The Ilia's Lovers - Chapter Thirteen

There was a turn to Elaine’s eye, the outer corner, which brought her eye shape up. When she smiled, her skin dragged that corner down a little. It fascinated Hadith. The play of muscle under skin. The play of Elaine’s muscles under her skin. The way the corners of her mouth tilted up, opening only the smallest amount, unless she laughed, when it opened wider, sometimes just enough to allow a small giggle or chuckle out. Other times, when she laughed so hard her body shook, her mouth would open wide, and she’d cover it with her hand.

Hadith sat back, trying to pretend his heart wasn’t pounding in his chest. His breath wasn’t heavy and shallow. His stomach wasn’t twisting, light and heavy at the same time from thinking about her.

Hadith dropped his sketching graphite and sat back in his seat.

Her hands.

They were small and delicate, with blue veins snaking between bone, cartilage, tendon and muscle. Hadith wanted to get every part of her perfect. As perfect as she was.

He had thirty sketches of her hands, but none of them seemed to be right and Hadith would know, he’d spent the previous evening while Dahnus spoke to her, staring at her hands.

Another hour of sketching her hands went by before Hadith gave up. He wrote a note to Elaine asking her to join him in his office.

Anticipation surged through him. He wondered what dress she was wearing. How her hair would be styled. If she’d be okay with him taking it down and sketching her outside so he could point her into the wind to see the effect he wanted to achieve.

When a knock on the door sounded, Hadith sprinted over to the door to open it, eager to see Elaine.

Instead, Adiyan was standing there. He seemed surprised when he saw Hadith open the door himself.

For a moment, Hadith was so shocked to see him, he stared, all thoughts, all words, failing him.

‘Adiyan, what can I do for you?’

‘May I… May I come in and talk?’

A part of Hadith wanted to tell Adiyan to vrok off. He wasn’t Elaine. Hadith wanted to see Elaine. He’d been waiting for her, anticipating her, thinking about her.

The part of him that knew he owed Dahnus everything, everything, every piece of happiness, confidence, satisfaction, career knew he had no choice but to talk to Adiyan. Maybe Adiyan would give something away, or… something.

Still, he wasn’t Elaine.

Hadith stepped back, widening the door in invitation.

Adiyan stepped through, his eyes moving around Hadith’s office as he did, taking everything in.

‘Can I get you a drink?’

‘If you have any tea, that would be welcome.’

Hadith walked over to the small table where he had a pot set up on a heater. He poured two cups and carried them over to his desk.

Adiyan was holding one of Hadith’s sketches.

It was of Elaine’s eye. There was no colour to it, so there was no way to tell what species it was, let alone the colour. Still, it sparked nerves in Hadith’s stomach.

He walked over, setting the cups down, then took the sketch from Adiyan and, gathering up the rest of his sketches, some of them her entire face, he put them in a folder, then inside his drawer. There was something about Adiyan’s body language that made him think that Adiyan knew who those sketches were of.

While Hadith was putting his sketches away, Adiyan took a sip of tea.

‘This is very good,’ he said, holding the glass cup in front of him to look at the colour. It was a tea from Earth. Spicy Chai. It had become one of Hadith’s favourites since he started drinking Earth tea.

‘How can I help you, Adiyan?’

Adiyan looked at the tea one more time, before taking another sip. Then another. His eyebrows went up every time, like every time he was surprised by how good it was. Finally, he placed the cup on his knee and looked at Hadith.

‘I’ve thought a lot about what you said to me the last time we saw one another. I wanted to apologise for allowing my father to come between us. For not sticking up for you. For not sticking up for you particularly. You should know, I cared about you a great deal. I should have honoured that and done better by you. I miss you, Hadith.’

Hadith examined his feelings. Finally, he shook his head.

‘It’s done, Adiyan. It hasn’t mattered for a long time. The fact is, if you hadn't done that, I wouldn't have been studying with my friends the night I was attacked and saved by Dahnus. I have you to thank for the happiness that has brought me.’

