CHAPTER 6
Dakleth
I paced the small room, desperate to be reunited with my mate.
I was still reeling from the knowledge that I had hurt her.
I lost my head during the mating and harmed her with my claws.
I had marveled at the smooth delicateness of her skin.
I had never felt anything so decadently silky, and I had ruined it on the first day.
I should have known better. I was mentally beating myself up with the lack of care I had shown her.
I needed to download everything about human courtship rituals so I could learn how to earn her forgiveness.
My musings were interrupted by a door opening and two of my father’s investigators coming in the room.
“Prince Dakleth,” Shara gave a brief bow. “We are here at the King’s behest to take a statement from you regarding the Earth female’s accusation of rape.”
I still could not understand why my mate would say such a thing.
I would never take a female without her consent.
She had clearly initiated the mating ritual with me, and I accepted.
Had she changed her mind when I ripped her back open?
Perhaps her culture called it rape if one of the participants was harmed during the act of mating.
I would find a way to make it up to her.
My beautiful mate would want for nothing for the rest of her days.
I was irritated, but I understood duty and protocol. “I understand. Ask the necessary questions,” I said.
“Can you please tell us about how you first encountered the female Andrea of Earth?”
Andrea. I hadn’t even known her name until this moment. I felt a surge of pleasure as it rolled through my mind. Andrea, my mate. Pushing that aside for a moment, I settled in to give my report.
“At approximately the seventh centine after sunrise, I responded to an alarm indicating our airspace had been violated by an unauthorized spacecraft.
My duty was to assess the origin of the craft, evaluate any potential threat, and aid any passengers requiring medical assistance as required by intergalactic protocol.
As I approached, I saw a class four, C-310 ship had crashed, so I grabbed the emergency aid kit and went to the door.
I called inside to ask if there were any survivors who required assistance.
I immediately noted the dead body of a Trexian on the floor to the left.
When I scanned to the right, I spotted Andrea.
She was coming towards the door, and I was immediately smitten by her. ”
“Did you speak to her?”
“No, I confess that I was completely stunned by her. My mind went utterly blank as I took her in.”
“Did she appear injured?”
“No, I observed that she was wet, but I was so awestruck in her presence that I did not fully assess her as I should have.”
“Did you offer her any assistance?”
“No, I failed in that as well.” I was starting to feel shame for not following the protocols I should have. My mate might have been injured before I even touched her. I should have made a better effort to offer assistance in those early moments.
“Did you believe she was interested in taking you as a mate?”
“Yes, of course. She saw my cock rise for her, looked me in the eyes, and yelled ‘mate!’, then pushed me and initiated the chase. I caught her and subdued her. She fought me beautifully, made me prove myself. It is true that I must have gotten carried away when I marked her with my claws. I did not know her flesh was so fragile. I regret that I harmed her. Is that why she has made this claim? I need her to know that I would never harm her intentionally.”
Shara paused and looked at Morinar. “I am going to show you something that I believe will clarify this situation. Understand that this is outside of our usual procedure, but we serve the King’s and the kingdom’s best interests, and a lengthy trial would do more harm than good, especially when the facts of the case don’t appear to be in dispute. ”
“Very well,” I said, confused, but curious about what they wished to show me.
Morinar turned his tablet to me, and I could see the recorded interview with my mate. I drank in her image and watched as Shahar conducted the questioning.
Shahar: “What was your intention?”
Andrea: “To get away from him!!”
Shahar: “Your intent was to flee?”
Andrea: “Yes! I just crash-landed on a planet I don’t know.
I’ve been stolen from my home, and my family, and friends.
Some insect space pirate bought me as some sort of slave, and then a new giant alien is waving his dick in my face.
What possible reason would make someone think I wanted to have sex in that moment? I just want to go home.”
I was shocked to hear my mate had been through such an ordeal. Was she saying she did not want to mate with me? Then why did she initiate the ritual?
Shahar: “When you fled, did you say anything to him?”
Andrea: “I took one look at him and screamed ‘mate’ in his face! He may not have understood the words, but my tone and my running should have been clear enough! That bastard ignored me and chased me down. He pushed me down, tore off my clothes, and shoved his cock in me, is that what you want to hear? And yes, I told him to stop. I begged him over and over and he wouldn’t stop.
Then he sliced my back up, and I passed out. What more do you need from me?”
I was so confused. She admitted that she initiated the mating ritual, but she didn’t want the mating? Her distress was obvious. Was it possible my mate was touched in the head?
Shahar: “We can see this is difficult for you to recall. Do I have this part right, you screamed ‘mate’ at Prince Dakleth, pushed him in the chest, and then ran away?”
