Page 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

STOCKTON STOPPED KISSING Rora.

She let out a noise of disappointment, reaching for him.

But he was scrambling off the bed, both of his hands up as he moved away from her. “Hey, hey, let’s just… stop.”

She sat up. “Stop?”

“I don’t want to stop.” He put a hand against his chest, smiling at her. “But I think we need to talk about this while not, um…” He gestured back and forth between them.

She ran a hand over his face.

“You, uh, you said that you lost your virginity last night,” he said.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I just don’t want to…”

“Be with some kind of girl who’s so slutty as to sleep with two different men on two different nights?” she said in a tiny voice.

“Hey, it’s the season,” he said. “We’re at this rite, so I think the point is to fuck a bunch of people, but, um, I like you.”

“I like you, too,” she said. Which was why he wasn’t kissing her?

“Yeah?” His smile widened. “Do you, really? Really?”

“Really,” she said, shaking her head at him. “I’m confused.”

“Well, I don’t want us to fuck this up, then,” he said. “And it’s already complicated because of Maibell, so I think… we owe it to ourselves to give this a better chance than, uh, than hooking up right away, during the rite, when you’re breaking the girl code. It’s just going to put a pall over the whole thing if we do that. Not to mention, you might not really be ready to do anything with me if last night was your first time—”

“It was!” she interrupted. “Do you think I’m lying?”

“No, that came out wrong,” he said. He squared his shoulders. “Okay, I’m not trying to do some creepy protection thing where I act like I know better than you but I’m just insulting your own intelligence and agency.”

She blinked, still confused.

“What I mean is, if you want this to happen, I am convincible. I will believe you if you say you know what you want,” he said. “But if I didn’t pause here and make sure of that, I would feel like maybe I was taking advantage, and I don’t ever want to do that. I mean, we started kissing after we were both in a heightened state of fear over those birdkin, so…”

She got what he was saying now. She felt a little deflated. She nodded, a little disappointed, but grateful. “You’re a good guy, Stockton.”

“I try to be,” he said. “I don’t know if I always am.”

“I guess if we want to try this, I should probably tell Maibell first. She won’t like it, but she deserves to hear it from me, not secondhand. I’ll tell her that I recognize it could be painful for her, and if she doesn’t want to hang out with me while I’m with you, that makes sense. We’re not that close, really, but it’s not cool.”

“That sounds very mature,” he said.

“Yeah? You think?”

“Totally,” he said, nodding.

“And until then, it would be responsible if we didn’t kiss or whatever, I guess.”

“Probably,” he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed, looking dejected.

“You sound disappointed, but you stopped us.”

“I know,” he said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

“It seemed… organic,” she said. “Maybe it’s like what the rite is supposed to be like. You sparred with the guys who were trying to hurt me and then you spirited me off, and now I’m yours, and we seal that with fucking.”

“I don’t want you to be mine,” he said.

She tilted her head to one side.

“I mean, I want us to be each other’s,” he said.

She crawled across the bed to him. “One more kiss,” she said softly.

“Yeah?” he said, his voice soft, too.

“Yeah,” she said.

ATHOS WAS BEHIND Tawny, tugging on her jeans, exposing her underwear and he thought that she looked amazing from this angle. “How do you feel about spanking?” He caressed the curve of her ass with one hand. “I mean, are you that kind of bad girl, one who needs correction?”

She giggled. “Do you like spanking?”

“Everyone likes spanking.”

“If everyone likes spanking, why are you asking me this question?” She was still giggling.

He swatted her, gentle, and the give of her flesh under his palm made his already hard cock jerk inside his own jeans. “Fine, then, just take your punishment and learn your lesson, my bratty bad girl. And call me ‘sir,’ if you don’t want more where that came from.”

She giggled again. She was giggling a lot.

He pushed her jeans all the way down.

She stepped out of them. She started across the room and he went after her, eyes glued to the movement of her white, twitching tail. He could not believe he had missed this, the tail , all those years with a swan.

Then again, he had not really been able to get his entire dick into Cira, due to the shallowness of swan cloacae. Some species of swans had more of a phallus and therefore more of a vaginal canal; some didn’t. Some species were made to simply kiss cloacae, no insertion at all. Cira could handle (and enjoyed) some penetration. Perhaps not having his penis entirely encased should have been dissatisfying, but it mostly hadn’t been. The head of his cock was the most sensitive part, anyway. That had fit. And the real thrill of it had sort of been being allowed to sully pretty white-feathered Cira, pretty graceful Cira.

Why was he thinking about his ex-wife right now?

Maybe because this was better in some unfathomable way.

The hot-blooded furred goodness of this woman of his own species—not that he was speciesist, just… She was a mammal and his cock fit so nicely into her, and she was so receptive, and she was really just perfectly shaped, and he was going to be jerking off to thoughts of her for months after this.

Why was this woman letting him fuck her again?

She didn’t even like him.

“I can’t believe,” she said, pressing her ass into him, twitching her tail against his belly, “that we spent all that time talking about your weird theories about male inferiority instead of anything practical.”

