Page 26 of The Accidental Omega
“Ok, toast and eggs, I can dig that,” I say, smiling.Small talk and getting to know each other, I guess,I think happily. I look between the four large aliens who will be mypackmates. “Do you all work?”
Zallan cocks his head at me. “This does not translate properly, I think.”
I think for a moment. “What do you do to bring in money? To support yourselves?”
“Ah,” Nara answers, turning, “That’s right, the economic system, she means. They use linen-and-cotton plant material printed with denominations on them as the basis of a capitalist system.”
“Oh yeah, I remember reading that,” Wells adds, giving me a strange look.
“I suppose it does sound pretty silly when you put it that way,” I admit.
Nara places plates in front of us at the island counter. My eyes land on them and I bite down a grimace. The bread is blue and the eggs have a green center. I giggle. “What color is your ham?”
They exchange a look. “Our animals vary in color, but Celnoe do not consider it civilized to eat other sentient creatures.”
“Oh,” I respond, rather stupidly. “Wait a second, didn’t you all threaten to invade Earth and enslave us if we didn’t sign your treaty? But you’re vegetarians... erm, pacifists?"
They all look a bit abashed.
Wells answers, “That was at the urging of the Adrethians, one of the other two planets of the Federation. We’ve never actuallyneededto forcefully overtake a planet.”
“You werebluffing?” I yell, suddenly feeling angry that I was shuttled to a distant planet to be an alien cocksleeve by some big dudes wholiedand wouldn’t hurt a fly.
“Enough, omega, or we’ll see how you respond to forced release.” Ryson gives me a hard look, clearly not appreciating me raising my voice.
I pick up a two-pronged fork and mutter, “Better than denial, that’s for fucking sure.” I turn to my green eggs and toast.
“That’s one punishment coming, just because I like that sass,” Ryson purrs.
The idea perks me up. I eat silently.I need an orgasm or six.
INSTEAD OF ENDING UPnaked, bent over a table, getting a good railing as I desperately need, after breakfast, Ryson brings me downstairs. I realize the home is built into a bit of a hill.
“Your home is gorgeous. I didn’t realize it was built into the landscape,” I say.
“Mmm,” he responds, bright eyes darting to mine, “I designed it. We had help from other founding packs on the building though.”
Oh holy shit, they did this themselves?
We pass several rooms with shut doors before we get to the end of a hallway. Ryson leans over me and I get a whiff of his scent again and I find my face turning towards him without thought. He opens the door.
Inside the large room, almost-white wood shelves with large arched tops line two of the walls. They are covered in various size and colored books. Huge-paned windows, the framing the same pale wood, line the third wall. Pretty orange sunlight shines in the large windows and clear doors, which face the river. Outside the house is some kind of patio and I can see a large garden off to the right.
Several huge, rich orange colored and snuggly-looking chairs center around a fireplace. A wet-bar type thing is on one side of it.
He points to a chair, tucked at a hidden desk built into the shelves. “Sit there.”
I do, wondering what is going on. I see several other little hidden nooks like the one I’m at. Soon, Ryson returns with a tall stack of books and a pile of some kind of thick paper.
He places something that looks like a pen in front of me. “Read. Learn. Summarize in your hand.”
I look at him like he’s a moron. “These books aren’t in my language.”
He nods, pointing at a pair of glasses, thick black rectangular frames and clear ‘glass.’
“Translators. We’ll use them when we read your work, since none of us, not even Nara, have mastered your written language yet.”
I’m touched for a moment, but then the smirk dancing on Ryson’s face clicks with me. “This is... a punishment?”
