Heirot

Tenara cried out as he buried into her, her hand tightening on his horn. For a second, her thoughts went white at the feel of his invading size. Dizzily, she met his eyes, and became transfixed by the pleasure written on his face. She pulled his head down to her, kissing him tenderly and tasting herself on his lips, before she used his horn to guide his head back and nipped at his neck. A leg curled over his hips, tugging him a hair deeper. "Make love to me, Havi," she whispered against his skin. "Make love to your Yurivis."

Havi pulsed inside her, the pleasure nearly burning him alive. "Ah!" He mustered as much control as he could before pressing deeper and building into a slow rhythm, each thrust pushing him dangerously close to his limit. "It's too good," he moaned, even as he hugged one of her legs against his muscled chest so he could thrust deeper inside her.

Tenara clutched him for dear life, feeling him strike that place inside that felt like an unmaking. Sharp moans burst from her with each touch. Then, he was moving her leg, his strong arm holding it to his chest. The angle shifted, and Tenara came unmoored. She gripped his horn with one hand, the sheets with the other. "Havi... you're so deep... I'm..." She pulled his head downward, wanting to see his face, wanting him to see hers—see her burst apart with bliss. "Come for me."

Havi's body obeyed her command, his muscles all coiling at once with the force of it. The look in her eyes was too much. "Yes. I'm coming for you," he moaned, pumping a few last rock-hard strokes inside her before the pleasure pulled him under. He covered her mouth with his, seducing her with long, drowning kisses while his orgasm pulsed on and on inside her.

There were some differences compared to when he'd made love to her in rut. His release was slightly less... thorough, though not by much. He also didn't swell enough to fully knot inside her. However, he didn't seem to have any intention of being separated from her. "My moon," he spoke adoringly, brushing fingers over her skin.

Tenara's mind became fuzzy-numb and dull. Any discomfort or pain she'd felt from the day before was momentarily burned away by aftershocks of release. She nuzzled him, releasing his horn to tangle her arms around his neck. She did miss the pressure of his knot, but that was short lived as she realized he had no intention of leaving her. Her legs locked around his hips, pulling him tight against her. She didn't care if he crushed her into the mattress, he was hers.

"My sun," she whispered against him, trailing delicate, worshiping kisses across his alien skin. "You're beautiful when you finish. I love the way your eyes burn. The look you have for me." She framed his face with her hands, appraising his handsomeness with weary, pleasure-fogged eyes. "I..." She hesitated, and then smiled. "I like you, Havitharon. My sun. My Ivis."

Havi rested his forehead against hers and shut his eyes. Her words felt warm inside him. "Sometimes I'm not sure if you're real," he admitted. "Each time you claim me, with your words or body, I think, Maybe I invented you to preserve my sanity."

She tried not to frown at his words. They were beautiful. They made her heart swell to burst… But they were also so, so sad. She hugged his neck a little tighter, and enjoyed the feel of his forehead against hers. “I’m here, and real. I will always be here, and real.” She stroked his hair gently. Her hand danced up to his horn and ran a featherlight finger to the gold band. Her band.

She thought about the cleric who had grabbed him by his horn, and that reminded of her the terrible dream where the sword had been destroyed—Havitharon had been destroyed. “I know you’re real,” she began, feeling a tightness in her throat. “But sometimes I’m afraid… Sometimes I worry you’ll disappear and I won’t be able to find you. That someone will take you. That I’ll make a mistake, like yesterday, and… and the sword will be gone. You will be gone.”

An ache splintered through her heart at the idea, so she held him a little tighter. “I’ll keep you safe.

Havi pressed his face into the crook of her neck and gave in to the warm hands grazing his horns and hair. She sounded so sure of him that even he couldn't pass off her words as casual pillow rambling. I will always be here, and real. "Tenara..." he started. He hesitated. It was outside a male's rights to extend the invitation he was thinking of. But how would she know it was an option if he didn't tell her of it? She wasn't from his world.

"If you wish it... an Ivis can be fully tamed. You can place full claim upon him, and his flame will burn only for you as long as he lives." Uncertainty gripped him. She might not like this sort of talk.

