He was two seconds away from tearing the human’s arms off when a dribbling sound and the odor of salty urine made his lip curl with disgust. Ben ripped his hands away and scramble back, his heart beating madly with fear.
“What is going on here?” Mahuura’s disapproving voice came from behind him.
Lerix suppressed a pang of disappointment when he realized that the male hadn’t released Cara just because of his aggressive display. Ben’s wary eyes were trained over his shoulder on the angry Kadesh female standing just feet away. Lerix had been so absorbed in his anger that he hadn’t even noticed her approach.
“Benjamin, what do you think you were doing?” the female hissed again when Ben failed to promptly provide her with an explanation. “I trusted you to behave and as soon as I am absent you are assaulting this female. Explain yourself.”
“Unfortunately, doing things he shouldn’t when he isn’t being watched is his usual behavior,” Cara said coolly, her eyes narrowed on Ben as she rubbed her reddened wrists. Lerix growled. He was going to kill that little shit.
The only thing that stopped him was that Mahuura snarled angrily at that moment at Ben, making the human cower and Lerix smirked as he revised his stance.
No, killing him would be merciful. Instead, he would see the male cemented in his bonds that he’d been so eager to enjoy a taste of. Mahuura was a young female, but she wasn’t going to be manipulated by the male.
“Now, sweetheart,” the sweating male attempted to cajole.
“Not a word, Benjamin. Apologize to Cara and Lerix before the male does something horrible to you. I won’t have you damaged before our mating ceremony.” She narrowed her eyes. “And you will not be escaping our mating ceremony. Before we lay together, I did you the courtesy of telling you first that Kadesh mate. I do not believe in the dishonesty and trickery that some of kin and friends employ. You thought you could get what you want and leave anyway. Instead, you will learn to be a good male for our family.”
Cara bit at her lip. “No offense, Mahuura, but wouldn’t you rather have a guy who’s more… I don’t know… trustworthy?”
The female laughed gaily. “I am not concerned. He is an attractive male and will provide good company once he gets his silly notions out of his head. He will learn how to treat his mate right. In time, I believe he will give me many young once we are settled. Many matings start out difficult, but after a time, things work out,” she said with a fanged grin at Ben as she stepped up beside him, her tail curling around him snugly.
Lerix chuckled, ignoring the small frown Cara directed at him. He knew she probably disapproved of how much pleasure he was getting out of the moment, but he felt no shame over it. She was probably going to dislike what he was going to say even more.
“Mahuura, it would be a great pleasure to stand with your brothers at your mating ceremony if you so allow. I would be grateful to be allowed the honor.”
The female flushed blue and nodded her head.
“Thank you. I only have two brothers, and they are still making their way home from other regions of Kaidava for the mating ceremony. Having more fierce males present will be an inspiring sight.” She turned with a shy smile at Cara. “And if it is not too uncomfortable for you, I would like you to come. You seem like a good and honorable female, and it pains me that these events hurt you. I do not regret securing a healthy male to father my children, but I do not like causing another female unhappiness. I only wish that you do not hate me for it.”
Lerix looked over at Cara, curious as to how she would react. Most offworlders would react with hostility to such statements to soothe their injured pride. The young female looked so hopeful that Lerix worried that Cara would crush the young female’s tender heart. To his pleasure, rather than rebuff the overture from the Kadesh female, Cara returned the smile.
“I have to admit that I was hurt, and I may have blamed you when I didn’t understand how things worked for your species, but I don’t feel any anger toward you any longer.” She paused and studied Ben. “This situation has made me aware of certain things I ignored and saved me from making a decision that would have probably ruined my life. In fact, I think seeing him properly mated in a permanent inviolable relationship would be just the thing to give me closure.” As she said the last word, her lips curved in a triumphant smile.
Lerix relaxed. Hope flitted through his gut. She was letting Ben go without reservation or bitterness. He may win his female yet.
The female squealed and clapped her hands, her tail tightening around Ben, making the human hunker down with a wince.
“I am so excited! Please join us in Lominoa. It is about an hour north of here on the plateau where my family run their farmlands. The ceremony is not for another week but it would be my pleasure to provide you with any accommodations you may need until then. Let me get your comm information and I will provide you with all the details.”
It was Lerix’s pleasure to provide their information as Cara watched on with interest.
Chapter 15
Cara groaned in pleasure and sank into the deep basin of the hot springs. Gods bless Mahuura for setting them up for a week in a lovely little place adjacent to Lominoa’s hot springs. Cara still didn’t know what she was going to do, or how she was going to get back to Earth after refusing to take Ben back, but this gave her an excellent reprieve from making any decisions.
The trip had been magnificent. What she’d assumed during their journey to be interior mountains were actually tall plateaus, where irrigated farmlands made use of the temperate weather to grow their crops away from the humid heat of the coastal zones. To Cara’s delight, Sashalat had daily shuttles from the city to Lominoa on the plateau overlooking the city.
