A Civilized Mating (8 page)

Then he knew what he had to do, to show her and Xav where they fit in the hierarchy of his world. The instinct rose and consumed him.

“No, Skye. You will follow my lead. You two belong to
me
.”

Xav had been waiting for this, the moment his alpha accepted a third into their bed.

As soon as Xav had returned to the hut with Skye, he’d known he could no longer wait to have her. Being around his family, his people, stirred his power. As did being near Talzec. So close, they fed off each other, their
phelthar
growing stronger daily.

Skye’s presence heightened everything.

That his female wanted him sealed her own fate. She’d been as hungry to have him inside her as he’d been to fuck her. The first slide inside her hot, tight pussy had nearly shot him into an ecstasy so strong he’d lost all control. A warrior prided himself on control, and Xav had all but given it up to Skye.

Stroking in and out, feeling her come around him as she cried out, tasting her passion from red lips stung with the fruit of need. His first seed had all but spilled out of him.

And then Talzec had arrived. The subtle pulse of his alpha’s presence had been with him the moment they’d entered the village. But now, it was as if Skye intensified the connection. And she added a strange psychic link he and Talzec had never before shared.

He sensed Skye’s deep passion, her longing to belong, her confused lust and desperate need for him, as well as her desire for Talzec, a man she didn’t like yet needed to complete her. The
phelthar
was strong between Xav and Skye. But with Talzec, it felt off-the-charts explosive.

His alpha growled his commands, and Xav wondered if Skye would balk or accept them. With Xav, she’d done what he wanted, yet she’d also been a bit less than wholly submissive.

Talzec would expect nothing less than unwavering obedience. In their relationship, hell, in the entire clan, one man ruled. And it wasn’t Xaveht.

“Both of you, on your knees.” Talzec rose to his feet, his cock wet and thick, his balls tight. Oh yes, Talzec wanted this, wanted them. His eyes were no longer gold, but a bright blue. The way they flashed then glowed when he came inside Xav. But this time they stayed blue. As blue as the sky.

The comparison wasn’t lost on him, and Xav smiled as he knelt beside Skye and waited.

She shook her head. “You’re doing something to me, just like Xav does.”

“Silence, female.”

She glared up at Talzec. “My name is Skye,” she said with a silken anger that only enhanced Xav’s need to take her again.

“You do not seem to understand the meaning of silence. Show her, Xav.”

Xav understood and didn’t hesitate. He leaned forward, opened his mouth, and took Talzec to the back of his throat. His lover didn’t moan, but a spurt of fluid filled Xav’s mouth, and he sucked it down.

Skye watched in stunned silence as Talzec fucked Xav’s mouth. As he did, Xav’s cock filled out, even slicker than he’d been before.

“Oh wow. That is just so…
hot
.” Skye cupped her breasts and pinched her nipples, and Talzec’s nostrils flared.

He withdrew from Xav’s mouth. “Get between her legs, on your back.”

Xav scurried to position himself between her legs, knowing what his alpha had in mind.

“Now, Skye. Suck me dry. Until I give over my first seed.”

She blinked, chewed her lower lip, then took Talzec’s fat cock between her lips. The moment the tip of Talzec’s cock disappeared in her mouth, Xav reached up between her legs and sucked her clit.

She gave a startled moan, and Talzec pushed deeper.

“That’s it,” he said as he gripped her hair. “Take me deeper. Suckle the sweet juice from my shaft. Swallow me.” He pumped into her mouth, fucking her with slow, shallow strokes while Xav ate her out, enjoying the hell out of their play.

The energy in the room surged, a well of affection, desire, and confusion mingling to overwhelm them all.

Xav nibbled at her clit and shoved a finger inside her, and Skye came hard. He knew because he felt her tighten around him, saw his alpha tense then begin to pump faster in her mouth.

In two more thrusts Talzec grunted and spent, his balls taut, his body locked up as he filled her mouth with seed. Still coming, he withdrew from her mouth and forced her back to sit over Xav’s cock.

“Now ride him.” Talzec continued to work his shaft while she ground over Xav. So primed to touch her, Xav gripped her hips and forced her to ride him faster while staring up at Talzec’s arousal. His alpha continued to spend, showering their female with his scent as it dropped onto her breasts and spattered her skin. A true second seed, because her skin absorbed it, leaving no mess but the scent of connection joining them.

