Rebel Pax (Shifters of the Primus Book 2) (6 page)

He pushes himself into me, the hot cream of my pussy making his dick slick and warm against me. I slide my hands down his chest, taking in every line and crease of muscle, enjoying the smoothness and heat of his skin, distracting myself from the absolute explosion of sensation between my legs to let this moment stretch on as long as it can.

He groans, thrusting faster still. I curl my arms around his broad back and can’t keep myself from humping against him thirstily, as if his pace is still not fast enough. He pulls me away from the wood of the Loris tree and holds me in the air by my hips. To my delight, he is strong enough to
use
me like a tool, pushing me up and down against his cock.

“Oh. My g-od. You’re s—oh—so strong,” I say breathlessly.

His eyes find mine and I watch as his face creases with mounting pleasure. I sense that he wants to hold back longer to enjoy the moment but feel that he will not. I do not want him to be able to resist cumming inside me. I want him to now.

“Harder,” I scream.

With his hands still on my hips, he pulls me down on his cock until every inch of it fills me. I cry out in a shock of pain that quickly melts into pleasure. He does not move for a moment so I use his neck for leverage and grind my pussy against him, feeling one of the ridges of his cock against my G-spot as I do.

“I’m going to—ah” he says, voice strained.

I rock my hips until I can feel his smooth length sliding in and out of me again.

His grip on my waist tightens until it becomes almost painful. His purring deepens and the vibrations deepen with it. I know that he is strong enough to crush me with his bare hands if he wanted, and the threat of danger pushes me over the edge. My pussy clenches with orgasm, pulsing against his cock, begging it for its seed.

He obliges.

I feel a rush of warmth as he pumps wave after wave of cum into me, so much that I feel it dripping from my pussy after just a few seconds. I push myself down until he is entirely inside me and my pussy is against his pelvis and his balls are against my ass. My eyes roll back, pussy still milking his length for every last drop. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the reality of what I’m doing is hitting me, screaming for me to
think.
Is this really what I want. Do I want to be a mother? A mother to
his
child? I don’t know, and I doubt anyone ever really does know for sure. All I know is something has grown between us in a short period of time and I can’t explain it, but I know it’s real. I just hope it will last.

The ecstasy finally fades, replaced by a deep, body-numbing satisfaction. Rather than pull away from me, he gently sits down and then lays on his back with me still atop him and his cock still inside me. I lay on him for a long while, finger slowly tracing the soft hairs on his chest. And I fall asleep with his cock throbbing inside me as it gradually loses stiffness and his seed drying on my thighs.

W
hen I wake
, the sun is nearly set. We will need to move soon. Mira has rolled off of me and lays beside me, her beautiful bare ass plainly in my view. I take as long as I like to enjoy it before I wake her, which happens to be several minutes. When I am ready, I slap her hard on one of her star-white asscheeks. She wakes with a growl.

“Did I dream that you have a magical cock, or was that real?” she asks sleepily.

“Magical? Perhaps it is. But you have a pussy to match.”

She rolls over and grins at me. I can see the softness of her breasts through her thin, gray shirt and the hard points of her nipples. I cup one of her tits and lean in to kiss her deeply. She sighs into me, letting her lips linger against mine, warm and wet. I taste her sweetness and breathe in the scent of sex that still clings to her. Were it not for the urgency of our mission, I would take her again and again where we lay until hunger or thirst forced us to stop.

But Gaius’ agent could have already reached Toltek territory by now. But I know that the Toltek capital of Kolka is heavily guarded. Any man Gaius sent will have to move very slowly if he hopes to infiltrate the city with some sort of explosive. Mira and I will face an entirely different struggle.

“Use this to fix your pants,” I say, throwing Mira a leather strap from my pants.

She pulls her pants up, tying the torn waist-band tight around herself..

“Where will we go?” asks Mira.

“Even after my exile, some friends still remain to me among the Toltek. We will speak with them and make preparations to enter the city of Kolka.”

“You make it sound like it’s a siege.”

“It may indeed be a siege. When I abdicated my throne, many likely squabbled to take my position. I will be an immediate threat to whoever won—a challenge to their legitimacy.”

“Why does it always sound like your plan is to rush into unbeatable odds and get yourself killed?”

I pause, realizing there is some truth to what she says. Pride is paramount among the Primus, but even Primus have no desire to die if it is not needed. Yet even after I claim to have put aside my shame in order to protect this female, I fear she speaks truly. It seems as if I still seek death, if only for another reason. Is that really what I desire? To die?

I realize I haven’t spoken, and in my silence have betrayed more than words alone could have.

