Kendra returned to Cayden’s tent that night following the hunter’s second failure, after the mudders enjoyed their feast of boar and the men and women supped on mudder stew.
She stoked more than his passion on the cushions of his bed. She bit at his ears, choked at his throat, scratched at his back. She drew blood, and Cayden responded by wrestling her into the positions of his whim, thrusting all the harder as Kendra strained against him. He often hesitated to push further, but Kendra threw herself at him each moment Cayden hesitated to dominate her. He felt the want that burned in his clone lover, but Cayden also sensed a desperation fueling his lover’s desire. Unlike the doll girls so readily available to him before he departed for the expedition, Kendra possessed her own desires, and she burned for Cayden to please her wants. Cayden’s heat surged. He feared he would never again find the old comfort the doll girls once delivered him, for he feared his old world would seem very pale after spending such time surrounded by the new savanna’s color.
Kendra rolled upon Cayden’s chest and panted. “You again failed to pull the trigger today.”
“It happened too fast was all,” defended Cayden. “The razor boar surrounded us too quickly. I was afraid I might hit my father if I fired my weapon.”
Kendra buried her face into Cayden’s neck. “Do I not make you feel like a man?”
“You make me feel more like a man than I’ve ever known.”
“Then why don’t you pull the trigger?”
Cayden gripped Kendra’s arm and pinned her against the cushions. “You ask too many questions tonight, woman.”
Kendra’s lips sneered. “I am not a woman. I am a mudder.”
“You still ask too many questions.”
“I only ask the one.”
Kendra’s body stiffened against Cayden’s touch when he paused to answer. She turned cold to his lips, and all the shame flooded back into Cayden when she turned her dark eyes away from his. He would spurn all doll girls for her. But Kendra was telling him that her love came with another price, that he must prove himself as confident and strong in the hunt as he had proven in the lovemaking.
“I will shoot tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll have my chance, and I’ll take a trophy. I promise it.
Kendra smiled. “And tomorrow I will hear my fellow mudders sing their celebration song when they return from the grass?”
“I promise their song will be loud.”
The warmth returned to Kendra as she wrapped herself around Cayden to continue through the night. Cayden didn’t doubt he would pull that trigger as Kendra’s arms embraced him. He would please his father. He would please Kendra. He would claim his trophy and accept the final purpose left to his kind, no matter how beautiful any of the geneticists’ animals appeared when centered within his scope.
He thirsted for blood. His body burned, and he would be the next young hunter who deserved the mudders’ celebration song.