“Just how displeased?”
The female’s glowing eyes returned to her, expression flat. “He was not gentle in his assessment of my failure to keep you safe and my misjudgment demonstrated by leaving the compound without Dreth to stand guard.” She sighed and waved in Azan’s direction. “And I am to bring the alien who assisted you back to the compound. It should be an interesting exchange if you are ‘friends,’” she snorted.
Terri glanced over at Azan. She had little doubt, given the mutual dislike between Veral and the pirate, that the reunion would be nothing less than interesting indeed.
14
Veral held his composure as he stared at the male at the other side of the table when, in truth, he wanted to rip the male’s head clean off his shoulders. His temper was frayed from days away from his mate interrupted with only brief reunions late in the night. A mated pair was not meant to be separated, but it was not something he could remedy any time soon. Certainly not when his mother-kin watched him with suspicion and hostility.
The males and females who patrolled their territory borders with the herds were not receptive to his presence, nor to news that had preceded him regarding his alien mate and offspring. He had achieved little since he arrived at the eastern border of the territory. Overseeing the supplies and meeting the extended lineages of his line had been rife with tension until it spilled out into the confrontation he was now experiencing with Hitani, the head of the minor eastern household, and her mate, Vand.
The male glared with open hostility at him. Hitani, adorned in finely crafted ropes of chains, stood imperiously at her mate’s side with their young gathered around her. Vand glanced over at her, his vibrissae swelling with aggression. Of all those gathered, as the mate of the household head, he naturally stood as the spokesperson against him. Veral could respect that.
However, it was the male’s words that drove him to a murderous anger.
The male had charged Veral with endangering their people, and that none of them would submit without cause to acknowledge a male with an alien for a mate and an offspring conceived of an unfortunate breeding that should never have happened.
“We will not risk our mates and young, Veral’monushava’skahalur,” his kin growled. “We will not bow to your authority unchallenged. Did you think we would not hear of this bane on our line? All speak of how you dare the anger of the council by mating and bringing an offworld female here. Her presence at your side endangers us. Soon all the territories will hear of her, no matter how we work to contain the secret, because someone will see you together—someone who should not—and word will spread across the deserts until it reaches the council. We will not lie down before the army of the council for your pleasure so you can keep your offworld pet.”
A low, angry hiss escapes Veral, his vibrissae snapping with barely contained hostility at the degrading way Terri was referred to. Tension made his muscles expand just enough to make him more imposing as his vibrissae puffed up around him in their lethal dance, the snarl that left his lips full of menace. Hitani stiffened beside her mate and shot him a silent glance, betraying their communication upon their private connection.
He would waste no time for them to form a defensive. He would make his point effectively and succinctly.
Veral’s hand snapped out in one quick motion and closed around Vand’s thick neck in such a precise manner that he was able to close off his air despite the male’s cybernetic enhanced strength. Immediately the male’s vibrissae coiled tightly. They pulled and snapped, the sharp tips colliding with the scales on Veral’s hand and wrist, sending pain shooting through him, but he did not let up. His guard, Malraha, lifted her blaster and pointed it at Vand’s mate with a stern look of warning as Veral held the male.
Veral slid his eyes over to his guard and bit out a sharp command. “Do not point your weapon at the head of the house, Malraha. She will not attack as she knows that this dispute is one that must be settled.”
Malraha blinked her eyes slowly—her only show of surprise—and lowered her weapon as Hitani nodded in gratitude to him. It was on Veral to prove himself to his people, not to wrest control through his guards. The latter was a tactic employed often in the cities but not in the Great Dunes. They had issued insult and would not believe that he could stand against the council if he could not stand against them in protection of his mate. This fight belonged solely to him.
Turning his attention back to Vand, he drew the male in closer, ignoring the sting of the attacking vibrissae in a show of strength and determination. Just behind him, he was aware of Krono pacing, ready to pounce on anyone foolish enough to attempt to intercede.
“You will not insult my mate,” he hissed vehemently. “Just as I won’t do the insult of killing you in front of yours. I choose to show you mercy as we are all mother-kin. I will protect you even as I protect my dearest, for you are mine as well.”
With a growl of disgust, he dropped his kin in the sand and loomed over him as the male wheezed, dragging in large gulps of breath as everyone within the line watched silently from where they stood nearby. Veral growled impatiently and stepped away with the intent on returning to his flyer. If that did not resolve the issue, then he was done here and eager to return to his mate after the comm he received.
