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What is a woman?

The question drifted in Nareesa's mind, her mother's voice asking it long ago. Her arms rested on the wooden fence at the training ground's edge, her stare distant, the low sun casting narrow shafts across the circular clearing through the thick jungle trees.

"Here again?"

She didn't react to Seriem's voice. Dust drifted through the shafts of light and settled on the hard-packed earth. Claw-prints from earlier that day littered it in patches where the tribe's warriors had faced-off.

"Come"

She shook her head and rustled the soft, fleshy tendrils flowing down her neck like a mammal's hair.

A set of claws brushed her shoulder through her white cotton dress. "There is no sense in standing here, night after night."

He didn't realise that it was a three years to the day. Three years since her Dassius had vanished into the jungle. She sighed and fought to hide the thickness in her throat. "Tell that to my heart."

Serim waited in silence, then stepped forward to join her. His cracked, faded horns and wrinkled tendrils betrayed his age, the old warrior hobbled by his permanent limp.He pressed against her side and stroked a clawed hand downthe scales of her bare arm. "Come, I haveTuffclaw on the embers, they'll be tender by now."

Her stomach popped and churned at the thought of charred meat, the weeks of simple vegetables and fruit leaving her ravenous for blackened fats. She finally met his eye and searched his pitted and scarred face. "Where did you...? There's nothing left this side of the valley."

"Come." Serim smiled, then led her from the fence with his arm around her, keeping her drawn close against his side, walking her back to the village between vines and trees.

She allowed him, letting the warmth of another soothe the memories of Dassius away. The scuffs on the earth... somewhere in that arena, some might still be his. Juicy charred carcasses filled her mind instead as they walked, and she only moved away from his contact when they neared the village and others might see.

His large round-hut stood near chief's at the centre, the old ex-warrior's importance high. Her little thatched one stood out at the very edge, her rank as an uncoupled woman the lowest in the entire tribe, below even children.

None saw them to her relief. She ducked inside his hut through the hanging reeds, furtive, and sniffed the air.

The scent of glorious crackling meat hit like a wall and her stomach snarled. She glanced back at Serim with wide eyes and dilated pupils, the two of them alone in the dark silence. "Your wife?" she whispered, glancing around, expecting the young lizard to emerge bright-eyed and nude from one of the nests scattered around the fire-pit.

He smiled. "Out gathering."

A shiver of excitement ran through her; a gathering party would be away until late tomorrow. She searched his face in the dark, but the smell was too divine, and at his gesture made straight for its source at the fire-pit.

---

Nareesa laughed until her chest hurt. Serim's quip about the Chief burying his own waste in the jungle was a lot funnier after six cups of Churrow beer. He brought her another, his hobbled gait even more unsteady, and collapsed down into the nest of soft, plush cottons by her side. "More," he announced, passing it to her, his eyes straying down to her bare legs and feet where she lay.

She smiled at the attention, warm with drink, her mouth still coated in the divine taste of sticky charred fats. He'd given her the larger share of the meat and it hadn't gone unnoticed. Compared to the leftovers and scraps her rank usually afforded her, this was divine.

Serim looked into her eyes and sighed, his breath heavy with Churrow.

Her smile warmed and she touched his arm. "You've been a comfort these years. Thank you for making a sad, old widow's night."

"No," he said, frowning, voice soft, eyes holding hers, "you are never that."

Heat rushed to the spines and frills on the edges of her cheeks. She searched his stare, and he reached up to take her hand off his arm and into his grasp.

Heat and guilty excitement raced through her. Did he truly desire her when already pleased by his young wife? She looked away at the reddish glow of the fire, more flattered than she dared show. His gaze drifted to her legs again in the edge of her vision, his eyes roaming from her feet to her thighs.

Every other night she would have laughed and told him to mind his gaze. But not tonight. She slid her feet closer to the fire instead, stretching her bare legs and letting the dress slip up over her thighs.

Serim sighed and stared at her bared scales long into a moment between them, her pretending not to notice. A smile played on her lips and she brought a hand down to her legs, touching her thigh and drawing her claws over her scales, teasing him, her feet squirming restless as they warmed in the heat.

