Page 34 of His Human to Chase

Two Years Later

“The first day is the easiest day, brothers,” I say loudly.

I march down the line of twenty or so new males who have joined the tribe just in time for the next choosing ceremony. My favorite part of helping my mate with the choosing ceremonies is the first day when all the males are still so nervous. Introducing the new males to the human females is my favorite thing besides anything my mate does to or with me. All the males try their hardest not to make fools of themselves and fail miserably.

“The females who have decided they are searching for a mate will all enter this room the same as you have. They will line up on that side of the table.” I point to the other side of the table so they understand. “Then they will move their hair to the side, and you will each sniff all of them.”

“Sniff them?” One of the males asks. Plenty of others are already wrinkling their nostrils at the thought.

I let out my first laugh because they are always so surprised by the first day of the choosing ceremonies. I let them ponder what could possibly be gained by sniffing the females before I tell them why we have them sniff the females.

“If your mate is one of the females, your body will respond to her.” I pause for a moment to let them all panic a bit about how their bodies will respond. Plenty of them are probably thinking about how their cocks will grow hard, but no, that is not the change we are trying to bring about. “A human female’s soul is in her nose.”

“Her nose?” Another asks. Again, a few of the males look disgusted, some are intrigued, but most are just confused.

“Humans have a much greater sense of smell than we do, and they can smell their mate,” I continue as though they are not reacting in the most amusing ways. “Right here.” I rub at the center of my chest with my palm. My tunic sleeve rolls up my arm a bit, revealing the scarred scales from where my mate has claimed me many times over. A few pairs of eyes grow wide before they look back up at my face. I do not hide my smile. I am a proud male when it comes to knowing I have been claimed. “Right here is where a human female will smell her mate. If you are her mate, she will be overcome with…” I pause and try to remember the word Skylar told me to use instead of telling the males that the females become obsessed with cock. “Desire.”

“In what way?” One of the braver males asks the question they all want to know. His eyes dart back to my forearm, which is now back to being covered by my tunic. “Will they claim us in the old ways?”

“Some of them, maybe.” I shrug, not really knowing what all a female will do in that state. Skylar and I play, but for the most part, she is on her hands and knees when we make love, not facing my chest and inhaling deeply from my scent there. “It is best if we discuss that after the first part of the choosing ceremony. It does no good to get your cocks all out when there is nothing to be done about them today.”

A few of the males shift their weight side to side in their discomfort, but most of them stay standing tall. There’s soft talking from the other side of the door that has all of them standing as straight as possible, muscles tensed as though to make them more desirable, and chests puffed out to show they are strong, capable males. I suppress my giggling at their preening because I know they are all desperately trying to impress a female.

“Can we come in?” Skylar’s voice is sweet as she sticks her head in the room. It’s one of the old bedrooms from the great hall turned into an area where males and human females can get to know one another under supervision. We’ve used it for six choosing ceremonies so far, and they have all been working out perfectly well. Before the choosing ceremony, well, things were a bit more chaotic in trying to offer each male an opportunity while still allowing the human females to feel like they had a say in all of it.

“Yes, yes,” I wave her in and then give each of the men a pointed look. “The one swollen with young is mine. No one sniffs her.”

“Of course,” They all say almost in unison. Skylar blushes a bright pink when I give them all a warning and when they all take my warning seriously. I don’t think anyone would assume she was a female to mate with, but I would rather warn them than for them to think they have a chance with my mate.

“One at a time.” Skylar motions for the females to walk into the room and stand on the opposite side of the table from where I have the males standing.

Most of the females have pink on their cheeks as they look around at the males who have come to try to woo them. A couple of them are too shy and keep their heads down, but they are just as eager to find a mate as the others. None of the human females have to participate in our choosing ceremony if they do not wish to, but the longer they are in our tribe, the more each of them seems to want to find a mate for themselves.

“Thirteen women this time,” Skylar tells me when she comes to stand next to me. “The last one became ill this morning, or she would be here.”

I nod my head, attention turning toward the males that I am to keep in line so they don’t scare off their potential mates by being too eager. All of the males have gone through many different tests through our tribe and had to be approved by their tribal leader to even be here. So, we know they are no threat to the females, but they can become a little too enthusiastic in their willingness to please them if left on their own without someone telling them to calm down.

Skylar claps her hands together and offers the females a smile. “Hair to the side and just tilt your head as far to the side as you can. We got some males with big horns today, and we don’t want to be poked, do we?”

“I could have had them wrap their horns,” I offer with too much glee in my voice. I hate when I have to wrap my horns to go to sleep with Skylar, but I have poked her a few times, and it is better to wrap them than the alternative of hurting my mate. Still, the thought of others knowing or seeing my horns wrapped is enough to warm my body. The males are all thinking about it now and, from the shifting, are very much not eager to wrap theirs.

“Stop being mean, Yril.” My mate gives me a stern look before turning to the males. “If your female asks you to wrap your horns, that’s between you and her. None of the males here will have you do it. Not even Yril.”

I frown slightly at having my fun taken away from me. “They would all do it. We should ask that of the next batch. It will put your sisters at ease as well. I am very sure of this.”

“You just want to embarrass the new males.” Skylar rolls her eyes at me because she knows me very well. “Come on,” She motions for me to demonstrate to the males what to do to smell their females. “You will each walk behind the females, lean down without crowding, and sniff from the crook of their necks.”

“We should have them do underneath the arms again,” I say to make my mate blush. The first group of females we did had to lift their arms and let the males smell them from there. The males did not mind, but the human females were bright red by the time it was over, so Skylar and Olivia came up with the neck sniffing instead.

Skylar gives me a warning scowl, but I smile back at her, as happy as can be. “I have my hair pulled back, I tilt my head, and Yril can sniff my neck with ease.”

I lean down and place my face close to the crook of her neck. I must be respectful of her right now because how I sniff her is how the others will sniff the females who have decided they want to mate. I keep plenty of space from her but get close enough that I can make out the soft scent of my mate very faintly. She does not smell like much since my nose is not nearly as adept as hers for smelling different things, but I know it is slightly sweeter than the surrounding air.

“One sniff,” Skylar says as I pull away from her. I was only at her neck for a moment, and she is making sure the males understand that is how long they are allowed to linger. “If your mate is here, your body will respond to her.”

“Any questions?” I ask as I look between the group of humans and the group of males.

One of the males raises his hand ever so slowly, and Skylar calls on him to ask his question. “Will the change happen immediately?”

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