Page 138 of Tempt

‘Yes, you will. I will never leave you, my Luca. Never. And I hope you will not leave me.’

I shake my head and then curl up closer to him, nuzzling against him and feeling the soft purr against my cheek.

I will never leave you again. I promise.

He is silent and still beneath me, and then I feel something, a slow prodding at my mind.

‘What?’ I ask, my hand flipping up in a question. ‘What are you searching for? What do you want to know?’

Eissa strokes my cheek softly, and he tips my head up so I can see him. ‘What are you thinking so hard about?’

‘You.’ It’s a simple answer, but one that I can admit to readily.

But he prods a little deeper, wanting to know more—what I’ve been hiding. But before I can let him in, I need him to open up first.

twenty-nine

EISSA

The feeling raging inside of me is a mixture of resignation, fear, and contentment. Luca is mine. That cannot be changed. My fangs sank into his neck, and I took a taste of his blood, and he is now VySytheh. I can feel him even more deeply than before. It is a bond that cannot and will not be broken.

It’s more than just the connection in our heads. When he ceases to be, so shall I cease to be.

But there is no longer an option for me to breed. Even if I were to confess to the council that my rut came early and my breeding would have to be postponed, it would not matter. My body simply would not allow my cocks to descend and fill a female Vyastil.

My only hope now is that Sabik will arrive with news that they are prepared to aid our mission, and that Dhoryn has done what he promised and started speaking with Outerlanders. He and I haven’t discussed our meeting since he and Lucie left the cottage several days ago.

That feels like a lifetime now with everything that’s happened.

I curl my tail tighter around Luca, who’s still dozing against my chest. The amount of oyen he consumed in order to survive my rut drained him. He is now full of my seed, and I am full of his, and I can feel the whispers of his dreams flitting from his head into mine.

He feels…content. Happy. Relieved that I no longer wish to sever our bond. And I can only hope he understands that it was the last thing I wanted to do. That it was for his safety, and for the safety of my people.

It was only said so there would be a future for us to see together. A future like this.

I am still afraid it’s going to fall apart, but I am not yet willing to give up hope.

Luca makes a soft noise as his body begins to stir, and eventually he opens his eyes and looks up at me. There are dark circles beneath them, and I know he needs to eat and tend to his body. But he makes no move to do anything other than to curl up tighter against me.

‘Good morning,’ I sign. Now that our connection is deeper, I can tell just how much more he prefers signing to our mind connection. And just how much he prefers when I speak to him in his mind with Eretharian instead of English.

With one limp hand, Luca rubs at his eyes, then sits up. He gives a soft groan, which is likely from his aching muscles, and he rests his head against the headboard as he stares down at me. Before I can lift my hands to ask what he’s thinking, he reaches out and traces a touch down my jaw.

‘Beautiful.’

My skin heats. It is still a wonder he prefers what I look like to what he finds in humans. I recall with a vicious clarity the first time I set my eyes on the beings from Earth. They were so small—short, stocky limbs, dull skin lacking scales and fur. Their ears and teeth were blunt, and by the gods, they were so fragile.

I was so certain I would shatter their bodies without meaning to.

I had no idea how strong they were. I had no idea that one day, I would have a human beneath me, able to take everything I needed to give him.

Sitting up, I twist onto all fours and slip between his legs. He lets out a surprised laugh which lasts just as long as it takes for me to kiss the breath from his lungs. His chuckle turns into a groan, and while his cock will not get hard for some time after the way it was used and milked, it gives a feeble attempt as I grind my slit against him.

‘I never wish to wake up to anything but your face,’ I tell him. With those signs comes a small punch of fear because I have felt that feeling before.

Not as profoundly as I feel with Luca, but with Kori, it was some type of love. The early blossoms of it. There were good, quiet, tender moments of him lying beside me, and I never wanted that to end.

Kori was not VySytheh. He never could be. But losing him the way I did has created a fear in me that those same monsters could take Luca too.