“Why?” she asks. “If you die. . . What will happen to me? To your baby?” she asks, hands rubbing her flat belly.

“Baby?” I ask, heart racing. “Surely you cannot know so soon.”

“No. . . I don’t
know
. But I
feel
. I can’t explain it. But I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. I think it’s a boy, too.”

I pull Mira into a tight embrace, not wanting her to see the foolish smile on my face. I quickly smooth my features and let her go. “Even if there is not a child inside you, I will live on so that we can keep trying. And. . . So I can be here for you and the child when he does come.”

She hugs me tightly. “Don’t you ever leave me.” The fierceness of her words makes me smile again, as if this small female will bring violence upon me if I try.

“You are mine and I am yours. I will protect you.” Then, somewhat awkwardly I add. “But I will be careful about it.”

She laughs. “Good. So you
can
be trained.”

I smirk. “Is that what you think? I am some wild animal to be broken in and ridden?”

She blushes deeply, though I only meant to tease her. “Pax. . . No. I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, at first, maybe that’s what I thought, but. . .”

My eyebrows lower in anger. “At first? Explain,” is all I can say through clenched teeth.

“I mean, before I
knew
you. Yeah, in some way I guess I was hoping I could, I don’t know, teach you to be less violent so you could help me. But it wasn’t as bad as it sounds, I felt terrible and I had real feelings for—”

I cut her off, her words digging sharp lines of pain into me. I want to walk away and calm down before I say something I will not be able to take back, but I cannot leave Mira alone in the jungles of Markul. I grab her wrist and pull her along behind me, willing myself not to speak. I know this anger will pass. I know it is nothing in comparison to the adversity I have faced and defeated. Yet in this moment, I feel like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

I calm myself, pushing down the beast within me that nearly rises in that moment. I look down at my fists where my nails have shifted into the sharp points of panther claws. My body tenses and I yell through gritted teeth, roaring defiance into the evening air. I bash a fist against the ground, fighting against the beast that threatens to consume me.

I feel small hands on my back. A voice whispers to me, muffled as though I am hearing it through thick walls.

“. . .I am here,” she says.

Distantly I can feel the heat of her breath against my cheek as she speaks in my ear. Does she not know how much danger she is in? If I give myself over to the beast. . . Even I might not be able to stop it from harming her. The panther within me fights and gnashes at my mind.

My eyes roll back in my head and my world goes black.

P
ax falls
hard to the ground. His body twitches and his eyes are rolled back until only the whites show. He powerful body is convulsing and he groans through gritted teeth. I clutch at him, crying for him to come back to me and to be okay. I don’t know what to do.

I realize that the only hope I have of saving him is finding a Primus who knows how to help. But I’m on a platform of branches with apparently no way to reach Jektan. At least fifty feet of empty space stretch between us and the next platform, and without Pax, I have no idea how I’m going to get back to Jektan. I frantically look around, the sounds of Pax’s suffering jabbing knives of panic into me. Come on. Come on. . .

I see a thin vine that leads down and near a branch beneath me. It looks like I could maybe drop down and then hike up to Jektan. It’s my best shot, so without hesitating, I grab the vine and loosen my grip enough to slide down as fast as I dare. The friction shocks me with white-hot pain across my palms but I do not slow down. My Pax needs me to be strong for him. Strong like he has been for me so many times. And I’m
not
going to let anything happen to him.

I land a little too hard on the branch below and my ankle rolls beneath me. I have time to cry out once before I tumble over the edge of the branch. My stomach lurches and I realize I’m falling. I quickly reach a speed that I know means any collision with a branch would be fatal. My arms windmill and my legs kick. I have no breath to scream. I only watch the ground approach with wide eyes and a profound sadness in my heart, not for my own sake but because I know that my death will mean Pax’s death—our baby's death. And I know that when it came time for me to save him, I couldn’t do it.

I nearly collide with several branches on the way down but eventually stick into a deep patch of decaying leaves in The Dead Sea. They offer little resistance and I’m quickly swallowed up, several feet below the surface.

My heart thunders in my chest, as loud as gunshots in the deadly silence. My body tries to gasp for air but only rotten plant-matter fills my mouth. The panic and terror I feel mounts until I almost wish some beast from the depths would swallow me and end this nightmare. But then I feel something else. It tugs at my thoughts. I think I see Pax leaping off the platform after me, somehow recovered from his attack. And though I don’t understand how, I
know
he is coming for me. The same way I know there is a baby growing inside me. Was it when he gave his blood to me in the cave?

I don’t have time to think about it now. I put all my focus on reaching the surface. If I do that, there is a chance Pax can save me.

