Chapter 20
Iave
Artek used a little device to scan what remained of the healing puncture marks on my tail.
Nothing remarkable according to him, but he spent more time taking care of Kalani, using the device for several minutes to restore her damaged flesh.
When we thanked him and left, it was obvious how much easier her gait was.
She’d been hiding how much it ached from me and I warned her several times not to do that again.
“I don’t want you to be in pain, my Goddess,” I said quietly when she scowled.
“I know you are tough, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lean on me…
” That’s what you did when you loved each other, wasn’t it?
That’s how it had been for my parents before they were killed.
Kalani had opened the door with her declaration earlier, now I wanted it all but maybe that started when I said it too.
Kalani’s eyes had shifted from me to the distance where the Cave of the Ancestors was looming.
Unlike the one we’d visited in our quest to rescue Naomi, this cave announced its presence in every way.
Zathar, Corin, and I had spent several months living just inside the entrance and I assumed they would be there with the other humans.
“I know that Iave, I’m just used to toughing it out.
Is that where we are going?” she pointed at the entrance carved into a mountain flank.
It was framed by a carved gate several times taller than myself, with statues of enormous stature on either side.
Shaped like Naga, that was all anyone could tell because both the statues and the gate had been damaged and worn by the weather and the passage of time.
“Yes, another Ancestral cave, no zombies this time.” I licked at my lips which had suddenly turned drier than sand.
I had issues with talking more often but this was extreme, usually, I just didn’t give enough of a damn to say a word.
Now it was the opposite problem and I didn’t know how to get past it.
She laughed, the sound warm and cheerful.
Her dark skin shimmered with health and little purple highlights brushed across her dark hair from the sun.
I still adored that curly texture, but I liked the shapes drawn in patterns along the side of her skull too.
It was so different and so beautiful. I had never heard of Naga shaving their hair in such a way, shaving entirely, yes. Just parts? Never.
It wasn’t until we’d reached the cooler shadow beneath the gate that I finally found the courage to say it.
“Hey Kalani,” I started and when she lifted her avid eyes from the statues to me and smiled, my heart started racing.
“You said something at the start of the battle. Did you mean that?” When she shrugged and nodded all my nerves faded away.
She was nervous too and now the urge to protect her own fragile heart outweighed any of my own worries.
“I love you too,” slipped out as easily as a breath.
She seemed almost surprised that I’d said it, I dipped down to swing her into my arms. “We don’t say that word like that, but I know it, I understand it, and I feel it.
I love you, my Goddess.” In response, she flung her arms around my neck and mashed her mouth to mine in an eager kiss.
It wasn’t just lips on lips for long, I was desperate for her taste and slid my tongue into her mouth.
Familiar with these caves, I led her through the doorway to the side into the first chamber where we’d lived.
My nest was still there near the back wall, but there was no sign of my friends.
That suited me right now, I needed to take my mate to the furs and seed her.
There was no better way to celebrate this feeling between us.
We shed clothes rapidly, or rather, I made her shed hers and all she did was unbuckle the belt for my ax.
Then we were tangled together on the furs and I set out to remind her just how devoted I was to her, how much I loved her.
While I licked her breasts and then her core, she clawed at my scales and tugged on my hair and I loved every second of it.
When she’d spun into orgasm several times from my tongue and my tail, I was satisfied that she knew just how much I meant the words.
I fed the aching, writhing tips of my bifurcated cock into her passage.
Rolling us until she was astride me, impaled on my length.
“Ride me, my Goddess. Show me what you’ve got. ”
The challenge made her grin, her dark eyes glittering with heat and passion.
Then she rose above me on her knees and took me, her bountiful breasts bouncing with each move of her athletic body.
It wasn’t a sight I’d witnessed before and now I knew just how much I’d been missing out.
This was glorious, and I couldn’t resist reaching out with my hands to touch her.
To lean in and lick the tips with my tongue.
She shattered around me when I sucked one peak deep into my mouth, shouting my name to the Ancestors.
Her passage clamped down snugly around my cock and my own orgasm shot through me like lightning.
The seed boiled from my pouch, through my tips, and blasted her inside in wave after wave of pleasure.
The fur beneath my hips got soaked as excess dribbled out of her, squeezing past my shaft.
Her face glowed when she gave me this beautiful smile, looking down on me from where she still sat astride my body.
