Chapter 16
sixteen
What is this?
The hour was late when the door finally cracked open and Tam came in, swaying and grinning. I shook my head at my coupling, though my hearts beat a rapid tattoo at how lovely and carefree they were. I loved it when Tam was happy, and they had clearly had a good time.
“I thought you might spend the night with them,” I commented.
Tam replied, “I would have if we hadn’t recently gotten Chase.”
Had we “gotten” Chase? He wasn’t a permanent addition like Tam was suggesting. Though my coupling had been flooding Chase at every opportunity, and they were keeping him close while also shoving him at me. What exactly was Tam intending?
“You should get in the bath,” I said. “I will join you in a minute after I put Chase in his bed.”
Tam frowned. “Chase can’t sleep down here.”
I raised my eyebrows. It was a rule with us.
Our secondary or temporary partners never slept in our bed with us.
It was to help preserve the intimacy and privacy of our own separate relationship.
Chase wasn’t supposed to join us, though he had for a short nap this afternoon, but that was different—or at the minimum, it had felt different.
“Why not?” I asked.
“He’s hurt. What if he wakes up in pain? What if he needs water? What if he’s sad when he opens his eyes and is alone? What if someone breaks in and steals him?” Tam barked in rapid fire, their hands wringing. “No. He needs to sleep in our bed, where he’ll be safe and no one can steal him from us.”
I stared at my coupling for several long moments before I asked, “What are you doing, Tam?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re acting as if this is permanent.”
“It is,” Tam growled, and my eyes widened. “This is permanent. Chase is permanent.”
“What?”
“Do not act as if you don’t feel this as well,” Tam snapped, voice still a whisper. “Chase is different. I know you see that. And I will not be waiting ten years for you to get your head out of the sand and see our human.”
“Are you saying he’s meant for you?” I asked carefully.
Mulkrakes, Tam’s sex, had the ability to sense when someone belonged to them.
It was the mulkrake in a relationship who brought new people into the joining, though not everyone was all equally together.
My brother only had one spouse, a mulkrake, but his spouse had four other spouses, and of those, not everyone was together, and yet they made one family.
Lollikrakes weren’t as simplistic in their romantic partnerings as some other species.
“He’s both of ours,” Tam said, their hands clenching into fists. “Chase is meant to be with both of us and an equal member of our joining.”
My hearts throbbed as I gathered the small human closer to my side, and he muttered in his sleep, a hand resting over the center of my chest. I didn’t have to let him go.
Chase could come back with us. He would live with us, and I would see his and Tam’s perfect faces every day.
I shook my head. No. Just because we desired Chase to join us didn’t mean he wished for the same thing.
For us lollikrakes, Tam’s feeling was enough, and any of our species would agree, though I had refused to believe Tam for a very long time.
My coupling was a beam of sunlight, and it had been hard to believe they were meant for grumpy old me.
However, they had won me. But this was different.
One day wasn’t enough for a human to form a lifelong bond.
“Tam,” I started, then stopped.
“Do not tell me you don’t want and love Chase.”
I glanced down at the human who was so perfectly pressed against my side. I did want Chase desperately, and I feared I’d already fallen deeply in love with him, but I was worried he would never return the sentiment.
My eyes fixed on my coupling, my heart, and my soul, then I said, “I do. But it’s too fast.”
Tam cupped my cheek. “I’m not jealous, Nyx.”
“I didn’t think you were, though it did take a significantly longer time for me to accept you.”
A quiet laugh came out of Tam, and they pressed a kiss to my lips. “It did. The best ten years of my life chasing you. This time, though, you have me to help smooth the way.”
I claimed their mouth again, moaning at the silk and pressure. “I will always be grateful and love you, dear one.”
“I know, and I love you too, Nyx. But I need Chase too. I love him. It’s different than my love for you, but no less potent or important. I will not leave this planet without him.”
Cupping the back of Tam’s head, I pulled their forehead to mine and we gently rubbed on each other.
“I don’t want to leave him either,” I confessed. “I love him as well.”
“Then we’ll take him with us.”
I smiled sadly. “Chase is human, and he might not desire us the same way that we do him.”
Tam shook their head. “No. He has to. He wants us too, Nyx. I know it. I can feel it when he kisses me. I can see it when he looks at us. He wants to be right here, in this relationship with us.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I mean it,” Tam said, voice deepening. “I’m not leaving without Chase, and you’re not leaving without me. So he is coming home with us, or we are living here until he does.”
I kissed Tam and didn’t say anything more. I wished to take Chase home with us too. I wished for him to be bound to us, to be a part of us, to never leave us, but we couldn’t force him to be with us, as much as we wanted him to.
