“Really?” She grabbed his ass with one hand and clutched the base of his tail with the other, tugging it. “I thought that look has been there for a while now.”
His chest rumbled with a deep purr. His right hand settled over her ass and squeezed appreciatively. “Why don’t you tell me now, then.”
Shay moaned when his finger delved between her thighs to stroke her sex though the seam of her pants. Liquid heat flooded her, and she reflexively tightened her hold on both his backside and his tail. “Basically, you’re allowed to fuck me as hard and as deep as you want.”
His only response was a growl—and an increase in pace.
They reached their room in what must’ve been record time. As soon as they were inside, Drakkal had her off his shoulder and pressed up against the wall with his mouth on hers before the door had even closed.
His mouth was bruising and hungry, and Shay returned the kiss in full, unable to get enough of his firm, warm lips and rough tongue. She buried her hands in his mane and pulled him closer. His right hand curled around her neck and cupped her jaw, tilting her face up more as he slanted his mouth, deepening the kiss. His tongue moved ruthlessly, possessively, as he devoured her. Shivers of desire spiraled through her.
He pressed his hard body against hers and used his thigh to force her legs wider apart. She felt his hard cock on her belly, separated only by her shirt and his pants, and arched into him, desperate to feel more.
Drakkal clutched her tighter and growled again. The sound reverberated from his mouth and chest and flowed into Shay—she felt it in their kiss, vibrating against her breasts, teasing her nipples. The sensation traveled straight to her pussy, which contracted in need.
He broke the kiss to trail his mouth down her jaw and neck. His lips and teeth left a blazing trail in their wake as he worked his way toward her front, following her clavicle and kissing the hollow of her throat. He grasped the collar of her shirt and pulled it apart. The garment tore down the middle like it were made of paper.
Shay laughed. “I’m going to run out of clothes if you keep doing that.”
“I’ll buy you more.” He sliced through her bra with his hardlight claws next, baring her breasts to his hungry gaze. She barely had time to feel the air on her skin before he put his mouth on her again to kiss her breasts and curl that oh-so-tantalizing tongue around her sensitive nipples.
Drakkal’s hands—one metal, the other rough and calloused—smoothed down her sides as he leaned closer, took her nipple into his mouth, and sucked.
A surge of lust speared her straight through her core.
Shay gasped, tightening her grip on his mane as her hips bucked against him. God, his mouth felt so good on her; the scrape of his rough tongue, the gentle suction, the relief.
Drakkal started, pulling his mouth away and lifting his head. Shay opened her eyes and looked at him. His tongue darted out, licking moisture from his lips, and it took Shay a moment to realize that there were droplets of her breastmilk beaded on his fur.
She glanced down. Sure enough, another drop of milk had formed at the tip of her nipple.
“Shit,” she said, releasing his mane to cover her breasts, suddenly feeling self-conscious. She hadn’t even thought about this. It had just felt so good to have his mouth on her again for real.
Before she could cover herself, Drakkal lifted his hands and caught her wrists. He pressed her arms against the wall and slid his palms up to lace his fingers with hers. The position forced her shoulders back, shoving her breasts out even further.
“Didn’t think you could taste any sweeter,” he rumbled, “but here you are.”
Drakkal dipped his head and latched onto her breast, sucking her nipple back into his mouth. They groaned in unison. Shay’s eyes fluttered shut against a flood of desire that heated her core as he took draw after draw from her breast. He released her nipple to move to her other breast, nuzzling it before he sucked the hardened tip into his mouth and drank from her again.
This was different from when her daughter nursed. The relief he was providing was immense, but he was also providing her overwhelming pleasure. This was…erotic. An experience unlike anything she’d ever imagined.
Shay ground her pelvis against his thigh. The soaked material of her pants pulling taut over her sex provided some stimulation, but it wasn’t enough. It was nowhere near enough.
“Drakkal,” she rasped, “I need you.”