There was a flash of uncertainty in Adiyan’s eyes. He nodded, then took in a deep breath.

‘You should think, Hadith. Sooner or later, the Ilan will find his Ilidan and Ilia. When he does, there’s no guarantee he’ll want to keep you as a lover, or that they’ll allow him to. You should think about your future. I would give you that future. My father be damned.’

The warm, happy emotions Hadith had been feeling since he watched Dahnus and Elaine talk the previous evening evaporated. Anger rose to replace them.

Hadith was Dahnus’s Ilidan. The only reason he couldn’t shout it to the world was because of the snobbery of people like Adiyan and his father. The same snobbery that had ended their young, tender romance all those years ago.

What do you really want? Dahnus taught me to question everything.

He’d started with an attempt to seduce him, a little today, more the previous meeting. Now he was trying fear. Even if Hadith weren’t Dahnus’s adalan, his bonded mate, dyshcalti, in all but legal technicality, Hadith was always loyal to those who were loyal to him. He’d never have allowed fear to make him betray his love.

Hadith forced himself to calm down. He took in a deep breath, gathering his thoughts through the fog of fury.

‘My art sells very well. My future is secure, inside, or outside of the palace. I don’t have to take lovers to care for me, Adiyan. I am not the same boy you met, abused and scared of everything. My time here, with Dahnus has taught me to be stronger than you realise. Frankly, it’s insulting that you imply I need a lover to take care of me.’

‘I care about you, Hadith. That’s all. I care about your happiness. Your future. That can never be here.’

Even if that were true, it would never be with Adiyan. The moment Adiyan cast him aside, he showed Hadith who he was. Hadith would never take him back again. Besides, this wasn’t a true offer. Doubtless, Adiyan thought it was. Adiyan possibly even thought himself still in love with Hadith. But his father would never have it and this manoeuvre, though it seemed to come from Adiyan, had his father written all over it. Doubtless, if Hadith was fool enough to go with him, he’d disappear. They’d abuse him for information, then kill him.

‘You claim to care about me. You saw how damaged I was by my experiences in my adalmis, yet you stand against protections for our sex?’ Hadith had to change tactic, or he’d lose his temper.

Adiyan sighed.

‘Your experiences do not make us a disadvantaged sex, Hadith.’

‘With the privilege you’ve been born into, you think you are in a better position to know what it was like to grow up a destitute adalan than I?’ Hadith sat back, separating himself, his logical mind, from the emotion of the situation. It was another thing Dahnus had taught him.

‘Being destitute had nothing to do with it, Hadith. You had bad luck. That is all. It's not a reflection of the state of affairs here on Amara.’ Adiyan’s voice rose.

‘Because your father says so?’ Hadith countered.

‘Because it is the truth.’

Hadith stared at Adiyan for a few seconds. He was so completely under his father’s control, the truth didn’t matter, because to Corthan Sinarti, his opinion was the truth, and no other opinion would be tolerated.

‘You're so angered by anything that doesn't presume Amara is perfect, you dismiss the experiences of millions of adalan who speak up about this, because it doesn't suit your narrative. Until you are willing to listen to them, this conversation is pointless.’

‘I could say the same about your point of view. Until you’re ready to talk about this, to keep an open mind, there’s no point talking to you.’ Adiyan stood, placing his cup on the table.

‘The problem with that argument, Adiyan, is that we have the proof of the abuse. Countless hours of testimony from abused adalan. Males, females and even other adalan in prison, convicted of abuse. Investigations that prove the there is a web of conspirators working towards finding vulnerable adalan across our space to abuse and sell for sex and profit. Your argument presupposes all of that is a lie, or a fantasy. There is no genuine desire for discourse. You just want to hear us say we might be wrong, not to open the conversation, but so that the public hears us. Doubts us. Doubts the lived experience of these adalan. You would rather we rot in the mire and pretend it’s a gyesh floor, than accept that Amara is anything less than perfect. We are a flawed society. We want to make it what it could be. We can’t do that if we cover our eyes to the faults.’

