Chapter Five
Sasha stopped tossing and turning. For two days, she hadn’t felt like eating, had barely been persuaded to go to the dining area with Wendy or Layla, and had to force herself to act nonchalant in front of the people who were watching her, making sure she was a good fit for the program.
Gideon would be cleared to move into his own quarters in a few days, they said.
Things could start from there, they said.
She heard the noise of voices in the wide hall outside her quarters that morning, and the ship’s computerized voice granting access to the room next door. Farhet’s quarters. Now Gideon’s.
Sasha kicked her legs over the bed and sat up.
Shower. Protein drink. Go see him. Get this over with—or get this started.
SASHA PRESSED THE PANEL outside the door of Gideon’s quarters, calling into the intercom as she held down the button.
“Hi. It’s Sasha Cordovair. I... I came to welcome you aboard.
I called in the med bay when you just arrived and—oh!
” Sasha jumped back when the sliding doors on Gideon’s quarters opened and revealed the most startlingly handsome Leonid she’d ever seen.
Jet black, with a wild mane that shone like shimmering silk in the lights. He had on loose cream-colored trousers and bare feet. A bare chest.
Were all Leonids this muscular? This striking?
Upon reflection, Farhet reminded her of a pompous politician, the same kind you saw on Sapien-Three on all the media ads and boring newscasts; the kind that made promises and never delivered. Since his departure, she’d realized that every race must have a subclass of person—the slimy, pompous ass.
Gideon’s golden eyes widened when he saw her, and he extended both paws to take her hand, catching it and then bowing low over it. His huge frame already towered over her, but he bent double to rest his forehead on her hand.
Thick, soft fur that almost swallowed up her bare fingers caressed her hand, and his mane reached to under her chin.
Okay. Not afraid of touching me. That’s a plus.
Gorgeous and looks like he could take out a wall. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing yet...
“I am so very honored to make your acquaintance. I am Gideon, of Imazi Hills. In the Leonid culture, it is rare to use a surname. Please, just call me Gideon, Miss Cordovair.”
“That’s fine. I’m Sasha. A-and I’m honored, too.” She bent her knees, not sure if she should bow, curtsey, or try to put her head on his paws. “I’m still learning Leonid customs, but I noticed that. Everyone just goes by their first names.”
Gideon rose as she bent.
Their heads bumped lightly, and they were nose to nose, a massive, broad face that was twice the size of hers engulfing her with a flowing, wayward mane. “Oh,” she let out a little laugh.
“My apologies.” He let out the same sort of nervous chuckle and brushed his mane back. “Please, come in. I brought a gift for you from Leonid-One. Well, I know Farhet gave you the necklace I purchased—”
“No. He didn’t. But that’s okay! I wasn’t expecting a gift.” Sasha straightened up and tucked her hair behind her ear.
Gideon fixed her with his luminous golden eyes.
“You are willing to offer him a child, and a child is the only way a Pride continues. All the jewels in the galaxy aren’t enough.
I... I brought you this. It is just something I picked up in the Bastet Mercy gift shop, but I thought it was fitting.
” He hurried to one of two large metal cases by the foot of the bed, opening one and drawing out a large white box.
“Oh! You really didn’t have to.” Sasha’s jaw clenched involuntarily.
She hadn’t received a gift in the last four years, not since Abuela last gave her a birthday present.
Her roommate had remembered once and gotten her something that was supposed to be chocolate but tasted like plastic and sugar.
“It’s... It’s not even going to be your cub.
I mean, it is, but you said it would help the Pride continue.
This baby won’t be part of your Pride. Will it? Are you like—a relative of Farhet’s?”
Gideon gave her a bitter, lopsided smile and held out the box. “If you are unfamiliar with Leonid ways, Miss Cordovair—”
“Sasha, please.”
“Sasha, I’m not a relative of Farhet’s, and if I were, he would shun me. If you look at me, you’ll see that with a surplus of Knights and Kings, and a fraction of the Queens there should be, I will never have my own cubs or Pride. I will never have a Queen—not as things stand now.”
Sasha blinked and took the box, her eyes raking over the beautiful Leonid in front of her.
“Why? I’m sorry if that’s rude. I’m looking at you, and you’re um—well, you’re not missing anything.
