by R. R. Banks
Zsilvia continued away from the building, leaving behind the glow that poured out of the windows of the shop from the rows of candles along the walls for the darkness that existed further down the street. They likely wouldn't even notice that she was gone. It wasn't like they needed her help anyway. She had contributed nothing in the days since George's arrival had necessitated her be a part, passive and silent though she may be, of the frantic search. She wasn't a scientist like Eden, a professor like Zuri, or a brilliant student like Elianna or Samira. She felt no reason to pay attention to what was happening in their tense, fast-paced conversations or to even contemplate ideas. It would only get in their way and slow down any progress that they might be making.
"Zsilvia?"
Eden's voice stopped Zsilvia's progress and her head fell back momentarily as she bemoaned getting caught in her attempt to get away from the situation and the conversation that she knew awaited her. She turned around and faced Eden, who came toward her gradually, her speed slowed by her round belly. Zsilvia stared at that belly now, for the first time feeling jealous about the baby Eden cradled within it. That child represented so much more than just the beginning of a new generation for the tribe, the first Denynso born in more than a decade. It was a living, growing blend of Eden and Pyra, a precious symbol that Zsilvia finally felt like she was beginning to understand and at that same time was mourning that she could never understand it completely.
Before now, children existed in her mind merely as biological products of their parents. She had only ever experienced the demanding sexual drive of the Denynso men and each child that she saw seemed to be just a reminder of that faceless pressure. Now she looked at the precious swell of Eden's body and felt a pang deep within her. Eden was literally holding a piece of her mate within her, cradling that treasure against her heartbeat and nourishing it with the flow of her own blood. She was more connected to Pyra through that child than Zsilvia could ever have imagined being connected to someone, and yet now all she could think about was how desperately she wished that she could have that kind of link with George.
"You know that George is still back there," Eden said.
It was not a question, but a demand. Eden pushed this information at her, forcing Zsilvia to acknowledge it and giving an unspoken command for a response. It seemed that even through her efforts to remain as subtle as possible, Zsilvia had not been able to get past Eden.
"I know. He seemed to be in a pretty deep conversation with Zuri, though, and I'm really tired so I figured that I would just go ahead and go. He's been back and forth from Ciyrs' shop enough times that he can find his way back to his cabin on his own, I'm sure, and even if he can't, Zuri will probably walk with him anyway."
"Zuri is not his guard and protector. That is your job."
Zsilvia felt herself stiffen slightly.
"I am well aware of that, Eden."
"So it is your responsibility to make sure that he is safe and that he gets familiar with the compound. You are supposed to stay with him at all times unless he is in his home. Creia gave you that responsibility personally."
"Creia gave it to Zuri first."
"Yes, he did, Zsilvia, but as you know Zuri asked that he remove her from that role out of respect for Ero. She didn't think that it would be appropriate for her to be in that sort of a relationship with another man, particularly one who she is already familiar with because of their time working together at the university, when Ero is away from the compound."
"Why would it matter if she was spending time with another man? If Zuri and Ero are truly mates, he should know that no other man would ever interest her and she wouldn't stray from him. Is he concerned that he perhaps picked the wrong woman?"
Eden looked shocked and dismayed by Zsilvia's bold statement.
"Ero is Denynso, but Zuri isn't. That means that she doesn't have the same bonding connection that the Denynso do. She loves Ero, but human women do not react to their mates the same way and do not automatically mate for life. It is very lucky that she was able to make the telepathic link with him."
"So he is concerned."
"It is not about Zuri, it is about Ero. She is showing her respect to her mate by not spending extensive amounts of time alone with another man. She understands that human relationships are different from those in the Denynso and she wants to show Ero as much devotion and commitment as she can by not doing anything that would even begin to look like she could be venturing too close to a personal relationship with someone other than Ero, especially when he is not around."
"I don't understand why it would make a difference. Pyra has been guard and protector for plenty of people, and he continued to play that role for women even after you came along."
"Pyra is the leader of the warriors and it is his traditional station to be escort for new visitors to the planet. He did fulfill that role, but he has not been guard and protector for anyone after me. He has always had other, unmated warriors take over that responsibility for him. Even if he didn't, I was always on the compound. It's different."
"How is it different? Just because you were somewhere on the compound and Ero is off on some foolish quest with the other warriors there is a difference in the amount of time that one mate spends with someone who is not the other mate?"
"Zuri would not want Ero to hear that she was spending a lot of time with another man, particularly a human man with whom she has a lot in common and a professional history, when he was not around and possibly feel like she was doing something disrespectful or dishonest. That is why she asked to be removed from the position and why Creia gave it to you."
"That's another thing. Why is it that Zuri gets to just ask to be removed from a role that the king gave her and he does it immediately, but I get forced into it without anyone asking me if I had any interest in giving up my time and energy to fulfill a task that is not even in my station within the tribe?"
