by Abel, Regine
“Oh Goddess,” I whispered as understanding dawned on me. “So, she didn’t have a contraceptive implant?”
“She did,” Krygor said matter-of-factly. “But standard implants do not work against Braxians. The fluid in our semen helps regulate the hormonal levels of a woman to increase the chances of conception. The more I release my seed inside you—including when you swallow me—the more it weakens the effects of your contraceptive.”
I froze at his words. A nerve ticked on his temple while he studied my reaction. My head swam at the thought that I might already be pregnant with his child, considering I was entering my fertile period and we’d been going at it at every opportunity. Too many questions fired off in my mind, keeping me from formulating a single one.
“By the third month of our contract, Marla became pregnant with Anton,” Krygor continued with a somber expression. “I broke the news to her the day she asked me to put her contract up on the public market in search of a new buyer. Thank the Ancestors, I’d included a clause by which she couldn’t sell her contract to another without my consent. She wanted to abort my child, which I of course forbade.”
My heart broke for him, imagining the nineteen-year-old boy he’d been—barely a man—bearing the full responsibility of an entire struggling clan on his shoulders while getting his heart ripped to shreds by his first love.
“As my Indentured Servant, she had no choice but to comply. Whatever relationship we’d had died that day. She became nothing more than a breeder for my son—and a resentful one at that,” Krygor added with a deep-rooted anger. He looked down at my body before resting his palm on my flat stomach, his thumb gently caressing it in a slow back and forth. “How can a female carry a life within her for months and have nothing but resentment and contempt for it?”
I shook my head, not understanding it either. “I don’t know,” I said softly, caressing the silky curls of his hair. “I’m sorry.”
Not every woman had strong maternal instincts. That wasn’t a fault. But I never understood mothers who hated their children or wished them harm. They hadn’t asked to be there. Whatever the circumstances under which they were born, they couldn’t be blamed for their own existence. I had hated the male who had sired my children, but I loved both my son and daughter with all my heart. The Goddess only knew if I would ever see my oldest son again.
“Don’t be,” he said with a sad smile. “Marla didn’t just resent the idea of being a mother, but she hated how it was messing with her perfect figure. Except, that figure was only ‘perfect’ thanks to breasts and butt implants, and multiple plastic surgeries. I’m stuck in this strange conundrum where I regret secretly impregnating a female against her will, but grateful for the wonderful son that came of it. Anton changed the face of Braxia and turned things around for my clan. By rights, he shouldn’t even exist. For all the stupid mistakes I made in my hopeless pursuit of a cold-hearted female who was never meant for me, knowing what I know today, I would do it all again in a heartbeat.”
I nodded slowly. “There is no greater blessing than our children. And the Goddess blessed you above all others for the courage you showed in protecting your child against all odds,” I said with fervor. “I know of the old Braxian customs of killing hybrid children, and I’ve read about Anton’s incredible road to success, defying all the odds. I just hadn’t realized you were his sire until Luther said so. But you understand, more than anyone, what sacrifices a parent would make for the safety of their child.”
“I do,” Krygor said. “And your love for your daughter is but one of the many reasons I’m so drawn to you.” His gaze flicked to my arm, and he once more touched my upper arm where my implant was located. “And my hunger for you is insatiable. This thing will not prevent my seed from taking root. If you do not wish to conceive—and you will in the next few days if you do nothing—see the doctor first thing in the morning before our departure. It will be your last chance.”
My breath caught in my throat, and my eyes flicked between his, trying to make certain I wasn’t misunderstanding what I could read between the lines.
“You leave that choice up to me?” I asked. “You would risk me bringing a half-Guldan child into your clan.”
“I am bringing a Guldan mother and daughter into my clan,” he said in a forceful and determined tone that gave me sweet shivers. “I have spent my seed inside you close to a hundred times since we’ve met, knowing it could take root. So yes, Hope, I am giving you the choice. But know that if and when you conceive, you will carry my child to term, and it will stay with me on Braxia.”
