Chapter 16

Compassion

~ Valic ~

Carrying Queen Ember through the doorway, Valic gave Haroc the private time he needed to sort out their tri-bond. Ember was light and soft. He liked having her in his arms.

“Tell me what gives you pleasure, my Valic.”

Smiling down at her, he sat his queen on the edge of their bath. Reaching over to start the water, he replied warmly. “You give me pleasure. Everything about you is greatly pleasing to me. I love your creamy skin, your beautiful tiny dots and of course your bright hair. Everything about you draws me to you, especially your sweet, loving and playful personality.”

“You are so sweet. I want to try out one the famous pleasure stones.”

“Certainly, my queen.” Retrieving it from a small drawer, he handed it to her. Quickly divesting his queen of her clothing, he sat her in the warm water and grabbed a stone for himself. Getting naked in record time, Valic eased down into the water in front of her.

The beautiful fiery haired queen moved closer. “You once said, you use these stones to provoke an orgasm for yourself. Show me how to do this for you.”

Leaning back, Valic rubbed the stone down one side of his neck to his chest and back up to the other side. Smoothing the stone leisurely down one arm and then the other, he sighed.

“Do you mind if I ask why you thought I would value you less than Haroc?”

“Haroc comes from a prominent family of queen makers and can hatch queens for you. I am a foundling, raised in another drones clutch. Though you may not see it, Haroc and I are not equal. Suck issues of class mean little to Haroc. He befriended me, fought by my side and values my contribution as a warrior and as a friend.”

“And I am just a foolish female who cannot see your worth?”

Sitting up so abruptly that he almost dropped his stone, Valic clarified. “I mean to say no one on our world is ever going to see us as equal. Finding equal favor in your eyes feels like the most precious gift in the ‘verse for one such as me. You realize all the spawn I hatch will look very much like me. Haroc has been bred with a high degree of humanoid DNA and is a queen maker. They are unique in that they absorb genetic material from the queen to make their young. It pleases our queens to see their own traits marked upon their young. This is something a simply drone cannot offer.”

Moving closer, his pretty queen slid the stone from his hand and looked him in the eyes. “It would please me greatly to have sons who looked just like their gorgeous father.”

Valic felt his antenna constricting with emotion. “You think I’m gorgeous?”

“Somehow I didn’t think you have been listening to me. Now, I sure of it. I’ve been telling you repeatedly that I love you and I think you’re hot. Since you don’t believe my words, I suppose I’ll have to drive home my point through actions.”

Holding a pleasure stone in each hand, she slid them down each side of his neck, to his chest and around to the back of his wingspan. Valic had never known such pleasure in his entire life. His queen bumped him back into a corner, coming down on top him. He could feel her legs spreading around him, her warm core settled on his stomach. She was soft and smelled delicious.

Her hands glided the stones over the most sensitive part of his wing base and Valic felt himself peak. Easing up momentarily, she purred sticky sweet words in his ear. “There, there, my sweet warrior. Let you queen tend to your long neglected needs.”

Running the stones back around to his front and down both arms, he realized she was teasing him, yet again.

Gently urging him to turn over, he felt her warm breath on his wings. She brought the stones back around to his wings, tracing them down the scallop of each edge, provoking an absurd dominance display. When his wings flared open, she ran the stones along the sensitive skin where no stone had ever been.

When she hit a particularly sensitive spot she pressed the stone down, making him writhe with pleasure. Provoking endless bouts of pleasure seems to be a genuine source of fascination for his new queen. Having his needs tended to was the forbidden pleasure, Valic never thought was possible.

The door to the cleansing room slid open and Haroc stalked in. He tore off his clothing and stepped into the water. Valic asked quietly. “How did they take the news of war?”

“They were much shocked to hear my report.”

Ember and Valic moved closer. Their queen’s feminine voice cut through the dark cloud currently threatening to suck them in. “Relax and allow us to care for you.”

Handing him one of the stones under the water. Valic intuited her plan. Moving to either side of him, they ran the stones down his leg in tandem until they got to his foot. Haroc leaned back, groaning in pleasure. Moving up his body, they smoothed the stones everywhere. Rather that sensual pleasure, it seemed to drain away the tension and sooth his battered soul. It felt nice to be tended to by his queen.

“Our lives have been much changed by the human queens, Valic.”

“I should say so, my friend. Under the rule of the symbionts, we were not only subjugated but taught from birth that it was the will of the gods.”

Ember’s voice sounded off. “I hate to say this, but I believe even advanced Shardon medical technologies will not be able to help the older queens. Shana said that the longer they host the organism, the more invasive it becomes.”

Haroc was adamant. “I chose to believe there is still hope for them.”

“I cannot imagine waking up after a symbiont has been removed to lean my body is grossly disproportionate in size, my skin is thick, and a symbiont had committed heinous acts while housed in my body. It would be enough to crush my spirit.”

His friend’s face fell on the realization that their queen was right. Freeing them from the symbiont was simply trapping them into another set of unpleasant circumstances, yet killing them was out of the question.

Haroc’s defeated voice responded flatly. “I feel like I am mourning for thousands of queens stretching back to antiquity, and my whole species this night. You both should go and find contentment in each other’s arms. I am not fit company for you tonight.”

Ember curled up beside him and drizzled warm water over the taunt muscles of his taunt stomach. “I would rather be at your side when you grieve than any other place in the ’verse. I’ll give you a rain check on the reverse halabow.”

Valic eased down on the other side of him, gazing at Haroc warmly. “Our queen speaks well my own feelings on the matter. I grieve for our people as well and cannot blame you for not being in the mood for intimacy after you had to deliver such bad news to our would leaders. Let us seek our sleep in each other’s arms and wake to another day at least refreshed.”

Quickly scrubbing themselves clean, they dried and headed for bed. Valic was almost too choked with emotion to speak. Having mates who understood the gravity of their situation and didn’t try mitigate the hurt by fucking the pain away sealed their fate with him. In addition to all of them being of the same mind on the subject, they were good, compassionate beings and he would do anything to remain at their side.

Climbing into bed, their queen cuddled up to Haroc’s side like she was wont to do. Valic quickly pressed himself to her back and was rewarded when she snuggled down against him.

Haroc touched him on the shoulder, before speaking. “Thank you for sticking with me, I do not know what I ever did to deserve your friendship, but I value it above all things.”

“You have only ever offered me the claw of friendship and you won us our queen. I have much respect for you. Rest, my friend.”

Looking down they saw their queen press a gentle kiss to Haroc’s chest was a sweet gesture that allowed his friend to finally relax. Forcing images of war from his brain, Valic allowed sleep to take him, surrounded by the warmth of his clan.