by Sky Winters
So far, to her mind, they were just a race of assholes. She had no patience for their cutesy quirks. One of their cutesy quirks almost killed everyone.
When they got to the closed door of her loving, caring Daskani mate, Celeste read the name that was engraved upon it. General Zephyr. That explained why the others listened to him. He was not just some hot-shot; he was the one in charge. Officially and everything. She felt like she should be more impressed than she was, but she was too annoyed at him and the way things had played out thus far. She did not care if he was the king. She wanted to officially tell him to go fuck himself.
The nervous Daskani guard knocked on the door and then turned to her. “Wait here,” he told her.
“No, I’m going in to ta—”
He shook his head and said, more firmly this time, “Wait. Here.”
Celeste threw her hands up and sighed, but she did not want to disobey in case she would end up dead otherwise. She was not one to mess around if things were that serious. She watched as he lumbered into the room and slammed the heavy metal door behind him. The office or whatever that General Zephyr was in was apparently soundproof. That figured.
Finally, just as Celeste was about think she could not stand it any longer, the door opened and the Daskani guard came out. He gestured for her to go inside and then made his way back down the hall to the cages. She hoped he would be a little kinder to the other ladies now, but she could not be sure of that.
She entered the office and noticed right away that it was at least a hundred degrees in there. Heh. She might have considered that. The general was sitting at a large, bulky black desk. His attire did nothing to hint at the fact that he was a higher rank than the others. He was wearing the same maroon uniform pants and vest. He would have looked more like a bellhop than a general, were it not for the gold tassels that anointed his uniform here and there.
His outfit did not make him look menacing. What made him menacing was his sheer size. The Daskani were all large, but the dragon man who had picked her out was a behemoth. Celeste had not had time to contemplate that when she stood gaping at him out in the compound. But now that they had arrived in that tiny office, she was beginning to think about a lot of things…
“Is your planet a volcano by any chance?” she asked before she could stop herself.
General Zephyr glowered at her. “Have a seat,” he said.
She sat.
“I am told that you complained about our system aboard my ship,” he said. Everything he said was like a snarl with an extra hiss thrown in. “I am sorry that you find our methods uncomfortable, but you see we must quarantine you females before we can become… what’s the word you use? Ah, intimate.”
Celeste furrowed her brows at that. “Quarantine?” she asked him. “So, you’re treating us like animals because you think we might be infected?”
General Zephyr blinked at her. He was not used to his orders or rules being questioned. “Well,” he said, faltering a bit. “Yyyes.”
She felt content when she realized that she was cracking him a little. She had somehow penetrated his molten exterior. She just hoped she would not find magma or something underneath.
“That might be normal where you’re from, but where we’re from, it’s considered inhumane and abusive to lock people up in cages like they are animals.” Celeste looked him in the eye when she spoke, another thing that jarred Zephyr. She realized this and so she kept it up. Intimidation by disrespect. That was something she could surely do. “You won’t get into our pants that way.”
He clearly did not understand that terminology, but the dumb look on her face made Celeste laugh. It had been worth saying just for that.
“We do not want to get into your pants,” he said. “We desire to mate with you, to help your people survive and help bring new blood to our people.”
She did not see the appeal of having Earthen blood mixed in with their clearly more powerful Daskani blood… “But Earth people aren’t special,” she tried arguing. “We aren’t made of fire. We can’t fly. And we’re nowhere near as massive as you.”
Zephyr suddenly smiled. He had a surprisingly handsome smile for a dragon man. Sure, his fangs were frightening and he looked like he was trying to threaten her instead of show a little joy, but Celeste knew that he was making the effort to appear more friendly, and that put her at ease that she did not know she wasn’t feeling until then.
“But you are special,” he told her with all sincerity. “Your weakness and lack of any trained powers makes you attractive and different to us. You are called the weaker race, after all.”
“Oh, thanks,” Celeste said.
Then she laughed.
It felt nice to talk to a Daskani in an actual conversation. It made her feel better that she was now being treated like a guest, not a bounty. But she still wished that there was a fan in his office.
“So, I guess it’s back to my quarantine cage with me then,” she said, standing up from her cool metallic seat. She did not have any idea how the metal was cool in the steamy office and figured that the Daskani had to have fancy metal that was resistant to melting. Otherwise their space ship would not have done so well.
“No,” Zephyr said to her. “You don’t have to… I will give the order for your comrades to be released. I don’t want to be uncourteous to our guests.”
Celeste raised her eyebrows at him and looked at him curiously. She knew that she basically did not know anything about the Daskani other than the fact that they had answered humanities call and they were some weird dragon-shifters who liked things to be kept uncomfortably hot. But still, Zephyr surprised her. She had not expected him to change his mind about things so easily, and she wondered if it might have something to do with the fact that she was his mate.
“I don’t know how the rest of my people will respond to so many beautiful women,” Zephyr explained. “I thought that the cages might keep them safe… But I am sure that we can find accommodations that are more comfortable.”
“Thank you,” Celeste replied, assuming that there must be catch to this. “So, should I go back and await accommodations.”
