Page 73 of Black Mamba

With speed, I make the firepit, collecting kindling from around the area I clear. Snapping one, long, thick branch into several smaller pieces, I build the wood pile higher as she gathers twigs. She reaches into her pack and pulls out the firestarter. Afterwards, she shuffles to my side and kneels, turning it on and holding its electric flame under the kindling in her hand. The twigs sprout with flickers as she gently lays them into the pile. I add more kindling while the sparks catch and grow.

Even with woodsmoke and sap now scenting the air, I can smell her sweet essence. She has not been unaffected by me…

I lean toward the fire, shifting the wood pieces as she settles beside her pack. When I catch her staring at me, she promptly faces away. Despite how hard she tries, which I wonder if it is as hard as I am trying, she peers back at me.

I slide my tailtip over her leg, curling it around her knee possessively. She tries to move it away, but I hold on to her firmly.

“Lukys.” Her eyes hood as she leans back and straightens her leg. “We have to be… smart…”

I close the distance and press over her, slipping my tail behind and around her.

“Smart? You are aroused,” I growl, digging my fingers into the moss. “I smell it. I have smelled it for dayssss. I have been tempted to take you constantly, restraining myself from doing so. Not anymore.” I bare my fangs as I press her shoulders into the ground. “You are mine.”

THIRTY-TWO

FULFILLMENT

Elena

He reaches down and curls his tail around my hips, grasps the waistline of my pants with his hands and pulls them down my legs. They catch in his winding limbs but he shimmies them off me and away, shifting his tail at the same time. I don’t fight it as he turns for my underwear next and, spreading the elastic fabric with his fingers, rips them off.

“I—” I begin to argue but it comes out as a gasp.

With the cool air suddenly against my skin, and feeling emotionally raw at not getting answers about Jenna, I know he’s right. I have been aroused for days.

He pulls my legs apart and I let him. Breathing him in deeply, his musky, comforting scent floods me. It calms my heart, and with his tail sliding everywhere, it gives me the confidence to… accept him.

“You will not deny me? I would do anything you asked for another taste of you,” he whispers, his voice low. “Anything.”

Anything? I arch to the side and grab his knife from the side of my pack, quickly brandishing it and placing it against him. My legs may be spread open, and his cock might be on the verge of releasing, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have some of my wits about me.

“I won’t submit to you.” I press the dagger’s tip into his chest. “I… I can’t. I need to find my⁠—”

“I know.” He pushes his tail against me, cocooning me on the sides. “Did you not find her this evening?”

I shake my head, blinking through my aroused headiness. “The full registry is only accessible inside the encampment.” Some of the soldiers I spoke with had heard of my sister, but none of them knew whether or not she was a refugee here. The full logs were held by the registrar due to the confidentiality of… certain parties. That, and not everyone living around the encampment’s barriers have registered. They could have also registered under a false name. Only checking the full logs and searching for her will tell me if she’s here or not. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in the camp’s entirety, and that’s just a weak estimate in the dark. “They offered me a cot to sleep on for the night. Greg and Levy chose to stay and I…”

“Came back to me,” he says when I hesitate.

His gray eyes flicker with firelight as his hand wraps around mine with the blade. Just then the fire crackles and spits.

“Came back to you,” I repeat his words, my voice breathy as I draw the blade from his chest and pull his hand away with mine. He’s over me, his body mostly on top of mine. I feel him on every side, his heat warming my flesh against the cool night air. I shuffle against his tail, taking in more of his warmth.

Inhaling, I’m consumed by him. His nostrils flare as he puts his hand on my shoulder and pushes me backward.

“I wanted to come back to you…” I admit, shifting my arm and dropping the blade on the other side of his tail. I ease against the thicker part of it. He slides it farther under me while he leans away to peer between my splayed legs.

My thighs strain under his attention and I dig my knees into his sides, suddenly nervous. I wanted to come back to him. I wanted to be next to him, where I feel safest, and not on a cot surrounded by strangers, listening to the snores, coughs, and conversations of others all night long, wondering about him and Jenna.

I needed the peace I’ve only just begun to feel.

He splays his hands over my thighs, gently rubbing them with his palms. “You wanted to come back to me, or you knew I would come get you if you did not do so willingly?” He peers at me sharply. His chest rises and falls as he pushes my undershirt, sweater, and bra above my breasts. A long, low hiss releases from him as they’re freed. Straining, my body tenses from my exposure.

Licking my lips, I hold in a moan as his body’s heat envelops me. I cover the back of his large hands with mine as he gently touches the tips of my nipples with his fingers.

“Soft…” he mumbles, testing and rolling them. “Delicate and small. Jusssst like the rest of you.”

His cock slides out and lands heavily on my stomach. My body jerks against his heated shaft and the feel of his round knot pushing into my skin. “I knew you would come find me, but I came back willingly.”