Chapter 25 - Polly

She doesn't remember me. Of course she doesn't remember me. I don't know what I thought was going to happen but it's like my whole body locked up when coming face-to-face with my half-sister.

The last time we met, we were both teenagers. We've both changed a lot since then.

And, of course, I'd be the one to remember who we are to each other. To her, that one encounter was just with a sad girl who was a compulsive liar - or whatever our dad spoon-fed her to get her to believe him. I'm also not the one who ended up with a famous husband and a spot on a national reality show. It was kind of hard to escape her face when the show was at its height of popularity.

I never watched it, though. I never wanted to witness her perfect life.

I was also kind of scared that Dad would show up as a supporting cast member every now and again since the whole premise was to follow these people around in their day-to-day lives. And, I know a lot of these types of shows are set up to look like this is their normal life, but I know if I caught even a glimpse of my dad's easy smile on my TV screen, he'd be able to sell whatever the network were pushing because my father is a master in leading a double life.

But seeing her now, here .

I'm finding out my flight, freight or freeze response is to lock - the fuck - up.

Aloryk is still carrying me back to the hut and talking in his low, rumbly voice. I'm not listening, though, and I can't stop thinking about how calm Delphi seems. Sure, it's not right after she's been woken up from the pod, and they've had days in the jungle to acclimatize to what's happened to them, but most of the other women have chosen ‘freight', understandably, and Delphi's already asked for a guided tour like she's on vacay or something.

Hell, it had taken me a good few days just to accept that this was all real and not in my head.

Why is she handling this so well?

Why does she still look so good even in the depths of a hostile alien jungle?

Why did she look like she belonged in Aloryk's arms when he went to go help her?

Urgh, sometimes I want to scream at myself for the way I always compare us. Dad chose Delphi, and her mom, not me and mine. It doesn't mean anything - it doesn't . Occasionally, I try to look at it with cold, unfeeling logic. It was just a numbers game to him. Delphi has a brother, Jayden. My dad could have just thought why ruin two kid's childhoods when you can only ruin one?

I find myself leaning into Aloryk's chest, staring blindly at nothing at all while he carries me. Without even realizing it, I begin to stroke the place on his skin where those heart-stars are going to light up for me.

Only for me.

If humans had something similar to heart-stars, I think everything would be so much simpler. If my dad's had sparked for my mom, he wouldn't have strayed. Or if they had sparked for Delphi's mom, we would have known straight away and he wouldn't have been able to string us along playing happy families for so long. I even think mom would have understood and let him go without animosity. How can you argue with soul mates?

I look up to Aloryk as he strides forward talking about… I don't know, something about a surprise. I feel like I've had enough surprises today, to be honest. But as I watch him, a lump forms in the back of my throat. He's so handsome, and kind, and protective. He's carrying my big ass around without breaking a sweat - like it's nothing at all. Could I let him go without argument if it turns out he's not meant to be mine?

The thought has my heart thudding a few painful beats, so I turn my face into my man's chest and press a kiss there, watching the skin-stars come alive and rush to fuss around the area I'd touched with my lips. If only they'd stay there, and spread, glowing bright for everyone to see that he's mine and I'm his. It's not until I look up at Aloryk that I realize he's stopped walking.

His brows are knitted as he looks down at me, but they smooth with a soft smile. "How do I earn more of those, little female?" he asks.

I feel a bit lighter inside when I look at his smile. Delphi is here and she doesn't even recognize me. So what? That doesn't matter. Aloryk matters. I snuggle up to his chest and sigh. "Just keep being you," I tell him, listening to the way his purr revs up, just for me.

"Who else would I be?" he scoffs. "I am Aloryk, Protector, and Polly's mate. And I will be this until the last breath leaves my body. I can be no one else. Even when I am a star in the Promised Lands. I will be that star that streaks across the dark, looking for my Polly's star to protect her."

I can feel a huge smile on my face at that. "You will, huh?"

Aloryk's huge arms squeeze me just a little. "Yes. We will play your ‘finders-keepers' for as long as existence lasts."

For as long as existence lasts.

That's a real long time.

My insides feel all warm from the very matter-of-fact way Aloryk had described the way of things to me. It's like he'd just been reeling off casual plans for the day and not declaring that he'd never leave me, ever .

