To his surprise, her eyes widened seconds before her lips parted in a brilliant smile. She threw her arms around him and squeezed his frame with affection. When she pulled back, her eyes sparkled with tears.
“You’re crazy, but that’s the sweetest thing ever. I can’t believe you’d really do that for me. I know how important it is to get to your nephew, but the fact you ever considered changing your plans because you were worried about my welfare... I can’t tell you what that means.”
She gave him a watery smile before she pushed her shoulders back and straightened. “I appreciate it, but no, Ehmhy. I can’t let you do that. Ferikal needs you. I’m with you a hundred percent of the way. Like I said before, a bit of rain never hurt anyone. Let’s pack up our supplies and get a move on. We have plenty of jerky, fruit bars, and granola to last us a couple of days while we search.”
Ehmhy made a face at the mention of the granola but was otherwise silent as he helped her to her feet. Upon leaving the engine room, the rain had already slowed to a steady drizzle.
He glanced over at Geree, worry plain in his eyes, but she merely pulled her hood up and stuck her thumb up in the air. He wasn’t certain of the meaning behind that gesture, but he assumed it was a positive one by the smile that accompanied it. He was already familiar with the middle finger being an unflattering gesture. It seemed that similar human hand gestures could vary widely in meaning.
He didn’t understand how such a primitive species could have such a complex set of language rules and gestures. It hardly seemed plausible, yet here he was looking at it.
He considered comming his father’s cousin Neshral upon his return to Forashual. The male had broken a long line of family tradition to become a weral, a priest-scholar, but the male had great passion for his cultural databases. His were some of the more renowned in the Intergalactic Union. Neshral had often argued that low-tech species were far more advanced than the Union and Council gave them credit for. As he watched Geree pace ahead of him, singing softly to herself, Ehmhy considered the wealth of information that his female could provide to the Council. Neshral would probably sing his praises for years if he were to meet his female. Geree would make a good representative of her species, of that he was certain.
Pleasure ran down his spine. He’d provide a valuable insight and have a good excuse to take his female with him. He opened his mouth to say as much to her but quickly shut it and scolded himself. It was hardly the time to speak of such things. His focus needed to be on retrieving Ferikal. All else would have to wait until after that had been accomplished and they’d found a safe place to hole up while they awaited Nuralo. But he would speak of it to her then, he decided.
Chapter 10
The morning after a bout of sex was usually awkward for Gerry. To her surprise, she’d woken up encased in a cocoon of warmth and felt none of the usual nerves. Instead, a sense of rightness had settled over her when she’d looked up into pale blue feline eyes and watched his slit pupil dilate as his tail flicked against her bare thigh. That he’d been willing to put off their venture for another day out of concern for her only added to the warm fluttery feelings kindling inside of her.
He was definitely getting under her skin, and in the best kind of way.
The rain, however, didn’t thrill her. Although it had died down, the rain still wasn’t doing them any favors. Aside from the cold drops dripping down into the back of her jacket, she already felt her hair starting to frizz in the rising humidity. It was slow going as they frequently slipped over the muddy turf. Okay, maybe they didn’t, but she definitely slipped every half a dozen steps she took and was caked with mud halfway up her calves. The gray drizzle did nothing for the ambiance as they both slipped into silent trudging as the hours passed.
Though the tire marks were long gone, they remembered enough of the general direction they’d been heading to set off on a solid course from the beginning. It also turned out that Forad had keener vision than humans and Ehmhy had been able to see more of the trail before the storm had swept the marks away. When they passed the last recognizable landmark, they continued on in the same direction as a matter of faith.
To her surprise, Ehmhy didn’t say anything about their shared lovefest the night before. If she hadn’t been there as a witness and was judging him by what she was used to, she would’ve thought by his attitude that it had never happened. There were no sweet nothings, lingering touches, or longing glances. But he wasn’t totally unaffected. He walked closer to her, at the fore as if to shield her, his tail often curving around her when not outright touching her. It was not prehensile, otherwise she likely would have found it clinging to her rather than brushing against her with its soft fur.
