Tempest (Valos of Sonhadra Book 2)

by Poppy Rhys

  Which I could do now! Whatever Lonan put in that bathwater brought me back to life, and while I still felt a bit of an ache, I was much better off. They didn’t break me after all.

  His palm was warm, a little rough, and his fingers gripped me tightly, but not enough to hurt. It felt... nice.

  Back to my thought on cramping his style—because I didn’t want to think about how nice his hand felt closed over mine or how his thick silver locks kind of kicked out over his shoulders with the breeze he stirred up as he walked—he was probably going a little nutso, because I wasn’t the tidiest person. That part of my father’s military life had never rubbed off on me.

  I’d try harder while I was here. I could throw away my own shrimp shells, and fish bones, and if he showed me, I’d wash my own clothes. It wasn’t much, but it was one less thing he’d have to do for me.

  “It’s his turn,” Lonan finally said.

  “His turn to take a human to work?” I grinned when he looked down at me. His lips tugged to the side in a half smile. It did funny things to my stomach.

  A few valos watched us walk by as we passed them. The smile disappeared from Lonan’s face and for some reason, I instantly hated them. Didn’t even know ‘em, but I hated them.

  I squeezed his hand, and though I had no idea what possessed me, I let go and looped my arm around his waist. He didn’t miss a beat when he draped his arm behind me, his hand rubbing down my back before closing over my shoulder.

  Now it itched again.

  Cutting a look to the valos that stopped to gawk, I winked.

  Assholes.

  Granted, I probably shouldn’t have done that. I was probably causing trouble, big time trouble. I didn’t need to make any waves while I was here. I just needed to lay low, wait out the ero’ha and get to the surface ASAP.

  LATER, IN THE ABODE Zaid was working on, I found a nice corner to rub up against. My back was just itchy today. I bet it was dry skin. I’d have to see about getting some lotion, or something like lotion.

  When Lonan dropped me off, that guy—Riv—had been arguing with Zaid. He was brave, because he stood at least a foot shorter than the mountain alien.

  And that mountain alien had been ramming me last night.

  I caught the wall, seemingly tripping over air when I walked away from my corner. Thankfully, Zaid wasn’t paying much attention to me so long as I stayed in his peripheral vision.

  I could dig the strong and silent type.

  Preta always claimed I dated pussies—earlier in life. Flowery men who would wilt beneath a glare. That may have been true, but I didn’t have the desire to deal with men who wanted me to heel.

  Unless it was a target. Then it was okay, because at the end of it all, I got to kill him. Maybe that was sadistic.

  I grimaced, my abnormal human status shining through once again.

  “Why were you arguing with Riv?” I floated around the place, noticing that it was in serious disrepair. The stone walls had lost their brilliance. Small fissures revealed themselves along the ceiling, and it smelled a little musty.

  Zaid didn’t answer me, which irritated me a little. I took his baseball bat of a cock last night; the least he could do was answer my question.

  Instead of saying this aloud—because I was trying not to be vulgar this early in the day—I moved on.

  “I’m sorry for hitting you,” I apologized, brushing dust from the edge of the stone table before I hopped up to sit on its edge. The silence was thick. “And I shouldn’t have called you Grandpa.”

  Zaid paused and leaned on the handle of his hammer to stare at me. “When you assaulted me?”

  I pursed my lips because he wasn’t wrong. He didn’t even acknowledge the grandpa part, and I was inclined to be thankful. That was just embarrassing.

  “Well, when you put it like that...” He remained stone-faced. “Jeez, yes, when I assaulted you. But just so we’re clear, I didn’t purposefully target you.” I shrugged. “I just swung for the closest mug I saw.”

  He grunted, picked up his hammer, and swung.

  “Should’ve been Dason’s face...” I mumbled.

  Zaid chuckled, swinging again, and pulling a small smile from me. It was one of the few times I’d heard him laugh. It was a rolling thunderous baritone chuckle that did unnerving things to the pit of my stomach.

