The Voris' Mate

by S. J. Sanders

  “Yes, I’m well, thanks to Vadal.” Reggie gifted him with a sweet smile that immediately calmed his temper. The female had an alarming effect on his temperament, for better or ill.

  “But I have no idea who you are,” she stated bluntly.

  The Edoka grinned. “Forgive me. You know my mate Destiny. She has been very concerned since she heard you were missing. I am Sha’melor.”

  Reggie frowned. “She was concerned that I’d gone missing? It hasn’t been that long since I was taken from Earth.”

  Sha’melor appeared startled, his spines snapping. “Reggie, you have been missing for weeks,” he said gently.

  Reggie’s mouth dropped open and Vadal wrestled back the urge to wrap himself around her and protect her from any further revelations.

  “That’s… not possible,” she argued, her voice rising. “It was just yesterday that the alien who kidnapped me jabbed me with a needle and put me to sleep in a cryo-sleeper.”

  Vadal gave in to his impulse and lightly looped his tail around her. Her hands immediately went to his scales, clinging to them like a lifeline. He kept his voice at soothing tones as he attempted to console his female.

  “Apparently, he had you sleeping for several weeks, Reggie. If he was on Earth as a trader, it might be that he had other stops before he arrived here at the space station and didn’t awaken you until it was necessary. Truthfully, we’re fortunate that you did not already have a translator or vaccinations, or else he may not have wakened you until you arrived on Kampora.”

  Reggie paled and Vadal hissed to himself. He hadn’t intended to cause her more distress. He narrowed his eyes on Sha’melor and addressed him.

  “I am taking Reggie back with me to Vora.”

  Sha’melor opened his mouth to object but Vadal cut him off.

  “Reggie wants to go with me,” he hissed, barely controlling his temper. He’d never been one to be volatile; he didn’t know what was getting into him. It had to be the threat to Reggie and having her vulnerable, away from the safety of their nest.

  “I want to go with Vadal,” Reggie confirmed.

  Sha’melor groaned and swiped a hand along his spines.

  “I am going to have to find a way to explain to Destiny why I did not bring you home with me when she finds out that I saw you.”

  Reggie laughed again, the sound singularly melodious to Vadal’s ears.

  “It won’t be so bad,” she said, her lips twitching. “Tell her I’ll find a way to comm her as soon as I can.”

  “I will make sure to set up a comm system in our nest as soon as we can do so,” Vadal commented. He didn’t want to isolate Reggie from someone who cared about her. If it made her happy to speak to this Destiny female, then he would make a comm system a priority. Shaagra would likely be thrilled as well.

  From the corner of his eye, he noticed the captain of their starship trying to flag him over. Vadal set a hand on Reggie’s arms. She looked up at him and smiled, her eyebrows winging up in curiosity.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt, but we really must go, Reggie. The captain of our starship is waiting on us. I believe he’s been trying to get my attention.”

  Reggie craned her head around and her mouth rounded in surprise when she saw the large Morith tapping a clawed finger on his thick bicep as he waited with rapidly deteriorating patience.

  “Sorry, seems like Vadal’s right. That guy looks like he’ll explode if we don’t leave soon.”

  Sha’melor, who’d also looked over at the Morith, frowned a little but sighed reluctantly. “Very well. I am on my way back to Edokora. I will be sure to pass your message along. I am certain Destiny will be relieved,” he said with a gentle smile. A strange expression on an Edoka as far as Vadal was concerned.

  The male gave them a final nod before turning and heading toward a blue Edoka waiting near another ship. Vadal, once he was certain that Sha’melor wasn’t going to raise an alarm to stop him, swept Reggie up into his arms and glided over to the Morith.

  The captain, unlike other Moriths who were content to stay on their homeworld, was a regular transporter to and from the space station. He’d been more than happy to provide Vadal with transport to Vora. The male glanced at Reggie with a raised brow.

  “I did not realize you would be taking home a female, Doctor Vadal,” he commented, a small smile tugging at his dark red lips.

