“I don’t think so,” he responded.
“I just can’t leave you alone without coming back to finding you beating up another being.” His bratha Piele spoke from behind him.
He turned to grin only to suck in his breath at the sight of the sybaritic beauty standing with his bratha. The ice pack held to her face didn't take away from the gorgeous purple orb observing him. He could see her intelligence in the way she took in her surrounding, including the Tiagerian being dragged away by his crewmates.
Riodan’s body agreed as parts of his anatomy stiffened to a new level of stiffness. Well, well, well.
Maybe missing out on a few of the ladies of Faatania wasn’t such a bad thing.
His eyes were trapped, glued to the lovely form in front of him.
“Hey, what can I say?” he shrugged, “I have a riveting personality that attracts all sorts.”
“I guess you were being honest when you said it wasn't you in the vid.” the beauty spoke. The sound of her voice igniting thoughts of candle lights, silk sheets and long limbs wrapped around his waist as he fucked the star-filled night away.
“Now you will just have to believe me in the future.” Piele grinned at her. “What was that all about?”
“The Tiagerian was having impure thoughts about our charges. I just helped him clear his mind.” He shrugged as if it was an inconsequential matter, his tone slightly deeper than Piele’s.
“Well I think you did a good job,” Sarcasm rolled off Piele. “This is Captain Zayda Sparks. She agreed to transport us home to Pyloto.”
“Captain.” Riodan gave her a slight nod in acknowledgment. He gave his bratha a quick glance. There was something different going on with Piele. He was watching Captain Sparks closely. Too closely for someone, he was unacquainted with. He and his bratha had shared many females in the past, but he had never seen his bratha acting so protectively of one before. It was intriguing.
The brathas were almost always on the same page when it came to females. If he felt such an instinctual draw, he could only imagine Piele felt the same. Had he already seduced her? No, by the look on his face, they had not. Good, he selfishly thought, he didn’t want Piele to have her first. Perhaps shared, but definitely not first.
He watched Captain Sparks approach him. “Captain Zayda Sparks,” she introduced herself holding out her hand in polite greeting.
Riodan reached and grasped her soft hand. Being this close to her was a whole new experience for him. His skin felt like it was sizzling as sensation ran up his arm from where their hands connected. Riodan looked down to see if his arm was still attached.
A wave of dizziness hit him.
“Are you alright,” Captain Sparks asked him as his knees buckled underneath him. Riodan would have collapsed to the floor completely if Captain Sparks wasn’t holding him up on one side. He fell sideways.
“Excuse me,” he said as he bumped into a passing Gastropian who quickly grabbed ahold, steadying him.
“No—no problem,” the being replied in Redemption Standard. He slapped Riodan on his back as he regained his balance leaving a trail of slime behind. “You good?”
“Yeah, thanks,” Riodan answered absently as reality hit him. He looked up into Captain Zayda Sparks’ startled gaze and sharp inhale of breath.
“Mate.” He whispered softly, stunned. He looked over at his bratha receiving a slight nod. Now he understood the protective stance his bratha had taken. Captain Zayda Sparks was their mate. By her lack of visible reaction, Captain Sparks may not realize that she was not only about to receive for new charges but also two new mates.
“These are our charges, Destiny, Octavia, Ember, and Elise.” Piele continued to introduce the younglings lounging around in various poses.
“Alright, time to move out. We got to get the hell off this station.” Zayda ordered.
“I don't want to go on another fucking spaceship,” Destiny grumped flopping down on her butt, refusing to move, brown curls bouncing. She stuck out her bottom lip, pouting.
“We would be home by now if it wasn’t for your actions with that ass, Myelard Fonetergut,” Ember stated pecking away on her computronics only the top of her short cropped green tipped hair visible. Ember never went anywhere without her computronic attached. Riodan knew a fellow computronic geek in the making.
“What can I say.” A dreamy look claimed Destiny, “He was hot.”
