by Ravyn Wilde
Her triumphant scream reverberated in the small space, “Yes!”
His control snapped as soon as her tight muscles clenched around his shaft and started to milk him. Her aura surrounded him as the tiny tendrils reached out to stroke along his flesh and consume him with fire and heat Experimenting, he allowed the whispers of her soul to touch him and then tried to direct his aura to toward Nika. The resounding spike of sensual heat seared his skin and her panting shrieks assured him she felt the sensations as well.
Too much. Surging hot and hard, he hammered into her, holding her hips firm against him so he could piston and slam to his heart’s content. To his cock’s content. The appendage seemed to have taken on a life of its own, growing and expanding within her suctioning heat until he felt as if his head would explode. He kept the sensual thrill of psychic mouths and tongues playing over her body and opened the links to share in the absolute ecstasy he found buried deep within her. The shared passion coiled between them, intensifying each time it ricocheted from one to the other.
Mating links allowed them to feel each other’s pleasure when they were open. Raj felt what she felt and her mind subtly directed his movements as she shared her need so he knew how to stroke, how deep to plunge. Through their link, he shared his body’s reaction to the sensation of her hot sheath closing around him, the burning prickle of need radiating from the base of his spine, making his balls tighten in preparation, he slammed once more into her depths and felt her body and her response as if it were his own.
“Ican’ttakeit!” Her mind shut down, unable to deal with the interchange of orgasmic pleasure beating through her body and soul as their self-awareness united and intermingled. Hers to his and back again, the vibrations spiraled higher filling her heart, her soul, her body with his presence.
Keening noises and guttural yells escalated in volume as the explosion rocketed between them and proved to be too much. As power and energy burst—fusing their souls together, their minds tumbled into unconsciousness. For a short time, the linking fever was satiated.
Chapter Eight
“Oh, dear Goddess, I am starving!” Still half-asleep Ahnika grumbled.
Raj laughed and swatted her beautiful ass. “As you should be, my love. If you would open your eyes, you would see a feast waiting for you to rejoin the living!”
She huffed and sat up, pushing her wild hair to one side and opening her eyes to the magical transference of their small cave. It looked like the inside of one of the richest homes with yellow, red and blue silk walls replacing the stone surface, and plush carpets on the floor. Lunar globes cast a golden glow from the ceiling and yes—thank the moons—there was food. Every delicacy and treat known had been piled before her. Closing her gaping mouth, she couldn’t resist teasing him. “You’ve been busy. I take it psychic power or the lack thereof—is no longer an issue.”
Reaching out, she plucked a delicacy from the tray and nibbled while she looked around in amazement.
He snorted. “Sweetheart, the power created between the two of us could handle the needs of the entire planet. Just tell me if I’ve missed something and I’ll be happy to create it for you,” he said smugly.
Swallowing her food, she replied without hesitation, “A bathing pool…with hot water.” She knew she could bathe in the lake…but it was cold and if he could— “Oh!” And, just that quickly, one appeared in the corner. A beautiful rock pond, with a small waterfall cascading into the pool, had been added to the cave. Steam rising from the water’s surface attested to its heat. The sound of water falling into the grotto with soothing whispers—an indication of its designer’s creativity. “Dear Goddess, now I don’t know if I should eat or bathe first.”
Raj smiled indulgently. “Do both. Go get in the water and I will bring a plate of food and join you. I think we need to use this little break to talk and to rest—at least for the short time the links will allow us.”
At the reminder of their mating, Ahnika suddenly felt a slight blush of embarrassment at her nakedness. Hurrying over to the pool, she slipped into the water and was unable to suppress the groan of pleasure as the warm liquid embraced her. Drifting for a minon in time, she kept her mind a careful blank. Taking this simple pleasure, she would block out all the things she didn’t want to examine too closely. Like being mated.
Not blocking hard enough.
