EPILOGUE
TWO MONTHS LATER…
It was a strange sensation, Taylor mused sleepily, whenever her visions came true. Like deja vu, but more intense, since she knew everything that came next.
She smiled, sighed, and stretched against her mate’s warmth. Outside, gray light filtered in, a cloudy sky greeting her when she glanced out their large window. Vikan said the cold season was coming, but Taylor didn’t mind the change in weather, especially when she had a gorgeous male to keep her warm in their plush bed of furs.
It was the night after the lunar celebration she’d seen in her dreams so long ago. She’d fallen asleep in her mate’s lap during the festivities, he’d carried her into their home, they’d made love in the bath, and then she’d fallen asleep in his arms.
And now it was morning. Her mate still slept soundly next to her, his arms still wrapped around her growing belly protectively. Vikan was going to make such an amazing father that Taylor cried whenever she thought about it. Already, her hormones were making her an emotional wreck and she’d never cried so much in her life. Mostly happy tears, but sometimes she cried because she was worried she wouldn’t be a good mother or she worried that something might happen during the delivery or simply because she was frightened—and excited—to begin this new chapter of their lives.
Vikan would patiently and lovingly calm her down whenever it happened. He would drag her in his arms and whisper in her ear that she was going to be a wonderful mother to their offspring and that he couldn’t wait to welcome their child into the world. He told her not to worry about the future because it was the singular small moments that made up their present that mattered to them now. He told her that they could deal with anything that happened in their future because they had each other.
Taylor ran her fingers lightly over Vikan’s arm, turning slowly so she could face him. God, she loved this alien.
Through their blood bond, she strummed lightly, enticing him to wake. He’d met her in their dreams last night and just for fun, he’d brought them back to one of the caves they’d stayed in during their journey to Lopixa. Taylor smiled. They’d gotten up to all sorts of naughty things in that cave and she’d loved every second.
She bit her lip. Another effect of pregnancy was that she was pretty much horny all the time. Not that she wasn’t before she got pregnant, especially when it came to her mate. But now, her need was even more intense. Whereas they’d been mating around three times a day before, they now mated at least five times.
Sometimes, with how busy Vikan was preparing the outpost for the cold season and Taylor’s busy days learning about Lopixa and meeting its residents and helping in any way she could, it seemed like there wasn’t enough time in the day for sex. But somehow, they always made time for it.
Vikan was still out cold and Taylor wondered what he was dreaming about so intensely, wondering if it was his gift. Sometimes, every now and again, the power of it would rear its head and slip through the cracks of Vikan’s mind, despite the fact that her presence helped him suppress it. Whenever it happened, she knew if it was a bad vision or a good vision based on his mood. If it was good, he’d tell her about it. If it was bad, he’d grow quiet, eventually giving in to Taylor’s pleas to confide in her, because she didn’t want him to go through it alone. She wanted to be there for him, to help him in whatever way she could.
“Vikan,” she whispered, resting her cheek on his chest, listening to his heart beat strongly in her ear.
He started to stir and she smiled when she looked up and saw his eyes open slowly, going from a pitch black to the gray she knew and loved.
Immediately, he sought her gaze out and when he saw her, he murmured something in Luxirian.
“English, babe,” she whispered. Though she was beginning to recognize words and phrases in Luxirian, it would take her a long time to understand the complex language. But she’d get there eventually.
“I saw us,” he rasped, his arm tightening around her, bringing her even closer to his body if possible. Immediately, he groaned, his hardened cock tucked against her belly.
“What do you mean?”
“The Fates…they gave me a vision,” he said. “About us.”
Taylor stilled. Vikan never had visions about those he loved.
“Really?” she whispered. “What about?”
“It is everything we knew it would be,” he said, his voice like dark velvet from sleep.
“What is?”
“Our future.”
Taylor’s breath hitched. “Did you…did you see the baby?”
“Tev,” Vikan murmured, dropping his forehead down to hers. His horns rubbed into her hair. “Many.”
