Page 7 of The Naga Princess’s Soldier Mate (Serpents of Serant #7)
Sazzie
“Let me up! Damn it, Erish!” I shouted, my fists balled beneath me as I strained to get up from beneath the magical force that kept me confined to the nest. Face down, I couldn’t see what was going on, but I could hear them, and I’d heard my Reid go down. I didn’t know what had happened, just that he’d suddenly collapsed. Frantic with fear for him, I couldn’t stay still to have my own wounds tended to; I had to help him.
The past events had seen my supposedly famous battle instincts all but fade into the background, but they were here now. Zathar was right, as always. When I knew what I was fighting for, I could do it; all the fear went away. I didn’t care about my wounds, or dying, or pain—all I wanted was to know that Reid was fine. He hadn’t appeared to be injured when he’d carried me through the woods; I hadn’t even seen a sign of the claw marks Evarah had made on his ankle. He’d healed in the blink of an eye. But what if he’d been injured somewhere I hadn’t seen? What if Evarah had poisoned him?
The underhanded tactic of dipping claws in poison to win a challenge was low; it was frowned upon, but it was not unheard of. I wouldn’t put it past Evarah or Astrexa to do something like that. “Reid! What’s happening?” I begged when the magical field that trapped me against the healing nest refused to budge. I could hear Erish’s machine buzz as it worked on the large gashes on my back, but I could not feel any of it. Nor could I see any of the Shamans that were in the healing chambers with me. Not Erish, not Chen, and not any of their apprentices, but I could hear their voices as they talked rapidly, hear them groan as they worked to lift my brave brown-eyed human onto a cot so they could work on him.
“Heart rate is dropping,” Erish said, and that sounded ominous, even if I didn’t fully understand what it meant. Dropping? Out of his chest? “How’s his blood pressure, Codish?” There was a garble of noise, voices layered one over the other, and I could not quite follow what was said next. Something about no wounds (good), no poison (also good), then something about organ failure, which sounded really bad. What I definitely didn’t hear was Reid himself, and I knew him, he was not a graceful patient.
When the force pinning me to the bed finally released me, I rose with a furious hiss. Silence had settled over the healing chamber by then, save for the steady beep of a relic. The chaos that had ruled when Reid first collapsed abated, but I did not trust it, and nobody had told me if he was okay. Only Erish remained, his unseeing gaze aimed slightly above my head while his hands roamed the relic beside the nest Reid lay in. Reid himself appeared to be sleeping, his chest rising and falling in a steady pattern, his expression serene.
A breath shuddered out of me at the sight, and a sudden wave of powerful feelings rose inside my chest. It grew tight and painful, and I rubbed my knuckles against my breastbone in vain. Stars, what was this? I wanted to cry again. I was a mess today. Sliding from the nest, I stretched my muscles and tested my range of motion; all my wounds were gone. Only a slight itch remained where scales had regrown.
I was a little light-headed when I crossed the room to reach Reid’s side, but I wasn’t going to tell the healer about that. I refused to lie back down, not when my human might need me, and I owed him. Without him, I never would have made it out of that clearing, and if I had, I would have blundered straight into the arms of the Bitter Storm warriors. I’d always dreamed of having a protector, of not having to be so strong and hard on myself, but not at the cost of his health.
“Is he going to be all right?” I asked, my voice small now that my worst fear and anger had abated. He looked okay, like he was just taking a little nap and would leap into bright, powerful motion as soon as he woke up. I wanted that. I wanted him to wake up and look at me again, tell me those sweet things that nobody ever said to me. Call me beautiful, tell me I was safe with him.
“Why don’t you lie down, Princess Sazzie?” Erish said kindly. He was pretending that I hadn’t been angry throughout my entire treatment. Fine with me. I gave him a glare I knew he couldn’t see, and then I gripped the edge of Reid’s nest and hauled myself into it. The nest was made to fit all the long, thick coils of a Naga male, and while Reid was larger than life, he did not fill the nest the same way; there was plenty of room for me. I rested my head on his bare chest and fingered the delicate metal chain he wore around his neck, from which dangled two small metal plates.
Erish huffed; something that sounded almost like a laugh. “That’s not what I meant, Your Highness,” he said, his hands still on the ancient machines beside the nest, but his cloudy white eyes had lowered to settle on Reid’s face. “But it will do. To answer your question: Yes, he will be fine. Whatever he did when he chased after you finally activated his nanobots. They are doing exactly what they were designed to do—and then some. They had depleted his system of all nutrients, which caused the crash. I am devising the appropriate stabilizer for him right now.”
