The Voris' Mate

by S. J. Sanders

  “Do not worry, Reggie. You are our female. They are Vadal’s clan. No one there will hurt you.” He hissed audibly when Eyuul drifted too close to her. “But that does not mean I want them gawking at you or trying to attract your attention,” he muttered.

  Reggie slid her hand across his hip, making her big male shiver.

  “Don’t worry, big guy. Two Vori are more than enough for me. I’m not in market for any more than that! Took enough time for me to adjust to you guys. Now that I have you, I’m happy to keep it just us.”

  A beatific smile lit up Shaagra’s face just before he leaned down and plucked her up into his arms. Reggie shrieked with laughter when he planted his lips and the faint brush of his teeth by the pulse of her neck. Heat twisted in her belly at the contact.

  “Soon, female—soon,” he promised.

  Chapter 10

  Vadal’s lips twitched as Reggie’s eyes widened more by the second. She watched nervously as his clan glided out from their nests, gathering toward them. Truthfully, her slight body almost disappeared among the numerous males. If Vadal had not been right beside her, he might have found that alarming.

  What was concerning was Shaagra’s reaction. The male had never in their lives been violent or aggressive toward any of the males of his family, yet Vadal could feel and taste it boiling just below the male’s calm exterior. He knew some of the males, especially his younger brothers, could be a bit much, but overall, they were more boisterous than anything else. They weren’t a threat to Reggie.

  In truth, he found their keen interest a bit disconcerting, but none did anything inappropriate. Not even Eyuul, despite his more vulgar tendencies.

  He narrowed his eyes on his brother. Eyuul was not like him or the rest of their brothers. He did not keep to tradition and spent much time in his youth away at the capital, working for wages and sampling the flesh of offworld females passing through rather than saving himself for a mate. The sensitive nose of a Vori female would sense the many females he’d enjoyed and never accept him. It was no wonder that he looked at Reggie with such curiosity if he hoped to find a female who would accept his frivolous break with traditions. Not that the male would have been accepted by any female anyway, Vadal had to acknowledge sadly.

  His sympathy was short-lived when Eyuul caught his eye and smirked, making Vadal press his lips together to keep himself from snarling in irritation. Instead, he asked, “Has everyone joined with a nest brother since I have gone?”

  His brother grimaced in distaste. “Most of them have,” he muttered.

  “You have not?” he asked softly, concern heavy in his voice and unmistakable.

  Eyuul laughed. “You know I don’t have the temperament for such arrangements, Vadal. Let’s not deceive ourselves and pretend otherwise.”

  Vadal felt again sympathy tug at his hearts. Eyuul had the unfortunate disposition of not being inclined to share a female with another male. It was rare among their kind but did happen. It was even rarer when a female accepted such a male without the protection of nest brother. Vadal was convinced that this was part of what made Eyuul wander in his youth, knowing that it was unlikely a female of their species would welcome him to her. His brother did not have an easy path ahead of him.

  “How is the female doing with you and your nest brother?”

  Vadal considered. “It took her time to adapt. She is still working through it emotionally, although she cares deeply for us. Humans pair bond, so it is an unusual situation for her.”

  Eyuul smiled wistfully. “What I said before was not in jest. I heard that maybe humans would be more accepting to rejected Vori.”

  “You are not rejected, brother,” Vadal protested.

  Eyuul looked at him solemnly from the side of his eye, the rest of his attention still on their surroundings. “Perhaps not in deed, but in fact—I am. We both know it. My only chance at having a mate and nestlings is with a human.”

  His brother hesitated. “What is it like, having a human for a mate?”

  Vadal couldn’t resist the smile stretching over his face.

  “It is truly wonderful. There are differences, and there are bound to be problems due to our biological and cultural differences, but Reggie is the best females I could ever hope for.”

  Eyuul coughed. “Sexually? Don’t try to claim that you don’t know. I can smell you on each other.”

  “Ah.” Of course his brother wanted to know that. “We are very compatible,” he said calmly.

  The male stopped and turned fully to look at him, a skeptical brow shooting up as he tried to contain his mirth.

