Chapter Nineteen
“A library for the young half-humans and their mothers? Here? In our house?”
Tavarr stares at me from across the table. We’ve finished eating and we’re both sipping glasses of yinsiza wine. I casually mentioned the idea that had come to me as I worked on the picture books with Helena and Joanna earlier in the day.
I’m relieved my mate’s initial response is surprise rather than being told ‘no’ outright. That gives me some wiggle room. He has an open mind, and perhaps I can make him understand how a library could be beneficial for this village.
“Yes, there’s the extra sitting room downstairs with a door leading out to the other patio. The kids and their mothers wouldn’t even have to walk through the house. It would be small at first. It probably wouldn’t require much of my time once it’s all set up.”
“Katrina, by the time any of the children born to women taken during the downfall of Capital Acres are old enough to be walking around, we won’t be here anymore. We’ll be at my family’s home. Prince Kenan says I may return to Hehna with you in two moon cycles. That’s roughly two and a half Earth months. Any library you started now would only be serving the human women, as none of those recently claimed females have given birth yet.”
I feel instantly dumb. In all my excitement and planning, I had forgotten that eventually we’d be departing this village for good. My heart clatters to the floor. I will miss this little village, especially Helena and Joanna.
“Oh,” I say, trying to hide my sadness. “I keep forgetting we’ll be leaving soon.”
He reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. “Perhaps you can finish the picture books in time and we can order a few thousand copies of each, to be distributed to all the human women on Tallia to enjoy with their children.” He leans back and his expression turns thoughtful. “If you would like, we could travel to some of the nearest towns and personally deliver the books. And once we are settled in Hehna, if you are still interested starting a library for the humans, I will not object. I want you to be happy on Tallia.”
“I’m already happy here, Tavarr. Now that I’m bonded with you.” I smile and lace my fingers through his. “But I appreciate your support. Is it really possible to have a few thousand copies of each book made? I mean, I imagine that will be quite costly.” Tavarr isn’t rich—only the Kleaxians of royal blood live in grand houses and possess great wealth—and I don’t want to accept his offer if it will land him in debt.
“You needn’t worry about the cost, my sweet human. Consider it already done.” He finishes his wine and leads me upstairs, to our bedroom.
A gentle breeze flows through the open windows. The colorful flowers I’d picked during yesterday’s walk in the forest sit in vases around the room, the sweet floral scent mixing with the salty smell of the lake. A vase of flowers even rests upon the cage at the end of our bed, the new and larger cage that Tavarr has yet to put me inside. I’ve never mentioned it to him, and I’m grateful he allows me to spend every night in his embrace, in the huge comfortable bed.
As if sensing my thoughts, he says, “The bedcage is one Kleaxian tradition I will never understand. I don’t think I could sleep without holding you in my arms, Katrina. That is why I’ve never put you there.” He turns and unfastens the clasp at the front of my gown. With a gentle tug, the dress slips over my shoulders and falls in a pool of silky fabric at my feet.
Anticipation quickens in my core. His eyes have darkened with lust, his muscles are tensed, and his breaths are coming more rapidly. “It’s been a few days since you’ve worn a plug. We must rectify that, don’t you think? I will be pounding your ass with my cock before long, and I want to make sure your little hole is trained well enough to take all of my length.”
“I…yes, sir.” My mouth dries and my heart pounds faster. A deep ache resonates in my center, pulsating hotter and hotter under Tavarr’s intense gaze.
He nods at the bed. “Bend over and pull your ass cheeks apart, Katrina. Show me that pink puckering hole I’m about to stretch.”
As always, his crass words make me flush. We’re up to the largest plug now, and I tremble at the thought of finally accepting his huge cock in my most private place.
Though I’ve taken up this position many times before—bent over the bed, naked, with my legs parted while I hold my ass cheeks wide open—it’s still not easy to obey. Embarrassment heats me all over and I walk to the bed on trembling legs. Once I’m bent over as instructed, Tavarr wastes no time in trickling the lubrication down my crevice and massaging it into my bottom hole.
He’s taken to finger fucking my ass with three huge digits before pushing the plug into me, and tonight is no different. The drives are deep and slow, and it’s not long before my clit is pulsing and my center is aching to be touched. But I won’t be allowed to come until given permission.
Beyond a few warning slaps to my bottom or the backs of my thighs, Tavarr hasn’t punished me since the time I disobeyed him in the bathtub, not long after he’d claimed me as his mate. Though I know one day I will err and he will not hesitate to turn me over his knee for a spanking, I can’t claim to be terrified of the promised punishment.
I trust him. I love him. Though I fully realize the depth of my feelings for him is a result of the Kleaxian mating bond—a bond humans don’t normally feel—I don’t care. For the first time in my life, I truly belong to another person who cares just as deeply for me as I do for him. The relationship isn’t one sided in the least, and the joy and rapture I experience in Tavarr’s arms transcends any possible connection I might’ve felt for him if I’d slowly fallen in love with him.
