“You are going to get a reputation if you keep that up.” I hurry after him and make him put his right hand on my right shoulder to steady him. His left hand holds the bag and I use my best bitch face to make everyone get out of our way as I lead him out of the hospital.
 
 “Good. Maybe they’ll think twice about hurting my partner if they know I’m going full honey badger on them.” He asks me what a honey badger is, and I snort with laughter. “I’ll show you a video from the intranet later. You’ll realise why it’s funny then.”
 
 We walk together and it’s awkward. One, because I’m having to try and stay close to him as his tail winds back and forth, without standing on him or falling on my face. Two, I would normally hop onto his back to travel around Orna. That’s not an option at the moment for obvious reasons, so we’re having to travel slowly and carefully. Man, Orna is high up in the jungle and my stomach does somersaults as I walk along a thick pole with a railing for humans to navigate between one raised platform and another. Tumva gingerly coils around a spiralling bridge with ease and I pout when I catch him smirking at me. We quickly come back together, neither wanting to take our hands of the other, and head the long journey home.
 
 Tumva seems just as relieved as I am when we walk through the front door to his nest and lock it behind us. “Finally. Home. Safe and sound.” I roll my shoulders and shrug off all the tension I’ve been carrying. I turn to look up at Tumva as he carefully places the paper bag on the kitchen counter. “Okay, so you heard the doc. You need to rest.” It’s so natural for me to go into carer mode. I come towards him with the intention of checking the medical grade gauze and bandages pressed to his back to see if he needs the wounds cleaning.
 
 Tumva catches my hands in both of his, and my feet scuffle on the floor as he launches forward and pins me to the nearest wall. Hands above my head and his deep black eyes fixed on me with a hunger I’ve never seen on his face before. “Tumva?”
 
 “I have been waitinga long timefor the debrief I was promised.” He swallows thickly and I grin, seeing where this is going. It’sthatkind of hunger I see glowering down at me. “Please Hannah. I can’t wait any longer.” He transfers my hands into his left hand and his right holds my neck. His thumb lifts my chin and he kisses me with such wanton need, my toes curl and I completely surrender.
 
 He’s right. Enough’s enough. It’s time to debrief the hell out of him.
 
 Chapter 32
 
 The Debrief
 
 Tumva
 
 My honey fire. She is warm and safe and mewling against my lips. I question if I’m dreaming, but the dull ache in my back reminds me I am conscious. Her mouth is smaller than mine, but just as frenzied and almost as dominating. There is no doubt of her passion. The air becomes thick with her need and I am humbled and invigorated by it. This moment has tormented me in my dreams, my private moments in the dark, and then at the forefront of my mind from the first time she pressed her lips to mine.
 
 “I am selfish.” I declare and release her hands above her head to cup her face with both my palms. “I am a Death Striker. You see how I am treated, and if I make you mine, you will be treated the same way.” I groan and my tail-tip tugs at her belt. “But I…must make you mine. If you desire me as much as I desire you, then I cannot resist this. I will not resist you. I will not let you go. I have never taken a mate for my own, but wish to have you like I have never wanted anyone or anything in my whole life.” Her smile is beautiful and encouraging. Even if there is a cheeky curve to her grin as she kicks off her boots. “Do you…understand what I’m trying to say?” I love you Hannah. I never thought I would love another person, and especially didn’t think anyone would be capable of returning those feelings. A hated thing like me. “You have seen my true face.” I am shocked whenshe chuckles and pulls her shirt over her head and lets it fall to the found beside her.
 
 “I have.” She fiddles with something at her back and discards the fabric holding her chest. Her soft flesh, breasts she calls them, lower slightly once free. Her teats harden right away and I feel like they are aiming at me with expectation. “You’retrueface is the one you’re making right now, big guy.” She chuckles and my head drops to follow the movement of her hands. She unbuckles her belt and pushes it, and her combat trousers down to her ankles. I shudder as her hands move forward and take hold of my wrap around skirt. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”
 
 “And I shall take care ofyou.”I counter. I need her more than I need air, but I will not burden my mate. I am not a fool. I know I have plenty of baggage she will have to wade through, and often. How could she not? I am a Death Striker and she saw the chaos I’m capable of. She was looking at me when I struggled to spit the flesh of my fellow Ucfeni from my mouth, when all I wanted to do was swallow. She knows what I am.
 
 What astounds me…is she doesn’t care. Hannah still removes my skirt and reveals my bulging pouch. My slit is barely pressed together and I want to unsheathe myself. I’m going to any moment, I know it. “I am not capable of doing this casually, Hannah. I…wouldn’t survive it, if you did not wish the same as I do.”
 
 “Tumva?” Hannah sounded mildly cross with me, her hands on her hips and holding the last pice of fabric hiding her sex from me. “I didn’t just sleep in a hospital bed beside you for a week because I wanted a casual fuck.” She smirks, teasing me, but I frown. I need to hear her say it. Ineedit. How can I believe that she truly desires me if i don’t hear the words from her lips? I should not need it so badly, but Ido.
 
