Chapter 19
Sleeping had been difficult.
I didn't bunk with the rest of the guards. Instead, I took the full-level suite immediately below the Prince's sleeping floor where he and the two hoomons had their rooms.
This entire tower was state of the art when it came to defense, so despite the fragile appearance of the massive windows and towering physique, it was one of the safest places one could be in the city.
I had gifted it to the Prince when he passed his adolescence and was able to start searching for the mate who would help him anchor in his claim to the throne.
I ran my claws through my hair as I stepped out of the shower room, fully dried, buffed, and brushed so that my fur gleamed. I admired my beautifully dark fur, including the rich black stripes still visible despite the hue.
I then ran my fingertips over my lips.
I had kissed the hoomon.
Not once, but twice.
I'd never kissed anyone like that before.
When she stiffened in my arms, I stopped.
I was worried I'd been too aggressive, that her species had a courting ritual that I hadn't followed, that she needed. There was too much unsaid between us. When she wanted to spend the day with me, I'd poured everything into making it the best.
When she hit me and fought free from my grasp, I wasn't furious, but excited.
She had run and my feral excitement drove me to chase her, to take her to the ground and show her that she couldn’t get away from me.
But then she did.
She climbed.
Then she moved.
I’d never seen any creature move the way that she did. She was so expressive in her sexuality, moving like her body was dripping in liquid gold, caressing that pole like it was a familiar lover, someone who would hold her up for her to writhe against.
It was mesmerizing.
All doubts that she wouldn’t be able to learn our language vanished. She had shown she had trouble hitting the proper pronunciations for words, but she absolutely could learn the movements. She could move in a way that would utterly entrance my people.
I knew I needed to give her more, to offer more.
Taking her to the shooting range to teach her how to use our weapons and witnessing her glee made me certain I’d made the right choice. She was a vicious little thing and giving her the tools and capability to defend herself would be the gift that brought sparkle to her eyes.
When she pulled me to her…
I groaned, remembering the taste of her lips, the feel of her body as I held her trapped against that wall. How she had clung to me when I tried to put her down. How her ice had turned to heat in a moment, and her desire for me was shown with unmistakable clarity.
I remembered how it was too much for me, how I was a breath away from taking her against the wall right then and there, but I couldn't do that, not with others around us. She was mine and mine alone. No one would bother us, but I didn't want to share even a glimpse of her.
I remembered I had to pull her off of me.
I shifted my trousers as they became uncomfortably tight at the thought.
I was so much stronger than she was, and still, she fought to touch me, to hold me.
I didn't know that would turn me on so much.
But I had to stop her for another reason.
The hoomons were compatible with us.
They could be chosen by our osae.
The symbiote that lived within the bodies of my species never spread to other alien species. It was never awoken by aliens, either. The fact that it could awaken and be enticed by these hoomons meant only one thing that I could think of - the hoomons were compatible hosts for the osae.
If I mated with her, the osae would spread to her and bond with her.
If I mated with her, she could end up bearing my young.
I fixated on the memory of how she felt in my arms when I carried her down the central corridor, how she had let out a pealing sound, like the sound of wind through bells.
It was the most beautiful sound I had heard her make.
I added extra bounce to my movements as I carried her down, and the sounds grew louder. Was she happy? It seemed like it. She didn't claw at me or act in any way frightened. Her grip on me was firm, but not fearful. She had pulled me in and asked for what she wanted from me.
I wanted more.
I wanted more of those sounds.
I wanted more of her.
She was a woman who didn't know who I was. She didn't know anything about me other than what I had shown her. If she responded to me, if she took me, it would be because of who I was to her, not who I was to the world.
She could see me for who I was, not who I was raised to be.
She didn't see all the weight that my role piled on me.
All she saw was me.
That kiss… It took everything in me to leave her in her room after the training session and walk away. It took everything to go back to my quarters. I tried to drive away the thought of going back to her by taking myself into my own hands.
It was no relief.
I shook my head, trying to banish that moment from my thoughts.
I couldn't let this overwhelm me.
I snorted at that thought.
I had deviated from my planned course, come to this metropolis moon ahead of schedule, personally beheaded a ship full of slave traders, and had been dressed up pretending to be a bodyguard and servant to one of my vassals.
Whatever this was, it was not minor.
It had already overwhelmed me.
I groaned and looked up at the bottom of the aquarium tank that hung suspended into the ceiling of this suite.
I froze.
Pressed against the glass above me were two beautifully round naked hoomon butt cheeks.
I stared at the curve of those globes as they shifted, briefly flashing me a tantalizing view of what lay beneath them as the hoomon rotated in the water above me, moving as if she was a fish herself.
I already knew from the shape of her body and her hair, but when her face turned towards me, I knew for certain.
It was my little hoomon.
She floated above me, her eyes widening as she stared at me through the glass at the bottom of the tank. Her hair floated around her like a glorious aura as her hands made small figure-eight motions.
She was naked.
She brought both hands to her mouth.
Then she dragged them away towards me, a large bubble of air following afterward. She twisted in the water, spinning effortlessly as the bottom of her bare feet pressed against the glass above me.
She shot up, away from me, gracing me with a full, gorgeous view of her naked ass and the enticing fur that covered the slit between her legs. She exposed it to me again as she kicked.
Horror filled me as I caught the color of the pond edge lights above her.
No, not again.
I turned and raced to the access shaft.