by Maven, Ella
“Well—”
“We’ll go right now.” I glanced around desperately for my shoes, feeling like I needed to hit something or scream something or both at the same time. My fists clenched rhythmically at my sides. “Shit, I need to pee first. Let me pee, and then we’ll get to killing.”
Zecri rose slowly with his arms out, like he was approaching a wounded animal. “Syb—”
“I mean, you get the killing blow, but let me get a few shots in first.” I threw a few air punches.
He let out a strangled sound. “Okay, killer. Let’s talk first.”
I shoved my foot into my boot and hopped around looking for my other one. “How you wanna do this? I’ll beat on Haub and weaken him a bit while you take the bodyguards.” Finding my other shoe, I shouted in triumph. I had just slipped my toes inside when blue arms banded around my chest and hauled me into the air. “Hey!” I squeaked out as the room spun and I landed on the bed padding.
“Hey!” I shouted again just as Zecri’s weight landed on me. The air left my lungs in a whoosh and I gasped for breath.
Holding himself above me just enough so I could inhale, Zecri locked eyes with me. His swirled a warm, glowing violet in the dim light of the room. I went still at the color, such a contrast from his typical cold indigo. “Z?” I whispered.
Slowly, he braced on one arm over me while the other hooked my hair behind my ear. The backs of his fingers brushed my cheek, and his gaze drifted to the wake of his touch as he continued down my neck to the top of my collarbone. There, he lightly traced the bone.
I lay frozen, my arms on either side of my head, palms up. Warmth followed his touch, sending sparks out to every limb and extremity until all the heat seemed to concentrate in my lower belly. I fought not to squirm, but the intensity of his gaze and the proximity of his body was wreaking havoc on my mind.
Finally, his gaze drifted back to my eyes. His lips parted in a soft sigh of contentment. “I don’t think anyone has ever gotten that angry on my behalf before.”
Angry? What had I been angry about? Oh yeah, those Uldani fuckers. I swallowed, trying to hold onto that anger. “Well… yeah. I’m, uh, really mad.”
“You’d fight for me?” His question had a teasing tone to it, but underneath I sensed he really wanted to know the answer.
So, I gave it to him as sincerely as I could. “I would. And I will.”
* * *
Zecri
The soft skin of her chest was damp with sweat, and I had a hard time not focusing on the rounded tops of her breasts as they heaved with her breaths.
The sight of her punching the air in defense of me would forever be imprinted in my mind. She was small, but fierce, and in the dim lantern light, her golden hair glowed while her blue eyes had darkened.
I went on my elbows over her and cupped her face. Her soft skin felt like a dream on my calloused palms. “No more fighting. While I’ll never forgive the Uldani, Haub did not do this to me. We will take the offer to get us off this planet because it’s the only way.”
She swallowed. “If you say so.”
“I do.”
Her hand lifted off the bed and she stroked my hair at the side of my head. “What they did to you is monstrous and unforgivable and I’m sorry. I just…” she bit her lip before continuing. “While I understand the situation Drixonians face since you lost your females, I hope you know that your worth is not tied to procreating. You know that, right?”
My cora beat wildly inside my chest like a storm. I didn’t answer her, because I knew what I wanted to say wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
“Z,” she whispered as her lower lip trembled. “Please.”
I shook my head, unable to let her down with words, but realizing my silence wasn’t any better.
“You can allow yourself to dream for other things.” Wetness leaked from her eyes to roll down her temples. “You still deserve love and—”
I shoved myself off her but didn’t get far. She rose and wrapped herself around me like a chit with her chin propped on my shoulder. Her legs straddled my waist as I sat on my knees. The heat of her core spread to my groin and I gasped when I felt the familiar stirrings of my cock.
My mouth went dry, and I went still, unsure what to do or say. I’d never gotten hard without Wargo’s drugs injected in my veins. The feel of my body reacting without my consent or welcome stimulation had been violating, but this was… different.
