Unexpected Mates (Sons of Heaven) (11 page)

“A pity.” There was no hint of offense in his tone. “Welcome to the Sakk consulate, Ms. Davidson. May your stay here be pleasant.”

“Thank you.” She accepted the license back and started to put it away.

The warrior didn’t move immediately along, as the others were, bustling down the line. He stared at her, bringing goose bumps up on her arms Amy avoided looking at him; his proximity alone made her nervous. At last, he moved on, and she sighed in relief.

“Did you see that, Amy?” Lucy whispered excitedly.

“What?”

“He was staring at me. Do you think they can sense the ones that will test positive?”

“I don’t know.”
I hope not, because he was staring at me.

****

Amy held her breath, as Lucy placed her hand on the testing pad.

It had taken hours to process in. Once they’d passed the sensors that would report all weapons, even those made of ceramic or plastic, the next shield had been lowered, and they’d been admitted into the outer ring of the consulate. The main building was a grand affair, complete with columns reminiscent of ancient Greek buildings.

There, the questions had begun. In one room, Lucy had undergone rudimentary psychological testing. In another, they’d asked for her medical history. It surprised Amy that they asked it, considering their medical diagnostic equipment.

In a third, there’d been exhaustive questions about Lucy’s education, her interests, and her goals. That had set off warning bells, and Amy had asked about it, interrupting the process for the first time. The answer had been simple and elegant.

“We find it best to introduce females to males with complementary interests. A female geologist would do best mated to a male who enjoys hiking, for instance. A female sociologist or linguist, by comparison, with a male who prefers life in population centers. Music lovers would thrive with males who reside in areas with several stages for performance.”

“You match that intensely?”

“A small concession to make. If the ideal group at this consulate fails, we may shuttle males from others for the female to meet. Or a female may prefer males her opposite. Some do. For a mate, a male would give up hiking...or accompany his mate to performances that are not typically to his tastes.”

That was interesting, but... “You don’t expect women to change their interests for their mates? Compromise?”

He offered a stunning smile. “What is it humans say? This is a female’s market. The advantage is yours in negotiation.”

The shifting light reminded Amy that the final test was in progress.

The warrior at the console pressed buttons. His hands went still, then closed into fists.

Amy didn’t have to ask what it meant. The testing pad hadn’t turned blue. The test was negative. She let out her breath in a sigh.

Lucy didn’t have to ask what it meant, either. “I was so sure. Try again. It can give a false negative, right?”

“No. It cannot.” The warrior at the console seemed pained by that fact. “I am sorry, Ms. Ferguson. For you. For myself. For all of Sakk.” He sounded it, and Amy felt a spike of pity for all of them.

Lucy pulled her hand back and looked at it as if it was a traitor. “There has to be a way. I’d be willing to carry children that are genetically spliced, if that would work.”

The warriors shot each other wary looks. The one behind the console winced, and Amy realized he was trying to find a way to gently refuse Lucy’s plan.

“I will...propose it, Ms. Ferguson,” he offered.

Lucy smiled. “Please. I’ll wait.”

He hesitated, nodded to one of the others, and left the room. One of the two remaining warriors took his place at the console.

Probably to protect it, in case Lucy attacks the automated messenger which has denied her Sakkhood.

Amy ran the math, realization making her ill. No matter how gently they refused Lucy, this was going to get ugly. All told, Amy had minutes to defuse the situation. Otherwise a full-blown ‘Ferguson fit’ would ensue.
That’s why I
really
came here. To keep Lucy from getting herself arrested.

She stepped between Lucy and the table, trying to distance her friend from the situation mentally. “Luce...”
What? What excuse can I make?
“The medical risks in this are probably extreme,” she cautioned.

“Oh, I don’t care about that.” She waved off Amy’s concerns with a flip of her manicured nails.

“You should, Luce. You should consider it.”

Lucy pushed at Amy’s shoulder playfully. Amy caught herself on the edge of the table, righting her balance. One of the warriors tensed to move, but he didn’t interfere.

