17. Holoth

seventeen

Holoth

" W e don't need to tell K'Vella stories about me growing up!" I groan and lean back in my chair.

We've spent most of the day with my mother and sister, listening to all kinds of stories and learning more about K'Vella. She's still skittish around certain topics like her family, but no one asked about them after she evaded questions the first time we asked about them.

Instead, it's been mostly about how different our cultures are. I already knew this, so instead of listening, I've made myself content at staring at my beautiful mate and cataloging each of her features.

"There's one thing I'm curious about," K'Vella says, her expression curious enough to make me want to pull her into my lap and tell her anything she wants to hear.

Helna's in her room getting ready for tonight. She'll party again until the wee hours of the morning. I'm hoping K'Vella will want to as well, but she's looking exhausted already, so I'd settle for taking her back to the nest and cuddling tonight.

"What do you want to know?" I ask, grabbing our dinner plates and taking them to the kitchen to clean. My mother beams at me as I do my chores, as though she's not the one who would throw a shoe at me if I didn't offer.

"Why did you leave?" K'Vella asks, and it takes me a long moment to understand what she's asking about.

Thankfully, I'm already at the sink and can buy myself some time to figure out how to answer that question. By the time I finish cleaning the plates, my mother has excused herself. I can hear her speaking softly with Helna down the hall about meeting up with a friend.

"How about I answer that back in our nest?"

I offer my hand to K'Vella, who takes it easily enough. She gives me a concerned look, but I spin her around until she's wrapped up in my arms, and a smile is back on her lips.

"We'll see you later!" I call down the hall. My sister and mother say their goodbyes, and then I usher K'Vella back out into the clan.

"Your mother and sister made it sound like there were plenty of opportunities for you to find a suitable home here," K'Vella says, and it takes everything in me not to snort at the way she's phrasing her statement.

"My father comes from a long line of strong males, so yes, I'm good breeding stock if that's what you're getting at."

I tug on the neckline of K'Vella's dress to get a better view of the flush across her chest and beam to myself when I see her breasts are almost completely violet. She shoos my hand away as though she wasn't wearing less than this last night and allowed me to untie it and push it to the side so I could see all of her.

"I guess I just don't understand why you banished yourself," K'Vella says. "From everything I've heard from everyone here, they welcomed you back with open arms. Plenty of them wanted to welcome you back with open legs as well."

"Is that right?" I chuckle and move my hands lower down her body. I don't know who's on the ship right now, so I won't strip her until I get her into my room, but the temptation is there. "What about you, sweet mate? You want to welcome me anywhere with your legs spread nice and wide?"

"Holoth." K'Vella swats at my chest, but her heart isn't in it. Oh, she wants to spread those legs for me, probably wants to spread and present herself right in the middle of our nest, all for me. "I want to talk to you tonight, and then maybe I'll allow you into the nest."

"I think you mean welcome me into the nest." I bite at the tip of her ear, and she shudders in pleasure.

"I thought you'd be less horny when you're not in rut," K'Vella scolds me without very much heat.

"Must be my youth," I purr into her ear and deepen it when she relaxes into me.

I wrap an arm underneath her knees and pick her up to carry her the rest of the way. She's moving too slow for my liking, and I want to get this conversation out of the way so I can sink back into her once more before the day ends. I'll get her pregnant if it's the last thing I do.

Once we're in my room, I set K'Vella down, and she instantly fusses with the nest. I kneel but lean back on my heels as I watch her work.

When I was looking at my old house earlier, I couldn't help but wonder what K'Vella would think of it. Would she like the nesting nook I had built in the middle of the master bedroom? Would she want to fill it with all the soft and fluffy things I could find for her? It's obvious my mother and sister have kept it from disrepair while I was gone, which makes it even harder to think about selling it.

"What are you staring at?" K'Vella looks over her shoulder at me. She's on her hands and knees, wiggling her backside to tease me.

"I'm looking at the most beautiful female I've ever seen, and I want her to invite me into her nest so I can hold her."

"Not until you tell me your reason for leaving," K'Vella says, turning her focus back to making sure there are no wrinkles or bumps in our shared space.

I groan low in my throat before falling back on my ass. "It's not a fun story," I say, rubbing the back of my neck.

K'Vella turns toward me. Her fingers play with the hem of her dress like she wants to tease me a little bit. When she hears the seriousness of my tone, she drops her hands down.

I flash her a wicked grin, purring to emphasize that I'm a male who can multitask. "If you want to be bare for me in our nest, strip, sweet mate. I can speak and admire you at the same time."

K'Vella gives me a bashful smile before pulling the dress up and over her body, revealing the violet flush taking up her chest and accentuating her breasts. I purr louder for her, making sure she knows how appreciative I am of how open she is to me.

