(A/N) For those of you wondering where the next chapter of 'The Colder the Winter' is...sorry. I just had to get this one out. Guess with all the UST running rampant in that fic, I just had to do something for the boys. Plus I always seem to feel it's my responsibility to provide sex pollen fic in fandoms that lack it. So hopefully I manage to scratch an itch for some of you. Enjoy.
Warnings: Sex pollen, so...hella dubcon, non-consensual drug use, and attempts at xenobiology.
Inexorable
It was, perhaps in hindsight, not a wise decision to take on an assignment so soon after Saw Gerrera had run off with the younger members of their cell.
While Ezra, Sabine, and Chopper were busy being debriefed over the minutest details of what they'd learned about the rebel extremist, Kanan, Hera, and Zeb had opted to take on a scouting mission that had come up from among the literal databanks' worth of intel Kallus had been able to give the Alliance on Imperial operations. And as the Ghost suddenly found herself three crew members short, and Kallus was in the process of helping train one of the next Fulcrum agents, a young captain named Cassian Andor, he saw it as a good opportunity to immerse the young man in Imperial procedure in a mostly risk-free environment and volunteered them to join up with the Spectres for the run.
The mission was to scope out an abandoned Imperial medical installation in the Sariat asteroid field. Kallus was aware that the installation had been abandoned in a hurry just before the attack on Atollon due to some gravitational fluctuations in the sector. The rushed evacuation would have no doubt left behind a goldmine of intel to be collected on Imperial medical experimentation, not to mention the possibility of forgotten medical supplies just lying there for the taking.
It had started off well, with Hera and Kanan doing sweeps for supplies and for trouble while Cassian's droid, K-2SO, minded the Ghost. Kallus, meanwhile, was making headway with teaching Cassian about the procedures for complete system dump whilst avoiding the partial data loss that previous spies had had trouble with.
"Hey, Spectre Seven, think you could spare your protege for a bit?" Kanan's voice sounded over his comlink. "We found a pretty big stash down here and we need a couple extra hands."
"What? You don't want the help of your musclebound Lasat captain?" Kallus asked, throwing a teasing smirk over his shoulder at his furry purple lover, who was lounging casually against the wall. "He's not exactly doing anything at the moment."
The Lasat threw him a toothy grin in response. "Oh, I'm always doin' somethin'. Makin' sure your uptight arse end doesn't get shot."
"You know, I'm fairly certain you like that uptight arse end of mine," the ex-Imperial fired back, not wholly able to help the small cant of his hips.
"Too right, I do. Why do you think I gotta keep on you so hard?"
"Oh, I don't know. You could always stand to keep on me a little harder," he invited, struggling to keep his attention primarily focused on Cassian as the up and coming Fulcrum finished the system dump.
"That a challenge I'm hearin', Captain?" Zeb bit back with a growl.
"Is it, Captain?" he sniped right back. "I wasn't aware you needed a challenge."
"Oh, stars. Time and place, you two. Can't we at least keep it a little professional in front of the trainee?" Kanan pleaded with them.
"I am not the younger members of your cell, Spectre One," the younger captain said, his own attention focused coolly on the screen before him, but when he finally disengaged from it, it was with a knowing smirk in Kallus' direction. "Besides, if I couldn't handle their flirting, I wouldn't have stuck with this as long as I have."
"I am done with him up here, though, if you've a use for him," Kallus put in as he took over from Cassian. The young spy nodded once before heading out. Kallus shook his head as he continued to tap away at the terminal he was working at. "I confess, I'm insulted you seem to think I couldn't cover my own backside in an ugly situation."
"You know I don't think anythin' like that. I just like an excuse to watch that backside a little more often. Had enough of pretendin' not to look durin' your Fulcrum days. I can look all I want now."
Kallus found he couldn't much help the small smile that began to tug at the corners of his mouth. Ever since their very first, very passionate, very public kiss in the aftermath of the escape from Atollon, Zeb had been nothing if not a doting and attentive lover. He'd had other lovers before Garazeb Orrelios, but he wasn't used to being so openly adored as he was when he was alone with the Lasat – when they were in public, too, but in the privacy of their bunk, that adoration took on an almost reverent quality. In spite of their constant peril, he couldn't remember when, or even if he'd ever been this happy.
He should've known it couldn't last.
The first sign he had that something was wrong was when the terminal shut down with no warning.
"Wha- I-" he started in confusion, glancing briefly at the other three terminals that occupied the space, only to see them go dark as well.
"Alex? What's happenin'?" Zeb pressed, body tensing up as he moved into a more battle ready stance.
"I don't-"
At that moment, the emergency doors all around the room began to slam shut, as if the station had experienced a hull breach. Zeb made for the last door to try and stop it from closing, but was just a hairsbreadth too slow, the armored door clanging shut in his face.
"Fulcrum, do you copy?" Kallus snapped over the comlink as he pulled back from the terminal.
"...copy, Sp...tre Sev...n..." Cassian's voice came through a sudden screech of static.
"The facility just went into lockdown. Where are you?"
"...ain turbolift...shut dow...but life support's still online," he responded, the last bit finally coming through clear.
"Spectre Seven, what's..." Kanan's garbled voice came over the line.
"Lockdown," he responded simply. "Zeb and I are still in the main data vault. We're sealed in. Where are you?"
"...er storage. It's sealed up completely. Know of any ways to trip the system?"
"We'll have to figure out what caused the lockdown to trigger in the first place. Although," Kallus started as he began to notice a strange scent in the air – something thick and strangely heady, "it could be some sort of gas leak if that scent is anything to go by."
"Right. I'm smelling it, too," Kanan returned, his voice finally coming in clearly. "It's strange. I don't think I've ever smelt anything like it before..."
"...but it leaves an almost familiar taste on your tongue," Kallus supplied when the Jedi didn't finish.
"Yeah," Kanan and Zeb agreed almost on the same breath, and when Kallus let his eyes move to lock with the Lasat's, he felt an intense prickle of sensation all along his skin. Completely unbidden, a very vivid memory flared to the surface of his mind – the image of Zeb's head nestled between his legs, tongue running scintillating circles against the muscle of his left thigh.
Kallus gasped sharply as he looked away from Zeb, feeling a faint spark of desire shoot to his groin.
"Karabast," he heard Zeb mutter angrily.
Time and place, Alexsandr, he scolded himself sternly.
"Well, I'm not sure what you all are smelling, but I've got nothing out of the ordinary on my end," Cassian reported. "I'm trying to see if I can get the doors pried open."