“Such a worrier,” Lucy chided. “You always were.”

And you’ve always been reckless.
Amy bit back the retort.

Tapping keys behind her made Amy’s heart stutter. They were probably calling in more warriors. Visions of them evicting Lucy made her head swim.

Think!
“Okay. It’s safe then. I’ll buy that. After all, they’ve worked with humans before, and I doubt they killed a bunch in trial and error.”

The ruffling of wings sounded like a warrior took offense to the comment.

Lucy nodded resolutely, seemingly mollified.

“But I bet the workup to see if you’re even compatible enough for that sort of experimentation is lengthy.” Amy looked toward the closest warrior, silently pleading for his help.

His eyes narrowed, and his jaw tightened.

They don’t lie,
she reminded herself.
Janice Beldon said they feel lies are unethical and beneath a warrior of Sakk.

If I’m wrong, please let him keep it to himself instead of correcting me.

At last, he offered a terse nod of his head. “There would be many, many tests,” he confirmed.

Amy bit back a sigh of relief.
Many tests. Not a lot of time but many tests. Thank you for playing along.

“I’ll take them,” Lucy offered. “The sooner we get started, the sooner I can choose a mate.”

Of course you will.
Amy cursed herself for not realizing how obsessed Lucy was with this idea. She opened her mouth to reply.

A bark of foreign speech sounded behind her, shocking Amy to silence. She half-turned on the pivot point of her grip on the table, meeting the startled gaze of the warrior at the console. The flashing lights beneath her field of vision drew her attention down to the testing pad.

She’d inadvertently grasped it when she’d steadied herself on the table. They’d tested her.

Blue.
Everyone knew what it meant when the pad went blue.
I’m a match. I’m Sakk-descended.

Amy recoiled, her head spinning. “No.” She couldn’t become a Sakk mate. She was engaged to Jason. She was in love with him. Instincts to choose a mate or not, she was marrying the man she loved.

Lost in the internal horror show of having to refuse the Sakk and hope for the best—hope that they’d open the shields and let her leave without a fight—everything around her became an indistinct buzzing.

A punch snapped her mind back to the reality of her situation, and a keening wail rose around her. Arms closed around Amy and drew her to a very male chest.

No. I’m not taking a Sakk mate.
That was the last coherent thought she managed. Amy started beating at the warrior holding her captive.

****

Sakkra, second son of His Majesty Sakkrel, strode down the corridor between the inner consulate and the outer. Beside him, Colonel Ezu gave his report.

The prince did his best to ignore the too-tight Earth-style pants and bare chest Ezu chose to entice the human females. Those who’d won their places on Earth had gone to embarrassing extremes to attract matches from this planet.

The clothing was the least of it, in Sakkra’s opinion. Some had posed for native magazines that featured nude males or those engaged in all manner of sex acts. A few had acted in live sex vids with human women for the ‘exposure’.

Sakkra winced at the unintended pun. He’d never fully understood how the warriors expected this form of baiting to work, especially considering the fact that more men than women indulged in watching the vids, he’d been told. Not to mention that women looking for a mate were unlikely to look for one in a sex vid. On some level, it would seem in direct opposition to what they hoped to accomplish.

Still, those engaged in the unconventional activities were having sex. Quite a lot of it, based on the rumors. Sakkra half-expected to be greeted one sunrise with the news that one of the males had inadvertently impregnated an unknowing match, thinking she was human.

We have a one in seven hundred chance,
he thought bitterly.

And now this again. “We may have to alert the local authorities,” Sakkra mused.

The colonel would know that. If it turned to violence, he would do so automatically.

“Yes, Sakkra. We may. This one is particularly...intent.”

It could be worse.
The religious zealots who had attacked the shields with rocket launchers had been worse, but Master Beldon had still been on Earth to handle that situation. He’d deftly countered the attack, turned the combatants and their weapons over to the American military, and had kept everyone within the shields protected.

