11. A Great Honor

It's beendays since I shared the kiss with Leeenuh, and I can't stop thinking about how she felt against me.

I tie off one restraint to an anchor point in the craggy ceiling. I get a bit of the bioluminescent dust on my hands as I do and wipe it on my bare chest. Pulling the rope to test its strength, I slide back onto my knees into the nest. My body weight doesn't threaten to break the rope, so I'm satisfied with my work.

Leeenuh has been waiting patiently for me to rig everything up. She inspects everything with squinted eyes before shrugging and sitting down on the bed next to me.

We've gotten into a routine as we ready ourselves for her next heat. When we wake, I prepare food and Leeenuh uses the relief hole and brushes through her fine mane before splashing fresh water on her face and rubbing her body down with one of the torun sponges.

Her grooming habits are always interesting to watch, especially as she cares for her mane. She's told me it's called hairuh, but it reminds me of the Fi'len mane. The Fi'len rule the planet that the Korlyan Moon orbits. Their heads are crowned similar to Leeenuh's, but unlike hers, they don"t hold water.

When she wets her mane, it's soaked for hours.

We mainly work on the restraints, or she helps me with storing and sorting the dried dredlin. Then sleep and repeat. I won't pretend that resisting her isn't a challenge, but even in the midst of mundane tasks, I'm pleased to be in her presence.

But there's always an edge, a line I know I cannot cross. I don't know if her heat approaches or if I'm just being driven mad when I think her scent is stronger, more enticing than before. I stare at her body. Even Leeenuh's breasts seem fuller than yesterday.

Leeenuh has been agitated since late last night. She fidgets constantly in her sleep in the nest while I rest in the tidal pool meant for my future children's nursery. I know the basics of matehood, that I will rut my female until her belly is swollen with my young, but there's so much I feel unprepared for.

"It will hold," I tell her confidently, because I know it will. I'm glad of it, as I have no desire for Leeenuh to injure herself as badly as she did before. She nods, shifting uncomfortably next to me.

"Eye tink twodaay's da daay." She speaks her strange human words as she wiggles in her seat. I might not understand her completely, but I know what she's trying to convey.

I move all the faster on my last knot, pulling it taut against the ceiling before stepping back to admire my work.

"I think it's ready for you," I tell her with a nod before reaching for her hand as she steps up onto the nest platform. Her fingers feel like fire entwined with mine, and I swear I can feel the mating mark on her palm burning into my own. I release her hand reluctantly as she kneels, holding the rope up to her wrist and looking at me with a pleading face.

"Oh, of course I'll help you." I hop up next to her. I grab her small beige wrist and wrap the padded portion of the restraint around it. Looping the rope, I truss it tightly.

"Is that okay?" I ask, finding it hard to keep my concentration on the task at hand. When I lean over her to secure her other wrist, I can smell her cunt and the dampness pooling there.

I know the wrap I wear does little to hide my quickly thickening cock, but I don't want to make her feel awkward. She can't control the heat any more than I can control my body's reaction to it. This entire situation feels like a punishment for which I wish I knew my crimes.

"Kitaico…" Leeenuh starts, biting in her lip in a way that doesn't help my throbbing cock's situation.

"What is it, Leeenuh?" I double check my work before moving onto her ankle. "It's not uncomfortable, is it?"

"Noe, noe, it's feyena. Eye jus wan two leht ewe no, that eye no dis is hard four ewe two, and that eyem ought so unfeelin that eye down't si dat…eye jus wan two sayay that eye down't myend if ewe, ewe no, elp yourself out if ewe nead two." She's rambling, and a pink color blooms on her cheeks and chest.

I swear once my translator chip is reactivated, I'll never let them turn it off again.

"I don't understand. Can you show me?"

Any color drains from those high cheekbones as she blanches a sickly white. With a quick burst of air through her nostrils, she sets her jaw in some kind of determination.

"Kitaico." She points to me before pointing at my cock and then at her own cunt. She shakes her head. "No sex."