She turned her head and saw Lerix just feet away stretched out across hot rocks wearing nothing more than a swath of fabric around his hips, his dark red scales shining with health as his tail swished through the water. It was a stark contrast to his appearance when they’d met. He’d been impressive then, but on closer inspection, the difference was incredible.
She drew little circles in front of her breasts, the bathing gown—a strange attire worn by Kadesh females that looked like a thigh-length tunic with shorts made of a thick woven material—modestly covering her. Mahuura had been eager to help when Cara protested using the hot springs since she didn’t have a bathing suit. Walking through the shopping district had been a great deal of fun, and not too different from shopping trips on Earth, although with less traffic. People seemed content to walk or use a large public transporter for further distances.
“Lerix?”
“Hmm?”
“How is it that everyone doesn’t use shuttles? I mean, there’s is a shuttle going from Sashalat to Lominoa, but I kind of expected to see… more on a technologically advanced planet. I mean, everyone walks, which is something you don’t see on Earth in most places.”
Lerix chuckled and turned his head so that his yellow gaze met hers.
“I forget humans don’t have much experience offworld and are still a young civilization. Most interplanetary societies choose to limit not only private vehicles but also the number of shuttles and flight zones. Sometimes it is for cultural reasons, sometimes for environmental ones.
“Some planets go so far as to only have one or two ports for interplanetary vessels, for logistical reasons. Densely wooded planets tend to only have allotted travel between major cities which have enough clearing space. Others, like Kaidava, discovered early on the hard way that unlimited air traffic caused numerous issues.”
Cara turned fully in the water, folding her arms on the rock and resting her chin on her forearms as she gave him her full attention.
“You’d think it would be easier. Earth mainly has surface traffic and it’s an absolute nightmare at times, especially in the bigger cities.”
Lerix lay silent for a moment, rubbing at the scales on the back of his neck.
“When our technology introduced us to spaceflig
ht and propulsion shuttles, Kaidava experienced a new age of industry. By the time our technology caught up, we’d been visited by several neighboring species and found a certain liberation with harnessing our own technology for travel.
“You have to understand—our species at that time was dying out. We weren’t successfully bonding or breeding with each other anymore, and no one knew why. Our scientists suspected it was the next stage in our evolution. One out of ten couples managed to successfully breed. When we discovered that we could interbreed with far better results with other species, we worked hard to join them among the stars to look for mates. As a result, technology took a significant leap forward.
“We weren’t particularly wise with how we used it. Everyone wanted their own transports, even for going ridiculously short distances. As a result, our traffic zones had to go higher and higher. At one point, Orug had as many as twelve stacked traffic zones. Do you know what the consequences of that is?”
Cara shook her head mutely.
“No one who had the means wanted to live in the midst of the traffic zones, so those who had credits arranged to live higher above it, leaving the poorest at the lowest levels. It got so bad that the streets of Orug were not only rarely seen by any but the lowest dregs, but crime ran rampant. After a few hundred years, the situation got so bad that the councils came together and unanimously voted to restore Kaidava and limit transports. It took us hundreds of years to disassemble the towering buildings and clean-up. That time was a dark one our species, and probably the one that earned our species the worst reputation intergalactically. Placing limitations and altering our industry changed the fabric of our society.”
“And everyone actually agreed to that? I can’t imagine everyone coming together to champion inequality on Earth.”
Lerix grinned. “It took some creative marketing, and in some cases no small amount of threatening. The elder females on the council were the ones who came up with the idea to convert our planetary economy into a pleasure resort to draw mates. Because of that, you are able to enjoy Kaidava as you see it now. The Kadesh now take pride in preserving our heritage. We walk together and travel together because it makes all of us equal and reminds us of the lessons of our past.”
“That’s… amazing,” Cara admitted with no little sense of wonder.
A solemnity seemed to linger in the air until Lerix flicked his tail out of the water to splash her. Sputtering, Cara wiped the water off her face and narrowed her eyes at the male as he stretched.
“All right, buddy. This means war.”
Lerix turned to look at her at the same moment she flattened her palms and slapped the water with enough force to drench his upper body. The startled look on his face was priceless. Cara giggled, which quickly morphed into a full belly-laugh.
Her laughter died slowly as she watched the male fall eerily still. Lerix slowly pulled his tail back, growling low in his throat as he did so, his eyes sparkling at her in the gentle light. Cara immediately began to backpedal.
“No, no, no. Don’t you dare!”
A sharp-fanged grin stole over his features seconds before he pounced, his arms sweeping around her body as he sent them both tumbling back into the deeper water.
Warm water surrounded her as she was thrown back into it. Normally, she would have felt alarm at being pulled down into the water by a much larger man. But rather than pull her deeper into the water, Lerix’s hands skated down her body as he let her free. She didn’t feel any fear being underwater with him, wiggling away playfully rather than thrashing in panic.
Cara surfaced shrieking with laughter, doing her damnedest to kick away from him as he surfaced behind her, nothing but his olfactory ridge and brilliant yellow eyes above the water, dark horns gleaming like polished stone with the moisture.
