Tyr

I had to get away anyway, for a second or two. I am as hard as rock, pressed against fabric almost painfully.

As soon as I slip out of the tent I am ambushed from the nearby shrubbery by a tchakara. It uses its powerful hind legs to launch itself forward, jaws-first, right at me. I roll forward, landing in the same position I set off from and hopping up to my foot while the beast shakes its head hard and looks around for where I ended up. Its fangs are splayed and long, betraying its advanced age, and I know I can take it by myself.

Which is why, when beautiful, wide-eyed Alyssa sticks her head out of the tent flap with curiosity, I bark at her to get back inside.

But my mate does not like to be told what to do, and she looks up at me with a frown, and then clambers outside and to her feet, whistling for the snarling tchakara to look her way.

“Don’t be so foolish!” I bark, whipping my electrogun from my belt and flipping it around on my finger so that it comes to rest on my wrist where it belongs. “Get away before it takes off your face!”

“Now!” she cries, and I sent a blast just as the predator leaps through the air, straight for her. Alyssa flinches just as the bright blue shockwave envelopes the tchakara and sends it crashing chin-first to the dirt, where it slides and lands limply at her feet, still breathing but its eyes slowly falling shut.

“Great shot!” she says, clapping her hands together and leaping over the beast towards me. I lower the gun, aware that my chest rapidly rising and falling is betraying how nervous her reckless act made me.

“Woman!” I roar, stepping back to retain the distance between us. “You are not — and never will be — a warrior. You must never do anything so stupid as that again. Not in my company. The … the king will have my head if you are harmed!”

It is the truth. But…

...the thought of her being hurt sets my teeth on edge; makes me want to kick a tree.

The idea that she is my mate barely occurred to me until just moments ago. In that tent, staring into her eyes, feeling the life in her body, as the sweet, fruity scent of her filled the air.

She is not just a woman I am burdened with because some unknown person decided to stick their nose where it didn’t belong: into my private life. Though she is still that, she is something else too. She is my perfect genetic match.

That must mean something, mustn’t it? But I don’t know exactly what, and I dismiss it once again from my mind. If the idea of a talkative AI or a third crew member makes my blood run cold, how would I be expected to deal with a needy wife?

With needy children?

I am not built for this life and I never will be.

But that doesn’t mean I am going to let anything happen to my mate … er, to this human woman.

“Tyr!” is all she has to yell back to me.2

Did she not listen to a single thing I said? Or—

Before I know it, I am bowled over. The tchakara I have just taken out was old, and I got cocky and let down my guard, but they sometimes hunt in pairs as well as alone. Especially when the game is bigger…

The beast has torn through the thin leather pants and is gripping my leg and shaking. I inch away, feeling no pain, and before my fingers can close around my weapon, Alyssa has it in her hands, and squeezes with all her strength. The blast knocks her back onto her behind, but the beast is compromised, flashing briefly with an electric light and twitching on the forest floor.

She drops to her knees when the animal is out for the count and gasps, bringing her hand to her lips when she sees the state of my clothing.

I look down to see that the tchakara has also taken a chunk out of my leg. I wince at the sight, but mostly at the inevitable conversation that will need to come next.

“We need a first aid kit!” she panics.

“It’s fine,” I say through gritted teeth, and peel away the leather to expose the truth.

My legs are made of Paxian wood. Sweet-smelling, still semi-alive and flexible, soft Paxian wood. I knock firmly on one and then the other, and smile encouragingly as the horror falls from her features and is replaced by confusion, and then realization.

“Your legs,” she says, reaching out to press her hand to the wood, and raising her eyebrows with surprise. “What happened?”

“The war,” I say simply. “Explosion.”

I would say more but her hand is on my prosthetic. It may not be skin, but I am still aware of its proximity to my cock. “The wood is warm,” she says.

“Of course,” I say. “It’s still alive. We draw power from nature on Paxia. Everything granted to us by our goddess can sustain us in some way.” I struggle to my feet and push myself up, blowing out a breath. “It is weakened now that I have left the planet. I was only supposed to be here for an hour or two.”

“But aren’t you really tech-savvy down there?” she asks, not able to tear her eyes away from my prosthetics. “I bet you could get really cool metal legs. You’d be so cool. All bionic.”

I can see her imagination getting away from her so I try to reel her in. “I refuse,” I say, hoping it will end there. But of course it won’t.

“Are you crazy?” she wants to know.

“I am not.”

She rolls her eyes, though it doesn’t seem to be out of actual irritation. “You strike me as really stubborn,” she says.

“I’m not stubborn,” I snap back.

“Fine. Get back in the tent and warm up, c’mon.”

I fold my arms. “I don’t need to warm up. I am fine.”

She chuckles, and then it turns into full-blown laughter. Shaking her head and giggling still, she climbs into the tent. “Get in!” she orders. I furrow my brow but I climb in after her and seal the opening tightly behind me.

