TAUSHEN

My mate. I scarcely believe this is real.

I have dreamed of this for so long that I do not know what to think. Some small part of me is terrified that I will awaken and find that it is all a dream…so I do not go to sleep. I hug my mate close and breathe in her scent as she slumbers. I stroke her hair back from her face and watch her. I want to mate her again, but she needs her rest.

There will be time, I have to remind myself. It is hard to think that way, when I feel every moment slipping between my fingers. I feel such joy that Brooke is mine…and then I remember she is meant to resonate to another.

She wants to head to the ocean, rejoin the others.

If I take her there, she will resonate to one of the other males. I should tell her, but she will be angry that I kept such a thing from her. Yet how can I lie? More than anything, I want her happiness, but the thought of another male touching her, of her going from my furs to another’s, makes me crazed with jealousy.

I hold her close and press my lips to her mane.

Perhaps I will take her…an indirect route, allow us more time to be together. Allow myself more time to think of an alternate plan of some kind.

She wakes sometime after dawn, and I heat water for her so we can bathe. The stream is ideal, but it is also too far away and she wants to clean up before we head out. So we wash by the fire, and I try not to stare as she moves the soapy scrap of leather between the teats that I rubbed my cock between last night. It was such a strange yet pleasing thing to do. She is right; every time she walks past and her teats jiggle, I am going to imagine her below me, pressing them around my cock as I thrust between the slick mounds.

I grow hard just thinking about it even now. But Brooke has given no indication that she wishes to touch this morning, and I do not know how mated couples handle such things. Do I grab her and kiss her? Show her that I would be happy mating right now? Or should I be patient and wait for her to tell me when she is ready again?

A splash catches my attention. I look up, just in time to see Brooke toss her leather washcloth into the pouch of heated water. She flings herself at me, arms going around my neck, and kisses me passionately. “Good morning,” she hums low in her throat, giving me a sultry smile.

I kiss her fiercely, and then we descend into the furs. It seems she wants a mating as much as I do, and instead of leaving the cave that day and heading on the trails, we remain in our bedding. Brooke wraps her legs around me and pulls me close, encouraging me to sink into her. I guide my shaft to her cunt and find that she’s wet and ready. When I push into her, she feels so good I nearly come in a matter of moments. I hold on to her, panting, and she tells me to go ahead. That she wants all of my touches, even quick ones.

The first time I come, I do not last long. I make it up to her with kisses and caresses, and when we mate a second time, I’m able to make her scream her release twice before I take mine.

The third time is even better.

After that, our matings begin to run together in one endless stream of twined limbs and sweaty skin. I barely notice that time is passing, until Brooke begins to shiver under me, and I realize she is cold and the fire has gone out. I light it again, warm food for her, and this time I let her feed me. Her fingers graze my fangs as she gives me tidbits, and I realize just how enticing this can be.

We do not last long before we return to the furs.

The next morning, I wake my mate with my mouth on her sweet cunt, and I do not let her free before she has come twice. I cover her, our mouths locked, and we both come a third time together. Panting, she pushes me away and crawls toward the fire. “Water,” she whispers, pretending to rasp. “So. Dehydrated. Need. Water.”

I chuckle at her dramatics, locking my tail around her ankle. “Do not leave for long.”

She gives me a playful look over her shoulder and tips back her waterskin, draining it before tossing it aside and reaching for mine. “Shouldn’t we be heading out soon?”

Her words strike fear into my heart. “Heading out?” I echo, pretending I do not understand.

Brooke yawns, sipping my waterskin and then offering it to me. I take it, but my concentration is entirely on her. “Yes. I thought we were going to make our way toward the ocean? Meet the others?” She crawls back into bed next to me and tucks her cheek against my shoulder.

I make my voice as casual as I can. “Perhaps we will stay here another day or two. You are tired.”

She pokes me in the side, giggling. “No more tired than you. Are you stalling? Do you not want to see the others?”

I am silent.

Brooke sits up, resting on one elbow, and gives me an incredulous look. “You are stalling. What’s going on?”

The words knot in my throat. Do I tell her the truth and risk losing her? But she is my mate. She has my heart. How can I keep such things from her?

She reaches over and grabs my chin, turning my face so my gaze meets hers. “Taushen? You’re scaring me. Spit it out.”

“My mate is so beautiful,” I tell her, touching her face.

