He had just stepped out of the shower and finished drying off when he heard the women knocking at his door.
"Come on in. The door's unlocked!" he yelled out of his bathroom into the house.
He heard the door open and the excited voices of the three women filled the house as they came in and settled in in the living room. Ero laughed as he heard Eden's distinct voice criticizing how stark his house looked. Everything he had heard about human women, as little as that was, was right. As soon as they mated and "settled down" they suddenly turned into creatures of nesting and decorating. They may have been just fine with a plain, basic home before, but as soon as there was a mate to take care of, the home had to be perfect and suddenly there was a need for things like curtains and extra pillows. Of course, things like that were not a priority on Uoria to say the least. In fact, Ero had never even seen a throw pillow and the only curtains that he had ever heard of were the thick, unadorned ones that covered the windows during the annual week of solid sunlight.
Eden, however, was changing that. She had started taking old clothing and blankets and turning them into all kinds of decorative items that she put up around her mate Pyra's house. The other women had followed suit, learning to sew these items for their mates, another warrior and the healer of the tribe. Ero had heard both of them telling somewhat awe-filled and confused stories of waking up or coming home from their patrol to find new decorative items had just appeared in their homes. As much as they grumbled about it, Ero knew that they secretly liked it. It made them feel special to have their mates taking care of them, and, like any Denynso men, they were completely and fully dedicated to making their women happy.
"Can you believe the condition of this couch?" Eden said in a tone that Ero knew she thought was subtle, but was actually loud enough for him to hear.
She had gotten worse with her nesting in the last several weeks after finding out that she was pregnant with her and Pyra's first child. This pregnancy was extremely special. It was the first of the new generation, and because Eden had been changed from a human to a Denynso, no one was entirely positive whether it was going to be more like a Denynso pregnancy or a human pregnancy. Either way, she was filled with hormones and suddenly totally obsessed with making sure that everyone was living in a beautiful place. It was adorable in kind of a frightening way. Maybe one day Zuri would be like that.
The thought startled Ero and he glanced up at himself in the mirror. There were streaks of orange across his eyes and as he thought more about her and the idea that one day she may carry his child, he watched the usual green of his eyes turn to bright, vibrant orange. He shook his head, forcing his mind to go to different thoughts. The last thing he needed was to walk out into the living room and have his eyes do all of his talking for him. He needed the opportunity to talk to the women about what was on his mind before they already knew just by looking at him.
"I think that my couch is just fine," he said, walking out into the living room.
Eden turned sharply to look at him and made a face like she couldn't believe he would even say that. There was no hint of apology in her expression, but he wasn't upset with her. He admired the fire in her and knew that she was the perfect match for the massive and intense Pyra.
"Well, that makes it even more upsetting," she said.
The women giggled and Ero smiled at them as he dropped down onto the large armchair across from the couch where all three of them sat. Eden was gently rubbing the small swell of her belly, Eliana was looking around in her sharp, scrutinizing way, and Leia was staring at him softly, still looking so small compared even to the others, neither of which were big. He winced as soon as that thought went through his mind. It was that kind of thinking that had gotten him into trouble with Zuri in the first place. He really needed to get himself to stop thinking that way. Especially since he had realized just how wrong that thinking was.
It had definitely startled him when she first stepped out of the space ship and he saw that she was only a few inches shorter than him and was full, soft, and curvy, unlike the other three women that were all nearly two feet shorter than their mates and thin. The more he looked at her, though, the more he realized how cute she really was, and the sexiness of each of those inches. This was made especially obvious when each of those inches were wrapped around him and he had the chance to bury his face in her breasts, grab her lush hips, and satiate the aggressive hard-on he'd had since before she even arrived on the planet. Now all he wanted was to make it up to her for the cruel jokes he had made and show her just how much he cared about her.
He just needed the human women to help him.
"So, what do you girls think of Zuri?" he asked, trying to introduce the conversation as casually as possible.
All six eyes snapped to him and there were a few seconds of tense silence.
"Zuri?" Eden asked.
"Zuri Hase?" Eliana followed.
"As in Zuri, the foreign exchange professor?" Leia said.
"Yes. To all of those."
The three women exchanged glances and Ero watched as they seemed to communicate without speaking. Finally they all turned back to him.
"We think she's wonderful," Eden said slowly, "What do you think of her?"
Ero smiled and the women squealed and clapped in a way that made them all seem like little girls, but filled him with even more excitement. He almost caught himself clapping right along, but there was no way he was going to let that get back to their mates. He certainly didn't need the warriors having any more to make fun of him about. They already teased him relentlessly about being smaller and less muscular than them. There was no need to add girly celebrating to the mix.
"Here's the thing," he said after letting them get out their excitement, "I didn't get our relationship started on the best note."
"Yeah, we noticed," Leia said.
"What the hell is wrong with you, by the way?" Eliana said.
