by Elin Wyn
“You have no idea how much I want you,” he murmured, leaning in to brush his lips against mine.
Acting on pure instinct, I pulled on his bottom lip with my teeth, enjoying the way he softly groaned.
“How much I need you,” he continued, his lips now resting on my chin and going down my jawline. He laid soft kisses on my skin, gently making his way toward my neck, and my nipples became even harder than before as I felt his mouth wandering over the valley between my naked breasts.
“Then take me,” I breathed out, my voice escaping from my lips before I could filter my words. “Do whatever you want with me.” Arching my back, I let my voice climb up, a quivering little moan exploding in the air.
At the same time, he ran the tip of his tongue over the rising curve of my right breast, twirling it around my hard nipple in a maddening way.
“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” he said, and a fraction of a second later, he had his lips wrapped around my nipple, his tongue whipping it mercilessly. I moaned once more, enjoying each and every twirl of his tongue, and closed my eyes as my brain did its best to process all the pleasure coursing through my body. Not an easy task.
“Oh, God,” I let out as he moved his mouth to my other nipple, his tongue punishing it in a wicked manner. When he finally released my wrists, it only took a second before I had both hands on his head, my trembling fingers running through his hair and pulling on locks of it.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I started pushing his head down, eager to have his lips and tongue on that sweet spot between my legs.
Without needing any incentive, he started tracing a downward line with his lips, one that ran from between my breasts to my navel.
He slowed down once he reached it, and then continued the hike down my body with nothing but the tip of his tongue. Restraining my urges, I let him tease me, the way he was breathing against my inner thighs driving me completely mad.
“Please,” I said, my voice trembling just as much as my hands were.
Anticipation had turned into electricity, and I could almost feel it crackling underneath my skin, every fiber of my being burning for him.
Whatever my next words were going to be, they died in my throat as he moved in for the kill. Running his tongue up the length of my drenched pussy, its tip parting my inner lips, he took it all the way up to my clit and then sucked it into his mouth.
With his tongue dancing in circles around my pleasure bud, his lips keeping it trapped in place, I had no other choice but to allow my moaning to become even fiercer and more savage.
Releasing my clit from the warmth of his mouth, he clamped his thumb over it and started massaging it; at the same time, he used his tongue to part my inner lips and slid it past them, the eagerness of his movements letting me know just how much he was enjoying it.
“I don’t know if I can hold back much longer,” I panted, my words coming out as a moan. Still yanking on his hair, I swayed my hips from side to side, losing myself in the moment.
He didn’t even bother with a reply; instead, he just kept on running his tongue up and down my pussy, except now, his fingers joined the fray.
Slowly, he pushed two fingers inside me, turning his wrist around as my inner walls tightened up around them. He curled them upward like a hook and, after pushing them all the way into the back, against that sweet spot hidden deep inside me, he pressed hard. That did it.
With his thumb on my clit, his tongue lashing against my inner lips and his fingers unleashing hell inside my body, there was nothing left for me to do but accept the inevitable. I could already feel a tidal wave of pleasure coming my way, one that was growing and growing as it loomed on my mind’s horizon, and I sucked in a deep breath as I prepared for it.
When it finally came, it came so violently that all my senses were overwhelmed. Even though my eyes were open, I could see nothing but the bright light of imaginary fireworks going off.
I couldn’t hear, nor think straight, but there was at least one thing I could do—ride that incomprehensible wave of pleasure and become one with it.
But we weren’t done.
Not yet.
Using my elbows to push myself off the mattress, I sat up and reached for Ryant, pulling his shirt over his head.
My heart tightened as I saw the contour of his hard muscles, and then it tightened some more as I yanked his jeans and boxer briefs down his legs.
His cock sprung free at once, harder and bigger than anything I had ever seen.
Ryant knelt between my thighs, lifting me up so that I was on my knees, then slowly, so gently it was almost maddening, he pushed into my slick folds.
I groaned at the incredible fullness, the way that every move he made seemed to light me up inside.
“Please, Ryant,” I breathed.
“Megan,” he panted, straining to keep himself tethered. “I can’t…”
“Let go,” I murmured into his neck, then lay back down, pulling him with me. “Let it all go.”
The tight cords of his neck spoke soundlessly of his barely restrained urges.
“I’m not as fragile as you think,” I grinned, and laced my legs around his waist.
With a roar, his control broke, and I surrendered to him, to our bodies, drifting across a river of pleasure until I simply couldn’t take it anymore.
With my back arched, my fingernails buried in his shoulder blades, I cried out in ecstasy as his cock throbbed inside me, filling me with his seed.
“This was…” I started to say between hard breaths, but I quickly realized I didn’t know of a word that could describe this moment.
It had been simply too good.
It wasn’t just that.
There was a connection, like a silver cord that ran between us, thrumming and alive with energy.
