Chapter 20

CHAPTER TWENTY

KHORAHN

Flek, I was dying a slow death. Vya's sweet scent had changed subtly after her release. The soft sounds she'd made while she found pleasure at my hand still echoed in my ears.

My ambal swelled and my cock kicked, demanding I adjust it to a mating position. Instead, I smoothed my hand over hers and did my best to ignore the demanding organ. Once I adjusted it, there would be no denying the mating urge, and it was taking every ounce of control I had not to spread her legs and see if I could bring her joy again.

She might not understand yet, but soon she would see that, though I ached for her, I would not force her as others would. She would be free to come to me in her own time. Or not. I only hoped I had the strength to endure now that she touched me more freely.

I released her hand with a pat and returned mine to her flank.

This flare was not the one for distraction. The ship had announced atmospheric entry in less than an arc. I needed to focus on the impending venture, no matter how soft and tempting?—

"I apologize for my behavior yesterday and for touching you now," she said, interrupting my thoughts. "You touch me so much. I didn't stop to consider that you might not like to be touched in return. I'm sorry."

Flek me.

I needed to get the cleansed terra on this ship quickly so I could correct her misguided beliefs.

With a command, I sped up the steam cleanse and carried her out of the unit. I didn't bother putting clothes on. I saw no reason to when I would need to wear the life suit soon.

Vya's pretty face flushed with color when I seated her on the ledge beside the hydration processor. I selected her drink without looking, too busy watching the way her multi-colored gaze swept over my length.

My cock bucked again in demand. It would take a lunar-rev for it to painlessly return to its non-mating position once she finally opened her breeding sheath to me. Maybe several lunar-revs.

Before the processor finished, she opened her legs. Not yet wide enough to expose the delicate pink entrance to her sheath but enough to perfume the air with her inviting scent. My mind drifted to the possibilities of mouth-mating her, sinking my tongue into the depth of her breeding sheath and coating it with her flavor.

"Do you want me to hold the cup myself this time?" she asked, pointing to the waiting cup.

I mentally called myself seven times a distracted fool and held the cup to her pretty mouth. She drank daintily, her gaze holding mine until she'd drained the contents.

She stayed on her perch until her nutritional paste was almost done then went to stand beside the chair. If I were wise, I'd let her eat in peace. But the temptation of feeling her cleft against my bare ambal and the need to show her that I still craved her touch proved too much.

I sat and tugged her down onto my lap. She immediately hooked her legs around mine and slid back, her cleft fitting over my ambal. She jolted and would have jerked forward, away from me, but I was faster and anchored her in place with an arm around her waist.

"Okay. Up to you," she said with a shrug before calmly picking up her spoon and eating.

It was pure, glorious torture. She didn't move much, just a slight lean forward every time she took a bite. It was enough to rub her legs against mine. Skin to skin.

Once I returned from Divos One's surface, my pants would stay off.

I wanted every meal to be like this.

My hands settled on her hips, and I resisted the urge to press my ambal more firmly into that sweet crevice.

She paused with the spoon partway to her mouth and twisted to look back at me.

"I can't believe how selfish I've been. I've eaten at least five times and haven't seen you eat once."

I barely heard her words. My pulse thundered in my ears at the way her flank squeezed my ambal in this position.

"Are you hungry?"

She moved the spoon toward my mouth.

The paste she loved tasted truly awful to me. Yet, I opened my mouth and let her feed it to me, leaking secretions against her cleft in the process.

"I'm going to guess, based on your face, it's not your favorite food."

She smiled and wiped the corner of my mouth with her thumb. My shaft throbbed as I watched her bring it to her lips and lick off the paste. When she faced forward again, the slack in pressure almost sent me into a release.

"Female, I marked you so you would be free to choose your own fate. But you should know, you are already mine. And I will ensure any fey we encounter once we leave this system will know it immediately. You will wear my scent both outside and inside."

She glanced back at me and smiled.

"Another bite?" she asked, lifting her spoon.

I nodded and almost groaned at the pressure. I couldn't wait to mark her again.

After she finished, I carried her to the nav center where I planned to have her wait while I went to the surface. She sat on my lap, once more spread wide and hugging my ambal with her flank. Together, we both watched the ship's entry into Davos One's atmosphere.

The arm I placed around her waist kept her from slipping from my lap during the turbulence. It also supported her jostling breasts. But it didn't prevent her flank from bouncing on my ambal.

By the time we broke through the atmosphere, she was leaning heavily on me and gripping my arm. However, only a hint of fear bled into her scent.

"You will grow accustomed to the landings," I said, smoothing my hand over her arm.

