THIRTEEN
“I-I CAN’T, baby,” Cara groaned, her eyes wild and wide, her bare breasts heaving.
“Tev, you will,” Devix growled, his hand steadying her as she rode his cock, her thighs spread over his hips. “Now.”
Her body jerked and she moaned when he brought his other hand up to slap her firm backside, hard enough in the way she liked it that Devix felt the walls of her cunt clench.
“Yes,” she hissed, her head falling back, the tendons in her neck highlighted in the pale column of her throat.
Testing the bond of their fellixix, their blood bond, as strange and new to him as it probably was to his human female, he urged her to cum once more.
The mating call of the ravraxia ceremony had been relentless. They had fucked all throughout the night and into the early morning…and then into the late ‘afternoon,’ as his female called that time of the span. And right then, the twin suns were already beginning to sink into the horizon, on the second span of their ravraxia, and they were still mating.
His female didn’t think she could orgasm again. She’d claimed that much late last night and yet, Devix had rung many, many, many orgasms from her since. And he demanded one more before he would let his lush little mate rest.
Devix sensed her breathing begin to change. Her skin was slick from sweat and exertion, her cheeks and lips flushed a bright pink, her eyes shining. He saw her begin to cum before he felt her cunt clamp down on him. He hissed, but refused to look away from the beauty of his mate as she orgasmed.
Her abdomen clenched and she reached out a hand to steady on his chest. She snapped her hips down, meeting his upward thrusts, trying to prolong her orgasm despite her objections to her cumming once more, his greedy, maddening mate.
Finally, near the end, he bellowed and felt his seed release from his body, sizzling down his shaft and into her waiting cunt. Mindlessly, he pounded his hips up, keeping her steady on his cock, keeping his eyes connected with Cara’s the entire time.
When the stinging pleasure finally faded and he felt the mating call calm once more, he wrapped his arms around his female when she sagged forward and rested her forehead in the crook of his neck. Between them, he felt his seed drip from her body, pooling on his skin and he purred in contented, masculine delight.
“You’re trying to kill me,” she whispered teasingly, once she caught her breath.
Devix huffed out a trill of amusement. “Never, mate.”
“Yes,” she whispered, glancing up to meet his eyes. “Death by orgasm.”
“I can think of worse deaths,” he replied.
Cara smiled and he’d never see a more beautiful sight. She leaned up to kiss his lips and he groaned, his cock stirring and hardening inside her, when she couldn’t resist suckling on his tongue.
“Luxiva,” he rasped, breaking away. “Careful. Or you will be on your hands and knees in another moment.”
Cara chuckled but chose rest over another thorough claiming because she stopped teasing him. Gently, she rolled off his body, his cock slipping from her, and she stretched out on the furs next to him, arching her back.
Devix propped up on his elbow next to her and gently traced the curves of her body with the backs of his claws before running his fingertips over the swelling in her belly that seemed to grow every span. Devix imagined that the blood he’d given her during the blood bond had already begun to strengthen their offspring.
His palm flattened there and Cara’s eyes softened, resting her hand just on top of his.
“Do you want a boy or a girl?” she asked.
Devix shook his head at the very human question. He said, truthfully, “It does not matter.”
Cara cocked her head to the side.
“I never thought I would sire offspring,” Devix told her. “I thought that the choice was taken from me, even before the exile, when the Jetutians attacked our females with their virus.” Cara’s expression sobered. “To sire a male or female…either would be a blessing. And eventually, we will have both and then many more.”
Cara’s eyebrow lifted. “Oh really? And how many children do you think we’re having?”
“At least five,” he answered.
“Five?” she asked, letting out an astonished, unexpected laugh. “That’s…ambitious.”
“Do you doubt me, female?” he challenged, teasing her.
“No, never,” she answered, smiling. She touched her hand to her stomach. “There’s no mistaking your virility. But let’s start with one and then go from there.”
Devix’s lips twitched but he accepted her answer. For now.
He dropped his forehead, being mindful of his horns, against her small, slim shoulder and he inhaled her scent, letting it comfort him. He felt her hand raise, felt her fingers glide over the shortened hair on his scalp.
It calmed him. It had been easy to get lost in his mate for their ravraxia. But one more span and they would need to return to the Golden City. And what awaited him there…he didn’t wish to dwell on it yet.
He still hadn’t told his luxiva about Pidixa and the warrior trial he’d been challenged to. He hadn’t wanted to worry her before the ravraxia when she was already so concerned about them being on Luxiria in the first place.
Devix considered telling her right then, but a small, selfish part of him didn’t want to speak of it. He just wanted to be with his female, with no darkness lingering over them. He felt guilty, naturally, keeping something like a warrior trial from his female, but he would tell her once they returned to the Golden City.
But he’d underestimated the newfound power of their fellixix, so he tensed when she asked, “What’s wrong, Dev? I can feel you…brooding about something.”
