Ultimate Passage: New Beginnings: Box Set ( Books 1-4) (54 page)

A
li couldn’t believe it
. She was really in the Farlands. The Gostracks crested the rise of a hill, and in front of the travelers there as a settlement. Even from this distance, Ali could tell it was Kormic. A fence made of large rocks taller than two men enclosed the settlement. Around the perimeter of the rock fence, more large rocks formed another circle. In the outer circle, Gostracks roamed freely, unhitched and unchained.

Within seconds, the Gostracks spotted the travelers and stopped, sounding alarms that reminded Ali of the sound of eagles. She fought the urge to cover her ears from the volume of their cries.

She removed her hands and looked at Taya, who had a smile on her face.

“You’ll get used to them. Trust me, it doesn’t take long. And they are wonderfully loyal. I’m raising one for myself. Would you like one as well?”

If she said yes, then Ali knew that would mean she would have to stay. She glanced at the Gostrack that carried her.

They’d told her it had lost its master, and now was lonely and served in any capacity it could, though it still mourned. Her heart broke at the creature’s situation. She patted its long skinny neck, running her fingers over the goose-bumped, featherless skin.

The Gostrack’s neck muscles rippled and a sound that resembled a purr came from beneath Ali, at the precise moment she felt a spasm flow through the Gostrack’s body.

“I think you made a friend,” Taya said.

Ali shrugged. Would she even be here long enough to make friends?

A
li followed
the petite redhead Asazi girl into a home to freshen up and wash her face of the Farlands red dust while Thane stood outside, talking to the Elders.

“This is for guests,” Taya explained. “You and Thane can stay here as long as you want. If you’re staying in this town, they’ll build a home for you, like they built ours.

“I don’t know where we’ll be staying.” Ali was relieved to have a fellow Asazi who lived amongst the Kormic. She liked the attractive redhead with the clear green eyes. She found no deception in her face and was relieved to have her around. Taya would make staying here much easier, if this was what they did.

“How did you meet Barz?” Ali took the wet cloth Taya offered her and ran it over her face. The fabric came away covered with red dust, the dirt in Kormia.

“He’s Raiza’s brother. He was with her and Norn, along with his brother Corzine.”

Ali dropped the cloth. “Norn?” She stooped, gathering it. Could there be someone else with that name?

“Finn’s father,” Taya said.

“Finn’s father is dead.” Ali sat on a bench. “The Kormic killed him.”

“I assure you he is not dead. He was betrayed by his own kind.”

“No. How can that be?” Did Finn know?

“Finn was quite surprised as well, according to Marissa.”

“You’ve talked to her?” Ali’s past actions toward Finn and Marissa made her somber. She hadn’t behaved as well as she could have. That seemed centuries ago.

“Yes, I had plenty of time to be with Marissa. She’s very nice.”

A lump settled in Ali’s stomach. “I know. I figured anyone that Finn loved would be.”

Taya cocked her head, quirked a brow. “You know Finn?”

“From when we were children.”

“They have a son now.” Taya nodded, fingering her necklace, an eye-catching piece of bone jewelry inlaid with red gems.

“That’s beautiful. It’s not Asazi.” Ali had to change the subject, just had to.

“It’s ceremonial. It signifies that I am a daughter of the Kormic now. That’s where my allegiances are. How did you meet Thane?”

“On Earth. I had to… I had to leave the Asazi. What is Saraz like?”

“Fierce. Attractive, I suppose. Not to me. Not anymore. There was a time when I thought I was in love with him. I was one of his concubines, before I escaped. Both Cinia and I were.” Her face turned sad.

“What is it?” Ali would have figured she’d be happy to have escaped.

“Cinia. She ran off one night. It’s been months now. She’s never been seen again. Gone. Lost in the forest. We tried to track her.” Tears filled Taya’s eyes. “I haven’t given up hope.” She swallowed, her throat working. “Saraz is a thing of the past for me. He has nothing good to offer the world. Any world. Or anyone.”

“I’m sorry.” Ali wrapped her arms around her newfound friend.

Taya’s smile was tremulous. “I am so emotional right now. I fight to keep my emotions at bay, because I don’t want anyone to know.”

Ali frowned. She didn’t want to pry, but Taya did open the door. “To know what?”

“Barz and I are expecting.” A pink color infused Taya’s face and arms, shimmering and undulating, clearly embarrassment. “Barz doesn’t know. Yet.”

