Hallie #2
I woke at first light. The wings were still there, still real. I could feel them, move them experimentally. They were part of me now, as much as my arms or legs.
Drav was already awake, watching me. "The portal opens in an hour."
"I know."
"You should go. Should see it. Stand at the threshold. Make the choice consciously even though your body already made it."
"Why?"
"Because you need closure. Need to see what you're turning away from. Need to choose with your eyes open." He sat up carefully. "You need to know exactly what you're giving up."
He was right.
I stood, and the wings shifted with my movement. Balance was different now, would take time to adjust to. I'd have to relearn how to move properly.
"Can I fly?" I asked.
"Barely. The wings are too small yet for real flight. But they'll grow. Another few weeks and you'll be fully flight-capable."
I spread them experimentally, testing. Felt air catch against the membranes. Not enough lift yet. But the potential was there, dormant.
"Show me how."
He taught me the basics patiently over the next half hour. How to spread them for maximum surface area. How to angle them for lift. How to use my body weight to control direction.
When I jumped from the entrance ledge, I didn't fall. Didn't quite fly either. But glided clumsily, awkwardly, staying airborne for precious seconds.
Drav flew beside me the entire time, guiding and supporting.
We reached the high cave where the portal would open, the same one closest to the old arrival point.
The portal shimmered into existence at dawn exactly as promised.
Through it I could see the Consortium facility. Sterile white walls. Medical equipment gleaming. People in uniforms waiting.
"Hallie Reeves. You have one hour to return. After that, the portal closes permanently. Your contractual obligations have been fulfilled. Debt clearance confirmed. You are free to return."
I sat at the edge, wings spread behind me. Pregnant belly visible. Bond mark burning copper on my shoulder. Copper patterns spreading across my spine in visible lines.
Looked at what I was turning away from.
Through the portal: Earth. Familiar. The sectors I'd escaped. Nothing waiting for me there except cleared debt and starting over alone.
Then I looked down at myself properly.
Wings. Small but growing. I'd never be able to hide them on Earth.
Pregnant belly. Full of eggs. Three alien offspring. I'd never be able to explain them.
Bond mark. Permanent. Visible. Proof I'd been claimed by something not human.
Copper skin. Spreading. Marking me as changed, as other, as not-human anymore.
I wasn't human anymore. Wasn't even close to human.
And more importantly: I didn't want to be.
What was I going back to? Sector 23? Manual labor? Suspicion? Medical detention when they saw what I'd become?
Or staying here. With a partner who needed me. With eggs that would become my children. With a life that challenged me in ways that made me stronger instead of slowly grinding me down.
I turned away from the portal deliberately.
Spread my wings. Jumped.
Glided back toward Drav, clumsy and almost falling. But he caught me like he always did. Flew us both back to The Eyrie.
Behind us, the portal shimmered and the voice called out again.
"Hallie Reeves. Final warning. Thirty seconds."
I didn't look back.
"Twenty seconds."
I landed at The Eyrie entrance with Drav beside me, wings folded.
"Ten seconds."
I walked into our nest. Our home. Our future.
The portal closed.
Forever.
Drav was on me immediately.
Desperate. Possessive. Claiming me all over again.
"You chose me. You chose this."
"Yes." My wings spread under me automatically. "I chose you."
He bred me feral, nothing gentle or careful about it. Just pure claiming. His breeding cock pushed inside hard and fast. The knot swelled immediately.
"Mine." He thrust deeper, harder. "My mate. My female. You're mine forever now. No escape. No going back."
"Yours." I was already coming from the intensity. "Forever yours."
"Going to keep you pregnant." His hand pressed my belly where the eggs rested. "Ensure your womb is never empty. Your belly will never be flat again if I have my way. I intend to keep your womb occupied until we run out of seasons."
Carrying my young. I needed more.
"Yes—" I gasped. "Keep me pregnant—breed me constantly—"
He shouted his completion. Seed flooding into me. So much of it. The eggs responded immediately—I felt them shift inside me. Felt pressure building suddenly.
"They're coming," I said, not sure how I knew but knowing absolutely. "The eggs—they're ready—"
"Now?" Drav's eyes widened. "You're laying them now?"
"Yes—" The pressure increased dramatically. "I need to—Drav I need to—"
He pulled out despite the knot not being fully released, forcing it. Repositioned me quickly. On hands and knees. Wings spread for balance.
"Push," he said, gripping my waist to guide me. "Push and I'll breed you through it. The orgasms help. Make the laying easier."
His breeding cock pushed back inside from behind. The dual sensation—eggs pressing out, his cock pushing in—was insane.
I came hard. The orgasm made everything clench and the first egg moved inside me, shifting down.
"That's it." Drav thrust carefully, deliberately. "Come again. Let the pleasure help."
His secondary member coiled tight, its rhythmic pressure grounding me. He thrust slowly while I bore down, breathing through the pressure. The sensation built until—
The first egg slipped free.
Not painful. Not really. Just intense and overwhelming. I came again from the sensation alone.
Drav caught the egg immediately, placed it carefully in the prepared nest beside us. "Two more. You can do this."
He kept breeding me throughout. Kept me on that edge of pleasure. Made me come twice more while the second egg emerged slowly.
Then the third.
Three eggs. Beautiful. Copper-brown shells with black veining running across them. Perfect.
Drav pulled out finally, the knot releasing. He moved to crouch over the eggs, checking them with careful attention, making sure they were viable. His palms cradled the curve where our young rested.
"Perfect," he said, voice filled with awe. "All three perfect. Strong. They'll hatch in eight weeks."
I collapsed on the furs, completely exhausted. Wrung out. But satisfied in ways that went beyond physical.
"Come back," I whispered.
He moved to lie beside me, careful of the eggs but needing to be close. Wrapped his wings around us both. Start the cycle anew immediately.
"I'm here," he said. "Always."
I closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat and the faint, steady hum of life from the eggs beside us. Watching the sky darken through the cave entrance.
I was home.
Run. Survive. Surrender—because in the Mate Hunt, the alien doesn’t chase. He traps.
I signed the contract to save my sister’s life.
Thirty days in the Ossuary is the price.
A wasteland of fossilized titans. Bone dust storms.
And a hunter who moves the terrain like it’s his personal puzzle box.
I should be calculating escape angles. Load-bearing points. Weak joints.
But the tonic in my blood has other plans.
It twists every thought toward the same impossible need—
the massive, silent male shaping the world around me.
Bruk isn’t stalking me.
He’s guiding me.
Every wall of ribcage that wasn’t there yesterday, every shifted skull passage, every carved shelter… all pushing me toward the fortress he’s built inside a titan’s skull.
He doesn’t want a chase.
He wants a mate strong enough to survive him.
A woman who can walk into the trap under her own power—and stay.
I keep telling myself I can outthink him.
But every storm, every night, every slow, deliberate touch proves the truth:
I’m not running from the monster.
I’m being built for him.