Chapter 14

Lynix

Kyle came alive as we stepped into his room. Although underground, Queen had made our bedrooms as bright as possible with artwork and many lights. We'd built Akoma with the plan to be able to house others—whoever they may be in the future. And I was never more grateful for the foresight. Kyle would have the privacy of his own room, which Yanna told me was important for him. I didn't know much about that, as my brothers and I had refused to separate into our own rooms well into adulthood.

Kyle eyed the bed like it was his everything, but we shoved him into the washroom first to clean himself. He was dirty, blood, and smelled bad. Eleric's sense of smell wasn't quite as good as the rest of us, and even he could barely stand the stench of the boy.

Kyle emerged, hair dripping, wearing a pair of loose pants. He curled his toes into the bare rug and smiled. But I was too fixated on the state of him. I hadn't been able to see yet the extent of his injuries, and now that trauma of what he'd been through was evident in his skin.

"Sit," Eleric ordered in a tight voice. Yanna bit the inside of her cheek, and her blue flame in my mind twitched with anxiety.

Queen watched with sympathetic eyes as Kyle sat gingerly on the soft mattress. He ran a hand over the furred blanket while Eleric spread ointment over his many cuts. After some bandages, Kyle looked slightly better, but he moved stiffly, as if he was in pain. Eleric gave him a bottle of the draught that I'd given Yanna before, and she assured Kyle it was safe to take for humans.

He threw it back, and soon his eyes were closing. Yanna shooed him to lay down and then tucked the blanket around him. He watched her through sleepy, half-shut eyes and mumbled something about being too old to tuck in, but Yanna ignored him.

"Yanna and Lynix will be right across the hall, and I'll have Tain bring in some water and food for you when you wake up," Queen said. "But I suspect you will sleep for a long time, and I hope you do. Your body needs it."

Kyle's eyes sagged, but he still fought sleep. "You'll be okay?" He said to Yanna before his gaze shifted to me. "Everything's okay now?"

I rested my paw on his forehead. "Everything is okay. We are safe. Your only job now is to heal."

"Okay," Kyle murmured. His legs twitched. Sleep was taking over. "Let me—let me know if you… need anything…"

His eyes closed, and his thin chest rose rhythmically with deep, even breaths. Eleric left first, and I gently guided Yanna toward the door before she fussed over him more.

Queen remained behind for a while. She ran her fingers through his over-long hair. "We have you now, boy. You're home."

I swore Kyle smiled in his sleep.

Across the hall, I led Yanna into our room, where a massive bed took up the center. Her eyes rounded. "My God, that's like the size of two kings."

I frowned. "What kings do you know who are that big?"

She laughed. "No, I mean king-sized beds."

I still didn't understand. She waved a hand. "Nevermind." She scratched at her scalp and wrinkled her nose. "I need to clean myself. Is your shower the size of an entire apartment?"

I opened the door to my washroom, and her jaw dropped. "Welp, just about."

"Get in, mate. You can wash first."

Her eyes glittered, and despite the obvious fatigue in the lines of her face, she smiled mischievously. "How about shower sex?"

My cock twitched. "What?"

She began undressing. "Join me, mate."

My clothes were off before she could finish her sentence, and I strode to our washroom with a hard cock and full balls.

The shower was tiled, with a large cleanser head that sprayed purified water from a nearby reservoir. Yanna stepped under the spray and tilted her head back. A long moan left her lips as the heated water coated her hair and body.

I grabbed the soap, a dried plant that created suds when wet, and washed her hair. She didn't stop moaning, not as I rubbed her shoulders, her back, and thoroughly, very thoroughly, cleaned her cunt.

By the time I was finished, her face was flushed, and not from the heat. I went down to one knee, not even feeling the water pelting my head, and lifted one of her legs over my shoulder. She let out a cry, and stumbled, but I made sure she kept her balance as I leaned her so that her back rested on the wall. There, she sighed happily as I dipped my mouth between her legs and licked.

She tasted even better than I imagined. It felt like ages since I'd had her, even though it hadn't been that long. But now I had her all to myself—her moans, her sighs, and her pleasure.

I ate at her until her whole body shuddered with her climax, and then I hauled her into my arms and plunged her onto my cock. Tight heat strangled my shaft, and my eyes crossed as I fought not to come inside of her immediately. I wanted to draw this out. I wanted to take my time. But Yanna had other ideas. With heated eyes and a lust-filled growl, she bounced herself on my cock, squeezing with each drag, until I roared and spilled my release inside of her.

Sated, bone-tired, I managed to get us out of the shower, dry us off, and stumbled into bed. Yanna immediately burrowed under the covers and rubbed her chin on the soft fur blanket.

Cocooned in our room, with the soft lights flickering, I gathered her in my arms. She rested her head on my chest. "Lynix."

"Hm." I was fading slowly. My eyes wouldn't open fully.

"I feel safe."

My lips curled into a smile. "That's what I wanted for you."

"I can't believe I'm here. Akoma is beautiful. Queen is so kind. Kini is going to be my best friend, Kyle is my adopted son, and you… I can't believe I get to spend the rest of my life with you. I couldn't have invented a better you if I tried."

I ran my claws through her damp hair. "That might be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me."

She laughed huskily. "Well don't get used to it. I'm not normally this nice."

"After the stabbings, you've been pretty nice to me."

Her hand slapped my chest. "We won't speak of the stabbings."

"What? But I loved the stabbing. I will tell anyone who asks how fierce my mate was when we met."