Zephyr looked nervous again. “No, no… You…” He looked around his sparse office. “You can stay in here.”
Celeste sat back down in her cool seat, glad that she had that at the very least. It would have been nice if she could have a bed made of that metal, along with a nice tall glass of water perhaps, but she was not about to start getting greedy.
He stood up then and went to the office door. “I think that the females – women – should be led out of their cages slowly,” he explained then, pausing in the doorway to look at her. “I want this new situation to be handled as delicately as possible. My species… We can sometimes do things without thinking. I do not want any mating to happen without careful planning. That is how we plan to help your people, after all.”
She smiled faintly at him at that and gave a nod. She could not believe that her Daskani leader, was so kind and understanding. They did not want to go crazy with lust and start just ravishing the women everywhere. They wanted to handle things in a way that would ensure pregnancy, not just pleasure. Celeste found that she could respect this Zephyr guy.
And despite her initial disgust, she could feel an attraction towards him coursing through her body.
General Zephyr came back into his office a few moments later. He had a chagrined sort of look on his face, but he nodded at Celeste. “I have given the order. It will be done. The women will be released from their cages.”
“Thank you,” she said, fanning herself with a hand. “Now could something be done about the heat in here? I appreciate that you are letting me stay in your quarters with you where I can be safe, but if the temperature stays this high, like I said before I will die…”
His already big eyes grew bigger and he went to adjust the temperature. There was a thermostat-like thing on the wall. Huh, she thought. We’re not so different.
“I pi
cked you out on Earth,” he said then, sitting down at his desk and looking at her as if he was about to start giving her a job interview. “But I suppose that it would be best to get to know you better before… we commence with anything.”
Mating. He meant mating.
Celeste blushed a bit. Now that she was there with him and partnered up and everything, she felt a bit bashful about what was to come. She had never really thought of mating with a Daskani male as ‘sex,’ but that was what it was. She supposed that she had never wanted to think about it in those actual terms because sex alone was such a daunting concept to the twenty-seven-year-old virgin. Sex with a scaly space dragon just added to the whole ‘holy crap’-ness of the situation.
The room got mercifully cooler, which Celeste was so glad of. She felt like she could relax more now, though she had no idea what Zephyr expected to happen next. There was nervous anticipation as long as he did not say anything…
“What is your name?” he asked her. She could see that small talk was a foreign concept to him, but she appreciated that he was trying.
“Celeste,” she said, chuckling slightly. “Kind of a fitting name now, all things considered.”
Zephyr raised an eyebrow, and she realized he had eyebrows.
“Because of space. Celestial…? Never mind.” She blushed a bit; embarrassed that he did not understand the coincidence of her name. Maybe it was for the best that he was not a poetic romantic or something. All of this was new to her and the last thing she needed was to be mated with Romeo.
“No,” he said suddenly. “I know what you mean now. That is interesting. My name is like…” He blew a gust out of his mouth. Thankfully it contained no fire and very low amounts of heat.
Celeste laughed. “That’s true. Were our parents hippies or what?”
Of course, he was not going to know what that meant. But his confusion made his face look much less severe; softer somehow. She could get used to his gentle, moss-green eyes and his high cheekbones. She even found his blue skin less froglike now. Blue had always been one of her favorite colors…
“What did you do?” he asked her then. “On your planet, I mean.”
She wished that their getting to know each other did not feel so much like a formal interview. “I spent most of my adult life preparing for this day,” she told him honestly. “I knew that our species was in crisis so I volunteered for the breeding program. Then I’ve pretty much just tried my best to prepare myself for it.”
A lot of vitamins and supplements had been involved, as well as some hormone treatments and close monitoring of her cycle. Celeste had almost stopped living for herself and had begun living with a child in mind. Was that sad? Yeah. But it was her destiny, too. She wanted to be a mother, especially for a species that was going to die out if she did not become one.
Zephyr gave a look that seemed to say that he felt sorry for her. “It has been that dire for your people?”
Celeste nodded. “Somewhere along the line, my people got wasteful and cocky… Not that I’m thinking you should take my story as a parable or anything, but I suppose such a thing could happen on any planet.”
“We are not wasteful,” he said. Each time he spoke, the words came out almost as if it hurt for him to say them, like his lungs were on fire. Oh. Oh, she assumed that was probably exactly what it was. “We are stingy, I suppose. But we do not let things go to waste.”
“Yeah, you’re probably the opposite of how the men on my planet are… or used to be. They probably wish they could still be that way, though.” Celeste tisked a bit. “So, what are you a general of?”
Zephyr blinked slowly. If he could blush, he would have. “I am the general of the Fertility Enrichment Program, Daskani chapter,” he stated. “Mostly I am in charge of the males and making sure that they follow our strict protocol. Before we learned about the FEP, I was captain of a battleship, a star destroyer.”
Celeste looked at him, open-mouthed and impressed. She had not been paired with some lesser Daskani; she had the real deal. And he had chosen her, out of all those young ladies… “Why did you choose me?” she asked without being able to stop herself. “I’m a nobody and you’re practically a Daskani leader.”
