The kettle whistled, and I turned off the heat, pouring the water over the bags to allow the tea to steep. My hand flew to my neck, rubbing a sudden spot that began to itch. I dropped my hand, and then washed my hands again before finishing the tea preparation. Picking up the mugs, I mustered my courage and turned to carry them over to the table.
Mitchell took his mug from me and laughed. “That bad, huh?”
I shook my head the way I’d learned meant ‘no’ to humans. “Not bad, just,” I blew out a breath. “I feel strangely ill at ease, like a youth back in class.”
Mitchell’s eyes rounded. “Ohhhh, sex ed! Oh my God! That was the most awkward class ever.”
I laughed deprecatingly with him. It seemed some things did not change no matter what species you were. Learning about sex and how our bodies matured from youths into adults was awkward no matter who the adolescent was, it seemed.
“Okay, tell you what,” he said, blowing on his tea to help cool it down enough to drink. “I’ll tell you what I know, and you can fill in the gaps.” I nodded, and he continued. “Okay, so you guys started having a dwindling female population, and this was after you had already made first contact with some other space faring races. You found out that you had more success having children, especially female ones, if you mated outside your species, thanks to increasing your gene pool. Your government then began seeking trades specifically for looking for your matches as you only mate and produce offspring if your partner is your perfect match in all ways. The trades were for the exchange of knowledge and rare goods and stuff, whatever the world bargained for in exchange for females taking this mate-matching test.” He took a sip of his tea. “And along the way it also became about spreading your culture so it would never become lost, so adopting children outside of your species also became a way to expand the Mylos population, which works really well, because some of you are gay.”
He’d pretty much summed up the history of the Bride Fleet, albeit in a very basic manner.
“Yes, but do you understand how it works biologically?” I asked.
He arched a fiery eyebrow at me. “Insert tab A into slot B to consummate the mating, and if male and female, offspring is likely to occur with repetition.”
I laughed at his explanation. “No, I meant the mating display, not the mechanics of having sex.”
“The what now?” he asked, his forehead wrinkling. “You mean like the thing where rams butt heads and peacocks strut?”
I scratched at my neck, certain my having laid eyes on him and touched his flesh and inhaling his scent had already triggered the beginning of mine. I pointed at the irritated area. “Does this look different to you?”
He leaned forward. “What, we’re already on the checking-each-other-for-weird-rashes stage?” he joked. “Well, it looks…holy shit. Your skin is blue there and it looks a bit scaly. Like a dragon or a fish or something.” He leaned back, his eyes wide. “Is this what you meant? You guys turn into a reptile or something?”
I blinked.
“Oh shit, I should have realized. You guys have pupils that are more vertical, but not really noticeable until sorta right now,” he babbled.
“It’s the display. Our scales come out to show you the colors of our battle form and how beautiful our armor is.”
He let out a long breath. “So, you just get scaly all over and don’t start breathing fire or getting huge teeth you start using to gnaw on the furniture or anything.”
I laughed. He was funny, funnier than Neal even, though with Mitch as his Papa, I was sure Neal would quickly catch up.
“No, nothing like that. Our talons might make an appearance, but that’s about it.”
“So it is literally your species’ way of showing what a handsome mate you are with awesome armored scales you can defend us and our offspring with.”
I nodded and watched his shoulders relax.
“Cool. Just know that I’m not laying any eggs for you or anything weird like that. We’ve got Neal, and if you want more, they’ll have to come pretty much the same way he did.”
I could more than live with that. “There’s just one more thing,” I said, hoping this wouldn’t make him think I was trying to press an advantage. “We have a short window to mate, or the mating display triggers what’s known as mating fever, where we go a bit feral as we’re in our battle form and very, ah…”
“Horny,” he finished for me.
CHAPTER12
MITCHELL
So,we had to fuck before he got too scaly, or he’d go batty and possibly unable to get out of his battle form. That was definitely not what I had expected him to say, but hey, I had wanted to broach the subject of us getting our rocks off as we felt the urge, while trying to build something together. This development just sort of made that idea more than a mere possibility.
“I’m versatile,” I blurted out, “but prefer to top.”
He stared at me for a moment, then said, “That’s where you are the dominant sexual partner?”
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’d be the one putting tab A into your slot B.”
