Case Study: Interspecies Mating, page 38
The female holding her pulled her up short.
“Not yet,” she said, like Shoshana hadn’t moved. Like she wasn’t even there.
“Search her,” he ordered.
“Rizor, what are you doing?” Her voice finally lifted, strong enough to question him as she again tried to pull at the arm holding her. To no avail.
“Stop moving,” the domini female ordered.
Shoshana was turned and shoved, face first, against the wall. A foot was put between hers, kicking her legs apart so fast she almost fell. The clinical, heartless, thorough pat down as she was searched like a common criminal was as humiliating as it was familiar.
“Rizor, what did I do?” She asked, eyes watering. “Tell me what I did!”
“Found this, sir.”
She felt a tugging at the pocket of her long skirt. Rizor’s combot. She stored it there so it wouldn’t be flying around if anyone came to see her. The female pulled it out and held it up like it was some sort of triumphant find.
“Rizor gave that to me,” she said, trying to turn only to find herself being shoved back against the wall with a grunt. “Rizor, you gave that to me.”
He didn’t respond to her. “Good work. Keep searching. Make sure she doesn’t have anything else.”
Shoshana clenched her teeth, fighting back the urge to cry as the search continued. Nothing else was found. Of course not.
“Nothing. Just the seals on the back of the dress.”
There was a brief moment of silence. Then-
“Cut them off.”
“What?” Shoshana tried to rear back. Once again, she was shoved against the wall, this time hitting her forehead against the wall.
“Easy,” Rizor ordered. Before she could even begin to hope, he continued, “I don’t want to hear it from the higher ups if they think we’re being unnecessarily aggressive.”
Shoshana struggled. “Stop! You can’t-”
A ripping sound came from her neck. The domini had much shaper claws than the ratchi. She was easily able to cut out the little seal at the top of the dress.
Shoshana panicked, squeezing her arms tight, anticipating the dress falling.
It did not. The seal was removed, but the fabric didn’t fall apart without it. The neck, now ripped, fell open, but the rest of the dress remained in place. The same with the long underskirt when the seal was cut off that too.
Her clothes were still on, but she still felt somehow stripped bare as she was finally pulled off the wall and allowed to turn around.
Rizor wasn’t even looking at her. He was standing at the doorway to her room, shaking his head at some of her clothing that was being held up to him. They were asking if those might have more seals that needed to be removed.
“Rizor!” Shoshana tried again, managing to take a single step before both of her arms were grabbed and she was yanked rudely back.
He didn’t turn.
“Contact Fway and Kwee,” he ordered someone. “Make sure that she turned in the FK-band. And make sure it was the proper band and not a copy.”
“Are you kidding me?!” Anger rose in her gut. Shoshana grabbed onto it eagerly. It made her stronger than the gaping, yawning horror that was opening in her belly. “I think they would know if I gave them a fake band! How could I even make a fake band?!”
“Keep looking,” Rizor ordered, ignoring her.
“Rizor!” She shouted, straining against the hold on her arms. “You’re really treating your mate like this?!”
Finally, he turned.
And she almost wished he hadn’t.
The look in his eyes was so devoid of emotion, of affection, it hurt like a blade scraping over her skin.
She winced, pulling back, breathing hard.
Both of them were silent. Just staring.
She beseeched him with her eyes. Begging for him to explain. To let her go. To stop looking at her like he might never forgive her for some great betrayal.
He stared back. Giving her nothing. Blank and hard. “Humans don’t have mates.”
She gasped, breathless like she had just been punched in the gut.
“Take her to the brig,” he ordered, turning his back on her. Walking into her room to continue the search himself.
“Rizor!” Shoshana tried and failed to run at him.
The yank on her arms hurt this time, but she ignored it. Struggling to get back to her mate. To talk to him. To understand why.
“I didn’t do anything!” She yelled, thrashing and struggling.
To no avail. The female domini’s grip tightened, pulling and directing her through the dome.
The other humans there stared, wide eyed and shocked. She could just imagine the sight she must make. Their calm, confident social worker yelling, screaming, struggling. In cuffs. Being pulled along like a criminal. Like a convict.
“Let me go!” She ordered, knowing it was pointless, but needing to fight. Needing to get back to Rizor. To talk to him. To make him understand.
She hadn’t done anything. She wouldn’t do anything.
“You’re only making this harder on yourself,” the female pulling her said, voice uncompromising.
“I didn’t take anything!”
She got nothing else out of the female as she was pulled to the front of the base. Where the docking stations were. Past the large conference room to a door she hadn’t been through before.
It led to a short hall with only two doors.
One opened when the female waved her bracelet over it. The plain room had nothing inside. A low bench at the far end jutted out from the wall. But it didn’t even have a cushion. No window.
It hadn’t been so long since Shoshana had seen a holding cell that she couldn’t recognize one.
She struggled, one last time, to stay out of that room. A fight she had no hope of winning as she was shoved in. She stumbled, stepping on her skirt and falling forward. She couldn’t even catch herself as she came down on her side with a hard grunt.
