by V. K. Ludwig
The moment I slip into my shoes, Adrin reaches for my wrist, pulling me toward his sleeping pod. “Thank you for last night. It was…”
I freeze.
What was it?
Meaningful? Special?
Intimate on a soul-reaching level?
He smacks his tongue. “Certainly helpful in preparing me for my finals.”
Oh. Right.
My shoulders slouch a little. “That was the goal, wasn’t it?”
“I guess so,” he says on a sigh. “Make sure the hallway is empty before you step outside.”
“Sure.” I open his door slowly, first listening, then poking my head out. Nobody there. “See you tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.”
Walking proves painful on my way to catch a public drone. Guess that’s to be expected when a Vandalar male rubbed over you for hours, only alternating with his fingers and mouth whenever other parts needed rest.
On my way home, I send a quick message to Steph, giving her the access code to my estate just in case she arrives before me. Which she did, because I find her in my kitchen, raiding my fridge.
“Make yourself at home, Steph.”
“I’m hungry.” She closes the fridge, balancing a bag of sliced bread and cheese on her baby bump, arm clasped around it. “Which sucks, because I’m also constipated.”
“Oh my God, you are so… so…” I stare at her round belly, the fabric of her red shirt stretched taut.
“Fat?”
Yeah, that too. “Beautiful.”
“Aww.” Hunger forgotten, she lets the food tumble onto the counter, waddles over, and pulls me into a hug. “I had to get bangs because my forehead is a pimply grease-pit, my bladder is the size of a walnut, and my feet are so swollen they don’t fit in my heels anymore.”
“How’s Lilly?”
“Oh, you know her.” She releases me with a dismissive wave, fumbles the bag open, grabs a slice of bread and stuffs it into her mouth. “Alwaysh worrying, but Jaxsh getsh how to calm’er.”
“When’s she due?”
She lodges a crumb with her fingernail. “Three weeks? Oh, check this out.”
Activating her com, she flicks her wrist and conjures up the hologram of a baby, legs kicking, hands rubbing over a tiny nose.
“That’s yours?” When she nods, my core tingles, and I trace the outline of the hologram. “Sure has Vandalar genes. That’s quite the penis.”
Steph shakes her head while she giggles. “That’s her tail.”
“And she flicks it! But isn’t Lilly having a girl as well?”
“Uh-huh. The council is freaking out about it, given that the universe now has five hybrids, four of them female.” She grabs another slice of bread and struggles herself onto a stool at the kitchen island. “What do I have to do around here to get a coffee?”
“I could use one too.” I start the coffee maker and grab two mugs from the cabinet. “I, um, didn’t spend the night at home.”
“Uh, duh… that’s a given. Your hair is flat on one side, you reek like sex, and you’ve got red blotches on your shoulder.”
“Red blotches?” I glance down but can’t make out more than a reddish outline. “Adrin probably drooled on me all night, and now the skin is irritated.”
She waves me over, and her mouth momentarily stops chewing as her lips press into a thin line. “Doesn’t look like a rash to me. Not with those depressions anyway. That guy tried to bite you.”
A sudden layer of numbness spreads over my arms. I wish I could say I don’t remember anything of last night, but I do. Every humiliating detail. Adrin didn’t try to bite me. But what if he sunk his short fangs into my shoulder while he was asleep? What if he dislikes the idea of sharing me with two other males more than he lets on? Perhaps more than he realizes?
“So, who is this Adrin?” Steph asks. “Please tell me he’ll be your future saikh because I could do with good news.”
“Yeah, I asked him if he wants to join my estate last night, and he agreed.” Where I expect a flurry of excitement in my stomach, I instead find an uncomfortable roil. “Still not sure about the other two.”
And less and less so the longer I trace my fingers over my shoulder, sensing the depressions Adrin left there. Why would I need three saikhs if this one is so pleasing? For a big estate? Adrin’s tiny room was perfectly echo-less, which is a plus in my book.
