Chapter Thirty-two
“Does Lor talk to you? I mean, can you hear him speaking inside your head?” Ty asked as they relaxed together in Ellina’s apartment. He was sitting on the couch and she was sitting with him, leaning back against his chest in a comfortable, easy way he liked immensely. Lor and Tisa were on the back of the couch, grooming each other, as comfortable together as he and Ellina were.
“Lor mostly speaks to me in pictures—images that form in my mind,” Ellina said, tilting her chin to look up at Ty. “But of course, different chewchies choose to communicate in different ways. They are every bit as individual and different as people are, you know.”
“I’m beginning to figure that out,” Ty murmured, casting a glance at Tisa who sent him a feeling of calm contentment and happiness in return. “I never thought I could love anything—anyone—so quickly and completely,” he admitted in a low voice. “It’s a little scary, to be honest.”
“Why should it be scary?” Tisa demanded in his head. “I love you too, Ty. Even if you are monstrously big,” she added in a slightly critical tone. “Have you tried being smaller? Climbing all over you is like climbing a mountain!”
“Sorry, little girl—I’m afraid I can’t be any smaller than I am,” Ty told her, amused. He looked at Ellina. “It’s amazing how she knows so much already. It’s like she came out of the egg fully mature.”
“Oh, she did,” Ellina said, nodding. “Chewchies learn in the shell, you know, and pick their own time to hatch. They gather information from everyone around them—including the vast network of other chewchie minds.”
Ty frowned. “But I thought they had to be a matched pair or have a link in order to communicate with each other telepathically?”
Ellina shook her head.
“That’s only after they hatch and form permanent attachments. While they’re still in the shell—and often for some time afterwards—chewchies are able to communicate with any other chewchie anywhere in the galaxy. As far as we can tell, anyway.”
“Amazing,” Ty said and really meant it. “Does that mean that right now Tisa is able to communicate with any chewchie anywhere?”
Ellina nodded. “Yes, and she’ll probably keep the ability for at least a little while, since she’s so newly hatched. And we already know what a strong communicator she is,” she added dryly, which made Ty think that she was overhearing some of Tisa’s communication with him through her link to Lor. A sudden thought came to him.
“Maybe that’s why Lor kept sending you thought images of a female Sacred Blue chewchie,” he suggested. “Because Tisa was sending him the same thoughts.”
“Well of course I was!” Tisa exclaimed in his head. “I was trying to get Lor to hurry things along. I got extremely tired of waiting in my egg for you to come and get me.” She sniffed and ruffled the fur of her long tail before smoothing it back down again with her little pink tongue.
“Bossy little thing, aren’t you? I wasn’t even here on Helios Beta until less than a solar month ago,” Ty protested. “She’s blaming me for being late to come and get her so she could hatch,” he explained to Ellina who was watching their exchange.
“Oh, I know.” She smothered a smile. “Lor is keeping me appraised of the situation.”
“It seems that the four of us have kind of a loop going on,” Ty remarked. “A very close and, uh, intimate loop.” He couldn’t help thinking that he had been alone for so long and now he was intimately linked with three other minds, which was certainly something he’d never expected to happen when he took this mission. It wasn’t unpleasant, though—in fact, he felt surprisingly comfortable being connected like this. Was this how it was for a regular Kindred warrior when he took a bride and bonded her to him? And should it bother him that he wasn’t bothered by this new, strange, but incredibly comfortable linkage?
“What a lot of nonsense,” Tisa remarked, licking her tail again. “Do you always over-think things this much? I belong to you and you belong to me and Lor belongs to Ellina and she belongs to him and you and Ellina belong to each other. That’s all there is to it.”
“Actually, that’s not all there is to it,” Ty protested, talking to Tisa but knowing that Ellina would be following the conversation through Lor. “I’m not Ellina’s mate—I am her bodyguard. I’m only here to serve and protect her. Not…” He cleared his throat. “Anything else.”
“If you mean you’re not supposed to service her sexually, that’s ridiculous,” Tisa protested. “You’re her Lan’Glaver—you’re meant to serve her any way she needs you to.”
“Uh…” Ty shot a glance at Ellina and saw that her cheeks were pale purple with a blush. He tried very hard not to picture holding her on this very couch and sucking her nipples while he stroked and fingered her soft, wet pussy but somehow the memory crept into his mind anyway.
Stop it! he told himself firmly. We agreed we wouldn’t do that anymore. That it wasn’t right. Wasn’t proper considering our situation and respective statuses. I’m nothing but an off-worlder commoner who could never give her a Sacred Blue baby for an heir and she’s the queen of this entire planet.
“If you’re feeling inadequate, don’t,” Tisa said. She had finished grooming her own fur and had started on Lor’s. “Lor tells me that Ellina likes you better than any other male she’s ever met. Even if she does think your shaft would be too big to fit in her sacred mouth.”
“Tisa!” he exclaimed aloud as Ellina’s blush deepened.
“Personally, I think she’s wrong,” his new chewchie went on relentlessly. “I think it would fit nicely if she’d just give it some time. After all, as her Lan’Glaver, you’re meant to be