 Adiyan opened his mouth to speak, but a knock interrupted him.

‘Come!’ Hadith shouted, without thinking.

The door opened and Elaine walked in. She was wearing a cream and gold coloured dress today, her hair piled on her head, tendrils falling down all around her face making the delicate lines of her face stand out even more. She looked ethereal.

He’d have to sketch her with her hair up and down, see which he preferred before he lifted his chisels.

‘Elaine.’

‘Hadith, you wanted… oh I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you had company.’ Elaine turned to Adiyan and smiled.

Adiyan’s mouth dropped open.

Hadith realised this would be his first encounter with a live human. He turned to her, taking her in anew.

He’d see the size difference first. Amarans were two feet taller than the average human female. Their bones looked willowy thin to them, and with the sleeveless dress she was wearing, revealing her long limbs, that impression became stronger.

Add to that the beauty of this female. Her big blue eyes, her pale hair, so similar to Amaran but hers shone like threads of gold. Her skin was creamy, with gold undertones. She looked like a fantasy. A golden Amaran fantasy.

Hadith saw attraction on Adiyan’s face, before his father’s prejudice overwhelmed it.

‘Elaine. Please come in.’ Hadith rounded the desk and put himself between Adiyan and Elaine.

‘This is Adiyan Sinarti. He works as an aid to his father, Corthan Sinarti, in the First Chamber.’

Elaine turned to Adiyan, her face brightening. ‘Oh, I saw that when I first arrived. The Temple Mount is beautiful.’

Adiyan’s eyes tracked every move she made, his eyes widening slightly now that her face seemed to shine. He seemed to forget himself for a moment, staring at her. Then, his father’s arrogance reared its ugly and unwelcome head.

‘I don’t suppose you have anything like it on Earth.’

Elaine seemed to miss the tone of his voice. Instead of shrinking, like Hadith thought she would, her eyes lit up.

‘Oh we do. There are a load of temples and monasteries throughout southern Europe and South East Asia that sit on mountains. There are a few a friend of mine visited on summer break from university. She told me all about them. One of them is carved into the side of a mountain almost a mile up. It’s around a thousand years old. But your temple mount most reminds me of the Parthenon in Greece, which was Ancient Greece’s government building. It sits on an outcrop over the capital of Greece, Athens, so not a mountain, but the layout is like the Temple Mount, though it’s not as high as this place.’

Elaine’s eyes widened slightly as she sensed the tension in the room.

‘This place?’ Adiyan had stiffened. He was offended that Earth had things in common with Amara and using her phrasing as an excuse to make it seem like Elaine had said something wrong.

‘Adiyan. Elaine is my guest.’ Hadith lowered his voice, letting Adiyan know he’d overstepped his mark.

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. It’s just a phrase on Earth.’

‘Of course it is,’ Adiyan said. His offended growl was forced.

He wasn’t even offended at the similarity, Hadith realised. He was scared of how attracted he was to Elaine.

Something jealous and possessive rose in Hadith. He stepped closer to her, catching Adiyan’s eye.

‘Get out!’ he hissed.

Adiyan took a step back, shock on his face as he stared at Hadith in horror.

‘I… I…’ Adiyan was caught between wanting to apologise for his impudence and wanting to be the adalan child his father wanted him to be. In the end, Adiyan turned to Hadith, bowed, and left without another word.

‘I don’t understand what just happened.’ Elaine turned to Hadith, then looked to the door.

