FatedMates (3 page)

“Do you get a lot of visitors who are selected as Fated Mates for Serralians?” Liz asked as they walked down a seemingly endless corridor. Her insecurities about herself started rearing their ugly heads. She considered herself too plain for these beautiful people, too fat, too, too; too…the list was massive. Damn Michelle for not being her with her. Michelle could always talk her down from the ledge. In everyone’s life, you need someone who would literally or figuratively slap you upside the head and tell you to “Snap out of it!” Michelle was her person.

The old security guard patted her arm. “There are some. We have, as many mated as not.

Now, don’t get nervous.”

Liz smiled at the old man. He certainly put her at ease.

“I have to thank you. You are calming me down. I might have chickened out and gone home Fated Mates

19

if you hadn’t come outside and escorted me into the building.”

“It’s my job.” His blue eyes twinkling and sparkling with amusement.

She wondered if the Serralians realized their security guard gave off a Santa Claus “type” vibe, which immediately put her at ease.

“You really don’t think I am an actual security guard for this embassy, do you? An old guy like me! It is my job to escort potential mates to the temple. I am told I have a certain look.

Although, I can’t for the life of me figure out what it is.” The look on her face must have been comical because he dissolved into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

“Now, darlin’, I know I have a Santa Claus look. I have to say, I’m proud of it and the job I do here.” He stopped and patted her arm.

“Oh, look! Here we are at last. This is the end of the line for me. You have to go in the actual temple on your own.” With a nod of his head, he turned on his heels and walked briskly back down the long corridor and out of sight.

Liz took a deep breath and crossed the threshold into the temple. Walking through the doorway felt as if she were passing through an invisible barrier or force field, and reminded her of walking against the tide at the beach.

“I am the high priestess of the Stones,” said a disembodied voice pulsing out of every corner of the room. “Step up and place your hands on the Sacred Stones and meet your destiny.” It felt very strange to be in the deserted temple with the Sacred Stones and a disembodied voice telling her what to do. Liz always thought there would be priestesses around praying and giving homage to the Sacred Stones.

She walked up to the raised tabernacle in the middle of the temple and peered inside of the basin. The shallow bowl held five smooth, oblong stones, reddish in color, which glowed like rubies sparkling in the sunshine. Across the face of each stone were rune symbols etched onto the stones.

“Place your hands on the stones and meet your destiny.” 20

Marie Rose Dufour

At this moment, her life could change forever. Liz thrust her hands forward and placed them on the Sacred Stones with more confidence than she was feeling.

Immediately, a maelstrom caught Liz up, wind whirled around her whipping her hair and clothes in different directions. A tingly sensation, like accidentally touching a live wire, started from the palms of her hands where she touched the stones and worked up her arms to her shoulders. Liz felt her nipples pucker painfully into hard tiny pebbles. The swirling cyclone of wind enveloped her and lifted her off the ground, turning her, lifting her, and turning her again.

Her whole body started to pulse with excitement. A sensation in her pussy built and throbbed to an unknown beat until the whole room pulsated with the contractions deep within her. Her body raced towards an orgasm. It throbbed and pounded through her and when she thought the sensations were going to overwhelm her, a scream ripped from her throat and an orgasm exploded out of her. Her screams of pleasure echoing off the temple walls.

Lowered gently to the ground by some unknown force, Liz heard chanting in an unknown language. How strange to hear chanting in an empty room.

In the aftermath of the most intense orgasm of her life, she felt as if many ties, small capillaries of emotions, consciousness, the actual fiber of her being were being extracted from her and connecting to someone else.

By the time she was lowered to the ground, her whole body was wet and trembling. She shook so badly she thanked God for the floor beneath her because she her legs wouldn’t have held her anyway. She’d have ended up a puddle on the floor anyway.

The once empty room now bustled with activity. Two Serralian priests carried in an exquisite lounger, piled high with pillows and encrusted with gold and jewels. They placed it beside Liz. From out of nowhere two beautiful Serralian women, dressed in ceremonial robes lifted her onto the lounger.

