Page 24 of Her Alien Prince
"Come to me during the ceremony when you've decided on things." My offer felt flat, and dismissive even to my own ears. Simply a throw away gesture to end this meeting so I could focus on what I truly wished to do. Find Mabel. I sniffed the air, my nostrils flaring... I hadn't paid much attention before, but I'd smelled this before at the greeting arena. A shol? That was impossible, wasn't it?
"There's no guarantee your plans will work. You'd still be mated with me... why?" Luan's voice sounded distant, though she was still within reach. She was concerned about committing to me, to us. With a kansa bond, she would not be able to give of herself to another male as many estrelds are wont to do. Her hesitancy at being faithful to our bond disgruntled me further, and the immediacy to leave her intensified.
I forced myself to remind myself why I chose Luan to begin with. Aside from her birthright to lead her planet.
"I'm fully aware of what your mating loh means, Luan." I couldn't keep the bite of venom from my tone, and I tried my best to calm myself and be soft when I added, "We would succeed." Kansa bonds were rare and respected amongst the hive. "Why you?" I repeated her question out loud before answering her, "Because only a queen will do, and you're the only estreld who dared to research ways to destroy us should negotiations not play in your favor. You are kind, but you are also a warrior at heart. Even your mating loh are beautifully deadly in their pursuit of a mate. You are perfect."Perfect for the hive, I thought bitterly, knowing that this perfection wasn’t what I wanted, and there was another estreld whose imperfections begged for my attention.
That was all I had to say on the matter, and she could decide at the ceremony later. I turned to leave, sniffing the air, and clucking my tongue to find whoever was spying on us. Luan's feet padded away from the garden, leaving me to my pursuit.
Lifting up into the sky, I flew above the stones and overgrowth to find the male marked as a slave from before, Vareo was his name, and his pointed ears were more pronounced from this angle. He was definitely a shol, spying on me. Whether he was here to seek revenge for his planet was unknown, but I could hardly blame him for whatever reason he had to watch me from the shadows. Revenge, my queen certainly deserved it, but killing her only heir would hardly upset her.
She'd killed most of her spawn already.
Being the only one of the queen's eggs to develop her black veins, she considered me her only spawn. I only knew I had brothers by rumor alone, and not one of them ever stepped forward to confirm or deny relation. If I had the choice, I would have preferred to keep my distance from her as well. She ordered every other offspring to be disposed of, but it's possible some of my siblings were still alive.
I landed before the shol, his growl predatory as he prepared to fight me. At least he wasn't afraid, they trained that out of the slaves early on, and his mark appeared old, faded with time. Shols were sensitive to a krelin's smell, and he wrinkled his nose in response to my nearness. If he was unruly, and bent on revenge on krelins that had nothing to do with his lost planet then I would have to dispose of him. My ki horns extended from my wrists, poison pumped through my veins towards the stingers, ready should he choose violence over discussion.
"You're Prince Trenton," he snarled, recognizing the black veins for what they were.
"You're a shol," I replied flippant, as if we were merely playing a game of let's state the obvious. "My mother still hunts for your kind, obsessed that too many were bound to seek revenge."
Pacing around each other, we stalked cautiously, seeing what the other would do. Did he intend to kill me? Or perhaps something else?
"Is Estreldez your next target?" He spat out as if his very words were as deadly as the venom in my arms.
"Not in the way you assume," I explained protection was my only motive, for both of our species, estrelds and krelins. He didn't believe me and he questioned my intentions to form peace.
His shoulders sagged when he whispered to himself about taking Luan to Krelis as my mate, before he reasserted himself. "She will not choose you," he growled.
"What can you offer her?" That I cannot, I added internally. My wings spread out, and I sprayed him with my musk, wishing to have him sleep so I wouldn't be delayed finding Mabel any longer.
He gagged, and snorted out, possibly preventing the musk from being absorbed into his nasal cavity. Shols had such sensitive receptors that made targeting them with our pheromones difficult. I had no intention of harming him, but he was the last person I wished to be spending time dealing with at the moment. Either I had to kill him if he was feral or allow him time to cool off if he was reasonable.
Testing him I baited, "Your species are nothing but barbarians."
"Right," he scoffed, "that's why the krelins have taken it upon themselves to eradicate all shols."
So, he remains to be a talker. That's good. I smiled at him, keeping my ki stingers at my sides, pointed down.
He began negotiations, "If you're here for diplomacy, you won't kill me here." He believed I wanted him dead... and yes, my ki was an indicator of intention, but also one of reasonable preparation given many would not blame him for seeking to kill me for my hive's past crimes. I needed to know he would not harm krelins that had nothing to do with his planet's destruction. He continued, "And if you're worth being chosen by Luan, then you'll wait to inform your ship about the shol you found on Estreldez until after the ceremony."
Reasonable. It was true, all it would take was a communication to my ship, and we could make sure no ship left here without confirmation they were without a shol passenger. He'd never make it out of the sector, if I were inclined to remove what was possibly the last shol around.
Retracting my ki, my venom receded back down my forearms, and I warned him, "If I see you at the dance, then I'll assume you've changed your mind about our deal. I'm not a monster, shol. Your species has been through enough, and I only seek to make sure my own doesn't find itself in a similar fate, nor the estrelds." I stepped to the side for him to leave, giving him the chance to put in a cheap shot to harm me, if he wished.
The shol glared at me but made no move other than to watch me closely. I remained still, not even allowing my second lids to lubricate my eyes. Then I heard Mabel's voice from the direction I just came from. I crouched where the shol had spied on me before, and there was a clear view of her, and Gaven. I had wondered why he didn't follow me. And it was clear now that the reason was a beautiful estreld we both had eyes for.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mabel
RUNNING INTO COUPLESin the garden was normal during the mating ceremony. Many of them never even noticed they had an audience if someone passed them by. That was what I was betting on to even attempt to leave the hideaway beyond the Retreating Wop. But it wasn't long before I passed by the one couple I never wanted to see.
Trent... I thought, broken hearted in my mind. Luan's legs wrapped around his waist. I didn't have to see past her wings to see her hips grinding on him amongst the blackpul algea. Moans echoed through the air, and I gasped, covering my mouth with both hands. Legs turning to jelly, I couldn't even move away to stop watching them until my body was tugged backward, and I spun to see Gaven holding me in his arms. His loh pulsed brightly and everything blurred around us like we were underwater.
He whispered, "What are you doing here?"
"I was heading to Elder Ezra," I admitted, but it didn't stop me from thinking about what Trent was doing with Luan this very moment. Closing my eyes, I could almost feel like his hands were on me, even though it was Gaven that pulled me in close. My breathing hitched when it felt like there were nibbles tingling down my neck, along my arm, and landing at a sensitive spot on the inside of my wrist. I bit my lip, my new wings ached to move, and I had no idea if I could stop them.