Heat flooded my veins as Sybil’s hot breath puffed against my neck. Her body was soft and pliant in my arms, and when she rubbed against me, I couldn’t hold back a small groan.
She stopped immediately. “Z?”
I couldn’t speak. Or move. I’d never once felt desire like this. Before, my cock had merely gotten hard and then wilted before I could ever spend my release. But this was… something else. Something that didn’t feel wrong or forced.
“Sybil,” I whispered, and I could hear the tremble in my tone.
Her hands came up to frame my face, and my vision was filled with her watery blue eyes and flushed face. “Hey,” she murmured as her thumbs brushed my cheeks. “Hey, it’s okay.”
“I—” I couldn’t suck in air fast enough, and my cora was racing so fast I could hear it in my ears.
“Shhhh.” Her hands roamed my body, down my neck and crossing my shoulders before rubbing my chest in soothing circles. “It’s okay.”
“I’m—”
“I know. I feel it.”
“I don’t… it just happened.”
She smiled. “Yeah, that’s the way it works.”
Panic sent a shiver down my spine. I’d never felt this weak or scared, but I also couldn’t seem to end this. To tell Sybil no, because more than anything, her smile and soft touch was the only thing keeping me from flying apart and into pieces.
I swallowed. “I want to tell you something.”
Her fingers rubbed the back of my neck. “Tell me.”
“I’ve never… I’ve never felt this. To get hard to perform at Fisk, I was injected with a drug. And even then, I couldn’t release.”
A muscle in her jaw ticked, and I saw that spark of anger she had earlier but then she inhaled deeply and let it out before her smile returned. It was strained, but reassuring. “Do you want to know what it feels like?”
My cock pulsed between us. “What?”
Her lips touched mine. So soft. So warm. And then her mouth opened, and her tongue licked the seam of my lips.
I opened them, and she delved inside. Her tongue lapped at mine playfully, and I followed her lead, trying my best to understand this kiss.
She squirmed in my lap, putting pressure on my cock, and a long moan rumbled up from my throat.
I banded my arm around her lower back and pressed her closer to me.
She let out a little squeak and I immediately pulled back. “Did I hurt you?”
Her cheeks were a deep pink, and her eyes had lost the watery sadness and were now a glazed blue. “Not at all,” she whispered. “Have you ever kissed before?”
I shook my head.
She kissed me again, harder this time, and I gave back as good as I got.
I couldn’t get enough of her flavor, and my tongue searched her mouth until I found no area untouched.
Her hips rolled steadily against me, and I could feel the libo leaking from my cock to dampen the inside of my pants. I angled my head to kiss her deeper and felt the hard points of her breasts against my chest.
My head spun and I felt like I was going to come out of my skin. I drew back from the kiss to shove my face against her neck, needing to ground myself when all I wanted to do was rut against her like an animal. My hips churned of their own accord, and I whined with the need to increase the pressure.
Suddenly the clasp of my pants loosened, and her soft voice crooned in my ear, “Let me, Z. Let me touch you.”
A strangled moan left my throat when I felt her small fingers wrap around the shaft of my cock and squeeze. “Oh
fleck.” I mouthed against the skin of her neck and sucked a small patch between my lips. With my mouth full of her, my moans came out muffled.
Her scent was all around me—her breath, her wet cunt—invading my senses and driving me out of my mind. Her hand stroked me, and I bucked against her hold, unable to hold back.
I’d never felt this driving need for release.
This wildfire in my veins.
“Sybil,” I gasped out as I sucked her neck harder.
Her other hand grasped my hair at the back of my neck. “Let go,” she whispered in my ear. “Just let go.”
With a cry, my cock pulsed, and I was coming hard, my body convulsing as I shot my seed into my pants and all over her hand.
She stroked me through it, until I was spent and panting, weak with the aftershocks of my release.
