My willpower breaks at her beauty.
I firmly grasp her hips, drawing her closer to my eager lips. As my tongue slides over her pearl, I can feel her body tense with pleasure, her breath quickening. I apply pressure, gently moving my rough tongue over her delicate sweet spot.
Lena bites her lip, suppressing the melodic sounds that I adore.
My hands grip into the flesh of her ass as I work my jaw over the apex of her sex. I can feel the left brother forcefully push past my chest and settle itself at her dripping entrance.
“Yes,” she mutters softly, pressing her hips forward.
My Lena, without my venom, wants me.
I give her precisely what she craves—one brother penetrates her fervent and drawn cunt with haste. I replace my tongue with my fingers.
“So tight for my tentacle, I yearn for the day I earn your companionship. To have you milk my cock with these same muscles, I’d spill into you endlessly. The thought of you full and dripping with me, I can’t imagine a sight more lovely.”
As I speak, I can feel her motions become more frantic.
“So take me Kitaico, make me yours.” Her whispers are rushed, her eyes hooded with pleasure as she looks down at me. “I trust you, I love you, give me everything.”
“When I return, if you want me still, I will deny you no longer.”
Lena’s eyes roll back in her head as my tentacle balls up inside her, pushing against the spongy spot along her inner wall.
“Until I can make you my mate, when I return victorious, this moment of pleasure will sustain us both. You are the only sustenance I need.”
I dive back to her pearl, stroking it slowly until I feel her shake.
“You’ll come back,” she mumbles, her body bouncing. “You’ll come back and give me all of you.”
I suck on her pearl, bringing it deeply between my lips. When my teeth graze the overstimulated flesh, she comes undone.
As she throbs and pulses around me, I gather her up in my arms.
“I will always come back to you,” I whisper as I nuzzle the column of her throat. “Always.”
I want to stay here with her forever, to put off our inevitable separation, but I know she’ll be safe in the care of the other jewels. So I’ll leave her after this bliss—boneless and content.
Using my knee, I knock on the door. When the guard opens it, his skin shifts to a bright orange, his eyes blowing wide on his inhale.
His mouth moves, words unwilling to spill from them. I know he smells what we just did, but I don’t care.
“I will take my mate to the jewels' quarters, for her to be in their care until I’m victorious,” I tell him before he can get a word out. The male is flustered.
“Put the jewel down, you have no right—”
“She is my mate. I have every right,” I say calmly before making my way down the hall. The bumbling guard follows, telling me how wrong I am for touching a precious jewel. How he’ll rat me out to the council of elders.
But how could Lena in my arms feel anything but right?
“One day, you’ll have a mate. Then you’ll understand how I can fear nothing but her loss. Do what you must,” I mutter.
The guard stops at my response, maybe not used to a hopeful’s insolence. As he watches me stroke my mate’s hair, something snaps into place. He sighs, defeated, and shoos me down the corridor.
“Get her there quickly and join the other hopefuls for tomorrow’s battle in the holding tanks. They should arrive tonight.” He frowns deeply and turns, making his way back to his post.
Looking at an almost sleeping Lena, I know that I have no choice but to return. I will spill my opponent’s blood in the stadium tomorrow.
“I love you," I tell her one more time, just in case it’s my last.
22
traditions
I should open my eyes, I should beg him not to leave me—but I’m a coward.
I’ll stay in this hazy place between bliss and sleep and push the feeling that Kitaico is being forced to abandon me down deep.
When his lips brush my brow, staying detached feels all the harder. I know he understands because he doesn’t push me back into reality.
With the utmost care, he sets me down onto a velvety surface, like a feather gently landing on a cloud. As soon as I catch a whiff of the incense, I am certain that I have arrived in the jewel’s chambers. Kitaico will leave me here and go fight in his battle to the death.
“Sleep, sweet Lena. Don’t worry, I’ll return to you,” he whispers.
With his touch slipping away, I grit my teeth and bite the inside of my cheek to suppress the urge to cry out. As his footsteps fade away, a wave of sadness washes over me, and I can’t hold back the tears any longer.
When I finally am brave enough to open my eyes, the golden tiles nestled in the ceiling are blurred. The lights are dim, only a few glowing orbs float around the space like some kind of alien night light.
