“Indeed.” Ellina nodded. “I have thought that…that I might look for a consort among the commoners, you know,” she said, looking up at him. “Only…I wouldn’t know how to begin.”
The thought of her with another male—any other male at all, no matter what his class—was nearly unbearable to Ty. He strove to keep his voice and face neutral as he simply said, “I see.”
“I know everyone is expecting me to choose from the bunch of nobles the High Priest put forward as candidates,” Ellina went on, after a moment, when he said nothing else. “But I can’t help myself—I despise all of them!”
“Of course you do, after the way they treated you,” Ty said. “Who could blame you?”
“It’s not just that they were mean to me when we were children. Honestly, it’s not,” Ellina protested. “But they’re all so empty-headed and shallow! Not a one of them cares a bit what happens to Helios Beta as long as they have the right clothes to wear to the next party and enough funds to gamble as long as they like. And did you see the way they all acted during the attack at the Grand Promenade?”
“Like a pack of idiots,” Ty growled. “Not a one of them was any help against the assassins. They mostly just got in the way of the guards trying to fight them off.”
“At least I don’t have to worry about Hennessy Tolland becoming my consort now, since he didn’t survive the attack,” Ellina said and then put a hand to her mouth. “Oh gods and goddesses, I shouldn’t have said that! It was awful of me!”
“You can always say whatever you’re thinking to me—I won’t judge you,” Ty told her. “And it’s not awful. Tolland was a waste of skin—even if his was nearly Sacred Blue.”
Ellina sighed. “I don’t know if it was his skin color so much as his willingness to go along with Lord Kikbax’s plans that made him the High Priest’s favorite.”
“The High Priest had better watch himself,” Ty growled. “Or he’ll be out of a job. I liked the way you put him in his place in the hatching grounds, you know. He had it coming.”
Ellina looked troubled.
“It felt good to do it, but I can’t help wondering what’s next with him? Lord Kikbax has been the High Priest of Thufar for a long time—he won’t take kindly to my threat to replace him.”
Ty frowned. “You think he’d try anything?” It had been his own worry as well. No male who had been in power as long as Kikbax had would be easily or quietly deposed.
“I don’t know. I hope not,” Ellina said. “I just…I just…”She broke off, shaking her head and one hand went to her cheek. “Oh, what’s wrong with me? I feel so strange.”
“Are you all right?” Ty looked at her anxiously. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing. Only that I feel so…so…” She made a hand gesture, as though trying to explain. “Remember how I told you I felt, uh, tingly in certain areas?”
Ty raised an eyebrow at her.
“I certainly do. I also remember how we resolved that little tingling problem.”
Again the image of her straddling his lap with her pussy spread wide as he stroked inside her filled his mind’s eye.
“Well, I feel like that again. Only so much more.” Ellina fanned herself with one hand. “Oh! I’m feeling so hot and so tingly.”
Actually, Ty realized, he was feeling kind of “tingly” himself. In fact, his shaft was hard as a rock between his thighs and all he wanted to do was drag Ellina into his lap and kiss her senseless.
He frowned. What in the Seven Hells was happening? Why was he suddenly as horny as an adolescent?
A motion in his peripheral vision provided the answer. Turning his head, he saw that Tisa and Lor, who had been snuggling on the back of the couch, were doing much more than snuggling now.
Ellina seemed to see the problem at the same time.
“Oh dear!” she exclaimed. “They’re mating—for the first time!”
“Is the first time…worse for some reason?” Ty asked, straining to speak normally when he was dying to kiss her and then do much more than kiss her.
“It’s…very intense,” Ellina finally got out. “And…and the effects of a matched set of chewchies mating on their people can be…Can be…”
But her words finished in a moan and Ty saw that her hands were fisted in her lap and her thighs were clenched tightly, as though she was fighting the same lust he was—a lust that was rapidly overwhelming him.
“Goddess damn it, you two!” he growled at the chewchies but Lor and Tisa took not the least notice of him. Clearly they were going to fulfill their biological urges no matter what the effect on their people was.
And right now, the effects felt pretty unbearable.
Chapter Thirty-three
“Oh! What are we going to do?” Ellina moaned. “I can’t stand this, Ty! It’s almost like I’m on my Heat Cycle only it doesn’t hurt—it just makes me want…want you so much!”
“I want you too, little one.” Ty’s deep voice was ragged with lust and his fangs were long and sharp-looking.
Suddenly Ellina wanted nothing more than to have those long, sharp points sunk deep in her flesh—to feel him biting her—biting her and breeding her at the same time…
“Gods!” Ty groaned and she realized that her wish—her need—had been sent to him through their link with the chewchies. “Don’t tempt me like that, Ellina!” he growled. “You have no idea how badly I want to bite you and breed you, right now!”
“Yes, I do, because I want it too!”
Suddenly, she was
