Reggie laughed. “I’ve missed you so much!”
Chapter 22
Destiny wasn’t able to leave as soon as she’d hoped when Reggie spoke to her. It took about another month and a half before Destiny’s Edoka mates cleared her and their hatchlings for travel.
Over the weeks they talked, Reggie hadn’t been surprised to find out that Destiny had ended up with the blue alien they’d seen in the alley. Unlike Reggie, Destiny hadn’t been kidnapped, but instead ended up sneaking aboard the starship of a male destined to be her mate. Reggie thought it was incredibly romantic—in a bizarre kind of way.
But who was she to judge?
She certainly couldn’t fault her friend for falling for someone scaled and sexy. Reggie felt her core clench at the thought of her males. That was one thing that had changed in the last month. Reggie always had a healthy sexual appetite, but being pregnant seemed to kick it into a ludicrous level of overdrive.
She couldn’t get enough of her guys, and they were eager to oblige her sensual cravings.
They were also quick to provide for her other cravings. One such craving she discovered, to her horror, was for the rich meat of the shoyla. Gods help her, she actually wanted to eat the damn spider.
There was also this crunchy, syrupy sweet called ormi that she’d seen Walooth eating that she just couldn’t get enough of. Of course, she forbade him from telling her what it was. If she was craving shoyla, she didn’t even want to know what other things were appealing to her pregnancy palate. At her insistence, Walooth happily made weekly visits to Norveth to get more of the sweets for them to share. Well, hypothetically share. She ate most of it, much to his amusement.
More recently, she noticed that her waistline had begun to thicken. A few more weeks and she’d likely start feeling the little flutters of her Vori babies within her. Despite how early it was still, all three males were very inclined to touch her belly without notice. Sometimes as fleeting as a palm rubbed across her abdomen, or at night, a tail would coil so that the end or tip would rest gently against her belly. More than once, she woke to find three tails curled around her midsection protectively.
The day finally came when Destiny was due to arrive with her family and Reggie couldn’t contain herself. She spent that the entire morning pushing her mates out of the way so she could properly clean the nest. Shaagra set himself the task of freshening the resting room that Walooth had once occupied, making sure there’d be plenty of pillows and soft fibers for a family to rest comfortably within. Walooth cleaned areas that were too tall for Reggie to reach, and Vadal left the nest to keep watch for the arrival of their visitors.
When he returned, Reggie took in the glow of happiness around Destiny. She didn’t waste a moment. Her friend handed the baby she was holding into the arms of her pewter-gray mate and squealed as they wrapped their arms around each other, dancing in place. At either side and behind Destiny, she was surrounded by three tall, intimidating Edoka males, watching everything with sharp predatory black eyes. But the males were friendly when Destiny introduced them and the five precious little ones they guardedly carried.
It took a while before all the males became even marginally comfortable with each other. There were several tense moments, during which the nest was noisy with rattling spines from the Edokas and tails from the Vori. Reggie exchanged a look with Destiny. They were obviously staking their claims and marking territory before each other. It was an exhausting dance, but one that did eventually wind down.
To her surprise, once they got all the showboating over with, Shaagra and A’Jular, easily the more aggressive males in both families, got along swimmingly. They traded stories of hunting and trade back and forth and showed off scars, each loaded with their own stories, likely all a little exaggerated. When Shaagra produced a preserved claw from one of the largest shoyla he’d bagged, that launched into whole series of stories.
Vadal, meanwhile, was talking quietly with Sha’melor as the hatchlings adventurously climbed all over both males. They seemed to find the thick coils of Vadal’s tail especially interesting. Reggie winced every time the little claws met the thick scaled hide, but Vadal made no sign of even feeling the pricks.
Destiny snorted. “I swear, every time A’Jular tells that story he adds another giant mutant spider.”
Reggie grinned into her cup.
She looked up and inhaled appreciatively when Walooth set a plate in front of her. Every shoyla leg had been cracked for her and were ready to eat. Reggie knew she couldn’t cook worth a damn, so it was a good thing that both Shaagra and Walooth enjoyed cooking. Walooth also knew how to expertly season and boil the shoyla—not that she would say such in front of Shaagra, who’d take it as a challenge.
