“Bloody menopause,” she muttered to herself, stabbing viciously at the tea bag with a spoon. Just what she needed on top of everything else. And while her doctor had promised it would “run its course” eventually, Em couldn’t help being resentful of her body for playing this trick on her at just this time, when the world was in an uproar about the Monstrum Kindred being allowed to call brides from Earth.
Someone on the World Council—probably that loathsome little Secretary-General Perce—had leaked to the press that it had been Em who forced the vote allowing the Monstrum the right to call human brides. And ever since, the angry crowds had been gathering outside her flat every single day instead of just once or twice a month, which had been the norm up until now.
She’d been called every name in the book—most of them having to do with bestiality—which was patently ridiculous. Though they had some animal characteristics, the Monstrum Kindred were sentient and bipedal—they were people.
Em couldn’t abide any kind of racism or prejudice against those who were different and besides, the Monstrum had saved the Earth from the Darklings—ravenous beings who came from another universe and looked like a cross between a snake and a bat. The terrifying creatures could strip a man to the bones in under a minute—you’d think people would show some gratitude. But no—they all just wanted to blame her and accuse her of being an “animal lover” in the worst and crudest sense of the words.
Em poked at her tea bag again. He was a proper little weasel, was Perce. She wished it was him she was prodding right now! Still, if only the Monstrum didn’t look quite so animalistic—if only they looked a bit more like the regular Kindred, whom the people of Earth had pretty much gotten used to, it really would make things easier.
Of course, the Monstrum were all seven feet tall and incredibly muscular, like the regular Kindred—which made human men feel properly inferior—(it was doubtless one reason they were so upset about the alien warriors calling human brides.) But the huge warriors also had fur all over the place and golden eyes that seemed to look right into one’s soul…
That made her think of Chief Commander Rarev, the leader of the Monstrum, whom she had met at the World Council meeting when they had voted to allow the new Kindred to call brides from Earth. Afterwards, when the meeting was breaking up, he had come over to her and asked to be introduced. When she had given her his name, he had taken her hand in both of his.
“Minister Oxley,” he had rumbled in that deep, purring voice of his. “I cannot tell you how very grateful I am to you for your assistance.”
He had been staring into her eyes with those golden, lion-eyes of his and for a moment Em—who was normally very self-possessed—had been at a loss for words.
“You…you’re very welcome,” she’d finally managed to get out at last. She was trying not to think how his hands felt like warm, strong velvet enclosing her own or how very big he was—she had to crane her neck to look up at him. He seemed to blink less often than a human—his golden eyes held hers with magnetic force.
“I would like to name you a special friend of the Monstrum Kindred,” Chief Commander Rarev had continued. “Such bravery and beauty should be celebrated.” And, bending over her hand, he had brushed her skin with his mouth, very gently, sending chills down her spine.
At that moment, with his head so near hers, Em had had an almost irresistible urge to reach up with her free hand and run her fingers through his wavy, golden mane of hair. At the same time, something she’d read once in a book had popped into her mind, “I’m going to die petting something I shouldn’t.”
She had squashed the ridiculously unprofessional impulse at once and used her frostiest voice as she replied.
“Thank you, Chief Commander Rarev, but I didn’t force the vote to allow your people to call brides from Earth specifically because I like the Monstrum Kindred.”
“Oh, no?” He had raised his eyes to hers as he slowly straightened up. “Then why did you do it?”
“I can’t bear racism of any kind,” Em had told him. “Also, your people just saved my planet from a terrible fate. I feel we owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“It doesn’t matter to me why you did what you did, Minister,” Rarev had replied in that low, purring voice. “What matters is that you did, in fact, do it. And for that, the Monstrum are forever grateful.”
There had been a bit more small talk after that, but then someone else on the World Council—the Minister from China, she thought—had come to speak to Rarev and shake his hand. Em recalled being rather relieved when the intense interview was over. She knew that she must be imagining it, but it had almost seemed as though the big alien warrior was attracted to her in some way.