"You won't be able to, so you may as well save your energy," Kallus told the younger rebel. "The system's not without power; it's in lockdown. Everything's magnetically sealed. Nothing we can do from the inside is going to open these doors," he told them as he moved to stand beside Zeb, who had looked ready to pull out his bo-rifle. Normally, it wasn't an issue for him to stand so close to his lover, but with this sudden strange tension he could feel coiling and tightening between them, he was aware of the bristling of each individual fiber of the Lasat's fur. Coupled with the strange scent in the air, he was beginning to notice a heightened version of Zeb's particular sort of musk, blending together to create something rich and new and entirely too intoxicating. The former ISB agent found himself trembling as he drew in a shuddering breath.
"Alex..." Zeb began softly, hesitantly, reaching out an unsteady hand to him. Kallus all but flinched away from the touch, already beginning to fear what might happen if that soft, beloved fur were to even brush against his suddenly too-hot skin.
"I- I know," he stuttered out, gazing into the Lasat's eyes to let him know this wasn't just him. "I feel it, too."
"Guys," Kanan's shaky voice came over the comlink once more, "I don't know how to put this, but...something's wrong. It's...we're- kriff, we're all adults here, I'm just gonna say it. I am- really turned on right now. This...Hera's feeling it, too. I've never..."
"Zeb and I are feeling it, as well," Kallus reported, sparing Kanan the awkwardness of having to explain what they were all feeling. "In all likelihood, it's connected to this strange scent."
"Must be, because I still don't smell anything and I don't feel any different either," Cassian's voice joined in on the conversation once again. "I've been trying to raise K-2, but all I've been getting is static. Outside communications must be jammed."
"But...what could cause this?" Kallus wondered aloud, only marginally concerned with the fact that they appeared to be trapped with no way out. "I've never heard of any sort of drug with- with this effect," he muttered, unable to help glancing at Zeb out of the corner of his eye. The Lasat was very pointedly not looking at him, but the former ISB agent could see the way his ears twitched nervously against his head, which triggered another particularly sharp memory about how that twitch felt against the skin of his neck. Wincing, he looked away from Zeb yet again, only just beginning to grasp how potent a weapon this might actually be. "Although...if anyone could figure out a way to weaponize desire...it would be the Empire."
"Nobody's gonna argue with you on that one," Kanan bit back, but then he was groaning in frustration. "Right, right. Way to be a moron, Jarrus. As the lovely Captain Syndulla has reminded me, I am in fact in possession of a lightsaber. I'm gonna try and cut us out of here."
"That, my dear rebel scum, is a solution I would most assuredly not attempt," an unpleasantly familiar voice sounded in the room as the terminals flickered back to life. Once the image finally settled, they were faced with a visage of equally unpleasant familiarity.
"Pryce," Kallus hissed in disgust.
"That's Governor to you, traitor," Arihnda Pryce snapped at him. "Your continued existence is an affront to this Empire."
"Well, you would know about affronts, wouldn't you."
"Yes, because I was foolish enough to let one of them live. Well, thankfully you will not be a problem for very much longer," she said with a sneer.
"So Governor," Kanan called pointedly through the open line, "feel up to telling me why it is I shouldn't cut my way out of my problem?"
"Because the facility was set to vent ziridox 9 into the chambers adjacent to those where lifeforms were detected. I doubt even a Jedi could make it very far after even one breath of the stuff," she explained.
"And how do we know you're not bluffing?" Hera's voice suddenly entered the conversation.
"You would take that chance?" the Imperial governor asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Perhaps," Kallus suggested, doing his best to keep his tone even, despite the fact that it felt like his muscles were beginning to vibrate beneath his skin. "That depends on whether it would be better to die quickly...or by whatever means it is you're currently inflicting on us."
At this, Pryce leveled them with a triumphant sneer. "You noticed that, did you? What's it like? Do you feel at the very edge of your control? As if your body is burning with your need? As if you'd do just about anything to slake your lust?"
The governor's monologue was cut short by the sound of Zeb's enraged roar. Kallus leapt back a step when the Lasat moved forward to smash his fist through one of the terminals. "Imperial scum! What the kriff did you do to us!"
"Zeb, calm down," Kallus tried to urge him, moving back in to lay a hand on his wrist without thinking. The moment his skin brushed against Zeb's fur, a vein of molten animal need threaded from the point of contact straight down to his cock, pushing him to half hard in little more than a few seconds. The choked gasp that escaped his throat was unlike any sound he'd ever made in his life and when Zeb looked up at him, the look was half dread and half hunger.
"Alex..." the Lasat whispered, his voice tinged with a desperation the ex-agent had never heard before. He honestly didn't know if he trembled with fear or want when Zeb traced a single clawed hand up his arm, fingers just a hair above the fabric of his jacket. Then that hand traced the air just next to his cheek and for a single charged moment, it was just the two of them alone in the room – no mission, no danger, no Rebellion, and no Empire – just their love, and the unquenchable need to express it.
"Oh, stars," Alex exhaled the tiny prayer on a broken breath, feeling his skin an inch from catching fire as he turned his head to kiss the palm of Zeb's much larger hand.
If he hadn't heard the sound himself, he never would've believed it had come from Zeb. The helpless whimper almost seemed to break something inside the hulking warrior, and when Alex lifted his head to look him in the eye, it was to find something...not entirely sentient in his gaze. Something primal and hungry simmered just below the surface, and when Zeb himself became aware of whatever that something was, his wide eyes flooded with fear and he jerked back from the former agent, shaking his head and breathing heavily.
"No," he whispered, unable to pull his gaze away from Alex, no matter how much he clearly wanted to. "No."
Logically, he could see the sense in the distance the Lasat had put between them, but that didn't mean the move didn't absolutely tear at something in his beleaguered heart. Forcing himself not to go after his lover, he wrapped his arms tightly around himself, shaking his head as he forced his attention back to Arihnda Pryce.
"What- what is this?" he demanded in as firm a voice as he could manage. "What have you done?"
"As I understand it, the base of this serum is modeled after the work of Dr. Nuvo Vindi. He did exemplary work for the Separatists during the Clone Wars in the fields of airborne dispersal. His work has left the Empire with a great many advances in the fields of chemical and biological warfare. This was a little something he was concocting near the end of his life. I believe the base component is Trigoran neurotoxin."
"So it will kill us, then," Kallus confirmed with a glare.
"Not right away, and not unless you let it, really."
"Let it? What does that mean?" he asked, though he was fairly confident he already knew.