“I liked that, you should let me ride you more often.” I laughed, and I was still smiling when we washed up with the waterskins and replaced the dirtied fur with a new one from what was left of the supplies still stored here.
We ate the remainder of the food Artek had given us, and then curled up in my nest and just cuddled.
I was exhausted from skipping a night of sleep and then the battle and confrontation with the Queen.
Not to mention the battle before all that with the zombies.
Still, I didn’t fall asleep while I contemplated our next course of action.
“Your friends aren’t here,” Kalani murmured against my chest. “Do you have any idea where we could find them?” I had noticed the same thing. Not only were they not here, but many of our supplies and furs had been packed and removed. They had relocated to live somewhere else.
Then my eyes fell on a row of markings above my nest, etched into the wall. They hadn’t been there before. I rose, accidentally dislodging my mate, but my attention remained focused on the scribbles. “Zathar left us a message,” I said, and I pointed at the marks.
She scrambled to her feet, completely naked.
Peering at the marks, she squinted to try and make sense of them, while I let my eyes drop to her curvy rear, enjoying the very exotic shape of it.
So perfect to fit into my palms. “Can you read it? What does it say?” she asked, and with a guilty look, I yanked my eyes away from her butt to read the message.
“He left directions for another entrance into this cave system. I know where to go.” The grin on her face told me she knew I’d been distracted but distraction was the last thing on my mind when a sound reached my ears.
I spun, diving for my ax and raising it.
Kalani didn’t duck for cover or clothing behind me, she grasped her ancient rifle and raised that to her shoulder. “What’s happening?”
“Iave? Are you in here?” a voice called out and I dropped my ax immediately. I tilted my head down to look at my mate and her nude but completely battle-ready stance. That was Corin at the entrance, and Kalani and I had just shared sex, but my mind still went there. She was just so sexy like that.
“Get dressed, that is Corin,” I told her and went to greet my friend.
***
Kalani
I wasn’t the type to be prone to nerves, but I felt them anyway when we walked up the mountain behind Corin.
He had led us directly to the new location they had decided to live at.
When he’d told Iave the name of the place, my mate had tossed back his head and laughed.
The shocked expression on his friend’s face had made me laugh too, he clearly wasn’t used to that kind of reaction from Iave.
When Iave explained to me that the rock peak, Ahoshaga, was considered haunted by many hunters. I understood why he’d laughed. We’d just beat the haunted cave, a few rumors weren’t going to bother us.
The fact that our new home might be haunted wasn’t what was making me nervous.
I was upset because I had failed to bring Naomi home with us, and I wasn’t sure how the others were going to react to that.
Corin had taken it in stride, saying we’d faced impossible odds and then he’d whistled at hearing the Warlord had gotten his hands on her.
“She was lucky all he did was execute her.”
Somehow, I didn’t think Vera or the others were going to feel the same way and how would they react when they learned Iave and I had mated? Then I shoved the thoughts aside. Why worry over something I couldn’t control?
When Corin said we were going to a different set of caves, I’d expected another dark tunnel entrance, maybe some carvings, and lots of dark and gloom.
But when the entrance came into view, I was shocked to discover there was a structure to the side of the entrance that was exactly like the greenhouse of the Shaman.
Only this one was in complete disrepair.
There were statues, and there were carvings, but no gloom. There were even lanterns glowing in the hands of the statues and light spilling from the entrance. Crystals like the ones in the ceiling inside the zombie cave, but these were bright and warm.
Vera darted from the light-filled opening at the sound of our approach, followed closely by the same azure male that I’d seen with her when I first woke. “Kalani!” she shouted, and then she pelted across the deep purple grass and threw her arms around my neck. “You made it!”
Yeah, we’d made it. And what a journey it had been. I’d gone from being the orphaned tough chick that always tried to prove herself to a woman who knew her own worth, and her place in this universe. I was changed from who I’d been only a few days ago, for the better.
When I glanced at how Iave greeted his friend Zathar, I saw a different male in him too. He wasn’t quite as reserved and scowly as before. We had healed some scars and put ointment on others; it was clear that we were better together than apart.
I had found on Serant what I didn’t think I could ever have. A true partnership, love, and the possibility of a family. Iave’s eyes met mine, the gray orbs glowing with love for me and I felt that in my soul. I was a believer now, true mates were real, and I’d found mine.