Page 20

She hesitantly touched the outer ridges surrounding the port, and I thought I might perish.

Literally, my heart felt like it might explode.

Blood pressure increased throughout my body, making my head pound.

I could only imagine what the rest of my implements were doing.

Twitching. Writhing. Completely out of control.

Nothing mattered except the exquisite, delicate touch of her skin on mine. The barest pressure of her index pad tracing the bumps.

“Pressure.” My tone shocked me. Closer to Axxol’s furious growl than anything that would normally come from my mouth.

Kroktl chuckled, damn him. “I think what he’s trying to say is harder .”

She pressed her whole hand against my back and leaned her weight onto the heel of her palm.

My toes curled, my legs thrashed, and another vicious sound tore out of my throat.

“Ohhh, I’m getting it now. I bet those bumps are going to feel amazing…”

Her thigh ghosted over my buttocks, the faint brush of her skin a delicious torment.

Until her hot, wet flesh settled over the port.

Agony. Perfect. Unbearable. Ecstasy. Her weight settled more comfortably on my back, her knees straddling my waist, pressing against my flanks.

Involuntarily, my implements coiled around her, pressing her close. Pulling her down harder.

She groaned, rubbing her pussy against the ridges. Grinding on the port.

Material tore beneath my hands. Endure. As long as possible. Wait…

I could feel every feminine cell against mine. The glide of her lubrication. The swollen knot of nerves rubbing against my most sensitive area. Clitoris to scute, anatomy never meant to touch, let alone stimulate and arouse, yet it worked. Beautifully.

With any other implement, I effortlessly controlled every single cell without thought, transforming in a millisecond for surgical procedures or warfare. Yet the sexual organ had a mind of its own. Or more aptly, no mind at all, surrendering completely to the will of its mate.

Presented with such a snug, tight channel, well lubricated and enticing, the hectocotylus emerged—directly into her vaginal opening as if the gods of her ancient world had crafted me to fit her dimensions perfectly.

So fucking tight, locking down on my implement as if she refused to let it escape.

Rubbing back and forth on the surrounding scutes, she groaned louder, flooding the grid with pleasure.

Climax. From my mate. Delivered by me. Only me.

The flared hood opened inside her, pressing against her inner walls, similar to Kroktl’s knot but not as forceful.

The goal wasn’t to lock us together—but keep her filled with pleasure long enough to allow as many spermatophores to pass through as possible.

I felt every packet emerge from the hood.

Bursts of stimulation fired through my nerves, lighting up parts of my nervous system that had never received stimuli before.

I’d climaxed with her before, but never inside her.

Never in the way for which my anatomy had been designed.

More of her flesh pressed against my back.

Skin to skin. Exponential pulses of energy fried my intellect, leaving me a sweaty, screaming, heaving mass of tissue without any thought.

No will. No sense. Nothing mattered but Natalie taking her pleasure from me—and giving me the chance to experience an unforgettable mating.

Especially when her teeth sank into my shoulder. The searing bite crushed me in a wave of release. I heaved and thrashed, my implements wound tightly around her. My blood hit her Sirian cells, and a supernova detonated. Obliterating every last cell inside me.

Time passed. I couldn’t be sure how long. I couldn’t lift my head or open my eyes. Everything ached. A deep muscle burn—not injury.

Injury. Natalie.

I’d never forgive myself if I harmed her.

A fresh sample of her blood registered in my databanks.

Unfamiliar emotions tore me apart. Rage. Shame. Guilt.

I’d rather rip off every single one of my implements than injure her. A delicate human female wasn’t meant to mate with ravenous monsters like us.

Like me.

I forced my eyes open. Lifted my head. Trying to regain control of my body. I couldn’t yet feel where my implements were, let alone control them. A slight weight lay on my back, so small as to be nearly negligible. Was she moving? Breathing?

Panicked, I tried to find the medbot’s feed but everything in my personal grid was scrambled, sparking like a fizzy drink spilled onto a circuit board. Kroktl lounged beside me, unalarmed. Unaggressive. If he wasn’t urgently trying to free her from my coils, then…

“Relax. She’s fine.” He reached over, his arm moving in a stroking motion. I couldn’t feel it, so he must be touching her. “Right, baby?”