"As you're already aware, the neurotox is potent enough to kill a human if allowed to run its course, but in the mating rituals of the Trigoran themselves, it is nothing more than a mild sedative. It was in the Empire's interest to develop a weapon that was more of the incapacitating sort. Vindi had initially been commissioned to develop something more in line with the neurotox's traditional effect. Don't ask me to fathom why the madman chose to bring that out in the form of an aphrodisiac, but that has proven to be the ultimate effect of the drug. It inspires in the victim an insatiable lust, and the longer those urges are ignored, the worse they will become. Lacking the means of release, many subjects have died from the metabolic shutdown it induces."
"Then...not letting it kill us...means..." Kanan's strained voice came over the comlink.
"Means giving in to your baser instincts, yes," the governor said with a vindictive sneer. "So you may be able to stave off the effects, but the fact remains that you are still breathing the gas, even as we speak, and will continue to breathe it for at least another five hours before the installation's supply runs dry, and by that time we will have reached your location. You will be either dead or driven mad from your attempts to stave off death. And this is all, of course, based upon the effects we know this drug has on humans. There is no telling what effect it may have on, say...a Lasat or a Twi'lek," Pryce told them and, if it was possible, the vindictiveness in her expression grew even sharper.
"You witch," Kallus snarled at the face on the screen, putting all of his focus into not looking over at his partner when an agonized purr began to sound in his throat.
"It's no less than you deserve, traitor!" she snapped right back. "To die in shame and agony. And if you have fallen so far as to even think like one of them, then you can also die knowing that the suffering of your rebel friends is your doing!"
"What- what are you talking about?" he asked before he could stop himself, feeling a kernel of cold terror blossom among the heat of the neurotoxin's effects.
"Did you believe we did not know what you knew, Kallus?" the woman mocked him. "This was far too rich a catch for those filthy scavengers to ignore. This was a trap for you, Alexsandr. Thrawn was aware of exactly where your tastes ran. What better end for you than to die defiling something you deemed precious with your own hands? Their destruction will be on you. That is your fate. Now, much as I would love to bear witness to your downfall, I have absolutely no taste for bestiality, so I will simply leave you to your fate."
"I will find you, Arihnda!" he snarled at his former colleague before she could kill the connection. "We will get out of here, I will find you, and for every moment of pain he suffers, I will pay you back tenfold. I will kill you myself! Do you hear me, Arihnda Pryce!"
"First you must get out of there," she reminded him, offering up one final sneer before cutting their connection.
"Damnit, damnit!" Kallus shouted, kicking the terminal in frustration.
"You know, revenge really isn't supposed to be the Jedi way, but you know something else?" Kanan's voice came back on the line. "I am gonna be right there beside you when you kill that kriffing-"
"Kanan, now's not the time," Hera's strained voice came over the open channel. "Alex, can you hear me?"
"I hear you, Hera," he returned softly, staring blankly ahead as his rage drained away, leaving only guilt in its wake.
"This isn't your fault. None of this is your fault. Do you hear me?"
"But...I..." he started without success. Maybe if he focused on his guilt, he could ignore the desperate fire raging in his skin.
"No! We're all at fault here. We should've been more careful. Cassian, are you still with us?" she pressed.
"I'm here," he responded, "but I don't understand why I haven't experienced any of these effects."
"The lift," Kallus responded dully. "It wouldn't be on the atmospheric delivery system like the rest of the compound. You're safe, but you're no less trapped. Any possible escape route will be flooded with the ziridox gas."
"Even so, it looks like you and K-2 might be our only way out of here," Hera told the young Fulcrum agent. "You're going to have to keep trying to raise him. Hopefully, he'll figure out something's wrong before our time runs out."
"Understood, Captain."
"And Cassian? I'll leave our channel open to receive any communications from you, but I'm going to switch to a private channel between the four of us for now. I don't think any of us want you to have to hear...what might happen," she said gently, just as much for their sakes as for the younger rebel's sake. Cassian's response was longer in coming this time, but he did respond.
"Understood...Captain," were the last words they heard from him before Hera switched out the channel.
"Okay. We can get through this. We can," she told all of them, though the shaking tone of her voice was more telling of her actual thoughts.
"But...Hera-"
"If the next words out of your mouth are anything other than an idea for getting us out of here, I don't want to hear them," Hera scolded him. "Neither your guilt nor your apology are relevant right now. I can't help noticing we haven't heard from Zeb in all of this. How are you holding up up there?" she asked the Lasat.
Zeb's only response was that same anguished purring sound. He'd moved as far away from Kallus as he could get, crouching against the far wall of the data vault, curled in on himself as tightly as he could manage with his large frame. He'd left his bo-rifle lying on the floor between them and it was this, more than anything, that told the ex-Imperial just how out of sorts he was. That weapon was his life.
"He needs you right now, Alex. He needs you to be there for him...to help him get through this," Hera urged him.
"I...I think my being near him is about the last thing Zeb needs right now," he tried to argue, feeling a fresh wave of blistering need move through his body. Could he even contain himself?
"Go to him, Alexsandr!" Hera pleaded with him, her voice sounding on the verge of breaking down.
"I- all right," he conceded, steeling himself against his own imminent break down. "But I'm going to mute the channel a moment. This...it's private."
"I understand," Hera said just before Kallus closed down the open line. He hesitated only a moment before slowly beginning to make his way toward his stricken lover.
"Zeb?" he called out gently to let the Lasat know he was approaching. The absolute last thing he wanted to do right now was come upon Zeb unawares. Even though the former guardsman's only response continued to be that same heartbreaking purring sound, Kallus kept trying. "Garazeb?"
He kept trying right up until he reached the Lasat's side, slowly dropping to his knees beside him as his own body trembled with the strength of his need for the other man. His fur looked so soft...so inviting...if he just reached out for one gentle stroke...just as he always did...
NO!
He snatched his hand back before he could allow himself the mercy and the betrayal of that one simple touch. If he allowed that to happen now they would both be lost, and for reasons beyond what he himself could see, Zeb didn't want this to happen.
"Zeb?" he tried again, resting his painfully clenched fist on the floor just those few dangerous centimeters from his love. "Zeb? Zeb...I'm here. Ni alitha...my beloved...please...just talk to me."
Zeb shook his head, still not looking up at him. Something in his heart twisted when he saw the way the Lasat's fur twitched with every tremor of his body. His expressive ears were drawn flat against his head in abject misery.
"Zeb, please...what can I do? I don't want you to keep suffering like this. Is giving in- really so terrible a solution as all that?" he asked, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him with every fiber of his being.
"'s not that," Zeb finally responded, his strong, steady voice reduced to little more than a whimper. "I'm not the one you should be worried about."