So excited at the prospect of a future with the woman he’d been searching for without knowing it, Xav groaned and would have come inside her had Talzec not ordered him not to.

“Not yet. Mark her instead.”

Xav managed to push her off him and come onto her belly, his instinct to procreate with Skye nearly irresistible.

Instead he finished outside her body, his seed soaking into her skin.

Talzec grunted, leaned down, and drew Skye to her feet. Then he kissed her, so deeply and for so long, Xav wondered that they didn’t expire from a lack of oxygen.

Without warning, Talzec pulled away and shoved Skye at him. He glared at them both, swore, then redressed while sporting
another
erection. He left the hut in a rage, though Xav could still feel the male’s desire and affection winding together in a baffling sense of dread and excitement. Poor Talzec, still not sure how to accept a woman into his heart.

Skye looked lost, so Xav hugged her, wanting her all over again. But this time the need was tempered with a tenderness for his mate. A need to protect, to care for and pleasure. The instinct had truly kicked in, because he sensed what she needed through
phelthar
.

He drew her with him outside. She was still too dazed to worry about clothing, though he knew most offworlders perceived nakedness as vulnerability.

“No one will notice anything odd about your nudity,” he said as he guided her down a path to his favorite cleaning spot by the river. Once there, he got into the water with her and gently bathed her in the bubbling pool.

She moaned, obviously well-used, and let him tend to her. She looked near to sleeping when she spoke. “What exactly happened back there? Other than that I blew a hot alien, rode another sexy barbarian, and all after coming a few times with you.”

He chuckled. “We’ve bonded, Skye.”

She closed her eyes and sank deeper in the water. “This is not happening.”

He’d figured she’d be difficult about the situation, so he didn’t want to burden her unduly. Not yet. But he had to make up for Talzec’s abrupt departure. “I’m afraid it
is
happening. Something about you and Lisa seems to be compatible with our people.”

“Lucky for Maht he found her before you did, then,” she quipped.

“Lisa is beautiful, and from what Maht said, kind at heart. But she is not you. Even had Maht severed the mating before it took root, I would not bond with Lisa. She is not for me.”
For us—me and my alpha.

“How can you tell?”

“You know exactly how I can tell. You feel that intense connection with me, and with Talzec, that you feel for no other. Aside from Talzec, I do not sense others as deeply as I do you. Our energies align.”

“Yeah, about that.” She opened her eyes wide to stare at him, and he drifted closer in the water, watching her breasts bob in the hot liquid. “So you and Talzec are close.”

“Very.” He smiled at her blush. For such a fierce brawler, she had a tendency to be adorably vulnerable. So womanlike, yet not at the same time. He found her contrasts fascinating.

“I mean, you blew him. Do you, um, do you guys have sex with each other a lot?”

This story Talzec should tell, but Xav knew his lover would not. “Our females are few in number, and our warriors have needs. It used to be forbidden among our kind, but love is an energy that unites all things.”

“I guess.”

“Does it bother you that Talzec and I fuck?”

She blinked at the direct question. “Um, no. Actually, it was really sexy, you doing that to him.”

“Sucking his dick?” he asked bluntly, just to see her turn red again.

She bit her lower lip, and he kissed it better. “Oh yeah.”

“Talzec is my alpha, my commander in all things. We were best of friends growing up. Then he rescued Nalla from her clan, and he fell for her.” Xav sighed. “Things did not go well for them, and Nalla died. That’s when Talzec and I bonded. His need for stability overcame his resistance to what his spirit knew to be right.”

“What should his spirit have known?”

“That he and I shared more than a spiritual connection. We were meant to form a unit, two warriors, one female. Nalla was not for him.”

“Didn’t you like her?”

“I did. She was a good female. Soft, kind. But not for him. When she died, he stayed. They never truly connected.”

“Wait. What does that mean?”

“It means,
tonan
, that when we mate, we mate for life. A true joining means our spirits intertwine. When one of us dies, we all die.”

“Oh, wow.” She stroked the water from his shoulders, bared above the surface of the pool. “When did she die?”