My stomach fluttered at his words. Krygor had all but admitted that he wanted to sire a child on me. Far from frightening me, the thought made feel warm and fuzzy inside. That would mean another brother for Siona who was dying for Krygor to become her papa. That would also mean me being able to remain by his side for a long time to come yet.
“And what happens when my contract ends? I will never leave my child behind,” I said.
“Then you will have to stay on Braxia to raise it with me,” Krygor said with an intensity that belied his casual tone.
“What makes you think I will conceive in the next few days,” I asked, my hand absentmindedly caressing the bulging muscles of his biceps.
“You are ripe, my Vaya,” Krygor said in a growling voice. “Your scent is maddening.”
I felt my blood draining from my face upon hearing those words. Something about it had triggered an instant fear and impending sense of doom that I couldn’t explain. Krygor immediately sensed my change of mood. His smoldering expression faded, and his face closed off.
“I will not force a child on you,” Krygor said in a slightly clipped tone.
I realized then he had misinterpreted my sudden fear. “You cannot impose what is willingly accepted,” I said, caressing his cheek, then his lips with my thumb. “You have given me more joy, stability, and safety in the past few days than I’ve had in my whole life. I want everything from you, Krygor. And you can have everything from me. Everything,” I whispered, chasing away the uneasiness that lingered.
Chapter 10
Krygor
I could smell Hope’s underlying fear, lurking beneath the delectable scent of her undeniable arousal. My woman wanted me. Wanted everything from me. The sincerity in her voice, on her face, in her eyes wiped away any doubt I still felt. So why the fear?
Hope slipped her fingers through my hair and fisted them. The tender, loving glimmer in her eyes as she gazed upon me like Grace did with Anton broke the defenses I’d erected inside me after Marla. How I had longed to be wanted like this. In that instant, I finally understood beyond any doubt that I’d been so head over heels for Marla because she’d been a pale image of the female that had always been meant to be mine; my Hope, my Vaya, my soulmate.
“Then you shall have all of me,” I said before capturing my woman’s lips.
Hope yielded herself to me in that way that always made me feel like the king of the world. Her sighs in my ears and her hands on me drove me mad with lust. My lips traveled along her jawline to her ear.
“I’m going to fill you with my seed,” I whispered, before lifting my head to lock gazes with hers.
Hope shivered against me, and her emerald eyes darkened. My female’s consenting smile made something snap inside of me. I crushed her lips again, this time with controlled brutality. I wanted to mark her, brand her as mine forever. Inch by inch, I covered her neck, chest, and breasts with kisses and nips, from gentle to more forceful. When I reached her flat stomach, I rubbed my face all over it, inhaling her spicy scent and already anticipating the lovely aroma she would have once my seed had taken root.
And it would.
I wanted to see her belly swelling with my child and to stand by her as she delivered our newborn just like Ravik had stood by his Mercy when she’d delivered theirs. I wanted to hold my mate and child in my arms as our newborn fed at her teat.
Crouching between her legs, I l
ifted them over my shoulders before diving in to devour my prize. Hope’s strangled cry had my cock jerking in response, eager to take the place of my tongue dipping in and out of my woman. And her inner walls seemed to share the same sentiment as their rippling ridges tried to suck my tongue in deeper.
My mind still reeled at the thought that my Vaya could naturally take me—all of me. The way she gripped my cock, stroking and caressing it with her ridges, constantly keeping me on the verge of ecstasy, nearly had me stop feasting to slam my cock deep inside of her. But I needed more of her divine nectar on my tongue. I licked and lapped at her, sucking on her little numb before rubbing it with my thumb.
Although Guldan anatomy made it so that females gained far more pleasure from penetration than clitoral stimulation, the selfish part of me wanted to go down on her first. She came too quickly with my cock inside of her, and my own pleasure made me miss parts of her responses to my touches. The sound of her labored breathing, of her sultry voice calling my name and spurring me on, the way her body shivered, and her legs shook as she neared completion had become a drug to me.
