Page 7 of The Delver (The Vrix #2)

“Everything was always go, go, go since I was a little girl. As a kid, my siblings and I were always moved from one place to another depending on my parents’ house flipping projects during the summer.

If it was during the school season, we stayed with our grandmother so we didn’t miss any classes.

We never really had a stable place where we could just be .

“We finally settled down when our parents became reeltorz when I was a teenager, but because they worked in the luxury market, they had certain expectations of me. During their social events, I had to be polite, I had to smile, I had to be an exempluhree child to help them look good. And under no circumstance was I to cause any trouble in school.”

Urkot dabbed his face with the cloth and lowered himself onto the ground beside her.

Covering the jar with the lid, Callie picked up her comb and ran it through her hair as she spoke.

“I had to perform at school because my parents expected the best grades, so all my off time was spent studying and doing homework and whatever other extra kurrikyular activities would make my college applications look good.

“I had to aim for the top of the class in college because companies were going to look at that when I started my career. And then I was immediately swept up with the Homeworld Initiative for training. It was just…nonstop.

“And growing up in Manhattan? It’s so fucking loud.

There’s constant noise coming from all over.

The cars, the honking, the sirens, the trains, the people.

It’s everywhere.” She looked at him, lips downturned in a small frown.

“Sorry. I just kind of went off on my life, and you probably didn’t understand one word of it. ”

“I knew two words, maybe three,” he said with a gentle chitter.

Callie chuckled, the crease in her brow relaxing. “That’s about how I feel sometimes when Rekosh gets going in vrix.”

Urkot raised his mandibles. “I know Rekosh’s words, but I do not listen. I listen to you.” He extended a foreleg and brushed it along hers. “I hear the feeling in your words, even if I do not know them.”

His fine hairs picked up her scent, and he had to fight to hold back a low, appreciative growl as his desire flared again. The smell of cleanleaf clinging to Callie’s skin couldn’t mask her natural fragrance.

Before he could pull his leg away, she settled a hand atop it and smiled at him. “Thank you, Urkot.”

Warmth pooled in his belly at her touch.

Delicately, he covered her hand with his own and lifted it, turning it so her palm was up.

Her hand was so different from his. So much smaller, with five slender fingers rather than four thicker ones.

Blunt nails instead of black claws. Smooth skin instead of callused hide.

He hooked his thumb over her palm and brushed it along one of the lines there, marveling at the feel of her.

For all their differences, their hands were remarkably alike in form and function. Just as humans and vrix were alike in the way they thought, the way they felt, the way they communicated.

In the things for which they yearned…

Urkot slid his hand over hers, palm to palm, and his hearts leapt when Callie laced her fingers with his. His gaze darted up to find her watching him with a soft smile.

“As for what all that has to do with why I love this place…” Keeping their fingers locked, Callie looked around the cavern.

“When we first came to Kaldarak and Garahk led us in here, all my troubles just melted away the instant I got in the water. Every day since that bitch queen has been gone, I’ve felt this sort of…

peace. No expectations, no pressure. I don’t have to perform anymore.

I can just be…me. And everyone accepts that, accepts me, just as I am.

“But as much as I love hanging out with everyone, sometimes I just need quiet. And this place is the perfect kind of quiet when no one is around.”

“I know that need.” He gently squeezed her hand. “That is why I am here.”

Callie returned her attention to him. “I’m sure it gets really loud in the tunnels.”

His eyes fell shut as the sound of falling rock echoed in his mind. “Yes. Sometimes big loud.”

She brushed her thumb back and forth over his. Urkot wondered if she sensed his turmoil, if that touch was her way of soothing him.

Her very presence was a light in the darkness, guiding him back to safety, to surety, to her .

But Callie’s touch was so much more. It flooded him with warmth, as thrilling as it was comforting, and hatched a thousand new desires in his mind.

He would have been content to sit here, holding her hand, until long after Takarahl and Kaldarak were lost to time.

“You know,” Callie said, “I never wanted to get into chemistry. That was something my parents pressured me into.”

Urkot opened his eyes to see her staring down at their entwined hands.

He spoke slowly to ensure he found the right words.

“Most vrix learn crafts from parents. That is why I am a delver, Rekosh a weaver, Telok a hunter. But some choose different. You are here now. A new world, a new life, yes? What will you choose?”

She chuckled. “I mean, my degrees are basically worthless now, and it’s not like I have to earn an income anymore.

But…for the longest time, I wanted to be a geeoluhjist —that’s a scientist who studies the earth.

I always loved rocks and minerals, and I had a huge collection of crystals and gemstones as a kid, so it seemed natural. ”

Callie grinned at him. “Which is why I’ve loved all the little gifts you’ve given me.”

He cursed himself for having left his pouch in his den. This would’ve been the perfect moment to give her the crystal he’d found today, and that would’ve been the perfect gesture to finally put the lingering tightness in his chest to rest.

Chittering, Urkot ran the back of a finger down her cheek, tracing the line of her jaw, until it reached her chin. He grasped it, tipped her face higher, and leaned close. “I will find more pretty stones for my pretty female.”

Callie’s eyes rounded, and her skin warmed.

It was only then that Urkot realized what he’d said.

My pretty female.

He’d laid claim upon her.

His own eyes widened. Those words had come out so naturally, without a thought, and they felt right. Felt true.

Callie didn’t rebuke or deny him, didn’t withdraw or shudder in disgust. Instead, something in her gaze shifted, softening as her eyes flicked between his.

Reaching up, she gently curled her fingers around his wrist and smiled.

“I would love them, Urkot. And…maybe I could join you in the caves sometime to explore.”

Terrible cold swept through him, tensing all his muscles at once.