With his tail stretched out behind him, he almost resembled a red crocodile surfacing in sight of his prey. The dark strands of hair that normally floated loosely in weightless drifts from the braids at his crown now trailed him like ribbons of satin in the water.
She felt a shiver of anticipation run over her skin and darted away. But not fast enough. His tail looped around her hips, pulling her back into his arms. Cara giggled madly, slapping her hands against his chest, attempting to push his solid body back into the water. He didn’t even seem to feel it as he drew her tighter toward him and lifted her out of the water to dangle her above his head. His eyes flashed up at her as he grinned playfully.
“Do you yield?” he growled, his eyes dancing with mirth.
“Never!” Cara crowed with delight, shrieking when he began to freefall backward, sending her sailing over his head into the depths behind him.
Cara took a deep breath and stretched her arms out ahead of her so that she dove into the water. When she came to a stop under the surface, she opened her eyes slowly and allowed them to adjust. She was over a sudden drop from which the water seemed to bubble up, and she marveled at the glint of shiny minerals and stones along the deeper walls of the hot springs. It was breathtaking.
A movement to her side made her turn her head as she saw Lerix glide around her flank. His scales flashed beautifully in the light filtering through the water, his hair floating around him and his eyes like twin lamps.
He circled her, his tail gliding from side to side behind him like an elegant rudder. The bit of material around his hips lifted as he stroked through the water, giving her an eyeful of a large, bulbous member that almost had her swallowing water. A second later, it was obscure again.
Cara hoped he hadn’t noticed her ogling, but when she met his eyes there was an odd fire to them. She knew he’d been aware of where her attention had strayed. Cara kicked forward in her embarrassment, eager for distance, but he swept around her again, closer that time. Her heart began to beat quicker. Not from fear, but from some unnamed thing that she didn’t recognize within herself.
Unable to hold her breath any longer, she shook herself free from her momentary fascination and surfaced with Lerix following close at her side.
Slicking her water-heavy hair back from her face, Cara quickly paddled back to the ledge where she’d been sitting, her heart pounding in her chest. Lerix glided up behind her, stopping behind of her a good yard away, silently watching her from a distance with an expression of longing. His gaze was so intense that Cara found herself breaking eye contact.
As Cara turned her attention to wringing the excess water from her hair, she wondered what he was thinking as he watched her. A splash had her look up and frown.
The hot spring pool in front of her was empty, like he was never there.
She slowly stood on the ledge to give her a better vantage point as she looked around.
Cara put her hands on her hips, her lips pinched together in frustration. Lerix was always disappearing on her.
***
Lerix struggled against the arms of the Korovik assassin dragging him into the deeper well of the spring. Digging his claws into the scaled arm around his throat, he thrashed violently. He couldn’t believe a Korovik got the drop on him. It had been revolutions since Lerix had been caught unaware by anyone. The male had to have been hiding in the depths with a breathing apparatus to have escaped Lerix’s attention.
The gold scales glinting around him, stripped of their dark grease, informed him that the male had to have been hiding there for some time. The male was determined in his task, of that much Lerix was certain.
But as determined as Korovik assassins were, they had nothing on a skilled Kadesh fighter. The fact that the species were tailless also gave Lerix an extra appendage to his arsenal that the other lacked. That the male was trying to drown him for a clean kill also worked in his favor. The male didn’t want to alert Cara to his presence.
Lerix had no such compulsion. He clawed at the male’s arms and swung his protracted tail blade behind him through the water in rapid successions seeking his target. The male defected several blows, but when the assassin suddenly stiffened and a plum
e of blood rose in the water around them, Lerix knew he had struck true.
Without hesitating, he struck again and again. The male attempted to block the attack, but as he wore him down, more strikes got through his defenses and scored deep wounds on his captor. Lerix’s lungs burned; he needed to finish this soon or he’d risk drowning. Relief swept through him when the Korovik’s grip slipped away from him. Lerix kicked up for the surface, drawing in a deep breath as soon as he broke through.
He cursed to himself for being so sloppy as to let down his guard and relax around Cara. He should have been focused on protecting her and watching for threats, not indulging in play like a youngling. His eyes darted around, looking desperately for his female, praying that there hadn’t been another waiting to take her.
Lerix almost sank back into the water when he saw Cara standing on the ledge, her brow drawn low and her hands on her hips. His sense of relief was overwhelming. He issued a prayer of thanks to every divine being he recalled the name of, those of Kaidava and some foreign ones he’d heard of on his travels. He drifted through the water, heading toward her, as he willed his heart to return to its normal pace from its frantic gallop.
As he drew closer, he noted the pucker of concern on her face which he’d taken for a scowl. She was worried. Lerix felt a strange warmth in his chest. It wasn’t often anyone worried about him. As he approached the ledge, Cara crouched back down into the water and he swept his arms around her thighs in a grateful embrace. He was aware of her body stilling in surprise at the sudden touch, but he just needed a moment to hold her to reassure himself that she was safe.
A Kiss on Kaidava Page 11