He rested his forehead on mine. “I know, Megan, I know.”
We didn’t move for a long while and, even when he rolled to the side and lay next to me, neither of us dared break the comfortable silence that had settled between us.
Ryant wrapped an arm around me, pulling me close to his warmth until, a few minutes later, his breath became even and steady.
I looked to the side to find him asleep, his chest rising and falling evenly.
Alone with my thoughts, doubt crept back in around the edges.
“What am I doing?” I whispered to myself, shaking my head as I looked up at the ceiling.
Ryant wasn’t even human.
He was here on a mission, and it was pretty obvious he was going to leave once he was through with it.
It seemed like my tendency to make all the wrong decisions when it came to men had remained unchanged.
Silver cord tying us together.
Right.
Sighing, I swung my legs from the bed, quietly picked up my clothes from the floor, and put them on. I padded my way out of the bedroom, grabbed his coat from the living room, and headed toward the door. I needed the fresh air, and I needed to think.
Outside, the wind had calmed down, and snowflakes fell gently to the ground, like petals from a flowering tree.
In the morning, we’d get back on the road, get to Gold Peak.
I’d find Arabella, and Ryant, well…
That was for tomorrow.
Smiling at the scene, I placed my hands in the coat pockets and stepped out, the wooden boards on the porch creaking under my weight.
“What the—?”
There was a giant shape waiting outside the door, his frame tightly pressed against the wall.
Before I could notice any details about him, he placed a rag with some chemical over my mouth, and two seconds later, I surrendered to the darkness.
Ryant
Megan stood in front of me, a long flowing dress of soft yellow dancing in the wind around her ankles.
Face turned up to the warmth of the sun, she laughed and spun around, delight written all over her face as she took in the wonders of the mountain valley.
&
nbsp; In the distance I could hear Arabella laughing as she chased skyflitters.
“I love it,” Megan laughed. “I can't believe we’re actually here!”
No words could answer her as completely as my arms wrapped around her.
I tucked her into my chest, breathing deeply of her scent mixed with that of the wildflowers that permeated the air here in one of Vondin’s most majestic parks.
“We’re here forever,” I promised her. “You and Arabella and I.”
I glanced up, searching for Arabella's small form in the tall purple grasses.
Her laughter had fallen silent.
“What is it?” Fear permeated Megan's voice. “What’s wrong?”
I searched quickly, the air turning chill all around us.
“She was just here, I know it,” I blurted.
Megan's eyes went wide and she twisted away from me, running deeper into the growing shadows as dark night swiftly overtook the valley.
And then she, too, was gone.
Heart racing, I set up in the bed, pushing away the last of the nightmare.
But Megan was gone in the waking world, as well.
“Megan?” I called out.
I should've known, in the tight quarters of the cabin I should've been able to catch her scent immediately, even above the smoky scent of the fire.
She was gone.
Swiftly, I pulled on my clothes, glancing through the cabin for any clues.
Maybe she’d just gone out for...there's nothing she would've gone out for, I chided myself.
Megan hated the cold.
The only thing that would've gotten her out of this cabin would be the promise of Arabella.
Maybe she'd heard something outside?
My jacket was gone, but the small bag she'd carried from her car to my truck and then with us to the cabin was still here.
There was nothing for miles, I knew that much. The keys to the truck were still on the table beside the door.
Wherever Megan went, she went on foot.
So she must not have meant to go far.
Flinging open the door, I took in the frozen landscape.
She'd come out, stood here for a moment and then--my nostrils flared.
Her scent lingered on the porch, but something else, something dark and twisted, had been with her.
I snarled.
If I hadn't seen that bear creature dead, I would've thought it came back for her.
In the back corner of the porch, someone, something had waited, long enough for deep holes to be set into the drifting snow.
In the back of my mind, something started to roar.
Someone had watched and waited, and then Megan had come outside.
I shoved the fury back, let the trained operative take the forefront again.
A small struggle had taken place, but she’d quickly been overpowered. Of course.
Her attacker had easily been twice her size.
Megan had been taken.
I checked the air again.
No blood.
Running, I followed the single pair of deep tracks off the porch to where tire marks led away, deep into the trees.
The tracks wound around the thick trunks, some sort of vehicle built for the snowy forest.
The truck would never make it.
I could work with that.
As I raced back to the cabin, a deep, instinctual urge to protect her rose up in me with such urgency that it took me by surprise.
Who was Megan to me, really?
I’d known her for only a day. I still didn’t know what had possessed me to pull over and help her.
I was here on a mission that was so far below my status, I could hear my superiors laughing from their battleship.
Grabbing that stupid data stick and getting the hell out of here should’ve been my top priority.
The mission in its entirety should’ve taken no more than a day. I easily could’ve been home by now, where I belonged.
Yet, there was something about Megan that drew me to her.