I'm briefly hurt. Does she think I've forgotten her wishes? That I'm not better than an animal and would rut her as soon as the heat takes over? I would never do that, even if I'd love nothing more than to feel her clasping around my cock.

"I know Leeenuh, don't worry, I am no brute!" I will keep my word with no hesitation.

"No, no. It's okuh if Kitaico tikes caruh of imself," she says as she points to my cock and mimes what is very much the universal sign for jacking off. Her voice wobbles less as she continues. "In act, it's okuh if kitaico touches leeenuh, to elp wit heat. Jus no alien peen inside mi, okuh?"

"Surely I'm mistaken in my understanding," I say, hope welling in my chest. "Do you want me to touch myself and touch you?"

"It ould ache meye heat easier eye tink, to ave ewe touch mi," she whispers. She takes my foretentacle, already sitting in her lap, and puts it over her covered mound.

"Okuh two touch wit tentickles"—she reaches for my hand—"an hand." But when she motions to my dick, she shakes her head no again.

"We can touch, but not mate?" My voice cracks.

She nods her head enthusiastically. I'm not sure if she's excited to have gotten her point across, or excited at the prospect of what might happen now.

Maybe it's a little of both.

"Are you sure?" I ask, still dubious. "Your heat hasn't started yet, has it?"

I know the answer is no, that there will be no denying it when the heat takes hold.

"Eyem ure, it's okuh." She smiles and slides her unbound ankle to me.

Leeenuh wants me to touch her, to give us both pleasure.

My skin ripples through several different shades before settling on a deep purple. I gulp down whatever anxiety I have about this situation back into my belly.

"If this is what you wish, I will not deny you such things as my mate." I try to keep my voice as cool as I can, but my body sings with the prospect of being able to touch her, to help her through her heat.

By the Great Mother's hand, it would be my honor. My smart little Leeenuh has found a loophole. If we aren't actually mating, surely I am allowed to touch. This is by her request after all, and all I want to do is make her more comfortable.

Once her ankles are bound, I hop down from the nest platform.

"Are you ready?"

When she nods, I pull gently on the lead rope until her arms raise over her head. I watch her for any signs of discomfort or distress but find none. I continue until her hands can no longer reach the tender parts of her sex. They've healed well, but we can't risk her injuring herself again.

"Comfortable enough?" I ask my little mate as she flexes and tests our system. When she nods, I pull a stool up and sit near the nest. Admiring my work.

Viewing her plush body, I decide I was right. Her breasts are more swollen, their new fullness has my eyes lingering longer than might be considered polite. The way her nipples peak through her thin blue top makes me throb. I wish she had put my mouth on the list of acceptable touches. I want so badly to taste her skin. The smell of it is intoxicating enough.

As she sighs impatiently and fidgets to get comfortable, inspiration suddenly hits me with a great idea.

"Maybe, since touches are okay, I could touch you to bring on your heat, and we could end it sooner?" I ask, my heart in my throat, waiting for her response.

She cocks her head. "Ight bee smart," she gets out somewhat cautiously and nods. "Is okuh."

I smile confidently, but I know the shaking of my hand betrays me as I reach up toward her perfect breast. When I place my palm over its warmth, Leeenuh closes her eyes and mewls softly.

"You tell me what feels good, so I'll know what you actually like before the heat takes hold—tell me what to do if it's not good for you."

She nods, arching her chest into my hand. I softly pinch the nipple before trailing my fingers down to the wrap around her waist.

I can smell her cunt readying itself for rutting. My cock jumps when I put my hand on the knot that holds the skirts in place against her hips.

"Can I remove this?" I murmur, not wanting to scare her.

She opens her eyes, boring into my soul with hooded lids, and nods.

When I tug the knot and drop her skirt, it slides down her ample hips and decorated skin. I can't help but pull her scent greedily into my nose. Her mound, covered with hairuh, shines and drips.

I rub my hands together, afraid that my skin might not match the searing heat I feel coming off her sex. I cup the pink lips of her cunt, hopefully letting her adjust to my touch.

