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Rane hated that look on her face, what it could mean. He didn’t know how much more she could take from him though. She already claimed everything. From his credz to his life to his very dignity. What else could she possibly take away?
“I found your mate,” she declared, smugly satisfied.
Rane’s heart skipped a beat, then dropped straight to his feet.
“No, you didn’t,” he said, though the protest wasn’t nearly as strong as it should be.
Because he’d heard of females being triggered by the sight of their males on camera. It wasn’t that common, and sometimes a female needed to actually see a male in person, a recording or photo wasn’t good enough, but not always. Really good cameras could sometimes be enough to trigger their mating instincts.
If his female had seen him and come to his mother…
He wanted to puke. Because if he was mated, if he had a female tied to him that way, it would be just another method his mother had to control him.
“Do you remember,” Elffa started calmly, “a while ago I had you do that medical scan? The one that was very uncomfortable, and you asked me what kind of scan it was?”
“And then you injected me with something that made me pass out and I woke up behind a dumpster with a paparazzi taking pictures of me with vomit on myself? Yeah, I remember,” Rane said, losing his battle to keep her from knowing how much what she did bothered him.
“Exactly,” she smiled, shameless over her own actions. “Well, that wasn’t actually a medical scan. I lied. It was a True Match scan.”
“A… A what?”
“True Match. Oh, you might not have heard of it since it’s not really a bar or club conversation topic. They’re a matchmating service. They do a subspace level scan to find and match you to your mate without ever meeting them. Isn’t that handy?”
She sounded so delighted, like someone had promised her a treat. It was sickening how well she was able to fake a sound of innocence.
“I will not mate her,” he said firmly. Decisively.
“And this is the best part here: she’s human,” Elffa continued like he hadn’t spoken. She let out a laugh of excitement. “I couldn’t have planned that better. I mean, I hoped she was going to be some backwards idiot I could control, but a human? It’s like a work of providence.”
“I will not mate her,” Rane repeated, his belly roiling with unease and fear.
“A mate is just what you need. With a mate, we have a reason to stop all your wild parties, but I still get to maintain control over you. Because a human? There’s no way the tribunal will agree that she’s a good enough guardian for you. And if they do? Well, we both know I have a way of fixing that, don’t we?”
She smiled at him. So sweetly threatening. But Rane could see the path of destruction laid out before him like an attack plan on the trikball court.
Rane was an adult by age. But his mother maintained control over him by painting him as a wild, out of control young male who couldn’t be reasonably expected to take care of himself. Therefore, he could do nothing without her permission, legally.
If he was to take a mate, in the normal course of things, his guardianship should be transferred to her instead. And maybe he’d have a chance to get out of this.
But if she was human, there was no way the tribunals would agree that she would be someone capable of guardianship. She was an alien. She would have no idea how laws and traditions worked on Levtiram. His mother could then argue that his guardianship should be maintained, and in fact that his mate also be put under her guardianship for her own good. It could be argued that she needed to take care of both of them. And his long, documented history of being out of control would only help her argument.
And then adding on top of it her being human? Humans were not only not a full member species of the Coalition, they were still bound to their homeworld, not yet having perfected space travel. She wouldn’t have an idea how anything worked, which was another point in his mother’s favor. But the fact that humans were considered rather uncouth and even barbaric by telfay standards meant that no one would ever take her seriously.
Elffa was right. She couldn’t have planned that better.
But Rane at least had control over this.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re matched,” he said, fighting back against the nausea induced panic. “Even if she sees me and I trigger her, which we cannot guarantee if she is human, it will mean nothing if I do not bite her. And I will not.”
“You will,” Elffa said calmly, unconcerned by his defiance. “I’m not giving you a choice.”
“I will rip my teeth out before I ever give you a chance to do this.”
Elffa just laughed, tossing back her head. “You’re so adorably dramatic, Rane. You’re also too late. I’m telling you this now because you can’t stop it. She’s already on her way here.”
“No.”
“Oh, yes. She left her home planet two days ago, in fact. She’s traveling to Holotulle where she’ll transfer ships, and then she’ll be on her way here. Her landing is scheduled for five days from now. Isn’t that exciting?”
