by J. S. Wilder
“Of course not.” I kissed her slowly, softly, as she taught me. “If you don’t wish to mate tonight, I understand,” I murmured as I pulled her in close and tight.
She held me for a long moment then pulled back.
“No, I want to. I… I just want to feel you close.”
I smiled and pulled her down as I settled into the bed. From Firaspatciti to Aquallian in the blink of an eye. She was truly remarkable. I kissed her softly again and reached for her blade. I made sure the trigger for the nanites was set and moved to touch it to her temple, but she blocked my hand.
“No.”
“No?”
She smiled at me. “No.”
I watched her eyes. “Have you spoken to Kergah?”
“About what?”
“About… anything… the council of thirteen and what that means?”
She looked at me strangely. “I haven’t seen Kergah today. What’s the council of thirteen?”
I smiled at her. “Nothing. It’s all part of this chaos with the rabble calling for me to step down. Nothing to worry about. But why the change?”
“I don’t know. The attack… and seeing you injured.” She shrugged. “Living two hundred years seems like forever, but after the attack, I realized that any of us could be whisked away in a moment. Tokalas almost died, despite the wonder of the nanites. He would have died on Earth.”
“But we’re not on Earth and he didn’t die.”
“I know, but he could have still died. That could have been you.” She looked at me, her eyes slightly sad. “I thought the most important thing in the world, in the universe, was the dating agency, matching people up, getting them to mate and produce children and…” She paused. “I guess I was starting to believe my own hype. But now I realize the thing that’s most important isn’t the dating agency, it’s you. I felt you were like the stars, that you were eternal.” She paused again and looked down. “But you’re not. You could be killed like everyone else.” She looked up and held my gaze. “Can you forgive me for forgetting that, for taking you for granted?”
I softly touched her face, offering her a small smile of reassurance. “There is nothing to forgive, my dear Catherina. But are you sure about this?”
She smiled softly. “Do you remember what you said the first time we mated, and I thought I might get pregnant? You said, ‘It would it would be a glorious day.’ Do you remember that?”
“I do.”
“Do you still feel that way?”
I touched her face again. “Now, more than ever.”
She took her blade from my hand, reset the trigger, and then sheathed her blade. She smiled at me and leaned in for a kiss. “Slowly,” she breathed. “I want it to last a long time.”
I returned her smile as I took her lips and gently lowered her to the bed. She pulled me down, holding me tight as she steered me between her legs. I entered slowly, my sigh of pleasure joining with her own, as I sank deep into her womanly pleasures.
I made love to her, slowly, gently, tenderly, long into the night as she whispered softly of her love and passion into my ear, and I repeated the same into hers. As we collapsed, exhausted by our labors, I realized we’d missed the evening meal, but it was no matter. I had everything I needed, everything I wanted, here in my arms.
Fifteen
Catherina
I was at the Office of Galactic Relationships and Repopulation, as I called the dating agency, looking through progress reports. It had been two months since my breakthrough with the Water males. I was still working with the couples individually, trying to help them along, while my staff prepared another group to go through the program. I was meeting with them once a week or so where we talked about issues in their relationships. The Waters still frustrated the hell out of me, but at least they were trying now, and I had to give the Estaans credit, they had the patience of saints. The ten couples were mating, and that in itself was a breakthrough, but none of the Estaan’s had been impregnated yet, though Jhilu and Quosson were trying.
Of the twenty-five couples that had paired up that first day, four were still together. The other twenty-one had broken apart and reformed with different partners several times. In the end, I’d only had ten form a stable relationship. That was less than a fifty percent success rate, my lowest so far, but I still had hope that with the help from the men that had successfully found a companion and begun mating, I would have better luck the next time.