More fancy, difficult words and intricate explanations filled the air, but I caught the most vital message: Reid was going to be fine. He would survive—not merely from this crash, but he was also freed from the affliction that had plagued him from the very beginning. With Erish’s ingenious final treatment in place, Reid would soon be strong enough to return home, to Haven. To Zathar and his mate...
With a sigh, I huddled closer against his chest, my fist curled around his odd necklace. His arm had rolled closer, pressing against my back as if he were hugging me. I felt safe, but I also felt sad. What was I going to do when Reid left? Where would I go? Would Zathar welcome me at Haven? It would be nice to see my brother again, but I wouldn’t blame any of the males there if they considered me too much of a threat to their females. They might expect me to want to start fights, claim a position of power, and seek status. Going with Reid would also bring my problems along, and I couldn’t do that to the fragile little Clan of humans and outcasts—not if Bitter Storm was now involved.
Reid had described the odd appearance of one of the Bitter Storm males, and I knew exactly who he had been talking about. Skinny, with missing front teeth? That could only mean Aser, the only male in living memory to ever claim the title of King. The sniveling bastard who had killed the Bitter Storm Queen after her failed attack on Thunder Rock Village and sent the once-numerous Clan into civil war. Now, Bitter Storm was but a remnant of itself, scrambling to hold on, gather enough food, and maintain its massive mountain home.
My thoughts were still spinning, stuck on what Aser’s presence could mean, when I sank into sleep, lulled into a sense of calm by the steady beat of Reid’s heart beneath my head, his scent filling my nose, and his warmth soaking into my scales.
When I woke, I was groggy and disoriented. Everything was dark around me, though some tiny lights glowed like stars here and there around the room. It took me a long minute to recall where I was, but when I did, it all came back to me in a rush: Reid charging to my defense, his mighty warrior pose over a pinned Evarah, and the way he had declared that he was going to protect me. My mind flashed to the recollection of those Bitter Storm warriors—the true threat—but then it all faded to the background.
I was lying inside a soft nest, and I was not alone. When had I gotten so bold as to lie down with a male—a human male at that? He didn’t just have his arm lying against my back; no, he’d actually curled it around my waist and was holding me close. His fingers feathered up and down my ribs with soft strokes, and, from the sound of his breathing, I knew he wasn’t asleep.
Jerking back, I began to raise myself so I could leave the nest. What was I thinking? What was he thinking? What if he didn’t like that I’d gotten this close? My thoughts spiraled quickly with my uncertainty, wondering how he could possibly want me near after the chaos and pain I’d caused. After he’d seen that I was no angel. “Hush, angel,” he said, right on the heels of that last thought, echoing the words reverberating through my head. “It’s okay. We’re okay. And I know you can understand me. Don’t try to hide it, little minx.”
He did not let me get away either, his strength far greater than mine as he pulled me back against his chest. This time, it wasn’t a one-armed hug, but both his arms wrapped around my waist as he hauled me close—practically on top of him. I could feel the geometrical shapes beneath his skin; there were more of them now than before. I could also feel a hot, thick bar pressing against my hip, and I didn’t know what to make of that. If it was what I thought it was, it shouldn’t have made me feel all weak-limbed—it should have made me feel angry. He was shaming himself, and me, by showing such a lack of restraint. But the only things I was feeling were relief and happiness. He wanted me close, he was holding me, and he wasn’t hurt.
“No hiding,” I murmured against his skin, my fingers returning to his odd necklace to grip the two small rectangles dangling from it. That was a better option than giving into the desire to pet every inch of his skin. My eyes had easily adjusted to the near-dark, and I was picking out far too many tempting details—like the odd markings that painted the skin on his arms and shoulders. They depicted the shapes of bizarre, mythical predators: living artwork on his skin, lovingly following the bulge of his biceps and accentuating the thick veins that corded his forearms.
He chuckled, the sound low and husky. It sounded so intimate in the dark when I was too afraid to look up and see his expression. “Good, angel. That’s good. Do you know what happened? Last I remembered, I was tucking you into bed. And I wake up and find you in mine. Not that I’m complaining, mind you.” His arms grew a little tighter around my middle, ensuring that not so much as a hair separated our bodies. I could feel the heat of that rigid bar press against me, and it made parts of me tingle that I didn’t know could feel that way.
“You collapsed,” I said, vividly recalling the moment and how helpless I’d felt when I couldn’t see if he was okay. “Shaman Erish says you were missing nutrients, but your nanobots are working.” My tongue felt odd as I twisted it around the foreign word. It was a Naga word—all syllabic and guttural, nothing like the language that Reid spoke. I could not wrap my head around the thought that there was a Naga word for such a thing, but there was, and Erish knew it. He’d taught it to me by speaking of it often as he worked to heal Reid over the past week.
