His to Claim

by Taylor Vaughn

  This means she should still be here. Possibly in the facilities, relaxing her body in my soothing tub as I have often encouraged her to do after our long mating sessions. And, last night’s session had been particularly intense.

  Carnal memories flood my mind…. How she begged me to fuck her, how my blue seed had looked upon her beautiful brown skin…. The unexpected twist of her apology and respectful use of my title, just as I was thinking of ways to ramp our punishment up to the next level.

  My k’vani is a stubborn one. I have known this since the moment I met her upon that New Terrhan cliff, daring to defy me, though I held her fragile hu’man neck in my hand. So, to hear those words...

  I harden all over again, remembering how tightly her sweet hot had gripped my diijo when I gave Ki’Ra her reward for submitting.

  I will join her in that bath, I decide as I rise to find her instead of waiting for her imminent return on my sleeping mat.

  To think, that I had waited two entire solars to claim her. Now, I am barely able to wait two of the time measurements she calls “minutes” in her throat language.

  However, as soon as I step foot on the mat, the room’s system interrupts my mission with a beep. “Reminder: You have a council meeting at mid-day tomorrow.”

  A new, much less pleasant memory surfaces then. Being so eager to get home to Ki’Ra that I had agreed to meet with N’Ure and the rest of my council, thinking three days would be enough time to reunite with my k’vani. But that had been before I received the message from one of my emissaries about her garden trysts with the hybrid.

  Dread roils both of my stomachs. N’Ure will most certainly expect a definitive answer to the Kaidorian question when the council meets on the morrow, but I still cannot resolve what that answer should be.

  Agreeing to the Kaidorians conditions would bring my planet both riches and peace.

  But Ki’Ra will never forgive me.

  This single thought continues to invade my otherwise practical deliberation, despite her betrayal and last night’s necessary quelling.

  I shake my head to clear it of these unpleasant thoughts as I enter the bathing room. I have several more hours before I must render my final decision, and wish to spend those hours enjoying Ki’Ra’s supple body—

  But what is this? I furrow my ridges when I find both the pool and the rest of the facilities empty.

  Returning to my sleeping quarters, I grab a robe and commence my search for her.

  Only to stop short when I find her in my receiving room.

  Ki’Ra lies on one of the long sitting lounges, in nothing more than an examination gown while a male dressed in the special light blue robe of a palace doctor runs a scanning wand over her body.

  He is obviously conducting a medical examination, but the sight of her with another male…my talons pierce my palms when my hands suddenly ball into fist at my sides. “What is the meaning of this?” I ask.

  When he sees me, the green-skinned doctor hastily steps away from Ki’Ra. “My Kel,” he says, placing his hand on his ridges as he bows his head. “I was summoned through the emergency call system. I was made to believe that you wished to have this hu’man examined.”

  My focus transfers to Ki’Ra who sits up and also bows her head while touching a hand to her smooth nose. She is the very picture of submission, but I suspect my unintelligent human—not a concerned servant—somehow figured how to make an emergency call on the toilet’s system.

  “You will tell me if it was you who called the medic to my quarters, Ki’Ra.”

  She nods without making eye contact. “My apologies if I have broken yet another Xalthurian rule. I didn’t want to wake you…my Kel.”

  Her use of my title is completely proper yet the ways she says it makes my ridges bristle. I still do not quite understand her people’s use of tone, but something about hers strikes me as irreverent.

  However, before I can construct a response, Ki’Ra turns to address the medic. “Thank you for giving me this robe, so that I could maintain my modesty during the exam, D’hr Te’Hah. Would you please be sure to send the results to the A’oh Gh’A? He needs to be notified that the conditions of my contract with our Kel have been met.”

  “What is the meaning of this?” I ask, a terrible feeling rising in my stomach.

  “My Kel, I am pregnant,” she answers, keeping her head carefully bowed. “With a boy.”

  I go utterly still. She is pregnant…with a male child. My Kel line has been secured.

  This news should elate me, but a sick heat envelops my body, even as Te’Hah says, “Congratulations are in order, my Kel. I have examined your hu’man and she is healthy, as is the babe. Your heir will be strong.”

  “Leave us, Te’Hah,” I say through gritted teeth.

  The medic starts at my abrupt dismissal, but then bows in the proper way before heading toward the suite’s front door. However, he stops, and turns to face me once again, “My Kel, have no worries, I will send the report to A’oh Gh’A.”

  His words only increase my fury, “Out!” I hiss with an expression that inspires him to make a much hastier retreat from my quarters.

  I have barely exerted myself this morning, but my hearts beat hard as I turn to Ki’Ra, who is still sitting upon the lounge with her head bowed.

  “You carry my heir,” I say, trying to keep my temper in check.

  “Yes, my Kel.”

  Her answer is demure enough. Her meekness exactly as I commanded. Yet anger continues to course through me. “The custom is to stand when you address your Kel.”

  A moment of hesitation. I wonder if she will fight me on this, return to the Ki’Ra from the night before. Perhaps give me an excuse to—

  She stands before I can finish that promising thought of using her defiance to keep her here beyond our contracted agreement. “Yes, my Kel,” she repeats, head still bowed.

