Wild eyes drawn to the patch of flesh at shoulder and neck she offered to him, Er’it roared and struck, teeth sinking deep into the tensed muscle and grinding through layers of flesh until the sweetness of her blood filled his mouth. Shuddering as he filled her clutching depths with his seed, groaning with each spine-wrenching surge until he fell over her, he lapped at the wound.
There was more, something else to be done, but as a serene quiet settled over them, Er’it could not pull at the thread of this newfound understanding to know what it was. Rolling to his back, he wrapped his arms tight around Aida after settling her over his bulk. Keeping her flushed skin warm as he allowed his eyes to drift shut, he enjoyed a moment’s respite before whatever this was began again.
The rustling of leaves snared his attention, starting him upright and ready to meet whatever adversary dared to interrupt them until the faint glow of Kal’s silvery coat exited the pitch shadows. Phylix and man nodded at one another in understanding before Er’it let his eyes close once more. As he stroked a weary palm over Aida’s crown, she began to hum against his chest.
He’d rest his eyes for just a moment.
* * *
Waking to Aida’s pained whine, Er’it tumbled her aside to lunge to his feet. Braced and ready for an unseen enemy as her wail echoed through the trees, the thundering of his heart scarce abated once he determined nothing but Kal remained nearby. Er’it turned to find his naked female curled on her side with a dainty palm crushed against her shoulder.
A surge of pride sang through him, swelling through his chest as he looked Aida over. Er’it gleaned satisfaction from every mark he’d left upon her body, right down to the reddened folds of her sex that remained puffy and slick with his seed that leaked out of her even now. All of it was nothing compared to the elation filling him as he crouched to tug her hand away, viewing the deep bite that oozed fresh blood.
“You enjoy this,” Aida demanded in a strained hiss, her attempt to scuttle away thwarted when he wrapped an arm about her waist to pull her between his legs. “Y-You mutilated me!”
“Quiet,” Er’it said, uneasy with the acrid taste of her rejection. Uncertain why it mattered that she shied away from his hand when he went to offer her comfort, he was bewildered by the fact that he sought to give her solace to begin with.
“Let go of me. I want to go to the stream,” she stammered out, quaking under his hands as Er’it gave her unmarked shoulder a rough caress.
Frustration mounting as his emotions flung to every direction, somehow angering him even further, Er’it bared his teeth in a snarl and dragged Aida to her feet along with him. Holding her arm in a bruising grip, he hauled her along behind him as he stalked through the now verdant clearing. Stooping to grab up his sword as they passed it, he slashed at the first bit of shrubbery that dared to consider blocking his path.
Aida’s cry had him whirling around, sword at the ready to slay what made such a horrified sound come from between her lips. He found her staring, inky gaze locked on him before she turned with trembling lips to touch the injured greenery. Fingers covered in sticky sap as she tried to repair the broken stems, tears tumbled from her thick lashes, splashing against the upturned swell of the breasts she tried to cover with an arm braced over them.
It all served to enrage him. More concerned with a few snapped twigs, all her attention diverted from him, Er’it would swear he could feel her misery, not just coating his skin as it hung in a heavy cloud around her but flowing through his veins, gripping his heart and twisting it within his chest.
Any glimmer of patience exploded with a brittle snap within him when she hung her head and began weeping in earnest. Latching onto her arm once more, he resumed dragging her through the forest. Ignoring her quiet sounds of pain that failed to bring him pleasure, he felt no satisfaction as he stormed through the trees toward the stream.
His earlier joy sitting like the poisoned sludge she’d purged from his veins, he half tossed her into the freezing water. He knew what she wanted when she’d demanded to come here and growled when she proved him right. As her fingers clawed at tender flesh to rid it of the taint of his seed and scent, Er’it paced the shore, watching her with hooded gaze while she turned her skin muddy rose in her desperation.
With the vague memory of thinking the Hat’or had aligned their paths scalding the back of his throat with bitter bile, Er’it launched himself from the shore into the water. The huge splash startling her into a scream, her small legs pumped through the heavy water to dodge him. Knocking away her slapping hands to grab her about the waist, a palm between her shoulders bent her over the soft sand. Without warning, he thrust inside her.
Her wail was nothing but pain. Lunging forward, clawing at the scrubby grass growing near the stream, she fought to get away. With no slick to ease the friction of his second cruel thrust, Er’it found no pleasure in it. Disgust slithered through his belly alongside the vicious scratching within his chest, heart thundering as cruel bands strangled it in a vise.
A wordless shout scraped his throat raw as he wrapped his arms tight around her struggling body. Pinning her to him, keeping them both still as they strained for panting breaths, Er’it covered her back and set his lips to the mark at her shoulder. Solace filtered through him as they edged toward stillness and her sweet scent became untainted by the foulness of fear and pain. Purr resonating through his chest and into her back without thought, his fingers found the dripping strands of her hair and tugged the slack fall aside to view her face.
