Page 16

Chapter

Sixteen

S amir woke within the lean-to, his ears pricking as the fine, barely visible whiskers around his cheeks slowly lifted and expanded. Something was wrong. There was no sound. It was as if the entire oasis had gone silent in the very late hours of the afternoon. Even the drone of insects was significantly reduced. There was the bitter, somewhat sour, musk in the air that made his nose wrinkle.

Someone was out there. A human male from the smell of it. Samir bared his teeth, his frame nearly vibrating with the tension suddenly running through his muscles.

Abby stirred at his side, her head lifting as she blinked sleepily. “Samir, what is it?”

He shook his head and rested his hand on her in warning. “Shhh,” he whispered.

Rolling toward the opening, he remained on his side, listening before slowly rising to all fours, his tail hooking menacingly around him. He heard her move behind him as she likewise crept from their bed. The intense heat of afternoon beat down him and he glanced toward his female worriedly. He had not intended for her to be out in the sun. Abby frowned at him and shook her head slowly.

“I’ll be fine,” she whispered. “Don’t worry about me.”

He reluctantly grunted in acknowledgement and prowled through the grass and fronds concealing their shelter. He did not get far before a massive, long-handled battle ax descended with a whistle before driving into the sandy turf and lodging there. Drawing his tail around in the direction of the threat, Samir snarled and snapped his tail, expelling two long barbs in the hunter’s direction. The brush a short distance away suddenly swayed and tremored erratically as if something crashed through the growth to evade his attack. That and a hissed expletive gave away the male’s position.

Samir locked onto it as Abby made her move and ran toward the ax. Her hands curled around its long handle, and she groaned as she set to work tugging it from where it was buried in the sand. Reassured that she was likely outside of range to be harmed, unless the human had another throwable melee weapon, Samir rushed forward toward the brush, stabbing violently with his stinger. The first strike did not land as the male rolled away, but on the second strike, a metal shield rose to counter his attack, and a short sword materialized as a tall human leaped up from his hiding spot to slash it at him in an all-out attack. Growling, Samir spun and snapped his teeth at the male’s exposed side while striking again with his stinger in counterpoint which the human countered with his blade, the clack of the blows loud in the oasis.

Samir grinned mockingly at the male. While loud in their strikes against his tail and stinger, the hunter’s weapon was nowhere near strong enough to penetrate the natural armor of his tail or break his stinger. With his massive, clawed hands, he knocked the shield from the male’s grip and lunged as he went in on an attack. Unfortunately, he misjudged the effectiveness of a thin blade which the male pulled from a sheath strapped around his thigh. It was more a needle than a true blade though possessing one long sharp side. The hunter parried Samir’s stinger with his blade, driving his tail to the side at the exact moment he stabbed the blade down, driving it between two segments of his tail’s exoskeleton.

Roaring in pain, Samir dropped back from his attack to remove it, giving the male plenty of time to put space between them. The human stood, his chest heaving faintly as he stared hatefully back at him. A low sucking sound followed by that of sand and grass giving way filled the vacuum between them, drawing the hunter’s attention in the worst possible way. Samir froze, his heart growing chilled with an ice that spread through him as the male’s gaze landed on Abby just as she straightened, the battle ax clenched tightly in her hands.

Recognition flared in the hunter’s eyes for just a moment before his lips twisted with disgust. “So, you are the one they sent—the one that was supposed to save Veldala. Still alive?”

“Naturally. I’m not so easy to kill,” Abby replied.

“So, I see,” the male slowly replied, a scornful smile curling his lips. “Of all things I had imagined, it was not to find you with the manticore. Mangled somewhere to be brought back, that I had anticipated. I had even accepted that I might have to locate dismembered body parts to return you whole to the king. What have you been doing out here, hunter?”

“Surviving,” she replied. “Go back. I do not need your assistance, hunter?—”

“Mesine,” the male replied, his eyes narrowing speculatively as he glanced between Samir and his female. “I cannot go back, not once being dispatched. You know the code of the guild.”

“But this is my kill,” Abby argued, her hand tightening around the handle of the ax in her hands. “By guild code you are not allowed to usurp or interfere with another’s hunt. Go back and report your findings to the local guild chapter and get your orders directly from them. But I have this handled.”

“Do you? If there is no harm in it, let us work cooperatively,” Mesine suggested. “Together we can dispatch the manticore and share the fruits of the accomplishment together.”

“I don’t think so.”

The male’s brows lowered in annoyance. “And what, do you imagine, will stop me from just killing you here and reporting your death to the guild? This is what they expect, after all. You will be just another casualty of the manticore and will bring me even more acclaim when I kill him.”