I knew next to nothing about humans prior to this mission. I’d always viewed them as weak and even a little bit stupid.
Megan was neither of those things.
Yes, her body couldn’t withstand the same things I could, but that didn’t stop her from taking on daunting, demanding tasks. Her drive to protect her small daughter was admirable.
Megan was bright, funny, and understanding.
My superiors had stressed more times than I could count that I wasn’t to reveal myself to any humans, that I had to blend in at all costs.
I hadn’t purposefully revealed myself to Megan, but she knew what I was.
The mission briefing had led me to believe that knowing other intelligent life forms existed would shatter human psyches.
Megan wasn’t shattered. She was surprised, with good reason.
Megan didn’t see me as something other.
She still saw me as an ally, maybe even something more than that.
I wasn’t familiar with human courting and mating practices, but what had happened between us last night felt special.
I couldn’t just disappear knowing something or someone had taken her.
Megan was under my protection. Nothing would make me break my oath. The data stick would have to wait.
Nothing else mattered but her.
Flinging the door to the cabin wide, I opened Megan’s bag, rifling through its contents in an attempt to sort out what was important.
If I was going to rescue her, surely she and her daughter would require some care when I retrieved them.
But what?
I grabbed my pack and some other items from my truck and put every warm piece of clothing from Megan’s bag into my own.
I also placed her map with my things, as well. At the bottom of her bag were some plastic-wrapped food items.
Nuts covered in chocolate and held together in the shape of a bar. I tucked them into my bag, even though they didn’t look at all appetizing.
There wasn’t much more I could fit in my bag. I hated to leave Megan’s things behind, but I figured they’d be safe here. If anyone was out to steal other people’s possessions, why would they come all the way out here to do it?
Besides, once I had Megan and Arabella back, it would be no trouble for me to return to this place and retrieve their things.
I wish I had a way to directly contact my superiors.
All I had was a small device with a single button that would allow them to see my exact location when the mission was completed so they could send a retrieval pod.
I’m sure they were watching me, somehow. If not, then they would be soon.
As the hours ticked by, they would grow curious.
I could worry about that later.
Megan and Arabella were more important.
I looked at the tracks once more, hoping to learn something more about whoever took Megan. There was nothing more to learn from the scene of the attack. I studied the tracks once more.
With luck, they would cut a clear trail to wherever Megan was.
Whoever took her planned this in advance.
I hoped I’d get to her in time.
And if not, I’d avenge her, and the hell with the consequences.
Megan
There was a blindfold of scratchy wool over my eyes.
Who used a wool blindfold?
Who had random lengths of wool lying around like that?
And maybe, just maybe, I was obsessing about details because I’d been abducted from the porch of the cabin in the middle of the night.
The cabin I’d been sharing with my alien lover.
Or something.
Really.
Blindfolds were a much better thing to think about.
Someone half-dragged me along a corridor.
We must have been inside, because even though I was still having trouble moving my legs in any sort of order after whatever drug had been used on me, the floor
beneath my feet was smooth and hard.
A huge, meaty hand gripped my forearm, thick fingers digging into my flesh.
I was inside, of that I was certain. It was cold, wherever I was. However, it wasn’t the same chill that permeated the winter air outside. This was a manufactured cold.
I was roughly brought to a stop and my blindfold was removed.
It was a lab of some sort, computers and consoles blinking all around me. If possible, it was even colder here.
Blinking in the sudden light, I saw Ted standing before me.
He looked like he’d aged twenty years since I’d seen him. Once, he had a head of thick hair and well-sculpted shoulders. Now, he looked gray and shriveled. His face was too thin. His chin, jawbones, and even his forehead looked like they were put together wrong.
His eyes that were once bright with passion and wonderment were bright with something that made me feel sick. He looked mad. He looked ugly. His skin looked like it was coated in a sheen of grease. What the hell had happened to him?
No, I didn’t want to know. I didn’t care. I only wanted to know one thing.
“Where the hell is my daughter?” I snarled.
“The girl is safe. Don’t fret.” Ted said with a dismissive wave.
Fuck that.
Dr. Bonven.
Ted would’ve been what I’d have called an old friend, even an ex-boyfriend.
And you know what?
I’d never known him.
“Don’t you dare say that,” I screeched and fought against the hand that held me.
I turned and found myself staring at the most gargantuan human I’d ever seen.
He must have been more than seven feet tall, with shaggy dark hair and beard and a solid, wall-like build.
But his eyes were empty.
“This is Klaus,” Dr. Bonven said. “He’s one of my success stories.”
“Let me go,” I hissed at Klaus.
He didn’t react to my voice. In fact, he didn’t react to anything. I threw my weight away from him, but he held fast. He didn’t even blink.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing,” Dr. Bonven grinned.
“He’s not blinking. Is he even breathing?”