“Practical?” What was she even talking about? He touched her waist, her hips, smoothing his hands over her body, over her panties, which were purple. He should try to take them off of her and see if she stopped him.

“I would not mind it if my baby had a father, you know,” she said, sighing as his hands skimmed over her. “We didn’t talk about that enough.”

“I really want to father babies on you,” he said, starting to ease off her underwear.

She giggled again. “I know that, but you also said you might want to be around afterwards.”

“Yeah,” he breathed, as he eased her underwear down the same path as her jeans had gone, as he was hit with a familiar smell as he bared her pussy.

Oh, shit , he realized. That’s me. That’s the smell of my fucking come, because I fucked her, and I came in her twice, and she didn’t clean up, and—

He undid his zipper, freed himself, and pushed into her.

She gasped.

“Sorry,” he panted in her ear. “Sorry, I’m definitely, totally going to make this up to you and get you off, I swear, I just… I need to do you just like this, right now.”

She let out a strangled gasp.

“Please?”

“Yes, sir,” she moaned. “Yes, I’m yours.”

Oh, sun and moon . He held onto her, fucking her from behind, both of them standing in this hotel room, her half-dressed, him mostly clothed, and he felt like some kind of warm, sweet pleasure was bursting again and again, right between his eyes, like he had been transported to another place, a place of sheer goodness.

He held onto her hips with both hands for a while, and then one of his hands migrated around to find the small protrusion of her belly, and he slipped into a strange, somewhat shameful, but undeniably hot reverie, wherein he just pictured her belly swelling.

Swelling with his child.

Thinking of seeing her, heavily pregnant, and thinking, I did that .

He didn’t think he’d ever come so hard in his fucking life.

When it happened, it was like he left his damned body. He exited it, through his cock, along with his come, and he was just empty, suspended in nothing but hot, liquid pleasure, until he slammed back into his body, panting and a little sweaty.

He slipped out of her, dropped to his knees, pushed her back into the wall, and put his mouth on her clit. “I want to worship you,” he told her.

“Okay, sir,” she said, seizing hold of his antlers. “Worship me, then.”

EIREN WAS PRESSED into the bed in her hotel room with Lyall’s heft settled against her. He was licking her neck. Lazy, long stripes of his tongue, soothing the place where his teeth had been worrying at her.

She had never done anything like that in her life.

It wasn’t like she couldn’t come twice in a row. Typically, however, the second orgasm took longer than the first one. And with men, it wasn’t easy, not usually.

This wolf, he seemed to make her come just by existing, just by using words.

When he called her preykin, it made her hot, for whatever reason.

When he yanked on her tail like that, when he told her what to do, when he treated her like she was just his to do what he liked with, all of it made her hotter. Just the idea of the wolf fucking her had her halfway to an orgasm, apparently. She didn’t know.

It was kind of crazy, and he seemed… odd.

But this couldn’t be the last time. She wasn’t sure if she could live without this now that she knew what it was like. She’d never had sex like this. It was so very, very good.

“You’re all right?” he said, his voice deep and a little growly.

“Mmm,” she said softly.

His cock was still in her, though she could tell it was soft. That was fine with her. He could just leave it there. She wasn’t interested in ever moving out of this position, pinned under him, jammed full of wolf dick, and getting licked and licked. She thought she could probably slip off to sleep this way, actually. It was nice.

He sighed, and licked her sideways. “What are we going to do about this?” he mused.

“Do we have to do anything?” she murmured, eyes closed, encased in warmth and goodness.

“Do you live far away?”

“No,” she said, and something leapt in her, something excited. “I live in town.”

“Really,” he said.

“I stay home a lot.”

“Yeah, me too.” One of his hands moved searchingly over her, exploring her body. It settled around her hip. “I guess you know where I live.”

“I guess I do,” she said.

“But you should understand that I don’t want a mate.”

“I’m not asking for anything,” she protested, even though some part of her was needy for him, and even though she was, maybe, asking for something. She just wasn’t even sure what it was.

It was only that it didn’t feel the way it usually did with men. He wanted her, and she could tell that he did, and she definitely wanted him. Usually, it wasn’t balanced, usually someone wanted the other person more. This felt different.

He licked her again. “You taste fucking amazing,” he grunted.

She sighed.

“I think I’m asking for something,” he decided, rueful, a little gruff. “I’m trying to figure out what it is so that I can ask for it, though.”

“You just like fucking me,” she suggested.

“I mean, obviously.” Another lick. “Access, I think. I want access to you, to your body, to your wet little pussy that’s delectably tucked under that mesmerizing tail of yours.”

She moaned, wriggling into him.

He gasped, settling firmly against her, stopping her movement. “Stay still, little preykin.” His voice was like the darkness.

It settled over her, a dark, thick blanket. She whined.

“Fuck, you keep making noises like that,” he said, and his voice was strained. “Going to get me worked up again if you’re not careful.”

“Sorry,” she said, not sorry at all, impish and pleased and preening.

“No, you’d like that,” he said darkly. “You like making me crazy.”

“I feel a little crazy, too,” she offered.

It was quiet for several moments.

“What is your name?” he said finally.

“Eiren,” she said quietly.