Oh my God.
Taylor let out a disbelieving laugh and then teased, “Guess you convinced me then to have a lot.”
Vikan’s lips quirked, “I used devious methods to persuade you.”
“No doubt,” she whispered, feeling his hands glide over her naked belly. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
“You wish to know?”
“Yes,” Taylor said, smiling. “Absolutely.”
Even as she said that she wasn’t quite prepared for the assault of emotions when Vikan said, “A female. And she will have green eyes and small, black horns. She will be beautiful.”
Damn tears started welling up in her eyes again and Vikan wiped them away when they spilled down her cheek. “Really?”
“Tev,” he growled against her.
He would tell her all about the vision later and she would hound him for every single detail he could remember. But right then, love so intense strummed across their blood bond and with it came need.
So when Vikan caught the nape of her neck and pulled her until their lips met in a deep kiss, full of passion and promise, Taylor responded with everything she had.
And then he groaned because she flung the furs off their bodies and pushed him onto his back so she could straddle his hips. They didn’t need foreplay. Just looking at him was foreplay and judging by the way his eyes dilated with desire, he felt the same.
Taylor gasped when she sank down onto his cock, feeling him fill her to the brim in that familiar, wicked way. He hissed out a breath, that purring growl already beginning to rise, and he caught her hips a moment later.
Taylor braced her hands on his wide, strong chest, bucking down on him as he thrust up and she saw stars, it was so good.
Vikan, she moaned through their blood bond and she felt his pace quicken until all she could do was brace herself. He pumped his hips up and down with rapid, deep strokes, every knob sliding perfectly inside her, hitting every sensitive spot until she was already on the edge of her orgasm.
“Tev, luxiva, brixav ta!” he growled.
She knew what that meant in Luxirian and she whimpered, receiving his thrusts with renewed vigor, fucking him as steadily as he was fucking her.
His muscles shifted underneath her fingers, strengthening, growing. Luxirians drew strength from sex and now that Vikan was getting it multiple times a day, it looked like he had grown a size. His old clothes hardly fit, straining around the new muscles, molding against him like a second skin.
Taylor moaned. Not that she minded.
She fell forward, her arms beginning to shake, and the change in angle stimulated her clit as she ground down on her mate.
Taylor hardly managed a choked cry before she was cumming around him hard, her orgasm racing through her, hard and fast and strong, and through their blood bond, she knew Vikan felt her pleasure too.
Soon, it triggered his own and he spilled his seed inside her with a rough roar, coating her walls, hot lash after hot lash. Taylor arched her back for more, squeezing her muscles around him, addicted to the feeling of him cumming inside her.
Vikan caught her with a satisfied, grumbly purr, shifting them so they lay side-by-side but so that he never left the heat of her body.
Taylor’s breaths left her in quick pants but she smiled and whispered, “There’s no better way to start the day.”
Vikan growled, nuzzling her cheek in agreement.
“Love you, female,” he murmured roughly, brushing his lips over her skin. “Every span you take more of my heart and I already believed you had all of it.”
Taylor melted. Vikan didn’t often voice his feelings to her, but she felt the strength of them every single day. Even if they didn’t have the blood bond running between them, Taylor would still know, because he showed her his love every moment they were together.
“I love you,” she whispered back, running her fingers across his cheek, looking into those mesmerizing gray eyes that had captivated her from the very beginning.
It was the best decision of her life, choosing to stay with him. It hadn’t been easy, but it had been worth it.
More worth it than she could have ever imagined.
“Vikan?”
“Tev, luxiva?”
She smiled, feeling their growing child cradled between their bodies, and said, “Have I told you lately how glad I am you stole me away?”
A surprised laugh burst out of him and Taylor knew she’d never tire of hearing it. She wanted to hear his laugh and see his smile for the rest of her life.
And she knew, without a doubt, she would.
He growled, giving her a kiss. “Not lately, female.”
THE END