21. Holoth

twenty-one

Holoth

K 'Vella's body stretches against mine, rousing me from my sleep in the most amazing of ways. She's the first thing I smell in the morning, the first one I see, the first one I feel. I wrap my arm tighter around her, loving how her lower arms are still wrapped protectively over her abdomen, always protecting our child.

"Good morning," I growl low into her ear, nipping at the tip where it's most sensitive.

I run my fingers along her new mating marks, dark bands of black over her wrists, above and below her elbows and knees, around her ankles, and around her neck. Varon symbols of being bonded to another. The same markings I've been trying to get to show up since I rutted K'Vella the first time.

I'm pretty sure she hasn't noticed them on herself. She passed out last night with her teeth still in me and didn't even wake when I took her back to the nest and wrapped myself around her to fall asleep.

"Mmm," K'Vella moans, rolling over so her face can nuzzle against the crook of my neck.

She presses her body into mine, rolling her hips against my aching cock and pressing her breasts against my chest. I can't tell if she's purposefully trying to seduce me because she still looks unconscious.

"Mate," I murmur in her ear, hoping to rouse her a bit more. I want her to see those mating marks and maybe, just maybe, reward me for my patience in finally getting them to show up. "Wake up."

"No," K'Vella protests.

She suckles on the side of my neck she hasn't marred with her teeth. She sucks the skin like she's tasting me more than anything else. I don't blame her. I want to do nothing but run my tongue along her pelt and taste every inch of her. It's amazing just how much of my taste depended on my smell because now that I can smell her, she tastes even more delicious than she did before.

"Please, sweet mate," I purr, adding a slight neediness to my voice that I hope will stir her instincts into helping me with my problem. "I need you. I need the mother of my child to help ease this ache."

K'Vella hums a joyful sound even as she shakes her head in disbelief at how easily I can get her worked up. She's a horny little mate, just like I am. It doesn't help that she's so eager to breed and have my young. It makes me want to do nothing but keep her filled every moment of every day.

"Are you waking up now?" I ask, rolling her so I'm lying on top of her, spreading her legs wide so I can take up the space between them.

K'Vella looks up at me, her three eyes blinking slowly like she's still waking from her dreams. She gives me a soft, content smile as she raises her hand to my face and gives my cheek a loving caress. Or, I'm sure it would be loving if it actually ever reached my cheek. Instead, her hand freezes in the air, her eyes going wide as she sees her bonded marks for the first time.

"Holoth," she says my name like something's wrong, and that won't do.

"You know what they mean," I tell her.

I nudge the head of my cock inside her. Her second upper hand comes up to my face, but she moves it between us, getting her wrists close to her eyes as she rubs at the marked pelt with her hands. I push inside her more, wanting her to at least moan or whimper as I invade her space. She's still too shocked about the bonded marks, though.

"When did this happen?" she asks, her eyes looking up at me in an accusatory manner like I've kept them hidden from her. I snort out a laugh.

"Last night after you bit me," I say, thrusting into her hard and smirking when her lip trembles and a sweet moan escapes her lips. "I can't believe I didn't think about you biting me before then."

I rock into her harder, loving how her worries ease and her body relaxes into me. I'd love to have her on her hands and knees with my hand fisted in her hair, but that can wait for our next fuck. Right now, I need to see my mate's face when she breaks apart on my knot.

"I've been trying to get those marks to show up for weeks, K'Vella, but you're a stubborn little female when you want to be."

"You knew?" she asks, her eyes glassy as I roll my hips in the way I know she likes. "I didn't even know. How did you know?"

"I always knew you were my mate," I say with a grin so bright I'm surprised she doesn't have to squint. "Are you jealous you couldn't put two and two together?"

K'Vella bares her teeth at me, but her heart isn't in it. I grab her thigh, pulling her leg over my shoulder as I rut into her harder, and she forgets all about everything but the feeling of me inside her.

"The heat run is tomorrow," Helna says as she plops down into the seat across from K'Vella and me in the ship's kitchen. No one else is awake yet. At least we haven't seen anyone else. "Are you guys going to participate?"

K'Vella sits in my lap, my hand high on her thigh and my chin resting on her shoulder while she eats. I don't touch her inappropriately. Or, well, I took my hands away from the inappropriate places when we were no longer alone in the kitchen.

