Denya.

The shock of recognition tore through him and Ty took half a step forward before he realized what he was doing. Before he realized that he must still be blind. A human denya? Impossible.

She stood before him, her brown hands on her hips, her pose defiant. Curly hair shot out from on top of her head, giving her a halo in dark and light browns, the light from the console behind her making her glow. Her eyes were luscious and dark, with those strange white spaces that humans possessed. 

And he wanted to kiss along the edge of her chin and down her throat, to where the pulse beat with living fervor in her neck. His cock stirred, reminding him that he was alive and whole.

Well, more or less whole. There was no way that his eyes had completely healed. Because right now, they were playing a horrendous trick on him. Dorsey was human. She could not be his denya. The only woman in the universe who could save his life, be his mate, was Detyen, if she existed at all. And with less than one week left until his demise, he knew it must be with desperation and vain hope that Dorsey looked like the mate for him.

And if the fire in her eyes was any indicator, she wanted him too.

He took a step into the room, bringing himself within reaching distance of Dorsey. If he only stretched out his hand, he could cup her cheek and feel if she was as soft and smooth as she appeared.

“Do you think we’ll be followed?” he asked, trying to sound normal.

Dorsey shook her head. “They can’t reach FTL. Our biggest worry is that a lookout warning for this ship goes out before we can ditch it.” She licked her lips until they shone a glossy pink and flicked her eyes up to meet his.

Ty swallowed, that pulse of desire growing thicker, harder. If this was false hope, let him never know the truth.

He stepped close to her, their bodies brushing front to front, and ran the tips of his fingers up the dark fabric covering her arm, resting his hand on her shoulder. Her own skin burned hot through the fabric. “I am glad we can finally see each other, Dorsey.” Her name rolled off his tongue like a promise and he wanted to say it again, rolling it around, tasting it, until he knew every corner of the word.

She grinned, her lips tilting up to one corner, and she raised her hand to cover his own. “We survived. For now, at least.”

For a frozen moment, he thought she spoke of his fate, that she knew on sight what he was and what was coming. But what little logic he still clung to surfaced at the last moment, and he realized she was speaking of their pursuers and any trouble that they would give.

“I’d say survival calls for a celebration.” And then he covered her lips with his own, no longer able to hold back the feral beast inside that howled for a taste of her. There was a heady sweetness as her tongue tangled with his own and the overwhelming taste of woman, of mate. He let all thoughts of impossibility dissolve. He no longer cared whether she was his forever so long as she was his for now.

Her arms came up and he felt blunt fingers digging into the flesh of his shoulder. She clutched him close, her mouth open beneath his, letting him pet and suck and taste as they tried to dissolve the distance between them. She was wearing far too many clothes for that, but right now, he was happy to feel the soft skin beneath his fingers and smell her heady scent.

Her arousal was thick in the air, bringing out the beast within Ty. If he had brought her so close with one kiss, what could he do with her spread out naked before him?

She pulled back, planting her hands on her shoulders, but she only moved far enough so she could speak. Their lips still brushed with every word. “Wait,” she breathed.

Ty didn’t want to wait. His cock felt ready to burst from his pants and he feared he would spill before he brought her to completion. But he made himself hold still, though his answering “what?” was more growl than word.

Dorsey reached up and traced her thumb over his brow and down the sharp ridge of his cheek, her eyes shining and full of wonder. “You’re not human,” she said, the statement obvious and completely irrelevant. This was sex, not interstellar diplomacy.

Ty cupped the back of her neck, holding her in place, not letting her put any more distance between them. He pressed their bodies together and heard Dorsey suck in a sharp breath. “No, I’m not. Any problem?”

She hitched a leg to the side, letting him rub his body against her most sensitive space. “Are there… compatibility issues?” The last word came out as a low moan, her eyes fluttering closed for a moment while he showed her just how compatible they were.

He’d never fucked a human before, but he knew enough anatomy to know they both had all the right parts. He knew his eyes gleamed, the fire of his irises bright, and he couldn’t stop the grin that tugged at his lips. “Shall we find out?”

 

***

 

Dorsey was going crazy. There was no other explanation for why she was pressed flush up against an alien stranger, wet and ready for him to take her. It was the exhilaration from their escape all mixed up with this strange, unexpected attraction, and she was too weak to resist.

She was alive. They were alive.

The stars stretched out before them, not visible during FTL, but she knew they were there. And she’d set a course to safety. Which meant that it was okay to open her mouth and swipe her tongue against the strange ridges of Ty’s. It was okay to run her hands up his tight abs and curl her fingers under the hem of his shirt and pull it over his head. It was okay to feel the strange ridges running across his chest and down his arms, ridges that were darker in color, strange markings that reminded her once again that she was a human and he was not.

But right now she didn’t care, because he was hers.

