Chapter 31 #2
The Vorsa had allowed the Nyvorans a chance to leave this world unharmed, but Ka’s statement sounded very much like a warning that next time any outsiders attempted to visit or steal from this planet, the Vorsa would respond far differently.
They would have every right to protect themselves and their homeworld, but what did Ka mean by the Vorsa will ensure no Not-Vorsa violate the sovereign space of Vorsa World? Did that include Ardruc and me?
Violet glanced at me, and then turned back to Ka.
“The Alliance honors the Vorsa and will welcome Vorsa World with full recognition should the Vorsa choose to join. You stated no Not-Vorsa may ever again violate the sovereign space of Vorsa World. Is it the decision of the Vorsa that all not-Vorsa must leave Vorsa World and not return?”
Ka’s threads flew across the inscription tile.
All not-Vorsa must leave immediately except Violet, Elena, and Ardruc. The Vorsa and Vorsa World honor Elena and Ardruc and welcome them to make their home on Vorsa World for as long as they choose to stay.
Oh, gods. I let out a ragged gasp. Ardruc wrapped his arms around me and kissed my hair.
The entire sky filled with bursts of korae.
The Vorsa in the air above the lab twirled in pairs that reminded me of the first time Ardruc and I had flown together and he spun us in midair.
I’d give just about anything to be able to fly with him now among the dancing, twirling Vorsa under a sky filled from horizon to horizon with the breathtaking korae that had brought Ardruc to this world in the first place.
But we were grounded until his back and shoulders healed.
So instead I turned, jumped into his arms, wrapped my legs around his waist, and kissed him like he wasn’t the director of research and we weren’t in full view of a highly decorated Alliance diplomatic envoy, her assistant, two guards, three dozen sentient plasma tendrils, and an entire planet that had just welcomed us home.
“Elena,” Ardruc murmured. “Look.”
He turned so I could see what else Ka had written on the tile.
The Vorsa invite Elena and Ardruc to construct a new laboratory and home built in the Vorsa way. Elena and Ardruc may oversee construction of additional laboratories and homes for other scientists they believe the Vorsa may trust.
The Vorsa were offering everything we had asked for. Everything we had dreamed.
It might have been a trick of the light, but I thought Violet’s eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. Even her dour assistant’s feathers ruffled as she squawked quietly.
I buried my face into the side of Ardruc’s neck and cried.
Back at Nova Cal, Violet Storey and Ka were deep in diplomatic negotiations.
But out here in the moonlit darkness, the forest thrummed happily as I slipped through the trees.
The mosses shimmered, leaves shivered and danced, the grass and vines swayed, and the bioluminescent mushrooms and lichen pulsed with light. Even the air hummed. The threads of Vorsa World sang.
And somewhere in these woods, a dragon was hunting his little mate.
He wanted to catch me. I wanted to be caught. But this time, he was going to have to work harder.
I smiled to myself, imagining Ardruc trying in vain to find my trail. He’d be mystified by how my scent led him straight to our forest shelter and then vanished right where I’d left a pile of clothes and a note scrawled on a stone outside the shelter’s vine-covered doorway: Come find me, Dragon.
Poor dragon. Such a big forest to search at night with no scent trail to follow.
After nearly an hour, I found a pretty little clearing framed by mossy fallen trees and glowing mushrooms and lichen. Yes, this would do nicely.
When I knelt in the clearing and caressed the ground, thick moss grew across the soil, creating a velvety and fragrant bed. The bioluminescent fungi spread up the trees from the ground, forming a softly glowing ring with the mossy bed in the center.
When I reached out toward the undergrowth, leafy vines snaked across the ground to curl around my fingers and feet. I smiled at their gentle caresses.
Vorsa World was our home now. A new, deeper, and more secure kind of peace warmed my body and soul.
I’d set foot on more than a dozen planets, all wondrous and beautiful in their own ways. And lovely Fyloria, my homeworld, would always have a claim to a core part of my heart.
But the air that filled my lungs now was the air I wanted to breathe forever. This soil was the soil I wanted under my nails and in my hair and under my bare feet. Whenever I looked up, I wanted to see korae and the Vorsa dancing in the sky.
If Ardruc and I chose to have children, this was the world where I wanted them to grow up, steeped in science and wonder and surrounded by the beautiful and miraculous.
It would be the best life I could give them, at least until they were old enough to chase their own dreams, and even then it would welcome them back whenever their paths turned this way.
