Az
Lois looks like a fucking dream sitting opposite me in the large city cruiser. Unfortunately, the rest of my team are squeezed in here, too, so I can’t tell her how much I want to rip that pink dress off her gorgeous body and sink my fangs into any body part she’d offer up.
I need to get a grip.
If I keep my eyes on her for the whole journey through the city, I’ll be as hard as stone and leaking venom by the time we make it to the Central Palace.
She’s not even looking at me, too busy going over the notes she’s been working on regarding Glex.
Lois’s brows pinch ever so slightly as she reads, leaving a small crease of concentration between them, and I-
Fuck.
I shift, readjusting myself in my pants.
She looks too damn good, and I can’t do anything about that right now. I feel like I need one of those antique bite sticks to gnaw on.
Vex gives me a strange look as I rearrange my cock. I can feel his glare melting the side of my face as he sits beside me. How did I end up wedged between him and Thax in the back of the cruiser? It’s like trying to share a bench seat with two fully grown draks.
Meanwhile, Ral is seated beside my female, smirking at me like he can read my mind and doesn’t value his next breath, and Zevan and Jorren are bickering about something on her other side.
Rykor rides up front with Lois’ staff member, Zek, claiming he enjoys watching the control panels on these driverless cruisers as they take us automatically through the city.
“So,” Lois says out loud to no one in particular, interrupting any other chatter. Her gaze is still on her projected notes as she scrolls through them. “Can someone tell me why Glex has sixty-two kids from the artificial womb place?”
She tears her gaze away from her research to look up at us all when nobody answers. “Sixty-two!” she exclaims. “No one needs that many kids! Why’s he doing it?”
Thax clears his throat and says, “Well… after so many failed breeding contracts, the other great families stopped entertaining him for their daughters long ago. Xoe is the only offspring he’s sired that way.”
“Yeah,” Ral chuckles, “he even had a contract with one of my aunts, and we’re very low-hanging fruit. The only bloodline venom that’s shown up in our family history is one that gives people a headache for a few days.”
“That tracks,” Vex grunts, shifting in his seat beside me.
Ral offers him an obscene hand gesture in return.
“You guys are not getting what I’m asking,” Lois says, shaking her head.
“The guy has fertility issues doing it the good ol’ fashioned way, I get that.
He wants kids, so goes the artificial womb route, I get that, too.
What I’m not understanding is why he did that sixty-two times?
! He had a daughter in Xoe, a son in Zyre, maybe sprinkle in a few more for shit-‘n’-giggles, but this guy seems like he’s never going to stop!
What’s he trying to do? Single-handedly repopulate this planet?
Hell, at this rate, you won’t be able to step foot out of your apartment without bumping into at least one Glex Junior. ”
She looks at each of us for answers. When none are immediately forthcoming, her shoulders sag, and her face morphs into a very flat expression. “Is it a kink?”
Zevan spits out the sip of Highhorn Brew he’d just taken, effectively spraying Vex and I with ale. Luckily for me, Varrex receives the majority of the attack. He’s about to start complaining when my Lois continues regardless.
“Because, I swear, whenever a man is weirdly obsessive over something like this, it’s because of some fetish or to get back at his mother or something.”
“It’s not his mother, it’s his father,” I say, getting her attention again.
She points at me, annoyed. “Explain.”
So bossy.
I fucking love it.
“His father’s lineage is rumored to have featured two very powerful bloodline venoms. There’s been speculation about what those are, but only a very select few will know for sure.”
“One of them has to be an instant death venom,” Zevan interrupts.
“I’d bet my left horn on the other being a venom that can turn the bitten into an actual likable creature. Everyone knows that’s what Glex really wants,” Ral adds.
“Whatever they are, everyone’s pretty sure Glex didn’t inherit an active bloodline venom himself, and so far, none of his offspring have, either,” I continue, ignoring my teammates and focussing on trying to give Lois the answers she wants.
“So… what?” she says, her little human nose scrunching up adorably. “He just keeps going, creating more and more kids in the hopes that one of them has magical fang juice?”
Zevan spits his drink out again.
“That is an obscenely vulgar turn of phrase, human,” Ral laughs, raising his glass to my Lois as Zevan continues coughing, and Vex is left wiping ale from his face once more. “Well done.”
