Sentinel Of Khoth

by Brenda Trim

  This brazen be­hav­ior was in­vig­o­rat­ing and spoke to his in­ner dragon. He won­dered if she was aware of her ac­tions. When Finn broke the kiss and looked into her lust­ful gaze, he saw so much de­sire there it made him breath­less. This con­nec­tion to Talysia sank into Finn’s very soul and changed him.

  He might not be ready to mate yet, but he would no longer be sat­is­fied with sim­ple sex ever again. The one-night stands and care­free en­coun­ters were empty, and hol­low com­pared to the emo­tions Talysia elicited in him.

  It was fright­en­ing, yet felt right, he thought. With­out paus­ing to think, he whis­pered, “Be­ing with you feels like com­ing home, Song­bird.”

  He loved the way her cheeks turned pink and she low­ered her head. His mouth trailed along her jaw and lifted her away from the wall be­fore he con­tin­ued car­ry­ing her down the hall. He was ready to sink into her wel­com­ing heat.

  When she rubbed her breasts against his chest he nearly paused and fucked her against the wall. Sure, he wanted their first time to be per­fect, but he wanted her to such a de­gree that he nearly stopped and took her right there. It was only the fact that the first or­gasm he ever gave her was in the for­est in view of the street and club pa­trons that kept him mov­ing.

  Her nails sunk into his flesh and she gasped with ev­ery step he took. The laugh she emit­ted at his groan was tor­ture be­cause she pressed her core harder against his cock. Finn ad­justed him­self and the head of his shaft peeked out the top of his pants. Her eyes landed on it and she licked her lips.

  “Song­bird, you have to stop that or I might stop and fuck your mouth.”

  Any fil­ter on his thoughts was bro­ken at the mo­ment. He wasn’t sure how she took his dec­la­ra­tion, but he wasn’t sorry for say­ing, it ei­ther. When Talysia lifted her head he was re­lieved to see de­sire spark­ing in her turquoise depths.

  Thank the Gods they were at his room and he was kick­ing the door shut be­fore she was able to do some­thing more to stop him. Talysia wrig­gled in his arms and said, “Let me down, Finn.”

  Com­ply­ing, he set her on her feet. Her bra fell to the floor and his eyes be­came glued to her heav­ing breasts. He al­lowed her to tug his shirt over his head. Once the fab­ric was on the floor, his hands went to her pants.

  “You’re over­dressed. It’s time we rem­edy that,” he in­formed her.

  Smil­ing at him, she toed off her shoes and Finn knelt down lift­ing one foot into his hand. He placed a kiss to her bare stom­ach, en­joy­ing the way she trem­bled be­neath his mouth. She was so sen­si­tive to his ev­ery touch which filled him with sat­is­fac­tion.

  Her life had been dif­fi­cult, and she hadn’t fit in any­where she lived. On Khoth she not only fit in, but she was a unique trea­sure. He poured ev­ery ounce of that be­lief into his touch, want­ing to re­lay what she meant to him.

  He reached for her jeans and had them on the floor in the next breath. Ex­pect­ing her panties to match her bra, he was sur­prised to find plain white cot­ton cov­er­ing her from his gaze. Most fe­males he was with made sure they wore match­ing sets de­signed to tease a male.

  She shrugged her shoul­ders and stood there with her arms at her side. She was al­low­ing him to look at her and telling him with­out words what he saw was what he got from her. He loved Talysia’s mind and body, and her con­fi­dence only added to her ap­peal. “I don’t own thong un­der­wear. I find them dread­fully un­com­fort­able.”

  Finn glanced up at her and held her gaze. “I was just think­ing how per­fect you are. You are un­apolo­get­i­cally you, and I love that.”

  Finn leaned down and kissed from one hip to the other then bit down on the white cot­ton. With a smirk, he low­ered his head and drug her panties with him. Her sweet flo­ral scent filled the air be­tween them, and his eye caught the tell­tale glis­ten of her suc­cu­lent cen­ter.

  Surg­ing to his feet, Finn lifted Talysia from the floor and tossed her on the bed. She bounced with a laugh, and he was on her in the blink of an eye. With his lips press­ing over hers, he al­lowed his hands to wan­der over her breasts, paus­ing to wor­ship them.

  Their em­bers were still white-hot and ramp­ing up, even more. He was fu­eled by her pri­mal whim­pers. Both his dragon and body de­manded more. Not fall­ing on her like a starv­ing beast be­came eas­ier when he re­al­ized they were both on the same page.

