Enthralled by Tiffany Roberts

Chapter 15

Ivy clutchedKetahn as she rode on his hindquarters, her chest pressed to his back, legs locked around his body, and fingers curled against his chest. She tried to ignore the way her stomach flipped at his every jump, swing, and dip as he climbed through the trees with his spear in one hand. Though the rain had persisted, the boughs and leaves overhead offered some shelter. Only irregular drops filtered down to hit Ketahn and Ivy save for when he crossed beneath the sparse open patches—not that it mattered, as they had been soaked well before they began this journey. Her silk dress stuck to her like a second skin.

Though she wasn’t a fan of storms, Ivy found the jungle rain soothing. Everything else went quiet when it rained, leaving only the constant, gentle sounds of water falling on leaves and trickling along the networks of vines and branches.

The skies had darkened since she and Ketahn had left the Somnium, and not just because of the rain clouds. Night was approaching. That was a little disorienting. The morning sun had been bright when Ivy had entered the ship today, and it hadn’t felt like she’d spent the entire day inside—perhaps because the company had helped the time pass so smoothly.

But with the rain and approaching nightfall came the cold. It kissed her bare skin and clung to her wet clothing and hair, making her skin prickle with goosebumps. She shivered. All she wanted in that moment was to be home, dry and warm, tucked against Ketahn upon their bed of silk fluff.

I wouldn’t say no to a steaming hot bath either…

She was mentally and physically exhausted. Her eyes were swollen and tired after crying, and as much as she’d enjoyed mating with Ketahn, it had left her weak and sore—albeit a good sore. Her sex still pulsed in reminder of what they’d shared. Rough or gentle, Ivy loved and craved everything Ketahn gave her. It didn’t matter that he was a vrix. Her body recognized his touch as the only one it wanted.

Ivy smoothed her hands up Ketahn’s chest and hugged him tighter. “Are we almost home?”

Ketahn dropped onto a thick branch and covered her hand with one of his. “Yes, my nyleea.”

However familiar she’d been growing with the surrounding jungle, everything changed in the darkness. The thickening shadows made any landmarks she might have used to guide her look twisted and alien.

Well, more alien, anyway.

He continued along the massive boughs with a subtle but noticeable hesitance. Ivy could guess where it was coming from—partly caution, as the rain had made every surface slippery; partly the lingering stiffness of his agitation; partly some soreness of his own.

Gentle was clearly not part of the queen’s vocabulary. It filled Ivy with anger to see her big, powerful mate battered and aching, and that anger only fed into her sorrow thanks to its impotence. All she could do to protect him from more abuse was get the other survivors ready to move as soon as possible…and that wasn’t nearly enough.

For now, she just held on to him, determined to never let go.

Ketahn climbed onto another branch, took a step forward, and halted. Ivy glanced up. The web was overhead, coated in countless droplets of water that she could make out only because they reflected pinpoints of faint gray light, the last shreds of daylight that were barely visible in the sky.

“Shaper, unmake me,” Ketahn rasped, posture becoming more rigid.

Ivy lowered her eyes to find him looking ahead along the branch.

Bracing her hands on his shoulders, Ivy rose slightly to peek past him.

A huge figure stood no more than fifty feet in front of them, directly beneath the dangling nest. That distance did nothing to cushion the shock of seeing a female vrix head on—she was huge. The pieces of gold the female was wearing had a dull luster in the dying light, giving her a ghostly cast.

Nails involuntarily digging into Ketahn’s flesh, Ivy shrank back, making herself as small as possible behind him.

“Have I come early, or you late?” the female asked.

Ivy recognized her voice. She was Ahnset, Ketahn’s sister. A little of Ivy’s tension eased, and she loosened her grip on Ketahn.

“Both, perhaps,” Ketahn replied. There was an unsettled edge in his tone, sharp but razor thin. “So long as we are all here, it matters not.”

“You didn’t tell me you asked your sister to come here,” Ivy whispered.