Raj’s cock sat up and danced a jig at her small moan. Short break. When he glanced at Ahnika’s face and read the confusion and panic in her eyes, he noticed how the links started vibrating with her bewilderment. Praying to the Goddess for just a little control, he needed to spend some time taking care of and talking with his mate. She needed to be courted and soothed into accepting their linking, not just with her body…but with her mind.
The moons knew this had been a shock to him…she must be reeling with the turn her life had taken. Willing his body into submission, he walked over to the pool with the tray of food strategically placed to prevent her noticing his rampaging cock. If he could have managed it without drawing attention to the state of his arousal, he would have thrown himself into the cold water of the lake.
Instead, he slid into the caress of warm water and kept a considerable distance from his bride, setting the tray of food on a nearby rock.
Ahnika sat up, careful to keep her body submerged in the lilac water as she glanced cautiously at Raj and smiled sheepishly. “Not exactly the results we were expecting.” He could feel her resolve to not run from her fears.
Laughing full heartedly, Raj agreed, “No, little minx, I would have to say I was completely surprised by the result of our Vampen feeding.” Handing her some of the fruit from the plate, he watched her eat and hesitated for a minon before saying, “Talk to me, Nika… Tell me how you are feeling.”
Shrugging her shoulders she sighed. “I don’t know. My feelings are all jumbled up inside of me. I’m amazed Shocked. Happy. Frightened. Confused. They seem to be in a chaotic tumble, each one taking hold only to be pushed aside by a new emotion. I had no idea the sexual pleasure could be so…”
“Cataclysmic…breathtaking…mind-blowing…stupendous…”
Her giggle eased his heart. “Yeah, that! But I keep thinking it all happened so fast. We don’t know each other. We stumbled into this so how can it be right? How can you love…?” She stopped. Raj could feel her embarrassment at having voiced the concern.
“How can we love each other?” he said softly.
Ahnika hung her head unable to look at him.
“Sweetheart, look at me.” When she met his gaze, he continued. “You know there is only one link mate for each person. Many people go their entire lives without making that ultimate connection. Our Ruler, Tar, couldn’t find his mate here on Zylar. Mica searched multiple dimensions and several worlds for her, and it took him many life cycles to find Nyssa for Tar. When he found her, because she wasn’t Zylan he had to create companion links for her body.” Ooops. Shivet, he probably should have left that part out.
Nika gasped and started to sputter. He could feel her anger start to grow and focus, but before she managed to get her mind around the implication of what he’d said, Raj quickly continued.
“Mica used tendrils from both Tar’s and Nyssa’s souls to fashion true links, Nika. They were not the perverted version Brac came up with. Only Nyssa’s body would accept the unique bonds created for her. They work the same way ours work, without using a box to generate pain, and they look the same. If you didn’t know she wasn’t Zylan-born, you wouldn’t be able to tell.”
Looking very unsure, she finally nodded her acceptance. Something about his explanation of links teased the back of her mind.
“The point I am so terrible at making, my pet, is that Tar and Nyssa love each other. Now. When she first came from Earth, she had a very hard time adjusting to our planet, to our ways. Nyssa said that even the sky and the water in her world are different colors than on Zylar. And Earth only has one sun and one moon. She wasn’t used to the
way women are treated here, and she is working to change that. But with such an extreme alteration of her life, she still grew to love Tar. I have no doubt that, in time, you will grow to love me as well. As I already love you,” he said softly.
Ahnika closed her eyes and moaned silently. Tears seeped from under her eyelashes and rolled slowly down her face. “Oh, Raj. I wasn’t worried about me being able to love you… I think the minon I opened my eyes and found you bending over me, washing my face…the seeds of love were sown. Your soul cries to mine and I know you are my true mate.” She glided through the water and into his arms, her long hair floating behind her.
The links pulsed through them with impatient need.
For several minons he just held her. The Goddess had truly blessed them when they found each other. Bringing his hand to her chin, he raised her green-eyed gaze to meet the heat in his blue stare.
