Chapter 4
Daskh did not like being caught in a room with an angry female. Although females of his species scorned him for his overly large, brutish size that failed to compare to the elegance of the males they preferred to take as mates, he was still intimidated by them. He envied his nest brother’s cool demeanor as they glided into the large meeting room. The male’s gavo was extended and luminous, demonstrating his caution but he was otherwise calm. The hashara was anything but.
Fashria rose up on her magenta coil, ire spitting from her eyes as she regarded them; her male, a startling hue of brilliant light green, lowered attentively at her side. His wings were folded against his body deferentially, though it probably helped him to weave in ways to avoid being struck by her rapidly snapping wings. The hashara gave her mate little to no notice, just as she gave Daskh or Slengral no more than a cursory glance, ignoring them as inconsequential as mated males. Instead, her angry gaze fastened entirely on their hithana. Daskh’s gavo rippled but he managed to restrain his urge to hiss at the obvious threat that the hashara presented.
Pink, luminous eyes blinked around the edge of Eddie’s desk and Daskh’s tail twitched anxiously, the tip curling down and tucking inward in a silent message to the young one to remain out of sight. Hashal blinked once and then disappeared entirely into the shadows behind the desk. Good. Although they were well within their right to keep Hashal, and no female in the shinara would want him anyway, he didn’t want to potentially stir even more of the hashara’s anger. If she was affronted by Lori breeding with them, he doubted she would be any more pleased about Lori raising one of the males without an ingrained responsibility to the shinara instilled in him.
“This,” Fashria hissed, “is an insult to Shangla, the mother of us all, who is the queen matriarch of all Seshana, and whose womb is the wombs of all Seshanamitesh. It is unnatural; the creation of some terrible evil brought to our planet by these humans. And because of that, it is an abomination! The Aglatha will not stand for it!”
“Thankfully the Aglatha has nothing to do with this,” Lori cut in calmly, her hand settling protectively over her belly just above where Slengral’s tail had wound around her. “This is Raza colony and we’ve made your people aware from the outset that many of the males of the Aglatha cave system were choosing to join us here. This was never a secret. In fact, it was never a secret that I was mated to three Seshanamitesh males. My general impression was that the shinara was pleased that the dense population of males in the upper and mid-caverns was reduced.”
Fashria’s yellow eyes blinked, and she hummed quietly as she settled back on her coil. “This is true,” she admitted. “Though many within the shinara cried out against the loss of breeders and resources, the queen matriarch was relieved and pleased that so many males found a home and hoped that some of her own nestlings had perhaps been among them. Her reasoning was that the majority of the males who left to mate with humans were those who were unselected for breeding and was able to calm the council. Until that changed very recently. This is one of two matters that has brought me to Raza colony. Her only daughter died from a wasting sickness from which she suffered for a great many moon cycles. I was to bring her male offspring back to the shinara so that he can be presented with a suitable mate and be bred until he produces an heir.” Her sharp gaze landed on Slengral. “And yet it seems there are unfortunate complications as her nestling has chosen to mate with an alien whom he’s bred.”
Daskh froze, tension coiling through him. His gaze cut to Slengral as the male stared back at the hashara with a carefully blanked expression, his tension and ire only noticeable in the tiny movements of his gavo that only those closest to him would recognize. The queen matriarch had to be desperate to order him back as Slengral had no love at all for the shinara. Understandably so. Daskh was not the only one within the haga who was tormented and had bad memories of the Aglatha.
While he was targeted for his larger size, Slengral faced different problems that arose from being royalty-bred. The nestlings attacked him ruthlessly, and while not being as large as Daskh, Slengral had stood even then at an imposing size compared to other nestlings. Royal blood bred larger and stronger, and it had been impossible to hide it. But ever since fleeing to the mid-caverns, he had clearly left his past behind him, and out of respect for him, Kehtal and Daskh never brought it up. He only once spoke of it just before they left the haga. Slengral had confessed that he wanted to forget it and the way his mother had dismissed him and ordered him removed from the royal residence. The queen who had attentively cared for him in his earliest memories, singing to him lovingly, had abandoned him and sent him away with a coldness that had shocked him. And unlike many mothers who visited from time to time to see their nestlings, he had never seen her again.
