Page 36 of Bred By Zyros
Her eyes furrow before slamming wide as I grasp her, filling her lungs domtics before I drag us below the water. My tailmoves us quickly, deeper into the spring. It is an old cave system. The crystals will need a few more years to replenish, but suddenly, right in this moment, I wish to show her, to move her mind to something else, something pretty. She gasps as I surface, her eyes having gone from wide to slammed shut as we’d entered the darkened parts of the system.
Her small hands wipe at her eyes, and she’s no less beautiful in the dim glow of the young crystals. “They look like stars.”
“They are more beautiful than the stars,” I answer, but my eyes are only on her.
She turns her attention back to me, pressing her plush lips against my forehead. The cave is tight, only fitting my upper body with her in here, too. It means she is forced to cling to me. Her words needle at my mind.
It is a crime.
That means something bad, not allowed. A transgression, we call it.
It certainly feels like acrime.
“You can’t help it, you know. How your body reacts. Males of most species can’t help it. It’s blood flow. That’s it.”
“Blood flow?”
She sighs. “That is what causes you to harden. It can be done naturally through arousal like with me or manually with movements. It’s just a reaction. It means nothing, Zyros. It’s important to me that you understand that.”
A long time passes after that. I say nothing. We hold each other, her pressing her lips over my body. I’m not sure what the function is of the lip pressing, but I like it. It calms the worst of what’s battering my chest as the salty water cleanses my wounds as they knit together.
Her voice is a whisper when she speaks again. “I’m really pregnant?”
“Yes.”
She nods, taking a deep breath. “I’d like to go home now.”
Home.
Despite everything, her words please me.
twenty
Melody
The next few days gather and cluster into longer stretches of time in the blink of an eye. The cave is quiet, save for the Thryss. Zyros gives me time to process that my life is forever changed, that the life I’m carrying, this time…will be mine. I give him time to process what that means for him, too. Sometimes I wake, covered in sweat, gasping. Claws hold me down, and I can’t breathe. It only lasts until my eyes slam open, meeting the calming blueish-green glow of the vines above my head. I tuck my blanket tighter around me, only to walk down the short hall leading from my cave and nestle in the coil of the large male sleeping there.
Sometimes he wakes, his coils tensing around me, a violent hiss leaving his throat. He’s embarrassed, refusing to meet my eyes as I run my palms over his cool scales, calming him. It’s hard to fathom the number of years they’ve assaulted and abused him. It’s hard to fathom what that does to a person’smind, to their soul. Seeing him in this light, Zyros is remarkably kind.
Well, at least to me.
I represent everything that harmed him. I represent everything terrible that haunts his nightmares.
Yet, he looks at me like the world would cease its spinning if I slipped from his sight. So, I stay close in his coil where I’m safest. Truth be told, there’s not anywhere else I’d rather be. Our time together has grown into something I never thought I’d be capable of. Quiet. Thoughts that usually badger me like needle pricks seem to slow. Every second doesn’t have to be filled withsomething, although I still keep myself busy. When we do talk, I learn more about Nyssara and the Vrirciks. He learns more about humans and the melting pot of cultures and ideals we share and those we abandoned back when our home world collapsed.
He speaks to me in his native language so that my implant can learn it. So that I can try and fail horribly to mimic the deep hissing and resonant-throated sounds I don’t have the bodily workup to make.
Most of all, this…need for him rides me, and I know he can tell. Every touch feels tempting, every breath heavy, and eyes longing. Then I move away, distract myself with something else. His seam is bulging; it looks painful as all heck. I’m his mate. I have this doting male who adores me in his own surly way. But I don’t tell him I’m…nervous.
I’ve never had sex outside of what was required for breeding.
Never wanted to have sex unless it was necessary.
I don’t even know where to start.
My body is changing already. Vrircik gestation in humans apparently develops very quickly. Already my stomach is beginning to bulge, but it is different than the other times. I assume because of the egg.
Yeah. A fucking egg.