  Finn’s sexy, low rum­ble made Talysia’s en­tire body taut with need as if he hadn’t just given her an ex­plo­sive or­gasm mo­ments ago. When he lifted his head and licked his lips, she couldn’t help but think of tak­ing him into her mouth. That im­age flashed from her plea­sur­ing him to him feast­ing on her. Gods, how she wanted this male.

  Her body ached and she was tired, but any nau­sea and dizzi­ness were pushed aside as her arousal rose to a rag­ing in­ferno.

  Males were gen­er­ally gen­tle with her, and she pre­ferred it that way un­til Finn and his dom­i­nant na­ture took over. When he bit her nip­ple the pain that raced through her veins changed in a heart­beat from dis­com­fort to plea­sure. His ap­par­ent ac­cep­tance of her gave her the courage to throw all of her in­hi­bi­tions out the win­dow.

  Finn’s dragon was as­cen­dant and ob­vi­ous in his gem-like eyes. His pow­er­ful na­ture made her feel safe and se­cure. Some­how, she knew there was noth­ing she could want that would ever change the way he gazed at her.

  For the first time in her life she would be with a male where she didn’t have to hold back or sti­fle her fan­tasies. What she wanted at the mo­ment was him naked and in­side her.

  Her hands trailed over his per­fectly sculpted chest. “On your knees,” Talysia de­manded.

  With one eye­brow arched Finn smiled at her. “I’m the one in charge in the bed­room, love,” he de­clared, but that didn’t stop his hands from go­ing to his waist­band.

  Watch­ing in­tently, she agreed. “You are, but I am im­pa­tient, and I know the look in your eye. I want you naked be­fore any­thing else hap­pens.”

  “You are a sexy con­tra­dic­tion, and I love it,” he replied. Us­ing one foot, he kicked off one boot, then the other. A teas­ing smile met her gaze, as he paused with his hand on the waist of his pants. Reach­ing out, she flicked the but­ton open.

  “I can’t help who I am. I love when you take con­trol, but I am too keyed up to wait,” Talysia ad­mit­ted.

  Finn’s hands left his pants and moved to her body. On his knees above her, he trailed his long fin­gers down her body. Stop­ping at her core, Finn played with the sen­si­tive, swollen flesh in the most de­li­cious fash­ion.

  She wanted to reach up and un­zip his pants and free the erec­tion she could see. Wet­ness seeped from the tip, beck­on­ing her to taste. Act­ing on any­thing was next to im­pos­si­ble when one fin­ger slid be­tween her folds and rubbed over her clit. As her body tight­ened with need, she forced her­self to get the zip­per down, and shove his pants past his hips.

  Her hand was ready when his shaft sprang out of the fab­ric. Finn didn’t wear any­thing un­der the cloth­ing which made this eas­ier on her. Her fin­gers tight­ened around the hard shaft of his cock. His hips moved, thrust­ing his erec­tion in and out of her tight hold.

  Talysia’s core tin­gled as his plea­sured groans filled her ears. His hand in­creased speed be­tween her legs, mak­ing her reach for re­lease. He pushed her to the edge faster than the best vi­bra­tor on the mar­ket. A sec­ond be­fore she splin­tered, Finn jumped off the bed.

  His pants were off be­fore she could ask for an ex­pla­na­tion. Then he was back and loom­ing above her. Most of her sex­ual part­ners were sirens or mer­men which were vastly dif­fer­ent from Finn’s build. The sheer mass of his mus­cles and broad chest awed her. She couldn’t get enough of him.

  The way he looked at her told her this was more for him than ca­sual sex. Be­fore then she hadn’t al
­lowed her­self to think of any­thing be­yond sex. Now, as he stared down at her with his tou­sled black hair, faceted brown eyes, and full lips she knew the con­nec­tion she felt went both ways.

  “Don’t worry, we don’t need pro­tec­tion. I can’t get you preg­nant, Song­bird,” he in­formed her as he crawled back on the bed with her. Talysia should have thought of preg­nancy, but noth­ing aside from hav­ing Finn in­side her crossed her mind. Part of her mind won­dered why he couldn’t get her preg­nant, but the rest was too busy en­joy­ing the sight of him.

  His big body crawled up her torso, urg­ing her flat. His arms came down on ei­ther side of her head while his knees nudged her legs apart. His lips crashed down on hers with less ur­gency than she was feel­ing.

  Soft, at first, Finn’s fer­vor ramped up quickly as he kissed her hard and fast. He leaned on one el­bow while his free hand skated down her flesh, heat­ing her blood as he went. Her eyes flew open when she felt one of his fin­gers slide over her clit. The touch was feather-light and con­tin­ued up her ab­domen. He tweaked her nip­ples, pinch­ing them roughly.

