Page 40 of Unleashed

Aduun had remained nearby throughout; though she dared not open her eyes and look, she’d sensed his presence within an arm’s reach since they began their ascent. He’d been up and down the cliffside once already, and upon his return had described, with no small amount of bewilderment in his voice, the open, grassy foothills above. Nina’s mind told her such a transition was impossible because of both the unnatural barrier they were now scaling and the fact that they were still underground, but she didn’t doubt his report.

Below, Vortok grumbled and muttered to himself, making no effort to hide his agitation. Only the craggy nature of the rockface allowed him to make the climb at all. It offered just enough purchase for his immense strength to overcome his disadvantages, but it was no easy task regardless.

At any other time, she would’ve tried to shield herself from his projections of annoyance and simmering rage, but now she focused on them. Though it wasn’t necessarily comfortable to allow his emotions in so freely, they offered a distraction from her own mounting terror.

She couldn’t maintain her hold on Balir forever, and even if she didn’t look down, sheknewthey were so high that a fall meant certain death.

Balir’s foot slipped.

Nina’s heart leapt into her throat; it was the only thing that prevented her from releasing an instinctual scream that would undoubtedly have caused great discomfort to his sensitive hearing. He recovered quickly, tightened his tail around her waist, and continued climbing.

“Just a little farther, Nina,” Aduun called from beside her.

“Okay,” she said, taking a deep breath and nuzzling her cheek against Balir’s strong back. The play of his muscles as he pulled them ever higher was another welcome distraction; the muscles of his sides bunched and stretched against her inner thighs, and though their position was wrong, she couldn’t help but wonder if his muscles would move the same way as he pumped in and out of her.

Nina focused on the rasp of his scales against her skin, the delicious warmth he put off, and the brush of her nipples against his back, separated only by the fabric of her top. The sensations spread through her limbs to coalesce within her core. Heat flooded her.

What would it feel like to have his cock sliding into her, for his scales to lightly scrape her skin and create tantalizing friction as he entered her body?

She bit her lip as growing arousal quickened her breath. Her sex pulsed with sudden need.

This isn’t the time or the place to be thinking of such things.

“Nina?” Balir said, voice oddly strained.

“Hmm?” Her hummed response was huskier than normal.

He grunted and paused, body tense, shifting his hips away from the cliffside. “That scent is going to madden me. Whynow, of all times?”

A different sort of heat suffused her cheeks. “I… I…” She pressed her lips together and squeezed her thighs tighter around his waist as though it could alleviate the ache between them or hide her scent. “I didn’t mean to. It just…”

Balir bowed his head, shoulders rising and falling with slow, deep breaths. After a few moments, he lifted his face and continued climbing with a groan. “Had I known, I might have fashioned some sort of covering to protect myself from the rock.”

Nina raised her head, brow furrowed. “What do you—Oh.” Despite his obvious discomfort, she chuckled.

“I imagine this still doesn’t mean you’ve chosen?”

Her grin softened into a smile, and she pressed a palm flat against his chest while keeping her wrists locked. “I’m still deciding.”

“Ah, well,” he said, his movements stiff thanks to his…condition. “I’d choose this torment over all else without hesitation.”

She laid her head back down. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For distracting me.”

He chuckled between his soft clicking. “In a different situation, I might thank you for the same.”

They reached the top shortly after. Balir drew them up smoothly, crawled away from the edge, and halted to allow her to climb off him. She stood up and took a few steps; her limbs were stiff and shaky, and a sudden wave of dizziness had her stumbling toward the edge.

Balir’s hands settled on her hips, steadying her, and steered her away from the drop-off. She grasped his arms and held them until her head stopped spinning.

Vortok muttered as he finally pulled himself over the crest, crawling away from the cliff on hands and knees before shoving himself to his feet. He brushed his hands together and grunted. “If I never do that again—” his words ended abruptly, and Nina glanced at him to see his awe-filled face directed at the landscape they’d climbed up to. “How can this be here?”

Nina withdrew from Balir’s hold; he released her with reluctance, his tail brushing over her calf before he stepped back.

She turned to follow Vortok’s gaze and was hit with equal wonder and disbelief. The crest of the cliff rolled gradually down into a sloped valley, all windblown grass and lichen-covered rock. The valley seemed to go on forever in both directions. Far ahead, it sloped back up toward increasingly rockier foothills, and large mountains beyond that, which were tinged blue by distance. There were places like this around Bahmet, but the lay of this land was wholly unfamiliar to her.

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