Kave
Kave awoke with a hard on and a pain in his side. It took a moment for his memory to come flooding back.
He wasn’t worried about the wound. If he wasn’t dead yet, then it wasn’t mortal. It would heal and in a few days would be as good as new. Except, what had she done with his knife? Stabbed him a second time with fire? Probably didn’t realize the Mahdfel clotted so quickly that removing the obstruction was all his body needed to heal. The fire? That might leave a mark.
Kave would bear it with pride. His mate was resourceful enough to survive in the jungle alone for three days and he had the mark to prove it. He breathed in the scent of her hair. It did nothing to improve the condition of his cock straining against his shorts. He also caught a whiff of something roasting. His stomach grumbled on cue.
It was apparently loud enough to wake his bride. Her head came up and she scrambled to her feet.
She turned toward the small fire and slid something out of it. As she unwrapped it, the savory scent of josgrave emerged. He watched her move, with a graceful proficiency, finding beauty in every efficient slice.
“Smells good,” he said finally as she held the first piece up between two fingers. She seemed startled that he was awake, but scuttled over to sit next to him, using a leaf as a plate.
“I’ve been debating whether it was going to kill me all morning.”
“Josgrave isn’t poisonous. I’ll eat first if you wish reassurance.”
She looked at him, and then popped it in her mouth. “Tastes like chicken,” she said, giggling at some joke that he didn’t understand. Kave wanted to laugh with her. Laughing would probably hurt too much right now anyway.
“Actually tastes more like opossum. It’s a marsupial we have back on Earth.”
She offered the next bite to him. He opened his mouth and she fed it to him. She smiled down at him and he desperately wanted to taste her mouth, too. Kave wanted to explore her mouth with his tongue and not come up for air until they were both gasping.
“Sorry about the mix up,” she said. “I thought you were its big bad mama coming to get me.”
“It was my fault. I surprised you.”
His admission seemed to surprise her. Kave lost no time in capitalizing on her guilt to relieve his own for leaving her there in the first place.
“I have been so careless, you must forgive me,” he said. “I will be a most attentive mate.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will be,” she answered, dubiously.
“You doubt my word? I suppose I deserve that.”
“I don’t doubt just your word. Just most of the male species.”
“From now on, you shall be able to rely on my word, and the word of my warriors, for they will be accountable to me.”
“You have many warriors?”
“A few dozen, but for such a small isolated planet, there is no need for more.”
“A few dozen? On the entire planet?”
“Yes. Noven 90. It’s just an outpost, and we are all Etlonian Mahdfel here.”
“So all the warriors look like you?”
“Not as handsome, but yes.”
She rolled her eyes at that. “It’s not easy being green,” she said.
“It will be your new favorite color.”
She opened her mouth, but said nothing. Instead, she took another piece of meat and ate it, then gave him a piece.
Kave took to wondering what she looked like without her shirt on. Round globes topped with pink nipples. He wanted to latch onto one and lick it with his tongue. He wanted to lap at the salty little bead of sweat that had formed on the side of her neck and taste her center.
“You got a name?”
“What?” Kave said, startled out of his cock hardening reverie.
“A name? A designation? An appellation? What should I call you?”
“Kavendish. Most call me Kave.”
“Kave. Well, that’s at least something I can pronounce. I’m Humility, by the way.”
“I know. It is an odd name for a Terran, I think.”
“Blame my mother. You can call me Hue if you like. She hated that. Said it made me sound like a boy.”
“You are not a boy.”
“I hope not,” she said, sparing a fleeting glance to where his anatomy had begun tenting the blanket. “Though I was a bit of a tomboy growing up. You know, climbing trees, fishing, hunting, that sort of thing. Kind of had to be, you know, with the whole alien invasion thing.”
“May every Suhlik rot!” he exclaimed.
“Yes,” she replied, gritting her teeth.
“You have lost someone to them.”
“They killed my mother, and seriously injured my father.”
“Mine, too.”
A quietness elapsed between the two of them, a shared grief. She continued feeding him and as she gave him water from her canteen, Kave couldn’t help but think of the Mahdel ceremony, a simple meal, feeding your mate, before consummation. Without even trying, she was already becoming his.
“I think I’ve been lucky so far, to catch something and not have anything big come after me,” Humility said as she buried the meat wrappings deep in the fire. “I suppose we should wait until at least morning before trying to move you. I might be able to rig up some sort of litter and get you back to the transport pad.”
Kave wasn’t about to be dragged along behind his mate.
“There is a way… to move things along. To jump start, as the Terrans say, my healing.”
“Great. How’s that?”
“There are certain chemicals, hormones that are produced when mating for the first time.”
She cocked her head to the side and gave him a curious look. She glanced down at his pronounced bulge. It was true, Kave told himself. The chemicals they produced, especially as they bit into their mates’ necks transferring the needed elements to prepare them for fertilization, did aid with healing. A female was marked, but not injured by such a love bite.
“Uh,” she said, scanning his frame. “You want a blow job?”
“It must be the full act.”
His mate looked skeptical. A further explanation was apparently necessary.
“It is the bonding experience that releases the chemicals. Here.” Kave pointed to his cheekbones under which his glands were already burning in overdriven anticipation. “Not the uh-” He looked down at his shorts, which were definitely showing his interest. It was probably only the hole in his center that was holding him on ground. No, that wasn’t true. He had more control than that. An Etlonian would never disgrace himself by losing control and taking a female without consent.
“So I need to kiss you?”
Kave smiled, hopefully not to broadly. Terran women could be startled by their sharper teeth.
“That would be a good start.”