Hope’s body seized, and her legs slammed shut, holding my head in a vise as if intent on crushing it. I forced them open, lapping furiously at her clit while she writhed in ecstasy. Before she was fully down from her high, I climbed on top of my woman and rammed myself home. Hope’s back arched off the bed, and she cried out at the initial burn of my brutal possession. It had hurt me as well, but I enjoyed pain. In the past week, I’d also come to realize my woman enjoyed a bit of roughness, as long as it remained controlled. She loved feeling a bit of danger, feeling fragile and helpless in the brutal—yet loving—embrace of her giant unleashing his passion.
And, by the Ancestors, it would be unleashed.
I started moving slowly in and out of my woman to give her a chance to adjust. The tight grip of her inner walls and their rippling ridges stroked and squeezed me with each movement. I ground my teeth against the burning urge to climax far too soon like some fucking juvenile. Yet, even as I drowned in pleasure, watching the expression of pure ecstasy on my mate’s face and feeling her writhe beneath me—her pelvis gyrating in response to my movement—soon threw me into a blissful trance where nothing but the tidal joining of our bodies mattered.
With a startled cry, Hope threw her head back, and her inner walls clamped down on my cock in a painful clutch as she fell over the edge. I roared my release and slammed myself deep inside her as my seed shot into her in a rapturous flow. For a few seconds, I held my mate in a bruising hold, allowing her undulating inner ridges to squeeze my essence from me, before pumping in and out of her until the last drop was spent.
But I wasn’t done. Far from it. There would be no rest for my Vaya this night. I would wreck her, fill her to the brim, irrevocably brand her as mine and, the Ancestors willing, impregnate her.
I pulled out only long enough to flip Hope onto her stomach.
“On your knees,” I said in a voice so thick with desire it barely sounded intelligible to my own ears.
She began to comply, but still shaking from her lingering climax, she failed to move fast enough for my liking. My cock hungered to pound into her. Yanking Hope back by the waist, I pushed myself into her burning sheath with a vigorous thrust. She shouted my name in a needy moan and immediately began to meet me thrust for thrust. Nails fisting the bed covers, lips parted and breathing heavily, Hope turned to look at me over her shoulder with such naked lust that something snapped inside of me.
Reaching forward, I fisted both of her horns around their bases and pulled back. My mate cried out, her movements becoming erratic as her body shook with another violent orgasm. But I didn’t stop, pounding into her sweet sex relentlessly, pressing my fingertips around the sensitive roots of her horns, wresting one climax after the other from my woman, filling her each time with my seed.
By the time we both collapsed on the bed, I had lost count of how many orgasms we’d had. I gathered my woman’s trembling body in my arms, loving the burning feel of her slick skin against mine and her labored breath fanning my chest. I was still hungry for her. The selfish Braxian part of me could go on for hours—wanted to. But the gentle giant in me, her protector, her mate, took over and sheltered her even from myself.
Two years with my little Vaya was not enough. A lifetime would never be enough. I wanted my Hope for all eternity.
* * *
Morning found me in a cheerful spirit. While I handled my business with Roman in the small meeting room of my vessel, Tamika had come to bid a last farewell to my woman. She unfortunately had to leave before I could properly make her acquaintance, but it pleased me that Hope and Siona had a chance to say goodbye.
I went back to my quarters to retrieve the data key I’d forgotten to bring for Roman and entered just as my Vaya was finishing the removal of her contraceptive implant. The broker didn’t buy my explanation about having misplaced the key to justify why it took me over fifteen minutes to return. Then again, Hope’s flushed cheeks and lips swollen by my kisses didn’t help—not that it bothered me in the least.
The depth of her gratitude as she thanked Roman and bid him farewell moved me to the core, just as it did my friend. In that, too, Hope made me feel like what we had truly meant a great deal to her.
