Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
It is useless. Always useless.
I know Ruh-chul is my mate, that she is the one for me. Her scent is perfect, her body appealing. She calms my thoughts just with her presence…yet everything I do is wrong. If she were drakoni, I would challenge any male that comes forth and she would encourage it. She would challenge me, too. If I did not prove my strength, she would not let me mount her. I would be cast off, discarded. Shunned.
Yet my Ruh-chul sends me confusing signals. She does not want me to fight for her. She tries to run away from me and return to her human hive. She presses her mouth to mine and lets me touch her cunt, but she will not let me claim her. I bring her to water and she does not drink. I touch my mind to hers and she does not respond.
When I touch her, her cunt grows slick with arousal, yet every action she takes tells me she does not want me.
I do not understand.
My frustration continues to mount, and I can feel the madness creeping in at the edges of my mind. The colors and sounds begin to bleed in, and I squeeze my eyes shut, breathing her scent in deeply. It would be easy to lose myself to the madness again. To forget all about Ruh-chul and her confusing responses…but I cannot.
I need her.
It is about more than just release. I crave her body. I crave her and need desperately to sink into her cunt, to pump into her and give her my seed. But more than that, I need to give her my fires. I want the connection with her mind. I want the intimacy of a spirit-bond between us. I want to share my thoughts with her and receive hers in return. I want to feel her mind touching mine at all times.
I want her spirit, not just her body.
And to do that, I must claim her. But when I nuzzle at her, she pulls away again.
With a heavy sigh, I let her go again, my mind racing. What does she want? What is it that I am doing wrong? The more that these questions swirl in my head, the flimsier my grasp upon sanity becomes. The colors in front of me start to bleed, the sounds growing too loud. Even Ruh-chul’s soft voice sounds very far away.
Luminoura’s thoughts flutter toward mine. She soothes me, pushing away the madness, and my mind clears. HUNGRY, she tells me.
I tell her what I always do—to let Dakh know. She sends me a mote of assent and then goes quiet again with one last childish mental caress.
“Jurik?” Ruh-chul asks, a worried note in her voice. She reaches out and touches me, lacing her fingers with mine, and she does not cringe away from my touch. That is something, at least.
It is not enough, though. If another male scents her before I have claimed her, he might take her from me. I cannot have that happen. I need a solution.
For some reason, my thoughts swirl back to Luminoura. There is something there, at the edge of my consciousness. A solution…but what? I touch minds with the infant again, feeding off of her effortlessly bright strength, and she sends a hazy mental picture. She is nursing, snuggled up against her dam’s breast, as the woman caresses the tiny girl’s back. Luminoura’s thoughts are drowsy with contentment.
Of course.
I always tell Luminoura to connect with her father, to speak with him when she is hungry, because Luminoura has no mental connection to her mother. Yet…her mother is very real. Luminoura is aware of her. She loves her. But there is no mental connection because…her mother must be human.
Which means Luminoura’s father has mated with his female and shared his fires. Somehow he has connected with his female. He has figured out the humans’ bizarre mating rituals and claimed his female.
He will have answers.
I close my eyes, reaching out my thoughts toward Luminoura’s father. Sometimes I connect with him, but usually only when it comes to Luminoura. I send my thoughts toward his and am rebuffed. There is no interest there.
Very well, then. I will go to him. I will show up on his doorstep with my mate—he will not be interested in her because he already has one—and insist that he tell me how he won his so I can win my Ruh-chul.
I like this plan.
I open my eyes and see Ruh-chul staring at me with a hint of worry.
I smile at her. Caress her soft cheek, reassuring her. I touch her mind one last time, but there is still nothing. That is all right. We go to seek answers, I promise her. This silence between us is almost over.
I take her bag in my hands, shift forms, and snatch my mate into my claws before she can run off, and then I take to the air.