“After the contract?”
He nods. “Because I must leave Pfahrn then, and I will be…alone.”
“Hey, hey hey.” I make him look at me. “Listen. Unless you turn out to be a jerk or something, I promise that at the end of things, I’ll be waiting for you. I won’t just take off.”
“But Dr. H’looder said you wish to join your family. You have said that, too.”
“Yeah, but nothing says you can’t come with me, right? Even as friends?” There’s something in me that’s already latched on to him in a protective way, and I won’t deny it.
He studies me, like he’s sure I’m fucking with him or something. “You…would not mind an ishblane traveling with you?”
“Okay, so, look. No one gives a shit about you being ishblane except on Pfahrn. Seriously. Most people anywhere else will have no fucking clue you’re not like most of the other Pfahrn. They won’t. They’ll assume that’s just who you are. And you know what? If anyone else does notice you’re different? You know what you say?”
He shakes his head. He’s fucking adorable.
“You say fuck them. That’s what you say. You can come meet Mom and Hells and stay with us, if you want to.”
I don’t know how the fuck I’ll explain who he is, or why we’re sleeping together, but whatever.
His eyes take on that too-bright quality again, like he’s close to tears. “You would…bring me to meet your family?”
“Yeah. Like I said, unless you’re a jerk or something, which I highly doubt you are. They’ll love you. Because of you, you’ve made their dreams come true.” I lean in, forehead-to-forehead with him. “I’m not going to abandon you, Mohrn. I promise.”
He sniffles. “Thank you, Simon.”
I kiss the tip of his nose and then our food arrives.
Probably a good thing, because I wanted to drag him to bed and fuck him.
* * * *
We pull on our respective kilts before I let them in with our food. By the time I finish eating breakfast, Mohrn’s snacked a little on his, but mostly he’s finishing the drawing.
It’s amazing.
“I love it,” I say. “I’ve never had anyone draw me before.”
He carefully tears the sheet out of the journal and almost looks scared when he hands it to me. “You may have it, if you want.”
I take it. “Yeah, I want. Thank you.” I have to rise up on my toes and motion to him to lean in so I can kiss him. “I love it. It’s fantastic.” I set it on a shelf where I won’t lose it.
I do love it.
He looks…bashful? “I am glad you like it.”
I return to him and hold out my hands, patiently waiting until he takes them. “So you don’t kiss on Pfahrn, huh?”
He shakes his head. “No. That was enjoyable.”
“Does that mean you don’t have oral sex?”
From the confused look on his face, I’m guessing that’s a no.
I lead him back to bed, where we both strip. Then, for the first time in my life, I find myself going down on…
I guess technically not a guy, since he’s not male, as H’looder keeps reminding me.
I sucked my first cock. How’s that for specificity?
So did Mohrn.
After, we lie there, Mohrn snuggled in my arms and me with my face pressed against the top of his head. No shit, I’ve had more sex with someone else in the past twenty-four hours than I’ve had in the past year.
That’s not counting all the other orgasms I’ve had through the assistance of the technicians during this process.
“How was that?” I ask.
“Wonderful.”
“Think you can put up with me for five years?” I ask.
He tenses a little. “I do not know if it will be a full five years.”
“That was rhetorical.” I can’t imagine not having him in my life right now. Even if I’m released from the contract early, I’m still going to visit Mohrn.
I don’t give a shit if this is due to what H’looder’s done to me—I can’t abandon Mohrn.
“This will be nice for our time together,” he says.
“Want to do that again?” I ask, because my cock is already recovering and perking back up.
Mohrn nods. “I would like that.”
So…we do.
Then we hit the shower and we make it to the shuttle bay with ten minutes to spare. H’looder is waiting for us and wearing a full mech suit. “Did you have a good morning?” he asks.
I grin. “Great!”
Mohrn nods. “It was very pleasant.”
“Excellent!” H’looder says.
We load up for the trip down. I let Mohrn have the window seat because I’ve seen my fair share of planets.
But I want to sit next to Mohrn.
So I do, and I hold his hand and watch him as he keeps his face just about glued to the port for the whole trip.
We’re almost to the transport station in town when Mohrn sits back and looks at me. “What?”
I laugh. “You big, pink bastard. You have no idea how adorable you are, do you?”
And he is.
He really, truly is.
“What?”
I pull him in for a kiss that distracts both of us and earns us a throat-clearing from H’looder when I realize we’ve already docked and they’ve opened the hatch, but we’re still exploring each other’s tonsils.
It’s nice to see Mohrn’s looking a little dazed, because that’s how I feel. “Let’s go get married,” I tell him.
He nods.
We follow H’looder and a couple of his men into the transport station. Almost immediately I’m on alert, wary, a sickening feeling washing through me and reminding me of too many damn times we were dropped into hostile hot zones. I see people staring at Mohrn, as if repelled by his appearance. I grab his hand and squeeze, holding on tight. I want to shield him with my body, except he’s bigger than me and the looks coming at us are everywhere, on all sides, as we move through the transport station.
Mohrn doesn’t see the looks because he keeps his gaze focused on the ground and practically shrinks against my side.