  Vadal glanced down fondly at the female secured against him. She turned her face upwards and grinned at him, her eyes sparkling with humor.

  “Just how long is this trip going to take, Doctor Vadal?” she asked quietly.

  “Only a day. By evening will be home,” he murmured. “We are going home,” he said louder for the benefit of the Morith.

  Chapter 4

  Shaagra paced through the nest, impatient for Vadal to arrive. When he was at the central building, he’d spent hours looking over the Mate Index. He’d even saved a few options on his personal comm to show Vadal what he thought were among the finest offerings. He’d selected a variety, uncertain of what would appeal to his nest brother.

  The arrival of a mate was something he’d been looking forward to for quite some time. When Vadal had told him about humans, Shaagra had been enthusiastic at the possibility. A thick scar on his tail from a particularly eager female who’d wanted to add him to her harem made him reluctant to join with females of his own species. A compatible, non-aggressive female is what he wanted. A female who wouldn’t take his personal quirks as challenges. A female who might allow a male to lead—no, he couldn’t think that way. It was forbidden.

  He looked at the pics that he downloaded onto his personal comm device. Each of the females looked kind and gentle. Not one looked like a female who would attempt to hurt him with her demand that he sexually submit to her.

  Briefly, Shaagra felt his chest tighten with anxiety. His muscles clenched and he gasped for breath as he imagined he felt heavy female coils settling around him, squeezing tightly around him, attempting to gain access to his salet and bind him irrevocably to her. He could still feel her claws digging into the scales of his upper tail as her hand attempted to turn him in her grasp. He’d only been able to get away by a stroke of luck—that she’d unlocked her coils enough for him to slide out of her grasp and pitch her into the brambles.

  A shudder ran over his body and he fingered the three raised scars running down the side of his face. When he’d refused to submit, the female raked his face with her claws. Despite the difficulty of seeing through a bloodied eye, Shaagra had somehow managed to crawl back to his nest.

  Vadal had returned a short time later, finding him bruised and bleeding on the floor. Worried for his eye, Vadal cleaned the wound on his face and treated them the best that he could with the limited supplies they had on hand before turning attention to his other wounds.

  Shaagra leaned against his coils. He’d purchased a long, cushioned bench like what humans called a “couch” for the comfort of their mate, but he preferred to recline on his own coils. Truth be told, he would prefer his mate on his coils too, but recognized that realistically it may not always be possible.

  He lay forward and drummed his fingers on the thick orange coil. Vadal should have been home some time ago. But he did say it was possible for there to be a small delay, he reminded himself. Still, he couldn’t help but worry. Without being mate-scented, they were still at risk any time they left their nest if a female wandered through their territory.

  Vadal had, for a time, hinted that they might return to the mountainous territories of his family. Shaagra had insisted they stay, not wanting his nest brother to give up on his ambitions. Truthfully, he was loath to admit that it sounded better and better as time went on. Living deep in the family territory, scent marked by generations of Vadal’s line, would deter other Vori from entering uninvited.

  It did mean giving up all the work he’d done on their nest, and for Vadal to go from being a city medic on hand to treat emergencies to a humble doctor in Vora�
�s jungles. Instead of treating the wealthy residents of Evath and offworlders who traveled to their ports, he would be treating hatchlings, the elderly, and common people. He was not sure if his nest brother was truly willing to give that up, especially not after getting a taste of life on the space station.

  No matter how much Shaagra would like nothing more than to take their mate and have their family disappear into the territory of Norveth, he could not be selfish. However, he wasn’t ashamed to admit that living so close to where powerful females collected around the ruling Matriarch of the Western Continent didn’t make him nervous.

  He had spoken truthfully to Vadal, that no other females had bothered him since his attack, but he still felt anxiety. He knew it was irrational. To comfort himself, he spent most of his time in their nest, which he’d enlarged in Vadal’s absence when he discovered a small cavern near their nest leading to an underground thermal pool he hadn’t seen since they left Norveth. Their home territory was known for its numerous thermal pools and nearly every nest had access to one. He considered it fortunate to find one and immediately widened the tunnel and closed off all others leading to the pool as he integrated it into their nest.