“Eiren,” he repeated, tasting her name. Then he licked her again. “I like that. Suits you.”

She wriggled again.

He put his teeth into her.

She cried out.

He released. “Still, Eiren, stay still . You keep making me feel like I’m right on the edge.” His voice was raw.

“Edge of what?” she breathed.

“I don’t know,” he muttered. “I don’t think I’d actually do anything.” And now he licked a long wet path up her spine. His breath was hot at her neck. “Your scent changes in ways I like when I say things like that, though.”

She wondered what she smelled like. There was a scent to him, too. It wasn’t familiar or comforting, but it was thrilling, dangerous, wild.

“Here’s what I want to ask for right now, though,” he said, his voice deep and suddenly decisive. “I don’t want you to go out in that field tonight, because there’s one of those, um, runs, right? This evening?”

“There is,” she agreed.

“And one in the morning,” he said. “And I don’t want you to participate in either of them, and I know it’s why you came to this, so I don’t know if it’s even really fair of me to ask you that, but that’s what I’m asking.”

“Okay,” she acquiesced with a little sigh.

“Huh,” he murmured. He licked her again.

“But,” she said, breathless, wriggling into him again, and he didn’t stop her movement this time, “if I say yes, then I don’t want you out there either. I don’t want you to chase another doe and realize there’s nothing all that special about me, that you’re just hot for deerkin tail.”

He laughed, nuzzling her neck now, squeezing her hip where his hand was curved around her. “Deal.”

She laughed, too. She let out another sigh, burrowing into the softness of the bed beneath her and the warmth and firmness of the man at her back. She relaxed, and she felt herself starting to drift off into sleep.

He licked her again.

She moaned.

She slipped away, slipped off, and she was dreaming, then, dreaming of his hand clutching her tail, dreaming of the way his thick cock felt inside her, dreaming—

“You’re snoring,” said his voice at her ear.

She shook herself, coming back to consciousness, embarrassed. “Sorry,” she said, and now she tried to move, to get out from beneath him.

But he wouldn’t let her. He was inside her still, and he wasn’t soft now. “Shh,” he said. “It’s okay. You’re okay. I fell asleep, too.”

“Oh,” she whispered.

He thrust into her, a long and languid movement. “I like waking up here,” he said and his voice was thick and relaxed and pleased.

“Me too,” she said in a small voice.

“Take me again?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Slow this time,” he told her, as he thrust again, another long and slippery movement of the huge column lodged in her body.

“All right,” she gasped.

He made a growling noise, deeply satisfied. He rested his forehead against her shoulder blades and dragged himself in and out of her.

She seized a pillow and pushed it down so that it was putting pressure on her, pressure at the front, so that her clit felt trapped between the pillow and the way his hard cock was battering her from the inside.

He accommodated the movement, making noises of approval. “That good for you?”

“Uh huh,” she breathed.

“Good. I want you to like it. I want you to like me.”

“I like you,” she gasped.

“I like you, too,” he said and licked her neck again.

And then he fucked her slow, dragging himself in and out of her, and the pillow pressed into her, and everything became warm and fuzzy and intense, a world of pinks and purples behind her eyes as her breath grew ragged and they undulated together.

She climbed to an exquisite plateau, and he kept prodding her, his breath growing labored as he worked himself in her. She hung there. It felt good, but she knew she was stuck here, that she couldn’t get any higher, any closer to a climax, that there simply wasn’t the right kind of stimulation in the right spot.

She didn’t care, though.

She wanted to be a wolf’s plaything and take whatever this purplish goodness it was that she could get.

“I could be close,” he said eventually. “But you’re not.”

“How can you tell?”

“It’s your scent,” he groaned, licking her again. “What do you need?”

“I…” She tried to summon her ability to communicate but it was difficult, suspended out here in the plateau of goodness, where the world was nothing but the pillow and his cock and the fucking and everything.

“I could use my teeth?” He was darkly amused.

“Maybe,” she agreed.

But he didn’t. He pulled out of her, abrupt, harsh.

She mewed.

He rolled her over, spreading her thighs and he grinned down at her, his sharp teeth glinting. “Maybe you want to be eaten.” And then he put his mouth between her thighs and he used that tongue of his there .

She shuddered, going molten and lost, launching this way and that, ricocheting against bursts of sweetness.

He licked and licked and she arched her head back and could hardly breathe, because it was too good.

He scraped his teeth against her thighs, then, gentle, against the lips of her, and then his tongue again.

Boom .

She exploded.

He pressed his tongue into her clit, letting out a pleased noise.

She made embarrassingly high pitched noises, waves of goodness going through her.

His tongue just sat there, pressing, laying there, heavy on her clit until she was done. When he seemed certain she was done, he pressed his lips against her. “There,” he said, sounding quite pleased with himself.

She tried to get her breath, looking up at him as he was sitting up between her thighs, looming over her.

He put a hand on his erection, proffering it to her, wordless.

She scrambled forward and took him into her mouth, sealing her lips around the base of him

“Very good, little preykin,” and his voice was nearly lethal. “I need you to swallow all of this.”

She did.