She wraps her arms around my body and presses her breasts against my chest. Her body heat penetrates through our minnasuits. The suit Calix designed for her speaks to carnal parts of me. I want to puncture the material with my claw and tear through it until her swollen breasts have escaped their captivity.
“Breccan,” Aria says sharply. “You’re growling.”
I blink away my daze. “You just…”
“Smell freaking amazing?” she offers, her lips quirking up on one side.
“Precisely. Avrell explained that during implantation, your scent would become…”
“How does that explain you smelling better, then?” she asks in confusion.
“I don’t know, but I need you to come back home. With me. Please, Aria.” I cradle her delicate face with my massive hands. She’s so tiny and fragile, yet she is unbreakable. It’s a madness for my mind to compute. A paradox. “I need my mate.” In ways that I can’t explain right now.
She gives me a slight nod and before she can suck in her next breath, I have her scooped in my arms as I stride from the sub-faction. She struggles from my grasp as we pass the other female’s quarters. Not wanting to harm her or our mortling, I release her to her feet.
“What is it?”
“I promised Emery I wouldn’t leave her alone.” She glances over her shoulder at the door. “Give me a second to check on her. I don’t want to abandon her on her first few days. I’ve already messed up so many things, I don’t want to break my promise, too.”
As much as I want to drag her back into my arms, pride glows in my chest. Pride for my mate. I nod to her and she flashes a brilliant smile. My mate is pleased.
She turns and enters the room with me close behind. As I go to enter, she waves a hand and widens her eyes, motioning for me to stay. I bare my teeth at her in jest, but stay out of sight of the other alien.
“How is she?” I hear her ask Avrell, who has been by each day to run his tests and take his samples.
“Her breathing is still labored, but she’s in good spirits,” Avrell replies. “She’s resting now as I gave her a dose of the microbots in an attempt to heal whatever ails her lungs.”
“How long will it take?” Aria asks.
“We’ll know soon if they are effective, but she’s been weak so she may rest for some time yet.”
At that, I peer around the corner and catch Aria’s eyes with mine. Her cheeks flush with color.
“Will you call if there are any changes?” she asks. Her feet inch toward me and my cock hardens. So close.
“Of course,” he says. I ignore the playful humor in his voice.
She speeds into my arms like a shot from a zonnoblaster and I lift her and turn. The doors all flash by as I practically run toward our chambers.
Our chambers. She may have moved her things but she never left, for she lives inside my heart. Always there with me no matter what. When I carry her over the threshold, she lets out a giggle.
“Where I come from, when the husband carries his wife into their home, they are officially married and ready to start their life,” she says, her fingers stroking through my long black hair.
“We are officially everything,” I tell her. “And we’ve already started. Here, we belong to each other the moment we mutually claim it as so. You’ve been mine for a while now, Aria.”
She grins at me as I set her on her feet. With sure movements, she unfastens her suit. The moment her breasts are free, she lets out a sigh of relief. I think we need to work on some new clothes. Those are a snug fit and with all the growing I’ll soon do, I’ll need something I can breathe in.”
I peel away my own minnasuit, my eyes never leaving her naked flesh. I cannot see any swells indicating my baby, but Avrell assures me it lives inside of her. I’m eager to watch her grow as her body accommodates the mortling.
“You’re growling again,” she says, her brown eyes darkening with hunger.
“I see something I would love to taste,” I rumble. My cock is hard and aching. As I step forward, toward my mate, my heavy erection bobs with my movement.
Her eyes travel down and then she bites on her bottom lip. Someone else is hungry too, it would seem.
“I want to lick inside every part of your mouth,” I murmur.
She snorts. “That shouldn’t sound so romantic but I know what your licking leads to…” Her gaze finds mine and fire blazes within it.
My hands find her hips and I haul her to me. A twitch of my cock between us alerts her to my eagerness to mate.