Hadith shook his head. The Adiyan he knew was still there, but buried under a desire to do right by a father who would never truly accept him. Adiyan and his sibling’s mother was a commoner. Corthan married her for her family wealth, expecting to have to do for himself in life and grateful his mate was at least wealthy. Then his older brother, the heir to his father, died and Corthan was suddenly the lord with the position in the First Chamber. He became unhappy with his common mate. Even their adalan mate couldn’t convince him to treat her well. It was believed Corthan abused her to death, with their adalan taking his own life rather than live with Corthan and in grief at the loss of the only mate he could freely love. Unfortunately, it left their children in the hands of Corthan alone.

‘I am sorry about Adiyan. His father is one of the people who are angry you’re here.’

Elaine seemed to deflate at Hadith’s words. It tore him up inside. He wouldn’t see her unhappy if it meant he had to spend several fortunes to see her smile.

‘Am I causing trouble for you? I’m sure the Tessans will be happy to take me back to Tessa.’

‘A small minority. I assure you. Most of our people are good, compassionate people.’

Thank you. And thank you for standing up for me.’

It was a simple thing, but it brought to mind the day Adiyan didn’t stand up for him.

‘Always,’ Hadith said, feeling it like a vow to the core of his soul.

Elaine’s smile warmed him.

‘You wanted to see me?’ she asked him.

‘Yes. I want to show you something.’

Hadith held out an arm, indicating a bookcase. There were only three bookcases in the room. The large one behind his desk that fit in with the panelling he hadn’t removed. The one across the room from where they stood, that led to the library linking his office with Dahnus’s, and this one, which hid the door leading to his studio.

Elaine walked over to the bookcase, frowning.

Hadith hit the secret button on one of the lower shelves and it swung open.

‘Please tell me there are secret passages around the palace!’ Elaine said immediately.

‘All over the palace,’ Hadith grinned.

Elaine squealed. Hadith couldn’t help but laugh, even as he led the way inside his sanctuary.

He stopped just inside the room and watched as Elaine gasped and walked inside, her eyes darting around as she tried to look at every piece Hadith had kept all at once.

Like his office, and bedroom beyond, this room was designed as a circle. The furniture was custom made to fit the curves of the wall. There were no bookcases in here. Even the door they came through, though hidden on the other side, was just a doorway on this side. Instead, the furniture was all waist height to him, so that his work could stand on top, easily seen. There were several pedestals around the room with work at different stages. Hadith would often work on one until his inspiration dried up, then he’d move to another.

Right now, his inspiration was all directed at the female walking around, studying his work. Bending over to take in the detail of a Syer bird’s wing here. Stretching to examine a bust of Dahnus he was making for an Exhibition in Corus there.

One quarter of the wall was one large glass folding doorway that was currently tucked away on one side, letting the fresh mountain air in. It blew her diaphanous dress, pressing it to the curves of her body. Teasing the tendrils around her face, giving an impression of the statue he wanted to carve. His mind sparked. His fingers twitched to pick up his graphite and start sketching, or his chisels and start carving. To create something flawless. Like Elaine.

Hadith waited patiently by the door until Elaine turned to him. Her eyes were wide, almost feverish, a smile on her face.

‘This… Hadith… this is incredible.’ She looked around the room, her eyes again trying to take in everything. ‘I’ve never seen so much beauty in one place.’

Hadith’s muscles seemed to relax all at once; not realising he was anxious until that moment.

‘The beauty in this room has increased greatly since you entered,’ he replied.

Elaine’s face flushed in deep pinks, but her smile widened, and any embarrassment Hadith had begun to feel for speaking so freely vaporised in the face her how pleased she looked by the compliment.

Elaine turned to the gyesh stone in the centre of the room.

‘You’re starting a new piece?’

‘I am. The stone was delivered yesterday. It’s flawless. Perfect for the subject.’

‘What are you going to carve,’ she asked, looking about the room as though for a clue.

‘You.’

Elaine’s head whipped around, her eyes widening in shock.

‘Me?’

‘You are very inspiring to me, Elaine. I’ve been sketching you for weeks. I can see the form I want to carve, but I need more. I need details. Would you mind posing for me so I may make the sketches?’

