Casey's Warriors (Bondmates) (5 page)

Doing a quick calculation Lorn surmised that in accordance with the ancient Treaty of the Matriarchs, they would be allowed to take seven thousand women from the planet. His heart sank as he realized how many of his friends and fellow Warriors would lose out on the opportunity to search for a Matriarch. Thankfully he’d been a Warrior for over six hundred cycles and through his military efforts had enough points to be at the very top of the list of those approved to seek their soul mate. But even that wouldn’t help if the diminutive planet didn’t contain a woman who could be both his physical and spiritual mate. After all, he’d gone through three Reapings already and hadn’t been able to find a suitable woman on planets twenty times the size of this place called Earth.

Drawing in a deep breath, the Master Scout said, “The people of Earth are a very young race, but they possess the characteristics of what we recognize as a civilized society. They are a mainly monogamous culture, and though there are polygamous households, they tend to remain hidden for fear of discovery and retribution from their government. Like all children of the Lord of Life they bear the physical characteristics of our race. The humans, as they like to call themselves, have a reproductive system similar enough to ours to birth our children; they are intelligent, and for the most part, honorable people.” He stopped and looked around the room slowly before returning his attention to the High Congress. “Our scientists agree, these beings are a biologically compatible race to seek brides from.”

A burst of conversation came from the assembled Warriors, and Nast leaned over and whispered in his ear, “If you find a bride and she doesn’t want to bond more than one husband, promise me you will not jeopardize your own happiness for mine.”

Nast knew him far too well and Lorn didn’t even try to lie as he whispered back, “The Lord of Life created us all with more than enough love for the entire universe. I refuse to believe He did not gift the women of Earth with His greatest blessing. Have faith.”

The Master Scout reached out to the crystal and adjusted it. “High Congress, I present to you the females of Earth.”

Whistles and cheers rose from the audience of men and they returned their attention to the holograph as it switched to an image of around two dozen nude women. They had skin colors ranging from the deep brown to pale cream, and hair in shades of blonde, brown, and red to the rare black. Some had slanted eyes like the people of the Middle Continent of Kadothia and the highly prized dark brown eyes seemed to be common. Ranging from slim to deliciously plump, Lorn said a silent prayer of thanks that the women of this distant world were not only compatible with the Kadothian males but, even by Kadothian standards, beautiful. Their sex was shaped to be receptive to his cock, even if they were smaller than most females of the Bel’Tan galaxy. Leaning slightly forward he examined the images closely, noting the women appeared to have extra skin on the exterior of their sex, folds that looked incredibly soft and his cock stirred as he imagined taking all that tender flesh into his mouth and tonguing it. Staring at the exotic petals of the Earth woman’s sex, he imagined how good it would feel to have that extra skin caress his cock as he took his female.

The Scout raised his voice above the multitude of the excited whispers, “They have the ability to form psychic bonds with their mates, but for some reason, the power remains dormant in them.”

At that the crowd hushed and Lady Elsin gave the Scout a narrow eyed look. “How do we know this?”

The Scout bowed his head in her direction. “Lady Adar, with your permission, I would like to allow one of my men to testify about his experience bonding to an Earth woman.”

His mother managed to hide her reaction quite well, only a slight lift in her delicately arched brow betraying her surprise. “Proceed.”

The attention of the room focused on a young male of the Scout class as he made his way down from the viewing stands to the elderly Scout’s side. “High Congress, my name is Nilin of House Brusk.”

Lady Yanush spoke first. “Did you manage a full bonding with an Earth woman? Blessed by the Lord of Life?”

“I did, Lady Yanush.”

Suddenly Lorn’s father growled and the Scout paled as Lorn’s mother glared at him; her displeasure spread through the air like a firestorm and sizzled along Lorn’s skin in painful sparks. “How dare you shield yourself before the High Congress.”

Nilin dropped to his knees while the elderly Scout stepped forward, physically putting himself between the young man and Lady Elsin’s displeasure. “He is not shielding, Lady Elsin. It is a side effect of his bond with the Earth woman. It appears that bonding with her shields him from all other minds. Even the High Priestess of the Lord of Life could not reach his mind after the bonding ceremony was complete.”