Fuck.
I want to yell at all of them to quit being assholes to him. I want to tell them what a great artist he is—then logic-brain kicks in.
He’s not just an outcast—he’s an outcast who, in their eyes, is a criminal.
I slip my arm around Mohrn’s waist and snug him close to me for the short walk to the government center, where we meet up with some official. From the way the dude takes great pains not to get close enough to Mohrn to touch him, I can tell they’d rather be anywhere else but here.
At least, with any other Pfahrn but Mohrn.
Asshole.
The fucker gives me an up-and-down and I can practically hear his sneer. “Does the human need a translator?” he asks H’looder.
I guess I was able to speed up my own translation because I’m pissed off, because I say the next part in Pfahrn, not Standard, with very little delay. “The human’s name is Simon, Mohrn-mohr,” I say. “And the human doesn’t appreciate being fucking talked about like I’m an idiot.”
The guy’s eyes widen a little, so apparently I hit a nerve.
But then Mohrn’s hand on mine gently squeezes, as if desperate to calm things the fuck down.
For his sake, not mine, I step back next to Mohrn and drape my arm around him again.
The ceremony is basically Mohrn and I signing a short contract that says we are mates until yundohn on our other contract, or five years, whichever comes first.
Which is stupid and redundant, but whatever.
Also states I get no property or birthright or assets or anything else. Ironically, I do have control over any of Mohrn’s property or assets while he’s in prison, and can completely act as his agent and make any and all decisions in his stead.
Explain that to me.
Contract-crazy fucks.
The government asshole has to
witness it, annnnd…
That’s it. We’re married.
Just to fuck with the government guy, I coax Mohrn to lean in and I kiss him. “That’s a human custom,” I tell Mohrn.
The government official looks disgusted.
Good.
We’re loaded into a ground transport and head out of town. Mohrn stares out the window as we leave the town behind us and head into the countryside. “I will miss it here,” he softly says.
I wish I could see the planet the way he does, but right now, all I’m able to see is a bunch of small-minded assholes.
“There’s a whole universe out there, buddy. I promise, I’ll show it to you.”
He finally looks at me, sadness in his eyes. “Honesty is first, Simon,” he quietly says.
“I mean it.” Fierce determination grips me. “You and me against the universe. We’ll settle wherever Helleia and Mom are, and I’ll work with Hells as a translator. We can send you to secondary to get a degree in whatever you want to do. Hell, you can even make a living as an artist.”
He scowls. “What is that?”
“What is what?”
“Artist. What is that?”
“You know, someone who makes a living drawing or painting or…” I realize he’s clueless. “You don’t have those here?”
“They don’t, Simon,” H’looder gently says from where he’s sitting in the other seat across from us.
“They don’t have artists? Every fricking society has artists!”
H’looder shakes his head.
“Well then, maybe that’s what you can be,” I tell Mohrn as we slow and turn off the main road.
But I’ve lost him again. He’s staring out the windows.
I guess I can’t blame him. This is one of the last times he’ll see this place. They might be assholes, but they’re the only assholes he knows.
I shut up and drape my arm around him. Somehow, I need to figure out how to make life right for Mohrn.
Chapter Nineteen
I feel tiny as we enter the front door of the house. What’s weird is that we can’t just go right in. Mohrn rings the bell and waits for someone to answer the door.
Unlike at my family’s apartment, where I’m expected to simply walk in. It’d be weird if I rang the bell and waited for anything other than having my hands too full to actually open the dang door.
The Pfahrn who answers the door is a little taller than Mohrn, and thinner, and unlike everyone in town, they don’t act repelled by Mohrn.
“Ah, Mohrn. Hello.”
“Greetings, Cloohdlin.”
“Please, come in.”
I follow Mohrn, still holding his hand, as he walks in. The house is clean and large, at least five or six of my apartments, but while it’s simply decorated, I get the feeling the quality of what ornamentation there is speaks to money and status.
“Dohrn will be in shortly,” Cloohdlin says, looking at me, but curiously, not maliciously. “Is this Simon, Mohrn-mohr?”
“Yes,” Mohrn says, and then officially introduces us. Cloohdlin is a long-term family employee, and his parent worked for Dohrn’s parent.
A bedroom door opens and another Pfahrn emerges and heads toward a different room.
He barely glances at me and Mohrn. He doesn’t speak to us, or even acknowledge Mohrn’s presence.
Mohrn watches. I finally tug on his hand to get him to lean in. “Who was that?”
“Stohrn. The eldest. He has the largest birthright.”
“How much birthright do you have?” I ask.
Mohrn shakes his head. “I am ishblane. I have none.”
I’m getting the feeling that’s going to be a stock answer to a lot of questions, and it’s royally pissing me off.
Not at Mohrn—at everyone else.
I mean, I get it. Humans don’t exactly have the best track record at not being assholes to each other based on skin color or ethnicity or any other number of bullshit reasons. It’s something that happens in every species and every race—if one is different than the majority, they get isolated and picked on, or even killed.
But Mohrn’s a sweetheart. I totally get why H’looder trusts him and is comfortable around him, because, duh.