  Was starting to think whatever Lonan fed me wasn’t sitting well.

  My personal porno got stuck on loop in my mind’s eye, and it was getting increasingly hard to stop watching how Zaid’s big, veiny hands gripped that ungodly sized tool.

  My vagina wouldn’t let me forget what happened the other morning. I decided Red Riding Hood was banned from any future dreamland sexcapades.

  “Why was I in your bed that morning, Zaid?” I curled my fingers over the edge of the table, gripping. My eyes feasted on his sizable muscles that jumped with every impact of the triple-sized sledgehammer he was wielding. He really was the biggest of his roommates.

  When he didn’t answer, I said, “I know someone moved me. Why? Why don’t you guys ever let me sleep on the couch, even when I make it very clear that’s where I want to sleep?”

  The silence stretched, only the thump-tink of the hammer against stone filling the atmosphere. I didn’t do so well with being ignored unless I was about to take down my target. Zaid wasn’t a target. Yet.

  “Does this have anything to do with the other valos giving you funny looks when you walk by?” At this point, I was just going to dig until I got some answers.

  “Why do you and your roommates isolate yourselves?”

  Thump-tink.

  “Why do you barely talk to the other valos?”

  Thump-think.

  “Want to finger me again?”

  Zaid missed his target on the next swing, hitting nothing but air about a foot to the right. The weight of the wayward hammer made him stagger forward, and I smirked.

  Gotcha.

  He skewered me with a glare.

  “Hi,” I wiggled my fingers. “Knew you weren’t suddenly deaf.”

  Zaid set down his tool and started gathering the stray rubble to dump into the wheelbarrow.

  “I have a proposition.” Though he continued about his work, I knew he was listening. “You can start answering my questions—which is only fair since I actually apologized a few minutes ago,” I lowered my voice to a whisper, “something that almost never happens—or...” I lazily drew a circle in the dust beside me. “I’ll start talking about how good it felt to ride your fingers that morning.”

  There went my resolve to abstain from vulgarity.

  He dropped a large rock into the wheelbarrow’s bucket, staring me down. The challenge in his eyes set my pulse thrumming and I realized I kind of liked the game we started to play.

  I was feeling particularly inhibition-free today after what happened last night—I could officially cross out ‘get off in front of four aliens’ from my bucket list, right after I actually added it—and my curiosity about my temporary roommates had hit a ceiling.

  When the atmosphere thickened, I held back a smirk. Zaid wasn’t retreating, and the minor—major—competitive side in me ran with it.

  “At first, I thought it was just a dream,” I sighed, swinging my legs back and forth over the table’s edge. “I should’ve known better when the shadowed stranger in my dream didn’t let me ride something else.” My eyes pointedly dragged down his torso to land on his package that was already bulging.

  Had it always been that big?

  I closed my eyes, expelling an exaggerated breath. “It didn’t matter though. Your thick fingers, stretching my dripping pussy while you squeezed my ass like you wanted to...”

  My words died on my lips when I opened my eyes and Zaid was towering over me, trapping me against the table. He squashed the gap between us, his big hands gripping my knees and forcing them apart, so he could wedge his hips between them.

  Fuck, what was I thinking?!

  Hurricane
-blue was all I saw.

  I swallowed—hard. My throat was suddenly as dry as hot sand when Zaid leaned forward, planting his hands on either side of my body, caging me. My head tilted back when his face stopped inches from mine.

  See it through, Charlie.

  I wetted my lips. “Like you wanted to flip me over, and—”

  The bulge of his hardened cock pressed against my core, my lack of underwear glaringly obvious even through the shorts.

  “—and impale me with your—”

  He rocked against me and my head fell back on my shoulders. I hated myself a tiny bit for the whimper that slipped out of me, and for getting myself into this clusterfuck to begin with.

  Tell him to back off.

  “Do that again.”

  Clearly my brain had left the building.

  Zaid rocked into me again, harder.

  That time, I moaned, and my eyes rolled back far enough to confirm that, yes, my brain was missing.