His hand joined hers on her thigh. His claws brushed an inch from her dress, the contact sending shivers racing into places that hadn't felt heat like this in years.

Startled into his gaze, she let him touch her. He came to her over the cushions and took her by the small of her back, lifting himself up to hold her beneath him.

Hot breath, their eyes inches apart, his touch caressing over her bare legs.

"Serim," she breathed, the surprise in her voice, but numbed by the shivers of excitement.

"My beauty," he sighed, stroking her thighs, nuzzling her cheek, his hand moving to draw her legs apart.

Her breathing quickened and his claws slid under her dress. "Your wife?" she whispered in shock, her head against his.

His breath full of Churro, he nuzzled her and opened his jaws against the side of her neck, tongue licking her, teeth resting against the vulnerable, thin scales over her jugular. "Is not strong like you," he whispered back.

She gasped, her legs parted and his hand between them, his touch where only her Dassius had last felt her. Another gasp of shock and sensation hit her when he explored her, her heated lips parted easily around his claws.

He touched her like Dassius had, fingers stroking in circular patterns inside, claws brushing over the sensitive nub concealed in the apex of her folds. A deep breath left her and she reclined back on the cushions, her hands moving to his shoulders.

He drew her legs further apart and she let him, laying them open to either side of him, her dress still concealing what he was doing beneath. She moaned up at him, squeezing his shoulders, stroking her claws in the same circular patterns he was using on her.

His touch left her and he pulled his jerkin off in hurried movements. His bare chest hemmed her in, still muscular and covered in the scars and pits of old combat. She drew her claws over his pecks, tracing the edges of old wounds, and sighed when his hand slid back under her dress.

A glance down at his loin-wrap sent shivers through her. He was engorged and his manhood jutted free from edge of the fabric, his desire for her so full he couldn't contain it. Heat surged through her at the sight and she brought a hand down to touch it.

Serim winced and sighed, gazing at her as she stroked it.

He grabbed her dress and pulled it up to her neck, but it bunched up around her head and became stuck under her chin. She laughed, blinded and muffled, her head trapped, and fought to help him pull it off.

He touched her between the legs again and she sighed. But this was different. Solid heat spread her folds apart and male muscle slid slowly, gently into her. She gasped in shock, fighting with the dress, trapped with her legs spread around him. Serim groaned, his weight settling between her open thighs, his manhood pushing deeper into her.

"No," she whispered, realizing his intent too late, struggling with the dress until she managed to rip it off her spines and uncover her head. "Wait-!"

He held her by a thigh and the small of her back, his gaze full of raw lust, his manhood three-quarters sunk into her wet heat. He slid out a little and began thrusting, slow and gentle, but applying the pressure of his weight and sinking deeper each time.

"Wait!" Her hands pressed flat on his chest and she pushed him away until her arms were straight. "No," she gasped, wide-eyed, "I don't want to mate..."

His grip tightened on her leg and he held her open as he thrust, his face dazed with pleasure.

Nareesa winced and moaned; it had been so long. The shivers of sensation coursing from that solid malehood cried at her to lay back and wrap her legs around him, to hold him inside and let him take her.

Serim groaned and his grip tightened. He lifted her thigh higher and sunk deeper, eyes half-lidded.

Nareesa let his chest lower to hers and moaned at the feeling of a male over her, against her, inside her. She lifted her head and his mouth went to her neck, his teeth gripping gently at her jugular. Her legs slid up against his sides as he thrust down over and over, her weakened grip trying to find his waist, her body entwined with his in sudden, overwhelming lovemaking.

What is a woman?

She moaned and her mother's voice asked the question in her head, Serim's hands on her bare breasts, his hardness and heat sinking over and over between her legs.

Is a woman defined by a man, and the pleasure, comfort, and family she can bring him?

"I can't," she gasped, feeling his muscles move beneath his scales in spite of herself, "please Serim, stop, I don't want a clutch..."

