Page 82 of Voidwalker (Beasts of the Void #1)

Antal’s tongue worked over her. Into her, those strokes mercilessly deep, that build of tension that had her rocking her hips to fill the ache, until at last—

She came with a shout, everything hot and shuddering and wonderful, writhing beneath the mercy of his mouth. This otherworldly creature. This wretched, wonderful predator.

Hers, to enjoy as long as she wished, as they built a new home together.

As Fi caught her breath, Antal climbed onto the bed, mantling over her. He combed claws through her hair.

Then, whispered against her ear, “Don’t look so content, Fionamara. I’m not finished with you.”

She cupped his cheeks with eyes lidded—grin wicked. “Neither am I, daeyari.”

Fi grabbed him by the antlers, heaving the startled beast sideways.

Here, she didn’t have to cower. Here, she didn’t have to hide behind her cloak of bristles. Here, she was a creature of claws and fangs, her snarl as fierce as Antal’s when she pushed his back to the bed. His tail wrapped her thigh. Claws gripped her waist, poised to throw her off.

“ Stay ,” Fi ordered.

Antal froze beneath her, breaths heavy. Concern creased his brow.

Then, eyes narrowed at the realization: her mounted atop him, thighs straddling his hips. Head tall. Not begging. Fi felt every muscle tense between her legs, Antal’s fangs bared, tail swishing.

But he stayed, like a good beast.

Daeyari didn’t fall easily to their backs, he’d claimed. So what was that hungry glint in his eyes?

Fi scraped her palm up his bare chest, a simmer of hot energy beneath fingertips. “Do you enjoy being on the bottom, daeyari?”

“That depends,” he returned, rough.

“But you enjoy when I give you orders?”

“I enjoy you . The fiercer, the better.” He growled the words, but held still beneath the command of her palm. A new game to play.

She made swift work of his trousers, relishing the lean lines of his waist laid bare beneath her fingers, that long V dipping to his pelvis—relishing the other long piece of him that rose to greet her.

Fi grasped his cock, a firm stroke of her palm from root to tip.

Antal tilted his head back, groaning as he pressed against her grip.

“Kasek aza…” he breathed, a curse and a plea at once.

“ Kasek … aza …” Fi formed the words slowly, trying to mirror how Antal made them sound. “You’ve called me that before?”

“Kasek aza,” he purred. “ Vicious woman .”

She grinned. Then mouthed the words anew. Fi liked the way they sounded in her mouth—she liked the way they sounded in his mouth more.

She rose on her knees and guided him into her. They shared an exhale, hers verging perilously close to a whimper, consumed by the bliss of hard heat filling her, by taut muscles between her thighs and claws digging into the bedsheets.

At the first roll of her hips, Antal arced with her, eyes fluttering closed and tail wrapping her waist to pull her tighter against him. He ran a hand up her thigh. Between her legs. Fi gasped when his thumb stroked her, brushed in energy, a spark of heat that sent her smoldering.

But Fi was in control.

She set the rhythm. She set his hand on her hip, an anchor to move against, a brush of claws across her ass.

She reined him back when he tried to press too quickly, reveling in the desperate hiss through his teeth.

From this perch, she was unconquerable. This thrum of power as potent as the lust between her legs.

As Fi reached another crest, she tipped her head back in a cry of victory, all of her trembling as Antal moved beneath her, drawing out the waves.

Again, he tensed, hands hard on her hips.

“ Stay. ”

Fi’s order came frayed. Antal heeded, strained as a starving creature beneath her.

Still heady with her own pleasure, Fi drank his need for her like spiced wine, his labored breaths, claws digging into her thighs. Dancing an edge, a silent plea in half-lidded crimson eyes. She tipped a finger beneath his chin.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll bring you there. Don’t you trust me?”

A pained sound scraped Antal’s throat. “Too much. You seem to relish tormenting me.”

Fi bent over him, close enough to savor each haggard breath against her neck. To feel him strain as she rocked with his cock inside her, building him toward his own end, her fingers tight on his antlers.

Antal tensed as he finished, burying himself between her legs with a shudder, growling her name into the curls of her hair. Claws gripped tight on her ass. Then slackened. Softer, he dragged his spent hips against hers with a rasped exhale.

When he fell ragged to the bed, Fi fell with him.

They tangled in the aftermath, all twisted legs and tail, sweat-dewed foreheads pressed together. Fi cupped his cheeks in her hands. She ran her tongue across her teeth, tasting every lingering trace of ozone, savoring the fading bloom of her pleasure and a satisfied heat settling in her core.

She drank in the beast at her side, so sated with her , he could scarcely keep his eyes open. Antal wrapped her in arms and tail, stringing breathless kisses along her temple.

“Kasek ava,” he murmured, affectionate, against her skin. “Qess, ery yzu grelu.”

Fi frowned. “Are you going to tell me what the rest of that means?”

“I suppose you’ll have to learn to speak daeyari.” Fatigue dragged his words, pulling his lashes low as he settled her into the heat of his chest.

Fi burrowed against him. All of her was spent, warm, drunk on lust and the caress of furs.

“Teach me now,” she said.

“Hm?” His thumb traced circles at her hip.

“Teach me how to say… I love you.”

His thumb slowed. Fi watched herself measured in the smolder of his eyes, felt the weight of his breaths still shallow from tasting her.

“Yzi vali yzru,” he said. Then kissed her to seal it to her lips.

“Yzi… vali… yzru,” Fi said when he released her for air.

“Sharpen your consonants more.” He pulled her against him. “Yzi vali yzru.”

Her leg wrapped his waist, fingers cradling his face. “Yzi vali yzru.”

“Closer.” His teeth on her lip. “Yzi vali yzru.”

“ Yzi vali yzru .” It was perfect, her mouth tracing his to match the syllables.

“Not quite. Say it again.”

“Ass.” She jabbed his chest. “You want to hear me say it again?”

“Is that such a terrible thing?”

Fi laughed and nestled against him. No. Not such a terrible thing at all.

“This bed is acceptable,” she admitted, drifting toward sleep. “Though mine is just as comfortable.”

“We can visit whenever you’d like,” Antal murmured back. “My clever Voidwalker. Some practice, and you might come to make the journey as easy as I can.”

Fi hummed at the thought. A human with two daeyari antlers as trophies. One who could walk the Void as easily as a creature born from it.

Wouldn’t that make for an exciting folktale?