Tenara swallowed at the invitation. Hers, and only hers? It felt like an extremely large commitment, one that made her heart race like she was in the middle of a battle. "If... if you would like it, I would..." She swallowed. Was it fair to him? Was she being fair to him? What if he got bored of her? Of this place? Eventually she would have to marry someone—for duty or political reasons. No matter how kind her parents were, her father's advisors would eventually win out. She was their daughter, but she was also Hajara's one and only heir.

She brushed his horn, turning her face so her cheek rested against him.

"Before... before we do this... I want to make sure it is fair to you. I want you to be happy. So, let me explain, so that you can understand, and then you can decide if you would still like to be mine and only mine. There are expectations of me..." She tapped the tip of his horn. "One day—some day in the, hopefully, distant future—I wil be expected to marry, to take a husband. I will one day be a queen. Hajara will need a king." She pursed her lips together. "The husband will... want to be with me as you are with me now... Is that something you would be able to accept? Another man in our bed?"

He drew back just enough to be able to meet her eyes. The word "husband" held that fuzzy quality in his mind that happened when words in this world didn't quite pair up to his own language. But from what she was saying, he would not become this husband to her, so its meaning didn't feel very important. "A Yurivis may take as many flames as she chooses," he said simply. "If husbands add to your power, it is natural that you choose them."

Tenara's mind was turning it over. Flames equaled males on his world. He was saying it was common for females to have more than one. But a common thing and being okay with it felt different to her. Even still, he didn't seem upset by it.

"Alright... If you're okay with it, then..." Her heart began to beat quickly. "I would like to be this... this permanent Yurivis thing. If it would make you happy, it would please me too. How... how do we do that?" Becoming his Yurivis had seemed a simple thing. They made love, and she tamed the fire in him, and he was hers. What made it exclusive?

Havitharon watched her carefully. It was strange to hear her say the decision hinged on his happiness, but it wasn't unpleasant. It was very her. He smiled, unable to push back a wave of nervous pleasure at her acceptance of him, and at the sheer implausibility of offering himself. "Take your time to think about it," he said, brushing her cheek. "It can't be done right this moment, anyway. Ivis must be bound while in flame."

Tenara nodded, heat burning her cheeks as she thought about the last time he was in flame, and the two days they'd spent tangled together. "I see..." She was trying to remember if he'd told her how long it would be until his next one. "Well, I don't have to think too hard. Sun and moons should stick together."

Tenara stretched a hand out for a blanket and caught the torn fabric of her bed. Oh, yes. They hadn’t had time to fix that yet… She grinned and nipped at his collarbone. “Can I wake you one morning with my mouth around you?” She shifted her hips a little so he knew what part of him, exactly, she wanted her lips over. It nudged him a hair deeper, enough to push a tight, pleased sound from her lips. Her cheeks darkened. He was still so long, so…taunt. He felt ready again, but she was certain he couldn’t be. He wasn’t in rut. He was just… alien. She blinked her gaze up to him, humor dancing in her eyes. “Or will you tear more holes in my bed?”

She nipped at him again, fingertips trailing down his sides. Gods, she’d never felt like this before. She had been with Rami, but she’d never craved him like this. Never burned and wanted and—gods—never hungered for touch like this. Was it the magic connecting their souls? Was it some alien pheromone she wasn’t aware of? Was it love?

Couldn’t be love.

They hadn’t known each other long enough for love, and up until two weeks ago, he was still very much in Trust Issues Camp.

Havi's muscles shivered against her. The thought of what she'd done to him earlier made him twitch inside her. How could she excite him this much with a simple question. "Yes," he moaned, "and maybe." He squirmed at the way she was pushing him deeper inside. His body stretched up to return the gesture, his half-formed knot pressing as deep inside her as he could get. "I don't want to strain your body when you are injured," he purred softly. "But if you claim me right now, I might serve you until one or both of us collapse."

Tenara sucked in a sharp breath as he struck deep, her legs tightening over him. She took a second to try and calm the warring thoughts in her mind, swallowing hard at the image he’d conjured. She stroked fingers down his sides, feeling muscle and ribs.

“Havi,” she said reaching to stroke a horn playfully. “Words like that make rest the furthest thing from my mind.” She wondered what he would do if she grabbed his horn and asked him for it. He seemed to like it when her hand was around him, asking, telling, pulling. She swallowed and curled her hand along the back of one horn, grinning. “Though, the best rest is the one you collapse from.” She nuzzled her face into his neck and kissed to his ear, where her lips danced along the edge.