"Every Denynso is bound by duty to do as the king asks. The king also knows the importance of maintaining the sanctity of the mating pairs and is willing to make changes in order to honor those pairs and ensure harmony and security. You wouldn't understand, Zsilvia, you don't have a mate."
The anger inside Zsilvia built to an almost frightening peak and she felt herself trembling with her efforts to control herself. She nodded slowly.
"You're right," she said evenly, "I don't have a mate. I guess that's something that I'm just never going to understand."
She turned and started to walk away but she could still feel Eden's eyes watching her.
"This is about something else."
Zsilvia felt a chill rush through her at the still, unintimidated confidence in the words. Eden was truly a force to be reckoned with. Though small and delicate-looking, she had been feisty, outspoken, and brash from the moment of her first arrival on the planet. It was this that had both startled and enraptured Pyra as soon as he met her, but also what nearly threatened them being together at all. Eden had originally come to the planet as a scientist under the assumption that she would gather information about the Denynso and bring it back to the research center where she worked so that they could investigate further. At least, this is what the king and queen had understood when they gave her permission to visit and stay in the compound on the customary visitors' limits. Almost as soon as she arrived, however, she made a confession that put her in mortal danger but at the same time, saved her.
The truth was though Eden was a brilliant and accomplished scientist, her mission was actually a cover for the unethical research tactics of her boss, Ryan. This man had managed to prevent her from gaining the renown and esteem that she deserved with a combination of taking credit for everything that she accomplished and sexual harassment. He held the future of her career in his hand, and she knew it, which was why when she threatened to tell everyone about his treatment of her and that he had stolen so much of her work, he assigned her the mission to Uoria instead. She was not to just study the planet and the Denynso, ho
wever. Eden was to find a way to steal a sample of the blood of one of the Denynso warriors and bring it back to Ryan who would evaluate it to find out what was in it that made these men the most fearsome and powerful warriors in the entire galaxy. He knew that he would be able to use the compounds within the blood for a wide variety of shady purposes, including weaponization, but no one had ever gotten off of the planet with Denynso blood.
This was because the taking of Denynso blood was the strongest of the clan's laws. Even suspecting a person of attempting to take Denynso blood for the purpose of studying it and using it for anything could result in imprisonment and execution. Eden had reluctantly realized that Ryan's motivations for sending her on the mission were doubly grotesque. He knew that either she would succeed in her task and he would be the first scientist on Earth or any other planet to get his hands on the blood of the feared Denynso warriors and be able to evaluate it, bringing him greater fame, fortune, and power than anything he could have ever imagined, or the Denynso would catch her and kill her, eliminating her as a potential risk to his reputation and source of frustration in his career and his life.
Once she realized this, Eden had made the decision to confess to the king and queen and ask for their forgiveness. In exchange for her honesty, she earned not only the devoted protection of the Denynso, but unprecedented permission to stay in the compound for as long as she wanted to. Of course, within days she had bonded with Pyra and what had begun as a visit that would last a few months turned into the dedication of the rest of her life.
Pregnancy had softened Eden somewhat, but she still had the fire within her, and this combined with the perceptiveness that all of the human women seemed to have made Zsilvia know that she truly had nowhere to hide.
Chapter Three
"Zsilvia?" Eden said leadingly, "This is not about Creia assigning you George when you didn't want to be his guard, is it?"
Zsilvia felt the anger stream out of her, replaced by a feeling of sadness that she didn't even know how to express.
"No."
"What is it? You can talk to me."
Zsilvia looked around at the street where they were still standing. The others had gone in the other direction, moving toward their own homes which were on a row separate from the Denynso women.
"I don't know what to say."
"Is this about George?"
Zsilvia nodded. Eden's hand came to her belly, rubbing it gently as she gave a knowing nod. The Denynso woman had expected laughter or teasing, but Eden's eyes stayed calm and quiet.
"I know what happens to Denynso men when they meet their mates," Eden stopped and smiled, glancing down at her belly and gesturing toward it with one hand, "obviously. But what happens to women?"
Zsilvia laughed, thankful for the moment that broke the tension and helped her feel more at ease.
"Essentially the same thing, just in female form. The same intense, unmistakable attraction. The same type of intense physical reaction. Just instead of feeling aggressive and violent, it is something… different. I don't even know how to describe it. It is a feeling that I didn't even know existed until I experienced it myself."
"You feel like your entire world has just focused on that one person and that you are so completely, overwhelmingly devoted to him that you would do anything to ensure he was safe, happy, and cared for, at the total sacrifice of anyone and anything else."
Zsilvia was shocked that Eden had been able to put to words so closely what she was feeling.
"Yes."
"So you do believe that George is your mate."
Eden said it almost as if she had somehow tricked Zsilvia into admitting something that she had not been prepared to admit.
"It doesn’t matter what I think about him, things can never go farther with us than what we have right now."
"Why not?"
