Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) (46 page)

The Rä swelled forward on a rush of excited hisses.

Sucking in a breath, Venomous rocked back on his heels.

He laced the fingers of his upper hands behind his head, lower arms crossing. “An unstoppable move.”

Fiercely made a noise of agreement.

My eyebrows bounced to my hairline then I rolled my eyes to the glister creep, motioned for Fiercely to lower me.

I thanked him with a kiss to his warm cheek on the way down.

“
Venomous!
”

The knife-like cry stabbed through the enclosure.

Wincing as a group, we turned to find a robust female in a voluminous teal softsuit bearing down upon us.

“
My precious offspring!
”

Smiling, a smidgen forced, but with genuine affection softening his features, Venomous embraced the female. “Mother.”

“I am happy to see you.” She pressed her brow to his, the gliding motion lingering. “You have grown.” She leaned back and grabbed his shoulders, giving them a shake. “Male, and strong, but we knew you would be.” Her face creased. “I have missed you.”

His head cocked and his voice grew tight. “So much, you were not there when I came home to introduce my clan?”

Her face dropped.

It sprung back with an impish smirk. “You know how busy I get.”

“No matter.” Disengaging, he twisted to me then cupped my cheek. “Mother, this is my Lumen of the Stars, my life mate.” He urged me forward. “Dearest, this is my life giver, She Venin Stings the Sweetest.”

Hostility and revulsion pulsed off Venin in waves.

Overpowering, hot, thick, the solid intensity of it made me shaky and feel unwell.

Mumbling, “Good greetings,” I stepped back.

I know it seemed timid, but I was upset.

Hatred rolled off the female I didn’t even know, and who was supposed to be family.

Picking up on my distress, Fiercely moved to my back then placed a hand on my waist.

Gaze snagging on the soothing gesture, Venin’s lip curled.

Her eyes twitched to Venomous then she plastered on a smile. “I must see to your fathers. I shall see you again in the Senate Quarter.”

She patted his cheek then sashayed off.

Venomous’ voice was cold. “You have not greeted my mate, nor my nest mate. I have not told you of my good tidings.”

“Later,” she called over her shoulder then was swallowed by the crowd.

“That went well,” I muttered and rubbed my face.

I’d known from the start when she hadn’t shown at the reunion it was going to be bad, but I hadn’t realised it be
that
sucky.

Peering after his mother, Venomous’ wide shoulders drooped.

He turned to me with a rueful expression. “It will get better.”

“Of course it will,” I replied with cheer and conviction I didn’t feel. “I grow on people, like fungus.”

He laughed. “No, like fresh scented mentha, dearest.”

Fiercely gave me a squeeze. “My kindred are anxious to meet you.”

“I’m looking forward to it, sweetheart.”

The personal communicator in Venomous’ thigh pocket bleeped, and he pulled it out to glance at the screen. “It is time.”

We left the hot, noisy festival hall and strolled into the starry, cooler night.

The haunting groan of stabled goodbeasts, and trickling of water from the aqueducts calmed me after the bombardment of the celebration.

I tucked away snippets of conversation, and slight facial gestures, to mull over them when I was alone.

“Am I supposed to say or do anything?” I asked. “Is it tradition to bow a certain way?”

Venomous nipped the back of my hand. “Do as you have done this moon. A dip of the head to knowledge an introduction.”

“Other people do a proper hand on heart bow.”

“You are my mate. You are not lesser, so there is no need.”

Pondering that pronouncement, we entered the archway of
the haze
into the Senate Quarter vestibule, and then navigated the imposing crystal passageways.

The architecture was glorious, but I’d seen too many dazzling structures to get excited at the sweeping quartz walls, polished stone columns, and twinkling vines woven into the rafters.

We came to a cavernous room where a trio of robed forms sat crossed-legged in a line.

Behind them were lancet windows spanning the length and breadth of the wall.

Shafts of bluish moonlight shone upon them as if they were celestial beings made flesh.

Venin Stings the Sweetest was seated next to Wind Dancer, and watched us gain our own seats with a glare of loathing fixed on me.

Venomous directed me to my own thickly stuffed cushion.

