Chapter 34

I fall asleep in Xrat's furry flank, and we dream together. We're running across sand and dry rock, but his muscles are growing larger and every stride involves us leaping further and further. We have the Dry canyon before us and with a single running leap we jump the entire distance. Soon, we're jumping between sand dunes with ease. Xrat was taller than his father Vorth, and Skye's dead warrior beast, Zrot. Xrat was stronger, faster and deadlier than all of them. In the dream, nothing scares us. Nothing at all.

"Are you hungry?" a voice from the present interrupts the lucid dream.

"…no," I answer the question with a whisper, wishing to fall back into a deep slumber.

However, the fur beneath me moves and I slam to the hard floor on my side, abruptly awake as there is an entourage surrounding us.

I blink multiple times to focus on the Helpers coercing Xrat from the residence with butchered raw meat. As he wags his tail and follows them, barking and growling for more – I am quickly forgotten.

But, I am not alone.

Skye has been squatting before me, clearly just after arriving home from a full day touring his Dominion, doing what he does best. Yelling at people.

I look over my shoulder to gaze out the window to gauge the time of day. It really is time for dinner. The Moon is out in full force, shining brilliantly, and at that moment I see a flying vehicle leave streaks of grey in the air as it zooms off somewhere distant, at astounding speed.

Skye follows my curious gaze, "My youngest brother is on that transport," Skye turns back to me, not stating Raygar's name, "I asked if you're hungry, Ryder?"

"No," I shake my head. It might be odd, but I could go some days without any food. My body was used to fasting, especially in states where I worried whether I would even live to the end of the day, or until the morning sunblast.

Right now… I am stressed for an entirely different reason.

"Neither am I," Skye reaches out and holds my elbow, helping me stand as he stands. He removes his hand from my arm quickly though, inspecting his palm which is now sticky with saliva and blood off Xrat's tongue, "You stink and you're covered in blood."

"I am aware of that, Alpha," I hold his eye, speaking seriously.

"The steam room that you used –" Skye brings it up, carefully.

I cut him off with a quick reply, however, nervous as I speak, "I am sorry again, it was…"

"It was what?" Skye takes the bait, wishing to play into this new small power play, as he leans down and pretends to give me his ear, "I'm listening."

"I would train very hard and Xrat… would stink out the place, so – it was the best way to get refreshed and not ruin your lovely clean home," I stand back, hands behind my back now as I don't hold Skye's level gaze.

"The problem is your ignorance. You used the steam room incorrectly, you never turned it on," Skye blinks at me, as if I'm daft. Well. I am, to some degree. I had to learn to know, after all.

"Hmm?" I dance back a step or two, as Skye gets a certain look in his eye.

His ice blue eyes are focused entirely on my face, his pupils are dilated – and I know, from experience with Raygar last night, what that meant. I knew what mood he was in.

"Come shower with me, worm," Skye speaks it almost in an unappreciative murmur, almost like he doesn't care all of a sudden.

He turns and doesn't wait for me.

I stand on the spot, looking at my toes.

Right, it was a command.

"I'm coming," I call out awkwardly and quickly follow, as his mere lunges for his walking pace cause me to run.

Skye says nothing as he enters his hidden steam room, off his bedroom, that Xrat and I found together on an adventure of his residence. It's set aside a small hidden door, and i's entry is grand. You walk on pure solividian rock, unprocessed and in its rawest form, mixed with brown and yellow and orange sand stone.

Skye stops in the preparation room just before, stripping down from his robe and metallic clothes, to walk directly naked into the bathing area. I am barely wearing anything already besides a rag for a dress – which I slip over my head and kick aside.

I watch as Skye ends up in a corner and he reaches for a lever, turning to me, pointing at it while he holds it, "Did you not see this when you were in here?" he asks me, "How blind are worms?"

Is he teasing me? I can't tell. I'm mostly trying to look into his face and not down below.

Skye's form was beyond fine, finer than Raygar. I mean, they were all fine in general to look at, but Skye had a distinct advantage in height, in natural muscle mass and in raw strength. Everything about him was a war machine, even in his Genesis form.

"I saw it, yes, I could not pull it down though," I call out, while hugging my breasts, "It was too heavy."

"You don't pull it down," Skye laughs, "…you push it down…"

"That's the same th –" thing.

He moves the lever, smirking.

My frustrated reply is cut short however, as the steam that was slowly leaking from the walls and the tub – suddenly starts raging through like hungry thunder clouds. It's so dense, within seconds I can't see a thing. It's pure grey steam pumping into the room – it's hot bursts with added bursts of cold from air filters through the ground. Hot and cold mingle together with a strange texture as I step into it, while Skye is gone from my view.