Her fingers still ran over his scalp and he took a moment to reply. “I just worry about the offspring. About you.”
It wasn’t an untruth. He worried about Cara and the offspring constantly, but he still felt a prick of unease, knowing he was keeping the real reason from her.
“It’ll be okay,” she whispered to him. “We’ll be okay. And when we get back to Rozun, we’ll be okay too.”
Devix shifted to look up at her. “Luxiria does not agree with you, does it female?”
Cara let out a breath. “Don’t get me wrong, I loved meeting your brother and Cecelia. Even Vaxa’an has kind of grown on me. And this place, the Fates…it’s all so amazing, being able to feel them here. But I just…I have a hard time getting past what happened, how you were treated.” She looked over at him, running her fingertips down his cheek. “Have you? Gotten over it? Would you choose to live here, if your exile was somehow lifted?”
Devix blinked at her question. It wasn’t a question he’d actually ever thought about. Luxirians were notoriously strict about their laws. Devix doubted his exile would ever be lifted, unless Pidixa and Arvalla actually confessed that they’d fabricated the entire incident eight rotations ago. And Devix knew that would never happen.
“I have missed my brother. I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss Luxiria,” he told her honestly. “It was my home, after all. Where I became a warrior, where my sire and mother were born and lived and died.” He inhaled a deep breath, meeting her eyes. “But Rozun became my sanctuary. Then, you became my home. I do not care where we live, as long as you are there beside me, as long as it is safe for our offspring. That is what matters.”
Cara’s eyes welled with tears and she kissed the corner of his mouth. “Why are you always so wonderful?”
“There have been times when I have not been ‘wonderful’ to you, luxiva,” he reminded her, about when they’d first met, when he’d actually still considered handing her over to Sarkon to end his debt to the Azatian. “I will spend the rest of our life spans together making up for it.”
“You already have,” she whispered.
He smoothed her hair from her forehead before asking a question that had been on his mind. “Do you miss the restaurant?”
“Yes,” she said. “I feel like we were just gaining ground when we had to leave.”
“It will be there when we return,” he promised her.
Cara sighed, but her gaze softened. “I might have to cut back. We’ll have a baby. Everything will be different.”
“Are you sad about this?” Devix asked, wondering for the first time, whether she regretted that he’d gotten her pregnant.
“No,” she breathed, cupping his face in her small palms. “Devix, no, never. I’m just trying to be…practical. I’ve never been a mother. I know nothing about taking care of babies and I’m not kidding myself by thinking that I’ll be able to start up a restaurant in the capitol while also caring for a newborn.”
“I will be there to help you, to learn with you,” he murmured. “You speak of it like it will only be you taking care of our offspring.”
“I know you’ll be there,” she said, furrowing her brow. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Luxirian sires take great pride in caring for their offspring, luxiva,” he told her. “My own sire was just as involved as my mother. I know other species, other races, have differing views on this and responsibilities. In some species, the sires are not even involved in the rearing. Some species, the offspring do not know their sires, only the mothers, since they are born from her body. But this is not the case for Luxirian males.”
“Dev, I would never question or think that you wouldn’t be just as involved. I expect you to be and I would kick your ass if you weren’t,” Cara said, a small smile touching her lips. “I meant…just from my perspective, I know how much work it is to start a restaurant. And yes, the restaurant isn’t anything very elaborate. It’s more of an experiment for now, seeing what works and what doesn’t. But I know how much work it will take to get it where I want it to be. I just meant that I would rather spend all that time and energy with our child, at our home, not in the capitol, working. Eventually, yes, I will start it back up. But even right now, I know I just want to be with you and our baby. The restaurant can wait.”
“If you’re sure, luxiva,” he murmured, knowing how important it was to her. His mate wasn’t lazy; she was one of the hardest workers he’d ever met. She had worked tirelessly when they were back on Rozun to compile her recipes, to reach out to vendors for supplies, to create a workable kitchen from the dilapidated stall they’d first encountered.
She’d never complained once.
“I’m sure,” she said, smiling. “I haven’t given up on it. Not when we just started. But it will wait until we’re both ready again. And I can use everything that I’ve learned to make it even better the second time around.”
He leaned his forehead against hers, incredibly proud and humbled by his magnificent female.
“And when we get it back up and running again, maybe we can invite Rixavox and Cecelia for the grand opening,” she suggested softly. “Would that be okay?”
A well of emotion rose up in him.
“Tev,” he rasped. “It would.”
“Good,” she whispered, smiling.
Devix leaned down, unable to resist any longer, and caught her lips in a fierce kiss. Her soft lips parted in a gasp and he tangled his tongue against hers, tasting her, consuming her, needing her.
Cara’s fingertips bit into his scalp as the kiss became deeper and deeper and his mind began to fog with the mating call.
“A-again?” she whispered against him. Through their fellixix, Devix knew she felt the mating call begin to rise in her as well.
“Tev,” he growled, parting her thighs. “Again.”