The Varkari

The Claim

It seemed every time I tried to sneak a look his way, the Admiral was watching me, darting to me when the sparring was happening. He never fought and nobody challenged him and it had to be because he was the leader for a reason. I knew he had a suspicion about Exer, but it was hard to hide my body's response. The fabric of our uniforms hid nothing and could feel more than one gaze on my beaded nipples, my goosebumps, the way I flexed my muscles to keep from writhing in my seat. I watched his jaw clench when I became aroused and I knew deep down, as much as it was wrong, that it was because of my responses.

"Gotta pee, be right back," I told Maria after one of our hangman games. Without looking up and risking the dreaded eye contact, I scurried to the bathroom. The guards did not glance at me anymore.

I was on my period, which was dangerous in my mind. What was worse than being prey to these males? Bleeding. Especially because it reminded them that I was still cycling and very not pregnant. Luckily, Konderick had gotten boxes of tampons for me and the Varkari did manufacture sanitary products for us.

Drying my hands, my ears picked up the sound of crashing and a scream. Great, another fight. I huffed out a sigh and moved to the doorway to see if I could figure out what was going on. Bodies were writhing just inside the giant room, one male slamming a chair into the back of another. It was probably better that I waited in the bathroom until they finished.

Peeking down the hall, I found it completely empty. The guards had either left or were preoccupied in the fight. I gulped, fingers feeling cold with the sudden shock. My feet moved before my brain could catch up and I was striding down the hallway.

Oh my god. This was it. I was running!

A vice caught the back of my neck like a collar and pulled me back as a squeak left my lips. My shoulders bumped into the wall and a rippling chest covered with the slick, black armored suit filled my vision.

"Where were you going?" The voice rolled down my body like thunder, full of static and warning.

I tilted my head back, looking up and up until I locked eyes with pools of liquid gold and stopped breathing on a gasp. Shivers started in my legs and everything was completely numb. The Admiral waited for an answer that could not be made while fear pulsed through every artery, vein, and capillary.

The deepest of growls rumbled from inside of him and my knees threatened to bend, to take me to the ground and make me small. Nonthreatening. A wave of scent barraged me with heavy notes of musk and soil, wood and male like warm and tiny snowflakes landing on my face. The sensation rippled down my body, my breasts feeling heavy and my lower abdomen rolling in want.

His hand moved back to my neck, now flushed and sensitive and his claws buried in my hair, pulling down so my chin lifted. I whimpered, fingers digging into the material of his suit, too overwhelmed with everything that he was to think about what was happening. His other hand slipped around my waist from the back and rested his thumb on my hip bone, pinning me to the wall. The Admiral leaned in, eyes dropping to my bared neck, lowering his head further and further until I could feel his nose touch at the top of my sternum. I shuddered, desire coiling like a spring in my belly.

His tongue touched my skin and slowly dragged up along my throat, tracing my vein up to under my ear. "You are-"

I gasped, shooting up in bed, panting and tingling all over as though I had just climaxed. I swallowed twice and pulled the covers off, too hot and panicked. Fuck. I couldn't fall back asleep even though I tried, tossing and turning uncomfortably. I tried to touch myself in the shower, but the realization that I was doing so to thoughts of the Admiral alarmed me enough that I stopped.

By the time Exer and Konderick woke up in the morning, I had long been sitting at the counter with a cup of misered coffee.

"I can't go to any more meetings," I told Konderick.