Tap.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...

Multiple heat signatures surrounded me, big, angry, bloodthirsty.

I'll kill them all before I let them touch her!

Where's my fucking blade?

One of the shapes swung at me, but my leg struck its head first.

One quick snap and your bullshit is over!

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPP!!!!!!

The tapping stopped.

Wings flying away.

I was standing over Dran with my hands on the back of his head and under his chin, primed to snap his neck.

I hopped back, trying my best to smile and laugh like the fake out was my intention all along.

"That was fucking amazing!" Dran rolled off his belly, chortling from the ground.

My other opponents were circling, but were polite enough to restrain their attacks while their brother was off his feet.

That sound?

I turned to Eh'kt, who was standing with his hand hovering over his wristcomm. He'd set the frequency in a high-pitch range that only myself and nearby animals could register.

"Would you be ok if we cut this short?" Eh'kt chimed in, pointing to his gauntlet. "A small errand has come up for my appointment tomorrow."

I've never wanted to run over and curl up into Eh'kt's arms more than I needed to now.

"Sorry fellas," I helped pull Dran up. "Today's been a little hectic."

"All good!" Dran patted my shoulder. "But we'll be expecting you back. If I'm here, stop by. You'll always have a place in my ring!"

Some of the other Zhaguai groaned in disappointment but stifled their whines when Dran narrowed his eyes at them.

I waved goodbye and returned to Eh'kt's side.

"Thank you," I clenched my ears together and crossed my arms shamefully. I didn't know where to begin or how to apologize. I wasn't sure what was worse, that normally I was unaware of these episodes until long afterward or that now Eh'kt was my witness.

He hooked his arm around me and I instinctually leaned in.

"Every once in a while," Eh'kt spoke softly. "On those rare occasions, when I let you sleep, you get noisy."

My ears shot up and I turned to him.

He thrummed his chest and rubbed his palms on my arms.

"When I rouse you and ask what upset you, you always reply pigeons."

"Pigeons..?"

Wait, what?

Flickers of Thorngate blinked in my mind, and my chest grew cold.

Eh'kt walked me out of the arena as though everything was perfectly fine. Calm, patient, and vigilant. He was my balas when I was certain I was going to drown.

"They ate Two Clouds," I spoke up after a long walk into a section of jungle Eh'kt referred to as his favorite place to meditate. "I couldn't get to her body and lay her to rest proper. On account of that sniper, Red Spider, hiding and using her body to bait me."

The jungle path devolved into a winding swirl of giant vines.

"So I ignored her corpse and let her rot in the open," I continued, as my eyes burned with imminent tears. "Instead, I used the whole mess as an opportunity to hunt down her killer. That's when birds came. A flock of nasty mutated pigeons."

I followed Eh'kt down the winding vines into a steep, overgrown valley.

"But I wasn't looking for revenge," I took Eh'kt's hand and let him lead me through the thick foliage. "That was just a bonus. By that time, I'd already started fighting on the offensive."

"Did you kill him?" Eh'kt turned to me when we finally arrived at the lush green bottom.

I shook my head. "Not that day."

The secluded oasis was something out of a youngling's storybook. Verdant long vines draped in succulent moss, a lagoon rippling with sublime teal water, and a narrow waterfall spilling down from a green cliff towering above, spritzing the air with an ethereal rainbow.

"I know water isn't your favorite," Eh'kt led me to a mossy patch near the water's edge.

"It's ok," I smiled. "If this place is irradiated, then I die a slow, happy death."

Eh'kt thrummed and touched his forehead to mine. "No harm, today." He spoke to me in simplified Ahnzi.

"Well said," I praised his annunciation and sentiment in the same tongue. He'd been very insistent that I teach him my language, and it was a little freaky how quickly he was learning.

My mate kissed me and drew me to the ground.

"Why do you.." Eh'kt mixed his Ahnzi words with Zhaguai. There were still many words and phrases we had yet to cover. "Always say, my father's tribe?"

I repeated the phrase correctly translated, then made a lesson of my response. Speaking first in Zhaguai and repeating myself once more in Ahnzi. "I wasn't raised with his family. My father chased his dream to make a living trading in songs, and that required traveling and leaving his people behind."

Eh'kt nuzzled next to me but made no attempt to interrupt or distract me.

"Ahnzi was my first language and my father taught me all their stories," I lounged on the jungle floor twisting my fingers lazily between Eh'kt's longest coiling black quills. "But it doesn't feel right to claim his heritage."

"Did you ever meet them, his family?"

