“Worried about your breeding female?”
“Worried about angry female who throws rocks at shadows. Would miss the entertainment.”
I want to be offended, but I'm too comfortable. Too warm. Too satisfied from the breeding to fight.
“I still hate you,” I murmur against his scales.
“Known fact,” he replies. “Sleep now.”
And I do. Wrapped in the coils of my enemy, my captor, my protector. The thing I need and hate in equal measure.
KASS
The withdrawal wakes me before dawn, as usual. Proto-eggs dissolving, releasing their poison into my bloodstream. Creating need that will drive me to the pool by evening, where I'll beg with my body for what I claim to hate.
But today, lying in Vhaz's coils while he breathes steadily around me, a different thought takes root.
Twenty more days until the portal opens. Twenty more days of this degrading dependency. Unless...
The purple fruits dull the withdrawal. Not completely, but enough to function. If I stockpiled them, found somewhere defensible to hide, maybe—just maybe—I could white-knuckle through the remaining time. No more breeding. No more proto-eggs. No more needing him.
His coils shift slightly, and I freeze. But he's just adjusting in sleep—or whatever passes for sleep with serpents. I've noticed he never fully relaxes, always partially alert even when resting. Predator instincts.
When the sun rises enough to see, I carefully extract myself from his coils. He lets me go, though I know he's awake. This is our routine now. He provides warmth and safety through the night, I pretend I don't need it in the morning.
“Food by the rocks,” he murmurs without opening his eyes.
Always food. Always care. Always knowing exactly what I need before I ask. The violation of being known that well makes my teeth clench.
“Thanks,” I mutter, because starving out of spite would be stupid.
While eating, I map my plan. The purple fruits grow in three locations I know of. The sulfur springs to the east have the biggest cluster. If I harvest carefully, take only what I won't be immediately missed, I could build a supply. Water is trickier, but there are rain pools in the rocky areas that should be safe enough.
The real question is where to hide. Somewhere defensible but not obvious. Somewhere he won't think to look.
I spend the morning pretending normalcy. Checking my useless traps. Gathering moss for bedding I won't use. All while secretly collecting purple fruits, hiding them in various locations to retrieve later. My hands shake constantly—the withdrawal building—but I push through.
By afternoon, I've identified the perfect hiding spot. An old root system from a massive dead tree, creating underground caves. Multiple exits if I need to run. Dry enough to store supplies. Hidden enough that casual searching wouldn't find it.
I stash water gourds there, wrapped in leaves to prevent evaporation. Half my purple fruit collection. Some dried meat I've been saving. Not much, but maybe enough.
The pool water is perfectly heated when I arrive. He's already there, of course. Waiting. Both cocks emerged and ready, that damned secondary coiling in the pattern my pussy mimics without my permission.
“Female is distracted tonight,” he observes as I wade in.
“Female is tired.” Not a lie. The planning, the gathering, the fighting against withdrawal—it's exhausting.
“Too tired for breeding?”
We both know that's not possible. My pussy is already clenching desperately, dripping so much wetness into the water that he can probably taste it. The proto-eggs demand their replacement. Biology doesn't care about my plans.
“Just do it.”
He pulls me close with his tail, positioning me over his primary. The entry is practiced now—my body knows exactly how to accept him. Each ridge sliding past my entrance with that perfect stretch that makes me hate how good it feels. The secondary follows, coiling immediately. Five loops tonight. Getting tighter each day.
The first wave of proto-eggs releases, and I count them. Need to know how long the withdrawal will last. How many are dissolving inside me to create tomorrow's hell.
“Female's mind is elsewhere,” he says during wave three.
