17. Hours, Days, and Weeks
SEVENTEEN
HOURS, DAYS, AND WEEKS
Vivian
I wake in Syasku’s embrace, drowning in his smell, so physically frustrated, and with my hand already between my legs, that I’m left wondering how I’d fallen asleep. Feverish and sweaty, I’m a mess. A frustrated mess. I’m embarrassed of myself.
Feeling everywhere our bodies touch, and how warm he is around me, it’s hard to focus on anything else. His skin is smooth like silk, while the muscles beneath are firm.
My fingers ache to touch him, to caress his chest and explore. I’ve been thinking of him nonstop for months. It’s torture.
I’m tired and… sad, and all I want is for this terrible, unending, tormenting ache between my legs to go away. It’s hard to admit that I’m affected by him at all. Harder yet that I’ve wanted to be around him, near him long before his pheromones made the situation worse.
I drag my hand from between my legs, praying Syasku never realizes it was there to begin with. There might be a blanket shielding me from the eyes of others, but I have to remember I’m still being watched all the same.
Am I really going to be his mate?
I trust him, and that’s more than I can say about anyone else in my life. So why not take what he’s offering and let him try to protect me? I’ve never been protected by anyone before. It’ll be a nice change, even if it’s an illusion.
Slowly opening my eyes, and lifting the blanket just enough to take a breath of fresh air, the first thing I see is Syasku in the view pane across from me. My breath stifles.
I’m this alien male’s mate.
He’s watching me watch him. My stomach twists, and I shift to face him directly.
“Hi,” I whisper.
Our eyes meet and my lips part, his eyes hungrier and darker than they were earlier when I agreed to be his. Pinning me where I am like he knows where my hand was beneath the blanket, I pretend that’s not the reason for his sudden intensity. Unsure what to do, I study him back. He has the eyes of a starving animal. They would’ve terrified me if I came upon him not knowing who he was.
He doesn’t frighten me as much anymore.
When something hard presses against the side of my leg, I squirm, excited and nervous.
Everything about him is large and overwhelming, his hands, his muscles, his… attention. For an indefinite amount of time, I do nothing except stare at him, caught in his smoky gray eyes. Old eyes. Deep eyes. Piercing eyes. Eyes that have seen a lot more than I ever will.
Right now, I’m the only thing they’re focused on.
He wants me. So why hasn’t he forced the issue? I know he can smell my arousal. If he’s waiting for my explicit consent, I don’t think I dare to give it. I’d rather… he takes it. And I'll decide as it happens.
He’s the one who chose me to be his companion. But if he thinks he’ll hurt me, he most likely will. And if that’s what is stopping him, I know I’ve made the right decision.
When he remains silent, I reposition the blanket over our heads until it is taut enough that I have a clear view of him. Settling back upon him, his tail slightly undulates, pressing against my sex.
Clamping my jaw, I hold in a moan.
He’s not being fair. Even if he’s not goading me in some way, it’s hard holding onto the little courage I have.
He’s not going to let me flee to the other side of the room.
“Would you really kill Ursula if I was taken from you?” I blurt when I can’t take his silence anymore.
Ever since he told me that’s what he said to her, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind.
His head tilts as his eyes trail up and down my body. “Yessss, though I plan on killing her either way. I will kill for you if that is what you are really asking.”
Will? Like he’s already expecting he’ll have to? “I…” Was that what I was asking? An unexpected feeling of gratefulness comes over me and my face flushes.
“Syasku,” I whisper, letting his name fade on my tongue. I stiffen, unsure what to do. I’m not going to be able to fall asleep as easily again, and I know he’ll never let me out of his reach. I’ve given myself to him.
Chewing on my lip, I avert my eyes, trying to find a good excuse anyway… because if I don’t…
I’m going to lose my mind.
His eyes narrow and his entire body seems to go taut.
The tension grows. It feels like my body could burst into flames at any moment.
“Syasku,” I whimper, wishing he would do something, anything, other than watch me obsessively.
His head tilts like my torment amuses him.
Then he looks down… and my eyes follow.
I’m perched partially over where his lower slit begins and right before it bulges from his tail. Slowly, it parts, and as it does, so do my lips. Springing out, his cock nudges me, forcing into the small space between us, already fully erect. Grasping Syasku’s arms, I shift slightly away, nervous about having his cock pressed tightly against me while also wanting a better view of it.
My nails dig into his skin, overcome with a heady wave of his musk. As large as I remember, heat pulsates from his cock, making it even more stifling under the blanket. Long and tapering toward him, the thick mass at its center is rounder and more evenly spread out along his girth. It appears swollen but without the redness; instead sleek, shifting in its tones of gray.
I swallow.
I’ve never had sex. I’ve never even kissed another on the lips. I’ve never been held so intimately before, and yet I’m excited despite my worry that my judgment is clouded. Nothing about this is right, and if this is what Ursula is ultimately hoping for, I can’t help feeling manipulated. And worst of all, I don’t think I care if I’m being manipulated. Not anymore.
I release a long, shaky breath.
Pulling my eyes off his cock, I look up at him. “Do you want to have sex with me?” I ask him outright. He’s been manipulated as much as I’ve been.
“Sex?” he growls, and I realize his body is even stiffer than before, straining all around me. “No, female, I want to nest with you.”
“Nesting is when two nagas go somewhere safe for a while to mate, correct?”
“Until the female is bred.”
I lick my lips. “And if there’s no chance of offspring? What happens then?”
Never once, in all of history, has a human been able to procreate with another species. Yet his words make my legs clamp against his tail. Trying to hold his eyes and keep my courage, I wait for his answer.
