Steph's Outcast

Steff clenches hard, her cunt tightening around me as she comes, her cries drowned out by the roar of my khui singing in my ears. I am lost in the spell of our mating. Nothing exists outside the slap of our bodies, the thrust of my cock into her incredible warmth, and the tightness of her cunt as I stroke into her over and over again.

When I come, it feels like…perfection. Completion. I spill inside her with a hard thrust and then hold her onto my cock as my seed pulses forth, over and over again. I cannot seem to stop coming, and I drag my cock inside her as the pleasure waves crash through me. They last for so long that I feel wrung out and utterly spent by the time I pull out of her, and then I collapse on the snow at her feet.

Steff lets out a breathy giggle and then drops onto the snow next to me, tugging my kilt down over my wet cock. "Can't have that freezing off."

I manage an exhausted chuckle, pulling her against me. My khui is singing just as loud as it was a moment ago, and my climax has not silenced it in the slightest. I touch her chest, nuzzling at her throat. "Are you still…"

"Yeah." She snuggles my chest against her teats. "We're probably going to be here all night. Hope you're all right with that."

"I could not be more all right," I admit, the wonder of the situation blooming through me.

My mate. My resonance.

And in a few turns of the season, my kit. A sibling for Pak.

Truly, I have everything a male could want.

Epilogue

Months Later — End of Bitter Season

STEPH

I put a hand to my brow, shielding it from the tepid sunlight, and watch as Bek helps N'dek erect the teepee-top of N'dek and Devi's new hut. "It's looking really nice, don't you think?"

At my side, Sam makes a sound of agreement. "I think we're getting better with the 2.0 huts. It's like we've got practice in now. Though I'm going to be honest, I'm really hoping there isn't a 3.0. I'm tired of sand in everything."

God, I hear that. Not that the huts will be better at getting the sand out of the blankets, but it'll feel like home instead of just piling into a cave at night with everyone else. When your home is temporary, even the smallest of irritations—like sand in the furs—can feel like a big deal. It's more than just the sand, though I know what Sam is saying. It's that we've set down roots just to have them pulled up again. A return to normal is exactly what we need.

"We're getting there," I tell her, watching as the poles go up. Bek is standing atop one of the walls, hoisting the contraption, while Vordis is below, handing it off. They look good—until a baby cries. Then, Bek loses his concentration and everything crashes back down to the hut floor again. A moment later, Bek jumps off the wall, then races over to the boulder-seat in the sand nearby where Elly is waiting, nursing their baby.

Sam just chuckles as Bek takes baby Emma from his wife and rocks her gently, his entire concentration now on the little one. "Boy, these guys are big and scary, but they sure do turn to mush the moment their woman has a baby."

"I think it's sweet," I offer, grinning. "Bek's always been protective of Elly. It's just now amplified a thousand times now that Emma's here."

It's no surprise to anyone that delicate Elly would have an equally delicate daughter. Elly carried for a while longer than Veronica expected, and when Emma was finally born, she was so dainty that we were all worried over her health. She's small but strong, though, and when she screams her outrage in her father's ear, Bek grins like he's been given a present. Emma's pale skinned like Elly, but she doesn't have the red hair. Everything else is Bek, right down to the attitude. I watch as the baby hammers a fist on Bek's jaw as Elly gets up and stretches, and Emma bellows her outrage at everyone.

"Poor Elly looks tired," Sam says, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'll take over dinner chores tonight. She looks like she could use a nap. Willa always looks tired too, you know? New babies must be hell."

I glance at Sam, but I don't pry. She's just now starting to open up to me. She's intensely private, and I don't want to scare her off again, but I've definitely noticed a few things about Sam. She watches people constantly, as if she doesn't trust them. She never goes off alone with any of the men, and if she has work that needs to be done, she always makes sure to bring another woman along. If there's no one else to go with her, she feigns a headache or cramps and sticks by the camp.