Chapter 11
Voss
She flinched when the front door closed, the cold of the first floor surrounding us. Her eyes, hazy and wide just moments before, grew alarmed. I sighed and gently let her down, my cocks pulsing with burning need.
Her scent clung to my clothes, and my scales tingled with the warmth of her. She’d felt so right in my arms. So good.
I still couldn’t believe she allowed me to carry her. Though, maybe she didn’t. I just didn’t give her a chance to protest. I didn’t ask.
“Uh, thank you,” Alina said quietly, her cheeks dark with a blush. “For catching me. I… I’d better go.”
She raced up the stairs. I watched her without blinking, my eyes glued to her round ass and generous hips that looked so appetizing in those tight trousers she wore. My cocks slid out, so hard, they hurt.
Instead of following Alina upstairs, which would only tempt me to touch her again, I headed to the downstairs bathroom. Hands fumbling with buttons to free my painful erections, I tore inside, the door banging against the wall after I opened it with too much force.
Not even bothering to close it, I leaned against the floor-length mirror opposite the door and stroked both cocks in a loose fist. They bucked in my grip, hardening even more. Precum dripped from the tips, and I slickened it down the shafts with a groan of bittersweet pleasure. My eyes fluttered shut as my favorite fantasies began to play.
Alina on her knees, sucking my cock while she stroked the other. Then, her against a tree, taking both of them with screams of pleasure. Her lying on the floor, begging me to fuck her with helpless need.
I knew the relief from coming into my hand would be short-lived, if I had any relief at all. I got myself off a few times a day now, Alina’s presence and scent making me crazy with lust. I craved her with an intensity that unnerved me.
Even worse, I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to stop myself if this went on. A moment would come, I knew, when I either had to have her or go mad.
It was the unfinished mating bond, of course. It was unnatural to wait so long. But how could I make any demands? I already promised her I wouldn’t ask for sex. It was why she agreed to stay.
I pumped my fist, groaning when my balls swelled inside my body. My cocks throbbed, but the sensation was muted and wrong. I longed for the heat of my mate’s soft body surrounding me. I yearned for her scent filling my nose, her eyes on me, her cries of pleasure as I plunged deep into her, over and over…
“Voss, are you all… Oh, gods.”
My eyes shot open when I heard her quiet, breathy voice. The door was half-open, and I just saw her standing in front of it, her hand covering her mouth, her eyes wide. She was frozen to the spot.
She must have heard the door bang, or maybe my groans, and came to check on me. I should stop. I knew I should, it was the only sensible choice now, but fuck, her eyes were on me, and suddenly, the lukewarm pleasure flared into an inferno in my loins.
Let her see. Let her see what she does to me.
I grunted and pumped, my rigid cocks weeping into my hand, wet and eager. I squeezed hard, slamming my fist down until it choked the spikes at the base. My eyes glued to hers, I stroked faster and faster, groaning in bliss.
A brilliant shock snapped up my spine, locking me in position, my shafts bucking. Hot release shot onto the floor, painting it a shimmery kind of green, and Alina watched it all, her eyes unblinking, body frozen.
The aftershocks of the most powerful orgasm in my life poured down my back, making me gasp. I slumped against the mirror behind me, my eyes wanting to flutter closed. I kept them open with effort, looking at her. Drinking her in.
She blinked and the spell broke. She turned without a word and fled up the stairs.
I stood there for long minutes, my cocks still out, half-hard and sticky, my hand shimmering with my cum. In and out, I breathed slowly, my knees locked so I wouldn’t fall. I felt weak and boneless in a way that called for a long, luxurious nap.
But my mate wouldn’t sleep at my side, and so I didn’t want it.
Finally, I forced myself to move. I washed my body and the floor and then trudged upstairs, stopping in front of Alina’s bedroom door. Her scent and a faint rustle of paper told me she was inside, safe and sound.
So she was hiding, and since I had nothing better to do, I went to fetch my cacao. I processed the harvest, dropping the seeds into wooden boxes so they could ferment for a week before I laid them out to dry. That done, I checked on my coffee beans, drying in the sun. They still needed a few more days.
Doing my rounds, I smelled some harrsh’ak scent. Anger flared up, and I stalked around the house, furious they dared to come onto my land again. They were a threat to Alina, and so I was determined to keep them far away from her.
My hunt was fruitless as the creatures likely ran when they saw me. Smart, considering I promised to kill any harrsh’ak who came near my home. One look and they’d be dead.
It was evening by the time I was done with my work. Alina was still in her bedroom, and so I washed up, brought my pillow, and lay down in front of her door as I did every night.
