Az
Lois had been quiet on the cruiser ride back to the palace.
I’d purposefully left my own transport back at the drak training arena and ran through the streets to get to the humans’ home before they left.
It was an excuse to share the journey to this Goddess-forsaken farewell dinner we are forced to endure.
Don’t get me wrong – I will miss Zann. But it’s not like he hasn’t taken off traveling before.
And it’s not like he will not have a comms line open to use to get in touch whenever he wishes.
It’s just this time he is being sent away to work instead of planet-hopping to sample various local delicacies – including foods, intoxicants, and flesh.
And if you ask me, Zann’s silver tongue will work its magic.
That three-year banishment will dwindle down to a few months because he’s persuaded father he’s more useful elsewhere – probably anywhere there is liquor and females.
Anyway, for however long Zann stays working on this conservation planet, I think it will be good for him. Maybe he will find purpose there. The only thing my little brother has ever been dedicated to is having a good time.
“Aren’t you going to put some clothes on?” Lois asks me after she, Jaya, and I alight the cruiser and start walking the palace halls. When I glance over to her, she’s touching the soft leather of my vambrace wrapped around her neck.
I clear my throat and avert my eyes from the sight. Lois wearing something of mine around her little human throat almost feels like a bridal collar, and if I am not careful, I will spend the whole of this wretched dinner with my cock as hard as a Zericon Crystal.
“I’m not sure,” I lean in to answer her, fixing my mouth into a grin. “But then how will you be able to keep stealing glances at my abs?”
Lois stops walking and turns to face me. Jaya is walking up ahead with Vel.
“I am not!”
Goddess, but she is cute when she’s flustered.
“If you say so, human,” I tease, turning and starting to walk away again. “You know I will gladly give you my full Permission, don’t you? And that way you may see me all you wish.”
Lois bustles along beside me, trying to keep up with my much larger Xaviann stride. She even holds her skirts bunched up in her hands to prevent her from falling over them in her haste.
“I do not want your Permission, Az,” she insists. “And I wasn’t staring.”
I say nothing, only smile. But once we reach a doorway I must go through to break away from her and reach my quarters, I turn to face her again, pushing the door with my behind and bowing with a flourish.
“Farewell, Lois. I will go to dress. But let me give you this-” I say, fishing out one of many Permission tokens I have created and kept on my person for the past few weeks for this very reason.
I would have given her all of them a thousand times over – never mind she only needs one.
“Here,” I say, gripping the glowing blue token between my fore and middle finger.
She takes it, likely not knowing what it is. I back away through the door with the biggest grin.
* * *
After quickly washing and dressing, I walk into the dining hall, both my hands clasped behind my back. Lois is the first to spot me. She bustles over, an adorable pinkness staining her cheeks.
“This is your Permission thingy, isn’t it?” she hisses, trying to shove the token back into my hands – hands that are staying firmly behind my back. “Take it back, Az!”
“Why? Are you afraid you’ll use it?”
Members of royalty, nobility – hell, even professional athletes are not meant to hand out their Permissions.
It’s not advisable to share yourself in that way with others when you’re in the public eye.
Collect them from others? Sure. Go ahead.
Knock yourself out. I have lost count of the number of times that, as soon as I’ve stepped outside the palace, an enthusiastic fan has asked me to sign their horncaps in one breath, and shoved their full Permission into my hand in the other.
Sometimes I don’t even have to go outside the palace walls for this kind of thing, either.
There are a few ex-staff members who lost their employment by covertly leaving their Permission tokens where I would find them – and when I scan the token, lo and behold, it’s a Permission set up just for me.
Regrettably, I would have to report these kinds of things.
It’s not that I’m a spoilsport or anything, but it would feel like crossing the line to actually use those Permissions.
Those are our staff members. It didn’t feel right.
I would, of course, offer a personal reference to them for future employment. I just hope they learned their lessons.
Lois, on the other hand… Lois is the first person I have ever created a Permission for. I want her to use me. In any way she wishes.
But she won’t even accept the damn thing.
It’s hardly polite.