So I claw and kick, not sure if I am moving up or down. My head pounds. My brain is screaming for air and my body is rebelling against me, threatening to suck in a deadly lungful of solid material at any second. I push, pumping my legs, fighting for one more inch.

My hand breaks through the surface. I nearly cry out in relief but know I have no air to make a sound. When I get my head above the leaves, I breathe greedily, feeling as though every lungful is the most wonderful gift imaginable. But my reprieve is short lived. I realize something is wrong.

I see Pax land nearby, his huge body streaking through the air like a meteor and plunging beneath the leaves.

I should feel like I am saved to see him. I don’t. A cold dread seeps into me. I spent enough time in The Dead Sea to know that some sort of beast would be upon us by now. And I also never heard
silence
in all the time we were down here. But now I do. There is absolute quiet around us, and I can only think of one reason.

Something has scared the monsters away from this area. But what could scare
them
?

The answer to my question moves. And I realize that what I had thought was a massive Loris tree root was actually a living, breathing nightmare.

It uses its impossibly huge arms to swing toward me. I only have a heartbeat to look at it—but it reminds me of a gorilla from the vids of Earth, except it has claws, a tail, and skin like tree-bark. And then it grabs me.

W
hen I emerge
from the leaves, I see it. The sight strikes me like a physical blow. It is the same beast I had hunted for months. The beast that I was waiting for during my exile. The only creature I have ever encountered that I know could bring me to an end. And it has Mira.
My
Mira.

My blood runs cold. Without giving the panther within too much control, I shift. The transformation is nearly instant, and I am speeding across the leaves, paws digging into the leaves as my legs piston beneath me. The beast turns toward me. Mira is as small as a doll in its claw as she struggles to free herself.

I do not know if I can defeat the creature whose hand alone is larger than me, even though I am nearly ten feet long in my panther form. But I realize any doubts I had about my new purpose in life have been eradicated. Just a few days ago, I would have gladly died fighting this beast to be free of the shame that sent me into exile. Now. . . I have a reason to fight on. Mira. And the child she says grows within her stomach. She screams for me.

I growl and use my claws to tear up the beast’s leg. One of his massive hands swipes for me but I manage to evade it, causing him to hit himself hard enough to make his legs buckle. He throws his head back and bellows in anger, the sound so deep and loud that it actually shakes my body. In a desperate attempt to distract him from Mira, I sink my teeth into his thigh. He swats at me again. I dodge, but he doesn’t make the same mistake of hitting himself this time.

He finally seems to realize that I will require his full attention and flings Mira aside. I see her spinning end over end. I feel as though each second stretches for minutes as I use my claws to gain traction, running across the behemoth’s stomach and then pressing with all my strength to leap toward Mira. She’s about to land on a patch of jagged sticks when I collide with her in the air, gently catching her in my teeth and propelling her over the sticks to a safer patch of ground.

I put myself between her and the behemoth, baring my teeth.
I will bring the fury of hell upon you if you think to touch her. She is mine. Mine to mate, and mine to protect.

The beast shambles toward us, using its huge arms to grab branches and support its weight to keep from falling in the leaves. My eyes follow as it grabs branch after branch, instincts driving it to grab the thicker areas capable of supporting its weight. An idea strikes me.

I charge beneath its legs and lead it away from Mira. I hear the sound of Loris trees groaning as it swings from branch to branch behind me, gaining speed and building momentum. I try to get enough of a lead to climb above it but it’s too fast. I need to change direction to slow it down, so I wait until it’s nearly upon me and dart to the left, slowly working my way back toward Mira for fear that the other creatures might come out of hiding if I draw the beast too far from her.

It follows, losing speed as it changes direction. This is the key, I think. But my four legs are tiring quickly. My top speed is incredible, but predators are not built for extended chases. If I’m going to do it, it needs to be now. I climb up the nearest tree when I see a sparse enough area and shift back to my human form, knowing I have only seconds before it is upon me. With all the might I can muster, I kneel and pull up on the branch. My muscles scream in protest. The branch is so wide that I cannot even fully wrap my arms around it but I hear it straining against my power. I scream with the effort, knowing any second—

My vision blurs and I experience the sensation of flying. No. Falling. I collide with the base of a tree and roll to a large leaf. Though blood clouds my vision and my body feels numb, I lift my head to look for Mira. When I see her in the distance and see the beast still coming toward me, I am glad at least that it is not yet focused on her. But I fear my time may be at an end. Sapped of strength, I allow myself to relax and await the beast that will finally kill me.

No.