Men define women by their pleasure, their attraction, and by the the ecstasy she can bring him when she submits her blood to his.

A deeper moan shuddered through her and she slid a leg higher against his thrusting waist, her hips meeting him with undulations around that male heat. "Gods," she breathed, holding on to him, "oh gods-"

Serim huffed hot breaths over her face, years of unspoken attraction in his eyes, the raw pleasure of her in every shudder and groan. "Nareesa," he whispered, feeling the weight of one of her breasts, thrusting deep, gazing down over her in awe.

Or is a woman more than the pleasure she gives to a man?

She winced and let the breathy sounds she'd been fighting out, the strength gone from her limbs, her body thrumming in a mix of pleasure and panic.

Serim lifted a hand from her breast and stroked her face, taking in every sound and expression she made, her pleasure enhancing his to a high that the old warrior couldn't seem to handle: he shuddered and bucked down into her like a male who'd just succumbed too early, his mouth open in awe.

"NO!" Horror shot through her and she fumbled with his waist, finally gripping him enough to pull her hips back and pull his manhood out of her. It hung rigid and twitching over her swollen, puffy folds, wet with her lust. She kicked her leg out of his grip and scrambled backwards over the cushions.

Serim didn't resist her. He huffed deep breaths at her instead, kneeling where she'd left him, his manhood still twitching.

She tucked her legs up and covered her bare breasts with an arm, naked and trembling on the cushions of his nest. The raw intensity of everything she'd felt moments ago left her reeling and gasping for air. "You didn't stop," she managed, shaking her head, "I can't have a clutch, I just can't..."

A deeper sigh left him and he hung his head.

"I can't," she said again, the determination coming back a little through the fading heat. "I'm sorry."

"No,_"_he barked, "you're not." He panted at her, eyes straying to her naked form, face flat with anger. "A clutch is everything for you, woman."

She looked away, her old friend unrecognisable. Perched naked on the edge of his nest, the urge to bow her head and be submissive was strong, but the years alone steeled her voice and lifted her chin. "Then I can't be a woman for you."

"Leave."

She winced, hurt, but he just glared at the cushions and refused to look at her. Taking up her dress, she pulled it back over her head and fled his hut into the cacophony of sounds of a cool jungle night.

---

"Agi!" Nareesa stumbled through the reed door on shaking knees, wild eyes darting about the dark inside of Agi's hut. "Agi?"

A grunt came from the nest in the centre by the dead fire pit.

Nareesa darted forward and collapsed to her knees on the messy mound of dried undergrowth and old throws, her hands out and patting around.

"Now, dear..." Agi's cracked old voice came from the dark and her shape lifted to sitting. "What-"

Nareesa crept forward, found the old woman's shape, and curled up in the nest beside her, the sobs choked in her throat.

Agi's hands found her back and arm. "What's happened?"

"He... took me," Nareesa whimpered, "Serim..."

The old woman sighed and stroked her back. She dragged covers and throws over Nareesa and let her settle in the nest. "Tell me. Take your time."

Nareesa nodded, slowed her breathing and waited until her heart had calmed. "I... wanted him at first, it happened so quickly, I don't know-"

"You are of the flesh, dear," Agi said, still stroking her through her dress. "Just as he is."

"But Dassius," she choked, "I betrayed Dassius-"

"Shh."

Nareesa went quiet for a while, her shivers and rushing blood calming and slowing. "I let him, Agi. I don't know what he'll do."

"You could be with clutch?"

"No, I stopped him, but..."

"Good, at least that," Agi said, voice brighter. "At least that."

"He might still have..."

"You'd know, dear."

Nareesa went quiet. The hot disappointment in Serim's eyes, how his member had stood throbbing after she'd slid it out of her - she had denied him release. He could have leaked seed during their lovemaking, but it was far less certain than if he had filled her.

"He preyed on you, dear. He has desired you for some time despite his wife, no?"

The way he'd gazed down at her, holding her, taking her. There had been things in his eyes that she hadn't seen since Darrius had gone. "He has comforted me these years. He is a good man-"

"Good men do not prey on women."

