Page 28 of Right Next Door
Nope. No. She was not going down that road. She was supposed to dislike him, if not outright hate him, for his neglect. She had to remain focused. Keep it together, ladies, she told all her tingly bits. We are stronger than this!
At the very least, we have more pride than this.
“We think Senior Boktare is trying to prove he’s not prejudiced,” Jeanie was saying, oblivious to Misty’s internal issues. She smiled up at her mate with a dreamy look in her eyes. A hot spark of jealousy hit Misty hard, and she had to fight to force it back down. “Everyone knows he’s against mating, but he wants to make it clear that he means it from a purely ideological standpoint. I think we were invited here to prove that he’s still friendly with us. Since this is just a charity gig, not a political one, you know? It’s all about optics.”
“I think you’re correct about that.” Tsok nodded. “Well, I’m glad you’re both here. You can provide an excellent alternate viewpoint to a successful mating.”
“Well,” Jeanie frowned. “I think Senior Boktare is of the opinion that our mating is exactly the kind that he’s fighting against so hard.”
Misty frowned. “What’s wrong with your mating? You look perfectly happy to me.”
“Oh, we are!” Jeanie assured her, her entire face brightening. “I love Vigo so much! But, er, I can’t deny that our mating wasn’texactly our choice. He was forced to scent me quite against our will. And we can’t even argue about that. But you two! Look at you! You’re controlling it so well!”
“That is my goal,” Tsok said with pride, holding his head high.
But Misty couldn’t help but notice that his hands were in the sleeves of his robe while Vigo had an arm around Jeanie’s waist. And she envied them that. The easy touch. The open adoration in Jeanie’s expression as she leaned against her male, knowing that he was going to hold her up. Knowing that she wasn’t alone at his side.
Beautiful and welcomed in the hall of a grand party, on the arm of a powerful, handsome male, and still somehow all alone.
“It is my goal to not mate Misty for quite some time,” Tsok continued. “At least until Boktare changes his mind. Even if that takes years. Decades.”
“Wait. What?” Misty turned her head, frowning at him. Hating herself.
She was supposed to not like him. She was supposed to despise him for his neglect, for the absolute lack of interest he had in her. She could be polite and friendly because she was living on his dime. She was still working on her independence, and she wasn’t above playing along to not get thrown out on the street until she was ready.
But she didn't realize until just this moment, when he denied her completely, that some part of her stillwantedhis attention. Some part of her had been hoping that maybe he would turn and look at her eventually. Maybe he was shy. Maybe he was bad at romance. Maybe he actually wanted a mate, but was giving her space to get comfortable and didn't realize that he was giving her too much space.
She had come up with half a dozen excuses for him already without even realizing it. Laying a bed of forgiveness that he could earn when he came to her with an apology and an explanation about why he had been behaving this way.
However, those pridefully spoken words, said with such ease and confidence, made reality hit her like a brick falling from above.
She was a political tool.
He was fighting against Boktare about this mating business, and he was using her to do it. And he was doing it by having her nearby and specificallynotmating her. Because the kreecharma mated by scent. And once they did so, they became focused only on breeding their mate. A fate that Boktare had fallen into against his will, same as Vigo and Jeanie, apparently. A fate that Tsok was proving wasn’t inevitable by having his mate nearby and not even looking at her.
And realizing that, realizing what she meant to him,hurt. Because deep down, she had just been waiting for him to come around. To come see her. To mate her and give her the happy home and family she actually did want.
To make sure she wasn’t alone.
And now she realized he never would.
Chapter 12
Tsok
“You truly are a wonderful mate, honored char,” Davard praised as Tsok looked over the media article written about himself and his delightful female.
It was Misty’s first outing. She’d been caught on camera, and she somehow looked even better through the view of a lens. She practically sparkled in the light. Of course, pictures couldn’t capture the way she moved and walked with such pride and confidence and grace, but the likeness was close enough and certainly favored her wonderfully.
The article agreed with Davard. It highlighted Tsok’s remarkable self control with such a lovely mate and emphasized his media talking points about refusing to mate her without her express permission. It even went so far as to mention that he had given her complete control over Fellbud Manor and his determination to not step foot there until and unless she summoned him.
They were calling him conscientious, restrained, and mindful. They were saying he was the absolute ideal of what a male courting a female who had been identified as his mate should be.
It was a blow against Boktare’s arguments. He stated that females must be protected from males, because even the slightest sniff could set them off. Which, admittedly, was true. If he smelled Misty, he would become a mindless rutting idiot, completely focused only on mounting and breeding her. And he wouldn’t revert back until he had succeeded.
But he had proven that males, with proper caution and determination, could in fact be near their mates without reverting to that kind of primitive beast. It was proof of his argument that mating could be done safely, and so it should be encouraged.
The current system did it’s best to avoid mating and romantic relationships at all. Once a person was established and had proven themselves a productive member of society, they were allowed to donate their gametes for reproduction. A male would deposit his sperm, and females would be artificially inseminated to carry the kit. Once the kit was born, it was raised in a kit center, supported by both parents, until adulthood when they would go out on their own. Some parents chose to never know their kits, only giving the required support to the centers. Others would visit their offspring occasionally, if the desire to know them was there. Those who mated naturally, for whatever reason, could send their kits to the centers permanently, or they could do it as a daily thing for education and training. But they were the only ones who raised kits in the home any longer.