Zsilvia thought for a long moment about how to form her words so that she could express herself properly. She stepped closer to Eden.
"What's it like when you have sex with Pyra?" she asked, looking into Eden's eyes even though the question obviously made both of them feel uncomfortable.
"Why do you ask?" Eden asked, trying to avoid answering her.
"I think it will help me explain the situation to you."
"Our first time was sudden and aggressive and a little painful," Eden admitted.
"But did he make you feel unsafe?" Zsilvia prodded.
"No," Eden said, "I wasn't really emotionally ready to be with him and physically it was difficult on me because it had been so many years since I had had sex with any man much less one the size of a Denynso warrior. He made me feel absolutely safe and comfortable, though. Even when I freaked out at the end of it and had to leave and take a walk, he offered to go with me. I refused, but looking back I should have accepted the offer. That is when I was attacked by the Klimnu. Of course, if I hadn't ever been attacked by them, Ciyrs wouldn't have had to heal me, and he wouldn’t have turned me into a Denynso." Eden sighed as if looking back on everything that had happened to her since arriving on the planet, "Pyra took our bonding extremely seriously and even though it was very fast and sudden, I felt totally safe in his arms."
"And now?" Zsilvia continued, pushing Eden a little further, "What is it like now? Do you still feel safe?"
"Even safer. The longer I am with him, the more incredible it is for us to be together. It is like our minds, bodies, and souls were made to be together, and now that I have spent enough time with him to really understand the ways of the Denynso, and now that the Denynso part of me is really assimilating to the rest of me and helping me to think in the ways of the tribe, I realize wholly and completely that that is the way that it is. We were made to be together, and every time that he makes love to me it is a celebration of that and how much we love each other. It is unlike anything I have ever experienced."
"Denynso men are only like that with their mates," Zsilvia said plainly.
She watched confusion across Eden's face.
"What do you mean?" she asked, her hand coming up to cover her belly protectively as if she was concerned that the comment would somehow get to her child and upset it some way.
"The warriors are known for being vicious and aggressive for a reason, and it goes beyond just the intensity that they show when they are in battle. Before a Denynso man finds his mate, he is still prone to the same sexual urges as any man. Fulfilling them, though, isn't like it is when he's with his mate. Instead, he thinks only of himself and his own satisfaction, sometime to the sacrifice of the comfort and even safety of the woman he has."
Eden got an expression on her face that hovered somewhere between confusion and sadness.
"The way that Pyra talked about his and the other Denynso men's reaction to finding their mates, I somehow didn't think that they…"
Her voice trailed off, but Zsilvia knew exactly what she was thinking. She knew that Eden had assumed that because Denynso warriors react with such physical voracity when they meet their mates, it is their first experience with sexual reactions. Of course, Zsilvia knew very well that this was not the case.
"You thought that because they are so intensely sexually interested when they get near their mates for the first time that they have never had sex before?"
Eden nodded, her eyes slightly wide.
"It…it didn't seem like Pyra was a virgin, but…"
"The reason that Denynso are so interested when they find their mates is not only to help them identify their mate, but also so that they will bond as quickly as possible. There is always a chance that intended mates will encounter each other but then not bond and lose their opportunity to be together. This is not only devastating to them, but it also means that neither of those two Denynso will ever be able to reproduce. As you may have realized, the birth rate of this species is not anywhere near as high as it should be. The warriors represent the last of the children that were born in this tribe. They cover an age gap of about 20 years, but they are all the same gene
ration. You are so surprised that Pyra may not have been a virgin, but you yourself admitted that you are not a virgin either. I know that humans don't have the same bonding instinct as the Denynso, but it should at least have told you that there was a possibility that they could have sex outside of their bonding experiences with their mates."
"I just didn't realize that the Denynso could have relationships with anyone other than their mates. I thought that was the whole point. That the mates are so precious because they are the only other person in the world that would be able to have a relationship with them."
"That's the point that I've been trying to make. I said that they could have sex with other people before they found their mates, not that they could have relationships with them. They can't. It is not in the nature of the Denynso to be able to have an emotional connection other than friendship with anyone other than their mates. It simply cannot be done. We know that that is not the same way with humans. In fact, many humans on Earth go through several life bonds isn't that correct?"
"We don't call them life bonds, we call them marriages, but I suppose you're correct."
Eden was starting to sound upset, even angry, and that mean that Zsilvia was getting to her, which is exactly what she was trying to do.
"The point is that humans can have emotional connections with multiple people, even fall in love several times in their lives. That means that they can have sex with people other than their life partners and it can be loving and nurturing. Denynso are not like that. The bond that they have with their mates is something unique and precious that they can only experience that one time in their entire lives. The sexual urges that they have before that bond are purely personal and selfish. It is not about connecting in any way with the other person, and has nothing to do with giving any sort of pleasure to the other person, which means they like to engage in it in the way that they engage in all of the activities that they love."