Ketahn looked at Ivy over his shoulder. His violet eyes gleamed softly. “I am sorry, Ivy. My mind was…occupied with many things.”

She snorted, a smirk playing upon her lips. “So you let your cock take over thinking for a little while?”

He chittered gently but sorrowfully. “I meant to tell you.”

Ivy’s smile faded, and she reached up to stroke his jaw. “It’s okay. I understand.”

The branch rumbled with movement. Another peek around Ketahn revealed that Ahnset was coming closer, head tilted to the side and eyes fixed on Ketahn. Her weight sent tremors through the wood.

“Who are you speaking to, Ketahn?” Ahnset asked. “And what… Is there something on your back?”

“Someone,” he replied, facing his sister. “Someone I would like you to meet.”

The silk rope securing Ivy to Ketahn went taut for a moment before it loosened and dropped away.

Catching her bottom lip with her teeth, Ivy took a deep breath, trying to push away her nervousness. She’d already met three of Ketahn’s friends, vrix who he trusted. This was his sister. Ivy had seen Ahnset twice from the den, had witnessed their interactions, had heard them speak to one another with affection.

Swinging a leg over Ketahn, Ivy slid off his hindquarters, landing lightly on the branch. She cringed when she felt Ketahn’s warm seed trickle down her inner thigh.

Perfect. Meeting my sister-in-law with cum running down my leg.

Ivy turned toward Ahnset and was once more struck by the sheer size of her. The female vrix had to be at least ten feet tall, and the spear she clutched in one of her massive hands looked nearly as long.

Ketahn passed his spear to his left hand and extended his right arms, holding them in front of Ivy—perhaps to shield her, perhaps to offer support. Likely both.

As for Ahnset, she’d leaned back slightly, eyes flared as though in shock. Her mandibles drew together, twitched, and spread again before falling limp. “What manner of creature is this, Ketahn?”

“She is a human.” He lowered his arms with unmasked reluctance. “Her name is Ivy.”

“You have named it?” Ahnset shifted closer, leaving only a few feet between them—far too close for a being that could close her hand around Ivy’s whole head. “Is it some sort of pet?”

“I am not a pet,” Ivy said carefully in vrix with a small smile. She’d grown used to tilting her head back to meet Ketahn’s gaze over the last couple months, but looking up at Ahnset was a new extreme.

Despite her size and obvious strength, Ahnset reared back with a glint of fear in her eyes. She brought her spear forward almost faster than Ivy could register, taking it in a defensive, two-handed grip. Ketahn moved even faster, sweeping Ivy behind him with his right arms and placing his body between her and his sister. He held the shaft of his spear up, but kept the head pointed down.

“Back away, Ahnset,” he growled.

Ivy’s heart pounded against her ribs as she clung to Ketahn’s arm in a death grip. He was the only thing keeping her upright.

Okay, so cum is the least of my worries.

“Only two things speak, Ketahn,” Ahnset said, her voice low and deep. “Vrix and spirits. This creature is not vrix.”

“Nor is she a spirit,” he replied. “Humans also speak, and Ivy is a human.”

“Ketahn, this—”

“Lower your spear. I will allow no threat to Ivy, not even from you.”

Ahnset stared at him. She remained still but for the twitching of her mandibles. Finally, she eased her grip and lowered her spear. “You have never raised a weapon to me in threat before, broodbrother.”

Ketahn didn’t lower his spear, which was still angled downward, and his stance did not relax. “And I have not done so now, broodsister. There is no threat from me. But I will defend her with my life from anyone who means her harm.”

Ivy gently pushed his arm down. “It is okay, Ketahn. This is new to her—I am new to her.” Ivy looked back at Ahnset. “I do not think she will hurt me.”

He glanced at Ivy over his shoulder, released a long, heavy breath, and finally lowered his spear, letting the head fall to rest on the branch.

“How does it speak our tongue?” Ahnset asked.

