Page 29 of The Monster's Mate

She taps on the sliding doors and I slide them wide open, letting them all in before the sun rises all the way.

The two new guys have varying purple shades to their skin, interspersed with grays and blacks. They’re as large as Skiden, even though they’re nowhere near as attractive.

A box of food appeared on my back porch last night, so the Britonians must be aware I’d be receiving visitors.

After all, they were aware of the small accidents starting to happen around the commune. None had happened where I worked, so I think it’s someone feeling the waters, trying to see if they can scare Isabel, not exactly sure where she’s at.

“Luce, meet Kalrian and Mejak. They were dispatched a few weeks after Skiden left,” she explains. “Because the accident at the church where the rafters fell? No one thinks that was an accident.”

A different accident that we’d already discussed when it happened and she’s probably bringing it up again for these two to understand.

“I know. It was probably Isabel’s father who suspected where she worked.”

“Or… it could be they’re trying to flushyouout, sweetie,” Sam says. “Not Isabel.” I know who she means. Duke, my birth father, who is also Isabel’s father’s partner. Not a coincidence that they’re working together, it’s how Sam met Isabel. She’d given her a ride home knowing she was Steve’s daughter and that he’d shunned her for getting pregnant with River. So maybe I was focused on the wrong person. Maybe it wasn’t Isabel’s father trying to flush her out, but mine trying to get me?

While I’m glad to see a Bronian, I’m also a little disappointed to see one because it’s just a reminder of the fight Skiden and I had before he left. That obviously he doesn’t want to come back or these two wouldn’t be here in his place. It makes me sad to face that, but it’s my own fault.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I murmur, and push the two cushioned foot stools across from the sofa so that they can sit opposite of Samantha and me. I remember it was easier for Skiden to sit on a chair that was backless so his tentacles could spread out.

And is it me or does Sam seem a little prettier than usual? Her cheeks are pink and her eyes have a brightness to them. Her hair is curled. It’s not in its usual straight, sleek style but decidedly more feminine. I’ll definitely question her when these two leave and we’re alone. Could she be interested in one? Maybe it’s the first one. He seems a little like her, used to taking charge. But then again, Kalrian might be the opposite personality she needs.

“You said Mikhail sent you?” I ask Mejak.

“Yes,” he says. “There’s a political uprising here that we’re trying to learn about. The new party wants to replace First Lady Lilaina. They’re saying a first lady shouldn’t rule, that it should be a male president.”

“That’s bull,” I scoff. Politics is one thing I loved studying in school. “There is nothing in the books that claims a first lady can’t rule. However, it is written that a president can’t be female, which is probably why the Britonians put a first lady in charge instead of a president.”

“Lucy would know,” Samantha brags. “She had her high school diploma by fifteen. And at eighteen when she left the home? She had just completed her bachelors.”

Of course, those time frames and my degree means nothing to the aliens, but Kalrian manages to look suitably impressed, while Mejak just looks at her tenderly. Interesting. Maybe they both vie for her attention.

“Does her father know of her education?” Mejak asks.

Samantha blinks. “Well, yes,” she says. “It’s public information.”

“Though I can’t imagine he’d care,” I point out. “He’s not father material. Obviously.”

“It makes you dangerous,” Kalrian says softly. “That’s one thing we all know about Earth females. Your males wish to keep you under their thumb. To do that they encourage you to have as many children as possible. Not to repopulate the planet like they claim, but to prevent you from having the time to educate yourselves. Your days are filled with caring for others, not thinking about what you want from life. That doesn’t leave a lot of time left over for studies, does it?”

“No, it doesn’t,” Sam says softly and looks at me with new eyes.

Bet she’s feeling guilty that she was the one who encouraged me to study hard. Maybe she didn’t mean for me to go above and beyond and actually gain a bachelor’s degree before leaving the home, but I took advantage of the fact that she had pointed out, back when I was eight, that the schooling would be free for me as long as I was under the government’s care. Something they’d forgotten about. Something that enabled me to obtain a bachelor’s for free. If it wasn’t for my name, I’d easily be able to get a job that would pay to send me off for a master’s.

In the beginning, after the world wars, when the planet was so overpopulated by females, families were encouraged to put extra daughters in homes. They were promised that their daughters would have access to free education. Then they could focus on trying to birth males. Things didn’t work out that way. For some reason male offspring were few and far between after the wars. And over the years, people forgot a benefit to giving up your children was for free education because women became too busy for education. We were encouraged to focus on making a good marriage, finding a quality man, finding a marriage where we could get along with the other wives in our wealth hierarchy. And only those born privileged, born to old family money, had the options of continuing their schooling to become doctors, scientists, engineers. The vast majority of the population focused on family because we were told to. The statistics are right there in black and white in school, but that’s knowledge the average woman doesn’t have access to.

What she does have access to is the life experience that benefits a man. Once a month, women are encouraged to donate time to the milk farms. A place where males can come in and have their seed expelled to keep their sperm fresh and at optimum health. The women are taught techniques to jack a man off pleasurably, basically. It’s incredible what we’ve come to expect as normal.

“So it’s possible that it’s either Isabel’s patron looking for her, or Lucy’s looking for her.”

I nod. “Exactly. What makes it tricky is the two know each other. They’re partners. But they have no idea that Isabel and I know each other.”

“The paper’s out,” Sam says flatly and picks up the piece I’d grabbed this morning that’s on the coffee table. She unrolls it to get to the want ads, then begins to read.

Lucifer’s Daughter,

It’s been over five years now you’ve been in hiding, but are you really? What makes you think we can’t guess where you are? Because no soul so dark can hide from the light. And, Lucifer’s Daughter, a spotlight shines on you.

Pray that we don’t find you before the Lord, Our God.

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