“Essentially, yeah,” I agree, ignoring the others.
“He’s pumping so much investment into the artificial reproductive technologies because he believes he can be the first to produce offspring with active venom that way.
The experts have said it can’t be done. It’s never happened. But he’s convinced,” I shrug.
Lois blinks at me a moment, her eyes not focussing on anything in particular. “So,” she starts, clearly thinking out loud. “If he can bring the powerful bloodline venom back into his family tree, he has more influence at court, right? If that’s all he cares about.”
Zevan snorts. “Imagine if he only manages to bring back one of those completely useless ones?” Clicking his fingers and pointing at Jorren, he continues, “Oh! I once heard about a venom that literally just makes you shit yourself for a few days! Imagine he goes through all this trouble, and that’s what he resurrects! ”
Varrex tuts beside me, shifting in his seat. “That’s not venom, that’s eating an overripe pukpuk fruit, asshole.”
Zevan starts to argue, but my Lois interrupts. “But I don’t think it even matters what the venom is that he’s trying to bring back, really,” she says, still thinking out loud. “If he can prove that he can do it – he can engineer an active bloodline venom, then he holds the key to the kingdom.”
She’s got it.
My female saw the danger in this from twelve galaxies away, while most just claim Glex has his horns screwed on too tight.
They dismiss it as familial pride and a foolish longing for even a fraction more power than he already has.
They think he’s just trying to prove himself as a male after so many fruitless breeding contracts.
They don’t see that if he manages to do this, if he sparks and controls the industry that can hand out bloodline venoms to families, then he gets to pick and choose who those venoms go to.
Glex could potentially completely reshape the court in his favor.
“And not just the kingdom,” Lois continues. “If he can artificially create Xavianns with certain venoms. What’s to stop him from using those venoms outside of your society? What’s to stop him from selling those venoms on to a different species so he can gain influence beyond this planet?”
“We don’t do that,” Vex says in a gruff voice beside me. “It is not the done thing, and is against our laws.”
Lois raises a brow. “Until it isn’t. Until he promises venom to families that would back him in changing those laws. The next thing you know, Glex is controlling a whole new supply chain to the rest of the known galaxies.”
The cruiser is quiet.
“I know you guys don’t really trade that much outside of your own species,” Lois continues. “And I know you all see the venoms as sacred, ‘Goddess-given’ gifts… but what if he sees it as a commodity to exploit?”
There’s another moment where no one says anything.
Lois is right. I had not thought of it to this extent.
Had never even considered that venom could be traded on a potentially large scale like that.
You hear of venom chasers taking people and harvesting their venom against their will, sure.
These instances are partly why we do not talk about our venoms. But these are criminals.
Not someone at the very top of our society, making our laws.
It’s Ral who finally breaks the silence. “Thank fuck he’ll never manage to achieve his goals, then,” he says, lifting his glass before downing its contents.
“We’re here,” Rykor calls out from the front of the cruiser, and everyone looks out the windows to stare up at my father’s royal seat, the Central Palace.
Most of the separate principalities’ palaces are somewhat modeled on this one, with its grand spires, stained-glass windows, and gilding everywhere you look.
But the Central Palace is almost like a small city on its own.
The place is so gargantuan, it’s as if it birthed all the other palaces, and remains the larger, more dominant structure, ready at a moment’s notice to discipline any of its smaller palace-children should they step out of line.
“Can’t believe you’re actually letting us come here, Princey,” Jorren comments, craning his neck to try and peer up to the tip of the highest tower. He won’t be able to do it. I think even a drak would get a touch of sky-sickness all the way up there.
I roll my eyes even though Jorren still isn’t looking at me. “You’ve been invited to the palace before.”
“And you’ve always declined. The rest of us can’t very well show up to your dad’s house without you. That’s just weird.”
I open my mouth to respond, but Ral is already sliding forward to the very edge of his seat. “We’re here now, so,” he interrupts, his hands clapping once before he rubs them together with glee. “Let’s go, girls,” he says, mimicking that Earth song he’s been listening to on repeat since last night.
“I swear on my mother’s horns, if you say that one more time, I’m going to-”
Vex doesn’t get to finish his words. Ral is already hopping out of the cruiser, patting his cheek on the way out – an act that no doubt will do wonders for Varrex’s mood.