Chapter Thirteen

Jago

As soon as Niko left the room, I took off my clothes and scrambled to get under the blanket.

I wasn’t really cold, but I was shivering with nerves. I heard him moving around the small building and then coming back toward me, lying there on my narrow mattress.

He stopped at the foot of it and looked down at me, and then he slowly began to take off his own clothes. I watched in complete fascination.

It had occurred to me—maybe a little too late—that he might not be the same as I was under my clothes. After all, he was an alien and from a whole other galaxy. He had beautiful, golden horns on his head, and he even had emerald-colored scales that ran in a pattern down his throat and disappeared under his clothing. There were bound to be differences, and I was about to see what they might be.

He was still completely humanoid, though, and all humanoid species looked basically the same and had the same “equipment.” At least that’s what I’d been told, and I had cousins married to many different species and surely, I’d have heard about it if there were any significant differences. Wouldn’t I?

He slipped off his shirt and I saw a broad expanse of muscles and gleaming tan skin. The scales only trailed down to his ribs, with a bit over his chest and never got much broader than the pattern on his neck. I had touched and even kissed the ones on his throat, and they were warm and soft. I imagined these would be the same.

He took off his trousers and I saw another patch that began on his hip and went down his left leg almost to the knee.

“Why do you have scales?” I asked him and he ran a hand over the ones that stretched over his chest. “Are you like the Tygerians who shift into animals when they get excited or lose control?”

He smiled. “No, we don’t ‘shift’ into anything. But long ago, when our world was new, legend says that our ancestors consorted with the gods who made them. They were known as shenron . They were very large, flying, serpent-like creatures, covered in scales of all colors and who had beautiful golden horns.”

“Like yours.”

He smiled at me. “Perhaps like mine, yes. We don’t have any reliable images of them. Only descriptions and of course, their offspring. We know they were all powerful and all knowing.”

“Like gods then?”

“Yes. Some say they weren’t celestial beings, however, and they only came from distant stars with far greater knowledge than ours. They were here on our planet for many years and then abruptly went away. But not before leaving a large amount of children for us to raise as we saw fit, because according to legend, those who had been with a shenron never remarried.

Over time, the offspring of shenron only mated with each other and two races emerged on our planet. The children of those who had mated shenron and those who hadn’t. The purest shenron children were considered more beautiful and lordly.”

“Like you?’

He smiled at me and lowered his beautiful body over mine. “Are you sure you want to talk about this now, princeling? I can think of things that are far more interesting.”

“Y-you can?”

“Oh yes.” He started to kiss me all over then— all over my entire body. I was a little shocked and embarrassed that he seemed so intent on tearing down all my defenses and leaving me no safe refuge, no way to fall back and regroup. No way to deny how much he was coming to mean to me. His hand gripped me on my most private part—my typpid, as I called it. That’s what Rakkur had told me would happen, but I hadn’t quite believed it.

He brushed his thumb over my slit, and my hips came up off the mattress. He swallowed my gasps of shock and discomfort along with my breath. He pulled his head back long enough to allow me to take a quick breath. He smiled at me and then resumed the kiss, destroying my last defenses with it and sweeping them away.

He turned me over on my stomach and urged me to my knees, telling me it would be more comfortable for me, though I didn’t see how. He had a bottle of oil that he used on his fingers and even dribbled some down over my hole. I moaned and hid my face on the mattress.

I felt him slip his free hand under my stomach as if to put me up and hold me in place and then he pushed one finger up inside me, crooking it slightly. It burned even with the oil, but as he found the place he was looking for and swept his long finger over it, a final and devastating assault, I jerked my hips and gave a loud cry. I began to come uncontrollably, like I did in my own bed alone sometimes, only this was much better. He stroked me to completion, and then, as my head fell down onto my chest, he cupped a hand under my chin and turned my face to kiss my lips—a lover’s kiss, sweet and gentle, nudging my mouth open with his tongue. He bit down gently and teasingly on my lower lip and then I felt him nudging something against my entrance.

Was it his hand again? It felt different and I tried to shrug him off, but his other hand went back down to my balls, massaging them gently. I surrendered and relaxed into what he was doing to me with a sigh.

Several minutes passed while he massaged and caressed me, even rubbing my back gently as I tried to calm down. Finally, I was aware of him reaching for the bottle of oil again and steeled myself. He uncapped it and murmured to me to spread my legs a bit. I repositioned myself, spreading my legs out farther and bending lower. I could do this. Rakkur had told me about this too, though I’d had a hard time believing it. I knew it would probably hurt when he penetrated me with his typpid—I’d seen it, and it was much larger than mine. I would do this for him, though, and simply endure it until it was over. But he continued to prepare me. An oily finger slipped inside me as I groaned in surprise. Why did it feel so good?

I felt another finger slip inside me, while at the same time, Niko took my aching shaft in his hand and began to slide his fist up and down over my shaft. I thought I’d be too sensitive and hate it, but instead I got hard and leaking again. I heard myself make a whimpering noise I didn’t think I’d ever made before and relaxed into his grip. He slipped in the fingers again, and I groaned at the burn and the feeling of being too full. He increased the speed of his hand on my shaft and since the fingers in my ass weren’t moving for the moment, I allowed myself to relax again and concentrate on just my typpid and what was happening there. When the fingers inside me began to move again, nerve endings I didn’t know I had surged into life. He touched something inside again, and I squirmed and moaned. What was he doing to me?

The fingers pulled out, but before I could complain I felt something big and hard press against me. It had to be his typpid again which was taking the place of the fingers. He eased himself just inside, and I shifted and groaned, but pushed back for more. “That’s it. Bear down, for me. It will make it easier.”