She leans back in the nest, propping herself up on her upper elbows so she's still looking at me. My eyes flick down to the apex of her thighs and how they rub together as though to taunt me.

"Speak, and then I'll welcome you back to your clan as a good Rytharian female would," K'Vella says, her words too sultry, too potent.

I'm crawling at the edge of the nest, my body tense and aching for her. This female deserves so much more than I can give her. She deserves everything that could make her happy, and I'm determined to figure out a way to make that happen.

But first, the story behind why I left.

"During my first rut run, a female who I was close with growing up, one of my sister's friends, was tricked into the fields. She had no interest in helping a male through his rut, but one of them convinced her to go out into the field where some of his friends were waiting. They dragged her far enough in that they could use the excuse of not knowing she didn't want to be part of the run."

K'Vella's eyes go wide, and she starts covering her body with some of the furs in the nest, not caring that all her hard work is being mussed again. Maybe I should've warned her about what I was going to speak about before she got naked. It's my fault for not being able to think of much when she's willing to bare herself for me.

"I heard a scream and chased after it. It's strange being in runs because there are rules about interrupting ruttings. Some females enjoy being pinned down and made to submit, but we have special words that are only used when a female is well and truly not having fun. Glinn screamed it over and over again, and I stood in the trees watching, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do."

K'Vella grabs my hand and silences the words in my throat. She cups my face between her hands and wipes at tears I didn't know were falling. "You were a child."

"I was a grown male," I scoff and give her a smile that doesn't feel as full as it should be. "I killed the males. I don't remember how in very much detail. It's all a blur of hormones and rage and confusion. I only know Glinn was soaked in blood. I didn't know how much of it was hers and how much of it was theirs when I dropped her off with the sisters in the sanctuary. I didn't stop off at my house before I left. I just called a pickup from anyone who would make a stop on our planet. I somehow managed to get on Alik's ship a few months later."

"You saved someone from something awful and thought you had to run?" K'Vella brushes her fingers against my face again, wiping away the remainder of my tears.

"I needed to run for myself," I tell her, cupping my hand over hers and nuzzling my face deeper into her touch. "I didn't know who I was for a little while after that. I thought I should've been faster. That I should've known Glinn wasn't enjoying herself quicker than I did. Or that maybe I should've felt something when I killed three males. I've come to terms with what happened now. Maybe not completely, but I don't fear how anyone here looks at me anymore. I don't think for a second that I couldn't keep you or our young safe."

"You'll keep us so safe," K'Vella says.

"And if I can't, well, you're strong enough."

I press my lips to hers before she realizes that I've pulled her out of the nest. She squeals as her body falls on top of mine, and I discard her furs with ease so my mate is back to being naked for me.

K'Vella lays her head against my chest, listening to the rhythmic beats of my heart for long moments before turning her eyes up to me. "My mother and sister think I'm useless. They cast me out of the family after I got sick."

"They what?" I ask. The bark in my words is harsher than I mean for it to be, and the growl that rumbles through me doesn't help matters.

"Calm, my big ferocious mate," K'Vella laughs as she settles her head back against my chest. "I was sick. You know this already. I had to have bits and pieces of me removed that would help me conceive a Varon child. When my sister found out, which was because of negligence on my end because I never wanted her to find out, she went and told our mother. They're both the same kind of cruel. I don't know why, and at this point in my life, I can't care. My sister called to mock me a week or so after my surgery about how no one would ever want me now that I'm a broken female."

"I want you," I growl.

She shakes in laughter, and it eases some of my worries.

"I know you do, and my sister is a bitch. Everyone knows this." K'Vella pats my chest with one of her hands and lets her fingers play across the dark markings on my chest.

"I don't think I'm ever going back to Varon." Her words are so soft I don't know if they're for me or not.

I can't help but be curious, though. "Oh, where do you want to go, then?"

K'Vella's fingers stop moving against my chest, and I hold my breath, waiting for her answer. "I think I want to be wherever you are."

"Those are dangerous words, little mate," I purr and roll her onto her back, spreading her legs and nuzzling my mouth close to her neck. "If you stay with me, I'm never going to tire of you. You'll be busy with my needs and round with my young all the time."

"Mhm," K'Vella moans as she tugs on my braid until my hair is free and falling around my face. She wraps her finger in my hair and pulls me back so our lips are barely touching. "I want you to keep me busy. I want to be round with your young. I want you in whatever way I can have you."

I press a searing kiss against her lips, tugging her close to me as though I can consume her very being. "All ways," I growl into her mouth as I kiss her again. "You'll have me in all ways."

"Get me in my nest," K'Vella groans underneath me, and those words have never been so sweet.