“Well…” My pajuara blew back strands of hair that crossed her face. “That destroys any and all tentacle fantasies.” Her dark chuckle held a note of nerves, but her stance didn’t falter.
I had no idea what she meant by her statement, but when this battle ended, I would happily fulfill any fantasy she dreamed up. “Do not let the spikes hit you.” I gave her a hard look. “I will not tolerate harm to you.”
She snorted and cast me a glance from the corner of her eye. “Same.”
I spoke no more words, letting my actions tell the tale. I bolted for the nearest boulder, ascended it, and used it as a platform to launch at the creature. It’s three eyes zeroed in on me as I’d intended. If I could draw its attention and fell it quickly, then my Terran would be free of danger.
The tentacles swiped the air for me, but I sensed them easily. Each spiked arm was outlined in an amber glow in the same hue as my katra, thanks to my power. And the trajectory of the attacks were laid before me as a ghostly foreshadowing of the movement to come. So, it was that I landed on the beast’s head long before the spiked arms posed a threat. My boots sank to the ankle into its gelatinous body. I grimaced at the sensation but kept my focus on its neck. The tender underside of its head appeared the weak point. Striking with my axe, I aimed low. Yet, at this angle, I grazed the creature’s chin region—if it’d had a chin—just below it’s gaping hole of a mouth.
“Hey slimy!” My pajuara yelled, standing atop the same boulder I had used. “Over here.”
My hearts stopped. The beast turned its triple gaze toward my Terran and bounded after her. It bounced on its four back tentacles with me in tow. “Pajuara, move!”
She didn’t even flinch. Waiting until it was right upon her, she slid from the boulder and dove under the creature. “Take this!” The rocks in her grip hit its sensitive underside with a thud. The beast smacked the boulder where she’d been and flipped. “Hah.”
I jumped as it rolled, landing between the spikes on one of its arms. I wasted no beats and stabbed my axe into the tender neck, now exposed by my clever pajuara’s plan. “May you return to the stars.”
The beast roared and howled in its death throes.
My Terran clasped her hands over her ears, a yauna away from where she’d emerged from under the creature. Yet, it wasn’t far enough. As the beast flailed in its last breaths of life, a spiked tentacle headed for my pajuara. I moved without thought, clasping the creature’s arm around its dulled side and wrestling it the ground. My Terran yelped. A series of three more horrific cries from the beast, and then all went quiet. The tentacles fell to the ground lifeless.
I paid it no further thought, running to my pajuara.
With her arms held out in front of her, she stared at the back side of her hands, then her palms. I took them gently in my grip, turning them over to check her for injury. Finding none, I ran my fingers along her arm and bid her turn. “Nothing on your back.” I pushed aside the fabric of her skirt to inspect her thighs, hips, knees, and calves. “Your legs appear fine too. Do you feel pain anywhere?”
She laughed as my fingertips grazed her stomach and slapped my hands away. “Enough, Daegan. That tickles.”
“Tickles?” I had no idea what she inferred, but I hadn’t completed my assessment. “You must let me finish, pajuara.”
“I’m fine.” Readjusting the strands of her skirt, she brushed them over her knees. “Really.”
I was not convinced. But she gave me little quarter to argue.
“Besides…” She grabbed my hands in her much smaller grip, her skin warm and soft against my roughened palms. “I need you to know before anything else insane happens that my name…” Stopping for a breath, she did a quick search around the cavern. Her gaze tracked every shadowed corner. “Sorry, I half expected the ceiling to fall in or something.” She chuckled and took a half step toward me. Our linked hands were held against her breasts. “My name is Elena. Security Officer Elena Rivera from Earth’s deep space vessel, DS1. Nice to meet you.”
Her smile brightened the cavern and all the dank corners of my hearts greater than any planet’s sun ever could. It was as if I’d been lost in a cold, dark place with nothing but infinite hunger driving me onward. But with her warmth, I was full, whole and complete in a manner I never dreamed to be.
I brought her hands to my mouth, kissing each finger in turn. “Yes, my pajuara, Elena.” I reveled in speaking her name. Deep, rich emotions flooded me. The lushness of their feel and texture filled me to bursting. “It is indeed very nice to meet you, my Truxoria, my mate.”
“It’s true, then?” Elena gasped. “You think I’m your, what did you call it, fated mate?”
“My Elena.” I dropped her hands and pulled her in tight to my chest. Her breasts rubbed against the leather straps of my armor in a manner that had her cheeks turning red. “There is no doubt. Emotions began to bleed through from the beat I scented you.”
“Scented me?” Her hands slid up my chest and rested on my shoulders.
“Oh yes, my Truxoria.” I inhaled deeply, taking her into my lungs. The spice of her arousal permeated the air. “I’d know your scent anywhere now, could track you for many yaunas.” I gripped her luscious ass to pull her against me. She wrapped her legs around me in kind. “And the mate bond that calls to us cannot be denied.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that part.” She grinned, her core finding my cock beneath my leathers. “This is definitely not the norm for me.”
I growled at that, jealousy rising fast within me. “No. It would not be, Elena.” Tangling one hand in her hair, I yanked her back and let her see the possessiveness in my eyes. “You.” I ground my hips hard into her center. She moaned. “Are.” I used the arm around her waist to slide her up and down the length of my cock. She groaned. “Mine.”
Crexing pants were in the way, but I couldn’t stop the madness riding me. I drove into her faster, letting her feel my every desire. “Now, say it,” I commanded.
She blinked up at me, half dazed already. “What?”
“Say it.” I bounced her up and down, tearing at the band around her breasts with my teeth. I licked one taut peak into my mouth and sucked hard, then set it free with a popping sound. “Say you’re mine.” Her legs tightened around me, her body shaking. “Say it, Elena.”
“Yes!” Her orgasm hit hard, fast, as I intended. I yearned to feel her pulsing around my cock but this was only the beginning. “I’m yours. I’m yours, Daegan.”