Destiny blanched. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Don’t ask,” Reggie suggested. “Pregnancy’s got me craving stuff I don’t even wanna think about myself.”
A’Jular looked over just as Reggie bit into the tender meat, her stomach rumbling appreciatively. She tried not to laugh at the nauseated look that came over his face. Even Destiny looked a little green, but nothing was quite as amusing as seeing those dark blue scales lighten with disgust. Shaagra, who really had few manners at all, chuckled and bit into his own shoyla leg, crunching it between his teeth.
Destiny swallowed and down looked gratefully at her plate.
“Oh, this really looks great,” she said with undisguised relief. Walooth beamed with pleasure. At Reggie’s advice, he’d prepared a mixed plate for each of their guests of angyal meat and various vegetables grown in the clan’s communal garden.
Not that Reggie was about to tell her friend what exactly she was eating. She didn’t think Destiny would enjoy the idea of eating giant lizard any more than she did the prospect of eating a mammoth spider.
Not that the hatchlings were deterred. Already possessing teeth at their age, they tore into any food with greedy appetites. When Emouko, the eldest of the hatchlings and ringleader as far as Reggie could tell, happily tore into a shoyla leg from Vadal’s plate, Reggie didn’t miss the indulgent look on her mate’s face.
His eyes met hers, and she knew exactly what he was thinking, surrounded as they were by Edoka toddlers. That quickly, she was able to imagine Vadal sharing food from his plate with their children, teaching them and lovingly holding them on his coils as he did now with the tiny, pale blue female Ka’vanda. Reggie returned his smile.
***
Shaagra curled up against Reggie, his hand drifting down her abdomen. Although he had been initially uncomfortable with the lethal males in his nest, he was happy to give that small gift to their mate. He had been surprised by how much he had in common with the dark blue male, A’Jular. He had not thought he would care for any of the males and would just barely tolerate their presence in his nest.
He still was not sure how he felt about them being inside his nest, but he freely admitted he enjoyed speaking with the other male of their common interests. A’Jular’s encounter with the shoyla had been an entertaining tale, especially knowing that the shoyla the Edoka had discovered had been smaller than the average shoyla and clearly still young. Still, he could see how it would be an alarming experience for one not accustomed to dealing with them.
Now the nest was silent. The small sounds of the Edoka nestlings had settled down a while since. Shaagra smiled to himself. The hatchlings had been a wondrous sight. So fearless, born an energy that he had seen in too few nestlings in recent years. Those hatchlings that did survive often appeared moderately sickly for the first few weeks, lacking the kind of strength that had been common among Vori nestlings of old.
Beneath his hand, his nestlings were growing in the way of his ancestors in the mountains, secure in the protective belly of their mother. There would be no fragile egg to worry over, just their mate and she was already the center of their world.
He felt a tail slide up Reggie’s belly. Shaagra looked over and saw the brilliant red of it. Walooth. Another
male he would have never expected to welcome but who had earned a place in the family and in his heart.
Vadal rested just behind Reggie, her head pillowed on his chest, his hands caressing her sides unobstructed by the tender touches from Shaagra and Walooth. Shaagra lightly touched his hand to Vadal’s hand, and his nest brother smiled over at him.
In the center of the crossroads of their secure embrace, Reggie stretched, the slight swell of her stomach pushing outward as she arched her back. Her breath hitched as Walooth’s hand lightly dragged across a breast. Her breasts were already beginning to swell, more tender to the touch of her mates. Shaagra delighted what every touch did to her as she writhed and moaned under their hands.
Shaagra leaned down and pressed a kiss to her belly. From there, his lips trailed a fiery path down between her legs. He licked the slick from her thighs, his tail shifting up to wind with Vadal’s. Walooth’s tail joined theirs, making a chain of love around their female. Shaagra’s barb buried in Vadal, and Vadal in Walooth, their encircled their female between them to show her in fact just how she was the center of the nest and all of the world.
