Before the overlord can come inside the breeding quarters, I rush away back to work. Imagine my surprise when, roughly an hour later, Rek approaches.
“The overlord wants to see you.”
“Me?” I ask, pointing to myself. “Why?”
“I don’t know, but he’s all the way up top.”
Of course he is. He has a huge building, his office is on the top floor. I’m not sure why he feels the need to be so very close to the top. Maybe it’s a power thing.
Quickly, I jog over to the stairs and take them two at a time all the way up. Since he’s expecting me, I just knock and immediately open the door.
To my surprise, the overlord isn’t the only one here. Lero, a breeder, smirks at me before brushing past me, slamming his shoulder into mine as he departs.
I rub my arm and turn back to the overlord. “You summoned me?”
“Yes, I did, Adir. It has come to my—Is that door shut properly?”
Instead of checking, I just open and shut the door firmly until the lock falls into place.
“It’s shut,” I assure the overlord when he doesn’t say anything further to finish his earlier sentence. “As you were saying?”
"It has to come to my attention that you have been acting out of turn. Do you agree with this sentiment?"
“Ah…”
“You have also not always done your duties as well as you should have.”
I grimace before realizing that any shift in facial expression can make him think I’m lying.
“You have even taken it upon yourself to fuck a female,” the overlord bellows. “But no, not just one. You’ve been with how many now?”
I scowl. “Lero—”
“Do not worry about him.”
“Do not… You’re trusting the word of someone who is killing his family.”
“Lero is killing his family?” the overlord asks suspiciously. “What on Kuria are you talking about?”
“I… Not literally. I mean, the baby… babies… He’s not the best of breeders. He just fucks to fuck and—”
"And who are you to judge him when you have done the same?" the overlord bellows. "Or are you calling Lero a liar?"
“I’m saying that Lero is never going to impregnate a woman. He’s too worried about his cock and ejaculating for the sake of pleasure. He’s not willing to actually try to make a woman fall in love with him, and love—”
“You act as if you know what love is, but you broke a woman’s heart, didn’t you, Adir?” the overlord accuses.
Lero. How did he know so much about my actions? My activities? Maybe he overheard when the captains confronted me about Callie.
Or… has Lero touched Callie? My hands curl into fists. If I see that breeder again… If he goes anywhere near Callie…
“I asked you several questions now,” the overlord says through gritted teeth. “You will answer them!”
I open my mouth to do as he asks, but he cuts me off before I have the chance.
“I have heard about your insolence,” he adds, his neon eyes flashing, “so I suggest you answer with the truth.
I inhale sharply and meet his gaze. “I may have broken her heart, but that was not my intention. I want… I want to make amends—”
“The issue all along has been that you have done what you want instead of what you have been told to do to help ensure the safety of our kind. We do need the females to become pregnant, yes, but that is not a task that you are to perform. You have been instructed of that many times. How can I trust you to do anything at all?”
I swallow hard but refuse to look away. The anger in the overlord's eyes makes me hate myself all the more.
“I can only ask forgiveness of you,” I say. “I just…”
The overlord narrows his eyes at me and lifts his chin, daring me to continue talking.
And he’s right. I have been insolent lately, and I am not done talking. This may be foolish. No, it is foolish, but I wouldn’t be myself if I were willing to cower before anyone. Callie deserves more than just a random breeder.
But she also deserves more than me.
“I fell in love,” I say firmly, “and I love her still. I didn’t realize how much she meant to me, and then when I did, I was scared. I didn’t want to lose her, but I also realized she wasn’t mine to lose. I… I knew what I did was wrong. I never should have had sex with her in the first place.”
I pause, noting how the overlord’s eyebrows raise. My guess is that he noticed I didn’t call it fucking, but I couldn’t use our normal term for copulation, not when I knew, understood, and experienced the difference between fucking and having sex. Now, if I could just fix things with Callie, I know I could experience making love. I want that. I crave it, but more than anything, it’s not about the sex itself. It’s about wanting to connect with her, wanting us to be together again.
Although… had we ever been together?
“But the females, they shouldn’t have to be so restricted to the breeders,” I continue, trying to keep my voice neutral instead of rising. “Even with the new breeders, the women are limited. That’s the last thing we need if we want—”
"We do want, and it's not limiting," Overlord Nestrol says. "We can't, and we will not have any Novan with any woman. That would result in chaos. We’ve already had issues with a driver missing his duties and a pilot who hid a woman on his ship."
“Not to mention a commander, a scientist, and a captain who all have their women, but, wait, not one of those—”
“You will cease this line of speech!”
I open my mouth, wanting to continue, but he’s so furious that I know I’ve already pushed too far. If I continue, it’s possible he’ll see
