Heirot

Tenara's hands fisted the sheets, gripping them for dear life as the world went white. Her moans turned desperate and high, bordering on a tight, appreciative scream as he found the place inside her that broke everything and mended it all at once. "I-I... Ohhh. Havi. Havi!" His name spilled from her lips, heavy and weighted and a slew of other wicked things followed, a cascade of lustful worship. Her head dipped towards the bed and she pressed her forehead into the sheets, shuddering as she came so hard she screamed his name until her voice gave out.

"Agh!" He tried his best to hold back, but even without thrusting, he was a lost cause. Her body clenched around him, kneading his growing knot while her voice sweetly crying his name did the rest. He pressed tight over her, squishing her and panting her name as he matched his thrusts to her screams.

Tenara had never wondered if she could die from sex, but at that moment she wondered if sex with Havitharon might kill her. She'd never come so hard in her life, and she melted into the sheets, her body trembling as a cascading tsunami of pleasure rolled through her hard enough to blot out the world. She felt the pressure of his knot swelling inside, felt the heat of his release flooding endlessly into her. It was maddeningly wonderful. She huffed against the sheets, smoothing her cheek against the silk, taking in the sound of Havitharon's grunting, panting breath against her back.

"Havi..." she whispered, finally releasing the sheets to reach up and brush her trembling hand along his horn and into his hair. She felt strangely emotional, and didn't understand the tears burning in her eyes or the sudden desire to weep. Could something be so good you cried? Was that strange? Was she broken?

Havi stared back at her. Her tears set off warnings in his chest. The sharp worry that he'd somehow harmed her jousted admirably with his relentless orgasm as he struggled to string two words together. "You're hurt?" he winced as another wave of pleasure pulsed through him. He guided her gently onto her side and spooned himself close against her. "There," he crooned quietly, "What can I do?" He shuddered with release while brushing gentle fingers along her arms.

She wiped her eyes, feeling utterly silly by the water coming out of them. She opened her mouth to reply, and became momentarily distracted by the feel of him throbbing, pulsing. Still going. Gods. "I'm not hurt," she said, her voice a soft, fluttering breath. "It was wonderful." She nuzzled back against him, taking his hand and smoothing it over the place on her lower belly where she could feel him, knotted and tight. A strange, slight bulge against her skin, and she still wasn't certain if that should frighten her.

Why didn't it?

Her fingers danced along the back of his hand, and around it, circling the place where he was bound within her. "Just hold me," she said, because he'd given her all of himself already (and was still giving, judging from the heat rushing into her). There was nothing else she wanted, other than what he was doing.

Havi gladly did exactly as asked, holding her close with his body curled protectively around her. "Thank you," he murmured into her hair.

Tenara smiled, and dragged his hand up to her lips, kissing his palm before hugging the arm to her chest.

They lay together for several minutes, and she finally felt his body beginning to stabilize. His knot would stay for a while yet, but he was complete in his cresting. She poked at the place on her lower belly playfully. "How... often do you have ruts?" she asked, because she really did like this. She got an endless supply of cuddles afterwards, and began to think human sex seemed so sorrowfully dull now in comparison. "Once a year?"

He nuzzled his face and mumbled into her hair. "On my world... perhaps two to four times per year? Depending if the male is healthy, and the environment. There are drugs that can induce more regularly, if the male can withstand it."

Tenara traced lines on his arm, back and forth, back and forth. She bit her lip, feeling the urge to ask more questions about his world but also a fear of bringing up bad memories of it. The idea of him being drugged so a woman on his world could do this... Suddenly the rut didn't seem so romantic. "Do you... would you... want to do this when you're not... in rut?" She wasn't certain she'd be disappointed if he said he would only want her two to four times a year, because she was certain she'd almost died from pleasure. "If it was just for fun... because you wanted me?"

He chuckled softly against her hair, a warm, rumbling sound. "It isn't quite the same as rutting, but we can and do have drives, even without the flame." He paid attention to her cool fingertips on his arm. "My Yurivis wants me even when I'm cold?" He sounded amused, but under that, also quietly pleased.

Tenara smiled. "Your Yurivis wants you cold, warm, hot, scalding. All temperatures. Just... not for a day or so. I think I'm going to need to give my... parts.... a break. You were very good, and very thorough... and very large."

He huffed into her hair. "Talking like that to me will not help me give you a break," he purred, licking the crook of her shoulder.

As it turned out, Tenara got much fewer 'breaks' than she thought she would over the next 24 hours. They'd doze off together, knotted, and then she'd wake to find Havi restless and full inside her, and the moment would sweep them away again.

It was mid-morning the following day when a crow outside one of the windows drew Havi back to the land of the living. It had been well into the night before they finally collapsed together and slept until morning. The morning sun seemed too yellow, the room too bright for Havi's dulled senses. The rut had finally burned out. Coming out of a rut felt a bit like a hangover. His body was exhausted from the fever. His muscles were sore, but not necessarily unpleasantly so. And curled at his side, sleeping in the curve of one of his arms, was Tenara. He looked at her thoughtfully. Without the fireglow of hormones boiling through him, he could think clearly about the past few days.