Three pairs of lips sipped the sweat from her skin. Three sets of hands caressed her body and alternated plucking at her tender nipples. Shaagra toyed with her clit, settled against the fork of his tongue, where the slightest movement had Reggie shiver against him and lift her hips in her silent demands. They tightened their joined coils around her, Vadal bracing her, Walooth teasing her with the light touches of his quick hands, while Shaagra pulled up above her.
He bent over Reggie his cocks, flushed with his heat and desire, fully extruded from his salet. With a hiss, he pressed into her welcoming heat, her dripping fluid drawing his cocks easily into her body with his quick.
Reggie ground her hips against his from beneath his pelvis, accepting all that he had to give, her body always eager for his. Eager for the pleasure their bodies gave and took from her. He thrust vigorously, his eyes drifting over her chest, where Walooth’s crown coils trailed as he tongued her breasts between them. Behind her, Vadal, his crown coils securely locked to her, panted and lifted his hips against her.
With a sharp tug, Shaagra lifted Reggie’s bottom up off Vadal just long enough for the male to position his cocks, one at the puckering grip of her ass, and the other to glide between her channel. Vadal gently pulled Reggie down on him, impaling her as Shaagra thrust forward again, pushing her against Vadal’s erotic assault on her body. Reggie gasped between them, her back arching and her fingers digging into their muscles.
She surprised him when she freed one of her hands and gripped Walooth’s cocks within it. The male froze and then his eyes rolled back in pleasure when she pulled herself forward and fed the flesh of one of his cocks into her mouth. Licking, teasing, and sucking on it, giving Walooth every little bit that he gave. The red male bent forward again and sucked sharply on her nipple, making her moan around his length. Walooth gasped against her skin at the sensation.
Shaagra thrust into her over and over, feeling the length of Vadal thrusting against him. They kept in time together. His free hand gripped Vadal’s hand, their muscles straining as they thrust into Reggie’s body. Sweat gleamed on their skin and on hers. He buried himself so deep that he was certain that a part of him would always remain within her. His balls tightened and his felt the first spasms of his impending release.
He could feel Vadal readying at the other side of Reggie’s channel. Impatient, Shaagra reached forward and wrapped his hand around Walooth’s other cock, gently squeezing and rubbing in time to frantic thrusts. All four of them needed to come apart together. A part of him thrilled when the male bent forward and gasped over his hand, Reggie’s mouth frantically working at the smaller male’s other cock. Together, Shaagra hissed, his body shuddering.
***
Vadal groaned and lifted his hips. Every downward thrust from Shaagra sent Reggie’s body harder into him. He needed to do little more than raise his hips that right moment, and he repeatedly sank home into ass. He laid his head against hers, his breath just as ragged. When her muscles began to squeeze and the pace increase from Shaagra, Vadal found himself driven into a frenzy. His fingers dug into the flesh of Reggie’s arm, taking care even in that state not to mar her with his claws.
His tail tightened with Shaagra’s and Walooth’s tails. The brush of barbs releasing pheromones into the room made Reggie crazy with lust and sparked their own desires higher. The tip of his tail slid around, between her body and Shaagra’s, and found the nub of her pleasure. He tightened his tail, putting the friction of his scales and the sharp squeeze of its grip against the swollen fresh.
Reggie screamed her pleasure. Her hips shot up, her body convulsing in such a way that Shaagra snarled and pounded into her brutally several times. Vadal lost himself in the squeeze of her all around him. His cocks pulsed, spitting out seed deep within her.
***
Walooth would never get accustomed to the sweet pleasure of Reggie’s mouth on him in such a way. His breath left him in a gust of ecstasy. He could not help pumping his hips against the pull of her mouth upon him.
He almost stopped breathing when Shaagra’s hand closed around him, the touch gentle to bring him into alignment with their pleasure. He understood the intent behind it. His body wanted to buckle at the dual assaults upon him. Shaagra’s hand coaxing his body to its pinnacle while Reggie’s mouth tormented him and fed the need with him.