Elaine blinked several times as she stared at him.

‘I… er… are you… I…’

‘It would help me a great deal, Elaine.’ Hadith moved towards her, passing several sculptures as he did. ‘I would like to capture you as you are. Or at least, as you appear to me.’

Elaine seemed frozen. Hadith reached out and touched her hand.

All at once, she came alive. Her fingers closing around his.

‘If it’ll help you. I’m not sure I’m exactly the right subject—’

‘You are the perfect subject. Let me carve your likeness from that stone?’

Elaine swallowed, then nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Wonderful. Come with me.’

Hadith pulled her towards the windows, opening a draw on his way and grabbing a fresh sketching book and graphites. He pulled her onto the balcony and over to an empty plinth he kept for moments like this.

‘Would you mind?’ he asked, indicating the plinth.

‘Erm, you’ll have to help me, I can’t get up there alone.’

Hadith put the pad and graphites on the ground and, with a nod, he picked her up, marvelling at her slender form, and set her down on the plinth.

As though there were gods who cared, the wind picked up, her dress billowing behind her.

‘Stand, like this.’ Hadith turned Elaine into the wind so that it caught her dress, pressing to her skin and revealing her form beneath. ‘Turn your head towards your shoulder. Lower your head a little, like you’re looking at something, there,’ Hadith pointed at a small table hiding within a curved hedge, ‘like that. Perfect. Now, your arm out, like you’re about to take something.’

Elaine turned her arm, arching it. There was a form to the move that was graceful.

‘Stop there.’ Hadith readjusted her arm slightly until it was back where it looked the most beautiful.

‘Now. Turn the leg on the same side a little. That’s it.’

Hadith examined her and made a few more adjustments. When he was done, it looked as though Elaine were turning away from someone when they called her back to give her something. The pose was dynamic, feminine, vulnerable. It was entirely Elaine. Her at the core of who she was.

Hadith swallowed.

He couldn’t deny it anymore.

Looking up at her, he knew without a doubt that he was in love with her.

It was no good. This female was, as she appeared right now, vulnerable. He and Dahnus were her protectors. A barrier against a universe determined to hurt her.

Hadith swallowed again, this time, forcing those feelings down, past his diaphragm, down into his stomach where he could ignore them.

Picking up his pad, he sketched her in rough strokes.

When he was done, he turned the page.

‘Would you take your hair down for me?’

‘Erm, yes.’

Elaine worked quickly. Handing Hadith pins, until her hair was falling lose around her. It was the second time he’d seen her like this. The first was the day she’d arrived at the palace. Then, it was unwashed.

Now, it was a glorious waterfall of gold falling in thick waves which fell in messy strands down her back. She reached up to fix it.

‘No. Leave it. It’s perfect. Do you think you can resume the same pose?’

With a little direction, Elaine returned to the pose and Hadith sketched her again. He tried a couple of slightly different positions, but as he did, he knew the original pose, with her hair down. That was how he’d capture her.

He’d never seen anyone as beautiful as Elaine was in this moment.

She was like a goddess standing before him and he wanted to worship her.

Finally, when he was done, he helped her down from the plinth.

‘You’re freezing,’ Hadith said, seeing the way her skin was covered in tiny bumps. The tiny hairs standing on end. Her skin felt like ice on the highest peaks of the mountains.

‘Come. Let’s get you inside. I have hot tea in my office and blankets.’

‘I wish it was hot chocolate. That’s the best hot drink.’

‘Another type of tea?’

Elaine shook her head. ‘Chocolate is life. It’s seriously the best drink, or food. I had a chocolate tomato sauce on chicken once in Brazil. It was amazing! That’s what I did for that summer my friend was looking at mountain top temples. Me and Pyri were in Brazil sunbathing and eating chocolate.’

Hadith laughed. He led her inside the studio and back into the office, carrying the sketches with him.

