The Hunter's Song

Chapter 20: Supreme 🔥(E'pire)

I could smell her.

Her scent was reminiscent of standing beside a cold mountain river in the morning after a hard rain.

I opened my eyes to find my mate's long black blue-tipped quills resting beside me. She was naked on her side, breathing softly. I trailed a claw along one of her longest quills, musing on her vast collection of high-ranking markings acquired over the centuries. Male quills tend to dry out when they reach this stage but a female's shine and become softer.

I arrived late last night, technically morning, and I didn't want to wake her.

"I take it the drop-off went smoothly," Oru spoke from over her shoulder.

I clicked softly in agreement.

Oru rolled to meet my gaze and stroked my exposed hip.

"Mourning Crow's Blooding commences as we speak," I tugged Oru closer. "If all goes as I expect, we should receive her signal in a few days. The jump-point is only an hour away."

"I'm surprised," Oru caressed my mandibles with hers. "Normally, you remain in orbit to observe."

"All five of our unblooded pups were all males."

Oru chittered in amusement.

"That human lunar colony was a good choice," I added. "Between the civil war and sandstorms, there's no shortage of adversaries to test her honor."

"Jahaa gains a new formidable female warrior," my mate grinned amiably. "And if a certain pesky exo-suit designed to specifically kill our kind happens to be destroyed in the process, then we will have even more to celebrate."

"No doubt sending a razkur will confound all of their accumulated data," I dragged my hand up Oru's muscular side. "All of those assumptions about our anatomy and our tactics rendered totally useless."

"I look forward to witnessing the recordings," Oru ran her hand up my arm and nuzzled her face to mine. "A hunter who lures and taunts their prey with song will be most unexpected."

Her skin felt tight and supple like a ripe plum still clinging to the tree and I knew she tasted just as sweet on the inside.

No longer captivated by the folly of humans I growled and rolled on top of my mate, then burrowed my mouth into her slender neck. She growled back and coiled her legs around my waist when the tips of my tongue touched her blue and orange striped skin.

Oru wrapped her arms over my shoulders and thrummed as I made my way lower toward her collarbone and then down between her breasts, where I lingered long enough to savor her nipples and make them bristle to attention.

I met Oru during a joint clan assault on a human outpost station where they were performing experiments on captured yautja and developing anti-yautja bioweaponry. Her fury and precision were unparalleled but it was her sapience that enticed me.

My sisters and I, along with volunteers from half a dozen other clans came prepared to fight to the bloody end, but Oru maneuvered our squads with such efficiency that the massive human operation was neutralized in a matter of minutes. I was prepared to give up everything, even my faith in Paya, for the slim chance of making her mine.

I traveled down past her navel, licking every inch of her thoroughly then delved between her silky thighs. Every well-defined muscle in her solid torso quivered as I peppered her delicate skin in kisses. I knew the area could both excite and make her ticklish. Somedays she resisted the extra attention but this morning she stretched her legs over my shoulders.

Back then, my sisters thought I was mad for chasing after a Supreme Elder, but the funny thing was, I wasn't the only one yearning for something singular. A few months later, Oru arranged an all-female hunt with Clan Asepa and requested me by name to join her personal hunting party.