Immediately Liz woke up from basking in the euphoric haze.

“Oh, I am too heavy for you to pick up. Maybe the two priests should do it. The two of you don’t look strong enough to pick up a Quarter Pounder, never mind me.” Amazed at the Fated Mates

21

huskiness of her own voice, Liz sounded like a woman who just had the best fuck of her life. Her body felt so heavy and sated, she could sleep for a week.

“Oh, no! Cherished one! No Serralian male is allowed to touch another’s mate except in medical situations. If they did, they would be put to death,” said one of the priestess.

Placed on the lounger by women related to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the downcast looking priests carried Liz and the lounger into the next room.

The room resembled a high tech hospital room. All of the machines hummed quietly and everyone moved with the efficiency of an operating room. One man, the doctor, came over to her with a hand-held machine scanning her from the top of her head to the soles of her feet.

“Hello. I am Dr. Palumbo. I am in charge of assessing the initial overall health of all of the human mates. This machine scans your vital and genetic information. It is creating a record of you.”

A nurse came over with another machine and took a picture of the mating mark developing over the palm of Liz’s hand. It looked like a henna tattoo with “Celtic-like” designs.

“This mark will go in the Serralian data-base, in order to give you information on your mate.

Normally, on Serralia, mates do not get together before the official Mating Ceremony. We find giving a dossier of their match helps decrease anxiety before the ceremony.” After being poked and prodded for a while longer, Liz received a thick envelope, which contained critical information about her mate and an outline of how her life would change before and after the Mating Ceremony. She couldn’t get home fast enough to tear open the envelope.

She still felt slightly woozy, so she wasn’t sure she could even drive. In her hands she held information about the man connected to her for the rest of her life, if she couldn’t drive, Liz would plunk her ass on the sidewalk and read the contents here and now.
The man…for the rest
of her life…
She started feeling light-headed with the magnitude of what happened to her. Her head started to swim; she was terrified her wildest dream had just become a reality!

Escorted through the embassy by one of the priestesses, all the people she came across bowed their heads to her, showing her respect afforded to mates. When she approached “Santa”, 22

Marie Rose Dufour

he got to his feet and started clapping for her.

“I knew you were special. I always have a knack of knowing who is going to be matched. I just knew you were one of the special ones.”

Liz smiled. She hoped her mate had the same reaction as this man.

Michelle stood outside the embassy with tears streaming down her face. The minute she saw Liz, she ran forward, threw her arms around her and gave her a bear hug, it practically cut off all the air to her lungs.

“I just knew it! I just knew it!” She chanted through her tears.

“Where were you? I was so worried about you. I thought we were going to do this together?”

Michelle leaned back out of their embrace, framed Liz’s face with both of her hands, and looked deep into her eyes.

“Don’t you get it? This destiny was always yours, never mine. Welcome to your life, my friend. Better late than never, let’s get you home. I left you some dinner and wine at your condo.

I want you to sit and absorb what is in the envelope. Embrace your destiny! You more than deserve it.”

She was off the ledge again at least for now.

* * * *

As he continued to make his rounds on the bridge, the crew scurried back and forth making themselves look busy, avoiding all eye contact with him. Always known as a fierce warrior, who spoke very little and smiled even less, people avoided him at all costs. Before the scarring, he never minded the avoidance, after he cherished it. It became worse after his recovery. He chose to wear an eye patch and not have reconstructive surgery on his face. It reminded him and others how peace came with great sacrifice. Serralians didn’t understand his choice, but he didn’t care.

One day, he overheard two of the under officers talking. “With a face like Dragon’s, even the Goddess herself would not be able to find him a mate.” Fated Mates

23

“You would think a war hero would have the resources to at least be able to fix his eye and remove the patch. Any Fated Mate might turn and run after one look at him.” It amazed him how these men, despite the growing lack of Fated Mates in recent years, still believed the Goddess was listening and going to provide any of them with mates.