“I will love and cherish you for all time, Nika,” he said reverently. Deliberately. Slowly. He reached out and cupped her face. Drawing his finger down her cheek to the side of her mouth and slid his thumb over her soft, pale pink lower lip and stroked a small caress there, fascinated by its promise. Remembering the taste of her—unforgettable, sweet. Addicting.
Heat flared between them. Smoldered. Ahnika inhaled sharply, “Raj.” There was an ache in her voice.
His fingers curved around the nape of her neck, sifting through the cool wet tendrils of her hair. Nothing mattered to him but touching her, tasting her. His entire focus centered on getting close to her, skin against skin, as he anticipated the minon when he would bury his body deep inside hers. The links between them channeled an inbred need to claim her again, to remind her that she was his and his alone.
She could feel the desire through the links, swamping them both. Could feel his body hurt, needing to be joined to hers. He leaned down just as she strained upward to find his mouth with hers.
He kissed her then, a long slow kiss that built into a spiraling curl of heat, using every fiber of his being to blend hot passion, building love and possession. Mouths clinging together, their slippery bodies moved from side to side, rubbing…deepening the fire between them.
Wrapping her arms around his neck she pressed her body closer to his, her tongue slid along his teeth, teasing his tongue and drugging his senses with her intoxicating response. His fist bunched in her hair and his mouth fused with hers as he held her to him.
His mouth plundered hers as he explored the tender flesh between her lips, and used the links to fill her mind with his love. There was instant, urgent need as a tidal wave of heat poured over both of them. The links vibrated, sending their desire higher.
Feeling her wet breasts press against his chest as she wrapped one leg around his thigh, her steamy core pressed invitingly against his cock. Growing need spiraled out of control. He swept one hand over her side until he found her breast and began to play with the smooth nipple, teasing the pale burgundy nub of flesh until it hardened under his touch. When she started to keen and gyrate against him, he switched to her other breast to repeat his actions and then moved to trace the contours of her hip and to open his palm over her buttocks.
Catching her other leg, he guided it around his waist and lifted her into position over his straining shaft. The link fever built fast, pushing him to join his body to hers. Their shared consciousness, a persuasive ingredient in the urge to race to completion, made taking their time out of the question. Promising himself to luxuriate in a slow seduction sometime soon, he bent to the links’ call for their joining.
He aligned their bodies, holding onto her hips with both hands to stroke his wet tip across her slick folds. He teased her, allowing only the ripe head of his penis to dip into her tight sheath. Ahnika’s mewling sounds drove him crazy. Opening her link to him, so she could feel what he felt and burn while he burned, he held her immobile while he pressed firmly inside. Savoring the sensation of her tight sheath relaxing enough to allow him entrance, he threw back his head as the breath left his lungs in a sudden rush and the now familiar pulsation of the links stoked the fire between them.
Using those links, he caused them to thrum with power as he began pushing his hunger and her yearning back and forth with the tempo set by his shaft. A shudder of startled pleasure unbalanced her and she braced her hands on his shoulders.
“Do you like that, Nika?” he purred in her ear.
“Goddess, yes.”
So tight and hot, she gripped him with a fierce keening appetite every bit as urgent as his own. Pushing against him, riding his body with an answering madness as he thrust up and into her. She used her thighs to squeeze his waist, her arms around his neck to lift off him, only to slam back. Keeping his hands on her hips, he helped her movements and lost awareness of everything but the joy of burying himself deeper and harder with each stroke.
Ahnika thought of nothing but the pleasure, and Raj. She could feel the heaviness in her body that signaled her climb toward release, too soon becoming a flash of fire between them that ignited hard and instantly sent them freefalling. Their bodies slapped together and churned the water around them, the water splashing back against them adding to the overload of tactile sensation.
