Maverick

The door slamming behind me as I left Cutlass’ might have been one of the most satisfying sounds on this ridiculous planet. For far too long, we’d been waiting around for Ampetheia to work through these so-called matches. Cutlass and Klow-ee had worked out well, and Hudson seemed happy with his Macy. But my female? This mirror image of Macy who was supposed to be my perfect match? She could not be the right choice. How could they match me to someone so bossy, so arrogant as to assume control, and so hurtful with her words? Impossible was an understatement.

Even though my esehhnce had just crooned for her.

I rushed to the unit I’d claimed as my own, the one at the end of the hall. Far away from where the mated couples lived. I’d much rather have been sleeping in the ship we left half a solar system away than in the same building as two newly mated couples, but my training as a pilot was too ingrained to ignore. We needed to stay together for safety, so I’d joined my fellow Reithhars living on Earth.

The regrets did not take long to pile up.

When we moved in to the storage building Klow-ee had found for us, I’d moved in to a unit closer to Cutlass, who lived across the hall from Hudson. Safety in proximity, you see. But the sounds of Cutlass and Klow-ee mating at all hours were too much for me to deal with, so I’d moved. Add in Hudson and his half of the mirror females, and I’d been living in a constant state of arousal. Completion was only for the others, though. Not for me. I had no match or partner.

The sounds of their bedgames had driven me mad, made me sick with desire and longing for things I’d never truly contemplated before. Sure, when Hudson had found the flyer for this place and came to Cutlass and me with his stories of how Freknal beings were talented at seeing connections, I was intrigued. Not convinced, but curious. And seeing the matchmaker’s prowess with my two shipmates had landed a bit of credibility to the legends. But no longer. Ampetheia was either losing her touch or her mind.

I would never accept Macy’s sister as my mate, no matter what my esehhnce did.

“Maverick, wait.”

Just what I needed. I paused, unable to hold back a growl or a glare as Klow-ee rushed toward me with Cutlass right behind her. Seeing them only made the sting of my own match that much more noticeable.

“What?”

Klow-ee wrinkled her forehead and brought her hand up as if to touch me. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” I said as I stepped out of her reach. “Leave me alone.”

“No.” The little human crossed her arms over her chest. I’d seen her do that a hundred times before. She was angry. Good. So was I.

“That was a shitty thing to happen,” Klow-ee said, a fierceness to her voice that probably matched my own. “But she’s your match. You need to talk to her.”

I scoffed and gave Cutlass a head nod. “Control your human.”

That went over about as well as I expected.

“Or what?” he asked, looking ready to battle. Picking a fight with a man I saw as my brother probably wasn’t the best idea, but the rage inside of me needed a place to go. A good brawl would have relieved some of the tension I carried, but in the end, I backed down. This wasn’t the time or the place. Nor was Cutlass the right sparring partner.

Though whoever that Chad guy was who Stacy seemed set on staying with could have fit the bill.

And didn’t that just piss me off even more? I was ready to take down humans I’d never met because of some female who shouldn’t have mattered to me. That was a new low.

I sighed and shook my head. “I need to leave now.”

“What are you going to do?” Klow-ee asked, once again wrinkling her forehead.

I lifted a shoulder in a lazy sort of move that Hudson called a schhr-uug. “Wait two weeks and reapply. Or skip the whole matching thing and head off to another planet somewhere. Who cares?”

Klow-ee did that human thing where her bottom lip stuck out more than the top one. A pout, I think they called it. I hated her pout. I was a sucker for that pout.

“I care,” she said in a soft voice that made me feel even worse than I already did. Oh no, was she going to drop water from her eyes? I’d seen that before, especially on the programs Klow-ee watched. The ones that were sent into the unit through the monitor on the wall. Things were never good when the characters made the water drop. I shot Cutlass a panicked look, hoping for a little guidance on what I was supposed to do with her. She was his mate, after all. He just shook his head and watched Klow-ee with wary eyes, probably as confused as I was.

