Matched to the monster, p.8
Matched To The Monster, page 8
“Welcome back,” he says softly.
I squirm in his arms, looking down at my foot, mostly to check if it’s still there or if they amputated it while I was unconscious. It's tightly bound in a white garment that I recognize as my apron. I try to wriggle it to see if the lump is moves, but even though it does, that still doesn’t tell me if the lump is a stump of a foot or a lump of an apron.
There's a gasp and I realize it's from a person who peers into Juris’s arms as we pass by. Others stand frozen, staring at us, like we’re freaks.
Juris’s lip tightens as he stops and looks around.
“This is my mate, Lilaina.” His voice is loud and commanding and some people look away. Others still stare, as if shocked by my alienness.
No one welcomes me. But there’s really not much I can say, considering how rude I was to Juris when I met him. Without waiting any longer, Juris moves on, taking me into a huge castle that has giant double doors. It has a main room and from what I can see several hallways. One of the rooms has a table set up with smaller looking objects placed around it. They’re shaped like eggs. It must be where they sit instead of using chairs.
Jaire, Elex, and Stratek have followed us in. Juris sits down, keeping me on his lap. His arms are wrapped around my middle like he’s protecting me.
“Stratek!” A woman rushes in, and searches around the room. She smiles at Juris just as Stratek makes his way to her. They embrace and their tentacles entwine together, curling and twisting, as their upper bodies hug. Like Juris does to me, Stratek lowers his forehead to the woman’s, murmuring something, and she giggles. It’s such a tender moment that I feel like I’m intruding.
“You are safe,” the woman says. “Both of you.” She gives a quick glance to Juris like he’s hers, too, and jealousy sweeps through me at her possessive look.
“Of course, we are, sweet one,” Stratek assures her and her face turns back to him, showing me her perfect profile.
I'm confused, I thought Stratek had no mate? The woman is beautiful. Her coloring is an exact match for his, but she is delicate where he’s boisterous. Her tentacles are slender and she’s graceful when she walks, almost like she floats on air. She doesn’t have any hair on her head, but she doesn’t need it. Her bone structure is absolutely perfect, her cheekbones high. Her eyes are large in her face and they’re unblinking as she stares my way after a bit. Their tentacles loosen and separate, but their arms remain around each other’s waists.
“Shana, this is Lilaina,” Juris says.
A smile breaks across her face. “Lilaina.” Then she frowns. “You’ve been hurt.”
“Yes. I was dumped in the sea. A vine or something pulled me down.”
There’s quiet in the room.
Juris clears his throat. “Not a vine, sweet. That was a flocon. A young one, but one nonetheless.”
“I thought they were nocturnal?”
“They are. That one woke up and decided to play.”
“So it’s a tiny worm? And it grows?”
Stratek snorts. “A worm? That was just its tongue. He was tasting his dinner.”
I inhale sharply. Something was licking me?
And then the woman is in our space, gracefully bending and touching her forehead to Juris’s while I sit and watch, feeling like an oddly-colored, strange-legged outsider.
“I’m glad you’re safe, love,” she whispers throatily.
Do they share females here? Is she not able to have children so Juris brought me on? But no, he isn’t mated. Not before he mated me, anyway.
And then a jumble of awful thoughts hits me. I’ll bet she would never have lost a family heirloom. Panic hits the pit of my belly as I realize I did indeed lose it. It’s got to be somewhere in the bottom of the ocean. I just wonder how long I can fake it until someone asks for it.
I’ve never been a lucky person, and her head swivels my way.
“Did you get the dagger, Lilaina?” Shana asks.
“The dagger?” I ask stupidly. How does she know about it?
“Stratek was supposed to give it to you.” She glares at him.
“You’re his sister?” I didn’t see this coming.
“More than that,” Juris says. “They are twins.”
“Oh,” I say weakly, and wonder how I’m going to fix this. How am I going to explain a priceless family heirloom is already gone?
“Ma!” A young voice says, and Maleek enters with a young toddler in his arms.
