Page 40

Unlike our previous joinings, she looks at me directly, taking in the features that once repulsed her—the patches of fur along my spine, the inhuman musculature, the obvious alien nature of my arousal. Where once I saw disgust or reluctant acceptance, now I see only hunger.

"I want to see all of you," I tell her, tugging at her thin shift with careful restraint to avoid tearing it with claws I can barely keep sheathed.

She raises her arms, allowing me to pull the garment over her head in one fluid motion. Moonlight bathes her skin in silver, highlighting the subtle changes my enhanced vision can detect—the slight fullness to her breasts, the barely perceptible rounding below her navel where our child grows.

My hand covers that spot again, reverent in a way I've never allowed myself to be before. "You're beautiful," I tell her, the simple truth coming out without calculation or strategy. "Carrying my young makes you even more so."

Color rises in her cheeks at the raw honesty, but she doesn't look away. "Show me," she demands instead, her voice stronger than I'd expected. "Show me what claiming can be when it's chosen, not forced."

The invitation—the challenge—sends heat coursing through my veins. I lift her from the parapet, turning to press her back against the tower wall. Her legs wrap around my waist instinctively, the position aligning our bodies perfectly.

Unlike our previous joinings, I take time to ensure her readiness, my fingers exploring the slick heat between her thighs with deliberate patience.

The evidence of her arousal coats my hand, the scent of it driving my own need higher.

When my clawed thumb finds the sensitive bundle of nerves at her core, her head falls back against the stone with a gasp that echoes in the night air.

"That's it," I encourage, watching her pleasure with primal satisfaction. "Show me what you need."

Her body responds with increasing urgency, her hips rocking against my hand in a rhythm that speaks to something beyond conscious thought. When her release finally comes, her cry carries across the mountain peaks—a sound of surrender and triumph combined.

Before the aftershocks have fully subsided, I position myself at her entrance. My arousal, significantly larger than human proportion and already showing the ridges that will become barbs once inside her, presses against her core with insistent pressure.

"Look at me," I demand, needing to see her face for this claiming that means something beyond biology or necessity.

Her eyes meet mine, pupils blown wide with desire and something deeper. "Fritz," she whispers, my name a prayer on her lips. "Please."

The single word breaks the last thread of hesitation.

I drive forward in one powerful thrust, seating myself fully inside her with a motion that makes her gasp.

The tight heat of her body around mine—familiar from previous claimings yet somehow entirely new—sends pleasure coursing through my system that borders on pain.

"Mine," I growl against her throat, setting a rhythm that speaks to the primal need roaring through my blood. "My omega. My mate. Mother of my young."

"Yours," she agrees, her nails scoring lines down my back that would barely register as sensation on my tougher hide but which send satisfaction through me nonetheless. "My alpha. My protector."

The words create connection beyond physical joining, beyond the biological lock of my knot that will soon bind us together.

My inhuman flexibility allows me to maintain our position against the tower wall while still accessing every sensitive spot, my tail providing additional support wrapped around her thigh.

As pleasure builds toward inevitable conclusion, I feel the specialized ridges along my length begin to extend fully, barbs emerging as release approaches.

Unlike our first claiming, when these caused her pain and distress, now her body welcomes them—omega biology adapted to my alien anatomy in ways that create mutual pleasure rather than mere submission.

"I'm going to knot you," I warn, my voice barely recognizable through the rumbling growl that accompanies each thrust. "Lock us together. Ensure my seed takes root beside the life already growing inside you."

Rather than tensing at the prospect, she arches toward me, taking me deeper. "Yes," she moans, the sound vibrating against my chest where our bodies press together. "Claim me, Fritz. Completely."

The permission—freely given, not forced by heat or circumstance—shatters the last barrier of control.

With a final powerful thrust, my knot presses past initial resistance, her body stretching to accommodate what should be impossible.

The sensation of being locked completely inside her triggers my release with overwhelming force, seed pumping deep within her in primal satisfaction despite knowing she already carries my offspring.

The pressure of my knot against her most sensitive inner spots triggers her own climax in response, her inner walls clenching rhythmically around me in a way that prolongs and intensifies my pleasure to near-painful levels.

"Mine," I growl against her claiming mark, the word coming from deepest instinct rather than conscious thought. "My omega."

"Yours," she gasps between shuddering breaths, surrender and triumph combined in her voice. "Your omega."

We remain locked together in our precarious position, the tower wall supporting her back while my inhuman strength holds us both secure. The knot will bind us for hours, biology ensuring optimal breeding conditions despite conception having already occurred.

With careful movements that avoid disturbing our connection, I maneuver us to the stone floor, cradling her in my lap to minimize discomfort during the extended joining.

My tail remains wrapped possessively around her thigh, while my higher body temperature shields her from the mountain night's chill.

As our breathing gradually steadies, her hand returns to the slight swell below her navel. "Our child," she murmurs, wonder still coloring her voice. "Half feline, half human. Neither one nor the other."

"Something new," I agree, my own hand covering hers. "Like what we're becoming together."

"What are we becoming?" she asks, voicing the question that's hovered unspoken between us for weeks.

"Something without precedent," I answer honestly. "Something beyond commander and claimed omega. Beyond conqueror and conquered."

"Partners," she suggests, echoing her earlier word choice that stirred such response in me.

"Partners," I agree, the term inadequate yet better than any alternative.

As the knot continues to bind us together beneath the star-filled sky, I allow myself to acknowledge what her acceptance of our child—of me—has awakened. Not just possession, not just primal satisfaction, but something I'd long since abandoned hope of finding in this grim existence.

My tail tightens slightly around her thigh in unconscious response to the thought.