Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Alright, so it isn’t a nest.
Not really.
Without omegas, there haven’t been really nests on Khanos in centuries. Which only makes my reasons for claiming this little corner of Khanos seem stupider by the second. Especially with Sofi sitting beside me.
An omega. Here.
Electricity vibrates in my veins as I slant a look in her direction. She really is here, sitting at the entrance of my one secret. Staring out at the water as color flashes beneath the frothy surface.
I should be, too. The sea is probably the most wondrous sight in the city—but every time I force my eyes from Sofi’s profile, they end up right back there.
Down on the shore, my hoxud bites at the water and rolls in the pink sand. Sofi’s lips curl up reluctantly—and it’s impossible to look away.
Stelaris help me.
The new brand on my hip itches. Once again reminding me that I’m a bastard of the highest order.
Sofi catches the way I shift, bending my knees and setting my elbows on them. When the skin over my healing mark creases, so does my face.
“What?” she asks, her eyes laughing as I pout at my own side. The light blue orbs flick to the burn peeking from the waist of my kilt. Her thin, flat brows leap. “Another one, huh? When did you get that?”
Oh, hells. She’s fucking smart—she knows she didn’t see a scar when I was in her bed. I can’t exactly tell her that I flew to my usual brander after leaving her tangled in the sheets I tore.
“This span,” I hedge, scowling at the design’s array of sharp edges.
The Thorns of Honor.
I chose them as a promise to myself. At the moment? They feel more like a warning.
Sofi squints at the pattern, humming quietly. Without warning, her small hand reaches for my large, scaly one. Tingles shoot up my arm and into my wings as she brings my palm closer to her face, examining my family’s ancient opal ring.
When she skirts a bemused look up at my face, I chuckle. “Every Roktusian alpha has one of those. They’re tokens of our dominance. If an alpha is bested by another, in the ring or during battle, he owes them his signet.”
She gives a prim nod, pretending our customs make perfect sense to her. “Naturally.”
I nearly smirk again, but she skims her fingertips over the thin skin of my palm, to the brand stamped into the meat of my thumb—my oldest one.
“And this?” she asks.
I have to clear my throat before I can answer. “That is the first mark I ever got.”
She traces the smooth lines healed into a silvery swirl, whispering, “What does it mean?”
Fate’s Mate.
Everyone on Khanos knows Patience is the one true mate of Fate. I chose the design when I still believed I might actually find my other half—if I only had the fortitude to wait for them.
My hearts stammer. “It is our symbol for Fate’s Mate.”
I expect another round of questions about my brands, but Sofi cants her head curiously and asks, “Mate? Like… marriage?”
Fucking fuck.
Do I get to be the one who explains this to her?
My fingers gently close around hers, squeezing once before I force myself to set them back in her lap. See? I can control myself.
“No. Mates are predestined by Stelaris—written in the stars. Only a lucky few get them. Once a Roktusian has recognized their mate, they will never want anyone or anything else and they bond each other.”
Sofi’s gaze is wide. She blinks. “Bond?”
I choke down the temptation to snarl, annoyed with myself and every other alpha she’s met. Someone should have explained this to her by now. I know she can’t trigger a mate bond, as a human… but still.
I curl my lips up, flashing a sharp smile that displays my fangs. “With a bite. Like a claim mark, basically. Once two Roktusians bond, their souls are tied together forever.”
Excitement fills her face. “Ooh, like you can hear each other’s thoughts and feelings?!”
I almost laugh. Is this the kind of crazy shit people on her planet come up with? I’m not surprised they’re Class D and crumbling.
“No, little one,” I chuckle. “But that sounds like a good story for pips.”
Sofi pouts, her forehead wrinkling as she mutters something that sounds like, “Addy and her stupid shifter smut.”
Half of those words are meaningless to me, even with her language uploaded into my knowledge base. I tilt my head at her, but she waves the unspoken question off, distracting me with one of her own. “So, how do you guys know when you find your mate? Is it like being struck by lightning?”
In a sense.
I’ve only seen an alpha recognize their mate once. The image of Norabi’s eyes filling with blinding white light as she looked at Zazt puts a thick lump in my throat.
I shrug, hoping I won’t sound hoarse. “Kind of. It’s impossible to miss, for us. And once we know, that’s it. Once a mate is lost, we never find another.”