“I’m so excited for you.” Ali hugged her, careful not to squeeze too hard. “I hope we are around when you have it.”

“I hope so too.” Taya smiled, her hand on her not-yet-showing stomach.

T
hane closed
the door to their own private little Kormic abode. “Alone. At last.” He surveyed his Asazi mate. Her skin shimmered its magnificent ever-changing colors. Her wings fluttered gently behind her.

“Finally.” Her voice was so low, he wasn’t sure if he read her lips or heard her.

He felt as if he’d loved her since the night he’d first laid eyes on her, but all he’d had was the tip of the iceberg called Ali. Now he had the entire glorious package of this very complicated woman.

She sat on a stone bench by the window. This primitive home, so different from the opulence he’d left behind, would suit him just fine—as long as she was there with him.

Approaching her, he held out his arms. She stood and folded herself into his embrace. Lust made his body tighten, his cock hard.

“Mine,” he whispered. His voice reverent as he appraised her face, the pure passion reflected in her eyes. “All mine.”

Lips on hers, he parted her lips with a hard thrust of his tongue, plunging deep within so he could take hers captive, claim it.

A soft moan escaped Ali, shades of delicate pink and rosy red infusing her skin, merging, undulating, and signaling her growing desire. Another moan gave a sign of her total surrender and opened the flood of emotion he held under tight restraint. Liquid fire seared through his body, leaving behind a scorching, all-encompassing need to make her his, roughly, fiercely, with the ferocity of the Dumarian race he hailed from.

Her hands rose, fingernails raking his chest through the fabric of his shirt. With swift and impatient fingers, she unbuttoned it, her lips never breaking free from his.

Yanking his shirt off, she scraped his hard flesh with nails that sought purchase and pleasure. Her fingers curled around his neck before she ran them through his hair, wrapping it around her fingers, tangling in it, pulling his head back. He yielded to her aggressiveness, enjoying the passion.

She buried her face in his neck, her lips teasing, her tongue flicking, and a tiny trail of moisture left behind bore witness to her ache.

Thane groaned as her fingers slipped lower, into his pants. His breath caught, trapped, captive in his throat when her fingertips touched the tip of his painfully swollen head. Lust cinched his balls.

“Shalin,” he grunted. “What you do to me.” He slid his hands under her top, finding her without a bra. Her nipples were hard chips of ice against his fingertips.

He tugged on one, pulling and releasing it. She rewarded him with a moan.

Thane unfastened his pants with his other hand, leaning back against the wall while she drew him out. Unencumbered by the fabric, his cock sprang toward her, filling even more under the soft fingertips wrapped around it.

She moved her hand up and down in slow strokes. Thane fought to gain control of his faculties while her thumb smeared the drop of dew that had secreted from his cock. He used both hands to pinch and pull on her nipples, tugging them outward, rolling them between his fingers.

Her moan told him exactly what he needed to know. He could feel the trapped heat in her pants, knew the moisture it housed.

She lowered herself. His fingers were lonely for her nipples and the creamy mounds they perched upon when she slipped to her knees in front of him. She licked the crown of his cock, then licked her lips.

The muscles in his thighs tensed, wanting to thrust. When she opened her mouth and took him into the wet, warm cavern, Thane had to grab the ledge behind him so he wouldn’t lose complete control and release the very essence of him deep into her mouth.

Looking down at her, her saliva sliding down the side of his cock, her hand wrapped around his base while her mouth sucked him deeper, her cheeks hollow, he grabbed her head, gripping her hair.

“Take me. Deeper.” He loved her mouth. He loved all of her but right now, her mouth was taking him to a place he hadn’t ever been.

Her tongue was moving from side to side, sweeping across his girth, every sweep pushing him further. He’d have to stop her before—

A
li groaned
with regret when Thane pulled himself out of her mouth. She wanted to take him there. Curses and shadows, she wanted to see his face when she took all of his essence into her mouth and let it slide down her throat.

“My turn.” Thane’s voice was a tortured, hoarse whisper.

He pulled her up, sat her on the bench, helping her shed her pants quickly and spread her legs, then leaned back and stared at her, his eyes full of desire, his face a mask of lust. The way he watched her, studied her, made her want to hide, yet at the same time it created a pool of her own lust that built deep within, joined by a throbbing, insistent pulse in her clit.

