When she comes, it’s with a low cry, her back arching and her body tight underneath me. I continue to claim her, stroking deep over and over until she shudders again and cries out a second time, even louder. Only then, do I let my release claim me. It boils out of me, hot and furious, and I come with a shout of her name as I fill her with my seed.
A short time later, I realize I’m collapsed atop my mate, my weight barely held off of hers by the brace of my arms on either side of her. She bites and nips at my jaw, licking my skin after each graze of her teeth, and I feel my cock twitch and grow steadily harder deep inside her.
“Was that not enough for you, my ravenous little mate?” I claim her mouth with another kiss even as she laughs.
“I just thought you were a more reserved type,” she admits, breathless. “I’m so glad I was wrong.”
“Is that so?”
It takes me hours and hours to show her just how wrong she was.
Epilogue
VARRIK
“We’re almost there,” Milly cries happily, bouncing at my side as the ship cuts through the atmosphere. Her gaze is locked to the vidscreen that acts as a window to the outside, and I know she’s eager for the first sight of our new home. It’s fall, which means Risda III is going to be endless fields of ripe golden crops waiting for harvesting, herds of meat-stock on farm after farm, and quiet days of perfect weather.
She’s going to love it.
Because I like teasing my sweet human, I put my hands over her eyes.
Milly lets out an unearthly screech and claws at my hands. “No! I want to see!”
I can’t resist the laugh that rises out of me, and I keep grinning even when she pinches my side, her gaze glued to the screen.
The last few weeks with her have been the best of my life. Sure, every day has been filled with contacts sending me messages furious with my “lewd” marriage, business contracts suddenly ending, and my personal financiers desperately trying to do damage control. None of it matters to me. I’m rich with old money, and I’m tired of aristocratic games. I want to spend the rest of my long, long life with Milly at my side, enjoying her wonder at the world around her. I want to fill her belly with my child. I want to grow old with her and smile with her every day, and mate with her every night.
It’s been three weeks, and yet I know in my heart even a lifetime won’t be enough with my pretty human. She’s captured me, body and soul.
Milly gasps, her hands suddenly clutching at me as the ship breaks through the atmosphere and Risda III spills into sight, as pastoral and peaceful as I remember. “It’s so beautiful,” my mate says, awed. “This is yours, Varrik?”
“And now yours, too, my love,” I say, taking her hand in mine. “Welcome home.”
“Oh babe,” she whispers. “I love you so much. This is perfect. Thank you.”
I press a kiss to the top of her head, filled with love for my precious human. Even though this move was entirely for her, in a way, I’ve come home, too. But I found my home weeks ago, when Milly first put her arms around me.
She’s my home.
Part IV
WHEN SHE’S BOLD
On Risda III, it’s custom for women to marry for convenience. It provides safety and security in a universe that offers none for humans.
Me, I don’t really *need* a husband. I just want one. And I want one man in particular. There’s a new guy in town, a by-the-books military man named Rektar. Every day I show up to his office and flirt with him. I bring pies. I twirl my hair. I make it very, very obvious what I want.
Rektar is patient, and gentle for all his hulking form. He’d be a great husband. He’s also completely clueless that I’m flirting with him.
So it’s time for me to be a little bit bolder…
20
REKTAR
It's always a good day when the pretty little human stops by the office.
Risda's port of authority—called simply “Port” by the locals—is the only civilization on the pastoral planet on the edges of the galaxy. Other than hundreds of mostly self-sustaining farms, Risda boasts one mesakkah lordship, one spaceport, a tiny, backwater town, and lots of human refugees. Most people wouldn't find it charming, but I don't mind it. After years of service in the military and being shipped from war outpost to war outpost, Risda is serene. Quiet. Peaceful.
And it's full of females.
That last part makes things difficult for a male like me. I've always been the type to keep to myself, but it's worse around females. As a poor bastard son to a noble house, I was sent off to a military academy before my horns had even grown to their full length, and all my life I've been around males. The few run-ins I've had with females were awkward and brief.