He led her to the seat against the wall and lifted it, pulling out blankets and sitting her down, wrapping them around her.

‘Stay here,’ he said, then walked to the counter and poured from the pot. He joined her, sitting next to her and handing her the tea.

‘I’m sorry for keeping you out there so long. I’m afraid I got lost in sketching you. You are a wonderful subject.’

Elaine turned pink again. Hadith watched it rise and fall from her face with fascination.

‘Thank you,’ she said quietly, taking a drink and sighing. ‘That’s so good, but it’s not chocolate.’

Hadith burned the word in his mind.

Chocolate. He’d have to talk to Dahnus about chocolate.

*****

Dahnus ran his fingers up Hadith’s hip, admiring the line of muscles that overhung the bone, and led to his cock. Hadith’s abdomen rippled, his muscles moving in a wave under the skin.

Every response Hadith had to Dahnus’s touch fed his own arousal. Making Hadith want him, need him, made Dahnus’s need for his adalan spike higher and higher. Dahnus took hold of Hadith’s cock and swiped his tongue over the split at the end but Hadith’s hiss wasn’t as urgent as it usually was by this stage. Dahnus looked up at his face and saw worry lines on his brow. Immediately concerned, he moved up his lover’s body.

‘What is wrong, my heart? Why are you not relaxing?’

Hadith looked at him, his beautiful eyes meeting his for a moment, then moving away.

‘Tell me,’ Dahnus said, stroking his face.

‘I… it’s a couple of things.’

Hadith shook his head.

‘Tell me.’ Dahnus stroked his brow, trying to smooth the lines and the worries away.

‘It’s…’

‘Tell me the least bad one,’ Dahnus offered.

Hadith looked at him, and smiled.

‘Adiyan said he believed we’d still be together if we hadn’t met. I saw him again today and the thought won’t leave me. What if you and I had never met?’

Dahnus was lying next to Hadith. They were stretched out on the rug in front of the fire at the far end of their enormous bedroom. There were three fires raging tonight to keep the evening cold at bay. The spot they lay on now was the same spot where his table would be set up, which is how they’d normally have these kinds of conversations. Dahnus hadn’t noticed the tension in Hadith, though when he looked now, it was evident that he’d missed it through his own lack of attention.

Dahnus lay back, and pulled on Hadith’s arm, urging him to turn and face him. Hadith followed his cue and they stared at one another.

‘There is no point worrying about what might have been. We are here. You are in my arms,’ Dahnus put his arm over Hadith to emphasise his point, ‘and we are together.’

‘I know. But what if.’

It was a simple question, but it seemed to be coming from a place of deep anxiety. There was more to this than met the eye and Dahnus could insist on moving past this and demanding to know why he was thinking about these things, or he could simply answer the question.

‘If that had happened, it wouldn’t have kept us apart.’ Dahnus pulled Hadith into his arms, tucking him under his chin. Hadith seemed to relax in his arms, so Dahnus pulled him closer still.

‘If we hadn’t met that night, we still would have met through Adiyan later. I would have seen this beautiful adalan by the side of a wholly unworthy suitor and known I wanted you as soon as I saw you. Just like I knew the night I helped you get up from the ground where your attackers threw you.’

In his mind, Dahnus could still see it. He’d been walking between buildings, his guard a discreet distance away. He’d seen Hadith walking on another path that intersected his. But when the path went behind some bushes, he hadn’t emerged when he should.

Knowing in his gut something was wrong, he ran there, his guard a way behind him.

He found Hadith held between two males while a third was holding his chin, leering, moving closer to him. A burst of possessiveness went through him. Every adalan, every female on this planet was his to protect and these males were hurting one of them.

Dahnus attacked them. He didn’t need his guards, though it was good they arrived when they did or Dahnus might have beaten their leader to death.

He turned to the adalan sitting on the ground and helped him up.

He fell in love with Hadith right there.

