Chapter 11
Therxian’s gavo twitched as he slipped down the corridor, his jaw clenching with anger.
Though he had just left Alex’s company, his anger did not lie with her.
While he was still a bit anxious about giving the human a weapon, he was not truly displeased with her.
He understood her need to alleviate her boredom and her desire to have some small form of protection.
He was concerned about it being discovered, but he did not find any real fault with her intentions.
She truly was a clever little female. He decided that he would trust her judgement on the matter and her own capabilities to not be caught with it.
His anger rested solely with his mother.
Being in Alex’s company had helped him regain some measure of control over the fury that had been rapidly rising within him, but it still seethed within his belly.
The rights of males within the shinara were always a weak boundary but never had heard of such a thing where females were allowed to indiscriminately use a male in such a way.
Unless a female ventured into the upper caverns where she would have an opportunity to escape the right of capture from a hunter, all males selected and mated with in the shinara were protected from abandonment and assault from other females.
How could Zathexa sanction such violation against her own son?
A furious hiss escaped him, his anger climbing. His mother was weak. She allowed the noble families to retain and gather far too much power.
Tail twisting, he launched himself forward, gliding rapidly across the stone floor.
Though his wings remained tucked close to his sides, they flared aggressively as he covered the distance, his gaze focused on the entrance of the corridor that led into the large cavern that served as Zathexa’s royal nest. She would not be pleased when she saw him, but he did not care if she wished to see him or not.
She had not addressed her decision to him to any manner of official capacity in which she could have utilized the throne chamber.
She had not even done him the courtesy of telling him.
He knew that she was under pressure from the noble council, but he seethed with resentment that she had not only allowed it but had treated him as the inconsequential thing that the council saw him as.
After all, he was under no illusions about how they viewed him.
From the time of his youth, not one of them made any effort to hide their thoughts.
To the noble families, his purpose was merely to inseminate one of their daughters and create legitimate ties to the royal legacy that would be carried forward by the daughters that Zathexa was expected to produce.
And though his mother had nested a single female in the end, it seemed that the true usefulness of her male brood was realized only after the death of the crown princess.
If he were honest with himself, he resented his sister.
Not that he had ever met her. He had been a juvenile confined within the haga when word spread through the shinara of her hatching.
There had never been an opportunity to meet her, though he thought he had caught a glimpse of her a time or two during The Blooming, and a few other annual festivals over a small span of revolutions.
Those rare instances were the only times in which his mother had made a public appearance, and the juveniles were likewise released from the confines of the haga to serve the shinara.
His curiosity had gotten the better of him, and he had swooped close as he dared, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.
And he had, though it had been from a distance.
Back then, he had been enchanted. She had been tiny, a delicate pale golden hatchling barely visible.
The anger and bitterness came later when he was forced to flee the shinara.
It was knowing that not only had she received every bit of the maternal care that he had longed for and was accepted in her place by their mother’s side, but that she would never have to flee into exile to save her own life.
When he thought of her over the revolutions, it had been with a certain amount of bitter curiosity as he wondered about what her life was like while he nursed a new wound or lay collapsed from exhaustion.
He was unaware of her passing from illness until he heard it from Slengral in recounting his own story and the reason why he was suddenly useful to the shinara beyond his role as a hunter.
Not as a surviving offspring of Zathexa being welcomed back into the royal mother-line where they would be acknowledged, despite being born male, and offered a respected position as the source through which the line would continue.
That was too much for the council to abide, even if their mother might have been agreeable to it.
Instead, they were mere receptacles of the royal mother-line.
In light of that, it had shifted his feelings for his deceased sister.
Now he was even angrier with her because she had dared to die and leave him with a responsibility he did not want.
Whatever kindness, honor, and attentiveness the council had extended toward his sister, all he had ever felt from them was the weight of their calculated gaze upon him, sizing him up.
He had escaped them, however. As had his brothers.
Not one nestling of Zathexa remained dwelling within the shinara...
until now. He had known that returning would require sacrificing himself to one of the families and mating into it, but this was obscene.
He was not given the dignity of a Seshanamitesh male but was merely a vessel for the hungry females to utilize his seed in vain to impregnate themselves with a royal female.
Despite Alex’s calming influence just moments earlier, the truth was that the insult was more than he could bear.
“Mother!” he loudly snarled as he moved rapidly down her private tunnel and entered the queen’s nest.
Zathexa’s golden scales rippled as she moved, her tail shifting sinuously as she rose up from her cushions just enough to regard him coolly.
“Therxian. I hope this is important. I do not recall requesting your presence,” she observed as she plucked a fruit from the platter and bit into it. She eyed him, the multiple fans of her gavo raising slightly in inquiry. “Was there something that you needed?”
“Mother... why?” he rasped. “Why would you allow the noble families to humiliate me in this way?”
“I see that you have heard,” she murmured in reply. “Might I know who shared this information with you so prematurely and without my leave?”
“Ferinia.” He did not hesitate to sacrifice the female.
“But I should not have heard it from her. This should not be happening at all. It violates the laws of the shinara which keep its mated males safe. If you allow our laws to be flouted now, then you will be destabilizing the entire population of the shinara.”
The queen sighed heavily, and her tail glided slowly through the cushions as she frowned at the ceiling with an unhappy look.
“I had no choice,” she said at last as she idly played with the fruit pit remaining in her hand.
“The noble families have been more than patient with my inability to hatch heirs... and now, without my daughter, that time has long passed where I might be able to personally satisfy their demands. And then there was that whole debacle with Slengral having a human mate. They refused to take any chances.”
“And I am to just accept this humiliation?” he hissed sharply.
His mother’s eyes snapped to him, the heat of her rising temper brightening them.
“This would not have been necessary if you had served as a role model for your younger brothers and remained within the confines of the shinara. If you had not fled, you might have already been mated and produced numerous daughters by now! Truthfully, the council is afraid you will slip away again before you perform your duty. This was the most expedient option available to us. Just attend to the matching, endure the process, and it will be over quickly. This is not a true mating, so the impact on you should be minimal outside of some discomfort should a pheromone bond be unavoidable.”
He scoffed in disbelief. It was rare to join without a bond taking effect.
Among the Vehal he had heard tales of shinara hunters found dead on the desert sands.
No wounds, just emaciated from slowly starving to death under the grip of a fading bond.
While the queen saw to it that the males she had paired with over the revolutions had support systems in place to keep them healthy until they were free of it, other females who dallied among hunters in the upper caverns with the intention of escaping them were rarely so considerate.
It was not just the forced extrusion to copulate that he would be risking but a true sickness overwhelming him if he was separated long term from a pheromone-bonded mate, abandoned, and then forced to copulate with others.
It was cruel.
“And then what? After I successfully impregnate the daughter—what is to happen then?” It took every bit of his effort not to raise his voice, though he could not disguise the faint trembling in his body.
Some of the tension eased from Zathexa’s body, and she smiled indulgently as she reached for him, her hand settling against his forearm.
“Then you would be free to enjoy the comforts of a royal son who has served his purpose, and no further demands will be placed on you. I negotiated this for you in exchange for this unpleasant breeding plan. Outside of a yearly attempt to breed more offspring for the royal line, you will be free to do what you like... within the confines of the shinara,” she quickly amended as she withdrew slightly and avoided his eyes.