The hard jut of his cock pressed against her abdomen, begging to be freed from the confines of his pants. Dorsey arched up into him, rubbing herself against him, fitting his covered length between her still clothed thighs.

It wasn't enough, but when Ty bit out a curse and jerked his hips, she almost laughed from the joy of it all. This was life. This was what they were meant to do.

Her breasts were heavy and full of want, her nipples tight peaks begging for his attention. Ty tried to undo the top buttons of her jumpsuit, but when he fumbled, he gave up and used one of those sharp claws of his to rip at the fabric, baring her from throat to belly button.

The reminder of his lethal claws should have scared her, but then his lips were on her breast and Dorsey forgot all about the danger, moaning as his tongue on her tit pulled her tight like a bowstring and echoed all the way down to her core. She felt helpless against him, a being of pure want who would die if she didn't feel his hard cock buried deep inside of her.

She reached down and undid the tie of his pants, grateful that he wasn't wearing a jumpsuit. She reached in and closed her fingers over the hot, rigid length of him, squeezing just tight enough for him to know that his cock was hers now.

He froze against her breast for a second and the sound that Dorsey made when he stopped licking, stopped pleasuring her would have embarrassed her if he hadn't been mad with want. “More,” she moaned, offering her tits up to him like he were a pagan god and she his sacrifice. And perhaps she was. Maybe the ancients had misunderstood first contact all those years ago, confusing travelers across the universe for divine beings.

“Stroke me,” Ty demanded before going back to her breast, swirling his tongue around the puckered areola and making her gasp.

Who was she to deny him?

She moved her hand from the base of his cock up to the tip, fascinated by the textured surface. His cock was ridged, small protrusions jutting out from the shaft that her fingers glided over. Out of curiosity, she circled her finger around one and found she wasn't able to close her hand around it. Oh god, what would it—he—feel like inside her?

She shivered and lifted her hands from him, pushing off the sleeves of her clothes and maneuvering herself out, never once letting Ty break his contact from where he savored her breasts. It took some contortion to get the jumpsuit completely off, but once she did, she was naked before him, pressed against the console of the cockpit and bare to his desires.

“Fuck me, Ty,” she practically begged, wet and aching for him.

He flicked his eyes up and she gasped when she saw just how red and glowing they'd become. They shone like beacons in the dim light of the cockpit. He kissed down and around one breast, coming to the valley between them where he took his time, kissing and licking a trail up over her chest and neck and finally taking her lips once more.

“I could keep you,” he growled against her mouth. “I'd fuck you for days, pleasure you so well that you'd forget to walk. You'd be so well taken that everyone in the galaxy would know that you're mine.”

Possessiveness had never sat well with her, but from him, she wanted it. Still, she was no simpering dove. She bit down on his bottom lip, almost hard enough to draw blood.

“Fuck me,” she demanded, one hand working on his trousers, trying to push them down enough to expose his beautiful cock to her. She felt light and filled already, like there was something different about this fuck, something she didn't—couldn't—comprehend.

“Spread your legs,” he commanded. And Dorsey was happy to oblige.

She widened her stance, hooking one leg over his hip and leaving her sex exposed to him. He looked down her naked body, and if anything, his eyes somehow got even brighter.

Then he inserted a finger in her and she forgot to breathe. He was kissing her neck as he moved it within her, his breaths already as ragged as hers, even though she was the one under assault. When he added another finger, she cried out, already so close to the edge that she was seeing stars and weird colors and things that didn't exist.

“You're so wet,” he said, “so damned wet for me.”

“Give me your cock,” she ordered. If he didn't put it in her soon she was going to explode.

And then he was fitting himself to her entrance, the blunt head of his penis sliding into her pussy. He eased himself in and she could feel each of the ridges of his cock spreading her out, amplifying the feel of him inside of her.

He buried himself to the hilt, his balls brushing up against her, and it took all of the remaining fragments of Dorsey's self-control not to move over him, to thrust her hips back and forth. But the look Ty gave her was so grave that she knew there was something about him, something about this that was more important than pleasure. She could feel it in her heart, a connection blooming that she didn't understand. Maybe it was that they'd survived together, but whatever it was, it bound them close.

Ty laid his forehead against hers and said, “Thank you,” with all the force of a condemned man suddenly saved.

But she didn't have time to question it, because then he was moving within her and she moved with him. His fingers found the stiff nub of her clit, and his cock brought her close, brushing against that spot deep within her that was the seat of her pleasure.

It came on so fast that she didn't realize she was coming until she cried out against him, her insides rippling with pleasure, the shock roiling through her body. And finally, he gave a shout and she felt the hot splash of him inside her as he came with her, barreling over the edge and joining her with a pleasure she didn't quite understand but knew that she'd never forget.