Even under the best circumstances, he would’ve deemed it too dangerous, but with today’s events fresh in his mind, he was horrified at the thought of Callie going down there. Right now, all he could think about was her being harmed.

All he could think about was her being killed.

Words clawed up his throat and lodged in it as he released her and withdrew his hands much more quickly than he intended to. He would not allow thoughts of her in the cave to take over his mind. He’d crumble, his every thread coming undone, were his mind to continue along that path.

No. He would keep her away, above ground, where it was safer. He had lost too many vrix he cared about to the dangers understone. He could not expose her to those same dangers. He could no longer bear the thought of a world without her.

Twisting to grab his jar of vineroot oil from the edge of the pool, he opened the lid and began rubbing the oil on his chest and abdomen. He forced himself to focus on the quick, rough motions of his hands, on the feel of his callused palms and fingers scraping his hide.

“Urkot? Are you okay?”

“It is not safe,” he said, nearly in a growl.

Callie sighed, and Urkot glanced at her in time to see her roll her eyes. It was…unsettling when humans did that.

“This whole planet isn’t safe,” she said. “I could take one step out into the jungle and get eaten by a carnivorous plant .”

“No.”

“Urkot, come on. Don’t?—”

“No”

Callie huffed. “I agree with Rekosh. You are stoneheaded.”

Urkot’s hands stilled, and his mandibles twitched.

So what if he was stoneheaded? If it kept the ones he cared about safe, he would accept it gladly.

He resumed coating his hide in the oil, trying his best not to look at the tempting female beside him. But even if he wasn’t looking at her, he was always aware of her, always aware of the unseen tether that ceaselessly drew him toward her. From the edge of his vision, he saw her rise to her feet.

Grunting, he bent his arms backward to spread oil on his back. As always, his bulky arms and broad shoulders made it impossible to reach most of his back, forcing him to strain and stretch.

“Here, let me do it,” Callie said as she took the jar from him. “It’s okay to ask for help sometimes.”

Without awaiting his reply, she moved behind him, threw one leg over his hindquarters, and straddled him.

He blinked, momentarily stunned. Gathering his long, damp hair, she draped it over the front of his shoulder.

And then her soft hands were upon his hide, rubbing the oil in, fingers working firmly over his taut muscles.

Now, his entire body stilled. He hadn’t expected this, never could’ve expected it. Tingles spread across his hide as she massaged the oil into his back, the fine hairs on his legs rose, and pressure built deep within his chest and core.

Urkot grasped his forelegs with all three hands, squeezing them as though it could dull the sensations she was causing.

It wasn’t merely her hands; it was her weight on his hindquarters, the warm, bare skin of her legs pressed against him, and her soft ass atop him, covered by only a thin layer of cloth.

Her scent permeated him from her calves brushing his leg hairs.

Never in all his years had anyone offered to do this for him. Never in all his years had anyone touched him this way.

For it to be Callie…

His eyes fell shut, and a shuddering breath escaped him.

Her hands started at his upper shoulders and worked down his back. A shiver coursed through him when she reached the base of his spine. His stem twitched against his slit, and his claspers drew in tight against it.

By their eightfold eyes. Shaper, unmake me!

She lifted her hands. Relief followed. Urkot drew in a deep inhalation, willing his body to calm, attempting to retake control. Callie was doing him a kindness. He would not answer it by being swept into a mating frenzy.

Her slick, oiled coated hand returned to his body, over the raised scar where his lower left arm had once been.

Urkot’s hearts stopped. When they resumed beating, they pounded so fast and hard that they would surely burst from his chest.

This was more than mere kindness, more than the warm touch of a friend. Her gentle hands bore unspoken care and quiet familiarity. That she would tend to him this way, even to this part of his body…

His cock throbbed, his slit bulging with the pressure it exerted, and Urkot groaned low and deep.

“Feel good?” Callie asked, caressing and kneading his hide.

He could only hum in appreciation. That was fortunate, as the only adequate words that came to mind were human ones he’d heard from Cole many times— fuck yes .

“Good.” Her voice was huskier than he’d ever heard it, and it came from much closer, her warm breath brushing the back of his neck. She withdrew her hands. “All done.”

It took a moment for him to make sense of her words as his body mourned the loss of her touch. He craved her hands on his hide, yearned to draw her closer and place his hands on her .

Slinging her leg back over his hindquarters, she slid down to stand between his bent legs.

Urkot snapped his eyes open and turned his head toward her.

With a wide grin, Callie stepped in front of him and held out the jar. He accepted it absently, unable but to stare at her.

“Have a good night, big guy,” she said with a playful tap on his chin.

After gathering her belongings, she walked out of the chamber.

Urkot’s eyes remaining on the empty entryway through which she’d left the temple.

Fire roiled inside him, along with a deep, gnawing hunger that no food could ever satisfy. Something had changed within Urkot. Something had awoken within him. And he was beginning to understand that it would not be lulled back to slumber.

His hide pulsed and tingled. He could almost feel Callie’s weight upon him, her hands moving over his back, her warmth. Almost... And that only made the desire he felt for her vaster than the Tangle and hotter than any flame.

Perhaps seeing two of his friends claim human mates had compelled Urkot to reflect upon what he was missing. The happiness Ketahn, Ivy, Rekosh, and Ahmya had found flooded Urkot’s hearts with joy, but there was a part of him which that joy could not reach. An empty space that could not be filled.

A loneliness his friends could not cure.

To think that Callie could fill it, that she would choose to do so, seemed foolish. Yet he could not deny that both his body and his hearts reacted to her in ways he could not ignore.

It seemed this long day was destined to become a longer night.