“She,” Ketahn corrected. “She is learning from me. By showing, by speaking, by working together. By living together.”

Mandibles falling, Ahnset eased closer, sinking down and dipping her head so she could look at Ivy directly. “Why have we never seen such creatures before? Where did you find her?”

There was just enough light for Ivy to see that Ahnset’s eyes were the same purple as Ketahn’s, and that they held a glimmer of the same curiosity he’d often exhibited. Ivy’s heart was still pounding, but it slowed just a bit. “Because we are from another world. A place in the stars.”

“The stars?” Ahnset tilted her head back and looked up, mandibles twitching, before returning her gaze to Ivy. “How is that possible?”

“They came from the sky in a ship,” Ketahn said, that last word in English. “It fell in the pit, the one legend says holds a fiery beast defeated by the Eight.”

“It did not fall into the pit,” Ivy said gently, speaking slowly to make the vrix words clear enough for Ahnset to understand. “It crashed and made the pit.”

“A…shit,” Ahnset said with equal care, unsurprisingly failing to pronounce the p sound.

“A shit is a very different thing, broodsister,” Ketahn said with a chitter.

Ivy elbowed him and said in English, “I can recall a certain spider man having a problem with p—in more ways than one.”

“And one of those was made by a little human,” he replied in his heavily accented English with humor in his voice.

Ivy rolled her eyes. “It wasn’t my fault.”

“What did she do with her eyes?” Ahnset asked. “And what did you both say?”

Ketahn looked back at Ivy again. Their gentle teasing had apparently relaxed him, as he finally shifted so his body wasn’t planted between Ivy and Ahnset like a shield wall. He switched back into his native tongue smoothly. “She only moved them. Human eyes are…different, but the sight of them becomes less unsettling over time. As for what she said…”

“I told him he had trouble saying human words too,” Ivy said.

“So this…sh…shi…” Ahnset tilted her head.

“Ship,” Ivy offered.

“That. It fell from the sky”—Ahnset looked up again, as though she’d see a flaming spacecraft plummeting from the heavens even now—“and made the pit. That…I do not understand. Is the…the shit the beast, or was it there when the beast was defeated?” She raised a hand and tugged on one of her braids; it was reminiscent of the gesture Ketahn made when he was deep in thought or particularly troubled. “But the Eight made the pit, and the plants that trap the beast…”

“I think the ship was the beast. Your…your… The vrix who lived before you must have seen it fall and did not understand what it really was. But it is not a living thing.”

“That was long ago. Why do you appear now?”

“I was sleeping.” Ivy tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, brows furrowing. She had a much easier time communicating with Ketahn because she could use English to fill in for vrix words she didn’t know or couldn’t properly pronounce. “I was in something like a…a…cocoon.” She cupped her hands together, one on atop the other, and lifted the top like the lid of a cryochamber. “Ketahn found me inside and woke me.”

Ahnset lowered her eyes to Ivy, and a thoughtful trill sounded in her chest. “I…do not know what to say. What to think. This is…”

“Madness,” Ketahn said softly. “It seems like madness.”

“Yes.” Ahnset thumped a leg on the branch, sending a deep vibration through the wood under Ivy’s feet. “And it goes against so much of what we know, Ketahn. If the Eight truly did not create that pit to trap a terrible beast, what else is wrong? What else is…untrue?”

“I have spent much time thinking on such questions, broodsister. All I can say is this—there is no beast in that pit, and I have seen no sign that there ever was, apart from the creatures that have fallen in and died.”

Ahnset stared at Ivy. “She is…so different. Small. Soft. Hyu-nin males must be small enough to hold in hand.” To demonstrate, she raised one of her hands, palm up.

Ivy half suspected she could sit on that hand and Ahnset wouldn’t have any trouble supporting her weight.

“Our males are usually bigger than our females,” Ivy said.

