“I have seen what happens to them. I have never wanted to take one as a mate because of that. How could I? Like them, I wanted some place to live where I could be…”
“Free?” she says, smiling. “I understand that.”
I slide my hand over her back, needing to feel more of her presence against me and tangling my fingers into her hair. “Yessss, peace and freedom.”
“Peace and freedom. I like that.”
I hiss, shifting on my side and grabbing the edge of a hide to slide it over us, having watched the evening fade into total darkness during our conversation. She sinks deeper against me, easing ever more with the soft press of a wolf fur around her shoulders.
Losing her dark hair and pale face to the nighttime’s shadows, I lie back down in my nest, filling my lungs with her scent and the smell of our sex.
“Peace and freedom,” I say, my voice no louder than awhisper, sensing sleep tugging at me from deep within. Tired, sated, and relaxed, my own calmness takes over knowing, at least for tonight, my female is safe in my arms.
Peace and freedom.
That’s what we can be for each other.
That’s what we are…
With my female—my mate—sleeping in my arms, I drift into my own slumber, knowing I have my whole world here with me and, from all the years I have been protecting the peace of others, also knowing mine has finally been granted.
Inhaling her scent into me, I drift off, excited for tomorrow.
TWENTY-SEVEN
WASHING IT ALL AWAY
Sabrina
I ridehim hard and fast, rolling my hips, feeling his ridged knot rub across my most sensitive flesh. I throw my head back and scream, flying right off the edge.
Sex with my naga is good—no, great—and with nothing pressing on us to get moving, it’s even better. I jerk my waist, pressing my knees into his tail, feeling his orgasm release soon after mine and having to pull off him to make space for his excessive seed, I moan out roughly. Dripping down my thighs, I drop to my side and off of him with a breathless gasp, feeling the warm liquid run down my legs.
It gets all over me and the hide I’m perched on, and I grab a corner, wiping the rest of it off.
With Darolus hissing and huffing beside me, I crawl out of the nest and splash some water on my legs, using another hide to wipe down and clean off my body. With flutterings of my orgasm still going, I tug on my pants and redress, pulling out my mirror to touch up my eye makeup. Notmaking the lines as thick as I used to, I’m trying to conserve what I have left.
All the while, I feel Darolus’s eyes on me where he watches me from his nest. He hasn’t moved.
“Time to get up.” I look at him in the mirror with a smile. “I’m starving and am ready to learn how to track and kill my first meal!” My smile turns to a grin.
He slowly grins back at me and I wince, finding his large fangs and usually reserved features uncanny in such a position. Reaching down to sheath my knives, my fingers drift over the alien blade I took. The metal, cool to the touch, is sleek under my fingers. Darolus is quiet as I force it into the sheath attached to my belt.
“I took it,” I say, giving him a head’s up.
“I see. It is better in your hands than mine. Those weapons are dangerous.”
“I know. I’m not even sure I want to use it, but until I find something I like better, I might as well upgrade. Why don’t you use them?”
“They do things to my thoughtssss. My head. They make me more vicious.”
I frown and glance down at the dagger. “Oh.” I touch it and wait, remembering Tata mumbling something about the old Lurker tech having telekinetic technology embedded in it. When my thoughts remain clear, I shrug. “Are you ready?”
He shifts onto his front, frowning slightly from the pressure on his wound, and slides out of the nest to rise on his tail before me. “We have more than only hunting today.”
My brows furrow and I push my hair over my shoulder. “We do?”
“Today, we return to the forest.”
