Page 17 of Her Alien Prince
The opening ceremony to the mating cycle would begin today. All the off-worlders would be shuttled in from the largest moon, after they completed their exams and security checks. There was a buzz in the air, the radiation of the moons could always be felt more intensely during this time, even if I wasn't outside, I could feel my loh hum in approval. It was like being wrapped in a warm embrace that settled and spread out from the two loh on my back, and the small jewel above my brow. I chuckled, not even my loh listened to convention of centering itself perfectly upon my forehead.
With a groan I forced myself to leave my bed, even without having slept much, this was an important day, and I had to support Luan. This was her first official mating ceremony where she would actually participate, and I was required to tell her that the Almder insisted that she bestow the Krelis diplomat, Trent, an offering of her tarnpul. I understood why Amlder would wish for someone else to ask Luan, and it would have been between Loric or myself that would make the information more digestible. Loric was participating, and would be among the rest of the eligible mates. It was left to me.
I understood all of that, but I didn't have to like that I would have to put being her friend behind the duty of advising her of what Almder thought was best for the future of Estreldez. It wasn't entirely self-less, I secretly hoped Luan's distaste for krelins would continue, at least in the sense of attraction for the mating ceremony. The idea of her mating with Trent, after I'd tasted him on my lips felt wrong.
I cringed. Somehow, I would have to find the time to tell her what I'd done. She would know how to fix things, if I screwed up the future diplomacy between our planets by getting involved. Tugging a few strands of my black hair forward, I covered my forehead, but stilled. My fingers rested at my temples, pulling my hair back to see my loh had darkened to a deep green. And the freckle on the other side was bigger… was I growing another loh? Quickly, I covered it up and braided the rest of my hair back, dismissing the thought as a trick of the mind.
Then I tugged on my gloves that were warm from the extra radiation in the atmosphere. They were designed to simulate having more loh on my arms, while also helping my skin absorb more of the moon's rays due to only having three loh… or four now? I shouldn't have tried to cover the one on my forehead at all, but it felt less awkward to hide than to be reminded I had one small jewel, on the right side of my temple, rather than a crown of perfect ones like Luan. It was even more embarrassing to know that I might have a tiny loh growing at the age of twenty cycles like I was still an offspring coming into my own.
Luan was normally in the library at this time, but when I checked, her books were scattered around, and she was gone. The halls were crowded with much more off-worlders along with their escorts than I'd ever seen before. Many were male, but even some females from different planets were here. The mating ceremony usually only had a select few brought in every cycle, but this cycle there were so many mates that I was worried this was a result of the desperation for more offspring.
The palace was bustling with potential mates every which way that I looked, I feared I'd never find Luan, and the opening ceremony would begin soon. That's when I spotted her, hunkered over a tablet, among the excited throes of eager estrelds on the viewing deck. She wasn't even scanning the mates, or concerned with many of the males that had already taken notice of her from the lounge below. That was to be expected, she was never interested in mating. There was an odd bit of comfort in that knowledge.
I took a seat next to her, and noticed a list of the mating candidates, with a male's image displayed. A breath I hadn't known I was holding exhaled, as I didn't recognize the muscled off-worlder. Grinning to myself, I thought about how I was wrong about whether Luan was interested in finding a mate this cycle or not.
"He's handsome," I remarked.
"He's one of those pleasure seekers," she explained, dismissing him, while quickly swiping to the next image, which stilled my heart.
Would she swipe past him as well? Her finger hovered, but stopped. A 3-D image of Trent took up the tablet's screen, and I stared at his yellow eyes, reminded of the caves I had dreamed about. She didn't pass by his data, instead keeping it open for both of us to read over.
It was astonishing to see that the scans and exams gave the krelin a higher compatibility rating than I had ever seen with an off-worlder. Our biological chemistry was so similar, and yet that one percent was so vastly different. For one, we did not have horns like they did, scales, or those wings. I wondered if his wings were capable of flying, or if they were just like the virxup's skin flaps that were colorful and expanded out from their throats to attract mates, but otherwise were superficial. Then my gaze wandered to more personal statistics, my eyes widening.
Would something that size even fit inside of me?
Not that Trent would ever be inside of me, I thought with a blush, he was set on having Luan as his mate.
