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My hard cock presses against his lower stomach, and his ears flick as I rock it gently against his soft skin.

He takes in another deep breath as his gaze meets mine and holds it. Then he lifts his hands. His fingers are almost trembling as he signs, ‘I will never abandon you like you are nothing to me. That is impossible. You are mine.’

My chest aches. I think about his former human. About the way Jyrion spoke of Kori and how, without direct words, implied that Eissa was as careless with him as Dhoryn has been with Lucie.

I open my mind and let Eissa read that fear without showing him it was Jyrion who put that fear and doubt into my mind.

Eissa’s ears flick and his eyes flash, and he bares his fangs at me. With one arm lashed around my waist to yank me even closer, his other hand lifts to sign, ‘Never. You. Are. Mine.’

I lick my lips. ‘For how long?’

Until all three of our hearts cease to beat.

I let his words flow from my mind into my limbs. My cock is harder than before, but I don’t necessarily feel the urge to push further into it. I want his mouth on me, yes. That’s never in question. I want the tip of his tail or his two dicks to stretch me wide. Want his fangs piercing my skin, claws tearing into the tender flesh of my back.

I want to be marked as his and kept that way.

But I also want more. I want to know him. I want to understand everything.

He lets out a heavy sigh, then pulls me until I’m lying against his chest. At first I think it might be his way of shutting the conversation down, then his fingers wind into my hair again, and I feel the pressure of him in my head.

Allow me this, he asks. It will be easier if I can tell you and show you.

I realize this might be a lot. It might be too much. But I need it. I need to understand him better. Lifting my hand, I nod my fist. ‘Yes.’

He wraps his tail around my leg in a possessive hold, and as I close my eyes, I start to see flashes of images. It’s Kori, I realize after a moment. Tall, thin, the perfect set of cut abs that exist in young people who don’t even need to try.

He’s gorgeous, with a full head of dark hair and wide eyes that seem to hold a curiosity most people don’t have. He has an angelic face with perfect dimples in the center of each cheek, and a sunny smile that lights up the room.

I feel the memory of Eissa’s chest going warm when he sees him. Of the need to know him, to please him, to taste him. I feel Eissa’s yearning for him, and also the feeling of being blocked.

He could not hear inside Kori’s mind. I don’t know why, but that startles me profoundly.

I did not understand love, Eissa tells me. I did not understand how profoundly deep humans were capable of feeling. I knew that they were different from the Vyastil. They were more primal, more in tune with their own nature than we had become. I knew we had been like that once, but it was so, so long ago.

Slowly, as time went on, I allowed myself to feel for Kori in a way that would have had me arrested for treason. He never told me the words that he loved me, but he was attentive. I felt cared for in a way that I had never experienced before.

I whispered secrets to him. I let him in close.

And then he was taken from me.

My breath catches in my chest when my head is suddenly flooded with images. Kori is kneeling on the floor, his mouth bleeding. His hands are tied behind his back, and there’s a thick collar around his neck. Eissa is in chains, face horrified, a sense of impending doom in his chest.

Jyrion is standing over Kori with one clawed hand holding him by the hair, and he’s…he’s smiling at Eissa. He looks as though he’s taking pleasure from the scene.

Next, there is a dark room. Eissa is being forced into a half-kneel. Whips are cutting into his flesh, leaving scars on his body that would render him imperfect in the eyes of all Vyastil.

If he is ever exposed, he will lose his position.

Jyrion isn’t there for this. Eissa is alone in the dark, flayed open and raw, and not sure if he’s going to live.

This deep in his mind, I should be able to feel his pain, but I realize Eissa’s shielding me from it. Let me have it, I beg him. Please.

No, my Luca. I will give you almost anything, but not that. Never that.

It’s not worth the fight. I allow the memories to flood my mind. An eternity in the dark, whipping old wounds open when they start to close, no hope of herbs or cum to heal him.

Jyrion appears, and I feel Eissa’s inability to tell how much time has passed. He’s scarred now, permanently. Jyrion drags a finger over the uneven lines across Eissa’s arms, and he smiles at him.