Chapter 2
Chapter
Two
VLACUL
My mate didn't wait to confirm it was me.
I could have been anyone under that disguise, and she didn't even wait for me to speak as her warm arms wrapped around the back of my neck and her succulent lips brushed over mine as she arched her back and pressed her body into me, like she could mold her form to fit my own.
My lips parted as her tongue teased them, and I tasted sweetness and intoxicant, fermenting inside of her.
I wrapped one arm around her lower back, lifting her up so her rear was settled on the edge of the counter.
Her legs parted for me as I pressed in between them, bringing myself against her heat.
I could take her here, now, fast and quick, if she decided to try to escape me. The cloth that covered her was thin, a paltry defense that I could tear or push aside. I could penetrate her, seed her, and leave her dripping if my body was triggered to hardness.
But I couldn't mate-lock her here.
I needed to invade her home for that.
There was a window at the far end of the room, big enough for me to drag her through to take her back to her home, but I wouldn't be able to get my shoulders through it.
There was another exit, back behind the bar, but if she put up any resistance, the Norratar in the room would be quick to intervene.
I could take one a single surprised Norratar, but fighting any of them would violate my provisional visa.
I was allowed to hunt her. I could fight to protect her, as was customary by Norratar law, but I couldn't fight others who sought to defend her from me at her request.
It was an annoying clause, one that the Chyrrith rulespinner sought to use to get me to agree to a fully monitored, artificial mating. They offered to provide actors, gladiators, I could fight even as I chased down my mate and carried her away from them.
It didn't appeal.
Hunting her here, where she was comfortable, where her requesting help from the Norratar peace keepers was a genuine threat, that was enticing.
She moaned and rocked her hips, and it felt so... perverse.
She was clinging to me like I had already proven myself.
Her fingernails ran up into my hair, and she found the base of my two horns.
Her fingers traced up the right one, finding the dulled edge of where I had broken it.
She ran her fingers over it, scratching at the blunted end that was itchy as it slowly healed.
I shuddered with the sensation, tilting my head to give her better access, and she rewarded me by giving it the exact attention it needed.
She broke off the kiss, and I resisted the fleeting urge to chase her lips.
I had been stalking her for a week of human time since I subdued her shuttle driver and took her back down to her planet.
It was simple to follow her back to her home.
I had already altered several of her locks, entering her home as I pleased, to watch her sleep and accumulate the details of her life so I could put together a plan to court her.
As the week went on, I left more and more obvious signs of my intrusion and presence, leaving my scent saturating her house, but she hadn't reacted. She was supposed to try to drive me from her home, but she just... ignored me.
Now she clung to me as if we were already mated, giving me no signs that she intended to initiate a formal courtship.
The contract was clear about how my species mated, and if she wanted me to fill her, there were different requirements than for humans.
What she was doing now was enjoyable, but not stimulating.
The feel of her body against mine, so soft and supple, delicate with the hum of her blood thrumming under her skin, was decadent.
The scent of her arousal was thick in the air, and it filled me with equal measures of delight and confusion.
She bit her lip as she glanced down between us, where her arousal had soaked the front of my human-made trousers with a wet splotch.
"I'm doing it wrong," she said, a deep flush floating through her skin, darkening her cheeks, neck, and shoulders. "I'm sorry! I got so excited that I forgot."
That was even worse.
She was apologizing to me.
"This isn't going to work," I said. Perhaps the Chyrrith were correct, and we needed a curated scenario.
The idea soured in my stomach. Turning what should be a natural hunt into an orchestrated scene wasn't how I envisioned my mating, but I was willing to try it for her.
The problem was, I wasn't sure she wanted me, despite signing the contract.
I'd been in her home for a human week now, and she hadn't acknowledged my presence to start the formal courtship that was required for me to mate-lock to her.
Once I had bitten her and let my venom change her so no one could see her but me, we could explore all sides of her species' courtship rituals.
"I can do this," she said, her voice full of determination.