As he steps into the shade of the hut, I feel kind of sad now he has to actually put me down. I find I like being carried around like a princess if it's by him.

"Would you like your surprise now?" he asks, already opening one of his trunks.

"Surprise?"

Before I can feel too bad for how he's probably been talking about this all the time he carried me here and I've just shut it all out, he turns, an excited and hopeful look on his handsome features. Little skin-stars zoom all over the place as he uncurls his giant hands to reveal two small clay pots with ill-fitting lids. They're decorated with glimmering chips of those glowing opals the Trixikka collect and although the ceramics are crudely made, they're beautiful.

"Did you make those for me?" I ask, stepping forward, tucking my wet hair behind my ears so as not to obstruct my view.

"No," he says, smiling as he lifts the lid on one pot. "Inside is the stain made from ashes and a mixture of different tree saps. The Elders use it to do their wall etchings or to decorate some other items." I dip my head to peer inside. There's a thick, ink-black substance inside. "I noticed the Elder at the meeting with the High Spear had fingertips stained with this from all his work up in the Mother Caves and I thought…" Aloryk's skin-stars start burning and whirling over the bridge of his nose and cheeks. "I asked how long the stain lasts and was told it should remain on skin for many moons, and I thought of your love of skin-etchings."

My eyes flick up to his. "You think I could use this like tattoo ink?" It would be more like henna, I guess, since there's no way of getting hold of a sterilized needle. But I'll take it! " Aloryk ," I breathe when he nods, stepping even closer and taking the opened pot from his palm. "That's amazing! I love it, thank you!"

"There are only two colors," he says, giving me the other little jar. "Black and… not so black." I lift the second lid, and sure enough, this one is a muted version of the first. "I asked the Elder if I could learn to make others and he said it is possible."

I beam up at him, clutching the ink-like substances close. I've missed being creative so, so much, it's been like I'd left part of me still asleep in that awful pod. I might be a bit rusty though. What I wouldn't give for a sketchbook. "Do we have anything I could practice designs on?"

Aloryk steps into my personal space like he owns it, one of his big hands claiming my hip, the other sliding under my chin to cup my jaw and tip my face up toward him. "Use me , little female."

I've never wanted to kiss someone so much in my whole entire life. But, with Aloryk being so damn tall, even going up onto my tiptoes, I have to tell him, " kiss me ," in a breathy voice that doesn't sound like my own. He obliges, leaning down so that our lips can meet.

He's so warm and all-consuming when he kisses. It's like he's trying to pour himself inside me, or pull me into him - I don't know which, maybe it's both. What I do know, though, is that it's heaven . Aloryk groans when I open up to allow his tongue to slide against mine, and suddenly, his arms are around me and he's hauling me up, my legs automatically coming to wrap around his waist. Somehow, both pots of the special ink crashes to the ground, smashing to pieces. I gasp and pull away, looking down to the mess. The stain is very thick - too viscous to absolutely splatter everywhere. But the pretty jars are smashed and my heart falters. He's only just given them to me and I've-

Aloryk grunts and takes my mouth again as if what just happened was of very little consequence. I whine and pull away. "Aloryk, your gifts!"

"I will get you more," he tells me, walking me to his nest and laying me down. "I will make you more," he says, climbing over me, heat and lust radiating off his body like the shimmering air above a hot road. "If I am gifted your kisses like this, I shall make every color stain there is." He ducks down again, starting to press kisses and nips to the underside of my jaw. "Tell me, little female, what do you want? Whatever you want, I will retrieve it for you."

I giggle and push lightly at his chest. When he moves, his huge frame now hovering over me, I cup his cheek in my hand. "I just want you, Aloryk. You don't need to get me gifts all the time, though I love those," I say, nodding my head over to the mess of broken pots and thick black ink. "I just want you," I tell him again, my hand dropping from his face to stroke over the place where his heart-stars will light for me one day. "Just you. All to myself."

