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He nuzzled her neck. “They didn’t feed you. You are hungry.”
She whined softly, and her knees buckled.
“And weak but responsive.”
She trembled.
“What were you doing up here?”
She swallowed and whispered, “I need to pick a bond. I have already been here seven days. I only have three more before I pick a bond or get stuck with grunt work. I have done a lot of basic work in my life. The assessor said I was suited to be a storm rider.”
Yavor smiled. “Of course, you are. You have met my mount.”
“Abet.” As she said the name, the beast chortled and rocked back and forth.
“Ah, he shared his name. He’s taken with you.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “As am I, but I will have a better chanceof mating with you than he will. But you were right about your bond. That needs to be settled.”
He kissed her again, pulling her up and against him, so they were face to face. He turned his face toward Rey and Aybee. “Let Lily use the lift. Irith will never forgive me if her sister takes a tumble down the steps.”
Lily stared with her eyes wide. “Where are you going?”
“My home. We will formalize the bond and contract there.”
Iris turned to her sister. “You really don’t want to watch any of that.”
She wrapped her arms around Yavor’s neck. He kissed her temple, and they launched skyward. Iris pressed her face to his neck, and he flew them toward his home. He had not changed his mind about the contract.
His arms held her, her legs tangled a little with his, and she realized he had six limbs. All the Hmrain did. It was something she hadn’t noticed before. How could they be compatible when they didn’t have the same number of limbs?
He swept and soared across the city and climbed upward to tuck them behind more walls before landing in front of a very large building.
She swallowed as he set her down and took her by the hand. “Come, Irith, let’s formalize things so that you have the protections of the law.”
“Oh, against the Vor?”
“Them and the two other half-Hmrain who are serving their apprenticeship here.”
She looked around. “Here?” She got very nervous very quickly. The warnings against adolescent Hmrain were plentiful, and that included any of them under the age of seventy-five.
“No. They are at the new city, overseeing construction.” He glanced down at her. “You are tense at the thought of others of my kind?”
“In the language lessons, it has words for young male Hmrain, and none of them are flattering.”
He snorted. “I suppose they would not be. It is a difficult time for most species, and we were designed and enter the universe wide awake and adults. When we manage to reproduce, the children are exposed to evolving hormones that we never experienced in underdeveloped bodies with minds that have limited self-control. It takes years to gain control of what they are. Bodies that can fly from star to star.”
They were walking into the structure through doors that were wide enough for his wings.
She asked, “Are there Terran women at the other city?”
“Just the two that are being held for off-world transport. Neither of the males there has an interest in them. I must say, we rarely throw things back, but those two are poison. They will go to a spaceport where their bonds can be sold off, and they might bring themselves happiness.”
“Or get out of your space and stop spewing poison.”
He chuckled as his staff assembled. “Definitely that.”
The staff were from seven different species that Vor hosted. Two of the members were elderly Terrans. Four were from the species that now identified as Vor, and the others were all in pairs and looked to be couples.
“They are all mated pairs?” she whispered to him.