Nareesa thought in the silence. Serim had been her friend for years and this wasn't the first time they'd flirted. Guilt bit at her. "I encouraged him. I lay with him in his nest, I bared my legs..."

"It is never only one, or the other, when these things happen. And it never will be."

She lay in silence against Agi for another while, mind racing, and finally had to speak again. "I don't know what he'll do. Our laws... I took him in my arms... I made love to him." Her sobs choked the words off and she shook against the woman's side. "I did, Agi. I did."

"Shh now. Sleep now. He will come to you and you will know. Until then, sleep."

---

"Nari!"

Nareesa looked up at the shout, her arms elbow-deep in one of the big washing urns by the river. Several other women turned too, their chatter about their husbands cut short, most of their bare bellies in various stages of pregnancy.

A group of adolescent girls bounded along the path to the washing place and gathered around her urn. The oldest, a girl named Dasya, gripped the urn's edge and leaned over the murky water, staring at her. "Hello, Aunty Nari."

Dasya only used that nickname when her and her gang wanted something. Nareesa pulled the half-washed dress from the urn and lay it over the lip. "Aunty Nari is busy."

The other women chuckled and went back to their own washing and gossip, but every single ear stayed trained on her.

"Well Aunt Nari needs to not be busy so she can come with us."

She rolled her eyes and kept washing. "And why would I do that?"

"Because uncle Serim says so."

Nareesa shot a look at the young girl that made her flinch. It had been three days since the night at his hut. Sick with worry for the first two, she'd dared today, just for a moment, to feel free.

Taking the dress out of the urn and tossing it on the wash pile, she stepped away and let them lead her back towards the village without a word. The whispers and looks in her wake made her want to wither into the earth like a burnt weed.

Serim waited near the Chief's hut at the centre. The girls left her when they saw him, vanishing into gaps between the big, circular huts of the tribe's most important males.

Seeing him brought the sickness straight back. Where he stood made her sicker still; had he gone to the chief over her? She fought to summon some dignity, some strength, but all she could hear were her moans from that night. She couldn't bring herself to approach, so she stood at the edge of the street and waited, eyes down, hands clasped against her dress and restless with nerves.

He walked to her, face hard and unreadable, and gestured towards the training ground. "Come."

He was both male and higher rank than her; she couldn't refuse without insulting him. She nodded and fell into step at his side, avoiding any glimpse of his eyes.

"You were washing clothes by the river?"

The anger she'd expected wasn't in his voice. He sounded detached though, formal, and it made her sicker still. "Yes."

"That is good work for a woman, yes?"

"-Yes."

They'd passed through most of the huts and the path to the circular training ground lay ahead. Reluctant, she accepted his lead and followed him away from the earshot and eyes of others.

Half way to the grounds, he spoke with his back to her, the narrow path forcing them to walk single-file. "You see, Nareesa? You_are_a woman of this tribe, though you don't always accept it." His voice took on an edge of the anger she'd known would come. "And being a woman comes with responsibility."

Dread churned in her stomach. They reached the empty training grounds where they'd stood yesterday. He stopped and faced her, forcing her to finally meet his stare, and clasped his hands like he was in the presence of the chief. "You are windowed, yes, but you are still of laying age, and even after your_disrespect_..." his formal tone cracked a moment, "I still, by law, accept your request."

She frowned. "...what?"

His face twitched in a flash of irritation. "You heard me, woman. I accept."

"Accept what?"

He raised his eyes and grunted in irritation, but a smug edge came over his manner. "Your request for my clutch, of course."

Coldness flooded through her. Her hands trembled and her claws dug into her palms. "Serim, I didn't ask for that."

His eyes flashed with anger, but he kept his air of formal restraint. "Do you even know our laws?"

Dread rose within her, worse than when she'd first seen him, but anger bristled at his condescending tone. "Yes, I know them, and I made no request."

"Then you know," he seethed, cutting across her, his face twisted to show the anger that had frothed under the surface, "that by bringing me to my own nest and taking me as your mate, you asked for my clutch? And by mating with me when you_already knew_ I had a wife, you agreed to be my second?"

