Chapter 30
thirty
EVEREST
It feels like a hundred years have passed, though it’s only mid-afternoon. I’ve been pacing the floor between the living room and our bedrooms, jumping out of my skin every time I hear a noise outside the front door.
But each time, it’s nothing.
I’m hallucinating.
This is a fucking problem.
God, if they decide to execute him or something, will they even tell me? Or will I just rot here in this apartment until they try to move a new Vyastil in?
The thought of another living in my space—sleeping in our bed—makes me want to scream.
“Fuck, I can’t do this. I need to get out of here,” I say. I’m two steps toward the door when suddenly the knob turns. My heart is in my throat, and I stumble back, grabbing the lamp in case it’s a Vyastil coming to take me away.
The door finally opens, and my heart drops to my ass when Rathyn shuffles in. He looks the same as before, though maybe more exhausted. His arms are limp at his sides, ears not perked up, and I see he’s still wearing the tracker.
Fuck. That is not a good sign.
“What happened?” I rasp.
He looks up at me, and when I move to lunge at him, he shakes his head.
“Why? Is someone watching here?”
“No,” he says. “They are not.”
Well, then fuck that. I ignore him and throw myself into his arms, and he catches me easily, lifting me and not shying away from the kiss I give him. But it’s different this time.
It’s sad.
It’s chaste.
There’s no promise of more.
“Talk to me,” I whisper. “What did they say? Are you in trouble?”
“I was not found guilty of conspiracy or treason,” he says.
Jesus, were those the charges?
“But I was found guilty of not properly managing my companion, which allowed him to roam free through Erethar.”
I blink at him and absorb the words. “Wait, what? Me?” I slip out of his arms, my feet hitting the floor, and I take a step back. “I was coming to rescue you, you ass!”
“I know. That was my case,” he says. “Eissa spoke for you as well, to attest to your loyalty. However…”
I hold my breath.
“Loyalty is not enough. A human companion should behave with complete deference.”
“Like a pet,” I sneer.
His shoulders sink. “I would not ask such a thing of you, my Everest. I cannot.”
“So, what happens now?” Something in my stomach tells me it’s bad. It’s really fucking bad.
“I am to prove that you are a subservient companion willing to obey the training and laws of the Vyastil while under contract, or I am to be stripped of my lands, title, and holdings.”
I blink at him. “Are you fucking serious?” I’m pissed for a moment, but it doesn’t last. All I have to do is what? Play sub to Rathyn while other people are watching, and he doesn’t get punished?
“There is only one solution,” he says.
“Well, obviously. I just get on my knees and—”
“We dissolve our contract—”
We both freeze and stare at each other.
“I beg your goddamn pardon?” I say after clearing my throat and processing what he just said. “You want to fire me?”
“I do not wish to set you on fire,” he responds quickly.
Groaning, I take a step forward and press my hands to his chest. “You’re a dumbass. You’re not letting me go.”
He looks torn, pained. Like he’s going to cry. His rainbow eyes glitter and shine. His hands reach up and cradle my jaw. “I have no choice. My Everest, you do not understand—”
“The fuck I don’t. I get it, and you don’t get to decide this for me,” I snap at him. “I know I’m your fucking companion or consort or whatever in Erethar, but here, we’re partners. Do you understand me?”
He meets my gaze. “Yes, Everest. I do.”
Holy shit, I believe him.
“But,” he goes on, “I cannot ask you to…to behave the way they wish you to behave. I cannot ask you to present yourself as less than me. I understand the pain I caused you when I said it before. I did not know the scope of my feelings until I nearly lost you. And the cost of trying and failing is…” He falls quiet, but then there’s a word in my head in Eretharian, and I know what it means.
I understand now why he’s afraid.
“I need you to trust me,” I tell him. “Because if we don’t do this, I lose you for good. You can’t have human friends, right? And keep your job? And I won’t ask you to give up everything you’ve worked for, even if there’s some serious corruption in your government.”
He lets out a quiet laugh. “Eissa always told me change comes from within. I thought he was speaking about me. But perhaps he was talking about something bigger.”
It sparks something in me, but I’m too afraid to speak it aloud now. “Look, I can do this, okay? I’m a good actor when I want to be. I can be your pet because I know we have this.” I press both my hands to his chest, feeling his hearts thundering beneath me. “I know that you—you care about me.”
He presses his palms over the backs of my hands. “I love you.”
My entire body jolts, almost violently. I’m at a loss for words for a moment before asking, “You…do you know what that means?”