The sounds of argument in the hallway outside pulled his attention from the bed to the door.

"I told you, just give them space," Lelana's voice said.

"I think two days is enough 'space'. What they need is a dunk in a cold fountain."

"That's your solution to everything, dear brother in law."

Vlad made an irritated sound and ignored her. A hard knock sounded at the door.

Tenara was vaguely aware of the knocking. It came in a dream. A steady, harsh thump dragging her out of the sludgy dark she’d fallen into. She groaned, not wanting to be pulled from the blissful heaviness of sleep, and so she snuggled against the hard warmth she’d curled near in the early hours, before the threat of dawn.

She mumbled something unintelligible that might have been “go away” or “just a minute”.

But it would need to be an hour at least. As the fog of sleep cleared, as the world came back to her, so did the threads of memory, and so did the aching reminder between her legs. She wondered if Havitharon’s special numbing tongue would offer any relief, but thought that asking him might bring about another round of lovemaking, and she knew from the feeling in her body that she couldn’t handle it.

She was heavy, absolutely worn out, and certain, if she didn’t have some immortal blood in her, she would be feeling far worse. She groaned louder as she tried to move and found every limb protesting, but nothing felt as sore as the place where Havitharon had been buried inside, repeatedly driving against a spot she didn’t think any other man could reach. Was it possible to bruise a womb?

Tenara whimpered, knowing it was going to take more than towels and the tender care of her lover to clean up the mess they’d made of each other and her bed.

Part of their pillow talk in the night had been Tenara expressing how she didn’t want to keep anything from her family anymore, that she wanted to be honest with them and repair some of the damage she’d caused by keeping Rami a secret. Which meant she wanted Havi to help her explain what they were to each other, in way her parents might understand—even if they wouldn’t accept right away.

But she hadn’t meant that explanation include her father barging in to see them naked, tangled in ruined sheets covered in an absurd amount of Havi’s… She shook her head, her nose brushing against Havitharon’s ribs. Tenara cracked an eye open, whimpered as she pushed onto her shaking arms, and looked down at the alien she’d taken to her bed and—she realized as she admired the warm mid-day light on his gray skin—her heart.

“Do you think he’ll go away if we pretend to sleep?” She smiled, silver hair falling around her face as she stretched to kiss his lips tenderly.

——

Lelana leaned against the door, feeling Vlad’s harsh knock through the wood. “Why don’t I pop in and check on them? Hmm? Save your fatherly eyes from what lies beyond the threshold?” She stretched into his field of vision, and because she possessed a massive lack of self-awareness, added, “They’re behaving a little like newlyweds, aren’t they? It’s romantic, really. If we ignore the fact this could all be the doings of that magic sword… or him? I wonder if he’s bewitched her? I wouldn’t mind him bewitching me…” She began to fan herself.

Vlad rolled his eyes. "Newlyweds," he spat. But she wasn't that far off base... they were acting that way, and he wasn't a fan of the idea of seeing Tenara curled up with that spiky weirdo, either. Even he could acknowledge that with Spiky's proportions, his potential for "bewitching" was appreciable, weird-looking or not. "If you want him, he's all yours. Get in the game. Just drag their tails to breakfast, since you're enjoying this so much," he sighed, and trudged off down the hall. Being unable to see his daughter was making him uncharacteristically sullen.

Havi tipped his face up toward the warmth of her kiss. It felt natural to be touched, which was... very new for him. He was fairly sure the rut had worn off, since his muscles felt like loose spaghetti when he rolled toward her. He could only imagine what she was feeling like after being the focus of his merciless devotion for two days straight.

The other sign the rutt had worn off was the unease brooding at the edge of his thoughts. He'd gone into rut. He'd been claimed by a Yurivis.

It still hadn't really sunk in. If he'd been home, this would be the end of life as he knew it. Here, it was... he had no idea what it was yet. Maybe if he slept for a few more years.

Whatever was outside the door felt completely irrelevant in comparison. "I think I can pass out, if that will help sell it," he mumbled into her hair.

Tenara giggled softly and realized that giggling didn't help with pretending to sleep. "We should shower," she whispered. They'd been in bed for almost two days, and a hot shower sounded like heaven. The walk to the shower, though, sounded like hell. Her stomach grumbled, and she remembered that her meals had consisted of Havitharon's flesh and what minimal wine was left in her decanter.

"A shower would be a good idea before breakfast," her aunt's voice quipped from the foot of the bed. She appeared in a funneling swirl of black fog. Tenara hadn't noticed it, but saw the threads of it dissipating into the surrounding air. Lelana tapped her chin. "Well, I suppose it would be lunch now."

Tenara hissed and dragged the covers over them. "Aunt Lelana!"

"Better me than Daddy, Sweety," Lelana mused, sitting at the foot of the bed. She pinched the rumpled blanket just barely covering Havitharon's ankles and lifted it, taking a peak beneath before whistling and letting the fabric go. "Well. Would you like help getting to the shower, dear?" Tenara's cheeks burned and her aunt grinned. "Don't be shy. We've all been there at some point." Lelana stroked a finger across the arch of Havitharon's large foot. Her smile turned wicked and wanting. "Good morning, Mr. Spiky."