Chapter 14
CASSIE
The Bunker Stew was delicious, if Cassie said so herself.
The alien ingredients seemed to go together in a way they never had when she’d tried to cook for Sskarth.
Then again, she hadn’t tried very hard. Her ex had been wealthy enough that they could afford to eat out most of the time—which was what many Visskous did.
But she had missed cooking—it had always been one of her favorite activities. Even back when she’d been married to Mitch and he had demanded supper every night, it was one marital duty she hadn’t minded.
Of course what she did mind was how often her ex wanted sex. Even back when her sex drive had been active, she hadn’t wanted to have sex as often as he did. Sex with her first husband was just a few pumps, a squirt and a tickle before Mitch rolled off her and was snoring in sixty seconds flat.
With Sskarth, things were different. He didn’t want sex as much as Mitch had—not after the novelty of her scaleless body had worn off, anyway—but sex with him had been a slow, cold affair that involved him poking his long, skinny penis—which actually had a stiff, brittle bone in it—carefully into her “wet slot” as he called it.
The scales on his member had been rough to touch and it wasn’t very pleasant having him inside her, so Cassie hadn’t really enjoyed sex with him either.
In fact, she hadn’t enjoyed sex with any man she’d ever been with—but there had only been three. Mitch, the guy she’d dated briefly after divorcing him, and then Sskarth. Now that she thought of it, she had to admit that sex had been the single biggest disappointment of her adult life.
But why are you thinking about sex at the dinner table? whispered a little voice in her head.
Cassie frowned. Why was she thinking about sex?
Maybe because she’d spent almost twenty minutes pressed up against the huge, naked Beast Kindred seated to her left?
Or maybe because of the way the Blood Kindred seated to her right couldn’t seem to stop looking at her breasts—though it was clear he was doing his best not to.
It was like her nipples had him mesmerized or something—which made her want to laugh and blush at the same time.
She felt desired by both of them and that felt new and different…in a good way, Cassie thought. The idea that both of the big, muscular warriors was attracted to her when Sskarth had done his best to make her feel ugly and old and unattractive was a much needed shot of confidence.
All this went through her head in the first five minutes of sitting down to eat.
Because of the long, narrow nature of the bunker, the kitchen table was also long and narrow and the three of them had to sit side-by-side instead of across from each other.
Cassie had taken the middle seat without even thinking about it, but now she couldn’t help feeling surrounded since the two of them were so big.
“So tell me,” she said to Severin, trying to make conversation. “I’ve never seen a Kindred warrior wearing glasses before. Are you near sighted or far sighted?”
“Neither,” Severin said shortly. “My vision simply isn’t as good as most other males. I use my oculars mainly for work,” he added.
“Oh? That’s too bad,” Cassie said sympathetically.
“I’ve been wishing I could get some reading glasses myself, but the Visskous version of glasses won’t fit me since they have their eyes on the sides of their heads.
What’s your prescription, anyway?” she asked, curious to know what the Kindred considered to be “bad vision.”
Severin looked down at his stew.
“I have only 20/20 vision, as I believe you humans call it,” he murmured, sounding half-ashamed of himself.
“What? But that’s perfect vision!” Cassie exclaimed. “I wish I still had 20/20 vision!”
The Blood Kindred shook his head.
“Most Kindred males have much better vision—they can see further and also with more detail than I can. Which is why I need oculars. My vision and my size are the reason Ravik and I became friends in the first place,” he added.
Sensing a story, Cassie put down her spoon.
“Your size? What’s wrong with your size? And how did it make you two friends?” she asked, genuinely interested.
“I’m shorter than most Kindred males—only six-foot-six or one hundred and ninety-eight centimeters, in your human measurements,” he said, sounding like he was admitting a personal fault.
“Only six-foot-six?” Cassie said, frowning. “That still makes you extremely tall. I mean, I doubt you’d be kicked off a basketball team. Or a football team for that matter,” she added, looking at his broad, muscular shoulders.
“I’m short compared to other males—I was always small, growing up.” Severin spoke stiffly and kept looking down at his stew as he talked. “Ravik, on the other hand, was always larger than the other males in our class.”
