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“Yet you said Masey’s mate treated her poorly,” Louella pointed out, not wanting to use the wordabusewhen she did not have the facts.
“Aye, he did treat her poorly, and I regretted not warning her of his less than admirable qualities before she accepted him. But she was his mate and, unless I wished to challenge him for his mate and claim her for my own—” his expression wrinkled in distaste “—then I had no recourse except to assign him positions that would not contribute to his ill temper to inflict upon her.”
Louella snorted. “It probably would have been better to put him on the front lines so he could die in battle.”
He nodded. “It would, except once a warrior mates, his allegiance changes. He is more concerned with the well-being of his mate than with the well-being of his people.”
Louella frowned, because military personnel on Earth married and had families all the time.Of course, they also have a high divorce rate. She ignored that and asked, “Can’t a mated warrior handle both?”
“Not an Ahn’hudi warrior. However, such a warrior remains too dangerous to be allowed to retire from military service, so he is put to other duties. That is what happened to Horas and Sarus. They were reassigned to train young warriors. Doing that puts their skills to good use and shares their vast knowledge with those who will make good use of it on behalf of Ahn’hudin.”
“And you?”
“Until I found you, I remained an active warrior. Now that I am mated, I will no longer fight in military campaigns—not that the emperor does so anyway.”
“We were talking about Masey,” she reminded him, not admitting that her questions had turned the topic of conversation.
“Of course. Like all intelligent species, we Ahn’hudin have those who do not uphold our ideals, who are dishonorable. Every civilization has its criminals and unworthy individuals. I assume humans do, too.”
She nodded, unable to deny that humanity probably had more than its fair share of dishonorable people. “Yeah, we do.”I’m related to more than one of them.
“Masey was saved by Horas and Sarus; my bloodline owes them for saving one of our precious females and doing so with great honor,” Jax said. “When I learned that she was being courted by a merchant, I had him thoroughly investigated. Although I could not forbid the union, I could discourage it if I were convinced he was a poor choice.”
“Is he?”
Jax smiled a small, closemouthed smile. “No, he is kind and gentle with her, a good male for her, if lower in status.”
Louella stifled a grin, because Jax was not always kind and gentle with her. Sometimes their sex play turned rough and left bruises on her flesh. But she liked it. Oh, how she liked it!
But Jax was sweet and gentle when and where it counted. That she could not deny.
“Doesn’t she want a career of her own?” Louella felt obligated to ask, obligated because … because …oh, hell, I don’t know why. It just seems wrong to be so utterly dependent.
“Ahn’hudi females may pursue careers if they so wish and if their mates agree, but most do not. Their domestic responsibilities fulfill them.”
Still feeling obligated to defend a woman’s right and obligation to have a career, Louella asked, “And what if they can’t afford to stay at home and not earn an income?”
Jax looked horrified. “Does that happen on Earth? Are females often obligated to abandon their families to earn an income?”
Louella blinked rapidly. “Um … yeah. But working mothers usually find child care.”
“Child care?”
“Um, yeah, people hired to take care of your kids while you’re at work.” She didn’t mention that the lion’s share of many of her coworkers’ salaries went to paying for child care expenses. It was almost cheaper not to work. That didn’t sit well either.It’s a game nobody wins.
“Barbaric. Younglings should be raised by their families.” He shook his head and wrapped his arms around her. “It is good that you came to Ahn’hudin so you might be spared such an atrocity of cultural failure.”
Louella opened her mouth to object, then recalled how many of her coworkers had lamented having missed their children’s important events—school plays, sports, and other milestones including first steps and even potty training—because their families’ well-being depended upon their incomes just to survive.In many ways, Ahn’hudi culture is not all bad.
Louella kissed his cheek and extracted herself from his embrace to peer out the window again before the pod plunged beneath the earth on the last leg of its journey.And how does this thing fly without wings? Or an engine? I don’t hear an engine.
She was surprised at the hustle and bustle of the terminal when their conveyance arrived and disgorged its royal passengers. A waiting company of royal guards greeted them with low grunts and chest thumps. Yas’kihn stood tall and regal, an imperial warrior who now ruled an entire planet with confidence. Whether he really felt that way she didn’t know, but she suspected he harbored more than one doubt about his ability to carry the whole thing off without a glitch. He was too intelligent not to have doubts.
Louella did not protest the golden collar wrapped around her throat or the delicate leash that connected her to his hand, even though she wondered if her growing collection of collars and leashes could be destroyed. She took comfort at least in knowing she wore one of the pretty gowns she’d purchased the day before rather than something that made her feel like a porn star in a grade Z movie.
The company of warriors fanned out to either side of her and trailed behind, putting distance between the new emperor and the public. Four guardsmen rushed ahead to clear the way. Louella sneaked glimpses at other travelers going about their business, embarking and disembarking from various terminals. Like the port city, the transportation hub teemed with an amazing assortment of beings.
After what had to have been nearly two miles of walking down vast corridors and thousands of people, they finally arrived at a set of tall doors.