“I do. It was once part of our nature. They’ve attempted to breed it out of us, but it is still there. And as said before, as much as you are mine, my Everest, I am yours. And that is love.”
I close my eyes against a rush of feeling, then surge in and kiss him, frantic and deep. “I love you, too.”
He hums deep in the back of his throat, a melodic trill that wraps around me, filling me with an emotion that must be all Vyastil because it’s certainly not human. But I don’t want it to stop.
I pull back with a gasp, just far enough to speak. “I need you. We can talk about the logistics of what comes next, but right now I need to feel you inside me. Will you?”
He presses me tight against him and first answers me with a kiss, and then, with a single whispered word, “Yes.”
I find the herb beside his table and let it dissolve on my tongue, all while stripping out of my clothes, baring myself to him.
His eyes take me in, a slow caress to my skin. I feel that tingle under my ribs, burrowing deep into my heart. It flutters as my body erupts in pleasure. I feel my cock stiffening, my hole opening up.
Rathyn must feel the shift in the room, his eyes narrowing. He prowls toward me, his claws shredding his clothes as he nears me. I’m short of breath at the sight of him, all muscle and trembling skin. His tail whips out, twisting around my thigh, pulling me closer, so close that our bodies touch.
He leans down, and my hands grab onto his ears, pulling him to me. So close that our noses touch. And then I kiss him, all tongue and teeth, feeling his strong mouth bruising mine. But I don’t ask him to stop. I want more. I want all of him.
I refuse to give him up.
Not after everything we’ve been through.
He picks me up, my ankles hooking behind his back, and walks me toward the bed, dropping me onto it.
He stares down at me, and his tail tugs me toward the edge of the bed.
He takes my cock into his mouth and pulls an orgasm from me.
I groan and thrash against the mattress, pulling the sheets from the corners as he sucks me dry. But it’s not enough.
I want more, and he doesn’t make me wait.
I see his cock emerge from his slit, thick and wet. It pulses, some of the fluid exiting the tip and dripping down his length.
My mouth waters as I spread my legs, exposing my open hole. “Rath. Fuck me.”
He hovers over me, his hands bracketing my head, and I feel the nudge of his cockhead against my rim. He hums low and soft as he enters me. Back arching off the bed, my mouth falls agape as every punch of his ribbed cock pushes through my barrier.
It’s so fucking hot.
He’s trembling, his eyes on me, intent. Resolved. “You are mine.”
“Yes,” I groan and then reach behind him and grab on to his ass, pulling him into me further. He moans, and I echo him, our voices tangling in the dimming light of the apartment.
And when he starts to move, I nearly pass out, the feel of him sliding in and out of me, my undoing. I come twice more. My cock is unruly and insistent, and Rath is grinding into me, his ears fluttering, his nostrils flared.
I see something in his rainbow eyes as I shudder and shake.
He said it was love, and I think he means it, as much as he can.
“Rathyn,” I say, and he groans.
“I will have my emission.”
I snort and then gasp when I feel him slide in as far as he can, that thick base pushing into me. I let out a silent scream of being so full, my cock jerking between my legs, my release sliding down my abdomen.
I gasp and shudder, and Rathyn holds himself inside of me for a moment before his face tucks into my neck.
He inhales me and holds his throbbing dick inside my hole.
“I want to breed you,” he says, and I huff a laugh.
“I don’t have the parts.”
“I know, but my body does not care. It wants more.”
I feel something tremble inside of me, and I realize he’s still coming. That thick base inside of me is pulsing.
“Oh my god. What is that? Did you not do that before? In the cave?”
“I did not. This is…different…this is breeding.”
“Oh.” I run my hands up his back. “Does it feel good?”
“It feels wonderful.”
I sigh and take hold of his chin, kissing him softly, my tongue pressing against his. “Well, you can breed me anytime.”
His cock continues to pulse, and I hold him inside of me until it subsides. It’s then that he pulls out, and this time, unlike the time before, something thick and opaque drips out of me. I press a finger to it and bring it up to my face to look at it.
“Cool,” I say as I rub it between my fingers and feel it leaking from my ass. “This is new.”
He stares at my open hole and then his gaze snaps to mine.
“New?”
“Yeah, I just mean, I haven’t felt it inside me like this before…” His face falls, and I sit up on my elbows. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Is it safe?” he rasps, and I sigh.
“Yeah, it is. You can’t be the first Vyastil to breed a human. Come here. Stop worrying.”
“Should we go back to the clinic?”
“God, no,” I say, throwing an arm over my face. “Can we never do that again? It was so embarrassing.”