  “You have a female welcoming you into her body and the best adjective you can come up with is ‘compatible.’ Surely you can do better than that!” he said with a bark of laughter.

  Vadal glared. He’d forgotten how annoying his brothers could be. Eyuul was particularly talented at finding the most irritating spots to pick at, without fail. Not everyone was as interested in sharing about their sex life as his sibling.

  His eyes trailed back to his female, entranced by the curve of her hip and her well-rounded ass. His eyes quickly shifted to his brothers, to make sure no one else except him and his nest brother took notice of her feminine curves. Fortunately for his brothers, their eyes were nowhere near her ass or her breasts.

  Vadal could not suppress a frown. Reggie had still not made it known that she was ready to accept him and Shaagra as mates. He did not know why she still hesitated. His hearts pinched with longing. Had they not proven themselves worthy mates? Did they not satisfy her? He preferred calculated risks and results, and he disliked the uncertainty that still lingered.

  He never should have let Shaagra talk him into this. If they’d waited and had not joined with Reggie, it may have helped her reach the reasonable conclusion that much sooner.

  “Vadal!” a soft, happy voice called. Vadal smiled as he turned to greet his mother. Her warm arms wrapped around him and she hugged him close. Vadal breathed in her warm scent. It had been too many revolutions since last he saw her. He pulled back to look at her. The brilliant green scales of her crown coils and tail were graying, dulling with age into a faded mossy hue. He touched a hand to her creased face that seemed to be overflowing with joy.

  “Mother, my hearts rejoice to see you.”

  “Mine as well, son,” she choked, hugging him again briefly in her tight grasp.

  He gently disengaged from her arms and turned her toward Reggie. She stared at the human with a curious expression. Even her crown coils looped with an alert interest around her head, as if uncertain what to make of such a small, delicate female. Vori females, except when they are quite young or in the first flush of adulthood, were large robust creatures.

  “Mother, please allow me to introduce you to Reggie,” he said with pride. “Reggie, this is my mother, Esfalee.”

  Reggie dipped her head politely and smiled. “It is an honor and a pleasure to meet you,” she said.

  His mother let go of his arm and slid closer, her eyes on Reggie as she slowly looked the female up and down.

  “You are Vadal’s and Shaagra’s female?” she queried. Vadal tensed. He didn’t not know why, but her tone was one she’d often used when cleverly wording a baited trap. What game was she playing at?

  Reggie wasn’t deterred. She kept smiling and swiftly replied, “I think it would be more accurate to say that they are mine.”

  The nesting grounds was rife with laughter, and his mother’s face crinkled with amusement.

  “So they are,” his mother laughed and opened her arms, embracing his human female. “Welcome to Norveth territory, daughter.” As she pulled back, she inspected the bared skin along Reggie’s neck and shoulders and frowned. “Vadal, why does your mate not have your mark?”

  Vadal hissed uncomfortably, embarrassment curling through his stomach. He was foolish to think his mother wouldn’t notice.

  “We have not yet had the official ceremony,” Shaagra interjected swiftly. “We thou
ght perhaps it best to wait until we arrived Norveth where our clan can assist.” He shot an apologetic look to Reggie, beseeching her to not contradict him.

  Instead of arguing, Reggie relaxed and smiled at them.

  His mother, however, was another matter. She reached over and grabbed a handful of crown coils, yanking on them hard. Vadal yelped as his mother pulled his face level with her own. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the imposing figures of his fathers, Nokvolo and Morsu, resting on their coils just behind his mother, their thick arms crossed over similarly massive chests.

  No one doubted his mother’s ability to hold her own, but her mates were ever near in case the occasion demanded that they needed to come to her aide. Now she was glaring fiercely at him, as if he were a nestling again caught misbehaving.

  “You may be someone big in Evath, Vadal es’Etale, but traveling through the Mothoo jungles with a female who is not bound to you as your mate is dangerous and stupid!” His mother turned her burning gaze on Shaagra, who winced. “And you, you should have known better too, Shaagra es’Agor.”

