Page 14 of His to Mate

7

For a minute,just for a minute, Ann wished the old world was back. Yeah, she had high hopes that the world would be better, and she planned to work hard to do that, but she missed things like Pinterest and Google. It would be nice to order something from Amazon again, or even Ebay. Now, she had to take what was brought to her or go and scavenge for it.

There’d been rumblings about problems in the sector that she often hunted for finds in, and now she had to bring a guard with her when she went out. She stared at him for a moment, the back of his head covered in a helmet that gleamed dark blue in the sunlight. She didn’t like it one bit.

She turned and walked through the aisles of what had once been a furniture store, the contents now were mostly destroyed, but sometimes she’d find hidden treasures. So far, she’d found a lamp in the shape of a tree with prisms that dangled from small limbs. She wasn’t sure where she’d put it, but she’d find a place.

Once she was certain she was done with the place for the day, she turned and started toward the doors. The sound of booted feet as they marched on the road outside stopped her. She looked back at her guard and wondered what to do. She didn’t want to talk to a bunch of soldiers right now, so she pretended she was interested in some curtain ties that had molded into a mess a long time ago.

She knew they’d probably only stopped for a break, so she waited and moved down close to the door to look at some Christmas decorations that had lost most of their paint. It was a holiday of the past, one that she might resurrect, she decided. She moved closer to the door as she walked by each row of decorations, all hung up on a pegboard that barely clung to life.

She went still as she heard two of the soldiers come close to the door and glanced at her guard. He didn’t look concerned, just bored, and waited patiently. He stepped a little closer when she turned, but voices stopped them both. Rager had quickly made it a rule that all of the aliens had to speak English when they were not on board their ship. It still hovered in the sky, almost big enough to block out the sunlight as the sun made its way across the sky. Because of this, the ship moved every day, not far, but enough to make sure all of the gardens had enough sunlight.

“I heard Rager’s human bitch is out here somewhere. He shouldn’t have mated to her. We need pure blood.”

Ann felt ice water run through her veins. Not this shit again. She glanced back at the soldier that guarded her and knew he’d heard it too.

“You really need to shut up about that, Melno. Somebody will hear you. Then we’ll both be fucked.”

“I don’t give a fuck who hears me. Rager has dishonored us all by marrying that human. Her DNA isn’t as strong as ours, it’s not as good as ours. She’s nothing but an inferior breeder. We’ll have women of our kind here soon enough; he should have waited.”

Ann felt rage replace the ice, and she looked at the soldier again. He was recording everything that was being said.

“Our men and women bred with the humans here before, Melno. You know we’re virtually the same. The difference in our DNA is so minute you can barely tell the difference. Why has it got such a huge bug up your ass that he mated to her?”

“It’s dishonorable. He shouldn’t mix our genetics with them, any more than any of us should mix with those wolf-people. Creepy fuckers, all of them.”

“They aren’t creepy, any of them, you moron. Come on, let’s get back in formation before you get us into trouble.”

“I’ll need you two to stay right there.” Ann looked back as her guard spoke up and walked past her.

“Shit, I told you, Melno!” the other one whined, but the happy chatter didn’t say much of anything.

Ann didn’t know the ranks of the alien soldiers, but she knew her guard outranked most of the foot soldiers. He called their superior over and for the next two hours, she sat in the furniture store and wished she’d just walked away from the soldiers. Then she wouldn’t have heard that man and she would have been home by now.

There’d been a lot of whispered conversations, questions from the leader of the squad on patrol, and then, a lot of nothing happened. She was told to stay put, so that’s what she did. She waited, on a recliner that she covered with a blanket she’d found wrapped in plastic. The blanket and chair both smelled moldy, but it was a place to sit.

“Are you alright, Ann?” Rager’s voice came from behind the chair.

“Oh, I’m fine. It was just some asshole running his mouth. Can we go home now?” She was tired, dirty, and hungry. All she wanted to do was go home.

“Of course. Let’s get you out of here.” He kissed her dirt-streaked forehead, and they left the building. She climbed into her transporter and followed him home. It was a quick trip, and she was in the shower before too long. He sat outside the glass cubicle, and talked to her about what had happened.

“Nothing really happened, Rager. The guy just said some things about how I was inferior and that alien women were coming soon, and you should have mated with one of those.”

“I don’t want any of those women. I wanted you before I even saw you, Ann. It happens like that sometimes. Not for everyone, but true mates have that ability.”

“So you don’t want some tall, buxom alien woman instead of me?” She rinsed the shampoo from her hair and waited for his answer.

“No, although, in our world, we can have more than one mate. I don’t want another mate, though. Just you.”

“Another mate? You mean polygamy?” She was surprised, but not completely shocked.

“Yes, men and women can take more than one mate, if it’s agreed upon by all involved, in our world.”

“Oh. Women can have more than one mate?” Her voice was steady, but she was still surprised.

“Of course, why not?”