“If the female does not quicken with a litter, I do not know…”
“You don’t?”
His hands and fingers strain into me where he has them placed on my back. “I have never nested before.”
“We’re both virgins.”
He doesn’t respond to my declaration.
I reach up and cup his face. His jaw clenches under my palms, and it dawns on me that maybe, like me, he’s never been touched in any way that was comforting or pleasurable. That he’s just as clueless about all of this as I am.
“I have never been with another before either,” I say.
Silence falls between us as his heated gaze trails over me.
Quietly I roll my hips forward toward his cock.
I don’t know who I am anymore.
But I’ve gotten his attention. A gruff hiss fills my ears. Emboldened, I move closer to the base of his length, rocking my clit a little harder against him. He doesn’t stop me as I shuffle even closer to increase the pressure. He’s letting me do what I want, and I can’t remember the last time that has ever happened.
Pleasure blooms between my legs, and my thoughts swirl with sensation. Spreading my thighs wider, I gently undulate to keep them coming, afraid that if I stop, the ache of arousal will be worse than before.
He slides one of his hands to my leg, while the fingers of his other curl harder into my back. His claws dig and catch the fabric of my shirt. Afraid of what I might find there if I glance at his face, I lift my hand and wrap it around the middle of his cock.
Hard and velvety under my palm, a shaky breath escapes my throat.
On either side of me, his tail winds up like walls, caging me within the limbs of his body. His hand slides down to join the other on my thighs. With a little bit of pressure, he spreads them further.
I slide my hand up his length, and seed gushes from his tip. My gentle undulation stops as I inhale a fresh wave of his pheromones. The smell makes my head spin. My mouth parts as I seek more of it, emptiness clawing my insides, and bending forward, my lips part and my tongue dabs out to lick the seed off his tip.
He jerks, groaning hoarsely, and both his hands come up to grip my head. “Female.” He says it like a curse, while his chains rattle and clang.
I flick my tongue, and he hisses sharply.
Clutching his base, I suck him into my mouth, frenzied for more of his taste. His fingers slip into my hair, while his hands hold my head in place. I swallow around him like I’m the animal who’s starving. Growing faint from the heat, I pop off him with a gasp, only to immediately take his tip back in my mouth and suck.
His deep groans fill the otherwise breathy silence. Whatever reservations I had, vanish.
My sex quivers, fluttering with every small release of his seed, licking it into my mouth and swallowing. In a daze, I try shifting my hips back against him but limited by the angle, I have to grind into his tail instead. His claws streak across my scalp and I shiver, the sensation prickling my skin.
“Suck me,” he growls, the demand evident in his voice.
Moving my mouth lower over him, I do what he wants of me, gently to start, quickly increasing the pressure until my cheeks hollow out around him.
He inhales.
The smoothness of his girth vanishes as his knot expands, going rigid against my lips. A deep groan tears out of him and he nudges the tip of his cock deeper into my throat. Seed pools into my mouth and I swallow it down before I choke.
With his seed, some of the strain in his body also releases.
I pull off him and sit upright with a moan and before I can see his face, I take the edge of the blanket and tug it off him. I lose sight of him briefly as I wipe his seed from my cheeks, chin, and hands. When I’m done, I look down at the mess I’ve made. Heat flushes my entire face.
I just…
Throbbing, his tip glistens with seed and saliva. With the blanket gripped, I move to wipe it clean when the sound of his voice steals my attention.
“ Female ,” he warns. “Someone is coming.”
It takes me a moment to realize what that means.
Like a zap from an electrical prod, I jump off him as he straightens, adjusting his cock back into his tail. Grabbing the blanket off my head, I let it drop as I scurry to stand beside him, nearly tripping on one of his chains. His tail wraps around my middle, catching me before I fall.
Clasping his arm, I envy his ability to remain calm. I turn away, hoping I’ll be able to ignore the distressing pressure of my arousal long enough to get through whatever is about to happen.
The sound of the door’s locking mechanism twists my stomach with nausea.
Ursula strides into the room with several soldiers at her heel.
They pause in the center of the room facing us.
“Glad to see that you two have come to an arrangement,” Ursula hums, wearing the same slicked-back hairstyle and crisply pressed uniform she always wears. “It makes things easier, doesn’t it?”
Neither Syasku nor I, respond.
“It’s time for you to come with us,” she says, focusing her attention on him. The soldiers ready their weapons. “You can make this easy, Syasku, or we can do it the hard way. The choice is yours.”
Tense and aggressively posed beside me, I grip his wrist before he can react. “Don’t give them a reason to hurt you.”
He looks down at me, his face a mask of rage.
I flinch and face Ursula. “Where are you taking him?”
“Asking questions as if you have a right to know the answer to them, Vivian? He’s to be questioned. And as long as he cooperates, he will be unharmed,” she continues. “But that’s entirely up to him.”
Wishing there was something I could do, I know if I try anything, it would only make Syasku’s situation worse.
Syasku tugs his arm from my grip. “I will be back. I will not resist.”
My shoulders sag with relief.
His chains are pulled into the wall until he’s pinned to it. One of the soldiers walks over to him with a syringe in his hand. Positioning the needle, the soldier injects him with something.
Syasku’s eyes stray to me as his head slowly drops.
Afterward, he’s released from his chains.
Ursula studies me as I watch Syasku being taken away. Having nothing to say to her, and wishing only to be alone, I turn away. Grabbing the blanket off the floor, I pick a spot by Syasku’s chains to sit down and wait.
Glancing up to see if Ursula is still there, I spy Muffin, holding two large bags, walking past her and into the room. He heads directly for me.
Stomach churning, my nausea suddenly worsening, I lean over and vomit.