Page 33 of Taken to Voraxia
She has pulled away from me, withdrawn. Is it something to do with the food that she ate? Is it making her unwell? All was fine before. Better than fine. Glorious. Her Xanaxana stirring mine from the moment I opened the door.
I had been angry with her then, but she had just been hungry.Hungry.I know so little of my hybrid female’s anatomy, I do not even care for her properly — as any male should, and I am herXiveri mate. I am weak. Is this why she shuns me and rejects my touch?
She does not even allow me to help her onto the glider, but instead struggles to reach the ledge high above. When she finally ambles on, my reflexes are all kicking and tensing with the urge to pull her against my body and hold her in the protection of my arms.
She may not be a youngling, but she has also never ridden a glider before. And here she stands near the stalyx railing while I steer us over the tops of the werro trees on the outer rim. She leans so far over the edge it scares the beats out of my hearts.
“Miari,” I grunt, “you will come here to me now.”
She looks at me over her shoulder and her mouth is down. There is a new, puckered crease on her chin and beneath her tunic, I see her tail swat the air in a telltale display of her emotions that I wonder if she has any ability to control.
It does not seem like it.How would she, with no one there to show her?I inhale, feeling exhileration at the thought that I might have such an honor.If she comes back. Right now she is so far. Too far. What went wrong?
“But I want to see.”
“You do not defy your Xiveri mate.”
Her lips twitch. “Doesn’t that mean you also shouldn’t defy me?”
“Miari…” I growl, angry because I can say nothing else. I stammer, “I am still your Raku. And you will come to me now.”
Her face twists into a mask of pure displeasure, but she still holds out her arms, balancing carefully as her feet carry her to me. She attempts not to touch me but I have no more patience for her aversion, so I grab her by the waist and wrench her against my body, settling her there so that we are front to back and she can see through the wind protector that curves over the front half of the glider.
The holo screen juts from it, but I sweep the controls aside with a flick of my fingers. It disappears leaving nothing but the treetops rolling out beneath us to meet a distant horizon.
I point to it. “Those are the Qath mountains,” I say, tracing their murky grey outline with one of my claws.
“Will we go there sometime?” There is hope in her voice I do not know how to interpret.
“Qath is an inhospitable place,” I say cautiously, “Very different to your small moon. Below the canopy, Voraxia is warm, yes, but above it is cold. Do you feel it?”
She nods. “I do.” She shivers and huddles a little further against my skin. Or perhaps that is what I like to think she does. Perhaps I just close my arms a little tighter around her.
“It’s really cold. I’ve never felt cold before.” She makes a soft pleasure sound which entirely contradicts her words and the fact that she wraps her arms around herself.
I cannot fathom how her limbs can be so relaxed when my two hearts are squeezed. Her garb is not enough for a voyage like this, not with such thin dermis. I should have considered this.Xok!Just another way in which I fail her.
Immediately, I draw the holoscreen before us and activate the shields. It is an unnecessary use of power in any other circumstance, except the one in which my Miari stands in a thin tunic, cold.
Her five little toes shift and shuffle on the panels below.Damn me to the center of the hottest sun that I did not even provide protection for her soft feet.
Staggering over my words, I say, “In Qath it is different. The mountain range is a reien farrn mountain and its heat is so great the cool atmosphere here does not penetrate the valley beyond it. Werros do not grow from the sands, leaving the entire valley desertous except for the oasis that is Qath. In its humidity and heat, life thrives, but being the only water source for miles, it draws all manner of life. It a violent, savage place. Where warriors and their families live and train, those that survive.”
“But Svera, she isn’t a warrior. Will she be okay? Does she have to go to Qath?” I feel pleasure in my mouth as she struggles to pronounce the name of this region. It falls ungainly from her hybrid tongue, succeeding in sucking me further, and I am already so far gone.
“Hexa, she goes to Qath because Krisxox goes to Qath. I would not have any other male look after her on the ship and he has agreed…”though begrudgingly…“to take her as his ward for the foreseeable future.”
“Why him?”
“There are no other males strong enough to defend her against the Voraxians who have heard of the pleasures of this human moon colony and would like to sample such treasures themselves.
“The interest and desire for human females will only grow after you are presented, and Voraxia sees their new queen. They will want hybrids for themselves, and to mate with humans to create more hybrids like you.”
I push her hair over her shoulder. The world is quieter with the shield in place, no longer stained by the rapid whoosh of the wind.
“Me?” She points at her own chest. I find the gesture odd and humorous. “A hybrid? But why? I’m sure I look strange to you. I look strange to the humans.”
“Strange, hexa. The most beautiful female in all of Voraxia.”