“Is this worth the destruction you bring… not only upon us but on your female as well?” the male shouted hoarsely at his retreating back. Veral stopped and looked back at him, watching as the male pushed up from the sand, the red grains falling from his shoulders. “If you valued your mate, you would never have returned to Argurumal to take the seat of our line.”
“I had little choice,” Veral hissed, addressing not only his opponent but the gathered crowd. “I did not return to take control of the line but found it a matter of necessity. My presence here is solely for my mate. I will protect my mate and young as is right, and I will protect you who are under my care. Do you think I do not understand your concerns? I know that every moment I spend at my mate’s side will have a high probability of bringing dangerous attention to her if news of an Argurma-alien mating spreads beyond our borders. There is much risk until it is safe for us to depart. It is something that my processors struggle with, and variables are constantly computed to determine what will bring the least risk. There is no relief from this.”
“Then you are foolish,” Hitani bit out at her mate’s side, her voice resonating with strength and dignity despite the temper behind her glowing eyes as she assisted her mate back to his feet. “A male who is bonded with his mate puts her welfare above all, just as one who leads the line puts the line above themselves. Your selfishness does not accomplish either of these things. There is no protecting her, or us, when all eyes are on you. You should know this, Ahanvala. With mated pairs, where one eyes sees one, they will seek out the other. You wish to protect your mate until you can get her to safety, then you must misdirect with great cunning and make her disappear from all thoughts of any except those closest to your house.”
He bristled at the suggestion, but the respected title that fell from the female’s lips surprised him. In that one word, she acknowledged on behalf of their minor household his authority of the line and paid him the deepest respect. While others had conceded before him, it was the first time in all the days he spent meeting those of the outlier houses of the line that anyone called him by the honored name. It was for that reason that he constrained himself to a sharp nod in acknowledgment.
“I have recorded your words into my processor,” he rumbled and glanced over at the male he had incapacitated. “You have my vow to safeguard the line as is my duty. If you are prepared and willing, we will now go over the data and tour the herds before I must return.”
Vand inclined his head respectfully as his mate pressed once more against his side in a show of solidarity and strength. More than anything, Veral wished that he had Terri with him. She was his strength, but at the same time, Hitani’s words showed to him the wisdom of his decision.
The rest of the tour continued from there but with far less hostility now that he had gained a measure of respect by besting the foremost among them. It gave him little pleasure in doing so, but with his authority secured, no one else seemed inclined to vehemently oppose him. He knew that it was also due to his acknowledgment of the minor household’s speaker. Just as her mate had stood to voice their anger, the female had demonstrated on behalf of that direct line and deferred to him respectfully. His acknowledgment secured him a fragile alliance with the eastern border house.
It was only after many hours that he felt he was able to leave, confident in the house’s allegiance to him and now possessing an understanding of the functions of the eastern household and their governance over the line’s massive herds, which all appeared to be in good health. It was therefore in a slightly better temperament that he was striding back to his flyer with his guard behind him.
He knew that his ill temper that had plagued him through the latter part of the day leading up to the confrontation was due in part to the comm that he had received from Navesha. Being informed that his mate had already been targeted because he had brought her to this planet, and nearly lost her life due to it, did not sit well with him. The merchant had who had made an attempt on her life had been apprehended—and Veral would deal with him shortly—but he was forced to acknowledge that it was a matter of time before another attempted to succeed were that male had failed. If not for her connection to him, the presence of an alien would have been dismissed in the Great Dunes as something of little note since, unlike the greater cities, they had many species that freely came and went in their regular trade.
Mandibles clicking with poorly contained agitation, he boarded the flyer with his guards. The last thing he wanted to do was to put further distance between them, but Hitani’s words couldn’t be disputed. The only way to protect her while they were there would be to put distance between them so that none searched for an alien female tied to an Argurma male.
He sat down heavily in his chair and closed his eyes, but the subtle motion of someone settling in the seat beside him made him look sharply over at whomever had interrupted his solitude. Malraha inclined her head, her vibrissae shifting around her gently in an expression of sympathy, although it did little to temper the interest in her eyes as she looked upon him. He was not sure how to respond to either. A distant cousin of the house, it was not unusual that she had regarded him more than once with appreciation. Males and females frequently took mates from distant relatives on the Great Dunes, so her interest was not out of place if he were not mated. In respect of that, she had kept her distance until now.
She leaned in close and peered at him intently.