Page 6 of Beauty and the Alien Beast
“We are running out of solutions to prevent our race from extinction. Our surrogate program only produced males, and interplanetary visits resulted in no females of breeding compatibility. We need to find females for our Gladiators to claim and mate, and despite the unseemly proposition of buying earthling females from the Omers, that seems to be our only solution for survival.”
“All of our solutions have failed because of one”—I held up a finger—“simple truth. Our mating cannot be forced. Our Wulfaen chooses our sheleki, and only that match allows us to breed strong female pups.”
In order to survive, our Wulfaen needed to find the perfect mate, a female destined for us alone, whose soul resonated with our Wulfaen and whose body and mind and heart were a perfect match for our own. When a Gladiator meets his mate, he is subjected to a type of frenzy. It overtakes the mind and the body, and the Gladiator in question runs only on instinct.
I continued. “But slavery is not going to happen. That is why I must convince the council that encouraging open contact with the earthling females is a better plan to bolster our fertile female population than buying them from the slavers.” I paused, eyeing them with a hard stare. “I’ve heard that the Omers ill-treat the females, and that is not our way. So the first step of my plan is scouting the slave trainers’ facility. We must have evidence of how badly the females are being treated. Then I will convene the council, reporting our observations, and put forth a vote for a joint pack mission to attack the facility, freeing all the females and shutting down the slavers for good.”
My pack could easily go it alone to the Omers’s facility, slaughtering the slavers and freeing the females, but the Omers would declare war against all packs. I couldn’t let my actions affect my brothers when they had no hand in my decision. Besides, it wasn’t in my nature to go against council law, which stated that all decisions that could put our entire race in jeopardy or incite war must be voted on by the council.
I continued. “Once all females are freed and are teleported back to their planet, we will strategize on defeating the Omers in the war they will surely incite against us.”
“And what will we do about the earthlings?” the elder of logic asked. “Our teleport chambers are incapable of sending them back to Earth. And the Reticulans cannot be trusted.”
I answered, “We will offer the earthlings asylum and protection under the council’s authority.”
“That is a fair and just plan,” Joanor mused as he tugged his white beard. “But how will we determine where they shall live? All packs will want to offer safe harbor to the earthlings, and fighting will ensue for that right. I suggest the females visit each pack and make their own determinations about which sector is suitable.”
“Finally, we’re getting somewhere!” The elder of war rolled his shoulders, then turned to me. “Who from our pack will you send on this mission?”
“I will go,” I answered. “I need to see for myself the conditions of the slave facility. I will go in the guise of a noble from another planet that is interested in buying a female.”
All five pairs of eyes turned to me, and the elders nodded in agreement.
“Then it’s settled,” I said before standing. “I will go to my chambers and prepare.” I stared at my grandfather. “Have a Gladiator bring me the proper clothes and gear for my disguise,” I said before walking away.
4
Teken
After my meetingwith the elders, I was back inside my home that was once the estate of a wealthy elite slaver.
As the alpha of my pack, I was allotted the largest home. The expansive space had multiple rooms, including servant quarters, courtyard, bath, pool, storage room, garden, and an exercise facility. Each room was high-ceilinged, longish, and narrow, like a trio of hallways. The farthest one in was my meditation chamber.
I was proud of my home and had covered the stone walls in pale air-hardening plaster and laid down a dark-green carpet. Bowls of glow fish provided light, and I fed them some dried shrimp to get them shining brightly, checking their water while I did. But time was of the essence, so I strode up to the mirror, the only decoration aside from the rack for my weapons sitting in front of it, and considered myself as I removed the trappings that identified me as a Gladiator.
The earrings that represented our status as freed slaves went into the tray atop the weapon rack. I couldn’t do anything about my close-cropped hair, which was only worn by non-elder Gladiators, but I presumed my brethren would bring me a hairpiece of some sort. I ran my hand through the silvery strands and then removed my metal bracers and set them on the tray as well.
No point in shedding my dark-gray iron-skin armor—no male in his prime went without it in public—but I removed the decorations that showed the honors I had achieved among my people. My medals, the amulet at my throat, even my rings.
Today, I lay aside the trappings of who I am to do what a Gladiator of honor must do.
I hated slavery as much as the rest of my brethren. Now the Gladiators were allowing the practice of slavery to crop up in another form and excusing it as biological necessity. But we could handle the matter of finding mates for our people without degenerating ethically by centuries in the process.
I was unmated, like all males of my race. And the lack of females made Gladiators more aggressive since we were very sexual by nature, and most of us—including me—felt the frustration of not having a female to mate.
In order to survive, our males needed to find a sheleki. The primal want was as natural and necessary as breathing. Our perfect female was destined for us alone. When a Gladiator found his one true mate, he felt an unavoidable need to bind with her, planting our seed and watching her grow heavy with a youngling. It meant providing for our family, risking life and limb to ensure their safety.
Something deep inside me ached at the thought. I longed for the softness of a mate. A female I could cherish and protect—and a pup I could guide and teach.
The last thing I removed—very reluctantly—was my sword. It had been passed down for three generations, and I rarely went anywhere without it. But visiting alien nobles from other planets did not wear swords. They preferred energy weapons, which could stun or kill at the wiggle of a finger, requiring no skill or courage at all.
I disdained such weapons, but I was skilled with them. And I refused to visit the slavers unarmed, especially since I would have to trek through the jungle to get there. If I used the arena’s teleport chamber to travel to the slavers’ complex, it would identify my origin point and my cover would be blown.
A tap on my outer door alerted me that a pack member had arrived with my disguise. I decided I would ride out immediately. The sooner I gathered evidence of the crimes being committed against the females, the sooner the females would be freed. And in my opinion, their freedom was all that mattered.
5
Ella
