As you can imagine, convincing an entire race of people that a terribly stigmatized “disease” that plagued them is not what they thought it was is a slow and unpopular process. We aren’t without our fair share of enemies, but we have a village or two to back us tirelessly. Oh, and the intergalactic alliance, which has offered funding to villages willing to enact aftercare protocols for their warriors. War contracts are still a thing, but in most places, slightly more relaxed. All in all…most males genuinely want to take part. Less stress means more winter matches. Which means more children and safer, more relaxed dams. There’s even been a mating or two since us!
Hatheus runs ahead into Vortara Space Station, his father grumbling out a stay close as I offer him a reassuring squeeze of my hand. While Fafnir’s war madness has long been under control, he’s still every bit the possessive and overprotective giant he always was. And still, it makes me feel needy in all the right places.
“Mema, Cammi, and Leelee!” Hatheus squeals, his tail making wild passes as his tiny hooves chomp at the metal ground.
My mom drops to her knees, smiling as the hefty toddler slams into her. Marci pouting and fussing playfully because she didn’t get the first hug. Cammi comes for me first, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“You cut your hair!” I cry out, gripping her nearly buzzed head in my hands.
“Yes, I know, isn’t it terrible?” Mom calls over as we approach, still being mauled by her grandson. It’s odd how different people can look despite seeing them once a month. The twins are nearly grown now, their eighteenth birthday only two weeks away.
“I love it,” I whisper in her ear, giving Mom a long-suffering look.
Marci comes for a hug next and Cammi leaves me to talk to my mate, who always seems to look terribly uncomfortable during our meetings. He’s loved as fiercely as myself and my sisters, but his people aren’t the affectionate kind. He’s fond of Cammi the most, the quiet and reserved one of us all. She’s been talking about moving to Yolmarth when she’s of age. With the number of human breeders being taken there now, I won’t lie if I say I don’t wish she’d stay away. Watching my baby sister bed down with a Bhaurnul male for the winter sounds about as thrilling as birthing my next kit from my ass.
We head down the path, Mom and Marci talk about their travels and how Marci is attempting to get her apprenticeship as a medical doctor in the coming years. The dowry combined with monthly support from my mate means she can live comfortably on her own and receive an education off-planet, not awarded to many humans.
My heart swells looking at them, tears springing to my eyes. Hatheus sees it first, coming over in the indoor garden to plop down on my lap, his furry legs wrapped around me. He smacks both my cheeks softly with slightly sticky palms, which means Leelee, aka his grandma, has been sneaking him sweets already. “Are these the happy kind of tears?”
I laugh, sniffling. “The happiest.”
“Loooooove you.” He sing-songs before giving me a wet kiss on the cheek and running off to look for Cammi, who has been dutifully hiding behind a tree for a while now.
Fafnir grunts as he sits down beside me, knowing we’re more accessories to our son these days. Which is fine by us both, considering my morning sickness is rougher than it was the first time and my libido tenfold. I had thought the idea of community raised children would bother me much more than it does, but it’s actually incredibly nice. Most nights our son is home with us, but most days he’s at the Halthara with the other children, running between aunt Elat and his grandma. Last year, she stepped down as elder to begin her final fading, where Bhaurnul’s enter a point of heavy rest. She sleeps most days, but the warriors who accompany her, as is tradition, keep her company.
He doesn’t understand yet, but I think he knows something is changing.
She leaves behind one hell of a legacy. Days after she nearly bled to death, bringing Fafnir into the world, her chosen mate had attacked her and a male who stepped in to help; he was sent out to wander immediately. She’d never stopped grieving him, still hasn’t. She, along with the help of Ogarrex, our next elder in waiting, has stopped hunts altogether. Save for some of the more strict, smaller villages. They are working to make it into law, banning the practice entirely. Wandering is still a thing, but not in the way it was. It’s seen as a voluntary retreat now, males sent to isolation with therapy and tools. War contracts are slowly becoming obsolete, off-world crafting making up for the revenue. They will always fight. The berserker is in their DNA. Something the Kalzait doctor can’t quite figure out, calling it a matter of spirit, but the fighting is done voluntarily and with more careful selection.
Males are returning to their villages and returning whole.
I lean my head against Fafnir’s chest, listening to the cadence of his heart while we watch our son play, a son who will have a future, a choice, a chance.
He’ll stay this sweet boy a while longer.
Val is waiting for us when the shuttle lands. He paces around, excited to see his family after we spent all day away. Hatheus screams, his small, blunt horns waving back and forth as he runs from the shuttle, heading for his very large friend. The ends of children’s horns are shaved for obvious safety reasons and will be sharpened to a point again when he is old enough to control the impulse to ram everything in sight. I’d nearly maimed Fafnir’s mother when she’d done it the first time. If you’d have gone by our son’s reaction, you’d have thought she was mutilating him.
Apparently, it is an odd sensation, but not a painful one. Unless you hit the inner core, which is nearly impossible to do unless that’s your intention. Val dips low, letting Hatheus clamber atop him, where he quickly toddles off the other side, landing with a heavy thud in the grass. “I okay! Don’t freak out!” He calls, making his father laugh.