“Ah, that makes sense. I must have been burning massive amounts of energy to sustain that speed and strength, not to mention the rapid healing. My nanobots were performing far beyond their normal parameters.” More complex words, but I was starting to understand them a little. Reid was saying that he had been stronger and faster than normal, and that his healing rate was vastly improved by these nanobots. Such a thing seemed like magic to me, but I was grateful for it. It had made Reid so powerful, so capable, and he’d gotten me out of the encounter with Kusha, Evarah, not to mention Astrexa. Though I had a feeling we hadn’t seen the last of Astrexa yet, she was the least favorite; she had much to prove.
“Now, Sazzie, why don’t you explain to me what the hell is going on? Why did they call you a princess? Why are they challenging you? And what the fuck is going on in the Shaman camp? It was chaos when I left…” Reid seemed to want to know all these answers; he certainly spoke with demand, a forcefulness to his tone that a Naga male would never dare to use against someone like me. But Reid didn’t know who I was. Despite his demands, his hands were roaming, and they were very distracting.
One hand dipped down my spine. At first, it seemed like he was simply checking that all the slashes Evarah had gouged into my back were gone. Then it dipped lower. I had never allowed a male to touch me there, but he stroked his hand across the curve of my hip and along the rounded part that shaped my rear. From there, my body tapered into my long, sinuous tail—so very different from his pair of legs.
“Pretty angel, tell me now, before I forget what I was asking,” Reid said huskily, and I shivered in response to that heated tone. He wanted me in ways he shouldn’t, in ways I shouldn’t let him, and he was so blatant about it. It was strange. It was supposed to be wrong, and yet it felt so right. When his hand roamed around the side of my hip, coming perilously close to my slit, my entire body trembled against him. What was he doing?
“Reid…” My voice came out like a moan, a sound all soft and mewling. I had never made a sound like that—not in my entire adult life, maybe not even when I was young. It was so weak-sounding, but it felt powerful when it made Reid groan, his hips bucking beneath mine.
“Ah, fuck, Sazzie. You are too sexy. You know that?” He appeared to have given up on his questions; after all, his hand rose, unerringly finding my chin. He tilted my head up, forcing me to look at his handsome face. “Kiss me, please,” he said, and the way it sounded like a plea made me want to do exactly as he asked. Except I had no clue what he meant. Kiss? It was not a word that had a translation. It meant nothing to me, but he seemed desperate for it. Helplessly, I stared at his warm brown eyes, at the heat and fire that burned inside those orbs for me.
Reid didn’t seem to require me to move, though; he was the one lowering his head to mine. Then he did the most shocking, most lurid thing I’d ever experienced: he pressed his mouth to mine—his lips against my lips—and he didn’t stop there. No, he slipped his tongue inside, delving deep in one fell swoop. I jerked in his grip, surprised to discover that one hand cupped the back of my head while the other rested on my rear, pressing me tight against his erection. I had nowhere to go, and unless I wanted to harm him, I could only surrender to his touch.
When I did, I did not regret it. It felt good. He tasted good, and within seconds, I was the one pressing closer, squirming needily in his grip. “Ah, Reid, what is that?” I moaned when his mouth released me for a breath of air. He dipped again, his mouth claiming mine, and I could only cling to him as he flicked his tongue against mine and dragged it against the roof of my mouth. When I curled my much longer, more narrow tongue around his, he shuddered.
“Fuck, Sazzie. I forgot you guys don’t do this. Why are you so fucking good at it if this is your first fucking kiss?” His hands were roaming again; no longer did he grip my rear or the back of my head. He found the strap of my bandeau, and then he was sliding it down and cupping the small peak of my breast. “A perfect handful. Are you made for me or what?” He could not possibly know how close to the truth he was with those words, but I could not bring myself to admit that. A Naga female was supposed to be lukewarm to indifferent to her male. He was good for strong offspring and caretaking; that was it. But Reid was already so much more to me.
“Shut up,” I told him firmly, “and keep doing that thing with your tongue.” I wanted more of that, and when he laughed but obeyed, I let myself get carried away by all the pleasurable sensations. How it was possible that touching my tongue with his could make my blood sing and my belly ache with pleasure, I did not know. I just knew I wanted more of it. I wanted everything he had to give me.
Reid rolled us as if he’d heard that wild, naughty thought, his breathing much faster than before. With one hand, he pinned one of my wrists above my head, his body pressing down against mine until I felt surrounded, safe. I was not the one in control of this dance, and I liked that. Reid seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and though I’d been taught to consider his blatant erection shameful, his confidence turned me on. He wanted me— me —and he was not afraid to show that.