You must be healthy, or Dr. Marcus wouldn’t let you into the program.
You’re gorgeous. Sorry. I mean that objectively.
Sorry. I think I’m nervous after my meeting with Farhet. He didn’t like me.”
I didn’t like him, either, but Gideon? I already like him.
GORGEOUS.
The human Queen was looking at him with her beautiful eyes and speaking to him with her soft voice, which was coming from such unusual lips. No wide, split muzzle for her, just soft little red berries that looked so plump and tender. Bitable. Lickable.
He shook himself away from the first praise he had ever heard from a female of any species—not counting his mother and sisters, who praised his kindness and his intellect and never dwelt on his unusual appearance.
“You are most kind. I’m not the right color for a Leonid, not a Leonid on Leonid-One, where the best and brightest reside.
I also have this—” he turned around and showed her the white sprinkling of spots on his back, “all markers of a genetic mutation. A rare one, not necessarily something I would pass on. They ran tests at the hospital, at Farhet’s insistence.
The likelihood that a cub I produce will have this coloring is less than 1%. It’s an acceptable risk.”
“Right... But you could have a child of your own, couldn’t you, if looks weren’t important? Or, even if they were, I guess?”
“I suppose. But the child wouldn’t have a very advantageous life.
And I would prefer to leave Leonid-One and settle elsewhere.
To be frank, Sasha, that’s what Farhet has promised me.
A new life and a huge amount of credits to start a new life in a place where I won’t be a servant that people look on with pity or shock.
Other planets in the systems aren’t so rigid.
I may even find a Queen of my own—somewhere else.
If you think that’s dishonorable, I wouldn’t blame you.
You can end things right now, and I would understand fully.
” Another bow, and he pushed the box more firmly into her hands.
Coming from the materialistic culture of such a prestigious and pompous district, he was used to gifts being opened and expected, their value boasted about at once. Sasha put it in her lap and sat on his bed, looking at him with sympathy. Not pity.
On his bed.
His heart hammered in his chest, even though he knew it was surely a misplaced excitement.
“I don’t think it’s dishonorable. You want a better life.
So do I. I had nothing on Sapien-Three. Crummy jobs, jerky ex-boyfriends, no family...
The money for this program is incredible, not to mention that only a few out of dozens were selected.
I know they’ll keep matching more surrogates and prospective parents, and maybe someday, this’ll be super common.
Right now, it feels like a scary risk, a big adventure.
But being in this galaxy has made me rethink going home.
I might want to stay in Felix Orbus. Somewhere new.
Somewhere where looks and species don’t matter, and everyone just lives together, Felid, human, Canid...
” She shrugged and smiled at him, a soft, genuine smile that made his heart race even faster. “Sounds like we’re going the same way.”
“It surely does.”
“Maybe we’ll end up on the same planet together. Wouldn’t that be funny?”
“A beautiful coincidence.”
She nodded. “I might even have a shot at a family, too. That’s what Abi and Marcus say. They keep saying that more and more Felids are okay with marrying humans. There are so many human and Felid couples on this ship, and on this little planet, Lynx-Nineteen. I’m being premature.” Another shrug.
She was so small, this human Queen sitting on his bed, a being of soft curves and flowing, draping clothes. Unique and so tempting to stare at and study.
“Uh. No! No, I don’t think that it is premature.
It’s hopeful. Where would we be without hope?
Surely that is why Dr. Marcus tried to create something that would allow our population to keep growing without such a huge gap between the last generation of Queens to fall to the virus and the next generation of cubs to grow up and reach adulthood. ”
“He was originally studying immunity.”
“That’s what I had heard.”
“Humans can’t catch Queen Fever. I heard Layla—that’s the captain’s wife, and she was originally his surrogate—” Sasha paused for a second, as if realizing what she’d said, and then licked her lips and started again.
“I heard Layla explaining that children born to humans are immune to the virus, too.”
“All the more reason you should be lavished with gifts, for not only producing an heir, but protecting one.”
Sasha smiled. “You’re so sweet. Thank you. Okay, let’s open this—oh! Oh, my goodness, what is this?”
“It’s Mithrium and Leonite,” he announced proudly, loving the way Sasha’s delicate little paw—hands, he reminded himself, lifted out the gift. It was a dainty object d’art, a tree made of shining, silvery mithrium covered in thin lumenglass flowers and Leonite leaves.