"This is so strange," I chuckle as I walk forward with my hands out, "My apologies if I walk into you, Skye – I can't see anything –"

"I want to hear you laugh like that more often," Skye calls out from somewhere else, to my right. I turn toward him, feeling my heart bloom a bit.

"I laugh all the time," I counter, already knowing I lie. It was my least favourite thing to do. I keep walking, waiting for my hands to find the wall. I don't find one, and I've lost track of what direction and how many steps I've actually taken, "I'm already lost in a square steam room, Skye, haha, maybe all worms are really useless – I'm actually scared I won't find where I started, where are you?" No response, so I talk faster as I turn around, was he stalking me? "Skye, I… I don't understand how you can bond with Xrat – should we talk about that?"

I want to keep things neutral.

Why, oh why?

Because I was too scared of the other thing that happened when a man and a woman were naked together in the same space.

I did want it… but with Skye? I wanted it so badly, in a way I didn't want it at all.

That kind of feeling in my chest was too much.

Raygar was a friend – a lover.

With Skye?

I felt a fire.

I felt the blaze shift and grow within me, hell, thinking about my feelings too much made my brain swell too.

Maybe it was because Skye was the one who bought me, my 'master', the fact he had a dangerous position as the most powerful political influence across the entire planet. I don't know. Maybe those things contributed a little?

"Xrat is mine after all?" I lower my hands and I back off as I feel something coming toward me.

Well, it's definitely him.

I just detect it with my other senses. A change of taste in the air before I see him.

"I never knew you acted like a completely obnoxious brat when you're shy," Skye grins as he suddenly steps forward into my view – both his arms raised to his sides. I don't know why and it scares me into taking another step back – where my head smacks into the lever. I turn to glare at it briefly, "You're in a corner," Skye explains as he leans in to whisper down at me, his arms basically blocking any reason to side step around him, "And now you're quiet, Ryder?" his black brows furrow as his eyes roam my face, looking for any reaction.

I consider saying something, "Mm – ach," I gulp and almost choke on the thick air, but my indecisiveness causes only two noises to omit. It's startlingly obvious I have no idea what to do or say.

Skye's quietly amused with a smile as he drawls to me, "By using the steam room incorrectly you put marks and grime on everything and so I had to get the mould cleaned out – Xrat's general hygiene didn't help, being he's a beast who slaughters live prey three times a day, sometimes for fun," Skye decides right now is a time for a lecture? My eyes widen a bit, as we both stare at one another and I know now, in a shocking realisation, he is as nervous as me. I have kneeled to him and taken his member into the back of my throat, I've gagged for him, and it was a punishment we both enjoyed a little too much. I mean I hated every moment of it but – "Do you ever think about…" Skye does change topic, and he's thinking about exactly what I'm thinking about, "…when I punished you – do you think of it as a weirdly fond memory – ?"

"Yes," I nod, "Yes, I don't," that didn't make sense, my brain wasn't making sense with him this close, taking up my whole vision.

Skye watches me blush.

"Are you going to do it again or are you in love with Raygar?" Skye blurts it before he can keep it in.

Oh, for fucks sake!

"Alpha Skye, are you going to fuck me or are you going to talk about your brother?" I find myself snarling the question – with tears of passion in my eyes.

"I am going to f–" Skye bites off his own tongue, one millisecond before he almost obeys me. The consequences of the power switching like that could be enormous, even in private, and I feel my throat close in fear as his gaze changes, "Did you just snarl at me, Lunette?" Skye tries to keep in a smile, even though his eyes are now cold.

One of his hands drops to my shoulder, to my wet hair, which he brushes behind my neck. I cringe away from it, from the scorching heat of it. It makes my spine crawl.

If he touched me again – I was going to launch and climb all over him. I was embarrassed with how desperate that made me for Skye's approval and attention.

"Do you not like my touch?" Skye asks, confused, as he lowers his hand and takes a step back from me, his eyes clouding over with worry that he's attempted the wrong type of advance.

"Don't," I now dance forward and grab Skye's arm, hugging it to my chest, "Don't turn away from me now," I whisper as I clutch his fingers and I push them between my legs, so he can feel how wet I am. I raise a brow, "Please touch me there?"

Skye takes me in with his confused gaze, as I'm holding his arm, so tight, my hand on the back of his.

Yes, I still have no idea what I'm doing and I feel kind of stupid but how else was I meant to beg for this – ?!

"As sweetly as you've asked it," Skye looks different, his eyes glance past my direct gaze as he leans down to my ear, "I will never compromise myself like that, I will never fuck you the way you want. Only your mouth. If you want sexual intercourse you can ask Vastian, I'm sure he'll be willing."

"But I thought – " I almost choke on my response.

"You thought wrong," Skye commands it this time, as he steps back out of my reach and he flicks my juices from his finger tips back into the steam behind him, almost as if he needs it off him.

