Descended Read online

  “Tell her Captain Verrai is here with his new mistress,” Kristoff told him, frowning. “And she cannot wait long.”

  “Don’t do that.” I put a hand on his arm. “Really—I hate self-important patients who try to get in first because they think their time is more valuable than anyone else’s.”

  “But my Lady, your symptoms—” he protested.

  “Are under control for now,” I told him firmly, although to be honest, I was already feeling that little tingle again, despite the intense orgasm he’d given me just a few hours ago. Or, I guess I had given it to myself, since he never really touched me. Although, it had certainly felt like he was touching me at the time, even though he was just guiding my hand.

  Just thinking about it was enough to make me blush. I was starting to feel very confused about my relationship with the big alien. I knew he was supposed to be my bodyguard and we weren’t supposed to have intimate contact. But I wanted intimate contact with him. Even now, standing right beside him without reaching over to touch him was hard.

  It was like my body had somehow gotten addicted to his in the short period of time we had spent on his ship. Of course, that probably wasn’t so surprising, considering that we had spent almost all of it naked and wrapped in each other’s arms. But that had been necessary to keep back the symptoms of the Burning Blood syndrome, right?

  Justify it any way you want, Charlotte, whispered a snarky little voice in my head. The fact is you liked it and now you want more. But you can’t have more—so deal with it.

  Shut up, I told it, even though I knew it was only telling the truth. Just leave me alone.

  Kristoff was still looking at me with one eyebrow raised, as though he was trying to decipher what I was thinking. I knew he could already feel my emotions, through the strange bond we seemed to have formed, so my thoughts couldn’t be far behind.

  He looked absolutely mouthwatering in his full uniform with the molded breastplate, short leather kilt, and high, black boots. His skin was tan with just a tinge of gold today and I was glad he wasn’t changing the color of it to reflect my mood. If he did, I bet it would be a cloudy gray-purple-blue because I was feeling so confused. Or whatever the colors of confusion are.

  I decided not to think about the situation I was in. Instead, I sat in the small waiting room on a hard bench that seemed to be made out of purple and blue and pink seashells and looked out the open window at the gorgeous beach landscape outside. Being from Florida, I was used to beaches but we didn’t have anything in the Sunshine State to top what Denaris offered.

  The white sands glittered brilliantly in the pale blue sunlight and the azure waters were so clear they looked like glass. Tall, blue and purple trees swayed gently in a salt-scented breeze and overhead, strange creatures that looked a little like miniature, pink pterodactyls soared and swooped through the sky.

  Denaris was a world that was mostly ocean at the poles but it was encircled by a chain of islands that wrapped all the way around it in an uneven, bumpy line with some more to the north and others more to the south. Kristoff had explained that the people here divided themselves into tribes—different tribes came from different islands but they often intermingled because of the strange practice they had of two men being mated to one woman.

  “How does that even work?” I asked, when he explained it to me as we were docking the small shuttle in a parking area not far from the doctor’s office. “They just have a three-way marriage and nobody ever gets jealous? That’s hard to believe.”

  “It works because of the psychic bond between them,” Kristoff had explained. “When they are very young, two compatible males find each other. They have some kind of medicine or plant which binds them together—I’m not sure exactly what it is. Anyway, they make a ceremony of it and from then on, the two of them are never parted.”

  “Aww, that’s kind of sweet—like promising to stay with your best friend all your life,” I remarked. It made me think of Leah and Zoe—I would have gladly promised to stay with them my whole life. It was too bad we’d had to go our separate ways—I missed both of them badly.

  “There is a practical side to this ‘sweet’ partnership,” Kristoff said dryly. “A female on Denaris will not mate a lone male because one male alone cannot form a bond with her or sire her children. Their DNA is such that two are required.”

  “Really? That’s fascinating,” I had remarked. “I wonder how the two guys in the relationship get along once they add the female in, though.”

  “Very well, actually,” Kristoff said mildly. “One of them almost always has an alpha type personality while the other male is more beta. The alpha is the breadwinner, working outside the home to support the family while the beta stays at home to help with child-care and chores around the home. This leaves the female free to choose if she would rather have an outside career or simply stay home.”

  “Wow—what a great setup!” I had exclaimed. I knew many women who would give anything to have that flexibility, not to mention more help around the house.

  “The Denarins think so,” Kristoff had said mildly and that had been the end of the conversation because we were trying to find Dr. Churika’s office.

  I had been intrigued by the possibilities and now, as I looked out the window of the doctor’s waiting room, I wondered about the Denarins I saw passing by. It was true that they most often seemed to be in groups of three—two males and one female. The male’s skin tones varied widely, mostly seeming to fall in the spectrum of greens and blues. The females, on the other hand, mostly had pale, pearly gray skin.

  It was fascinating to think that these people’s biology had developed in such a way as to make the two male/one female construct not only possible but vital to their survival. The bond between the males must be incredibly strong with no jealousy whatsoever…

  “I tell you, I’m not sharing a female with him!” a deep, rough voice shouted, interrupting my thoughts. “He is from the Fang Clan and my sworn enemy.”

  “I have no wish to share with you either—or any of the Claw Clan,” spat back an equally deep, though somewhat smoother voice.

  Two large alien males, both over seven feet tall, stormed out of the swinging silver metal door. They were followed by a tiny little female with pearly gray, wrinkled skin.

  “Gentlemen, please,” she said, frowning. “I am well aware that you were bonded accidentally, but as neither of you has any other prospects of finding a bond-partner, maybe you should try to make the best of the situation.”

  “You want us to make the best of this…this fucking mess?” demanded the one with the rougher voice. He had deep blue skin and light green eyes that snapped angrily.

  “Mind your language you cretin—there are ladies present,” hissed the other one, who had light green skin and deep blue eyes. “Off-worlder ladies, too—if I am not much mistaken.” He eyed me with interest. “How do you do, ma ‘frela?”

  “She’s fine,” Kristoff said shortly, stepping in front of me. “And she’s not in any way available.”

  “Forgive me.” The green-skinned alien gave a short, polite bow. “It’s just that my companion and I…” Here he threw a disgusted glance over his shoulder at the blue-skinned alien who glared back at him. “Were told that we could only be parted through the intervention of an off-worlder female. Specifically, one from a Closed Planet—a Pure One.”

  “I’m from a Closed Planet,” I said, before I thought about it. Kristoff had told me as much when he explained about the Ancient Ones, the Twelve Peoples, and fact that I was a La-ti-zal.

  “You are?” the blue-skinned alien asked eagerly.

  “She’s also completely unavailable,” Kristoff repeated, frowning at him.

  “We have no interest in your female—or any female, for the purpose of mating her,” the green-skinned alien said. “It’s just that we were accidentally bonded at a clan-gathering.” He glared at his companion. “And a wise-woman told us that the only way to break that bond would be