29 Jessa
“I-” I resisted theurge to cower under the combined weight of their stares.The light hearted banter had vanished and Hope and Taz were eyeing me with equal levels of suspicion and sympathy.
“He claimed you,” Hope prompted.“Did he explain what that means?”
“Yes, kind of, I don’t know.”I stroked Sal’s bony little head, and he let out a happy honk that soothed my panic.“He said it means no other turoch will claim me, that I’m his mate.”
Taz gave Hope a sideways look.“Are you going to give her all the dirty details or should I?”
The blonde rolled her eyes and moved toward me, reaching out to touch Sal’s back.The baby percer eyed her for a moment before leaning into the attention.
“First of all, I want to make it very clear that you don’thaveto do anything,” she said gently.“But the world is very different now and there are certain rules and expectations you should be aware of.”
“Like don’t lick it if you don’t plan on keeping it,” Taz said bluntly.My eyes bulged at the crass but very clear statement.
“I haven’t licked anything,” I rushed to say.The moment the words left my mouth I remembered the hot and heavy kiss I’d shared with Tovis last night and I blushed so hot my eyes watered.
“Mostly,” I corrected meekly.
Taz let out an inelegant snort.“We don’t need details, but we won’t pass on any juicy sex stories, either.”
“No sex,” I mumbled.“Just kissing and trying not to die.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around,” she shrugged.
Hope shook her head.“Ulto, the claiming?It’s like a proposal and protection all in one.He declared you his mate, once that happens you’re like, halfway mated.Any turoch will refer to you as his mate, they’ll treat you like his mate and no other male will approach you.Even flirting with a claimed female is grounds for a duel, they take it very seriously.”
“It's the ultimate disrespect,” Taz cut in.“A big no no.If they try and claim a female after dibs have been called, it can be considered a ‘to the death’ situation.”
“Okay,” I said, absorbing the weight of the information.“But Tovis barely knew me when he claimed me, what if he realized he didn’t like me after that?”
Taz shrugged.“Honestly?I don’t think any turoch would take it back, it's a matter of honor,ultois a promise to protect a female, too.Taking it back would be like-” she rolled her eyes consideringly.“Like shoving someone outside and shutting the door when there are wolves around.”
“A dick move,” Hope translated.“It would be a sign of a dishonorable male.They’d probably get banished from the band.”
“But I can say no?”I didn’t really want to, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, but knowing what I was getting into was a good start.
“You can say no, you can ignore him.But if you really don’t want him you have to be one hundred percent about it.The female side of things is all about how you receive the claim.Penny said Adak claimed a female on Oska, she’d ignore him for a few days and then accept his gifts, and then treat him like shitand thensneak out to kiss him.It was a huge mess and really traumatized him.”
My head was spinning.I’d never travelled, I had no experience navigating a different culture and the turochs were actual aliens, you couldn’t get more foreign than that.Not to mention, I really liked Tovis.The last thing I wanted to do was traumatize him.
“But taking things slow is okay?”
“That’s the second half of mating,” Hope said.
Taz smirked.“The gentling.”
“The sex ritual?”I blurted out.
Both women stared at me and then burst out laughing.They laughed so hard I started to giggle, my embarrassment fading the more they struggled to breathe.
“Itisa sex ritual!”Hope cackled, tears streaming down her face.“I never realized that.”
Taz was laughing so hard she had to lean on the trailer, and she scraped a hand over her forehead so forcefully it looked like she was trying to peel her skin off.
“Wow” she grinned.“That’s fucking great, I’m using that for the next welcoming committee I get roped into.”
I smiled, feeling a knot of tension in my chest dissolve as I took in their sparkling eyes and red faces.It had been so long since I'd been around humans I’d worried I didn’t know how to do this anymore.