“This one is my mate,” Shana says. She glides gracefully to Maleek and strokes the cheek of the toddler while she kisses Maleek full on the mouth.
Then she turns back to me. “And also, in case they didn’t tell you, Juris is also our brother.”
And then it’s all too much for me. Too much discovery, too many new people to meet, too much strange culture, too much adrenaline racing through my limbs, and I burst into tears.
“I lost it,” I blurt out. “I’m so sorry. I know it was an heirloom, I should have taken better care of it—”
“Hey, what’s this?” Juris asks.
Stratek grow serious and comes over to kneel before us. “It must be stress,” he says. “Maybe some of the residual poison? We washed off her foot, but…” His hand covers mine. “Lilaina, listen to me. You used the dagger as it was meant to be used. It saved your life. That was its primary purpose. If it was meant to be stored in a silk covered box, we would have left it here and given it to you when you arrived at the castle.”
Shana gasps and I look up to see her hand—her graceful, beautiful, long-fingered hand—as it flutters up to cover her mouth. Her eyes fall to my wrapped foot.
Stratek looks over to her with pride. “That’s right. She sliced off the tongue of a flocon that had her gripped,” he says.
“How did you know?” I ask. I had thought it was Juris in the water with me. But he’s sitting proudly, letting Stratek tell the story.
Stratek grins. “While you were unconscious, Juris bragged about your bravery. How you had nearly rescued yourself by the time he reached you to pull you up.”
I don’t know about that, because I’m pretty sure I would have drowned. But I’m too stunned to respond. Instead, I’m suddenly focused on Juris steadily watching me, waiting for my reaction.
I turn my head to the side. “You saw?”
“I saw.” And he drops his forehead to mine. There’s a moment here, something he wants me to see, but I’m not quite sure what it is. All I know is it was my mate who saved me. This new land, these new people, everything is so different from what I’m used to and I’m so confused.
Chapter Nine
“I KNOW WHAT SHE needs,” Shana says. “Sometimes females need time to talk. Everyone, clear out of here. You too, my love,” she says to the baby toddler, whose tentacles slide around her mother’s forearm as she points toward the doorway. “Juris, you have people to talk to, and Stratek, you have a shower to take.” She wrinkles the area between her hairless brows and I imagine it’s a movement like scrunching a nose when you don’t have one.
Her voice is commanding and nobody thinks twice about obeying. Stratek grins and agrees that he does need to shower. Juris kisses my forehead and slips out from beneath me, leaving me on the egg-shaped chair. To my surprise it’s soft and squishy, like a firm beanbag.
“You’ll be fine,” he says. “I won’t be far.”
You’ll be fine.
Just like that the room clears out.
Shana sits on the egg-chair next to me and reaches over for my hands twisting nervously in my lap. She links her fingers with mine and her other hand strokes the dried, chapped skin on top. For a few minutes, we just sit in silence, holding hands.
Finally she speaks.
“I know it’s overwhelming,” she says. “I can’t imagine leaving my home, going to a strange new planet and meeting a ton of people. Nor can I imagine picking a mate I’ve never seen.”
She does understand exactly. I’m ashamed to admit of how I balked when I first met Juris. How it must have hurt his feelings.
“Everybody’s been more than kind,” I say hesitantly, not wanting her to get the idea that I’m complaining. “But it has taken some getting used to.”
“Well, I’m very impressed with your bravery,” she says. “And I want you to know, Juris is a great male. He will be a wonderful mate to you, and a fabulous father to any kishren you may have. If the goddess so blesses you.”
“And if it’s not meant to be?” I ask quietly.
She shrugs. “Then I hope you’ll be happy without a kish.”
“And so will he take another mate to have children?” I ask.
“Of course not!” Her eyes widen, making the yellow more pronounced. If I wasn’t comfortable with their people, I might have been terrified, but now I know she’s just shocked. “Is that what males would do on your planet?”