A hot, heavy breath flowed from between his bared teeth just before he released her arms. For a few seconds, he became a force of nature—a hurricane or a tornado, fast and powerful and relentless—as he tugged down her pants, underwear and all, and ripped off his own clothes. His cock sprang from the confines of his pants, thick and throbbing, just as hungry as the male it was attached to.
He hooked his hands behind her thighs and lifted her. Shay looped her arms around his neck. She felt the press of his blunt tip against her slick entrance as he angled her over him. Their eyes met, and Drakkal pulled her down, plunging into her eager sex.
Shay gasped as his cock filled her. It didn’t matter that she’d just had a baby; he felt as big and thick as always. Her pussy clenched around him as a pulsing shudder ran down her spine. That shudder seemed to flow into him. He bared his teeth and clutched her ass with both hands, digging the tips of his natural claws into her flesh. His pulsing knot expanded against her folds as he ground against her, threatening to push into her fully.
“Kraasz ka’val, kiraia,” he said reverently. “I’ve missed this.”
“I did too.” Shay slid her hands along the backs of his shoulders and into the thick, soft fur of his mane. “Fuck me. Unleash yourself on me, Drakkal. I need to feel you.”
As he stared at her, his already dilated pupils expanded further, almost obliterating his green irises. But that darkness wasn’t empty—it was filled with desire, with lust, with the beast she’d just asked him to release.
That moment of eye contact was all he allowed before he obeyed her command.
Drakkal pulled his hips back, and Shay shuddered at the slide of his hot, hard shaft inside her. He slammed his mouth over hers, swallowing her cry as a powerful thrust of his hips forced his cock back into her. Before she could recover from the burst of pleasure it caused, he pounded into her, again and again, each thrust a little harder and deeper than the last.
Shay gripped his mane, her panting gasps mixing with his grunts as he rutted her.
He tore his mouth from hers with a snarl. An instant later, his teeth latched onto her flesh where her shoulder met her neck. The sharp pricks of pain only heightened the thrill building within Shay, and her body wound tighter and tighter with pleasure.
He squeezed her ass and quickened his pace. The frenzy of motion, sensation, and pleasure was so strong it bordered on pain. All Shay could do was hold on as the gathering storm clouds within her neared their breaking point. She felt Drakkal’s breath, felt his teeth, his claws, his fur, all on her skin—she felt every bit of him, both inside and out. He was wild, untamed, raw.
He was her mate.
He was hers.
Drakkal snarled. The sound’s vibrations pulsed into her body and sent her over the edge. That pressure inside her, that gathering storm, exploded with a bolt of lightning that pierced to her core and shattered her being into a thousand pieces.
Body tensing and spasming with blasts of utter rapture, Shay cried out. Her pussy greedily clamped down on Drakkal’s cock, throbbing as liquid heat flooded her.
He released a growl that became a muffled roar against her neck and, with one more merciless thrust, buried himself inside her, forcing his knot past her entrance. A choked gasp escaped her, breaking up her moans, but that flash of pain was worth the pleasure that followed as his knot expanded. Seed burst from Drakkal’s cock. He shuddered but didn’t ease his hold with either hands or teeth; somehow, he pressed only deeper.
He slapped his left hand against the wall beside her head, pinned her in place
with his hips, and curled his fingers. Their tips scraped the wall, but the sound was overpowered by a ragged growl as he came again. The force of his seed flowing inside her pushed Shay’s climax to new heights. Powerful tremors tore through her.
She and Drakkal clung to one another as the strength of their passion ebbed, panting heavily, bodies quivering in the aftermath. When he released his bite, a rush of sensation flooded the spot he’d marked. She knew without looking that he’d broken the skin, but she didn’t care. She wanted to bear his mark.
With a tenderness belied by his size, strength, and the savagery of a few moments ago, Drakkal licked the spot he’d bitten, soothing away the pain.
Shay loosened her hold on his mane and opened her eyes to meet his gaze. An instant later, he bared his teeth, features contorting as his cock pulsed, and he released inside her once more. He ground his pelvis against her, and Shay moaned.
