Chapter 1 #2
At last they had gotten the treaty signed and had come home to the Kindred Mother Ship. But they’d only had a week off before Commander Sylvan had called for this meeting. Kaitlyn wondered where they were going next.
“I think you’ll find this new assignment more palatable,” he said, steepling his long fingers on his desk. “I need you to go to Salimba Prime in the Helixon System. The Salimbans have some natural resources we’d like to make use of, but we need a trade agreement with them first.”
This was one thing Kaitlyn liked about the Kindred—the Mother Ship was incredibly powerful, and they could have taken anything they wanted.
But they never swooped in to conquer and despoil a new planet—they made agreements and treaties instead.
As a result, the alien warrior race was mostly welcome in all corners of the galaxy and beyond.
“What kind of resources?” she asked.
“It’s a plant called ‘the Love Vine’ whose blossoms are supposed to have the same effects as Bonding Fruit,” Sylvan explained.
“As you may know, most of our Bonding Fruit supply is grown on Twin Moons, the Twin Kindred home world where it was developed in the first place. But there was a very poor harvest this season, which is of great concern to us. Without Bonding Fruit, many of our warriors would have great difficulty Bonding to and making love with their human brides.”
Kaitlyn understood what he meant at once.
Bonding Fruit had special chemical compounds which allowed a woman to stretch in order to take an extra large shaft during sex—a necessity in most Kindred/human relationships since the seven-foot-tall alien warriors were all hung like proverbial horses.
If they were running low on Bonding Fruit, it was going to interfere in lots of people’s love lives here aboard the Mother Ship.
Bonding Fruit was also an extremely potent aphrodisiac, but she had never tried it herself—that was because once you took it, you pretty much had to get filled and the sexual urges didn’t stop for hours.
She’d known a few unlucky women who had accidentally ingested the stuff while single—two of them had ended up Bonded to a Kindred warrior they hadn’t previously known and the third had been forced to make do with an oversized sex toy.
However, it hadn’t really satisfied her cravings and she’d been in a state of semi-painful arousal for days afterwards.
“Too bad you can’t simulate something like the compounds we Beast Kindred make,” Braze remarked, speaking up again. “That would solve the problem.”
Kaitlyn turned to him, surprised.
“What compounds?”
He shrugged, broad shoulders rolling.
“Beast Kindred make compounds in our saliva and, uh, other fluids that help a female stretch.”
“Really?” Kaitlyn asked. She’d studied the Kindred pretty extensively before taking this job and moving up to the Mother Ship because she’d wanted to know what to expect. But she was still learning new things every day, it seemed.
“Yes, they do. Unlike the Blood Kindred or the Twin Kindred,” Sylvan said.
“Believe me—we’re working on it. But we haven’t found anything usable yet.
In the meantime, if we could find a new source that would enable our warriors to keep calling brides from Earth, it would be helpful.
Our stores of Bonding Fruit aren’t at a critical level yet, but I’d like to try and stay ahead of the problem. ”
“I don’t blame you,” Kaitlyn said to Commander Sylvan. “What do I need to know about the Salimban culture to get the trade agreement done?”
“There’s plenty of information on the Outernet—they’re not a secretive society,” he said.
“But the main thing to know is that they’re a matrilineal and female-led society, which is one reason I chose you to be our Ambassador to them.
” He raised his eyebrows at Kaitlyn. “I know that was your special area of study, correct?”
“That’s right.” Kaitlyn nodded. It would be nice to visit a planet where women weren’t second class citizens, she thought. “It sounds right up my alley,” she remarked.
“It should be. Only…” Commander Sylvan hesitated for a moment as though he had something unpleasant to tell them.
“Only what?” Kaitlyn asked, leaning forward again. “Is there something wrong there? Something dangerous?”
“No, no—nothing like that,” her boss said hastily. “It’s just…the Salimban females have rather complicated relationships with their males.”
“Complicated how?” Braze asked flatly.
“Complicated as in…they own them,” Commander Sylvan said.
Kaitlyn’s eyebrows shot up.
“Commander—is this a Yonnie Six situation?” she asked.
Yonnie Six was a female-centric planet that was notorious throughout the galaxy.
It was owned and ruled by ruthless Mistresses who believed that men were useless except as sex toys and bodyslaves.
They were extremely cruel to the hapless males they captured and trained to serve them, forcing them to wear pain collars and punishing them mercilessly for the least infraction.
Kaitlyn didn’t like the idea of treating Braze like that. She and her Protector had mutual respect for each other and though she was quite sure he was capable of bearing it, she didn’t wish to hurt him or give him any pain.
But to her relief, Commander Sylvan shook his head.
“No, no—nothing like that,” he said. “It’s more like some Earth societies of the past, but flipped on its head. I know you must have studied cultures where women are bought for ‘bride prices’ or dowries,” correct?” he asked.
“Yes, of course.” Kaitlyn nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s still the practice in some primitive societies,” she added.
