Page 6 of Bred By Zyros (The Solar Breeding Agency #2)

five

Melody

My eyes rise to the canopy above me, taking in the bioluminescent vines hanging like sentients wishing for another glance at Nyssara’s moon.

The odd slit down its middle looks almost like someone carved out the center in a thin line.

Whether that’s simply shadow-play or something to do with its surface is fascinating, so I blink, scanning it.

Zyros seems to glide through the thick jungle with ease, not so much as a rustling of plant life.

I, on the other hand, sound like a wrecking ball as I clomp through the vegetation, veering off the path to check out some bright blue leaves.

I gasp, cursing under my breath as a sharp burning pain erupts in my leg, making us both halt.

I barely get time to take in the damage, which I don’t think is more than a scratch, before I’m jerked from the ground and hauled into a well-formed chest. My eyes widen as Zyros shifts me into his lower arms, leaving my back to rest against the forearm of his upper ones, while the right side grips my ankle.

Oh, maybe a little worse than I thought.

The scratch is deep, but not super painful. A yelp leaves my throat as Zyros jerks it higher, my hands slapping down to try and cover my now very much exposed underwear. “Hey, you can’t just—”

He brings my bloodied leg inches from his face before his forked tongue pokes out, testing the air around it.

My translator misses whatever he hisses under his breath, but it’s when he drags that long tongue up the scratch that short-circuits my brain.

Heat floods my cheeks as he makes another pass, my core tightening as arousal floods between my thighs.

It’s wrong, it should be gross…

It’s not.

Well, I mean, it is, but like sexy gross.

“Zyros…” my voice is off, breathy, even to my own ears.

A growl slips from his throat in response.

“I—”

“Silence, female, you were slashed by Ophirith Lashvine . I am neutralizing the toxin.”

That got unsexy very fast.

“Toxin!?” My voice squeaks as I try to sit up in his arms, only for his claws to band around my upper arm, securing me in place. “Wait, let me scan it!”

He laps at it again, and my head spins. “Ridiculous female. Scanning and asking questions, waking the jungle.” His voice is deeper now, rougher, strained, and it does funny things to my core.

I squirm again, trying to get a look at the residue on my calf, but his head is in the way. A ragged gasp leaves my throat as the tip of his tail wraps around my neck, thick and cool against my flushed skin. “Be still. You are of no use to me if you are dead.”

Romantic.

My heart is pounding, and for the life of me, I can’t tell if it’s from the toxin or the alien male lapping at my leg, choking back his groans with each pass.

Maybe it’s the rough grip his claws have on my oversensitive flesh, or his tail bound around my neck.

He squeezes it tighter, and there’s a second of panic before it’s overwritten, my implant blaring in my mind.

Alerting me that my body temperature is too high.

Oh, the toxin then.

Oh, shit, but I feel… good .

I squirm again, but this time, it’s not to get away.

This time I want to get closer, tighter .

I wish he’d let go of my leg so I could squeeze my thighs together.

My head cants backward so I can stare at the odd way the glowing vines that seem to dominate the thick jungle canopy are pulsing now.

Each lap of his tongue may as well be on my sex and when my orgasm rips through me, it comes blinding, sudden, and out of the blue.

I suck my lips into my mouth to stifle any sound.

I’m hot and panting, my mind limp and hazy as he shifts me in his arms. Breathing in his heady rainstorm musk, as I nuzzle into his neck.

“Zyros, I feel odd .” I whimper, pressing myself deeper into him.

He growls. “Yes, female. It would seem the Lashvine has quite a different effect on humans than it does on my people. The plant is nearly undetectable in its translucent, scentless form. It should pass quickly now that I neutralized it.” I squirm, unable to hold still when his shiny teal hair brushes my temple, making me gasp.

It’s cool, soft between my fingers as I knot them into it.

The hiss that sounds beside my ear is deafening, and my core pulses with need. If my hands were free, I’d touch myself, so I keep them knotted here. “They didn’t hurt you?”

“We build up a tolerance from a young age. The first time is painful. It leaves us sick for weeks.”