She made an exasperated sound in her throat. "Fine."

"Wait until Tain hears. He'll be delighted. He might ask for a re-enactment."

"What is with you and Tain?" She asked. "You bicker a lot."

"We're a lot alike. We always fought growing up, but it's how we show we care. The moment Tain is nice to me is the moment I worry he might hate me."

"And the others?"

"Eleric is very serious. A rule-follower. He rarely takes risk, which is why flying our formerly broken aircraft was a surprise. But then he knew the alternative was our deaths, so he was willing to do anything. Whitten is quieter. He is responsible for a lot as our technician. Everything from our security to our communications. I worry sometimes that he places a lot on himself, but he never complains."

"And the sixth brother you mentioned?"

My heart panged, as it always did when I thought about him. "We don't know anything about him, just that he exists. Queen saw him once, briefly."

"So you don't know what he looks like?"

I shook my head. "But I'd know him if I saw him. I'm sure of it. We'll find him. We won't rest until we do. And as soon as Kyle wakes, we'll talk to him more about where he believes the women were taken. I'm sure Whitten is aching to learn more, but Kyle needs his rest."

She scowled. "No one better disturb him."

"Don't worry, he'll be fine."

She nodded with a yawn. "Good."

"You need to sleep too, mate."

"I'm so tired, and yet… I'm also so excited. I want to explore Akoma. I want to see Queen's garden. I want to learn as much from her as I can. I want to hear about how Kini met Bastian?—"

"There's plenty of time for that. It will be dark for a month. You will be sick of everyone by the time the sun rises."

She laughed softly, and I could tell sleep was taking over. "If you say so."

"Sleep. I will be here when you wake."

Her eyes closed, and although she opened her mouth to say something else, no words came out. Sleep won, and she let out a soft snore that had me smiling.

I woke up much later, sleep still clinging to my muscles, but I had a mission. One mission that I didn't want to put off any longer. I disentangled myself from Yanna's clutches. She grunted softly and then hugged the blanket as she smacked her lips. Her breaths evened out again, and she remained asleep.

"I'll return soon," I whispered, and crept out of the darkened room. I headed straight for Whitten's den, which was usually dirty, smelly, full of old food, and a lot of fur. Of course, Whitten was there, sitting behind his many monitors, the light illuminating his gray face and intelligent eyes.

He turned and blinked in surprise. "What are you doing awake?"

"I need to ask you something."

Immediately, his expression went guarded. I never understood why he acted like that, but then Whitten always seemed to have a million secrets. "What?"

"I need you to show me what an Earth lion is."

Whitten's expression immediately shifted back to surprise. "A lion?"

I fidgeted with a cord on his desk. "Yanna and Kyle said I look like a lion."

Whitten looked at me for a moment before turning around and tapping away at a large control panel. His screen rapidly showed our galaxy, then the next, until a wide shot of planet Earth was visible. He filtered more and more, pictures of animals and the foreign planet flitting across the screen.

Finally, he pressed one final button with a resounding smack. He spun away from the monitor on his rolling chair and pointed a claw at the screen. "There."

First, the coloring was all wrong. This animal was a light brown, and he stood on all fours. But he had a mane—although mine was much more luxurious—and a tail with a tuft at the end. I lifted mine in the air and compared. Different colors, but very much… the same. My paws moved the same way, with flexible wrists. We had a similar shaped face with a wide muzzle. Our ears were the same. Yanna had called them cute. I scowled. "Any videos?"

"Knew you'd ask," Whitten said as he pressed another button.

The lion on screen lay on his side, lazily flicking at insects buzzing around him. Nearby was a lion who looked a little different. Smaller. No mane. "What's that?" I pointed at the no-mane lion.

"A female. So groupings of lions are called a pride. The females of the pride are the hunters, the workers. The male… well, I don't know for sure, but he mostly sires chits and does this." He pointed to the lounging male. "He doesn't do much."

"The females hunt, and this lazy male eats their food?"

"Well, he protects them and their young. Mostly. I'm not sure. Conflicting information."

I frowned. "Why don't the females rule? That's what the Drixonians do, right?"

Whitten didn't meet my eyes. "Yes, that's what the Drixonians do."

We'd discussed many times about reaching out to the Drixonians. Our father had been stolen from Corin, and he had talked often about their matriarchal society. But Whitten said he didn't think it was wise. I always felt like he was holding something back, but then Whitten was one of the smartest of us. If he had a hunch about something, he was usually right.

I looked back at the lion. "I'm not sure I like them."

"They are very well respected as a predator on Earth."

"The females," I humphed.

Whitten rolled his eyes. "Go return to your mate. Why are you here annoying me?"

"Because I like being annoying, and my mate seems to find me pleasurable, therefore I have to annoy my brothers."

Whitten hid a smile and pointed to the door. "Go!"

"I'm going, I'm going," I grumbled. And only because I wanted to return to Yanna.

When I stepped back into our room, she hadn't moved. Her hair was spread out on the light sheets, and when I climbed into bed with her, I pressed a kiss to her bare shoulder. She smiled in her sleep and rolled into me. Snuggling her face into my chest, she let out a sigh and kept sleeping.

I hugged my mate to me, thanked Fatas for her, and closed my eyes. Sleep took me in moments.

Thank you so much for reading Lion Hearted! Curious about Kini and Bastian? You can read their story in

BULL HEADED.

Want more Beasts? Whitten's story is next in

CRYING WOLF.

Never miss a release from me!