“Well, on Salimba Prime, the situation is reversed,” Sylvan explained.
“Instead of a daughter being sold by her father to her husband, it’s the son who is sold by his mother to his wife.
But I’m told that the women are very careful who they sell their sons to—a prospective wife must go through a long vetting process and prove she can provide for and care for her husband when she’s trying to win his hand. ”
“So…once they marry, the husband is the wife’s property?” Kaitlyn had to admit the idea was intriguing. She had studied many matrilineal societies, but she’d never seen one where the males were considered to be the property of the females—well, except for Yonnie Six, of course.
“He is, but he’s treated extremely well,” Sylvan said, nodding. “The males there worship their wives and service them in every possible way and the wives cherish and care for them in return. It seems like a very happy society actually.”
Kaitlyn shrugged.
“All right—so what’s the problem?”
“A-hem.” Commander Sylvan cleared his throat.
“Well, it’s not really a problem per say, but I do have to ask if you’re comfortable taking this assignment.
Because the two of you are going to have to act as a couple in order to get this trade agreement signed.
The Salimbans don’t respect a woman who doesn’t have the wealth, status, and reputation to own a husband.
So they won’t even meet with you unless you’re ‘married.’” He leaned forward over his desk.
“So please tell me now if this little, er, charade, is going to be a problem for you—either of you.”
“Well…I’m not attached to anyone right now,” Kaitlyn said slowly.
“So it doesn’t bother me.” She cast a sidelong glance at her Protector.
She’d never asked Braze if he was seeing anyone, but he had never talked about having a girlfriend.
She knew he wasn’t Bonded to anyone at least—the Kindred wouldn’t have paired a warrior who was Bonded to another female with a single woman.
Honestly, her impression was that he was a bachelor by choice—one of those guys who is married to his work.
“Doesn’t bother me either,” the Beast Kindred rumbled, shrugging.
“Are you sure?” Commander Sylvan asked. “Because I know there was an incident in your past having to do with Yonnie Six…”
“Not a fucking problem.” Braze’s voice dropped to a growl for some reason. “That’s the past—I live in the present.”
Kaitlyn shot him a curious look.
“So you won’t mind being ‘owned’ by me?”
To her surprise his golden eyes went suddenly half-lidded.
“Fuck no,” he growled. “I don’t mind one fucking bit…Mistress.”
He held her gaze with his own and for a moment Kaitlyn was sure she smelled something new in the room—a dark, masculine spice that smelled a hundred times better than even the most expensive cologne you could buy on Earth. Was it…his Bonding Scent? Surely not, she thought uneasily.
It was well known that Kindred males only made their Bonding Scent for the female they wanted to Join with and form a Soul Bond with.
She was sure that her Protector didn’t feel that way about her—she must be imagining the scent, she decided.
But still, the look in his golden eyes—it was an expression she’d never seen before—a kind of hungry lust that nearly took her breath away.
Her nipples were suddenly so tight they hurt. She shifted in her seat and pressed her thighs together—was she getting wet? What the hell was wrong with her? Was her body reacting to his scent?
“Oh, uh, okay,” she said. “That’s, um, good, I guess.”
“It certainly is. Then I guess I can officially assign the two of you this mission,” Commander Sylvan remarked.
“Yes, thank you,” Kaitlyn said distractedly. She was speaking to her boss, but she found she still couldn’t look away from the staring contest with Braze. At last she blinked and looked down at her hands which were clenched in her lap. From the corner of her eye, she saw Braze look away as well.
What had that been all about?
She couldn’t answer the question and since her Protector didn’t say anything else, the meeting came to an end shortly after.
Commander Sylvan gave her the trade agreement to look over and asked that the two of them get going immediately.
Before she knew it, she and Braze were back out in the long metal corridor outside his office.
“Um…well I guess we’d better go pack,” Kaitlyn said lamely. She wanted to ask him what the staring contest had been about, but she wasn’t sure how to put it. And her close-mouthed Protector wasn’t offering any explanations.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he rumbled. “Do you need time to get some special costumes made?”
“Commander Sylvan didn’t say but I’ll do some quick research and call Kat if I need some,” Kaitlyn told him. Kat was the costume designer for all the Cultural Ambassadors aboard the Mother Ship—she was a full-figured redhead with Twin Kindred husbands and a smart mouth. Kaitlyn liked her a lot.
“All right. Bespeak me when you’re ready to go,” he rumbled. “I’ll meet you at the Docking Bay.”
“Oh…okay.” Kaitlyn nodded.
He nodded back and turned, heading down the long corridor alone though he usually asked her if she wanted him to walk her back to her suite.
Kaitlyn wondered if he was in a hurry to get packed or if he felt awkward after what had happened in Commander Sylvan’s office.
But had anything happened? Or had she made it all up in her head?
She had no idea and no more time to worry about it, she decided. It was time to get packing—she had a new mission to complete.
She had no idea that things were about to get extremely complicated between herself and her Beast Kindred Protector.