"Then...what is it?" he asked. "I don't understand."
"I think...Lasat and Trigoran are close enough biologically...that this stuff's triggerin' some kind of rut cycle."
"Rut...cycle?" He vaguely recalled the term from xenobiology, but its exact meaning was escaping him in his current state.
"When- Trigoran males mate...they go off crazy. It's like they aren't even sentient anymore. Lasat were that way...a very long time ago. I feel that- comin' on now. It's like...if I let go...if I give in to this now...I'm gonna completely lose control...and if that happens, I- I'm scared I could hurt you," the Lasat confessed, a single hand moving across the small space that separated them to try and grip Kallus' hand before he harshly yanked it back, wrapping his arms even more tightly around himself.
"Me?" Kallus mumbled uncomprehendingly.
"You're human," Zeb whispered in despair as he finally looked up at him. He wasn't crying, but the dread and the heartbreak in his round, luminous eyes were somehow almost worse than tears. "If I was with another Lasat or a Wookiee or a kriffing Trigoran even...they could take anythin' I could do to 'em in a rut madness, but you're human. If I go off crazy...if I'm not in control...I could kill you," he said, the last words nearly choked off by the torment in his voice.
"Zeb...ni Garazeb..." he returned softly, desperately, focusing on the pronunciation of the Lasana in order to prevent himself from reaching across to touch his lover – to comfort him in the only way he knew how. Slowly, he lifted his hands up, suddenly seeing them through new eyes.
He wasn't used to thinking of himself as anything less than strong – strong and unbreakable. Ever since graduating top of his class from the Royal Imperial Academy, he had been a model of Imperial strength and discipline. If he wasn't physically strong enough to handle any challenge that came his way, then he would certainly be smart enough. He was untouchable, unconquerable. Even on Bahryn, even facing Thrawn, he had never felt truly helpless.
This...this was different.
This was a fight he couldn't win, an enemy he couldn't defeat, whether by cunning or prowess in battle. He had never considered how easily Zeb's claws and teeth could tear through his flimsy human skin, how simple it would be for that Lasat strength to break his bones and shred each sinew that bound his fragile human frame together. Zeb really could kill him – easily.
Only...he wouldn't.
Zeb had proven time and again that no force in the galaxy could move him to hurt Alex. Not really. Why should this be any different?
"Would it help if I said I don't believe that?" he tried to soothe the Lasat, reaching out to trace a hand through the air just beside his ear. "You wouldn't hurt me, Zeb. You never would."
"You can't know that," Zeb groaned despairingly, flinching away from even the ghost of his touch. "All we know is how this stuff affects humans. I would never hurt you, but I might not have a choice here. If the drug takes over, it wouldn't be me anymore. It'd just be a rut mad animal roarin' to get off in the first thing that moves. I'm not gonna let that happen to you!" he snarled, pounding a fist against the wall. "Not while I have enough control to stop it."
"You're not an animal, Garazeb," Alex reassured him, attempting to ease his fraying heart with his voice where his hands could not. "I'm not going to push you into this while you're still afraid for my safety, but I want you to know that I trust you. I'm not afraid. I would trust you with my life, Zeb. You must know that." He was half-pleading now. "Nothing in this universe could make me not want you. I love you. I love you," he repeated in a softer voice, wishing so desperately to just reach out and touch his partner.
A sound that was caught somewhere between a groan and a pained laugh escaped Zeb's throat at his words. When the Lasat looked up at him again, it was with something dark and crackling in his normally warm, humorous gaze.
"Are you still gonna want me when I tear you?" the Lasat asked in a defeated voice, gaze haunted and self-loathing. "Are you still gonna love me when I break you?"
Alex would be lying if he said the former guardsman's words didn't give him pause, but never once did he step back from him. He remained by Zeb's side, offering as much comfort as his mere presence could. "That won't happen," he said in as firm a voice as he could manage, but then his gaze was drawn once more to that small stretch of floor that separated them. "Zeb!" he started in worry.
The floor between them was spotted with blood, and when Alex followed the tiny red droplets to their source, he saw they were coming from Zeb's hands – from where he'd allowed his own claws to pierce his palms. Without thinking, he reached forward to try and take his injured hands in his.
"NO!" the Lasat snarled as he jerked clumsily to his feet, moving away from the former agent as fast as he could. Without looking back at him, he snapped, "Don't touch me! If you- if you touch me...even once...I'm gonna lose it. Your scent's bad enough. I can't take touch, too."
"I'm sorry," he returned in a whisper, guilt briefly strangling his heart. "I wasn't thinking." With his blood pounding through his veins and his nerves firing ceaseless sensation along every inch of his skin, he didn't expect he was long for rational thought himself. He couldn't help the enticing scent he was surely assaulting Zeb's senses with, but he could at least respect the other man's wish for space.
But with the way his skin was prickling with need and with the feel of each droplet of sweat traveling down that too-sensitive skin, he wasn't completely certain how long he could maintain even that.
XxX
"You know, when I- when I said I wanted more alone time, this really wasn't what I had in mind," Kanan joked miserably from his end of the supply corridor. He was sitting cross-legged against the door, attempting to meditate without much success. All he could really seem to focus on was the sound of Hera pacing at her end of the corridor.
"Well, be careful what you wish for, as they say," she returned with a pained, almost angry laugh. "How're they holding up?" she asked, trying to focus on problems other than her own. Sealed in a corridor between two supply caches, they had even less space to work with than the other two Spectres.
"Not- not good," he answered, not even having to try to pick up on the surface thoughts of his two friends. "Kal's guilt-ridden as all get out, Zeb's terrified of losing himself, and they're both aroused as kriff. I...I don't know what to do, Hera," he muttered anxiously, trying to turn his thoughts toward his worry and away from the feel of his painfully hard cock.
"I guess we can be grateful this is happening between two loving, consenting couples," she pointed out. "Can you imagine what might've happened if Sabine and Ezra had been with us on this one?"
"I really don't want to. Us in this situation's bad enough, but to think about it happening to the kids..." Kanan couldn't bring himself to finish, shuddering in disgust. Unfortunately, that same shudder reminded him of just how sensitive his skin had become beneath his clothing. A small groan escaped his mouth before he could draw his mind back to even a semblance of stillness.
There is no emotion. There is peace.
The Force is everywhere, in everything.
What everywhere? What everything? They were nowhere – locked in an Imperial box and trapped at the center of a dead asteroid. The only flickers of life amongst all the nothingness were from Cassian, from Zeb and Kallus, from himself...and from Hera. And his ability to focus on anything but Hera Syndulla was fast diminishing.
