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“You wouldn’t be talking about Grath, would you?”
Mattie made a face and nodded.
“OfcourseI am. I just can’t seem to get along with him, Sophie! I wish you’d put a bug in Sylvan’s ear about getting a new Protector assigned to me.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I’m sorry, hon, but Sylvan doesn’t actually choose who gets assigned to who. He leaves it up to the Goddess.”
Mattie put a hand on her hip and frowned.
“Hewhat?What are you talking about?”
“He leaves it to the Goddess—or, well, the High Priestess,” Sophie clarified. “She puts the names of the human scientists and possible Protectors into what’s called a “blind box” and prays over it and pulls out the names. I’ve seen her do it—they always come out two at a time, a male and a female. The Kindred believe that’s the Goddess’s way of saying which two are meant to work together.”
“I didn’t know that. That’s not a very scientific way of pairing people up!” Mattie protested. She didn’t like to denigrate other people’s religion, but as a scientist, she was pretty skeptical of most of the belief systems out there.
“It’s actually not as bad as you might think,” Sophie said gently. “Since all the Protectors are Kindred and Kindred males are all fiercely protective of females, no matter who they are. So you reallycan’tget a bad pairing.”
“Oh yes you can!” Mattie said grimly. “Case in point—Grath and myself!”
Grath was the Hybrid Kindred warrior who had been assigned to Mattie as her Protector. As such, he went with her to every alien planet she visited to guard her with his life.
This was a safeguard that Commander Sylvan had installed to keep human female scientists safe while they were working for the Mother Ship. Human male scientists could also have Protectors if they wanted, of course, but most of the scientists in the program were women.
It was still difficult to get some research projects taken seriously in the male-dominated scientific community back on Earth. Whereas the Kindred, who valued females highly and treated them as equals, were more than willing to listen and give prospective scientific research done by women a fair trial. That had certainly been Mattie’s experience, anyway. She had always longed to study alien cultures and so she had applied and won a coveted spot as a Kindred ambassador slash Xeno-Cultural Anthropologist.
Most Protectors got along with the scientists they were assigned to extremely well—one or two had even Joined with their charges—which was the Kindred version of marriage. But that wasn’t so in Mattie’s case. She and the huge Hybrid who had been assigned as her Protector were like oil and water—they just didn’t mix.
Maybe more like nitro and glycerin,Mattie thought wryly.Leave the two of us alone together for too long and we’re likely to explode!
As if thinking of him had called the big Hybrid into existence, there was a brief knock at the door and when it slid open, Grath was standing there.
Mattie couldn’t deny he was an impressive specimen of a man. Like most Kindred warriors he stood somewhere in the neighborhood of seven feet tall and he was extremely muscular—a fact his dark blue uniform shirt couldn’t hide.
She wasn’t quite sure which two—or possibly more—branches of the Kindred tree he was a Hybrid of, but he had long black hair, a reddish tint to his dark tan skin, and eyes like pools of midnight with golden motes that looked like sparks in them.
He also had fangs, which led Mattie to believe that at least one of his ancestors had been a Blood Kindred. But his bearing and that wild black hair—which was currently pulled back neatly with a leather twist—made her think more of a Beast Kindred. The reddish tone to his skin was anyone’s guess and as for the black, curving tattoos that marched up both his arms and were visible on the sides of his neck, well, those were just a personal choice, she guessed.
Not that she would ever ask—her Protector had made it clear he wasn’t interested in the two of them getting to know each other. Grath was unfailingly rude and surly to her, which made Mattie—who had been raised to be polite—irritated in the extreme. When hedidtalk, it was always to make some sarcastic or biting remark in a deep, growling voice, which seemed to rattle her bones when he spoke.
They hadn’t gotten along from day one. Grath hadbarelyagreed to shake her hand and had remarked that she seemed too small and fragile to be going to alien planets.
“Better stay home, little girl,” he’d rumbled condescendingly. “You wouldn’t make two mouthfuls for aVargasor aYid’rigor any of the trillion other predators out there in the big, bad universe.”
“At the moment Dr. Porter isonlygoing to be visiting Class 1 planets,” Commander Sylvan had said smoothly, before Mattie could get out an angry protest. Class 1 planets only had small, non-threatening life forms—they were, in a sense—considered “Beginner planets” by the Kindred—good for humans who didn’t have any space travel experience yet.
“Class 1, huh?” Grath had asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Why do you need me, then? Let her go on her own.”
“I will go! Because I certainlydon’tneed a condescending misogynist coming along to interfere in my work!” Mattie had exclaimed.
“Oh, isthatwhat I am, huh girly?” Grath had glared down at her from his great height. “Well whatIsee is nothing but a cute, curvy little doll of a girl who wants to go out and play scientist.”
“Howdareyou?” Mattie had demanded. “I have a PhD in Xeno-Cultural Anthropology, you know!”
“What Iknowis that you’re too little to be running around the universe, getting into trouble on alien planets,” Grath rumbled. “Go back to Earth, little girl—you’ll be safer there, out of harm’s way.”
At that point, Commander Sylvan had been forced to step in and break things up between them. Mattie was normally a non-violent person but she would havehappilyattacked the huge Kindred warrior then and there! She didn’t care that her head barely came up past his elbow and his shoulders were fully twice as broad as her own or that he was probably strong enough to break her in half with one hand tied behind his back—she had never been so insulted in her life and she was out for blood!
