Chapter 14
“No shit. She was really setup like that?” Alex asked around a mouthful of what appeared to be something akin to noodles. At least she hoped they were noodles. Chewing rapidly, she swallowed and shook her head in disbelief.
Therxian gave her one slow blink and inclined his head. “No shit,” he echoed in agreement. His eyes shifted toward the empty bowl the “bonbons” had once occupied, his gavo rising questioningly.
“Had to throw them out,” she said, stuffing more noodles into her mouth. “I accidentally knocked them onto the ground. It was a real pity.”
He smirked in response, clearly onto her game. “That is quite a feat considering that the bowl is in the middle of the table. It is a pity that you did not get the chance to taste the zarkulth eggs.”
Zarkulth eggs? She mentally tried to conjure what sort of creature that might be into her mind and failed.
“What is that?” she asked, refilling her bowl.
His gavo flicked casually as he helped himself to more food.
“A very large predatory insect that lives in deeper caverns. They are known for catching their prey and harvesting the blood from the living by burrowing their mouths deep into soft bellies to consume them. They are quite unpleasant, but the eggs are delicious. I believe some humans have said that they taste as good as chocolate.” His eyes gleamed at her.
“If you can get around the fact that you are eating unhatched larvae.”
Alex giggled silently to herself as she stuffed another huge bite of fragrant food into her mouth.
Therxian must have been around humans before, and for a lot longer than some of the Seshanamitesh she had encountered in Raza because, outside of that small delay, he seemed to struggle far less with human colloquialisms than most aliens.
At least as far as she had heard, given some of the complaints from other humans.
She pointed her pronged eating utensil at him as she rapidly chewed and swallowed.
“I told you before, you can’t scare me off food.
But back to that female. Smart of her to take the opportunity to skedaddle.
Even if she did miss out on one hell of a feast.” Her eyes dropped to the spread of food between them, and she licked her lips.
She didn’t recognize much of anything, and some things had a peculiar look to them, but it all smelled so good and there was so damned much of it—who wouldn’t be tempted to fill their stomach?
Especially if they had often known the bite of hunger throughout their lives, like she had.
“I will even forgive the fact that you didn’t warn me that there was to be a massive invasion of Seshanamitesh since they came bearing delicious gifts.
Though I’ll tell you—I nearly had heart failure as I scrambled to hide before any of them saw me. ”
The corner of his mouth rose in what she suspected was reluctant amusement.
“I had not considered that my mother would be so decisive about this.” He picked up a drinking bowl and turned it slowly in his hand as he peered down at its contents.
“I certainly had not expected that I would be matched with a female so quickly before she even had a proper discussion with me about it. This feast is clearly her idea of compensation in part, while also providing sustenance to encourage successful breeding.”
Alex grimaced. Although they were mostly rumor, she had heard of some colony planets having breeding facilities where non-gratas women were kept.
Though the breeders were said to be well fed, none of the rumors had included sumptuous feasts.
Probably just triple portions of the miserable gruel and bread that was often considered base fare for their class.
Usually there was a small amount of mystery protein, though there was sometimes a small portion of meat on special occasions and the occasional palm-sized sweet cake—maybe breeders enjoyed that more frequently, but it was hardly the sort of meal she was currently enjoying.
To think that she had been shocked at the quality of food that Raza gave them once Darvel was forced to evacuate.
Even the citizen standard fare couldn’t really compare.
“It’s good to be a prince,” she commented as she speared what appeared to be some kind of glazed fruit.
His eyes followed the motion of the fruit to her mouth, his gaze focusing and lingering as her lips closed around the fruit and pulled it from the fork.
A strange taste filled her mouth. Whatever it was glazed with was thick and cold, like semi-congealed syrup, and had a strange flavor to it that hinted toward an edge of something metallic while being also putridly sweet.
She gagged on it. Whatever it was, it was revolting.
Trying desperately not to breathe or taste it more than she had to, Alex quickly chewed and swallowed before diving for her drinking bowl and tossing back its contents.
“The sweet gwinmi hearts are not to your liking?” he asked.
He gave the serving bowl a curious look as he plucked a morsel up and sniffed at it curiously.
“It seems to be properly prepared.” Alex’s stomach turned as he popped into his mouth and crunched down on it.
He gave a thoughtful nod as he slowly chewed.
“It is indeed prepared properly. Dipped raw in a heavy glaze of their own blood mixed with the sweet gum produced by barlisks, it is exceptional.”
Alex wanted to throw up. She covered her mouth with her hand as she struggled to control the nauseous roll of her stomach. “Why didn’t you stop me—warn me—something?”
The alien looked at her askance. “You told me not to tell you.”
Crap, she did. But that had been operating on the assumption that if she was going to be eating alien wildlife that she just didn’t need to know what potentially cute or ugly critter it came from or whether it was a mash of some kind of fungus or another.
Organs and blood were another matter. Some humans enjoyed that, but she didn’t count herself among them.
And even then—who ate raw hearts? Didn’t some creatures carry parasites in their hearts?
She wiped her hand over her mouth and shuddered. “New rule,” she moaned, grateful that she at last got her gagging under control. “Do not let me eat anything raw—definitely not internal organs—and nothing made with blood without telling me.”
Therxian slowly inclined his head, his gavo rising and snapping in agreement. “Understood.” He glanced quizzically back at the dish. “Do you truly not like this? It is considered a delicacy. All females—especially breeding females—enjoy sweet gwinmi hearts.”
