“Told you,” Jaxin said, but not with humor. He wasn’t judging me for my response either, though I sensed a sharp spike of protectiveness rise in him. He cared about this strange genetic fluke, about a creature both gifted healer and dangerous and deadly. It was exactly the kind of thing I expected him to feel beneath all that armor.
“I look forward to meeting him,” I said, and I meant it. Of course, that made Jaxin glare, a surge of possessiveness washing over me that made my toes curl. He swept the hands of the giantess aside, lowered the last strands of the flower garland around my neck, and then he claimed my mouth in a kiss. I would have stayed there, lingered in that moment and in the passion he was ready to ignite, just to prove his claim.
“I’m yours,” I told him, murmuring it against his mouth. “But I think there’s a party waiting for us, and we’re the guests of honor.” It was too bad, really, because the stimulants in that drink had begun towork, and I felt energized, strong, excited. I also felt very much turned on. As Jaxin pressed against me, I felt his cock—hard and thick—press against me through the silk that draped our bodies. So was he. Neither of us wanted to leave; we wanted to test out that massive bed instead.
Chapter 19
Jaxin
It really was a shame that we couldn’t afford to alienate the ones offering us shelter right now. If it were up to me, I’d toss Dani onto that bed and stake my claim on her body right then and there. “Look forward to meeting him?” I knew she didn’t mean anything by it, but all those base instincts my species tried so hard to ignore reared their ugly heads. No, she couldn’t eventhinkof another male, she was mine and mine alone.
“Just smile and let me check the food and drink before you consume anything, ’kay?” Dani offered quietly under her breath. I knew she had to be aware of the powerful feelings I was struggling with. There was simply no way to mask what was coursing through my body when the feelings were this strong. I had to fight back glares at the giants who lined thestreets to wave and cheer. Unlike during our earlier arrival, they were not ignoring us now, and I wanted to poke the eyes out of every male who stared.
She was trying to distract me, her small hand in mine, squeezing around my fingers. It was not helping my mood, even if itwasvery festive everywhere. People were laughing, dancing; there was music coming from many directions, and the air was filled with tasty cooking. She’d tried to get me to leave Bex behind, but I’d refused to go anywhere without my cannon. The weight hung from its strap, comfortable, familiar. She was Bex reborn now, and I was beginning to like that very much. I was not leaving her behind.
“I get it,” Dani said, smiling gently. “That cannon means a lot to you. I just don’t want them to think we don’t trust them. We’ll see how Taktak responds—he’s up ahead.” I did not ask her how she knew what I’d been thinking, or how she knew that the giant who had brought us here was near. It all had to do with her gift, and she was still growing stronger as she continued to recover from the burnout.
Taktak, as she called him, turned out to be much farther away than I had expected. He stood at the edge of the square we’d seen when we first arrived, right beside the building that housed the exit tunnel leading to the water. If she’d sensed him from that far, her range was truly impressive, and it must be a heavy burden. I curled my arm more tightly around her shoulders and tucked her close. “Are you managing? How are your shields?” I wasn’t quite sure if it worked like that, but I thought I’d heard Dravion mention them. I couldn’t recall if she’d used a similar word before.
“I’m okay for now,” she said. Truly, if she could sense as much as she did, it hardly mattered whether we were in thatguest house or out here in the square, did it? But if it became too much, I’d personally carve her a path to the outside, away from all these peoplefeelingthings.
Taktak seemed pleased to see us, thumping his chest and grinning broadly as he spotted us. He had undergone a transformation similar to ours, now dressed in a similar silky wrap around his thick waist and decorated with flowers. No, that eager greeting wasn’t for us alone; it was for the giantess escorting us. He swept her into his arms, their tails twining together, and then they kissed. It made my Dani shift on her feet and smile with pleasure, so I had to assume whatever these two felt for each other was good.
“Jaxin,” Dani said a few minutes later as we followed Taktak and his female into the square, between rows of flowers and an eager crowd. “I think we fell nose-first into some kind of ceremony…” She was right. Even as boring and unceremonious as my species was, and by extension, I was, I could recognize all the trappings. That older male officiated, rumbling in a deep voice words neither of us could understand. The crowd was hushed, respectful, as they watched Taktak and his lady kiss, then swirl into a dance together.
We were urged to do the same—who was I to pass up an opportunity to kiss my female in front of so many? The party after that erupted with full enthusiasm, dancing first to wild, sweeping music, drums thumping in a heart-pounding rhythm. Dani was radiant, so beautiful it made my chest ache, and smiling so much that I couldn’t stop smiling back at her.