Turning, she looked back just as the door slid shut. Locking her inside.
Chapter 41
Rizor
“Is this accurate?” Zeffir asked, wings tightening as he looked over the report on Shoshana that Rizor had just sent to his combot.
Vigo was doing the same, head tilted back as his glowing blue eyes moved along the text as though he were completely disinterested.
Rizor wished he could have the same distance from this. He tried to be stoic and cold, hiding the gnawing, aching pain that was eating him inside.
He had tried to find John, but it turned out that John was one of the most common human names possible in her culture. It was so common, they used it as an identifier for male bodies that had no names. He had no second or third names to add to it either.
Not that it mattered. He was not on the base and so he wasn’t their problem.
Shoshana was.
Rizor had a job to do. That sense of duty was the only thing keeping him from dragging her to their nest and locking her inside. Curling around her and breaking down.
She needed to be in his nest. That was where she belonged. And he would punish her by keeping her there, locked in his room indefinitely.
He wanted to talk to her.
But he couldn’t bear to look at her.
He was afraid if he did, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself from falling at her feet, begging to know why she did this.
Was it all a lie?
If she didn’t feel that instinctive urge to be his, to love him, then could he really say that he was her mate at all?
And she told him herself that she had never had a serious relationship before. She preferred her association with males to be casual. Only trading physical pleasures, getting a release, and maintaining what was otherwise a simple friendship.
What if this was just a con? An act?
He had practically thrown himself at her. The opportunity he had given her to get close to him, to gain access to their technology, was too great to pass up.
Some part of his mind whispered that the very thought was ridiculous. That the pleasure he had shared with Shoshana was real. If nothing else, the scent of her arousal wasn’t something that she could falsify.
But that still didn’t mean much. Just because she enjoyed the sex didn’t mean she intended to be his mate.
It was all too much.
Too hard.
He still couldn’t think. He was acting only on feeling and instinct. And what he felt he had to do…
“What must be done is clear,” Vigo said, banishing his display. “She is a threat to the trade embargo. She cannot be trusted to stay here. Once she’s finished being searched, she will need to be taken back.”
“Easy, Vigo,” Zeffir said in his comforting rumble. “It’s not that simple. Rizor and Shoshana are mated now.”
Vigo shook his head, the chain that connected his earring to his nose filter swaying. “That can have no bearing on this.”
Zeffir banished his holodisplay as well. “I respect that your people have lost their respect for the mating bond. Please respect that the rest of us haven’t. This is a difficult situation for Rizor. I don’t think we need to be rushing into any decision right now.”
“We can’t exactly keep her locked up,” Vigo crossed his arms. “Our agreement with Earth states that we return non-violent offenders to Earth for their punishment. She hasn’t harmed anyone; she should be returned.”
“I think you’re missing the point,” Zeffir frowned. “Rizor, can your people even be safely separated from their mates? I know mine cannot.”
Rizor hissed, struggling to keep himself from attacking these males for daring to speak of his female this way.
He forced himself to reply, “Yes, we can.” It wouldn’t be easy, or enjoyable, but he could survive.
“Then, our way forward is clear,” Vigo said like it was nothing. “She should be evicted and we’ll either get a new social worker to replace her, or just not have one going forward. I’ve always said her position was completely pointless.”
“Maybe we should talk to her,” Zeffir suggested like he hadn’t spoken.
“No.” Rizor’s tail smacked against the ground. Hating them. Hating himself. But still saying, “I agree with Vigo. She should be evicted.”
The lie was ash in his mouth. It went against everything he actually wanted. Vigo nodded, like that was right, but Zeffir looked at him with pity.
The ratchi weren’t like the vir. Zeffir’s people locked to their mates and from that moment on couldn’t be separated. Or like the domini, whose body would refuse to even feel arousal for any other person.
The ratchi mate bond was a simple thing in comparison. It was a deep, abiding instinct to take care of her. It was deeper and stronger than even the bond between members of a clavas. It was the only bond that superseded that.
Rizor would do anything for her. He would turn his back on the universe, on the clavas, on his very mother, for her. If she decided to become a criminal, even if he didn’t agree with what she was doing, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from wanting to help her. Nothing else mattered as much as she did.
The bond was supposed to go both ways. The very idea of doing anything against his interests should have been as abhorrent to her as it was to him. It should have made her sick. If she was actually his mate, she couldn’t have lied to him.
“I’m taking her back to Earth,” he declared.
“Are you sure?” Zeffir asked.
Rizor grunted. A sound that could be interpreted either way.
“All right,” Zeffir said softly. “If that’s the way you want it.”
Rizor grunted again. “I’m going now. I’ll take her myself.”
Zeffir’s expression was unreadable. He stared at him for a long moment before nodding. “Okay.”
Rizor had honestly expected more resistance. The very idea of abandoning his mate was ripping him apart inside. Vigo might not care, but Zeffir certainly would. That his longtime friend was saying nothing both hurt and relieved him.