Brooke swats my hand away. “Nuh-uh. Either you tell me what’s going on or you get to start making love to your hand again.” There’s a frustrated, frightened tone in her voice. “What’s wrong?”

I have to tell her. “I stole you away from the others because I wished to mate you.”

“Duh. In other news, water is wet.” She rests one arm casually on my stomach, lounging across me. Her teat presses against my skin, and I feel another powerful surge of lust. It seems impossible that I should want her so fiercely again after mating so many times in the last few hours. “What’s the real problem?” she asks, dragging my thoughts back.

“I…stole you. Rokan said that you would resonate soon. I stole you to keep you with me.”

She blinks. “Resonate soon? Me?”

I nod, suddenly consumed by jealousy. I tug her down against me. “You are mine, Brooke. You do not belong to another!”

“Whoa, whoa,” she says, pulling away from me. There’s a tiny smile playing on her mouth. “You stole me because you were afraid I’d get swept off my feet by someone else?”

“Rokan says so. He is never wrong.” I clench my fists at the thought.

“And did he say when this would happen?” When I shake my head no, her smile grows broader. “So you stole me because I might in the future resonate to another man and it made you jealous?”

I glare at her. Why is she not taking this seriously?

Brooke leans in and pinches my cheeks. “Oh my god, that is so cuuuuute! Seriously, I could eat you up. Look at how jealous you are! I love it!”

“You like my misery?” I am astonished.

“Not your misery, silly. I like how jealous you are. No one’s ever been so possessive over me in the past. I love it.” She wiggles, pleased, and smiles down at me. “It makes me feel wanted. I don’t believe that hocus pocus shit anyhow.”

“Rokan is never wrong.”

Her smile fades a little. “You’re really upset over this. You think he’s right?”

I put a hand to my chest, over my heart. I can still feel it racing from our last bout of mating. Or perhaps I am frightened of losing my mate so quickly now that I have found her. “His khui,” I tell her. “It guides him.”

“Hmm.” She puts her hand over her teats, pressing between them. “Resonance, huh? Tell me what it would feel like again? Maybe if I recognize the signs we can head it off at the pass.”

“I do not know. I have never experienced it.” I scowl at her. “Must we speak of this?” I do not want to think about it—or losing her—any more than I have to. Just the thought makes my heart race in my chest like a fleeing dvisti.

She swats my chest. “Humor me. Tell me what it feels like. Tell me what you’ve heard.”

The look she gives me is intense, so I nod and think how best to describe it. I have heard it discussed many a time through many different tribesmates, and they all speak of it in similar ways. “We say that the khui is singing, though I think your people refer to it as humming or purring. Your khui will wake up, and when your perfect mate is near and the time is right for you to make a kit, it will begin its song—”

“Low at first?” Brooke asks, rubbing the valley between her teats. “Kind of subtle? Like you’re not sure it’s there?”

I nod. “I have heard it described as such, yes. You will be overcome with an intense desire to mate.”

“Mmm, so it makes you horny. Got it.” She looks thoughtful.

“Your heart will pound. Race as if you have been running for a long time.”

“Go on.”

“You will feel intense need for your mate. It will not abate until you mate enough that a kit is created.”

She continues to rub the valley between her teats. “Any other physical signs? Or just intense neediness?” Brooke sounds breathless, as if discussing this is arousing her.

My cock rises in response. Perhaps we will not be leaving this cave for travel on this day, after all. “I hear a male’s seed will change.”

“Change, hmm? The taste changes?” She looks intrigued. “Or something else?”

“It becomes thicker.”

“Oh, more sperm? That makes sense.” Brooke sounds breathless. She skims her hands over her teats and then down to cup her cunt. “Does the female get wetter? Does the singing of the khui make things feel better? Like vibratey better?”

“I do not know.” I give her a curious look, trying to ignore the need surging through me to answer her questions seriously “Why?”

“No reason.” She bites her lip and then slides a bit closer to me. “So if my cootie were purring, would it sound like this?” She takes my hand and places it between her teats, over her heart. “Or stronger?”

I frown, about to pull my hand away when I realize…she is humming. The song is faint, but I can feel it in her chest, low and steady. “You…you are resonating?” I am shocked.

“I think so.” She gives a nervous, excited little laugh. “I thought I was just twitchy and on edge this morning. And horny. Really horny.” Her voice changes to a breathless note. “I’ve been feeling it a little off and on since last night. Does it come on gradually?”