  “You will look at me when you address me, hu’man.”

  Never mind that this command actually goes against the Xalthurian Rules of Deference. One should technically never look their Kel in the eye. But I want her eyes. I need to see if any of the defiant hu’man I knew before last night is left after that quelling.

  She raises her head, but the action brings me no answers. Her gaze is flat, distant almost, although she is looking directly at me. “Aren’t you pleased, my Kel?” she asks, her tone soft in a way that strikes me as deliberate. “You have successfully bred me.”

  Then her eyes drop again.

  Of course, Ki’Ra is correct, I should be pleased. But instead, rage continues to course through me as I think of waking up without her lying next to me and then finding her in the receiving room with the medic.

  Without any further analysis of my unnatural emotions, I stride across the room. Curving my hand around the back of her neck, I pull her against my body, and force her to look up at me.

  “You will tell me why you called for the medic,” I hiss.

  Ki’Ra averts her eyes as best she can. So opposite of the defiant way she held my gaze the last time I wrapped my hand around her neck. “Humans go through a multiple day bleeding period every month, during which we release an unfertilized egg. I have yet to bleed, though I was brought here six weeks ago. So, I figured out how to use the toilet’s emergency call system, just in case it…” she lets a deliberate few ticks go by before concluding with, “wasn’t working. I was pretty sure I was pregnant.”

  “Pretty sure…” I repeat, the strangely coupled words giving rise to even more ugly feelings inside my two hearts. “You will tell me why you did not come to me directly with this news, if you were so prettily sure.”

  She replies much more quickly to this question, as if she already had her answer prepared. “I needed to confirm it before I told you. I would never want to waste your precious time with a false alarm, my Kel.”

  My hand reflexively squeezes around the back of her neck, my ridges going completely flat. She is mocking me, I sense. Mocking me with her
deferential tone and her too quick explanation.

  “You have a habit of keeping secrets from me, Ki’Ra. And I did not give you permission to contact one of my medics. By calling a medic on your own, you have allowed another male to touch you without my consent. It would seem you learned little from last night—”

  “Arghh!!!” The submissive little hu’man disappears with that rule-breaking interruption, and my k’vani returns, her defiant brown gaze landing on mine. “And what will you do?” she asks. “Beat the poor medic to within an inch of his life like you did L’Than?”

  She places her small hands against my chest and gives it a mighty shove, catching me by surprise. Shocked by her sudden act of aggression, I let go of her neck, stumbling back from her.

  “What do you want from me?” she screams, her beautiful brown eyes now a flame with fury. “I break the rules, and you punish me. I try to go by the book, and you punish me!”

  “I would advise you to watch your tongue,” I answer, my own gaze hardening.

  “Or what? You’ll bring back those berries and cuffs. Force me to fuck you until I drop the baby. Then kill me, like your soldiers killed my sister?”

  I freeze at her words, then remind her, “Your foolish sister jumped to her own death taking along one of our Xalling males with her.”

  “You and your men cornered her! And she stepped back, because she was desperate to keep the child you were determined to snatch out of her arms. And I couldn’t help her, because my race has been so cowed by yours, that my own parents held me back. She died. Because of you. Because of your tyranny and your punishments that don’t make any sense!”

  No, I do not quite understand tone. But I can clearly hear the raw pain in her voice. “Ki’Ra—” I start to say.

  “No! No! Let me speak, my Kel. If this all ends with you punishing me no matter what I do, I might as well have my say. Wanna know the real reason I kept this pregnancy from you?”

  I quiet, not because of her disrespectful command to let her speak, but because I do. I honestly do want to know the answer to that question.

  “I knew I was pregnant after you left, because I skipped my period and I am disgustingly regular. But I kept the news to myself because I wanted to stay here longer. Because I thought…” Her eyes are watering again, as they did the first time I imprisoned her in this rooms. She angrily swipes the wetness away from her face as she tells me. “I was falling in love with you. But, that’s just a stupid human emotion isn’t it?”

  Yes, the concept of love is a rather unintelligent, not to mention impractical hu’man emotion.

  But her confession seizes both my hearts. And the hope, so thoroughly dashed, when the medic announced the contract-ending baby news, comes surging back.

  Once again, I close the space separating me from this female. My female. I reach out to grab her, this time not in anger, but with a previously unknown emotion of my own, to which I cannot give name.

  But then I stop, when I see the pained expression upon her face.

  “I’m done being stupid over you,” she says. “I’ve fulfilled my part of the contract. By the agreement, you have to send me back. You have to send me home.”

  “Ki’Ra—”

  “I want to go home!”

  17

  D'Rek

  She wants to go home.

  She wants to leave me.

  After Ki’Ra makes her bold declaration, she storms out of the receiving room.

  My first instinct is to follow her into the bedchamber. How dare she think she can walk so freely out of my life? I will toss her on the sleeping mats and rut her into submission. Make her vow to never leave me.

  I march into the bedchamber to do just that….

  But I find her lying on the sleeping mat, her body curled into a tight ball as the strange water rolls down her face.

  You cried like a youngling when I tried to mount you. I did not like that.