He smiled at her then, a sharp-toothed, amphibian smile. “I am a Daskani leader,” he said.
She placed her hands on his desk and looked him in the eye. “Well, Daskani leader, will you please turn the temperature down a little more? Your Earthen mate is sweating through her clothing.”
Zephyr stood up and made a show of turning the thermostat thing down even more.
“I can’t wait to see what your planet is like,” Celeste said, unzipping the top of her purple dress so she could air out her breasts. She hated sweaty boobs. In so doing, she revealed the edges of her black lace bra, which Zephyr did not seem to mind. When he came back to her, he could not stop staring.
Instead of sitting behind his desk, he opted to sit in one of the cool, metallic chairs beside her this time. “I suppose that you could say it is on the hot side,” he said. “But no worse than our ship when you first arrived.”
“Oh great,” she said, rolling her eyes a bit. “…That was sarcasm.”
The alien spoke English remarkably well, though there were quite a few things that he did not understand. Celeste had not even expected him to be fluent in English, though, so this was turning out better than anticipated.
“Do you have hunger?” he asked her suddenly. “Would you like some food or a drink? We do not have what you are used to, I am sure, but it is better to nourish yourself than to go without. It will be a few days until we are back on Daskan.”
Before he said the last part, Celeste was all set to modestly decline, but she knew that it would be a far better idea to eat whenever offered than try to try to keep up appearances as some kind of graceful flower. Zephyr clearly did not go for that kind of thing anyway.
In her preparation, she never learned how to date a Daskani. She only learned how to treat her body well so that she could successfully and easily conceive.
Then again, who were those Earthen doctors to try and teach us about conception? Celeste thought. They did not exactly prevent or foresee this whole panic…
She realized that Zephyr was staring. She had not answered his question.
“Yes, please. I am not really a picky eater. Though I guess there’s going to be a lot of changes soon, so, heh heh.”
What if there’s just an infertility crisis because no one wants to have sex with dorks like me anymore?
Zephyr gave her another smile that was all fang. “Okay. I will try and go easy on you with my selection. Please do not feel obligated to eat it all.”
He left the office again then, and she heard what sounded like a key turning in the lock.
“Oh shit,” she said under her breath.
Despite not being in a cage anymore, she was still a prisoner on this ship. She had forgotten that. She belonged to Zephyr now. Even though she saw some likeable qualities in him, it was going to take her a while to feel fully comfortable with him. She wondered if he would give her a chance for love before he tried taking things to the next level.
CHAPTER THREE
Daskani Courtship
It took a while for General Zephyr to return to his office, but when he finally did he was carrying a large tray full of food. Celeste was excited just to see him and not be in solitary confinement anymore. The Daskan food did not actually even smell that displeasing to her. It smelled a bit like the bread aisle of the grocery store. She could not remember the last time she had been to the grocery store, but the memory of that specific aisle stood out to her for some reason.
Zephyr placed the tray down on his desk and sat beside her again. The food that he had brought for her seemed to be predominately pastry-type foods, but there were a few Jell-O-like substances as well. Celeste looked from the food to him and grinned. “Thank you, this looks perfect.”
She had never been a big fan of vegetab
les anyway. She immediately began eating, letting out some pleased moan sounds which let the alien know that she enjoyed and appreciated the meal he had provided.
Now that she was on the ship and with her mate, Celeste did not have to worry about her intense meal regimens and watching her hormone levels. All of those things which made the concept of conceiving more serious and daunting to her. Now that she was General Zephyr’s mate, she could rest easy… as odd as that sounded.
“I probably should not ask what these things are made from,” she said as she ate. “So, I won’t.”
Zephyr smiled at her a bit. There was no doubt in her mind that he would have informed her about each ingredient if she had asked for more information. “I am glad that you like them,” he said instead. “I promise you that I selected only the things that I recommend and thought you would like.”
She set one of the pasties down on the tray and licked her lips. He had not provided any utensils, so it was not like she should have felt embarrassed that she was eating with her hands, but still she felt a bit bestial, especially once she was sitting there licking red sticky stuff from her fingertips.
“So, what do you Daskani like to do for fun?” Celeste asked. She did not want to let the small talk die, especially because she was going to have her whole life to spend with this bruiser. It was important to her that she know what she was getting into; not that she would have much say if he said something that she might have considered a ‘deal-breaker.’ Now that he had chosen her as his, she would not be able to escape him even if she wanted to.
“Fun?” he asked her, as though he had never heard of the word before let alone said it.
She nodded. “Yeah. You know. Enjoyment? Pleasure?”
Zephyr motioned to unzip the front of his pants and she stopped him with a hand, laughing. “No, no… I mean besides sex. Besides instinctive behavior. What makes you happy?”
He blinked at her. This was clearly a foreign concept to her alien husband. Celeste sighed a little, feeling sorry for him. Zephyr did not have hobbies. He did not even know what hobbies were. At least, he did not know what they were and therefore could not articulate them to her. Same thing, really.