A shocked silence fell over the entire room and Lorn exchanged a startled glance with Nast.

Lady Yanush was the first to speak, her voice tremulous. “He is right, I cannot access his mind.”

Cendor, the High Congressman representing the Islands of Tranquility stood, his green armor denoting him as a Healer gleamed in the bright lights. “You said the High Priestess blessed their union. Was she able to read this Earth woman through Nilin before she performed the ceremony?”

Nilin stood, and after the elder Scout nodded, he approached the High Congress once again. “The High Priestess was able to read my Matriarch through me, and she said that Mary, my wife, had a pure and good soul.”

Lady Elsin relaxed slightly, her expression pensive. “Was your bonding different in any other ways?”

“The full bonding will not take place unless the Earth female is in love with her bondmate.”

Lady Yanush blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

Nilin gave her a wry smile. “It means that only after Mary began to fall in love with me could I penetrate her shields. Without her trust, without her true love I would never have been able to touch her soul.”

“Unheard of,” Lady Elsin said in an incredulous whisper. “You mean to say you could not project your feelings to her at all?”

“Not at first. The more she trusted me and the more she allowed herself to care for me, the more I could begin to sense her.” A rather ribald smile filled the Scout’s face. “Earth females are very physically receptive and passionate. I found that the more I bonded with her sexually the more willing she was to allow my soul to touch hers, though she had no control of her shielding and wasn’t even aware of its existence. In addition, she reacted to our sacred first kiss differently. Once the enzymes in my blood began to work on her hormones, she went into…well, a kind of rut.”

One of the elder Warriors on the High Congress barked out a laugh while the Ladies of the High Congress looked appalled. “Do you mean like a Warrior’s rut? Is that even possible?”

The elder Scout gave an exasperated sigh while Nilin grinned even wider. “Close to it. While she didn’t go into a breeding frenzy, it did make her very, very receptive to my touch, to the point where she craved it.” The Scout flushed. “While our rut is caused by our male’s fertile time once a cycle, women on Earth are fertile multiple times in each Earth cycle and are not dependent on the men. They even go into heat with no males around. And they always produce nectar to ease the way if they are aroused, not just during their breeding period. Her need lessened after our first time mating, but she remains more highly sexual than most women of our galaxy. The longer we’re together the deeper our bond grows and the better the sex becomes. Once you get them past their initial resistance, Earth women love pleasure and will demand their lovers take care of her needs.”

It took a great deal of effort for Lorn to keep his shields in place as lust surged through him, hard and hot, swelling his cock enough that the pleasure ridges threatened to extend. He took in a deep breath, trying to distract his body from the idea of having a Matriarch’s nectar available to him at all times. Just the thought feasting on his female had his libido going into overdrive. He wasn’t the only one because the vast hall of the High Congress was soon flooded with a psychic ocean of lust. Next to him Nast groaned and he echoed the sentiment. He could all too easily picture one of the deliciously curvy Earth women pressed between them, muffling her cries while Nast licked her delicate sex as she sucked on Lorn’s cock. Another hot rush of desire filled him through their psychic link, adding to his until he was about two heartbeats away from dragging Nast from the room and fucking him up against the wall. He glared at his blood brother; Nast merely grinned back.

With an audible sigh Lady Yanush and Lady Elsin exchanged an exasperated look and stood. Working together, they soon cleared the air of the intense emotions and the audience settled down.

“Did anyone else bond with you?” Lady Yanush asked with a hopeful expression on her dark face.

Nilin shook his head. “No, my Lady. Mary was raised to believe it is immoral and wrong to love more than one man. I tried to introduce her to other Warriors but she was very resistant. However, I will say she is slowly easing into the idea of having more than one husband. She is developing feelings for another Warrior, my blood brother, who I have brought to our bed for her pleasure. It was disturbing for her at first to know my blood brother and I shared sexual relations, but soon through our bond she grew to realize he wasn’t a threat to our own love. Once she got over her misconceptions, she’s grown to love my blood brother and I hope soon we will form an everlasting bond with him as well.”