Panic rose around and inside her, clawing at her like a dozen feral beasts. She glanced around them, her breathing quick and uneven, her mind racing. "Serim, I didn't mean that-"

"You_did,"_ he snapped, raw with hurt and fury.

Her heart hammered and she searched his face for any hint of the friend who'd comforted her in the years after her loss. "Don't do this, don't end our friendship like this-"

"It stopped being friendship," he snarled, "the moment you lay in my nest, drew your dress back, and moaned with your eyes in mine."

"I..." Her voice died away. Guilt savaged at her, flashes of her drawing teasing strokes over bare legs as he'd ogled her, then looking up into his eyes and moaning as he'd taken her, her protests weak and half-hearted through the pleasure. "I didn't mean for us to_mate!_It was just... I asked you to stop!"

"Running your hands over my chest and groaning while I took you was telling me to stop, was it?" He glared her down, the humour and good nature of her friend utterly gone. "It no longer matters, because you are mine now, Nareesa. I have the chief's blessing."

She wrapped her arms around herself. "No... you've no claim to me, no right!"

He laughed, but his voice carried deep anger. "I saw it in your eyes. You knew what you were doing. You want to be mine."

"I'm_not_ yours," she snapped, terrified, and stepped back. The dress felt too thin, too revealing, too flimsy around her. "I'm not agreeing to this."

He just smiled. "You don't need to agree, it's already decided. You see? I have to do this, for you." His eyes darted to her bare feet, then drew up over her legs to her bust. "I won't let such waste continue."

Numbness crept over her but she hesitated, his words sinking in. "What?"

He glared, bitter. "You are of laying age, but you nest alone, season after season, year after year."

"Because I choose to," she snapped, staring in horror. "My body is my own."

"No," he said, smiling, "no longer, my beauty." His eyes dropped to her bare feet, then ran upwards along her legs. "Your selfish rejections end tonight."

"What!?" Nareesa glanced behind him at the path back to the village, her muscles on the verge of bolting.

"You don't understand," Serim snapped, "I own you now." He smiled, smug, and looked back at her legs. "If I ask, you must obey." He trailed his gaze up over her breasts and smiled. "If I say to remove your dress, then you must."

"You..." Nareesa shook with anger and horror, her breaths gone ragged, "...lecherous, filthy, old-" she stepped to one side and eyed the path, but his hand flinched out.

"You don't_understand,"_ he hissed, but pleading this time, a glimmer of her friend in his eye. "Do as I say."

Nareesa spat toward him. "Go sodomise yourself with a tree." She darted around him and leaped for the path, but movement burst from both sides and she flinched back.

Two warriors, both male, carrying shield and spear. Sabres and reed whips hung at their belts.

"You see?" Serim said behind her. "Running from me is deserting the tribe."

The warriors stared at her, blank-faced, their spears ready to lower in a moment.

"Your are mine by decree of the chief," Serim continued. "Disobeying me is disobeying him. And disobeying the chief..."

She stood quivering in place, eyes darting between their weapons, her breaths gone short and far too fast. Her head swam, the reality of what was happening rushing by and refusing to set in.

"I know this might be hard for you," he said, but with that infuriating smugness, and his hand landed on her shoulder. "Come to my hut. I will allow you to stay dressed for now."

"No," she breathed, staring into the distance between the warriors, "no..."

_What is a woman?_Her mother's voice asked, all those years ago,the wordsstill there in Nareesa's mind.

Serim pulled her forward, and with the warriors flanking them, Nareesa let herself be led from the clearing.

---

Nareesa clutched her cup of water close. She stared into it at her faint reflection, laying at the edge of one of Serim's nests at the centre of his hut. Her eyes stung from crying.

He'd left to give her some respite. The way she'd sobbed when they'd reached the village, the warriors surrounding her and Serim pulling her by the arm, everyone coming out of their huts to stare... she'd covered her tearful eyes from the gazes of women, friends, children, elders.

