CHAPTER TWENTY
NORA
“Have you seen Zoe,” Scarlet asked me as we left the gym and headed for our permission briefing.
“Barely,” I said, “I saw her in the mess hall for second meal yesterday. She was holed up in the back corner with that new guy Argen Trematu. She gave me a little wave, but I could tell she didn’t want company.
“Do you think they are mated?” Scarlet asked.
“I think it’s a pretty good bet. Solmatu is nearly as hard to resist as meomee. I think the feline pheromones are stronger.” I said.
“Considering you were fucking him ten minutes after you met, I would say so,” Scarlet whispered then laughed.
“Are you implying I’m a slut?” I demanded in mock indignation.
“Only for Sahvin,” Scarlet chuckled. “From the way you talked on the ship, you were practically a nun before him.”
“I made a couple painful mistakes. I decided the next guy could have to be goddamned Prince Charming or he was getting none.” I quipped.
“Sahvin sure looks the part, smoking hot, that man is,“ she said. “Almost as good is Pyrr.”
“Of course, you have to say that since he’s your mate. But then most of the guys around here are gorgeous,” I added.
“Pyrr knows people who know Argen he’s kind of a hotshot,” Scarlet said. “What we might call a black sheep. He’s been in some trouble---likes to bend the rules. But if Zoe is solmatu, he will defend her with his life.”
“If she is happy with him, that’s all that matters,” I said. “As we took our seats at the conference table, Zoe walked into the room and sat across from us.”
“Hey, Zoe. Where have you been hiding? We’ve barely seen you since Argen got here,” Scarlet asked.
Zoe rolled her eyes. “As if you didn’t know. Wait till Harper gets here---oh here she is.”
Harper strolled in and sat down beside Zoe. “Hi ladies, what’s new?
“That’s what I was just asking Zoe,” said Scarlet.
“Argen and I are officially mated,” Zoe announced. “We have been bonding.”
“Fucking each other senseless, you mean,” Scarlet giggled. She was always straight to the point.
“Scarlet,” Harper said. “Must you be so crass. Of course, she’s fucking him. She’s fallen in love with him.”
“Will you both shut up!” Zoe admonished. “He is solmatu, and we have said the mating vows. It’s way more than fucking, and you know it. So, stop with the slutty girl talk.”
“I’m sorry, Zoe,” Scarlet said. “It still gets me that it’s so simple and straightforward. No guessing whether he loves you and want full spectrum relationship or he just wants to stick his cock in you a few times until someone better comes along.”
“Right, they just know by your scent, then they exude pheromones to make you want them and bam you’re mated for life,” I said. “With felines like Sahvin, it’s even faster.”
“I’ll say,” Scarlet said. “But, I think I knew Pyrr was it when he picked up my hand and kissed it, never taking his eyes from mine. It was like I saw my future there.”
“I will be glad when we can go Farseek for good,” Harper said. “Sometimes, I get scared it’s never going to happen. That we’re going to get in over our heads and either be killed or captured.”
“I think that’s in the back of all our minds,” I said. “But what choice did we have? We could be sex slaves in some brothel to creepy aliens, or forced into hard labor somewhere.”
“Just because bad things could happen, doesn’t mean they will,” Zoe said. “Back on Earth, there were no guarantees that some third world country wouldn’t get nukes and blow us all up.”
“Or we could get run over by a truck crossing the street,” Harper said.
“No, we had to do it up right,” Scarlet said, “We got kidnapped by alien slavers and taken so far from Earth no one knows how to get there from here.”
We all laughed just as Commander Maktu strode into the room. He frowned slightly. I think he was wondering if the joke was on him.
Harper grinned up at him. “Hey, Zare. We were just laughing about how things could have turned out so much worse than being kidnapped by aliens.”
He gave her a look that said so much more than words. I think we all knew exactly what he meant. What seemed like the worst thing that ever happened to us brought us to them---our soul mates.
A few minutes later several more from the ship’s crew entered. With so many people already on the ship, we needed help getting to everyone before the shuttles started coming up from the planet with more rescues.
The meeting was short. Our duty assignments were the same as with the other rescues, identify them and register them in the AI census with their family lines if they were Uatu. Those who were not would be given a choice to settle on Farseek or be transported to one of the Consortium worlds to settle somewhere else.
First, they had to capture the ship. But we weren’t worried. The Farseek Brigade may have been new to piracy, but they were getting good at it.