Wordlessly, Deus slides into my spot as I stride through the females, making some attempts not to hit them with my tail, in order to get to my mate.
“Is he okay up there?” Gillian asks as I sit beside her.
“Deus?” I shovel some food into my mouth.” “He knows how to pilot this ship. Even if he might not be so good at it as I.”
Gillian chokes a laugh. “My, what a big ego you have, Dalox,” she says in a high-pitched voice.
“Dalox is correct,” Dyris says. “Deus was not a great pilot. But then, his mate was. He didn’t need to be a good pilot.”
“His mate died,” Gillian says, quietly. “From the same sickness that took all your females.”
“I knew that,” I respond.
“But did you know she died after he travelled to your continent?” Dyris asks. “She was sick before he left. She didn’t want him to know. He returned, found out she had died and disappeared once more, only returning here in the last nova year to haunt us, before Dyana drove him away.”
I study the back of Deus, his shoulders hunched, I see one pop up, then descend slowly. It looks like he might be talking, only there is no one there.
To lose a mate. To not be there when she passed. I don’t even want to imagine it.
“I did not know. I thought he came to our settlement in order to reconvene with us. It’s why we gave him his sector, the one now forbidden due to his…issues. We expected him to bring his warriors once he had what he needed.”
“Our few male warriors could not stand our losses.” Dyris sighs. “They left and never came back, like Deus. Until he did come back, and you see he wasn’t in a fit state for anything.”
“He didn’t leave again, though,” Dyoti says. “It was as if he could not bring himself to go. He was always around, just out of Dyana’s reach.”
I rub over the fading marks on my hand. “Probably didn’t want to be envenomated.”
“No male wants to be envenomated. It is a failure for them,” Dyris says. “The ones who become the best mates are the ones who learn from their failure.”
I stare at her. I often wondered why some males continued to try to mate. I assumed their ruts got the best of them, and as I rut for my Gillian, I have some sympathy.
“You will have plenty of males to help fail when we get back to the settlement,” I rasp.
Both Dyoti and Dyris stare at me for a long time before they look at each other and look away.
“I should go check on…the…provisions…” Dyris says, getting to her feet.
“I’ll help you.” Dyoti also leaps up, and in a flash of scales, they are gone.
“Was it something I said?” I turn to my mate, getting lost in her eyes once again.
“Possibly.” The corners of her mouth twitch. “I don’t think their world revolves around males and mating,” she adds. “I think they’re okay on their own.”
“Then they’re going to have to get used to male company again,” I reply.
“I suggest you get prepared for plenty of envenomated down time for your crew,” Gillian says, making her lips disappear. “Because I doubt very much they’re going to get their own way.”
Nev it all to the ancestors. My gorgeous mate is right. With all these females, the rutting will be immense, and I can see it now.
“Nev,” I curse under my breath. “We can’t go straight back to the ships, can we?”
“Not without putting something in place to make sure both parties are able to cope with each other,” she says, her eyes drifting over to Deus. “And something to make sure Deus doesn’t end up the same way as before.”
I gently press my lips to hers, luxuriating in the risk and the reward.
“You are my completion, my Gillian.” I trip my fingers through her hair. “I would not ever want to be without you again.”
“I was thinking you could take them to your underground lair,” she says.
