Needless to say the shit hit the proverbial fan following the execution of the two Nazhral, Tholya and Djomoug. Their government’s demands for reparation only led to them receiving a brutal fine from the United Planets Organization and to all of their hunters being banned from Federation events for the next five years. As the Federation held the most prestigious and lucrative hunts, this was a severe blow to their citizens. These disciplinary measures were brought about after the pilot had confessed their team had been mandated by their officials to acquire the organs and shells. The Attrimat had been Tholya’s and Djomoug’s personal scheme to enrich themselves.
Following my suggestion, they’d been able to track down the signature of the shuttle that had been used. After the flares had gone up, the shuttle had made a hasty return to the space dock, and its pilot had attempted to flee aboard the Nazhral ship with all of their loot. But Master Hunter Bron thankfully had the foresight of forbidding any departures from the space dock until everything was sorted out. The pilot and his bounty were handed over to the Cizsa tribe. I didn’t even want to imagine what fate befell him. But at least, the Attrimat they recovered would provide for the orphaned Khenads. Of the adults, only a couple of females and a male had survived. They were grievously injured, but with the cream from the Scogas’ shells, the caretakers hoped they would recover enough to be functional mentors to the countless young in need of guidance.
To my relief, Szaro’s edict that the Federation leave at once had not been a permanent rupture of any association. Despite his fury, my husband had actually made them leave for their own safety. Judging by the extent of the anger that had spread through the tribes as the news reached them, things might have turned ugly had any Ordosian run into an off-worlder. Once everyone cooled off, they would recognize that out of the hundred or so hunters that came to Trangor, only two truly violated their laws—in a most abject way—and one flirted with disaster.
It warmed my heart when Kayog Voln reached out to me, not to ask me to intervene in favor of the UPO or the Federation, but to thank me for tempering things when Szaro had seemed to want to go on a bloody rampage, and to ask if I was faring well.
Trades with the UPO would continue, but any future hunts would need to be thoroughly discussed.
However, these days, the Federation was the least of my concerns. I had a front row seat to the spectacle of the Ordosian version of a man flu. Szaro was beginning to molt. His miserable face would put even the most shameless puppy to shame. Not a single wall in the house had been spared from him scratching against it. Hydrating a lot helped the old skin detach, so Szaro was downing gallons upon gallons of water, which meant he also constantly needed to pee. During that time, he developed a new appreciation for an in-house hygiene room, especially since, in his infinite wisdom, Irco had also included a waste chute for Szaro next to my toilet.
When the itching became too much for him to handle, we soaked in the crazy Jacuzzi tub Irco had also built next to the separate shower. Elevated on a dais, it gave us a stunning view of the hidden valley outside. As I cuddled with Szaro and scraped his scales with a scrubbing stone, he made the sexiest rattling-purrs that totally messed with my girly bits.
One week into it, he awoke to find the old skin of his left arm falling off. I nearly peed myself laughing as he did an excessively happy dance. That evening, the one from the right arm also went bye-bye. As much as I enjoyed teasing him, I sympathized with his situation. It genuinely looked uncomfortable. But his new scales underneath were absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t believe I used to think his old ones gleamed. In comparison, they looked dull and faded.
Today was our day off. Although the Ordosians followed a seven-day week calendar, there were no official days off such as weekends. You took a day off when you wanted. Generally, people worked three to four days in a row then took one or two days to rest. Most of it was coordinated with others to make sure there was always someone to cover the needs in their respective field. Szaro spent the morning with Mandha while I went swimming with Salha, little Eicu, and the other females and children of the village.
A few of them gave me strange looks that I couldn’t interpret. When I asked Salha about it, she simply said that I smelled good, that I smelled healthy. How could I not while living the healthiest life ever here on Trangor?
Szaro was already home when I returned.
“Ready for our trip down the valley!” I said happily as I strutted my way towards him.
His welcoming grin stiffened and a nearly savage expression stole across his features, stopping me dead in my tracks. He flicked his tongue a couple of times my way, and a deep, drawn-out, rattling-growl rose from his throat as he menacingly slithered towards me.
“Szaro?” I said warily, unsure if I was turned on or scared.
“You are ripe,” he said through gritted teeth.
“What?”
“You’re in heat…” he said, drawing me into his embrace before crushing my lips in a passionate kiss.
