Serpents of the Night (The Darvel Exploratory Systems #5)

Chapter 5

How did one day that was supposed to be moderately stressful suddenly become such a nightmare? It was as if everything was falling around her ears before Lori could even grasp what was going on. Hashal was withdrawn and quiet as he picked at the food that she set in front of him. She toyed with the idea of leaving him with Eddie while they were gone but that didn’t seem fair when he was a part of the family and had a vested interest in the outcome. It was clear that he was worried. She could see it in the tension of his developing gavo as it twitched along his back and in the tiny crests upon his head. As much as she wanted to reassure him, she didn’t know what to say to make him feel better.

She wanted to tell him that everything would be okay but couldn’t get the words past her lips—not when she felt so uncertain about their future. She was barely keeping her composure as it was. As much as she wanted to just find a corner to break down and cry in, she had to remain strong. At the same time, she couldn’t bear to make any promises that she wasn’t sure she could keep. Especially not when tearing apart their family had certainly seemed to be the hashara’s intention—a task that she had appeared far too gleeful in undertaking. How much worse would it have been if the female had noticed the nestling in the room? There appeared to be some sort of special offense taken with even the idea of a female of another species birthing Seshanamitesh young that she couldn’t quite grasp. Even so, she had little doubt that it was something rooted in their spiritual and cultural tradition, and it was probably going to be a significant obstacle for them in the shinara.

Lori sat at the end of the table and propped her arms on its smooth surface, battling back the urge to rub her eyes and temples to relieve the pinch of fatigue and stress. There didn’t appear to be any sort of “safe” option for them. The fact that the female Seshanamitesh were quite a bit larger than her and held all the power didn’t help her confidence in their situation. Although she doubted that every female within the shinara was cut from the same cloth any more than humans or any other species were, she had very little doubt that there would be those like the hashara who would be all too happy to weaponize any perceived weaknesses.

“Fuck,” she mumbled, dragging her palm down her face.

“Mother, you said that is a bad word,” Hashal hissed, his bright eyes widening in shock.

She gave him a wan smile despite her chest warming with a growing love for the nestling. That he had taken to calling her “mother” on his own quite recently was something that never failed to leave her just a little bit in awe even as it completely delighted her.

“You are right. Sorry, Hashal.”

He slowly nodded his head, his small, delicate gavo flicking but he paused, his lips parting slightly.

“What is it Hashal?”

He gave her an uncertain look, his gavo flattening completely. “I do not want to say. I do not want you to be angry.”

Reaching across the table, Lori rested her hand over his and gave it a small squeeze. “You can tell me anything. I won’t be mad.”

He ducked lower in his chair, his expression unconvinced, but he twitched his gavo again and nodded for her benefit. “You... you are scared of the shinara,” he whispered.

She blinked, surprised by his astute observation. “Yes. Yes, I am,” she readily agreed. “But you know something—it’s okay to be frightened of places that are new and that you don’t understand. It’s how you deal with that fear that is important.”

He sank even lower but nodded again, his gavo barely trembling. “You are smart to be scared. I do not like the shinara. They would have taken me and forced me to live there like all of the other hatchlings if not for my father. He hid my egg away before I was born and always said that it was a bad place for anyone who did not have the good fortune to be hatched female.”

“Perhaps, in some ways,” she agreed slowly, not wanting to villainize a whole society that she didn’t really know anything of. “But your father was also not very...” her words dropped off as she struggled to find the right adjective.

“Sane,” Hashal filled in glumly, his attention returning to his meal. “That is what father Daskh says. He says that my father had something wrong with his head.”

“Yes, I suspect Daskh is right,” Lori agreed.

“He would not lie about that, would he? Like the way he pretended that he did not know that your nestling was father Slengral’s?” He ducked his head and whispered hurriedly, “He said that he did not wish for you to be sad that everyone knew the truth or believe that anyone would treat them like less for not siring the nestling when they all felt so pleased and happy to greet him. I do not think he lied about this, but now I am not sure.” Hashal gave her an anxious look and she stared at him in shock for a moment before quickly shaking her head.

As much as she was irritated at her mates for the way everything came out—and that it came from that female!—she knew that it wasn’t meant to hurt her.

“No, of course not,” she reassured him as she ran her hand over his gavo. “What your fathers did with their secret was a bad decision, but it was not a malicious lie or one to really deceive me. They want me to feel happy and I had said it would make me happy if no one knew. I didn’t know that they would all know anyway, but my mates only wanted to make me happy. That does not mean that it was okay that they kept that secret,” she clarified. “But it was not done to trick me or hurt me.”

“But you were hurt,” Hashal whispered miserably.

“I was,” she agreed. “And I was pretty angry, but that doesn’t mean that I can no longer trust them. It just means that we have some work to do.”

“And she has every right to be angry,” Slengral added as he glided over to the table and coiled onto the chair beside hers, his gaze gravely fixed on the young male. “We are all still learning, Hashal, and we will make mistakes. We are taught from the haga that we never contradict a female and always defer to her lead. We forget that Lori does not understand or know this.” His gaze turned toward her, and he gave her a contrite grimace. “It is my fault. I did not wish for my nest brothers to feel left out if your species is like ours in which a female will lock onto the male who is the sire to share her young with alone. Daskh was uncertain but agreed to the pretense because the idea of having offspring alone pleased him, and so he was happy that you wished to publicly name him as the father as well. Only Kehtal protested.” The corner of Slengral’s mouth quirked. “Perhaps we should have listened to him.”