Then we were offered endless food and drink from laden tables before returning to another roundof dancing. Dani was breathless with laughter after I’d nearly tripped, not used to moving with rhythm. That was the final drop; I had had enough. I had to have her, and not just feel her body tease against mine as we danced. Tossing her over my shoulder to the sound of her squeak, I began wading my way through the dancing crowd of giants. I had only one goal in mind: to find that blazing guest house with its bed and claim Dani in it.
With hoots and laughter, the crowd began to part and let us through, and when I caught the gleeful expression on Taktak’s broad features, I felt something… Smugness? Satisfaction? Perhaps I was playing exactly the part they wanted us to play. Taktak swept his own lady into his arms with a rambunctious roar, and then he swept her away—a different direction than our guesthouse, but clearly with the same intentions I had: to make love to his lady.
We found the guesthouse not much later, the streets growing quieter in this area. Most of the festivities seemed to have centered themselves at the square, the center of this beautiful underground town. Or was it a city? That left it almost peaceful in the small house. Not completely silent, but muted enough that Dani was no longer surrounded by the feelings of all those partygoers. That was good.
The interior of the guesthouse was lit with torches and candles. Flowers had been strewn everywhere in our absence, petals of pale white and yellow decorating the sheets of the bed, and whole garlands draped along the walls and the furniture. It was… “Oh, how romantic,” Dani murmured, finding the right word for the setting, thankfully, because I didn’t have many soft words in my vocabulary.
I lowered her to the bed, and then I took in the picture she made as she lay there. Her long black hair brushed untilit shone, decorated with flowers. The tips of her delicately pointed ears rose through the flowers and silk; playful, sweet, a little mystical. She was draped in pale white, but it clung in thin straps to her shoulders and then teased over her small breasts—not obscuring so much as enhancing.
“Jaxin,” she sighed, rising on one elbow. She shimmied the strap of rolled fabric over her shoulder and let it slip down. “I don’t want to wait any longer. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted like this. Do you know that?” There was something in her tone, in the husky whisper, that set all my senses on fire. It was in what she didn’t say, but what I heard between the lines.
“Am I the only male you’ve ever known?” I asked, setting Bex carefully down on the floor beside the tall bed. I tried to keep my tone neutral, but that was all I tried. There was no place for dampening my feelings or pushing them away when I was with her. Not when we were like this. When she nodded, pleasure roared through my veins. She’d never known another male? “Good,” I told her.
Shedding the simple robe took only a moment. I did not bother to remove the flowers, they weren’t in the way. Climbing onto the bed beside her, I bent to taste her mouth, then her breast. She moaned, and I could not hold back the tide of possession that crashed through me. This female was going to feel my claim in every part of her body.
I yanked the fabric from her body, heedless of whether it tore or not. I had only one thought in mind: to get to her naked skin. To touch her, to taste her, to hear her moans in the air. I was not going to take my time this first round, but unlike in the clearing before, we could do this again andagain. The bed was soft, the walls made us safe, and the enemies after Dani could never get to her here.
Rising above her, I admired her naked body, from her gleaming anthracite skin to her soft curves and lean muscles. Seeing myself reflected back at me in her mirror-like eyes was no longer as horrifying as it had been. I still looked too big, still looked like a warrior—scarred and damaged—but in her eyes, I saw only admiration. She saw me as her protector, a male she could trust with her life. And she could, because I vowed I’d never let her down. I’d always save her.
***
Danitalin
Jaxin rose above me, gray skin gleaming, muscles thick like rope. Last time, he’d worn his armor, and while it looked good on him, it was far more intimate now that we were both naked. His scars only made him more attractive to me, and I wanted to trace them with my fingers; maybe my tongue. I wanted to do all kinds of things with him I’d never even considered before. Most of all, I wanted to feel him deep inside me, making me ache because he was so big, making me ache because he felt so good.
His cock rose proudly from his groin, thick, with a flared head about the size of my fist. I knew that the lines along his gray shaft would swell, tying us together as he filled me, creating a seal so none of his seed could escape. It was a scandalizing thought, to consider how built he was to ensure conception, and it made me want him so badly I clawedat his arm. “Now, Jaxin, take me now.”
He growled, wide mouth opening to display his sharp teeth, and a thrill of danger skated down my spine. His powerful need for me blotted out everything else, filling my senses and pulling at the answering need within me. I didn’t understand how I could feel so stronglymewhen his feelings were this powerful, but I did. I knew exactly what I wanted, and that was freeing.
“Soon, little one,” he said, so much darkness in his tone that I felt my toes curl in the sheets. When he spread my legs wide and gazed at the core of me, heat pooled and wetness rushed out. My body eagerly remembered the last time, when he’d been so much I could barely take him at all. He drew his fingers through my slit, then dipped a thick thumb into my opening and groaned in pleasure, cock kicking against his ridged abdomen.