The fire popped and snapped low in the pit. She sipped the water but didn't want it, didn't want to drink.

The warriors were still outside the door.

Her life lay in pieces. She closed her eyes and choked back another sob. She couldn't run, couldn't fight. All she could do was try to persuade Serim to let her go and forget all of this madness.

And everything in her knew he wouldn't.

"Feeling better?" Serim's head hung between the drapes covering the door. He smiled, came through, and walked to the side of the nest.

She didn't want to acknowledge him, to give him the glee of seeing her like this. To give him the satisfaction of begging for her release.

"If you ignore me, then I'll have them punish you for disobedience. It's your choice, Nareesa. As my woman, you will speak when spoken to. Say, 'Yes, Serim'."

The glee, the gloating, the power he was wielding - it was all in his smug, infuriating, horrible voice and she turned from it, curling in on herself around the cup.

"Say it," he snapped.

A sob shook her and she turned further away.

"Say it, woman!"

"STOP!" She shrieked, rounding on him with her tear-stricken face, "LET ME GO!"

"Guards," he shouted, his face flat.

The warriors burst into the tent and Nareesa shrieked. She scrambled to her clawed feet but their hands clamped to her shoulders and arms and forced her face-down into the soft blankets of the nest.

"This needs to happen," Serim shouted, his voice above the howling in her own throat as she screamed into the blankets. The hands dragged her dress up, leaving her naked below the shoulders. A piece of foul-tasting leather shoved hard into her mouth. "You need to learn."

Searing agony lashed across her naked backside. She convulsed and bit the leather, her back arched and her eyes wide, her throat open in a raw scream.

Another lash of a reed whip struck her backside, and then another. She thrashed against their hold as an animal, the pain ripping everything but bare survival instinct away, but the arms holding her were too strong.

"I don't want this," Serim shouted, "but you need to_obey!_"

Another lash struck her and she wailed, her arms and shoulders burning from struggling.

"I've watched you for_years_." His voice broke with emotion. "The most beautiful woman I've ever seen, and you just_can't_move on."

The whip struck harder and she wailed, howling into the leather, her struggles weak.

"He's DEAD Nareesa!" Serim screamed, unhinged, lashing her again and again, "your_precious_ Dassius has been dead for YEARS! Move on woman, just MOVE ON!"

The lashes seared into head-splitting pain and her eyes rolled up, and then everything was fuzzy, distant, muffled.

Someone was talking. Hands were on her, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was laying still, because any movement flared the agony on her hindquarters. She just breathed, slow and shaky, through the taste of filth, sweat, and blood.

---

"I'm sorry," he said again, standing by the fire pit.

"Yes, Serim," she said, kneeling naked behind him with her hands on her thighs.

"I mean it, I'm-" he turned and looked back at her. His eyes glistened in the light from the fire, the lines of tears running down his cheeks. He swallowed, hard, and spoke with difficulty. "I'm sorry I hurt you."

She flinched from his stare and put her head down. "Yes, Serim."

"I just..." he knelt down in front of her and lifted her head with a hand, his claws on her chin so he could look into her eyes, "...love you, Nareesa."

She searched his stare, knew it was true, and closed her eyes.

His hand went to her cheek and she flinched.

"You wouldn't just... be with me," he continued. "You wouldn't move on. You wouldn't let anyone touch you, a woman so_beautiful_. You can see why I had to, can't you?"

"Stop," she whispered, her cheek against his shaking hand.

"No," he whispered back, then louder and harsher. "No. You won't tell me to stop any more. You_obey_ now."

"Yes," she whispered, a tear leaving her closed eye, "Serim."

"My beautiful Nareesa," he said, his hand sliding to her shoulder, and then down to her bare breast. "Lay for me."

She let him squeeze her breast, then climbed down and lay on her side in his nest, her legs loosely together and her arm supporting her.

He climbed down facing her, face dazed in desire, his loins rigid and twitching despite the emotion he'd shown. "I've dreamed of this," he said, ogling her, "the day I sew my first seed in you."

