Rulagh smiled at the eager way Sonia pulled him into her bedroom and shut the door. He wrapped his arms around her pliant body and pulled her close. His ipex had hardened already and was fully primed to give her what she needed.

She pressed her cheek against his chest, licked his black soras and watched them rise to attention. He groaned and ran his claws lightly across her back, raising a trail of goose bumps on her skin. "I want to make love to you now."

Sonia pushed herself away and grinned at him. "Not yet. I have to pack first."

She grabbed his hand, pulled him over to the closet door and opened it. "What kind of clothes do your women wear?"

Rulagh sighed and inclined his head in acknowledgement of Sonia’s instinctive assessment of proper urros in this situation. In order to make the correct impression on the other members of his team, she must dress appropriately. He extended his claws and carefully sorted through the selection of clothing. A long backless negligee with glitter on its hem and see through panels for the breasts and sheer skirt was his first choice. "This is ssuitable for festive occasions." He selected four more dresses, all with their backs cut to the waist.

She tilted her head and pursed her lips. "Your people prefer either backless clothing or to be nude from the waist up, right?"

"This is correct. I can wear jackets and sshirts if necessary, but after an hour or two my crest becomes very irritated and itches and I want to rip the material off with my claws."

She glanced at his feet and selected two pairs of sandals from the bottom of the closet; one delicate and elaborate, the other plain and sturdy. "That’s why you wear sandals. You need to have your claws free."

Oh yes, Sonia was intelligent and perceptive. She had all the qualities for a strong primary mate whose urros would become the nucleus and catalyst for a proper pack family. Of course, they had years of sexual experimentation and adjustment ahead of them before they settled down into a true pack family. Rushing into a pack family and choosing secondary mates without deep thought and consideration was a recipe for disaster.

He went to her dresser, opened the drawers and selected four pairs of wide legged pants in sheer fabrics each a solid color of red, blue, green and orange. Then he picked out two stretchy bracelets made with pearls and diamonds, and a bunch of turquoise and silver bracelets from the jewelry box. "Use these to bind the hems of your pants to your ankles."

Sonia held the red pants against her hips. "I see. It’ll look like I’m wearing harem pants, except I have to be nude from the waist up."

Rulagh pointed at the glittering pasties that covered her nipples. "Those are nice. They draw more attention to your lovely ssoras."

She grinned and touched her neck. "What about necklaces? Should I wear them too?"

He considered it. "A necklace can be used to choke you. For daily wear you must be dressed in ssuch a way that you can defend yourself easily. Wear necklaces only for festive occasions."

Her expression changed into serious thought. "What about my hair? Do I wear it up or down?"

"Wear your hair loose like a smoky mist around your body for festive occasions. Wear it braided in a single plait for work." He flicked his tongue out and savored her luscious scent. "In bed, I prefer your hair loose. It feels like ssensilk under my hands."

A seductive smile formed on her full lips. She dropped the pants to the floor, lifted her hands and unbraided her hair. "Like this."

The tantalizing points of her concealed ssoras teased his gaze. Rulagh’s ipex pressed against his jeans, hard and ready to provide full service. He cleared his throat. "There is one more thing we need to consider."

She finished unbraiding her hair and shook it loose. "What?"

"You may need to defend yourself, to defend your position with me when they smell my spunk on your sskin. Do you have training in hand-to-hand combat?"

The pupils in her eyes widened until they turned her eyes almost black. She nodded. "Your species has a very aggressive social structure, doesn’t it? Your language contains numerous combative concepts."

"Yes. Our aggression is the way we ssurvived as a sspecies. We do not fight to the death anymore like our primitive forebears did. That aggression has been channeled into a ssystem of ritual combat for dominance."

Sonia grinned, went to the closet, pulled out a six-foot long wooden staff and twirled it between her hands until the air whistled. She stopped the spinning and held her weapon in a defensive position across her chest. "Am I allowed to use a quarterstaff to defend myself against clawed hands and feet?"

Rulagh unsheathed the claws on his right hand and sliced at the air in front of his face. "Yes, you can. They will never ssuspect your fighting sskills. We will have a fair fight for domination."

Sonia laid her weapon against the wall and faced him. Her dark brown hair flowed in a silken curtain down her hips. Her golden brown skin gleamed under the soft lights in the room. She kicked off her sneakers and stood barefooted with her legs braced for combat and her breasts tilted high on her chest, flaunting the teasing glitter of the pasties that covered her ssoras. Her scent deepened into the musk of arousal. "Maria and Jovanni have retired for the night in the guest house. They’re too far away to hear anything that happens here in my bedroom. Would you like to dominate me, to claim urros against me now?"

A soft growl rumbled in Rulagh’s throat. He told her. "Run."

Sonia blinked. Her pulse jumped in her throat, teasing him with the increase in her heart rate. "Run?"

His crest stiffened. A shudder rippled down his back. "Yess." Rulagh kicked off his sandals. Barefoot, he’d have better traction on the polished tiles and wooden floors. He raised his hands, extended his claws and ripped at the air. "Run. I will hunt you."

