"I need to breed you." Raw need in his voice, rougher than usual. "Need to make sure they're secure. Need to stretch you again."
He was already moving me backward toward the furs, not rough but insistent in ways that meant arguing would be pointless. Desperate. The pregnancy had triggered something primal in him.
"Wait—shouldn't we be careful? If I'm pregnant?—"
"The eggs are protected. Your body's already adapting to carry them." He pushed me down onto the furs. "Breeding now makes them stronger. Gives them what they need to develop properly."
His hands were on my suit seals, getting them open, exposing me to the cool cave air.
"From now on, I’m keeping you full,” he growled. “Morning, noon, and night."
His words triggered a reflexive tightening, which my body apparently considered more important than rational thought about what he was promising.
"You're mine." He pushed inside, no warning, just one hard thrust that seated him completely and made us both makesounds. "My mate. Carrying my young. I'll never let your womb be empty."
The feedback loop was instant and overwhelming—I felt his need, desperate and primal and overwhelming. Felt his satisfaction at knowing I was carrying his offspring. Felt his determination to breed me constantly, keep me full, make sure I never went empty.
I came from the intensity of his emotions as much as the physical sensation.
He fucked me hard, possessive in ways he'd been holding back before this moment. One hand on my belly the whole time, feeling where the eggs were forming. The other on my clit, making sure I came with him because apparently that mattered for egg development or maybe he just liked making me fall apart.
"These are just the first," he said between thrusts. "Going to stretch you with clutch after clutch. Keep you pregnant. Keep breeding you. You're going to spend your life carrying my young and I'm going to spend mine making sure you're satisfied."
I came again. The breeding talk, the possessive promises, the certainty that this was my future—it was overwhelming in ways that should probably worry me but didn't.
His knot swelled and locked us together. He shouted his completion, flooding me with seed while his whole body shuddered with the force of it. His conviction hit me like a wave: mine, pregnant, claimed, never letting go.
We stayed locked together for over an hour. His hand never left my belly. Even when he dozed off, still inside me, he kept one palm pressed there—feeling the eggs, feeling proof that I was carrying his young.
DRAV
Ileft at dawn.
I could sense Hallie still sleeping—exhausted from yesterday's breeding, her body working overtime to develop the eggs. Good. She needed rest, and I needed to know what we were facing.
The territory boundaries were quiet in ways that made my spine prickle. Too quiet. Kethar's scouts had pulled back after Hallie spotted them, which meant they were regrouping somewhere out of sight. Planning. Getting ready for a coordinated assault that would come when we were least prepared for it.
I flew the perimeter slowly, looking for signs they'd left behind. Tracks in the sand. Fresh claw marks on the rocks. Anything that would tell me how many males I was dealing with and what they were planning.
I found the first camp at the southern boundary.
Two males. Barely out of adolescence. Desperate enough that they'd left supplies behind: dried meat, water stored in bladders made from some creature's stomach, weapons carved from obsidian. Planning to stay for days, which meant they thought they had time to wear us down before attacking.
Their wing membranes were starting to thin—unbonded sickness in early stages. Not immediate threat level, but close enough that they'd be getting reckless soon.
The eastern camp had three males. Older. More experienced. More dangerous because they'd fought before and knew what they were doing.
I counted six total not including Kethar. Six desperate, dying males who saw Hallie as their last chance at survival and didn't care what they had to destroy to claim her.
Her consciousness brushed mine. Felt her immediate awareness of me even from miles away, this connection that meant we were never truly separate anymore. I sensed her contentment, her satisfaction, the slight soreness from yesterday's breeding that she didn't mind because her body had already adapted to constant use.
Mine. Pregnant with my young. Safe in my territory.
I should go back. Should stay close in case they attacked while I was gone.
But I needed to know what they were planning, and that meant going further than I wanted to while leaving her undefended.
I flew higher, using thermal currents to gain altitude without expending energy. From up here I could see the entire territory spread below me, could see the boundaries they were circling like scavengers around a kill. Could see?—