Her heart raced in panic, but the thought of him calling for the guards kept her eyes down and her mouth closed.

Her coming submission gripped her, an inevitability, as though it had already happened. He slid closer and his hands went to her breasts and her legs. She stared at the blankets of his nest in the dim red glow of the dying fire and couldn't bring herself to cry.

He moved against her and gasped, his member brushing her leg, her undoing already leaking from his tip. She kept her eyes down, let him take hold of her waist, then lay back when he moved her and offered no resistance.

Serim slid a hand under her thigh and lifted her leg. His other went to the small of her back, and he took hold of her in the same way he had that night. She looked up at him, face fallen in sorrow.

"My love," he whispered, then brought his member to her. He pushed in a little, but his sensitive skin rubbed dry inside, and he winced. "You are not..." his face hardened in anger. "You were more eager when you were last here."

She looked away in terror and blinked on the verge of tears.

"No matter, my love." He let her go, drew his hands down her legs, and pushed them open and up. "I will make sure you enjoy this."

Nareesa winced. His warm breath and rough, wet tongue touched her and she closed her eyes. He licked her folds, then clasped her backside, spread her open with his thumbs, and went to work.

She turned her head away so he wouldn't see the struggle on her face. His tongue dove and pushed into her, the onslaught relentless, and despite the horror her body responded. She settled her legs, accepting it, and brought a hand up to cover her mouth. "Nff-"

He squeezed her ass, the scars from the whip stinging, then moved to slide his claws along her thighs and then her tail, playing with her body, touching her where he wanted.

Her breaths became erratic and she fought the sounds trying to leave her. Pleasure nipped and rippled from his warm tongue and she tried not to wriggle or move her feet, but her toes kept curling and her back wanted to arch. Dampness and warmth flushed from inside and met his tongue, her childless body betraying her, his licks sinking deeper and easier. Her breaths became laboured and she had to stifle more embarrassing sounds before they escaped.

"You taste divine," he said, wiping his mouth and climbing back over her. He grasped her in the same way again, on her thigh and back, and lifted her leg to open her for him. He sunk into her and breathed out, long and slow.

She winced and turned her head aside, the pleasure-tinged sensation now just a violation.

Serim began to thrust, gentle, gazing down at her. "Look at me."

Terror jolted in her, but she couldn't move her stare from the floor.

"Look at me, woman," he breathed, taking her. "Look at your mate, and answer."

She dragged her eyes up and looked into his dazed lust with sorrow. "Yes, Serim."

"Beautiful," he breathed, gripping her tighter and thrusting deeper, angling himself over her, "my woman..."

"No," she whispered, near-silent in her fear, but he lowered his chest to hers, squashed her breasts against his old scars, wrapped his arms around her, and buried his head into her neck.

Nareesa gazed up at the thatched roof and gasped,taking reluctant hold of him,herspreadlegs sliding up around his thrusting waist into a natural embrace. Her feet curled and slid along his thighs, his thrusts deep and constantin her. Hereyes unfocused and she stared,dazed, at the roof in the dim light.He kissed and bit at her neck andshe wincedin silent moans,breathing, the air shuddering out of her,her claws curling in against his shoulders.

This was breeding. Sheknewit the way he gripped her and his fevered thrusts. Amoan stifled in her throatand shegasped instead, flushed with the heat ofegg-yearninglovemaking, their bodies soperfectly entwined.

She glimpsed the ceiling and pictured herself from above. Her open legs clutching histhrustingwaist tight, her arms crossed over his back and her hands gripping his shoulders, her head lifted and face full ofpleasure as she submitted to it.

Serim shuddered and groaned against her, his claws digging into her scales, ecstasy dripping from his voice. His claws pulled at her for purchase, his thrusting fevered, her body open to him.

"No," she breathed, knowing it wastoo late, her legs embracing her ruin and holding it inside her,her hands tight on his shoulders,"uuhh,no..."

"UHH!" Serim bucked down into herin wild spasm, his cries muffled into her neck. "MMF! Ohhh..."