Normally, once there were some successful matings, and we had a better understanding of the differences and issues, and how to overcome them, the staff took over and began to help much larger groups, but I was keeping my hand in with the Aquallian males. The Aquallians were always going to be a problem, but with a lot of coaching, and a little bit of hand-holding, I think they were going to make it. I felt like I was still missing something, a piece to the puzzle that I hadn’t found. I wanted to explore the issue more by running another pilot program with the Aquallian and Estaans, bringing back those that hadn’t paired up from both sides, along with a fresh group of Peoples, and try again.
On the brighter side, most of the Fire woman that I’d paired with Hedordian men were either with child or were trying to conceive. As always, I checked up on them occasionally and I was pleased that the couples seemed very happy and had learned to work through their differences without my help. As with the Water females and Fire males, the news of successful pairings and the conception of children had started a run on Fire women by Hedordian men. The staff of the dating agency was working hard to match couples and educate them. Stevan had been concerned for the welfare of the Fire women. He didn’t need to worry anymore.
The better news was the calls for assistance from other Peoples was rising, and rapidly. We were still dealing with formal requests from leaders, requests to help their peoples find compatible mates, but more and more individuals were beginning to ask for help. They all were asking for my help, and though I would have loved to help every couple that asked, I simply didn’t have the time or energy to accept every request. Once I was finished with the second pilot for the Aquallians and the Estaans, I might select a few of the more interesting pairings to help, just for fun, and to show the Peoples that love knew no borders.
But the best news, according to the reports in front of me, was the number of pairings being reported where they hadn’t asked for help. The news was all hearsay, but reports were trickling in that more and more peoples are self-selecting and making it work on their own. I’d seen several Hedordian men with a Firaspatciti woman on his arm in the past few weeks. That was what it was going to take to save the universe, Peoples selecting their own mates and working out their own differences.
“Enter!” I called when the chime on my office door sounded. Tokalas slid my door open and stepped in, Henmop entering a moment behind him. “Tokalas! So good to see you!” I said as I rose and went around my desk to greet him. I hadn’t seen him since he left the hospital and traveled to Peraginisis. “You’re looking great!”
He dipped his head. “I’m well. I just returned from being examined. I was fully cleared to return to duty.”
“That’s terrific news. It hasn’t been the same without having you at my weak side.” He looked at me and I knew then that something was amiss. “What?”
“I have come to ask your leave to surrender your weak side to Peval.”
I felt a chill of fear and abandonment, but then I noticed the small smile on Henmop’s lips and I knew the reason. As one of my personal guard, he would have always been on call, living and working at the palace. Henmop wouldn’t have been allowed to stay with him and they would rarely have time to be together.
“Will you remain as part of my security detail?”
“If that is your pleasure, my Lady.”
I smiled. “Then you have my leave, Tokalas.”
He beamed and dipped his head low. “Thank you, my Lady.”
As part of my security team, he would rotate in and out o
f duty, with the rest of the men and women, giving him time to be with his mate. It didn’t have the prestige of being a personal guard to the Lady of Firaspatciti, but I don’t think he cared. Now he had other, more important, things to worry about. I was dying to ask questions, and as the Lady, anything I asked he would have to answer, but I didn’t want to pry into his personal affairs.
I turned my attention to Henmop. “Did you show him how to deliver a… what did you call them?”
Henmop giggled. “Cyruh and aadumiters. I did.” She grinned at him, her affection clear on her face. “He vomited the first time he had to pull the head of an aadumiter from its mother’s body.”
He smiled back. He’d obviously been teased about this already but had learned to accept it as intended.
“What did you expect? I was covered in blood and something slimy, and the smell!”
She laughed in delight then looked at me again. “He’s doing better. He only retches now. A few more deliveries and he won’t even notice anymore.”
“Which is why I want to remain in the guard. I’ve been stepped on, kicked, defecated on, urinated on, covered in blood, mud and I don’t know what else. Being a palace guard is far less dangerous.”
I giggled in delight. “It sounds like it.”
Henmop continued to grin as she snuggled in closer to Tokalas. “He’s being modest. He would make an excellent Peragin. He has a kind soul. That’s not something I expected to find in a Firaspatciti.”