"Several times," I nodded. "His parents and tribe were very kind. They offered once to let me live with them while my dad was out on the road. But I said no. I always felt like an outsider. Truth be told," I rolled onto my back and stretched my arms. "Teaching you Ahnzi isn't very practical."

Eh'kt leaned his face closer to me. "I strongly disagree."

"It was a small tribe. Few razkurs beyond their lands spoke it fluently before I left, maybe none know it at all now. Their territory was just a blip on the map compared to a giant busy-body metropolis city-state like Thorngate. Everywhere else, the common tongue is Oto-Winde."

"What does that sound like?" Eh'kt's lips curled into a wide grin.

"Oh, no!" I pressed a finger over his fanged mouth. "I'm not muddying up your progress with a second, more complex language."

Eh'kt nipped at my finger, then rolled his weight on top of me and feigned several playful bites into the air. I flinched back and made myself small, then bounced my brow up at him deviously when I unfastened the clamp on his belt.

Eh'kt growled and lunged at me with a grunt, then used his teeth to unsnap the leather straps on my harness and proceeded to peel off my clothing. After dragging my shorts off, he crawled up my legs and his warm breath linger on my pelvis. My mate dragged his tongue heavily along my lower lips and then spread my legs to delve deeper. Two of his long tendrils slithering in to unfold my slit with the precision of a world-renown surgeon.

He felt like a big cat lapping up a saucer of milk and really getting into it. The activity wasn't particularly safe to perform on the females of my species, as any success could result in serious injury. But one of the perks of having a compulsive planner for a lifemate was that I felt safe in trusting his choices.

Then, out of nowhere, he was up and hoisting me into his arms to carry me toward the water. I didn't cringe. It wasn't necessary. No harm would come to me while Eh'kt held me in his arms.

He hopped us across a thin trail of stones toward the waterfall.

"Is it too loud?" Eh'kt halted momentarily.

"NO," I shouted. The protective membranes within my ears involuntarily clench up. It didn't hurt but the seal hindered my long-range hearing.

Eh'kt continued on and walked us through the waterfall.

So cold!

I was forced to close my eyes under the deluge of water and like magic, I couldn't see or hear anything beyond the falling water. Even Eh'kt's heat signature vanished from my thermal bands. I was completely blind but I could still feel Eh'kt mouth pressing against mine.

He existed only as a sensation, his rugged scales, the honeyed taste of his tongue, the pressure of his arms holding me tight, and his rigid cock rubbing against my entrance below.

Eh'kt spun our bodies, switching places with me, and stood under the wall of water. He was still invisible while my eyes were closed and I couldn't open them from the spray of droplets bouncing off of him. He repositioned me and slipped one of his large fingers inside my slit and then, after a few more seconds of letting his body temperature drop, stepped forward from the water, raised me up, and leaned my back against the wall of slick rocks hidden behind the fall.

Once again, his flat forked-tongue found its way back to my clit. He massaged and coiled that dextrous slippery muscle around my delicate little nub, slowly coaxing my pulse rate to hasten.

Even with his warm finger fluttering alongside that particularly titillating spot within, it wasn't nearly enough to bring me to completion. Which was ideal, as I had no intention of letting myself finish before him.

Eh'kt lowered me down and slathered the head of his dick with the juicy proceeds of his diligent work. He knew I wanted him and intentionally kept narrowly gliding past his target. Some of his heat was returning and I caught a momentary glimpse of his scaled lips crooking into an evil grin. All of a sudden, he hugged me close and leaped through the waterfall, dunking us both under the cool azure water.

We tumbled in the silence, mouths and limbs entangled, all while securely encased within a shimmering underwater void. I felt no panic, only serenity.

If my descent to the bottom of the endless white lake had been anything like this... How many choices might I have made differently? Not that I would ever want to drag Eh'kt into that place of despair.

Never.

Eh'kt's legs kicked as he raised our bodies toward the surface. My mate was a powerful swimmer.

Ni Eh'kt saw me, understood me, and protected me in a way no other had ever before. He deserved all the happiness I could give him and today I intended to make him cum over and over!

We splashed out next to a miniature island made up of staggered white stones protruding from the center of the azure lagoon, perfectly sized for a large Zhaguai to sun himself.

Eh'kt shoved me below him and onto the rocks while trying to thrust his body between my legs.

I laughed and yanked him up and over, pinning him with his back, recumbent across a large flat rock. He didn't fight me and instead opted to watch me straddle him and lean back with my arms braced on his thighs. I raised my ass and hovered over him like an upside-down crab, wetting and teasing the engorged tip of his pale, pulsing cock to his chittering delight.

