“It has been known to happen.” He licked the column of her throat. Whatever retort she had disappeared into a moan.
Her hand slid down his back, wrapping around the base of his tail. He jerked, his control gone, and his tail whipped violently. The barb grazed her thigh.
He stilled as she wiggled underneath him. “It’s warm,” she moaned.
“My barb has a toxin that increases pleasure.”
“That’s…amazing.” Her breathing grew increasingly ragged and her pupils dilated. Her hands skated along his back. “You feel amazing. Like, really good before, but now…it’s really, really good.”
“The first time is the most potent. Are you ready for me?”
“So ready.” She whimpered for relief.
He lined his cock to her entrance and pushed in. Slowly, her tight channel yielded as he pressed deeper, inch by inch.
“Oh my God, why does it feel like that?” she gasped. “Not a complaint. It’s incredible.”
He did not have the patience to explain the anatomical difference between himself and a Terran male. She was hot and gripped his cock wonderfully close. Selfishly, he would allow her to explore him tomorrow. He couldn’t think beyond where their bodies joined and how perfect she felt, or how she moved.
He pulled back and plunged in. She gasped and moaned, rising to meet him thrust for thrust. Again and again, he pumped into her until she was the only thing in the universe. The feel of his mate. Her sounds. The soft words she murmured, punctuated with curses that delighted him. She was the only one for him, and he would never let her go again.
Pleasure coiled tight at the base of his tail and zipped along his nerves. At the precipice of release, he buried his fangs into her shoulder. She gasped, her core fluttering and squeezing around him. He released deep in her, filling her with his seed.
His mate rode out her climax. The toxin from his barb took away the pain of the mate mark, burning pleasure through her until only a soft glow remained.
Rolling to the side, he gathered her to him. He stroked her hair, watching for signs of distress.
She blinked, eyes heavy with sleep. Smacking her lips, she smiled and snuggled into him.
He adored this female.
Chapter 18
Ren
Ren arrived with an unknown Mahdfel male just as Havik prepared his morning meal.
“Where is our Thalia? Has she recovered from her injuries?”
“She requires rest,” Havik said.
“Because of her injuries or because of all the—” Ren made a clicking, then a whistling sound.
A flush of pride rushed through him at Ren acknowledging his mating to Thalia. The disrespectful tone, however, he disliked. “It is not too late for you to perish from yesterday’s glorious battle,” he warned.
“Murder threats and coffee. You are the brother of my heart.” Ren helped himself to the Earth coffee, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
As the fiend drank the coffee, Havik bit back his irritation. He had prepared that beverage not because he enjoyed it but because he wanted Thalia to have a fresh pot available when she woke. Ren briefed him on the outcome of the raid.
One ship had separated but had been disabled before it escaped. Smaller ships, mostly owned by the auction’s wealthy patrons, had escaped.
Havik growled with frustration. Busting the auction house removed several suppliers and a marketplace, but as long as the demand remained, someone with a disregard for the law would fulfill it.
The other male, a Seeran, extended the warlord’s offer to join the clan. “I can utilize two males for gathering intelligence.”
“I handle the intelligence. Havik provides the bashing,” Ren said, biting into a piece of toast.
“And stabbing,” Havik added.
The half-eaten piece of toast fell from Ren’s hand as he sat there, jaw hanging open. “Was that humor?”
“I have a sense of humor.”
“You take that back, Garu Havik. You do not have a humorous bone in your body.”
Havik’s lips twitched, recalling a picture Thalia had shown him of a feline with a Terran bone called a humerus. That was a Terran pun. He did have a sense of humor, or at least he learned it from Thalia.
“I must add another detail to your mission,” Seeran said, unconcerned about the sudden appearance of Havik’s funny bone.
“We completed our mission,” Havik said.
“There are several animals that need to be delivered to a sanctuary. One of these is in your homeworld. I understand you are an expert.” Seeran placed a large canvas bag on the table, opening it to reveal a kumakre egg. Under the lights, the pink shell shimmered.
“Is it still alive? They must be kept very warm,” Havik said. He carefully lifted the egg to examine the shell. Not a scratch to be seen. Having survived the chaos of the raid when so many people had been trampled and injured was nothing short of a miracle.
Gently holding the egg to his ear, he heard no signs of life. When he found Stabs’ egg, the kumakre had been near hatching and furiously scratched the shell from the inside. Perhaps this one was too young to move about and warn the world of its arrival.
“I know a wildlife rescue that can care for the egg,” he said. His father’s second wife had an interest in Rolusdrean wildlife and volunteered there. The female had cared for him since infancy, yet every time Havik called her “mother,” Kaos corrected him.
Annoyance flared, irritated that he still allowed his father to dictate his thoughts and actions.
“My mother volunteers with a rescue. I’m sure she will know what to do,” he said. Ren raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
A tapping across the floor and the jingle of a bell announced Stabs’ entrance. He clawed his way up Havik’s leg and homed in immediately on the egg. Sniffing and tasting the shell with his tongue, he was not happy until he curled around the egg in Havik’s lap.
“Is that all?” Ren drummed his fingers on the table, impatient. For what, Havik could not say.
“There is the matter of the Terran female,” Seeran said. Havik’s entire body tensed. “The warlord indicates that