Instead of staring at the soggy ground, Gerry preferred to watch Ehmhy. The heavy muscle of his limbs seemed out of place with his nimble movements. He didn’t slink; he had the silent rolling gait of a big cat. His ears were flattened with irritation at the cold rain, making it clear he wasn’t enjoying the weather any more than her, but unlike her trudging, his steps were certain, his ears and whiskers constantly alert and moving. She watched with interest every time he paused to scent the air. Every inch of him screamed protector, predator, and “don’t mess with me.”
When the tracker finally came online, they both nearly jumped as the light flickered on and Ashdru announced its detection. Ehmhy’s eyes widened with elation and his whiskers vibrated ever so slightly. His reaction was so subtle she would have missed it if she hadn’t been watching. Hers in comparison seemed over the top. He stiffened in surprise when she threw her arms into the air and shouted happily, but then his lips curved in an amused smile and his tail tapped her in shared exuberance.
Gerry looked at his tracker and made a noise of complaint in the back of her throat. They still had a long way to go. Not for the first time, she regretted she didn’t have a car. It made more sense to go without one when she moved to New Orleans. Public transportation was reliable and not only were many streets a pain in the ass to navigate in a vehicle, the cost of insurance was astronomical. Even without funds for public transportation, most things were within walking distance. Unfortunately, the downside was that it made traveling anywhere else an obstacle.
Although a few cars passed them, most folks were still waiting for the last remnants of the storm to fade and many of the streets were rendered impassible for vehicles anyway. A taxi wouldn’t have done them a whole lot of good even if they could’ve come up with a convincing story for the driver to ignore Ehmhy’s distinctly non-human appearance. She didn’t look forward to the walk, though. According to his tracker, his nephew was quite some distance away. Fuck.
As the day wore on the weather died down to something of a faint drizzle, and by evening the rain had stopped. After the sun went down, they used their flashlights to keep going for a few more miles until they came to an abandoned shed. It wasn’t the Hilton by a long shot, or even close to a rundown motel. The weathered walls huge cracks between the boards and the roof leaked dripped water like a sieve. The interior was musty and stank like ass as far as Gerry was concerned. But by then, she was soaked, uncomfortable, and tired. Even Ehmhy was looking a little worse for wear, his tail drooping and his fur matting as it dried. As far as their situation was concerned, it was practically cozy.
The door of the shed protested with a groan when Ehmhy pulled it open, the muscles under his garnet fur bulging in a fascinating manner, and then possibly even louder when he closed it shut behind them. Gerry wrinkled her nose. The entire floor was covered in damp leaves and what she hoped were cobwebs and not the nests of any spiders still among the living. Not that she was particularly afraid of spiders, but she had enough good sense to not want to share a bed with some of the more venomous among their numbers.
Gerry tried to force an encouraging smile but felt that it fell short.
“Home sweet home,” she murmured as she pulled out a blanket and set it on the clearest part of the floor.
Ehmhy’s ears twitched an
d she could swear his nostrils flared with disgust as he looked around their humble surroundings, but he nodded and settled beside her without a word, spreading his cloak over them as they huddled together.
“From the look on your face, I take it you don’t do much camping on Forashual?”
“What is camping?” he asked absently as he attempted to settle more comfortably around her. Blissful heat emanated from his body as he cradled her close against his fur.
“You sleep outside—for fun.”
He sucked in an aghast breath and looked over at her in disbelief.
“We make shelters and sleep outdoors during the hunt or sometimes when traveling through the denser part of the jungles where transports can’t get through, but it is done as a necessity. I cannot imagine anyone considering such a thing as fun,” he said.
She nuzzled her face against the thicker fur at his neck and he purred and amended his observation.
“This, however, is pleasant. Maybe if more males were mated on Forashual, it would make curling up together in a shelter more enjoyable than it is with one’s cousin or brother.”
