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“This was not part of my mission,” I growled, voice rough with need I had never been permitted to express. The scent of her skin this close filled my senses, triggering primal responses I’d been trained to suppress. Yet every heartbeat in her presence rewrote my orders, replacing duty with devotion. Protecting her had become instinct—loving her, inevitability.

“Nor mine,” she replied, defiance breaking through. Her pupils dilated fully, her breathing quick and shallow. “Yet here we are.”

Our mouths crashed together, hunger overtaking caution. Her lips parted against mine, her taste intoxicating—sweet with human notes I had no reference for, with an underlying metallic tang from her markings. I devoured her, years of strict discipline shattering under the weight of desire that had built between us since the first resonance of our energies.

My hands gripped her waist, lifting her effortlessly against me. Her legs wrapped around my hips, the heat of her core pressing against my abdomen even through our clothing. I backed her against the wall, pinning her there with my body, my tongue exploring the unfamiliar contours of her mouth.

She moaned into the kiss, the vibration transferring through our connected bodies, intensifying the sensations flooding my system. Her hands roamed across my chest, nails digging into the muscle there, tracing the patterns of my lifelines with startling precision. Each touch sent jolts of pleasure through my nervous system, awakening receptors I hadn’t known existed.

My tail coiled possessively around her thigh, the sensitive tip sliding along the curve of her calf in rhythmic exploration. She gasped at the dual sensation, pulling her mouth from mine to drag in ragged breath.

“I’ve thought about this,” she confessed, voice hoarse with desire. “Since the storage room. Since before.”

I growled in response, my control slipping further. I buried my face in the curve of her neck, breathing in her scent—now heavy with arousal, the metallic notes of her markings intensified by her heightened state. My tongue tasted the salt of her skin, traced the silver patterns that wound their way up her throat.

Her hips rocked against me, instinctive, demanding. I carried her to the floor, the cool metal beneath us a contrast to the heat building between our bodies. Clothing became an intolerable barrier, shed with desperate urgency.

The sight of her fully revealed sent a surge of possessive hunger through me. Silver markings covered more of her body than I had imagined, creating intricate patterns across her breasts, abdomen, thighs—some mirroring my own lifelines in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. They pulsed with every racing beat of her heart, reaching toward me as if seeking connection.

“You’re beautiful,” I told her, the words inadequate for the truth they attempted to convey.

Her eyes darkened further as she took in my form—blue skin stark against the golden lifelines that traced my musculature, now fully visible and responding to her proximity with intensifying brilliance. She reached for me, small hands exploring the unfamiliar terrain of my body with fearless curiosity.

When her fingers traced the primary lifeline junction at my hip, pleasure spiked through me with such intensity that Igroaned, my control fracturing further. My tail lashed against the floor, then curled around her ankle—anchoring her to me.

“Show me,” she demanded, voice commanding despite her vulnerable position beneath me. “Show me how Nyxari love.”

The word—love—penetrated deeper than mere desire, touching something I had buried beneath duty and doctrine. I lowered myself over her, careful of my greater weight and strength, covering her smaller form with mine.

“Not just Nyxari,” I corrected, voice barely recognizable through the rumble in my chest. “Us. This is ours alone.”

Her legs parted, welcoming me into the cradle of her hips. My hands explored her body, mapping the differences between our species—the softer texture of her skin, the different placement of sensitive zones, the way her markings responded to my touch with increasing luminescence.

I found the center of her desire, fingers exploring unfamiliar but instinctively understood anatomy. She arched into my touch, a cry escaping her that sent primal satisfaction surging through me. Her markings flared with each stroke, each circle of my thumb against the sensitive bundle of nerves.

“Please,” she gasped, reaching between us to guide me to her entrance. “I need you.”

The joining was electric—her body accepting mine despite our differences, accommodating my alien form as if we had been designed for this union. I entered her slowly, watching her face for any sign of discomfort, finding only desperate need that matched my own.

Once fully seated within her, I paused, overwhelmed by the sensation. Not just physical pleasure, though that was intense beyond anything I had experienced, but something deeper—a connection forming on levels I hadn’t known existed.

Her markings blazed silver, reaching up to connect with my golden lifelines where our skin touched. Energy flowed betweenus in circuits of light, creating feedback loops of sensation that transcended physical boundaries.

I began to move, finding a rhythm that spoke to something primal in both our species. Her hands gripped my shoulders, nails leaving crescents in my blue skin. My tail wrapped around her thigh, the sensitive tip tracing patterns on her inner knee in counterpoint to our primary connection.

Through the bond, I felt what she felt—the stretch and fullness, the building pressure at her core, the way each thrust sent dual waves of pleasure through her system. She gasped as she realized she could feel my experience too—the tight heat of her body gripping mine, the instinctive need to claim, to mark, to join completely.

“Ravik,” she cried, my name on her lips sending a surge of possessive pleasure through me.

Our bodies moved together with increasing urgency, sweat-slicked skin sliding against skin, the differences in our physiology creating novel sensations neither of us had anticipated. Where my lifelines met her markings, energy sparked visible in the dim light, creating patterns in the air around us.

When her release came, it cascaded through both our systems—her sharp, bright peak triggering my deeper, longer climax. Our consciousnesses briefly merged, boundaries dissolving as completely as the physical barriers between us had.

For a suspended moment, I wasn’t just myself—I was us, experiencing her pleasure alongside my own, feeling her emotions flood through me as mine poured into her. Secrets could not exist in this space—her fears, her hopes, her fierce protective instinct laid bare to my perception as my own devotion, my conflict, my newfound purpose unveiled themselves to her.

Our joined energies activated dormant circuits in the ancient machinery around us, causing brief surges of power through systems long silent. Past and present converged as our species found harmony where once there had been only fear and separation.

Afterward, still joined, I held her against my chest. The scent of our coupling hung in the air, a mingling of human and Nyxari that created something entirely new. Her heart beat against mine, gradually slowing from its frenzied pace.