Right… I would be ovulating right now. No wonder the females thought I smelled good… healthy . Szaro and I hadn’t discussed children. Honestly, I hadn’t felt there was any point to it, first because this wasn’t something we should even consider until we were certain I would stay here, and second because I genuinely didn’t think we were compatible that way. Either way, I had a contraceptive implant in case we turned out to be more compatible than I thought. Still, I now felt that we would need to openly discuss the matter, if only for him to be aware that no pregnancies were possible at the moment so that he wouldn’t feel blindsided.
But Szaro’s feverish hands all but ripping the clothes off my back kicked those serious thoughts to the curb and brought me back to the here and now. I lifted my arms to let him rid me of my top. As soon as it was gone, he pushed me against the wall of the hallway. His mouth dove for one of my breasts, and his hands started stripping me of my skirt. Szaro looooooved skirts, which he found highly convenient to get quick access to my naughty bits without having to undress me.
He never gave me a chance to step out of my skirt. As soon as I lifted a leg to do so, he lowered himself in front of me, slipped that leg over his shoulder, and buried his face between my thighs. I moaned and rubbed the scales of his hood while he devoured me. Szaro had become quite the expert at going down on me, his crazy tongue flicking inside me just the right way to drive me insane, while his fingers quickly brought me to the edge.
I was seconds from toppling over when Szaro suddenly pulled away from me with an enraged growl. I slipped and landed on my ass with a yelp. Stunned and disoriented, I stared in disbelief as Szaro slammed his back on the opposite wall, rocking from side to side as he scratched. Too many emotions, from shock to disbelief, coursed through me in quick succession. But the blissful expression on his face as he frantically scratched did me in. I burst out laughing, the dull throbbing in my right butt cheek where I’d landed soon forgotten.
When the itching subsided, Szaro’s saw me still sitting on the floor. His mortified expression had me hiccupping with choked laughter. He picked me up and carried me to the bedroom. But I didn’t let him put me on the bed. Instead, I ordered him to lie down on the floor so that he could scratch his back on its rough surface should he once again get an urgent itch to alleviate.
Even though I’d been cheated out of my orgasm, I didn’t mind. Szaro’s magic cock would have me singing arias in no time. He’d not been kidding when he’d said that once I’d been with an Ordosian, I’d have no time for human men. My husband had ruined me for any other male. The things he did with his cock were indescribable. Just thinking of how he made his spikes massage my inner walls, hitting my G-spot just the right way over and over again, had me aching to be filled. To think a spiked peen had terrified me. How clueless I had been… And I also loved going down on my man and seeing him fall apart for me. It didn’t hurt that his self-lubricant tasted vaguely like honey.
But right now, I was too impatient to finish what he’d started, especially since I didn’t know how long we had before another bout of itching had him bucking me off. As soon as he was lying on his back, I straddled him and clawed at his scales around his pelvis to make him extrude. He did so without hesitation, and hissed with pleasure when I wrapped my hand around his length to give it a few strokes before impaling myself on it.
Good heavens! I would never get enough of this. It wasn’t just the insanely blissful feel of him inside of me, but the way he looked at me that touched me every time we made love. Szaro was definitely falling in love with me. And I couldn’t deny that I was falling hard for him. I’d always considered myself rather vanilla when it came to sex, but with him, I liked exploring different positions. Szaro loved it because he never could have done that had he ended up with an Ordosian female.
But as was his wont, he soon took control of our coupling, even if I was the one riding him. Slipping his hands under my bum, he effortlessly lifted me up as if I weighed nothing and started pumping up into me. I pressed my palms to his muscular chest for support and threw my head back with a strangled moan as his magical cock set me on fire. Each thrust, each stroke had my eyes nearly rolling to the back of my head.
My orgasm slammed into me out of the blue. I cried out and collapsed, boneless on top of him. Without slowing down, Szaro wrapped one arm around me, holding me tightly against him, and fisted the hair at my nape with the other before claiming my mouth in a demanding kiss. Our tongues mingled while he pounded into me from below, a second climax building as the first one waned.
When I cried out in bliss again, Szaro joined his voice to mine as his seed shot into me. He whispered my name in an almost pained voice followed by a series of words in Ordosian that I didn’t understand. And yet, they messed me up. In my heart, I knew he’d told me he loved me. But he wasn’t done yet. Twice more he made me climax, one of them with the enhanced effect of his aphrodisiac rattle. Each time, he filled me with his seed. On the final one, as soon as he’d shot out the last drop, the head of his cock began swelling inside of me.
Szaro often did that while making love to me. Aside from his control over the spikes covering it, my man could expand the tip of his cock for greater friction. He normally did that while pulling out, which gave my sensitive spot an extra jolt, but narrowed it on his way back in.
But this was different.
