Page 2 of Serpents of the Night

“Seshanamitesh do not do this brake thing and we do not test. A female makes her readiness to mate known and the strongest male who can capture her enjoys the right of capture so that he may hold her with him and dwell with her in the shinara as a mated pair. Only an unworthy male is bred and abandoned. You insult him.”

“But you are speaking of a female Seshanamitesh, and, as you say, a female of your species could still reject him,” Lori reminded him, her mind sympathetically going to Ehsash. “He has already been rejected for mating before because of his inability to breed, surely taking things slower would benefit both of them in terms of seeing if they can develop a lasting relationship. We didn’t just jump into things.”

Slengral huffed a gruff hissing sound. “Because you are stubborn. But I see all human females appear to suffer from this in varying degrees.” He gave Vi a pointed look leaving no doubt in Lori’s mind regarding his opinion.

“Wait. Hold up. You’re telling me that he was mated before and then tossed to the curb because he couldn’t... breed?” Vi’s mouth dropped open briefly before an indignant look crossed her face. “And so, what, now he’s just going to keep avoiding me because he thinks I...”

“Rejected him. Which you did,” Lori gently pointed out.

“But not because of his breeding ability. You and I both know that I don’t have any interest in that.”

Lori winced. “Yeah, but he doesn’t know that and probably assumes that is why you don’t want to mate with him.”

“It is widely known among the Seshanamitesh in Raza,” Slengral agreed, adopting a more sympathetic tone, though Lori couldn’t be sure if that was for Vi’s benefit or because he felt sympathy for Ehsash. She suspected the latter. “He would assume that you knew as well and turned him away because of it.”

“Well crap,” Vi huffed, rapidly climbing to her feet.

Lori’s eyebrows rose as she watched her friend dust off her pants and quickly straighten her tunic. “And where are you hurrying off to now?”

“To hunt down a certain male and set the record straight,” Vi grumbled, stalking toward the door. “Eddie is crazy if he thinks that he wants me to help keep shit going straight here when I’m messing up my own fucking life.” She shook her head in exasperation and hurried out the door, leaving Lori alone with her mate.

“Well done,” Slengral hissed, drawing his coil around her. “Next, you will have her agreeing to help Eddie and relieve you of some of your numerous duties. You work too much, hithana. You should be allowing me to take care of you.”

“I’m fine,” she laughed, leaning into her mate’s touch. “And it’s not like I don’t have one of you three always on hand to help me.”

He grunted in agreement, his head craning around. “And my nest brothers—where are they?”

Lori shrugged. “Kehtal said something about finding more food with some of the other males. I’m not sure if they were planning on hunting or visiting the caverns that they’ve been keeping, but they probably will be gone for a while longer. And Daskh left just a short while ago to help with a construction project.”

“I have you to myself?” he rumbled, and Lori grinned.

“Well, not exactly.”

Chapter 2

Slengral slowly raised his head, his eyes narrowing on his mate, his gavo, the spiny webbed plating that ran like a sail down his body, rippling with confusion. Not exactly?

“Clarify.”

A guilty look crossed Lori’s face. “It could be because I agreed to meet with a representative of the shinara. They’ll have arrived by now and are probably being settled into quarters made up for them as we speak.”

He froze in surprise. “There is a hashara here? Why?”

Communications were always sent by way of a mated male from the shinara. None of the females had so much as surfaced much less spoken directly to anyone in Raza colony. Even before the arrival of the aliens onto Seshana, females didn’t rise above the upper caverns, not even when attempting to lure in a male to capture her. Of course, those among the noble matriarchs from whom the hashara was selected were seldom seen by males not of their blood. There were only a handful of times he had even seen a hashara in his youth before being expelled into the upper caverns.

It was only due to the circumstances of his birth that he remembered a few occasions when a hashara had arrived at his mother’s great nest under diplomatic orders. It did not make sense for the queen matriarch to send a hashara to Raza Colony. Even if he put aside the fact that females did not rise to the surface, the colony was unlikely to accept the heavily armed escort that was customary whenever a hashara traveled through the cavernous tunnels between shinaras.

Lori shrugged. “I have no idea. Unfortunately, the message she sent ahead indicated that she demanded to speak to a ranking female in command of the colony and, currently, I’m the one who has been saddled with the job since all those who possessed actual authority around here were in a position to be able to leave once Darvel pulled out. And so far, Vi has been pretty determined to not take on the job.”

“That impossible female,” he hissed. “This is a ridiculous situation that she has put you in. You are gravid and nesting! You should be resting and allowing your males to care for you. This is why you have three of us, is it not? To see to it that you are properly cared for. How are we supposed to do this when you are flitting about like a nestling going from one part of Raza colony to another.”

His gavo rose with frustration. There was no reason for Vi to refuse to take on the duties. She was a logical choice. She had an air of authority and strength to her, and he had witnessed for himself how the humans and the other aliens listened to her. Plus, she was unmated and was not carrying a nestling. It only made sense that she be the one to assist Eddie rather than his Lori exhausting herself.

And he most certainly didn’t like the idea of her near a female of his species. The females of the shinara, while largely unaffected by their absence, were not entirely pleased with the abandonment of the upper caves by the hunter males. The shinara was also not aware that humans could mate and breed with the Seshanamitesh, and he had hoped to keep it that way. The less his mother and the ruling council knew, the better. They would not approve when it was the practice within the shinara to carefully select males for breeding. He did not wish to know how they would react to the fact that undesirable males were breeding with aliens. Even if they were to find out, he did not want the hashara to see his mate and for that to be the method by which they discovered that they were breeding compatible. He would not tolerate any potential danger or risk to his mate from those who would wish to exterminate his hybrid progeny.

“She will come around,” Lori replied, echoing Vi’s earlier words regarding Ehsash that he had overheard through the door. “In the meantime, we still have a little time before we are due to meet the hashara, and I have my appointment with the medic.”

He perked up, his gavo and ear-fans lifting with interest. “I had forgotten this. It is your pre-natal screening.”

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