Steph blows me a kiss when I hand her the coffee, the nutty aroma soon wafting through the kitchen. “You better step-up your game, girl, or the council will be all over your ass.”
My stomach roils once more, but now it also ties my guts into a knot. “What do you mean?”
“Ever since the council found out about the increased conception rate of female hybrids, they’ve been a massive pain in the ass to deal with,” she says. “When we drafted the contracts between government and my agency, I only specified that no woman would be required to take in more than five males. The council is taking full advantage of the contract’s wording, also requesting it as a minimum. Yours excluded, since we put an addendum in it specifying three, but they’re already getting antsy because you haven’t chosen yet.”
If I ever considered the idea of asking the council to change my contract to one male, it’s shattered now, and the shards are stuck between my ribs, poking and pinching. Even if Adrin is cool with the idea, I don’t know any more if I am.
“Sorry you’re having such trouble with them. I know business isn’t going the way you planned.”
She puffs out a sarcastic laugh. “Understatement of the year. We still rely too much on purchasing saikhs from the slave market, which drives up the costs. I had to fire my assistant because I can’t pay her salary. But that isn’t even the worst part. That Vandalar you recruited three weeks ago?”
“With the broken horn?”
She takes a sip of her coffee and nods. “The moment he arrived on Earth, he went AWOL, never meeting the woman who paid for his damn ticket. Turned up last week saying he chose his own female, making a marriage claim with the authorities because he bit her.”
“Can he do that?”
“He can if the bite print confirms it’s his, which it was. Now Earth government is blaming me for unleashing rabid Vandalar males onto the planet. Great for publicity… not!” Her sigh deflates her chest right along with her entire posture. “I’m telling you, they might be kept on a tight leash on this planet, but set them loose, and they turn into bitey savages.”
I add several scoops of sugar to my coffee, but it somehow remains bitter. “So… what happens if a woman refuses to take in five saikhs? Or takes in three, and realizes she just can’t handle more than that?”
“Oh, don’t get me started on that shitshow. All those women I had lined up for estates? Well, the council threatened to void their visas if they refuse taking in saikhs, putting their immigration on temporary hold.”
My guts form a ball of anxiety at the bottom of my stomach. And just like that, I’m reminded why exactly I have to take in three saikhs: because I signed a damn contract stating I’d do just that. And if I refuse? Well, they’ll probably cancel my visa as well and send me packing.
“Izzy?” A gentle hand clasps my shoulder, and Steph’s eyes search for mine. “What’s wrong sweets?”
Everything is wrong, including the irregular beat of my heart. Changing the contract is out of question. Returning to Earth isn’t an option either since they would arrest me at the intake port. But going back to Agari II and work some shitty, greasy job? Guess I could do that, except… who says Adrin would come with me? He would have to give up on his career as a professional athlete. For a woman he’s known for less than two months?
I wrap my arms around myself, stroking numb fingers over skin suddenly cool to the touch. “If I asked you to, would you release me from my contract?”
She tenses on her stool, and her brows furrow. “Not gonna lie, sweets, I’ve got a massive marketing campaign planned. Interviews. Banners. M
agazine articles. I wanted you and your three saikhs to be all over the media, Earth and Vandalheim. You’ll be the poster child, encouraging more saikhs to apply for the matching program, all while proving to women how great it is to have an estate full of saikhs.”
Ah, great, a sense of obligation joins that heavy boulder sitting beneath my heart. Steph was the one who found me a job when I skipped Earth and ended up on Agari II and put me up inside her home until I found my footing. Turning my back on her would win me the shittiest-friend-in-the-universe award for sure.
Her posture quirks up again. “With that being said, I would never hold you to a contract if you want out. I can find another way to get the business rolling.” Blue eyes search for mine, and her voice tightens. “Is that what you want? For me to dissolve our contract?”
“I’m not sure.”
Because what does it help? No matter which way I turn this situation, I’m fucked. Or maybe I’m not fucked at all, and I’m just dramatizing this entire thing. After all, Adrin made it pretty clear he has no issues with this arrangement, and even offered easing me into it, whatever that means.
