Page 11 of The VaDorok's Unexpected Mate
Ren made a disgusted face, conveying exactly what he thought of that idea, and Katie just barely refrained from rolling her eyes. It was like that, was it? What was he... twelve? Granted, Kull intentionally was allowing the male to mistake their arrangement to suit his purpose, but Ren’s reaction was a bit more juvenile than she’d expected. It was no wonder that Kulladded that bit of fine print to their arrangement. The last thing any society needed was another emotionally stunted, immature male who was incapable of getting along with women.
“Ah, right,” she murmured, and her eyes dropped to the bowl of food sitting on the table. Joy of joys. She was going to be bored out of her skull with nothing but Ren for company. “I don’t suppose you have streaming services?”
Kull’s brow furrowed, and she sighed. Of course not. From what she’d seen so far, she was living like the freaking Flintstones. As if dealing with an alien teenager wasn’t enough, she hadn’t realized that things would be quite so rough—especially not after being transported by a spaceship from the lab. Not that it would have changed her mind any, but it was going to be a bit of an adjustment. She would just have to think of it as... camping.
Fuck. When was the last time she went camping? Did she even enjoy camping? A memory briefly surfaced of a tick that her uncle had pulled off her leg with a pair of tweezers, and she shuddered. Thank fuck it was largely an ice planet. Sure, there was the horrific cold, but there were also no bugs crawling out of hell, and plenty of water that was easy to access.
“I’m guessing that I will have to melt snow over the fire if I want to bathe, though,” she murmured to herself.
Something like amusement shifted in his eyes. “Only if you wish to do things the difficult way. There are some who are fortunate enough to have dwellings connected to thermal springs, but for the rest of us, we have solar-powered generators that heat water drawn from deep ground wells.”
Wait... what? She blinked, caught off guard. “You have electricity?” she blurted out as she looked pointedly at the roaring fire in the hearth with confusion.
Ren sneered. “We do not waste unnecessarily. Keeping the den heated at all times would waste more energy than thegenerator would be able to collect. Be grateful that there are interior lights.”
“There are?” she asked as she scrutinized the soft glow of what she assumed was flickering firelight illuminating the walls.
Her eyebrows flew up with the realization that, beyond the firelight, there were entire sections of the wall steadily illuminated as if from some sort of concealed sconce. The effect was pretty neat. She wanted to get a closer look but was immediately distracted by Kull’s sigh. She wasn’t entirely sure if it was directed more at her for her obvious cluelessness or at his brother, but it was certainly very loud within the room.
“While technically correct, choose your words more respectfully, Ren,” he admonished the younger male before directly his attention fully on her. “Most technology brought to Dorok does not work exceptionally well here, though the chief’s den is in a location where he can get a limited short-range connection for the communication system that A’Jular brought him so that his arrivals were not catching the tribe off guard all the time. But as Ren pointed out, we are conservative with what we use, and how we use it. The lighting systems specifically are built into the walls to provide extra illumination without being a significant drain on the generator. It is viewed as improvement in our overall quality of lives. There are those who have traded for other small bits of technology, but I do not care much for such things when I have everything that I need.”
“I see,” Katie mumbled. So, it was a small upgrade from the Flintstones—barely.
That, at least, made her a bit more optimistic about remaining on a planet like Dorok. The fact that there were options out there just added to how attractive it already was for its isolation from the rest of the universe. It wasn’t exactly a prime tourist destination. Even the Agraak—though utilizing it for that reason—seemed to loathe the planet and didn’t ventureoutside of their lab if they could help it. As far as discouraging visitors went, it had that in its favor.
So, Earth had streaming services and take-out restaurants. It also had the Buto and any other aliens that ended up being welcomed there. She would take her chances with a Flintstones-Plus lifestyle.
“The bath was the one real luxury that I asked for,” Kull added after a brief span of silence. “I can show you how to operate it before I leave.”
Katie nodded as she selected what seemed to be some kind of large nut and nibbled on it. It would definitely be nice to be clean again. Despite the sterility of the lab, she had always found the Agraak bathing products unpleasant to use. Because of that, she had used them minimally and never really felt quite clean. After an escape and then traveling for days with Kull, she was more than ready for a proper bath. She was actually pretty disgusted that she’d slept in Kull’s bed without bathing first.
“I would appreciate that,” she replied, to which Kull grunted with a nod of his head before lowering his gaze once more to his food.
They ate in silence, with Ren giving her occasional furtive looks of disgust as if her presence alone annoyed him. In response, she took considerable pleasure in pinging the remainder of the nut off one of his horn-spikes when he wasn’t looking. Despite being such a small piece, he jerked back and nearly came to his feet, his head whipping as he searched for whatever his him. Katie studiously ate her food, feigning innocence.
“What is it?” Kull rumbled, and from beneath her lashes she watched him as his head turned to peer over at his younger brother.
Ren shook his head and lowered himself back onto his cushion again. “Nothing. I thought I felt something hit me,” he muttered.
She looked up, her brows arching quizzically at him. He scowled back at her, and she smothered a smile. If he kept giving her nasty looks, she would find other things to ping off him.
Kull squinted at him for a moment and shook his head. “Your horns are probably growing again. The root is always far too sensitive, and you are prone to imagining sensations whenever they grow. Were you not, just last month, making all kinds of noise in your sleep about someone touching them? Just ignore it.”
A look of mortification crossed Ren’s face. “Do not say such things in front of... her,” he stammered. “She does not need to know anything about my... my... horns.”
Kull lifted his eyes in what appeared to be a universal sign of a silent prayer before he closed them with a shake of his head. “It is basic VaDorok anatomy, Ren. Of course, she ought to know things about our species if she is living among us. Better for her to know than to accidentally hit your horns with something when they are in a sensitive stage of growth. Do not be such a youngling.”
The younger male visibly sulked but nodded his head.
Katie bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. Poor kid. It seemed that puberty among the VaDorok had additional fun stuff going on. But it at least gave her a good target if he wasn’t going to play nice.
At last, the meal finished, and Kull stood and waited patiently beside the table for her to get to her feet. He studied her with a cool gaze as she straightened. She couldn’t help but think that there was something burning behind all that ice that she couldn’t quite see, however, when he focused on her so intently. Her fingers twitched nervously as he continued to starebut it lasted for only a few heartbeats before his head swung away, his eyes shifting to a point over her shoulder.
“The bathing chamber is this way,” he rumbled before silently slipping past her.
Katie’s body turned almost instinctively to follow his movement, and she quickly fell into step as she followed to keep up with his longer strides as he left the table and walked toward a large fur hanging opposite the corridor that led to the bedrooms. He pushed it aside to reveal an entrance to another corridor, at the end of which another fur was pulled back to reveal a room with an enormous round, sunken tub. She came to a stop, her eyes wide as she admired the stone basin as Kull continued alone over to the wall.
“There is no way this is your tub,” she muttered.