“He was a fucking perv. He was old enough to be your patra.”
“I like older men.” Her eyes rolled.
“Well I guess you can take the whore out of the house, but you can’t take the whore out.” Ember scathingly stated without looking up from the computronic.
Destiny reached over and knocked the device out of her sistah’s hand. Ember leaped up from her seated position against one of the dock walls and tackled Destiny.
Riodan rushed forward to get between the two younglings. He dodged a flying fist, grabbing ahold of Destiny.
“Let go of her hair Ember,” he demanded.
Ember’s grip tightened, opposite his order. Destiny’s head yanked forward as Ember pulling her into striking range.
Riodan lost his grip on Destiny. The two younglings tumbled to the ground.
Riodan danced around the two fighting females, trying to break it up before too much damage was done to him by the swinging fists coming from the battle.
“Ember, Destiny” his shouting had no effect on the dueling two. He wedged his body between the two. Getting pummeled from both sides. He didn’t have enough limbs to succeed in this endeavor.
“Ow,” he yelled when one of them sunk her teeth into him. He wasn’t sure which one of them was the owner.
“Umph,” escaped him as a fist pounded on his back.
“Let go of my sistahs,” the scream echoed into his ears. Octavia joined the brawl in defense of the girls. Riodan knew the four females had bonded into their own family. He didn’t realize that Octavia would see him as a threat and try to defend them.
Who knew what the youngling had experienced since the death of their families. They had been in some truly horrible orphanages, some of the worst ones in the galaxy. It drew the younglings closer together into a family of their choosing since they no longer had their original families.
The pounding on his back continued. He was in danger of catching the ass-kicking the Tiagerian tried to deliver him. How were these younglings so strong? They were only teenagers.
Hands grabbed at his ankle sending him off balance. He twisted his body to avoid falling over onto the two still fighting on the ground.
A loud piercing whistle echoed in the dock alcove.
The fighting combatants froze. Elise tucked herself against Riodan’s side at the sound of Captain Sparks’ voice. The tiny, shy youngling only recently started to come out of her shell and interacting more with Riodan and Piele. She was still wary of strangers. Riodan wrapped a protective arm around her as she peeked at the newcomer.
“I am Captain Zayda Sparks, owner, and captain of Sparks Fly a working freighter cargo ship. I only allow crew members on my ship so from this point forward you are all considered crew members.” Riodan took the opportunity to covertly study his mate pacing in front of the line of younglings. She captured their attention just as she had captured his. She was tall with purple skin indicating that she was part Xirin. The cooling pack that she held to one eye didn’t detract from the beauty. Nor did it diminish the authority projecting from that dark purple orb glaring at them. His cock stiffened even more. The scent of her tantalized him. The urge to lick her was almost overwhelming.
“Now I want each of you to gather up your belongings and line up. From this point forward, you will be known as grunts. You will respond to every adult in one of two manners. Either by their title, such as me you will address as Captain or by sir or ma’am. Anyone found calling an adult outside of the proper address will earn demerits. Demerits will get you a stay in the brig. The number of demerits it takes to ear
n a stay in my brig is fluid. That means on any given day you could earn a stay with twelve demerits or you could earn a stay with half a demerit. It all depends on the mood I’m in.”
Captain Sparks stopped pacing in front of the stunned youngling. Riodan admired the ease that she gained control of the younglings. He was going to have to spend more time with his mate and learn her ways. It may come in handy to have this knowledge under his belt for future missions.
“I have three last things to say,” she barked out at the younglings.
“One. I am not old enough to hear younglings use such foul language. So clean it up or I will fucking poke you in the throat.” She pointed to the four younglings. “Secondly, I don’t care about any of your issues and I don’t want to hear about them. Thirdly, I am blowing this joint and if you want a ride I advise you to grab your luggage and be aboard when I leave which will be as soon as I am on the ship, five minutes. Peace out!”