“Get in the bath,” I said, my voice husky, “and let me fuck you.”
Tam groaned. “I want that.”
I kissed their forehead. “Of course you do, you’re insatiable.”
“You’ll bring Chase upstairs?”
“Yes.” I didn’t want to sleep without Chase beside us either. He’d so quickly become a part of us that separating, even for a night, didn’t make sense or feel right.
Tam slipped upstairs, and I gathered Chase into my arms.
He stirred. “Daddy?”
“I have you.”
“Where’s Tam?”
“Upstairs.”
“Hmm,” he moaned, snuggling closer to me.
“Time to sleep, boy.” I pressed a kiss to his forehead.
“Don’t want to be alone.”
I gave him another kiss. “You won’t be. You’ll be right next to me and Tam, where you belong.”
“Love you, Daddy,” Chase whispered, and I stumbled, breath freezing in my lungs.
“I love you too, boy.” I carefully carried him up the stairs and tucked him into the bed.
Chase gave a soft sigh when I kissed his forehead before slipping into the bathroom.
Tam was already in the bath, waiting. I joined them without hesitation and curled around them, resting my ear against their chest.
“I can’t leave him,” I whispered.
“Neither can I,” they replied.
“What if he doesn’t choose us?”
Tam didn’t respond at first, simply brushing my hair. “Then we stay here and woo him until he does. It’s not like we can’t afford it, and you can work remotely.”
I could. “If he doesn’t want us to?”
They lifted my chin and gently kissed me. “He will. He cares, Nyx. I can see it. I can feel it. Chase wants us as much as we want him.”
“I hope so.”
Their lips found mine, and I groaned. Tam pressed into me, pushing me back.
I curled my tentacles around them and drew them closer, arching to offer my hole.
Tam gasped but didn’t speak. It wasn’t often that I wanted to be fucked, but occasionally, I needed it, and right now, I needed the comfort of my coupling claiming me.
“Please, dear one,” I whispered against their lips, my chest heaving, and my cocks hardened and breached my sea of tentacles.
“I will take care of you,” Tam said and settled against me, their cock slotting against my hole. “I always will.”
Fisting the hair at the nape of their neck, I dragged their head back and snarled, “Because you are mine.”
Tam moaned. “Yes, Nyx. I’m yours as you are mine.”
I released them, and Tam dove forward and bit me, sinking their teeth into my shoulder.
I cried out, my cocks bucking, and pulled them even closer.
Tam sucked, drinking my blood as they pushed into me.
My hole protested, burning with the stretch, but my coupling didn’t relent, as they knew I liked, and forced their cock into me, each nub on their shaft stimulating the walls of my channel and sending sparks of pleasure through me.
Once they were fully seated, Tam released my shoulder and kissed me, my blood smearing over my lips. “I have you, Nyx.”
“Take me, Tam,” I ordered.
They thrust into me, making the water in the tub splash onto the floor. I grunted with each plunge, pleasure mixing with the stretching burn. Tam kept their movements slow and steady. They breathed heavily against my lips and whined, “So tight, Nyx.”
I dug my fingers into their back. “Faster. Harder. Make me know how much I belong to you.”
Snarling, they slammed into me, and I released a high keening that was a mix of pain and pleasure. Tam bit my jaw, teeth digging in hard enough to leave another scar. “You are mine, Nyx. I chased and claimed you. You will never get away from me.”
My eyes closed, and my cocks bucked. I rolled my hips in time with Tam’s thrusts, drawing my coupling in as deep as possible.
I needed them. Their spiculi pushed into my mouth, and I sucked, loving the taste of their livns.
Tam stroked my cock and semmin with their tentacles and kept releasing stuttered cries. Their release was coming.
“Feel with me,” they gasped, pumping my cocks even faster.
Water splashed around us, and we cried and shouted without regard for the noise.
If we woke Chase, he could simply join us.
We rutted and stroked, tentacles sliding against each other, as we sought our pleasure.
Heat raced down my spine, and my tentacles tingled, my muscles tightening before my release crashed over me.
My eyes slammed shut as I growled around Tam’s spiculi, and my hole squeezed their cock.
“Nyx,” Tam shrieked as warmth filled my hole and livns poured down my throat. I guzzled their release while using my tentacles to force Tam to keep fucking me so I could milk every ounce of spend out of them.
They crashed into me, and I kissed their forehead, panting. “Thank you, dear one. I needed that.”
Tam chuckled, nuzzling my neck. “Always happy to fuck you, love.”
I laughed and rolled, forcing their tentacles apart. “Now, I’m going to fuck you raw.”
They squealed as I plunged into them, claiming my coupling.