Mate Abduction (Alien Abduction #9) - Eve Langlais Page 0,12
a human colony exists, I will find it.”
He sounded certain, but that didn’t mean shit. “Give me verifiable info and I’ll get your girlfriend to dump you.”
“She is not my friend. And I wish to remain alive and not have my corpse dumped anywhere.”
“Dude, it’s slang. Don’t take it so literally.”
“Is ‘dude’ a term of affection?”
She beamed as she said, quite sincerely, “Why yes, yes, it is. And this…” She held up a middle finger. “And this means nice to make your acquaintance.”
His reply? He held up his own finger and said, quite seriously, “Nice to meet you, too, dood.”
She almost hit the floor laughing.
Four
Her lips quirked as if amused, making it obvious she lied about the word and gesture. Lied prettily, but then again, so had he.
He didn’t need her to come between him and his mate because, against all odds, he’d found her. Looked right at her, a human with spotted skin and strange-colored hair, lacking any extra limbs or body parts. A warrior female who would probably spill his innards if he told her she was to be his bride.
Karma surely played a jest. This female couldn’t be the one. Sure, she had a valiant heart and spirit, yet by her very words, she named herself barbarian. From a prohibited planet. Would she even be compatible with him?
He eyed her up and down. On that respect, he had no doubts they’d be well suited. The question being, would he survive the coitus? Knowing how well she wielded a knife, he could only wonder if she believed in the castration of males after she’d used them. More than a few races had such painful rituals, and it behooved a male fond of his genitalia to avoid them.
“Why are you staring at me like I’m going to turn into a monster?” she asked.
“What are your thoughts on castration?”
“Females, never. Males…” She eyed his groin area. “Depends on what they try to do with it.” Her gaze slewed back to his face. “Why do you ask?”
He wasn’t about to explain. “Are males of your kind rare?” He knew of a few species where the feminine genes outnumbered the masculine. The Lunurfs, for example— blue-skinned scientists with a strange honor code—had a shortage of males and were said to be resorting to the slave markets to find suitable seed.
On his own world, they also had issues which had been somewhat resolved with some females bonding with more than a few males at once. He’d wondered as he traveled to the different tribes in search of his mate if he’d end up part of a harem. However rather than share, according to Karma, he was expected to mate outside his kind with a female who showed no fear or common sense as she strutted into the busy docking area. He couldn’t help but scan the environs and note the blatant interest in the human.
She drew all eyes, noses, and more than a few tentacles began slinking in her direction. Perhaps she exuded a pheromone that drew attention? Decontamination might eliminate the madness that consumed him. The jealousy that struck when they passed a group of mechanics and one of them dared to lift its tail, its eyeball staring in a way he didn’t like.
Lightning quick, Thyos grabbed the appendage. “Disrespectful,” he grumbled as he knotted the alien’s offending arm tight. When done, he glared at the others who stared in open-jawed astonishment. “Anyone else care to stare?”
The rapid whirling of bodies led to her laughter. A husky sound that vibrated through him.
“Touchy, aren’t you?”
“If you let them think you weak, they will strike. It’s best to make a point early. It saves the bother of a full-scale vendetta later on.”
She blinked at him. “A vendetta for staring?”
“Staring might lead to overtures and, when rebuffed, perhaps even an unfortunate attempt at abduction or assault.”
“Why is that unfortunate?”
“Because minor infractions we can punish lightly.” He gestured behind them to the alien screeching as his friends brought out a light saw. The limb he’d tied wouldn’t be salvageable. “While the more severe are annihilated to provide a stern example.”
“You don’t come from a dense population, do you?”
“Our world is not overcrowded, if that is your query. Planetary sustainability requires us keeping the number of inhabitants at a certain level.”
“Which I’m guessing in plain English means you have lots of wars so you don’t multiply like rabbits and overrun the world.”
“Not just wars. Vendettas, skirmishes, and if that isn’t enough, we also have the games.”
“The games