Epilogue
As Telok strode across Kaldarak, everything seemed…more. The morning sun shone brighter, granting every color new vibrancy, the scents on the air smelled sweeter, and the sounds of the city and the surrounding jungle were more harmonious than ever.
Telok himself felt lighter, as though his excitement had caught the breeze to speed his steps.
All around, thornskulls worked diligently to finish the arrangements.
They’d transformed Kaldarak’s platforms, bridges, and dens, decorating it all with crystals, swaths of sheer dyed silk, and ropes interwoven with vines and flowers.
At the city’s heart, huge tables had been moved into place to hold platters of food for the coming feast.
Today, the leaders of Kaldarak, Takarahl, and Tovuunshai would gather in one place to share food and friendship.
Ahnset would arrive soon, as would Tas, Shir, Sophia, and Cole, marking the male human’s first visit home since he’d set out to find Hunter’s eyes with Telok and the others seven moon cycles ago.
Everyone Telok cared about would be together. Ahnset would finally meet the broodlings—not just Akalahn, but Urkot and Callie’s son, Khoda, and Rekosh and Ahmya’s daughter, Sheviah. She would see Ivy’s belly round with her second broodling…
And she will see Lacey’s round with our coming broodling.
He quickened his pace as he neared the human platform, crossing the bridge and hurrying past the lounge and Will and Diego’s den to climb to the next level. To the den he and Lacey shared.
Rather than accept a larger dwelling intended for a mated pair, they’d chosen to remain here, in the den that had been built for Lacey.
For moon cycles, he’d labored to expand it, adding storage for his weapons and tools, ensuring Lacey had plenty of space to work, adding shelves upon shelves where she could keep her ingredients, lotions, soaps, jars of incense, and teas, and spots to hang her herbs and flowers to dry.
And of course, he’d included extra room for their future broodlings.
Pride filled Telok’s chest as he approached the entrance.
He could not weave his mate a dress, could not shape stone as well as Urkot or wood as well as Cole, but he had helped craft their home with his own hands.
It did not matter if others could have done better.
This place belonged to him and his mate.
He brushed aside the silk curtain, which had been dyed her favorite shade of green—suspiciously close to the color of his markings—and stepped inside.
Telok barely suppressed a moan as he breathed in. Though he’d smelled that blend of his and Lacey’s scents countless times, it never failed to spark desire in his core.
His eyes fell upon his mate immediately.
Unsurprisingly, she remained right where he’d left her, curled up on her side atop their bed of fluffed silk, a thin blanket draped over her naked body.
He strode to her silently and leaned down.
To this day, he marveled at the serenity that relaxed her beautiful features when she slept.
Human faces were so malleable, so expressive, and he’d enjoyed puzzling out the meaning behind every subtle change that appeared on hers.
Though she’d teased him about it, Telok could easily content himself simply watching her sleep. She was comfortable, safe, unburdened.
And she is mine.
But he knew she wouldn’t want to miss their friends’ arrival.
Stroking the back of a finger across her brow and down her cheek, he whispered, “Lacey.”
She stirred; her nose twitched, she inhaled deeply, and her lashes fluttered, but her eyes did not open.
“Awaken, my heartsthread.”
With a groggy groan, she settled her cheek more snugly on the bedding and stilled.
Telok chittered softly, mandibles rising in a smile.
He’d never known his mate to be a heavy sleeper, but her pregnancy had left her exhausted as of late, driving her to sleep the mornings away.
He knew it was unpleasant and frustrating for her, but all the same, it was much better than the sickness that had gripped her when they’d discovered she was carrying his broodling.
That was when Telok had come to understand the fear Ketahn had felt for Ivy during her pregnancy.
Helpless, Telok had been forced to stand by and watch as his mate suffered. Unable to keep food down, she’d grown pale and weak before his eyes, and she’d spent long, sweat-soaked nights clutching her belly through bouts of agony.
Even Diego had had no solutions to offer. He’d guessed that the pain was likely her body adapting to the broodling growing within, as Ivy, Ahmya, and Callie had dealt with the same issue, though not nearly with the same severity.
Those had been the longest days of Telok’s life, and he knew they’d been worse for Lacey, but that time had thankfully passed. Now his mate was healthy, despite her current weariness.
“Ah, kir’ani vi’jatai.” Carefully, he climbed onto the bed and lay behind her, draping two of his arms and one foreleg over her as he drew her close.
She radiated warmth, and she was so, so soft. By the Eight, as excited as he was for everyone to arrive, he was sorely tempted to remain right here in bed holding his mate through the whole day.
His lower hand slid down to her rounded belly, fingers splaying to cover it. Movement stirred within before the broodling pressed against Telok’s palm. Telok shifted his finger to press over that tiny hand, feeling the faintest impressions of its little fingers grasping at him.
He trilled, hearts overflowing with joy, pride, and wonder.
Of all the vrix who’d ever lived, only Telok and his three brothers had been able to experience this.
Only they had been able to see their mate’s belly grow along with their broodling, to feel that life inside, not shielded behind the hard, protective shell of an egg but within soft flesh.
Telok brushed his face over Lacey’s hair, breathing her in. Now, he simply needed to wake her.
And he knew exactly how to do it in a way that they would both thoroughly enjoy…
Shifting his body down, Telok drew aside her hair and ran his mouth lightly along the side of her neck to the bitemark on her shoulder. A low growl vibrated from his chest as he licked the scar.
Lacey stirred again, sighing softly and dropping her shoulder to allow him freer access.
