Page 48 of King of Serpents

Therxian’s eyes closed with pleasure, his wings slowly folding around her to hold her close to his heart as he enclosed her in the warmth and safety he offered within the shelter of his wings. What she offered just then resonated deep within him. There had never been a time where there had not been expectation on him. Where others did not look to him to fulfill a duty. And yet, here was this tiny human, offering something that he never once realized that he desperately craved: to be desired and accepted for himself. Not as a hunter to feed a nara. Not as a prince to sire a golden heir.

“Thank you.” The words were pale in comparison to the emotions that rocked him, but he could not manage anything else. He could not find the words.

Thankfully, Alex seemed to understand. She pressed against him, her arms encircling him to the best of her ability, and she hugged him, sharing her warmth and affection with him.

“Don’t thank me yet. You haven’t even seen what I can do and yet you are determined to go through with this. You may regret this.”

Although he understood that she was jesting, there was a note of vulnerability in her voice that captured his heart. His eyes opened and he angled his head so that he could look down into his wings at her. Her blue eyes met his solemnly and his heart clenched.

“All I need and want is you,” he quietly replied. “It does not matter what you can do. I am not one who needs to be impressed by intimate arts like a noble female holding selection in the great chamber of the haga.”

Alex blinked at him, her brow puckering slightly. “Holding selection?”

He huffed in amusement. “I will explain it to you later. I just mean that this—right here and right now as we are without performance or exaggeration—is everything that I want.”

Her lips curled with satisfaction and the softness in her expression sent warmth through his chest. This was far better than a feverish first mating broken only by needs for sustenance. Which reminded him...

Therxian glanced around the nest worriedly. Although they had just eaten, mating often occupied a long expanse of time. She would certainly get hungry within a short period and he had nothing prepared. His mother had made certain that his chamber was provided everything that might be needed every time a female was escorted to him—even though it had ultimately been unnecessary—the fact that there was nothing provided at all for his hithana dimmed his lust as guilt surged to the fore.

“Therxian, what is it?”

He blinked and refocused on his mate’s beloved face, noting the worry there. He grimaced. It appeared that she was becoming more skilled at reading him.

“I have nothing for you,” he admitted in a dissatisfied grumble.

Her brow puckered. “I don’t get it. It looks like you have plenty,” she murmured as her hand slid between them and lightly ran along the length of his sant, sending a tremor of desire through him.

It took effort to force himself to think past the renewed desire surging through him, but he dipped his chin in frustration.

“That is not what I was referring to it,” he thickly rasped. “I have not provided even a small measure of what my mother supplied in the palace for the noble females. I do not wish you to ever believe that I consider you deserving of less. Truthfully you deserve far more.”

Alex’s eyebrows shot up and she glanced over at the empty dishes on the table. “We just ate. Are you still hungry?”

His chin dipped again, embarrassment clawing at his innards. “No... yes... but no, that is it.” He drew in a sharp breath and held it for a moment while he sorted through his scattered thoughts. “I do not have food prepared for you for our mating. It will be long and arduous, and I do not wish you to suffer—”

Her peal of laughter startled him to silence.

“Arduous,” she echoed, and she snorted faintly around another chuckle. “Therxian, you speak as if we are preparing to battle.”

“Probably not too far of a distinction,” he muttered. “Perhaps I should go back to the palace and acquire—”

Alex’s arm looped around his neck, her fingers finding purchase on his gavo as she dragged his head down, her mouth covering his completely. It not only surprised and silenced him, but it also destroyed his train of thought as her tongue pushed into his mouth and slid along his tongues in a clever, slick dance that made him forget everything.

His hands cupped her bottom, his fingers splaying over the unfamiliar human shape of her. His wings tightened around as her as well as he responded, his tongues sliding over hers and caressing it intimately as heat drove deeper into the root of his sant, bringing him to full engorgement. A growl rattled in Therxian’s chest as he shifted his thumbs between her legs, his claws scraping across the fabric that covered that hot, intimate part of her.