  The other male bent his head supplication and acknowledgment of his wrong.

  “Wait! Please, don’t blame them,” Reggie called out and, to his horror, recklessly placed her fragile body between them. His mother drew back her lips and hissed, offended at the interference.

  Reggie’s eyes were wide with terror but she fearlessly spoke on. “I mean no disrespect, but it was my fault. I insisted on waiting until I felt more certain of our bond before we finalized our mating. Humans need to be certain of these things before we make such commitments.”

  The clawed hand tightly holding his crown coils briefly pinched sharply, but then released him. Vadal rubbed his head, his crown coils still smarting from her grasp. His mother didn’t even look his direction. She regarded Reggie with cool calculation.

  “Very well,” she said, drawing out every syllable, her lips curving into a smile. “Surely you have had plenty of time now and wish to do right by my son. We will hold the mating ceremony tomorrow,” she called out to their clan. Numerous voices cheered.

  Vadal looked apologetically at his female, but she winked playfully at him.

  He would never understand this female.

  ***

  Shaagra settled amid the males of his adopted clan. Ever since the day he had bonded with Vadal, the males treated him as if he were born among their own. There were several new faces he did not recognize. Nestlings of various ages aside, there were new males, and the absence of familiar faces of males who left to join other clans with their bonded.

  Life never ceased to turn on Vora.

  The males were joking and teasing a younger of their number who had recently been initiated as a hunter. Shaagra smiled at the brilliant yellow youth, remembering well those days. The young male was still learning his skill, and the hunters gently teased and mocked to draw him in among their company.

  A cousin by name of Ishtaal, a male who had been bragging the better part of the hour about his thick-coiled mate, grinned at him and called, “Shaagra, since we are hunting for your mating feast, tell us: how does one mate with a creature so very small?”

  Shaagra bit back a snarl of irritation. He did not mind the hunters joking with him, they’d already exclaimed over his terrible scars, but he did not appreciate jokes directed at his female. She was most precious to him and deserved respect.

  Still…

  “There is more to a female than the strength of her coils, Ishtaal. My mate may not have any coils, but her heart is strong and good, and her sex is sweet and generous. I am certain that is far more than what you have,” he retorted.

  Ishtaal blushed as the other males chuckled around them. Eyuul playfully nudged Shaagra and winked before stating loudly, “I do not know about the rest of the males of our clans, but I look forward to binding a small human in my coils and learning the delights of her soft little body.”

  There was a series of ribald laughter among the males. After scowling furiously for many minutes, Ishtaal eventually joined the easy bantering as they made their way higher into the mountains, until they reached the heights that necessitated silence.

  They hunted the shoyla, a dangerous predator and worthy foe hunted for their feasts and holy days. The shoyla lived in the higher elevations of the jungles, tucked into the mountains where they spun their arboreal nests among the treetops.

  Orith grinned over at him and whispered. “Humans are crazy. We had some crazy humans come… oh, about a revolution ago… and they wanted us to help them to trap live shoyla to take to Earth. And not a one of them are impervious to the shoyla’s venomous bite as we are.”

  Shaagra shook his head in disbelief. He could not imagine anyone, even among the Vori, crazy enough to cage live shoyla.

  “Be aware,” Eyuul said in a rough, low whisper. “We are approaching a shoyla nest.”

  Shaagra let out his breath in a slow hiss, his coils tensing around him, waiting for the signal to advance on the shoyla. Above them, the thick webbing of the nest rattled and vibrated. His grip tightened around his spear.

  Out here, he was not the male hiding in his nest in Evath territory. Here, he was a great hunter again. Before they had left for Evath, he had been the finest hunter in all of the clan. He would bring down the shoyla and honor his mate and his nest brother by the work of his hand.

  Bright legs clawed their way forward, reaching and grasping toward them. Shaagra bared his teeth, his every muscle screaming from the tension. Several shoyla crept toward them on their terrible spindly legs. When finally the signal came, Shaagra sprung forward, his lips pulled back fiercely from his fangs as he buried his spear deep into the protruding abdomen of the creature. The terrible shriek of the dying shoyla was a familiar melody to his ears.

