Page 23 of The Naga Princess's Soldier Mate

It was tough terrain to travel through—rocky, with gnarled trees and tough grass slowing our pace. But as we progressed down the mountain, it became clear that Bitter Storm was not following. Not only that, but Khawla’s breathing and heart rate were improving. We wereallgoing to make it.

Chapter 19

Sazzie

It was nearly dark when we halted for the night inside a small glen. The stars were beginning to glitter overhead, and the violet Serant sun was setting with beautiful purple and orange streaks on the horizon. A hint of fog was beginning to rise beneath the trees, its scent wet and fragrant as it stirred the forest. It felt a little magical, a little cleansing.

We had no supplies, not so much as a waterskin or a ration bar to nibble on. We also had no furs to sleep on tonight. I didn’t mind any of that because Reid and I were alive, and we were together. I felt safe, safer than I’d ever felt. My mate gave that to me, and it was he who made me feel like myself, and that self was worthy of existing.

I sat with Khawla, watching his chest rise and fall as he slept, and I gently washed the blood from his face with water from the glen’s small stream. Reid wasn’t far; he’d promised me food and was adamant about getting it. I thought about making a fire—I knew how—but I worried that it would draw the eyes of unwanted guests. Unable to sit still while my mate was hunting, I gathered wood anyway when I was done caring for Khawla.

When Reid returned not much later, I had prepped a fire pit, just to keep my hands busy, and was rewarded with a pleased grin. “Perfect. I don’t much feel like eating this bird raw,” he said, holding up one of my favorite types of fowl. He couldn’t have known that, but it felt like a gift anyway. We prepared it together, then shared every bite. It was the tastiest, best mealI’d ever had—probably because it tasted so much better from the hands of my mate. Maybe it was also because I felt free to moan with the flavor and flirt with him until his eyes heated like flames. I felt powerful. I felt so free.

“You’ll regret teasing me, angel,” Reid growled with his husky, raw voice. I loved his voice so much—it was perfect, sinful. It made me ache for him when he made such threats. He made me feel like I was small and pretty, which was exactly what he desired. I did not need words to convey how much I needed him when he said such things. Undulating my tail, I scooted closer, then teased him by sliding the tip up his leg and curling it around his thigh. He hissed, eyes flashing.

Hauling me into his arms, I went willingly, loving the way he picked me up and moved me—a little rough in his excitement, yet ever so careful when he stroked his fingers along my cheek. “I cannot believe we made it out of there, my beautiful angel,” he said. “We must be the luckiest pair on the planet, don’t you think?”

I shook my head and loved how that made his fingers tangle in my hair; that little tug at my scalp was delicious. “I think luck had nothing to do with any of that,” I told him. “That was all skill and quick thinking.” But I did not want to think about our narrow escape from death or the fate of Bitter Storm after they lost yet another leader. They were fractured now, and that couldn’t mean anything good—not for Thunder Rock, not for Haven, and I didn’t even want to contemplate what that meant for the giant Revenants that roamed on the other side of Bitter Storm’s mountain. Would they invade our lands if the red Clan was unable or unwilling to hold them back?

When Reid kissed me, I gladly let him sweep me away. Our tongues tangled, and I took pleasure in stroking his, sweeping the split tip of my tongue along the roof of his mouth until he laughed. He fisted my hair with one hand, pulling snugly but without hurting me. He used that grip to angle my head back so he could nibble on my throat. Soon, I was draped shamelessly over his arm, my breasts thrust up into the air and bared by his eager hands. “So pretty,” he murmured before laving the tip of one breast with his tongue.

I knew he meant that, but a hint of uncertainty still struck me. I was not a smooth-skinned human for him to love; I had scales and scars. I was not pristine. “I am scarred,” I said to him. It was all I was willing to admit to on the subject, but he heard the raw vulnerability in my tone. My Reid, with the warm brown eyes, was always so perceptive.

“So what? Am I not marked by life too?” he said, and he spread his arms wide to indicate his bare chest. He’d sacrificed his shirt back in the fighting pit to stem the blood flow from Khawla’s wounds. His arms were marked with beautiful artwork from his homeworld—predators to protect him outlined in perfect detail in black ink. Geometric shapes sat beneath his skin along his upper chest and collarbones, trailing into his leg coverings from beneath his belly button. He was saying he was not smooth and unmarked either, but he was pretty all the same.

The triangles that arrowed from the dip of his belly button down were a tempting path, as were the sharp lines along his hips, the ridges of his abdomen, and the muscular upper parts of his legs that cradled my rear. He was built like any warrior I knew; his skin and art made him seem vulnerable to me, but I knew thatwas a lie. My Reid was the strongest male there was, and he’d keep me safe, always.

“Okay, we’re both marked,” I agreed with a nod, and then I found myself smiling. “Until I have to molt next year, of course.” He gave me a baffled expression, but I didn’t feel like explaining to him right now that when shedding my scales for new ones, the scars would shed as well. I wanted to go back to kissing him, back to having his mouth on my chest. I let him know that by dragging my claws through his short black hair and urging his head toward my chest. “I am done talking now.”