“The Firaspatciti are not the people most think they are.”
“No, they’re not. We were on the range and I was tending a downed huyarah. It was becoming dark and I knew the gralls would be on the prowl. Gralls aren’t to be trifled with and we needed to return home for safety even though I knew without the protection of the herd, the huyarah wouldn’t survive the night. I was prepared to leave the animal to its fate, but Tokalas…” she paused as her eyes filled with tears, “he told me to finish tending the animal and try to get it to its feet. He stood watch over us as I worked, holding the gralls at bay with his long blade. He killed two before the rest gave up and ran away.” She paused and looked at him again with adoring eyes. “After I got the huyarah up, I had to attend to Tokalas’s cuts and bites.”
He smiled, clearly embarrassed. “It wasn’t as daring as she makes it sound, and we couldn’t leave the beast on the ground helpless.”
“No Peragin would have stood against a pack of gralls for a huyarah,” she said softly. “All the men called him stupid, but I could see the admiration in their eyes and hear it in their voices. They witnessed what I had already seen, and despite their ridicule, they were impressed.” She paused. “They no longer tease him for his lack of skills and as word spread to other families of what he did, I’ve heard some are interested in perhaps taking a Firaspatciti for their own mate. Male and female.”
I nodded slowly. Stereotypes were a bitch, but the Fires were slowly breaking theirs down.
Henmop looked at me as her eyes filled with tears again. “I can’t thank you enough for introducing Tokalas to me.”
“Nor I, my Lady,” Tokalas said softly.
I sniffed, feeling the need to cry again. I was always touched when two people found love, and these two were obviously falling hard for each other. I needed to change the subject or I would cry, and that would be inappropriate. I think only Stevan had figured out that I cried when I was happy. Everyone else assumed I was upset.
“Do you wish to be relieved of your guard duties, Tokalas, so you can return to Peraginisis? I can speak to our Lord about it.”
“No, my Lady. We’re going to live on Peraginisis, but I will retain my position here. Henmop has a gift for healing animals. She’s going to travel Peraginisis and assist other families with difficult animals.”
She nodded with a smile. “Many have asked for assistance, but with my other duties to my own family, I haven’t been able to help as much as I would have liked. Joining Tokalas’s family gives me the opportunity to do what I enjoy so much without the guilt of leaving my joined family to tend the animals in my absence.”
I nodded. Tokalas didn’t have to be a farmer, or in this case, a rancher, and it gave his wife, or wife to be, a chance to pursue a career she wanted. It seemed like a match made in heaven. Damn. I’m good!
“Perhaps, when we are settled, you will come visit us on Peraginisis?” Henmop asked.
Tokalas looked slightly panicked at her request, probably wondering how he could make his home suitable for a visit by the Lord and Lady of Firaspatciti.
“I would love to see your home, Henmop. I’ve seen memory cubes of Peraginisis and it reminds me so much of my home on Earth.” I smiled at Tokalas, trying to put him at ease. “It will be good to get away from the palace and leave all that behind for a while.”
She smiled and dipped her head.
We spoke a few minutes more before Tokalas asked for my leave. After they left, I made a note to myself. There was a bonding in their future, and I wanted to know about it when it happened. I’ve been invited to several joinings, bondings, merges, whatever the People called their version of marriage. Some I attended, some I didn’t, but Tokalas and Henmop’s was one I wouldn’t miss.
-oOo-
“Lady Catherina. Our Lord requests your presence in your quarters, immediately.”
“On my way,” I replied to one of Stevan’s aides.
I’d been expecting this call ever since I saw Tokalas. He’d obviously reported for duty.
I opened my door. “Peval. I’m returning to the palace, but stand ready in case I choose to leave again.”
She dipped her head. “By your leave, my Lady.”