Andrea: “Mate? I didn’t say ‘mate’. I told you I said ‘mate’.”
This was even more confusing.
Shahar: “Hmm, I think we may have a translation issue. I’m going to turn the translator off for a moment, and then ask you to say exactly what you said to Prince Dakleth, the way you said it, please.”
Andrea: “A-Hel-No!” (Mate)
Shahar: “What does this phrase ‘A-Hel-No’ mean in your language?”
Shahar was suggesting ‘Mate’ meant something different in Earth language. I started to tremble. I had a very bad feeling about this.
Andrea: “Um, according to some of our old legends, Hell is a place the souls of evil people go when they die. It’s a place of eternal punishment.
In the afterlife. Saying ‘Hell No’, or ‘Oh Hell no’, or some variation like that is our way of saying ‘absolutely not.’ As in, I’d rather go to Hell than for this thing to happen, I guess. ”
Understanding slowly dawned. She had never said ‘mate.’ She said ‘absolutely not’ in her language and pushed me away.
She was trying to flee. She did not initiate the mating ritual, she was running away from a large male who pounced on her and mated her without consent.
She did not fight me to force me to prove my strength; she was trying to fight off an attacker.
A rapist.
I fell to my knees and keened.
Andie
Lanicar looked like he wanted to be anywhere but at that table with me. “Andie,” He said softly. “There is a ritual you should know about among the Ptexari. A mating ritual.”
Again, hell no, they weren’t going to pass off what happened to me as some sort of effed up mating ritual. Rape is rape. I eyed him warily. He was about to break the fragile trust I had in him, I just knew it.
“Females of our kind initiate the ritual,” he said slowly.
“The male then chases the female and must subdue her to prove his strength and dominance.
Our males and females are mostly the same in terms of size and strength, so it is expected that the female will fight the male to test his strength.
Females seek strong males who will protect their nest and younglings.
Well, that used to be the case. We are more civilized now, not living in nests, but the mating instinct and ritual are still the same.
The important thing to understand is that the female is expected to fight the male during the mating act, you see?
This is why it is so important that the female is the only one who can initiate the mating ritual.
She indicates her desire to mate, and if the male accepts, he will chase her and mate with her.
She does this by saying ‘mate’ while touching him on the arm or chest. Then she runs to evoke his predatory instinct. ”
“Are you saying I somehow initiated this mating ritual? I mean, yes, I shoved him and ran, but I didn’t tell him I wanted to mate. You can’t just believe that any female who runs away from you wants to have sex with you. That’s messed up,” I huffed.
“True, which is why she calls him ‘mate’ first,” he looked me square in the eye and paused.
“Well, I didn’t….oh shit. That’s why the investigator asked me to explain Hell, isn’t it? ‘Hell ‘or ‘Hell no’ means ‘mate’?”
Lanicar nodded. “Its AHHH-HELLLL-NOOOO,” he said super slowly, so the syllables wouldn’t be translated by the tablet.
I felt like my whole being locked up, my brain frozen and unable to digest what I was being told. My rape was reduced to a simple cultural misunderstanding to these people. An unfortunate translation error.
“I don’t understand,” I said, but that was a lie. I did understand. I just couldn’t accept it.
Lanicar sat quietly with me, allowing me time to come to terms with what he told me. A sinking weight settled deep in my belly, dragging me into a bleak, mental and physical abyss. I couldn’t take this in right now. Turning my face back to the wall, I whispered, “I’d like to be alone now.”
From somewhere down the hall, I heard a desolate cry - a long, wailing dirge of grief and utter despair.
This was a hospital, so I assumed someone must have died.
Lanicar quietly left the room, and I sat in my tears, listening to a mourner’s lament.
It was soul-deep, reverberating through my bones.
It matched my bitter mood perfectly. Mourning a loss of innocence, trust, family and friends gone.
I curled myself into a ball and welcomed the sad song of loneliness from that other mourner into my soul.
Dakleth
On my knees, I mourned the loss of my mate.
She had never truly been mine, yet the grief tore through me all the same.
Worse still was the crushing shame of what I had done to her.
Yes, she had called me ‘mate’, and I was so lost in the haze that I had accepted her word without question.
She was an alien female from a species I had never seen, emerging from a wrecked ship into an unfamiliar world.
And I had allowed instinct to overwhelm my common sense.
As a result, my mate had been violated in the worst way.
By me.
“I will not fight the charges,” I said to the investigators. “Tell my father I plead guilty on all counts, and will accept the sentence he decrees.” I closed my eyes in resignation and awaited my fate.