I pulled up my knees, wrapping my arms around them, and rested my chin on top.
His speech was surprisingly coherent and easy to follow for a person who claimed to despise talking. Another thing, which I found interesting. Who did he practice his communication with? The ancestors in his head?
I used to talk to myself a lot too, when I was younger. I pretended that I had a friend who listened to all my ramblings. Plushy, my stuffed toy, I auctioned off some time ago. It was a good listener.
Kurus began to reveal some secrets of his species, as if he couldn’t keep them to himself any longer.
"We don’t share female mates with other males like warmblooded," he said, and I nodded, "We don’t let them go, either. Once marked, you are mine for life. If another male touches you, I’ll kill him."
He hissed the last part. I had to remind myself that this wasn’t a threat, but a fact. A cold-blooded fact.
"Sounds good to me." I didn’t agree or disagree with his views, letting him continue.
Kurus’ expression turned to surprise, then confusion, "Defected, very defected."
End of discussion. He didn’t bother to explain further and went back to staring at me, like he was on a survival mode where I was the final boss he had to defeat.
"Mate." I faced him as I removed the uncomfortable skirt, which restricted my movements. Keeping only my underwear on, I dropped it in a pile on the ground.
"..." He froze, his red eyes fixed on the area between my legs. Whatever it was the mate term, which affected him or the sight itself, a vein popped on his forehead.
"Has someone tried to seduce you before?" My hand drifted down, tracing my inner thigh, "Like this?"
Kurus’s eyes flickered to where I was touching, "Seduce?"
"It’s when someone does things on purpose to make you go into heat, consciously more than usual. They want you to get excited, maybe even lose control. The idea behind seduction is to see if you can resist it."
I stopped right at the edge of my underwear, my finger gently tapping against the fabric. "Well?" I spread my legs a little further.
Kurus turned his head to the side. "No," he answered, side glancing at me. His curiosity got the better of him, "Never."
"Then I’ll be your first." I slipped my hand inside my underwear.
"Did the healer give you the wrong herbs?" He accused. He got up and slithered toward the door, "I will kill him. He is trying to poison my mate─"
"Am I that ugly to you?" I grabbed his tail and tripped him, "This action of mine should make you want to reproduce with me more than usual."
He fell on his stomach as I pulled him towards me. Getting up to straddle his tail, I pushed his face against the floorboards, his hair spreading around him. I then climbed over his back, sitting on his hips.
"Did your ancestors seduce the females they kidnapped?" I wondered aloud, "You are a natural at it, you know. You seduced Nivi with your words. You tricked her with your looks. You make her want to be your mate. You are a true snake, my mate."
His face was still facing the floor, his body unmoving as he tried to become invisible, which was impossible due to his large size. "...No...no seduce...never."
"Do you remember what your ancestors did to the females after kidnapping them?" My fingers found their way to his hips tracing the pattern down his buttocks, "Let’s breed the way they did, mate."
"..." He tried to get up, but I pinned his arms down with mine, while my leg moved to block his tail. He hissed and tried to shake me off, but I held on tight.
"Don’t fight me," I whispered in his ear, "We are mates, aren’t we? I’m in heat for you, and you are the only one who can help me with that. You should understand, right? After all, you are an expert in this field."
He stopped moving, his body stiff as a board. He knew what I wanted to do. He had seen his ancestors do it to his females, the pleasure and the pain, the breeding and the killing. He knew I was toying with him, using his own nature against him.
"How different are you from your ancestors?" I licked his ear, where I had bitten him before. He shuddered at the touch. "Do you have their memories? Did you see what they saw? Did you feel what they felt? You are very honest... somehow you always tell me the truth, and I’m quite fond of that."
Kurus bit his lip, his breathing heavy as I licked the bitten part of his ear, again, "Images...passed down... I can see...but not feel. Not my memory... theirs. Their thoughts, I can hear."
He shivered as my breath hit his skin. He had goosebumps all over his arms and neck. I rubbed his biceps, warming them with my hands, my fingers tracing the lines of his muscles.
"Mate..." he called out.
"Hm?" I hummed in his ear. My other hand went to the front of his body. He no longer struggled under me, his heart beat fast against my palm. "What is it, mate?"
"...don’t stop," he whispered, his head turning slightly to the side, allowing me better access to his neck, "Don’t stop."
"Is it hard to move on from past females? Can you still see their faces?"
"No time... they die quickly...not worth remembering." He swallowed hard as I kissed his neck, my teeth grazing his skin. "Mhm...their screams, their blood... it’s all I remember."
I moved my hand lower, to his abdomen, feeling the muscles tense under my touch.
His descendant had no cubs with the heroine, and I could only imagine the infighting that would have occurred if they did. All the babies would probably become obsessed with their own mother, just like their father.
It was a curse, to love someone you can’t have, to desire something you can’t touch, to bond with someone only to lose them.
It was a cycle of pain and loneliness.
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╔═══ Author’s note ════╗
Smut Chapter next? ??
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