He offered a bow. “Elders. This is my Rä’Na, She, Lumen of the Stars.” He faced me. “You know my father. The Elder to his left is She, Calm as Thunder. The a’Rä to his right, Elder Dare Viper to Bite.”

The three genders were represented equally on the Senate.

I inclined my head. “Good greetings.”

Calm as Thunder smiled. “I bid you welcome, and offer congratulations.” She patted her stomach. “New life is a blessing I have not yet known.”

She slid a glance at her Rä’Vek seated beside her.

He gave her a fond look. “We are hopeful.”

“Pleasantries aside,” Dare Viper to Bite said, brisk, “You are here to address the matter of citizenship.” He looked at Venomous. “We have debated it, and your Rä’Na must partake in the bonding practice of our people. We will not grant residency without it.”

Surprised, I made a soft noise.

I hadn’t realised Venomous had taken my comments into deliberation, and had considered skipping the ceremony.

“The ritual piercing is not required, we are aware it would damage her,” Calm as Thunder added, “but certain people are anxious. We need to dispel paranoia Lumen is something to fear. Taking part in the tradition, holding festival, will see to it more than our platitudes.”

Chest heaving on a sigh, Venomous turned to me.

I swallowed not able to speak.

“Clearly she cannot accept our ways,” Venin said on a huff. “Perhaps it would be better to send her back to her home world. Back to this Earth, where she can be amongst her own species.”

Tensing, Fiercely made a rumbling noise.

“And our offspring?” Venomous asked in a quiet tone that meant bad things.

Venin hesitated. “There are ways–”

“Sending Lumen of the Stars back to her Earth is not a matter for discussion,” Wind Dancer cut in seeing the choked fury rising in his son. “She is mated to two of our males, and carries their young. She remains here. What is to be decided is how to go about the lesser mating tradition.”

“Will you compromise?” Calm as Thunder asked. “Accept a lesser mate during the bonding ceremony, so we can assure the populace you are one of us? Your rights will have been met, and you will have the understanding of this Senate, your life mates and your lesser male that you do not need to partake in clutch when his pheromones leave your body.”

I cupped my forehead, elbow on my knee.

It was a compromise, but I could tell it was a nonnegotiable one.

If I declined, my mating with Venomous and Fiercely would not be seen as legitimate to the Rä people.

I would not be seen as Rä, I would not be allowed to remain on Rök.

Even if I could get around the residency issue, it seemed risky to not try and integrate to the best of my ability.

I never wanted to deal with a situation where my rights, or the rights of my hatchling were brought into question because we were not considered true citizens.

I didn’t want to be seen at the standoffish, biased alien.

I wanted to fit in, to be accepted, and that was what they were trying to do, but it pissed me right off I had to have sex with some random male, no matter how attractive, in public, to do so.

My sexual appetite was healthy, but it went hand in hand with commitment.

I didn’t
know
Cobra that Strikes.

Putting what they asked into perspective, it seemed overwhelming.

I hadn’t even grown comfortable enough with Fiercely yet to make love to him, let alone a stranger.

I muttered, “You’ve picked Cobra then?”

Venomous hissed, the low sound relieved. “Yesss. He is our choice.”

“He accepted.”

“Yesss,” Fiercely doubly established.

Weary, I looked at the Elders. “May I please have some time to adjust and make peace with this?”

“Yesss,” Calm as Thunder agreed and not unkindly. “It is decided then. We shall make the relevant announcements in the matrix feeds. May the Great Serpent shelter you until we meet again.”

As we walked to the exit, Venin rushed to waylay us.

Well, to waylay Venomous.

She ignored me and Fiercely. “Did you speak to He, Murk of the Gloaming?”

“Yesss, I did.”

“Good. I am proud. You are a strong provider, and the ideal lesser mate for She, Bright as Moon Glow.”

My head snapped around so hard ligaments in my neck popped. “I beg your pardon.” My eyes pinged between them. “Who is becoming what to whom?”

Pulling me into his side, Venomous lifted a hand for me to calm when I struggled. “I declined the request.”

Venin froze. “You did
what
?”

“Lumen is not comfortable with the tradition.” He inhaled. “I find myself agreeing with her views. The mere thought of clutch with another is repellent. I will never be a lesser mate.”