Then her eyes darted from me to the door, and my heart quickened.
Her entire body stiffened, and I felt my system react.
When she lunged for the door like wounded prey, I was already there, my length twitching into awareness as her soft body collided with mine.
I placed my hands on her back, keeping her from falling backward from the momentum of the collision.
She didn't melt against me as she had before.
This time, she pushed at me, like she was trying to break free from my grasp, twisting her body back and forth like that pitiful amount of effort could shake her free.
It wasn't enough to break my hold, but it was enough to bring my length to a harder stance.
I unzipped the front of the trousers, freeing myself from their tight confines as she continued to struggle against me. I grabbed her wrist and shoved her hand down against my length to give her a clear idea of where this was now going.
She gasped and glanced down, her entire body relaxing as a huge smile spread across her face.
"Oh yes! I mean no!" she said as she tensed her fingers and dug her little claws into the base of me. “Raaawr!”
Pleasure shot through me, heady and potent, as I pulled her hand away before she could do any damage and carried her back towards the small counter.
I couldn't wait to take her to her own bed, where I could mount and mate her in the space that I protected, but this was the first sign she had given me that she was ready, and I wasn't going to miss a chance to seed her and saturate her with my scent.
I lifted her up and put her rear up on the counter.
This time, when I tried to step between her legs, she kept them shut, fighting me as I pushed them open with my hands, pushing her skirt back up even as she tried to pull it back down, wriggling like a fish.
I grabbed the small fabric that covered her center and tore it from her.
I tucked the ruined fabric into my back pocket, then felt between her trembling thighs.
She was slippery, her arousal not just a scent in the air.
She stiffened, her wild movements turning into soft shifts of her hips that followed the touch of my fingers as I caressed her there.
My instincts roared with an urgency, demanding that I take her now that she was lulled into complacency.
I grabbed myself with one hand, lining up my head with her hot, wet heat.
Her eyes popped open wide, and her mouth parted. She began struggling again, her hands pushing me away, her feet kicking like she was trying to get them back in between our bodies, but she couldn't; I had her pinned. I had to put a hand on her hips to get lined up again.
I thrust into her.
Her head tilted back as I sank into her heat, feeling the tightness grip around me, clutching at me with her wet, heavenly folds.
She was beyond what I had imagined. I dragged out of her, thrusting back into her with a wet, hard smack as she let out a soft cry.
I wrapped one arm around her back, bringing my hand up behind her head to cover her mouth so the noise would cause alarm.
I pinned her against me, giving myself leverage as I drove into her, my hard rod sinking into her channel over and over again.
She let out small cries into my hand as I took her hard, fast, until her heat was convulsing around me, her body shaking as her internal walls clutched at me over and over with the demands of her climax.
I sank into her and my seed erupted, filling her in hot, demanding spurts.
Someone knocked on the door.
I slowly removed my hand from her mouth, and she leaned her head against my chest, her body trembling against me.
"One moment," she called out in a horse voice.
My length twitched inside of her as I withdrew from her, and she let out a soft moan.
She looked up at me and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, before closing it with an uncertain look.
I had researched human mating. I knew that what my kind needed and what hers needed were different, even if there were small overlaps.
Just because I detailed my needs in a contract didn't mean I was going to ignore hers, once I figured out what they were.
She hadn't put them in the contract. Until she was ready to tell me her needs, I would proceed with what she had agreed to.
The conversation I'd overheard with her friend made it clear she wasn't even aware I was claiming her space already, which was a relief.
She hadn't been ignoring my invasion with the intention of rejecting me.
She just didn't even know I was there. She still wouldn't know I was there if I hadn't driven away the other male.
I needed to make things easier for her, so she could decide to accept me on her terms.
"I'm already in your house," I said.
"Oh," she said, blushing and looking down. She looked back up at me through her eyelashes. "You are? Does that mean I need to try to drive you out of it?"
"Only if you want me to stay," I said.