Gripping that shoulder, he lifted his head and gently rolled her onto her back before peeling the blanket away, baring his mate’s luscious body to his gaze.
Desire flared low in his belly, sizzling outward through his veins. Her breasts, already large, had grown fuller and more sensitive with her pregnancy. He’d always enjoyed fondling them, but he reveled in them even more now for the enhanced pleasure they brought her.
Telok rose, bracing himself over her, and took those breasts in his lower hands. He kneaded and shaped them, purring at their feel in his palms. “My nyleea is so soft. Wake for your luveen.”
Taking her budding nipples between his thumbs and fingers, he pinched and rolled them.
Lacey gasped, head tipping backward as she arched her back and grasped the bedding with both hands. “Telok…”
The huskiness in her voice and the sensuality of her body’s response to his touch were nearly more than he could bear.
His upper hands clutched the fluffed silk, burying their claws in it as his claspers twitched with the need to reach for his mate, to grab her, to draw her against him.
His throbbing stem pushed past his unrestrained slit, spreading it open.
The touch of the air against his slick shaft made him tremble with fierce yearning.
With the yearning to be inside his mate’s hot, wet pussy.
He clung to the deep-rooted patience that had served him so well out in the Tangle. The time to thrust his spear would come soon enough, and the reward would be more than worth the wait.
Cupping her breasts, he lowered his head and twirled his tongue over her now peaked nipples, tasting the sweetness that had leaked from them—another delectable surprise from her pregnancy.
Lacey moaned and squirmed beneath him, rubbing her thighs together as she threaded her fingers into his hair. “Telok…”
“Do you want my tongue elsewhere?” he asked.
“Yes,” she whispered, eyes opening to meet his.
“Tell me where.” Slowly, he trailed his tongue down over her round belly, shifting his body farther back.
“My pussy.” She parted her thighs wide. “I want your tongue on my—”
Telok licked her slit, a firm swipe from bottom to top, flicking her clit when he reached it.
“Yes!” she cried, hips bucking.
Grasping her inner thighs with his lower hands, he pressed them into the fluffed silk, keeping them wide open as he feasted upon her pussy.
Lacey’s heady fragrance and tantalizing flavor flooded Telok’s senses, sweeter than ever, urging him to lap at her and lash her clit with quick, bold swipes of his tongue. He needed more of her, would never have enough. This hunger would be forever without end.
She writhed and panted, clutching his hair as her pelvis undulated against his mouth. Her gasps and cries grew louder, faster, harsher, but it was the quivering of her thighs that told him she was about to unravel.
Growling, he slipped a dulled-claw finger inside her, pumping deep, pressed his tongue more firmly against her swollen clit, and rubbed it.
“Oh, oh fuck…” she rasped an instant before her voice was stolen and her body went as taut as a bow string. And then she screamed while the inner walls of her pussy contracted around his thrusting finger.
Liquid heat gushed around his hand, wetting his chin. He thrilled in the way his mate fucked his finger and tongue, the way she vigorously rocked her hips, desperate for everything he sought to give.
“That’s a good female,” he purred, driving his finger harder, deeper. She whimpered as he moved his thumb to her clit and stroked it so he could lick the essence from her slit. “Take your pleasure from me. It is yours.”
“Telok… Please.”
“What do you want, my wife?”
“I want… Oh fuck it feels so, so good. Don’t stop. Please don’t… Harder! Harder please!”
He gladly obeyed, soon wringing another orgasm from his mate. Her cries were breathy, her moans ragged, and her skin glistened with perspiration. She tugged at his hair, producing a pleasurable sting in his scalp that sent a jolt straight to his pulsing cock.
Patience…
Telok coaxed his mate down from her peak with gentle pumps of his finger and languid laps of his tongue, his easy motions belying the firestorm of need raging inside him.
Lacey loosened her grip on his hair and gently pet it before caressing the side of his face with a loving hand. Her fingers touched the base of his mandible and followed its length to the point of the fang at its end, and then lazily trailed back.
“I like your way of convincing me to wake up,” she said.
Licking some of her essence from the seam of his mouth, Telok lifted his head to meet Lacey’s gaze over her belly. “As do I.”
His mate was beautiful. Red hair spread out around her head, freckled skin flushed, plump lips curled in a soft smile, legs spread…
“Hmm…” Lacey’s touch was teasingly light as her hand traced his jaw down to his chin. “But I’m craving something else now.”
He purred, pressing his face into her palm even as his aching stem throbbed. “Tell me what you crave, and it shall be yours.”
She clenched her already quivering inner walls around his finger. “I crave your cock inside me.”
He growled. “Ah, vi’jatai, our hearts and our desires are one.”
Telok withdrew his finger from her slit. More essence spilled from her, but he did not give in to the urge to lower his head again and lick it up.
Clamping his lower hands around her waist, he dragged her closer. Her legs instinctively wrapped around him as her palms smoothed over his chest to grasp his shoulders. She kissed his hide right over his pounding hearts.
With tremors of overwhelming arousal coursing through his limbs, Telok guided the head of his stem to her entrance. “I must take care of my mate’s needs…”
Slowly, he pushed into her. Her slit stretched around his cock, so snug, hot, and wet that he could not hold back a groan. “And my own.”
He made love to his mate, knowing that it would never be enough, that his craving for her would never be satisfied, that he would endlessly hunger for her.
But he knew also that all of him belonged to her—and he would spend every moment of his life seeking more, and more, and more of his sweet, fiery little mate.