She lowered her gaze to the thickening bulge in the front of his jeans and a wicked grin transformed her face. "Oh, yeah."

The direct challenge in her voice kicked his heart rate up another notch. He flicked out his tongue and tasted the air. Her scent had turned into pure musk. "Yess," he hissed.

She spun around. Her hair flew out in a shimmering cloud of silken waves around her. And she ran.

Pure instinct ruled Rulagh. He charged after her supple body. She leapt to the bed. He lunged. She jumped away from his outstretched hand and landed on the floor in the narrow space between the wall and the bed.

Rulagh knelt on the edge of the bed. She was trapped with nowhere to go now. He went to his hands and knees on the mattress and rushed her. She threw herself over the corner of the bed, rolled to the floor, scrambled to her feet, opened the door and flew down the hallway.

He grabbed a pillow, yanked the pillowcase off and raced out the door, slicing it into usable strips of fabric as he ran. Sonia was his female, his mate. She would not escape. Not now. Not before he claimed her wet slit with his ipex and covered her pliant body with fresh spunk.

Rulagh jammed the fabric strips into the waist of his jeans and surged after his mate. There! She’d almost made it to the bottom of the steps. Excitement pulsed through his veins. One, two, three steps he ran to the staircase and jumped.

A loud thump announced his arrival at the bottom. Sonia flung a startled glance over her shoulder and stumbled against the dining room table. She pulled a chair out to block him and slow him down, then turned and started to run again.

He bounded after her, knocked the chair aside with his clawed hand, jumped again, caught her by the waist, spun her around and held her against the wall. Her body felt soft, ripe and pliant under him. He pushed his knee between her legs and forced his hips against her slit, effectively pinning her against the wall while he pulled her hands up and tied them together with one of the fabric strips.

She struggled. Her struggles rubbed her lovely slit against his hardened ipex.

He held her head back with his hand around her throat, then leaned in, claimed her mouth with his and plundered it with a hard, hungry kiss.

She moaned and hungrily kissed him back. Her sweet melon taste filled his mouth and her body moved under him in a slow, sensual grind of her musk-drenched slit against his eager ipex.

His heart thundered in his ears. He pushed himself back, scooped her up in his arms and ran up the stairs with her.

He dashed into the bedroom, kicked the door shut with his foot and tossed her onto the bed. She landed on her back with her legs akimbo. He grabbed her left ankle, ignored her barefooted, one-legged kicks and tied her foot to the footboard.

He sliced two more pieces of fabric from the pillowcase and snagged her other ankle. She sat up, bent over with her face to her knee and struggled with the knots at her bound ankle. He moved his hands with blinding speed and secured her other ankle. This female was his captive.

He finished the knot and seized her hands. Sonia twisted with all her might to escape. He held her bound hands over her head, pushed her flat upon the mattress and fastened them to the headboard.

Sonia writhed even harder in a last desperate attempt to free herself. Her breasts bounced and the bed creaked under her exertions.

Rulagh unzipped his jeans. His ipex jutted straight up, engorged and ready. He slid the jeans past his hips, down his legs to his feet and stepped out of them.

Sonia stopped struggling. She gasped for air and her wide-eyed gaze was riveted on his double erection.

Rulagh knelt on the bed between her outstretched legs, opened as wide as possible for his usage and his pleasure. "I captured you." He unsheathed his claws, sliced her jeans apart from waist to crotch, down to each ankle and peeled the fabric aside. "You are mine to do with as I wish."

The thin fabric of the panties that covered her slit was soaked with the delicate moisture of her arousal. He sliced it away. He reached up to her breasts and pulled off the sparkling pasties one at a time. Goose bumps pebbled her breasts and soras into hard nubs ready for him to suckle.

Sonia went totally limp against the bed. Her voice trembled with arousal. "I am captured. I must obey you now."

Rulagh crawled forward, pushed her breasts together and lightly pinched her soras into ripe buds with his fingers while she squirmed and moaned under his touch. He released her breasts, braced himself with his hands on either side of her waist, and plundered her ripe mouth for another long, satisfying kiss. The hard peaks of her aroused soras rubbed against his chest.

He pushed himself back, sat on his heels and inserted his fingers into her slit. She lifted her hips and willingly let his hand ravish her.

He whispered, "Will you kneel to me? Will you bow your head to me?"

Her hips bucked against his hand. "Yes. Yes. Yes, I will. I will bow to you."

He removed his hand and wiped the melon sweet moisture from her slit onto his crest. She belonged to him now. Her scent marked him as primary mate. "You will not kneel, will not bow to any other male. Only to me."

She licked her lips and gazed at him as if she were entranced. A wicked smile formed on her mouth. "Yes. I belong to you, only you."

His ipex jerked under the image of Sonia upon her knees with her head lowered in total acquiescence. Pre-spunk dribbled from both engorged cock heads. He placed his hands under her buttocks and lifted her hips for better access.

She dug her heels into the mattress and wiggled herself closer. He raised his body and slowly parted the lips of her sweet, wet slit with the engorged cock heads of his ipex. "I will fuck you now."

A keening moan escaped from her parted lips and she bent her body into a taut bow. "Oh yes. Please fuck me."