I nod, somewhat hesitantly, aware it seems to be offensive to their people. “It’s their duty to procreate,” I say, but for some reason, on this planet, the words feel empty. I can feel my cheeks heat and something about being here has me questioning things I’ve never questioned before.
“Juris is fascinated with you, Lilaina. Maybe he’s not in love with you yet, but give it time. I know my brother. He’s normally standoffish. He comes across as unfeeling. He’s had to be. He had to grow up way too quickly to raise me and Stratek on top of leading our people after the last sickness took so many out, and he has to protect his sensitive heart in order to focus. I would have thought his obsession with you bordered on worrisome if I didn’t know how honorable my brother is.”
“His obsession?” How can she possibly know how Juris feels when I just met him and she has barely seen him with me?
“This planned mateship has been in the works for quite some time, Lilaina. He’s been studying as much Earth culture as he can find. He’s redecorated his bedroom according to your favorite colors.”
“Pink?” My voice is both horrified because my mate has subjected himself to a pink bedroom, and impressed because my mate has a pink bedroom.
“Pink,” she verifies. “It’s actually lovely. He thought it would make you feel more at home.”
How could he have known?
“How long has the mateship been planned?” I ask with a sinking feeling.
“Three years? At least.”
Three years. For three years this has been planned. And he thought a pink bedroom would make me feel at home? Home? Home is where it was planned that I mate a stranger and it took three years to let me in on it. Home, where I suffered tremendously in the three months when I actually found out.
But Juris has known of me much longer.
Slowly I close my mouth, aware it’s hanging open in shock.
Her eyes are kind as she sits, calmly holding my hand. My mind just can’t let it go. Three years. This was just brought up by my father three months ago. I had no idea it was in the works, as she phrased it. Why hadn’t Father ever mentioned it? Instead he brought it up by reiterating my duty to the other women of our planet.
“Mikhail—I believe you know him?” At my nod, Shana continues. “He’s shared many things about you with Juris. They’ve had a great many discussions. And then the leader of your planet spoke to Juris about you.” There’s a barely perceptible tightening of her lip.
“I had no idea,” I murmur.
“So you see, we know how brave you are. We know how kind you are. We know you’re the perfect addition to our family and we’re going to support you. There’s nothing to fear here, and certainly not the loss of a little ole dagger.”
“But Juris made it. For you.”
“And I gave it to you. Like my other brother said, it served its purpose. It kept you safe when you needed it. Though I’m blown away by the fact that you faced a flocon by yourself.” Her delicate shoulders shudder.
“I about drowned,” I confide. “If Juris didn’t pull me out. I’m not that great a swimmer.” Or a swimmer at all, but I’m ashamed to admit my failings. I still have that sin of vanity plaguing me. Though, for the first time ever, I don’t feel the need to chant, I realize incredulously.
I haven’t chanted my penance since explaining the sins to Juris.
“He’ll always be there for you. Just like you’ll be there for him.”
I think back to when I wanted to beat the spider-man’s head in with a stick for hurting Juris and I give her a tumultuous smile. “I will be.”
Because it would be easy to love Juris, I ask her about their childhood. I’d like to get to know him. She tells me that he’s twelve years older than she and Stratek, and that Maleek was his best friend growing up.
Then I crack up when she winks in the same bizarre way Stratek does, and tells me it was awful trying to pursue Maleek when he avoided her because of his and Juris’s friendship.
“I did everything I could. I swam with the guys. I begged for self-defense training. I even enlisted Stratek’s help.”
I giggle, not even able to imagine how that went.
“But I finally wore Maleek down,” she says. “Now he tries to claim he was always interested but he was just waiting to see what seduction I’d plan next.” She starts laughing with me.
“What finally worked?” I ask, wiping my eyes.
“A shotgun wedding. I told Juris his best friend took my innocence and probably left me pregnant and it was going to cause a scandal to our family name.”
I gasp, but she’s laughing so hard she doesn’t hear it.
