Page 5 of Her Alien Prince
Strange trinkets, nope, not what I’m looking for.
I wrinkled my nose at some of the things these off-worlders considered food. It was important to include in their evaluations just in case we had a successful spawning of offspring with them.
Flipping through the mating candidates, it was always their image that popped up first. My finger stilled over the screen.
This was the krelin from before. Trent. I smiled, liking the way his name felt on my tongue. He was one of the few males that did not take the advice of the technician to remove his leather coverings for the image capture. It didn't matter much, the leather flaps formed to his torso nicely. The image rotated, and I stared at his back muscles, revealing a distortion that made me squint.
It wasn't important what he looked like, I told myself, but he wasn’t someone to blink away from either. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and stared at his bio markers. How was a krelin's bio marker only half a percentage point removed from an estreld? Could they actually be more compatible with us than many of our prime mating candidates this season? Only the unGor showed a closer match from previous cycles, and their delegate was a no show to their exam.
My comm buzzed, and I tapped behind my ear to connect.
They didn't wait for me to answer before saying, "Mabel, my mate candidate will not be able to make their interview tomorrow before the ceremony. I'll need you to do their evaluation on the shuttle to Bina. You'll return before dinner. See you at the transport deck."
I sputtered to reply, but he ended the transmission, not even giving me the chance to say whether I could make it or not. Typical. Gaven was always so abrupt, but the fact that he, of all estrelds, didn't know I was no longer an active advisor for the M.R. team spoke volumes about how busy everyone was, preparing for the ceremony. I had an uneasy feeling settling in my gut.
When I arrived at the transport terminal Hazel's projection appeared at the gate. "Oh good, it's you," she said with relief.
"It's me...?" I agreed in confusion.
"I thought Gaven was sending some dry spawn out there with him. We're spread thin on security, and I don't trust the krelins after what they pulled at the last exchange. You've been trained to handle yourself if something should happen, and Gaven could use the backup." She sighed and tossed her light pink braid back over her shoulder as she cleared me to board the shuttle.
I wasn't completely sure what was going on. Apparently there were krelins involved, and Gaven needed assistance with more than just an evaluation of a mate candidate. It was just then that the information clicked, and I gasped. What was Gaven doing, going off-planet to one of the moons? The last time I saw him, he was escorting the krelin delegate.
Suddenly, I was nervous and delayed entering the shuttle, holding my tablet tight to my chest. I hadn’t had much use for my warrior training outside of practicing in the arena from time to time, and knowing that Hazel was relieved someone with training would be boarding the shuttle set my hairs on end.
I knew enough about krelins from my interactions with them at the trading post on Bina to know I didn’t want to fuck with them. The spores in their musk could knock an estreld out before they ever got a chance to defend themselves. There were stingers in their forearms that could spring from their skin so fast that it could pierce through armor. The mightiest of warriors had wings with talons on the ends, and horns on their heads that could impale their enemies.
Every time I ever went to Bina, the chief was always there to greet me. My nectar was always brought personally. Though I always kept my face covered, the old krelin would always insist I sit with him and share a sample of the nectar to ensure I was satisfied with the trade. It was a krelin custom, and he always brought small bowls for us to sip from. There was a fondness between us over the many visits.
The Chief of Krelis Trade wouldn’t harm me, but that said nothing about what krelins who didn’t know me would do.
Throat dry, I gulped my saliva, feeling no relief. What was Gaven thinking asking me to join him like this? With an intake of breath, I entered the shuttle. Unsure if the Chief Ong would be at the exchange today to ease my worry. The krelin delegate sat with a direct view of the entrance. His golden eyes seemed to penetrate straight through my core, and I had to force myself to take the next step.
Many estrelds would shame me for thinking it, but he was more handsome than his holo-picture. Even all the males I had ever interviewed, including Loric, the Pride of Estreldez, didn’t compare in my mind. The hardened edges of his jaw, the decorated blond braids along his scalp that highlighted the black horns on his head, and even the way his eyes seemed to glow with a fierceness I wish I felt within myself. He was eye catching, and I’d been so focused on avoiding his attention at Almder’s alcove that I hadn’t given him a second glance. If I had, then I would have made a fool of myself for not being able to take my eyes off him.
"Will you be conducting your interview from the boarding deck?" the krelin teased. Heat flared up to my cheeks, but I kept my expression unamused. This was business. I would ask my questions and then leave.
"If that would make you feel more comfortable," I replied smoothly. If staying in the loading deck of the shuttle meant this would be over before we departed then that would have been preferable, though I kept that to myself. I wasn't normally the “bite back” type, but something about him put me on edge. And I refused to think this had anything to do with how attractive I found a krelin upon further inspection.
Gaven didn't say anything, and neither did the krelin, as I sat down. The silence made me feel even more awkward about my initial reaction to seeing the krelin delegate.
"The pre-interview is to gauge correlations between the data from your exam and your mental state before and after the ceremony. There are no wrong answers, nor is anything you say during this interview going to be used against your participation. Please be as honest as possible," I prefaced as I normally would. "We'll start with what drew you towards participating in the ceremony?"
He lifted a brow, as if that should be obvious without his input, but he answered anyway, "I plan to acquire a mate to merge our species in peace."
I smiled politely and nodded. "Yes, that's one reason. I'm more interested in the draw beneath political interests. Unless," I paused to consider that perhaps that was all it was to him, "there is no attraction, physical or otherwise? It's fine if that's the case. Again, there are no wrong answers." My eyes wandered over his sculpted cuirass that molded perfectly to his toned pectorals. A thunder thrummed in my chest, and his lips quirked in a grin when he noticed how I assessed his own attractive features.
The krelin leaned forward. Those golden eyes did a similar scan of my own attributes, and I heated at the attention. "There is a certain appeal to the way an estreld's skin glows when they are interested in satiating their needs. I like how the mating process of your species is just as much for pleasure as it is for the function of spawning. I admit, I was concerned an estreld would be too small to take a krelin cock, but the files indicate your body stretches to accommodate like a freshly formed chrysalis. I find this is something I'd like to feel for myself with my mate." His legs opened as he ran a thumb along the top of his pants, bringing my eyes lower to the bulge below the leather flap. He smirked, and if I wasn't so used to the off-worlder's different anatomy, I might have been shocked to see that his cock was left vulnerable on the outside of his body. An estreld male sheathed his organs, including his cock.
"Right," I cleared my throat, feeling the tips of my ears burn. Clenching my thighs together in my seat, I adjusted, thinking about how big a krelis cock must be when it was fully masted if he was concerned that an averaged-sized estreld would not be large enough to accommodate him. I was a runt of estrelds. Many females were taller than me by a foot or more.
Gaven interrupted, "She won't be participating in the ceremony. The size of your cock is irrelevant. You can drop the theatrics." I blinked, regaining my composure. I wasn't sure why Gaven felt the need to interrupt the interview. It wasn't the first time I'd had an off-worlder flirt with me. The whole reason they were here had to do with mating, and it was natural for mates to have their hormones be overactive when approaching the ceremony.
"Is this true?" the krelin asked.
I nodded. It wasn't either of their business, but Gaven must have known I was ineligible already. "The ceremony is reserved for mates capable of spawning. And as Krelis is currently in a similar situation of needing more alpha females for the hive, you can save your flirtations for the ceremony tomorrow."
Spasms in my stomach revolted at the admission that I couldn't have offspring, and I internally cringed at telling him not to flirt with me. I was still capable of sex, and the thought that no male would flirt with me again was a very real prospect. Where off-worlders had made me uncomfortable with their interest in previous interviews, I liked how the krelin was looking at me before he knew I couldn't spawn.
