Page 23 of The Naga Inventor's Clever Mate

“Ah, Corin,” she moaned, all soft and welcoming, her body taking every inch of me and then some. She did not fight as my tail restrained her; she did not claw or bite back. Or maybe she did, but her blunt little nails felt only like pleasure against my tough scales. My seed erupted with a growl that rocked me, a deep wrenching of pleasure as it spurted from the tips and coated her womb.

She was so tiny beneath me, and she took every drop, every bit of me as it spilled like a river. And she bucked beneath me, clutching at me as it filled her with the same pleasure that had wrecked me. My beautiful, clever little mate was utter perfection as I watched the bliss on her face. It was a temptation I didn’t want to resist, to kiss her upturned mouth and tangle her tongue with mine as our bodies had entwined.

Chapter 18

Min-Ji

I was not the same person I was yesterday; I concluded when I woke up that morning. The entire world had shifted when Corin and I had made love, and that really was as cliché as it sounded in my head, but it was the truth. I felt different, stronger, and filled with happiness that just kept making my face fall into a smile.

Corin lay curled against my back, his tail twined around my legs, and his arm thrown over my middle to hug me tight. He was still asleep, I could tell from the slow way he breathed, and his sigils weren’t glowing. They weren’t glowing because we’d mated. Now they’d only glow if he felt intensely, or if he wanted them to. I felt immensely satisfied knowing that.

Then I realized that it would make it easier, in a way, to hide our mating bond from the Thunder Rock Queen. An accidental touch wouldn’t give us away. Was that Corin’s plan? Is that why he’d given in yesterday afternoon? I didn’t think so, but a hint of doubt settled in my belly. I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter, because even if we had to hide it, that was better than not having him at all.

Triff’s soft beep made me push away the thoughts and focus on the present. The little bot was sitting right in front of my face, a little lopsided as he leaned against a rock to keep his balance on the side of the hill we were sleeping on. Last night, we had shared food, and then Corin had set up a proper camp with a campfire to keep Reid warm. We’d moved to the other side of the hill for more privacy and left Triff to guard the sick human. “Oh, is something wrong with Reid?” I asked, worried when I realized that Triff shouldn’t be here, but back with the patient he was supposed to guard.

“No,” Corin muttered. “He’s just lonely. Can’t blame him. I’d miss you too after a whole night without you…” His arms tightened around my middle, and he buried his nose against my neck. It made my toes curl, and his words made my heart sing. Who knew my mate had poetic words like that hidden all this time? Maybe I should be less surprised, considering how he made love.

After we’d made our camp and hidden away in the furs on our side of the hill, he’d made me see stars so many times—with his tongue, with his hands and tail, definitely with his cock. I was still feeling the stretch, a little soreness, and it made me feel all warm inside each time my body twinged to remind me.

It was more than the mind-blowing sex, though, because it meant our bond was official now. He’d accepted that we should be together, that staying away was the wrong choice. Now I just had to have faith that we’d manage that stupid Queen somehow. That he wouldn’t go back to pretending we were nothing as soon as we saw her. That might be the smart thing to do, but I knew it would hurt, irrational as that was.

There were other things to worry about right now anyway, like how quiet Corin was, and how obvious it was that he didn’t want to get up. That wasn’t like him, because Reid needed us to get our asses in gear and take him to the Sacred Training Grounds. It could only mean that Corin was having a difficult time facing that place, but he’d feel guilty if our dawdling harmed our friend.

“I know you were meant to train there, and that it was the Queen who put a stop to your training. Is that why you’re struggling to go back?” I asked him, and then I winced because that was way too blunt. I should have brought that up in a gentler fashion, but honestly, I wasn’t as tactful as Vera or Cosima.

At least Corin huffed against my hair with what was clearly a smothered kind of laugh. He didn’t mind, whew… It was still hard to figure out what he was thinking, and now it might get even harder. His scales didn’t glow, even though he was touching me. That just meant we’d ‘consummated’ our bond, but it made my stomach swoop with nerves each time I noticed.

“It’s not that I hate the idea of going back there, it’s just… Even with Artek’s blessing, I am misusing my invitation for training to help Reid. They will withdraw it once we leave, and that will feel final.” That made sense. Once he no longer could return to the Sacred Training Grounds, it meant he was officially never going to be a Shaman. It was the end of a dream he’d had since he was a little boy.

“I’m not a natural healer, but I love everything about working with the relics, the machines our ancestors left behind. I feel like I’ve been fumbling in the dark for so long, trying to learn on my own. And now I’ll never get the chance to become really good at it, for it tomeansomething.” His heartfelt words sounded forlorn, and it made Triff beep sadly in response.