“Sick…like this ?” I whisper, knowing he can tell . He can smell me. Most species have a far stronger sense of smell than humans.

He makes a sound that nearly sounds like a laugh. “No, nothing like this.”

I giggle, running my lips across his scales. “You are so beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that before?”

He stiffens against me, the tension back in his muscles, and immediately I know I’ve said something wrong. “Yes, too often,” he answers quietly, more to himself than me.

My brow furrows. My brain feels too hot and fuzzy. “I am not beautiful at all. Average and perfectly plain. Someday I think I would like to meet someone who calls me beautiful.”

He’s quiet after that. Only the sound of my whimpers and panting echoes as the jungle comes to life around me.

My core is hot and soaked, but everything is more vibrant now than I ever thought possible.

Each scurry of fauna and each smell of the world around me is in technicolor.

A few times, I try to wiggle free from his grasp.

He only holds me tighter, hissing in warning, making waves of pleasure leave my body like the Jello mom loves to eat from the food replicator.

My eyes widen as another Vrircik lowers himself slowly from the branches far behind us.

He doesn’t say anything to Zyros, and he is nowhere near as pretty.

I offer him a sleepy wave and a smile. It is hard to see, thanks to his dark coloring, but it seems like he means to mimic the movement but fails to do so in his upside down way, his thick, dark tail banded around the branch of a tree.

“Zyros, there’s a—”

His hiss cuts me off. “Enough female. You may not explore, you have already been injured. Your scent will have attracted every male on the planet. You will not leave my home unless it is in my arms.”

I bury my smile in his neck, butterflies making a racket deep in my stomach.

It’s only a little while later that we arrive at our destination.

Finally, this time when I rear back to look around me, he allows it, reluctantly .

If I’m not mistaken, I think he enjoyed the snuggling.

Although I don’t dare voice my accusation.

I’m glad for the weird drug plant then, because I can’t fathom the apprehension I would feel if I were sober, being led into a damp cave. “This is your home ?”

He doesn’t respond, and I huddle closer to him, as if I’m trying to ward off the chill by fusing our bodies.

That visual makes me laugh, just half a happy Melody sticking out of a very unhappy Zyros.

If he were lucky, only my upper half would fuse, then he’d have access to all the parts he needed, and I couldn’t speak.

I’m still laughing at my joke when I’m suddenly discarded.

I stumble a bit, my bones all mushy as I melt into the floor on my knees.

Only then do I realize my fall was guided by his tail.

My fingers spread out on the hard cave floor, cooling my heated palms. I move to stick my face to it when the sound of splashing water fills my ears.

I rear up too fast, making me wobble. My eyes widen on a small pool in front of me, the water lit with a purple glow and a wet Zyros slipping through the water.

“Wash yourself, female. Your scent is distracting.” He’s out as quickly as he’d entered.

Embarrassment floods through me as I realize he was rinsing himself of me .

It makes sense. I’ve spent the past hour leaking and sweating all over him, but…

it hurts my feelings, and I can’t begin to understand why.

I’ll blame it on alien drug brain.

I don’t bother removing my clothes as he disappears to the back of the cave.

Another offshoot, no doubt. It’s a huge opening, really.

Cavernous, lit with the same bioluminescent vines from the forest, gathered on the walls and the ceiling, basking in the space in a cozy, dreamy, bluish green glow.

There are woven baskets stacked neatly around, furs, and some kind of knitted- looking blankets.

Everything is in its proper space. Even the section for a fire is large, carved in a deep divot in the cave floor, like a roasting pit.

I all but drag my noodle bones into the water with a very ungraceful splash.

It’s deeper than it looks, and I let myself sink down, down until my lungs demand air.

My lightweight dress seems heavier now that it’s wet, and I regret not removing it already as I break the surface with a gasp.

My arms slap against the edge of the spring, eyeing the art on the walls.

Smashed crystal into stone, just like the ship. Violent, chaotic, and beautiful.

I can’t help but wonder if it’s a premonition of how this year will be.