Page 29 of Sheltered in the Storm (The Fortusian Mates # 1)

EPILOGUE

VOS

The sun had not yet risen when I woke alone in bed. As they always did, my tentacles reached automatically for Calla. But this time they found only cool bedding and an empty pillow.

After a lifetime of never sleeping soundly, always ready for danger to strike, I slept well now, and had for a long time. I had found peace with my mate at my side. My weapons remained within easy reach, but I no longer slept with them beside me.

Silently, I rose from our bed and slipped into the front room of our house. The odors of construction hung in the air. We had purchased a second housing capsule, an expansion that doubled the size of our home. I took great pride in the work we had done. Calla had worked as hard as me, perhaps even more so. Our gardens had expanded as well, and blooming plants now filled flowerbeds on two sides of our house.

My Calla stood at the front window in her nightgown, looking out through the rain toward the swamp. I could not see her face from this angle, but her hunched shoulders and the smell of tears caused a knot of worry to form in my stomach.

I reached her in a heartsbeat. “What is wrong, my mate?” I asked, wrapping my human arms around her. My tentacles plucked at her nightgown in worry.

She turned in my arms to face me. Tears streaked her cheeks, but she smiled. “I was just thinking how quickly three years have gone.”

“Three years tonight.” I kissed her forehead. “I wondered if you would remember.”

“I do—at least, I remember the date.” She rested her head against my chest. “I remember so little of that night.”

“I remember every moment, every detail.” I held her gently, my hand on the back of her head to comfort her. “I struggle to recall anything before that night, but every day after you fell from the sky, I see clearly.”

“Good answer.” She smiled up at me, her eyes shimmering. “You’ve always got the right answer, don’t you?”

“Always.” I wiped her tears away with my thumbs. “What keeps you awake, my mate? Did Poe shut the door too loudly going outside?”

Calla shook her head. “No, the usual.”

“But which usual?” I asked, frowning. I rested my hands on the swell of her belly, still three months from term. “Our child is restless? Or…?”

“No, the other thing.” She sighed. “Both you and the doctor said it’s common in pregnancy, especially with a half-human, half-Fortusian child, but I miss getting a full night’s sleep without waking up desperate for orgasms.” Her sweet lips turned up in a wry smile. “And I’m sure you miss uninterrupted sleep too.”

I cupped her cheek with my hand. “My mate, I have told you: nothing about you could ever be a burden to me, least of all your pleasure. ”

Her eyes lit up with hope. “Then you wouldn’t mind…?”

In answer, I led her back to our bedroom. We left our nightclothes on the floor and settled on the bed with her on her back and me between her thighs, my hands under her hips and my tentacles caressing and then coiling around her legs to hold her gently but firmly. Her hands and arms, I allowed to be free.

My Calla already dripped for me. Lovingly, I delved my tongue into her slit. Sweet as honey, my mate. Ambrosia. She grabbed me by the hair, her fingers twisting through the strands for a better grip.

When I slipped two fingers into her beautiful cunt, she gasped and trembled. “I’m almost there already,” she panted. “Gods, I need you so badly.”

“I know, my love.” As my tentacles pushed her legs wider for me, I sucked on her clit, flicking the sweet nub with my tongue, while my fingers stroked within her, seeking and finding the place that made her thrash in my embrace. As she had predicted, she came in moments, grinding against my face and fingers and calling my name.

I took advantage of her relaxation to coat the tip of one tentacle with my slick precum and press it into her asshole. She cried out as it dipped inside her just enough to make her pussy flutter around my fingers.

I gave her two more orgasms like that, with my fingers in her cunt, my tentacle tip in her ass, and my mouth on her sweet clit, until she had screamed my name and begged for mercy and my cock was hard as stone and aching.

When she had caught her breath, I rolled to my back and used my tentacles to lift and then settle her facing me, knees astride my hips.

“Put your tentacle back in my ass,” she said, her pussy poised over my cock head, her sweet juices dripping onto me.

Gods above, my Calla.

I swirled my tentacle tip around my cock to gather up more lubrication. And then as she took my cock into her cunt, I slipped it into her ass.

Her eyes rolled up and she moaned. “Yes,” she breathed. “Fuck my ass, Vos. Please.”

I did—or rather, she fucked my cock and my tentacle, riding them as I held her with my hands on her hips and my tentacles teasing her heavy breasts and swollen clit. I drank in her taste, her scent, her cries, and let her come as many times as she pleased because she was so beautiful when she came with her sweet pussy stretched around my cock.