A part of me worried she hadn’t eaten since morning, and I wanted to reassure her it was safe to come out. But what could I say? “Don’t worry, I won’t wave my cocks at you”?
It sounded ridiculous, so I said nothing, finally resolving she would come out when she thought I was asleep.
My dreams were frenetic and choking. I dreamt of being lost in the jungle at night, and the trees around me were full of hissing, hostile creatures. I tore through the greenery, blinded by the dark, my scales whipped by the leaves and animal claws.
I knew there was salvation somewhere here, hidden from me. The faint traces of its sweet, comforting scent floated to me, guiding my steps, yet whenever I thought I was close, the scent receded, and I was lost again.
Forever searching, never finding. I shouted for her, but my mouth was packed full of cacao seeds, and they kept falling out, stealing my breath and muffling my voice. Then I reached for her, but my claws only scraped against the bark of trees, hard and unyielding. I scratched at them, trying to break through the barrier that hid her, and my claws hurt and bled, some of them broken.
Then, from afar, came her voice. She called me, and I reached for her again, trapped in the heat, hunted by wild animals. Her voice drifted closer, then further, then closer again.
“Voss? Voss! Please, Voss, you have to wake up. You’re hurt!”
With a great effort, I opened my eyes, looking blearily around. It wasn’t hot anymore, but pleasantly cool, and the jungle was gone. I lay on the hard floor of the corridor, and Alina knelt at my side.
The dream was still alive in my racing blood, so I clutched her nightshirt and clasped it to my chest with a sigh of relief. I finally found her. She was here.
Alina made an alarmed sound but didn’t struggle, and when I brought the fabric to my nose, she crept closer so her shirt wouldn’t get torn.
When I looked up, I found her eyes watching me with a troubled intensity. They glistened in the dark, awake and curious.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice scratchy and painful from all the screams I couldn’t let out in my sleep. “I woke you.”
“It’s okay.” She nodded resolutely, brushing her braid off her shoulder. “You, um. You were scratching at my door. I think you broke a claw.”
I let go of her nightshirt with reluctance, noticing the yellow fabric was stained dark where I gripped it. Indeed, my index finger claw must have snapped off. My finger bled. I sat up with a groan and sucked it into my mouth.
Alina made a strange, squawky sound. When I glanced at her, she wasn’t looking at me, her face pinched.
“Have you eaten?” I asked to break the awkward moment but also to keep her talking.
Odd and uncomfortable though it was, this nighttime meeting gave me unexpected pleasure. There was something intimate and secret in seeing her like this, with her braid mussed by sleep, her thin nightshirt clinging to her curves.
“I did, thank you.” She looked away, but I couldn’t help noticing she didn’t move from my side. “I went out half an hour ago and just came back when you… When you were having the nightmare.”
She glanced at me, curious and embarrassed, and I had an urge to tell her the truth.
“I dreamed I lost you. You were gone, and I ran through the jungle, trying to find you.”
She startled, her eyes growing wide as she looked at me. I stared back, wanting to prolong the moment. Her looks were so hard won sometimes, I cherished each and every one.
“It was just a dream,” she whispered hoarsely, looking at me as if mesmerized.
“Was it really?”
I cocked my head to the side, studying her face. Alina was a conundrum, but the more I tried to solve the puzzle that was her, the deeper in I fell. Mating was supposed to be simple and physical, but in the absence of sex, my reactions grew more complex.
She shook her head, breaking eye contact, and I suddenly felt the burning need to tell her how I felt. Because the nightmare wasn’t just a dream. She’d be gone in a few weeks if I didn’t stop her, and so I’d rather tell her now than scream it out into the trees after she left.
“You’re such a fascinating creature,” I said softly. Her eyes flinched up, locking with mine again. “Kind and yet vicious, drawn to both pleasure and hard work, so curious and yet so fearful sometimes.”
She frowned as if my words didn’t please her, and I smiled. “You try to repel me with so much determination, and yet, your every gesture draws me in. Every guarded look. Every time you forget yourself and laugh. You say you don’t trust me, and yet you worry about me. Earlier today…”
I broke off, my tongue locking briefly as the memory stirred inside me, my pocket growing slick and heavy at the very thought. Her lips parted, but she was hypnotized, her eyes glued to mine.
“You heard a noise and you thought I was hurt, so you came rushing in,” I continued. “And just now, you did it again. You should be appalled. My behavior was beastly today, but you still care for my safety. Why is that? What does it mean?”
She swallowed with difficulty and averted her eyes. I sadly thought I must have blown the moment and scared her off with my questions, but then she looked up, her expression determined.
“Why don’t you come inside? To sleep?”