He swoops down like a predator on prey with a kiss so fierce it knocks all thoughts clean out of my head. "You have me, my Polly," Aloryk mutters between presses of our hungry mouths. My hands spear up into his hair, gripping and tugging him impossibly closer. The action causes a loud groan to vibrate Aloryk's chest where he's pressed up against my breasts. The sensation sends a thrill down my spine. Just the thought that I can send this huge beast of a man wild is enough to have me whining for more.

And right here, in this moment, I don't even need any damn heart-stars, I can just feel that he's mine. That it was always meant to be us.

I keep a tight hold of his hair, directing his mouth down to my jaw, my neck, arching my back up into him, drawn like a magnet. Aloryk's hands roam my body, pausing every now and again to give needy and loving squeezes to my flesh as though he can't get enough. I've never been so confident that a man wanted my body as I am with my Aloryk.

I'm about to moan his name, demand he fuck me right now because I can barely stand it, but he beats me to it.

" Polly ," he groans, briefly biting down at the juncture of my shoulder and neck. " Fuck , Polly, I… I need your cunt again, my mate. Can I-?"

"Yes," I hiss, pushing at him so I can start frantically undressing us both.

"Let me taste you," Aloryk says once I'm naked. He starts moving down my body, issuing feverish kisses and nips on anything he can get his mouth on as he goes.

"No," I protest, urging him back up. "I need…" I don't know why, but I want that feeling I'd gotten when he was inside me. Like we are joined as one, not just that he's trying to pleasure me. Although, I know he enjoys that too - more than any man I've ever known. But, it's different. I want us to be experiencing the same pleasures together.

"What do you need, my mate?" Aloryk asks, purring as he gently nips at the side of my breast.

" You ." The word comes out on a breath as I look down at this huge man poised over me, ready and more than willing to give me any pleasure in the world I could possibly want.

"But," he starts, covering my nipple with his mouth and giving one, short, sharp suck before releasing me. "My size. You do not want me to ready you like the other times? I should prepare your cunt for me so I do not harm you, no?"

I am desperate for this man. And part of me kind of wants to feel the sting of the stretch that taking him would cause. He's taken preparing me for his size so seriously and of course, I've enjoyed all of that. But, I want him now . "I'll be fine," I shake my head, urging him higher. "I'm already wet, see?" He shifts up my body so that his cock aligns with where I so desperately want him. Reaching down, I try to wrap my hand around his girth causing a hiss to escape from his lips above me. Rubbing the head of his cock up and down my pussy, I groan, loving how Aloryk can't seem to help but start rocking his hips. "You feel that?"

If he were just a well endowed human man, I'd be plenty wet enough. But this is Aloryk. And the sane, non-horny, non-desperate version of Polly is currently begging me to calm down because that thing could permanently remodel my downstairs if we're not careful.

We don't listen to her, though.

"Aloryk," I pant, squirming as his huge length slips up and down my pussy. "Please. Just-"

Instead of conceding to my pleas, Aloryk rears back onto his knees. He looms large over me as he grabs my hips and hauls me down his nest toward him, manhandling me like I'm nothing at all. I squeak, and before I can ask what he's doing, he grips my legs behind my knees and opens them wide.

"Aloryk?" I ask, thinking he's just going to try and look to see if I'm wet enough to take him, but instead he-

Did he just-?

I think he did .

Aloryk kneels there, holding my legs parted wide as he spits on my pussy.

I lay there with my lips parted in surprise, because that was so fucking dirty.

And so fucking hot .

"Just to be sure," he says, as if talking to himself. He grips his cock at the base and uses it to rub his saliva over me in gentle circles, driving me fucking crazy.

"Aloryk, please-"

My breath hitches when the heavy, wet slap of his cock connects with my clit.

"If you do not stop begging for my cock, I will be forced to hurt this precious little cunt of yours, Polly. Have patience." He leans in and spits from a height again, making me moan before he resumes rubbing his hot, hard, slippery length against me. "If you will not let me lick you, you will need to be a good little female and wait until you are ready to take me."

" Oh, god ," I loll my head to the side. Is it still considered dirty talk if he doesn't even realize what it's doing to me? I've always been a sucker for that kind of thing. I look back up at him where he's watching his own movements. "I can take you," I tell him, swiping my tongue over my bottom lip. Our eyes connect and his beautiful violet ones are dark with lust. I lift my hips, begging for him. "I'm ready, I want to take you… like a… a good girl."