Neither male argued further, and he was granted the permission he needed. Still unable to think. Still unable to understand. But following his instincts. That was all he could do anymore.
Chapter 42
Shoshana
The brig was dead silent. Completely isolated. Shoshana sat on the bench, leaned into the corner, counting her heartbeats to try to avoid going crazy. She couldn’t have been here more than a few hours but already she was feeling the consequences of the lack of stimulation. It was so quiet, so still, so white, it was already driving her mad.
Her hands were still bound behind her back making her shoulders ache. Her wrists themselves weren’t uncomfortable though. The cuffs weren’t tight or painful. The inside felt padded. Not quite soft, but very different from harsh, metal cuffs on Earth.
She had a lot of time to think about the differences as she waited.
The room was so isolated, she wasn’t able to hear someone approach. The door just whooshed open, making her jump.
She winced when she saw Rizor standing on the other side. Still cold and distant.
She jumped to her feet, opening her mouth, but didn’t get a chance to say anything before he spoke.
“Let’s go.”
“Go?” She repeated as he closed the distance between them. “Go where?”
He gave her a look as he took her arm. Just a look. She knew he didn’t mean that they were going back to their nest.
“Rizor, please listen to me-”
He pulled. Not hard. His grip was firm, but not bruising. Even as angry as he was, he couldn’t actually hurt her.
That knowledge made her chest ache, tears threatening to fall, as he took her from the brig, right to the docking bay, to the open door of his ship. The rest of the security team was there. Staring at her with dispassionate eyes as he took her past them.
“Rizor, I’m begging you – listen,” she tried again, not too proud to beg. She needed to explain herself, to make him understand.
For all that her tongue had been frozen about this topic since meeting him, she seemed to just want to word vomit everything all at once now. But he didn’t give her a chance.
“I won’t listen to any more of your lies,” he said, opening the door.
“Rizor, it wasn’t a lie!”
He said nothing, pulling her inside.
She pulled back, trying to get him to stop. He whipped around, giving her that dead eyed look that struck her heart like a blade.
“I told you, did I not? Our relationship has nothing to do with our jobs, and if I give you an order in my position as head of security, you will follow it.”
“That was before-”
He yanked against her, ending her protest before it could really begin as he dragged her forward.
Shoshana hadn’t yet stepped foot on his ship. It was exactly what she would have expected from him and nothing like the sleek, smooth, airplane cabin looking vessel that took them to the moon.
Rizor’s ship was obviously old. Worn out and rusting in places. It was small, essentially little more than the small hallway they lead into a tiny bedroom on one side and a cockpit on the other. A bachelor studio apartment spaceship.
Rizor pushed her back into his room, onto his bed. There was nowhere else to sit.
He leveled a finger at her. “Do not move.”
The heartlessness hurt all the more because she knew she had earned it.
“Rizor, please,” she sat up as he turned to walk to the pilot seat. But she couldn’t bring herself to disobey his order. Not when she felt so low.
He didn’t even turn back as he plopped himself down, reaching for the controls.
“You can’t really mean to abandon me like this! At least let me explain!”
From here, she could only see his quills and his arms from around the cockpit seat. He didn’t even turn to look at her as the door sealed shut.
His movements were quick and efficient as he brought the ship to life. A loud thud from outside echoed through the entire vessel as they detached from the docking bay. The engine rumbled, growling and spitting like an angry beast, as the whole ship began to shake.
She would call this ship a jalopy if it had been a car. The sort of vehicle she would have been nervous taking on the highway, much less cruising through literal outer space. But she couldn’t bring herself to be afraid while the pain in her chest threatened to smother her.
The ship pulled away from the Lunar Base, but she didn’t care. The only important thing was in front of her, and she could feel it slipping further away.
“I didn’t take anything, Rizor,” she continued, pressing her advantage. “I wasn’t going to.”
“I saw your communication.”
“My communication? What… Oh, god. You mean with John?”
“Not trying to deny it anymore?” He still refused to look back at her.
They were moving fast now. Earth was growing steadily bigger in the front window. A threatening deadline for how long she had to convince him that she wasn’t going to do anything. That he was her mate.
Because he was. She could feel it deep in her bones. Humans might not have mates, but she certainly did. And she wasn’t going to lose him without a fight.
“Rizor, it’s not what you-”
“Rizor.” Someone spoke through the comms, cutting her off. Their voice was staticky and harsh, like a speaker was busted. “What’s happening to your ship?”
He pressed a button and replied. “One of my engines isn’t firing right. It’s turning me left.”
“Do you need assistance?”
“No. It happens a lot. I can repair it from here. I’m going to drift for a minute while I work on it.”
“Shall we come retrieve the prisoner?”
“No. It won’t take long.” He cut the communication line before the male on the other side could ask him another question.
Shoshana frowned, looking around the ship. Was this thing not safe after all?
Before she could ask, Rizor was standing. He looked back at her. Expression still empty. Was it less cold than before or was that just her imagination?