“Are you not cold?” she asks, and when I turn back to face her in this small space I can see that she is bravely trying not to give away how freezing her skin is, but I can no longer feel the heat radiating from her body. Her extremities must be extremely painful — humans do not adapt as easily to temperature extremes as we Mahdfel do, as far as I am aware.

I was being insensitive by ignoring her needs, even if she was doing her best to hide them from me.

What an interesting and unexpected companion she has turned out to be.

“I am not my optimal temperature,” I admit to make her feel better. “But I am not yet uncomfortable.” I tear off the lower legs of the cloth I am wearing and discard it, showing the two powerful wooden prosthetics.

I don’t blame her for being confused and horrified at seeing parts torn away by teeth. It would require a few seconds of careful searching to see that they are definitely not flesh and blood. Yes, they are a rich brown color instead of my normally dark purple skin, but as long as one cannot see where I end and the legs begin, it is possible not to notice straight away.

“Why those?” she asks, eyes on my limbs. “I just don’t understand — why not something state of the art? Imagine how useful and advanced the latest bionic legs would be.”

“I got these legs from the greatest prosthesis maker on Paxia, many years ago.”

“I think he’d understand,” she says with a shrug, wrapping her arms around herself.

“I do not intend to sully the perfection of his handiwork by replacing it with something mechanical that, if it were to malfunction or be hacked, could take a long walk beyond a short cliff face whenever it felt the need to. There are intrinsic dangers in relying too much on technology.”

I can hear a strange noise by the time I’ve finished speaking and I realize it’s her teeth. Chattering.

I tut. “Here.” I take her arm, feeling the chill on her skin, and press her hand on my broad chest, partially exposed through the loose tunic I’m wearing.

She looks at me, brow quirked in confusion.

It’s the most adorable thing I have ever seen. My tattoos thrum, winding around my dark skin. My cock reminds me of its existence, still encased in tight leather. I swallow, hoping she cannot see its suddenly obvious outline.

“I…” I begin, faltering for a moment. “I am warm. You may share my body heat.”

She mutters something under her breath that I don’t catch, but she doesn’t move her hand. I feel the ice fade from her skin and become more alike my own in temperature. I gently take her other hand and place it on my stomach and I see her lips purse, her eyes avoiding mine.

“Is something wrong?” I ask, my voice low.

It’s the strangest thing. I am being as practical as I can be. It only makes sense that we share body heat, but her small hands on my ab muscles … so close to my cock that I can almost feel her cool, soft skin against my velvety rod.

Despite myself, my hips buck ever so slightly, so that the shaft underneath my clothing brushes against her touch. I open my mouth to apologize, but she just pulls in a breath and then moves her body closer to me.

“Do you mind?” she asks.

I don’t know what she means, but I shake my head no. I don’t mind.

I couldn’t mind anything she might be about to do. I would give her everything she wanted right now if she only asked. Just for tonight. Here in this secret chamber, alone, in a strange land. It doesn’t seem real here.

What she was asking, it seems, was if she could press her body against mine, not just her frozen hands. I let out a breath — and with it, all inhibitions that would otherwise have stopped me from giving in like this — and scoop her up effortlessly, setting her onto my lap and wrapping my warm arms around her shivering, small, perfect body.

Before I know what I’m doing, I’m caught up in the feeling of her against me, and my nose is in her long, thick, dark hair and I’m inhaling her sweet scent. Somehow it instills me with nostalgia, even though we have never met before.

In that moment I know what it is.

We are supposed to be together.

I don’t know how to articulate it, so I let out a throaty growl from deep inside my body, and lower my mouth to her ear. I lash my tongue against her earlobe and feel her melt against me. I nip it and feel the shudder rip through her entire body. Against me. Against my cock.

I’ve never been so hard before in my life. I never thought it possible.

I grind against her, my hand travelling firmly up her curves from waist to breasts, gathering up the material as I go and exposing her skin like sun-scorched earth, tracing my palms across her nipples and feeling them peak against my skin.

Her hips are moving, her breath is shallow.

“Tyr,” she whispers, moving her face so that her breath blows hot against my collarbone. I have no words; I push her hair from her face and let out a rumble of animal desire. “We can’t.”

She says that, but her lips lightly brush the sensitive skin of my neck, and her hips move so that she is perfectly positioned over my steel-hard cock. I am pressed against her entrance separated only by three layers of cloth.

I have never actively hated cloth before this moment.

“We can’t?” I manage to repeat, softly raising her chin so that our lips are a sweet fraction of a second away from each other.

“Maybe we can.” She bites her lower lip, and then they part and I can’t stop myself. My tongue lightly traces her lower lip as it fills with color again.

“Can we?” I tease, bucking my hips harder this time and eliciting a groan from her as I press my rigid length against her, wordlessly telling her my length. She tugs at my clothing so I whip it off over my head, and she lowers her mouth to taste me. Her tongue tentatively slides over my collarbone. My pectoral muscles. Lapping light across my nipple and moving her hand around my hip to squeeze a handful of my rear end.