In some ways, Sakkra would rather handle armed opponents than one distraught and unbalanced human female.
Sakkan tests the worth of every man in His own way.

A prayer uttered under his breath, Sakkra returned to the situation at hand. “She is not at all close to what we need to find?” It wouldn’t matter if she was. Ms. Ferguson was mentally unsuitable to carry young for them, it seemed. He cursed the fact that the earlier testing had missed it. Perhaps they needed to make the psychological portion longer and more involved.

“No, Sakkra. Not at all.”

He nodded grimly. If she was close and not unbalanced, she might have found a male willing to accept implanted spliced young from her for the joy of a female in his bed. Or they might have been able to establish a new breeding colony with willing human females that were close stock but not close enough for true mating. Sakkra had considered both possibilities more than once. It wasn’t ideal, but what was with well over a hundred males to each female?

Sounds of a struggle stopped Sakkra in his tracks. Had the female attacked his men? Had she made threats?

Not one but two shouting women prodded him to a run. Sakkan only knew what the problem was, but it was worse than he’d expected. His heart thundering, he launched into the testing room.

The two women were struggling with a warrior each on opposite sides of the room. Sakkra looked back and forth between them, at a loss to explain it. How had this started?

Their vocalizations provided the answer for him. One was shouting obscenities and threats.

The one that hoped to be a match. We have to make the early testing more intensive.
He focused on the other.

“You can’t keep me here. I didn’t volunteer. I didn’t ask to be tested.” Her voice was high in panic. Her eyes were wide and wild.

And her lip is bleeding. Sakkan, no! Please, don’t let my men have done that.

Sakkra shot at glance at the test pad, confirming that it was blue. His mind worked at the problem with all due haste. The program would have started automatically, but someone would have had to order it to complete the cycle.

Or to abort, but aborting sometimes causes a fault requiring a reset of the equipment. He would have ordered it to complete the cycle to avoid that.

She hadn’t asked to be tested. She’d touched the pad accidentally, no doubt. The warriors hadn’t considered the possibility that she would test positive as a match.

And with an unbalanced human woman who wants to be a match in the room.
He prayed she hadn’t injured the other female.

And now the match is being detained by my men against her will.
It was a nightmare in the making. The human governments could wage war over this. They could refuse to allow more testing. If the young female had even a single bruise caused by his men, they could—

“I’ll kill you.”

Sakkra snapped a look at the other female, just in time to see the warrior restraining her wrap a hand around her throat.

I have to move!
“Stop! Remove her from the outer ring immediately. Colonel Ezu, help him.”

The colonel’s nod said he understood his actual job was to keep the warriors from killing her for threatening a match. Two more heartbeats, and the warrior would have managed that.

As if in confirmation, the warrior’s hand wavered before it withdrew. He maneuvered the struggling female between himself and Ezu.

“Turn her over to the human authorities,” Sakkra ordered. “And have her coded into the database as a threat.” With that accomplished, Ms. Ferguson would be unable to approach the shields at any consulate without the human authorities being summoned.

Ezu nodded stiffly. “Immediately. You have my vow.” He led the way out of the room, the surly female screaming curses and kicking at her guards.

That handled, Sakkra turned to the young match. She pummeled the major’s chest with her small fists, pleading to be set free. Sakkra felt a pang of regret. The match reminded him of the first caged birds he’d seen on Earth.

She would be released. Of course she would. But first, her wound would have to be tended to. Sakkra scooped her up, the major grasped her wrists, and her screams reached an earsplitting high.

“Calm, young one,” he soothed her.

She struggled against the major’s grip, trying to escape Sakkra’s arms. “Let me go. Let me go. Let. Me. Go!” She was screeching now.

She pulled a foot back to kick the warrior holding her wrists, and he switched both wrists into a single hand to grasp the foot in his other.

“When your wound has been tended to,” Sakkra offered calmly. He moved before she could protest, into the corridor and toward the main medical bay.