Chapter Twelve Truth in Shame
Chapter Twelve
Truth in Shame
Malcolm
She still sniffled as he used cool water to clean his seed from her face. Her blushing was delightful, and he was somewhat surprised at the level of arousal her tears elicited.
A little domination was part of every sex act when he’d renewed his energies with the matakee-ra females—it was simply the way of things.
But with this human, it was different.
The power of his feeling was entirely new, the pull of her life force, confirming to him that she was meant to be there, his long-sought mate. At the same time, it fired his lust, his possessive—even selfish—desire to force her to yield.
The defiance she displayed only made those urges stronger.
It was the natural order that a female mate would submit to the male—that wasn’t what was novel. Instead, it was the fact that it was much more than sexual, animal attraction coursing through him.
His very real fear—a virtually unknown emotion for him—at the prospect she’d run off, possibly getting herself hurt, or worse, was itself a sign of the depth of his need and desire for this curvy little human female.
Perhaps this was something unique to being in the presence of one’s mate?
Her face clean, her hair washed and appealingly damp, he tipped her chin up. “Feel better?”
She grimaced ever so slightly, then met his gaze. “A little.”
“What’s wrong then?”
“I don’t know… I just. All of this.” She looked away. “I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around what’s happened, I guess.”
“That will ease, in time.”
In fact, he would make it his mission to make her forget all about her previous life, to show her, in every way, that here was where she belonged. At his side—or at his feet.
At that moment, the latter held particular allure.
“Come with me,” he said, sweeping her up into his arms.
“Um… okay.”
She held onto his shoulders, and he smiled at the careful way she clung to him, avoiding the sharp horns there.
He walked to the wall of the cavern opposite the pool—then passed cleanly through the rock.
“Oh… what the fuck?”
Her little heartbeat pounded against him, the soft weight of her breasts pressed to his chest threatening to fire his arousal all over again. It wasn’t time for that though.
Yet.
“How did… you walked through the goddamned wall.”
“Did I though?”
She said nothing for a moment, then she whispered, as if to herself, “The wall wasn’t there, was it?”
“Only in your mind. Sufficient for my purposes.”
“You mean… you can control it? Create illusions?”
“That’s your word for it, yes.”
Fortunately, the passage to home wasn’t far. He brought her down through a winding series of caves, slowly descending again, the air warming as they went.
“How much?” Her tone had grown strained once more.
“I don’t understand your question.”
“I mean, how much of this—all of this—is an illusion?” She leaned back, looking up at him. “Are you an illusion? Please tell me.”
“Much of what you experience is based on your perception of it. Every being’s reality is, in a sense, an illusion specific to them.”
“Great,” she muttered. “I’ve got a goddamned philosopher holding me prisoner.”
“Philosophy? No. Truth? Yes—though I suppose that your word philosophy is one way your species searches for truth.” He glanced down at her, the vision of her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes lovely indeed. “How much do you think is an illusion? Do you think you’re prepared to hear the answer?”
“That’s a big fat yes.” She sighed, shaking her head. “I don’t think I’m going to get a straight answer.”
“When the time is right, you’ll be shown everything.”
“I think you’ve shown me a helluva lot already, don’t you think?”
He squeezed her tighter. “Only the beginning, sweet human. Only the beginning.”
They reached the exit, and emerged into bright sunlight.
“Oh… oh, my dear God,” she said, whispering it, awestruck. “What is this place?”
“This is home, little human. And it’s your home now, too.”
The vale spread out below them, and a wondrous place it was.
His spirits lifted at the mere sight of the gigantic, verdant valley laid out below, the lush grasslands dotted with immense trees, the expanse bordered at either side by towering primordial forest, avians soaring here and there through the gaps in the canopy.
The buzz of life could be heard everywhere, the air humid and warm.
He took her down a long, gentle slope, to the place he thought of as his true sanctuary.
Round and round a massive tree trunk—the largest and tallest in the entire valley—they climbed.
The stairs led higher and higher, until they walked out onto a vista, a cavernous impression inside the trunk itself forming its own sheltered room.
The view was even better from so high, the canopy like a rolling, lush field of clouds, endless, stretching away from the valley in every direction.
In the distance, shadowed peaks reached still higher, their muted gray-purple crags dramatic against the clear azure of the sky.
