Chapter 5
Is my brother not good enough for you?
Melanie
The female waiting for me in my new room stood still and didn’t rip her cold gaze away from agent seventy-eight until he left.
“Are humans unable to keep their hands away from what does not belong to them?” she sneered at the closing door.
Belong? First, I was a damaged good, now some sort of fucking belonging? Damn, that day couldn’t get any weirder. But she was right; I hadn’t been allowed to walk anywhere without someone holding me like I might escape at all times.
The pale green, incredibly tall and sort of bulky woman took a step forward before circling me at a slow pace.
“You are even shorter than the short males,” she mused, sliding delicate fingers in my hair to hold a strand and inspect it. “What an odd but beautiful color. Is your tail the same—where is your tail? Do all humans hide it?”
She turned frantic, sliding her hand over my damn ass and pulling at my jeans to look inside.
“Hey!” I said, swatting her away. She looked at me with wide eyes. “Humans don’t have tails, stop searching for it!”
Bewilderment was the only term I came up with to describe her new facial expression. Her eyes were more of an orange shade, compared to her brother’s green-ish yellow. Rounder. Softer, in a way. At least she didn’t look at me like I was a “damaged” bug stuck under her shoe.
“How do you balance yourself?”
I arched a brow. “I…don’t? I don’t know what you mean. I walk and don’t fall, that’s enough for me.”
I glanced at her tail then. A long and thin, swirling light green thing with a tuft of hair at the end that was the same color as her braided light brown hair.
She studied me some more, a curious gleam in her eyes. “Did you already have an offspring?” she asked, confused.
Damn these above average boobs. But now, I understood what they meant—her chest was basically flat except for the small nipples poking through the thin fabric draped around her.
“Humans have naturally engorged—udders. They’re called breasts.”
She looked confused for a few seconds. “Where will the milk go once you give birth to my niece or nephew?”
Dear god. “In my breast?”
“But there is no more room!”
“They’ll make room, it’s—they’ll grow,” I concluded.
Her orange eyes bulged in surprise. “They can get bigger?”
Oh, how the next three days were going to be fun…
“You didn’t tell me your name,” I said as we were led from our shared room to an unknown location for some medical examination.
“Oh, right! I am Zhari. I was born two years before my brother, Ghauro. Our parents were blessed with four offspring, so for a while, we thought the fertility issues had somehow skipped our family. Turns out they were just lucky,” she said with a sad smile.
“Ghauro was the last born of our clan. Maybe even our whole species.”
Zhari had spent the last two hours talking. About her species—which was called Tauris—her planet—Taurus—and how it looked.
Maybe the non-human part of their genes didn’t make them as dumb as us, as she kept describing a planet filled with nature—forests that took up to seventy-five percent of it and the rest covered in water.
They didn’t build buildings but small wooden houses, preferring to sleep under the stars when they could, and lived in small clans.
Turns out, my future husband was not only the last naturally born, but also the clan leader of the biggest horde.
Which only raised more questions; why would he bother taking on a human bride? Wouldn’t it affect his credibility to not marry one of his own? Make him appear like a weird outcast? He had to have been forced into it.
“Do you know why I’m marrying your brother and not—I don’t know, another one?”
She glared at me. “Is my brother not good enough for you? I will let you know he is considered as one of the most handsome of our kind. His markings are a rare shade of gold and incredibly symmetrical and intricate. You’re—”
“That’s not what I meant,” I interrupted her before she caught the attention of the guards or passerby. “I mean, they said they tested me and I was one hundred percent compatible. But compatible with what? The species in general? Your brother in particular? I’m so confused.”
“I do not know the answer to this question, but I guess I can tell you Ghauro was the one chosen because he is the last male born of Taurus.”
“Why?”
She gave a shrug, sidestepping to avoid colliding with a door opening on our way. “Youth, strength…I think they chose you for the same reason. Younger typically means more fertile, does it not? At least, when you are not struggling with—”
“So they chose him because he was the last born and youngest?” How old was he? Did they age like humans? Faster, slower? Zhari’s smile widened. “What about—”
“Time for medical tests,” the guard said, stopping in front of the door. “I’m afraid the Tauri has to stay outside.”
