THIRTY

- kuvier -

On our final day of walking, the journey to the village takes less time than I anticipate. The females move with haste they did not have before, and we are within paces of the clan commune far too soon. My restlessness rises as we get closer.

A sense of unease gnaws at me. Threats from every direction loom over us, but we have no choice but to press on. I cannot help but feel that we may be leaving behind the dangers of being caught out here in the Dark Season, but the clan certainly poses dangers of its own.

My concern is made worse by the mate bond. Moving closer and closer to a clan of unmated males, closer to challenges I know will come, has my blood humming. I feel confident in my Sedona's desire to be with me. Our conversation this morning was everything I needed to hear.

But, I know my Atan, and I know my clan. Something will happen. Something will go wrong. Every instinct is telling me to prepare for a fight. When Enikk makes our first and only stop before the village, I am practically shaking with energy I do not have a way to release.

"We are almost there." He declares this to the females in their language.

He has been far better about learning their words than me. Where I struggle, it seems to come with ease for him. Of course, he has a greater incentive. His female seems determined to only use the one with the tight curls who knows all of our words to talk to him. Enikk has worked hard in the days since the females hatched to learn more and more of their complicated language. I am once again the luckiest male, as my female enjoys talking in Lieq more than her human words.

"We made good time," Enikk continues, "We will rest and continue soon." Everyone seems in agreement as they collapse against boulders or on top of their packs.

I leave Sedona in the circle of females and move just a few feet away toward Enikk, my eyes still trained on her as I talk to him.

He assesses me."You feel restless as well?"

"The closer we grow to our home, the less at ease I feel."

"Me as well, clansman." He shakes his head with a deep sigh. "My scent is nowhere on my female nor is hers on me. We are scented like strangers, not mates. Things will not be easy for me when I reach the clan."

This pulls me up short. I had not considered the lack of scent today. While I know she smells of me—she has been locked in my embrace for quite a while—I know that the scent I leave on her is not lingering. There is only one way to leave a lingering, claiming scent on her. Arousal scents last far longer than any other.

"I will scent mark my female before we arrive," I declare suddenly. Enikk nods as if he expected this.

"It is a joy for you that she will let you." His words are sincere, but tinged with bitterness as his eyes track the movements of his elusive mate.

"I will move further away from the group or Sedona will grow embarrassed." Plans are forming in my head as I see the many large boulders scattered around us. Some are big enough to block my full form, and I spot one such stone that will do just nicely.

"You will return soon?"

"Yes, I will not be long." Though we have made good time, the second eye will set and we will want to already be with the clan when there is one eye still open.

I leave Enikk and walk to my mate. She sits on a smaller rock, slightly away from the others, her face pulled into a pensive expression. When I approach, I hold out my hands to her. She looks up at me, but does not move to get up.

"Are we leaving already?"

"No, my mate, I wish to take you over there." I point to the largest boulder in our vicinity.

Sedona cocks her head, curious and confused. "Why?"

When it comes to her safety, I make demands not requests, but for anything else, my Sedona's word is paramount. What she wants and does not want is my greatest concern.

"I wish to pleasure away the crease in your brow." As I say this, I reach my thumb out and carefully smooth over the wrinkles on her forehead, careful of my claws.

Her lips part and I can see the lust tinge her gaze. But she hesitates, likely thinking of the many things she has to weigh her with worry. I wait for her response, willing to accept whatever the answer is. Yet, I feel relief and desire as she puts a hand in one of mine.

"Okay, but I want to walk." She looks around at the other females. "I don't want to bring too much attention to us."

I give no response to that, though I do not pull her into my arms as I desire. Instead, I walk with her several paces away and behind the cover of the large stone.

The moment we are away from prying eyes, an urgency like that of a wild beast falls over me, the aggression I have felt all day channeling into pure lust. I grip her jaw in one hand, wrapping a clawed hand around her throat with the other. She swallows against my palm and I groan before pressing my lips to hers in a heated caress. She responds to my touches immediately, her scent perfuming the air as chills work their way up her body. Her small hands clutch my hips, gripping me for stability as much as to pull me closer.

My hands roam over her body, feeling the warmth of her skin beneath my touch, gripping and grabbing at the soft flesh. I waste no more time, pulling her pants down. Sedona lets out a squeal but makes no move to cover herself.