She brushed her hand down the side of his face. “I so missed this.”
“Me too, kiraia,” he purred and nuzzled her cheek.
She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close and brushing her face against him in turn. As much as she missed her daughter, Shay and Drakkal had needed this time. Though they were now parents, they were still mates, and their bond with one another was just as important as it had been before Leah—perhaps even more so. It would take time to figure out what life was going to look like going forward, but these moments with Drakkal would always be part of it.
Twenty-Two
Drakkal frowned when the terran embassy came into view through the hovercar’s windshield. The building was smaller than many of those surrounding it, and it was plainer too—the terrans seemed to have favored function over form in its construction. It was surrounded by stretches of green grass and neatly trimmed shrubbery that he assumed were from Earth. At least two dozen colorful flags flew from tall posts, the central one being the largest. For the first time, he found himself wondering what his mate’s homeworld—his daughter’s ancestral point of origin—looked like.
He made a mental note to look it up later, but there were more pressing concerns to occupy him now.
“You’re sure about this, kiraia?” he asked, well aware that he was repeating himself.
Fortunately, Shay took it in stride—even though she had every reason to be annoyed with him by now. “I’m sure. Like I said, I want her to start off right. This is where that happens.”
Drakkal nodded and followed the hovering markers toward the parking complex beneath the embassy. He trusted Arcanthus’s work as much as he trusted Arcanthus himself—unquestionably—but it was always best to avoid putting forgeries to the test whenever possible. Their ID chips would be scanned here, and those scans would be run through both Terran and Consortium systems. Even the slightest discrepancy could be enough to rouse suspicion.
He glanced over his shoulder to see Leah, smiling and wide-eyed, staring out the windows in wonder. She’d grown so much in the four months since her birth. She was still tiny, but she was on track to have doubled her birth weight within another month or two, and he couldn’t help but find her chubbiness—dubbed baby fat by Sam and Shay—adorable. Every day, she grew a little stronger, advanced a little further.
She could already push her chest up and hold her head high when she was lying on the floor. She’d be crawling before long. His pride for Leah was already immense, and it only grew along with her. Though some might’ve said she was too young to display it, Drakkal saw her mother’s strength in the little cub just as clearly as he could see the blue of her eyes.
His concerns about coming here were justified, he knew, but Shay’s concerns were equally valid. Leah deserved a chance at a normal life. Whatever Drakkal could do to ensure that was the case, he would. Right now, that meant having her officially added to the records of her people. That meant having her legally obtain her citizenship.
They entered the parking complex without incident, and Drakkal pulled the hovercar into an open spot. He turned his head and met Shay’s gaze. She smiled at him. The gratitude in her eyes made him forget his worries, if only for a few seconds.
She’d been growing stronger over the last few months, too. They were fortunate to have people around them who, despite their professions and backgrounds, were eager to help with Leah, allowing Shay and Drakkal some time to themselves. Shay had been working out regularly and often trained with Thargen—both in the simulation chambers and in hand-to-hand combat. Drakkal’s grumblings hadn’t been enough to stop the latter, but he knew Shay wasn’t in any real danger.
Thargen could be a bit unstable sometimes, but he was a good person at heart. And his friendship with Shay was rivaled only by his friendship with Urgand.
But the gym and training rooms hadn’t been the only places Shay had been exercising. Though it wasn’t always easy to find time together, she and Drakkal couldn’t keep their hands off one another when they were close. The more they mated, the more they craved one another, and sometimes the wait between those wild encounters was more unbearable than those weeks after Shay had first run from Drakkal.
He suspected it was another of his instincts at work. Once she’d healed from giving birth, Drakkal’s body seemed to have recognized her readiness to breed and had worked itself into a frenzy over it—apparently unaffected by the fact that she’d received a contraceptive shot to prevent pregnancy until they’d deemed themselves ready for another cub. That drive to mate with her hadn’t diminished even slightly.