It took her several prexels to loosen her hold and several more for her to recall how to change the screen views between the cargo bay and outside the ship.

"Command Khorahn, navigate us to the dark edge of the twilight band," I said, standing and setting Vya on the chair.

Unable to help myself, I leaned in and hugged her close, pressing my nose to her hair and inhaling her scent.

"Wait. What's going on? Are you leaving?" Vya asked, that hint of fear returning to her scent.

"Yes, my sweet female, but I will return. You can monitor me from here." I tapped the screens again, flipping between the views.

I squeezed her shoulder and left her looking sad in the nav center.

In the cargo bay, I ran another test on the life suit and then checked on the ship's progress.

"One prexel until dark edge alignment."

I moved to the cargo bay doors.

"Begin Divos One landing protocol."

The ship began counting down the halo-flashes, and a blue glow of the habitat field rose from floor to ceiling within the bay door in front of me. It was programmed to keep everything from Divos One out and a certain human female in if she happened to wander down here.

"Ten."

"Nine."

"Eight."

I felt the sudden drop as the ship plunged closer to the terra. The plan was to dump the waste right at the edge to maximize the time I had to work.

"Five."

"Four."

The cargo bay door opened, and I pushed the first crate over the edge.

"Three."

"Two."

The cable attached to the drop bin pulled taut and flipped the bin, spilling the mineral waste on the terra as the darkness gave way to twilight.

"Retract cable one," I barked out, already pushing the second bin over the edge.

I moved fast, pulling the first one in, tossing it to the side, and connecting the cable to the next container. Five loads of waste emptied onto the terra, creating one large pile. I grabbed the cargo bay's utility stick, retracted the second to last cable, and attached myself to it.

"Initiate monitor-and-retrieval protocol," I said a moment before I jumped out of the cargo bay in a free fall.

The surface's air immediately warmed me within the suit. And I knew the temperature would continue to rise with each passing halo-flash, going from reasonably pleasant to scorching. Which is why I needed to hurry. I had less than an arc before the light of the system's burning sun would consume the narrow rim of twilight.

Already the vegetation in the belt was starting to wilt.

Landing in a practiced crouch with my fingertips to the veg-covered terra, I waited for the telltale signs that a Wernius had sensed surface movement. A slight tremor ran under me.

With my utility stick in one hand, I held onto the cable behind me and lifted myself off the terra. Half a halo-flash later, the pile of mineral waste shook, the pieces clattering as they tumbled against each other.

The Wernius erupted out of the black, crystalized terra beneath. Smelling the mineral waste through its gills, its cylindrical mouth vacuumed up the pieces in a frenzy. The mineral waste, foreign to this planet, provided nutrients typically unavailable to the Wernius. They would forego the native fauna, their natural source of nourishment, in favor of the waste. Which made little sense due to their deadly reaction to it.

I stayed close, watching the Wernius's center swell with the large amounts of waste it was consuming. Its movements slowed. Yet, it continued to go after every last crumb.

The heat climbed, prexels passed, and the creature's thick black membrane began to ooze fluid in an attempt to stay cool. Inside of the life suit, I felt no physical discomfort. However, I was very aware of the slowly approaching blazing light burning plants to ash at the other edge of the twilight band.

With the easy part almost complete, I dropped to the ground and braced myself.

The Wernius's tubular body shivered in response. Though it knew I was here, it didn't stop pushing aside the now unwanted vegetation in search of the remaining pieces of mineral waste.

"Come, my friend. Let us entertain one another," I said, retreating another step.

In order to harvest the cleansed terra, the Wernius needed to die on the surface where I could access it. I was simply giving the terra-former a reason to stay and enough time for it to convert the waste into the cleansed terra I needed.

After it consumed the last piece, the front half of its body whipped toward me. I jumped upward and caught the lip of the bin still dangling above the surface. Blow me, the creature's movement slowed, and it emitted a low, echoing rumble.

A call to more of its kind.

I quickly dropped to the ground, light on my feet, and poked the beast with the utility stick. It thrashed in my direction, and I tumbled out of the way, coming up to agitate it again.

We danced, the beast and I, with dangerous dexterity. Though it weighed twenty times what I did, it moved just as quickly. I panted with exertion but remained alert and focused, which is why I leapt with all my might when I felt a slight tremble under me.

The terra below my feet erupted upward, and the razor-sharp teeth of a second Wernius scraped against my life suit near the ankle. I felt the material part as the sting of my mistake ran along my skin before my hand locked onto the crate's edge. I jerked my legs up and out of its mouth less than a halo-flash later and cursed as my suit repaired itself around the wound.