That evening, he walked him home while his guards dealt with the campus guard and the attackers. He barely slept that night, arranging breakfast to be delivered at the adalan’s door the next morning and timing his arrival to coincide with it.

They began dating not long after and the night they made love, the night their matehood was confirmed, Dahnus wasn’t in the least bit surprised; he already knew Hadith was his.

He knew it every time he thought of him, or looked at him, made love to him, came inside him.

‘Breath, Dahnus, that was a long time ago.’

Dahnus chuckled. Sometimes, he still wanted to hunt them down and punish them for their actions that night, even though, legally, they’d already paid.

‘As soon as I saw you, I would have wanted you. I would have approached and offered you a place in my bed.’

‘I’m loyal. I wouldn’t have gone.’

Dahnus smiled. He reached for Hadith’s cock and stroked up and down it.

Hadith tensed and hissed.

Pushing him gently back on his back, Dahnus crawled down the bed and licked over Hadith’s crown again.

Hadith hissed, more intense this time.

Precum gathered at his crown and Dahnus rubbed his thumb over it, then down to the sensitive nodes beneath the head.

‘Ah, vrok, Dahnus!’ Hadith’s back arched off the bed as Dahnus teased him.

‘But I can be very persuasive,’ Dahnus said, going back to the conversation. ‘I would have invited both you and Adiyan to my bed.’

‘He’d have gone. His father is obsessed with position and power, so he’d have gone.’

‘And you?’

‘I would have pretended I didn’t want to because I didn’t want to cheat on Adiyan. But he would have talked me into it, and I would have done it, because I wanted you.’ Hadith’s voice was choked as he spoke, Dahnus never letting up on his teasing. His thumb rubbing over his nodes, the circles he rubbed widening to include more and more, his tongue licking and lapping at the precum, feeling it fizzing inside his mouth, his world constantly reorienting to place Hadith at its centre.

‘Adiyan would have had a very lonely night that night,’ Dahnus said. ‘Because all my attention, all my interest, would have been on you. Being in you.’

Hadith was clutching the rug, trying to pump his hips into Dahnus’s hand, but Dahnus wasn’t fisting him. Instead, he held him loosely, his fingers still teasing him, bringing him oh so slowly to orgasm but not giving him the sensation he needed to cum, or to crest as high as he wanted to.

Hadith’s whole body rose from the rug when he orgasmed, suspended between his shoulders and his feet. His cock pulsed, his muscles locked, his breathing short. He was like that for several long moments, the orgasm not intense, but long lasting. Dahnus waited until the pulses in Hadith’s cock stopped, before he let go of the base of his cock, his pinched finger and thumb preventing him from cumming.

When Hadith finally collapsed on the rug, his breath was tearing in and out.

‘We would have discovered we were mates and your relationship with Adiyan would have been over.’ Dahnus crawled up, covering Hadith’s body with his, pushing inside him, his adalan swallowing his hard, aching cock whole.

‘Vrok, Hadith.’ He kissed him passionately before withdrawing his cock most of the way and slamming into him.

‘Yes, Dahnus! Please!’

With that, Dahnus let go, vrokking him hard. When that wasn’t enough, he urged Hadith onto his hands and knees and pushed into him again. He gripped his hips and pulled him onto his cock as he thrust into him.

Dahnus came hard, flashes of lightening in his vision, in his body. He came violently, his balls aching with the force of his spurts.

Hadith was gasping beneath him when he finished.

‘You didn’t cum, my love?’

‘No, Dahnus.’

‘Good.’

Dahnus pulled him up against him. He was still hard, pushed deep inside him. Dahnus wrapped one hand around his mate’s throat, firm but gentle. The other wrapped around Hadith’s cock. Flexing his fingers, Dahnus rocked his hips, pressing Hadith closer to him before he closed his hand over his cock once again, stroking him, hard and fast, until Hadith was breathless.

Ropes of cum spurted from him, covering the rug.

