Serpents of the Abyss (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #2) Page 21

  His stomach soured once more at the lie rolling off his tongue. She did not know Kehtal’s concerns, or that because of them that they had been delaying their return to the surface. Only because he did not want her to worry, he maintained his silence. Instead, he curled tighter around her, allowing his song to vibrate. She watched him quietly, her eyes scanning his face, and he wondered if he looked strange and frightening to her as that female had.

  “What if a female grabbed Slengral?” she whispered. “He could be hurt for all we know if she did anything to him like what we saw that other female do.”

  “No,” he soothed. “Trust me. Slengral is too quick and cunning to be snared by a female. He successfully avoids them when he wishes to.”

  “And Kehtal?”

  “Kehtal is wily,” he chuckled. “He would find a way to slip by a female before she even noticed that he intended to pass. Do not worry for them, hithana. Rest.”

  Her fingers gripped, clenching against his forearm. “You won’t leave me though, right? You will remain with me right here until they return?”

  His tail twitched uneasily. Slengral would be displeased to catch him there, but he could not disappoint Lori when she looked up to him with so much trust.

  “I will not leave,” he assured her. “Now sleep, hithana.”

  She made the human nodding motion that indicated her agreement and settled her cheek once more against his chest, listening to his hum. Eventually, her body went lax, and her breath puffed evenly against his scales, sending an erotic shiver through him that he tried to ignore. Even though his sant stirred and he was unable to act upon the desire pulsing within his veins, he relished the contact as he protectively coiled around her.

  As he lay there, after a time, his ear twitched at the muffled sounds coming from the fore of the nest. He considered untwining himself from around her and returning to the main nest, especially when he heard Slengral’s shout for his mate. The moment he started to move, however, her small hands reflexively latched onto his body, and she nestled closer against him. Amused, he blinked down at her, his attention drifting away from the ruckus in the other part of the nest as he wondered how he was going to peel her off of him.

  That amusement disappeared with the deadly snarling hiss coming from the connecting tunnel.

  Lifting his eyes, Daskh met the furious glare of his friend. He could hear Kehtal shouting down the tunnel, his voice drowned out by the menace of the male facing him. With the commotion, Lori snapped awake, her eyes widening as she shrank down into the bedding. Not wanting her to be afraid, he stroked his hand down her arm before pulling away. Slengral whipped forward, a gleam promising death in his eyes.

  Chapter 30

  Lori stared in horror as Slengral shot forward, only just barely missing his intended target when Daskh dodged with surprising speed. The latter male spread his hands and wings in entreaty, refusing to back down from the enraged alien who had claimed her for his mate.

  “Slengral, stop!” she shouted, flopping forward through the bedding.

  She barely made it to the edge when the male snatched her off their bed and dragged her to his chest, his entire body trembling with tension. His wings spread wide, his body adopting an air of menace as he clutched her tightly to him. Daskh glanced at her, concern filling his eyes.

  “Slengral,” he began calmly as he too slid forward. “I was only comforting her because she was frightened. This is not what…”

  She watched as the ridges of Slengral’s face dipped and became fiercer, his jaw working as he attempted to control himself.

  “Slengral, please,” she whispered. “I asked him to stay. I was scared.”

  Red eyes shot down to her, sadness passing through him as his grip on her relaxed a fraction to become warm and affectionate as he lowered his head to brush his flat nose against her brow, his wings closing around her. He lifted his head only fraction to glare at his friend.

  “Remove yourself from my mate and get out of my bed. Now,” Slengral hissed. “Go out with Kehtal before I do something that I will regret.”

  “Hithana,” Daskh murmured.

  She shook her head at him.

  Slengral wouldn’t understand, and despite the confusion in her heart, she knew that she was his as much as he was hers, and she couldn’t allow this situation to hurt him. He trembled against her, and she knew that it was as much fear as it was anger. He thought he would lose her to Daskh. She felt it in the way he burrowed his face into her hair, his breath fanning her as he whispered, “Please do not leave me, ashlava.”

  She stroked her hand down his back, closing her eyes against the disappointment and understanding that filled Daskh’s face as he quietly retreated. “I’m not going anywhere,” she assured him softly, pressing her lips against the soft scales at the side of his neck.

  And her words were true, she felt them the moment she said them, as if speaking them aloud had freed the feelings from where they were locked within her heart. She wrapped her arms tighter around him.

  “Forgive me,” he whispered.

  “It’s okay. It was a misunderstanding.”

  “Not that.” He raised his head, his red eyes, darkening to the deepest garnet, meeting hers. “For this.”

  She frowned. What did he mean by that? And then he began to hum. His song swept over her skin, stimulating her nerves even as the vibrations sank low and began spinning seductively in her belly. His tail slipped around and between her legs intimately as he slowly divested her of her clothing, the intimate rub of his scales, sending electric pulses through her at every contact point. Desire coursed through her, and she jerked in his arms, her hands slapping out against his shoulders.

  Her breath moved in and out of her lungs in rapid pants, as she stared up at him, her body heating with a flaming spire of need. Battling back the fog of lust that rose up in her mind, her lips parted in unvoiced betrayal. He was forcing from her what she had been prepared to give him, and the pain of that struck deep.