Gerry snorted a laugh and leaned into him. He felt so good against her. She froze when the loud roar of a chopper sounded not too far away and the flicker of lights in the distance showed signs of some kind of search. Thankfully it was still far away from their location, and they were well concealed. Ehmhy’s arms tightened around her until the sound and lights faded off into the distance. Only then did he loosen his grip and relax.
Reminding herself that they were safe, she rubbed her fingers through his fur, enjoying its soft texture against her skin. She was inclined to feel it along the entire length of her body—if only she could summon the energy. As much as she wanted to instigate some play, she couldn’t rouse herself to do more than lie like a limp noodle in the circle of his arms.
She wasn’t the only one. Ehmhy settled against the wall and fell into a deep purr-rattling sleep before she even properly closed her eyes. Burrowing into his warmth, she sighed and drifted off.
EHMHY YAWNED WIDELY and blinked his eyes. The sun had not yet risen, though the thin shafts of early pre-dawn light could be seen through one of the higher cracks in the wall as it stretched up from the edge of the trees. He grimaced down at his fur and began to work his fingers and claws through what he could reach, grooming himself as Geree slept pressed against his chest and belly. He didn’t consider himself a vain Forad, but that was one thing he appreciated about working in space: he did not need to do more than basic grooming.
With the last of his reachable fur lying neatly once more, Ehmhy gazed down at the female snoring lightly against him, her breath teasing the fur of his upper abdominals. She hadn’t even so much as stirred when he shifted beneath her. Her dark curly hair was like an erratic, wispy cloud framing her face. He was tempted to groom her as he would have naturally done for a mate of his own species, but he held off. She lacked the dense layers of a Forad’s coat, and he was uncertain how to untangle the curls without making the matter worse. He hesitantly plucked at the mass and found that it not only resisted his efforts but tangled around his claws.
Glaring in consternation at a claw still stuck in a spiral tuft of hair, he didn’t realize that Geree had awakened until she cleared her throat loudly. He glanced down at her in embarrassment as she raised an eyebrow in inquiry.
“What exactly are you up to?” Her eyes slowly scanned him, and she frowned. “Well, that’s not fair. My hair looks a fright, and you look as immaculate as ever.”
His tail curled against her hip as he nuzzled her.
“You look beautiful. I had groomed my fur and merely wished to provide you the same attention as it customary for my kind, but I confess I got a bit... stuck.”
She brushed a hand back against her mass of hair and wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, this is going to be impossible to tackle now that it’s dry. What I wouldn’t give for a hot shower and a bottle of conditioner right now.” He watched as she scraped her hair up into a messy knot on the top of her head, leaving the column of her neck bare. He ran his tongue over his teeth as his cock pushed eagerly at the opening of his genital sheath.
Taking her scent deep into his lungs, he held it within him, imprinting it on his memory so he would always know her and always be able to find her if she were nearby. Unable to resist the temptation of her flesh, he licked the length of her neck, savoring her complex flavor. She shivered in his arms, but he knew it was not from the cold. Geree shifted against him until he slid out from underneath her and stretched her body on the blanket beneath him.
He ran his tongue over each breast, teasing the peaks of her dark nipples until she squirmed and gasped. He didn’t relent until her fingers clenched in the fur on his back, and one hand gripped his long braid firmly. With leisurely licks, he laved her quivering belly, his tongue trailing across the wide, feminine brace of her hips before parting the dark fur over her sex.
Her cheeks darkened as he studied the feminine folds so unlike the modest hidden crease of a Forad female as far as he’d been told, or even the invisible seam of the Gida that blossomed out only when they were ready for copulation. But nothing was concealed with Geree. Her cunt was like a wet spring flower, the first to appear after the rainy season on Forashual with its soft folds and peaked hood. He pinned her arms so that he was able to marvel at it at his leisure and luxuriated in the feel of it under his tongue as he brought her to climax.