Clinging to him, she dug her fingers into the hard muscle of his shoulder, attempting to take back some control and ride slower, wanting to curb the gathering force. It was too late. Her body rocked and rippled as they came together in a burst of heat. The links channeling an ever-growing progression of explosive ecstasy between them and their cries rang out together.
Raj held her in his arms until their heartbeats calmed. Carrying a sleeping Nika out of the water, he dried them both with a thought and took her to bed. They could eat later.
Three bi-nons had passed when they prepared to leave the cave. Ahnika could tell that Raj took great pleasure in dressing her in a traditional Zylan outfit, a style reserved for women who had been claimed by their mates. A male’s sense of possessiveness calmed with knowing any who saw her dressed this way would understand she was taken. By him.
A brilliant violet color, the outfit had no waistband. It was made of individual pant legs gathered at the ankles and fastened to the side rings of the chains permanently encircling her waist. Her mating links wound through the skin around her waist and joined with the links going into her genitalia. She wore a strip of cloth draped over the front chain, pulled between her legs and wrapped over the back chain to hide her woman’s hair. Her chest was covered with a short sleeveless vest, also in violet. The vest didn’t close, but hung open over her breasts and ended right below her nipples, leaving the link chains between her nipples clearly visible.
But of course, that was the intent.
Ahnika sighed. She hated the outfit and yet she knew she was supposed to dress in the traditional mate garments for the rest of her life. Even if she didn’t feel comfortable exposing her body this way. There wasn’t anything she could do about it and the color was very pretty.
Raj dressed in the male version of Zylan traditional wear. Black pants with a waistband hitting him low on the hips, a horizontal slit in the material below his navel to highlight the link in his body. He wore a short tunic, which set off the links on his chest.
Seeing Nika gowned as his mate had a profound physical effect on him. It would be hard to control his growing erection and silently he acknowledged the need to revise his travel plans if this kept up.
With a wave of his hand, all trace of their presence vanished from the cavern. “Come to me, little love. I will shift us outside and we can begin our journey to Tanar.” Enveloping her in his arms and using a thought, he took them back to the little cove. He scanned the area and marked the absence of any Hunters. Good. “My plan is to location-shift for most of the distance. We will have to make several hops, stopping to rest and scan for Hunters along the way. Just relax and let me hold you.”
Nika did as she was told, allowing him to pick her up in his arms. Traveling this way would be disorienting so she
closed her eyes and let him move them from place to place with his thoughts. Her own thoughts couldn’t help but focus on the upcoming meeting in Tanar with Tar and Mica. Raj assured her that both men would have their mates present, giving her female support and so she could relay her story to all of them at one time. He’d filled the time when they weren’t mating with stories of the two couples and they sounded like an interesting group of people.
Raj understood her social abilities were almost nonexistent after spending two life cycles alone. She had struggled since she escaped to feel comfortable with people again, but more than one or two strangers around her at a time made her nervous. Nika wasn’t sure she would ever feel comfortable in large groups again. Smiling to herself, she realized it was horribly pathetic to think of six people as a large group.
Thinking of what was to come brought a whole new list of worries. Did Raj live in Tanar? Her pulse escalated in near panic. They hadn’t spent any time talking about where they would live when this was over. She knew she couldn’t handle living in a big city and all that it implied. It had been hard enough trying to cope with the press of humanity in the small outpost of Vidar. Goddess knows how she would handle the Ruling Place. It must be huge.
“Nika.”
She really needed to talk to Raj about this. He had to know that she couldn’t…
“My heart, what’s wrong? Come on, love. Breathe. Everything will be okay,” he murmured soothingly. She was scaring him, she’d grown stiff in his arms and he could feel her mounting tension through the links.
Nika turned wild eyes on Raj. She hadn’t even realized they’d stopped. Watching her glance around in mild panic, through the links he felt her try to regain control over her fear.
“What is it, Nika? Do you sense danger nearby?” When she shook her head, he asked, “Does location shifting bother you?”
