She comes in and embraces me tightly. “I was scared.”

“Everyone is scared of the irox. Not everyone fights as well as you did. You kept your cool.”

“It come right at me, Korr'ax.” Her voice is weak.

I squeeze her tightly. “Of course! You’re the first to ever blind it. It was furious with you.”

Among the trees, the irox kicks one last time.

The sound makes Bryar jerk. “It wanted kill me!”

“And me. It would have gotten me if you hadn’t used your disk.”

Bryar clings to me, pushing her face into my chest.

Her little body shakes as she sobs and weeps for a while. I suspect it’s about more than the irox attack. Possibly a lot more. There’s a soreness in her that I want to rid her of.

“I will send hunting parties to look for her,” I say into Bryar’s wet hair. “She can’t have gotten far. Her tracks will be obvious.”

Bryar sniffs and stands back. “Not. Piper not want. She choose. It her choice.” She wipes her nose and takes a trembling breath. “Sorry. It just… toomuch.”

I pull her back into me. “The jungle is often too much. But someone recently showed me a cure for sadness.” I kiss her mouth, her lips salty from emotions.

Still it makes my hardness grow. I kiss my way down Bryar’s body towards the mystery between her thighs, and her sounds change from sniffling to moaning. Her scent grows stronger, too. When I carefully check with one finger, she’s so slippery that my cock jumps from expectation.

The ground here is all dirt, so I lift Bryar onto me.

She gets it and puts her arms around my neck and squeeze her thighs around my waist.

“Take me,” she wheezes, eyes glassy and mouth half open. “Make me not sad.”

She’s light in my arms, and I make sure to support her fully. My urge is becoming hard to control, and I lower her until her warm, slippery opening is right where I want it.

“Slow,” she whimpers.

I only growl in reply before I lower her, enjoying her gasp as my rod passes through the narrowest part of her and settles deep inside. I stay there for a moment, demonstrating ownership of her very center and sensing how her woman’s body responds to each twitch of my cock.

I lift her again, enjoying her fast heartbeat against my hands.

“More,” she begs when I don’t lower her immediately.

I’m not going to tease her anymore, so I slide her down, having her take part in her own penetration. She’s hot and throbbing around my shaft. Her breath is fast and shallow, and the scent from the point where we’re joined is unmistakable. She’s just as ready as I am.

Lifting her again, I set up a steady rhythm, like the tribal drums during a feast, up and down, out and in.

Bryar’s sounds go from soft to insistent. I speed up, hearing my own grunts mix with her whimpers. Then she goes silent, holding her breath, and I go deeper in her because she’s about to—

“Ooooh!” Bryar groans, her body clenching around me. I thrust fast and deep, holding her securely to make her pleasure as deep as possible, chasing away her sadness and helping her forget.

But that also means I can’t control myself. Her sounds, her heat, her scent, her warmth around me — I can’t resist it all.

“Aaagh!” I roar as I let go and spray inside her, heat filling my pelvis and sheer happiness of the conquest filling the rest of me. The added fluids make me slide faster and easier in and out, and Bryar’s noises keep going until I have to slow down and hold her tight while she breathes hard.

She keeps shaking for a while before I let her down on her feet.

“Feeling better?” I ask, looking around quickly for dangers.

“Better,” Bryar confirms, still holding on to my arm as she gains control of her shaking knees. “Very better. Korr'ax, I want ask something.”