I spread my legs, putting every detail on display, and arched my back and rocked my hips. The white edges of Eh'kt's silver eyes went wide to their maximum, desperate to see everything that followed. Had there been any monetary currency in existence on Sahei, I would have bet it all that my mate was kicking himself for not having his helmet on hand to preserve a recording.

I took a moment to line up my aim, then wiggled and pushed down on his shaft, quivering when I squeezed down on the base. The ache was exquisite.

Eh'kt groaned and took hold of my ankles.

Then I got to work, pumping my fully stretched pussy up and down on his shaft, ramming myself to the hilt with each pass, and building up force and velocity.

Unexpectantly, a silhouette coalesced through the roaring static emanating from the waterfall. My protective membranes were still partially sealed and my hearing was slow to fully recover. Someone was standing nearby in the shallows several feet behind Eh'kt's head.

I recognized the scars and his build immediately.

It was Shale.

I didn't dare let his presence impede my rhythm, as Eh'kt once explained that it was customary for his people to rut in public during mating season.

"Red eyes," I spoke breathlessly to Eh'kt in Ahnzi. "Standing behind you."

Eh'kt darted his eyes around in confusion.

"Your rival," I tried to elaborate while adhering only to the Ahnzi words I knew my mate could translate. "Big red."

Eh'kt snarled and flared his fangs in rage.

I wriggled my hips down to prevent my mate from rising. His grip tightened on my legs and each subsequent plunge progressed into a genuine struggle to hit bottom.

Abura Below! Eh'kt was so fucking hard!

"Standing still," I described to my mate. Eh'kt raked his claws up my calves and growled louder than usual. "He's not hiding."

I had no idea why the Shale was here. Earlier at the Institute, he did everything in his power to get rid of us as soon as possible. It would seem Eh'kt wasn't the only Zhaguai prone to use this lagoon as a retreat for meditation and relaxation.

"Pulse fast," I continued to update my mate. My legs trembled as I writhed on the root of his cock. Then I raised my rear and impaled myself again. "His eyes are fixed on us."

Fresh claw marks on a giant twisted vine overhead suggested that Shale had jumped down to arrive where he was, but there was nowhere to hide. He was stranded in the open. Shifting his scale color was pointless. He couldn't hide from my senses and the only exit required a long sloshing trek in all directions back to shore. Even a mighty Forged warrior recognized when retreat was too awkward.

"Breath fast. He's not backing away," I winced from the gut-wrenching pleasure but persisted in riding my mate full throttle.

Eh'kt's eyes remained locked on me, burning with hate at the knowledge that his rival was watching. But his hardon was swollen to an unprecedented thickness and begged me to milk him harder.

"Clothed but fully exposed," I could smell Shale. Eh'kt could as well. Earthy like an early morning in autumn, with a peculiar hint of mint.

"He's..." the word I wanted to use hadn't come up in our lessons. Oddly, the mental gymnastics of selecting the correct vocabulary was proving invaluable in preventing me from getting swept up in the euphoric thrall. "Hands are closed tight."

I could hear Shale digging his claws into his palms, and his amorous musk was unmistakable. I had no idea what he was thinking or why he was staying.

Did he intend to watch till the end?

"He's hard," I cried out to Eh'kt. "Spilling drops."

Eh'kt's hands constricted on my calves, his entire body was strained and taut.

"Fighting," I slammed down again and again with all my might. "He wants to touch hims-"

Eh'kt roared and erupted in a torrent of white magma before I could finish speaking. The sound of his fury hung in the air for what felt like hours.

I caught my breath and saw the veins in his neck pulsing and there were light bruises on my calves in the shape of his hands. Then I squatted on Eh'kt with my knees up and laid my hand on his chest, feeling his ribs heave deeply while he vanished off to that far-off fleeting place. I leaned down, waiting to welcome him back with kisses, and noticed I was sitting in a large, warm puddle.

Shit, that's a lot.

Eh'kt blinked and threw his arms up around me.

I slouched forward, kissed him, and swirled my wetness with him still inside. Proving that I had spared him the lockdown.

Still groggy, Eh'kt rolled halfway up and craned his head over his shoulder just in time to catch Shale's backside sloshing away as the Forged hightailed it out of there.

Then my mate flopped back and released a long belly laugh. I tried to join him but he grabbed my hips, insisting that I grind on him because he was refreshed and ready to go again.

.

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TRANSLATIONS:

Ahnzi = Mourning Crow's Original Language

Ni Eh'kt = My Heartbeat/Bonded

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading.

If you're enjoying please remember to click the ⭐star💖 to vote and help others discover this book. Wattpad counts votes for each chapter.

And as always, comments are most appreciated.

~A. E. Shelly (a.k.a. Oloo)