Abby snorted in amusement, but Samir was not laughing. His eyes narrowed on the human as he prowled back to Abby’s side, looming protectively over her as he changed tactics from offensive attacks to forming defensive protection around his female. Mesine’s threat was all too real, and Samir would be cursed in the deepest pits of the numerous hells before he would allow the human approach any closer to his female. She was his weakness, a liability perhaps, but she was his greatest treasure, and his first concern was to make sure no harm came to her over dispatching the male swiftly and brutally. Her presence was a distraction that could weigh against him and result in a costly mistake. He had no regrets for himself. She was worth any handicap dealt to him. But he was under no illusion that any mistakes he made now would likely cost them both their lives. Abby would be dispatched merely for being with him. There was no likely no greater sin for a hunter than colluding with monsters.

As if sensing his worry, Abby shifted her weight so that her side brushed his. The contact was minimal but the solidarity within it swept through him and a small amount of his tension gratefully eased.

The hunter regarded them, and he smirked. “Ah, so that is the way of it. The monster hunter became the monster’s whore.”

A low growl vibrated through Samir, his mane rising and puffing out aggressively as his tail rose. No man would call his female that and continue to possess a tongue within his mouth. At his side, Abby swung the ax in a relaxed manner by her thigh as she regarded the male thoughtfully.

“What bothers you more about that scenario. The fact that I enjoy being with Samir and being fucked by him, or the fact that he has better dick than what you could even hope to aspire to in your most vivid fantasies?”

Samir blinked, startled and suddenly very flattered by her unexpected proclamation. If it were not for the fact that they had company, he might have drawn her down into the sand to demonstrate just how much. The human, however, did not think so much of it. His face darkened with a flush of anger, his hand tightening around the pommel of his sword.

“Fucking bitch. Females should never have been let into the honored guilds. Your base nature is foul and corruptible. It was only a matter of time before a woman hunter debased herself with her prey. This will not go unreported, I assure you. How does it feel knowing that your corruption will bring down every woman in the guil?—”

Abby whipped the ax with such astonishingly unexpected speed that Samir tensed at the movement as if directly under attack himself though he watched the ax whirl toward the unsuspecting male caught up in his own monologue. Despite the length of its handle, it spun through the air with deadly precision, splitting the male’s head on impact like a ripe melon. Blood and brain matter splattered, and the hunter dropped, his look of shock immortalized on his ruined face.

Samir eyed her with concern, worried how she might react after killing another human. Before his eyes, Abby’s triumphant glower faded as she stared at the fallen male before she suddenly went pale and turned away, her body doubling over as she wretched horribly.

“Abby?”

“I’m fine. Just my fucking weak-ass stomach,” she groaned. “I guess I need to work on that more, after all.”

Slowly she straightened, and Samir prowled after Abby as she walked toward him and ripped the ax from the male’s skull.

“This would make a nice addition for the wall,” she observed. She inspected the blade before glancing down disdainfully at the dead human. “Some hunters always were too chatty and erroneously believe that monsters are too stupid to take advantage of it.”

“I did not take advantage of it,” he reminded her drolly but the grin she tossed him was nothing short of delightful.

“Only because I beat you to it. As I was saying about some of the stupid hunters out there, half of them do not recognize the monster until it’s upon them.”

“Are you saying that you are a monster now, kitten?” he rumbled as he rubbed against her side affectionately.

She shrugged but the smile on her face was unrepentant. “As far as the guild is concerned, I am.”

“But they do not know,” he reminded her. “None of this will ever leave this desert.”

“Perhaps so but I cannot lie to myself and pretend like I did not kill a fellow hunter for you,” she replied.

Samir quietly rumbled his agreement. No matter how anything was officially recorded, Abby had made her choices and was willing to remember and live with those choices rather than shy away from them or make excuses to herself. She was truly the worthiest human he had ever met.

“May I queen you?” he growled, borrowing her terminology from the night before. In this way he could offer himself and give them what they both desired without making any claims or commitments that she was not ready for.

Abby looked at him, her soft lips parting with an expression of surprise before melting into a warm smile. “Well, I am already naked. But only if you plan on fucking me. As good as your tongue is, I want your cock this time.”

Samir nodded and he spun around to approach her from the back. “Down on your hands on knees and I will queen you quite appropriately.”

She swallowed back a strained sound that was suspiciously like a laugh but instead of complying, she gave him a curious look.

“Why that way? Do you not want to be face-to-face while your cock stretches and fills me?”

“I am uncertain,” he replied truthfully. “While we can stand and move a lot like creatures possessing a more humanoid form, breeding is more natural for a manticore’s anatomy if the female has her rump raised.”

“But wouldn’t you like to try it?”

“That sounds a little deviant,” he admitted with a chuckle.

“If you find it too uncomfortable, we can stop,” she promised in a sultry whisper. “But I would really like to try if you wish to please this queen.”

His eyelids partially lowered, and he nodded as he stepped back and waited patiently as she lay in the grass. Mesine was only a few feet away but having a dead audience did not bother either of them. Flowers crushed under her weight and releasing a sweet perfume in the afternoon air, Abby stretched herself before him like an offering, her legs parting wide exposing the dark pink feminine flesh concealed at their apex.

