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But Mike had remained unconvinced.

“Whatever, babe,” he’d said, frowning. “We can turn on the lights and try a different position once in a while if you want, but I’m not down with any whips or chains or handcuffs or blindfolds. Okay?”

As it turned out, thiswasn’tokay with Lucy. After finishing that first BDSM romance, she’d read another and then another after that. Pretty soon she had her own mini library of that particular subgenre and she wasn’t willing to just read about the Lifestyle anymore—she wanted toacton it. To see if it was as intriguing in real life as it was in her books.

But that was kind of a weird thing to tell her friend—a touchy subject in more than one way.

“Mike and I just…grew apart,” she hedged, giving Iyanna a glance out of the corner of her eye. “I mean, I wanted to try new things and well, he justdidn’t.”

“Hmm, well that’s what you get for dating a Physics professor, I guess,” Iyanna said, smiling a little. “So what new things did you want to try, anyway?”

“Well, I mean…” Lucy started, then trailed off when she realized they weren’t alone. Standing under a tree a little way from the banks of the river where she and Iyanna were walking was a tall, dark Monstrum.

It was difficult to see him in the darkness because his skin seemed to be a shade of deep blue, but shecouldsee his eyes. They had vertical pupils like a cat’s and they were brilliant, glowing gold. Also, they were trained onher.

“Well?” Iyanna asked impatiently, nudging her.

“Er…” Lucy stepped a little closer to the river. She had heard that the Monstrum, like the regular Kindred, had extremely sharp senses and she didn’t want the strange guy under the tree—who looked absolutelyhuge, by the way—to overhear her.

“Lucy? What is it? What’s wrong?” Iyanna frowned.

“I just—oh!” Lucy’s last words ended in a gasp. The high-heels she was wearing weren’t really meant for exploring jungles and as she took another step, some loose stones at the river’s edge slid under the slick soles. Before she knew it she was falling…

Directly into the cold, dark, rushing river.

TWO

T’ZAREN

Before the human female fell into the river, T’zaren had been studying her intently. He had been thinking that she was nothing like the last human female he had tried meeting with—nothing like what a prospectiveS’renthashould be. And yet, with her short, curvy figure and eyes that matched her long, golden hair, she was incredibly attractive.

But attraction wasn’t everything—not when a male was looking for hisS’rentha.It was the word his people used for that one special female that a male committed his life to totally—his personal goddess. AS’renthaamong the Stri’vor Monstrum was generally tall and commanding with long, dark hair and flashing black eyes—the opposite of the little blonde he had been watching.

However, now all the female Stri’vor were gone—swallowed up by the Darklings along with T’zaren’s home world—when the evil creatures had taken over his universe. If he did not wish his people to die out, he would have to find a female to commit himself to—one he could serve and protect and care for all the days of his life.

He had asked Chief Commander Rarev to help him and Rarev’s wife had recommended a dating app that accepted Monstrum and Kindred warriors. Dutifully, T’zaren had put his information into the app and started looking for potential mates—for hisS’rentha—the one woman who would clasp his soul in her hand and make his Spinal Groove flare to life.

The activation of a male’s Spinal Groove or “Sen Stripe” as it was more commonly called, was the first indication that a female was right for him. “Sen” was a word that had many meanings in his native tongue—service…fidelity… loyalty…love…protection—all of these feelings filled a male when the touch of the right woman brought his Stripe to life.

Or so T’zaren had been told all his life. But now he was trying to find aS’renthaamong the human women and so far, the search wasn’t going very well.

“You want me towhat?”the last one had asked, when he had expressed his desires to her.

She hadlookedlike a properS’rentha—she had been tall—over two meters, which was good since T’zaren himself was seven feet in height. She had been rather too thin for his liking, but she’d had long, black hair and big dark eyes. Her skin was pale instead of bright green like the women of his planet, but that was to be expected—he had noticed that humans came in a limited variety of colors. Their females were still attractive, for all of that.

This particular human female, whose name was “Ashley” had listed the profession “model and influencer” on her dating profile. Which as far as T’zaren could see, meant she tried on various pieces of clothing and took a lot of pictures of herself in exotic locations to post on the humans’ Internet. It didn’t seem to be a very demanding or important profession and she hadn’t needed any special schooling to do it, but she wasextremelyproud of it.

Ashley had seemed amenable to their possible mating during their first date. She kept mentioning that T’zaren was “really handsome for an alien guy” and also that he was “really big and totally shredded,” whatever that meant.

T’zaren had heard of “shredded cheese,” which was a kind of dairy product made from the squeezings of an Earth animal’s mammary glands, but he had never equated such an idea to himself. However, since most humans liked cheese, he decided her words must be a compliment.

Ashley, had suggested that they “go back to her place” after the initial date and T’zaren had been willing. However, when she tried to initiate intercourse, things got awkward.

“I cannot mate with you until I ascertain if you are myS’renthaor not,” T’zaren had told her. So far her touch hadn’t caused his Sen Stripe to flare, but maybe it was because she hadn’t been touching him with enough force—enough intimacy, he reasoned to himself. His Sire had told him that the right female would be able to inflame him with even the lightest touch, but of course he had been talking about a female of their people—of the Stri’vor Monstrum. Possibly with a human female, more force was necessary.

And so he had made his request—the one that made Ashley draw back from him in apparent disgust.

“You want me towhat?”she’d demanded again.


Tags: Evangeline Anderson Science Fiction