The breath rushed from her and she opened her eyes wide, her legswrapped around his waist to hold the death of her hopes and dreams inside.Warm pressurepulsedinto her, the ultimate power a man held over a woman, the ruin of her body and the binding oftheir blood,and she took every drop straight into her wanting womb.

Nareesa just breathed andheld himin the aftermath. She shudderedin a mix of horror and the soothing of a deep, instinctiveneedher empty belly had plagued her with for years.

Serim recovered slowly, his first release in her seeming so potent that he needed a long while of breathing and stroking her before he could move. Hekissed at her face and she turned away inshame.

He whispered against her neck. "You are finally mine."

"Yes," she whispered, closing her eyesagainst his neck,"Serim."

"Nareesa," he sighed, still entwined with her, "my love."

---

Nareesa's hands slid over the smooth, swollen scales of her distended belly. She stood barefoot in morning sunlight at the river bank, the short wrap over her breasts and simple sash around her waist leaving her pregnancy bare.

Leafs crunched behind her and a hunched figure joined her in the silent morning.

"Agi," she said, the old woman's hand joining hers. Agi's ancient hands stroked, paused, squeezed, and shifted on her belly with the unknowable skill of an elder. Eventually, she grunted, pleased, and went to a nearby tree to sit down.

Naressa walked to her. Every step cost her with the weight she now bore, and Agi made room by her side for her to sit as well.

Her belly made it difficult, but Agi helped her, and she sat back against the trunk.

"You are healthy, and so are they."

Nareesa didn't answer. She gazed at her belly, filled with Serim's bloodline, swollen by his lust for her. Her sore hips had shifted wide and low around their growing eggs and her breasts twinged her back, already swelling with milk.

She grasped her bulging stomach and spoke through a thick, choked throat. "I wanted to be more than this."

They sat in silence for a while. Eventually, Agi's hand came to rest on her again. "What did you wish for?"

She shook her head, close to tears. "I wanted... into the jungle, I'd find Dassius..."

Agi leaned against her and put an arm around her.

The sobs came and she put her head into Agi's shoulder.

When she'd quietened again, Agi rubbed her back in slow circles and spoke close to her ear. "You would have escaped simple tribal life. You would have travelled the jungle, and sought adventure?"

Nareesa nodded against her.

"For any of us," Agi said, a hand going back to her belly, "you are already on the greatest adventure we will ever know."

She dismissed the words, but they lingered in a long moment, and then sunk in. Her eyes filled again and she put her hand on top of Agi's. "But... not, him."

"Does he feed you, clothe you, shelter you, provide for you?"

Nareesa nodded and tears fell down her cheeks.

"Does he say he loves you, and do you see it when he looks at you?"

She blinked more tears away and nodded again.

"Will he love your children, and stay by your side after they hatch?"

She nodded again, and silence descended. Throat thick, she turned and put a hand on her shoulder. "Agi? What is a woman?"

Agi gazed into the distance. She patted Nareesa's hand, climbed up, her old frame guarded, then helped Nareesa up too.

They walked back to the village in silence and to a waiting figure. Agi waved farewell and hobbled away towards her hut.

"Nari," Lissa greeted her, Serim's first wife in a short shift, her hair-fronds dappled with gold circlets. She came forward and grasped her bare belly, then smiled and put an ear to her scales.

Nareesa sniffed and blinked her eyes dry. A smile forced its way on the edge of her mouth. "You still won't hear them."

"Hmm." Lissa gave her a sly look, the same look she used when trying to get her way with Serim. "I think I could, if I listened long enough."

Nareesa's smile grew and she gestured to the hut. "Is our lazy, good for nothing still under his blankets?"

"No." Lissa's smile deepened. "He is fetching our water today."

Nareesa looked at her side-on. "How did you manage that?"

Lissa just grinned.

"All of it?"

Lissa nodded, still grinning.

Nareesa grinned too. "I want to be there when he staggers in with both urns." She started for the hut and Lissa went to her side, took her arm, and they laughed and chatted all the way to the thatched door, then vanished inside.