"A good girl?" Aloryk repeats, his hips jerking forward to rub the underside of his length along me.

I nod my head quickly. " Your good girl."

I love the way Aloryk lets out a shaky exhale in response, his tail coming to wrap tightly around my left thigh as thousands and thousands of skin-stars glitter all over his body - and there's a shit-ton of them all headed toward his dick all at once, like a sky full of horny shooting stars.

He stops his teasing motions and notches the head of his cock at my entrance. And, slowly - so… damn… slowly - he starts to push into me. With just the tip inside, Aloryk watches me as he gently rocks back and forth, gradually working more of himself into my pussy and keeping a close eye on my reaction as he holds my legs apart.

He has nothing to worry about. The stretch feels divine and practically makes me roll my eyes to the back of my head. " Aloryk ," I moan, my hips jerking, trying to urge him to drive into me.

He grunts, and I feel one hand leave my leg as his fingers start to play with my clit, circling it in time with his thrusts. " That's it ," he coos. "That's my good little female. You are doing very well taking my cock. Can you take more?"

"Yes!" I nod frantically, "Yes. More ."

Aloryk repositions himself, leaning over me now and hitching my thigh up his hip. He sinks further into me with a satisfying groan that I wish I could record and play on repeat. " Fuck . You are a good girl, taking almost all of me."

Pleasure tingles from between my legs outward and I try to match his careful, measured thrusts as he completely covers my body with his much larger one. We're so mis-matched that my face is level with his chest and my hot breaths come bouncing back to me from his skin. The action makes his stars pulse in time with my panting, right in the place where his heart-stars will appear.

Because they will appear.

Maybe even tonight.

The thought has my pussy fluttering with pleasure.

Aloryk shudders above me, his hips snapping forward to bury the last couple of inches inside me. " Fuck !" he hisses, and I cry out, my hands coming up to grip the huge biceps braced at either side of my head. He stills, and I can hear him breathing heavily through his nose like he's trying to compose himself. "Your cunt is so greedy for my cock, Polly," he huffs. "You are going to drive me to madness."

I whine and start grinding my hips against him in teasing circles. "Is that bad?"

"Goddess, save me - fuck !" Aloryk curses above me.

And I can't help it, I really can't. Knowing that I'm the one to affect him like this makes me bold, makes me bratty, turns me on more than anything. "I thought I was your good girl? Don't you like this?"

His head dips with a guttural groan, and, I swear those big, strong biceps I'm holding onto are shaking. " Female … You have no idea how much I love your greedy little cunt. But -" He pulls out and slams back into me with such unexpected force, I gasp beneath him. Aloryk pauses for half a beat before he gives me another rough thrust. "I…" thrust , "do not…" thrust , "want…" thrust , "to-hurt-you." By the time he'd gotten to the final three words of his sentence, Aloryk had already picked up a rhythm that he couldn't seem to stop. " Fuck ," he curses, and I'd don't know if that's directed at me or himself. "Tell me I am not hurting you, my mate" he pants above me, "because you feel too good to stop."

"Don't stop," I whisper. "You feel so good too."

The feral moan that rumbles above me is accompanied by a frenzied snap of Aloryk's hips. My body is starting to get used to the stretch but oh, my God, I'm going to feel thoroughly fucked tomorrow morning.

And I love it .

I love the fullness, I love his big body over mine, I love how he tried to control himself, but most of all, I love that he couldn't. Not with me. Not when it's us , together like this.

Aloryk is above me, giving in to that animal urge of his to claim me, and together we fall off the cliff of pleasure. I try to keep up with his movements, but he becomes frantic, muttering things as he chases both our highs.

I catch a few things; mainly curses, prayers to the Goddesses, and praise to me, his ‘good female' for taking him so well. But then we're winding up, galloping, galloping, galloping to the finish together.

My body seizes in bliss at the same time that Aloryk lets out the loudest, longest groan, holding himself still, his cock buried deep inside me as I feel the pulse of his release.

We're breathing hard together, my exhales panting over his chest still, those skin-stars showing up like I'm fogging up a sparkly window.

But they fade again each time, none of them sticking around.

None of them staying to become his heart-stars.