"You will." He closed the last of the distance between us until his body heat washed over me, until I could see the copper flecks in his dark skin, until his pupils dilated when he inhaled deeply through his nose. "The tonic won't give you a choice. In aday, maybe two, you'll come looking for me. You'll ask properly. Please touch me, please breed me, please make it stop."
His hand came up slowly, giving me time to move or dodge if I wanted to. I didn't. Couldn't make myself move despite the logic screaming otherwise. His palm cupped my jaw, warm and rough, those claws careful against my skin where they could have torn flesh easily.
The touch sent electricity down my spine like a current.
"You're burning up," he said quietly. "Skin's flushed. Pupils blown. Breathing fast. The tonic's eating you alive and your body knows I'm the only thing that will satisfy it."
His thumb brushed across my lower lip. I opened my mouth without meaning to, just a fraction, and he slid the thumb inside. Salt and smoke flooded my senses. I was sucking on his thumb before I could stop myself, before I could think about what I was doing. My tongue worked against the rough pad, desperate for more contact, more pressure, more anything.
"Good girl," he said, voice resonating in his chest. "That's what you need. Something to suck on. Something to wrap your mouth around while I fill you other places."
His free hand moved down my body. Slow, deliberate, giving me plenty of time to stop him. I didn't stop him. Over my collarbone, between my breasts without actually touching them, down my ribs, to my hip where it settled. Holding me in place against the wall, keeping me pinned.
"The tonic's going to get worse," he said while his thumb stayed in my mouth and my tongue kept working against it. "By day six you won't be able to think past the need. By day ten you'll be damaged if I haven't bred you. Your body's restructuring itself to need mine specifically. Need my scent, my touch, my seed. Without it you'll start breaking down."
I whimpered around his thumb and hated the sound of it.
"I can give you relief," he continued. "Can make the need stop for hours at a time. Can fill that empty ache you're feeling." Fingers digging into my waist tightened just enough to make his point. "But you have to ask. Have to choose me. That's the rule. That's what makes the bond take properly when I breed you."
I couldn't speak around his thumb. Couldn't focus through the haze of touch.
"Not today," he decided after a long moment. He pulled his thumb away and I made a desperate sound at the loss. "You're not desperate enough yet. Close, so close I can taste it. But not quite there."
He stepped back and the loss of his heat was physical. I almost fell without the wall supporting me.
"Tomorrow," he said. "Maybe the day after. When you're ready you'll come find me. And when you do, when you ask properly, I'm going to give you everything your body's been screaming for."
His breeding cock was still hard, still visibly pulsing. I could see pre-come glistening at the tip, clear and thick. The pleasure cock was moving again, both forked prongs seeking something in the air. His body wanted me as badly as mine wanted him, but he was in control and I wasn't.
"Until then," he said while spreading his wings wide, "keep exploring. Keep trying to satisfy yourself. It won't work but you'll learn the lesson faster that way."
Then he dropped backward out of the passage and was flying. The sound of his wings faded fast, echoing off stone, and then there was nothing but silence.
I slid down the wall. Landed on the stone floor with my legs shaking so hard they wouldn't support me. My hand was between my legs before I could think, rubbing frantically, pressing hard, desperate.
I came thinking about his cocks inside me. The breeding cock stretching me wide, the knot swelling to lock us together. The pleasure cock wrapped around my clit while he fucked me. The orgasm was weak, barely there, gone in seconds. The need came back immediately and worse than before.
I tried again. Failed again. My body rejected my own touch completely now.
He was right. I couldn't satisfy myself anymore. I needed him, needed what only he could give me, and the realization weighed on me.
Day four tomorrow. How much longer before I broke completely? Before I went looking for him? Before I begged?
I didn't know. But I could feel the answer getting closer, even though my pulse spiked, urging me to surrender.
HALLIE
Day three and I was losing. I found the oasis mid-morning.
A natural basin carved into obsidian, fed by a spring that ran clear and cold. The pool sat surrounded by smooth stone that held the cliff's warmth, and steam rose in lazy curls where hot rock met cool water. Perfect. Too perfect. I should have known better.
I stripped what remained of my suit off because there was barely anything left anyway, more holes than fabric at this point. Then I stepped into the water.
The cold slammed into me and my overheated skin screamed in protest. But after three days of burning from the inside out, the shock felt almost like relief. I sank in up to my shoulders and tried to remember what being human felt like before the tonic rewired everything.
The water helped. For maybe thirty seconds it actually helped.
Then I smelled it. Him.
