Page 81 of You're Not My King!

“I’m sure they would appreciate it.” I knew not everyone would accept the ticket into the techno world, but a few would be glad of it. Zae’l, especially. Anything to make talking to his mate easier. “What did you trade for them?”

Vo’ak perked up with enthusiasm. “Human Jonathan.”

I frowned, wondering what the chef could have given in exchange for something so advanced. “Johnny traded for them? Huh. Guess I’ll have to thank him next time we?—”

“No…” Vo’ak chuckled lightly. “He was the trade.”

It took a hot minute for his words to register. At first, I thought the translators were faulty, ’cause there was no way this guy was standing there, smiling like a loon after admitting he traded a person for a fucking earpiece.

Blood rushed to my face, and I pushed out of his arms. “Are you… Are you kidding me?! You traded a person for these? Oh my God, oh my God.” I paced, then in a fit of blind rage, I tried clawing at the device to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge. Vo’ak seized my wrists, and I fought against him. “Fuck you. Let go.”

“Reuben, stop,” he commanded, making me falter. He softened his voice. “Please listen. It is not bad news.”

I seethed, inhaling sharply through my nose. “What the fuck? How could that not be bad?—”

“Jonathan wished to go,” he explained, brushing his thumbs over the insides of my wrists as if to placate me. It worked. “He found his mate. I thought you would be happy.”

That made me pause.

Of course I would be happy for him—Johnny had waited a long time for a mate, he had told me so himself, but… “But that makes no sense? How did?—”

“We planned to trade pelts and har’kol, as normal,” Vo’ak cut in. “It was arranged months ago. I had asked the escorts to inquire after such devices as a surprise for you.” How come everything this brute did for me had my belly fluttering? It was a pest. “I was visiting our neighboring clan when I received word the devices had arrived. Jonathan decided to accompany us to the trading bay, as he often does, and that was where the bond kindled. It was the courier of the translators—a surly creature, to be sure. They realized Jonathan was their mate as soon as they left their ship, and the human followed them willingly, with wholehearted consent. I would not have let him leave if he had not wished to.”

I believed Vo’ak. Though he had a ways to go in understanding human practices, he was learning. Still, I couldn’t help feeling a little bummed. “So, I’ll never see him again?”

Vo’ak’s expression turned soft, and he tentatively moved his hands to my face. “I will find a way to have him return, c’karuucha. To visit.”

“Okay.” I nodded, not meeting his eye. Guilt welled in my belly. “I’m sorry for overreacting. I assumed the worst, but I shouldn’t have.”

My mate huffed a laugh, dismissing my worry. “I am used to your mood swings by now, little human. It is one of your many endearing traits.”

“Well, that’s promising. Would have been pretty awkward otherwise.”

“You are awkward,” he said, and I wasn’t sure whether it was meant as sweet talk or an insult. “And I love you.”

The former, then. “Yeah, yeah, I love you too, you big lump.” He smirked, probably hearing the word ‘big’ and nothing else. I kissed the arrogance away. “Let’s get to the ravishing part already.”

Vo’ak’s eyes grew dark with hunger. “There is a red moon approaching, my mate, and it has aligned. I shall please you well.”

“That’s tonight?!” Excitement flared in me. I’d been so distracted with his return that I’d lost track of the dates. “And aligned, does that mean…”

As if in answer, the spikes over Vo’ak’s scales bled black, and my breath caught in my throat. The contrasting colors gave him a more primal edge, and having learned very recently—thanks to a very public occurrence in the clan—what their appearance meant, I knew I was in for a wild night.

Or a wild few nights.

“It is my breeding season, also, my Reuben,” he purred, voice low and rumbly, shooting straight to my dick. “And I am eager to have you.”

From what Fiona had told me, a male Ly’zrd’s breeding season happened once a year and lasted two whole days. It was basically a time when their already rampant instinct to fuck was turned up to eleven, and they wanted to go at it until their partner was… well, bred. However, since this was falling under the biannual red moon—two occurrences that rarely aligned—it meant Vo’ak would be extra, extra broody.

R.I.P my hole.

I couldn’t say that the idea of it all didn’t appeal to me, ’cause it really did, but since I was human—and the receiver—the desired outcome wasn’t a possibility. Even if it had been, I wasn’t ready for kids. Vo’ak respected that, and while human males couldn’t carry children, Ly’zrd could, so there were options if or when we decided to take that step. Let’s be real, it wouldn’t have surprised me if some techy aliens invented a device to make it happen. They were always advancing their technology, and failing that, pod babies were a thing. But we were in no rush to figure it out.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy the wild look in Vo’ak’s eyes whenever I teased him about it. “So…” I dropped my voice to a sexy rasp, glancing up at him through my lashes, all demure. “Does that mean you want to fuck me until I’m full of your eggs?”

His nostrils flared, jaw popping. “Yes.”

“You do know I can’t get pregnant, right?”

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