A soft kiss dropped on my shoulder. He slid in hard and fast and then held still, making me feel stuffed and aching, yet strangely excited. He wasn’t moving, just letting me get used to feeling so full. I reached a hand back to touch his face, wanting to connect with him. He kissed imy fingers and whispered to me. “Relax now. The worst is over now. I’ll try not to hurt you again.”

I began to breathe again, and the pain lessened, then morphed into something far sweeter. Niko began moving with slow thrusts, pulling out and pushing back in so slowly I felt every inch of his considerable length. He angled his hips so that the sweet spot inside me was being caressed with each stroke, and I pushed backward into it. The sensations were coming too fast for me to process them, and I gave myself over to the pleasure completely. I began to get lost in his rhythm and climaxed again at the same time I felt a wet explosion deep inside me as he groaned and whispered to me and then fell beside me on the mattress.

I put my head against his chest, surprised at how much I wanted to stay connected to him. His hand fell onto the back of my head, caressing me, and we both drowsed a little. The hard length of his body was warm and comforting against me, and I gave myself permission not to think where I was and how far away from home I was or how he’d betrayed me. I allowed myself to relax gently into sleep.

****

Niko

That scent of his was driving me crazy. So sweet yet oddly exotic, it was teasing so close to my nose that I opened my eyes and was shocked to find him lying across my chest. I badly wanted to taste him, both as a way to ease any discomfort he might have when he woke up and to release the toxin into his blood that would help us bond. A blood exchange would help him be mine, and I was feeling very possessive over him at the moment.

But I shied away of the idea of just biting him without his permission—which I had been more than ready to do just a few days ago. Now it didn’t seem right.

He murmured in restless sleep and then opened his eyes to look up at me from beneath those ridiculously long eyelashes of his. “Are you awake? Is everything all right?”

“Yes, everything’s fine. Go back to sleep.”

“That place on my jawline is throbbing a little.”

“What place?”

“Where you bit me and sucked my blood. Is that because we finally made love?”

“I-I don’t know. I never heard of that before.”

“It doesn’t really hurt. It just makes me feel restless. Like I want you to do it again.”

I inhaled sharply. “Don’t say things like that, princeling.”

“Why not? I do want it. Do it again, Niko.”

He scooted up my chest, holding tightly to my neck and kissed me under my chin. “Can I bite you? Maybe here?” He laughed and licked at the spot, and I got an immediate erection.

“You need to stop.”

He deliberately did it again and I felt a surge of lust. I flipped him over on his back as he squealed and pretended to try and get away. At least I think he was pretending. I was pretty far gone by then. I bit down, sinking my teeth deeply in the previous mark just under his jawline. He moaned and began to hump my leg, thrusting upward and crying out for stimulation against his cock. He screamed and climaxed again, looking at me with dazed eyes. Still sucking his blood, but more gently now, I was transferring part of me into him, and I ground against him before collapsing over him and making myself stop. I never wanted to hurt him in any way, and I was mindful of the fact that he wasn’t Pton.

I lay with him for a long time afterward, stroking him gently as he snuggled against me, getting more and more excited until he arched his back and came in my hand. After reaching my own orgasm a second time, I gave Jago a little more of my blood, strengthening him along with our bond. I bit into my wrist and offered it to him, meaning just to brush it against his lips. But after that first tiny taste, Jago’s arms rose, not to push my wrist away, but to hold the small wound tightly to his open mouth. His tongue and lips sealed to my flesh, seeking the taste with greed. In the end I had to stop him, and he fell off into a deep sleep beside me.

I wrapped my arms around him and wasn’t far behind him.

We slept late the next morning, considering where we were and all we’d done. I was feeling a little surprise at having claimed him so thoroughly, but I wasn’t sorry in the least. I wasn’t good at expressing my feelings, but I hoped he knew how I felt about him. He awoke and began kissing me like he had the night before until I finally had to stop him before we both got too carried away.

“Enough, princeling, we have much to do, and you’re way too distracting.”

“I am?”

“Yes, and you well know it. Get up and we’ll find some breakfast. Then I need to decide what to do about going down to the planet’s surface. I can send the council a message and let them know I’m coming.”

“What do you think they’ll do?”

“They’ll want to know everything that happened. I’ll tell them, and they’ll be please that I managed to escape, I think.”

He nodded, looking unsure. We got up shortly after that. He began complaining about soreness, so I stopped what I was doing and kissed his sore places better. He laughed and squealed and seemed totally in shock. One thing led to another, and it was another hour or so before we got back to having food that morning.

After a while, as he ate his “first meal,” as he called it, I sent messages to the council, and by the time we finished eating and cleaning up afterward, I had a message from them in return saying they were anxious to see me and wanted me to be on my way. I had served with the council for years and had friends among them.

We set up a time for later that day, and quickly signed off.

It would give me time to consider what I might do, and I sat down with Jago, intending to simply talk aloud and work out my ideas in my own head. Almost immediately, I received a message on my communicator. It was from Linnius himself.

“Greetings, little brother. I’m anxious to speak to you when you arrive and to meet my new hostage. Do I need to send a ship for you? It seems odd that you stopped on Mara before reporting to me at once.”

“No ship necessary. I thought I had a small issue with the engine on the Tygerian vessel; however, it turned out to be nothing. I’m coming to the planet’s surface soon.”

“See to it.”

He was highhanded as usual—normal for communications with Linnius. “We have to go, little prince. I informed the council I was coming too, which may help tie the emperor’s hands a bit. Let’s get ready to leave.”

He looked apprehensive, but he began to get his suit on for our trip to the striker. I wasn’t sure what awaited us on the planet, but we’d soon find out.