  I raised my hand to glide over his bald head and grip the back of his neck for leverage. My knees spread further apart, and I met his next thrust. My nipples scraped against the soft fabric of my tank, tormenting and teasing me.

  “Harder,” I demanded when our eyes locked.

  His palm pressed into the small of my back, traveling down to grip my ass—and I was keenly aware he could manhandle me with one big fist—before he did exactly as I wanted.

  Little jolts of ecstasy crackled through my limbs.

  I didn’t care about the questions right then or how my limbs still held a touch of soreness. I only cared about how good it felt when he pounded against me, shocking my clit with every impact.

  Zaid curled forward, our foreheads touching as he dry-humped me like we were two horny teenagers trying to get off in an abandoned classroom before our teachers discovered we were missing.

  Not that I would know...

  I half laughed, half moaned aloud, my thoughts going a little sideways when I couldn’t focus on anything other than his cock bumping against my core. Zaid groaned, the grave sound vibrating through my skin.

  I curled my toes, my calves tightening in preparation.

  Fuck, I was so close my mouth was wateri—

  The room shook around us, the crashing of rubble tearing me from our little bubble and jolting me back to the present.

  “What th—”

  The wall started to crumble and rocks fell. Dust choked up the air.

  Zaid grabbed me, hauling me off the table and rushing to the door. A loud boom rattled the space around us, and a dust cloud billowed from the opening just as Zaid cleared the threshold.

  I coughed, waving a hand in front of my face until we were completely clear of the dirty air.

  Zaid was still holding me against his side when he turned his head.

  Despite being robbed of my orgasm, I found myself grinning like a stupid person, because Zaid was grinning like a stupid person.

  I wrapped my legs around his middle and rested my chin against his shoulder.

  “Thanks for saving me from the collapsing house.” I kissed his ear, and his chest rumbled, soaking into my bones. His big hands rested under my bum and along my bare thigh, and I didn’t even care when other valos came rushing to see what the boom was about.

  My vagina didn’t win this round and I was happier about that than I should be. It meant my brain was still in the game here.

  When it became a game, though, I had no idea.

  SEVENTEEN

  ONCE THE DUST CLEARED and Zaid checked the place out to make sure there was nothing else that was going to cave in, he resumed his work and I went back to abstaining from vulgarity.

  And the table? I avoided that at all costs, opting for a chair in the middle of the room so I could watch Zaid work.

  I tried helping by picking up some rubble, but he took the rocks from me and guided me back to my chair like I was a bad girl. No, bad girl, I imagined him saying, just like last night when he wouldn’t let me escape his cock.

  I crossed my legs, resting an arm on the back of the stone chair, and ignored all the filth from last night.

  Something crossed my mind.

  “Zaid?”

  He grunted, indicating he heard me and to continue with whatever inane question he probably thought I had.

  Asshole. I couldn’t help the grin that came next.

  “Why haven’t I seen any children around the city?”

  With how they insisted on taking me to work every day, I’d been around most of the city, especially with Dason. He basically traveled the dome a few times a day, messing with the humidity when he wasn’t borrowing things.

  Anyway, in that time I’d never seen one child. Not one. I’d seen adults, male and female, but no kids. It was weird.

  He stopped pounding the wall and started picking up rubble, and I thought it was so I could hear him. The hammer was a bit loud.

  “No one would dare procreate without Ghishwy’s blessing,” his baritone voice bounced around the room.

  “Oh...” I chewed on the inside of my lip. “And since Ghishwy isn’t here...”

  “No children.”

  “How do they prevent it?” I was sure he knew I was headed there. “Is everyone celibate?”

  He deposited another rock. “Ghian women can prevent their bodies from cycling.”

  Damn, would be nice to not have a period just because you decided. And really, who wanted one? I mulled over this information for a minute, my foot bouncing in the air.

  “But what if she never comes back?”

  Zaid paused, and I’d noticed the relatively relaxed disposition he’d gained after the cave-in had fled. His midnight blue brows were pinched, and he looked irritated.