  “You promised,” she managed to whisper, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

  His eyes slammed shut as his song dropped away and he buried his face into her neck, his entire body heaving and shaking with emotion. She blinked as the fog of desire began to clear, her fingers curling and clenching into fists against him. She wanted to slug him, wanted to cry, venting the same grief that was overtaking him.

  “Why?” she choked out.

  He drew in a ragged breath, his entire body tightening as he held it before he exhaled slowly. He lifted his head from her, but was unable to meet her eyes. Her fists slowly relaxed, and she lifted a hand, pressing her palm against his jaw until he looked up at her, his eyes finally meeting hers.

  “I am sorry, ashlava,” he moaned miserably. “Perhaps you should now leave me and nest with Daskh. I have acted dishonorably toward you.”

  She shook her head in confusion. “I don’t want to leave you to nest with Daskh. I want to know what happened that made you do this.”

  His entire body shuddered. “A female attacked me,” he admitted. “It was then that I realized that I had no power against the shinara. Something has changed. If their own females are now emboldened to attack any male as they see fit, then there is no safety here. As long as I am unmated, they can come after me again and again regardless of my attachment to you. We are unmated, and in the eyes of the laws of shinara, it makes me available to any female who desires me. I won’t be able to protect you and care for you,” he whispered. “You are the mate of my heart, the queen of my nest… my ashlava. In escaping the female, I realized that I have to make certain that no one in the shinara could contest our mating.”

  Her fingers stroked his cheek, her thumb brushing the hard lines of his jaw and mouth. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

  “You have been resistant to mating,” he said. “And then I saw you with Daskh and became afraid that you would leave me. That I had failed you in some way. Even with your dull senses, I thought maybe
you scented the female lingering on me from when she grasped ahold of me. I was ashamed and afraid and because of that I thought if I made it pleasurable for you, if you responded with passion and wanted this offering, that you would forgive me for this transgression. That would understand my reasoning once I explained.”

  “Okay, I guess that’s a little understandable,” she mumbled. “I’m sure it looked bad from your point of view, and I can’t even pretend to understand how things work in your control, although I’m really trying to.” She scrubbed her face with one hand. “I guess all of this would have gone a lot smoother if I hadn’t insisted that Daskh stay.” She met his gaze, her lips tightening. “I accept my part in that, but that doesn’t let you off the hook either for trying to force me. That’s no better than what that female tried to do to you. The difference here… if you had asked, I would have agreed.”

  A rattling groan escaped him, and the scales in his face dulled visibly as his throat worked like he was about to be sick. He dropped down low, setting her upon her knees on the cave floor in the process before pressing his forehead into her lap in supplication.

  “Accept my apology, ashlava. And if you accept me as your mate, I give my oath that you will only know pleasure and happiness from me.”

  Her lips pursed, her fingers stroking over the hard and yet flexible crests dropping against the back of his head. She caught the nuance of his words, the honesty within them. He couldn’t promise her only happiness and pleasure, but he promised that his actions would never bring her anything less. That was a realistic vow, and a true one—perhaps truer than any marriage vow—that she could accept.

  Leaning forward, he brushed his nose with hers. “I love you, Lori. You are my ashlava, the only queen of my nights for the rest of my life. My song is forever yours.”

  Her heart in her throat, she nodded. Fuck Darvel. Their resort planet was probably not much anyway. Beaches were nice, but the lewd scenery would take away from them, and her heart would be lonely. The Corp could take their contract and shove it. Slengral offered her so much more now that she allowed herself to accept it.

  A male who was willing to offer her anything and everything she needed and committed himself to her happiness wasn’t someone to give up for simple pleasures. Why run off looking for something better when she had the best of what she always wanted right in front of her?

  She had been so angry at Kris for running to a shinier horizon and nearly made the same mistake herself. Yet he had been willing to sacrifice for that future. Fuck, she owed him a thank you note if she ever had the means to send a comm to wherever he was at, if she even managed to find him.

  Whatever comforts United Earth and Darvel Exploratory offered, there wasn’t anything they could offer her that was shinier than the love shimmering in her male’s eyes.

  He loved her.

  Emotion welled up in her heart with their every interaction and every touch flowing through her mind. Passion, intimate, and emotional connection. She loved him as well.

  “I love you too. Please make me your mate,” she whispered. “Sing to me your love.”

  Slengral grinned, his tail looping around her as he drew closer against him, slowly stripping off her clothes. Chest to chest she felt the vibration of his humming song before she heard it. It sank into her ears and flowed through her, the sound clearer and more beautiful than before. Offered and given in full confidence of her acceptance. She leaned into him, trembling as she too began to hum. His wings stretched and quaked around them as their bodies twined closer.

  Lori’s skin flushed hot with desire and an ache building between her thighs. Something curled and twitched over her sex provocatively, driving her desire higher. She gasped as she reached down and gripped her tormentor. The sinuous tip of his tail curled instinctively around her hand. It slipped and slid in her grasp until it dropped behind her.