  Finn’s dragon was at the sur­face. She felt his fires burn­ing hotly in his ab­domen. Hav­ing grown up on a planet with more oceans than land, she re­lated to cold more than heat, but Finn made her want to bask in his liv­ing flame and never leave. Finn’s mere pres­ence was ad­dict­ing.

  “Oh,” Talysia moaned as he kissed his way down her stom­ach. Doubt stilled her move­ments and al­most had her pulling him back up. She had never had a male taste her and she wanted Finn’s mouth ex­plor­ing her al­most as much as she wanted him in­side her.

  A hot, wet tongue star­tled a cry from her as Finn licked her clit. Us­ing his thumbs, he spread her folds and laved the area, skirt­ing around the en­gorged nub. Her hips fol­lowed his mouth. It was like they had a mind of their own. Then she re­al­ized she wanted him to lick where she was aching.

  A cry es­caped when Finn blew hot breath on her throb­bing clit. As he in­serted a fin­ger in­side her chan­nel fol­lowed by an­other, he looked up and met her gaze. His tal­ented tongue cir­cled and pressed on her sen­si­tive nub. Talysia’s cli­max ex­ploded from her when Finn ex­haled a heavy stream of steam and sucked the nub into his mouth.

  He con­tin­ued to suck and lick, adding more heat and her cli­max rolled right into a sec­ond one. He con­tin­ued tor­ment­ing her with his lips, tongue and flam­ing heat.

  “Holy crap,” she panted. “That heat is…” she trailed off as her body shud­dered.

  “I’m glad you like my steam. I’ve never lost con­trol of it like that be­fore. You drive me crazy, Song­bird,” he ad­mit­ted and prowled up her body.

  Press­ing his lips to her over­heated skin, Finn’s brown gaze pen­e­trated her soul. He twined his fin­gers with hers and rubbed his cock through her slit. His shaft slid eas­ily through her juices. Once he was coated, he pulled his hips back and an­gled his cock at her cen­ter.

  Finn had pushed him­self past the point of con­trol and he en­tered Talysia in one hard thrust. Hold­ing her gaze, he moved in and out of her in a fast and fu­ri­ous rhythm.

  “Can’t slow,” he panted above her.

  She couldn’t form words as the con­nec­tion be­tween them in­ten­si­fied while he thrust into her wel­com­ing body. Her plea­sure spiked and she was close to fall­ing over the edge in sec­onds flat. Finn af­fected her more than she ever dreamed pos­si­ble.

  “Try­ing to be gen­tle,” he mut­tered as he plowed into her and bit the flesh at her neck.

  “I don’t want gen­tle,” Talysia in­formed him and tan­gled her hands in his hair.

  Finn slammed into her, rub­bing the sen­si­tive clit with each harsh thrust. Within sec­onds, she ex­ploded and her back arched. Her breasts were pressed against the hard mus­cles of his chest. The added plea­sure sent her higher into or­bit, mak­ing her mind go blank.

  All she knew was Finn mov­ing in and out of her body with su­per­nat­u­ral speed rub­bing against her clit with each move. Be­fore she came down from her or­gasm, Finn stilled in­side her and shouted his re­lease.

  His cock pulsed in­side her and a sec­ond later his scald­ing seed seared her womb. She was com­pletely ex­hausted when he with­drew from her sev­eral sec­onds later and she col­lapsed against the mat­tress.

  Gath­er­ing Talysia in his arms, Finn held her close to his sweaty body. “We should prob­a­bly go shower,” he mur­mured.

  “Not yet,” she whis­pered as fa­tigue weighed her body down. Her symp­toms re­turned full force, mak­ing her stom­ach churn. If she tried to stand up now she would lose the con­tents of her stom­ach. That would not be a sexy end to the most in­cred­i­ble ex­pe­ri­ence of her life.

  “Get some rest, Song­bird,” Finn told her be­fore kiss­ing the top of her head.

  “Mmm, okay,” she mut­tered be­fore obliv­ion took her. She swore be­fore sleep took her un­der, she heard Finn mut­ter, “I didn’t ex­pect you, but now that I’ve found you, I can’t let you go.”

  * * *

  Chap­ter 16

  “Where do we look next for an­swers?” Finn de­manded of Dyson.

  The royal healer ex­hausted all av­enues of re­search and be­tween all of his test­ing and the Rowan sis­ter’s spell, they were no closer to an­swers now than they were a few days ago.

