to a few of the other Draax still in the bay as we left. “Yes. My mother says I did use contractions when she first taught me to speak, but I stopped using them by the time I started school. My friends were the same way.”
“That’s so weird,” I said. “How does it sound in Draax when I use a contraction?”
“The Draax word is altered in only a small way, but it is noticeable. Males rarely use the contractions, but females who are born to a human mother and a Draax father, often speak in contractions and are more prone to acting like human females. But, since very few females are born, it does not seem to matter much.”
“Wait, females aren’t being born on Draax?” I said. “But the king and queen have a daughter.”
“It was a very large celebration when she was born,” Uzel said. “I was not yet working at the castle, but the celebrations within the city went on for days. In fact, our entire province celebrated her birth for nearly a week. Queen Sabrina received so many gifts from the commoners that they filled an entire room. It took her nearly six moons to open all of them.”
“Wow,” I said. “That seems excessive.”
“Princess Jovie is the first female born royalty in close to a century,” Uzel said. “Our province will be the first province in Odias to have a ruling queen. We are lucky and blessed that Queen Sabrina grew a girl in her belly.”
“How many babies are girls on average?” I said.
“I do not know. You should speak with Bitta. He is fascinated with this sort of stuff and follows many studies on it. He has a website dedicated to predicting how many females may be born each year. He is,” he grinned at me, “what humans refer to as a nerd.”
I laughed. “I haven’t heard the word nerd in forever. Do you think it’s like one in five are females?”
Uzel shook his head. “No. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say more like one in a hundred babies born are female. I went to a large school in the city and did not have a single female classmate. Nor do my parents know any Draax who have female children. You humans have helped us escape extinction but unless more females are born on a regular basis, we will need to rely on your breeding females for years to come.”
We were almost to my apartment and Uzel gave me another poke with his tail. “This is where we part. Goodbye, human. I will see you tomorrow.”
“See you, Uzel.” I walked the short distance to my apartment and let myself in, closing the door behind me. It was almost dinner time and I wondered if I should join the other women and eat in the dining hall or wait around a few minutes and hope that Galan showed up and –
The knock on my door made me jump. I opened it, smiling at Galan when he stepped into my apartment and shut the door.
“Hey, how was your day?”
He didn’t reply. He didn’t look pissed off, but his tail was flicking back and forth in a decidedly agitated manner and he walked toward me like a big cat stalking its prey. I backed up until I felt the wall against my spine as Galan penned me in with his hands on either side of my head.
I wasn’t afraid. I was, weirdly, turned on, and all I could think about was how it had felt to ride Galan this morning. How thick and hard his cock was, the warmth of his mouth as he sucked on my nipples.
“What’s going on?” I said.
“I saw you with Uzel in the docking bay,” he said.
“Uh, yeah, I work with him.”
He leaned down and kissed my throat, his breath hot against my skin. “He touched you.”
“What?” I was finding it hard to concentrate what with the way Galan was now cupping my tits.
“He touched you,” Galan nipped my collarbone, “and you let him touch you.”
“It was just a handshake,” I said. “I’ve been teaching him a -”
“No. He put his arm around your shoulders.” Galan pulled my shirt over my head, his copper eyes darkening when he saw my erect nipples. “Did you like it when he touched you?”
“Is this that jealousy thing again? Because I told you, you have nothing to be… oh fuck, oh that feels…”
I arched into Galan’s mouth, threading my fingers through his thick dark