"Yeah, why would you ever say something like that about a woman? Especially a woman that you apparently care about?"
"It's just that…" Ero started to try to defend himself, but the girls weren't going to give him any slack.
"It's just that you are an insensitive jerk," Eliana said as if it was a fact that he just needed to accept so he could move on with his life.
Ero sighed.
"Probably. I don't know why I would say something like that. The point is, though, that I want to make it up to her. I want to plan something amazing for her to show her how much I care about her and I figured since she is human and you are human that maybe you would be able to help me out."
The women looked at him for another uncomfortable second like they were evaluating his worthiness to receive their help, and then they broke into smiles.
"We'd love to help," Leia said.
Of the three, Leia knew Zuri the best. She had been a student at the university before coming to Uoria, and in fact, it was the same exchange program that brought Zuri to the planet that brought Leia. This gave the two women a special bond and Ero hoped he could use that to his advantage when coming up with ideas for the special date he wanted to have with Zuri.
"Did you have anything in mind?" Eden asked.
Ero shook his head. He had never dated anyone before. Dating wasn't the same type of practice on Uoria as it was on Earth, but even the Denynso customs weren't something that he had experience with with the women of the tribe, as few as there were. The desire to spend time with one specific woman just to be near and make her happy was something that was completely foreign to him and he didn't know where to start coming up with something that they could do together that she might enjoy.
"Well, on Earth, a lot of people go out to eat on dates, but considering there are no restaurants on this planet and everyone eats together in the banquet hall basically every night, I guess that's not really an option," Eden said with a hint of disdain in her voice.
She was still working on getting us
ed to all of the differences between Earth and Uoria, and some of the strangest ones seemed to bother her immensely.
"They could have a picnic, though," Eliana offered, "We could help you put together something and instead of coming to the banquet hall, you could bring her out onto the cliffs and eat together, just the two of you."
"That sounds nice," Ero said, "Is that it, though? I want to do something really spectacular for her, something that will really show her how much I care about her and how sorry I am for hurting her feelings."
Suddenly Eden looked at him more closely. She took her hand away from her belly and leaned closer so that she could look him fully in the face.
"Oh my god. You slept with her."
"What?" Leia shrieked.
Ero knew his eyes were bright orange now and there was nothing he could do about it. Just thinking about her filled him with such intense desire and need to be near her that he felt like he couldn't catch his breath. This must be the same feeling that Pyra had when he met Eden that reduced the usually fearsome warrior to an incoherent, broken shell because he thought she was dead, or made Ciyrs stronger and more powerful than he could ever have imagined when he met Eliana and she had to be rescued from the Klimnu, or gave Gyyx the power to bring Leia back from the brink of death after her own weeks in captivity. It was something that he had never experienced before, and he wanted more than anything to explore it further.
"It just kind of happened," he admitted, "That's another reason I want to do this for her. I want her to know that it wasn't just something that I did because she was there and vulnerable. I really think that she's my mate."
It was the first time that he had put that thought into words and it sent a little bit of a shiver through him. He couldn't wait to get this date planned, find her, and tell her everything he'd been thinking about, and just hoped that she felt the same way.
Chapter Three
I wanted to stay awake for the trip back from Uoria like I did when I first left Earth, but two days into the trip, I couldn't take the thoughts rolling through my mind anymore. Every time I stopped reading one of the books in my luggage or glanced out of the window at the stars beyond my pod chamber, all I could think about was Ero. I hated that I was still thinking about him and the feelings it brought up when I did. He was so beautiful and had made me feel things that I hadn't experienced in my entire life. I wanted to think that having sex with him in the forest had been just a one-time fluke, a momentary loss of clarity and judgment, but my heart felt like it was something so much more, which made the pain even worse.
It didn't matter how I felt when I thought about him. What mattered was how he had spoken about me and how he looked at me. I had been through enough years of being mistreated and made fun of for my size. I had dealt with enough of the taunting and teasing, the hurtful jokes and the backhanded comments, from the person in my life who was supposed to care about me the most. I had gotten rid of him two years before and I wasn't about to put myself back into the same situation just because Ero made me feel breathless and all I wanted was to be back on Uoria with him.
Finally I called in the flight attendant over and asked her for her to let me go to sleep. She gazed down at me with wide, sad-looking eyes.
"Are you sure?" she asked.
Since I had spent less than 24 hours on the planet after stepping off of the university shuttle, the staff was the same from the trip there. There was generally a 24 to 36 hour break between the two legs of any journey that long to allow the pilot to rest and give the staff some time off from their sometimes grueling responsibilities on board. I had managed to get back on the ship just before they were to take off again and the flight attendant looked extremely surprised to see me. I hadn't gone into detail about what had happened, but it was almost like she could see the hurt in me and knew that there was something going on in my mind that I didn't necessarily want to share.
"Yes," I said.