“Mmmm.”

My head dropped back to the torn bedding with relief.

Slowly, function returned as my systems came back online.

The medbot streamed increased counts of endorphins and dopamine.

No internal injuries. Her organs functioned normally.

Nothing broken by implements strong enough to shatter every bone in her body.

One by one, my implements slipped away from clutching her so desperately to lie puddled on the mattress around me. Something touched and moved on my skin. Shoulder. The one she’d marked. It slowly dawned on me that it was her tongue.

She licked her mark in my flesh. Spasms quivered through my implements, making them flop and squirm like disgusting snakes.

She laughed softly. “My only regret is that you didn’t mark me.”

“Oh, he did,” Kroktl said.

I didn’t understand the smugness in his voice. I marked her? When? I’d been face down beneath her, making such a racket my throat still burned. Though I did have a fresh sample of her blood. If I hadn’t injured her, one of my implements must have taken a sample without me even realizing.

Hot acid burned through me as I began a system check on each one. The tungsten blades could cut through anything except possibly Sirian crystal. Not one of my medical implements. The only one left…

The hectocotylus was still inside her, connecting our bodies.

While the hood had deflated, I still filled her.

The entire implement soaked in as much of her fluids as possible, but I didn’t detect blood, at least now.

I’d never used that particular implement before.

Perhaps it had a spike or hook? Though now that I was aware of it, the implement slowly began to recede back into the port, gently reducing its size so as not to tug on any of her delicate tissue.

She made a low sound against my shoulder. A sigh. Grumble. As if regretting the loss.

Chuckling again, Kroktl lifted her off me, setting her on his lap, her legs sprawled and limp as if she too hadn’t yet recovered the full use of her faculties.

He adjusted her more comfortably, her thighs splayed.

Her bare pussy captivated my gaze, goading me to move closer. Drink. Taste. If her mate allowed it.

His fingers stroked over the dark curling hair, and she quivered, her legs twitching uncontrollably. Her breath caught, her back arching, her head lolling to the side. Climax. Again. Just from touching her pubic hair.

“Look again.” Kroktl’s voice rumbled—but not with aggression. Inviting me closer.

I inhaled deeply, reveling in our mixed scents.

The raw, musky scent of cum. My spermatophore packets melted inside her, oozing from her pink opening.

Melting into her flesh, mingling with her own scent and cum.

I barely comprehended the miracle of her primary mate allowing me to add my scent on her. Let alone come inside her.

His fingers parted the dark hair surrounding her pussy, revealing an unusual discoloration in her skin. I didn’t recall such a mark before. Triangular purple-grayish shapes—plural. Forming a loose ring around her opening in two arcs on either side of her outer labia.

A ring in her flesh.

The only possibility I could come up with was the ridge of scutes surrounding the port.

My mouth fell open with shock. Closed. Opened again wordlessly.

:That’s very interesting,: Lohr said on the grid. : I didn’t realize you were so equipped. Perhaps you carry some Hallucigenia or some other lobopodial DNA.:

“I didn’t either,” I whispered, shaken to my core. I never would have expected to be allowed to mark such an intimate part of her body. Yet her mate didn’t seem to mind. Even though every time he touched her, he would be reminded of my mark in her flesh.

“As long as you don’t mind me using your mark to stimulate our mate, I don’t mind that you marked her there.”

My throat ached. My eyes surely bulged with shock. I didn’t know what to say.

Natalie stretched out her hand. To me. Palm up, her fingers making a come-hither motion. A tired yet pleased smile on her face.

Not disgust. Revulsion. Anger at my audacity. Or worse, horror that my alien hectocotylus had somehow managed to fucking bite her.

I slipped my hand into hers and she tugged me closer, into her arms, even though she still lay sprawled on Kroktl’s lap. We lay together, our limbs tangled with his. Neither of them complained or flinched away from the casual touch of my implements.

The silk of her hair across my face was softer than anything I’d ever felt in the universe. Yet I’d never felt safer. Not physically, but…

Seen.

Even with all my strange, alien implements splayed around us.