He was only too aware of the heaviness of her breathing, the fury of her pacing, the shattered intensity of her thoughts. He didn't have to ask her what she thought of all this. He already knew. Fewer races in the galaxy were more widely enslaved than the Twi'leks, specifically enslavement of a sexual nature. To have her own bodily autonomy ripped away from her was tearing at something in her soul. And no matter how badly his own body ached for her, he was not going to tear that wound open any further – not unless she willed it.
There is no ignorance. There is knowledge.
"Hera?" he called out softly, hearing the way her breath caught in her throat at the sound of his voice. "How do you want to handle this? Just say what you want done and I'll do it."
Her pacing had stopped, but he could still hear each shuddering breath that moved past her lips. Involuntarily, his own lips parted, remembering the insistent press of their first kiss. Stars, but he was ready to crawl to her a thousand times over just for the sweet release of even one kiss.
Down, Jarrus. Keep it together.
There is no passion. There is serenity.
"Kanan," she began in a small, desperate voice. "I love you. You know that. Right?"
"I know," he returned, his heart thudding painfully in his chest. "I love you, too. I'll do whatever you ask."
"I know you will. So I think we need to try and stay in control as long as we can. If we can stay strong, maybe it will help Zeb and Alex."
"Maybe," he echoed, though with each passing moment he was less and less certain of that.
"I'm not sure how long I can hold out, but I want you to know...in case one of us does succumb...this is nobody's fault. Whatever happens isn't your fault," she soothed him, her voice both a balm and a burn. "If the time comes...I trust you. I trust you with every part of myself."
"I- I won't let you down," he vowed, hands reaching down to grip at his knees.
"I think...I'm going to try getting off alone first," she offered up. "See if that helps with anything."
"No harm in trying," he said with a small grunt. Fat lot of good the Code was doing him right now, so he might as well give it a try himself. Breathing deeply for several moments, he did at least make the effort to try and calm his mind before loosening his trousers and slipping a hand into his tight black undershorts to start palming himself.
At first, it was easy enough not to dwell on anything in particular. He was just so overcome by the feel of his fingers against his heated flesh. He tried to keep his thoughts away from Hera and what she must be doing, but the flash of her across his mind brought him to completion in just a few hasty strokes.
The jolt of painful pleasure that fired through his body drew a pathetic whimper from his lips. The pulse of his own seed over his hand left him feeling strangely sullied. Dimly, he was aware of the fact that he was no closer to relief, still fully hard, but that wasn't what occupied his mind just then.
No.
It was the tiny, stilted cry that escaped Hera's mouth as she brought herself to climax.
"Hera," he cried out helplessly, reaching out to the intense wave of her pleasure through the Force before he could prevent himself. Completely beyond his own control, he plunged greedily into that roil of pleasure, burrowing so deep in her thoughts he could feel the physical sensations traveling through her body. But almost before he'd even realized what he'd done, he was struck through with a sudden painful spike of memory.
His master's hand on his arm...pulling him from a pleasant reverie...
"Caleb...Caleb Dume...run."
The clones aiming to fire...their friends...how could this...
"Padawan! Run or fight, but do not just stand there."
Two more go down by his lightsaber, but there are still too many...closing in...
"Caleb, we cannot win this battle. You must run."
Master!
The memories tangled in upon one another, intertwining.
"Mama?"
Her baby brother's tiny lekku are never still...but they are still now as Mama holds his wasted body in her arms, sobbing.
"Oh, Bek...my son...my son! Why my child?"
She doesn't see when Papa comes into the room, but he' s there all of a sudden, arms moving around his wife and lifeless son.
"Hera...come."
But she can't. If she goes to them, it will make it all real...and Bek will never call her name again...
"Bek?"
There is no chaos. There is harmony.
The only sound he can hear as he races down the street is the pounding of his own heart in his ears. The distant thunder from the continuing explosions doesn't even register. All he can think of is the sight of his annoying, foolhardy, beloved brothers caught in an explosion...
"Stop, Cassian. Stop! It's too late. It's already done. You can't help them now."
He already knows that...but to admit it to himself is just too painful. To admit to what he's lost...it means he is truly alone in the galaxy.
"Don't leave me here by myself!"
There is no death. There is the Force.
As the last of his unit goes down with a plasma bolt through her chest, the Lasat slowly turns to look at him, a feral sneer on his face as he raises his bo-rifle to fire.
The shot never comes, though. The mercenary leaves him suspended between life and death, unable to move an inch in either direction.
"Feh, just a human," the Lasat snarls in frustration as he slings the weapon onto his back, still unfired. He comes to Kallus and lifts him bodily into the air by his throat. "Still...I hear and obey. The Ashla and the Bogan favor you this night, soldier of the Empire."
"Kriff. You. Monster," he growls as defiantly as he's able.
The alien shakes his head. "Keep your life. But we can't have people thinking you encountered me and walked away unscathed," he says before delivering a violent swipe across his chest, claws slicing through the fabric of his uniform and ripping his skin open, tearing a scream from his trembling lips.
No emotion, no ignorance, no passion, no chaos, no death.
Yet...
He roars in rage and pain as the electrocollar sends a punishing jolt of electricity through his body. When he's nearly at the point of blacking out it finally stops, and he drops to his knees.
"Nothing but a beast," the slaver says with a cruel sneer. "A mindless animal."
"Take this collar off," he demands with a weak snarl. "I'll show you a beast."
"Oh, no. That's for the buyers to decide. But what will you be?" the human muses as he looks at him through the bars of the cage. "A gladiator? A house pet? Or perhaps some fine Coruscanti with exotic tastes might pay for the privilege of that huge prick. You may as well give it up, Lasat. The only way you're getting out of here is in chains."
With a pained shout, Kanan wrenched himself from the swirl of memory. As he came to, it was to find himself lying on the floor, curled into a ball and gasping for breath.
What- what in the kriffing hells...
"Kanan?" Hera's strangled voice came to him from the end of the corridor. "What...what was that?"
"You- you saw it, too?" he whispered in shock.
"Yes."
"Hera! Captain..." Cassian's strained voice suddenly burst over the comm channel. "I just- I saw..."
"Kanan," Kallus' equally strained tone broke in when Cassian didn't finish, "what the kriff just happened?"
"Everyone...saw that?" Kanan forced himself to ask as he slowly drew his body back into a sitting pose.
"Looks that way...love," Hera grunted.
"But- those were Force visions. None of you are Force sensitive. I've only ever- shared visions with Ezra before...or with my master..."