He laughed, the sound so marvelously deep and husky, and then he obliged my wishes. Sucking a nipple into the wet, warm cavern of his mouth, his teeth scraped the tip with delicious pressure. When he cupped my rear, I undulated against him and felt the hard bar of his cock press hotly against my hip from beneath the fabric of his leg coverings. Hissing, I dropped my hands from his shoulders and glided them along his sexy chest before reaching the buckle that held that fabric shut.

“Open this,” I demanded. Last time, he’d been the bossy one, but he did not seem to mind this role reversal at all. His cock pressed even more firmly against my hip, twitching eagerly. His hands flew from my waist to the edge of his leg coverings, and they parted like magic. “Yesss, mate me, Reid. Seed me.” That’s what the Naga males called a proper mating—a seeding—and that’s what I wanted now: sex with my sexy mate and a promise of life to be created.

“As you wish, princess,” he said roughly, and he helped me free his hard cock from the tight fabric. I marveled at it all over again, surprised by its size, the silky smoothness that coveredit, and the mushroom shape of the tip. A single, firmly rounded tip, whose ridge I could feel when he filled me. He did not waste time either, his hand sliding to my slit to test my readiness with a thick finger. I loved how boldly he slid that digit into my passage, and how wetly and eagerly my body received him. “So ready. You need me, don’t you, angel?” he drawled.

I shifted my hips, pushing up on my tail, and he grabbed them, guiding me down onto his lap. “That’s it. Take me then,” he murmured. His thick, round tip brushed my core, pushing slowly but inexorably into me. It ached so good when he stretched me, and I gripped his shoulders more tightly, clinging to him so fiercely that my claws pricked his skin. He was braced with his back against a tree, the rough bark biting into his skin, but I knew that all he felt was me.

When he had pushed all of his thick length into me, I was pressed against his lap, my tail curled around his braced legs. “Move,” I demanded breathily and squeezed his shoulder tighter when that made him chuckle. Who was teasing whom now? But he started to move, his hips rising and falling beneath me with each thrust. Immediately, pleasure began to rise: his pelvis provided delicious pressure against my sensitive nerves, his cock rubbing along my inner walls.

He covered my mouth with his, his warm brown eyes sliding shut as he savored each touch. I did the same, and my pleasure spiraled higher, my body winding tight as a coil, teetering on the edge. When I tumbled, it was with a hoarse, surprised moan at the speed of it. My body grew tight around his cock, and that made him shout, his hips stuttering. I felt the wash of his seed as it spurted from the thick, round tip, coating me, heating me, and filling me—just like I’d demanded of him. It was perfect.

Resting my head against his shoulder, I trembled in his arms, but I knew I was safe. Reid loved me, cherished me, and he had all but demanded to be my protector. I was so lucky. And then, Reid turned my world upside down all over again, surprising me with his next demands. “Lie down for me, angel. Let me see you. I need more.” He had seeded me—I knew he had—weren’t we done? But he had my trust, so I did as he wanted, sliding away from him to stretch out on the soft moss that covered this glen.

“That’s it,” he agreed, his eyes glittering as they reflected the stars. Rising to his knees, he rubbed his still-hard cock while watching me before tucking it into his pants. I couldn’t help but mewl in protest, even though I should have expected that. His hand palmed my hip, squeezing gently but firmly, and that warm pressure made me feel owned. Stroking me with his other hand, he traced my body, brushing my scales until I was all sensation and desire, aching for him.

Wetness gushed from my slit—a mixture of his pearly-white seed and my own dew. He zeroed in on that instantly, his eyes locking on my front as his mouth curled into a satisfied grin. Swirling his fingers through the moisture, he raised them to his mouth and licked. Again, he did something bizarre—something I should find wrong or disgusting—yet my body responded instantly, igniting with fire. Moaning, my hips twisted up toward him, silently begging him to do it again. And he did.

Leaning forward, he grabbed my hips in both hands, hauling me toward his face, and he dragged his tongue through my folds with a deep, rumbling groan of pleasure. “Fuck, Sazzie, you taste so good. We taste so good together.” He licked and licked, lapping until he’d gathered everything, and still, he licked. My body was on fire, ready to explode. I was so close, and yet Icouldn’t tumble—not until he pressed two fingers deep into me and sucked on the sensitive nub of nerves at the same time.

***

Reid

Lying beneath the stars on a soft bed of moss, my mate curled in my arms, her tail wrapped around my legs, things couldn’t be better. I’d slept a few hours, lightly dozing with my senses wide open, but nothing had disturbed us. Khawla was still out cold, but I could hear the steady thud of his heart. All was well, and I was finally starting to relax. Bitter Storm probably had far too much chaos on its hands to care about us.

With dawn brightening the sky in beautiful colors, I contemplated what Zathar would think when I returned to Haven with his little sister in tow. Did Naga brothers get protective of their sisters? Somehow, I very much doubted that. But he might worry she was a threat to the human ladies. Preposterous—and I’d soon convince him of that. If there was one thing I was certain of, it was that Zathar was a reasonable guy.

“Morning, mate,” Sazzie breathed against my neck at that moment, and my thoughts returned solidly to the here and now. Okay, not entirely—I definitely flashed back to the sexy way Sazzie had ridden me last night, or how she’d tasted when she came on my tongue. Immediately, my cock went stiff as a board, pressing against my pants so tightly it ached. When my pretty angel flicked out her tongue, her eyes growing wide, I knew she knew I was aroused.

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