Page 20 of Stone Awakened

I was lost. I was pretty sure of that because these darn hallways all looked the same. That statue of the warrior with the huge ears looked even more familiar, I’d already passed it before. I remembered it because it had looked so startlingly ridiculous. The male was mostly human but his ears were depicted the size of an elephant, nuts.

I comforted myself with the thought that I hadn’t run into anyone yet, I had been roaming these hallways for at least fifteen minutes. Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my middle, the uncomfortable shoes dangling from my fingers as I chose a hallway at random and started out again. This one had windows so I tried to figure out if I recognized anything outside. I thought I was heading in the right direction again, so that was good.

My toes were freezing on the cool stone, my nipples stiff peaks beneath the thin fabric of my barely there dress. Still, this was far better than what could have been happening right now. If Or’tal hadn’t arrived when he had… I shivered harder. If only his news hadn’t been so bad, I was almost expecting to arrive at my chamber and discover an armed guard waiting for me.

I could picture it vividly, Or’tal smirking at me with that disdainful look in his eyes, guards aiming their guns at me while they shackled me. Then they’d drag me before Carator and execute me on the spot, but not before they dragged Sunder in too. I closed my eyes and rubbed hard at them, trying to erase the vivid image my imagination supplied of Sunder being killed in front of me. He’d said one shot would kill him now…

A rustling noise alerted me to a presence, I spun around, lifting the pointed heel of one of my torturous shoes in my hand as a makeshift weapon. “Who’s there?” I asked, my mouth dry, my heart pounding in my throat. The dark shape approaching me from behind was huge and traveling fast. For a brief moment, I thought a monster had come to take me, or that the stress had fractured my mind and I was seeing things.

Large arching wings, four legs on which it ran, and a crown of glittering black horns on its head. My breath stalled completely, it was Sunder. The shortened remains of his tail whipped behind his back as he ran at breakneck speed at me through the long, cold hallway. I dropped the shoes I was holding and opened my arms for him, my mind ignoring the fact that he was running on all-fours like a lion.

“Sunder!” I exclaimed as he reached me, raising up onto his legs, his arms coming around me in a crushing hug, his wings followed, cocooning me in warmth and safety. I sighed in relief, my fingers digging into his strong shoulders as I clung to him. “You’re here.”

In a rush I tried to explain to him what Or’tal had said, panicked at the thought that our plan had been found out. He just calmly kept holding me, his hands keeping me pressed tightly to his uniform-clad chest. He wasn’t wearing the body armor, but his body still felt hard as a rock, each muscled ridge defined where it pressed against me.

“It’s okay, my Fire. It’s going to be alright,” he crooned at me. The deep rumble of his voice made me sag against him. If Mr. Planner said it was alright? It had to be, right? I tilted my head up to look at him, but wrapped up in his wings there was barely any light, I couldn’t read his expression.

“I gathered some information,” he said, “It’s something about the response time of the system, and Carator is the only one who can change settings now. It has nothing to do with us.” I let out a long moan, tucking my face into his firm chest. Tears were pricking at my eyes, so this was just a lucky break? I’d somehow escaped a terrible fate, and it wasn’t even at the cost of our escape?

“Thank God, that was terrifying, I thought they were going to lock us up. Execute us…” I said, but I managed to get the tears to subside, finding a smile to beam up at Sunder. “So we’re safe for now?” His hands still held me tight to him, but he flared open his wings, mostly by dropping them lower so they cupped my legs and ass more than my back. In the now faint light, I saw how he smiled back at me.

I traced my finger over one of the tusks protruding from the bottom of his mouth, then ran it down the side of his strongly defined jaw. Heat sparked in those gray eyes and he rumbled a deep growl at me, “You are mine, Aggy.” His lips pressed against mine in a fervent kiss, heat coiling in my belly. My entire body responded to that claim, desire scorching my veins, my heart feeling full to bursting.

“Nobody should get to see you like this but me,” he added possessively, and his hands finally moved from their tight clasp of my back, sliding over the gaps and strips that covered me. My cool skin warmed beneath his rough touch. I arched my back, pressing closer, and eagerly feeling the hard bar of his cock pressing against my belly.

“Yes,” I said eagerly, “All yours Sunder.” I didn’t care how quickly I was willing to give myself to him, this fire in my veins, this sharp desire curling in my belly was the best thing I’d ever felt. I wanted more of it, I wanted him to possess me. After that near miss… I needed to feel like I belonged to a good man, to him.

I half expected him to turn us to the nearest wall, press me into it and slide some of those well-placed strips of fabric aside. It wouldn’t be difficult to take me like that, and the thought flooded my core with wetness. He’d slide right on in, even if he had the biggest cock I’d ever handled. I’d seen those nodes and bumps along the top and bottom, he was going to feel so good.

