Chapter 16 #2
This bitch wasn’t even holding the chain like some sort of lovers’ game.
She had a smaller, subservient male at her side, his head bowed, walking Therxian in like a fucking dog.
Alex gritted her teeth and withdrew further into the shadows as the female gave the room a sweeping glance, her expression conveying mild disgust.
“Is this really the best quarters that could be provided for us?” she demanded.
She didn’t look toward Therxian as she snapped the question, however, but to the smaller male who quivered uncertainly.
“It is the prince’s quarters,” the male replied, practically tripping over his words in his rush to get them out. “It is natural that he would host a mate here, where he would be most comfortable.”
“And what of my comfort?” Gareiia sneered. “This place looks like it has been abandoned and allowed to rot for revolutions.”
“It had not been necessary to maintain it at the time, and the queen expressly forbade—”
“Cease speaking,” Gareiia sighed, her eyes trailing over to where Therxian waited with a look of impatience etched on his face.
“I am really not interested in what Queen Zathexa intended. She has always been foolishly soft-hearted towards her male offspring. She had even intended to allow Slengral to keep his human mate and name their offspring as her heir until my mother brought together the council and talked some sense into her.” She peered at Therxian, her eyes narrowing as she nodded in his direction.
“But that weakness showed itself early, and my mother knew exactly what methods to use in order to control her pitiful instincts. She certainly has no power in this room. Not tonight. Leveth, pin his chain to the emergency control hook by the nest. If it can hold a half-crazed young male in his first youthful display of breeding aggression, it will work for my purposes.”
Leveth glanced reluctantly toward a shiny ring on the other side of the wall, and Alex wondered just how many males were subjected to being restrained by their mates within their own nests.
“Perhaps it would be better—” he began, but Gareiia cut him off with a sharp look.
“Are you preparing to suggest that I not restrain him?”
Though Therxian did not react at all to her words, the smaller male’s gavo flattened completely as he visibly deflated.
“He is chained,” the male offered weakly. “Surely your song and pheromones would be adequate while he is rendered this helpless?”
The female slowly straightened, anger and hostility visible in every line of her body.
“I am the eldest daughter of the first noble family, a cousin of Queen Zathexa. While my ability to exert control over a male is worthy of my lineage, there is no reason to risk marring even a scale on my body should I lose control for even a moment. Leash him—now. Or do you wish me to tell my dear younger cousin about how lax she has been in your education?”
The male immediately trembled, telling Alex all she needed to know about that poor male’s home-life as a member of the noble-family. The females in that family were a bunch of ruthless bitches.
“No Gareiia. Of course not,” he replied, hastily tugging on the chain as he cast a pleading look to Therxian—silently begging for his cooperation.
Apparently, he got it because Therxian heaved a sigh and allowed himself to be led to the bed and his chain linked to the hook on the wall while Gareiia reclined in front of the low table, her tail twitching with obvious pleasure at the spread of delicacies.
The small male immediately hurried to her side and lifted a plate of food when she peered at it expectantly.
“It is done,” he murmured as she selected a morsel of food from the plate and placed it in her mouth.
Leaning back on her coiled tail, Gareiia moaned with pleasure, her eyes once more fastening on Therxian thoughtfully, though she spoke to Leveth, her voice cold.
“As I was saying, I am more than capable, but unlike my cousin, I am not weak. Mercy for the males that Shangla herself put under our power is foolish, even more so to be ruled by compassion for them. Did you know that she had protested quite vehemently against sending Therxian here to the haga?”
“No!” the small male gasped, and a look of surprise flitted across even Therxian face. “All males are sent to the haga. It is our duty to the shinara.”
Gareiia hissed her soft laughter, and the sound rode up Alex’s spine until she shuddered.
“Queen Zathexa in the bloom of motherhood thought the haga was an affront to the gods and all that they entrusted us with in caring for our males. Such foolishness. And when my mother heard of it, she rallied the entire council against the queen and seized her. Rumors circulated through the shinara that the queen would be dispatched and replaced, but public sentiment would not permit it, so instead she was envenomated but still that did not work. It was not until the council threatened to slaughter the young Therxian as a corrupting influence upon her and the shinara that she was compelled to agree.” She smiled at Therxian as she plucked a morsel from another plate Leveth offered her. “Does that surprise you, Therxian?”
“Few things surprise me,” he replied, his voice rasping in a long hiss, betraying his unmistakable sign of anger—a sign that Gareiia was either clueless about or chose to ignore.
“The queen is surprisingly sentimental,” she continued.
“She protested and pleaded to keep your brothers as well, but by then she already understood the cost and capitulated a lot sooner, from what I heard. I did not quite believe it until I saw the suffering that she endured when she tried to spare Slengral his mate. Her agony was incredible. It made me wonder what she endured in her attempt to save you.”
She rose then, her tail undulating elegantly. “Now, I am ready to start, and there will be no saving you this time either.”
Alex’s teeth clenched furiously as she watched the female draw closer. The tip of her tail extended toward Therxian as she began to hum an intoxicating sound that made his sex spill out in a way that had Alex practically swallowing her tongue.
Stay focused Alex!
Without a second thought, she grabbed the carcass of the Eldridge horror bug and threw it through the air with all her strength.
It landed with precision on the female’s multiple gavo fan before sliding down her face in such a way that elicited a painfully loud and shrill shriek as Gareiia recoiled.
Her tail whipped and lashed erratically as she wound rapidly away from it.
“A venomous shava! It bit me! Leveth!” she shrieked, but the male had already disappeared.
Her head whipped toward Therxian, and she bared her teeth in an angry hiss.
“Your disgusting nest is probably infested with them. You can find a way to get yourself free before it attacks you. I am seeing a healer,” she spat as she side-winded into the corridor and disappeared down it with Leveth trailing after her.
Alex slowly emerged; her gaze locked on the entrance for several heartbeats before shifting to Therxian. “Are you intentionally infesting your nest?” she demanded.
The male smirked, barely glancing toward the dead shava as his tail coiled leisurely among the cushions. “Not precisely, but this was an unanticipated benefit. Your aim must have been excellent. The venomous shava is very quick.”
She smiled at her kill proudly. That was something. She would kill to be able to boast about it back at the colony. “I don’t suppose there is a way to preserve this thing.”
Therxian gave her a curious look that melted into a slow smile.
“I know exactly what to do. Allow me to assist you.” He leaned forward, and the chain rattled loudly, reminding them both of his particular situation.
He grimaced and tugged at the collar. “This is awkward. A servant will not be here until morning with the key.”
Alex whistled slowly. “That’s a damned shame.” She smiled brightly then and turned toward the table. “Don’t worry, I won’t let the food go to waste!”
“Female,” he growled, and she broke into laughter.
“I am just yanking your chain,” she chuckled. “I am magnanimous enough to feed the both of us.”
“Delighted to hear that,” he replied dryly, causing her to laugh yet again.
The overbearing male was surprisingly entertaining.