Dahnus turned his face as Hadith cried out through his release, swallowing his cries in his mouth as they kissed.

‘So that we are clear, my heart. You belong to me. Nothing was ever going to come between us. You are mine. You’ve always been mine. You were mine the day you were born. Just as I am yours.’

‘Oh vrok, Dahnus I love you so much.’

‘I love you too, my heart.’

Dahnus withdrew and helped Hadith over to the bath, making a note to let the staff know to take the rug away in the morning.

After a long soak in the bath, Dahnus and Hadith crawled onto their bed. Like all Amaran beds, it was placed inside an alcove. Unlike most, there’s filled the entire alcove. There was enough room for ten people to sleep side by side comfortably. Even so, Dahnus and Hadith fell into the groove of their usual spot in the middle, wrapped in each other’s arms. Once they’d settled, Dahnus pulled Hadith closer.

‘Now, tell me what brought this subject about.’

Hadith withdrew enough to look him in the eye. Then, reaching over, he opened a small panel in the padded headboard that surrounded the bed on three sides, and pulled out a small device.

As soon as Hadith pressed the button, a dozen or more sparks went off in the room as listening and spying devices exploded into microscopic dust.

‘I’ve fallen in love with Elaine,’ he admitted, still speaking quietly for the spying devices in adjacent rooms.

‘I keep thinking, what if it’s her?’ Hadith shook his head. ‘It’s her. I know it is. I feel it.’

Dahnus propped himself up on his elbow and stared at Hadith for a long moment. ‘I feel it too,’ he admitted.

Hadith breathed a sigh of relief.

‘We should send her away,’ Dahnus said after a sigh of his own. ‘Bring her back when the danger is over. When she’s less traumatised.’

Hadith waited, ‘But?’

‘But, we won’t.’ Dahnus dropped back onto the bed, on his back. This time, Hadith propped himself on his elbow.

‘She’s safer here with us,’ Hadith said. ‘I wouldn’t be happy to send her away. To not be able to see her and know she’s safe. That would drive me to distraction.’

‘Me as well, I’m afraid. I’ve tried to ignore it, but she dominates my thoughts as much as you do.’

‘What do we do?’

Dahnus looked up at Hadith. His mouth was plump and flushed from kissing. He wanted to stick his cock in his mouth and plump them more.

Dragging his thoughts back to their conversation, Dahnus sighed.

‘The same as before. Elaine is the victim of abuse. She needs to recover in her own time. It may take years. We will wait patiently for her.’

Hadith nodded. ‘You are a good mate, Dahnus.’

Dahnus smiled, but it faded. ‘The fact is, unless she will allow us to taste her sex, all of this is speculation.’

‘Do you think we should keep looking for our Ilia?’

The look on Hadith’s face reflected the way Dahnus felt. He shook his head, knowing Hadith needed to hear it out loud.

‘Oh no. Elaine is our mate, and we’ll wait for her.’

Hadith laughed and lay down on his chest.

‘People will be angry when they realise we haven’t taken a new lover in a while,’ Hadith said.

‘Vrok them. She is ours; we are hers. What other people want in this doesn’t matter. Besides, from the outside it’ll look like we’re so caught up in each other, we’ve forgotten other people exist. It won’t be the first time.’

‘That’s true. But if we’re talking years here, waiting for Elaine. They’ll realise something is wrong sooner or later.’

‘We’ll deal with that when the time comes,’ Dahnus said. ‘For now, I’m going to enjoy spending time with my adalan. For example, I would love to see my cock in your mouth, Hadith.’

‘How strange. I was just feeling like I needed to suck your cock.’

Hadith pulled the cover down and crawled down the bed, settling in between Dahnus’s legs. He swallowed Dahnus whole, finding the perfect rhythm straight away.

Dahnus fisted his hair, wrapping it around his hand and met him thrust for thrust, gasping as his arousal grew for his adalan.