“Beautiful,” he hissed under his breath. Spreading her lips, he leaned in. His back expanded as he sucked in a deep breath, the muscles under the scales making a wavy, rippling pattern. He dipped his head, his tongue flicking on her folds, licking them with upward motions that led closer and closer to her pulsing clit. He tortured her with those licks, and not once did he touch that core of hers that was swollen and aching.

Ali squirmed and tried to line herself up with his tongue strategically, but every motion she made, he countered, licking with steady swipes that refused to take her over the edge.

“Thane.” Her tone was somewhere between a plea and a demand.

“Mmmm hmmm?” His humming blew a warmth over her sensitive, completely licked folds, making a shiver travel over her body.

“Please.” She gasped. “I need you. Now.”

He continued to vary his swiping tongue with licks that didn’t give her what she wanted.

Grabbing his head, she tugged his face onto her pussy, forcing him to latch on.

With a huge sucking motion, he pulled her clit deep into his mouth, his tongue flicking. She thrashed her head side to side.

Wave of pleasure after wave of pleasure rushed throughout her body, pushing her mind into a place where it shattered, exploding with the ferocity of a star’s death in the bowels of a galaxy, showering her with tiny bits of light that imploded in her mind.

Her wings unfurled, but were unable to move for being trapped against the wall.

No longer sucking her in, merely poised above her moist heat, Thank flicked his tongue with impossible speed, creating orgasm after orgasm, until each was one long climax with pulses of pleasure.

She bit on her lip to keep from screaming but felt as if she were drowning in sensation.

“Help me. Thane, please help. It’s too much. Help me.” Was that her own frantic voice she could hear over her panting? She couldn’t believe the sound of urgency and desperation.

Pulling his mouth free of her, Thane shed his own pants and pulled the bench from the wall.

Swiveling her so she straddled it, he straddled it too, facing her. Pulling Ali closer, he mounted her on his cock, impaling her deeply.

Her channel filled with his thickness, her pussy spreading to take him in, her body fighting to accommodate him while she was still rigidly tight deep inside, and still in the throes of an orgasm.

“I want to watch you come and enjoy the glory of your wings,” he murmured while he pumped and pushed her up and down on his cock.

Ali squirmed and wiggled, rocking, grinding on his length, almost ready to orgasm again.

She kept her eyes glued on Thane’s face, marveling in his saural features, exuberant to be able to watch his face as he climaxed, to watch his wings as they displayed magnificently while he filled her.

“Shalin, Ali. I can’t—” With a tightening of his grip, he pumped her, slamming into her with such ferocity and force that she gasped.

A tremor ripped through her. She screamed as she orgasmed. He covered her mouth with his, absorbing her scream while her world spun as if she’d been sucked into a powerful tornado.

From a distance she could hear him breathing deeply, grunting. His wings flew out, blackness surrounded them, cocooned them, folding her wings within the embrace of his.

Together they peaked, his stream jetting, filling her.

He shuddered, slumped, both of them tightly encased in his wings.

A
li nuzzled against his chest
, filling her nostrils with the sexy musk scent of him—of
them
. She’d never felt so content. She’d never felt at peace like this.

She pulled away from him to look at his face.

He parted his wings and looked down at her. “What’s up?”

This man—this being—this alien who talked like an American but looked like an alien. As did she, when compared to humans.

“You asked about the scars.”

“Tell me.” He kissed her temple, his thumb making tiny comforting patterns at the base of her wings.

“I tried to cut them off.”

“Shalin!” Horror marked his face. “Why?”

“They have always ruined my life. That moment, they ruined what I thought I had with you. I thought you were human. I didn’t want to be an alien. I wanted to be with you.”

His exhaled breath made his body shudder. He wrapped his arms around her.

“I wish you didn’t have to go through that. Any of it.”

“I feel like I’m living a dream. My life’s changed so much. And now you. And we’re back on Kormia. A place I didn’t think I’d ever return to. A place I didn’t want to be.”

“We’re not on the Kormia you used to know. The Kormic are very different than the Asazi. You will not be forced to live a silly prophecy. You won’t be one of Saraz’s concubines. Saraz will be no more. As we speak, there is a party hunting him. His days are numbered. We’ll wait until the fervor over their false god is gone, then we’ll go find your mother.”

“I’d like to have her near me.”

“And so you shall. Just a little time. But for now…” Thane placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “For now, you’re mine. All mine.”

“All yours.”