Yet they’d deliberately engineered us without any emotional connections. We cared about the mission, not each other’s welfare. Certainly not words of affection.
:She would have died countless times without your assistance,:I reminded him.:So I love you nearly as much as I love her.:
:I want to love.:Axxol’s hushed, careful tone was as shocking as his words.:Teach me so I can love too.:
:We will,:I promised him. :Every single day.:
He made a low, rough sound in an attempt to sound like his formidable self, though it came out as more of a ragged grumble.:Hurry up so I can have my turn.:
16
NATALIE
Snryx’s implements extracted my shirt even more carefully than when he’d pulled Akylla out of my uterus. Then he’d been in and out so quickly I hadn’t felt a moment of fear or pain. This time, he moved with agonizing attention to detail, moving each separate strand of my hair aside with surgical precision as he worked the shirt over my head. His tentacle-like tools stroked over my skin, cool and satiny soft. Pliable like living flesh, moving without any jointed or hard sections touching me, even though I’d seen him use them like brutal swords and surgical knives with incredible precision.
Amputate an injured limb. Perform a caesarian operation. Inject healing fluids and medication without me even feeling a needle.
Or wrap me up in velvety bonds I had no hope of escaping.
As soon as the thought flickered through my mind, I felt thicker implements wrap around each of my wrists, tugging my arms up over my head. The shirt still covered my face, blinding me, making it a little more difficult to breathe.
Which only made my heart rate accelerate.
Kroktl kneaded my ass in both of his hands. “That’s far enough, Sn. Why don’t you remind her what else your implements are capable of?”
Snryx didn’t argue about my mouth being covered up—which would certainly prevent me from marking him. The whole point of?—
He interrupted that train of thought. “Even if you never mark me, the whole point of any of us existing here, now, with you, is your pleasure and safety.”
Kroktl nudged his dick against my buttocks, rubbing the thick ridge up and down the hollows of my body. Despite the denim covering me, I could feel every delicious bump and ridge in his cock. His rising heat. I opened my thighs, lifting my legs in invitation. Snryx immediately wrapped tentacles around my knees, supporting my weight so I hung suspended between them.
“Do you care about these shorts?” Kroktl asked.
As soon as I shook my head, the sound of ripping denim made me jump. Hard claws pricked my flesh—sharp but not breaking the skin. One tapped along my hip while another scratched over my pubic bone.
I couldn’t help but remember the first night in the jungle. Lost, scared, hunted by something in the dark that I couldn’t see. Then the tapping. A promise of imminent danger—even though I didn’t know what it was. Not until I saw the glittering obsidian curve of a massive claw in the moonlight, tapping against the ground in warning. Claws that could shred my liver before I’d even be able to move a muscle.
Or make quick cuts through thick denim shorts in a matter of seconds.
Kroktl hummed out a soft hiss as he dragged a claw down the crotch of my panties. “Humans wear so many layers.”
The sharp tip stroked over thin satin covering my most tender flesh, teasingly pushing deeper, nudging between my folds. He scratched over my clit, hard enough to make me jump. It didn’t hurt—but sensation sliced through me. Electrical currents pulsed from my clit, radiating through my entire body. I’d already come once, just from him licking his mark, but my body primed for another climax.
No, it was more than that. A cascading, endless climax of multiple waves that never fully ceased. Already, I could feel the ripple in my inner walls, anticipation tightening my muscles. It would be so easy.
“Let go, baby,” Kroktl whispered. “We’ve got you.”
His claw punctured through the crotch of my panties, tearing through the material as easily as a spider’s web. The hard tip slid into me with exquisite care, swirling slightly, stirring me up. Pushing me over the edge.
My pussy clamped down so hard I feared I might injure myself on the sharp claw but I couldn’t bring myself to care. He never hurt me. Even when he fucked me in his raptor form. Though remembering how he’d stuffed me full made another spasm pulse through my pussy hard enough I grunted.
Something closed over both of my nipples, tightening and loosening in rhythm with the climax rolling through me. Not hot like Akylla’s mouth but firm, taking in more of my breasts, squeezing almost too hard. I twitched and moaned, everything intensified. Tingling burned up into my chest, beneath my armpits, spreading as my milk let down.
For a moment, I panicked. Ashamed, somehow. If Snryx thought it was icky or gross…
He inhaled sharply. I couldn’t see his face through my shirt, but I felt his forehead against mine, the warmth of his breath filtering through the cotton. “No part of you could ever be icky. I don’t mind at all. In fact, allowing me to sample the life-givingmiracle your body has created is something I’ll treasure forever. Unless it bothers you.”
My breasts throbbed with sensation. Pleasurable and good—not icky. It felt good when Akylla nursed too.