“I will not,” she argued, her voice firm. “I am to stay with my brother’s bride until they are mated.”
“They won’t accept you in there, you can wait in the sitting area over there or get back to your room.”
“Are you not hearing properly?”
The guard's gloved hands made a crumpling sound as his hands turned to fists. “Listen, you—”
“Actually, Maxwell already agreed to it,” I cut him off. He raised a questioning eyebrow. “Ghauro ordered that I remain by his sister’s side, and I intend to follow my future husband’s wishes.”
I did not. But their constant insistence on me staying isolated and alone felt fishy.
I didn’t trust a single one of them and Zhari felt like an ally—at least for now.
Not sure she’ll feel that way about me once my plan to flee and hide for a year was in action.
Betrayal hurt, but survival was at the forefront of my mind.
The last three days had been exhausting.
All these medical examinations were only a way for them to increase the odds of me getting pregnant as fast as possible.
They checked every inches of me to ensure I wasn’t on any kind of advanced birth control—like I ever had the money to use something more than fucking condoms—and tested me for every STDs known to both humans and aliens.
Not to mention the shots I received to make me immune to some potential other diseases that could be found on Taurus.
I was tired of being looked at by strange men—all of it under Zhari’s curious eyes—and sore from vaccines they shot me with.
If I was being honest, even though I initially felt awkward as hell about her being here as I was thoroughly inspected, seeing me naked so many times in the last seventy-two hours that I was now certain she could name every anatomical difference between our bodies, her presence had been reassuring.
With her by my side, the doctors' hands had been careful and a single glare or growl from her had made them back off from any excessive examination.
“I should have skewered him the second he asked you to open your legs on this strange table,” she said, pouting on her bed.
Her arms were crossed over her chest as she stared straight in front of her with a murdering look.
She kinda is her brother’s spitting image right now.
“You are promised to Ghauro, and they are disrespecting both of you by touching and looking at the private parts of your skin.”
I couldn’t hold the scoff that came out of my throat as I secured the towel around my frame before bringing my hands to the one drying my hair.
“There are no such things as decency and privacy here. Especially when it comes to health. You should see the number of people that are in birthing rooms…My mother told me there were five midwives coming and going on top of her doctor.”
Zhari tilted her head to the side. “Mid-wives…” she repeated. “I am not familiar with that word.”
“They assist the doctors and women when they give birth.”
I wasn’t sure what confused her in this statement, until she spoke again, “Unless a condition is critical, health should not be overseen by strangers.” She spat the last word like it burned her tongue.
“Mates look after one another. You will be expected to check on Ghauro’s and he’ll check you.
We are all taught medicine and basic care from a young age.
If he knew what they did to you over the last few days, he would feel gravely insulted. ”
Oh. Shit. “Am I—will I be in trouble?”
Her face softened. “No. Not you. You are not mated yet, so he will have to choke down the anger when I give my report.” A report?
Damn, she was being a thorough spy. “But he will not allow them to do anything like this ever again. You will be his from tonight. Your care and health will fall on his hand and we Tauri take our traditions and people seriously.”
Why did that melt a little of my stone-cold resolve?
Us humans had no idea how to treat and look after ourselves, even less others.
If I had a cold and the money to do so, I went to a doctor who then gave me a prescription for some medicine.
If I got hurt, the only way to fix it was to go to a hospital.
She picked up a linen pouch and pulled out two long sort of silky scarves, cream-colored and embroidered with sage green and golden swirling patterns. She then turned the little bag upside down and a few gold metal pieces clattered against each other on the bed next to her.
“Are you ready?” she asked and my throat bobbed, a mix between anxiety and trepidation.
I’d soon be free from this station and my wardens.
The only thing left to do was to escape my hot future husband.
“I will dress you and apply the ceremonial paint. No matter how reluctant my brother initially was to take a human bride, I can guarantee he will not be able to take his eyes off you from the second you set foot on our land. I am sure you will be pregnant in no time!”