“Soon,” he groaned in my ear, one hand cupping my breast beneath the scrap of fabric that had covered it. I felt the rough texture of his palm against my sensitive skin, twitching from the sensation when he pinched the tight bud. Pressing my breast more firmly into his palm, I urged him to keep doing that, but he had other plans.

I found myself cradled in his arms, tucked tightly against his chest, I wrapped my arms around his neck. Reaching up, I tried to pull him down for another kiss, but he growled again, tilting his head away. Motion caused cold air to brush over my exposed skin, and he carried me straight out a side door and into a walled little garden. With a few beats of his huge bat wings, we were airborne, soaring over the buildings at a low altitude, so low, that I could count the roof tiles that covered each building.

Cold whipped against my flesh, my loose hair tangling around my face, around his neck, and in his horns. I was sideways in his arms this time, so I couldn’t wrap myself around him, but I still did my very best to get as close to him as I could. As quickly as we’d been up in the air, it was only a short flight. We dropped down into the familiar training courtyard, which was pathetically dusty and derelict compared to the rest of the palace.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he was walking, clawed feet digging into the ground as he jogged to the door. I felt the same rush, but I still fought to tuck my boob back behind the scrap of fabric when we entered the hallway outside the boy’s bunk room and my own chambers. I wasn’t sure what we’d find, had Uron taken the boys to bed? Had they been fed? How scared were they?

Sunder paused outside the bunk room, and we shared a sober look. When I nodded, he sat me down on my bare feet and lifted my hand to the scanner. We froze when a sound alerted us to a presence out in the hallway. A shadow detached itself from the wall from between two wall sconces, tall and wide-shouldered, eyes glittered at us in the dark.

“You’re back!” a low voice exclaimed, “Woah Aggy…” Uron stepped into the pale glow of the nearest sconce, which in its night setting barely gave off any light at all. I sighed in relief, just Uron. For a moment there my mind had flashed to my fantasies of guards arresting me when I arrived here.

Sunder rumbled a warning growl and I suddenly found myself pinned to the wall by one of his wings. The thick flight membrane was warm against my skin, a stark contrast with the cold wall at my back. I could only just see over the thickly muscled bone that edged the top of the wing, watching as Uron raised his palms in surrender and backed away.

“I know, I know, she’s all yours, Sir. I was just surprised…” the Rummicaron said, his voice tinged with fear and respect. “I was just waiting for your return. I’m glad you’re both fine.” He sounded relieved, partially because Sunder seemed to have lost the aggression in his posture. I tried hard not to feel flattered, that was a rather cavewoman of me, to enjoy his possessiveness this much.

“Are the boys alright?” Sunder asked. His wing lowered a little more so that it only came up to just above my breasts. The younger guard nodded his head fervently, tugging on his rumpled uniform jacket. I realized that he’d been curled against the wall, sleeping in his uniform on the cold stone. Surprised that he’d gone that far, I felt a sudden rush of warmth for him. Maybe he wasn’t a lost cause after all, maybe Sunder was right in investing energy in the young male. It was certainly good to know that he’d been there for the kids when we’d been unable to.

“Good, did they eat enough? Are they sleeping?” Sunder asked. Uron immediately nodded again, shifting from foot to foot as if contemplating what to say next. I eyed the door to my left, I still wanted to open it so I could check on them, but I also didn’t want to wake them if they were peacefully asleep.

“Jett was worried, but I told them you’d be back tonight. That all would be well,” Uron said, then his eyes darted to mine for a moment and I was struck by the concern in them. “All is well, right?” he asked, and the uncertainty in his voice made it clear that he’d been worried for us, for me especially.

“We are well,” Sunder said, “Go to bed kid, we’ll squeeze in training early tomorrow morning, and then you’re solely responsible for the boys again I suspect. Don’t screw it up.” Uron nodded his head up and down like one of those bobbleheads for the back of a car. It was almost comical the way he was nodding. “Scoot,” Sunder barked out. And he spun on his heel and started trotting away, glancing back over his shoulder several times at us until the darkness swallowed him up.

Sunder’s wing dropped away from my body, a grin splitting his face, “Well, who’d have thought that he’d step up like that?” Then his eyes dropped from my face to linger over my body, which was even less constrained by the excuse of a dress than before. The flight and his attentions had messed up the careful arrangement of strips.

“A quick check to see they are fine,” I whispered, my hand going to the panel to unlock the door. He nodded, his eyes going from heated to serious again as we peered into the dark bunk room. Two heads shared a single pillow in their preferred bunk at the back. One with bright blue hair, the other a smudge of black. The sound of two soft snores filled the air, their rhythm slow and steady. Assured that they were both fine, we closed the door again and backed away.

Sunder’s hand grabbed mine, pulling me along with him to my own door. I fumbled with the lock, and then got even more distracted when I was picked up and pressed against the door, pinned in place by the Tarkan’s solid bulk. He nibbled with his mouth along my neck, sucked my earlobe into his mouth, and I just about melted into a puddle in his arms.