Chapter 34
Desire hummed through Therxian until it vibrated from his chest and rose through his vocal cords.
He could not stop the song now even if he wanted to.
It was driven by instinct and by the primal desire that rose ravenously from deep within him.
Even so, he tempered it as he reached for his female.
Alex’s face softened in response, and she went willingly into his arms. Despite her small size, her heat still managed to consume him as he held it within his embrace, enveloping him further in her pheromone-rich scent.
He instinctively burrowed his face into her neck, his mouth parting to gulp in her musk.
It coated his tongues and scent receptors so thickly that he trembled all over.
If his primary sant had not already extruded, it would have burst free at that very moment.
As it was the flesh around the thick, bulbous base of his shaft expanded, stretching the scaled flesh of his sheath tightly.
He hissed with a guttural groan as his sant twitched in response to the hunger flooding him.
His hips flexed and his sant dragged across the top of her warm thighs, dropping into the seam between them.
Alex responded by pressing her thighs together so that a delicious pressure on both sides sent a frisson of pleasure deep within his sexual root.
He had little doubt that she knew exactly what she was doing and his suspicion was confirmed when her husky laughter met his choked-off needy groan.
“Alex,” he hissed. “Are you truly aware of what you are doing to me?”
Her lips brushed his ear, the heat of her sending another shiver racing through him from the smallest contact. “Oh, I think I have an idea.”
The smile in her voice teased him, withdrawing some of the gravitas from the situation and easing some of the tension that had long gripped his heart.
This was not the disciplined focus of intentional breeding that seemed to regulate reproduction within the shinara, and even among the vehal, for as far as he could recall.
This was an invitation to play between mates.
Alex’s fingers danced over his chest, tracing the scales as she hummed.
The sound was off-key and far from melodious compared to that of the nubile females who practiced the art from the time of sexual maturity, and yet the effect was a thousand times more powerful.
His back bowed in response, his sant pressing far more needily into his mate’s softness.
“Ashlava, you tease me,” he hissed in playful reproach.
“It is better, isn’t it?” she whispered in reply, the breath puffing over his scales as she brought her lips close to them to brush feathery kisses to his chest. “This is not for the approval of the court or your mother. We don’t have anyone to impress and no demands or expectations for us. It is just us here.”
Therxian’s eyes closed with pleasure, his wings slowly folding around her to hold her close to his heart as he enclosed her in the warmth and safety he offered within the shelter of his wings.
What she offered just then resonated deep within him.
There had never been a time where there had not been expectation on him.
Where others did not look to him to fulfill a duty.
And yet, here was this tiny human, offering something that he never once realized that he desperately craved: to be desired and accepted for himself.
Not as a hunter to feed a nara. Not as a prince to sire a golden heir.
“Thank you.” The words were pale in comparison to the emotions that rocked him, but he could not manage anything else. He could not find the words.
Thankfully, Alex seemed to understand. She pressed against him, her arms encircling him to the best of her ability, and she hugged him, sharing her warmth and affection with him.
“Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t even seen what I can do and yet you are determined to go through with this. You may regret this.”
Although he understood that she was jesting, there was a note of vulnerability in her voice that captured his heart. His eyes opened and he angled his head so that he could look down into his wings at her. Her blue eyes met his solemnly and his heart clenched.
“All I need and want is you,” he quietly replied. “It does not matter what you can do. I am not one who needs to be impressed by intimate arts like a noble female holding selection in the great chamber of the haga.”
Alex blinked at him, her brow puckering slightly. “Holding selection?”
He huffed in amusement. “I will explain it to you later. I just mean that this—right here and right now as we are without performance or exaggeration—is everything that I want.”
Her lips curled with satisfaction and the softness in her expression sent warmth through his chest. This was far better than a feverish first mating broken only by needs for sustenance. Which reminded him...
Therxian glanced around the nest worriedly.
Although they had just eaten, mating often occupied a long expanse of time.
She would certainly get hungry within a short period and he had nothing prepared.
His mother had made certain that his chamber was provided everything that might be needed every time a female was escorted to him—even though it had ultimately been unnecessary—the fact that there was nothing provided at all for his hithana dimmed his lust as guilt surged to the fore.
“Therxian, what is it?”
He blinked and refocused on his mate’s beloved face, noting the worry there. He grimaced. It appeared that she was becoming more skilled at reading him.
“I have nothing for you,” he admitted in a dissatisfied grumble.
Her brow puckered. “I don’t get it. It looks like you have plenty,” she murmured as her hand slid between them and lightly ran along the length of his sant, sending a tremor of desire through him.
It took effort to force himself to think past the renewed desire surging through him, but he dipped his chin in frustration.
“That is not what I was referring to it,” he thickly rasped. “I have not provided even a small measure of what my mother supplied in the palace for the noble females. I do not wish you to ever believe that I consider you deserving of less. Truthfully you deserve far more.”
Alex’s eyebrows shot up and she glanced over at the empty dishes on the table. “We just ate. Are you still hungry?”
His chin dipped again, embarrassment clawing at his innards.
“No... yes... but no, that is it.” He drew in a sharp breath and held it for a moment while he sorted through his scattered thoughts.
“I do not have food prepared for you for our mating. It will be long and arduous, and I do not wish you to suffer—”
Her peal of laughter startled him to silence.
“Arduous,” she echoed, and she snorted faintly around another chuckle. “Therxian, you speak as if we are preparing to battle.”
“Probably not too far of a distinction,” he muttered. “Perhaps I should go back to the palace and acquire—”
Alex’s arm looped around his neck, her fingers finding purchase on his gavo as she dragged his head down, her mouth covering his completely.
It not only surprised and silenced him, but it also destroyed his train of thought as her tongue pushed into his mouth and slid along his tongues in a clever, slick dance that made him forget everything.
His hands cupped her bottom, his fingers splaying over the unfamiliar human shape of her.
His wings tightened around as her as well as he responded, his tongues sliding over hers and caressing it intimately as heat drove deeper into the root of his sant, bringing him to full engorgement.
A growl rattled in Therxian’s chest as he shifted his thumbs between her legs, his claws scraping across the fabric that covered that hot, intimate part of her.
Exquisite heat radiated from that point and the fabric gradually became damp as he continued to rub experimentally against it.
Alex squirmed against his thumbs in response, a choked, needy sound rising in her throat.
She mumbled something against his mouth, but it was far too muffled for him to understand.
What he did understand, however, was the way her hands shot urgently to her coverings and parted the material covering her.
Bracing his wings more firmly behind her and looping the tip of his tail supportively against the small of her back, he set to work helping her as he dragged the material off her arms and worked it down off her legs.
The sahguin cloth wrapped and knotted in layers around her arms, torso, and legs to keep her warm took a bit more time to divest, but he took great pleasure in stroking her and teasing her slowly as he unwound them until at last the long, woven bands of material were drawn from her.
He cast each band to the side as he hungrily took in the absolute perfection of her body until it was bared to him completely.