Chapter 1
Darren
Casting a wary eye round the crowded club, Darren took a gulp of his brew, enjoying the taste, but also, he wanted to hold his glass in front of his face for protection.Protection from what?He didn’t have a clue, but he wanted to hide from... something. He just had an uneasy feeling, that’s all, like a persistent low-key itch that you can’t find when you scratch the spot.
“Drink up, brother, and cheer up, forgrack’ssake. You look as if you’re at a mourning ceremony not out for the night enjoying yourself.” Lero nudged Darren’s arm, elbow to elbow, causing Darren to spill his brew down his chin and onto the front of his best shirt.
“Raging inferno!Can’t a man have a quiet drink in peace?” Darren barked. The club was extra busy that night and he had to shout over the noise of the chatter and the blaring music. He tried to get out of the habit of using that phrase, since it reminded him of the day their star, a red one, flared and burned Dhelta,their home planet, to a crisp. All their family had been burned with it; worse than that, the entire population had died in a matter of minutes. It was probably why it was the worst expletive in the Dheltan language.
There. Now he’d messed up his shirt, and he’d only put it on clean a couple of hours ago. “Trust you to make a mess everywhere we go, Lero,” he grumbled, but a movement in the corner of his eye distracted him. Just at that moment, the youngest, Blayze, came back with three brews which he balanced in both hands. Keeping his back straight, he bent hisknees and crouching down, he slid them onto the small round table ever so carefully.
Blayze had been born an hour after the other two, Darren first and Lero twenty minutes later. They were identical triplets and had the same long silver hair, the same ice blue eyes. Most people did a double-take, not trusting their eyes, but every Dheltan had blanched coloring: pale hair, pale skin and pale eyes. Darren’s skin had a cherry red tint, contrasting nicely with his silver hair.
Their planet closely orbited (hadorbited, he reminded himself grimly) a red dwarf, Yithir. Though Planet Dhelta was a permanent twilight zone because the star was so dim and red, being that close to their sun meant the climate was temperate enough for life to exist. Darren liked it. He liked living in a permanent sunrise or sunset depending on the time of day. It hurt him to think about his lost home, so he drained his glass and picked up the full one that Blayze had brought.
Blayze sat on a low stool and Lero leaned back against the padded bench seat that he and Darren shared. They were watching the pole dancer, a female of the Ohirin species. He didn’t find Ohirins attractive at all, but his brew was chilled and bitter and fizzed softly on his tongue when he took a taste.
“Nice work, Blayze,” he said approvingly, and lifted his glass in a toast. The club was dimly lit, the main reason they came here. And for the delicious craft-made brew, of course.
“Are we gonna pull, tonight?” asked Lero.
“It depends on how much effort you want to put into finding a female. I don’t think I’ll bother,” retorted Darren. “I don’t fancy that one.” He nodded towards the pole dancer. She was upright on two legs and had a tail which she balanced on occasionally. She had green skin, a reptilian look about her, and talons on her four-fingered hands at the end of short arms as she gripped the pole.
“The only hint that she’s female is that she’s got two breasts,” he said with a sneer, then bit his tongue.That was unkind. She must have admirers somewhere, and judging by thehoots and whistles around her, many of them were watching her performance.
Drek had invaded the club, a lizard species not unlike the Ohirins. Perhaps that was why the club was noisy that night. They were mostly friendly and well-mannered, but to Darren’s eyes, a lizard was a lizard was a lizard. They all looked the same to him. Ohiri was a multigalactic planet, and the dizzying spectrum of aliens was impressive. Not that Darren and his brothers weren’t used to it. Since they had finished their training, they had been around a bit, sent on missions to all kinds of weird and wonderful planets, some dangerous, in the common goal of safeguarding the empire. But Darren’s favourite place was Ohiri, except for the natives. It was a lively place with everything a man could wish for, except women, and Ohirins looked every bit as alien to Dheltans as Dheltans did to Ohirins, Darren thought.
“And they wouldn’t ask a man to do that job,” added Blayze, “not at this club, anyway.” He meant pole dancing.
Darren nodded in agreement. The Ohirins were a bit... “The little woman is in charge of the house and young. They mustn’t worry about anything that hurts their brains. That’s the man’s job.” Not like it had been on Dhelta. Females had been equal partners, but he wouldn’t dare bring the subject up on Ohiri; the culture was butch, or as the Ohirins proudly called it,unashamedly masculine, and the brothers were living this life now.Warriors. It was what it was.
Lero eyed Blayze. “If you want to go to a men-only club, feel free, only don’t ask me to join you.”
Blayze sighed. “I’m not into that, but there’s a shortage of females, not only on this planet but for Dheltans. There’re no females of our species left since—”
Darren put up a hand, palm out. “Don’t say it. We know what you mean and we must make our lives on Ohiri now.”
“There’s a shortage of females everywhere. We’ll never find our mates and breed them. Have a family,” Blayze said wistfully.
“Hark at that. Our little brother’s feeling broody,” taunted Lero.
As the eldest, Darren felt some responsibility to rein Lero in, but obliquely. “I’m feeling it too,” he declared, and stunned Lero into silence for a moment.
“There must be some way we can find mates,” complained Blayze.
“But how?” chipped in Lero. “Are Dheltans compatible with other species?” Outnumbered, he was on their side now.
Blayze slipped him a sideways look. “You can keep your lizard people to yourself.”
“We’ll solve the problem,” said Darren. Always the optimist, he set himself to enjoy their evening out. There was too much pessimism around for three brothers to handle, and he tried to cheer up as Lero had demanded. Still, he couldn’t shake off the feeling of foreboding. He was probably getting old. That, or he just needed to find his mate, and the chances of that were a big fat zero.
When they finished the second pints, the three left the club. There weren’t any tasty women that night and Ohirins pole dancing, female or male, wasn’t high on their list of things that got them excited.
Darren thumped down his empty glass decisively and wiped his mouth on his cuff. The shirt was already dirty and he’d have to give it to his manservant to wash. He stood up. “Let’s go back to the barracks. There’ll be a game of cards in the mess and we can have a brew in peace without having to shout over the noise.”
Afraid of sounding like an old fusspot, he didn’t mention that it was a school night and they had to be up at dawn for drill on the parade ground. He felt responsible for his brothers. Maybe it was because he was the eldest but they were the only family he had. They were precious to him. He expected Lero to argue, or even Blayze, but they just nodded meekly and got to their feet. Maybe they were feeling their age, too.
They were stopped by a club hostess, in a low-cut dresswith a plain apron over it, a circular tray balanced on her hip. She met Darren’s gaze level with hers; female Ohirins were as tall as Dheltans. She smiled at him.
