I cannot believe I am having dinner in Mara’s quarters and not with my crew and extended family in the compound. This has never occurred, unless I’m on a stakeout of some sort, and then, I’m always alone. Instead, I’ve told Mara Wilson that I would like to spend additional time alone with her, eating the evening meal. And I am highly pleased at this outcome. “Yes. I would like human food, this sounds quite enjoyable.”
“Warning, I’m not an amazing cook like Jana. But, I’m really good at customizing a food dispenser to make human food that tastes very real. Have you ever had lasagna?”
My ridge furrows. “Luh-zahn-yuh? No, I’ve never heard of that.”
“Oh perfect,” she claps her hands. “I just customized the food dispenser to be able to make that. You’ll like it. I love the idea of you never having had that before.”
“Can I help you with the meal? I’d rather help than just sit here.”
She stands and heads for the kitchen. “Oh sure. It won’t take long to make. All I literally have to do is program the dispenser. But I’d appreciate it if you could tidy up the table and set down the plates and utensils.”
Mara hasn’t been provided a cleaning bot for this unit, therefore I end up at the kitchen sink, grabbing a wet cloth to wipe down the table.
“Watch out, I’m behind you,” she says.
Then Mara brushes past me as she reaches for another plate. This causes her body to come within a hand’s width of mine, her shoulder passing under my arm. She reaches up over my head for the shelf, and her scent slides into me the way water enters a crack in a stone.
No, I was not planning on scenting her, checking if she was my bride. I have been in this apartment with her for two hours already and we have remained far enough apart from each other that her scent did not float into my lungs. Yes, I’ve been curious about the fact that I enjoy her company. Curious about why my crystal heats up when she’s near. I enjoy her drive, determination and fierce intelligence. And I consider her to be the most beautiful human, or female of any species for that matter, that I’ve ever encountered. Her skin is exquisite and her eyes sparkle and I love the shine of that hair. I find myself wanting her hair sliding in my claws.
But I still did not plan on analyzing her scent. I fully expected that we wouldn’t be compatible for the simple fact that a female of this worth will be mated someday to a male much more impressive than me.
But her scent enters my lungs unbidden, and I cannot help how my body filters and registers, similar to how I’ve secretlyscented so many other times with all the other unmated females on this planet.
First, I detect not only her scent, but a secondary scent, which lets me know she’s with child. I pause and blink with surprise.
Mara Wilson is pregnant.
How is this possible? She wears the gloves of the unmated.
And then I also register that her scent is negative therefore she is not compatible.
I do my best to remain impassive at this double shock.
I glance over. Does she have a secret mate?
“Scar, can I ask you something?”
“Cayzor, call me Cayzor. Scar is my crew name.”
“Oh okay, Cayzor…Um, is mating here exactly the same as it is on Chronos? I’ve been to Chronos many times, to work on facilities there so I’m used to wearing these gloves and the Xylan mating practices have been fully explained to me. But all the Xylan in this outpost are so far from Chronos. Do you follow all the same practices as the home planet, or do you do things differently out here?”
I finish cleaning the table and start arranging the place settings. “We do most things the same as on Chronos. But we are looser about having a Manager of a line and formally using the Xylan Mating Database to find mates to perform the clasping ceremony with, and also, when we do the actual claiming ceremony, it doesn’t need to be in an ancient Xylan forest to be considered legal and binding. All the Xylan on Timbur were given a special dispensation for mating practices.”
“Oh, that’s interesting.”
“The Fever Brothers can scent their brides.”
“What?”
I pause to repeat what I said. It is only right that she knows what I did and the outcome. I don’t usually tell this to females,but then I don’t spend time with these females afterwards. Scenting is usually an accident and then they’re gone, out of my life or very distant again. But Mara and I will continue working together. I am not going to mention the pregnancy, because she wants to keep that to herself for now, for reasons that I will respect. But I will tell her about how I have learned that we are not compatible.
“The Fever Brothers have the rare ability to scent their brides before clasping,” I continue. “As far as I know we are the only Xylan with this ability in this generation. This means we can tell if a female is compatible or not by simply inhaling their pheromones. We don’t need to bother with useless hand clasping ceremonies to learn that we have found our mate.”
She is gazing at me from across the room, her mouth open in surprise. I am certain she is replaying that moment when she brushed past me.
“Yes, when you moved close to me in the kitchen I accidentally inhaled your scent and my body and mind filtered a response.”
“Um, which was…?”
