Page 6 of Taken to Voraxia
She tries to cover herself with her broken pieces of brown fabric and desperately, she shifts away from me as if she truly does not know me with every inch of her soul.
I start to breathe harder, panting now with fury as I round on the little interpreter. She canters back towards her kind, who do nothing but brace against her, throwing her forwardaloneand leaving her with nothing but her little fists and a shapeless brown covering swathing her hair and her form to defend against my rage.
I long to release such rage unto her, but Voraxians do not hurt females. They bring life and are precious and without them, there would be no Xanaxana. No kits. No future.
“You will tell me what you mean byof age.”
“She isn’t yet seven rotations. We agreed with Bo’Raku that only women between seven and fifteen rotations would be offered. She’s only six.”
The interpreter nervously taps her foot, her gaze flicking between me and my Rakukanna. I might have otherwise interpreted this as deceit, but nox. I know this for what it is, even if she does not boast ridges on her brow: fear. One that my female shares.
“You will command my Xiveri mate to activate her life drive.”
“Life drive?”
Rage simmers and flares. Bo’Raku again comes to mind. Sentient beings within the scope of his juresdiction and he has not even provided them with such basic provisions as life drives?
I unfocus from my Xiveri’s face then, allowing my gaze to drop to her clothing. Ragged and worn so thin I can see her skin through the fabric covering her knees and elbows.Bony knees, bony elbows…
She is thin…too thin. I can see the bones of her chest where her tunic gapes around her collar bones. They jut forward, looking delicate and prominent. I could snap one of them between two fingers and it would take almost no effort at all.
Bo’Raku…
Hallucinating his decapitation, I roar, “What is this female’s line?”
“H…her line?”
“From what family does she hail?”
“She…she doesn’t have a family.”
“What?” This female — the one intended as my Xiveri mate, who will be Voraxia’s Rakukanna — has no line? No kin? No one to claim her? “Who was the male to sire her?”
The interpreter looks away from my gaze. “They don’t…the aliens…the Dra’Kesh don’t introduce themselves before they breed us…we don’t know their names. Only Bo’Raku…”
Bo’Raku…I do not understand. I feel a fool. Raku, commander of the entire Voraxian Federation, its armies and its people, and I am brought to heel by the words of a puny female.
“Youdidn’t even introduce yourself,” she accuses, a rare glimpse of anger spearing the veil of her fear.
I rise up to my full height, menacing over her. “Youdare. I would cut out your tongue for this, if it were not so valuable.”
“Stop!” My Xiveri mate rises from the ground and shoves her body between mine and her interpreter’s. Fearing me. Hating me. Completely ignorant of me even though she is mine and I am hers — the only male that is and that will ever be.
“Don’t hurt her,” my female says, staring deep into my soul. My Xanaxana rises, surging towards her, needing what she does not know she holds. “Please. Don’t hurt her. I’ll give you whatever you want.”
I inhale. My gaze sweeps her frame. Holes in the rags she wears, revealing red skin.Mine. Tangles in her hair.Mine. Ranxcera blossom rolling off of her.Mine. Grain and syrup. Her arousal.Mine.Reach out. Take her. Claim her. Rut her like an animal.Mine.
My fingers twitch. I speak to the interpreter, without breaking the contact of her gaze. “Is to mate with one below seven rotations a dishonor then, for humans?”
“Yes,” the interpreter answers quickly. Her voice is firm and strong.
I do not know what it is to age for these beings — I know nothing about their kind at all — but Voraxian and Dra’Kesh females can be taken for breeding as young as five. Any younger than this is a flagrant dishonor.
Males of age who take females younger than five rotations suffer the worst of all tortures. A lashing of the testicles. I would know, because I have administered this punishment to one of my warriors caught forcing himself upon the daughter of a Quadrant Three warlord who attacked Rheth, an outer Voraxian planet. It took six hours to administer punishment during his tribunal. Two of my fiercest warriors were sick watching it.
So even though she is six rotations and I am three rotations her senior, she is not of age amongst her kind and I would take the testicle torture I leveled against my own warrior before I dishonored or violated her, which means that I will be the first Xiveri male to have found his mate who will have to wait.
I am Raku, hexa. And even my title cannot save me.