Sofi’s expression softens. Something deep and warm expands in her eyes. “Did you ever have one?”
The irony of her question is too much for me to bear. A bitter laugh cuts its way from my lips, pulling an embarrassing confession with it. “No. I used to believe I would. That’s why I have this nest.”
Sofi turns nearly all the way around, peering into my cave with fresh interest. Her gaze glimmers with warm approval as it absorbs the iridescent walls, twinkling illuminators, and plush sleeping pad.
Her voice is gentle—almost awed. “Mortana and Norabi keep telling me about nests, but I never pictured anything so pretty. And you… made this one? For the mate you hoped you would find?”
Part of me wants to deny the truth. If there were any others around, I might. But the pure curiosity beaming from Sofi draws a noncommittal shrug from me. “Yes. I’ve made many sacrifices to Stelaris over the orbits—like this nest. And promising I would save certain parts of myself for a mate.”
Sofi listens intently, her thin brows gathering over her sparkling gaze. “That’s why I have been such an ass,” I scrape out. “It is difficult to control myself around you. But I… There are things I only want to experience with my mate.”
Her lips pull lift into a soft smile. “So, you’re still hoping? To find them?”
Morfu’s prick.
I can’t lie to her. Although, at this point… who knows what the truth is anymore. The thought of finding anyone else and bringing them here makes my wings twitch.
I turn to glance behind my shoulder, sighing. The round cushions I built into the floor, the star-like lights strung around the curves of the cave roof…
It’s the mortifying work of a young buck too stupid to know better.
But I’ve never taken any of it down, have I?
I grind my back teeth, facing forward. Again, attempting to keep my eyes on the right view.
“Maybe.”
Sofi’s gentle smile widens, beaming with true encouragement. “Well, speaking as a supposed omega, I think it’s beautiful. If it wasn’t already spoken for, I might want it for myself.”
Gods. The longing that strikes me is strong enough to rip the breath from my lungs. They cramp, burning as my cocks twitch.
My wings move of their own volition—one folds around her small body, draping over her back while the other tucks close to my exposed side. It’s a protective instinct I can’t control, but guilt burns in my gullet all the same.
That chagrin is no match for the satisfaction swelling at my center, though. Especially when Sofi scoots closer and shivers. “Thanks,” she whispers, eyes shimmering. “It’s getting cold.”
Damn it. I should have thought of that. Of course my scales protect me in a way her thin, soft skin doesn’t. I immediately sit upright. “Let’s go inside.”
Sofi hesitates, turning to peer at the cave again. “N-no,” she says, struggling. “I shouldn’t go in there. Just because—I mean… You should save it. For your mate.”
Fuck, she’s sweet.
Her scent. Her spirit. How can one creature be so gentle and so fierce all at once?
Sofi smiles, reaching over her shoulder to pet my wing. “This is plenty of warmth for me.”
The feel of her fingers, caressing the thin membrane stretched between my bones, skitters sensation down my spine. A rude waft of alpha musk rises off me, giving away the swollen state of my knots.
Fuuuuuuuuck.
I can control myself. I can.
Until I can’t.
Sofi’s perfume explodes around us, threading into my spicy scent. The combination makes me so hard, my cocks visibly kick under my kilt.
The omega reacts exactly as she should. Her pupils dilate as she stares at my lap; her small, pink tongue sweeps over her lips. Perhaps remembering the taste of my release.
I knew alpha cum was supposed to help stretch omegas to take our cocks, but I didn’t know it would send her into a climax. I wonder if that will happen every time she—
No. No, I don’t wonder. I can’t wonder.
Because then I’ll have to find out.
The thought alone does me in. Both of my shafts turn to stone—so hard, the top one flips my kilt back as it shifts, pointing upward while the lower member juts straight out.
Well shit. Maybe I ought to rethink the no-loincloth policy with this dangerous creature around.
Sofi’s vision hazes as she stares. The lack of embarrassment in her scent tells me her omega instincts have overruled her senses. She lifts the hand closest to me and starts to reach for my weeping pleasure cock.
I know I should stop her. I know I’m not in control.
But the wonder written all over her face is my undoing.
My foggy brain finally processes her amazement, realizing she’s probably never seen a Roktusian male up close.
