Case Study: Interspecies Mating, page 34
“What time is it?”
“Past noon.” He covered her hands with his own, winding their fingers together – his three to her four. Weighing her down without cutting off her breathing.
“So late?” She whimpered when he rubbed his cocks along her ass. “Again?”
He chuckled. “No, not again. I was too rough with you. I shouldn’t. You need a chance to rest.”
She let out a breath that was part relief, part disappointment. She wished her weak, squishy human body could take more, but knew that it couldn’t.
“You went so feral,” she mumbled as he continued to hump her ass.
“The hunt will bring that out in me,” he said, not even a hint of apology in his voice. “I just want to make sure I didn’t hurt you.”
“No. I feel amazing.”
“There are some dark marks on your hips. Your wrists.” As he spoke, he gently touched the places he mentioned.
She didn’t doubt that they were bruised, but she didn’t feel them. “Really good sex will leave some marks. That’s part of being a fleshy creature.”
“Tender flesh mate,” he snickered.
“How do you divorce your mate?”
“Nope, too late.” He gathered her up, making her laugh as he snuggled her neck. “You’re mine now. Forever my tender flesh mate.”
He rolled them onto their sides, making her groan as doing so made the aches and pains all over her body flare to life. Her thighs and pelvis were sore, which wasn’t surprising. But so was her back, her shoulders, her fingers. The others weren’t that shocking, considering everything, but her fingers surprised her.
She lifted them up to discover that, at some point, her claws had been removed.
Rizor’s hand was there again, interlacing his fingers with hers.
“I took them off so you wouldn’t hurt yourself. They were sharp.”
“Thank you.”
“A gift from Fway and Kwee?”
“Yeah. Was it okay? Did I hurt you?”
Though it made her ache more, she rolled over, looking back at him. She hadn’t had a chance to explore the marks she had left on him yet.
“They’re mostly on my back,” he said, showing her his wrist and the marks there. Dark blue scabs, uneven and scratchy, cut through the scales. “You’ll have to get a pic for me. I want to see how they look. I bet they’re beautiful.”
She laughed. “You sound so happy about it.”
“I’m thrilled,” he mumbled, squeezing her close. “Thank you for my new scars. I’ll wear them with pride. Show them to everyone as proof of the devotion and strength of my human mate.”
She hummed happily, snuggling into him. She would have to store the claws somewhere safe now that the hunt was done. She’d break them out again when she was ready to have a baby – since that’s apparently the other time ratchi females attacked.
She kind of liked the idea of having the claws set aside like fancy jewelry only worn for specific occasions. It made them special.
“Oh. I have something for you too.”
Rizor moved around behind her. She heard something pop then, a second later, he was holding a broken leather cord in front of her. And dangling at the end of the loop was-
“A ring?” She asked, surprised.
She held up her hand and he dropped one of the strands, letting the ring topple down onto her palm. It reminded her of the FK-band still around her head. A silver, filigree body and a stone in the center that alternated between the same colors as their bands, making her smile as she held it up to the light.
“It’s apparently part of the human mating ritual,” Rizor said. “The other humans that mated non-humans asked for it in absence of any of their other traditions. I was told that I should do the same. And then Fway gave me this.”
“Rizor…” She could barely speak around the lump in her throat. “You’re really giving me a ring? Do you know what that symbolizes among humans?”
“The same thing this symbolizes among ratchi?” He asked, running his tongue over her shoulder.
“Yeah,” she smiled, turning the ring around in her hand. “Wow…”
“You’re surprised at this.”
“No, I’m not, it’s just…” She groaned, ashamed of herself as she realized what it was.
“Tell me.”
“It feels real now. Like getting the ring is somehow more solid proof than the bite. I’m sorry!” She grimaced, wincing. “That sounds so bad. I’m not trying to dismiss your culture or what the hunt or the bite meant to you.”
Rizor chuckled, reaching around and taking the ring. She licked her lips nervously as he then counted her fingers on the left hand before hovering over the one.
“Right?” He asked.
“Yeah,” she breathed, her voice shaking.
Rizor slid the ring over her finger, settling it into place with a pleased rumble in his chest. She found herself just staring at it, entrance. And still ashamed.
“You’re not dismissing my culture,” he said, holding her hand around the ring. “To be honest, this doesn’t feel real to me either. It’s just a piece of jewelry. How can it be meaningful? Unlike scars, it can be taken off. It doesn’t leave a permanent mark. I don’t understand how this can mean the same thing.
“But I do understand that, to you, it does. This is important to you. This is meaningful to you. And that’s enough to give it importance to me. You bear the mark from my teeth. I can’t tell you how much that means. If this is the equivalent to you, then I’ll be happy to give you however many rings you want.
“And I didn’t pick this one. I don’t know if that’s important, but if it is, I can pick a different one. Or you can pick whatever you want.”
“No. I like this one,” she admitted, smiling as she closed her fingers, feeling it settle in place. It fit perfectly. “It looks like our bands. It represents something significant in our lives. Maybe I’ll want a new one someday, but I love this now. It’s perfect for us.”