  Finn went from the high of the best sex­ual ex­pe­ri­ence of his life with Talysia to a low that threat­ened his san­ity. The night Finn made love to Talysia she slept soundly, but he no­ticed half­way through the night that her body shook with mi­nor tremors. When he tried to wake her to see if she was okay, she wouldn’t wake up.

  Right as he was about to call Dyson, Talysia cracked her eyes and told him to calm the fuck down and that she was just ex­tremely tired. He chuck­led at her off-the-cuff com­ment, while at the same time, sighed with re­lief as he wrapped her in his arms. Still, she al­ter­nated be­tween sweat­ing and shak­ing all night.

  The next morn­ing, she wore dark cir­cles un­der her eyes as if she hadn’t slept at all. And, over the past few days she was in­creas­ingly more tired and lethar­gic. She’d even missed her shifts at Medure Eats. He hes­i­tated to leave Talysia’s side, but her sis­ter promised to stay with her while Finn re­ported for duty that af­ter­noon.

  Dyson pinched the bridge of his nose and low­ered his head. It was ob­vi­ous the male took this very se­ri­ously. Talysia wasn’t the only one af­fected by what­ever was go­ing on. Queen Keira, Prince Blaze and Princess Josie were also un­der the weather. Given that Dyson was re­spon­si­ble for the royal fam­ily, the male was un­der im­mense pres­sure.

  “I’m at a loss at this point. Ev­ery path I’ve in­ves­ti­gated has come back neg­a­tive. It isn’t a virus, and it isn’t mag­i­cal. I would won­der if it was the bomb, but nei­ther Keira nor Josie were present for that at­tack,” Dyson ex­plained.

  Finn opened his mouth to ar­gue the point, but a com­mo­tion by the door to the throne room caught his at­ten­tion. Turn­ing his head, he was run­ning be­fore his mind fully pro­cessed what he was see­ing.

  “What’s wrong, Song­bird?” he asked Talysia.

  His siren was hang­ing on her sis­ter’s shoul­der and there was blood drib­bling down her chin. His heart stopped in his chest and his blood froze.

  She couldn’t die. He just found her, and wasn’t ready to lose her. His emo­tions ran ram­pant the other night fright­en­ing him, but there was no deny­ing it now. He loved Talysia more than he ever dreamed pos­si­ble. He wanted to spend the rest of his life mak­ing her happy.

  Talysia’s nor­mally vi­brant turquoise eyes were dull and pained. “I’m not…” her re­ply was drowned out by a cough­ing fit. To Finn’s hor­ror blood splat­tered be­tween her fin­gers.

  “She started cough­ing up blood,” Tia in­ter­jected. “I didn’t know where else to bring her, and she in­sist
ed on com­ing here.”

  “You brought her to the right place. Dyson!” Finn called out as he picked Talysia up in his arms and crossed the room to the Mundunugu.

  “Put her on the ta­ble,” Dyson or­dered as he mo­tioned to a nearby ta­ble. Tia fol­lowed be­hind Finn and was wring­ing her hands to­gether.

  An­gus and the oth­ers in the throne room joined them while Dyson ex­am­ined Talysia. “Is she go­ing to be okay?” Finn asked.

  “I need to run some tests be­fore I will know more,” Dyson re­layed. Finn wanted to punch some­thing. This couldn’t be hap­pen­ing. Talysia was in­no­cent and didn’t de­serve to go through this.

  “Shite,” An­gus cursed as he fisted his hands at his sides. “We need an­swers, Dyson. Keira and Josie were no’ as bad as Talysia when I left them just now.” The king’s eyes sud­denly went wide, and he turned to his first in com­mand. “Leg­ette, go check on my son and see how he’s do­ing. Now!”

  Leg­ette took off be­fore the king fin­ished is­su­ing the or­der. The ten­sion in the room was at an all-time high as ev­ery­one waited for the ver­dict. Finn hugged Tia and held her for a sec­ond be­fore let­ting her go.

  “She’s go­ing to be okay. I will do what­ever is nec­es­sary to make sure that hap­pens,” he promised the fe­male.

  Tia nod­ded while try­ing to be strong for her sis­ter’s sake, Finn thought. He’d come to know Talysia’s sis­ter over the past weeks. She loved her sis­ter and would do any­thing for her. Their bond was forged dur­ing tough times and they’d al­ways been there for one an­other.

  “How are you feel­ing?” Finn asked Tia. He wasn’t sure if it was worry for Talysia or if she was ill. She was pale and seemed tired.

  Tia’s head lifted and she started chew­ing on the cor­ner of her mouth. “I’ve been bet­ter. Could Talysia be con­ta­gious?”