

The sounds of the animals are loud in our ears. The smell of growing things is so potent in the air it floods my nostrils. The mist is ever present, like walking through fog. Vines and vegetation crawl up the massive trees so densely I cannot see the trunks. Not in all my life have I met a Ssedez who called my fangs and venom from me, and not for lack of trying.įor it to happen now with this human is a cruel curse. I am revolted by my inability to control myself in this place. To give it to someone who is not one’s mate is sacrilege. It is a betrayal of the rituals of my kind to share venom without Attachment. My cock aches to the point of pain, and my fangs, no matter what mind games I play with myself, will not retract. The well-muscled cheeks move beneath the fabric that molds to her like a second skin. My eyes fill with the sight of her ass in front of me. We walk through the jungle, and I adjust to a perpetual state of arousal. Without her begging me for it, it should be easier to ignore it and keep my hands off her. I shoulder her pack and follow, glad at least she now seems unaffected by the burn that is once more blazing through my veins like fire. It’s survival supplies.” Then she ventures straight into the jungle.

She does not look at me but shoves the pack at me. That is the reason why I have resisted killing her, I tell myself. Or any locals who might inhabit this place. The only hope I have of getting off this rock will be from her human friends. “I will come, too.” My warriors will assume I died in the planet’s atmosphere. “I don’t know.” She stands and points in the direction where her ship landed. “It’s in the vegetation, too.” She sucks the cut on her finger.

“Shit.” Her hand comes away bloody, like the plant cut her, but she inserts a piece of it into her computer. She ignores me, goes to a plant, and rips off a piece of leaf. “How can your computer know it exists but not know its effects?”