Rizor let out a breath of relief behind her, relaxing around her. “I’m glad. Tell me when you’re tired of it. We’ll replace it.”
She chuckled. “I can’t imagine I ever will. Thank you, Rizor.”
“Don’t thank me too much. I didn’t even know about the tradition. You have to tell me these things, tsaria, so I will know.”
“I guess I just didn’t think about it.”
“Did you not want one?”
“No, I did! And I love it. I just never thought to ask you for one. I guess I figured it wouldn’t be important to you, so there was no point.”
“Never say that, tsaria. I know that I’m going to have to take things from you. I know your entire life is going to change. If I can give you something back, I want that. No matter what it is.”
“Thank you, Rizor.” Shoshana turned, reaching back to grab his head and kissing him. Her lips moved along the side of his snout, enjoying the rough scales there. “I love you.”
He bellowed softly, right against her body, as he tightened his grip around her. “You love me?”
She laughed, elbowing him playfully. “You didn’t already know that, you big oaf?”
“No, I had no clue. Tell me again.”
She shook her head. “Nope. One time thing.”
“What? No, it isn’t.”
“Sure, it is. Human rules. You can only say it once.”
“That’s not a rule.”
“How would you know? You didn’t even know about the ring.”
“I’ve only been mated for a few marks, and already I discover my mate is a liar! How unfortunate for me. How do you do divorce your mate?”
“Nope! Too late!” She rolled over, throwing her arms around him. “You’re stuck with me forever now. No escape for you.”
“Tragic,” he let out a long sigh as he ran his hand up her back. “How unfortunate that I find myself mated to a liar.”
Shoshana stilled. The playful accusation hit far too close to home.
“Shoshana?” He looked at her, unable to help but notice.
Pushing herself up, she smiled down at him, trying to conceal her guilt. “Want to take a shower with me? I feel sticky and gross.”
“You’re covered in my seed. You’ve never smelled so good.”
“While I agree that your spunk doesn’t smell bad, to my shock, I’m not walking around covered in dried cum. Not going to happen.”
She tossed her legs over the side of the bed and stood-
-almost immediately falling as her legs gave out on her.
The only thing that stopped her from hitting the ground was Rizor’s tail suddenly swinging in from the side, a hard, thick bar of muscle that she found herself laying across as her shaky knees and weak muscles refused to stand.
“The fuck…” she looked down at her lower body, shocked at the betrayal.
Rizor used his tail to lift her up and back, sitting her on the bed. The direct pressure on her pelvis made her groan as he stood and lifted her into his arms.
“You think you can walk after that? I’m insulted,” he chuckled, carrying her to his bathroom.
“Okay, so hunts are for special occasions only,” she said, biting back a groan as more aches and pains flared to life.
Definitely still worth it. Every second of yesterday had been absolute bliss, but this was not something they could partake in every weekend.
Rizor set her gingerly on the counter, but even that made her hiss. The cold tile against her sore pussy was both a pain and a relief.
“I know that’s not a smug smirk I see on your stupid face, you over sexed crocodile,” Shoshana said, glaring as Rizor turned to start the water.
“I would never,” he said, far too innocently.
But Shoshana wasn’t listening. She was staring at his back. And, wow, had she done some damage there.
Right where she would expect them to be, in almost parallel lines, were eight, messy gauge marks, four to each side, where her nails dragged down from his shoulders. About halfway down, they converged together into one thicker, messier line where her hands had turned, only to fan out again before ending just above his ass. And then, on his ass itself, around his thick tail, were ten half-moon marks where she had just grabbed and held.
There were also four claw marks going across his flank. She remembered putting those there. They curved around his side, towards his stomach. They were the first ones she placed, but they weren’t as deep as the ones she had carved into his back.
Rizor stood, turned, and immediately realized what she was looking at. Smiling, he ran his fingers down the scab marks, obviously proud.
“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” He asked, stepping closer. “Not as pretty as yours though.”
The reminder made her look down at her shoulder for the first time.
She had a brief memory last night of him biting her. A short flash of pain that was quickly smothered by the pleasure of his violent rutting. His venom, she remembered him telling her, would have dulled the pain and helped clot the marks.
It looked like she had been bitten by a shark. Or an alligator, she supposed. The long, rounded bite mark over the front of her shoulder would be mirrored in the back, though she couldn’t really see. The scabs were evenly spaced, surprisingly thick, and were healing well without any signs of redness or inflammation that she would have expected.
Her mating mark.
She ran her fingers over it, rather amazed to see it there. The hand she used to touch it was the one bearing her ring and the symbolism choked her throat.
“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Rizor asked, watching her carefully.
She lowered her hand and looked at him before shaking her head, giving him a reassuring smile. “It doesn’t really. It’s kind of sore, like a bruise. But most of me feels that way right now, so it blends in.”
“How do my scars look?”
“Er… Like nail marks on your back,” she chuckled. “Pretty standard for human fucking, actually. We just don’t usually scar our males.”