“A year ago. The Nasuhl, the clan men you fought yesterday, belonged to her tribe. Their leader, Daveen, is the one who killed her.”

“Oh boy.”

“A war is brewing, and soon we will fight the Nasuhl and force them to pay for their crimes. Their leader would do anything to hurt Talzec. And now you are a part of him.”

“Yeah? So why did he leave in such a hurry?” She scowled, but he sensed her hurt at the rejection.

“Because he’s still grieving, and he’s afraid to feel again. He would never admit it, but Talzec lost a part of himself when Nalla died. He couldn’t protect her, and she paid the price. His closeness with me still worries him, but he cannot avoid
phelthar
forever. A good leader does what is best for his people, and being strong and stable comes from loving.”

She drew him down for a kiss, one that soothed as it aroused. “You know, for a bunch of barbarians, you guys sound pretty darn wise about relationships. Well, except for this nonsense about women not being warriors.”

“You are both, so I suppose we must be wrong.” He grinned and shifted her to sit over him, angling himself between her legs, then inside her. “Oh, Maker, you feel so good.”

“So do you. Now make me forget about how weird all this is and come hard. But no babies, right?”

“No, no babies.”
Not yet.

They lost themselves to the beauty of their joining, and all the while Xav knew his alpha could feel the building lust. And love.

Yet Talzec stayed away. He didn’t come to Xav’s pallet that night, or the next day. Xav wondered how long Talzec thought he could keep up the pretense of not caring what Skye did. The stubborn man.

Xav frowned. Sooner or later he’d have to fix things, but not yet. Now when he had a warm woman waiting to spar with him before evening meal.

Skye didn’t know how to feel. Sex with Xav was miraculous. With him, she had no problem submitting or feeling weird about it. Who wouldn’t accede to the demands of a seven-foot-tall warrior with sex on the brain? Especially when he looked like a hot weightlifter and knew how to use his body like a weapon. He was her fantasy made flesh.

But… For some weird reason, she craved Talzec. She’d never,
ever
, had unprotected sex. Typically she kept up to date with shots to prevent pregnancy and disease, but those were specific to certain species. At the rate she and Xav continued to fool around, she kept upping her chances for a baby. Though he’d promised he’d never give her his “second seed” and impregnate her, they’d gotten pretty close a time or two. Talk about a lust that didn’t quit.

The man turned her on without trying, and she had a hard time asking him for anything when he turned all dominant master on her.

But he couldn’t compete with Talzec’s inherent commanding presence. Even Xav bowed to Talzec, his alpha and sexual master.

“Talzec, you coward.” She knew it was asking a lot for the man to forget his precious ex. Skye had never suffered loss like that and didn’t know how he felt. She empathized, truly. But Talzec had no problem fucking Xav. She’d watched him several times in just two days. It was a wonder Xav didn’t walk bowlegged from the pounding he’d received.

So freakin’ hot. Being ordered to watch Xav take it up the ass or blow Talzec turned her on like crazy. They looked like models together, grappling and rubbing and coming on each other. What wasn’t to love? Except Talzec would study her watching him fuck, giving her that superior look as if daring her to compete with him. It made little sense and ruined what should have been a sexy-as-all-get-out fantasy.

She sighed and walked down to Xav’s favorite spot, the grotto. She knew Talzec might be around, but she forced herself not to care. After that one amazing sexcapade with him and Xav, he’d been avoiding her.
What a pussy.
She kept mentally insulting him, knowing it was better to dislike him than feel unwanted.

Jesus, she’d only known him for a few days. Xav too. But that freaky
knowing
that had grown with her time spent on Ussed tampered with her emotions. She felt Xav and Talzec, knew their feelings if not their thoughts. It bothered her, but she refused to tell Xav the truth, that they had totally connected.

Since Lisa had described having similar feelings toward Maht, Skye knew she teetered on the brink of making her own life choices. Xav had all but claimed her as his own. Everyone treated her like she belonged to him…and Talzec. 

Only Talzec didn’t seem too impressed with her.
Well screw him.

Skye would have to be an idiot to decide her future in days. Who the hell gave up an entire life for incredible sex with a barbarian anyway? Sure, Xav was amazing, but he wasn’t the endgame. At one point, Welcome had been her life trophy. Now she had to make some new dreams.