Setting her down, he watched her naked, curvaceous form slowly walk toward the edge, her hand over her brow shielding her eyes from the harsh sun. “You’ve… you’ve got to be kidding me. This? I feel like… I’m in a dream.”
“How do you know you aren’t?”
She spun around, her breasts swinging fetchingly.
“Am I?”
He shook his head, winking at her. At that moment, he so very much wanted her to smile, to ease at least a little of the worry still creasing her brow.
“Asshole.” But the tiniest hint of a smile curved the corners of her luscious mouth. It was like the first sunny day after a long, gray winter.
Then, as if realizing she was in danger at the mere prospect of letting her guard down, that smile disappeared.
“We… nothing like this showed up on the scans.” She turned back toward the valley below. “I’d have remembered something like this. But there wasn’t.”
“It’s been here since your satellite took up orbit. Far longer, actually.”
“Every square mile mapped, more than half directly observed.” She looked back at him over her shoulder. “Yet it never showed up. How the hell did we miss an entire valley?”
He said nothing, instead taking a seat upon a wooden chair, roughhewn out of the wood of the trunk itself. A giant bed was tucked further inside the impression.
She would be on that bed shortly if he had anything to say about it. He was quite sure that bed would become her new home. Or prison.
There would be little difference for her, at least at first. And he quite liked that fact.
“Here, you might be more comfortable with this.” Holding out the flower garlands, he watched her reaction closely.
She reached out for it, then held back. “Are those… alive too?”
“No.” He laid the garlands upon the foot of the bed. “If you’d rather remain bare—”
“I’ll take them!” She dashed over to the bed, slipping the garlands on in seconds.
Watching her adjust them, he too great delight in how she pulled here, twisted there, in a vain attempt to conceal more of her flesh from his avaricious.
The flowers barely concealed the dark hair at her sex, supporting and lifting her breasts rather than covering them up.
As usual, the petals of white and red flowers brushing against them, her nipples were hard, the stiff, deep pink points standing up prominently.
“This… isn’t much better than being naked.” She peeked up at him though. “Thank you, I guess?”
“We’ll work on your gratitude later.”
Surprisingly, the fact that her genitals were still clearly visible didn’t seem to bother her nearly as much as the garlands at her breasts.
“What is it?”
“I… just hate having them… out.” She was blushing fiercely, frowning a little as she continually plucked at the flowers, trying mightily to get them to cover more of her.
“You have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen. Why are you so self-conscious about them? It’s a wasted emotion here.”
“I… I don’t think that’s”—she turned away—“something I want to talk about.”
The thought of forcing her to tell him did flit through his mind, but he dismissed it. It was obviously a memory that troubled her. He would be asking much of her; giving her the space to at least keep some things to herself was something he would have to become comfortable with too.
He enjoyed her spirit—and even her defiance, to a point—so extinguishing it completely was hardly something he desired.
Leaving her in silence, he observed her as she paced back and forth, gazing out over the valley, then down at her breasts as she continued pulling at the garlands.
Finally, she sighed, sitting upon the bed. “I—there was a man. I was involved with him.”
“Sexually.”
He already didn’t like this male. Though it was illogical, a deep anger began to stir within him at this person from somewhere in her past who’d hurt her.
She nodded miserably. “He was an instructor of mine, in pilot school. I… found him attractive. Not unusual, really—he was a very good-looking man, and it was almost a cliché that a young woman could easily find herself drawn to a confident, intelligent man of authority.” She covered her face.
“This is stupid—I can’t believe I’m even talking about this.
Considering all the shit that happened.”
“Tell me all of it.” He sat next to her, restraining his need to sweep her into his arms again. He wanted her to confide in him. He needed to give her the space to do it, in her own way.
Sighing, she leaned forward, her elbows propped on her knees, gazing at her feet. “He… took advantage of me. And I, well, I liked it.”
He said nothing, the meaning of that statement weighing heavily in the air.
“That’s not quite right though. He didn’t rape me, or anything. Not really. It was the—God, I should not be telling you this—threat of it, I guess? I liked that it was him taking me, even over my objections. That he just couldn’t resist me.”
“I’m familiar with that feeling.”
“Oh, God!” She hid her face in her hands again.
“Go on, little human. I’m listening.”
“He was very rough with me. He liked that it hurt sometimes. He was a fucking asshole.”