Strangely, the feeling makes my cock throb ever more intensely. I had always assumed that my body had only the one erogenous zone, but it appears that humanity is ahead of the curve in at least one way.

She introduces me piece by piece to my own body.

With the delicate, teasing tip of her tongue on the ridged muscle of my abdomen, I feel in danger of exploding, my cock straining painfully against the tight leather, so with one hand I push what’s left of my pants down to let it spring free: thick, purple, long. The sight of it widens my human’s eyes, and then her face is quickly colored with lust.

“You’re so…” she whispers, and trails off.

It doesn’t matter which adjective she was going to go for. What matters is the undeniable note of astonishment — she is impressed.

“You are more,” I let her know. It makes her laugh, which makes me smile. I have not smiled this many times in this many hours in memory, and honestly my cheek muscles are beginning to ache. But I’m far from irritated by it.

I’m far from irritated by her. That’s new. Even Axion and Vyken, the two men I would trust my life with more than anyone … they frequently get on my nerves.

It has been a while alone with Alyssa and all I want to do is speak to her. Learn more about her past. Learn more about her future. Second by second. By her side.

What have I become? And will it last?

Right now, though, I don’t want to think about anything but the here and the now. Her and me. Us, here, together.

I have no idea what is about to happen, and as someone who rarely finds himself anything other than completely in control, the feeling is unusual, intoxicating. Arousing.

Lifechanging.

Her small hand wraps around my thick cock and she grips it tightly and I let out a low noise of pure appreciation, that makes her lips curl upwards. With one hand I pull her blouse above her head and discard it to cool on the tent floor.

“What is sex like on Paxia?” she murmurs in my ear, straddling me topless. I grip the front of her bra between my teeth and click the clasp open with my forefinger and thumb. When it springs open and I let it fall, she gives a squeal of delight at my dexterity.

I know I am impressive. Still, her confirmation makes my freed cock twitch upwards to thump against her covered clit.

“I don’t know the differences, but I’m told the act is similar enough to be recognizable,” I tell her.

She laughs, leans forward and cups my cheeks to take my lower lip gently between her teeth. The sensation makes me groan, and I plunge my tongue into her mouth, tasting her and feeling her bared nipples harden against my skin.

She pulls away with her hand still soft on my cheek. “You were meant to say something like ‘let me show you … puny human’,” she laughs.

“Oh.” I enclose her lip in my own, and release her with a muted ‘pop’. “I don’t think I would use the word ‘puny’. But as you wish.”

I lift her up without effort and lay her on the cushioned floor, covering her with my body, protecting her from the chill with my heat.

My cock rests between her legs, and she wraps her legs around my waist and gyrates. I taste her mouth, her neck, her chest, and back to her mouth. My hands explore her full breasts, and in this moment I live for her shudders.

I am not even inside her and this is the most intensely erotic moment of my life to date.

Even if the stars do not align and I am not with her after she gets the cure she wishes for, I want to remember this moment forever.

I know I could never forget Alyssa if I tried.

“Can we really do this?” she whispers.

“Can we really not?” I ask, and my meaning is clear. Could either of us stand up and walk away right now? With our bodies pressed together so firmly. We fit together perfectly.

She responds by running her fingertips up my spine while I trap her mouth with mine, inhaling her, drinking her in. All of her.

With fumbling, distracted movements she shimmies out of her pants with my help, and my cock is pressed against her lace-trimmed underwear. She pants against the steady, quick pulse skipping in my throat, and I lick up and down her neck to her ear until she gives me that combination of whimpering and shuddering I crave.

Her pleasure sustains me like a hot meal.

Her hands run up and down my length and when I feel like this can’t get any better, she guides me to her sweet wetness, and before I can stop to think about this, I push my full length inside her perfect warmth in one powerful thrust. There is no resistance and I feel her walls quiver around me as they work to accommodate my thickness.

She arches her back and grips at the muscles on my back, her thighs squeezing my hips as I pull out and swiftly push back inside.

I never want to leave her perfect body.

I belong here.

As I gain my rhythm, and she moves her hips up and down, grinding hard against me and making me almost blind with pure pleasure, I reach down and grip her shoulder with my teeth, plucking at her sensitive skin and nipping until her mouth opens with a whimper. As her back arches with the pleasure of every stroke, her hardened nipples graze my chest, and I can’t hold back any longer.

I can feel the intensity of her orgasm as she pulses around my hard cock and squeezes me with her small but powerful legs.

I have no choice but to come with her.

With a crashing roar that vibrates the flexible tent material around us, I pump my last and release everything I have inside her. The feeling makes her eyes close and her lips part. She is beautiful.

“You are perfect,” I say, the ferocity of my words shocking both of us out of our reverie.

But I don’t have room in my life for a woman. I fly straight into the epicenter of combat. I fight recklessly and I lose friends and comrades in the heat of this ongoing war. This is my life. This is my destiny.

I’m not ready to leave it behind, but … I don’t want to give up Alyssa.

What do I do?

She closes my mouth again with a kiss that could tear me apart and make me whole all at once.