A shudder prickles over my scalp and down my neck.
I’m so screwed.
Twelve
Izzy
I’m not sure what I expected from this tournament, but it certainly wasn’t sports reporters asking, “What’s your relationship to Adrin san Ketesh?” with holo-cameras shoved in my face.
Between visiting me at work, taking me out for dinner, and spending the evenings with me at home, that dork totally forgot to mention that he’s the up-and-coming star of takresh fighting. So much about Adrin leaving all this behind to follow me to a farm planet…
I ignore the pinch in my chest as another fantasy of things working out dies a slow death.
“What she is to my brother is private, now leave her alone.” Odrin walks up to me, drapes his arm around my shoulder, and leads me away from the mob. “Nena is already waiting with her saikhs.”
“How can Adrin not have dozens of females waving contracts in his face? Someone could have mentioned he’s famous.”
“Females enjoy looking at him for sure,” he says, stoking a flare of jealousy inside me that’s just plain wrong, given our circumstances. “I haven’t met a single fighter who didn’t lose a horn or two during their career. Big turn-off for any potential offers, which is why he joined the saikhmenti in the first place.”
He leads me from the foyer into the packed arena, where the air tingles with so much excitement the hair on my arms stands. Spectators laugh and shout, their voices battling the music coming from the loudspeakers. A sweet scent wafts through the air, probably coming from the refreshments on hovering trays: bowls of fruits, yerku mead, and popped grains sprinkled with sugar crystals.
“Adrin made sure we’re in the first row.” Odrin points at a white couch, shaped into a half-circle, where a young female sits between two males. “Izzy, this is Nena, our sister.”
There’s no denying it.
Platinum hair parted in the middle and worked into hundreds of tiny braids, it wraps her horns in a sort of Dutch plaid, though I bet they’re light gray underneath just like her brothers’. Her eyes are a deep blue, as is her linen dress embroidered with silver vines.
She rises and pulls me into an unexpected hug. “Gods, I finally get to meet you. Is it true you have an estate in Sunhaven?”
I nod. “Over at the fesh’tano district.”
“I’ll have to visit you,” she says, and points at her saikhs. “This is Cato and Yerosh.”
“Hey,” I say with a smile.
Cato’s horns are pitch black and polished to a shine, matching his inky hair, the only color on him his green irises. Yerosh has fawn horns, and his braid is a russet color I haven’t seen on a Vandalar before.
I sit down beside Cato, and Nena immediately scoots onto his lap, legs swinging my way. She leans her head against his chest, and Cato places a kiss at the top of her head just as Yerosh trails his fingers up and down her arm from behind.
“It’s exciting to meet a human female,” Cato says. “Yerosh, didn’t you mention something about an ad you saw? What was it again? Saikhs finding a mate on Earth?”
“Uh-huh.”
I nod. “That’s from the company I work for. We match saikhs with women.”
Nena tilts her head back and glances up at Cato. “Should I be concerned?”
“Did you hear that, Yerosh?” Cato trails his thumb over Nena’s lips, and kisses her gently. “Our female is uncertain about our loyalty. What should we do about that?”
Yerosh scoots closer, caresses Nena’s ear with his lips, and whispers something. The three of them chuckle, and I can’t help but stare at how natural they look together. Both males give Nena their undivided attention, not a hint of awkwardness in this arrangement.
Nena eyes me up and down, her eyes brimming with curiosity. “Odrin told me about the mating growl incident.”
Of course.
And that jackass chuckles behind me.
Heat creeps into my cheeks, but the moment I cut Odrin a glare, he shrugs, saying, “Just wanted to make sure Cato and Yerosh keep their growls to themselves tonight before you go rubbing yourself on a brick wall.”
“Haha, very funny.”
He winks at me. “Relax. It’ll stay within the family.”
“Plus the saikhs.”
“Saikhs are family,” he says. “Or that’s the official goal.”
“You’re very lucky.” Nena takes my hands into hers. “I wish I would respond like that to a growl. My poor saikhs need… how many?”