He turned, trying to get a good glimpse in the mirror. When that failed, he summoned his combot with a command and had it take a picture so he could admire it properly. He leaned against the counter next to her as they stared in amazement at the photo.
“They’re perfect,” he said, touching the light display, distorting it. “You did so well, Shoshana. Thank you for this.”
“I’d say anytime, but maybe we should wait a bit before we do this again.”
He chuckled, gesturing for the combot to float back. “You can scar up my back whenever you like. Maybe we should get you some fake fangs so you can bite me as well.”
“Masochist.”
“And proud of it,” he hissed happily as he picked her up and moved her into the shower.
It took them forever to clean up.
Not just their bodies, though that took a while too. Rizor’s blood had dried between all his scales and she had to scrub it out with a surprisingly rigid brush while trying to avoid upsetting the scabs so they didn’t start rebleeding. The water softened her scabs, which made some of them break, so they did start bleeding, though her skin was far easier to clean than his. But it seemed that his seed just kept dripping from inside her, forcing her to clean between her legs multiple times.
After they were done, however, they had to then turn their attention to the nest. And that had not survived well at all.
Blood and jizz stained everything. The blankets were all eschew. Three of the four border pillows had been kicked off at some point. The mattress was a complete lost cause.
Shoshana was perched on the couch now. She had managed to stand on her own, but her legs were still wet noodles when she tried to walk. Her entire pelvis felt like it had been rearranged, and her asshole was sore. That was a new one.
“It’s fine,” Rizor had chuckled when she bemoaned that she wasn’t able to help as he began deconstructing the nest. “Building this was always my job anyway.”
“So, traditionally, what would be our roles in a mating?”
“Traditionally speaking, as in what’s commonplace now or what our lives were like before we joined the Coalition?”
“Both?” She shrugged. “One feeds into the other, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose.” He set the border pillows aside. They were made of waterproof material, so they just needed to be wiped off. The rest was going into a pile to be taken to laundry. “Well, before our society was forcibly advanced, it was very simple. A male would dig out a burrow in one of the dry areas of the swamp and build a nest there. And when it was ready, he would go hunting for his mate. Once he found her, he dragged her back to the nest. After that, the female would claim the den while the male would bring home any extra nesting material as well as food from his hunts.
“The female, once she was brought to a den, would begin altering it to suit her personal needs. Especially when she became gravid. She’d lay her eggs in the nest and then spend all of her time guarding it while the male hunted. It was a vital role in those days since predators were a far bigger threat. It’s why our females tend to be stronger than our males.”
“Very primal,” Shoshana agreed. “So, the nest was an actual nest? Like, for the eggs?”
“Yes. At night, the male would keep them warm while the female guarded the nest, and during the day she kept them warm and napped intermittently while the male hunted.”
“That sounds exhausting for the female.”
“It is. Though, our females require less sleep than our males, so it’s not as bad as you’re thinking. She makes up for it later once the eggs hatch though.”
“Which takes how long?”
“Females carry their eggs for about three tendays. Then, after they’re laid, it takes another thirty tendays for them to hatch.”
“That long!?” She gasped, surprised. Three hundred days was far longer than she would have expected for an egg to incubate. Then again, she was comparing it to, like, a chicken egg in her mind and there were definitely some big differences. “She stays awake for a full year?”
He chuckled. “It’s not an easy process to incubate eggs.”
“I’ll say.”
“But that was the old way of doing it. Things are different now.”
“Oh, thank goodness. I can’t stay awake for a year. And any predator strong enough to threaten you would probably eat me in one bite.” She grimaced.
“You won’t ever have to worry about it. I did not dig a burrow for my den. My home is a building, with secure walls and doors and everything.”
“Praise be to modern engineering!”
He chuckled, still working on putting their bed to rights. “I’ll still want to build a nest. Some instincts just can’t be ignored. But you won’t ever have to be concerned about guarding it from predators. And if you lay eggs, you won’t have to worry about them being in the nest either. We have incubators now that keep them at the perfect temperature and humidity right in the room.”
“Praise be to modern birthing techniques,” she laughed. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about keeping an egg warm. I barely know much about babies, to be honest with you.”
“I do not know much about hatchlings myself,” he said, frowning as though he had just come to that realization. “The revenge business doesn’t give you a lot of time to be around younglings.”
“Not that it would matter much,” she reassured him. “If we do have babies, they’ll be hybrids, right? They’re kind of an unknown, aren’t they? So, it wouldn’t really matter.”
“They’re not completely unknown.” He started rebuilding the nest now, with clean sheets and blankets. “The other humans that mated domini males have hybrids.”
“Yeah, I saw pictures of one of them. They never brought him down to Earth though. Or really told us much about him.”
“He is much more famous in the universe, I assure you. His birth ended up being broadcast live. Purely by accident.”
“How do you accidentally-… You know what, never mind.”
He chuckled. “Unfortunate circumstances. The point is the combination of human and alien DNA did something to him.”
“Something bad?” She frowned. “I’m not having babies if there’s a chance that they’re just going to suffer, Rizor. Sorry, that’s a hard line for me.”