And now she wished for him to return? To be bred? Daskh could not imagine what his nest brother was feeling. No doubt the ignobility of it cut deep, opening old wounds that had never quite healed. But more than that, Daskh understood the frustration that likely rode close with the pain. Slengral was not an akanth stud to be penned with a chosen female, he was a Seshanamitesh hunter, a male of the mid-caverns who had fulfilled his right of capture—in a fashion. That he was made to feel as if he were less because of the status of his birth made him feel sick, bringing him back to his days at the haga.
“Wait a minute!” Lori peered at him in shock for a moment before her head whipped back toward the hashara. “You are telling me that Slengral is royalty?”
Fashria’s wings fluttered with amusement. “You do not even know what you have. You are wasted on him. Slengral would have been among the first chosen of a high-ranking female if he had been of a more manageable size for his pedigree alone, despite his coloring. It is unfortunate that the large size of the royals bred truer than usual among the queen matriarch’s male brood. Sadly, of all the males that were born, Slengral is the eldest among them and the only one of disposition to be trusted with this. And the only one we can locate,” she admitted. “We knew that he was mated to a female of authority over Raza colony and the queen matriarch was content with this for as long as it did not interfere with the shinara. But things have changed. It was assumed that two queens could easily come to an agreement that would lead to the removal of the male from your nest so that he could return to the shinara to fulfill his duty, especially as there is a female who wishes to press a claim for him. It should have been an easy solution. But this complicates things.”
The hashara eyed Lori’s belly with distaste, and Daskh resisted the urge to laugh. So that was what it was. They had misjudged. Even if his mate was not pregnant, she would never have ousted Slengral from her nest. That was not in her nature.
Lori shook her head. “This,” she said, “doesn’t complicate anything. This is a gift. The only complication you have is the fact that there isn’t a chance that I would reject one of my mates. Besides which, how do you even know which of them is the father?”
The other female stared at Lori for a long moment and then cracked a smile. “You think that we cannot tell?” Her tongue flicked out, drawing in the scent of Lori’s hormones and she chuffed in amusement, making Daskh’s gavo flatten uncomfortably as it pressed against his back. They never should have listened to Slengral about letting their mate have this illusion.
“What’s so funny?” Lori scrutinized first the hashara and then them as well, her expression tightening. “What joke am I not in on?”
Fashria gave a dismissive hiss and shrugged her wings with a tiny, elegant flitter. “It is no secret for anyone who knows anything of the Seshanamitesh. It is basic knowledge, in fact, that when a male breeds a female, she temporarily carries a very distinct pheromone marker on her throughout the pregnancy that helps the male bond closer to his female and care for her more attentively as she carries. Likewise, he will be able to recognize his offspring by scent once it is born. Anyone who has scented Slengral knows that you are carrying his offspring once they come within scenting distance of you.”
“Really?” Lori’s jaw tightened faintly but she gave the hashara a polite smile, signaling in her own way that the conversation with the other female had come to an end. Daskh was not so foolish as to believe that it was finished for any of them. “Well, I’m afraid that I will have to disappoint you in this because I’m not giving Slengral up. So, what was the other thing you wished to meet about now that we can move off the subject of my mates?”
Fashria hummed, her lips curling. “As it happens, it remains on the subject of your same mate. I did mention that another female spoke of a claim on him, did I not? As you may recall, much to the queen matriarch’s displeasure, Slengral broke our most sacred laws. Vekatha is insisting on pursuing the matter and her rights as a mate, as she recently informed us that they completed the right to nest. For that reason, I am to return him to the shinara for not only brutally attacking a female—but more so for his immediate abandonment of her after he claimed his right to nest. Since you are ignorant of shinara law, a female may abandon a male whom she deems unfavorable, but a male who is granted the right to nest is obligated to care for her while she chooses to keep him as her mate. Abandoning her, especially without knowing whether or not she could be gravid, is a serious crime. So, it seems that he is coming with me regardless to answer for his crime. Queen Zathexa demands that you give him to us for justice or risk retaliation for harboring a dangerous male.”
Daskh’s eyes widened as their mate’s face turned pale and his head whipped toward Slengral in a silent demand that he refute her claim. Slengral met his gaze but remained expressionless as he turned his head and gave the hashara a hard look.
“There was no chance of Vekatha being gravid. I never claimed my right to nest, and never bred with her when I was already devoted entirely to my Lori,” he replied stiffly.
Daskh did not fail to notice that his nest brother’s words did not answer to the charge of attack. There was at least something to that which the male had not shared. He bit back a groan of dismay. They were not going to be able to avoid returning.
