. Grif and I will open it to its fullest extent, and instead of you having to travel the line to contact Rylan, you will become him, and he you. Your feelings will be awash in the other's. We call this state a mirror, because the reflections echo into infinity until you fall through, trying to see an end that does not exist.”
KarRa’s brain began to ache as she lost her understanding of his description. “Do not worry about understanding it. You will feel more than you ever have before, and be completely aware of Rylan in a way that will be exciting and intense. He will taste you, and by that I mean blood, as we did, and smell you. Then he will mount you from behind.”
KarRa tensed. Cornered. Lucky right hook to the jaw. Stunned. Flipped facedown onto the rickety table. Pants being ripped at from behind.
“I know KarRa. I saw. You will have to trust that in the mirror state, it will not matter. I will hold your memories away.”
“Why can't we just…”
“No. Learn something now—you must never fuck a Trux in battle form. The risks are too great—a glance of connection from your eyes to his would trigger massive dominance and the play could turn very aggressive without a mage triad. The temptation of open throat and belly may grow too tempting in the heat of quickening. A Trux unaware of his body and still thinking like a human may try to hold or touch you and his claws would slice you to ribbons. Don't ever fuck Rylan when he is in this mode. Any bedplay at all is very dangerous in that form.”
KarRa fidgeted. “What?” It was a demand.
KarRa looked at Cro under her lashes.
“Would you like me to leave?”
KarRa squirmed, feeling terrible. She nodded.
Cro said, “That’s fine KarRa. Merk only asked me to be here because he thought you'd be more comfortable meeting with someone else around besides just him.”
KarRa looked searchingly at Merk, who calmly looked back. Reaching out she touched his sleeve. “Merk, I care for you. I am not afraid of you, nor am I angry. You can come to me anytime, and I will trust you as my spiritmage. I am sorry if it is painful for you, and I understand if you want something between us, to focus on. But you do not need it for me.”
Merk smiled sadly at her. “I hear your words, and will remember.
Cro stood and took the tea set with her. “I'll be in the lounge.”
After she left KarRa whispered, “Yesterday, he already changed. He was—We…”
“KarRa. You were very lucky.” He sighed. “The problem is this. Few women want their first time with their mate to be at the ceremony, and before the ceremony, our Beasts are very needy and uncertain. They crave the mate, and crave dominance. They see a woman they think should belong to them, and know that she doesn't. The urge to dominate is high until after the mating ceremony, where the Beast is finally comforted.
“Afterwards, the Beast is confident in his claim and stays quiet for mating, mostly. But before, even experienced warriors have difficulty keeping themselves contained when bedplay starts with a promised-mate. Rylan is barely into his training. I don't think he'll be able to keep it together. I don't think you should play with him, KarRa. It isn't safe.”
She bit her lip. Actually, she felt so odd after Rylan pleasured her, she would be content to go without that feeling as she got used to thinking of him in that way. She nodded at Merk. “I'll be more careful.”
Merk tilted his head. Why was he being so stiff?
“All right,” he said softly. “At the ceremony, you will be taken from behind because Rylan will be in battleform, and it is the safest position. Even this position is not without some risk. Sometimes the warrior's desire to claim their mate will include the urge to mark them, or the desire for more blood. Bites and cuts are not uncommon. A bodymage will be waiting outside. While the woman may be … harmed, there is never any serious injury.”
“Xu?”
/> “Xu can be your healer. After the release, your matebond with Rylan will be closed. Your doorways will be solid. What you feel now with Rylan, the way you can sense him if you concentrate, that will be your constant resting state even with the door closed. After your mating, when the door is open you'll be getting complete access because of your soulbond. I've heard that soulmates can actually see out each other's eyes sometimes, and that they can achieve the mirror state, which is usually only triad-formed at the mating ceremony, whenever they want to.
“When you have your door in place, I'll drop the triangle, and Grif will close the ceremony by acknowledging the Beast’s claim to you. You and Rylan will remain there as long as you like. Some people go to their room in the clan caves, others stay in the bonding room until the next day. Rylan need not take on that form with you ever again.”
“You seem so … distant, Merk.”
His mouth twisted bitterly. “I am spiritmage to a woman I love. It is a pleasure and an honor. I am friend to a woman my body has known, but will never know again. My body doesn't understand that. My head knows you are claimed but my Wolf senses no matebond on you and claws at my gut. My dreams keep going back to the way I felt during our souldance, when you said yes. Then I wake up. I've come to dread sleeping.”
KarRa looked down, her eyes welling up. “I'm sorry,” she whispered. “Have you tried a paid woman?”
“Perhaps after your bonding. It’s not the fucking that I miss, KarRa. For now, sleeping with Clan brothers helps.” He bowed his head. “KarRa, are you not angry with me? Disgusted at my dishonor? I have knowledge of you I don't deserve to have.”
She tried to talk.
He wouldn’t let her interrupt. “No! Hear me. I knew within one breath of our brightmoon souldance that you could be my mate, and that you had a soulmate. I should have turned around and walked out, but I chose to go into you. I wanted to know you, to learn you as I never would be able to in life. And when I saw the damage he had dealt you, I desperately sought others, so that I would have some sort of argument to present to the Council for the crazy thing I wanted to ask, that you be given a choice outside of Rylan. I knew there was such a slight chance you would choose someone else, that you still wanted him desperately, and had just trained yourself to do without him. But I wanted that chance.