Before I deactivated them all, I had Permissions hanging around in my collection, never used since I came of age.
Sometimes you’re just not interested. But to completely refuse the token – to their face?
Kind of unheard of among polite society.
But then again, I have to remind myself that Lois comes from a planet where they mate in the flesh, so things are bound to be different.
“Accept it,” I tell her, gently enclosing my much larger hands around her delicate little human ones, curling her fingers around the token. “I will not be offended if you do not use it.”
I will be distraught.
How do other people do this all the time?
That sinking feeling in my gut returns. I have developed a protective shell against this feeling over the past few years.
Taunts about me only getting to where I am in my career because of my royal connections and privileges used to sting as much as a giant kethrix wasp.
I think because I knew, to a certain degree, they were speaking the truth.
But it just meant I needed to work harder to prove myself worthy of my place on my principality’s team.
And I am more than willing to work doubly hard for any kind of chance I might have with Lois. Bruised ego and all.
She looks up at me with those pretty, human eyes, and the rest of the room melts away around us.
She has these little golden spots on her skin, like the Goddess San has dusted her with sunlight.
I have been reliably informed they are called ‘freckles’ and that only some humans have them.
I think it is just another thing that makes my Lois special.
I see them on her face, her neck, her cleavage, and wonder to myself if they go all the way down…
My fangs start to descend at the thought of mapping them out like constellations – with my tongue perhaps? Yes, that would be-
“Az!”
My geliklik brother, K, calls me over, his smile so wide it makes him look stupid. He is always smiling like that these days. Now that he has his Niska.
I duck my head and leave my Lois standing there with a murmured, “Keep the token,” for only her to hear.
I leave her there, not looking back at what I know will be the pretty sight of her blinking after me walking over to where Kiahn is standing with his arm slung around his female as he talks with Zann.
“Have you heard his latest grumblings?” K asks, that big, dumb smile permanently etched on his face. “Tell him what you just told us,” he says, nudging Zann with his elbow.
On the contrary, Zann’s face looks less amused. Which is an odd sight, to be honest. Zann is always the one to make light of every single situation going. But, perhaps like me, he’s just as unnerved at K’s uncharacteristically cheery expression, too.
Zann’s jaw works, and he sucks on his teeth before answering.
“I have been informed that while I am away, working on what sounds like a delightfully dull, backward swamp of a planet-” he pauses to take a breath, only to huff it out his nose.
When he continues, the words are said so quietly, and in such a rush, I barely catch them. “Iwillbeoverseeingtheartificialwombs.”
I blink at him. “What?”
Zann huffs and looks up to the dining hall’s golden ceiling.
“There is a native species on this planet that Xoe’s father, Senator Glex, apparently doesn’t want me to monitor, but our dear father insists that I do – to ‘get the full, working experience’, as he put it.
Part of that is helping out with their population…
and the artificial wombs they have set up down there. ”
From the corner of my eye, I see Kiahn’s dumb smile get even dumber before he claps Zann on the shoulder. “Well, I, for one, think you’ll make an excellent nanny, Zann, I really do. It may even turn out to be your calling.”
“And what’s wrong with being a nanny?” Niska asks, nudging Kiahn in the ribs. “I hope you’re not insinuating that it’s ‘women’s work’ and beneath any of you or some other bullshit.”
Kiahn’s stupid smile slides off his face. “What? No! I’m teasing him because he’ll be bored out of his mind and terrible at it, too!”
Niska looks set to argue even further until Vel interjects, somehow sensing K needed saving.
“Nannying artificial wombs isn’t like rearing young,” she starts.
“Typically, it’s done by those fully trained in the scientific arts.
There’s a lot of calculations involved – if levels of this hormone reach this percentage at this gestation age, then press the yellow button; if there’s only minimal movement within the womb at this age, press and hold the blue button, and so on.
It’s very complicated, and admittedly, very dull.
Zann will have to monitor many things to keep the womb and offspring healthy.
He won’t be able to sleep in until the sun’s zenith every day or party until the sun’s rise like he’s used to doing.
I think that’s what Prince Kiahn was teasing him for. ”