Another shudder of revulsion rolled through her, and she shook her head, her hand flattening against her mouth.
“Then why did you eat it?”
There was such a note of undisguised curiosity in his voice that she stared at him for a moment in surprise and lowered her hand. “It’s rude to spit food out.”
And wasteful, regardless of what it was. She could practically hear her mother lecturing her all the way from Earth about wasting food that someone else could have eaten.
He blinked slowly at her. “If you do not like something, do not continue to eat it. There is this bowl here for discarding bones and tough pieces that may not be enjoyable,” he said as he picked up an empty bowl sitting to the right of them in demonstration.
“Eating something that disagrees with you will only ruin your appetite and make you feel ill.”
She peered at him thoughtfully. “And you wouldn’t consider it even a little bit rude?”
Another blink. “Why would I consider it rude? I would not wish to consume something that I do not like. I would rather that we both enjoy the food.”
“Oh,” she mumbled. It seemed that as screwed up as Seshanamitesh society was toward its males, the alien culture did have some redeeming features that she hadn’t been aware of.
His expression grew more curious as he eyed her. “What did you mean when you said that it is good to be the prince?”
Alex gestured at the spread. “You can’t tell me that everyone eats like this.”
His gaze lowered to the food and to her surprise, he snapped his gavo.
“When a female is preparing to breed, such dishes are normally consumed. Perhaps they are prepared a bit differently and the quantity may be different but, in all situations, a female desires to be well-fed on things she enjoys if she is in season and while she is nesting.” His gaze lifted to her, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
“But you see this food and see this food and see it as something provided to satisfy my own hunger. Therefore, in your mind, it is good to be the prince since I am so well-fed.”
It wasn’t a question. It was an observation that made her feel surprisingly uncomfortable. Why wouldn’t it benefit him, though? It was a natural assumption.
“I am assuming that it is also intended to feed you,” she replied, her mood instantly dipping as he smiled in amusement.
“Naturally,” he agreed without blinking, and yet he hissed with a chuckle of amusement.
“But making sure that I am well-fed is ultimately to ensure that I can fulfill my purpose and produce adequate amounts of seed to fill a female and properly fertilize her. Nutrient-rich food is ideal for this, but its primary purpose is to provide adequate resources for egg development.”
Alex shifted in place, her imagination kicking in without permission as she imagined just how much semen he would have to produce in order to fill the reproductive channels of the larger Seshanamitesh females.
What would that feel like? She bit back a groan as something clenched hungrily deep within the pit of her belly.
She had never considered herself a perverted alien-chaser, eager to experience the forbidden pleasure of having her cunt wrecked by an alien cock filling her entirely with excessive amounts of cum.
She saw it once in passing while curiously flicking through the banned content on intergalactic backdoor bandwidths.
The girl had practically screamed as she leaked pools of semen around the massive cock that the excited alien drove into her.
She had been horrified at the time, but now... gods, was she really so depraved?
Her fingers clenched around her pronged eating utensil, and she swallowed with some effort as she attempted to steady herself enough to speak without noticeable inflection.
“I see. That would explain it. Fascinating,” she mumbled as she speared something more familiar from the platters spread out in front of her, shoved it into her mouth, and quickly began to chew it.
Fuck, Alex! Don’t think about that! Don’t think about anything being shoved anywhere. Just chew and think about something else. Anything else.
Although she kept her attention trained on the platters in front of her, she could feel his eyes watching her.
She fought back the blush that threatened to rise to her cheeks as she felt heat begin to rush into the area.
She refused to blush. She was a mechanic and worked with some of the foulest-mouthed men in the entire colony.
She wasn’t going to let something that wouldn’t even pass muster as innuendo get under her skin.
Maybe having no sex life to speak of over the last several months was to blame.
That seemed more likely than the idea that she had suddenly become an alien-chaser.
Mercifully, after several minutes, Therxian’s attention returned to their meal, and a heavy, stilted silence grew rapidly between them.
Alex fidgeted as she ate, increasingly aware of the tension that the Seshanamitesh appeared oblivious to.
On the one hand, that didn’t seem the least bit fair, but on the other, she was incredibly relieved that he didn’t seem to notice, as she was certain that it would only make it that much worse.
If he noticed that she quickly retreated to her corner of the large dug-out bed afterward, he gave no indication.
Instead, he stretched obliviously on the pillows, his long tail sweeping over them as usual.
“Don’t you have something to do?” she muttered after several long moments, to which he replied with a dry laugh as his body elegantly turned so that he could look directly at her.
“Unfortunately, not. Unless Queen Zathexa has an immediate use for me, I am to remain confined within the palace, and preferably my quarters—for my own safety,” he added with a faint sneer.
Alex frowned as she shifted her position, rolling fully onto her side to peer at him. “Your safety? I thought Seshanamitesh males are all hunters.”
“I was a hunter,” he said slowly... bitterly.
“But a male whose purpose gets redefined as a breeder within the shinara is allowed no other purpose than to serve. They are confined by females so that they are within their complete control unless they have a specific errand for them. As they rely on the powerful hunters of the upper caverns to take care of them, nothing else is permitted. For now,” he added darkly, and a shiver raced over her as the expression on his face.
Whatever he had planned, Alex was certain that it wasn’t going to be good for her health. The sooner she got out of the shinara, the better.