  It didn’t take him long to become aware of her state. His nostrils flared, and his burning red eyes fastened on her, deepening in color to garnet once more as a growl rattled in his chest. Rather than making her afraid, it had the opposite effect. Her body tightened with a thrill as he lowered them back into the bed and lay her out over the furs, though he did not entirely release her. A fresh surge of arousal seeped over her thighs that drew him closer, his arm banding tighter around her as he pressed his face level with her cunt.

  The first stroke of his tongue hit her like fire set to a match. With a startled cry, she arched her hips up eagerly as his dual tongues slid over her thigh and sex, lapping up the slick there as he made eager, greedy noises. One tapered tip after the other pressed against her labia, creasing up along the side of her clit. Sometimes they stroked at the same time, pressing the tiny bud tight between them, making Lori gasp and choke out his name. When one tongue maneuvered lower to plunge deep within her channel as the other curled around her clit, she shot up. A cry burst from her as an orgasm lit a flashfire through her blood, spreading through her entire body. Even after it began to wane, it still quivered on the edge as he continued to dance his tongues over her until he broke away.

  His body shuddered between her legs, and then he reared up, tearing his mouth away from her with a roar. He surged up high enough from his coils that she could see the dark, dripping phallus extruded and pointed toward her from where it pushed out from the dip of flesh below his navel.

  The slit was tight around the thick base of his cock, so tight that she could see the white flesh between the dark scales. The base had a broad lump that circled around it, and from there the shaft jutted up, tapering toward the tip only to flare again out with a small cluster of heads, each weeping precum. Although each head was small, the combined girth of them was something bigger than she was accustomed to. They twitched with each pulse from the shaft, and Lori licked her lips in anticipation.

  Slengral growled low and dropped over her, his cock prodding the folds of her pussy as his nose nudged her cheek. He drew back his head slowly, reluctantly, as he gazed down at her with adoration beneath the conflagration burning within them. He rasped out her name with a tremble as he fought against his instinct to give her what she needed.

  “Lori, do you accept my claim?”

  She smiled up at him, warmth flooding her at that simple gesture. No one had set her needs so high before their own. In any case, she wanted this. Her body ached with need, and she knew that there was only one way she was going to get satisfaction. She needed him inside of her. She tightened her thighs around him as she hissed her answer.

  “Gods, yes, I accept your claim. Now hurry up!”

  His chuckle dropped into a hiss of pleasure as one of her hands closed around his cock, giving it a vigorous stroke. Slengral caught her around the wrist and yanked her arm above her head before pressing the thick mass of heads at her opening. It barely slid in when he groaned and shivered. “Your vent is so warm, tight, and wet. I could remain within you forever.”

  “Less talking and more doing,” she said in a breathy voice, tilting her hips up so that more of his length pushed into her.

  He responded by wrapping the end of his tail around her hips, anchoring her to his coils. She felt a flash of uncertainty as he grimaced, but then he was pushing in with a single steady slide. Her pussy fluttered and clenched around the invasion, his heads brushing enticingly as he slid home. Air whooshed out of her in a gurgling sigh at the stretching pressure, but then he stilled, locked with her body.

  Lori wiggled her hips, the most movement she could accomplish beneath him, and he groaned at the sensation. She was beginning to think that he would never move and give her the relief she needed when she felt the muscles of his tail beneath her clench. His hips pulled back with a slow, delicious glide before burrowing back through her slick folds with such intensity that her body jerked when he bottomed out within her. A soft gasp escaped her, followed by a moan joined by his own raspy growl.

  Back and forth, his phallus teased her with every plunging, grinding thrust. Lori eagerly re
ceived each brutal ram of his pelvis against hers, stoking her desires like nothing else ever had. She could feel the heads moving and twitching inside of her as they seeped precum in small hot jets every time it bumped deep inside of her. Each time he slid home, it sent new shockwaves of pleasure through her, driving her toward another climax as they rushed through her belly, tightening at the base of her spine.

  His deep, voracious strokes seemed to slow as he thickened inside of her, rubbing in wonderful new ways. She was so caught up in the sweet glide of his cock that it came as a shock when the heads began to vibrate against the flesh that held him so snugly within her. Almost instinctively, he wrenched back before pressing in again at a much quicker pace despite his swollen girth. His steady rhythm turned frantic as he dove into her again and again, claws gripping at her thighs. His tail coiled up higher, and she watched in awe as a small vent closer to the tip opened for another thick cock to extrude.

  With another twist of his tail this second cock disappeared from view only to press against her sex, already stuffed with his cock. Lori gasped, her thighs tightening around his hips as his tail snapped forward, the tip wrapping around her thigh as the second cock forced its way in with the first. Pleasure exploded behind her eyes at the intense stretch and the double sensations of the two cocks working in and out of her, one vibrating and one ramming in with hard sure, strokes with every twitch of his tail. It lit a fire in her.

  She clawed at him. It wasn’t enough. It was never enough. With a whine, she opened herself as much as she could to his merciless invasion, wordlessly begging for more. He growled in response to her invitation as he strove to pierce her deeper and at a far more aggressive rhythm, as if trying to fan the flames of an endless inferno. He stroked so deep within her that the swollen base of him wedged up inside of her with his second cock, his girth overwhelming her senses.