He tenses. “Yes?”
My fingers tremble as I brace the warm arm across my front.Please don’t shy away. Please don’t dump me on the floor.
Please don’t be like Elwin.
“I hate to do this to you, Aura. But I don’t feel so good.”
14: Aurelius
I tilt Jovie’s head back and inspect her face. “Are you drunk?”
“No.” She shivers against me. “Cold in my bones. Muscles too. I feel really weak. It hit me fast.”
Normally, I’d make a joke aboutbones,but I’m concerned something is wrong. I pick her up and start for the building. “I’m going to take you to the females’ medical center, okay?”
Jovie mumbles something about gauntlets in storage as I enter the brightly lit building and head for the human’s hospital wing. I hope they can help her.
I ride the elevator up and exit into the waiting area of the hospital. One other male is in the room, pacing nervously. He’s Vinym by the color-changing ripples over his scales.
“What happened to her?” he asks.
“Cold and sort of went to sleep,” I tell him.
“I bet it’s blood sugar,” a woman says, leaving a nearby door. Ohni waves for a nurse to bring a stretcher out.
“You’re familiar with this?” I ask.
“Unfortunately. Sometimes, when we get females who have lived really hard lives and sacrificed a lot to get here, they eat a ton in the buffet, which spikes their blood sugar. Then they race hard and burn it all up because they finally have energy. Pair that with the excitement and adrenaline…”
She runs a hand over her mouth and then lifts it and shakes her head. “Then they don’t eat at the Mingle Celebration because they’re too wound up. And blood sugar crashes. I think I’m going to add a new briefing for future heats to limit how often this happens.”
I set Jovie on the stretcher and try to follow, but a nurse holds me back.
“Unless she can consent, you must stay here.”
“Because I’m alien?” I ask.
“Because you’re male,” the nurse says.
Ohni puffs out a breath. “I’m sorry. But women often get no protections on Earth. When they come to us, we give them all the rights we can. No male nurses or doctors. No male guards in private spaces. I am slowly transitioning guard teams to have more females as well.”
“A human female can’t take down a male like me,” I counter.
Ohni crosses her arms. “That’s why I have added the AI backups, upgraded cameradrones, andbondedalien males on the guard rotations. Now, please take a seat. We will get you when we have news.”
I don’t like it, but when the squad of guards, all female, forms up just inside the doors, I know I better keep my cool or risk going viral intergalactically. “She said something about gauntlets in storage. I don’t know what that means, but I got the sense she thought they’d help her.”
Ohni glances between me and the Vinym male, then to another couple entering the hospital.
The male Alustri—tall, red, and shirtless—adjusts his grip on the female in his arms. “She said someone named Cora gave her a metabolism pill after she ate too much.”
Ohni’s eyes widen as she helps a different nurse wheel out another stretcher. “Damn it. Okay, thank you.”
The moment the third female is through the guards and down the hall, Ohni charges out of the medical wing, leaving the three of us males in the waiting room, staring at one another in awkward silence.
I don’t want to pace because I know it will only make the others more nervous. So I sit and motion to the chairs across from me. “I’m Aura of Amphir. Might as well get to know one another to pass the time.”
The Vinym sits first. “Kip. I was here last heat, but didn’t get picked. I don’t suppose you remember seeing me. I remember you. Zariah is a friend.”