  Maybe their mate would like to swim? Vori loved water, but he wasn’t certain about humans. He would enjoy swimming with his mate. Floating weightlessly, rare for a species of such massive girth, was singularly the most peaceful thing he could experience.

  A rustle near the entrance of their nest had Shaagra lifting off his coils. He tensed when the door slid open, uncertain if it would be Vadal or an unknown intruder. When he spotted Vadal’s dark blue crown coils, Shaagra relaxed and smiled in greeting and he unwound himself and went forward to greet him—only to slide to a jarring halt when he saw what his nest brother held securely against him.

  The small yellow-haired female looked at him quizzically, as if she’d not expected to see him either.

  “Vadal?” The low, sweet tones of her voice rolled over him, and he instinctively drew in a deep breath, his tongue forking out as he drew in the smell and taste of her. Desire ran through him, and he looked down at her curvy body as Vadal sat her gently on her feet, exposing her form to him. His eyes drank her up, lust stirring through him of the likes he had not felt in some time.

  He had been uncertain if he would ever truly feel lust after the incident with the female Vori.

  “Vadal, who’s this in your nest?” she asked, her brow wrinkled with confusion.

  Shaagra looked up at his nest brother, bitter anger tightening his chest with a sense of betrayal. Vadal’s eyes darted over to him and he drew forward to set a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  “My apologies, Reggie. I didn’t think. This is Shaagra, and it is his nest too.”

  She studied him with wide, curious blue eyes.

  “So… you’re like roommates? You have an agreement to share space,” she quickly clarified when they stared at her blankly.

  Shaagra drew back, frowning. Did Vadal not explain about how their species mates? He narrowed his eyes on Vadal who winced guiltily. Apparently not.

  “Reggie,” Vadal sighed. “No, Shaagra is my nest-brother. We share our nest, our lives—all things.”

  She stared at them and comprehension slowly dawned. Her mouth rounded in shock.

  “Everything?” she squeaked.

  Vadal slowly nodded. “Everything.”

  She pointed a finger at herself. Vadal’s lips twitched and he nodded again. Reggie sat down heavily on the couch, barely seeing it as she stared out in the distance. The poor female was clearly dealing with shock. Shaagra was tempted to tail whip Vadal for leaving this all as a surprise for her.

  Shaagra eased up beside her. Since Vadal had failed to explain things, he would. “On Vora, we bond traditionally two males to every female. In times past it was not unusual for a female to take another to her nest to provide extra protection if the region had dangerous predators.” He frowned. “Unfortunately, it is becoming more common for females, in their unstable state, to try to acquire mass numbers of males in her nest for breeding.”

  Vadal glanced down with a grimace at Shaagra’s tail. Shamed, Shaagra tried to tuck it further away, but not fast enough. Reggie drew in a gasp as she looked down at the massive scarring on his tail, her eyes widening as her gaze transferred to his face. Her eyes teared up as she took notice, for the first time, of his horrible scars.

  Shaagra hissed, not liking seeing their female so distressed.

  “I am okay,” he muttered.

  He hated the idea of their mate seeing him scarred, as if he were weak. Maybe he was weak now, the way his body stiffened and sweated with terror around females of his kind. He was not easily bested by other males. He could protect her. He could still be a worthy mate for her nest. Despite the pulse of his anger, his hearts warmed to see that they had such a compassionate female for their mate.

  A feeling of jubilation rose so swiftly that it surprised him.

  She was their mate!

  They didn’t need to send away to Mate Index after all. Vadal brought home a female! His brow furrowed as a thought occurred to him.

  “Vadal, where did you get this female?” he asked.

  Reggie cleared her throat and he glanced over to see her pointedly look down. He followed her gaze and flushed when he noticed that his tail had, unbeknownst to him, curled around her leg.

  “Apologies,” he murmured and pulled his tail back beside him. Her lips twitched.

  Vadal smiled at the exchange. “I found Reggie on the space station. She was brought into medical by a Kampi.”