And still she soothed me with soft pets and crooning noises as if I was a chit. But I didn’t care. I sure felt as weak as one right now. Being in her arms was the closest thing to happiness I’d ever felt in my life. Finally, I pulled back to see her face still flushed and a hesitant smile on it.
She brushed my hair off my face. “How do you feel?”
I could barely keep my eyes open as my body seemed to have wrung itself out through my cock. I returned her smile, although mine felt a bit crooked with fatigue. “Like I could sleep for a million cycles.”
Her smile grew and she poked at the corner of my mouth. “I like your post-orgasm smile. It’s all lop-sided.”
“I feel like my muscles have turned to mush.”
“Ooh,” she blew on her knuckles and then rubbed them on her chest in an unfamiliar gesture. “One point for Sybil.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I did my job.” She carefully unwrapped herself from my body and directed me to lay back on the bed. “Sleep.”
“But—”
“Sleep,” she said as she curled up next to me with her head on my chest. “Don’t think about anything else.”
“You—”
“I’m fine. Caring for someone isn’t expecting something in return.”
“But I want—”
She yawned. “You can make up for it later.”
“You keep interrupting me,” I groused.
“Because I know what you’re going to say.”
“I can smell you. You want release too.”
Her head shot up. “You can smell—?” she shook her head and thunked it back down on my chest. “Never mind. Sleep.”
Ten
Sybil
I woke up to the feeling of a hot palm on my bare stomach. Jerking away, I accidentally smacked Zecri who rested his head on my chest while his hand roamed my belly and hips. Immediately, heat swirled in my core and pooled between my legs. I shifted them and his head came up. Seeing I was awake, he smiled a sleepy smile that had a little bit of mischief in it.
I couldn’t believe he had it in him. One hand job, and he was like another alien.
“Z?” I rose on my elbows and lifted one eyebrow. “What’s going on?”
He rolled onto his stomach between my legs, and I sucked in a breath when I felt the heat of his palm coast up my inner thigh. “You said I could make it up to you later.”
I blinked at him. “Yeah, but I didn’t mean… this morning.”
He swallowed. “Please?” His tongue snaked out of his mouth and I let out a gasp when I realized how long it was. He could curl it around the bottom of his chin and in the center, just like Graven, he had three ball piercings.
“Oh,” was all I managed to say.
His fingers hooked around the waistband of my underwear and began to pull. “Is that a yes?”
“It’s, uh…”
When the first of my blonde curls came into view covering my mound, he purred a pleased rumble. I felt the vibration in my clit and grew damp. “Yes,” I gasped out. “It’s a yes.”
He tugged off my underwear and settled his wide shoulders on the bed, hooking my knees over his back. Exposed and vulnerable, I could do nothing but lie there and let him study my pussy like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.
“Zecri,” I murmured.
He ran a finger up my slit and swirled the tip around my clit.
I jerked at the touch, and my legs shook.
He lifted his finger to his mouth and lapped at it with his tongue.
I nearly came from the sight.
His eyes rolled back in his head and he let out the most pleased moan I’d heard in my life. Before I could process another thought, his head dipped, and that long tongue was making its way through my folds.
With a rumbling growl, he dove in like this was his last day of freedom before being sent off to war. His fangs nipped my delicate skin and the balls on his tongue tortured my clit until I couldn’t tell whether I wanted more, or it was too much.
I squirmed on the furs and gripped his hair, which only spurred him on.
He started a steady vibration somewhere in his chest, and a vague memory told me Graven called that prushing. The vibration traveled down his long tongue, and right as he met my gaze over my heaving chest, he plunged it inside of me.
I let out a cry before clapping my hand over my mouth. It’d been too many trips around the sun since I had anything inside of me, and certainly nothing this thick, delicious, and oh so perfect.
He fucked me with his tongue like we were the last two living beings on the planet. All the while he kept up the steady prushing as I bucked into his mouth with abandon.