As much as I loved my son’s pleasure barges, a hefty pressure I hadn’t even realized had been weighing me down lifted as soon as we left Lilith Hive. Even my girls seemed in high spirits. Yulan and Zartag were amused by my Siona’s excess of energy. Braxian females were far more subdued—at least in the presence of us males. But having witnessed the antics of our Dagna’s wild daughter Lissy, Siona’s enthusiastic personality didn’t faze them. Zartag gladly assisted my females in setting up a simulation in the much smaller holodeck on board my ship.
I seized the opportunity to sync with my king and give him a heads up on the latest changes in my personal life.
“Emperor Ardrak is trying to undercut us in every market, especially with technology,” Ravik said with disgust through the vidscreen. “Why can’t the fool understand that no amount of pressure from him will ever get us to align with Guldar?”
“He’s getting desperate,” I replied with a shrug. “The Galactic Alliance continues to grow in the Eastern Quadrant. Less and less of the major trading planets are condoning slavery. That leaves the Guldan Emperor in a tough spot. Aside from the Sarenians, he doesn’t have any allies of consequence. Ardrak is waging a losing disinformation campaign. The Guldan population has no idea that your mate is half-Guldan and even less so that she’s the daughter of Gruuk Vrok. While Mercy doesn’t leave Braxia often, when she does, she hides nothing of her origins. The media may still mostly refer to her as a Veredian, it’s only a matter of time before all of Guldar realizes one of their own—and a female at that—thwarted their plans of enslaving us.”
“Is that so?” Ravik said, leaning back in his massive stone chair, a slight frown on his brow. “If not for the risk of exposing my mate and children to even more threats, I would gladly make sure that information leaks to the Guldan population, but we will need to find a different way to spite Ardrak.”
“Agreed, especially since I’m bringing more Guldans to live with us,” I said nonchalantly, bracing for Ravik to lose it.
“Excuse me?” he asked in that dangerously low voice that usually had all of Braxia shitting their pants.
I took a second to admire my king. The blazing fire in his dark eyes, the permanent scowl of his strong brows further accentuated by his frown, and the snarling expression of his brutish face would justly terrify anyone foolish enough to have provoked it. His bulging muscles, even bigger than mine, threatened to tear up his shirt. Firstborn of the purest of all Braxian bloodlines, Magnar Ravik was the embodiment of Braxian perfection. He had the giant body of a god, the terrifying face of a feral beast, the strength of an entire legion, and the combat skills that none could rival. Ravik was the only male alive I knew for certain woul
d defeat me. His strength alone would make me want to follow him, but I served my king because I deeply respected the man and his relentless efforts to fight for his beliefs and the prosperity of Braxia.
“I have bought the Indentured Servant contract of a Guldan female who entered into it to flee Guldar,” I said matter-of-factly. “She and her juvenile daughter are now both under my protection and will stay with me in my compound.”
Ravik’s anger faded, his face taking on a neutral expression although his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He remained quiet for a moment. After years sitting on the Magnar’s close Council, I knew to wait quietly while he pondered all the angles and consequences of my revelation.
“Mercy will certainly take umbrage to an enslaved Guldan female,” Ravik said at last.
I gave him a stern look. “The Dagna will stay out of my personal business,” I said in a hard voice. “Hope is not a slave, and both she and her daughter will have a much better life in my care than the one I just freed them from.”
Ravik raised a taunting eyebrow, the shadow of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “You are taken with that female,” the Magnar deadpanned.
I shifted in my chair, annoyed to be asked such a thing. Although he’d said it as a statement, the underlying question didn’t elude me. Except, Braxian males didn’t speak of their feelings. It was unbecoming.
“I intend to keep them once the contract ends in two years,” I said in the same neutral voice he’d previously used.
Ravik’s face softened—or at least, took on that expression that passed as soft for a Braxian.
“I’m happy for you, my friend,” he said in a gentle voice. “Few deserve happiness as much as you do. But my mate is still rarer than yours.”