The scent of her arousal mixed with the blooms, and he shivered with desire as he crept over toward her. Laying himself between her legs, he feasted on her cunt until she was rocking and crying out, her nectar gushing over his tongue as he slapped it against her most sensitive flesh and plunged it deep within to curl deliciously within her channel. Her cunt strangled his tongue whenever she came around and his cock grew heavier within his sheath every time she creamed for him.

Finally, he withdrew to peer down at her as he ran his tongue hungrily over his teeth and lips. He had seen and toyed with Jeriah’s cock often enough to know how a human prick compared to a manticore’s engorged cock. Still, he was caught for a moment as he crouched between Abby’s legs and watched his thickened cock extrude from his sheath. It was longer, harder, and girthier than that of a human with a pointed, slightly upturned head designed to press against the female’s womb in the best position for implantation and depositing his nourishing seed required for young to grow. Outside of the difference in shape, his cock was studded with short, soft, flexible spines designed to stimulate his mate from the inside.

Abby stared at it with fascination and a small amount of trepidation. Samir was not insulted. The first time he mounted her; she had not gotten a good look at it. He imagined that the difference would be intimidating.

“Are you ready?” he asked, not entirely sure himself of accomplishing anything at this angle, though he did admire the way her breasts rose prettily for him.

She nodded and he lowered himself further so that the tip of his cock tapped her folds briefly before slowly pressing into her heat. A gasp rose from her, and she moaned her encouragement. Her fingers curled around the flowers and fragrant grasses on either side of her, clutching them tightly as his cock tightly plugged her little, tight channel. It squeezed him deliciously and he shivered as her cunt rippled around him, drawing on his length in a languid, deep pull. He was too large to enjoy her breasts at this angle, but he enjoyed the sensation of them rubbing against the rounded shape of his chest. Drawing his hips back awkwardly, he thrust and growled with pleasure as she tightened and clenched around his shaft. Pleasure tingled up its length and he knew that his bristles were expanding and lengthening by this and by the strangled moan coming from his female.

His tail curling lovingly and protectively against her, his stinger stroked her side as he rolled his hips and began to shuttle his cock in and out of the stranglehold of her sweet sheath. His head burrowed against hers, his breath panting against her neck as his pace quickened, his pelvis slapping against hers in a wild and erotic rhythm that set his blood aflame within him. Abby cried out beneath him, her body rolling to meet his every thrust, her wet cunt spasming around his cock, choking it with the urgency of her climax. It made his blood burn all the more until he was digging his claws in the sand as he rutted her, his hips moving in a fierce tempo.

He wanted to sting her, he wanted to implant his cub within her, but he did neither—not without her permission. Instead, he buried his face against her neck and gripped the tender flesh with his teeth. Not hard enough to break skin but enough to hold her in place and trigger her own pleasure as her cries of ecstasy wailed in his ears. Her cunt milked him so good, and he purred with pleasure even as he felt the tension rolling through his back, centering and tightening with the rise of his own climax.

Grunting he drove into her, his stinger digging slightly against her belly as his tails tightened its hold on her side. He thrust harder as his cock swelled, the tip pressing firmer as it aligned with the entrance of her womb. It jerked hard and his release rose in a tide, sweeping through him as his cock jerked repeatedly within her, splashing the inside of her womb with his seed. And still he rutted, pressing harder and deeper on every thrust until she was shrieking her pleasure as her channel spasmed hard around his length, summoning every bit of his seed from his balls. He wiggled his hips until he felt the tip of his cock lock more firmly into place at her cervix. Growling deep, he gave one last thrust, and his hips tensed as the last and largest load of his seed sprayed from him. It flooded him and they cried out together as they writhed and ground against each other to extend the pleasure for as long as it could last.

Every twitch of her cunt set him off again, however, and he would begin rutting her again. He released within her no less than four times before they were done, and his sweet kitten was weak and slick with his offerings. She made a sound of protest when he pulled his cock free, but he gently shushed her.

“We must get you out of this sun. I fear you are already a little burned.”

“Totally worth it,” Abby mumbled and then groaned softly when she tried to move. He winced a little with guilt, but she ran her hand along his cheek lovingly, distracting him. “Okay handsome, get me over there. And don’t look so worried. I have been sunburned a lot worse than this.”

Purring, he scooped her up into his arms and carried her back into the shelter. It was only several hours later, and well after sunset when they were ready to set out again. His muscles labored under the combined weight of the water jugs and Abby across his shoulders and upper back, but he did not mind it. His spirit was high. He was more than a little eager to return home with his female.

One thing was for certain; he was utterly and undeniably besotted with Abby. There could no longer be any denying it. She had long earned his admiration, and now his trust so that he could finally admit that what she had possessed all along was his heart. He would get her a small treat to show her his caring. Surely there was a caravan somewhere nearby. She slept so heavily that she would not even notice that he had left.