Draikis rubbed his body, cleansing himself as best he could before moving to the part of him that was crying out for attention. He wrapped his fingers around his girthy length, shocked at the steel-bar rigidity of it.
“Good Gods,” he marveled, feeling his heartbeat quicken and his cock throb in his hand.
Ella’s face flashed through his mind. Her presence. Her smell. Her laugh. Draikis’s Infala crackled with hints of nascent energy, pulsating hard in time with his considerable manhood. His hand moved faster, squeezing and twisting as it slid up and down his cock, his abs clenching hard and his hefty balls drawing close to his body as a powerful glow of heat began to build in his belly.
The pigment in his chest began to burn, but it wasn’t exactly unpleasant. The battle between his Infala and the Norvalian blocking rune was adding a degree of unexpected adrenaline and endorphins to his already heightened state and as a result Draikis felt his climax already starting to build. It was insane. Unheard of. Taboo. And above all, supposedly impossible. But here he was, his Infala calling out for this Earth woman in a way he had no idea his body could feel.
Draikis wobbled slightly, the force-field strengthening around him automatically to keep him from falling, the unintended side-effect being his increased freedom to lean into the sensations and truly savor them.
“Ella,” he gasped, stroking himself with frantic gusto, a steady trickle of hot pre-cum dripping onto his hand, lubricating his grip further. “Oh, yes.”
Draikis lurched sideways, his hand squeezing firmly as the world went a little fuzzy. His ears pounded with the sound of his pulse as his body tensed hard, his legs trembling as a geyser of hot cum erupted from his cock, spurting out with force, over and over as he nearly convulsed from the overwhelming bliss.
Pins and needles ran through his body, his legs rubbery and weak, but the force-field adjusted even further, supporting his weight almost fully as he reveled in his climax. Slightly blurry eyes cleared just enough to watch his seed caught up by the hot water swirling down the hidden drain.
Draikis gathered himself and rinsed thoroughly, his erection at attention the entire time apparently having no intention of going down anytime soon.
Finally, after a somewhat awkward meditation session, it finally relented, softening enough to at least not be a massive distraction. But to be fair, something else was far more troubling. The rune on his chest that was never supposed to bond. And yet, here it was, feeling the draw of its match.
Draikis sat on the edge of his bed, quietly pondering what this might mean. Whether he could overcome this visceral draw and abide by his vows. It was something that seemed harder and harder with every passing minute.
He shook his head and sighed. “I am so screwed.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ella was positively glowing when Draikis came to collect her for the day’s outing. A bit tired, but in a good way, energized rather than drained. She had simply become so lost in her studies of the ancient texts that it had been a far later hour than she’d planned by the time she finally made her way back to her quarters to sleep, her mind full of myriad ideas and ancient traditions that were actually starting to make sense. While the ancient texts appeared convoluted at first glance, the more she read, the more they seemed to have a pattern, especially the oldest of them.
It was still quite a lot to take in, and even more to connect the dots and really dig into the finer points of her hosts’ origins and ways, but her ability to read even the oldest of the documents was giving her insight into things she suspected even some of the brotherhood didn’t understand fully.
“Just a quirk of biology,” she mused, noting how her human genetics reacted differently than most others to the translation runes powered by her pigment, a fluke that allowed her to read what even the most educated among them often had trouble with. And this wasn’t just conjecture on her part. Nilkis, thearchivist, had said as much upon finding her reading materials that should have been far beyond her abilities.
He was a serious man. Focused. Quiet. Perfect for his duties overseeing the library’s full works. But he also appreciated a studious mind, and, despite her gender, Ella was clearly growing on him. And her interest in understanding the ways of the order despite her outsider status only served to add to the thawing of his initial chill toward her.
“If only the brothers dedicated themselves as fully as you have,” he mused in passing one evening, a hint of an approving smile creasing the corners of his lips. “A shame you were born a woman.”
It was as close to an actual compliment as she would ever hope to get from him, but it was a lot, given its source.
Ella had already spent several hours mulling over the wealth of knowledge she’d ingested by the time Draikis arrived to collect her for the day’s outing, her spirits high, and her body excited down to what felt like a cellular level by the calmly stoic man’s very presence. Whatever it was between them, its intensity was only increasing as time passed, and the strange pigment in her skin was positively buzzing with energy every time he was near.
His cheeks flushed slightly at the sight of her when she opened her door. “Ready?”
“I am. The plan for the day?”
“Outside, I think. Some fresh air. I have packed us food.”
“How delightful. Thank you, Draikis.”
“It is my pleasure.”
Ella stepped out into the corridor, her body feeling his heat as she stood near. She looked up at his handsome face, her pulse beating a little stronger in his presence.
“You look different today,” she noted, feeling quite light on her feet as they began their walk down the corridor.
“Oh? How so?” he replied with a hint of a grin.
“I don’t know. It’s just something about you feels shifted.”
“I’m quite the same as always, I can assure you.”