Mouth pushing out, Fiercely slipped a considering look my way. “It will please you if I vow the same?”

I nodded with such force, I gave myself a headache.

“Then I shall deny the requests I have received too.”

“
Requests
,” I breathed my pulse jumping, voice climbing. “As in plural?”

“You may not decline,” Venin spat. “It suggests you think him dishonourable, and he is distant kindred.”

“Not that I needed to, but out of high regard, I explained my decision in depth to Murk of the Gloaming. He was disappointed, but respects my answer. So must you.”

“Venomous–”

He brushed his brow scales across hers. “Good parting, mother.”

Outside under the cool light of third moon, numbed, I stared at the dark sand and let Venomous pick me up then carry me to the goodbeast.

Fiercely walked behind us, close, but quiet.

Mounted, plodding home, half way through the journey Venomous pressed his cheek to mine, and his arm tightened around my middle.

He held me against his thumping hearts. “Cobra is a good choice, my Lumen.”

“I don’t want to do it,” I whispered a spiced breeze ruffling my hair, watching the monochromatic landscape shift under the same eddy of wind. “You’re not, Fiercely’s not. I shouldn’t have to either.”

“You will forgive us, I think.”

I said nothing.

When we arrived at the lair, I let them undress me, wash me then put me into our warm, cosy nest.

Shivering, finally, tears streaked down my temples.

I was the only human, an alien, on a planet so far from my own.

Rä culture dazzled and frightened me.

I didn’t fit in, and I worried I never would.

Going home wasn’t an option because I was in love, and falling in love.

I was having a baby, and its life would be filled with suffering if I didn’t find it within myself to bridge the gap between my beliefs and those of its father.

Venomous draped himself over and around me.

Fiercely hummed me a lullaby.

They took care of me until I slept.

C
ycles had passed, and still, memories of the festival where Venomous and Fiercely showed me what happened during a bonding ceremony disturbed my sleep, and dominated my waking thoughts.

Lips parting, I groaned then flung an arm over my face, blocking out the weak light from the glister creep.

Fiercely was too matter-of-fact about the bonding ceremony for me to have an ally in him, but Venomous?

He felt the dread of it as much as I did, not for the same reasons though.

Our time on the slave planet formed a strong bond.

What he once considered a time-honoured ceremony now caused unease.

He acknowledged the culture clash and it disturbed him.

I wasn’t happy he felt that way, but I did feel relief, however, when he displayed reservations over the ritual.

It revealed on an unconscious level, he recognised my right to choose what I wanted wasn’t being respected.

Consciously, he wasn’t impatient to get me up on that nest where he would watch He, Cobra that Strikes gentle me.

Toes curling, I shivered.

I’d never been comfortable with the lesser mate tradition.

After meeting the male they’d chosen, I still wasn’t okay with it, although, I agreed their choice suited me.

Even if I didn’t find Cobra pleasing, contesting who they picked had never been a consideration for three reasons.

A, I originally thought I’d be able to get out of it.

B, I didn’t know any other males.

C, my mates would never pick someone who wasn’t honourable in the ways that mattered to me, and them.

So, my emotions were confusing, intense and plentiful, but I wasn’t angry.

I disliked the thought of the lesser mate part of the bonding ceremony, but it wasn’t being enforced to upset me.

It was a way of life for the Rä, as commonplace as any rite of passage on Earth, and my refusal to adapt, to become one of them was alarming, and inappropriate in their eyes.

The real issue for me?

I didn’t have a choice!

Okay, so I had expected the Rä to be a violent, warmongering species.

Even knowing the inner goodness of my mates, I’d used their ‘barbaric’ appearance to judge what lay beneath.

Truth, they were a peaceable, sophisticated people that tolerated me, notwithstanding personal opinions viewing my mating with Venomous and Fiercely as misguided.

Admittedly, I wasn’t wholly understanding of
why
they felt it unwise.

I gathered from snippets of ‘overheard’ conversations there were those who fretted over our crossbreed offspring.

Most of the talk revolved around fear of what the blending meant for the future of Rök’s restrictive stance on offworlders.