She shivers in the cold and I move closer, allowing my body heat and sheer size to hide her from the chill. She grabs at my shoulders, but lets me continue to undress her until she is bare from the waist down, her many lower layers laying safely across the rock.

Dropping to my knees in front of her, I growl when I realize the height difference is still a problem. Slipping my arms between her legs and under her thighs, I heft her into my arms until her core is pressed to my face, her bottom resting in the crook of my arms and both legs slung over my shoulders. Now cradled in my embrace, she is at the perfect height.

"Oh my god, Kuvier," she gasps out as my tongue darts out, dragging over her wet slit.

Her hips buck into my mouth on instinct. Her scent fills my senses, intoxicating and familiar, and the taste of her is enough to make me lose my thoughts. I could drown in her taste and die a happy male.

Flattening my tongue, I swipe it across her cunt, this time passing across the entire length of it, collecting her nectar on my tongue like I am starving. She groans, her hands tangling in my mane as I taste her, my tongue working feverishly to draw out her pleasure.

"Please," she moans softly, her voice filled with need.

Wanting this to last, I toy with her at first. Licking and sucking with fervor, I move my mouth against her core, but I avoid the place I know makes her wild. I expertly avoid her pleasure button at the apex of her cunt until she is absolutely drenched and panting for me.

"Are you going to come on my tongue?" I redouble my efforts, my hands gripping her hips as I bring her closer to the edge.

"Fuck!" she calls when I nip ever so gently at the bud that all but controls her reactions. Her hips start to move of their own accord, bucking and grinding against my face and I revel in it.

"Wring your pleasure from my mouth," I choke out between suckles and licks at her. "I am yours to use."

At my words, her breath comes in quick, shallow gasps, and words fall from her lips that I cannot even fully understand. When I feel her start to tense, I know she is close. I lock my mouth around the small nub and suck, using my tongue to circle it.

That is all it takes.

With a final, shuddering cry, she reaches her peak. Her body bows in my arms as she presses her dripping cunt further into my mouth, writhing against me. I do not stop as she rides out her ecstasy. I do not stop until she is sagging against me, until the last drops have been wrung from her and her nectar fills my mouth.

I hold her up for several moments after that, waiting until her legs stop shaking before I carefully set her back on the ground. She wobbles but I hold her up with hands around her waist, still on my knees. She drapes her arms over my shoulder and captures my mouth in a searing kiss. When she pulls away, her eyes are still dark with desire. Knowing it is cold, I start to help her pull her pants back on, my hands lingering on her bare skin.

"What made you want to do that?" she asks, her breathing still ragged.

"I am marking you with scent." My voice is low as I finally stand to my full height. "Your arousal covers my face. Any Lieq can smell it now."

"But doesn't that mean, I marked you with my scent?" Heat crawls up her flesh, but she bites her lips thoughtfully, continuing before I can answer. "I know what to do. Can I have this?"

"Of course, why?" I unwrap the fur around my waist without hesitation and pass it to her, curious.

If she plans to just wear my clothes, that will not do. Short of rutting her in the snow, I cannot think of another way to get my mating scent on her. She tosses my fur to the ground and drops to her knees. I fix my mouth to ask her what she is doing.

But, any words I could have said fall away when she confidently reaches her hand into my leather pants and grips my length. This is the first time she has ever touched me in such a way. A strangled sound escapes my throat as she pumps her fist up my hard shaft two good times.

My mate wiggles my pants down a bit until she reveals my cock to her eyes. She pauses when she sees it. I wonder briefly if it is much different from the men of her people. It is a nice size, even amongst Lieq. My thoughts are interrupted when she leans forward and does the most incredible thing.

She licks me.

Sedona drags her tongue across the head of my cock and I thrust instinctually, growling low in my throat. My beautiful female giggles at that, the sound sultry and light. She peers up at me from the ground, her eyes hungry as she wraps her lips around the whole tip, sucking softly.

When she takes more of me in her mouth, I nearly black out. She takes more and more of me until I feel the strain in her throat. She cannot take all of me at once, but Great Mother she sure tries, and most of what she cannot fit in her mouth she covers with her hands. A curse leaves my lips when her tongue swirls around the head of my cock while it is still shoved between her lips.