  All around him, many shoyla were pinned to the earth with long Vori spears. Shaagra grinned triumphantly. The clan would feast well tonight!

  Chapter 11

  Reggie looked over the feast spread out on the table before her in disbelief. Never in her life could she remember seeing this much food. Then again, there were dozens of Vori all along the tables set side-by-side, running through the clearing. Loud voices laughed and teased, males piled food high on their plates, and nestlings stuffed food into their mouths until their cheeks bulged.

  Everything smelled so good that she didn’t know where to start. Shaagra set a plate of food in front of her with several giant red things that looked like crab legs. She inhaled deeply. Smelled like a rich alien version of crab, too. Her mouth positively watered.

  Reggie picked up a leg and looked helplessly at it, unsure of how to shell it. She looked around for some kind of tool, noticing instead that the Vori cracked the hard shells with their sharp fangs.

  Well, fuck. She ran her tongue along her teeth in contemplation. She didn’t think her teeth would do much against it.

  Vadal smiled down at her from her other side and gently plucked the leg from her fingers and bit down, crunching the shell with his fangs and handing it back to her. The fragments of shell fell away easily as her fingers pried them off. Reggie licked her lips in anticipation. Gods, she loved crab!

  She took a bite and moaned with ecstasy. Eyuul grinned at her from the other side of the table they were seated at with Vadal’s immediate family. He inclined his head toward Vadal.

  “Your female really likes shoyla. I didn’t think a human would,” he chuckled.

  Reggie frowned. What was so odd about a human enjoying crab? Yeah, it was bigger and tasted different than what they had on Earth, but this guy was looking at her as if she were the most entertaining sight he’d seen in a long while.

  She attempted a countenance of nonchalance. “I’ve always enjoyed crab,” she stated, digging out the rich meat and slurping it from her fingers with pleasure.

  Eyuul leaned forward, resting his head on his fist, his bronze coils moving toward her with curiosity. “What is crab?”

  Reggie frowned
. “It’s a crustacean. It mostly lives in the ocean and has a hard shell. Humans trap them for food.”

  Orith grunted. “We have no big bodies of water on Vora,” he informed her. “It is likely nothing like your crab.”

  She shrugged and stuffed more of the meat into her mouth like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. “Well, there are crabs that live on land too. Anyway, this stuff is fantastic!”

  Shaagra smiled down at her and shook his head. “It is a prized delicacy among our people. It is called shoyla. I am very pleased that you like it. I brought down a large one for our mating feast.”

  Reggie raised her eyebrows politely as she listened. That didn’t particularly mean anything to her, but she smiled at the obvious pride in his voice. Being a great hunter clearly meant a lot to him, and she was determined to be entirely supportive of that.

  Orith dug into his food with relish, cracking massive legs with his teeth. “I believe,” he said conversationally, “humans call it something different. I believe it is also known to offworlders as the Voradus Arachnid.”

  Reggie paled and her fingers tightened on the leg she’d been holding in her hand, a sour feeling seeping up from her roiling stomach.

  “Pardon? I’m sorry—did you say arachnid?”

  Orith nodded and tipped back the leg to suck the last bit of meat from it.

  Horrified, she dropped the leg, letting it clatter against the plate. Nausea threatened to empty the contents of her stomach, and it was by the grace of the gods, or perhaps their Mother of the Nest, that she managed not to barf.

  Their mother leaned forward, her brow furrowed in concern. “Are you well, Reggie?” she asked softly.

  Reggie jerked her head in the affirmative a few times.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” she managed, a sickly smile pasted on her face. “Fine. Just a little surprised. I don’t believe I’ve ever had… arachnid… before. It’s an unexpected… treat.”

  Esfalee nodded at her and smiled widely. “Our region is known for the best hunting of the shoyla. We often get other clans who arrive in our territory with interest in hunting. Always with our assistance, well paid for. Hunting the shoyla is dangerous to anyone not experienced. Our hunters are experts, but even this many shoyla is an unexpected boon. It is a great omen for your mating,” she announced.