Lihvan headed straight for the training pits.
His cock was so hard that he feared it might burst the woven seams of his leg coverings, but that was the least of his worries.He needed a distraction.And fighting was exactly what he needed to work out his frustration and aggression.
On the way, he alerted Vikan that he needed a sparring partner.Most of the warriors on the ship were good fighters, but Lihvan wanted to fight against the best on the ship…well, second only to himself.
The training deck was situated on the second level of the vessel.There were some warriors already engaged, utilizing the sunken pits made primarily of hard metal and blood stains.Lihvan chose a secluded pit at the back of the training deck and jumped down, landing in a crouch.Briefly, he looked down at his bare chest, remembering the female’s remark about whether he would bathe.He’d forgotten that he still wore the blood of the Krevorags and he wondered whether that had frightened her or not.
A fresh surge of arousal made him growl.No, she hadn’t been frightened.She’d been…wanting.As he warmed up his muscles, Lihvan tried not to breathe through his nostrils, since he could still smell that sweet, musky scent that was solely her.It made his Instinct prowl inside him, aching to burst free, aching to claim its mate.
He tried not to remember her teasings, tried not to remember the sight of her pink, aroused flesh between her thighs, tried not to remember her breathy moans as she touched herself.
His palms stung from where he’d pressed his claws into his flesh, but he relished the pain, hoping that it would distract him from his arousal.
She had been…magnificent.His female was a sensual creature, unafraid to pursue her pleasure.He’d wanted nothing more than to go to her when she’d been lying across his sleeping platform.He’d wanted nothing more than to part her thighs and spear her with his cock where she ached for him.
Yet he hadn’t.Partly because if he claimed her as his, she would be bound to him forever.If she left, if she went back to Earth, Lihvan knew that he would hunt her mercilessly and bring her back to him.She would never be free of him.
The other reason why he hadn’t gone to her…well, that reason shamed him even more.
Vikan’s voice cut through his thoughts.“You look as if you have been conquered.”
His friend stood at the edge of the pit, studying him from above.The low lighting prevented Lihvan from seeing his features, but he knew Vikan’s face would be pinched with knowing.
“Get down here,” Lihvan bit out.
Vikan studied him for a moment longer, which frustrated Lihvan enough to growl, before his friend jumped the fifteen feet down into the pit with ease.He landed with a solid thump and then straightened.
“I hope that cock is not for me,” Vikan said, voice neutral.
Lihvan glowered and without warning, lashed out with a swipe of his bloodied claws.Vikan dodged and the fight began.
It lasted a while, for which Lihvan was thankful.Fighting was what made sense to him.It was what he was good at, what centered him.He relished the measured breaths, when he should inhale, when he should exhale.He lived for the challenge of dissecting his opponent’s movements, to try and track where they would attack next.To a certain extent, he had learned to like the pain, to savor the scars and lashes and claw marks adorning his flesh because they made him a better warrior, astrongerone.
Near the end, when both warriors were beginning to slow, to defend instead of attack, they called the fight and sank down on the blood splattered ground, backs to the metal wall of their chosen cage.
Their breaths were ragged and Lihvan blinked away the blood that had dripped into his eye.His chest was a smattering of fresh cuts and sliced skin, but he knew they would heal quickly.Vikan didn’t fare any better.Lihvan had gouged him, perhaps a little too deeply, in his side, which would take longer to heal.
Once they recovered and caught their breaths, Vikan eyed him from across the pit.Some of the tension that had been released during the fight trickled back in as Lihvan interpreted that look.
“Just say it,” Lihvan said.“I am too tired to argue.”
“No good will come from this, brother,” Vikan warned.“The female must return to her own planet.”
Instead of directly addressing his concern, Lihvan asked, “Has your Instinct chosen a female for you?”
Earlier in the span, before Lihvan had returned to his quarters, Vikan had hinted that it had.
Vikan averted his gaze.“I am still loyal to Nitav.It does not matter if it had.”
Nitav had been Vikan’s Breeding partner, his chosen mate, even if she had not been his fated one.Lihvan shook his head and said quietly, “Nitav is dead, Vikan.She has journeyed into the blackworld where the Fates watch over her now.”
Vikan’s gaze was level.“My feelings have not followed her into the blackworld.They remain in me still.”
“You deny yourself a future if you keep yourself shrouded in the past, my friend,” Lihvan said slowly.
“There is no future with them, Lihvan,” Vikan said, voice hardening, his gaze like ice.
Lihvan met his stare.He’d been worrying more and more about his friend, who seemed to withdraw into himself more with every passing span.