Never could I have imagined this from my mate. Never have I seen or heard of females taking their males into their mouths. It is considered an honor to taste the sweetness of your mate, but this? This is a bliss I could not have imagined. This is the sweetest kind of torture. The sensation is overwhelming, and I grip the boulder for support, my head falling forward as pleasure courses through me.

She works with skill and enthusiasm, her tongue and lips driving me wild. I can barely think, lost in the ministrations of her mouth and hands on me. My groans and grunts come faster and faster as she bobs up and down, stealing my breath completely. I use every bit of power in my body to keep myself still when everything in me wants to take control and fuck that pretty face of hers.

With her mouth sucking at me and her tongue teasing up and down my length, I feel my climax approaching and try to pull away. "Sedona, I am going to…" My words fail, ending in a groan as she sucks harder.

"Good." She moves to sucking down the length of me, tracing the ridges along my length with her skillful tongue. She pauses when she reaches my nodules, the spattering of raised bumps at the base of cock.

"Are these sensitive?" She runs a light finger over them and a burst of her arousal hits my nose.

"Everything is sensitive because you are the one touching me," I choke out, running a possessive hand over the back of her head.

She hums and goes back to working my cock in her mouth. Licking a flat tongue over the rounded tip. When she pulls away again, I could almost cry like a little babe. She whips her upper layers off, exposing her smooth, brown chest to my eyes.

I zero in on her buds, a dark umber against the smooth lighter brown of her breasts. They have pebbled against the cold and they call to me. I cannot help but reach down and pinch each one in turn and she moans loudly.

She starts her effort with renewed vigor bobbing along my length, working her mouth over what she can fit and rubbing her hands over what she cannot.

"Sedona," I grind out, my grasp fixed firmly on the back of her head. She places a hand on each of my thighs and stills her head, dropping her jaw. Her eyes find me and I nearly spill. Knowing what she is wanting me to do, I do not have to be told more than once. I start to thrust into her mouth, loving to watch the way it stretches around me.

When she begins sucking around me, as I fuck her mouth, I know I am too close. I pull out of her mouth before I spill down her throat, but she does not let me go far. She leans forward and spits on my tip before she starts working me with both hands, her hands slipping over me easily.

"Come on me. Then they'll smell that I'm yours."

Her efforts coupled with those words are enough to send me over the edge. My seed shoots from my cock in ropes, spilling along her chest and covering her neck and part of her check. She continues stroking her hand over my length until it becomes too much and I have to still her hand. She smirks and gives me one last lick before pulling away, her backside resting on the heels of her feet.

Her eyes still on me, she rubs my spill in, an inviting smile playing on her lips. "This should help, too," she murmurs, that deep ebony gaze never leaving mine.

As I watch her, I have to physically grip the rock, letting it dig painfully into my palms, to keep my control. To keep myself from flipping her around, pressing her against this boulder and rutting her until I succumb to exhaustion.

Instead, I restrain myself and I pull her up to a rising position. An arm snakes around her waist, dragging her against me, uncaring of my seed that is already sticking to her skin.

"You are testing me, looking at me like that and speaking to me such. Behave or I will push you against this rock and take what is mine."

She swallows and her arousal becomes stronger in the air. "If we didn't have people waiting for us..."

I drag a thumb across her lower lip. "That you believe I care is astounding."

Her breath catches in her throat and she sways forward, her body seeking me out even as her mind pushes her to say, "We should get back to the others."

"Very well."

I dip my hand in the snow, rubbing a small bit in my hands to melt and warm it before wiping at her, relishing in the feel of her soft skin. Soon enough, I have cleaned her satisfactorily. Even without the visual evidence, she still smells overwhelming of me, and I wish I could bottle the scent of our arousal intermingled.

With her relatively clean, I slip her clothes back over her head, pressing her trembling fingers to my chest for additional warmth. But, too soon, my seductress of a mate moves away from me, swaying her hips as she walks ahead of me, rejoining her companions as if nothing happened.

I watch the swell of her hips and the jiggle of her ass as she walks, and if there is one certain thing in this life, it is that this female will be the end of me.