I tempered down my racing heart, and forced myself to do what was required of me. Gaven told me of the Almder's request, and I had a duty to inform Luan, whether or not she acted on it or not. Did I hope she wouldn't? I couldn't think like that, I saw the determination in Commander Li-aq's stoney features. If Trent didn't negotiate some kind of mating treaty with Luan, we'd be at war sooner than we could prepare for. It would be my fault for keeping my mouth shut, but I trusted that Trent wanted peace.
Why did I trust him so much? When we shared what we did, and he still chose Luan?
Biting down on my lip, I then sucked in a breath to finally try to tell Luan about Trent, but she spoke first, "Mabel," she paused, then continued, "You've been on the M.R. team, and advisor to Almder for a few years now..."
Luan seemed to be nervous, and that was unlike her. I agreed, prompting her to continue. Whatever it was, she didn't want to ask, but similar to what I was going through, she forced herself to push on, she was stronger than me, "I need your help to search for new technology and treaties that could help us save our clan.”
I hadn't expected her to divert from our conversation about the mates staring at us from below the tiered viewing deck. She swiped back to the bounty hunter with tattoos on his shoulders as black as his eyes, his stats said they were blue, but similar to midnight, as if looking at blue in the depths of darkness. Not anything like the eyes of Trent, which were closer to the light of the sun, than that of when the moons rotated beyond the reach of the closest star. I was torn between relief that Luan was focused on another male and disappointment that this was probably the closest I would be to Trent ever again. Seeing him through a viewing tablet.
"Of course, anything I can do to help," I assured her. Anything for her... even ignore the pang in my chest preventing me from telling her about giving Trent a tarnpul offering, knowing what that would mean for both of them being alone, under the moon's influence...
Luan rambled about her impending rise to Almder one day, her desire to find solutions to our clan's offspring rates, food resources, and things we'd already discussed previously. Nothing new, and she wouldn't look me in the eye, even her fingers fidgeted with her skirts at her thighs, before she finally got to what she wanted to have my support for, quickly sputtering the last part of how she would need to see to these diplomatic dealings, personally.
My eyes widened when I realized what she was saying. She wanted to leave Estreldez. It wasn’t simply leaving the planet, but me. This was not a request for me to join her. She would leave me here to help smooth over her escape, because that was what it would be considered. She would be running away, delaying the transfer of leadership. No, not simply delaying... would she ever return?
"Luan..." I tried to tread carefully. I wanted to be supportive of her ambitions, but I couldn't remove the part of me that had always tried to advise, and guide under the orders of our Almder. "You are forgetting, you would be putting our whole planet’s future in jeopardy by leaving the safety of Estreldez. Youarethe future Almder, the Jewel of Estreldez, and easily a target by those that wish to control our resources, or worse enslave us.” I left out the very real threat of the krelins not commanded by Trent directly, invading our planet.
This would have been an ideal time to say something, anything, to see if Luan would agree with me about keeping this from Almder, but I didn't want it to be a wedge between negotiations they could both have during the one-on-one later this evening.
“We are not cowards," she bit out, her shoulders squaring off. I had offended her... and it was not the response she needed from me as a friend. I had to switch gears, she was my family, not some random estreld that I was relaying information to on Almder’s orders.
“No." I agreed with her, I didn't mean for it come across like I didn't think estrelds could hold our own. "All of our warriors have proven themselves against the krelins before our treaty. We are not cowards. If you think this will show our strength to have you part of the mission.” Yet another secret I had to keep from Almder. "I won’t tell your mom what you are up to, but that’s the best I can do."
When I said 'we', I didn't mean myself. It was the estrelds that were strong, and brave. Me, I was a coward, who couldn't even bring myself to help Luan leave Estreldez on a diplomatic mission.
She would leave.
After the cycles we had been together, it was clear this was like every other time she set her mind to something. Nothing would get in her way. The urge within me rose up to do what I always did when she had a plan in motion. Follow. Protect.
But this time, something was different. We were both different. I required her to ask me to join, to want me to be with her. And I knew she’d never ask that of me. I bit my lip, stopping myself from saying more, from inserting myself into her plans.Take me with you,my mind roared while equally shouting,don’t go.
