Snake Keeper by Alexandra Norton

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE SNAKE LOOKEDfurious. I rose from the bed, ready to defend myself as best I could. I walked back as he walked forward until my back hit the wall and I could retreat no farther.

“So, were you going to tell me I’m just your fucking broodmare before you slept with me?” I spat.

The Snake continued to advance. In two long strides he came too close for comfort, furious heat radiating from his bulk as he loomed above me.

“Better mine than one of the other Federation species, little human. You should see how they mate on Gondalin,” he said.

Instinct took over. I didn’t have time to think or reflect. My hand curled into a fist and my arm hinged back. I bent my knees, hunched my shoulders, and delivered a sharp blow directly to the alien’s sternum. He exhaled sharply as my fist connected. Did I hurt him?

There was a moment of terrified silence as I realized what I’d done. I tucked my chin protectively, barely daring to peer up at the Keeper’s face to gauge his reaction.

The punch did nothing, of course, except maybe take the Snake by surprise. The corners of his mouth twitched. Was he smiling? My eyes darted from his face to his hands, prepared for a swift rebuttal.

“You punched me,” he barked out a laugh. “I can’t believe you punched me.”

A droplet of sweat slid down my nose. I couldn’t take it anymore. The adrenaline rushing through my veins sent my senses into overdrive. I stood there, shaking, torn between freezing and bolting, and my attacker was laughing at me.

“You want me to carry a mutant monster,” I hissed up at him, finally raising myself to my full height.

“I want nothing from you. Impregnating you is my job; nothing more.” He caught my next swing before I’d even realized I made it. He pinned my hands against the wall. I ignored the melding current between our skins. He bent his neck to bring his face inches from mine, eyes narrow as they bore into my own. “If it were up to me, I’d just use you and go find a real mate. But I can’t.”

“Because it’s your job?” I spat, hands writhing to loosen his grip.

“Because your current is like nothing I’ve ever felt. Because for some reason my entire being, my skin, my second heart, craves you. You! A fragile, defenseless species that wouldn’t last a day off your planet without protection. And because I know you feel it, too.” He was too close. His mouth brushed my ear as he spoke in barely a whisper.

Focus, Emily.I turned away from the heat of his lips.

He released me, took a step back, and lifted his left arm. The hath, his second heart, slid slowly from his wrist. My breath caught in my throat as the black spike extended towards my chest and, finally, pressed against my skin in a sharp point. My heart pounded against my ribs, against the weapon that could pierce me in an instant. Was this the end for me?

“There,” Xioumar said, “Break it.”

I frowned. Was he really giving me this opportunity, or was it a trap? I reached both hands up and curled them around the spike. Its fragility was palpable under my touch. All I had to do was make a firm, deliberate twist of the wrist.

“And what happens if I do?” I tightened my hold on his most vulnerable possession, but had to re-grip when a jolt of buzzing current shot up my wrists, twisted in my gut, and lower…

“I die. I instructed Zeetha to smuggle you to an outer planet where you can live out the rest of your days in a colony of other fugitives. It won’t be Earth, but it won’t be here. And it’ll be life.”

“And if I don’t?” I licked a bead of sweat from my upper lip.

“If you don’t,” he shifted his wrist, dragging the cold spike up my neck, along my jaw, against my burning cheek. My hands, still wrapped around it, let him. “I take you right now.”

I looked back at his face. The ice against my skin sent shocks of longing down my spine.

“Tell me, my Kept,” he cocked his head. “If you went back to Earth, would you feel this with any human mate? Would you be able to have another, knowing how much more there is?”

The alien pressed the black spike to my lips.

“I-” I knew I couldn’t. I was out of my depth, so far past any conceivable human experience that I knew nothing on Earth would ever compare. But to say it out loud was to cross a threshold from which I could never return.

“Tell me,” he insisted.

I leaned my cheek into the hath. Condensation bloomed along its surface where my warm breath washed over it. I realized a thin trail of blood dripped down my hands, cut as I clenched them tight around the spike. I didn’t feel it. My rigid grasp morphed into a caress as I trailed my red-stained finger up its length and back. I shuddered, a wash of current coursing through me in response.

