Page 35 of Breaking Ties

“If my people had known about yours earlier, there wouldn’t be any of the companion class left.”

She shrugged. “There isn’t any left on Earth now. The real thing to think about is that Ra was there for thousands of years. Now we are in space, and most of the ladies in a bulk bond were never tested. Testing them after the bond is paid off is tricky. They literally don’t have to go in.”

He grinned. “But I have you.”

“You do.”

“And you are a perfect consort.”

“Thank you.”

“So, now, do I want to bite you and start your adaptation into a Hmrain consort before dinner, or do I want to play a bit more and then spend the next few days learning every inch of you?”

“Both sound good.”

He laughed and coaxed her into a kiss that brought a taste of her own sex along with the sensitizing agent in his saliva. She squirmed and clutched at him in desperation.

He settled between her thighs and took his own meal from her inner thigh. She screamed, locked her fingers in his hair, and rode out the waves of enjoyment coming from the bite as he drank with slow, fluttering suction.

Aubrey shivered and eventually slumped on the bedding. Vress lifted his head and smiled. “This is going to work very well.”

She got her breathing under control. “I am very happy for you.”

He laughed and moved up her body, cuddling her and covering her with his wing. He still had his lower body covered, so she wasn’t going to waddle into the captain’s dinner.

He murmured that she needed to rest, and he was going to hold her while she rested.

She hadn’t been put down for a nap since she was four years old, but he kissed her forehead, and she let a warm, white cloud of unconsciousness move over her.

* * * *

Vress looked down at the new consort he was holding under. It took some doing; she was strong, but she needed more rest than she had been getting, and he was going to make sure she spent enough time in bed.

There was a soft scratch at the door, and he murmured authorization. Aubrey’s wardrobe was carried in and installed in the wardrobe he had ready for her. He kept Aubrey covered under his wing until the crew were gone, and then he looked at her sleeping features.

She had straight, fine features and short dark hair that he wanted addressed when they reached a station that could manage it. Perhaps Aten had such a unit. He wanted her hair wound with gems and long enough to wrap in his fists.

Her ears were pointed as his were, and as he looked her over, he smirked; they would make adorable children if they managed to conceive.

Not in two thousand years did he think a consort would smite him, but there was no doubt that this woman, less than two weeks of her damaged world, was going to be his focus for quite some time. He grinned and smoothed hair away from her cheek. He was rather looking forward to it.

He was going to have to send the designers something nice if this worked out.

* * * *

Aubrey jolted awake, as she always did, to see Vress up on one elbow looking at her with intense focus. “Um, hello.”

He grinned. “Do you feel rested?”

“I... yes. Thank you. Have you been watching me?”

“Yes. I was looking for any birthmarks, but you have none. No scarring either.”

“The repair unit went over me from head to toe. It removed every scar, fixed my teeth, and took care of calluses.”

“And did nothing for your hair?”

“I cut the hair afterward.”