Chapter 51
GILLIAN
It’s a lot of fun to see the many expressions which range over Dalox’s face at the mention of the Sarkarnii females being taken to his equivalent of a man-cave. It clearly pained him to ask Lydia to visit me when I wasn’t well and he was too fresh in the rut to think straight.
I admit it’s been fun to talk with Dyoti and Dyris, who obviously know the males of their species intimately. It’s given me an insight into what makes the Sarkarnii males tick, and they’re surprisingly complicated.
For instance, I had no idea Dalox’s rut was spurred by a gland which fills his body with a cocktail of chemicals known as a mix. Apparently it gives them additional strength and shifting ability, but it also makes them shed their skin if they haven’t recently shed.
It can also make them grumpy and irritable. I did ask how the females could tell from an ordinary Sarkarnii male but got laughed at.
I think it was an if you know you know situation.
“Yes,” Dalox says hesitantly. “The females could initially stay in my hidden quarters. I can take Dyoti and Dyris up to the clan meeting place in the neutral zone and explain the situation to the others.”
He looks triumphant.
“And Deus?”
“He is on his own,” Dalox rumbles. “He will need to make his peace with the warlords on his, and their, own terms.”
“So, we have a plan?”
“We have a plan,” Dalox says, his jaw set.
A plan he isn’t too enamored with.
“I’ll go tell Dyoti and Dyris. They can tell the others.” I get to my feet, Dalox following suit.
“We will likely be over the first continent shortly. The navigation system is glitching, and I’ll need to pilot manually.”
“Don’t leave it to Deus, whatever you do.”
Dalox gives me a grin which instantly melts various parts of me. He is a wicked Sarkarnii, and yet he calls me trouble!
“I wouldn’t leave anything to Deus,” he says. “Come be by my side once you have informed the females of our plan.”
Why do I get the feeling I’m going to pay for what I suggested later?
As Dalox returns to the pilot’s seat, I make my way into the back to where Dyris and Dyoti are talking with Dyanii.
“I got him to agree,” I say.
All three smile.
“Thank the ancestors,” Dyanii says. “I like males, I really do, but if they’ve been without females for all this time.” She growls low in her chest which, it appears, is the Sarkarnii equivalent of an eye-roll. “No one needs to be envenomated.” She bares her needle-sharp fangs.
“Shame, I fancied a bit of envenomation,” Dyoti says. “I’ve been having to expel so much venom recently, it has not been fun.”
“Expel?” I’m aware I’m staring at her.
“Our venom builds up,” Dyris explains. “In our glands.” She touches the side of her neck. “We have to regularly expel it, or it becomes painful at certain times in our cycle.”
“Males have ruts, we have cycles,” Dyoti says slowly.
“Humans have cycles too,” I say. “Monthly ones.”
“Then you will know about expelling venom,” Dyanii says.
“Um, no. We sort of…” I genuinely do not know how I’ve ended up in this conversation. “We shed our womb lining.”
“Ugh.” Dyoti recoils. “Why?”
“I don’t know. It’s not needed if we’re not pregnant, I guess.”
“Humans are weird,” Dyanii says.
“And you don’t…shed your womb lining?”
“If we complete a breeding cycle without a male hooking us, then any preparation our bodies has made is reabsorbed, save for the venom,” Dyris says. “And there’s nothing weird about another species doing it a different way.” She glares at Dyoti.
“Hooked? What does that mean?” I ask. “Dalox mentioned it.”
All three Sarkarnii exchange glances.
“Males and their cocks, if only they kept them in the pouches when they don’t know what to do with them.
” Dyanii sighs. “A male in rut, once he’s mated with his female, his cock will hook inside you, in order to ensure his seed is implanted and, in ancient times, to stop another male from coming after.
” She chuckles. “Our ancestors were happy to mate with as many males as they could when they were in breeding condition.”
“But what does it mean? Hooked?”
“Hook into your womb opening,” Dyris says. “His seed will prevent any pain you might feel, and I understand it makes the entire mating experience extra pleasurable.”
I feel like I must be the same shade as a tomato.
“Are you feeling okay, Gillian?” Dyanii asks.
I swallow. “Yes, I’m, er, fine.”
“You will be fine when Dalox hooks you,” Dyoti says, putting her hand on my shoulder with a thump. “And you will enjoy being filled with his sarkarnling too. Males love a female full of sarkarnling.”
I open and close my mouth a few times, rather like the fish out of water I obviously am.
“I bet you’re the first of us to be filled.” Dyanii pokes Dyoti in her side. “You love a bit of Sarkarknii cock.”
Dyoti bares her teeth and growls. “I do not.”
“That’s not what they all told me.” Dyanii laughs. “You’ll be mated and round with sarkarnling before the nova-year is out.”
Dyoti snarls loudly and stomps away.
“She needs to find a mate,” Dyris says quietly. “Her mind is not as bad as some, but it’s not good. Being with another who will care for her in a way only a male can would be her salvation.”
“Hopefully, if we do this right, everyone will find what they are searching for,” I reply.
“Even you, Gillian?” Dyanii asks.
“Even me.”