The thrumming of the forest changed tone. I felt it in my tattoo and through the air and soil, and in the way the leaves quivered in anticipation. I smiled.
A moment later, the moss, trees, mushrooms, and sky whirled and I found myself on my back staring up into familiar golden eyes, with my hands trapped above my head with one hand around my wrists.
“Little mate,” Ardruc rasped, and crushed his mouth to mine.
He was magnificent with his wings outstretched and his naked body covering mine with all its hard lines and hot skin and beautiful feathers that caught the soft glow of the fungi around and above us.
This dragon was mine.
When he pinned me into the moss with more of his weight, the sound I made was part gasp, part whimper, and part sob.
“I will always be able to find you, Elena,” he said against my lips, his free hand cupping my breast. “Even if you cover yourself in a synthesized compound that is supposed to hide your sweet scent.”
Vines coiled around my crossed wrists and up my arms as he kissed his way along my jaw to my throat. I gasped and pulled against the vines, but they held fast.
“Pick any fragrance you like,” he murmured into my neck and stroked my nipple with his thumb before flicking it with his tongue. “Run as far and as fast as you can.”
His hand slid down my right thigh to my knee and pulled my leg to the side. A vine encircled my ankle and coiled up my calf.
“Hide in the deepest parts of the forest if you want, little mate,” Ardruc said, his mouth on my ear as he pushed my left leg to the side. “It will not matter.”
Another vine coiled up my left leg. I was splayed out now, tied hand and foot, and utterly unable to move. My chest heaved and a rush of wetness traveled down my slit.
He rose to his hands and knees, his eyes glowing golden. “I will always find my way to you.”
“Ardruc,” I whispered. “My dragon.”
He smiled and bent to kiss me so gently I barely felt it. “Yes, your dragon has caught you well this time.” He rose to his hands and knees, his beautiful, thick cock gleaming and dripping onto my thigh. “I am hungry, little mate. Nothing but a feast will satisfy me tonight.”
He took his time running his hands over my entire body, stroking my bare skin and testing the vines around my wrists, arms, legs, and ankles. Every touch of his fingers and brush of a leaf made me whimper and moan and gush for him.
I wanted so badly to touch myself, to squeeze my thighs together, to do anything at all to ease my desperate need, but I couldn’t move—not even a little bit.
“Are you helpless and at my mercy, little mate?” he asked, prowling up my body to kiss and then bite my jaw.
“Yes,” I gasped, turning my head so I could kiss his face. “Please…”
His wicked smile made me quiver. “Yes, what, little mate?”
I whimpered. “Yes, I’m helpless.”
The pads of his thumbs ghosted slowly back and forth over my nipples. “You are helpless, and?” he prompted.
“I’m helpless and at your mercy, dragon,” I gasped.
He rewarded me by pinching my nipples and then sucking each until I was writhing beneath him.
“Does my little mate like to be so helpless and at my mercy?” he asked, peering up at me with his lips on my right breast.
“I like it very much,” I breathed.
His teeth closed on my delicate skin. Delicious, perfect pain. My cry rolled through the forest.
The breeze swirled and the ground thrummed with every sound I made as he licked and kissed and bit me. And finally when he came close enough that I was able to sink my teeth into his shoulder, he bellowed and the forest heaved.
“What did I do to deserve such a perfect mate?” he rasped into my ear. “You are beautiful, Elena Regis. So mercilessly beautiful.” His gaze swept over me, from my vine-wrapped hands to my legs, spread wide for him. “I say you are at my mercy, but you should know I am forever at yours.”
His hand slid down my abdomen, tracing lazy circles and patterns on my skin and moving closer to where I wanted his fingers as I quivered and moaned.
“I will fill your sweet little mouth first tonight,” he promised, his fingertips caressing my dripping slit but not quite touching my clit. I mewled and tried to move, but the vines tightened around my legs.
“I will bend you over that tree and make you scream with my tongue and my tail in your sweet little ass,” he continued, and I almost convulsed with the force of the gush those words created.
“And then I will give you my knot and fill your sweet little pussy with cum. And then I will do all those things again.”
He kissed me and bit my lower lip not quite hard enough to break the skin, but just perfectly enough to sting. I groaned.
“That is a dragon’s feast, little mate,” he said, peppering my face with kisses. “No less than six courses. I will fill you in every way until you can take no more.”
I let out a desperate sound. “Please,” I whispered. “Touch my clit. Just one touch.”