“See, clearly this female was lying,” Lori pointed out. “That she is changing her story now just proves it. She is the one who attacked Slengral and attempted to force him into mating her. Anything that happened was done as a matter of self-defense.”
The hashara smirked. “That is what he claims and what you claim, but the queen matriarch is willing to hear it out. Regardless, he will be required to return to give his statement to his mother and to be pheromone tested to Vekatha to determine whether or not he had claimed her. Seshanamitesh pheromones can lay in trace amounts in the scales for two or three revolutions before they fade entirely, and even then, certain traces can be found up to ten revolutions even if they are not easily detectable. Vekatha’s claim and the charges she levied against him must be answered regardless.”
Lori’s mouth gaped and she looked toward Eddie for help, but he shook his head. “I’m sorry kid. We would be well within our right to prevent them from forcibly taking Slengral if it was just a matter of the queen desiring his return, but when it comes to the extradition of their own criminals at the formal request of another ruling alien government... you know United Earth’s policy.”
Daskh did not need to be told it to know what it was. It was only logical to turn over a possibly dangerous individual when his return was demanded for punishment. And a male who would violently attack a female would be serious enough among the humans for extraction to be unavoidable. Slengral clearly knew that too and was preparing himself for the separation from their mate the best he could. Daskh hissed under his breath in frustration. He would not just surrender his nest brother.
“We will all go, Lori,” he rumbled instead, transgressing terribly by his culture’s mores by speaking over and directing his mate in public. “If nothing else, we can testify of his devotion to you, which we witnessed, and precedes this female’s claims.”
His gaze shot to the hashara briefly as the female startled and he quickly looked away, focusing back in on his mate. There were things that he understood about the shinara system that other males did not, not even the royal-blooded Slengral, thanks to having an educator as a mother. He had the benefit of learning to read and write in his youth that had allowed him to educate himself even during the most brutal revolutions of his juvenile years.
“Tell the hashara that you refuse to be separated from your mate. By our law, you are allowed this while he is in the process of being judged.” His eyes lifted, carefully avoiding Slengral’s shocked stare to catch Fashria’s gaze. He had no doubt that he was breaking protocol in the highest sense by speaking to her directly, using the guise of being ill-mannered to instruct his mate. “If this is a ploy to get us to return to the shinara then it is one that will not work the way that they wish. I shall do whatever is necessary to keep this from harming our nest further.”
A flicker of a grateful smile pulled at the corners of Slengral’s mouth and Lori swallowed nervously but nodded before hastily turning toward the hashara and unnecessarily repeating his words. The hashara was pleased with the result, that much was already clear, so he was not surprised when she readily agreed. Of course, she would agree, she had accomplished what she had been sent to Raza colony to do—return with Slengral. In that moment, he loathed the smug smile on her face as much as Slengral clearly did by the expression on his face as she slid past him.
“Very well. I will make use of the nest you have provided until the prime sun descends. At that hour I expect that you will be ready to depart,” Fashria said smoothly as she left, leaving her carefully crafted chaos in her wake.
Daskh looked toward his mate, wanting desperately to curl himself around her, yet she held herself too far away from either him or Slengral to draw her into their embrace. He contented himself with gathering Hashal into his arms as the young male darted rapidly toward him, his eyes longingly following his mate as she paced. His tail twitched uneasily and itched with longing to hold her.
“Are you angry, hithana?” he murmured.
Slengral gave him a disgusted look, but he ignored it. It was perhaps an idiotic thing to say, but he wanted to give their mate an opening to speak whatever she was feeling.
“I’m fucking pissed is what I am,” she growled but then sighed when both he and Slengral winced in reaction. “Not at you guys—though you’re not getting a free pass with the secret keeping stuff, which we will be talking in depth about when Kehtal returns—but this entire situation and the way she even just dares to manipulate—urgh! And to accuse Slengral of just viciously attacking or abandoning anyone... it’s ludicrous. I just want to...” her words dropped as she tipped her head back and screamed her frustration to the ceiling while Eddie made a quick and discreet exit.
Taking several deep, gulping breaths, it took her a moment before she was able to look at them again and he could see the exhaustion plain in her eyes. “Let’s just... go home,” she sighed as she waved Hashal to her side, a smile briefly replacing her exhausted expression as the young male eagerly complied. Daskh and Slengral both mutely inclined their heads, their gavos flicking in affirmation.
Going back to their nest sounded perfect to him. And he expected that his nest brother needed it even more. There was no knowing how many moments they would have together as a family. And that weighed on all of them, especially Slengral.