Riodan was in love. The Purple One had answered his prayers with a strong, intelligent, and beautiful mate.
Chapter Five
“Well your eye is healed, so was there another reason you needed to see me?” Doc Myrtn set down the scope she used to heal Zayda’s eye. She had taken a short amount of time to get her new passengers settled before heading to the infirmary to get her eye fixed.
Doc Myrtn was a friend of her matra. She was an older female, closer to Zayda’s matra age. Ever since Doc Myrtn’s mate had been killed in a Free Trader raid on the shuttle he was being transported on, and Doc Myrtn retired, she had been traveling around the galaxy visiting her various younglings that lived on different planets.
Zayda only modified her rule of transporting people when it came to family and close friends of the family. She was glad that Doc Myrtn fell into the close friends of the family category. She had agreed to give her passage home to Zinthuria. Otherwise, she would have had to contend with Maud and her million and one questions. Whereas Doc Myrtn was still bound by doctor-patient confidentiality.
Whenever possible she caught a ride with Zayda. Her dedication to Zayda and Sparks Fly would never be questioned.
“Um, I have this burning sensation in the pit of my stomach.” Zayda hesitantly informed her.
“How long has that been going on,” Doc asked her as her competent hands lowered the head of the medi-table so that Zayda was laying flat. The dome of the medi-scope closed over her and started to hum almost silently. Doc Myrtn frowned. “Zayda, when did you meet your mate?”
“I did not.” Zayda was sticking to her denial story. It was much safer.
Doc Myrtn pushed several buttons then a three-dimensional projection hovered over the table. “You see here and here,” Doc Myrtn pointed to two areas on the projection of Zayda’s insides.
Zayda gave a quick nod biting on her lower lip.
“This,” Doc Myrtn pointed to a lower area in Zayda’s body. “is your mating ring. I didn’t think you had one because it never showed up on your other scans. Redemptite females mating rings drop only in the presences of their true mate. It what allows them to be impregnated. That is why many Redemptites have to resort to expensive fertility treatments to procreate.”
Doc Myrtn pointed to the other highlighted area on the three-dimensional picture, “Not only do you have a mating ring you also have Xirin seed sacks.”
There was no mistaking the excitement in Doc Myrtn’s voice. “Xirin seed sacks collect viable seed from your mate and store it until such time that your body produces an egg ready for fertilization. You know that Redemptites have a high rate of infertility, right?”
She continued at Zayda’s nod, “it’s because the mating ring which holds the egg released by the female in the optimal position for fertilization doesn’t drop in couples that are not true mates. We have learned over time that a combination of drugs can get a female’s mating ring to drop, but it is a timely and costly procedure with a success rate of less than ten percent of the tries. And the formulation of the drugs had to be individual to not only each female but also to each male. That is why the birth rate on GTR is so low.” She sighed.
“Your parentals are one of the few couples that were able to find their true mates and that is why you come from such a large family.”
“I guess that is why most matras are so obsessed with getting their younglings mated,” Zayda couldn’t disregard the information. If she had younglings she would probably be worried about when the next generation would be coming along.
She looked at Zayda with excitement in her eyes. “When did you meet your mate?”
“Mates?”
“Huh?” Doc Myrtn stopped her happy dance, eyes clouding with confusion.
“Two Pylotorian males,” she wailed in an uncaptain-like manner. “They are going to wrap me up in Tiuthea silk and pat me on my head like a brainless doll.” She started hyperventilating.
“Oh, congratulations,” The awe in Doc Myrtn voice was unexpected as she handed Zayda a bag to breathe into.
“Congratulations?” Zayda demanded. “They are going to want me to stop flying. To stay home and birth younglings and bake.” She spat out the word with disgust. “Can you see me being so domesticated? I don’t know anything about younglings. The fast route between Tiuthea and Zinthuria sure, changing diapers, no way.”
