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Diane runs out from behind the partition, right past Erkoz and me. I am terrible at hiding how I feel for her, but thankfully, her mate only pays attention to her, not the male who ogles her whenever she is near. Her dark hair flows down to the middle of her back, her skin is tanned, and her eyes are dark but not black like ours. I have studied her during meals when she sits in her mate’s lap and eats from his hand. It is despicable what I do, but I cannot stop myself.
“We want to play the games,” Diane says to Ralleth’s mate. She is the one who first came up with the idea for games. Or, she talked with some brothers before Diane arrived, and they planned out the games. It wasn’t anything serious. We just wanted to see who could score the most points with the next female before she found her mate. Silly things like whose tunic she would choose, whose name would be the first she said, little things like that. Of course, Diane was the next female to come, and she was badly hurt, so no games were had.
“She’s agreed to it?” Ralleth’s mate asks. She is always happy and always kind to the brothers. She will most definitely agree to the games so long as the new human wants to play them. That is all that Olivia seems to care about is that her sisters are treated fairly. It also means staying on her good side is easy because we all want to treat the human females very well.
“All of you are about to find out that my sister is a lot more fun than me,” Diane chuckles. “She’s agreed to it along with one other thing.” Her eyes turn to Erkoz, and I turn to goo as her eyes cross mine for just a moment. I wish she looked at me with the same amusement she is looking at Erkoz now, but if she did, I would surely not be able to contain how I am feeling.
“Say what you want to say,” Erkoz hisses at Diane. He may sound upset, but he is entertained that she calls him out. “You will be cruel to Erkoz, no matter what. He does not need you to draw out the torture.”
“You’ll play a separate game from all the other brothers,” Diane smiles as she talks. “Your one goal is to get my sister to say your name before she finds a mate.”
“Easy.” Erkoz stands and claps me on the shoulder before moving away from me. I stare at him, bewildered, but he narrows his eyes at me like he is trying to say something I cannot understand since he is not using words. I put the thoughts aside when he moves to the opposite side of the room and pulls out a chair next to Toron. He leans in and whispers something to the other male, who looks annoyed that Erkoz is even talking to him. When Erkoz finishes, Toron turns to him with a smile, and they shake hands. “Erkoz accepts the deal with the new female, Kendra.”
“You do?” Diane cocks a brow at him. We are all stunned that he is willing to say the female’s name before he has even seen her. What if she is ugly, or he does not actually want to bed her? He is saying her name now to stake a claim on her, but none of the other males will put much weight into it since it is Erkoz saying it. He is rarely ever serious about anything he does.
“I do.” Erkoz nods before crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Is she going to meet us anytime soon, or will we talk to the partition until she decides on a mate?”
Diane frowns slightly and looks at Erkoz with suspicion. “Seriously? I thought you’d be more upset?”
“Erkoz gets to play his own game with the new female. How could I be upset?”
“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Diane huffs as she goes back behind the partition. Erkoz looks at me for a moment and points at me with a single finger. His lips move like he is silently saying something, but I do not catch it. He doesn’t repeat himself, just jabs his finger in my direction again as I throw my hands up in confusion. Whatever it is, he will tell me tonight, or I will never know what he wants.
“Okay,” Diane says loud enough for the whole dining hall to hear. “On Earth, sometimes our women can have more than one young at once. That’s what happened with my sister and me. So, no freaking out or thinking this is a trick.”
There is a brief silence when all the brothers look at one another, confused. We don’t have time to ask Diane what that is supposed to mean before she steps out from behind the partition. I hold my breath for a moment as I wait to see what the new female looks like. As soon as she comes into my vision, I understand who the woman in my dreams has been.
Mine.
My mind races as I see the human female that looks just like Diane. The same long dark hair, the same tanned skin, and the same dark eyes. Only one thought forms and pushes itself so firmly to the front of my mind I can think of nothing else. This new female is the female in my dreams. She is my mate, and I am no longer an awful, dishonorable male.
I beg for her eyes to meet mine to see if there is even a glimmer of want in them like I feel for her. I rub the jagged edges of my horns, and I feel ugly for the first time in my life. My horns did not grow right when I was younger. They’re deformed and stunted. I never minded because there were never any females to impress, but now that there is one, I worry she will not give me a second look because my brothers all have much better horns than me.
I’m so preoccupied with my thoughts of the female thinking I am not handsome that I completely miss her looking in my direction. My heart sinks when I see she’s already moved on to my other brothers, not sparing me a second look.
I rub my eyes with the pads of my fingers, and when I open them, I feel Erkoz staring daggers into me. He’s pointing at me again and then balling his hand into a fist before hitting his other palm softly a few times. I shake my head, still not understanding what he wants, and this time, he throws his hands up.
“Let’s move on with the games,” Erkoz says when he relaxes back in his chair. “My Kendra needs to finish with them so she can see that her mate is right here.”
I should hate that Erkoz is already staking a claim on the female, but I do not. If anything, it makes me feel better because his eyes look over at me occasionally as his lips pull upward. He is scheming something, and I think I am supposed to be helping him with it. The other brothers do not take his claim on her any more seriously than they take him in general. That is the only reason they do not argue or fight with him. I only know he is serious about what he says because I have seen myself sharing a mate with Erkoz, and this female is the one we share.
“Not yours.” Kendra crosses her arms in front of her chest as she stares at Erkoz. His chest puffs out under her gaze, and all of us can see he is just happy to have her attention. She turns to her sister. “This is the one who’s been bothering you?”
“He calls me ugly,” Diane says with her hands on her hips.
Erkoz looks at his claws for a moment. “Because you are. Your sister is beautiful, though.”
“Hey!” Both women shout at Erkoz, but I can see the slightest hint of pink in Kendra’s cheeks. Maybe she enjoys Erkoz’s teasing. That is good since she will have to deal with it every day, even after she has accepted that she is our mate.
Erkoz hisses his amusement at their reactions, loving all the attention he is getting. “Play your game.” He stands from his chair and moves it further down the hall, where there is empty space. He turns it around and then straddles it with his head on his arms crossed over the top. “Erkoz will watch and be good.”
Erkoz
IfXothmessesup,I will never forgive him. That is what I have been thinking so strongly every time I look at him. I try to make him hear my thoughts, but I think it is entirely hopeless every time he looks at me with wide eyes. Surely, if I have seen him sharing my mate in my dreams, he has been seeing the same. Every time I look at him, he’s so transfixed on Kendra that he must think she is his. So, when I get his attention and try to make it clear he needs to win whatever games Diane and Kendra have come up with, and he doesn’t understand, I want to strangle him more and more.
“First game is simple,” Diane announces to all the brothers.
She’s already had them stand up and move close to the empty area closest to the double doors that lead outside. Some brothers are antsy as they move from one foot to the other. It is clear to me watching them that none of them know what their females look like in their dreams. There is no way they do, or they would not be so eager to get with my mate. They should be happy that Xoth and I are not nearly as territorial over our mate as Ralleth or Almaac is over theirs.
