Page 43 of Taken to Heimo
I straighten up, try to tame my hair into something…pleasant. I adjust the crude pressure of my xora in my kilt and try to calm the raging of my ridges, only for them to rage even harder.
The door swings open, revealing a man’s wrinkled face. He has pale, peachy skin, a color I have never seen before except in fruit, and looks absolutely furious to see me.
What he says next I have no way of understanding, so I cut him off. “Svera,” I bark.
“Bah,” he grunts. He starts to shut the door on me, but I shove my boot in the doorway, blocking it.
“Svera,” I say louder.
“No!” He shakes a finger at my nose in a way I don’t like.
I snarl, “Yess.”
“No!”
“Yessss!”
“Habibi!” A woman steps up to the male’s side and I know immediately that this female is Svera’s mother, even if her skin is a little darker. Her hair is darker, too. I stare at it, feeling shame pool in my crotch, making my cock shrivel and my balls desiccate as I glance again to her male.She’s married. He did right by her.
They speak in Human before the female turns to me. “My husband and I want you to know that you should be ashamed of yourself for what you did to our Svera. She is a good, pure woman, and you’ve defiled her before her god. We understand that you will not be seeking to marry her and…”
“I seek tomay’reeher,” I blurt.
The female blinks at me, stunned. Her hands go to the cross around her neck. “You…you do?”
“She will not have me. I…have not always been…I…I need…I just want to speak to her!”
Svera’s female sire translates for the male and when she’s finished the male lifts his finger and waggles it angrily at me again.
His female says, “My husband and I do not feel your intentions towards her are honorable. We do not give our blessing, though I’m not sure you even knew to ask for it.”
Blessing? Ask? I recoil. “I should ask you?”
The female nods. “Hexa. In our Tri-God culture it is custom for the male to seek permission from the female’s parents before pursuing her.”
I scoff at this. “The Xana does not have time for this. The Xana is demanding.”
“Xana. Hexa, we have read of this in Svera’s manual.” She exchanges more words with the male who shouts angrily back at me. “He says that he doesn’t believe you. That a male who truly loved a female would always seek to do right by her.”
I groan, exasperated. “That is what I am trying to do now.”
The female shakes her head.
“Pulayeez. I…I am ashamed, but she did nothing wrong.”
She and her husband enter into another short exchange before she says, “My husband says that he knows that. He tends to think Svera is perfect — ”
“She is perfect.” The words shoots out of me before I can catch them. I wince as I struggle to remain rooted and not tear down the xoking door.
“This is what all parents think of their children, but not mates.” She shakes her head and speaks to me like she might a child. I am, ostensibly. I know nothing of humans and even less of mating. Like Svera, this is my first time. “We are meant to find flaws in our mates and love them anyway.”
“You’re right. Svera is a disaster. Now can I talk to her?”
“You are a stubborn male, aren’t you?”
“If by stubborn you mean that I do not accept failure, even my own, then you’d be right. I’m going to speak to Svera if I have to tear down your house.”
The female laughs at my threat and the male nudges her until she explains what was said. He guffaws as he hears it and shakes his fist at me all over again.
