Page 24

Kala

There has been little I fear, other than losing Sorin. Nothing could be worse than that. However, the thought of losing Iris is just as devastating. I do not know how I could go on breathing without her. My hearts would stop beating all together. Yet, I cannot deny her.

I know it is not only kits she wishes for.

It is much deeper than that. It is a true mating.

It is a coming together of two souls. Three hearts.

It is expressing our innermost emotions.

The ones we have buried because it was easier.

Less painful. I want a true mating with Iris, because she is my mate.

I knew that the moment she tumbled into my arms that turn and stared up at me with fear in her eyes.

With that single touch, I was changed and she had been the one to do it.

This is more than love.

“I, Kala of the Krijese, claim you, Iris of Earth, as my true mate.”

Tears fill her eyes. “I, Iris of Earth, claim you, Kala of the Krijese, as my true mate.”

“You must teach me how to pleasure you. I do not know the places to touch other than you enjoyed what I did with your chest mounds.”

Iris’s lips curl slightly and she takes my hand. “They’re called breasts.”

“Breasts.” It does not sound the same as when she says it, but I like this word. I like it better when she places my hand beneath her shirt and lays it over one of these breasts.

Despite the under covering she once again wears, the weight is perfect within my palm and the hardened tip presses sharply into its center. I gently pinch it. “Does this have a different name or is it also called a breast?”

Iris draws in a breath and shudders. “That’s a nipple.”

Nipple. “Does it serve any other purpose besides pleasure?”

“When a human female is pregnant, our breasts fill with milk that provides nourishment to our babies. They suckle from us by latching onto the nipple.”

I do not wish to recall the bad turns when the stolen females withered and died, but I do not have any memories of them providing this nourishment to their kits.

In fact, once they gave birth, King Armik separated the momos from their kits.

Could that be why they were small and weak and did not survive?

It is because they were not eating properly?

Their deaths could have been prevented.

A soft hand strokes my chest and I focus back on Iris.

“Are you all right?” she asks.

“We did not know chest mounds—breasts—provided nourishment for kits.”

She moves her hand and brushes a stray flok off my brow. “How could you? Don’t blame yourself for what happened in the past. It’s not your fault.”

“What if you are unable to provide this…milk for our kit because it is too much Krijese?” Will it too suffer?

“That’s not going to happen.”

I remove my hand from beneath her covering. “We—I—cannot go into this blindly or not fully accepting the possibility that it could happen. There are no guarantees, Iris, and you cannot just make a decree and it will come true.”

She sighs. “You’re right. If for some reason, I can’t produce milk, or if our baby can’t drink it, then we’ll figure out another solution. The Tavikhi-human hybrids are perfectly capable of accepting milk from their mothers. If we need to figure out an alternative, we will. Together.”

“What if we are unable to ever have a kit?” I want her prepared for all scenarios.

Iris strokes my chest. “We still have Sorin. I’m not mating with you just so you’ll give me a child. I have one of those already. I want to make love with you because you’re my husband—my mate—and I want us to have a true mating.”

She says all these things and I also think she believes them. For now. I can only hope that if the time comes she still feels the same way.

“Hey, look at me, please.”

I shift my gaze to hers.

“I’m just as scared and worried as you, but I believe I’m on Tavikh for a reason. That I met you for a reason. It’s because we were meant to heal each other. To bring each other exactly what it is we need.”

That is what Sorin said he prayed for. “I believe you are my true mate. Which means I must also believe that you were not brought here only to be taken from me.”

“Exactly.”

“You are not an easy female to say no to.”

“I know, and I’m grateful for the trust you’re putting in me.” Iris caresses my face. “In us. Now, where were we?”

There is a slight hesitation in my movements before I return my hand to beneath her covering and palm her breast. “We were here.”

“Ah, yes. I remember now.”

Since the feel of her chest is familiar to me, I spend time molding her flesh and teasing her hardened nipples.

She says they fill with this milk that nourishes kits and I try to imagine what they will look like swollen and perhaps leaking.

What does this liquid look like? Taste like?

Perhaps, if our god is as merciful as she says hers is, I will one turn find out.

I find myself doing something I have not done in these years Iris speaks of. I say a single prayer to our god for him to keep my mate and any kits we might have safe. It is all I can do.

“Show me what brings you pleasure.”

“Take off your pants.”