I still check him over, as always, he’s fine, but very irritated to be bothered with my fussing as I pluck a piece of grass from his dark wavy hair. Another thing about Bhaurnul children that I love is that they are made of tougher stuff and heal even quicker than adults. I can still hear my sisters’ wails like mad when they were his age, having just bitten their tongue when eating. Our ride, as usual, starts with Hatheus’s excited squeals as Val makes a show of jumping and leaping, zagging and spinning, trying to see if he can make his new favorite person laugh louder and make the new second-best vomit.
I’m a little green in the face by the time we make it to the Halthara. Ogarrex lingers outside, waiting to take Hatheus to Elat’s for the night. Where my son will be spoiled rotten and get away with most everything. After big kisses, I love yous, and goodnights, he trots away after the brooding older male who pretends not to wait up but slows his walk to match the toddlers. When our son reaches out, he offers him his finger. I linger for a few moments until I can no longer see him. He’s safe as can be, I know that, but I get a tinge in my heart every time.
My mate, on the other hand, barely waits until we’re back on his mount before his fingers and tail begin exploring every inch of my exposed flesh. I sigh into his musings, never able to get enough of him. We reach the house in record time, my eyes going to the empty nesting box. Lily is long gone to make a family of her own, but I refuse to let him move it. My mate demands my attention quickly enough, teeth, hands, and nails fighting one another as I’m shoved through the doorway.
I gasp, teetering off balance before his thick hand clasps around my waist, pulling me back to him. “I could’ve fallen.”
“As if I would let that happen.” His golden eyes are ravenous as I’m lifted, pressed into the wall above his head. It starts with a ripping of clothes, his warm breath on my inner thighs, and when his tongue hits me, I moan loudly, bucking into his mouth. My hands find their customary grip on his horns as I grind onto his tongue, loving the way it twists deep inside me. When he curls the end in a quick flicking motion, I see stars. My orgasm rips from me with a violence I was unprepared for. I slip down the wall, a yelp leaving me before he catches me, a hand gripping my chin, “Now, now, little mate, what did I just tell you?”
“Stupid male.” I moan, needing to be stretched around him more than I need the air in my lungs. I’m panting wildly, desperate for it.
When my back hits the bed, I don’t stay down. I watch on my hands and knees, displaying proudly the stretch marks he loves to trace along my stomach and thighs. His cocks jerk, the mating one already engorged and weeping. “Come pretty Lenora, show me where you want my cock.”
A smirk fills my face as I turn, showing him my pulsing, soaked center. Flattening my chest on the bed, tilted just enough so that I can watch him devour me with darkened eyes. He strokes a hand down his mating cock, making it spurt cum that splatters the backs of my thighs. He crawls onto the bed, looming close like a predator stalking his prey. I shove my hand between my thighs, spreading the lips of my cunt, showing him how badly I need him there. “Please.” I whimper, my cheeks and chest flushed.
I watch his face as he palms the cum he left on my thighs, slicking the tip of his tail with it. Anticipation builds as the deft, flesh-colored appendage trails over my ass, painting me with his seed. My mate drapes himself over me, his hand coming out to tease my oversensitive nipples, making me buck. I’m panting, pushing back into him when the tip of his tail pushes past my tight hole. I cry out at the intrusion, seconds before his pleasure cock joins it.
He takes me then, no more teasing, only rough thrusts and biting kisses peppered across my back as he fucks me. “You like my tail in your ass, don’t you, my perfect little human?”
“Yes.” I moan as he swirls it around the rim. “F-fuck you need to—’ he thrusts harder, cutting my words off in a gasp. “You need to stop. I’m going to come.”
“Then come, come with my tail fucking your ass, Lenora.”
He says it so matter-of-factly, filthy disgusting words, and I’m putty for it. I come hard, mewling and babbling my praises as the waves of pleasure rock me. I’m lost to it, to the way he worms his hand around to my clit, stringing out the unbearable pleasure. I’m ready, needing, and relaxed when his mating cock slips in mid-shaft. The uncomfortable fullness is everything, but he won’t seat me further while I’m pregnant, even if it is early on. It took a lot of begging on my part and some very… uncomfortable conversations with the healer to get this. I’m speared, each breath only adding to the uncomfortable fullness as he palms his pleasure cock.
“Play with yourself.” He orders, and he doesn’t have to tell me twice.
It’s a battle of divine restraint, staying still when all I want to do is rip, rock, and tug myself back on him until he’s seated so far I can feel him in my gut.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes.” I moan.
“So sweet, so perfect.” He groans, shunting his hips just a little, making me whimper as he roars his climax. The warm pressure of his cum hitting me makes me cry into the sheets. I bare down, forcing him deeper in, only for a steel vice of a hand to band around the back of my neck. “Move again and I take my cock from you.”
“No!”
“Then behave,” he growls, but it’s gritted and oh god another jet hits me and I’m mewling all over again, my lower belly tightening as another tendril of fire races through my core.
I come again, nearly blacking out as it whips through me. My mind is somewhere between sleep and nirvana when I’m gathered into Fafnir’s arms. His back now resting against the headboard of the huge bed.
“Thank you,” I whisper, half asleep.
“For what, my Sha’vria?”
“Doing the difficult thing. Thank you for giving us all of this.”
I’m gone to the world before I hear his response, but I feel the kiss he leaves on my forehead, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the day I collapsed in the hall, panicking in front of the Solar Breeding Agency.