“I do not know. Most of the time it is fierce and immediate, like lightning.”

“But maybe I’m just not ovulating totally yet,” Brooke says, smiling at me. “It might get stronger over the next day or two, until my eggs are totally ready. Or something. I don’t know how my physiology’s going to work with a cootie changing things up.”

I am lost, her words strange ones. “I do not follow. Off-yew…”

She waves a hand. “Doesn’t matter.” Her eyes are bright and happy, and she bursts out into laughter. “How are you so calm about this?”

Calm? I am shocked. Beyond shocked. Stunned. I do not understand how this is happening. “How are you resonating when there is no male around?” I get up and race to the front of the cave, staring out into the snow. Is someone approaching? But the day is clear, and no one is near our cave. The snows are fresh and unspoiled. Confused, I turn back to Brooke.

She erupts into giggles, then pats the furs. “Come sit.”

I do, though my panic is starting to creep in. She is resonating, but it is slow. “Someone must be coming,” I tell her, realization dawning. “He is coming for you, and when he arrives—”

Brooke shakes her head. “He who? What are you talking about?”

“Your mate!” My heart gives a frantic thump at the thought, and I have to fight the urge to pin her down and mount her like an animal, all to stake my claim. “We must leave here. Run away. We—”

She grabs my cock, silencing me. “Calm down,” she says softly. “No one’s coming.”

I am so startled by her arousing touch that my brain momentarily fogs. I cannot think. The world does not exist beyond her fingers gripping my shaft. Then I realize what she is saying. “No, Brooke. Someone—”

“I’m resonating,” she continues in that low, gentle voice, even as she strokes my already-hard shaft. Her fingers move up and down and she pumps me hard once, twice. “I’m surprised you haven’t figured out that I’m resonating to you, silly.”

“You…we…” I shake my head. “I would feel it. I would know it…wouldn’t I?”

“Maybe you’re so dazzled from our lovemaking that you haven’t been paying attention.” Her smile is beautiful to see. “Maybe it’s as quiet as mine and you haven’t noticed because you’ve been too focused on other things.”

“Other…things,” I repeat slowly, not entirely sure she is making sense.

“Yup.” She pumps my cock again, and then to my shock, bends over and takes the head of it into her mouth. She suckles me like I have her teats, and I gasp, startled at the intense sensation.

“Brooke!” I tug at her shoulder. “Do not! I will come—”

She lifts her head, and her laughter is throaty and sweet and makes my sac tighten with need. “I’m conducting an experiment, silly. I want to make you come.”

“You…you do?” My heart pounds so loud I cannot think clearly. Or is it resonance? I do not know.

“Yep. I want to see if it’s thicker. If there’s are more swimmers in your stuff.” She glances down at my cock and then grins up at me. “I guess we have enough evidence right here, though.”

I look down to see what she is so proud of. There, dotting the head of my cock, are several beads of seed. As I watch, another rolls down the head. That is nothing unusual…except…

I watch in wonder as she touches it and lifts the droplet onto her finger. “Thicker. Milkier. Man, I never thought I’d study a guy’s spunk so closely.” She licks her finger, and I shudder at how aroused that makes me. “Tastes the same, I’m afraid.”

I grab her and pull her against me. “Brooke,” I pant. “Does this mean—”

“I’m pretty sure,” she says with a giggle.

I pull her against my chest, pressing her face to my front. “Tell me what you hear!”

She giggles again and then goes quiet, listening. “I hear you. It’s faint, but I hear you.” She sits up, beaming, and then pats her chest. “Come listen to mine.”

I pull her against me and lean in, pressing my ear to her chest. She sputters as my horns get in her face, so I move a bit lower. My jaw is cradled against the swells of her teats, my ear pressed to her skin. I wait.

There…soft and pleasant, the thrumming, gentle sound of her khui. Resonance.

I laugh with pure joy.

My khui is not lazy, or wrong, or choosy. It was waiting for my Brooke all this time.

Her smile is beautiful to see, and I pull her against me. “Resonance,” I whisper, and my voice is husky with emotion. “My Brooke and resonance together. My heart cannot hold so much.”

“It’s going to have to learn,” she tells me playfully. “Because I spy with my little human eye, a man that should claim his mate right about now…”