Ahnset moved closer and extended her hand toward Ivy. The claws upon it were just as sharp as Ketahn’s, but far larger. Lethal. One of Ketahn’s hands darted out, catching Ahnset’s arm by the wrist and halting it.

The huge female looked at her brother questioningly, her mandibles twitching and rising. “I will not hurt her, brother.”

“I trust that you will not.” He hesitated, holding his sister’s stare for several seconds, before releasing her.

With great care, Ahnset touched the pads of her fingers to Ivy’s bare arm. She shuddered but pressed harder. “She is so soft. It is like touching fresh meat.”

Ivy wrinkled her nose at that comparison.

“We are all made of meat, Ahnset,” Ketahn rumbled, his eyes intent upon his sister’s hand.

“She has no hide, no armor, no fur.” Ashnet picked up one of Ivy’s hands and inspected her fingers. “No claws. How does she survive?”

One of Ketahn’s legs slid behind Ivy and brushed along the backs of her calves, sending a thrill through her. “Her kind is far stronger than they appear, and they are intelligent. They have built things beyond vrix imagining.”

“She just looks so…weak. And her scent…” Ahnset tipped her face closer and inhaled deeply. Suddenly, her entire body went rigid, and her hold on Ivy’s hand tightened to the point of pain.

Ivy flinched, hissing through her teeth as she tried to pull her hand back.

Again, Ketahn grabbed his sister’s wrist, this time moving his body in front of her. “Release your hold, Ahnset,” he growled. “You are hurting her.”

Ahnset let go, and Ivy brought her hand to her chest, rubbing it soothingly. The larger vrix hadn’t done any real damage, but Ivy knew it wouldn’t have taken much more for Ahnset to have crushed her hand entirely.

“Why does she smell like you, Ketahn?” Ahnset asked, looking at her brother. “Why does she smell like…like seed?”

Ketahn stood up straight, squared his shoulders, and gave Ivy a little bump with his rear leg to guide her closer so he could band his arms around her waist and shoulders. His chin notched up. “She is my mate.”

Ahnset recoiled, scrambling backward a few steps and shaking the branch in the process. One of her thick legs slipped off the edge of the branch, and she nearly lost her balance; Ivy could only assume it was Ahnset’s unimaginable physical strength alone that prevented her from falling.

“You…you mated…that?” Ahnset’s voice was raw and thin, seeming for a moment as though it couldn’t possibly have come from that powerful body.

“Were my words unclear?” Ketahn’s voice, in contrast, was strong and unyielding, solid as deep-rooted stone.

“She is a beast, Ketahn! She is not vrix. It is…it is vile!”

Ivy clenched her fists, briefly closing her eyes against the pang of hurt those words invoked in her heart.

Ketahn’s hold on Ivy tightened, and something dangerous rumbled in his chest. “Ivy is no more beast than you or me, broodsister. Her kind is like ours. They seek only to survive and find their place in the Tangle.”

“There are more of them?” Ahnset dipped her chin toward Ivy. “More of these pale, weak things who you claim have vrakas like the Eight?”

“There are more, yes, but they do not have vrakas. They had…tools. Now they have nothing, and I am helping them.”

“Helping these creatures is one thing, but you mated with one, brother. Your scent clings to her.”

Ivy pressed her thighs together, which were slick and sticky with Ketahn’s seed. It was a reminder of what they’d done right before this meeting. Once again, she pushed away the shame that lingered on the edges of her consciousness.

Ketahn’s fingers flexed upon Ivy. “As Korahla’s scent clings to you, sister.”

“It is not the same.”

“Because she is vrix, but Ivy is not?” He turned his head to look down at Ivy, catching her eyes with his own. “My mate has a spirit, the strongest I have known. She learns and speaks, she overcomes problems, she is free with her humor, and she sees wonder in this jungle to which I had almost blinded myself. More than all that, her heart swells with compassion.”

In that moment, Ivy’s heart did swell; his words stole her breath and brought tears to her eyes. Love. It had to be love. Otherwise, how could it be this powerful? This painful? This…wonderful?