Fine. Looked like I needed to be the male in this group. “I know you care, but this isn’t about you, Klow-ee.”

“No, it’s about all of us. Our little family here.” She grabbed Cutlass’ arm and pulled him closer. “I worry about you boys.”

Those words in that soft, unsteady tone of voice were like a punch to the gut. One delivered by a sneaky, worthy opponent. Still, there were things I couldn’t admit yet. Facts I had to deal with that Klow-ee and Cutlass didn't need to know about.

“Don’t worry,” I said, sighing my frustrations. “I’ll call Ampetheia and find out how to go about being reassigned.”

Klow-ee frowned. “You won’t even consider her?”

Chad would. Which is probably why I needed to stay the hell away from her.

“No.” I snorted and opened the door to my unit, ready to be left alone for a while so I could stew in my unresolved rage. Maybe punch a few walls. Or stroke my cock to the picture of Stacy’s huge, dark eyes looking up at me. The way the black centers dilated and that breathy little gasp came sneaking out. I’d felt her attraction at that moment, her need, and I’d returned it. I’d even crooned for her. But then she’d opened her mouth, and that moment disappeared into the atmosphere.

But no one else had heard my esehhnce croon, and I needed to keep it that way. That would be my secret, because if either of my Reithhar brothers knew, they’d push me to accept her, simply because denying my esehhnce would be painful.

Mating to a female who chose to take another to her bed would be worse.

“Take her home, Cutlass,” I said as I walked through my door. “I can’t deal with being nice right now.”

I didn’t slam anything because it would have upset Klow-ee, and there was really no reason to get her going. She was a nice female, kind and funny. I gave her a hard time, but I enjoyed her being around, and Cutlass had never seemed happier. The old grump had perked up since being matched. Not Hudson level of perked—that male was a constant source of good mood—but more than the normal cranky bastard I’d gotten used to on the colony.

His mating had worked wonders for him.

Mine?

Well, my match had a Chad and a demanding attitude that wouldn’t work with my own.

The words of my match filtered through my mind again, realigning in ways that only added to my anger. She was playing with the system, applying to match while being with someone else. Another male. Was he bigger or stronger than me? Human males didn’t seem to be, but I never knocked out a possibility without all the facts. Perhaps he wasn’t good at bedgames, and that’s why this female was looking for a new male. I was good at bedgames and enjoyed licking cunts like the rest of the males in my breed. I could make that little female scream for sure.

But I wouldn’t get the chance to prove that to her. Because she had a Chad. My crooning meant nothing to her.

My phone rang as I paced the length of my unit. I almost ignored it, but something inside of me longed to know who was calling.

The name on the screen took me by surprise.

“Yes?” I said once I connected the call.

Ampetheia’s deep, direct voice crackled through the speaker. “Maverick, dear. Your match called me a few minutes ago.”

Of course she did. “So you’re canceling the match?”

“What? No. That’s not what she wanted at all.”

That…wasn’t possible. “So what did she call for?”

“She said to tell you to show up. And to wear black. Oh, and no sandals. She has a negative response to naked male feet.”

It took me almost thirty seconds to put all those words together and have them make sense. I didn’t think I’d been so shocked in all my years. “She said what?”

“Is there something I need to know?” Ampetheia asked, sounding anxious. “Do I need to get involved?”

Did she? No, not really. We already had someone standing between us. No sense adding Ampetheia to the Chad pile. No, she definitely didn’t need to be involved.

I could handle the little human female on my own.

I grinned as plans began to take shape in my mind. “Not at all. Just a translation error. I’ll show up for the date, no problem.”

And I would. I had two weeks to set the woman straight on why playing around with a male’s feelings was a bad idea. Why pitting two males against one another was a dangerous proposition. She wanted me to go on a date? Fine. I’d go.

And she’d hate every second of it.