“Do not worry,” I can hear the smile in Lyath’s voice and have to look down to hide the small one that pulls at my lips at his eagerness. “You will only have one.”
His words seem to shock everyone in the room, but they do not know I will be her mate. No, they all still probably think it will be Lyath since he is the one to go to her. I do not correct them because my mates will when Lyath has her say my name instead of his.
“Here is your mate’s seed,” Lyath says, and I can imagine him holding his hand coated in my release up to this new human.
“I just lick it?”
I have to grit my teeth to stop the hiss in my chest. I wish I were there to see her small, unforked tongue peek out from between her lips, to watch her lick and suckle on Lyath’s fingers. I wish I could admire them both as they devote themselves to me. Instead, I keep myself firmly rooted where I am. I tell myself I will just have them recreate this moment at a later time when we are all very much acquainted, and she is comfortable enough to share her body with us. The silence lasts for a long moment until Lyath’s hiss sounds from the other side, and I once again have to bite down hard.
“Now I just say your name?” The new human doesn’t sound all that upset about having to eat my seed. She sounds almost pleased. I can imagine her enjoying it, though that is probably wishful thinking.
“No.” Lyath stands from behind the partition, staring straight at me. “Our mate’s name is Beren.”
My chest swells with pride at the idea of having two mates I can care for—two mates to protect, cherish, and love. I will give these mates all of myself. I will provide them with anything they want or need to the best of my ability. There is nothing more that a male could ask for.
My happiness is short-lived, though. The new human causes pain in my chest almost immediately.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She comes around the partition with a scowl, and an accusatory finger pointed at the not-human.
I have to admire my mate’s beauty for just a moment, even if she is slowly killing me by seeming so upset about having to mate me. Her skin is dark and smooth, her hair fluffy and coiled, and her body is made up of the most beautiful curves I never knew I needed. If she decides not to go through with the mating because she will be mated to me, I might find it in me to allow Lyath to be the one who mates her so that I can keep her in my life forever.
“Did you plan on having me mate someone named Beren?” she shouts at the not-human, and my cock doesn’t seem to register that she isn’t happy with us or anyone because she has said my name, and I don’t care if it’s in anger. I would take her anger in my bed anytime.
4
Nia
The universe is fucking petty.
First, I end up having a cancerous mole on my boob, but not to worry, the Hands have specialized healing pods that can fix most things. I end up not having anything too serious, and the healing pod is able to get all of the cancer in less than a day after just one session.
I should be so grateful for the healing pod and alien technology, right?
Wrong.
The pod malfunctions. I’m left inside of it for hours, awake and feeling the chemicals in my veins the entire time when I’m supposed to be passed out. I try to scream but am choked on the oxygen tube. I try to claw my way out, but the pod can’t be opened until it completes its job. So yes, I’m healed, but I’m also left with nightmares of being trapped in it and uncertainty about how it affected my ability to conceive.
Second, my unknown ability to conceive has the doctor telling me the other Hands won’t be sending me to the new planet. He promised me he would get me here, though. So, we come up with a plan. It’s a variation of the same plan he was already trying to make work. His timeline’s just shifted forward a little bit. Meaning all of it hinges on this tribe’s ability to work overtime.
Third, I make it to the planet with the demons where they don’t have females, and I’m not immediately requested as a mate. It’s probably due to me not being sure I can have kids. I get it. These aliens put a lot of importance on procreation, which I get because I also like having sex. I don’t think I realized it would cause so many of them not to take me as a mate. I didn’t think I’d be fought over, but I didn’t think the room would go silent.
Fourth, and finally, when someone eventually decides they’ll take one for the team and mate the broken female, they tell me my new mate’s name is Beren. Fuck no.
“This is an unfortunate coincidence,” Vex says to me as he turns to face me.
There are two more giant red aliens behind him. My eyes are drawn to one of them who looks heartbroken in the face but has a raging boner in his pants. My eyes snap back up to his face where he’s clamping his jaw shut so tightly I can see it pulse in the corners as he grinds his teeth together. His horns loop down, framing his face, and I’m almost grateful he has those ones instead of the ones jutting straight out of his head like the one next to him because those look like they could stab an eye out.
The demon who knelt in front of me and had me licking come off his fingers had the curling down horns too, and I’m kind of pissed he’s not the one I’m mating because I thought he was pretty cute. He could at least smile at me, whereas the one I’m supposed to mate, who’s still pretty handsome in an alien-type way, looks like he’s just angry. Of course, he is. His name is Beren, and he’s mating a barren female.
“I’m not mating someone named Beren,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest, not missing how Beren’s eyes drop down to my chest before he can correct himself and look at my face.
He looks furious at himself, at me, at the world. Probably because he’s being tricked into a mating he doesn’t want because no one else is willing to mate the female who can’t offer them what they all want. The one thing I was sent here for.
“One minute,” Vex says, looking at his bare wrist and then at the glowing portal still humming behind the partition. “You finish mating him, or they will take you back, and I will be imprisoned.”
Beren’s brows furrow at the mention of me being taken back, and then he pushes past the doctor to kneel in front of me. He lifts his hands to place them on my shoulders but stops himself and then snarls at his hands like they’ve wronged him. His eyes meet mine, blazing red, and looking furious as he speaks to me.
“You do not like my name? Fine. You may call me whatever you wish, but you will call me yours, and you will call yourself mine. I care not what my name is so long as it is a name you will enjoy on your tongue and in your mouth.”