Page 49 of Possessed By the Leonid King

That had been a lie.

Layla marched into the ship, unable to talk around the stabbing pain in her throat.

“WE WANT TO SPEAK TO the human alone. Without you, Leonid.”

Layla cast a panicked look between the screen and her lover. Rupex bowed. “I will be outside the door. They cannot harm you through this screen, Layla.” He put a paw on her head and backed away, locking eyes with the Lynxian on the screen.

Layla turned her attention back to the screen as well. The being on it was a dirty gray-gold color with jutting pointed ears that ended in a shock of black fur. He didn’t have a mane, more like the equivalent of muttonchop whiskers that made his head look bushy. His cold, yellow eyes looked her over.

“I didn’t sign the contract. I was trafficked.” Layla choked out words, her throat seemingly filled with sand.

“Is the Leonid gone?” the Lynx-man demanded.

“Uh... Well, he’s right outside if I need him.” Despite Rupex’s assurance that they couldn’t hurt her through the screen, Layla didn’t know if her nerves believed that.

“Cherie, come here.” The Lynxian waved a massive, fluffy paw and Layla’s eyes widened.

Cherie was an absolutely stunning black human female, with waist-length hair and a chic dress that looked like it was made of woven furs and hides.

“What is it, Lover? Oh!” Cherie and Layla regarded each other through the screen.

“That Leonid canceled her contract and has her on his ship. Cherie, darlin’, talk to her. Tell her we can help her if he’s holdin’ her prisoner.”

Layla tilted her head. “What? Prisoner!? Rupex didn’t traffick me! A human scumbag named Paul Bermauger did that. But Ru said... uh...” She froze again, blinking at the couple on the screen. How could she tell “Lover” that Marcus and Ru had said they were primitive hicks who would hurt humans? It was pretty obvious that the Felid and the woman were more than employer and employee. Cherie was absently stroking the tufts of fur on “Lover’s” ear and was settling herself on his knee. He was nuzzling his thick, cloud-like muzzle into her side.

“Were you told they were dangerous? They are.” Cherie answered. Her voice had a lilting, rolling accent that Layla couldn’t place. Everyone in her area of Sapien-Three sounded the same—flat and toneless.

“You don’t seem to think so.”

“Oh, he is gentle with me, but to bad men? Traffickers? He rips them apart.” Cherie kissed his paw. “I think that’s why they stayed home and sent you by a third party.”

“But... why do you want women? Er, people?”

“Mainly women. We weren’t lyin’ when we sent the job listings. We wanted women to help raise our cubs and make us mates again. You may not have heard, Miss Layla, but there was a virus that impacted our whole galaxy. The Lynx planets were some of the hardest hit, not by the numbers, but by percentages ‘cause we’re so damn small.”

Layla had wondered why there were so many of those planets and yet they were considered so “backwoods.” The Lynxian speaking to her had a drawl that reminded her of old-time terraforming movies, the kind where the men square off in the center of the arable land and fight to the death for rights to farm and graze their livestock.

“Small and rocky. Tough country. Some of the planets are balls of ice and air, and not much else. Few Lynxian Queens live on the outer fringes of our system. Because they were mostly clustered on Lynx-One and Lynx-Two, we lost a drastic number to the virus.”

“I’m so sorry. I know it was similar with the Leonids,” Layla offered her condolences sincerely.

Cherie put her hand to his muzzle and stopped his speech. “Dane, sweet one, let me explain more. Layla, the contracts offered are honorable... but not to all humans’ liking. There was a group of Lynxians who decided to resort to dealing with traffickers. When Dane found out, he dealt with the men, both Felids and humans involved. But when the women who arrived were waiting for transport back to Sapien-Two or Sapien-Three, many of them found the lifestyle out here invigorating. For one thing, they are treated like prized gems. Even though they cannot provide offspring, they provide companionship for the cubs that survived and the widows and unattached males. You are one of the last contracts still floating about. We thought—”

The Lynxian called Dane took a turn silencing his mate, rising from his chair and thus pushing her off his lap. He pounded his paw on whatever flat surface was next to him. “Thought, nothin’! Leonids are uppity purebred lovers. They’d sooner eat a human than mate ‘em. Miss Layla, by Bastet’s whiskers, I don’t care if there is a quarantine on. I think you’re in danger, and you’d better lay low until we can get there. We’ll bring you here and you can take a shot at the rugged outdoor type of life. If it don’t wind up workin’ for you, we can arrange a transport to Sapien-Three when this damned quarantine lifts.”

Layla smiled, bemused by the twang in his voice and the sweet offer from the people she had been afraid of. “Leonids have changed a lot. Not all of them, maybe, but Rupex, the Leonid King of this pride, is a wonderful person. Being. Whatever, he is wonderful. I want to stay with him.”

“But he refunded the contract price to our contract agent. He’s gonna expect you to pay him back. Has he said how? Girl, you’re two licks away from bein’ his main course!”

Layla’s smirk broadened. Her eyes left the irate Dane and turned to Cherie. The other human saw the blush on her cheek and the sparkle of mischief in her eyes.

“Ahh. Lover? I think Layla has already been his dinner and dessert.”

“I’m paying off my debt and then some as his partner. Business partner. I’m his surrogate Queen. That is... I’m hoping to have his cubs.”

Dane crashed back into a chair, mouth open, revealing small, cone-shaped teeth and two big fangs. Cherie leaned forward, getting into a crouch so she could look directly at Layla.

“How? Please, can you tell us how? We’ve been together for nearly a year and everyone says it cannot be done.”

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