The inexplicable magic of the mating bond has taken away all fear. Although I hadn’t wanted to be claimed by any Kleaxian, let alone the brother of the male who almost killed me, because I can feel the strength of the bond myself, I’ve been able to heal and look to the future with a hopeful heart.
Sometimes, when I close my eyes, I imagine my entire life with Tavarr playing out in flashes of images. Our first child. Then three or four more. At least one is a girl, and she looks like me, with blonde waves and skin paler than her father and her brothers. A beautiful house on the other side of the mountain, where we live near his family. More white streaks showing up in Tavarr’s hair. We grow old together in harmony, with no fear.
Tavarr pushes the large plug all the way inside me in one fast drive, and I’m jolted back to the present.
“Ah!” I hiss and try to stand up, but he’s quick to hold me in place.
“Naughty girl.” He swats at my upper thighs several times, quick and sharp blows. “You know better than to move while I’m tending to your secret hole.”
“I’m sorry, please. I’m sorry.”
He stops spanking and gives the plug one final tap. It’s nearly as large as his cock, and though I’m stunned he shoved it inside quickly, rather than with his typical slow thrusts, I’m relieved to discover I can take a hard pounding in a place that not so long ago had been completely untouched.
All the times he has described fucking my ass, he has promised to claim it hard. Not once has he pledged to be gentle when he finally pushed his hugeness into my little hole. Heat gathers and pulses between my thighs.
Perhaps tomorrow he will finally claim my ass. Perhaps tomorrow it will be his massive erect cock that he shoves rapidly into my tightness.
Tavarr moves my hands from my ass cheeks, then shoves his rigid length into my pussy and fucks me with abandon, gripping my hips and holding me in place for his rough mating. Though I’ll never admit it aloud, being taken from behind is my favorite position. He’s often brutal in his fucking, but he never truly hurts me.
I like that he doesn’t treat me as if I’m fragile or damaged, because of my time spent with his brother. He showed me understanding in the beginning of our relationship—well, as much as he could under the circumstances, considering his fierce biological urge to claim me. Yet the few times he looked at me with pity, he didn’t make me feel weak and pathetic, and from the very first day he claimed me, he has made me feel treasured.
Rather than order me to stroke myself to release, he reaches underneath me and seeks out my swollen clit. I moan and buck against his hand.
“Do you like it when I touch you here, sweet human? Hmmm?”
I don’t know whether he expects an answer, so I say, “I…oh, yes.”
“Do you remember what I said will happen if you ever touch yourself without permission?” His strokes slow and he squeezes my clit.
“I-I’ll be punished.”
“That’s right. If you ever touch yourself without permission, I will give you a hard spanking on your bare bottom.”
For a reason I can’t fathom, his lecturing makes my breath quicken and all the heat gathering in my loins pulse faster and hotter. I become positively wanton as I move back and forth between his hand and the thrusts of his cock. Finally, he resumes rubbing my throbbing clit, and I moan as the first waves of bliss approach.
“Come now, Katrina. Come while there’s a huge plug seated in your tight bottom hole and I’m pounding my cock into your little pussy.”
His words send me over the edge and I plunge into white hot pleasure. I cry out and ride the surges of ecstasy, and the next thing I feel is the hot spurt of Tavarr’s seed filling me up.
“Good girl.” He strokes my head and slowly pulls from my center.
Drained of all energy, I can’t move, and I’m still trying to catch my breath.
He twists the plug several times and withdraws it from my ass, leaving me empty but satisfied, every cell in my body humming.
“Come, my love, and I will help you clean up. We must get a good night’s rest. We’re leaving tomorrow at dawn for Hehna.”
“But we weren’t supposed to leave for three more days,” I whisper, too fatigued for my worries about meeting his family to resurge. I’m so calm and contented in this moment, I’m barely awake. I’m floating, close to dreaming.
“I’ve moved my schedule around and we’re leaving at dawn. But rest assured, the moment we return, you will feel my cock driving in and out of your tight ass.”
He delivers a playful swat to my bottom and scoops me up in his arms. I rest my head against his chest and start to drift off, but the sound of water filling the tub pulls me from sleep.
Tavarr sinks down in the water, still cradling me to his chest, and simply holds me close.
“I am glad I never took a mate after Vonn stole Erixa,” he says in a tone of deep contemplation. “I can’t imagine life without you, Katrina. It’s as if the universe meant for our hearts to join. I can’t imagine having never known you. My sweet, sweet human.”
Peeking up at him, I reach for his long dark locks, pushing his hair behind his shoulders. I cup the side of his face. I smile. “I’m glad too. You’re the love of my life, and everything I never knew I wanted. I was so frightened the night you showed up in Zandek’s house, but it feels like a thousand years ago, our relationship has changed so much since then.”
Though he’s done it countless times before, when he leans down to kiss my forehead, I swoon, my heart fluttering as a wave of dizziness overpowers my senses.
This is where I belong.
In Tavarr’s arms.