With her body’s cream fresh on his tongue and his female’s body arching under him with her silent demands, he crawled once more up her body and settled himself against her pelvis, his exposed cock brushing against her. Geree groaned and thrashed as he teased her with the hard nub at the tip.
“Ehmhy, quit teasing me already and fuck me,” she snarled, impatient. With a low growl he plunged forward, unerringly finding her entrance as he slid into her depths. She tightened with surprise around him at his sudden presence filling her up. She groaned in his ear, the sound tingling through his nerves making his fur stand on end and his flesh shudder.
“Now that’s what I call an alien invasion,” she moaned breathlessly and she lifted her hips against his, demanding that he move.
Ehmhy pulled out almost to the head and pushed in again, and her body tightened, squeezing around him as if loath to release him. The friction was exquisite as he retreated and thrust again, his pelvis rocking against hers in rhythm with the ancestral songs of the mating ceremonies of old. Just like those songs, his tempo sped up until it pounded within his blood with feverish intensity, and Geree’s cries beneath him rose like a primal echo of all beginnings. The skin beneath his fur felt unbelievably hot.
Everything melded together until the world around him resembled the way stars looked through a viewscreen when slipping along the celestial rivers. He was barely aware of his barb hooking into his female when the world exploded around him like a supernova, stars exploding before his eyes as he poured every bit of his essence into her as she cried out so loud that even the gods in the furthest reaches of the cosmos were sure to hear her.
He pulled her onto her side with him, embracing her while they waited for his mating barb to ease and unhook her sensitive internal flesh. Her hands brushed through his fur, untangling the mats he couldn’t reach during his earlier grooming session. Her eyes glazed still with passion, she seemed to do it instinctively out of some tactile need not unlike his own. By the time his cock relaxed and withdrew from her body, she was smiling up at him sedately, her fingers threading through his untangled fur as if she couldn’t get enough of touching him. His content purr mingled with her sighs as the only sounds in their shelter until the sun rose and the morning birds began to call out to each other with song.
With the rising of the sun, they untangled their limbs from each other and slowly stood, silently dressing around small, playful kisses while packing their few belongings back into their bag. Geree did not complain as they started on their way, but he could tell from
the way she trembled as she stood that her body still ached from their driven pace. He felt a flash of guilt at waking her to mate when her body was already suffering from their exertion. Ehmhy brushed a finger down her cheek.
“I should have let you rest. You are still tired.”
She blinked up at him with surprise, and then she stood on her toes and pressed her lips against his. “Don’t even think such a thing. I have zero regrets for what we did. It was a great way to start the day—invigorating,” she said with a flirtatious smile. “I’ll feel better once we get going. A bit of exercise and fresh air, that’ll wake me right up and loosen these muscles.”
He frowned at her but dutifully strode off in the direction of the signal. The tracker, despite its weak signal, was narrowing in on his nephew the closer they got. Soon, he would be able to liberate Ferikal and make steps to leave this accursed planet.
Chapter 11
Although Gerry understood Ehmhy’s need to be reunited with his nephew, she couldn’t help but be grateful when they ran out of land and found themselves face-to-face with the Mississippi River. Her legs hurt and the several stubborn blisters on her feet didn’t have the grace to pop and relieve some of the uncomfortable pressure. Staring at the river, she sank down into the long grass a safe distance from the bank while keeping an eye peeled for any signs of gators.
Her Forad companion stood beside her and viewed the river in appreciative awe and no little trepidation. He stared at it wide-eyed as if it were a vast ocean. He didn’t seem inclined to believe her at first when she told him it was a large river. She didn’t blame him. The first time she’d seen it as a kid, she’d sworn that it was a great sea with a massive bridge made to carry mere mortals between worlds. They were, unfortunately, too far away to see said bridge. Or at least she couldn’t see it. With the tracker indicating that their target was just on the other side of the bank, the Mississippi presented a problem.
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