10. Endlessly
TEN
ENDLESSLY
Lukys
For two long days, I wait, hungering for something more from her that was just out of reach—just through a glass barrier. Craving her—craving her in my vicinity—tension fills me. I cannot stop coiling and uncoiling my tail.
I curse myself for letting her get away.
This time, when she finally leaves her ship again, I am already there, at the edge of the woods. Ready to breathe her in.
I will her to come toward me and the outer trees along the hills. I want her to walk far enough across the meadow and away from her ship that there is no chance she can escape back to it.
Now that I have smelled her… She is… I must get to her source… I must know her source. I must take her before someone else does.
My body throbs and my prick pushes heavy at the front of my tail, threatening to emerge.
For two days, I have had to hold onto fading restraint, straining my muscles around my slit to keep it closed.
I do not want to deal with an extra limb hanging out of me until I absolutely have to. Before her scent, it was not like this.
She does not notice me despite her vigilance at keeping watch of her surroundings.
Instead, and after a quick glance around, she follows the side of her ship to the front again, her courage evident.
I slip through the outer trees, parallel to her, and head the same way.
I expect her to circle her entire ship like the previous time when she suddenly descends into the gorge.
Approaching as she moves out of sight, I finally get another whiff of her. My tail goes taut as I shudder. Yessss. My nostrils flare, flooded with her unique musk.
Mate.
Closing my eyes, I succumb to her feminine essence, my stem tightening with a rush of seed. I hear her walk farther away—sticks cracking and leaves rustling—as I continue to shudder, pressing my palm to the front of my tail and pushing at my growing bulge.
When I open my eyes and find she is farther from me than I thought, a hiss tears out of my throat. I lurch forward until I catch sight of her again through the springy, thick foliage. She pauses and turns, peering over her shoulder in my direction.
I drop to the ground, pressing my palms and claws into the dirt. After a minute, she leaves and I rise from my spot. I track her to the edge of a small brook trickling down the side of the mountain. The water drains into the river at the bottom.
She stops at the edge and slowly lowers into a crouch. She leans over the water, reaching her hands into it.
I imagine her, in the water, bathing with me. Her fingers caressing my skin, her slick palms running over my tail. Me winding around her until she is caught up completely.
She raises her wet hands to watch the water trickle into her sleeves.
She then brings the fingers of her right hand to her mouth and sucks the remaining liquid off of them.
A small smile emerges to lightly wrinkle her soft, pale features and lips.
I lick mine in turn when some of her hair falls forward to obscure her face.
It is time.
I press forward, rounding the brook to rise opposite her.
She looks at me, looks back down, then quickly flicks her eyes to me again, her lips parting in surprise.
Spreading my arms to grab her, she jolts to her feet and away from the water. “No!”
A scream tears out of her throat as I press forward and catch hold of her, throwing her over my shoulder.
With her firmly in my grip, I rush up the mountainside toward my cave.
Her knees bend and kick, hitting my front and side as her nails and fists tear into my back.
“No! No! No!” she shrieks the word in time with her thrashing limbs, trying unsuccessfully to fight out of my grasp.
Ignoring her attempts to dislodge from my grip, I pass through the forest leading to my nest at a speed which risks hurting her.
I only slow when I round the boulders hiding the entrance of my cave.
Upon seeing it, I pull her from my shoulder and into my arms, holding her smaller form tight against me.
She is precious. Reminding myself of that, I immediately loosen my hold.
“Let me go!” she screams.
Her flailing starts anew as I carry her deeper into my home, through several chambers of stalagmites and sorted supplies. Pitch black in every direction, I slip through the passages by memory.
“Let me go!” she continues to shout, hitting me with her fists, her voice echoing off the walls.
I take her to my pile of hides in the back, to a smaller section of the cave with heavy animal furs draped from the jagged ceiling.
When I release her into the thickest part of the bedding, I sense her immediately scurry away.
As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I find her crouching form moving along the far wall on the other side of my nest. Her arms are before her, reaching, feeling everything in her path.
“Stay away from me!” she cries.
I locate my human-made electric lighter on one of the outer tables lining the walls.
The lighter is something I procured from the soldiers’ encampment after their defeat.
With no wood in the room to burn, I head down the passage to the previous cavern and snatch some sticks from my firepit, realizing I am not as prepared as I should be.
Lighting the sticks as I return, this time I find her beneath a thin rectangular metal table I salvaged long ago. The sticks let off a weak glow. Holding the tamed electric flame underneath them, Elena blinks as she catches sight of me in the darkness.
She stills.
“Do not be afraid.” I release a raspy hiss. “I have no intention of hurting you. You will see that in time. I took you because I feared you would not come willingly.”
She does not respond, instead glancing past me at the passageway out. I hear her racing pulse, her thumping heart. Her fear is evident.
“If you try to leave, I will sssstop you,” I warn. “It issss dangerous traversing the mountain without knowing the paths.”
“Why?” she asks, her voice raw from screaming. “Why are you doing this?”
I tilt my head, taking in her wide eyes gleaming in the faint light and the tears beading within them.
“So many tears…” I momentarily trail off.
“Because I want you. Because I plan to make you my bride. Because you have trespassed on my territory and everything within my territory is mine, including you, Elena.” I inhale heavily, breathing in her scent that is now filling my nest. I take her in, letting her air fill my lungs and claim ownership of me…
as I have claimed ownership of her. “That is why I have done thissss.”
Yes, that is why I have done this.
And I do not regret it.