I had been resistant to sleeping through the five day journey on the way to the planet, not wanting to give up that much time or control, and wanting to use the time to start preparing my lesson plans. Now that I had no lessons to plan and wanted nothing more than to miss some of the time that was just tormenting me. Maybe when I woke up back at home, I would feel better. Though I was nervous, I figured nothing worse could happen to me while I slept for the next three days than was already happening to me.
Once I was ready, I settled into my pod, attached the straps that would hold me in place in the event of turbulence, and closed my eyes. I heard the flight attendant's voice telling me to relax and just let the process take effect. I had read through the brochure about the flight carefully so I knew the basic concept behind the sedating process. As a teacher, I am accustomed to taking information presented to me very seriously and accept facts as the truth that makes the world make sense. Repeating this concept through my mind and reviewing the steps of the process as they happened helped me to relax as I felt the seat beneath me soften to cradle my body more closely.
I opened my eyes and watched the glass portion of my pod darken gradually, creating a soothing feeling around me. Everything went absolutely silent for a moment as the pod closed itself off to prevent more sounds from coming through to me, and then a small speaker opened on the wall beside me to stream soft white noise into the space. It was one of those sounds that sounds obtrusive and almost uncomfortable at first, and then becomes such a comforting element of the environment you don't want it to go away.
After a few moments of the sound, I became aware of a faint, almost powdery scent. The fragrance increased and I started to feel deeply relaxed and sleepy. I let go of the tension and control within my body and my eyes drifted closed again. For a brief moment I could see Ero smiling at me behind my eyelids, and then everything went black.
When I woke again it was three days later and the ship was settling onto place on the landing platform in the university bay. Beneath me I felt my seat growing harder and the white noise gradually stopped as the automated system started easing me out of the sedated state. The pod's sound defenses ended and I could hear the loud scraping sound of the retractable metal ceiling of the landing bay sliding back into place above the ship.
The glass at the front of my pod became clear again and I heard the soft hiss and pop of the locks releasing. I released the straps over my chest and used one hand to push the lid of my pod out of the way. The light inside the chamber was blinding for a second, so I sat still until the effect dissipated and I was able to see again.
The flight attendant was standing beside my pod, smiling broadly and offering me a cup. I took it and swallowed the strong coffee it held, then handed it back to her.
"You look happy," I said groggily, pulling myself out of the pod.
"I love it when we get back home," she said brightly."
"You really should consider changing your job," I said, and then immediately felt bad for it.
She had opened up to me about how her grandmother felt about her traveling away from Earth and why she took the job. I sighed and gathered her in a hug.
"Thank you for helping me during my trip – both times."
I tried to laugh, but she continued to look at me with the sadness in her eyes.
"It was my pleasure," she said.
I walked through the ship to the exit door and picked up my luggage. It was just like when I arrived on Uoria, except that where there was so much hope and excitement when I arrived on that planet, there was only sadness and disappointment here. I felt like a failure and all I wanted to do was go home and start trying to put it all behind me. As soon as I got there, however, I found out that getting a few days of relaxation to myself before heading back to the university and hoping they would let me take over my usual classes again wasn't going to be nearly as easy as I had hoped it would be.
It seemed like it took hours to get from the landing platform through the university back to my house. All around me I
could hear whispers speculating why I had made such a sudden return, changing what was anticipated to be nearly a seven month absence into one that lasted less than eleven days. The people who were brave, or discourteous depending on the perception, enough to actually stop and talk to me about the situation shared the gossip of the department.
Wild rumors and explanations ranged from I was too scared to even get out of the ship in the first place, to I had gotten to Uoria only to find it a desolate wasteland destroyed by some recent war that Earth had not been informed of, to my personal favorite which was that there had actually never been an opening for a professor in the exchange program but that was used as a cover-up because I was pregnant by the department head and needed to disappear until the baby was born, but it turned out to be a false alarm which is why I had suddenly came back. No one seemed interested in my explanation that I simply decided that the experience wasn't for me and wanted to come home. Apparently that wasn't salacious enough.
Of course, I wasn't about to give them the honest, and legitimately salacious, explanation.
I finally made it home in the middle of the evening when the sun had already gone most of the way down and the first thing I noticed was that my living room light was on. I had all of the lights throughout the house on a timer to turn on and off throughout the day so it looked like I was home to anyone who didn't know for sure that I wasn't, but this was one of the times when it should have been off and my bedroom light should have been on.
I approached the back door carefully, putting myself on the opposite side of the house from the light, and eased inside. Traveling with any form of personal defense tool wasn't exactly my style, but I knew that the dictionary in my bag would pack a hell of a wallop and that once they were disoriented, I was pretty capable of taking someone down if necessary. I reached for the dictionary as I walked toward the living room, moving toward the sound of the television and faint munching.
Loved by a Bear (Legends of Black Salmon Falls Book 1) Page 35