Page 10 of Drengr
"...much longer?"
Steff smiled at Holly. "If you think you're ready, there's no need to wait. We always knew that some women would need less time to adjust than others. So if you're sure you want to meet him, I can arrange that. However, since we don't want any Vikingar walking around the ship yet - some women are nowhere near this stage yet - you and him would have to meet in private. If you want, there can be a chaperone, but it'll have to be another Vikingr as I have to stay here with the others."
"What if it doesn't work out?" Holly asked softly. Lines had appeared on her forehead and I reached out, touching the screen to wipe them away.
"Then you leave the room, and he will do the honourable thing and stay behind. We've told the Vikingar that they need to be patient. They've been a star-faring civilisation for centuries. For us, the whole concept of aliens being out there is new, let alone being matched to one of them. I assure you, he will honour your wishes. He'll move at your pace. Just... try not to touch him. We think it can increase thefýst."
"The what?"
Steff looked taken aback. "Did I not mention? Silly me, I thought we'd spoken about it." She waved her hands at the room, shouting for everyone's attention. "Ladies, I realised I forgot to mention something vital. When a Vikingr meets his mate, he starts to develop a physical urge to...claim her. For a while, it can be controlled by willpower alone, but after a certain time, it can get dangerous for him to stay in that state. It's called thefýst. My own mate, Njal, went into some sort of dissociative state and - well, I won't bore you with that. Just know that Vikingar are driven much more by biology than us. It's why the mating bond is sacred to them. They can't resist it, no matter how much they try. Once they meet you in person, they will fall for you. Hard."
"But what if we don't want them?" a female asked, her eyes wide with terror.
I immediately focused back on Holly to see if she showed the same reaction. No, there was no fear on her beautiful face, just the same curiosity that had fascinated me from the start.
"Then your match will have to accept that. I've been told that there are ways to deal with thefýst. They're not pleasant for the guys, so please think twice before you reject your match. It will be permanent. You can't change your mind after."
I shuddered at the thought. After Njal's terrifying dream-state in which he'd swung an axe and almost hurt several of his crew, Klav had done some research into thefýst and how our healers used to deal with particularly severe cases of it. The answer had shocked us all (and made most of us clutch our cocks): chemical castration. In the old days, they'd physically castrated a male to get him out of the throws of thefýst, but luckily, that was no longer necessary. Still, it was a horrible scenario for every Vikingr male.
I knew that right now, every matched Vikingr was thinking the same. We needed the Peritan females for our species to survive, but the risk was high. If they rejected us, we'd end up unable to ever be with another female. We would not be able to sire the offspring that we sorely needed. The Hot Tatties agency knew about it. They'd made sure that the females they'd selected were reliable, conscientious and responsible - at least, we all hoped that.
I slipped my hand into my breeches, curiously stroking the growing mating axe before wrapping my fingers around my cock. With the camera fixed on my silver-haired female, I stroked myself, both wishing and dreading that it was her hand around my cock.
9
Holly
Iwas known for making rash decisions. I kept rushing into things without taking time to think. This was yet another example. I'd been the first one to volunteer to meet my match. Steff's grand revelation about thefýst had been shocking, but it hadn't deterred me from wanting to see him. Just sitting here for two more days, wondering all the while whether he was watching me, what he looked like, whether he really was my soulmate, sounded like torture.
Steff, after asking me several times whether I was sure - and I'd agreed every time, like an idiot - had disappeared to prepare the room. It sounded slightly ominous. She'd mentioned that with the Albyans, they'd had public meetings at first, where an entire group of women would meet their matches at once. After that had resulted in chaos, the agency had decided it was best if we had a private first date.
I wasn't sure if I should ask for a chaperone. Obviously, they wouldn't put me in a room alone with a guy if they thought he'd try something. Steff had made it very clear that the Vikingar would be patient with us. But if they were under the influence of that mysteriousfýst, did they have full control of their actions? What if my Vikingr ended up going into a dissociative state like Steff's mate? I didn't think I'd be able to handle that. I could deal with children fainting - and pretending to faint to get out of class early - or with them having anger and panic attacks, but they were half my size. If my match was as huge as Njal, I wouldn't stand a chance if he lost control.
"You're very brave," Candice said, taking a seat next to me.
"Or stupid," I muttered wryly.
"No, it's brave. You'll have to tell us how it went. What he was like. If he looked like Steff's alien."
"If he wore a shirt," another woman added with a chuckle.
"He won't," a woman who'd introduced herself as Kate said, her eyebrows bobbing up and down. "I read about their traditions earlier. Did you realise the screen in our rooms is connected to an alien version of the internet? I found an article about Vikingar, and in there, it says that they run around shirtless until they meet their mate. The woman then sews him a shirt to mark him as hers. So unless the guys we've been matched to already have a secret girlfriend, they'll all be topless."
"I wish Earth men did that," Shona swooned. "It makes it very easy to know who's single. Imagine how much confusion you could avoid."
I laughed. "Yes, but I expect it's not much fun to walk around without a shirt in the Scottish weather. They'd all get colds, and that wouldn't be fun on dates, either."
"I was on this one date once and-"
Steff's arrival interrupted our merry conversation. "Holly, your meeting suite has been prepared. You can leave it at any time, but your Vikingr can only port in and out of it. If you want to move fast, there's a bed in there, so no need to take him to your cabin..."
"No bed needed," I said quickly. "I don't want to move that quickly."
Steff grinned at me. "I thought the same, until I met Njal. If he hadn't abducted me, I may have jumped him right away. But he had to grovel a bit first. Anyway, follow me. Everyone else, stay here until I'm back. If you think you're ready to meet your match, too, I have two other suites prepared. Once those are occupied, I'll have to come up with a different solution. But don't feel pressured to move faster than what you feel is right. Everyone dates at their own pace. That's one of the rules of Hot Tatties. But I’m babbling. Let’s go. On the way, we’ll stop to get you a translator implant. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt."
Famous last words.
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