Page 67 of Infala: Claimed By Rivals
The air was still a bit crisp but warming already as the sun bathed the alien berg in its welcoming rays. The living pigment in her flesh seemed to sing out in welcome, invigorated by theenergy it was receiving, sharing its pleasure with its symbiotic host. And after what she’d felt last night when her runes leveled up her orgasms, it was quite the symbiotic relationship indeed.
She walked home at a leisurely pace, taking her time, enjoying the fresh morning air as she stretched her limbs, head held high. If anyone happened to notice her wearing the same clothes she’d been in the prior evening, she didn’t care whatsoever.
This wasn’t a walk of shame. It was a walk ofpride.
Olivia shed her coat the moment she was inside her domicile, her dress following a moment later.
“Welcome back, Olivia. Can I prepare anything for you? Breakfast, perhaps?”
“I’d love something. But first I need a nice shower. Hot water this time.”
“Of course.”
She lay the dress on her bed and stepped to the large open area beside it where she could most comfortably enjoy the shower. Yes, the system allowed her to wash anywhere she wanted without getting the place wet, but it just felt better to not have the lingering habitual thoughts of keeping her place dry intruding in her shower time.
“The dress was a big hit, by the way,” she said as the water rained down upon her. “You outdid yourself.”
“Though our female population is small, I have extensive data on attire from thousands of worlds. Given your physique, bearing, and gait, I went with a design that would best highlight your attributes.”
“All I can say is well done. And can you give it a cleaning while you’re at it? Things got a little…messylast night.”
“Of course. I’ll see to it at once. I detect increased activity in your Infala rune, as well as other areas of your body,” thedevice noted, popping up a display screen as she bathed. “Have more abilities become apparent as your runes set in?”
“I seem stronger, for one. More stamina and endurance. And I can really, really smell things now. Like, distractingly so.”
“You will learn to control that. It is not uncommon.”
“There’s also this whole seeming to be able to, I don’t know,feelthings around me, as if I could touch them without actually touching them, if that makes sense.”
“Hm, that is unusual. I suppose we will just wait and see how that develops. Do keep me apprised, I will maintain a detailed log of your progression.”
“You got it,” she replied, stepping out of the shower, dried in a flash by the device as she walked then flopping on her bed. “Hey, could you do that purge thing again? And the oxygen scrub? It really feels amazing.”
“I have already begun.”
“You’re the best. Thanks.”
“It is my pleasure. I will have a selection of foods ready for you in the stasis cover when you feel you wish to eat.”
“Thanks. I won’t be too long.”
As it turned out, she spent quite a while basking in the restorative fields, the oxygen scrub flooding her system with delightful O2, and the purge system making her skin—and her tattoos—positively radiant.
Olivia slipped into some comfortable athleticwear the AI had made for her and spent nearly an hour stretching and doing a very relaxed bit of yoga, the movements far different from the positions she’d been contorted into the night before. With her senses purged and Rykker’s distracting scent out of her system, it was much easier to slip into a regular frame of mind. It was crazy, the Maldonian pheromone thing, but Zoldana had been quite frank and open about how it affected her when she was a young woman.
“You just have to accept that rational thought is not an option. Not where the pheromones are involved,” she told her young guest with a happy chuckle. “And those first moments when you feel your bond? Oh, the intensity…I may be an older woman now, but I can assure you, I was once young too, and I put my body to very good use.”
Having felt the reaction herself, Olivia could only imagine.
Zoldana had also experienced the Infala bond, which was partly why she remained in the city. Many did if they found a compatible pheromone mate at home if they set out with their companion males to search for their Infala mate but came up empty. Most did, actually. To find one’s Infala mate, however, was what all hoped for, but only the lucky achieved.
In Zoldana’s case, she’d been blessed in that sense, meeting another of her own race in her own city when he was escorting another Maldonian from a distant colony in search of her own mate. And so it was that the other companions continued on with while he stayed behind, forever bound to his fated love.
Olivia was pondering how that fascinating woman, the extremely strong and competent leader of the entire city, had at one time been unable to control herself, when her door chimed. She walked across the room and opened it, her body reacting at once in spite of herself, all of the scrubbing and purging undone in an instant.
“Hello, Olivia,” Arkness said, his scent making her stomach flutter even more than the look of pure adoration in his eyes. “May I come in?”
“Uh, sure,” she replied, unsettled by how hard his unexpected presence hit her.