His mouth left mine, and I mewled in dissatisfaction. “No, come back!” But then I felt the scrape of his teeth along the edge of my jaw, his tongue lapping at the hollow of my throat. Ah, stars, that was even better somehow. I did not know where he was going, but I was dying to find out. His hand massaged my left breast, and then that fantastic mouth closed around the right. The suction was out of this world, and pleasure flashed hot and bright. It tightened in my abdomen, pooling there until I ached, teetering on the precipice of something great, something just out of reach.
“Ah, precious angel, are you going to come for me? Will you do that?” Reid murmured against the hard, aching point of my nipple. I did not know what he was asking of me, but when he lifted his hips—thus his cock—away from mine, I knew that wasn’t right. His hand was distracting as it slid from my breast down to my belly. His agile fingers swirled around my belly button, then dipped lower. Ah, my slit; he was going to touch me there. Part of my brain went, “With his hand?” The rest of me was onboard, waiting for whatever he wanted to do with me. He could do anything—it all felt good. I had never felt this good, and I was greedy for more.
His fingers parted the hidden folds like an expert, as if he’d known exactly what to expect. There was a spark of anger, a hint of jealousy at the back of my brain at that realization, but it was quickly gone. I couldn’t think when he found the tight bundle of nerves at the top of my slit and flicked it with his blunt finger. Then he did it again, and again, and stars burst and shattered behind my eyes, pleasure cresting hard and sudden beneath that much sensation.
“That’s it, Sazzie. That’s it,” Reid praised me, and his finger dipped lower, finding my core and pressing inside. I moaned, sounds coming from my throat I didn’t know I could make. My muscles clenched around his invasion, pulling him in even deeper. Each wave of my crest spiraled me higher and higher until I was certain the crash was going to hit me hard. It didn’t, because Reid was there to catch me, easing me down with gentle strokes and softly murmured words of praise. Then he gathered me tightly against his chest and rocked me through the last of the shudders as if I were a youngling. “Good girl, my angel. That’s it. That’s good, isn’t it?”His husky voice, raw and a little rough, sounded so good right now.
When my breathing evened out, my head was still spinning. What we’d just done—that wasn’t a mating. His cock was still a hard bar pressing against the fabric of his strange leg coverings. He had not pierced me with it, but with his thick finger instead, and already that had felt like too much, like it barely fit at all. Tilting my head, I slid it against his chest so I could glance down and measure the size of that bulge: as thick as my wrist, maybe, and as long as my forearm. I hadn’t realized males were that big down there. Or was that a human thing?
“Later,” Reid said, his mouth against my head, inhaling the scent of my hair as he spoke. I felt the warmth of his breath, sensitive everywhere after what we’d just done. Restlessness coursed through my veins as well, urging me toward something I wasn’t sure I was ready for. “I mean it, angel. Go to sleep. It’s night out, and we have much to discuss tomorrow.” He was being firm again, and everything inside me tingled in response. It was nice because it meant I didn’t have to be the one to make the hard choices. I could simply trust him.
I settled more comfortably in his arms, and it was comfortable—so very warm and safe. Was this what Vera felt when she curled up with Zathar in his nest at night? Was this why so many of the outcast males gathered at Haven just for a chance at a human female of their own? I felt sad when I considered that my Naga sisters might never enjoy this. It was hard to imagine that they didn’t even want it. How could you not want this?
I eyed Reid’s cock again, hidden behind the dark fabric that covered his lower half. What did it look like? “Sazzie,” Reid groaned, “I am still getting used to these heightened senses. Stop smelling so fucking good.” He laughed, his mouth pressing against my forehead in another ‘kiss,’ only this one felt affectionate rather than arousing. He was laughing at himself as he said it, and I liked that.
“I can’t control it,” I said to him. “And it’s not like you aren’t doing the same to me.” I flicked my tongue into the air, drawing scent particles deep inside my mouth and pressing them against the scent receptor at the roof of my mouth. Reid’s scent and taste exploded into hyperfocus in my mind—musky, salty, the perfect blend of savory. A scent uniquely his, and more intense than it usually was.
“Fair enough,” he agreed, “but we should talk before we take things further.” I didn’t know what that meant. We were mates; that’s why I understood him. Taking things ‘further’ was the point of a mate bond—and mating. Maybe he hadn’t realized it yet? I felt a hint of trepidation as I realized he might think I had those strange relics in my head, like Erish and Chen had told me about. Relics that translated things, instead of the mate bond doing it.
“Sleep, Sazzie. We both need it.” He seemed to find it easy to fall asleep after that, even though it took a very long time for his cock to soften beneath his coverings, so I could no longer see it. Had it properly retreated into its pouch? Did human males even have a pouch? It took even longer before I managed to fall back asleep, but when I did, it was deeply and filled with dreams—nice dreams. Dreams about a baby Ayala, and then my babies, but they had brown eyes.