I twisted in Corin’s arms so I could see his eyes when I spoke to him, so he could see that I meant what I said. “Youaregood enough. You know that, right? Without you, Haven wouldn’t run the way it does. Without you, we wouldn’t have power or running water. You did that. You might not be a Shaman, but you have so many skills! And they’d be idiots if they didn’t see that. I know Zathar does. I know all the girls appreciate what you do. Seriously.” Thanks to him, we had plumbing instead of having to go outside to do our business on a freaking latrine. We counted our blessings every freaking day.

His mouth curled into a soft smile, and he made me forget all about this heavy conversation by kissing me. That was on purpose, the distraction, but I was willing to let him. With our mating now official, I hoped to have plenty of time to help him see that being a true Shaman wasn’t the only way he could prove that he had the skills. I knew he did. He was the only one who kept Haven running; he was vital to our home.

When we reluctantly left the furs a little while later to pack up our camp, Corin surprised me by returning to the subject. He hovered at Reid’s side, looking down at the sleeping man with a dark expression. “If I were a Shaman,” he said as he gestured at the furs and the wan-looking soldier, “we might not even be here. We would have been able to heal him at Haven.”

“We?” I said. “You mean you and Artek, whoisa Shaman, and didn’t have the answers? Corin, you don’t have to do everything yourself. That doesn’t make you any less.” I stepped over his looped tail to curl my arms around his waist and hugged him tight around his washboard abs. “Stop thinking you’re lesser because you didn’t get to finish the Shaman training. You are enough.”

I heard Triff beep fiercely from near my feet, and then there was the sound of his cleaning disks spinning and whirring. When I peeked, the little bot was polishing the nearest coil of Corin’s tail, and I smirked when I noticed that my mate didn’t move out of the way. I knew he liked it.

We got on our way shortly afterward, trudging down our cozy hill with Reid asleep on the sled. Triff struggled to keep up when the terrain got more woodsy, with leaves and branches littering the mossy ground. Corin picked him up with his tail without comment and tucked him onto the sled near Reid’s feet so the bot could look out behind us.

Then we picked up the pace, and any talk became a bit of a struggle, even though I was in decent shape. My breathing sped up, and a stitch started to form in my side, along with a burning in my thighs. I hoped we didn’t have to keep this up for hours, because with how little rest I’d gotten last night, I’d need a break soon.

The trees broke apart so suddenly that I tripped over my feet in surprise. Corin’s tail whipped out and caught me around the waist, holding me up before I could make a total fool of myself and faceplant right there in the dirt. I didn’t even bother to get my feet back under me, simply hanging there in the snug, scaly loop and staring.

I didn’t know what I’d expected the Training Grounds to look like, but it wasn’t this. I should have expected it, though, because I’d been told they moved around to keep their location hidden. How else were they going to move? Why, flying ships, of course. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made that connection, but there they were, a dozen distinctly serpentine-looking ships parked in a circle on a massive clearing.

Several were big ones, many much smaller. With my expert eye, I could classify them as short-range transports, not capable of exiting the atmosphere, and several larger cargo vessels. One was definitely some kind of cruiser with weaponry, and a similarly sized ship had to be a medical vessel or maybe a research vessel.

Their engines might be strong enough to leave the planet, but it wasn’t a risk I’d be willing to take, considering the weird pull this planet had exhibited on my shuttle when we crashed here. Not to mention that I’d heard of more ships crashing on Serant since our arrival, without survivors. Maybe Reid would want to leave if he could, but I doubted that any of the other humans had any desire to. They had mates. Charlie, Vera, and now Naomi were all pregnant… and they were presumed dead anyway. I didn’t even have to think about whether I wanted to try to leave Serant. That answer was obvious. It was still a huge shock to discover functioning ships existed.

The smaller parked vessels had tents set up against their sides, some open-sided, others closed. They were colorful, with their purple hides, often painted with pretty geometric or serpentine designs. At the center of the parked ships, a large tent had been set up which housed some sort of seating area, complete with benches and a floating viewscreen. At least a dozen Naga younglings were industriously at work, with their colorful heads bent over their desks. And they were colorful: pink, purple, yellow, green, and blue. I saw scales in colors I hadn’t even realized might exist—proof that there were Naga Clans that my friends back at Haven had probably never even heard of.

Their teacher was a Naga with a shimmering black hide, glittering with a sprinkling of gold and green flecks. He stood in front of the classroom and indicated things on the screen, his back to us. Ah, no, it was a woman—a Naga female. My breath faltered as I saw her in profile, her sleek breasts hidden beneath a fall of pale pink silk and dozens of glittering gold and silver necklaces.

“I see that Avrish is still teaching,” Corin murmured, a hushed quality to his voice. His tail planted me more firmly on the ground, and I hurriedly stood up so he could have his appendage back. Nobody had seen us yet, as if there were no guards about or perimeter alerts, which was surprising given the wilds that surrounded it. There had been Rakworm sightings; shouldn’t someone be watching for them?

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