“I’m the only one that fell for it,” Juris says loudly as he enters the room carrying a tray. It’s like he wants us to know he’s entering. Behind him, there’s some scuffling and a tiny creature peers in, only to disappear with a squawk when he sees me notice him.
Juris continues on. “Five years later, she finally got pregnant and gave me that beautiful niece. Even Maleek swore she was innocent the day I kicked his ass.”
Shana wipes her eyes as she’s choking laughter. “Every one of our mating photos shows me snuggling up to my mate, and Maleek sporting two swollen black eyes.”
“You beat up Maleek for…not…touching your sister, then?” I snort, wiping the tears from my eyes.
He sets the tray onto a small table he’s pulled up.
“Technically, I guess,” he mumbles. “I punched him and said he took my sister’s innocence and he punched me back for daring to call her not innocent.”
Shana cackles harder. “And it worked! That evening, Maleek decided he might as well take it since he’d already been punished for sampling my charms.”
Juris snorts. “I’ve never heard you referred to as charming.”
“I didn’t say I was charming. I said sampling my charms. It’s an Earth phrase,” Shana says with an air of superiority. She winks at him. “I’ve been studying my Earth phrases.” Her eyes follow a bookshelf.
His cheeks darken and I wonder if she hints at the studying up on humans she referred to earlier regarding him.
My smile is huge as I study my crazy new family. I really like belonging to them. I feel like I fit in and I hope I don’t screw anything up. I hope Juris doesn’t want to return me.
I think I need to seduce him the way Shana seduced Maleek.
“Well, I guess it’s time to go get my mate and baby girl,” she says, letting go of my hand and hugging me to her. “I’m glad you’re here, sis,” she whispers in my ear. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
I nod. “I’d love to.”
“Glad you’re safe, my love,” she says to Juris and with a sinking sensation, I realize it’s a common endearment. Those two times he said it to me—not that I’m counting—meant nothing.
Dammit, it meant nothing.
“Master?” A new creature pokes its head into the door.
“Come in, Driki,” Juris says.
The little being, no more than three or four feet, scuttles in, a thick, lizard-like tail sweeping the floor behind it like it’s agitated. Perhaps because I’m staring, but I’m fascinated with a glimpse of a species I’ve never seen. It stands upright, but its face is a mass of fat, puffy folds. Instead of hair, it has flesh-like, finger-looking things that sprout from its head in a row of spiky dreads like a Mohawk. Oddly enough, the blue-gray eyes stand out in its face, much too large in proportion for the rest of its features.
Directly behind it follows the other one I saw peering in earlier. A few inches shorter than the first, it has the fleshy dread-protrusions all over its bald head. The eyes are near the same size, though they’re a darker gray.
“Lilaina, meet Driki and Bantu. Their people—the Tiiblets—were once terrorized by the Tshiki. They now live harmoniously with us.”
“We serve the master,” Driki says proudly. “And now his mistress.”
“I serve the mistress.” The smaller one elbows him, and smiles shyly at me.
“There are no rules as to who we serve,” Driki says with a yelp, rubs his ribs, then elbows him back.
“There are no rules requiring you to serve, period,” Juris says.
Both men stare at him aghast. “Master!” They say in unison.
“We live to serve!” Driki says.
“We love to serve!” Bantu says.
Driki elbows him. “Live,” he whispers.
“Love,” Bantu whisper-barks back.
“Are you two going to let her water grow cold?” Juris asks, exasperation in his voice.
The two look abashed, and Bantu scuttles to me with the bowl of steaming water. He sets it down near my feet, then sits cross-legged on the floor. He takes my foot into his lap and I glance down, about to tell him he doesn’t have to do that, but my words choke in my throat.
I’m appalled to see a huge pink cock peeking up at me from beneath his loincloth.
I quickly look away, shocked at the size of the thing, to find Juris watching me with a huge smile as he waits to see my reaction.
I’m not quite sure what to do.
I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see it.
But Driki doesn’t let me.
“My cock is bigger than his,” he says.
