Page 8 of Right Next Door
Chapter 3
Misty
Cats.
She had mated into a species of cats.
And, okay, yes, shewasa cat person, but she had never looked at any of her pets and thought, oh, I could tap that.
Except, there was a world of difference between her sweet little boy – The General – who was angry and unhappy in his travel crate, and the huge, saber-toothed cat men surrounding her now. She felt like she’d just walked onto the scene of a movie.
Except, no way. The sky was purple, not blue. It was light, like a blush of purple, but it definitely wasn’t blue. The grass beside the path was bright, healthy, and a gray-ish sort of blue. The air itself didn’t smell like Earth. It was bright and clean and nice, but the scent wasn’t a familiar one. If she had to identify it, she’d say it was maybe floral? But it lacked the natural wildness of a floral smell she was used to.
And the cat guys weren’t humans in costumes. She couldn’t convince her eyes that these were people under suits. Their fur was too close to their body, their faces didn’t have that stiffnessthat came from prosthetics and heavy makeup. They had little muzzles, sure, sporting those long ass saber teeth – most of which had at least one metal band around them – but they twitched and moved. The difference was so stark between them and CGI, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to look at a human done up in movie makeup and be convinced again.
Intellectually, she knew that she’d be going to another planet today. She knew that she was going to be meeting the new aliens she would be spending her life with. But actually being face to face with the reality of the large, furry, strange people only hit as she was coming to a halt in front of the two males who stood apart from the others, both of them looking at her expectantly. The rest of the group, meanwhile, were rushing around, unloading her stuff, working. They must be staff here at this huge mansion – which she was not processing right now, she was still trying to grasp everything else.
Because if those people were workers, that meant one of these two guys was her mate.
And, honestly, she didn’t know which one.
Her first thought was that they looked the same to her. A thought that was immediately followed by a rush of shame and disappointment. All her life surrounded by the casual racism of a small white town andthatwas her first thought upon meeting another species?
But then reality caught back up to her, and she realized it wasn’t just her. These two really did look alike. While the people moving around with her luggage or standing back, looking at her with calm, impersonal expressions, came in a variety of fur colors – white, orange, brown, black – the two in front of her were both black with whites at the tips of her ears.
They were the same size, with the one on the right being maybe just a bit taller. Either way, they both stood a full head over her.The biggest difference between them, besides what they wore, was that the one on the left had bright, gleaming yellow cat eyes, while the one on the right’s were green. They were equally beautiful though.
And the longer she looked, the more subtle differences appeared. The one on the right had stockier, blockier features, and he was more muscular under the thin, delicate, beautiful silk robes they were both wearing. The one on the left’s robe was blue with an abundance of embroidery in the body that seemed to depict bright flowers. The one on the right’s was green, rich and dark like an emerald, and appeared to depict trees with golden brown and rich mahogany leaves. The complexity of the embroidery was stunning. The kind that couldn’t be replicated en masse by a machine. But to do all that by hand had to have taken months, if not years.
These guys also really liked their bling. Everyone was decked out like they were trying to wear as much as possible, going past tacky and into eccentric. Like an ancient Persian king upon his throne, or a pharaoh adorning himself like a god, they gleamed.
The guy on the left had a sash made of gold chains across his chest. There were hoops in his ears and a single gold band around one of his teeth.
The guy on the right had long, looping silver necklaces that only accentuated the surprisingly defined muscle lines in his fur visible through the gap in his robe. Thick bangles encircled his wrists. One ear had silver hoops, but the other was dotted with silver studs. The bottom of which hooked to a chain that dangled down.
Both of them were wearing little nasal caps. The guy on the left had a golden one with sparkling yellow gems where his nostrils should be, while the guy on the right had a silver one with white gems. In fact, everyone was wearing those nose caps. How didthey breathe through those things? It looked like they blocked off their noses completely. They weren’t ugly. They had delicate filigree lines reaching back over the muzzle, decorating them even further. They were just odd.
The male on the left cleared his throat, stepping forward. Oh, so this must be her mate.
“Hello, Misty Miles from Earth,” he greeted formally. “I am Davard, assistant to the char and steward of the Glass and Fellbud Manors.”
“Nice to meet you,” she smiled. “So, you’re my mate, huh? You’re not bad looking. They should have said you were handsome. I would have been more excited.”
To her dismay, a look of obvious horror crossed his alien face and he was quick to stammer, “N-No, honored charina! I am not your- No! Th-This is your mate here. May I present to you the honorable and noble char of all Kree, Tsok. This is your mate.”
Oh, dang it.
Misty winced, quickly turning her smile on the second guy. Who was just as attractive, in her defense! Were they brothers or something?
“Wow! Even better!” She declared, trying to cover for her gaff.
An attempt that was met with a tight smile. At least, she thought that was a smile. The corners of his muzzle pulled up slightly anyway. However, he also took that opportunity to fold his arms together in his wide sleeves, and she couldn’t help but wonder if that was some kind of sign that he was already closing himself off from her.
“Sorry,” she muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. “I didn’t know what you looked like. And you both look so similar!”
Tsok, her mate, frowned, sharing a look with the other guy.
“We certainly do not,” Davard said, and she winced again.
