Page 13 of Her Alien Warrior
"Exactly, for a necia warrior this is a rare thing for a healthy male. We have no expectations of bonding with anyone, we mate for honor with any warrior that needs to balance their body. We fight to prove we are worthy of our genes being passed on, and if a warrior accepts our offering, we bond with them through rituals. They become our mate, and we dedicate our lives towards their happiness, but it is not the same as what that warrior experienced just now. They will have no reaction to another mate opportunity now that they have found their true bond. It is up to them to prove themselves to their mate and keep them, but he will not seek another even if he fails. This is the difference between a fated bond, and the study of attraction. We can be attracted to many different warriors, and beings, but to not respond to any of them except one…
"We were lucky, or some would say fated to choose his mate first, because if we had chosen him last or in the middle of the experiment, we could not be as certain about the chances of them being fated. As he would have responded to other attractive participants before his mate touched him. At least, many of my tribe would believe this an absolute. There have not been many studies on these types of mates, not since the decline in spawnlings across many planets, including Necias Prime."
"So, you're saying that they will only react to them physically now that he's met them?" I asked, and the general nodded.
"This is what our elders have told us, but that is not based on any valid studies on the subject. There haven't been enough claims to this kind of sacred mating to conduct a study."
"That's actually very romantic," Becky said with a beaming smile. "I wish humans had that kind of instinct."
"Who's to say that you don't?" he questioned and told us he would guide us to the food dispensers shortly. "With the recent reports of fated matings increasing among humans, I have plans to conduct a study on this once I'm promoted to Commander of Research." And if the bond was as rare as he said then it's possible even humans have it, but we don't acknowledge it the same way the necia warriors did if that was the case, right?
He sat down at his desk, and Becky came over to me with a smile. "Fascinating, isn't it?"
I nodded, but my eyes were on Sou-el and the way he rolled his shoulder again. Something was wrong and I had the urge to go ask him if he was okay. "Just a second, I'd like to speak with Sou-el before we leave."
"Sure," she said, but she was already distracted with whatever she was reading on her tablet. We hadn't opted for eye implants, or lenses, preferring the more tactile feel of using our fingers on a tablet. I glanced back at her before I approached the general, and her eyes were glued to the screen.
I cleared my throat to get his attention, but when I turned back to him, he was already watching me curiously. "I, uh," I stammered with what I was going to say. "Your shoulders… Are you okay?"
He grunted with amusement. "I'm not as young as I used to be," he dismissed.
I lifted my hands but stopped. This was probably a horrible idea, given that he could stab me with his epul, but I offered anyways, "May I?"
Lifting a curious brow, he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to, but he nodded anyways. I touched a finger to his shoulder first, just so he knew I was going to touch him, and make sure he wasn't going to startle and stab me with spikes. He sensed my tension and chuckled, "Contrary to popular belief of other species," he mused playfully, "our epul are actually a voluntary response, and only warriors who have trained significantly can summon them on instinct."
"Right," I chuckled nervously, and placed my palms around his shoulders and rubbed around where he seemed to be sore. "Does it hurt?"
He sighed and sunk into my touch. "Perhaps your fingers were just what I needed after a rotation of craning my neck."
I smiled, knowing he was just saying that to ease my worry. "You shouldn't ignore your pain." I'd never seen any of the other warriors flinch at being cut or harmed. They healed so fast, and if he was in pain, perhaps something needed to bechecked out by a professional? There were advertisements to assure humans that they were safe while traveling with the H.E.T. program, and in all of them necia warriors got injured and they merely smiled as their wounds healed like magic. The protectors of the universe, they were purported to be.
My daughter's stomach grumbled next, and she quickly glanced back down at her tablet like she hadn't been watching us.
"Shall we?" I asked and squeezed his shoulder one last time.
The general spoke very little as we walked the halls towards the dispensary. His amber eyes watched me, and even when we sat with our food, he said nothing. He pierced his food gel with his fangs and sucked down the solid space goo from his reusable sleeve that he quickly tossed into the recycling incinerator. He was clearly used to eating quickly and leaving, but he did not move to leave us to our own plates that were a lot more appealing to stomach than black gelatin. Our food was shaped and colored to be appetizing to humans, even the texture was similar to eating food on Earth, but some of it had a grit to it that was difficult to get used to, and the flavors were as bland as dry chicken. I made a face, and my daughter moved her food around her plate after a while, unable to finish.
I could see the appeal to swallowing down a nutrition pack quickly and moving on.
"The food dispensers start all humans on basic meals that include additives to help acclimate your digestive systems toother options. Force yourself to eat the remainder of your plate if you wish to be cleared for something more palatable later," Sou-el explained.
So that was what that grit was? I gulped and hesitantly lifted another spoonful and forced it into my mouth. He nodded his approval and then looked to Becky expectantly.
"Is there something tasty to wash it down with? Like a chaser?"
"Becky," I intoned my surprise that she knew anything about a chaser.
"I'm old enough to be sent to another planet, I'm old enough to have a drink, mom."
Right, I tried to calm myself. Anyone who qualified for the exchange was considered an adult in every aspect, including legally being allowed to drink alcohol. Which meant she was granted access since she was accepted into the program. "How long?" I asked with a wince, trying to remain neutral.
"Once," she said, "to celebrate and experience it before I left so I had something to compare it to."
"It is wise to have a control set for comparing experiences," General Sou-el approved, and I glared at him. He paid no mind to my irritation but spoke as a true researcher of knowledge. "You have the makings of an honorable seeker of truth, but you must temper bravery of experience with learning how to understand the same information without being a participant yourself."
"Right, what he said," I quickly added, "Learning from other's experiences. No need to do everything yourself, right?"
Becky rolled her eyes and reassured me, "It was once, and I won't make a habit of it." She picked at her food, pushing it around.