When a clawed finger flicked my clit, I came undone, coming against his face like Old Faithful. I tried to muffle my cries, but I doubted I was successful because when the aftershocks of the orgasm were still trembling my limbs, I found my throat was sore.
I stared at the ceiling as I caught my breath.
Zecri dislodged my fingers from his hair and rose above me. He licked around his mouth, which was shiny with my juices.
I expected a smug smile, but instead he settled next to me with a crease between his brow and a slight clench to his jaw.
I flopped a jelly-like hand around until I found his. Threading our fingers together, I squeezed with a smile. “Hi.”
He lifted our hands and pressed his lips to my knuckle. “Hello.”
I poked at his chin. “Why the long face?”
“Long face?”
“Why don’t you look happy?”
“I am happy.”
His face didn’t change. No smile.
“You don’t look happy.”
He brought our hands to his chest and uncreased his brow. “I’m happy in here.” Then he tapped his temple. “In here, there’s a lot going on, so it’s better not to make any facial expressions. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel.”
I rolled onto my side. “Is that how you’ve survived all this time? You keep it all in here.” I patted his chest.
He nodded. “I keep it all in my cora. Although even that…” he sighed. “I haven’t let myself think about those feelings for a long time.”
“And what changed?”
Finally, he managed a small smile. “You. Riven.”
“Allowing yourself to dream?”
Just like that, his smile dimmed. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
I shrugged, brushing off his words. “It’s fine. I’m dreaming for you. We’ll use those Uldani fuckers to go to… Corin, right?”
“Corin,” he confirmed.
“Corin. And we’ll meet your friends. Are Rexor, Mikko, and Fenix… like you?”
“They were experimented on, like me, but they were meant to be super soldiers. Rexor has wings and anger issues, Mikko can eject his machets from his body like weapons, but it’s painful to do so. And Fenix… Fenix can make fire.”
“Make fire?”
He opened his palm and made a whooshing sound. “Fire.”
I felt like my eyes were going to bug out of my head. “Damn.”
“They have negative side
effects too. The Uldani, for all their experiments, were not good at it. When their projects failed, they sold us here. Rexor was a gladiator, Mikko was sent to the Pit for criminals, and Fenix worked in the mines.”
“But they’re all safe now, according to Haub, right?”
“That was the plan. They all met and rescued humans. That was the destiny Fatas gave them.”
“Graven told me about Fatas.”
“He believed she was still with us.”
“He believed til the end.”
Zecri sighed. “I’m not surprised.”
“You don’t think she’s still there watching out for you?”
I realized what a stupid question it was when his expression darkened.
“No,” he said curtly. “I do not.”
My gaze drifted to the door where Riven slept. I was about to argue with him, but at the last minute decided against it. I could dream for Zecri, but I couldn’t make him dream for himself.
His hand settled on my upper chest, warm and protective.
I glanced at him, expecting his carefully blank expression especially because of the topic we’d just been on. Instead, his features were soft. Regretful. “I take that back.” His thumb drew a comforting circle at the hollow of my throat. “You’re the first one in my life who made me wonder if Fatas hasn’t abandoned me.”
I scratched at his chin, and play snapped at my finger with a click of my teeth. “I like the positive change in your attitude. I mean, I am pretty great.”
He barked out a laugh that startled both of us. I grinned at him.
“What made you…” he swallowed, “…touch me?”
“Because I wanted to,” I answered simply.
“So, you did it for you and not for me?” His lips curled at the corners in a smirk.
“Absolutely. Completely selfish.”
He huffed a laugh rolled onto his back, eyes closing. “I wouldn’t have been able to stand it if you touched me out of pity.” His halting voice dipped low.
“I don’t pity you. I’m angry at what was done to you, but I admire that you’re who you are—protective and caring. Zecri, I’m attracted to you. When you look at me, my heart pounds. When you touch me, my skin prickles, and my body heats. Did you touch me just to pay me back for last night?”
