Chapter 4
Havali
He was a liar. A terrible male. The worst.
His manipulations were working.
Scarlet was already more comfortable with him.
He knew she didn’t want a mate and so he was deliberately acting like he wasn’t interested in her in that manner.
He kept their conversation flowing, but innocent.
He had legitimate reasons for being close to her and doing anything for her that, even if they were true, weren’t his primary motivation.
And he continued even now, using his excuse of learning human body language in order to learn more about her. To get closer to her. His practice in incorporating human things like head shaking and nodding were only so she would be more comfortable with him.
Calculated, deliberate, despicable.
And effective.
Scarlet didn’t even ask if he wanted to go down with her to the shuttle. She just asked if he was ready to go now. Like it was accepted that they would be going together.
He wouldn’t call it friendship, but he had some measure of trust. He was polite and friendly as he escorted her down to the bottom of the ship where the shuttle waited.
The landing shuttle was much smaller than the Stor – a finger compared to an entire body. It wasn’t meant for long-distance travel and really only had seating so that the party would be comfortable as they made their way down as it flights on it were supposed to be brief.
When Havali and Scarlet arrived, Tuvo and his cadre of soldiers were already there. Alanna could be heard inside, talking to someone on her combot. Holly, if he was identifying the voice correctly. The yellow haired human and the softest, brown haired human had both elected to remain on Turv.
A fact which bothered Tuvo. Havali knew and liked to needle him about it.
First Warrior still had yet to make up for his careless comment about her tiny size and he dearly wanted to.
He had dishonored himself by insulting such a sweet female.
But she was avoiding him, and he wouldn’t dishonor himself further by forcing himself in her presence.
Havali was actually learning a lot just by watching Tuvo mess up. Of course, he had learned just as much from watching Romival successfully woo his female human. He didn’t witness how Atem had won Adassani, but their relationship was a stable one and also worth watching.
Havali was going to apply everything he knew, every trick in his bag, to make Scarlet happy. To convince her to love him. Even if he had to spend the rest of his life lying in order to keep her content with her despicable mate.
The two of them boarded the shuttle together and, to his delight, Scarlet stayed near him. She was pumping him for more information – that he was only too happy to supply – while they waited for Atem and Peony. The last of their party.
It took them some time to get down. Havali figured out why the moment Peony walked inside, clinging to Atem’s arm, wrapped in a blanket that, no doubt, was from her nest.
Seeing her that way, Scarlet frowned.
“Peony, are you sure you’re okay?” She asked, starting to stand.
Peony held up a hand, stopping her movement, and gave her a wan smile. “I’m alright. I can still leave the nest for short periods of time. I just wore out my batteries yesterday, walking around the ship, and they’re still drained today. I’m fine though. I promise.”
“No contractions? No pain? Nothing? You shouldn’t be getting nesting anxiety this early. You’ve still got tendays left in this pregnancy. And those are Turv days. They’re longer than ours.”
“I’m great. It’s probably just the human clashing with the domini, you know? And the anxiety isn’t bad when Atem is here.” She gave her mate a smile that made Havali’s chest ache with longing.
What would it take for Scarlet to look at him like that? He was a patient male. He didn’t mind the work required to earn that look. Even if he would never truly earn it. He could only manipulate her into thinking he did.
Scarlet looked uneasy, but she relaxed back into her chair. Havali tried to catch her back into conversation, but she was too focused on Peony to really hear him.
And that focus only made him adore her more.
She was such a good healer. A good person.
She looked after her fellow human females so well, and she was incredibly smart.
She had learned the healing arts quickly, even accounting for the neural imprints that deposited the lessons in her brain.
She was fast becoming well-respected in her field.
Healers measured their rank by a combination of patients served combined with lessons learned and techniques mastered.
It was the most complicated method of rank achievement in the entire domini class structure, and time served with experience earned meant that only the longest serving healers ended up being ranked.
Scarlet had a long way to go before she attained rank six – as healers only ranked their top six, unlike the other classes – but people were already anticipating that day as though it was guaranteed to happen.
That was a feat to admire. Especially as an alien healer.
She was incredible. He might not deserve her, but by the ancestors, he would do anything to capture and keep her love.
He surreptitiously stared at her the entire ride down to the ring. He didn’t even pay attention to it growing bigger in the front window. He had seen the sight. It wasn’t nearly as beautiful or fascinating as Scarlet.
The humans, however, were entranced. Even Peony, still wracked with her nesting anxiety, couldn’t help but be distracted by Holotulle.
The districts were numbered, but they all had nicknames.
The Coalition District, as the name suggested, was dedicated solely to the Coalition leaders.
The area was separated into individual areas for each species.
The High Imperium was quite generous with the landholdings for the embassies, and there was still a lot of room for growth in the future.
The two districts alongside the Coalition District were wildlands.
The entire ring alternated wildlands and urban districts.
It wasn’t like they were lacking for space, and the wilds allowed for nature to flourish within the ring.
The Ring was almost incomprehensibly massive. It had more room than they would ever outgrow. Even the Coalition District, though it had sprawling areas given to each representative species, still had an astounding amount of room for even more species to join.
Though, new species joining the Coalition wasn’t such a common thing.
There were two hundred-fourteen individual species as members.
Therefore, there were two hundred-fourteen separate areas for each of them to live in.
There was also a separate section, not related to any specific species, in the center that contained the meeting halls and common areas in the center of the district.
The Coalition District alone was the equivalent of a continent on a globe.
And it was beautiful.
Holotulle was over a thousand universal standard years old.
Plenty of time for history to have been made and re-made.
Some of the buildings were still original and the ancient architecture was stunning.
It blended beautifully with the more modern styles.
And, since every member species had their own areas specifically designed for them, there were over two hundred-fourteen different styles of architecture, design, and beauty scattered throughout. Just in one district.
The result was a breathtaking mosaic of life. Pieces of all of them coming together to form one distinctive, cohesive whole.
And Havali got to watch the wonder come over Scarlet’s face as she saw all of it for the first time.
They flew into the atmosphere of the ring. There was no burn on re-entry owing to the careful, slow descent. Their pilot – one of the security soldiers they were permitted to bring – flew them directly to their section of the district.
The Turv Embassy had been designed to look like home.
It even featured plant and wildlife native to Turv – carefully chosen and monitored so that they wouldn’t overgrow their neighbors.
A single tree, not nearly as massive as any of those in Calvitorum but still impressive with shiny, purple leaves, stood tall in the center and, all around it, was the complex that was their home for the time being.
It was made of golden stone and, though not built in or on the tree like it would be in Calvitorum, it still maintained the traditional, blocky architecture styles and bold, singular color schemes of home.
“It looks just like Turv,” Scarlet said as they flew over the compound, heading for the landing pad at the back of their area.
It was fenced in – both for security purposes and to keep their native wildlife contained only to their embassy.
Idyllic and flawless. What Turv would look like if everything was perfectly manicured and maintained, an image untainted by reality.
The best of Turv, in short.
“I’ll make sure to take you to see other places while we’re here,” Havali promised. “I’m sure you’re eager to see more alien things than just our little planet.”
She smiled at him. “A whole other planet is hardly little. But I’d like that. Thanks.”
Did she realize she had just agreed to spend time socially with him? Maybe, to her, it was the kind of friendly gesture made between work colleagues. That was good enough for him. Even if he couldn’t get her to love him, he was content only to be in her presence.
Not that he would ever stop hoping or subtly trying, but he would take what he could get. He was desperate for any sort of affection from her.
Ignoring the call to claim your mate was hard on the mind. It was no wonder that his will had broken, despite his best intentions.