His head expanded not to the point of being painful, but enough that he couldn’t pull out. We were effectively locked together. I knew canines and lupine species often knotted with their mates, but I’d never heard of this with a reptilian species.
With my head resting on his chest, listening as his heartbeat slowed to a normal tempo, I pondered how to address the issue, or if now was even the right time. His big hand lazily caressing my back made it hard to concentrate.
Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head to look him straight in the eye. The languid expression on his face faded when he saw the one on mine. His features took on that attentive air he always had whenever we were discussing a serious matter.
“You knotted with me,” I said in a soft, factual voice.
“It is not a knot,” Szaro corrected gently. “But yes, we are locked.”
“Why?” I asked.
Szaro studied my features for a few moments as if searching for a clue as to where my head was at before answering. “You know why,” he said in a conversational tone. “It increases the chances of conception. You are fertile.”
I licked my lips nervously, kicking myself for delaying this conversation. I should have done it right after the first time we’d made love.
“We have not discussed having offspring,” I said carefully.
“We have not,” he conceded.
“In truth, that’s not a conversation I expected us to have at all, or at least not before I’d made a decision as to whether or not I would stay on Trangor after the six months agreed upon,” I said, feeling guilty for even speaking those words. But we needed to lay it all on the table.
“We have coupled many, many times for nearly a month now,” Szaro argued. “For all we know, my seed may have already taken root. You may already be carrying my offspring. Would it be so terrible?”
The wistfulness in his voice as he spoke those words broke my heart. Another wave of guilt twisted my innards as I searched for the kindest words to shatter his illusions. It was all the more distressing to have this conversation while locked in such an intimate fashion with him.
“No, it wouldn’t be terrible,” I conceded. “You are a wonderful male. But a child is a lifetime commitment. I would want to make sure that the father of my children will be the male I will spend the rest of my life with.”
He nodded slowly, an unreadable expression on his face. “But you’re still unsure if you want that male to be me,” he said factually.
“Actually, I do want that male to be you,” I said, surprised by my own words, but nonetheless struck by their veracity. “I just need to be sure that you are. Humans normally court for many months, sometimes even years before making a life commitment. This is too soon for me to make such a decision. But I really, really like you. Even though it can be challenging at times with our cultural and anatomical differences, I love living on Trangor.”
His face melted into a tender expression that turned me upside down. “Then why worry so much, my mate? If I make you happy and you find joy in your life here, then all else will fall into place as it is meant to be,” Szaro said, caressing my cheek with his knuckles. “I am already committed for life where you are concerned. An offspring would only be the embodiment of my feelings for you, and of our bond. You are where you were always meant to be. But as you wish for more time, I will honor your request. If you haven’t already conceived—”
“I haven’t conceived,” I interrupted gently, guilt rearing its head again. “I can’t conceive right now.” Szaro frowned, a confused expression on his face. “I mean, first off, I don’t even know that you and I are compatible that way. Our species are very different. I don’t think a human and an Ordosian can have offspring together. But even if we can, there’s no way I can be pregnant right now. Long before I even came to Trangor, I got a contraceptive implant. It’s still good for two years. As long as it’s inside my arm, I won’t be able to conceive. My plan was to remove it after our six months, if I decided to stay here.”
“I see,” Szaro said, failing miserably to hide his disappointment.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling horrible. “I—”
“Do not apologize, my mate,” Szaro said in a reassuring tone. “I won’t deny that I am saddened to hear this. I dream of seeing you swell with my offspring. You may not have chosen me yet, but I have definitely chosen you. I want none other than you. Still, you acted wisely. I am the one at fault for not discussing it with you. It would destroy me if we did have a young, and you decided to leave me, and I lost you both.”
“Let’s just agree that we should both have brought it up the minute we started playing naughty,” I said, relieved. This had gone down much better than I’d expected.
“Agreed,” Szaro said softly. “Thank you for your honesty. You could have kept it secret, and I would have merely assumed that we weren’t compatible or had failed to conceive.”
“I don’t want lies between us,” I said with a frown. “Whatever this is, and wherever it’s going, it will be based on honesty.”
Szaro grinned and tightened his embrace around me. “Then let me give you this piece of honesty,” he said with a tender smile. “I will continue to lock with you whenever you are in your fertile period, even if it is pointless. I love being this closely joined with you. I also do not worry about your uncertainties. You are my soulmate. The Goddess plucked you from the stars and sent you to me. You were made for me and for this world. In your heart, I believe you already know it. But take the human time you need. Nothing will change the inevitable.”
