Page 38 of Bred By Zyros
For our child.
My heart jolts in my chest at the thought of them, so I try to think of them as little as possible. Every movement, everylittle sound is like a blade to my throat waiting, poised on the sharpest of needles for the horror of another lost one to greet me. Regardless of the end, we will leave, and I will sire no more. I will not put her through it.
I will not force another agonizing notch in my chest.
“Zyros, where were these gathered?”
Her gentle voice balms the worst of my thoughts. “Just beyond the river, toward the Thryss caves we visited.”
“Can you take me there?”
I pivot, listening to the thunder rolling in from the Ether, pretending my answer might be different than it is. “The storm is coming in quickly.”
She huffs, walking over to me, her pretty soft stomach on display as she kneels, slapping the leaves down on her bare thighs. “Look! Their chemical makeup is different, but they’re the same.”
I do look, and there’s nothing I can see that sets one from the other.
“You think some are bad then?” I bristle, “I would not feed you—”
She cuts me off, lost in her thoughts as she turns, making her short blue dress ride up dangerously close to the part of her that smells so maddening. “That pile the Thryss will eat, they don’t hack it up, and I’m allowed to eat. This pile they don’t like, and they don’t like me to eat either. They did the same thing at the underwater caves those first few days. They’d keep hacking things up and get all upset. I think they were trying to show me it wasn’t safe. But why?”
I stare at her, amazed that the goddesses gave me such a smart mate.
She continues keeping the two leaves separate in each palm. “It’s the same with the berries and that weird leafy grass stuff. Some are fine and some are, at least genetically speaking,different, but at face value, it tastes, looks, and smells the same, so if I can go outside—”
“No.”
“Zyros, I can’t stay inside the cave—”
“You can and you will,” I hiss. “It is not safe.”
She sighs; it’s the same conversation we’ve had since the day she decided to speak again. I will bear her ire with pride; she is not going to be—
“How about a trade, then?”
“No, female, do not play your human tricks.”
“No trick, just treat.” She quips. “I have something you want, I’m sure, and you hold my key to freedom so…”
“I do not require your hair products, clothing, or Thryss. That is all you possess, and none of it interests me.”
She frowns. “Okay, firstly, rude. Secondly, double rude, and it’s your fault I don’t have more because you decided to beMr. Cantstopbeingviolentat the station. Thirdly, I have an entire pod apartment filled with super cool things that do absolutely nothing for me now, seeing as I am mated to you.”
I open my mouth to tell her no again before a thought crosses my mind. My mate does have something I want….badly. My cock thickens and throbs behind my seam. “Where is it you wish to go?”
She regards me with suspicion. “All the places you collected my food while I was knocked out.”
“That is vast.” She goes to speak again, but I cut her off. “To risk your safety in such a manner would require a great trade of equal measure.”
Her eyes widen at the sight of my smirk. Yes, the idea of letting her leave my cave makes my chest tighten, but I am tired of my mate being distant from me. It is unnatural. Her voice is breathy and muted when it comes next. “What are your terms?”
“My terms?” I question, lost on her soft lips, her hot mouth that I wish to explore with my tongue.
“What do you want, if it means I can go outside?”
“Hmmm,” I hiss, slinking closer to her. The way her breath hitches makes my fangs pop free. She has spent these past solars taunting me with her needy scent, making me rut into my hand like a beast, pretending it is her tiny center. It serves my little mate right to be the one tormented now. I let my tongue flick out, tasting her arousal in the air, my cock pressing against my seam. This time, I don’t stop it as it extrudes.
Her gasp is heady, nearly a moan at the sight of my length. “Zyros…”
