No, she told herself uneasily. No, that would be wrong. I can’t let myself think like that… can’t fantasize about letting him change the color of my eyes…
She knew enough of Tranq Prime heritage that once she had sex with a male it would have an obvious outward physical effect. Her eyes, which were the same ice blue as Sylvan’s, would change color to reflect the fact that she was no longer a virgin. And Kara could just imagine her parents’ reaction if she came to the breakfast table one morning with different colored eyes and she was still unbonded.
Her mom and dad were fairly progressive about a lot of things but her father was extremely old-fashioned when it came to sex—specifically sex outside of a bonded relationship.
And you can’t bond with an Unbondable, she reminded herself uneasily. Still, why was she getting worried about such things? The Unbondable male was only here for a short time and the Mother Ship was a big place. Kara would probably never see him again.
I don’t even know his name, she thought sleepily.
Yet it was his darkly handsome face and those silver-ringed eyes that followed her down into sleep when she at last began to dream.
Three
Kara had a job in the tech hub of the Mother Ship and the morning commute on the public transport was unusually crowded. To one side of her she was jostled by three Kindred warriors with a glittery sheen to their skin, which appeared to change colors subtly as they moved. Kara wondered if it was some kind of camouflage. To her right, were two venerable-looking elders of the Fr’Enson people.
The Fr’Ensons had excess skin all over their bodies, much like a Shar Pei dog, which puffed up when they felt upset or threatened. The unfortunate fact that they also had their organs of sexual reproduction protruding from their foreheads like some kind of floppy, obscene unicorn horn, made them look decidedly strange—at least to Kara.
She wondered why they were here—as far as she knew, no Kindred had ever wanted to bond with a Fr’Enson. Maybe the two elders had other business with the Council. She looked away from the odd-looking aliens and instead tried to concentrate on the scenery of the Mother Ship rushing past the clear panels of the transport.
At every stop on the way to the hub, it seemed to get more crowded until Kara was practically squeezed into a corner. At the next-to-last stop, she heard a deep voice saying, “Excuse me. Make a little room, would you?”
Looking up, she caught sight of the big Unbondable Kindred she and Kaleb had seen the night before. He pushed his way through the crowded transport, politely excusing himself but shoving forward all the same, which made some of the people around him grumble in protest. At last he came to rest beside the Fr’Enson elders, his back half turned to Kara.
He was much closer to her than he had been the night before so she could truly appreciate his size. Goddess, he must be seven and a half feet tall at least! He made even Kara feel short in comparison, which wasn’t easy to do. His wild mane of black hair fell to his shoulders and from where she stood she thought she could catch his scent—something wild and spicy and undeniably masculine.
“Well, I never!” grumbled one of the Fr’Ensons as the Unbondable wedged himself in beside them. “The nerve of some people, pushing their way in like they own the transport!”
The words were spoken loudly enough for anyone to hear them—clearly the Fr’Enson had meant for his complaint to be audible to its intended target.
If someone had complained about her that way, Kara would have gone scarlet with embarrassment and tried to make herself small and inconspicuous but the Unbondable male obviously wasn’t one to be intimidated.
“Excuse me?” He leaned down, looking directly into the Fr’Enson’s saggy face. “Are you talking about me? You got a fuckin’ problem?”
“I most certainly do.” The Fr’Enson puffed up, his saggy skin going round and rigid as a beach ball. Unfortunately, this had the effect of making his sex organ, which had been sagging from his forehead, go rigid as well. It pointed like a purple oversized finger directly at the Unbondable Kindred.
“You better get the fuck away from me,” the Unbondable growled. “I don’t think you can complain about anyone else taking up too much room in the transport when you’re sticking your dick in people’s faces.”
Kara felt a smile tickling the corners of her mouth at the big Kindred’s words. But clearly the Fr’Ensons were not amused.
“How dare you?” demanded the other Fr’Enson elder. He, too, puffed up as big and round as an oversized beach ball which caused the flaccid member dangling between his eyes to go suddenly rigid as well.
They really do look like some kind of obscene unicorns, Kara thought and giggled. Just then the transport jolted to a stop and the two Fr’Enson emissaries were thrown together so that the rigid member of the first Fr’Enson poked the second Fr’Enson in the eye.
“Oh! My eye! You have dishonored my ocular socket with your member!” the second Fr’Enson howled.
“My member has touched the socket of another male! I am dishonored!” wailed the first Fr’Enson. “Stop the transport—I must go for cleansing!”
“I too, must be cleansed,” moaned the other.
“Well,” remarked the big Unbondable. “I guess that’s what the two of you get for being literal dick-heads.”
Kara couldn’t help herself—a shout of laugher escaped her. The two Fr’Ensons stared at her in affronted silence for a moment.
“You…” One of them pointed at her. “How dare you insult us so?”
“Me?” Kara put a