I know I can continue when I feel her weight shift into my palm, as if she's giving herself to me. I take my middle finger, pulling a bead of her wetness from her opening up across the little knob of flesh that sits at the apex of her slit.

As I trace over the bump with my fingers, she lets out a delicious little moan.

"Good?" I ask her, enjoying this little pleasure button between her legs.

"Fuuc, yis," she pants. "Moor."

One brother snakes up over my shoulder and coils around her back, threading under her armpit and settling to massage and grip her breast.

"Kitaico…" she breathes, throwing her head back and sagging against the restraints.

"You are so slick even before the heat, Leeenuh. You need this relief. Let me make you feel good," I say before testing her depth, dipping my finger into her entrance.

I was right, she would milk my cock so well. The muscles along her inner walls flutter over my single digit. They pulse harder as I add a second finger.

"You're such a sweet mate, so ready to be rutted," I whisper, unable to control myself, letting the fantasy of her underneath me eclipse my reality.

"I need to touch myself, Leeenuh. You're too good, too perfect not to," I tell her before grabbing myself at the root.

Her eyes open and she stares at my painfully hard cock. The tentacles of my mating crest grasp over my hand and I work my length. Her eyes sear into me as I stroke my length and I slide out of her. My fingers, slick with her juices, find the delicate pearl nestled at the apex of her cunt.

I watch her face intently, allowing myself to be enthralled with the pleasure I'm giving her, that I barely notice the other brother notching himself at her entrance.

Only when she whimpers my name do I realize the brother is already inside her, thrusting into her warm depths.

"You feel so good," I say. "Tell me if you want me to stop. I swear to the Great Mother that I will."

She bucks against my hand as my foretentcle pumps into her. Even though I can't control it, I can feel what he feels. I almost gasp when the rush of wetness slides from her cunt and down the length of the tentacle.

"Down't ewe daruh staph," she moans.

With her demands, I know Leeenuh's heat has officially begun.

As I work her pearl, the muscles inside her grasp at my fingers. Her hips buck faster as she searches for release. I know I'll do whatever it takes to give it to her.

"What do you need, Leenuh?" I ask through gritted teeth, trying my hardest not to spill before she finds her own pleasure.

Her wild eyes shoot open and dart to my leaking cock.

"Uck mi, put dat thuick dic deep insiduh mi," she begs.

She wants me to rut her into submission…but that's just the heat talking.

"Just touches, remember? Just the brothers and my hand."

We cannot mate, this pleasure for us both won't disqualify me from the Proving. I won't dishonor her by mating her without being worthy of such a beauty.

"Moor, jus moar then puhlease!" she pleads.

As if they can understand her, the brother on her breast slides between her legs. While the other limb pumps in and out of her, making obscene wet sounds as it does, the remaining tentacle slides into Leeenuh's dripping cunt as well.

She gasps as it works in slowly, fighting the motion of its twin, until it stretches her hole wide. She lets out a guttural noise when the brother tests its new surroundings, prodding the denser flesh of her channel, pushing toward her belly.

My hand clasps over the head of my cock, trying desperately to keep my seed in.

My fingers on her sensitive nub don't relent as the tentacles fuck, filling her cunt completely. Even from the front, I can see the glorious muscles of her ass clench. Leeenuh shudders as the wave of ecstasy rolls through her. She clamps over my tentacles, and they continue to fuck her all while I feel my balls tighten. Streams of her hot liquid squirt out with every thrust. I'm past the point of no return when I come apart.

I have to steady myself against Leeenuh as I fear I might black out, her thighs having long since snapped shut over my hand. It's as if my touch is too much for her to handle.

"Kitaico, Kitaico," she begs for something as she's slack in her restraints. A sheen of perspiration dews on her perfect body.

When the tunneling on my vision ends and I finally remove my hand from her between her legs, I realize what she wants.

"Moor," she moans, arching her hips toward me, begging for my hand.

The brothers haven't stopped their work, and if anything, they fuck her cunt harder.

Who am I to deny my mate?