  As it turns out, those words remain as true now as they did back then.

  Instead of falling directly on top of her, I walk over to my k’vani with the intention of pulling her into my arms to offer her the comfort she appears to need.

  “Please leave me alone,” Ki’Ra says the words on a sob, just as I’m about to reach out to her. “You’ve won.”

  Won. “You think I have won. You will tell me of what prize you speak.”

  “You will have your heir and I can go home. The contract has been fulfilled.”

  Home. That is the second time she has mentioned that word, and it brings a scowl to my face. “You will tell me why you would wish to return to a planet that can barely sustain its people. Here you want for nothing.”

  She laughs, but the watery sound lacks humor. “You can’t be serious. I want for nothing? How about basic dignity and respect?”

  She sits up and faces me, her round eyes flaring with renewed anger. “Do you know what it’s like to walk around and be stared and pointed at like some kind of strange animal? To be given a translator where I can understand everything people around me say but they don’t understand me? Do you know what it is like to be served by two people who pick apart your appearance, your intelligence and look at you with absolute disgust?”

  I flare my nostrils. She could only be talking about the two servants S’Lei has assigned to her. “They will be punished.”

  It is a magnanimous solve, yet she shakes her head at me. “You think my race is inferior and that we lack intelligence. How did you put it? I’m only an indolent human. A womb for your child. How can you punish them for thinking exactly as you do?”

  “I think neither your body nor your appearance is disgusting.”

  “Great. You like fucking me, and even better, I’ve got a womb to house your royal heir. You’re right. So romantic.”

  I immediately suspect this to be the sarcasm, I’ve forbidden her more than once to use. But I ignore that infraction to point out, “You cannot blame me for clearly seeing the failings of your race. You are impractical, oft violent for reasons that have nothing to do with gains for your civilization, independent to a fault. Even now you would reject the chance to become your ruler’s bedmate, for reasons I fail to grasp.”

  “Because I am human! If you’re looking for a reason, that’s why!” she answers. “And let me tell you something about my people who you are willing to dismiss so easily. We are survivors. We have managed to withstand the harsh seasons on New Terrhan and make hostilely unfarmable land yield to us. We are a community that rallies together in the rough times—and it’s pretty much been all rough times since we got here. But we’re still here. We dance and we sing, and we laugh, and we love, still, no matter what happens to us. Not because we’re stupid, but because we have hearts and emotions and feelings.”

  She lets out an angry huff of air. “It’s very easy for you to judge us as irrational creatures. You have all this technology at the tip of your fingers while we work our limbs to the bone from sundown to sun up just to survive. But you wouldn’t even last a day on my planet. You have no idea what it’s like to be us, to have actual feelings. I thought maybe I could teach you, but that was my mistake. And you know what, you’re worse than anyone else on this planet, because you honestly think you can do no wrong. But I’m here to tell you, you have done wrong. I loved you and you threw that away over some damn title. You broke me…humiliated me…stripped me of my dignity, just so I’d call you my Kel…”

  Her voice fades and the angry light once again dims from her eyes. “So yes, I want to go home and be with my people. Where no one will look down on me and see me as inferior. And at least those people are worthy of my love.”

  Her words hit me in an unexpected place.

  What she has said contradicts many of the items in N’Ure report and confusion takes over. I could tell her that, but my mind is aflame with all the other things she has said to me.

  I want to go home.

  I loved you.

  You broke me.

  I
watch her lie back down, her eyes no longer issuing water. In fact, her expression is a complete blank as she turns over and gives me her back.

  A chill runs up my ridges. For this is exactly how a pleasure station whore would present the taking. Back carefully turned until she was commanded to her hands and knees.

  Suddenly a host of memories from the last week’s flood over me.

  Ki’Ra’s happy smile upon seeing me enter a room, her animated gasps when I pushed into her, as if every thrust was a pleasurable surprise to her. The way she moaned and screamed, only to peacefully sigh when she came down from her orgasm.

  “Oh moons, that was amazing.”

  How often she had complimented me afterwards, filling me with a pride no amount of royal deference could inspire.

  I loved you, and you threw that all away for a damn title.

  And the talking. The Xalthurian females would simply leave, but the few times Ki’Ra did not immediately fall asleep, she would curl her hand over mine, palm to palm, and we would speak of many things.

  The fact that her old planet only had one moon, which left the people without enough light to see at night. Stories from the entertainments she had watched.

  Sometimes she would even sing, even though she claimed her voice wasn’t very good. “You should hear my best friend, Zinnia. She sings like an angel.” An explanation of what an “angel” was followed.

  “We were only talking!” L’Than had claimed before his beating. “Just talking. I liked talking to her. She is not like my mother. She has opinions and makes many humorful observations. I found her fascinating, but we only talked.”

  At the time, L’Than’s words had only served to further infuriate me, but now, looking at my k’vani lie there like a pleasure station whore, I understand them in a new light.

  Her inexplicable emotions. Her unnecessary affections. Her never-heard-of love.

  That was what made Ki’Ra my Ki’Ra. What I liked the most about her.

  But now she lies broken, sadness radiating off her prone body, like a disease.