Lady Yanush gave a confused frown. “Why did she find your physical affection disturbing? All Kadothian men are trained to please their mates. Did you not complete your sensual training?”

Lorn had to hold back a laugh at Nilin’s offended expression before the other man cleared his throat. “My Lady, I did complete my training and have never had any complaints about my bedroom skills. On their planet they are taught men or women loving those of the same gender is evil.” He paused to let the shocked laughter and whispers die out in the audience before continuing. “I know it sounds absurd, but without a psychic bond she would have had no way of knowing the love I have for my blood brother doesn’t make me love her any less. Imagine how hard it is to just accept that someone feels the way they do because they say it? In the Earth culture a great many men betray their woman in many ways. They lie, cheat, steal, and beat their females all while claiming they love them. They even make laws to keep their females subservient and claim their God demands this from them. It is very hard for an Earth woman to even begin to understand the concept of true love because I think very few have ever experienced it.”

Lady Yanush shook her head slowly with a disbelieving expression. “How would our Warriors even begin to win their hearts if they are so guarded?”

“It is was not easy, but it is worth it.” His gaze grew distant and a fond smile curved his lips. “My wife is strong, brave, intelligent, beautiful, and very loving. She is everything I ever wanted in a bondmate and a Matriarch.”

The Master Scout gave the young man a nudge and Nilin’s expression sobered. “Yes, right. I would caution you against sending men in teams for the initial seduction. If you approach an Earth woman as a unit she will ultimately reject one, if not both males in most cases because her upbringing insists only morally corrupt women, they call them sluts on her planet, take more than one mate. Earth women are also very jealous, so I would also advise any Warrior who mates them to cancel his contracts with his pleasure servants and remove them from his home.”

Lorn and Nast exchanged a startled glance. All Kadothian homes had at least one pleasure servant per household for the Kadothian males in residence. In fact, Lorn and Nast had contracts with six different pleasure servants to service them when they were home.

One of the Lords out of Lorn’s line of sight at the end of the table spoke up. “They would have jealousy issues with a pleasure servant? But why? Those women provide a valuable service that our Matriarchs appreciate almost as much as our males.”

“Earth women do not understand the concept of a relationship between a man and a woman being purely sexual. They view any type of physical interaction between their bondmate and another woman to be a betrayal of the deepest kind on the male’s part. Pleasure servants are considered tainted; on Earth they aren’t treated with respect or dignity. When my Mary found out I had a pleasure servant at my home she almost broke our bond. It never occurred to me she would see my pleasure servant as competition for my affection, but she did, and it hurt her badly.”

The same Lord made a shocked sound. “But what about when a Warrior goes into rut? I can see using a pleasure ‘bot or relieving oneself with another husband when necessary, but in rut a Warrior needs a woman at least three times a day. Your Matriarch’s body will break if she tries to accommodate the need. Does she not understand the death sentence she is committing herself to? We cannot control our lust while in the rut and you could very well kill her.”

“Not true. Unlike the females of our galaxy the Earth woman’s sheath will not swell shut after intercourse. I’ve had relations with my Matriarch as many as seven times in one day.” He grinned. “My Mary has more than enough passion to leave me satisfied in ways I never imagined and still enough energy to pleasure my blood brother as well. There has been many a night where we make love until the sun rises. They are a lusty race, thank the Lord of Life.”

Lady Elsin took a seat and shook her head while the assembled male crowd chuckled and whispered. “This is all wonderful, but we’ve been informed by our best scientists that the wormhole will be open for one Kadothian cycle, at most. That is not enough time to follow the sacred courting rights, especially if the brides are resistant to our ways.”

Gripping her hands into fists, Lady Yanush stood fairly shook with anger. “We must at least try!”

“Try to do what? Break our sacred oath, our covenant with the planets of our galaxy? How dare you even to suggest it.”