Even though his Instinct felt her barbed words sting, Devix wanted to laugh.And he hadn’t laughed in eight rotations.
He liked her fire.He liked the way she stood up to him.
If they had been mated already, he thought, if she had accepted him into her heart, her body…he would punish that mouth with a thorough fucking that turned those words into pleasured screams.And then he’d probably give in and do whatever she’d wished for in the first place.
His belly tightened with lust.
Tev.He’d be a pushover as a mated male.Now he understood why his mother had been the ruler of their family unit, not his sire.
The memory of loss sobered him and he stared down at his female, crossing his arms over his chest.Her eyes caught on his muscles, muscles that had taken most of his life span to develop and hone through training, through war.
Instead of looking at her form through the tinted lens of lust, he looked at her from the perspective of a war general surveying a new recruit.
Cara was smaller than Luxirian females.The top of her golden crown hit the middle of his chest.The tunic was large on her, but he could see her slim arms and legs, with hardly any muscle definition.Whatever tone she’d had had been lost during her captivity in the Pit, no doubt, he thought solemnly.She looked undernourished, hungry.
Devix didn’t know what he could teach her in just six spans that would defend her against beings three times her size, three times her strength.
But then he remembered her fire.The smoldering embers that burned deep within.What she lacked for in physical strength, she made up for with a strong mind and perhaps even stronger determination.Andthatwas what made a better warrior.A cunning one.A smart one.
“You cannot train in just a tunic,” he told her, giving in.
Cara’s eyes lit up and that was enough for Devix to know he was doing the right thing.For once.If she wanted to learn, he would teach her whatever he could.There would be a time in the near future where he might not be there to defend her.
“I can make pants if you give me material,” she said, her tone hopeful.
“Tev,” he said, inclining his head.His Instinct was appalled at him, that he would teach a female these things, that might harm her.He would push her body to a breaking point, make her hurt in the process.But Devix knew that the skills just might save her one span.
BecauseI will hand her over, because I will not be there if she needs me, he thought, disgust and self-hatred settling deep.
“Craft your coverings this span,” he said, pushing out those dark thoughts.“We will begin later this night.”
Devix might not recognize human expressions clearly yet, but there was no denying the pleasure on his female’s face.Something clicked into place for him, a lightness, arightness.His only purpose in life should be making her happy and bringing her pleasure every single span of their long lives together.
In a simpler time, perhaps that would have been possible.
It wasn’t now.
* * *
Devix swiped his hand over the washing tube screen and hot water flowed from above.Cara was in her quarters, right across the hall, working on her leg coverings.He’d given her material, woven thread, and a sharp pin to act as a needle.He’d been slightly wary over the latter, but he’d decided to trust her with it.Cara hadn’t faked her desire to train.Why would she harm herself or try to harm him?
Devix undressed, his cock bobbing angrily against his abdomen when he stepped into the tube.Glancing down, he saw the ridges and hardened knobs lining the top and bottom of his length were engorged and throbbing.Pearlescent pre-cum dripped from his tip, sliding down his cock, readying his sex for mating.
Devix growled in frustration.He’d had no desires since his exile.A part of him had feared he’d lost his drive completely, just as Sarkon had suggested.But it seemed the lost rotations had pent-up his lusts, only to have them released with full force the moment he saw his fated mate.
Devix tried to ignore his cock for as long as he could stand.He bathed and washed the training session from his body.The cut on his arm had already begun to disappear from where the hologram had wounded him.
And yet, his erection would not cease.
With a growl, he leaned one arm against the tube, bracing himself, as he gripped his cock with the other hand.
A snarl rose in his throat when he dragged his grasp down his length, tightening his palm at the base.Fates, he was sensitive.Pleasure made his muscles tense, but it was an empty pleasure.He knew manual release would only take a slight edge off.It wouldn’t even begin to satisfy his needs.Only his female would be able to do that.And she was untouchable.
He saw her in his mind.Circumstance had changed him, warped him.Acts that would’ve appalled the old Devix now aroused him.
His dark fantasies centered on her.He saw her golden hair, her pale, soft, vulnerable skin, her wide, brown, expressive eyes.He imagined them in the command center of the vessel, imagined her bare and bent over the panels at the waist.Her wrists were chained behind her back, the metal chilling her delicate skin, making her nipples tighten into stiff peaks.
He increased the pressure on his cock, his muscles bulging, back arching.His belly sizzled with dark desires when he fantasized about marking her lush backside with the very palm stroking his cock.
