Page 12 of His to Mate

6

“I really don’t seewhy you’re objecting to the uniforms, Ann. They’re dogs, after all. Human dogs.” The woman’s shrill voice, at the height of condescension, filled the study of Ann’s home two days later.

Ann closed her eyes for a minute and tried to wipe the look of scorn off of her face. “Penelope, you’re very stupid, do you know that?”

The room filled with ten other women, the mates of other aliens down the rank line that stretched out behind Rager, gasped as one. Normally, they all ignored Ann because she didn’t say a lot. When she did speak, the women usually just blinked and then ignored her. She’d had enough of it and refused to let Penelope lead the group, as she usually did, anymore.

“How dare you?” Penelope, dressed in a mint-green silk suit stood up on tacky white pumps and glared down at Ann. “I’m…”

“Nobody compared to me, Penelope. Sit down and shut the fuck up.” Ann stood up from the chair she was sat in and looked around the room. “I’d like to remind you all exactly who I am. I am the supreme leader’s wife. None of you will ever, ever outrank me.”

She wasn’t happy to do this, but after an hour of listening to their petty ideas and plans, she’d had enough. “The wolf-shifters are not subhumans. They are, actually, stronger than us. They are healthier than us and likely to outlive us all. These stupid ideas that we have to treat them like slaves have to go, and I will tell you right now, I will not have this idiotic idea of uniforms spreading any further. I hate uniforms, I refuse to wear one, I don’t care how much time you’ve spent on the design for the mates of the aliens, Penelope. It’s an ugly idea. And the uniforms you’ve designed for the wolves are, frankly, atrocious. Sit down and don’t stand back up unless I tell you to.”

She looked around the room, now firmly in her control, and hoped none of them could see how surprised she was that any of them had actually listened to her. She felt a shaking inside, like she might fall down, but she stood firm. She had this one chance now, to make the world different from the way it used to be. She was going to take it.

“We will not be having these cute little meetings anymore, ladies, where we only talk about which of us is pregnant, or what new treasure we’ve found for our houses. We are the mates of the leaders of this new world, and it’s time to act like it. We’re going to start talking about schools for the children we plan to produce, about making sure all children in the world get an education, and how we can help our mates turn this into the kind of world they came from. I don’t know if any of you noticed it or not, but the world we lost? It wasn’t working, and well, the aliens are lightyears ahead of us. Literally.”

Ann looked around, saw a few pouting faces, but not many. She saw that most of the women looked relieved. Some realness, at last, she could see it in their expressions, mixed with that relief. “Now, anybody have any other ideas?”

“As you said, Ann,” a woman with red hair stood up and said, Ann thought her name was Meg but couldn’t remember for sure, “we’ve all been discussing babies and pregnancies, but where are we going to have those babies? We have no hospitals now, or clinics even. I was a nurse before this all happened, and I think we need to talk with our mates about what kind of healthcare we’re going to receive from them. If we need to make a clinic, you know?”

“Totally agree. Want to start a committee on that?” Ann nodded with approval. This was much better than listening to Penelope droning on about color schemes and what wolves were allowed and not allowed to wear.

“I gather textbooks when I come across them, and non-fiction books too. I’ve kind of started a library in a building behind our house,” another woman said quickly, her dark brown eyes alight with joy. “If anyone wants to use my books, I’ll be glad to show them to you.”

“That’s really great. What else can we do, ladies? It’s time to stop waiting on our mates to do things and start thinking for ourselves, a little bit.”

The room filled with excited chatter and Ann felt her own relief, at last. She might have overstepped her bounds, telling them all that the wolf shifters were stronger and all of that, but it was the truth. Even Rager had said they were. They were a threat to the purity of the DNA here, though, and that was the only reason they were being kept at a lower rank. Since they’d come back from their trip, they’d talked a lot more, and he came home earlier in the day than he used to.

They’d even broached the subject of the forced servitude of the wolves. It hadn’t exactly been a calm discussion, but Rager had listened. He didn’t see it as slavery, but Ann did. She thought she’d started to make some inroads on that front, and was hopeful, at least. Now, she’d taken control of these vapid meetings these women insisted on having, maybe she could make some more progress.

She’d sat through most of these luncheons wondering how these women had survived. They were even looking for a nail technician, who could do their nails for them! Ann had a lot of worries on her mind, and today had been the day that it all broke. While she’d hated to lose her temper, she could see now that maybe it was what had been needed. The women were excited as they talked about all of the things that would move their lives forward in positive ways.

Later, once everything was rebuilt and life started to move forward, they could discuss things like what to replace hairspray with, and getting their nails done, but right now, they needed to work on far more important things. Ann was glad to see that had begun.

It was hard for her to trust people, the situation was too new, too out of the realm of possibilities. Her mind wasn’t made up about what was safe and what wasn’t. Not even Rager had situated himself into a box yet. Ann’s body was certainly addicted to the man, but her mind still wondered.

She’d wanted to love the man she married, mated in this case, and the idea of an arranged marriage would have horrified her when she first fell for Rex. It had horrified her, up until the moment their modallas were merged. Then, everything had changed. She wouldn’t exactly call what she felt for him love yet, but it was bordering on severe infatuation. Given time to learn to trust him, she might. Maybe. He was still an overlord.

Ann decided to get a glass of juice and walked over to the table where a servant stood waiting to take orders for drinks. “May I have some apple juice, please?”

“Certainly, ma’am.” The young woman kept her eyes down and even did a little bob up and down. Ann frowned and looked back at the women behind her.

This was exactly what she didn’t want. Rager told her that his world advanced because they’d taken a totally different path to the one the people of Earth took. This was an old path, and one that hadn’t worked. “Do you need a break?”

“What, ma’am?” The woman looked up, startled at the question. Humans didn’t often ask her questions like that, Ann had to assume.

“Are you tired? Do you need a break? We can have someone else serve drinks if you are.”

“No, ma’am. I’m fine, honest.” The young woman with curly, dark hair and bright blue eyes looked worried, her eyes on Ann’s for only a second before she looked down again. “I’m a good worker, I promise.”

“Where were you before you came here?” Ann asked as the woman handed her a glass of juice with ice in it.

“At Ms. Penelope’s, ma’am.” Ann didn’t think it was possible, but the woman’s head sank even lower.

“I see.” Ann glanced at the woman in question and wondered what she could do about that woman. “Well, you don’t have to call me ma’am, and you certainly don’t have to curtsy, please don’t do that anymore.”

“Yes, ma-, er,…” her voice trailed off. Confusion and panic warred on her face and Ann realized that was her fault.