☆ Epilogue

Days turninto weeks while we help the human women settle into life on the Korlyan Moon. No one seems to have any idea why the despicable Deenz dropped them here, but few of us wish to question it.

For the first time in my entire life, I think females outnumber males. Flocks of human women move through the capital, and the Andjin males can't help but bow as they do.

These females are a blessing from the Great Mother, bringing about the end of the Great Proving.

The emperor, after meeting with the leaders of Sontafrul 6, has officially decreed the Korlyan Moon a safe haven planet for humans. The women are free to leave our moon, even though universal governing senate sanctions won't allow them to go back to Earth.

It seems that many of the males' new Great Proving is convincing these women that they're worth staying for.

The jewels were given the option to remain in their positions or to join the human women. I was surprised at first when not a single jewel stayed in their guarded tower.

It made more sense when Lena explained to me how the freedom to choose your mate, or to not mate at all, would be worth their loss in status.

Two of the jewels even announced a formal life bond. I've heard of males in the temple guard or exiles forming a life bond, but I always assumed it was out of necessity with the lack of females.

"It's shocking that every jewel isn't a lesbian, locked away together for years—not to mention they're hot with their pierced nipples. You're really lucky I didn't run off with Yiskku myself." She closes one eyelid and lets a grin bloom across her face.

I narrow my eyes at her. I've found it hard to adjust to her human sense of humor now that we can understand each other…but the "winks" help. The Andjin are much more literal, and her "sarcasm," as she calls it, has been hard for me to pick up on. But we're working on it, and that's what's important, because inside her womb she carries our young.

As always, the Great Mother has provided.

"I could pierce your nipples if you want," I whisper in her ear as I lean over her, draping her rounded stomach with golden chains, dangling the one with the rough cut emerald over her stomach. The new peaks and curves of her growing body are on full display as we stay naked while in the nest.

"You know, I might take you up on that when they're not so sensitive, after the baby is weaned." She cups her swollen breasts.

"This is one part of human reproduction I have enjoyed thoroughly. One lick of your nipples and you puddle beneath me." I lean over, running my tongue quickly over her breast before she can bat me away.

"You're incorrigible," she chuckles before turning onto her back, stuffing pillows under her strained hips to prop them up, splaying the garlands of gold I've draped all over the bed of our nest.

"Kitaico, we can cool it on the pretty, pretty princess accessorizing, you know. It's not important to me." She pushes one of the chains off her shoulder.

"But it's important to me, to treasure you, to gild you as you deserve…to show you I would do anything to keep you happy," I tell her with a frown.

I'll admit, it's a compulsion to ornament her during our confinement, something left over from the instincts of my ancestors. But it makes me so happy to see her thick with my child, and it feels appropriate to shower these gifts on her.

"What your mate wants is a back rub. Your son is really giving my hips hell today." She sits up halfway, reaching out a hand to me. One of the brothers grabs it before I have the chance and hoists my newly plump mate to sitting.

"I can do a massage," I sigh, bundling up the treasures I've acquired for her off her supple skin. The emerald stone weighs heavily in my hand.

I turn it over. It glints in the light of the glowworms that hang from the ceiling.

This life was once just a fantasy.

I push my disappointment at her rejection of the treasures aside but try to find some compromise.

"Maybe you can just wear this one around your neck?" I hold it up for her with a hopeful smile.

"If it'll make you happy, and I can get you to work on my glutes, I'll do it in a heartbeat." Lena snatches the chain from my hand and throws it over her head before turning onto all fours.

This is a sight I will never tire of. Her heavy belly is too round to lie on, but we've found that this position is a good one. Especially when she opens her hips wide and drops her stomach low.

I grab the shell full of balm—the container has stayed near the bed as we near the end of her pregnancy—and rub a dollop between my hands. I sit, my legs spread wide around hers, and pull her hips back toward my stomach. As I work my thumbs deeply into the socket of her joints, Lena lets out delicious little moans that have my cock hardening quickly.

Another thing I've learned about my mate, besides that fact that sometimes she tells tales for the sake of humor, is that I shouldn't act on my cock's urges until after she is stated with my rubbing of her sore muscles. What I had once assumed was a clever way of enticing me to mate turns out is actually just my mate wanting a different kind relief. It doesn't always mean she won't allow me to take her from behind after her aches are soothed.

So I do my duty, running my oiled hands over the globes of her ass and down her thighs, skirting dangerously close to her cunt as I do. The brothers reach back, wrapping themselves around her puffy feet to constrict some of the swelling away.

"This feels so good," she moans, pushing her hips back further toward me.

I work my thumbs in on either side of her spine and press up to her shoulder blades. She widens her legs as I do, allowing her belly to drop even further down than before, stretching her tight ligaments.

"It's the least I can do for the mother of my children," I say as I rake my fingers gently down her sides.

"Child," she reminds me. Humans don't have litters like the Andjin.

But that's not what I meant.

"When I said children, that's what I meant—I'm going to keep you dripping and full of my seed long after this babe is born," I whisper, feeling her shiver as I stop my hands right near her cunt's pink lips. "Unless that's not what you want?"

With the lightest touch I can muster, I run the tip of my finger along her petals, stopping near her pearl. From this angle, I can see the muscles of her pussy clenching in vain, without a cock to fill it.

"Kitaico…" she pants, lifting her ass back up to me.

"Are you pleased with your massage, then? Shall I work on some deeper muscles, my darling mate?" Cocking my brow, I cup her cunt in my palm.

The brothers fly to their favorite of her assets, kneading her engorged breasts.

"Yes," she responds as her wetness slicks my palm. "I'm yours for the taking, mate."