"It's- probably got something to do with you not being in control of yourself," Hera suggested.
The knight was briefly tempted to argue that that was not how the Force worked – but then, what did the Jedi really know about sex and the Force? For all their vaunted teachings, the Jedi Order was completely ignorant on the subject of sexual intercourse. For all he or any other Jedi knew, this was exactly how the Force worked in a case like this.
"You're probably right," he conceded. "But...for me to just smash everyone's memories together like that, it's just...it's even worse. How can I-"
"Kanan," Hera interrupted him, her voice drawing closer, the height at which it came from telling him she was crawling to him, "I think- we both know there's only one way this can work."
"Hera-"
"This thing...we have to just go with it. We can't force the others to give up what's in their heads. If you focus on me, maybe it will be enough to spare them."
"But...you-"
"There's nothing in my head I mind you seeing...Caleb," she returned softly, not more than half a meter away from him. "Some things- it's probably long past time you saw."
"If- if you're sure..." he started back in a shaky voice. If it came to it...was he really ready for her to see his worst moments?
"I've got ugly things, too," she said gently, clearly anticipating what he would've said. "I trust you. Nothing's going to turn you from me...and nothing could turn me from you."
"All right," he whispered, swallowing heavily as he reached out for the shape of her in his mind. "All right."
She gave some sort of instruction to Kallus over the comlink, but Kanan couldn't really focus on the actual words anymore. Only the sound of her voice, the feel of her against him as he let himself dissolve in his connection to her, no longer resisting the desires of his body but flowing with them.
Maybe they could get through this.
XxX
Nothing but a beast...a mindless animal...
You're not an animal, Garazeb...
Are you still gonna love me if I break you?
Kriff. You. Monster...
Zeb keened in anger and anguish as he slammed his head against the wall, the shared memories raw and bleeding in his mind. Faintly, he could hear Alex trying to figure out what had happened, but it took a few minutes for him to wake to the words actually being exchanged.
"I think- there's only one way we can make this work," Hera's beleaguered voice finally came through the fog in his brain. "If we keep resisting, it's only going to make things worse. Kanan could end up crushing our minds together and Zeb...he really could tear you to pieces. The longer you delay, the harder it's going to be. Kanan and I are going to...yeah. You need to convince Zeb, Alex."
"But...he...I can't-"
"You have to, Alexsandr. It's the only way. You know who he is inside, underneath everything. He'll do it if you ask him to."
"Hera...Alex...please. Please don't make me," he begged without looking up at Alex, the voice issuing from his throat small and helpless. He had no doubt that if he looked into his lover's eyes now, he would be lost. Plus the fact that Hera was right. If Alex actually asked him, there would be no way he could refuse. He couldn't refuse Alex anything. "Don't ask me to do this. I'm not- strong enough," he choked out.
A beat of silence followed this, but that quiet was soon filled by the gentle fall of Alex's footsteps – gentle, but resoundant. There was nothing about his Alex he wasn't aware of in this moment – the sound of his breath, the shape of him, the faint taste of him on the air, and the scent, the scent above all else. That thick, heady musk that pulled at all of his senses, running wild through his entire body and telling his hindbrain exactly what Alex wanted him to do to him. Nothing they hadn't done a hundred times, quick, dirty, and hard up against the Ghost's bulkheads...but now...
Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!
This wasn't going to happen. He wasn't going to let it, no matter how sweetly and torturously his lover's presence sang in his blood as he knelt beside him once more.
"Whatever does that mean?" Alex asked him, his voice thrumming scintillatingly through every part of the Lasat.
"I can't say no to you. I said I wasn't gonna let this happen- while I had the strength to fight it...and I meant it...but...if you ask me to do this...and somethin' happens that can never...unhappen...I'm just- I'm not strong enough," he struggled to explain, claws penetrating all the deeper into his arms from where he had them wrapped around himself, desperate to keep control of his body.
"Not strong enough for what?" Alex asked him, trying to understand.
"I can't lose you!" he cried out, looking up at his partner before he could stop himself, tears burning at his eyes as they squeezed past his defenses, sliding down his face. It was only the look of shocked amazement on the former Imperial's face that stopped him from touching him, stopping at reaching his hand forward to achingly stroke the air just beside his golden head with blood-stained fingers. "I watched them- kill everyone I love. They're dead now. And now...they're tryin' to kill you, too...and they're usin' my hands to do it! Ashla alkyrreh!" he cried out in anguish, reverting to his mother tongue as he pulled back in on himself. He could half-feel Alex wanting to reach out for him and had no idea if he was relieved or disappointed when he found the strength not to.
"Zeb...oh, Zeb," his lover whispered in comfort and despair.
"If you die...if I lose you...like this...I won't have the strength to keep goin'," he confessed. "Not this time. I'm not strong enough- to live without you."
At his words, Alex gave a shaky, drawn-out sigh. For several moments, all he was aware of was the sound of the ex-agent breathing in and out. When he finally seemed to come to some sort of decision, it was with a small, resolute huff of air.
"I would never abuse my position...to ask something of you you were unwilling to give, but in this case, I think, I am forced to agree with Hera. If we're to have any chance at influencing what happens here, we need to begin now."
Feeling a cold drop of fear travel down his spine, the former guardsman looked up at his love with terrified eyes.
"Alex-"
"I understand your fear, ni alitha, but I also want you to understand mine. I cannot- allow myself to be the cause of your pain...not again. If I think I can help...will you let me try?" he asked, looking into Zeb's eyes with all the love and devotion he'd ever dared to hope this man could feel for him.
"Ni- ni alitha," he returned in a gruff voice, still unwilling to reach out and take the comfort his lover so freely offered. "I don't- know what might happen."
"I do. We're going to get through this. Together. Just like we do everything else. If you think it might help...I can always bind your wrists."
Zeb let out a pained laugh at that. Really, he should've known. His overachieving ex-Imperial arse of a partner would have binders on hand – just in case. Alex couldn't know what it meant for him – to willingly accept being bound – but if it was for the sake of keeping his love safe, he was more than willing to brave it.
"I'm not sure it will, but I don't see any other way outta this, so we may as well give it a try," he said with as much of a smile as he could manage.
"All right. Take off your vambraces," Alex told him gently before going for his pack.
Zeb tried not to think too hard as he slowly removed the pieces of armor that protected his forearms and hands. He'd known he was shaking even before attempting to remove the armor, but actually handling the interlocking pieces of metal told him just how bad it had gotten. Even though he was far from it, he somehow felt completely naked by the time Alex returned to him with the binders, having already shucked his boots.