The sight of lingering hard lines etched into the softness of her features, her midnight gaze clouded with emotion, twisted at his heart, tearing at it as he watched another salty tear slip free from her lashes. His purr grew louder, richer as Er’it surrounded her with his body, easing the agonizing thing in his chest as she took the first shuddery breath and her lashes fluttered with a hard exhale. As she calmed, becoming soft and warm within his embrace, Er’it nuzzled the line of her jaw and slid his hand down the flat of her stomach, shushing her quiet whimper when he cupped her mound. Pulling back enough to see her face once more, Er’it’s tongue lapped up the trail of bitter tears from the corner of her eye. Moving down her cheek, he brushed his lips against hers, not forcing or demanding but in a silent entreaty for her to open for him.
When she responded, it was as if the sky opened and the magnificent light of the Hat’or shone upon them. Tawny gold skin, so much paler than his yet rich in its own right, grew flush and warm against him. Cheeks becoming pink when she arched her back to accept his kiss, she took him deeper as her snug walls grew slick with arousal, easing the way for his fingers as they traced delicate circles around her clit.
Urgency he had aplenty, yet each slow thrust was made with precision, every movement controlled in a languid assault. Tenderness was not something he knew well, gentle never a thing he offered anymore. Yet Er’it took his time with her, his sole focus on her quiet sounds and reactions. He drew out each gasp and whimper, her moans plundered to their depths.
Purr changing pitch and depth, he offered her a licentious call, one that had her bucking against him and using the bank for leverage as she shoved her rounded ass into his hips in a silent plea for more. He kept to the slow sways that would see her to the precipice but not soon. He wanted to take his time. Smiling against her hungry lips, Er’it caught her waist to keep her still, forcing her to take what he gave her and nothing more.
No matter her frustrated whines or the hands she sent back to drag her nails over his thighs, Er’it kept the agonizing pace, breath trembling in his lungs as her pleasure soared and she came alive beneath him. Hating that he was at her back, wanting to watch the myriad of expressions flitting over her guileless face, he couldn’t bring himself to pull out of her clutching depths, not as she fluttered around his driving cock, head lolling against his shoulder as she offered her mewling cries of bliss. Every ragged moan shredded his restraint until Er’it began driving deeper, harder, until they came together with the wet slap of skin.
“Please,” Aida sobbed, a full body shudder preceding her head thrown back against his chest. Eyes lost in a torrid haze as she snarled at the sky above, she was flung from the precipice with a hoarse scream on his next firm thrust.
The first sucking contraction destroyed the lingering remains of his control. Er’it pushed her to the bank, letting loose his need, driving into her clinging depths with the rapid pistoning of his hips. Growling against her wounded shoulder, he nipped at the torn flesh and shuddered at her wail of pure bliss. Pleasure snapping up his spine in a ragged bolt of energy, Er’it roared, pushing the sound into her smaller body as he shoved home a final time. Knot swelling and locking behind her pubic bone as her body gripped him, each violent twist of muscle urged forth his seed. Er’it ground against her, trying to edge that much deeper, to fill her that much more, as he set his mouth around the mark and sucked hard.
It wasn’t her blood that wrenched his heart and spine. He understood that much as the savage beast within his chest exploded in a fiery wash. Sizzling through the air, more power than he’d had in a long time expended. Landing with a molten hiss as it scattered across the burbling stream, grass dried with puffs of wispy smoke as the dew burned away.
Feral sounds flooded over his lips, same as the rich crimson staining her skin. The something missing nagged at him, tearing at his thoughts and ripping them all asunder as Er’it clung to Aida. Stilling her writhing as her skin burned hotter against his, he felt it grip him ever tighter, the frenzied need crackling through his chest as she bucked and whined.
Just as it was last night, so different yet much the same, he felt her trembling heartbeat within his chest, the scalding rush of blood in her veins sheening them in sweat. Er’it locked his arms around her, realizing he felt everything she did. On the heels of the awareness, thoughts not his own flooded his mind.
Desperation. Need. Hunger. Aida’s teeth tore at the soft flesh of her lips because he denied her true need. Kept to his front, she could not reach. The same instinct that had guided him last night to tear open her shoulder ran rampant through her sightless eyes as she turned her head and whined at him, a sound of pure despair as Er’it wrapped an arm around her neck. Hand delving into her sopping curls to scrub the pads of his fingers against her scalp, he offered a calming rumble that did little to quiet her. Knot swollen and throbbing deep inside her, it would not abate soon, not while her tightness rippled around him, guiding every thick surge forward.
Wrapping his other arm around her hips to pin her against him, Er’it carried them from the cold water to the soft grass along the shore. He crushed her with his full weight when she tried to kick, to turn. Purr never stopping, he wedged his hand beneath her and ignored her yip of protest as he wriggled his fingers down her belly to strum her clit in a furious rhythm, distracting her with it as he rocked his hips. Forcing more of his seed to fill her, friction driving him mad, he wanted to pound into her again hard enough to make her shriek and scream.