“Smart male,” Lori quipped drily and sighed as she settled back into her chair. It was hard to be angry with that revelation since she understood a bit more about where they were coming from. It was sweet that they wanted to make her happy, but she was going to have to nip that cow-towing in the bud if they didn’t want to have that sort of misunderstanding reoccurring. Now, however, she just wanted her mates with her. “Speaking of Daskh, where is he?”

“Kehtal commed and he went down to greet him. The hunting party brought back a large gasthan that had wandered down from the mountains with the onset of the wet season and several sand vorsk that had tunneled out from the ground. He anticipated that they would need extra hands to butcher and prepare it.”

Lori’s brows went up. “Is that normal?”

“Oh yes,” he agreed readily, an eager smile stretching across his face. “In the Aglatha it is difficult to store the meat in the cave systems without access to the cooling chambers of the shinara, so we are not able to store as much as we would like but we always ate well and gorged ourselves throughout the season of rain and flowers with the knowledge that the dry seasons would bring hunger.”

She stared at him for a long moment, recalling the way he had worked tirelessly to provide food for her while he was caring for her within the caves. “Oh, Slengral.”

His red gaze fixed on her, and he seemed to understand the direction of her thoughts because his gavo rippled in a splash of color in the low light of the room. “Do not feel distressed, ashlava. It was a great source of pride and pleasure to provide for you in the lean season. It tested my strength and will... and I was rewarded the greatest of gifts for it.”

“I don’t know about all of that,” she muttered, her cheeks heating but he chuffed and leaned forward, his jaw brushing against hers.

“All of that and more, which we will prove to you once your other two mates return. It is beyond time that we remind you what it is to be ashlava of our nest.”

“Gross,” Hashal gagged, mimicking human children so accurately that Lori bit back a laugh as she glanced down at the little male. Despite his comment, he grinned up at both of them in delight, obviously taking some measure of comfort from the ready affection of his new parents.

“Someone has been watching too many earth vids,” she teased.

Hashal’s giggle warmed her heart as Slengral’s tail curled around the smaller male, vibrating in a way that obviously tickled him.

“Someone who shall not be awake long enough to bear witness to it,” her mate corrected, reminding her that Seshanamitesh slept for periods during the midday as well as the late night due to their odd diurnal cycle.

Hashal hissed and squealed before escaping Slengral’s tail long enough to gulp down the remaining bite in his bowl and return it to the particle receptacle before hurrying off to watch vids in his own quarters within the family unit. As a new mother, she was thankful for that bit of technology. Built into the walls of every room in the colony, the receptacle de-particlized material waste and returned it to raw energy. It was a shame that the same tech couldn’t make food like it could print bowls and various necessary fabrics and supplies, but at least it kept messes at bay within the colony.

Lori’s lips curled in amusement as she watched Hashal disappear into his room just as the tip of Slengral’s tail wound its way onto her lap. She stroked her hand over his tail.

“About Vekatha...”

“She lies. I never would have attempted to claim her,” he interrupted, desperation to have her believe him and fury warring in his voice over the accusations leveled at him. “She tried to lure me in, as I was vulnerable as an unclaimed and unmated male, but I resisted and escaped her. I never would have betrayed you that way, and if she had succeeded, I would never have managed to return at all, I think.” His gavo flattened with his obvious distress at the thought.

“I believe you,” she rushed to assure him, hating how unhappy and tense he looked. “I didn’t think for even a moment that you would have done that and then returned to me. You are not deceitful, Slengral, but these are some very serious accusations that we will be facing. Are you certain that there is no way her pheromones could have become embedded in your scales when you were trying to escape from her? I don’t want there to be any way that they can possibly use it against you. If there is even a small chance I would rather leave.”

Slengral sighed and drew her close to brush his jaw against hers. “We will not leave here. This is our home. We will not be chased from it unless we have no choice. As for her pheromones... no. It is impossible. Brushing against me or even pinning me beneath her would not do it. Only the mix of pheromone-rich mating fluid leaves that sort of trace, for which there was none.”

“Then what could Vekatha hope to accomplish?”

“She hopes that the proceedings will sway my mother and the council into demanding that I save everyone from the embarrassment and do as my mother bids... mate with Vekatha, a healthy Seshanamitesh female.”

“But Vekatha...” she protested, angry all over again at the female’s actions.

“Shhh,” he hummed. “I do not wish to speak any more of her. I only want my mate.”

His tail brushed her belly and he shivered, a soft croon humming from his throat. His hum immediately shifted, however, as his tail glided over her, catching a note of lust within its vocalization. Now it was her turn to shiver as she spread her legs for him, enjoying the way the tip of his tail dipped against the fabric, rubbing with a delicate friction that made her quiver with desire. A soft pant burst from her lips as she rolled her hips, enjoying the exquisite curl and glide of his tail there.

There was no harm in getting started—just a little petting—while they waited for Daskh and Kehtal. She knew her mates would be quick to catch up once they arrived.