“A penny for your thoughts,” asked Mace, his second in command and closest friend.

“I have yet to understand why you particularly love the saying. Why would someone offer a small copper coin, which is basically worth nothing, to tell you what they are thinking about?

Are my thoughts worth so little, I am supposed to offer them to you for a mere trinket?” Mace threw his head back and laughed out loud at his seriousness. Even the most innocuous Earth sayings had him questioning why they were being said. The deck crew stopped to stare at the two security officers who couldn’t be more different if they tried. They wondered what their terrifying Chief of Security could have said to cause such laughter.

Dragon liked to question his friend about his constant use of Earth expressions and references. Half of the time, he didn’t know what his friend was talking about, but he amused him, a very rare occurrence. So he enjoyed his company more than anyone on the ship. Mace, obsessed with Earth television and movies, spent all of his off duty time watching video feeds from satellite TV. One of his favorite shows was called
Torchwood.
It amused Dragon how people from Earth almost always portrayed “aliens” as either monsters or sex maniacs. Sex maniacs, Dragon thought, not far from the truth. He could not remember the last time he had sex, not an encouraging sign.

Once on shore leave, Mace convinced him to go to a movie. They received a recommendation from a friend recently mated. Sol called the movie a chick flick, saying he and his mate enjoyed it greatly. Much to their surprise and embarrassment, the movie had nothing to do with small poultry. In fact, the movie portrayed a group of four women who drank Cosmopolitans and talked graphically about their bodies and sex with men. Dragon and Mace squirmed in their seats for the entire movie, not wanting to leave and attract attention. It gave Dragon pleasure to remind him of this mistake as often as possible. Secretly, he enjoyed the film.

24

Marie Rose Dufour

It gave him insight to what women of Mother Earth thought of men. Also, he enjoyed the alcoholic beverage very much.

“No, friend, I am sure the thoughts running through your head are worth much more than one penny. You looked so deep within yourself. It seems like your body’s going through the motions here on deck but your mind is a million miles away. Are you thinking about how mind blowing the video feed of
Lost
was last night? Who would have thought in Sayid’s flash forward, he would be working for Ben?”

“Ah…I agree. I never would have guessed Sayid would ever get himself involved with an evil little man such as Ben Linus. Leave it to you, Mace, to introduce me to an Earth show that has me asking so many questions at the end of every episode. My mind is ready to explode. But no, my thoughts are not entertaining. I will be keeping them to myself.” Mace suddenly turned serious. He looked around to make sure no one would overhear the conversation he wanted to have with his friend.

“I am worried about you, Dragon. I heard a rumor you spent over four hours working out in the activity center last evening and followed it with two more hours drinking Blue Shine in the Observation Room.”

Blue Shine came from small, electric blue colored fruit from the top of the mountain MaMere in the northern most region of Serralia. It’s extremely potent and expensive. Not a drink normally stocked in the canteen of a medical starship.

Dragon was getting more and more agitated with the conversation. “What is it to you if I was drinking it in the Observation Room?” he growled.

Mace looked contemplative, so Dragon knew he was choosing his words carefully. “It concerns me when my rule oriented friend starts breaking rules. It is out of character for you to do something like this. Isn’t Tarlon spending time in the Detention Center for “breaking” some rules?”

Dragon winced. He heard the concern in his friend’s voice. Instead of the usual annoyance he felt when someone showed concern, he felt hollow inside as if he had no emotions at all Fated Mates

25

anymore. He knew hours of vigorously working out with the laser staff had gotten him noticed.

Yesterday he woke up feeling extremely anxious. He knew he had to do something to try and shake the feeling. His extra diligence checking star charts proved nothing, going over security tapes, supply transfers and even calling a surprise inspection of the crew living quarters, did nothing but prove his ship ran perfectly. After his shift finished, the feeling still persisted.