“You’re a lucky duck,” Doc Myrtn used a phrase learned from Terrans. “You get two hot males to worship your body whose only goals is to see you happy and to impregnate you. So yeah, congratulations, you lucky duck.” Doc Myrtn wistfully replied. “Besides your matra knew nothing about being a matra before she had you and your sistahs. She learned and so will you.”
“Oh, you’re just as bad as my matra,” Zayda stormed away pushing the button to be released from the medi-scope. Why couldn’t these females realize that she wasn’t good mate material?
She liked having her own way. She liked being boss. She didn’t want to have to consider other people’s feelings when she made decisions. If she wanted to run naked through her ship, then she wanted to be able to do it with nobody questioning her and talking about that it wasn’t the action of a respectably mated female.
She didn’t want to change.
“Zayda there is something you should know about the mating fire.” Doc Myrtn called out after her.
“Not right now,” Zayda exited the infirmary with the door sliding shut on Doc Myrtn’s “But….”
She had better things to do then have the Doc telling her how lucky she was to have two mates that were going to worship her body. She didn’t want one mate let alone two.
She was going to have to study the treatise left behind by the Divine Purple One. She was sure there was an explanation amongst his glorious writing. She wasn’t as devout of a follower as her patra would have liked her to be, but she did believe that his teaching applied to different situations throughout her life.
When she returned to GTR she should go the temple and speak to one of the Princ-ples, they studied the treatise of the Purple One their whole lives and they would be able to guide her in the right direction. But for now, she was going to keep things strictly professional between her, Riodan and Piele. This should also help them to realize that she wasn’t their mate. No more touching meant no more mating fire. No more mating fire meant that whatever caused it in the first place should fade and along with it her mating ring and seed sacks.
“Bridge to Captain Sparks,”
“Captain Sparks.” It must be closer to their departure time than she thought She gave herself a shake. She should be ashamed of herself. Sparks Fly was her baby and she had been neglecting it because of her body’s reactions to two males. She was in control, she was not some youngling coming into her own, she could handle it. She should be able to encounter either Piele or Riodan without giving in to the urge to jump on either one of them and ride them into the closest supernova.
After all, she was a professional.
“Incoming message from your matra.” Maud, the X-Mo
nt III sentience computer informed her. Many people offered to purchase Maud, thinking that because she was a computer that she was for sale. They didn’t realize that Maud was a living being. X-Mont III’s were a life form made of pure energy and took up resident in electronic equipment when they wanted to interact with other beings. Maud had contacted Zayda when she was a youngling.
She became Zayda’s best friend, her mentor.
Some of the not so smart ideas that Zayda came up with hadn’t been carried through thanks to Maud’s ability to point out the stupidity or the consequences of the act. But the brilliant ideas that she did have, Maud supported her including the idea to become an indie freighter captain when Zayda had no purpose in life. She even agreed to come along as Zayda’s communication officer.
“No, say it isn’t so?” The last person she needed to deal with right now was her matra. If she even got a slight hint that there was not one, but two males on Sparks Fly and that Zayda was experiencing her mating fire with, she would start planning a mating ceremony.
“I am only able to lie in a situation where doing otherwise would cause harm to you.” Maud made the snarky comment knowing that Zayda wasn’t truly asking a question. But that was part of Maud’s personality. She likes to keep things interesting.
Entertaining.
It was how her species learned. Through conflict. And as Maud like to always point out, “not all conflict was bad.”
Zayda wouldn’t put it past her to have sent a message to her matra informing her that there were finally non-family members males on board Sparks Fly. For some unknown reason, Maud always found the encounters between Zayda and her matra to be the most exciting to watch and learn from.
“Put her through to here please,” Zayda entered her quarters. She only had a few seconds to pull herself together before her matra’s face appeared on the comm screen that took up a portion of one of her walls. From the view behind her matra, Zayda noted that she was in her personal office where she took care of family matters and not the business one she normally was found in. “And while I am talking to her see what you can find out about our two male passengers.”
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