I do as she says. Talek has mentioned to my kit that humans are uncomfortable being unclothed in front of others.

Krijese do not have such worrisome thoughts.

Once I have removed my leg coverings, I lie down.

She does not take her eyes from me the whole time.

The increasing scent of her arousal hardens my cock painfully, but I must be patient.

Iris tugs her chest covering up and over her head and then releases her breasts from their second covering.

Her beaded nipples stand proudly from the center and the color of them reminds me of the blossom of the trendafili bush, but a paler shade.

She bends and removes her leg coverings, but pauses at the second covering.

Do all humans wear two coverings over portions of their body?

If so, what purpose do they serve? Why is one covering not enough?

“No one has seen me naked before,” Iris admits. “I know I look different than a Krijese female.”

I sit up and stroke her cheek like she often does mine. “You look like you are supposed to. Is that not what you told Sorin? However you look is perfect, because you look like Iris.”

She chuckles softly. “I did say that, didn’t I?”

“My mate is smart.”

Iris’s smile grows. “After tonight I really will be your mate, won’t I?”

“Aye.”

“I’m glad.”

“As am I.”

There is no more hesitation before she drags down the length of her legs the small, thin second covering.

With its removal, her scent is untethered.

It fills the tent with its sweet, muskiness fragrance and seed leaks from my cock.

The knot at its base also swells, but I will it away.

Iris is small and I do not wish to hurt her.

I stare at her face and she watches me in return. She swallows, and her throat bobs with it as she lowers herself to lie at my side.

“Touch me.” She guides her own hand down to between her thighs where a patch of hair a shade darker than that on her head grows. “Here. On this spot.”

I shift my gaze to where she has placed her fingers and then look at my own hand and the claws that decorate it. It is not possible for me to touch her the way she wishes with them. It is too dangerous.

“Kala?” Iris says my name in confusion.

Because I am powerless to her pleas, I part my mouth slit and bite off several of my hand claws all the way to the tip of my finger.

It will render me weaker if I am in a battle without them, but the need to feel this part of my mate is great.

Now, with fingers nearly as blunt as hers, I place mine where she has instructed.

Beneath my flesh is a hard nub similar to her nipples.

“What is this called?” I recall how she touched this place when we pleasured ourselves together and she made a circular motion. I do the same and Iris releases a whimper. At first I think it is a sound of pain, but she clutches my wrist and holds me there as she arches into my touch.

“A clit.”

I let her guide me and I listen to the sounds she makes just as I did when I caressed her breasts.

She makes similar ones and I recognize those as the same when she felt the most pleasure.

I experiment with my touches on her clit and find the ones she loves the best. Then I repeat each one in different patterns so she does not know which comes next.

“Like this?”

Iris nods her head and her breaths are ragged. “Yes. Like that.”

I grind my pelvis into the furs beneath us, trying to ease the ache in my throbbing cock.

It does nothing but increase my pleasure.

My mate’s release must come before mine though.

Especially as her cunt grows more fragrant with her needy scent and the slick fluid that will ease my way spills from it.

Iris will need much more of this wetness if she is going to take me.

Time passes as I learn exactly how to pleasure my mate and what provides her the most enjoyment. What makes her breath catch. What causes little reaction. I commit them all to memory, including the speed, pressure, and direction in which to touch her.

Because my own need grows, I reach down and squeeze my cock to keep my release abated. Iris is lost in desire and she thrashes. Moans of pleasure fall from her lips and pride swells within me that I am the one to create the throaty sounds.

Without touching my mouth slit to her or bringing my mouth claws close enough to scratch her, I stretch out my tongue and curl it around her beaded nipple.

She grips the furs within her fist and cries out hoarsely.

Iris arches into my touch and I change the way I touch her clit.

Like my cock, her swollen nub has grown harder and then, her body tenses and a shudder rushes through her.

Iris calls out my name and I nearly spend. Beads of water glisten on her brow and the rest of her skin shimmers with a layer of the wetness. My hand is soaked and I revel in the fluid that coats it. She releases a happy sigh and a satisfied smile appears on her lips.

Drowsy eyes open and it takes several beats for her to focus on me. At last she does. Her pale cheeks darken, but she does not look away.

“That was beautiful.”

“Yes, you are.”

She strokes my face. “I hope we’re not done though.”

I shake my head. “Not unless you wish to be.”

“I do not wish to be.”