Page 103 of Right Next Door
And his mate, of course, met him with a cool expression of her own. She had been sitting there, calm and patient and silent this whole time. Tsok was not foolish enough to think that she was maintaining those things because she was incapable of speaking.
No, of course not.
And the smirk that crossed her face at the question hurled towards her so rudely sent a thrill through Tsok. He was eager to hear his female’s answer, so he didn’t interject himself between the two of them again.
“My human ways?” Misty asked so sweetly, cocking her head. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, of course, your human instincts.”
“Which instincts are those?”
The male hesitated. “Your instincts towards mating, of course.”
“My species doesn’t have any good mating instincts. Everyone knows that. We’re notorious for it. So, that can’t be what you mean. So, whatdidyou mean?”
They all knew exactly what he meant. But Misty was so innocently, kindly demanding that he lay it all out for everyone to hear. To say the accusation he was only alluding to.
He side stepped it, but clumsily. “I meant no disrespect, charina. But it is known that your people are considerably more… free than ours sexually.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” She asked cooly. “Unless you’re meaning to suggest that I’m using sex to control the honorable senior somehow. You think that’s what’s happening?”
“I did not-”
“Or are you suggesting that the senior, a mated male, is so completely turned around by my abundance of sexual charms, that he simplymustcleave to my every desire. Is that it?”
“No one would dare-”
“Or are you just bringing up the fact that I’m human as some kind of shot at me for being human, a species that you surely must consider especially deviant when it comes to romance and sexuality compared to yours?”
The reporter had a sour look on his face. She’d struck dead center on target, but he didn’t want to admit that she was correct. It was one thing to slyly suggest that she was a whore, it was another thing entirely to state it outright.
And, worse than that, he was suggesting it aboutBoktare. That expanded the insult to not just include her, but Boktare, Fia,andTsok. And it was obvious by the way his face tightened as Misty continued to smile down on him, like he was an amusing insect scuttering about around her feet, that he was only just realizing it now.
“I’ll admit,” she continued, “to telling the honorable senior about weddings amongst my people. I will also admit to telling the honored char that it is my desire to be mated. That’s why I came here, after all. It was my aim to meet my mate and thenmatehim. But are you perhaps suggesting that the two of them are both so weak willed as to be led about by my desires like that?”
“Well,” Tsok smirked, leaning back in his chair, giving her an affectionate look, “I might be.”
“But I’m certainly not,” Boktare said, leaning forward, icicles, sharp and cold, dripping from his tone as he glared down at the male who’d made such a suggestion. “I am a mated male. Moreover, they might not be mated biologically, but Tsok and Misty are matched to each other, so they are mated in practice. You besmirch all of our honor for your crude and, frankly, disgusting suggestion.
“My mind has not changed. The safety of my people remains first and foremost in my thoughts. I am simply adapting to new ideas and suggestions. I am not against mating as a practice. I am a mated male, and I enjoy, greatly, the life I lead with my female. My reservation has only ever been about safety. They have satisfied my concerns. That is why I put my support behind them.”
Boktare sat up tall and proud. “I will bear witness to the marriage of the char and charina. The first charina our people have seen in centuries. And I will watch as they lead our people into a new future. One where we are safe but also free to love each other, our families, our instincts without the fear of what they could do to us.
“We are the kreecharma! We have proven that we are stronger than our instincts by denying them completely. And now, we will prove our strength and determination byconqueringthem. We will not be slaves to our instincts. But, instead, our instincts will serve us. As they were always meant to do. As they shall ever do again. And it begins today! I am proud to support our char and see them through this transition to marriage and matehood. And our people’s transition into our brighter future!”
Chapter 35
Misty
There were protests.
Misty wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
She sat cross legged in her room, The General purring, curled up in her lap, as she absentmindedly stroked his head while watching a news program off her combot.
As much as the government had been split about the whole mating thing, the people were equally polarized. The program was doing street interviews, and for every person open to change, there was one who thought it was foolish.
The interviews literally cut from a male expressing his eagerness to witnessing the wedding and maybe finding his own mate to do the same, to a male who had to remind everyone that Do It For Her was their motto because their rut couldn’t be trusted. Then, it went right to a female who had been mated by accident talking about maybe having a wedding with her mate as well – though they were already bonded, it seemed like a fun thing. Then right to another female who promised that she would never want to go through such a thing.