  “Then there will never be young in Ghi.”

  “Is everyone that afraid of her?”

  Zaid’s eyes were back to hurricane-blue, turbulence stirring there. Something tugged at my insides, and I realized there was more to that look on his face than irritation.

  He looked... hurt—angry-hurt—and I found myself standing and getting closer.

  “I’m not afraid. We’re not afraid,” he finally admitted, looking down at me. I believed he was referring to his roommates. “The others, they’re afraid. Ghishwy is a goddess to them.”

  “Who is she to you?” My curiosity had its fill. I needed answers. I needed to know who this person was, and why the other valos didn’t interact with my guys like they did with each other.

  Zaid’s hands cupped my face and unexpectedly, I saw a blank slate before me...

  I gazed through the eyes of an intelligent being, analyzing the vast ocean that crested the pink and gold horizon as a giant fireball of a sun sank.

  I loved this planet, whoever I was.

  Bending down, my slender, violet-blue hands—four fingers, one thumb—cupped, scooping cerulean water and letting it drain through the slits between my digits. I looked to the shore, spotting primitive men.

  Four.

  Loincloths, spears, a curious glint in their eyes.

  “So much promise.” My voice was throaty, feminine, with a dual layer as if two beings spoke from inside me.

  I envisioned many things for these four, whoever’s memory I was in.

  The world spun and the four grew in size, evolved before my eyes until they were massive.

  Four small, diamond-cut, brilliantly azure stones hovered above my outstretched palm, rotating around each other and faintly glowing. The stones parted, one bright stone hastening toward each male.

  Each stone melded with their forms, becoming one with its host.

  Already, I felt love.

  Love for my creations. Love for what they would become: my companions, my soldiers.

  My Four.

  A deep chuckle escaped me, and I caressed an opalescent claw against the one whose emotions I could feel. It was Dason. I anchored the four together, forever tying them to each other, and I tied a piece of myself to them, but it didn’t feel
weighty. Not like the link between the four.

  My link was temporary, fleeting.

  They’d be the best of their people, forever elevated, set apart.

  The air brushed past and time changed again. Another place, another memory, same being, but I hungered for battle.

  “Fight for me,” I whispered into Zaid’s ear, trailing my claws against the silver chest plate that molded to his muscles as I moved down the line of my four. They stood at the front of an army of mixed valos.

  A melding of valos that could wield electricity or water. Both were Ghians. They only had different knowledge of the elements. The perfect blend to create the storms I loved.

  My voice dipped with lust for blood when I stared into Kahn’s stormy, pale eyes. His need matched my own. “Prove how worthy you are.”

  This being meant to her. They needed to prove their worth to her. Me. Over and over, they had to prove it.

  “My loves,” I gripped Lonan’s firm jaw, my clawed thumb brushing over the sharp nubs below his cheek. His eyelids shut for a prolonged blink, and I knew he was savoring my touch.

  Keeping Lonan’s jaw in my grip, my gaze turned to Dason, stroking his cheek with my other hand. Claws that could mark him forever lightly dragged against his prominent cheekbone, leaving his skin intact.

  “Mine.”

  I swept into another memory, and my skin tightened, craving to be against hers.

  The being came into view, her white claws tipping me off. It was she whose memory I’d just come from.

  She stood eye level with me—Zaid, whose thoughts were now mine. Her eyes were fully white, reminding me of Kahn and Lonan when they were experiencing turbulent emotions, only hers didn’t hold the strikes of beautiful lightning theirs did.

  Her white silken skirt flowed behind her, barely covering anything. She was topless, her violet skin on display, chest nearly flat, her frame androgynous. There was no mistaking she wasn’t human. Ghostly silver hair with strands of reds and golds and blues sprouted from her crown to frame her long face, and fall down her back in a thick, straight curtain.

  At first, I thought her face was painted—a vision of war-ready markings—but it was part of her. Red lines mingled with gold, blue swirls, and white dots to make a unique mask that wasn’t a mask at all.