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The thing I find most odd is that no new reinforcements have arrived. They can’t possibly send us all off to the front lines without replacing their losses. It gives me hope that I may be kept back here until they do. I revel in the idea of having more time with Sophia.
“Come on,” yells Freck, drawing me out of my internal musing. “Let’s get a good view of the stage, the girls are about to come on.”
It’s the last thing I feel like doing. I just want to spend some time with Sophia before our mating ceremony. I glance down the bar. She’s at the far end, laughing with a couple of young Odex lads. For a split second, I want to rip out their throats for leering at my woman. I can’t wait to get her out of here to a better life where she doesn’t have to put up with that shit.
Freck follows my gaze. “Let ‘em be, Drex. She’s just doing her job, and they’re just pissant kids. Look, Linus has got us a good table near the front. Let’s go.”
“You go ahead,” I tell him. “Maybe the bar will quiet down once the girls start dancing and I’ll get a chance to have five minutes with her.”
“Suit yourself,” he replies, and then he’s gone, elbowing his way through the throng.
Sitting alone in the crowded bar gives me a chance to people-watch. I notice the furrowed lines between people's brows and the stench of hyped-up adrenaline. The girls, grasping at their last straws to grab a man and a ticket out of this soon-to-be hell hole.
The place felt like fun when I first came here. But now I see it for what it is. The meeting place of desperate souls caught up in a war they don’t understand. A fight for the right to mine a wealth of minerals that will never line the pockets of the people here with anything more than the dust of empty promises.
“And so for your delight,” calls the proprietor from the floodlit stage. “Your last chance to bag one of these rare beauties to take home with you!”
There are catcalls and cheers as two identical twins appear, one from either side of the stage. They make a big show of rubbing up and down their boss, who laps it up, curling his arms around their waists and taking firm hold of an ass in both hands. The girls pout, and the credits roll in.
The night seems interminably long. When Sophia is not serving, she is desperately trying to keep up with clearing the bar of glasses and bottles. But slowly and surely the bar empties of patrons.
There is a roar from the crowd that still lingers at the front of the stage. The final act must have impressed them.
“Thank you for your appreciation, gentlemen,” the boss cries as he walks onto the stage. “Tonight we have a very special occasion occurring right after the show. The mating ceremony of our esteemed Sophia, with her tall and handsome blue gentleman, Drex!”
There are whistles and shouts of approval from the audience.
“So if any of you lucky lads want to bag a mate to take home, there is an officiant on-site at your disposal!”
The biggest reaction to this is laughter from the inebriated squaddies, but I do notice a few looking longingly into the eyes of the woman on their lap. Trust Sophia’s jerk boss to make this into a spectacle. But I don’t really care as long as I get the piece of paper that will offer Sophia some legal protection.
A Kaleidian mating ceremony is normally a long and drawn-out affair, but tonight as we stand among the debris of the evening’s revelry after the bar has closed and most everyone has gone home, the human officiant keeps it short and sweet.
“Please turn to face your chosen mate,” she says.
Sophia looks up at me with starry-eyed wonder. The setting is so surreal, I think neither of us really appreciated, until this moment, that this was going to happen.
“We are joined here in front of witnesses to recognize the mating rights of Drex Anton, and Sophia Honey,” she goes on to the catcalls from the drunken audience consisting largely of the girls that work here.
I do notice Freck among them, with a woman tucked under each arm, and Linus in the corner making the most of the distraction with two more. There are also several other swaying soldiers that I do not recognize, each with a woman clinging desperately to their arm. I wonder if they will follow after us, a last-minute grab for freedom. Sophia’s money hungry boss probably sold slots to see the officiant.
“Do you both consent to this union?” she asks.
“I do,” I reply.
“As do I,” says Sophia, looking radiant.
“You are legally mated. Please sign the documents provided,” she finishes, sending the docs to our comm devices. “Next!”
13
SOPHIA
“This is… perfect.”
The "hotel" room is really just military housing, but I'm not complaining. I'm married to the man I love. This day couldn't possibly get any better. It was something I never dared to wish for, but now that it's here, that he's here, I couldn't imagine my life without him.
He closes the door to the room quietly, and I can't help but admire him in all his blue scaled glory. He's so tall, handsome, and strong.
