Page 13 of King of Serpents

“Forgive my poor education. I would be indebted if you would remind me. In time I will adjust to the ways of the Aglatha.”

She studied him for a long moment and then smiled coolly as her gavo lifted with obvious interest. “Very well. I shall forgive you this time. It is good that you recognize the importance of re-familiarizing yourself with our customs and rituals.” Her tail curled, and she glided closer, her wings fanning out slightly around her in a show of elegance and dominance. “Of course, this is not the upper caverns, and you are no longer among the Vehals. There is no right of capture in the shinara. There are no choices for you to make.”

Which was the exact problem of the shinara, and why it was slowly dying under the weight of its own traditions imposed upon its males.

“Naturally,” he rumbled, despite how sick it made him to agree with her.

She coiled her tail closer to his, and it brushed against the side of his tail. He shuddered and it took every bit of his honed discipline to keep him from yanking his tail away. She smiled, however, and he knew that she either misunderstood his reaction or enjoyed his discomfort and inability to do anything about it.

No, he could do something about it, but acting on his true feelings would accomplish nothing except demonstrate to the council that he was dangerous to the females in the shinara. He would then be tied down and force-bred until he sired enough female nestlings to satisfy them. Then he would be ejected from the shinara without hope of changing anything. He needed to maintain control of himself.

Her gaze raked slowly over him, and he could see the war of conflicting emotions on her face. Revulsion for his large, powerful size and dark indigo scales compared to the slender and flashier males that were so desired but also interest and lust rising in response to a perceived challenge. Perhaps also a lust for the position that he represented within the shinara.

She hummed softly as she glided one hand down her torso to draw his attention to her supple curves.

“I am Ferinia of the fourth noble house.”

The fourth house held a considerably high status. Most females in the upper ten houses could have any male they wanted once they became of age—and most did. Ferinia. He searched his memory. Where had he heard that name before? Then it came to him. He recalled a small male of pinkish-orange hue among the elder juveniles when he was in his first revolution in the Haga. It was only by accident that he had come across the male as he spoke to his companions in hushed tones so to avoid rebuke from the matriarchs in charge or any of the sturdy males who served them. He did not remember the male’s name but recalled the way he quivered fearfully as he whispered that Ferinia had chosen him.

Ferinia, he had come to discover, was widely known in the haga for her lust of the younger males and how she willfully breached the selection rules to “sample” the males as she blamed her own inability to decide from the most beautiful of them. Many were relieved to hear that she had finally selected a mate, but the fear in that male had been real. But if she was that same female, then why was she acting in such a way toward him? She was twenty years his senior, as she had already been long unmated when he arrived at the haga. He had seen her only once in passing—the day she retrieved her mate—and the way her cold gaze followed him had been unsettling enough to have been burned into his memory. Her memory contributed to his hasty departure the moment he was capable of escaping.

Therxian inclined his head respectfully, carefully keeping his expression neutral. “Ferinia. I do not recall on what occasion we met. Are you certain? There is only one Ferinia I recall hearing of, and she had selected her mate when I was barely out of the nest.”

She gave him a disgruntled look and yanked her tail away, much to his relief. She smiled thinly at him. “You have a good memory after all, though it is unnecessary to speak of the past. I am currently unmated. I am also a female of a good house and have many more fertile revolutions ahead of me. I am one of several whom Queen Zathexa has approved to breed with you.”

He stiffened. “The queen has approved multiple females?”

That was not approved of by shinara law. Males once pheromone bonded and mated were not shared with other females. Such a male would be incapable of copulating with another female except by forced manipulation. Not until the pheromone bond faded—which could take several lunar cycles, or revolutions. Given that a pheromone bond could be established at the first joining, how did his mother presume getting around the pheromone bonding?

She inclined her head, her gavo snapping. “Naturally. She is not making the same mistake she made with Slengral. You are of the royal line and the shinara requires an heir—not the romance of mating. Therefore, many females are being selected from the best families to breed with you. The first to produce a royal female shall be the next queen matriarch.”