 Her smile turns sad and I hate that I am the source. I avert my eyes from her lovely display and look for my skirt. I locate it and my tail-tip coils around it, but her foot stomps on top of the fabric to stop me retrieving it and slinking away in shame. I snap my head up to look and expect to see her cross with me. Instead she is smiling and her hands are reaching for my face. “I really like you.” She coaxes my face closer to hers and her arms wrap around my neck. The warmth of her body pressed to mine is heavenly. “I have a pretty strong gut feeling where this is going to end up for you and I, but right now is it enough that I really like you? That I’m serious about you?”
 
 She doesn’t love me…but she thinks she will? I think on it for a moment longer and decide it is. It’s far more than I’ve had from anyone in my life. “Let me be clear?”
 
 Fireworks explode in my mind as she uses her left hand to hold the back of my neck and bring me down for a kiss. Her right hand tugs and shoves at her underwear and her wriggling to kick them off is downright provocative. Her navel swishes tauntingly against mine and her thighs catch my slit more than once. I ululate with desire and she’s right. It is enough. She will always be enough for me. More than enough.
 
 I nearly sway over at the rising smell of arousal in the air. It’s so much stronger now her sex is exposed. It’s like her slit is wide open and I can taste her secretions on the air. The desire to tangle with her is great. Too great. My muscular slit opens and my cock slides out of my pouch. “Oh, I see you’re being clear as well?” She giggles and I feel self conscious as she braces her hands on my shoulders and tips her head down to look at my long obsidian coloured dick. Another worry of mine is if I’m drastically different to a human male. In the line of duty and the rise of Xeno-porn doing the rounds, I am aware human males have a similar shaped penis as an Ucfeni, but my wider girth and ridges are not the same. Will she be dissapointed that the end ofmy cock is not as bulbous? That there are two slits in the glans, not two? Or that it’s already dripping wet? Human males have dry genitals, which can’t be pleasant for entry, surely?
 
 My insecurities are dissipated as she takes hold of me. “Wow, Tumva, you’ve been hiding this bad boy in your pouch all this time?” I can barely think straight as she strokes her hands teasingly up and down my length. “Even your dick is dangerous and sexy.” My throat scales flush at her praise and I take hold of her shoulders to bring her closer. It pleases me that she finds my cock to be pleasing to the eye and the touch. I long to sheath myself inside her, but she is exploring me. Enjoying me. Ancestors, I’m enjoying her as well. My tail coils around us both and I tighten the circle around us. If she keeps milking me like that, I’m going to snap my tail around us and we’ll tangle here and now. I shudder, pleasure thrumming up from my dick as she robs me of coherency.
 
 Unlike me, she knows what she’s doing. I can tell, but I don’t care. She is mine now, and no one else will ever touch her ever again. My mouth opens wide and I half shut my eyes. I embrace the rising delight as she picks up the pace and the wet sound of her right hand sliding up and down my cock fills the room. I want to tangle with her, but I’m not going to last much longer to make the attempt. I seek out her mouth and kiss her, tasting her and moaning against her lips as she pleasures me. She gasps and giggles as my tail slaps up clumsy against her bottom and back to cage her even closer. Her com-gem necklace clinks with mine and I try to touch as much of her as I can. She has one hand cupping and teasing the end of my cock as the other strokes me toward completion. I buck my hips into her hands and hiss up at the ceiling. I cum and tighten my arms and tail around her so tightly that I trap my cock and her hands between our bodies. She wobbles and would have toppled over, but I held her firmly. I came and relished every spirt of pleasure.My seed covered her hands and navel and I was delighted how my scent cloaked her. Her lips pressed to my chest and I ululated with satisfaction. Deep and slow. I leaned back enough to kiss her and worship her lips.
 
 “I enjoyed that Hannah.”
 
 “I can tell.” She chuckled and nodded down to the sticky mess coating her hands and midriff. My cock is still sensitive as she gives me a curious stroke. “Huh? You’re still hard?”
 
 “Yes.” I grunt and wriggle free of her hands before she can stroke me any further. No, the next time I climax, it will be during the act of mating. In a vigorous tangle and with her hissing with pleasure. Whatever she’s about to say I remove from her mind with five words. “I want to taste you.” I declare and lick my lips. My mating drive is pressing firmly for me to tangle with my mate.
 
 “Well, I’m sticky, so the first thing we’re going to do is clean up.” Hannah giggles and watches me rise up on my tail to establish sexual dominance. It’s instinctive for me to take the lead now we are mating. It is due to my inexperience that she pleasured me too quickly to mate her in a tangle already. I will not fail to seed her next time.
 
 “Then we will bathe, andthenI will taste you?” I raise a scaly brow and wait for her to give me consent. Hannah chewed her bottom lip and the look she gives me makes me want to lay at her feet, belly and cock presented for her.
 
 “Oh, hell yes.”
 
 Chapter 33
 
 The Death Stalker is claimed