“It’s going to be fine,” Shay said, settling a hand on Drakkal’s thigh.
Even now, her touch lit a fire in him, and he squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds to steady himself. “I know.”
But as he killed the engines, his stresses reintroduced themselves, poking in from around the edges of his conscious mind. It had been a little more than three months since his last run-in with Vanya—three quiet months. He and Arcanthus had tried to track her down numerous times, and each attempt had come up with nothing. There was no record of her anywhere, not even on the surveillance feeds in which she should’ve appeared—the recording from the Ventrillian Mall showed Drakkal speaking to nothing but a barely perceptible distortion in the holo.
That was troubling. There was technology that could cause such effects—that could essentially erase people and objects from surveillance feeds—but it was expensive, and it was rarely used outside of military operations and well-funded criminal organizations.
Who was Vanya working for to have had access to that kind of equipment?
The possibilities had kept Drakkal awake long after lying down in bed on more than one night, but they were too numerous to narrow down. It was most likely that she was still working as a slaver. That provided no comfort. The Inner Reach Syndicate, the powerful crime organization that had caused so much trouble and suffering for Arcanthus and Drakkal in the past, was immensely influential and wealthy, and they had several large slaving operations on their payroll.
Drakkal had no desire to tangle with the Syndicate again, especially not so soon after the incident with Vaund. Just the thought of it made his missing left arm ache.
Something was going to happen. Even if it had been twenty years since he’d lived with Vanya, he knew her well enough to understand that she didn’t make idle threats. She would act. But when, where? And what would she do?
He covered Shay’s hand with his own, giving it a little squeeze before he opened his door and climbed out of the vehicle. Shay exited on her side and collected Leah from her harnessed safety seat.
“All right,” Drakkal said as he met his females at the back of the hovercar, “let’s go be law-abiding citizens for a little while.”
Shay grinned. “The first step in a new chapter, right Kitty?”
Leah smiled up at her mother and giggled—it was her new favorite sound and remained the sweetest thing Drakkal had heard since the first time she’d made it.
Heart swelling, he wrapped his arm around Shay�
�s shoulders and smiled down at his cub. “It is, kiraia.”
They walked to the elevators together and rode them up to the embassy’s main lobby, a space with a high ceiling around the edges of which hung the same flags as outside. Drakkal didn’t allow his nervousness to affect him outwardly, but he didn’t breathe easily until they’d cleared the security checkpoint and entered the embassy proper. Their IDs—including Shay’s previously untested alias—passed the terran inspection and scan, and the Eternal Guard peacekeeper working with the terran security team waved them through with a look of disinterest on her face.
One of the guards pointed Shay in the proper direction, and she and Drakkal walked down a long hallway into an office with a big waiting room. The real challenge began after Shay had checked in at the desk—the waiting.
Even though there were fewer than a dozen other people in the waiting room, hours crawled by. Soon enough, Leah was fussy and restless, and Shay had no choice but to take the cub into the corner to feed her. Drakkal loomed beside her, glaring at the few other terrans who dared eye his mate judgmentally. Those who made that mistake once did not repeat it after hearing the azhera growl.
Eventually, Leah fell asleep on Drakkal’s shoulder. He sympathized with his daughter; he was restless, but it was mixed with weariness from a long, boring wait. Not long after Leah had succumbed, Shay leaned against Drakkal’s arm, slipped an arm around his middle, and closed her eyes.
He remained alert, watching as more people entered the room; they arrived much faster than they departed. How did the terrans get anything done like this? Did they all have an infinite amount of time to waste?
Drakkal didn’t realize that he’d been bouncing his leg impatiently until Shay pressed her hand on his knee.
“We only have to do this once,” she said, rubbing her cheek against his arm. Her voice conveyed the grin she must’ve been wearing. “You’d think you never sat around for hours before. You’d make a lousy security guard.”
Untamed Hunger Page 31
