Page 9 of Bred By Zyros
The hiss that sounds beside my ear is deafening, and my core pulses with need. If my hands were free, I’d touch myself, so I keep them knotted here. “They didn’t hurt you?”
“We build up a tolerance from a young age. The first time is painful. It leaves us sick for weeks.”
“Sick…likethis?” I whisper, knowing he cantell. He cansmellme. Most species have a far stronger sense of smell than humans.
He makes a sound that nearly sounds like a laugh. “No, nothing like this.”
I giggle, running my lips across his scales. “You are so beautiful. Has anyone ever told you that before?”
He stiffens against me, the tension back in his muscles, and immediately I know I’ve said something wrong. “Yes, too often,” he answers quietly, more to himself than me.
My brow furrows. My brain feels too hot and fuzzy. “I am not beautiful at all. Average and perfectly plain. Someday I think I would like to meet someone who calls me beautiful.”
He’s quiet after that. Only the sound of my whimpers and panting echoes as the jungle comes to life around me. My core is hot and soaked, but everything is more vibrant now than I ever thought possible. Each scurry of fauna and each smell of the world around me is in technicolor. A few times, I try to wiggle free from his grasp. He only holds me tighter, hissing in warning, making waves of pleasure leave my body like the Jello mom loves to eat from the food replicator.
My eyes widen as another Vrircik lowers himself slowly from the branches far behind us. He doesn’t say anything to Zyros, and he is nowhere near as pretty. I offer him a sleepy wave and a smile. It is hard to see, thanks to his dark coloring, but it seems like he means to mimic the movement but fails to do so in his upside down way, his thick, dark tail banded around the branch of a tree.
“Zyros, there’s a—”
His hiss cuts me off. “Enough female. You maynotexplore, you have already been injured. Your scent will have attracted every male on the planet. You will not leave my home unless it is in my arms.”
I bury my smile in his neck, butterflies making a racket deep in my stomach. It’s only a little while later that we arrive at our destination. Finally, this time when I rear back to look around me, he allows it,reluctantly. If I’m not mistaken, I think he enjoyed the snuggling. Although I don’t dare voice my accusation. I’m glad for the weird drug plant then, because I can’t fathom the apprehension I would feel if I were sober, being led into a damp cave. “This is yourhome?”
He doesn’t respond, and I huddle closer to him, as if I’m trying to ward off the chill by fusing our bodies. That visual makes me laugh, just half a happy Melody sticking out of a very unhappy Zyros. If he were lucky, only my upper half would fuse, then he’d have access to all the parts he needed, and I couldn’t speak. I’m still laughing at my joke when I’m suddenly discarded. I stumble a bit, my bones all mushy as I melt into the floor on my knees. Only then do I realize my fall was guided by his tail. My fingers spread out on the hard cave floor, cooling my heated palms. I move to stick my face to it when the sound of splashing water fills my ears. I rear up too fast, making me wobble. My eyes widen on a small pool in front of me, the water lit with a purple glow and a wet Zyros slipping through the water.
“Wash yourself, female. Your scent is distracting.” He’s out as quickly as he’d entered. Embarrassment floods through me as I realize he was rinsing himself ofme. It makes sense. I’ve spent the past hour leaking and sweating all over him, but…it hurts my feelings, and I can’t begin to understand why.
I’ll blame it on alien drug brain.
I don’t bother removing my clothes as he disappears to the back of the cave. Another offshoot, no doubt. It’s a huge opening, really. Cavernous, lit with the same bioluminescent vines from the forest, gathered on the walls and the ceiling, basking in the space in a cozy, dreamy, bluish green glow. There are woven baskets stacked neatly around, furs, and some kind of knitted-looking blankets. Everything is in its proper space. Even the section for a fire is large, carved in a deep divot in the cave floor, like a roasting pit. I all but drag my noodle bones into the water with a very ungraceful splash. It’s deeper than it looks, and I let myself sink down, down until my lungs demand air. My lightweight dress seems heavier now that it’s wet, and I regret not removing it already as I break the surface with a gasp. My arms slap against the edge of the spring, eyeing the art on the walls. Smashed crystal into stone, just like the ship. Violent, chaotic, and beautiful.
I can’t help but wonder if it’s a premonition of how this year will be.
six
Zyros
Another hiss rips from my throat as my forehead meets the wall of my sleeping chamber. My cock is straining painfully against my seam as it has been for the last hour, ever since I pulled her into my arms. Dread overwhelms me, shame and repulsion as I extrude against my will, rutting into the air like a mindless beast. My claws gouge the walls of the cave, leaving divots in their wake, and I rut. Myneeda physical aching wound.
I growl, my hand snapping out to grip the offending member as I try to force it back into my seam. It won’t go, I know it, but I try all the same. A fucking human.
A fucking human female.
No.
No.
No.
She's here to fix things, not make them worse, a dishonor to Xyphora that’ll probably end up dead from a bite within theweek. The thought makes a rage nearly as mindless as the need raze my insides.
No, no one will harm her.
I will hide her.
Keep her safe.
Hidden.