Ketahn’s eyes softened. He brushed a strand of hair from Ivy’s face and caressed her cheek with his rough fingers before looking at his sister again. “That reminds me of another female I know. And as much as I long to see it as a weakness, it is a strength I cannot deny…and which I cannot help but be drawn to. Her body is different, but she is woven into my heartsthread all the same. She is my mate, Ahnset. Forever.”

Ahnset was silent as she looked between the two of them. She opened her mouth, snapped it closed, and huffed. With a long, tired sigh, she ran a hand over her headcrest and down her braided hair, wiping water away from the beads and gold twined into the strands. “You are always so difficult, broodbrother. You insist on spinning whole webs when a single strand would do.”

“All I have left are strands,” he replied. “I am struggling to make a web of them.”

The female vrix met Ivy’s gaze. “The queen should know of these…hyu-nins.”

“No,” Ketahn snarled.

“We cannot keep them a secret, Ketahn. We do not know these creatures, or what threat they might pose to Takarahl.”

Ketahn released his hold on Ivy and strode forward until he was immediately in front of his sister, straightening his legs to raise himself to her level. Though he was physically smaller, he cut an intimidating figure, even in comparison—simply by the strength of his presence.

“She must never know,” he said in a low, dark voice. “Especially about Ivy.”

“It is not only the queen we must think about. What of all the others who dwell in Takarahl? Zurvashi is but one in an entire city, Ketahn.” There was an almost pleading note in Ahnset’s words.

“We are not a threat, Ahnset,” Ivy said gently. “We do not have the weapons, skill, or…or the want to do harm to the vrix. There are only eight of us left in this world.”

“Eight?” Ashnet asked softly.

“Whether by chance or fate, yes. There are eight humans,” Ketahn said. “And I mean for there to remain eight humans so long as I draw breath.”

“Eight, Ketahn,” Ahnset muttered, her eyes still on Ivy. “Is it a sign?”

“It does not matter if it is a sign, broodsister. Ivy is my heartsthread, and I am trusting you with this secret.” He extended a foreleg and brushed it against his sister’s. “Do not betray me.”

Ahnset flinched, but she did not retreat from his touch. She exhaled and shifted closer, spreading her mandibles wide as she pressed her headcrest to Ketahn’s. “I am bound to serve our queen. But I could not betray you, broodbrother. You and your mate will have my help if you need it.”

“It will be welcome, Ahnset, but I cannot ask you to betray the queen to aid me. I only wanted you to know why I must leave. And I wanted you to meet my mate.”

“Thank you. But I would do what I can, so that I may rest well knowing my only sibling is alive and well somewhere out here.” Ahnset drew back and lifted her head to look at Ivy. “Welcome, sister.”

Ivy smiled and placed a hand on Ketahn’s hindquarters, gently guiding him aside. He obeyed with that hint of reluctance she’d come to expect, clearing the space between Ivy and Ahnset. The huge female held Ivy’s gaze, and Ivy tilted her head back as she stepped forward.

“Can you…come down?” Ivy asked.

Ahnset cocked her head and sent a questioning glance at Ketahn before lowering herself, spreading her legs and bending them slowly so as not to lose her footing. Even with her underside flat on the branch, she was much taller than Ivy, but she bent forward to draw nearer to Ivy’s eye level.

Trying to ignore the fact that Ahnset’s mandibles looked as big as her own forearms, Ivy tentatively reached forward and placed her hands on either side of Ahnset’s face. Ahnset stiffened, but she did not pull back, and when Ivy angled Ahnset’s head down, the vrix did not resist.

Ivy tipped her forehead against Ahnset’s headcrest. “Thank you, sister.”

Ahnset’s mandibles twitched as though with uncertainty, and then fell. A soft trill sounded in her chest. She closed her eyes and released a long, shallow breath. “It…has been too long since I have had a sister. I am glad to call you one now, Ay-vee.”