"Ready?" the former Imperial asked him.
Zeb nodded. "As I'll ever be," he said, offering up his wrists. Being careful not to let their hands touch at all, Alex gently locked the binders in place.
"They're set to magnetize," Alex explained. "Whichever position you think you'll be most comfortable, get there and they'll be able to lock to the wall."
Nodding again, Zeb moved to a sitting position against the wall, legs spread out before him as he raised his hands above his head. Then, carefully shifting his wrists within the binders, he bent his elbows until his hands were behind his head, locking the binders against the wall with a heavy clang.
"That doesn't look particularly comfortable, Garazeb," Alex scolded him mildly as he slipped off his officer's jacket, coming forward to kneel between the Lasat's legs.
"'s not about 'bein' comfortable'. It's about my not bein' able to break free when the notion enters my head," he returned seriously. "'Cuz it will."
"I believe you," Alex said as he slowly stripped down to his sleeveless undershirt. "Certainly if my own state of near loss of control is anything to judge by. I think maybe...we had best begin simply," he said, taking a moment to remove Zeb's chest armor before leaning in to press his lips against the Lasat's, finally claiming that kiss they'd both been aching for for what felt like eons.
Zeb immediately found himself straining against his bonds, hands jerking, desperate to reach out and hold his lover. But the binders held, anchoring him to the wall while Alex kissed him. He could feel the ex-Imperial twitching, wanting to move into a familiar position and grind their hips together, but he somehow held himself back from it, shifting instead to mouth at the delicate fur along his jawline.
While Zeb shuddered beneath him, Alex quickly skimmed over the more prominent facial hair at his cheeks and up onto the much more sensitive flesh of his ears. The Lasat gave an uncharacteristically high cry as the slighter male took the tip of one ear in his mouth, sucking intently on the defenseless stretch of skin.
"Unh...Alex...Kal..." he whimpered helplessly, leaning into the other man as best he could. The sensation of Alex's tongue swirling around that smallest part of his anatomy striking a thread of lightning directly to his groin, making him ache all the worse. When the human began to mouth experimentally along the lower edge of his ear, his small noises began to shift into louder groans and growls.
"Ze ze, ze ze," Alex breathed into his ear, the whispered Lasana having the opposite effect of calming him. By the time the ex-agent had thoroughly worked over both his ears, Zeb was straining fiercely against his bonds.
Leaving him with a last burning kiss, Alex pulled back from him with a dazed look on his face, amber eyes fever-bright, lips slick and swollen from kissing, and pale skin flushed, throwing the freckles that dotted his face into sharp relief.
"Hngh...Alex...ni Alexsandr," he groaned low in his own language, already far enough gone that the Basic was beginning to escape him.
Offering him a weak smile through the haze of his lust, Alex reached forward to cup his face in his hand.
"Zeb...L'ashkerrir an...Garazeb."
I love you.
Groaning with want, Zeb unthinkingly raised his feet to make a grab for the human's hips, but Alex had positioned himself carefully enough between his legs that he couldn't maneuver himself well enough to get a grip. All he could really do was lean fiercely into the former agent's touch, rubbing his face along those fingers and working his scent into that skin...
...that fragile, fragile human skin...
"Kal..." he exhaled fearfully, briefly laying hold of himself beneath the animal need. Basic, he reminded himself. Speak Basic. "I...I can't-"
"It's all right," Alex soothed him, running a hand up and down his cheek. "It's all right." Then, with another little smile, he was leaning back to remove the armor on the Lasat's legs, first slipping off the knee guards and then the slender greaves. All of this was done while remaining out of reach of the former guardsman's dexterous feet.
Then the human's hands were at his belt and Zeb stilled briefly, mouth going dry when he heard the click of the thing falling away, granting Alex access to the side zip that would allow him to free the Lasat's straining cock.
Zeb's sigh of relief when Alex's hand closed around him was only too brief. The touch, while glorious, was far from what he really needed.
"Come on, Agent. You can do better," he challenged, rocking his hips into Alex's hold, trying to get a rise out of him.
Alex glanced up at him with a look that said it wasn't working. Half-glaring and half-smirking, his only response before pulling Zeb's prick free was, "Indeed I can."
Then his lips were closing over the swollen head of the Lasat's prick, drawing a guttural moan from deep within his chest. Alex hummed around the length of him as his mouth slid slowly down every ribbed centimeter of flesh. The vibration of it briefly caused Zeb's eyes to roll back into his head.
Once Alex had taken him all the way in, he took only a moment to adjust before setting a rhythm, head moving up and down the Lasat's cock at a punishingly slow pace. Zeb was left trembling with the feel of the other man's tongue and teeth, but it still wasn't the friction that he craved.
"Ah...ka...kara...bast," he panted out, hips snapping weakly up against the ex-Imperial's hold on him.
Oh, Goddess...oh, Ashla...
And just as he was about to spill, Alex pulled up off of him, allowing the barbed tip at the head of his cock to catch on his lip as it thrust from its sheath, giving Zeb a perfect view of his own prick pulsing onto his lover's tongue.
Normally, at this point he would soften, get Alex off if he hadn't come already, take the time maybe to cuddle in anticipation of round two. But there was no such relief this time. Mindblowing though the release was, he was no closer to true relief by the end of it. His cock was still fully hard by the time Alex carefully extricated his lip from the barb, leaving behind only a few drops of blood. Zeb shuddered as the barb retracted, leaving him hanging faintly against the wall.
"Ashla...Ashla," he mumbled several times. "Alex...I can't...I need-"
"I know," Alex reassured him once he'd spat the Lasat's cum into his hand, using it to hastily slick down Zeb's cock. "I need it, too. Just- just a moment..." he panted out before pressing a sloppy kiss to Zeb's lips. For a moment, they remained locked together, tongues tangling with one another as if they just might devour each other. When Alex finally managed to pull away from him, he was left with the lingering taste of his own cum on his tongue.
Only dimly aware of his partner's movements, Zeb heard the sound of a small container clicking open. When he managed to focus enough, it was to see Alex slicking his own fingers with oil from yet one more thing he'd pulled from his pack – a small canister of blaster lubricant.
Was it the safest thing to be putting against their skin? No. Was it preferable to Alex attempting to take him completely raw? Infinitely.
Setting the canister aside, Alex got to his feet, leaving Zeb at the perfect height to view everything as he removed first his belt, then his pants, stripping until he was just down to his undershirt and black undershorts. Straining against his bonds, Zeb leaned forward, breathing in the heady, masculine scent coming off him, desperate for even the smallest taste of him.