“I’ve never owned something so beautiful.”
“It’s a fruitful tree. You are extending the family tree, you see, and bearing fruit, and... I thought it was symbolic and quite lovely.”
“It is. Wow. Um. Would you like to have dinner tonight in my quarters? We could talk and get to know each other better. I can start the injections in a couple of days. You know. If you want to. If you feel up to it.”
Gideon swallowed. If he felt up to it. He felt like he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if presented with such a beautiful Queen, even if she loved him. What if he wasn’t good at pleasing her and she rejected him once they started?
“I’d be very willing to try,” he murmured.
“Try dinner?”
“Yes! And to—to support you when you have your injections. Is there something you would have me do? Prefer me to do? Or not do?”
Wonderful. He was practically stammering. And he was half-dressed. Why had that just occurred to him? Gideon looked around wildly for a shirt.
“No, I don’t think you have to do anything special. Just don’t look like you touched a dead rat when you touch me, I guess.”
His search for the shirt stopped. “Pardon?”
Sasha held up her hands and waggled her slender little fingers. “Your boss doesn’t like humans. Doesn’t like bare skin. Wants furry Felid babes, which is fine, but that’s not what I am.”
“Yes, he’s put off by a lot of things that aren’t just as he wishes them,” Gideon admitted, rolling his eyes. “The other Felids on board don’t seem to mind humans, do they?”
“Well, no. But you’re the one who would have to...” Sasha’s eyes flirted with his, fluttering up to his gaze and then down to her knees. Her hands interlocked. “To do the deed.”
He swallowed so loudly that she looked up.
Her face was stricken.
“Oh, no. You do hate the idea of being with a human! Oh, God!” She bolted from the bed.
He sprang over to her, easily reaching her side in one step. His paw locked around her arm. “Please! No, I do not hate the way you look. Or the idea of being with a human. Very far from it. I do fear displeasing you.”
There. That was honest. And hopefully, it didn’t make him sound like a cub or some sniveling coward.
“Displeasing me?” Sasha slowly allowed herself to be drawn back.
“Yes. Because I haven’t been in this position before.”
“Oh. Well, yeah, neither have I. Don’t worry about displeasing and stuff. I’m not big on the physical side of this contract. As long as it’s not too painful, we’ll be fine.”
“Sweet Bastet, no! No, it should definitely not be painful.”
“See? That’s all I need. I know they say these shots make you go into ‘heat,’ but I assume you have to enjoy sex to want to do it all the time, and I don’t. Nothing personal! Nothing about you! I just don’t like it. I never have.”
Gideon frowned. Well. Maybe that was a good thing.
She had no high expectations of his ability to pleasure her, just refrain from hurting her, and he was sure he could manage that.
She didn’t expect to experience insatiable cravings for sexual attention like Queens did during their heats.
“Well, if you do want something or need something, I’ll support you. That’s my job.”
Sasha gave him a bemused smile. “You could give lessons to human guys, you know.”
“I’d be willing, but I’ve heard Sapien-Three is hardly a tourist spot.”
They shared a laugh.
“So, dinner?”
“In your quarters?”
“I’m right next door.”
“Sounds wonderful.”
He showed her out and waved goodbye, standing awkwardly in the doorway of his quarters, trying to decide if he should walk her to her rooms or not, since he could literally see her door from his own.
She tossed him another smile over her shoulder, this one broader and happier than any of the others, and he felt as though someone had swiped him across the knees.
He clutched the doorway for support.
Farhet was an utter idiot for passing up a chance to spend more time with Sasha. A blasted fool for not at least attempting to get used to her appearance and touch.
He sank back on the bed and put his paw over his chest, startled to find his heart was still beating hard. “Must be a side effect of hypersleep.”
Or it could be a side effect of thinking about her words. Just avoid pain, that’s all she wanted.
Poor little human Queen.
That makes it sound as if she has never experienced pleasure. Neither have I, not with another person. If I could make this good for her, then—
Then what?
The voice of reality was dull and firm. Then you’ll have a chance to rut her more often? Isn’t that the selfish perk of selling your lineage to a rich bully like Farhet?
Sasha doesn’t think it’s wrong. She understands me.
We might get along very well.
I hope so...