I’m actually starting to worry how Mohrn will survive being locked up in prison. I’m not entirely sure he can defend himself.
Or, maybe worse, that he wouldn’t defend himself.
Stohrn emerges a moment later and I realize that was a bathroom. He walks over, but there’s no loving hug, no sentimentality. He looks me up and down, mentally dismisses me, then looks at Mohrn.
“You are not in prison yet?”
“Not yet.”
“When does this one stay with us?”
Motherfucker. I start to step forward, but Mohrn holds on to my hand and steps back, forcing me to step back, too.
“This one has a name,” I say, tired of this shit. “Simon, Mohrn-mohr.” Yeah, that was deliberate.
Stohrn’s gaze narrows. “Well. A trained human. Imagine that. I heard things were—”
“Stohrn,” someone snaps. We look to find an older Pfahrn walking through another door.
He crosses the room and gives me that same dismissive up-and-down gaze before speaking. “Dr. H’looder. Is the mating contract official?”
“It is. I wanted to bring Simon to meet you and your offspring while we were here.”
Stohrn is watching this and is obviously unimpressed by me.
That’s fine. Fucker better watch out around me.
“Allhrn is still working,” Dohrn says. “He will not be back in time.” Then, shocker of shockers, he looks at me. “I will show you your room.” He turns and walks, so I guess we’re following.
He points out the bathroom I’ll be using, the one Stohrn went into. I’m going to be staying in a large room just off the living room, between Allhrn and Stohrn’s rooms, apparently.
There’s no personal effects in the room, though. Just a bed and furniture, and that’s not very much, although the bed is large enough for me and Mohrn.
“Thank you,” I say.
“You can come and go as you please,” he adds. “We will have the computer programmed to recognize you.”
I look up at Mohrn. “Is this your room?” Because I kind of hope it is. I’ll feel closer to him if it is.
He shakes his head. “No, it is not.”
H’looder and Dohrn are now talking.
“Can you show me your room?”
Mohrn looks at me like he can’t believe I want to see it, but then he leads me down and around to a room kind of tucked off by itself. It’s tiny, too, compared to the guest room.
“Why aren’t you in that other room?” I ask.
“This suits me,” Mohrn says. “It is fine. It has always been my room.”
“But it’s so small.” Even the bed is tiny, barely long enough for Mohrn and only as wide as my damn bunk was in the military.
“I do not have a birthright, Simon,” he quietly says. “I am fortunate I have a home and family at all.”
Shit.
I reeeeallly hate these people.
I close the bedroom door, giving us privacy, and I drop my voice. “Mohrn, seriously, at the end of the contract, you’re coming with me.”
He sadly smiles. “I will not hold you to that, Simon. That is five years away.”
I don’t understand how he can be so fricking…calm. “Yeah? Well, I hold me to it.”
“Yundohn will likely occur before the five years. You said you wish to join your family.”
“I’m not leaving you until you’re out of that fucking place,” I say. “Contract expired or not.”
“I will not take you from your family. Family is a blessing.”
I’m doing my best to stay calm for him. “You’re my blessing, too, Mohrn.”
He seems to study my face for a moment. “I am fortunate,” he says. “I have been blessed by a parent who did not abandon me to the government or sell
me off to be a worker somewhere. I have had a home, and food. They have kept me safe. Please, try to get along with them. Give them a chance.”
“They treat you like crap.”
“They are my family.”
I take a deep breath, hold it, and slowly let it out. “I’ll try,” I say, “but I can’t promise not to yell at them if they act like assholes. Especially about you.”
We rejoin the others and H’looder and Dohrn are finishing their conversation. I’m expecting Dohrn, at least, to hug Mohrn, or give him some words of comfort.
“The arrangements are completed,” Dohrn says. “Once you enter prison and serve your sentence, the contracts are fulfilled.”
Mohrn nods. “Thank you.”
There’s not even an emotional pause or anything before Dohrn turns to leave.
“That’s it?” I say despite my promise to Mohrn.
Dohrn turns. “What?”
“You’re not going to hug him, or tell him you love him, or wish him well?”
Dohrn looks confused. “The arrangements are in place per the contract.”
H’looder steps in front of me. “Let’s go, Simon. The driver is waiting.” He looks over his shoulder. “I’ll notify Cloohdlin when Simon will be coming for his first stay.”
“Thank you. He does not need to notify us of his comings and goings.”
I can take a hint.
I let H’looder and Mohrn herd me back outside, to the transport. Once we’re en route to town, I say it. “Those two are assholes. Cloohdlin seems okay.”
Mohrn’s staring out the window again. “I am blessed,” he softly says. “I did not have a bleak life. I had a clan who raised me.”
H’looder catches my eye and gives me a little head-shake.
I let it drop and hold Mohrn’s hand all the way back to town.
* * * *
By the time we’re back on H’looder’s ship, I’m really wanting to do…something.
By something I mean get my brains fucked out.
I’m still pissed off over how Mohrn’s family acted. Mohrn’s calm, practically emotionless mood on the way back up to the MC station means I guess I really don’t have much right to feel angry if he doesn’t. They’re his family, not mine.
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