  “A Kampi?” Shaagra recoiled in disgust. Kampis had a bad reputation, and the idea of this female added to one of their harems made his stomach churn with anger.

  Vadal nodded. “He’d stolen her from Earth and hurt her, but brought her into the space station to get vaccinations and a translator.”

  “He rescued me,” Reggie said as she leaned into Vadal’s side, her hand stroking the scales at his hip making his nest brother shudder with pleasure.

  Shaagra twitched his tail. That sounded too easy. Earth had strict laws regarding how human females were obtained as mates.

  Vadal, anticipating his concern, said quietly, “Earth doesn’t know where she is. I want Reggie, and I hope you will too. Reggie is here completely of her own free will.”

  Vadal hoped he wanted her? Shaagra couldn’t get enough of her. He wanted to wind around her and bind himself to her right now. He wanted to see if her human body would sheath him so that they could join repeatedly in the way humans join for sharing pleasure, with both his cocks buried deep within her.

  He’d noticed while researching that humans had two openings, although one he understood was for expelling wastes, he knew it was also sexually receptive from watching the vids. He wondered if Reggie would be open to it. Their bodies being so different than her own, would she even desire to join with them?

  He watched the way her eyes flickered nervously between them. The idea of having two mates seemed to be overwhelming her. He had seen vids of females taking multiple males, but he also knew from his reading that humans usually lived in pair bonds. He looked speculatively at Vadal. He knew that his nest brother hadn’t done any reading; he had admitted as much. Shaagra sighed in exasperation.

  He slid forward again and opened his hand, palm up, toward her in what he hoped was the appropriate gesture of greeting.

  “Greetings, Reggie. I am Shaagra.”

  Reggie looked at his palm, hesitating, and then gently placed her hand within his. He enjoyed the softness of her touch with her silky skin and all those blunt fingers with thin delicate nails. His hand closed warmly around hers, and a tiny smile upturned her soft pink lips.

  “I’ve gotta admit this is pretty weird for me,” she said with a nervous giggle.

  ***

  Reggie stared at the two large males filling the central room of the nest. After an entirely uneventful flight from the space station, she had
n’t been prepared for such a surprise. Despite that, Reggie felt at ease.

  The nest itself was beautiful. The stone walls and floor gleamed like marble, while the ceiling was left rough-hewn to give it a natural texture. Having seen Vadal rest on his coils during their trip to Vora, the couch was obviously added for the intended comfort of a human mate in their dwelling.

  Reggie had come to Vora, open to the idea of possibly being a mate for Vadal if things progressed in that direction. She’d had no idea that there would be a second male waiting at the nest. To find out that Vori mated with multiple males to one female was surprising to say the least.

  The concept was hard to wrap her mind around. Sure, she had her little flings while her husband ran around too, but this was different. Never had she given any serious consideration to actually having a relationship with two men at once. Part of her balked at the idea of being mated to two of them when she was still trying to wrap her mind around being mated to one.

  Her eyes trailed studiously down the length of Shaagra’s body. Like Vadal, his humanoid half had a beautiful muddy bronze complexion, the angles slightly sharper than what you would find on a human and his ears slightly pointed, but familiar despite the larger red eyes.

  It was the rest of them that was wholly alien.

  Unlike his nest brother, Shaagra’s tail and the coils draping from his head were a brilliant orange. While she felt safe in the calm coils of Vadal, she worried that being pressed among two coiled tails could be a bit too much to handle.

  Shaagra smiled at her with uncertainty. “We are nervous too. If you accept us, you will be the only female we have known. Vori wait until they are mated to engage in sexual contact. We are both feeling a lot of pressure to do well in this meeting with you.”

  Shaagra’s uncertainty worried her too. She hadn’t realized she was also going to have to break in a pair of very large virgins. It was also obvious that he still carried lingering scars, both internally and externally, from his abuse and that made her want to cry for him. She didn’t know if she was good enough to accept the devotion of a male so badly mistreated. Part of her believed that he needed a female untouched. A younger female who had seen and done less.