Exquisite heat radiated from that point and the fabric gradually became damp as he continued to rub experimentally against it. Alex squirmed against his thumbs in response, a choked, needy sound rising in her throat. She mumbled something against his mouth, but it was far too muffled for him to understand. What he did understand, however, was the way her hands shot urgently to her coverings and parted the material covering her. Bracing his wings more firmly behind her and looping the tip of his tail supportively against the small of her back, he set to work helping her as he dragged the material off her arms and worked it down off her legs. The sahguin cloth wrapped and knotted in layers around her arms, torso, and legs to keep her warm took a bit more time to divest, but he took great pleasure in stroking her and teasing her slowly as he unwound them until at last the long, woven bands of material were drawn from her. He cast each band to the side as he hungrily took in the absolute perfection of her body until it was bared to him completely.

Breaking the kiss, Therxian drew back slightly to appreciate the sight of what he uncovered. He groaned at the sight and visually feasted on the delicate softness of flesh and the curves of her human shape. She was pale in a way that was considered sickly among his kind, and yet he had come to find that difference oddly charming, especially the pink that had risen to the surface with her desire. Even the strange thatch of richly perfumed hair between her thighs enticed him. Taking care that he kept her warm between his body and his wings, he lowered his head and dragged his tongues down the tip of her breast so that his tongues parted around it as they flicked and tested its suppleness. Her ragged gasp of appreciation was encouraging so he applied the same attention to her other breast while the tip of his tail slowly explored his mate’s body as he committed its shape and texture to memory. Scales dulled sensations in many areas, but the tip of the tail that extended below the gavo had tiny, thin scales and was incredibly sensitive. And against those sensitive scales, his mate’s body was a wonder of perfection.

He ran it gently over her back, tracing the muscular structure of her shoulders and the dip of her waist. Her skin was warm, pliant, and silky and she trembled at his touch beautifully as a deep pink spread across her chest. Therxian rasped a sound of pure appreciation against her breast as the pheromone-thick scent of her arousal bloomed deeply around him. Eager to tease more reaction from his mate, he sucked her nipple into his mouth so that his tongues could fold and curl completely around it. His tongues moved around it, tugging and dragging on the hard tip rhythmically as he slipped his tail to the front of her body to glide against the underside of her breasts, drawing a shiver of reaction from her.

His tail slid lower, and he shifted one hand to her opposite breast, his thumb caressing the nipple as his tail slid down her soft, warm belly and sank into the heat between her thighs. Alex jumped at the intrusion of his tail slicking through the moist heat, and he hissed at the exquisite sensation of it as he drove it higher to rub against her vent. Aside from the petals of flesh that parted for him, there was a small, swollen nub of flesh at its apex that, when rubbed back and forth against his small, delicate scales, drew forth more of her pheromones into the air as his tail was wettened with her perfumed arousal.

His gavo fluttered in excitement and groans tore from them both as the tip sank into her wet heat as it continued to twist against that nub. Alex’s internal muscles clenched, but that was suddenly not the only place that he was gripped because her hand closed around his sant, squeezing as she slowly tugged on up his length, her fingers caressing and dancing over the cluster of heads at its tip, before dropping down to its base again.

Overcome with pleasure from her small human hand, Therxian rolled back on his coiled tail so that he dropped amid the pillows and cushions within the nest. Lying there, he held her to him, his tongues caressing her breasts and his tail working her until she panted and her fingers ran over his sant faster, her thumb tapping against the heads until they began to drizzle over her fist. His scent rose with hers, mingling in a way that he could not get enough of. He breathed it in and shivered, his muscles relaxing even more with the contentment that sank into him even as his hunger crept higher within his blood. It spiked, flooding over his senses maddeningly as a tingling sensation swept over his tongue.

He wanted to taste the source of her pheromone-laden sweetness.