Something in my chest feels horribly wrong.

I need to get out of here.

My heart – ow, fuck –

I gasp in a breath and try to dodge past him, to get out of this rejection.

"Ryder," Skye doesn't let me go, as he cups the back of my head before I can escape, and he halts me with his fingers laced though my knotted hair, "Wait a second."

I find my words as I turn to Alpha Skye, "This morning in your office, when I was on your lap – you said later we could try again," I look for a light of recognition at the memory.

Of course he knows it, but it's like the moment never happened.

"Ryder," Skye blinks slow, and explains tightly, "I lost my mind with you this morning, because I have a soft spot for women like you," Skye slowly tightens my hair over his fist, "I lead Wolf Dominion, therefore I cannot fall in love or I will be dead by the morning. Not literally, it's just a saying I tell myself, to keep myself from the corruption that comes from a wayward heart. Feelings don't help when you're the Alpha."

"So, love is not real for you –?" I ask, confused and also disgusted.

"No. Love doesn't even factor. You're not important to me, you can never be important to me in that way, Wolf Dominion is everything I serve. It's my greatest achievement, my greatest love, which is being a successful Dominion leader – the Alpha of Alphas. All I require from you is loyalty and I will give you everything else you wish for – as long as you listen to me. I'm not the Alpha because I'm reckless or cruel, I'm the Alpha because I've knelt to the belief and understanding that my selfish desires are my worst enemy. So, I serve as selflessly as I can. It's my secret to success."

"I understand," I know one tear falls from my eye, but I have to obey, and I can't hide it, "I understand. Now let me go."

"Will you kneel for me?" Skye asks, blinking through it, "I still want your mouth – but that's as far as it goes."

"It fits further into my throat just fine," I crack a lame joke, I have to – or I won't be able to complete the next task.

Skye is happy with that answer. His fingers slacken from my hair as I kneel before him, the steam clouding his face so all I'm really watching now is his straining hard cock waiting – desperate for some release.

It's beautiful to me, and it's all I want in some regards, when I'm full of lust in my daydreams.

Right now, I wish I could make him break for me.

For my heart.

With this in mind, I'm determined as I kiss the head of his cock and I open my lips, to kiss the rest of him, preparing to love him as seductively as possible.

"Stop. Worm. There's no need for that romantic foreplay," Skye grabs the back of my head and he guides my movements instead of allowing me control, "Like this, Ryder. You can touch yourself if you wish."

I obey, despite my frustration.

I suckle over his cock as I place a hand between my legs and I rub my clit while I gag deeper around his shaft, taking Skye as he requested, minus the loving kisses.

We're silent together as I work his cock through my lips, and after a few minutes, I'm managing to enjoy myself at least. I mean, it's tolerable even with my hope diminishing with his treatment and then all but gone with his next words – while I'm in the middle of sucking down his shaft.

"I'm sorry to break the news this way, Ryder, but Xrat will no longer be in contact with you –" I choke, and Skye grabs the back of my head, keeping me steady and close, "That's it," now he cracks a joke with bad timing as I gag, "…you'll see Xrat in the field through Transcendence – but no longer will you have bonding outside, physically, he's no pet… he will grow much bigger," Skye needs to learn to speak of this stuff outside of his dick shoved down my throat, "I'm telling you now because I know you will object – but in this change you have no say," Skye starts to thrust his hips for me, ready to ejaculate on his own terms. He chooses to cum in my throat, while the back of my head is held tight and my eyes remain rolled up, glaring at him now.

Skye doesn't look away, and when he's done, he pulls out and he nods down at me, as the steam helps to clean the spit from his cock.

I stay where I am, completely disappointed.

I stare at his feet, waiting for him to depart.

Instead, I hear a slow exhale.

And a deathly growl from Skye's throat.

I look up again at his eyes, and I wonder what his problem is now.

Skye doesn't blink as he stares down at me, watching me too long.

When I glance at something moving… that is when I notice his cock is hard again.

Far stiffer than before.

"Don't say a word," Skye warns me, "Fuck the whole world until the morning. I'm having you."

"Skye –?"

"What did I just say, worm?" Skye lowers his tone, his death drawl is only for me, "You'll be punished and taught to keep those lips sealed then for your insolence – get to the bed, where I'll fuck you and gag you. I said. Don't. Say. Another. Word. Move," I stand up, my breathing erratic. Was this really happening? Skye grasps my wrist and hauls me along a little too fast. I slip, but I steady myself by falling into his side, as I try to keep up, skipping and running at times, "One night won't matter," Skye snarls to himself, furious already, "One night only. And then I'll be done with any need for your body."

The way he violently scolds himself… I'm not so sure he knows what he's talking about.