Eventually, she grew tired. Sweat shimmered on her face and body in the moonlight that poured into our room through the window. I wrapped her in my tentacles and eased her off my cock.

“Will you come on my face tonight, my mate?” she asked, breathing hard in my embrace. “Mark me as your own?”

Few things pleased me more than doing so, but tonight I wanted something else.

“On your hands and knees,” I told her, rising and moving her into position with the help of my tentacles. “I want to come in your beautiful cunt.”

I went to my knees behind her, stroking my cock as I rubbed its head in her slit, over her lovely ass, and back, leaving trails of glowing precum. I rubbed her clit until she screamed my name and came once more, grinding against me.

“Give me your cock,” she pleaded, trembling in my tentacles’ embrace. “Please, Vos.”

I fucked my mate with love, watching as my cock pumped in and out of her sweet cunt, making sure my precum dripped from her asshole and her slit, mixed with her slickness. Beautiful.

Finally, she quivered and came one last time, softly this time, her cunt fluttering around my cock. The sensation was enough to push me over the edge as well, and with full-body shudders I came in a dozen spurts that filled her and then over-filled her, my glowing lavender cum streaming down her thighs.

I rolled us very carefully to our sides and wrapped my arms around her as she quivered.

I kissed her sweaty temple. “Was that enough to ease your need?”

“Oh, yes.” She snuggled back against me, making my spent and sensitive cock twitch inside her. “Thank you.”

“There is no need to thank me. I had my fair share of our pleasure too.”

“On the contrary.” She chuckled, still breathless. “I got the better end of the deal.”

“We will call it even,” I countered. “As I cannot yet feel my legs.”

My Calla laughed. I loved that sound as much as when she screamed my name. She had laughed so little during our early days together.

“You are happy, my mate?” I asked.

“Happier every day.” She craned her neck to kiss me. “You know that, don’t you?”

“I must ask sometimes, so I know this is real.” I rested my head against hers. “It seems like a dream, and I fear I will wake.”

“Well, if it’s a dream, don’t wake up, because I like it too.” She took my hand and pressed it to her belly, where I felt a tiny flutter. “I think we woke him up,” she teased. “Speaking of which, once he’s born and old enough to understand what’s going on, will we have to be quieter?”

“I will soundproof our room,” I said, very seriously. “I cannot live without hearing you scream my name.”

“Ugh, right answer again ,” she said, feigning exasperation. “I swear, Vos Turek, if you don’t stop saying the exact right thing every damn time I ask you a question, I will—” She gasped, breaking off mid-sentence .

“You will do what, my mate?” I asked innocently, my fingers teasing her clit.

“I will do…something!” She whimpered. “You aren’t getting hard again, are you?”

“I will let you guess whether I am.” I kissed her shoulder. My tentacles tugged on her legs, encouraging her to spread them wider. “What is your guess, my mate?”

Calla sighed. “That I won’t get to work on the baby’s room until midday, again .”

“You guessed correctly,” I murmured into her ear. “Now, tell me what I may do for my Calla.”

“Let me rest for a bit,” she said, and smiled up at me. “And then…well, I’d like you to make me come with your cock in my ass, if that’s not asking too much.”

My cock twitched. “It is not too much to ask,” I said.

Gently, I withdrew from her and laid her on the bed. I rose, went to the washroom for hot, wet cloths, and returned to clean her and myself.

That done, I formed a nest with my tentacles and arranged her with her head against my chest above my primary heart. It was how I had first cradled her in the sea after rescuing her from the raiders, and it would forever be my most favorite way to hold my mate.

I tucked her head under my chin and cooed. “Rest, my love.”

She closed her eyes and settled in with her hand on her belly. I covered her hand with mine and hummed a lullaby. In moments, my Calla was asleep, a smile on her lips.

I drew a blanket over us and opened the window to let in cool night air, the smell of rain, and Poe’s quiet, happy trills as she tended her garden.

What joy to no longer need to swim in the ocean’s depths or escape into dreamless sleep to find perfect peace.

My thoughts drifted to a long-ago moment: the day Calla first woke in my home and I had cradled her in my living room by the fire as the rain poured outside.

Had I gotten my wish to freeze time that afternoon, when my mate lay so badly injured in my arms and I had hoped for a chance, no matter how slim, to persuade her to stay, I would not have found this moment, nor any of the moments between then and now, nor any of the moments we had yet to share. I had dared to hope, despite every instinct and lingering doubt that warned against it.

Hope had led us here. Hope had brought us home.