I will not let this beast defeat me. I will not let the shame of my past dictate my future. I have found a reason to live on and continue fighting. Just as I was driven before by a black and dark hatred for myself and my mistakes, now I am driven by something else. Something pure and
good
. Better than I deserve, but mine nonetheless. Mira. I will fight on for her.

Though my body is a blaze of agony and pain, I push to my feet. The behemoth’s fist swooshes through the air but I roll away, breaking into a sprint that my body shouldn’t have strength or energy for any longer. Toward Mira.

I reach her before the beast, but barely.

“Quickly, on my back,” I say.

She shimmies up my back, wrapping her arms around my neck and her legs around my stomach. Because I know it is the last chance I may have to enjoy her touch, I spare a fraction of a heartbeat to relish in it. Then I am climbing. My time in exile turned me from an already accomplished climber into something more. Now, with Mira clinging to my back and a beast that weighs several thousand pounds tearing through the jungle beneath me, I climb as if possessed, pushing the pain and protests of my body into a distant corner of my mind, moving through a sheer force of will that transcends physical limitation.

My hands fire out, grabbing any slight groove, crack, or vines I can reach. If there is no hand-hold, I jab my fingers violently into the bark and make one. My legs pulse, launching us upwards to cover vertical gaps of several feet to reach vines and move ever-upward. But the whole time I hear it behind me. The beast is forced to take a different route because of its size, but the telltale protest of Loris trees and the creak and snap of branches narrates its progress clearly.

Soon, I see what I had hoped. The automated defense systems of Jektan shimmer in the distance, cold-pressed metal catching the sun. They are more beautiful to me than any oasis in that moment. I reach a large platform and manage to put Mira on it. A few more steps and we should be in range of the turrets. Mira will be safe.

But just before I climb to the top, the beast grabs me.

“Pax!” Mira cries, rushing back to the edge of the platform.

She seems to grow smaller as the beast rips me away from her. But I smile, knowing that even if I will die now, I have left her within the range of the turrets and the beast will not claim her.

There is a sound I can only describe as an absence, as if all other sounds are sucked in for a moment and then released in a pent-up burst of concentrated power. A blinding flash stings my eyes. I smell burning meat. Green jets of plasma streak toward us from Jektan. One catches the beast’s forearm and sears straight through. So the turrets reached farther than I realized. I only have a moment to thank the gods, old and new before he drops me.

I fall, gaining speed rapidly. I notice something from the corner of my eye and reach for it. It’s a vine, and though it burns as I grip it, my speed slows to a halt. I use the vine to swing back toward him. Another spray of plasma catches him in the shoulder and he roars in anger, retreating back into the jungle.

No.
You will not run away. I will show no mercy to those who threaten my female, man or beast. I release the vine and arc through the open air toward the beast. It turns at the last second when it sees me. I stick out a fist and use the force of my flight to punch through its eye. My fist sinks into the gooey flesh of it’s eyeball, blood spouting around my forearm.

It screams again, the sound becoming more desperate.

Though I am small by comparison, it only has one arm now to defend itself. I tear at it, punching, biting, pulling, ripping, and kicking. It cannot run and fight at the same time with only one good arm, so it’s forced to stop and try to fight me. But I dodge each wild blow it throws at me, forcing it to hit itself again and again. When it finally begins to tire and slow from the dozens of wounds I have opened in it, I grab a branch overhead and snap it.

I have to jump backward to the steady ground of a platform of branches, but the enraged creature follows me, swinging itself onto the platform with its remaining arm. When it lands, we circle eachother, it dripping ichor and blood from dozens of wounds, me bleeding freely as well. We both breathe heavily. Each pained gasp and exhale of its huge mouth blows my hair back in a wretched wash of odorous air.

I spin the makeshift spear in my hand, old skills coming back to me effortlessly. It has been a long time since I used a weapon other than my hands, and I admit it feels good. The creature swipes for me, but I backstep the swing and jab the branch into its hand. I do not let go though, so when the beast pulls its hand back in pain, it brings me with it. I jerk the branch free and leap toward its head, using the wound I opened in its eye to jab the broken branch into its brain.

I’m knocked away as it flails and twitches, roaring its rage. I wait until I am sure it’s dead and then spit on its corpse. I realize I have closed a chapter of my life by slaying this beast. Perhaps I will find my death in the coming days, but it will not be because I sought it. From this point, my life is for Mira. And I will do everything in my power to live on and continue protecting her.

I find her waiting nervously for me at the edge of the platform. I rush forward until I have Mira in my arms. She hugs me fiercely. I relish in her scent and the feeling of her soft body against me. I even slide my hands down until I have a good handful of her ass. I squeeze, leaning down to kiss her. When our lips meet, she melts into me.