“Then let Alex have my chance! He deserves a chance to court and woo a girl! He wants to work on the farm. I don’t even know Laxmi except by name. Aren’t she and Alex in the same courses at the local school?”
A long pause. “Are you uninterested in females, my son?”
“No! I mean, yes, I want a female!” Talos growled at his father, which was always a mistake.
His father roared back, showing long, saber-like canines.
I’m about to be disowned.
“I go to all this trouble to find you an eligible mate, and you throw it in my face? Fine! Even though the Tigerite system fared well in comparison, you know females of breeding age are scarce!”
Talos winced. “I don’t want a mate just so I can ‘breed’ like livestock, Dad!”
“You are turning down a one-in-a-thousand, maybe a one-in-ten-thousand chance. Preserving the family name and finding someone able to carry our blood is yourduty. It is yourhonor.”
“But you have other sons who can—”
“The eldest son marries first! You are also older, Talos, much older than the others! That means you have the least chance, Talos! The available Queens are all so much younger or older than you, my son!”
Talos said nothing, trying to choose his words carefully.
His father was not always patient. He took his silence for defiance.
“I see. You know I’m right, but you won’t admit it. Just like you wouldn’t admit that you were shirking your responsibilities by leaving the farm.”
“I—”
“No! Don’t come groveling to me when you are cold and lonely, when you are an old Tigerite and you aren’t rich enough to entice a young bride to carry on your lineage!”
Talos shot off a retort, regretting it as the words left his mouth. “If I’m that old, you’d be gone, wouldn’t you?”
Talos watched the screen scramble and flip to black. His father had hung up in a rage.
The bad temper and sullen attitude seemed to run in the family.
Maybe I am stupid.
It’s not like I am going to find someone to fall in love with aboard theComet Stalker.
He had sat down on the edge of the bed, and now he sank back across it, worry and regret gnawing at him.
His father might move behind the times (like a lot of families on Tigerite-Seven), but he was regarded as a man with good common sense and a respected elder in the district. His father wasn’t rich, but his advice was sound and his word was law. Talos didn't for one moment doubt that his father would quickly make up some excuse to take him out of the picture and renegotiate the betrothal so that Alexander would be the one engaged to Laxmi. When word got around that Talos had rejected a match with one of the most beautiful and eligible females on theirplanet, a match brokered by his revered father, it would be a nightmare. If he ever did want to find a wife, no respectable family would consider him for their daughter.
By rejecting this match, Talos had probably made himself a permanent bachelor—all in the space of a five-minute conversation.
That was never what he wanted. He just didn’t want a match to be forced. He certainly didn’t want to marry a bride someoneelse assigned him simply because she was all that was available. If only his father hadn't sprung this on him so suddenly!
I could have had time to consider my words. Why didn’t he tell me when I came home on leave?
But no. Someone thrusts, I parry. They run, I chase.
Talos had always been told that was one of his flaws. He listened to his gut and followed it more than his head.
His mind was clouded, and his skin felt clammy under the thick, full ruff of snowy white fur around his neck that spread down to his chest and fluffed around his cheeks.
The crunchy crayfish roll was definitely going to make another appearance.
As Talos lunged for the commode, he had one thought.