Yerosh scoffs. “At least ten, my heart.”
“On a good day,” Cato adds. “On a bad day, love, the two of us growl ourselves hoarse together, and still you won’t let us touch you.”
“So… Vandalar females have no sex drive?”
“Let’s just say the gods gave our males a growl for a reason,” Nena says with a grin on her face.
Odrin grabs a handful of popped grains from the low table in front of us. “Izzy is about to invite three saikhs to her estate.”
That rips an excited squeal from his sister. “Did you already choose?”
“She chose your brother,” Odrin says.
“What would she want with you? You’re a nuisance half the time.”
Odrin snorts a laugh, and crunches down on another piece of popped grain. “I meant the other one.”
Nena’s eyes dart back and forth between her brother and me, her mouth going slack. “They’ll disown him.”
“Probably.”
Whoa… what? “Sorry, but I don’t follow.”
“Our parents expect him to claim his own mate at some point. A family tradition,” she says, which I already knew, but Adrin has yet to mention it. “They’ll be displeased to hear he joined an estate with two additional saikhs.” Her voice drops to a mere whisper as she adds, “Let alone the estate of a human female.”
My spine rounds all on its own.
Her words sting like a punch in the face, and Nena must’ve noticed, because she presses a hand to her sternum, blurting, “I don’t share their opinion, Izzy. It’s just—”
“They’re old-fashioned,” Odrin says. “And the fact that Adrin acted up when he was young, announcing that he would go into takresh training no matter what didn’t exactly improve their relationship. Sure improved mine, though.”
I nibble on my upper lip. “Well… what if I would let him claim me one day?”
Odrin almost chokes on his treat. Yeah, I have no idea where that came from either, but why not? I can’t expect Adrin to leave all this behind. At the same time, I’m stuck with a contract if I stay on this planet, so why not offer Adrin an option to claim me, considering there’s a chance that urge might float on his sub-conscience?
“That would bring even greater shame,” Nena says. “A male must be a poor mate if his female requires saikhs.”
Well… damn.
> Culture-shock overdose right there.
Shame seems to be an important word for Vandalar. What if Adrin would refuse to make me his mate? What if he’s completely okay with being one of three saikhs and biting me has never crossed his mind? What does Steph know about bites anyway? Maybe it was a slobber rash after all.
Damn, my head spins.
I’m overthinking this.
“Who else will you choose?” Nena asks.
“Where I come from, it’s not common to have more than one man, so I’m still struggling with the concept.”
Apparently, I’m the only one.
“Please leave us alone for a moment.” Nena rises from Cato’s lap, and waits until both saikhs head toward the concession stands before she sits back down, eyes narrowing on Odrin. “That included you.”
“You’re forgetting I’m not one of your saikhs.” Odrin leans even deeper into the couch and folds his legs on the seat in front of him. “I freaking love these couches.”
She lets out an annoyed huff, but her eyes quickly soften on me. “If you see it as what it is, a beneficial arrangement, nothing can go wrong.”
Arrangement. Such a sterile word.
“But what about love?” I glance over at where her two saikhs order drinks. “Do you, like… love both of them?”
Nena gives me a nod of understanding, and yet the blue of her eyes dulls a little. “Our estate is successful because I do not love. And by dividing my attention and feelings of affection equally, I avoid animosity between them. Failing to do so causes male aggression. Something many females enjoy, but I never saw a point in it since it takes their focus away from me.”
That sinks in.
Sinks in and solidifies.
Of course I want my saikhs to be happy and get along but… “What about them? Do Cato and Yerosh love you?”
“They’re too well-trained to love me,” she says with a giggle void of any restraint. “It’s not a saikh’s place to love. Only to please.”
Not news either.
It’s the second mantra they learn at the saikhmenti, but it never loomed over me the way it does now. Of course Adrin has no problem with sharing me if there are no feelings involved. Maybe I interpreted a bit too much into him calling our lovemaking meaningful? Probably. He did reduce it to helpful the morning after.