She slid her tail along his, twining the tip of her tail forcibly around his so that his secondary sant lined up with her lower vent and rubbed intimately against him. Her pheromones rose with a nauseating strength that threatened to overwhelm him. It plucked at his senses, threatening to stir his primary sant to life by the pheromones alone. They got thicker as she leaned forward so that her lips brushed his ear.

“I do believe that I am going to enjoy breeding you, Therxian,” she hissed, and her tongues slipped from her mouth to trail over the feathered, leathery folds of flesh that formed the edge of his ear.

He shuddered, his stomach dropping. His gaze hardened on a point in the distance, and he waited, unmoving, until she drew back with a satisfied smile on her face. He did not react but took a great deal of satisfaction in her anger when she noticed. She yanked her tail away, offended, her gavo rising as she drew herself up higher so that she towered somewhat over him. And still he did not move, but his hard gaze followed her as she withdrew with a loud hiss and glided past him.

Therxian waited until the sound of her departure faded before he allowed his eyes to close with relief, and he shuddered with revulsion. If she were one of the females his mother selected in order to accomplish the council’s means as quickly as possible, he did not want to know what else was held in store for him.

Suddenly, being trapped in his nest with a small, yappy human was very appealing. Recalling said human, he glanced down at the gifts clenched tightly and his hand and forced himself to relax. The corner of his mouth slowly rose as he imagined her reaction. She would be pleased with his gift, he was certain.

It was a shame he could not so easily satisfy the females after one thing alone from him without sacrificing his own body to them. Not that he would have much choice once he was exposed to their pheromones long enough. Being manipulated in such a way by numerous females rubbing against him—likely all at once in his bed if he was not wrong about the council’s intentions—made him feel sick. In comparison, the human female’s sharp tongue was infinitely more appealing, and he fled back into his nest with a heightened sense of eagerness that he could only explain as a need to escape fate.

One thing was certain, however. If he was going to be surrounded by females trying to breed him, Alex would definitely not be safe for long within his nest. He wondered if Jathella knew? The moment he considered it, he discarded the possibility. The sisters would never have hidden Alex there if they had not believed, as he had, that he would have a normal courtship and mating. They had assumed that they would have time.

It seemed that they had assumed wrongly. He needed to hide the human far from his nest. But why did cause something to ache strangely within his chest?

Snapping his gavo in irritation, he entered the nest from its connecting tunnel and forced a smile to his mouth as he lifted the bag and tube to the human sprawled on several cushions on the floor. As expected, her face lit up as she leaped to her feet and took them. What was unexpected, however, was the strange pulse of response from him as her hands brushed his.

Therxian shook off the sensation as he mentally dismissed it. His body was clearly still in a reactive state from Ferinia’s pheromones. He would have to practice greater restraint around the human, at least until they were flushed from his system.

Chapter 10

Alex snatched the metal tube up gleefully and lifted it to the light of the glowing crystals to examine it carefully. It was constructed exactly how she had asked. Long and thin with a slightly flared and rounded end to fit comfortably against her mouth, it was surprisingly lighter than she had anticipated. Given that it was clearly made from some sort of dark metal, she hadn’t expected the lack of weight to it. The metal had to be incredibly thin. She squeezed her finger against it experimentally, expecting it to have a slightly soft give like hammered tin. Nothing.

An excited grin spread quickly across her face as she promptly loaded one of the long needles, whirled around and took aim at the insect crawling up the wall. She expelled a sharp burst of breath, and the needle shot out, causing Therxian to recoil with a whip of his long tail as the needle slammed into the insect with a dull thud. The nest was completely silent as they stared together at the alien beetle as its long wings slid out and twitched momentarily before it tipped to its side and dropped to the ground.

Clutching her blowgun in her hand, she crept toward the insect and bumped it very quickly with the toe of her boot. It rocked with the force but otherwise didn’t move. Not even its long, spiny legs. They didn’t so much as twitch. Her smile returned triumphantly as she stared down at it, but it disappeared quickly when the Seshanamitesh suddenly reached forward and plucked the blowgun from her fingers.