"I'm not in heat," K'Vella says when she swallows her food. "I don't go through heats."

Helna shrugs. "My heat isn't for like two more months, but I'm running tomorrow. Some males from Vestr Clan are here, and they really try to blow your back out."

I growl low in my throat, my teeth gnashing at my sister's words. I don't need to know what she does with males, just like she doesn't need to know what I do with my female.

I'm sure at some point we'll be in the great hall at the same time together with our partners, but I can just ignore her. She'll go to one side of the room. I'll go to the other. It's how things are done with siblings.

"What?" Helna asks, raising her hands like she isn't trying to make me uncomfortable enough to leave the room altogether. "I'm letting K'Vella know in case she wants to sample all of what Rythar has to offer. Maybe a different male will make her want to stay."

My growl vibrates through the entire ship, so I'm not surprised when Jovi and Alik enter the kitchen a few moments later with their daggers drawn and lips pulled back into snarls. They notice how I'm possessively holding K'Vella and the bonding marks on her pelt and roll their eyes.

"You think she wants any Rytharian male?" I ask, my words dripping in anger.

K'Vella presses a hand against my face, one of her other hands grabbing my hand from her thigh and placing it flat against her abdomen. "Shh, I don't want anyone but you. She's trying to upset you."

"No," Helna says, shaking her head and letting some of her braids and the beads in them clatter on the table. "I'm trying to figure out how to keep you both here. We miss my brother, and most of us like K'Vella."

"Most?" I ask, snapping the words because everyone should love my mate. Not more than me, but still, she should be well-liked amongst all of my clan because she's the best female.

"Do you not remember last night?" Helna asks. One of her eyes twitches in the corner like she's upset with me for being difficult even though I'm not trying to be. "Balta ripped your blocker out, and you know she wasn't the only one who wanted to do it."

"I don't care if those females don't like me," K'Vella says easily, as though the reminder of the most awful half hour of our lives doesn't bother her. And maybe it doesn't because we're together, and there's nothing that will ever take my mate away from me again.

"You should fight Balta at least," Helna says, waving goodbye to Jovi and Alik, who've already grown bored with our conversation and are slinking off back to their room to get back into bed with their mate. "A female that fights for her male shows she has claimed him."

"I have claimed him enough," K'Vella says, taking another bite of her food. "I'm much stronger than her as well. Nothing good comes from me fighting her."

"Something good does," Helna mutters under her breath but doesn't argue anymore. "So, what's your plan if you're not staying here?"

I frown at the question because a part of me wants to stay here. I want to be back in my clan, back with my people and my culture. I want to raise a small army with K'Vella and do it in the house I built here for my future mate.

That was never her plan, though, and I don't want to trap her somewhere where she's different from everyone else. She's taken to our customs and acts like one of us, but that doesn't mean she wants this for her life.

K'Vella looks at me from the corner of her eyes, waiting for me to answer my sister. I press a kiss to her temple and take a drink of water before deciding that I have absolutely no idea how to answer that.

"I don't know," I say, shrugging and hoping it's enough for the two females. Helna looks like she has more questions, but I turn to K'Vella and whisper low in her ear. "If you want to do the heat run, I'll find you."

She turns to face me, bewildered. "You want to run in it?"

I don't understand why she seems worried until I remember the last time I participated in a run. I cup the side of her head and pull her close, pressing my lips to the corner of her mouth, making her giggle.

"Okay, so maybe we reserve a time on the field when there's not a run because you're right. I don't know if my mind could handle being back out there with the others all rutting."

It's not the ideal answer because there's no guarantee that we'll be here long enough to reserve time to run the fields without anyone else there. Normally, we can reserve times between runs, but couples going into ruts or heats are given priority.

"I want to run from you," K'Vella murmurs.

I keep my attention on her as my sister slips out of the kitchen, leaving us on our own. That's good. I'm surprised she didn't try to stay the whole time to make me uncomfortable. At least she knows some boundaries.

"We'll get a spot reserved then if we're still here," I growl, shifting how I'm sitting so K'Vella can turn in my lap to straddle me. She's a good Rytharian and does what I want without me even having to ask.