He no longer had any control over his body. He was floating on pleasure, his body quaking, his hot seed rising rapidly through his root. Cries of ecstasy surrounded him. From Vadal, from Shaagra, and even muffled from Reggie, mingling with his own. His seed shot out, covering Shaagra’s hand, a small amount dripping down onto Reggie’s cheek where she lay and sucked deep his offering from his other cock. Her lips were as a paradise, sweet and wet on him, her tongue licking the sensitive skin.
How he loved her.
***
Reggie lay panting between her mates, her body slick with the combined sweat and other bodily fluids. In the grip of their post-coital embrace, she couldn’t even complain about the fact that their combined body heat was roasting her.
If she was going to expire from heatstroke, it was a great way to go. She was surrounded in the coils of their love.
Sticky, sweaty, overheated, Reggie still managed to drift off to sleep. She may have dreamed of Vori babies and loving arms. She may have dreamed of everything, of the family she’d always wanted but had never admitted to herself. She was loved and fully permitted herself to embrace and return that love without fear or hesitation.
Her last thought was of their company. Sweet Mother of the Nest, she really hoped that Destiny didn’t hear all that loving going on in her nest proper.
Chapter 23
Four Months Later…
Reggie watched in morbid fascination as a ripple banded her swollen belly like you would see from a tentacle moving underwater. Of course it wasn’t tentacle; it was a tail of one of her babies pushing against the taut skin of her belly. It was only slightly creeping looking, as if she were carrying a leviathan rather than a perfectly normal Vori baby. She’d read way too much H.P. Lovecraft in college.
Vadal lowered his head and pressed his lips to her belly. His medical equipment sat beside him on the floor of the central room of their nest. In this last month of her pregnancy, he’d taken to doing medical exams on a daily basis. The first projection she’d seen of her babies had made tears well up in her eyes. And a surprise. Sharing a sack was a tiny fourth baby tucked in with its slightly larger twin. Vadal had been pleased to announce that she carried three girls and a boy.
Word had quickly spread among the clan, and as Reggie’s estimated delivery date approached, the clan’s nesting ground quickly filled up. Members of Walooth’s clan made the short trip from their southern territory bordering the Norveth territory of the Etale clan. Even a number of Agor clan members descended from the mountains, bois
terous and happy, many of the females and youths wielding bows rather than spears.
It was a bit overwhelming that the nesting grounds were starting to look like a full-blown Earth festival with all the traveling shelters, vaguely resembling domed tents, and clans engaging in singing contests. Shaagra’s clan demonstrated their skills with their bows and spears. Vadal’s clan ruled over feats of strength and martial displays.
Yet the most awe-inspiring was the display Reggie had watched as Walooth’s clan—originally of a plains clan of Vori, Reggie completely unaware that such geography even existed on Vora—blew fire and spun it in dazzling dances upon their rolling coils.
Bonfires were lit and voices filled the air. The sweet juice of the Nixai fruit was passed around. Reggie was given some, and though the taste bit at her tongue in a pleasant way, it had no alcohol content to it. In terms of flavor, it was almost like some sort of blackberry wine.
After her cursory examination, Vadal returned her to the pile of pillows mounded at the center of the nest grounds for Reggie to rest and recline on. Many Vori she didn’t recognize but knew were relatives of her mates brought her small bits of food to sate her appetite and nourish her young. Esfalee reclined with other clan Mothers nearby, bestowing kind smiles on her and often coming by to make sure she was comfortable. Reggie couldn’t recall a time feeling that fussed over. It was nice—but also exhausting.
Vadal rested on his coils, reclining on the mound beside her. His eyes watched the goings-on with interest. Her mates took turns sitting with her and visiting with their kin.
Reggie watched Shaagra pulling a bow, several of his clanmates jeering at him and laughing as his muscles strained against the draw. She knew they were trying to distract him, but his arrow hit the mark, making several of his clan groan and pay bits of metal or gems that they had wagered to those of his clan who smirked, greatly pleased with their gains. They slapped Shaagra on the shoulder and gave him a small portion of their winnings.
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