* * * *
Ren-el exhaled softly. “That little lady is powerful. Her scent is enough to attract anyone within a radius of about two hundred meters.”
“Really? I just thought she smelled like sweet flowers.”
“No, she smells like sex, but Yr-el has been working hard to keep his scent in the mix. I think we might end up with a grandchild or three.” He chuckled.
Vanera looked toward her son’s tower. “They grow up so fast.”
“It has been fifty years. Perhaps we should try for another.” He smiled slyly.
Vanera blinked. “Huh. I thought during your heat, you were trying like hell.”
“I guess I should just try harder. Perhaps we should take a vacation. You know, let Yr-el take over with that little spot of moonlight at his side.”
Vanera laughed. “I would not call her that to her face. She looks to have a bit of steel under the moonlight.”
“Of course, she does. You haven’t met Mbrak, but he is one of the coldest drakes I have ever met. He’s stuck on that station for a good reason.”
“What reason?”
“He killed one of his own. Our own. There aren’t many of us, but those that there are have an unspoken truce. He tore another drake apart, and the station was built as his prison. He was marked as dangerous, and no mature drake is allowed to go near him.”
His wife hissed. “You let our son go there?”
“Our son is not in his attack demographic.” His expression cracked, and he laughed. “Mbrak is fine.”
“What?” She was giving him a dark look.
“He was one of our peacekeepers who was responsible for cataloguing the half-blood children that a few drakes were producing. One of them had no concern for his partners and gave them nothing extra to help them through the stressful pregnancy. So, there was a pathway of orphans in Alkut’s wake. Mbrak confronted him, and they took to the stars to complete their battle. He did end up killing Alkut, and his sentence was to live his life to make sure that every one of Alkut’s descendants was brought back into the drake bloodlines. So, Mbrak set out to have daughters while the station was being built, and he kept tabs on all of them, every line. He sent out matchmakers when the children were old enough, and he connected their bloodlines, and then, he did it again. The current generation is the result of a lot of mixing and matching. Each is descended from no less than four drakes, and all of the girls are being trained to have marketable skills. They are very impressive via their resumes.”
Vanera blinked. “What? You knew all about her?”
Ren-el shrugged. “Of course. Mbrak would not gain access to our son without my agreement. It had been a while since I had heard from him, and he is an elder, so I listened when he spoke. We are now guardians, by extension, to his Styra. I just wanted to see them together before I told you what was going on.”
His mate was staring at him in shock. “What? Wait. Let me get this straight. You knew about her origins, about Mbrak’s invitation to meet her, and the likelihood that she was going to be my son’s mate, and you didn’t tell me?”
Vanera’ tone had gone calm and cold. Ren-el frowned. “Should I have told you before it happened? You don’t like to be given all the options.”
“Of course not. If I had had all the options, I wouldn’t have ended up with you.” She closed her mouth with a snap as he turned toward her.
He looked at his mate with narrowed eyes. “Hm. You are right. I think I should give you all of your options.”
He grabbed her at the waist and flew upward, his head bent, and his lips pressed next to her ear, whispering all of the options that he would like to exercise if she was amenable. He didn’t smile when she grabbed his head and kissed him, but he did turn back toward the castle that she had designed and he had constructed for her. The scent of a female in heat might not be having an effect that Vanera could sense, but he felt the change in his mate and grinned where she couldn’t see him at the thought of another son with his mate’s eyes.
* * * *
Styra ran her hands down the skirt, and she looked at Yr-el. “Are you sure this looks okay?”
He sighed and kissed her hand. “It looks lovely, and you will be able to sprout your wings if you like to.”
She looked at the soft, dark purple fabric that wrapped her breasts, was fastened behind her neck, and attached at the back of her skirt. The skirt was the same fabric, and the whole thing flowed and clung as she moved.
He held her hand as they walked into the ballroom, and silence fell. Panic hit her, and her wings sprouted, but he held her hand, and they walked down the steps. “You don’t have to get away. No one here is going to hurt you.”
“I know that, but I am not used to wearing this little outside of a scenario, and this is most definitely real.” She managed to get her wings back under control and back into her body.
“You look lovely and like mine.” He wagged his brows, and she snickered.
She squeezed his hand and smirked. “Yup. For as long as you last.”
He paused, and then, he started laughing, and that is how they entered their reception. She was amused, he was laughing, and they were both entranced with each other while his parents made the introductions.
During dinner, Styra leaned over to her mate and said, “There are folk glaring at me as if they wished I would burst into flames.”
“Ah, they would be the family of the ladies who have been sent here to try and stumble into my bed. They belong to a variety of trade unions in the area.”
She nodded. “Okay, that makes sense.”
Vanera rose to her feet, and she smiled. “Thank you, one and all, for attending our little gathering here at Harva. Now that my son has managed to find and keep his mate, his father and are offering Yr-el and Styra one of our other worlds if they want to begin from nothing or this place if they want to remain here and take on our position of outpost guardians for the imperium.”
Yr-el nodded. “We will remain here if you do not mind. Styra could use some stability around her.”
The gathered group of nobles and traders looked confused.
Ren-el smiled. “Well, now that the sun has set, we can go on to other things. The Blue Station has provided us and the imperium with some footage. It should stop the constant bids for your hand, son.”
A projector flared to life over the ballroom, and everyone looked up. The exterior was Blue Station, and a dark and a glowing object emerged from one of the airlocks. The dark object grew, and in a flash, Yr-el the drake was grabbing the smaller glowing item in his claw and flying away from the station.
The projection was taken up by another satellite, and the ball of light went right past the camera before the drake followed and stayed at a safe distance.
Yr-el took Styra’s hand, and she watched the moment of her first transformation. She formed a tight ball and then stretched out, her body absorbing the small rocks and debris that were in her expansion zone.