The one night we spent together was fevered and rushed.
I’m not sure she got the best look at me—and she certainly didn’t get to touch.
“Stroke it,” I hear myself husk. “The top one only.”
That’s where I’ll draw my boundary, I decide. Continuing to bargain, gods-damn me. I can still save my knots for my mate.
As a General, I know the sinking sensation of a losing battle when I feel it. This is different, though. If giving Sofi what she wants means I lose…
For the first time, I won’t even mind ceding victory.
She can have it.
Her heat surge has chased the chill out of her. As she wraps her hot palm around the base of my pleasure rod, I inhale the warm sweetness spinning off her and groan, letting my head fall back. “Fucking hells, Sofi.”
An omega whine vibrates up her throat. I’m tempted to tell her to stroke me—strangle me. But this is about her exploration—not my throbbing cocks.
Sofi fists my thicker shaft, carefully hefting its girth. Sizing it up slowly, with awed apprehension in her eyes. I can tell she’s wondering how any Roktusian male would ever fit inside her—and from what little I saw of her pretty pink center, it will be a tight squeeze. But not impossible.
“Our cum,” I try to explain, nearly panting from one pass of her fingers along my prick. “It’s supposed to help omegas stretch to let us in.”
I’m guessing that’s what made her come immediately last time. She obviously wasn’t used to the feeling of her cunt fluttering to accommodate me. It probably won’t happen every time… but I doubt anyone would complain if it did.
The thought alone has my breeding cock dribbling thick, white seed onto the pink sand as the other one releases a thin, clear trickle.
Sofi’s eyes widen as the colorless mettle slides between her fingertips.
Her mouth falls open, and she traces the liquid back to my domed head, pausing to flick her thumb over the roughened patch along its underside.
Holy fucking—
“That’s for you,” I grit, “I’m told it feels good rubbing the inside of your cunt. Or ass.”
I bet it would work for her small pleasure nub, too. Her “clit,” according to the anatomy charts I may or may not have stolen off Cylus’s holotab.
Sofi gasps, her creamy thighs pressing together under the thin, silver fabric of her dressing gown. Imagining her core—hot and wet and quivering—snaps my final threads of honor. I growl, unceremoniously scooping her off the ground and planting her on her knees, straddling my left leg.
She whimpers as her cunt touches my scaled skin. The texture must stimulate her like the ridge on my pleasure cock would, because she starts to grind her slit over my flexing thigh, moaning. “It—It’s so—”
Normally, I’d warn her about the scales chafing. But she’s so fucking slick, she glides against me effortlessly.
My wings flap, flaring—and then curling around her. Hiding her body from anyone who might wander near us as she rocks herself over me, stroking my top cock with increasing confidence.
Her free hand shakes, reaching for my shoulder. Slipping past it to grab the joint of my wing.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I have to grab my breeding cock before I lose all control and shove it into her. Instead, my own fingers massage the swollen knots. Milking them until bliss burns at the base of my spine. Crackling in electric snaps that shoot into both of my pricks.
They spew at the same moment, gushing my release all over Sofi’s gown and the ground outside my stupid nest. Nearly marking it and her simultaneously. Missing both—and keeping my vows—by scant finger-lengths.
There’s no time to be properly ashamed of that, though. Not when Sofi tips her face up to the heavens and rides my scaled muscles to her own release. Squelching her slick all over my skin.
My chest instantly rattles, purring. It doesn’t stop—not while I help her use her hem to wipe the bodice of her dress. Not when I silently gather her into my arms. Not as I land on her windowsill and reluctantly set her down.
The air between us is thick with things unsaid. We lock gazes, hers suddenly bright with tears. All the promises I made myself feel so far away as her eyes well with a mixture of wariness and hope.
“I-I’ll see you tomorrow?” she whispers.
Because she assumes I must be able to train her if I’m able to do all of this.
Honestly? She probably has a point. At least in the zvorn, we’re never truly alone. There are always others around, listening or observing.
I can’t keep kidding myself about coming up here every night. If I do, it will only be a matter of time before I crack.
Hells, I probably have already.
So I offer the best version of my smile I can, ignoring the ache of longing lodged between my lungs. “I’ll see you tomorrow, little one.”