Page 10 of Bartender Mate

My trigger finger pulled taut, I wasn’t fucking around. The Prez smirked and raised his fingers as I went for the shot–only going for a leg, mind, I didn’t want to explain a dead fucker to the sheriff–but a flick of his fingers was all it took.

A shock wave of–something–rolled through the bar. The force rippled with dark intent through the air, like an earthquake originating from the Prez’s center. Chairs and bodies were flung out of its path. However, I barely had the chance to notice the mayhem, because the invisible fist of a giant crashed into my sternum, punching me back.

Dan’s scream of outrage was snatched from my ears.

All I could think, in that moment, was that I’d seriously underestimated my new business partner.

My heart sent a silent plea to my best friend.Hurry, Sam!

Then my head cracked against the wall of glass at my back and the world went dark.

4

Quasar

The mood in the Stellar Misfits’ watering hole was tense. Zinc had his shoulders bunched up near his ears, tail swishing back and forth so rapidly that he’d nearly knocked one of Eden’s friend’s on her ass. To be fair, the witch was paying less than no attention to where she was walking, eyes glued to a small communication device, the blue light reflecting over her face, and turning her yellow hair nearly white. Samantha, I believe she was called, stumbled a little, apologized, then kept on her way, sitting down at an empty stool at the bar and never looking up once. Whatever was on her little blue screen must have been important if the scribe was prepared to ignore the mounting hostility surrounding her.

“Need a drink.” Asteroid stood, his attitude washing through our bond. The ebb and flow of his anger, unease, and itch of his beast riding him hard as it reacted to the unsettled state of the Wyer surrounding us. We were all affected by it, of course, but–as our most dominant mate–Asteroid shouldered the brunt of the burden. “What do you want?” he demanded more than asked, a hiss in his voice which I haven’t heard in years.

“Whatever it is.” I pinched my nose and leaned back in my chair, taking in the entire room. “Just make it strong.”

The thick atmosphere was getting even my usually placid beast’s hackles up. Not something I was used to. I was the carefree one, the one who brought the sunshine to the dark spaces my mates occasionally disappeared into, but tonight was different. The MC bar was filled with Drakons giving one another the side-eye while drowning the uncertainty of their fate in Earth liquor. We were essentially an alien powder keg stuffed into a tin can.

“You?” Asteroid demanded of our most taciturn member, not bothering to soften his tone in the slightest. “You actually drinking? ‘Cause I don’t know if they're going to have that weird shit you prefer.”

“Yes,” drawled Radon, refusing to rise to Asteroid’s bait. “I highly doubt they’ll have gragandian flowers, or the syrup of the hakatia bush. I assume they have carbonated water, though. Seems like something even a pre-space flight planet should have.” Our mate picked at his thumbnail, the tip nearly shredded from the amount of time he’d been worrying at the stupid claw. “A carbonated beverage with a citric tang would suffice.”

Our mate just gave him a stiff nod and marched to the bar. Every step he took looked deliberate and controlled, not the way Asteroid usually carried himself at all. Then I saw him eyeing Argon’s second, a proud older female, known as Cadmium. The gold of her scales told the tale of someone who had not been blessed with a fated mate but with a calling to serve the people of Drakonis in a different way. Meanwhile, the power of her beast was pulsing forcefully out into the room, warning all who’d gathered to mind their manners.

I had no doubt, when my mate and Cadmium rose into the air to settle their standing, that her golden beast would be reckoned with. This Drakon was a born warrior, one who clearly expected to have a position of standing in our Wyer once the dust settled. Naturally, our mate was keen to figure out who–out of the two of them–would be calling the shots.

The golden hue was not altogether uncommon amongst our people. In fact, many golden Drakons had risen to positions of power and been instrumental in the various advancements–technological and creative–on our home world. ‘There were as many individuals in the universe as grains of sand on the Tachtichi coast’. At least, that’s what my fathers had told me as a babe. Not everyone had a fated mate, they said, and fewer still had been blessed with three. So that was why it was so important to treasure those you had found.

True to their word, my fathers had doted on my mother ‘til her last breath. Moma, also an off-worlder, had been so happy for me when I mated two Drakon males, signing at the knowledge that I had another off in the stars. She called it, ‘Our grandest adventure that was yet to come’.

Sadly, she passed long before our mating comet was launched, but I kept her blessing close to heart all the same.

“Hey, Q,” Radon grunted at me, rapping on my head with a knuckle. “You in there?”

“Dunno. Am I? There are thought loops in there, I know that for sure.” I gave him a shrug and looked around the room. It was entirely too quiet for my liking. Too many mutinous bodies to hear the hiss of carbonation or the squeal of a chair. “I didn’t know what to expect when we landed.”

“Really? That’s a fucking surprise, seeing as you studied enough for the lot of us.”

“You studied plenty,” I countered, rolling my eyes and punching him in the arm.

Radon was always readying himself for our missions. His data pad had more battle plans than games.

“I studied the required amount in order to pass the tests we were given.” He folded his hands on the table in front of him, tucking that one thumb between his other fingers. “You read them over and over. Don’t think I didn’t notice the questions you had for Spectrum’s mate. That poor female always seemed to be looking for an escape route whenever you showed up.”

“I needed to know everything.” Anything, really, that might help us secure our mate. I wasn’t a fool. I expected there to be some teething issues, I just hoped I’d gathered enough information to help smooth over those inevitable rough patches that my mates’ more abrasive approaches would inevitably create.

“Would’ve been more appropriate to ask Spectrum or Quark about the scent of human female arousal, don’t you think? Or what they liked best about their Drakon males?” Radon raised a brow at me, daring me to argue. I had nothing to say, though. I had asked the individual who I felt had the most authority on the subject. Piper was a human, after all. And I’d drilled into plenty of topics, just not in front of an audience, and certainly not in front of my most reticent mate knowing it would only piss him off before we loaded up for Earth. “But to circle around to the subject you are clearly avoiding. You look like you’re lost in space, Q.”

“I figured we would land and things would settle.” I sighed, looking around again and running a hand through my hair. The rebel Thunder and our own Weyr had all taken up separate tables. You could practically see a physical dividing line drawn between the two. I didn’t like it. We were supposed to be one people, working toward a great good. “There was enough tension on the ship with unsettled ranks.” I shrugged and offered him a lopsided-smile. “Guess I thought when we got here, things would all fall into place as we focused on the task at hand.”

“I assume you have found the folly in that logic, then?” My mate leaned forward into my space. “The careful military regimentation of our life on Drakonis went out the window the moment we stepped onto this planet.” His breath feathered over my skin, sending a shiver down my scales and causing my cock to stir. “It's rebel rule now, lover. The wilds of the east in a way that only ancient tales recall.”

“Doesn’t that bother you?” I turned so our noses brushed. “Aren’t you worried about how the sands will fall? Because Asteroid is nearly coming out of his skin with the need to change and take on that golden one in the corner. So is Zinc. He won’t settle until he or Argon are sent to ground for all to see.”

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