I smiled. She didn’t know it yet, but she was going to be called to duty. I opened my portal and stepped directly into our quarters. I freshened up and was almost changed by the time Stevan arrived. Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on his left, his weak side, in the grand hall of the palace, dressed in my finest gown. Now that Tokalas had been cleared to return to duty, he and Peval had been ordered to stand before Stevan. Only three people knew what was happening, me, Stevan and Kergah.
“Tokalastherious Keretyartherat and Pevalibybaretan Zaternatheted, step forward,” Stevan ordered his voice firm.
Tokalas and Peval marched stiffly down the aisle in their dress uniforms of vibrant red and deep black. They looked terrified and I had to work hard to suppress my smile. When they reached the spot where the highly polished stone floor changed from red to black, they stopped and knelt.
“Tokalastherious Keretyartherat, Pevalibybaretan Zaternatheted, you have been ordered before me today to answer for your actions on Boforous. Do you have anything to say before I pass judgment?”
“No, my Lord,” Tokalas said, speaking first as he was my weak side during the incident.
“No, my Lord,” Peval repeated the moment Tokalas finished speaking.
Stevan slowly rose from his chair and moved to stand in front of them. “Then rise and receive my judgment.” Tokalas and Peval rose, standing at stiff attention and staring straight ahead. “For your actions, I am presenting you with the Firaspatciti Blade.”
I smiled as I rose from my chair and moved to stand beside Stevan. The Firaspatciti weren’t given to ostentatious medals, and the highest award that could be given was a small silver dagger pin, no longer than my thumbnail. I handed the first one to Stevan and he attached it to Tokalas sleeve. He repeated the procedure for Peval.
“You performed beyond extraordinary expectations, and in doing so, saved the life of the Lady of the Firaspatciti and my bonded.” He took first Tokalas, then Peval by the shoulder, the Firaspatciti version of a handshake. Then he did something I’d never seen him do, he dipped his head in respect. A soft murmur rippled through the few people in attendance, but it ended quickly. I glanced at Kergah, and he gave me a small nod and a smile.
I stepped forward and hugged Tokalas. It was highly inappropriate for the Lady to show any type of favoritism
, much less hug another man, but I didn’t care. Only Stevan could reprimand me, and he knew I was going to do it.
“Congratulations… and thank you,” I whispered.
I turned my attention to Peval.
“Congratulations… and thank you,” I whispered. “You’re training saved my life and I am honored to have you at my weak side.”
I released her and stepped back. Neither had acknowledged Stevan’s dip of the head or my hug, but they both clearly understood what both actions meant.
Stevan and I turned together and returned to our chairs and sat down. He glared at them a moment, every bit their commander.
“You both have honored us with your service and dedication. You represent all that every Firaspatciti should aspire to be. Dismissed.”
Without a breaking a smile, Peval and Tokalas pivoted together and marched out, their feet clicking on the stone floor as one. The moment the hall doors closed, he turned to me and smiled, a smile I gladly returned. This was only the second time I’d been in the grand hall, and this time it was so much more pleasant than the last time. I saw Stevan glance to Kergah. Kergah looked first at Stevan, then at me, and offered us a small smile and a slight dip of the head.
Stevan and I may have broken protocol, but if Kergah approved, then everyone else could just go fuck themselves.
Epilogue
“Quathaul, I’m so glad you could join me!” Catherina said as her dearest friend stepped out of the portal. Hulg and Quathaul were in the very first group of Waters and Fires to mate. They’d gone on to merge and have a child.
“I can’t believe how much Quinnla has grown since I saw her last!” Catherina said as the child looked around with wide eyes. “Come, I have so much to tell you!”
Quathaul was more beautiful than ever. Motherhood suited her and Catherina hoped she would do half as well. She led her friend to her private quarters.
“Can I have anything brought to you?”
Quathaul smiled at the thick hath fur pad on the floor. She placed Quinnla in the center. “No, Catherina. Tell me, what has you so excited?”
