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Draggar sighs before he says, “You and the other humans are the only females I know of on Laedirissae.” The expression on his handsome face is solemn and I immediately know he’s telling the truth.
I am stunned. Memories of Draggar fondly talking about the children of his tribe flicker through my mind. If there are no females, then how? There has to be something I’m missing in this conversation.
“So, let me get this straight. . . There are no Laediriian females, and my friends and I are the only females on all of Laedirissae?” I spread my hands wide to indicate the entirety of the planet around us.
He slowly nods his head at my statement. Well, shit.
Chapter 24
Draggar
Haley’s forehead is wrinkled in confusion, and I wonder if her translator chip is malfunctioning.
I try again, choosing different words this time. “Laediriian females no longer exist. They are extinct.”
Her blue eyes grow big and her mouth falls open, before she closes it with an audible snap and sputters, “What? Why? How? I don’t understand.”
We are both propped up on the bed, now, and Haley pulls one of the lightweight furs over her, covering her body from my view. For a moment, I mourn the hiding of her luscious beauty, then I soberly remember what we are discussing.
“Generations ago, our females were killed by a plague.” I explain, my voice thick with sadness. “This all happened on our home planet Laedir, and the virus invaded it like a marauding enemy set out to destroy us. It killed many of our males, but our females suffered the worst from it. They were nearly all eradicated by the disease. Young and old – it did not matter their age or station in life. Since then, there have been no Laediriian females born.”
My heart aches at the thought of the many lives that were taken by the Great Plague. But it took not only lives, but our future, too. It doomed our species to a slow, depressing slide into extinction. And with the extinction of our females, the amoris bonds disappeared, too.
Haley sits upright, her eyes soft with sympathy. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. That sounds horrible.” She reaches out and lays her hand on my arm, rubbing my skin in a circular motion that manages to instantly calm me and inflame me at the same time.
I can feel the thread of pain at my expense that my words have caused her, and the small tingle of curiosity indicating she wishes to know more.
Haley grows still before tentatively asking, “But wait. . . If it happened that long ago, then how were you born? You can’t be that old. How does your tribe have children?”
“In some ways, our society was quite advanced even then. We already had technology for artificial wombs to assist mates who could not reproduce traditionally. As soon as the leaders of Laedir realized females were at risk of extinction. the artificial wombs were enlisted to save us and the Laediriian females who were still alive were asked to donate their biological material. But even then, no female kitlings were born.”
I pause for a moment. Haley’s small hand on my arm squeezes giving me strength to go on. I take a deep breath and continue to recount the history that has been passed down from the Ancestors. “Our queen grew sick from the virus not long after it appeared on Laedir. She fought hard to survive, but the virus prevailed. When the queen perished, her council of advisors used her death to seize control and rule the planet. The council grew desperate, and they decreed all females were to be rounded up and locked up in isolation away from their families. They would have their reproductive material harvested and inserted into the wombs whether they consented or not.” Haley listens with rapt attention to my story.
“A small group of Laediriians disagreed with the plan to essentially imprison our females. They gathered together their families and as many supplies as they could transport, and they escaped on a large ship. They traveled through the universe until they found an unclaimed planet uninhabited by sentient lifeforms with an environment similar to Laedir. They decided to settle on this planet. They named it Laedirissae in honor of the home they left behind. It means Little Laedir in our language.”
“That’s just. . . Wow.” She pauses for a moment, thinking, and then asks, “So, do you mean their eggs were harvested?”
I nod. “Before the Ancestors fled, the council decreed that all females, no matter their age, would be required to submit to harvesting procedures.”
“How did the virus come to be on your home planet?”
“The council insisted the queen brought it back during one of her diplomatic missions, but there were many who did not believe them. There was a theory that an enemy species introduced the virus to weaken us, but I do not know.” I shrug my shoulders. “So much time has passed, and none of that really matters, now.”
Haley nods, then, as if she already knows the answer, she asks in a small voice, “What happened to the females who settled on this planet? And how does a species without females have children?”
“The females who came to this planet were already infected with the virus, and they eventually died with their families at their side. There were a few medics who did not agree with the council’s plans to lock away the females, and they joined us in our exile. They brought along a small number of the preloaded artificial wombs with them, and that is how we have been able to reproduce.”
My mouth twists in sadness. “But as time has passed, the stored eggs have deteriorated in quality and there are less kitlings born to us each year. One day soon, there will be no kitlings and our species will cease to exist entirely. Just like our females.” There is a thread of grief in my voice that I cannot hide. Grief for the future of my species that for so long has looked bleak.
Haley’s eyes are sad and glistening with moisture and her lips are drawn tight with tension. She crawls into my lap and embraces me with her arms wrapped tightly around me as if she cannot get close enough. I press my face against her hair and breath in her light, sweet scent.
A faint trace of her arousal lingers in the air, and I feel myself grow hard again. I want to press her back to the bed and repeat our mating, but I push down the urge. The desire that was between us earlier is still there, simmering below the surface and ready to erupt as soon as either of us makes a move towards it, but there will be time to indulge it later.
After a few moments, Haley pulls back and tilts her head up to me, a question on her face, “Wait a minute. . . why don’t Laediriians just reproduce with other species? I mean, if you and I are spirit mates, then I assume that means Laediriians can mate with others.” Haley bites her bottom lip and I tamp down the urge to lick the spot her small teeth nibble on. I settle for running my thumb across her lips.
“The council on Laedir always maintained we were not biologically compatible with other species, and that mating with aliens was not an option. That information has been passed down for generations. The amoris bond died with our females, and until I met you, I did not know it was even possible to experience the bond with someone who was not Laediriian. Everything I have been taught about our species and our history says that the bond can only be experienced between two Laediriian mates.”
I take her soft hands in mine and give them a gentle squeeze. “But I am pleased to find that it is not true.”