“I want this,” I said. “I want you.”

Xioumar closed the distance between us.

His free arm wrapped around my waist. He lifted me from the wall and lowered me to the stone floor. My silkskin split open down my chest, crumpling underneath me, as he sliced it with the tip of the hath. He ripped off his own. When the blood-stained blade withdrew into his forearm, I reached up to bring his wrist to my lips. Slowly, I licked a droplet of my remaining blood from his skin. He shuddered, a deep groan escaping his throat, as my tongue pressed against the inside of his wrist. He parted my legs with his own. His hard warmth pressed against me and he paused, meeting my eyes.

“Please,” I gasped, wrapping my legs around his waist.

“I want to drink your hunger before I take you, my Kept,” he looked down at my slight form, waiting underneath him. I shifted my hips up, aching for him to consume me.

My back arched, taut as a bow, as he finally complied, stretching my body and my soul open as he entered me slowly. My mouth opened in a silent scream, then a moan, as electric heat spread from my inner depths out into my bones, flesh, skin. He brought his lips down to my bare chest, sucking, biting, licking. He withdrew, then plunged back within me to the hilt. Again. I moved my hips to meet his hardening thrusts. My hands came up to grip his broad shoulders, nails digging into skin as we collided deeper, harder, devouring each other as any semblance of control left us both.

White blotches exploded before my squeezed-shut eyes. When I opened them, I saw sizzling current all around us, surrounding us in a white and blue shield of spikes and tendrils exploding in the air. He saw it, too. He looked up at the display, eyes wide. Was he afraid?

I raked my nails along his back, pulling him closer against me, bringing his attention back. Current coiled through my limbs, knotting and writhing as my body hummed with pure energy, losing its edges. The aura sparked around our naked, interconnected bodies. His breath grew ragged and his movements more aggressive, brimming with urgency. He sat up on his knees and grabbed my hips in massive hands, dragging my body along the floor toward him. My curls fell in my eyes as he raked my body against him again and again. I lost track of time and space as bolts of electric pleasure shot up my spine, strike after strike of lightning ecstasy coursing under my skin as the red-eyed monster above me brought me to release.

His core rippled with tense muscle as he thrust inside me for the last time, crushing my hips against his. A growl escaped his throat as he released himself within me, the hot gush of his seed palpable within my depths. He filled me to the brim.

The Keeper fell forward to his elbows above me. Strong hands coiled in my tangled hair, raking it from my face. He wanted to see me. He uncovered my eyes and leaned his forehead against mine. I looked up at him through a haze of aftershocks, lips parted as I fought to catch my breath. He put his mouth on mine, teeth pulling not too gently at my lower lip as we came down from our respective peaks.

Xioumar peeled his hips from mine slowly. His seed oozed between my thighs. He lay on his side and pulled me tight against his chest.

“Is it always like this when you mate? The… ‘current’? You can see it?” I asked.

His electric finger traced circles over my breast.

“No,” he finally answered, “it is never like this. They say the strongest of pair bonds can produce a visible current. A myth, I thought.”

I swallowed. As minutes passed and I gathered myself from my high, some clarity of mind brought questions. I propped myself up on my elbow and turned to face him, resting my palm against his chest.

“Did you… will I be pregnant now?” I held my breath, afraid to know the answer.

Xioumar smiled, hand traveling down my side to rest on my stomach. “No, Emily. Insemination is a choice for us.”

“But you did. You did come inside me.” A knot of pleasure between my loins sent a satisfying shiver down my spine at the thought. I shifted my hips against him instinctively.

He nodded, and I felt him grow once more against my hip. “I did, but I released no fertile seed. Producing offspring with you is my job, Emily. But a true pair bond is more important than any of that. I hope that one day you will feel ready to carry my only child, if it is even possible to do so between our species. I will not make that choice for you.”

I buried my face in his shoulder. “Thank you.”

He pulled me closer against him, hardness pressed against my ready folds. “No, thank you,” he purred in my ear as he entered me once more.