"Almost there now. Tef kas'aki maka, ni Garazeb," his lover tried to soothe him as he slid his slicked hand beneath the tight fabric of his undershorts, moving it past the prominent bulge of his cock.
"Ah...hngh...Basic," he pleaded in agony, still fighting, reaching for his partner's sex. "La...L'ashkerrir an...ni alitha...but...La...need- to focus. Just speak Basic." Normally, it was a massive turn on for him when Alex spoke in Lasana, but more turned on was just about the last thing he needed right now.
"Of course. Whatever you need, my Zeb...my Garazeb," he returned, offering him that same weak, besotted smile just before his features tensed, showing Zeb the exact moment he breached himself, preparing his body to take the Lasat's. As he prepared himself, he began to pant feverishly, his breath coming in those short, sharp bursts.
"Alex..." Zeb whispered, half in anguish and half in need.
Alex never broke eye contact, just continued to smile for him as he braced his free hand against the wall to keep himself from collapsing. "Ah...my partner...my love..." he gasped out, repeating his earlier endearments in Basic. And just when Zeb thought he couldn't help but come, he let go one last one.
"My savior."
Then he withdrew his hand with a small whimper, fingers trembling as he pushed the smooth black fabric slowly down his hips, down his legs, and finally off altogether, leaving him bare before the Lasat's hungry gaze.
Zeb couldn't entirely help the way his tongue lolled out over his lips, straining for a taste of that cock that stood out so proudly from the rest of his partner's body. Alex didn't leave him panting for long, though. Stepping out from between his legs to properly straddle his hips, the ex-Imperial slowly lowered himself down upon him, lining his entrance up with the Lasat's still-straining cock.
Despite the tight, heated feel of Alex's body finally closing around him like he needed, the look of pain on the ex-agent's face as he moved slowly down was enough to briefly awaken Zeb to the reality of their situation. Under normal circumstances, he knew he wouldn't have been satisfied with Alex's amount of preparation. So why in the kriffing hells was he allowing this?
"Alex..." he whispered again, in guilt and anguish every moment, wishing desperately to be able to reach out and comfort his lover, even if it was only in the smallest capacity.
"It's all right," Alex soothed again, smiling, despite the clear pain in his eyes. He gave a tiny hiss when Zeb finally slid home, his hips flush against the other man's backside. "It's all right."
"How can you say that?" he demanded in a strangled voice, tears burning at his eyes once more. How could this man just smile and say it was all right when it might never be all right again?
"This isn't- your fault," he said softly, and Zeb knew he was talking about the pain he was in. "I need it- just as badly. We are both to blame. We're in this together," he finished, thankfully not pushing himself, taking the time he needed to properly adjust to the Lasat's girth.
"Please...Alex," he begged while he still had enough presence of mind to do so, "...don't let me hurt you."
"I won't," he returned with a kiss. "I love you."
Then they were in motion and everything else was forgotten.
Zeb had little leverage to help create friction between them, but what little snap he could give with his hips was met with fierce downward thrust from the human in his lap, driving their bodies more tightly together than they'd ever managed before. Zeb's tiny moans were driven to incoherent, animalistic growls, while Alex's firm, controlled voice devolved into wild, impassioned cries, the cacophony occasionally punctuated by an ardent shout of the Lasat's name.
"Ah...hngh...stars...Zeb!" Alex cried out, the look on his face the picture of abandon as he moved against him.
Zeb could summon neither Basic nor Lasana. All he could manage was to growl out his own pleasure, feeling every tiny motion of his partner's perfect body against his. Ultimately, there was only one word he could drag from his dazed mind.
"Alex...Alex...Alex!"
The moment stretched out between them for a small eternity, but at the same time, seemed to take no time at all. When the human made the mistake of leaning in close to him, arms wrapping around his torso to brace himself, his much smaller fingers were suddenly twining with the Lasat's, gripping them with what little leverage he could manage. That small bit of physical and emotional intimacy was enough to drive the Lasat wild, and with his partner now in range of his teeth, he leaned his head down just that little bit and sank his fangs into the soft, yielding flesh of the human's neck.
His partner's sharp cry of pain and pleasure was the catalyst that drove them both over the edge into orgasm. The human's smaller body clenched tightly around him as he spilled, his seed pulsing and smearing along the front of the Lasat's much too confining battle suit. Zeb himself gave a long howl of triumph as he spent himself inside his lover's body, the feel of his semen bursting into his mate calling to the most primal urges coiled within his DNA.
When it ended and they were tied together, the Lasat held within the human's body by the catch of his barb, they gazed at each other for several long moments, both breathing in shuddering, heavy gasps.
It wasn't over. They both knew that. Despite their best efforts, they were caught in a loop of desperation and desire, but neither could bring himself to care just then. Looking into his partner's eyes, blown wide with pleasure, but still smoky with need, the guardsman felt something inside him come awake.
Intellectually, some distant part of his mind was aware that he couldn't impregnate his mate, no matter his own virility, but the instinct was as ancient as the species itself. It was ingrained, and it was strong, and it would not be denied. The small trickles of blood flowing down the human's neck from his bite called to the deepest parts of the Lasat in a way nothing else ever had. It was his mark. His! And he would leave himself upon every atom of his partner's existence.
"Nivsahn."
Mine.
His mate nodded slowly, expression far gone, lost in the intensity of the moment between them. Leaning forward, he nuzzled tenderly against the corner of the Lasat's mouth, leaving a kiss there before pulling back.
"An s'ahn," he agreed formally.
Yours.
Then his barb retracted, untying them, and that same primal something inside of the Lasat snapped.
With a bestial roar, he tore against the magnetic force holding him to the wall, keeping him from being with his mate. Gasping in shock, his partner pulled off of him, scrambling backwards as the seal broke.
Though he wrenched both shoulders painfully in the process, the guardsman was able to bring both his arms forward, easily breaking the binders that held him, unable even to remember why they'd been there in the first place.
Crawling slowly toward his lover, the Lasat relished the look of amazed hunger in his amber eyes. He wasn't sure when the tie holding his hair back had come undone, but those golden strands were falling into his eyes now, trembling with each burst of breath. And when he was finally close enough, he fell upon the other man, kissing and scenting him with a fervent ardor. The human gripped at the guardsman's strong shoulders weakly, returning kiss for kiss and caress for caress.
And though he'd been warned, though he understood the danger he was in, for the life of him, Alexsandr Kallus could not find it in himself to be afraid.
XxX
(A/N) Join us next Friday for the exciting conclusion!