"What if it's weeks from now?" K'Vella asks, lifting her furs so her warm center is grinding against my pants, right over my erection.

"I'll make an excuse to come back," I groan, feeling myself wanting to do whatever she asks right now if she's willing to tease me during breakfast when we already spent a half hour locked together when we woke.

"What if…" Her words trail off as she tilts her head to the side and lets out a shaky breath.

"What if?" I prompt, my eyes wide in anticipation of whatever she's about to say.

"What if we don't leave?" She sucks her bottom lip between her teeth and looks at me like she's unsure if that's something I want or not.

"You want to stay?" I stutter out the question like I'm a male who's never talked to a female before.

My emotions must be evident to K'Vella because she grins at me, places her lips on mine, and soaks up the way I'm shaky from her question.

"I want to stay," she says, barely giving me a second to process before continuing. "I want to move into that house I wanted to destroy last night. I want to build you a perfect nest, and I want to fill it with babies. So many babies, Holoth."

I growl low in my throat, wanting to pull my pants down now and lock her to me just so she has to keep saying these sweet things to my face for the next thirty minutes.

Instead of getting to do that, though, the kitchen door opens, and the whole crew walks inside. My eyes go wide as I growl at them, trying and failing to scare them into leaving so I can continue trying to get inside my mate.

"It's done," Essa says, kicking her feet up onto the kitchen table as she sits down.

"Get the fuck out," I snarl, snapping my teeth at Phial as he moves to grab his chair and spins it around so he can rest his chin on the back of it.

"Your mate told us to come find her as soon as we finished doing what she asked," Phial says. "We made Jovi and Alik come just in case you got angry."

"You want them here?" I turn to look at K'Vella, who's giving me a sheepish grin and tucking her hair behind her ear. "You do."

I press my lips into a tight line and let out a long exhale. I beg my cock to soften, but that isn't happening unless I can get this pretty Varon out of my lap. I lift her up and off me, making sure her furs fall to cover her.

"I want you to stay here with your crew for a little. I need to do something," K'Vella says, pushing away at my chest.

She backs up a few steps until her words register, and I lunge out of my chair, grabbing her around the waist and holding her close.

"You want to leave me the morning after I find out you're my scent match?" I ask.

I try to mask the hurt in my words, but it's a blow to my ego to know my female doesn't want to be plastered to my side and ride my knot all day after mating. I want nothing more than to crawl into the nest with her for the foreseeable future.

"Just for a little while," K'Vella says, cupping my face between her upper palms. "I promise it'll be worth it."

I want to believe her. I choose to believe her. It doesn't stop the way my fists clench and my lips pull up into a snarl as she steps away from me. She takes slow, deliberate steps toward the door.

She gets too close to Jovi and Alik, and while I know they'd never do anything to her, I still growl at them. Alik frowns and steps further against the wall. Jovi gives me a knowing smirk and steps next to Alik. K'Vella gives me a curious look, making sure they're far enough away. I give her a soft, approving nod, and she scurries the last few paces out of the kitchen.

"How should we kill time?" Phial asks when Jovi and Alik leave.

"We could talk about how many knots K'Vella's probably being propositioned with," Essa says, smirking up at me when another growl rumbles through my chest.

"You're going to get us killed," Phial groans as his feathers shoot high on his head. "No, let's just count to a thousand. If you miss a number, you start over. You can go chase after your mate as soon as you get to a thousand."

"Are you serious?" I ask, arching a brow at the two of them. They make themselves comfortable at the table while I stand there, clenching and flexing my hand, trying my hardest not to run after K'Vella.

"I swear on the mother," Phial holds a hand over his heart, and I have to roll my eyes.

I'm glad he's in a good mood, though. Last night, I thought he might ruin all our chances of staying on this planet long enough to get Avery help. As far as I know, he stayed on the ship last night. Or he did after he tackled me and tried to drug me with Essa's venom.

"One. Two. Three…" I start counting, hating how Phial and Essa look at each other with stupid, smug smiles.

I don't let it get to me because they want me to mess up on counting, and there's no way I'm going to be gone from my mate for longer than necessary. Nope. I'll count to one thousand faster than any male ever has.