Page 11 of I Married A Lizardman

An ominous silence had settled over the gathering, the same horrified or crestfallen expressions reflected on every face. The way they looked at Olix’s empty hand as one would the boogeyman, I realized I’d royally fucked up.

Chapter 5

Olix

Icouldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. A single thought kept replaying in my head: she had broken the circle. And yet, underneath it, fighting for dominance, lurked another thought: my mate had been hurt. The cool breeze on my empty hand felt instead like the scorching heat of a thousand fires. With that gesture, in that split second, Susan had cursed us to a broken and miserable union. Her being a stranger had already been a challenge that the people had accepted with a bit of reluctance. But now, they would never acknowledge the authority or legitimacy of a Clan Mistress anointed through a doomed union.

It was all the more heartbreaking that, judging by her expression, she had not known.

“All is well, Olix Nillis,” Molzeg said in Universal, in a calm but loud voice so that all would hear. “Take back the hand of your mate and reform the circle. She did not deliberately sever it. My clumsiness caused it.”

Maybe so, but the circle had still been broken. It had to be a sign from the Spirits.

“The circle was broken,” Zoltar argued from his seat, a couple of meters from us.

A few others in the gathering nodded their heads with a troubled expression on their faces.

“The circle wasnotbroken,” Molzeg said in a stern voice, glaring at him. “It was breached, yes, but never broken. Her right hand, the one that holds the foundation of their union, never parted from him. This means they will face difficult times—as is to be expected when mating with an off-worlder—but their roots are strong enough to withstand and vanquish the storm.”

My lips parted as I gazed at her right hand that had indeed remained tightly bound in my left. In fact, when Susan had felt pain, the grip of her right hand had tightened, as if seeking strength and comfort from me. Relief flooded through me. Although I couldn’t yet see it, and new though it was, this was proof that we indeed had a strong foundation. Difficult times, I could weather.

Zoltar harrumphed his doubt, but the Elder Seer’s words appeared to mollify the others. Susan was looking at me like prey cornered by a predator. Guilt and fear shone bright in her brown eyes. I extended my right hand again to my mate. The eagerness with which she grabbed it, and the relief on her face almost made me smile.

Yes, we were strangers, and both had doubts about the other but, like me, Susan truly seemed to want this to work. We would find a way.

Molzeg resumed the ceremony, expediting the rest of the process. This time, she barely brushed the somitan branch over my mate. That idiot Zoltar would never let me hear the end of what a weakling my female was. The swipe that had made Susan cry out would have barely tickled a youngling. And yet, I could see the angry welts already rising on her skin where Molzeg had struck.

How could such a fragile species have survived this long and even grown to be far more advanced than ours?

Still, our union ritual shouldn’t have caused her pain. My protective instincts wanted to take her to our dwelling and apply soothing ointment on it. Thankfully, this was coming to an end, but I expected Susan would balk some more about the next step.

Molzeg separated our hands before handing a dagger to my mate. Susan eyed it with complete confusion.

“Andturians bite each other to seal their union,” the Seer explained. “The mating bite is not only a visible symbol to all that the person is bound, but our saliva also contains healing agents. The exchange reinforces each partner’s immune system. Your teeth are too blunt to pierce your mate’s scales, since they are the thickest around our necks. You may therefore use this dagger.”

The horrified look on Susan’s face both embarrassed and irritated me. Was everything really this overwhelming to her? I wanted this union to work, but it seemed like every other moment pointed out another reason it couldn’t. I was beyond ready for this ceremony to be over.

“You want me to stab him in the neck?” she asked, disbelieving.

“Yes,” I replied in a slightly clipped tone.

“But… but I could seriously harm you,” she stuttered.

“No, you won’t. Go ahead,” I said, trying to speak patiently.

Susan tentatively raised the dagger, her hand shaking. When she hesitated a moment too long, I gave in to my annoyance, closed my hand over hers, and stabbed at the fleshy part of my shoulder. She gasped in fright when the tip sank in. I yanked it back out, barely bothered by the sting.

“See? It wasn’t that hard. Now, you must lick a drop of my blood off the blade,” I said, praying that she wouldn’t make another fuss.

This was becoming beyond humiliating in front of all the clans. To my relief, she complied. However, guilt quickly replaced it. Susan was visibly shaken. I didn’t think she had licked the blood willingly, but more in an automatic fashion, shock making her simply go through the motion. I was making a complete disaster of things. I should have had my mother prepare her better for this.

“I will now bite you,” I said, my voice coming out a bit rough due to guilt. “It will not harm you. There will only be a little sting.”

She nodded, her eyes wide as saucers. I placed my hand on the left side of her neck before leaning in to bite the right side. My innards twisted when I felt her trembling beneath my touch. The slightly acrid scent rising from her skin confirmed she was indeed either frightened or traumatized. I was a failure as a mate. She had looked so mesmerized and enchanted when the ceremony had begun. And yet, I had managed to ruin both her human and Andturian weddings.

Swallowing down the bile of shame rising in my throat, I gently caressed the side of her neck with my thumb in what I hoped to be an appeasing gesture. Not wanting to prolong her discomfort, I summoned the healing fluids in the sac at the back of my throat then quickly bit her, making sure not to sink my teeth in too deep in light of how fragile her skin was. She stiffened at the sting but didn’t otherwise react.

I licked the wound, the iron taste of her blood lingering on my tongue. Within seconds, her eyes widened, but this time with awe as the healing fluids in my saliva sealed the wound, keeping it from bleeding further and numbing the area.

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