there,” Rhyst said, not offering up the smallest hint. “And we have gone some places. Did I not take you to the square? And we went to the market yesterday.”
“I’ll give you that,” she teased.
He smiled patiently at her and helped her down a steep part of the path. He had wanted to carry her on his back as he usually did, but she had put her foot down. Rhyst wasn’t her mount; he was her mate, and she wanted to walk beside him, hold his hand, and do the sort of shit that couples did. Not ride—
Well, she wasn’t averse to the kind of riding that went on in the bedroom. She smirked, recalling just how well he had her riding his cock earlier that morning. Then right after, he laid her out between his paws with her ass in the air so he could rut into her from behind until her pleasure blasted through and left her wrung out and limp on their bed.
She still felt a little wobbly as they made their way down a hillside. She knew that Rhyst noticed because he plucked her from a larger rock she had come to the end of and held her high in his arms, against his chest.
“Are you well, my Cha’lii?” he purred, reluctant to set her back down. “Your legs seem not to be functioning as well as they should.”
“You know damn well why my legs are functioning like this,” she said with a laugh.
He rumbled against her jaw where he dragged his cheek. The random feline-like expressions of affection sometimes threw her when he did so many things that humans did, but she loved the soft touch of his fur, even if she suspected that he was scent marking her with his pheromones.
Not that it was necessary. His mating saliva had been loaded with scent markers that were now deep in her skin, but apparently males and females still enjoyed scent marking in other ways. When she asked Ag’hana about it, she explained that it was a manner of displaying affection and for their own comfort and the comfort of their mates. It was, essentially, another bonding thing.
“Perhaps this a’sankh is too much for my little human,” he whispered against her skin.
She shivered at the touch of his breath and turned her head to smirk at her mate. “No such thing as ‘too much.’ I want it all. Give me all the love you have to give,” she replied.
He shivered in turn, his arms tightening around her as he pressed the plating over his mating sheath against her pelvis, making her twitch and moan. Her pussy, despite being well used that morning, flared to life like the greedy beast it had become.
His breath fanned her neck as he reined himself in. Charlie felt a twinge of disappointment. Although she wasn’t an exhibitionist by nature, they were alone and had already descended into a tree line that would conceal them from public view. She rubbed against him a little, knowing that the increased friction teased her pheromones into the air. He groaned and shook his head.
“Temptress. Not yet,” he growled from between his clenched teeth.
Hoisting her higher against him, making it clear that she had ceded any walking rights with her teasing, he carried her as he threaded through the trees. Charlie smothered her laugh against his shoulder, joy flooding through her.
Thank the gods that she had been assigned to the lab and had been in the position to be stolen away by Rhyst.
She had nightmares sometimes that it was all a dream. That her happiness snapped like a thread. Sometimes she dreamed that she was sent back to Earth or another colony, torn away from her mate. She woke crying, certain that she was in her lone bunk, until Rhyst’s arms came around her and held her close as he whispered words of comfort to her.
He was real. She was mated far away from the power of Earth Gov, without the need for appropriate permits and licenses.
She had never imagined she would have that. It wasn’t a reality for most non-gratas. People like Doug and Mia were envied, but also pitied for the challenges that they would have to face. It was so much easier to take comfort where one could find it. But Charlie fucking found it without all the bullshit hoops to jump through.
Rhyst tucked her head into the protection of his shoulder as he burst through a thick growth of brush. His feet