“So the two of you went to school together?” Cassie asked, fascinated. She was trying to picture the two of them when they were younger and smaller but it was hard to do since they were both the size of linebackers now.
The Blood Kindred nodded.
“Both our parents immigrated to the Mother Ship at the same time. Ravik was a little older than me, but his education was interrupted by a clan war on his home planet of Rageron, so he was put in my class at the Learning Center.”
“And did the two of you make friends right away?” Cassie said.
“Not right away—it happened when several of the other males were trying to bully me.” Severin spoke so seriously that she tried again to picture him as a small boy with blonde hair and big blue eyes getting bullied. It wasn’t so hard to imagine—especially if he was wearing glasses back then, too.
“So what happened?” she asked softly.
“They were angry because I wouldn’t help them cheat on a test—for some reason they thought I had all the answers.” He shrugged. “I didn’t, of course—I just studied, that was all.”
“So what happened?” Cassie asked.
“It was three against one—I was getting my ass handed to me, as you humans put it,” Severin said dryly. “That’s when Ravik stepped in.”
He cast a glance over Cassie’s head at the big Beast Kindred, who was eating his cauldron of stew steadily—she was glad she’d made a lot of it since both warriors had big appetites.
“I was small for my age but he was big for his,” Severin went on. “He beat up the bullies and the two of us became friends.”
“I think that’s a wonderful story.” Cassie smiled at him. “So have you been best friends since school then?”
The Blood Kindred nodded.
“I helped him with his studies and he watched my back. After we graduated, we entered the Kindred Guard Corps together. I became a scientist and medic and Ravik was a pilot and a demolitions expert. We’ve been on more missions than I can count together.”
“No wonder you couldn’t let him go when he got infected,” Cassie said softly. “I mean, if you’ve been together that long.”
Severin shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling.
“He’s my best friend,” he said simply. “He wouldn’t abandon me—I can’t abandon him.”
Cassie felt like she could understand a little more now about the bond between these two. They were best friends for life—it wasn’t surprising that Severin had been reluctant to part with the big Beast Kindred, even when Ravik got infected with the Hunger Virus.
“It sounds like the two of you are inseparable,” she remarked. “But what happens when one of you finds the right woman and decides to get married…er, Joined?”
Severin shook his head.
“We’ve come close—both of us. But it’s never really ‘worked out,’ as you humans say. I could never seem to get along with the women Ravik liked and he never much cared for the ones I found attractive, either.”
“Hmm, so it was a deal breaker to date someone your best friend didn’t like?” Cassie arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure the two of you are just friends?”
“What?” Severin looked honestly mystified.
“Oh—do you mean do I love Ravik in a romantic way? No, of course not.” He shook his head.
“Neither of us is a lover of men. We just prefer to spend a lot of our time together. If the woman one of us is considering Bonding with doesn’t like the other, it makes things difficult.
Well, to be honest—impossible.” He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
“At this point, I think the two of us have pretty much given up on Bonding.”
“Why? You’re still young,” Cassie said encouragingly. “Maybe you should look for sisters to date,” she added. “Then the two of you could spend as much time together as you want. You could—”
She broke off as a huge yawn ambushed her.
“Oh, excuse me.” She put a hand over her mouth. “Sorry—It’s just been a long day, I guess.”
“For us too,” Severin said. “It’s time to rest for the night.”
“Mate is sleepy,” Ravik spoke up and Cassie saw that while she and Severin were talking, he’d finished his enormous serving of stew. “Ravik will take mate to bed and pleasure her with his tongue,” he added.
“No, no—nobody said you could do that!” Cassie exclaimed, a shiver racing through her.
“It’s not your tasting week yet—remember?” Severin said quickly to his friend.
Ravik frowned.
“But I need to taste my mate,” he rumbled. “Her smell is good but her taste will be even better. I must taste her.”
“You can’t break the rules of the Claiming Period,” Severin said firmly. He looked at Cassie. “Please forgive him—he doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
“Uh…okay.” Cassie shot an uncertain look at the huge Beast Kindred. “I just…don’t understand why he’s so hung up on, er, tasting me,” she added in a low voice.
“That’s probably because we Kindred have a biological need to taste our mates,” Severin explained. “It brings us closer together and feeds the craving we have to give our women oral pleasure.”