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“Ralleth’s creature is afraid my mate will stop the new human from finding a mate because, obviously, my mate is the most amazing female,” I say to get the attention off of Olivia as she continues to grow even more red. She must be very embarrassed by this entire conversation because she has never been this red, even when we have poked fun at her for being with Ralleth.
“Yes, yes,” Olivia still covers her eyes and rubs at them like she can rub all of us away and pretend none of this has happened. But it has, and I will remember it forever. “Your mate is great, but can I talk to her without interruptions from you three?”
“I enjoy interrupting,” I say with a smile. My mate knows this is true, Olivia knows this is true, and everyone knows this is true. I have many things to contribute to conversations. Why would I not?
“Shush,” Kendra covers my mouth with her hand like she is strong enough to keep me from speaking. I huff a small laugh but remain silent while she keeps her hand on my mouth. She smiles sweetly when she sees I will be a good Erkoz while she speaks with the other human.
“We already talked about it,” Kendra talks more seriously when she faces Olivia. “I’ll only be touching and bothering Erkoz and Xoth for a while. I figure the ones who know A12-04 isn’t their mate will tell me when they know, and we can go from there.”
“Oh,” Olivia’s eyes widen, and her blush grows. “Good. Sorry, I don’t care about any of that. I just didn’t want there to be any fighting. I don’t think you’d do anything, but I don’t really know any of the other women from A12.”
Ralleth laughs. It takes all of my willpower not to laugh, too, and when I look at Xoth, I see he is struggling not to laugh as well. The humans are possessive of their mates, but there is no reason they should ever get into fights. Although it would be entertaining to see a human care so much about a male that she was willing to fight for him. We have all seen Almaac fight for his female, but the closest we have gotten to a female getting angry was when Almaac accidentally picked up Kendra instead of Diane since he is awful at telling them apart.
“I am not the fighting type,” Kendra ignores our laughter. “I have two males perfectly capable of keeping me entertained.”
“Yes, you do,” I hiss in her ear, letting my tongue flick across her neck. “I would like to entertain you now.”
Olivia clears her throat as though she thinks I have forgotten she is still there. I have not, obviously. I want to see if I can get her to leave because she is embarrassed by the affection I show my mate. Or if I can get my Kendra to silence me again because I very much want to show her she cannot right now.
“We will leave you, brothers,” Ralleth says with a chuckle as he picks his mate up and moves back across the dining hall to the seat where they usually sit.
“Wait!” Kendra waves at Olivia and Ralleth, and a frown takes the place of my smile. I want my Kendra to be aroused right now, not calling for us to continue to be interrupted by others. “Who’s going to greet A12-04 when she comes through?”
“Oh, I didn’t even think about that,” Olivia’s face pales for a moment. “We didn’t even get tunics.”
“Erkoz will fix this,” I say quickly. I dislike it when the females are not pink, and Olivia is the opposite of pink right now. Whatever is worrying her will not trouble her for much longer. “I will get a tunic from my sister’s old room, yes? It will be old enough that it no longer smells like Almaac.”
Kendra looks up at me with tears sparkling in her eyes. I would be concerned if she wasn’t smiling. She has happy tears for me, but I do not know why. It is a question for another time. I need to help Olivia before the next female gets here, or she will be left to worry and fret on her own. Xoth opens his arms for Kendra, and she crawls into his lap, vacating mine.
I’m up in an instant and running down the halls back toward Diane’s first room when she was here. Xoth and I repaired the door. Well, I repaired the door since it was my fault that Almaac broke it to get to his mate, so it was only right that I was the one to fix it. The next human will stay in this room, so she doesn’t need to see that an angry Almaac beat down the door. None of the other brothers have such a lack of self-control, or at least I hope not, because one Almaac is already enough to deal with.
A few tunics are lying on the floor. I grab one that seems clean and doesn’t smell like Almaac. Not that I can smell what any of the others smell like. That is a human feature that we do not have. I shrug and fist the tunic, hoping it will be good enough for the next human.
I pause to check the door one last time to make sure it will keep the new human secure. When I’ve leaned on it and tugged on it enough to feel good, I make my way back to the dining hall.
My brothers are still chatting amongst each other loud enough for me to hear them down the hall, so I think nothing of the hall ending near the partition where the humans arrive. I do not think a human female will appear suddenly, and I definitely do not need to be the first male she sees.
“Naked human,” I call out when the human looks at me wide-eyed. I cover my eyes as fast as possible and extend my arm with the tunic. The human is probably scared of me, though, so she does not come to take the tunic. “Kendra! Get over here. A sister is here, but she is naked, and I do not want to look at her.”
I hear the soft padding of my mate running toward me, and then the tunic is ripped from my hands. “Ignore him. Pretend he’s not here, A12-04. You’re safe. No one here will hurt you.”
I sigh and relax my shoulders when I hear Kendra soothing her sister. I keep my hand over my eyes so the new female knows I did not mean to look at her naked body. I take small stumbling steps until I feel a brother grab my arm, and then I allow myself to look around. Dath is at my side, holding my elbow to guide me back to the tables. I want to thank him, but he is too focused on returning to his room now that the storms have started.
I return to my seat next to Xoth and start tapping my fingers on the table to ease some of the tension in my body. I want my mate back in my lap. That will put me entirely at ease. Her sister comes first, though. She needs to help the new human acclimate to our world, and when she does, she will spend all of her time with Xoth and me. I look over at Xoth and smile at him. We were in the same seats twenty-eight days ago, but we are much happier now.
Xoth
Six Months Later
Ieyetheroughmaterial we use to smooth out our projects like it will jump off the table and bite me. This is irrational. I know this, but I can’t help but feel a churn in my gut when I look at it. Kendra suggested we do this days ago because she enjoys having my head rest against her chest, but I have scratched her a few times. She thinks she has a solution since I do not enjoy sleeping with a tunic around my head.
“If it hurts at all, you tell me to stop.” Kendra cups my face and forces me to look into her eyes. She is standing on a stool that Erkoz made so she can reach things in the shop that are too high for her. Now, she is using it to see the top of my head while torturing me.
“I will do this even if it hurts so my mate is happy.” I do not care if it is the most excruciating thing I have ever felt. I will do anything for my mate, and if smoothing out my horns will make her happy, then I will do it. How can she think I will let a small thing like pain stop me?
“You will not.” She digs her frail claws into my cheeks but does not hurt me. I do not think she could hurt me if she tried. Oh, except for maybe smoothing out my horns. “I’m serious. I don’t care about it that bad. I just want you to be comfortable while we sleep.”
“Fine,” I huff. I do not plan on actually telling her if it hurts. I will keep the secret for the rest of my life, and she will never know if she hurt me.
