I gave a little strained laugh. “My understanding is that Lucy had at least as much to do with killing flowers to string them up in here as Nora did.”
Jalek’s mouth twisted in dismay. “It seems such a waste. Those would make a perfect Cavalia soup.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “But they do make the air smell nice.”
“Do you suppose dead flowers have some special significance in our mates’ culture?”
“No flarking idea.”
We were both still staring up at the flowers above our heads when the door opened, and General Galatov strode in. After only a couple of steps, though, he skidded to a stop, his mouth falling open as he, too, gazed up at the floral monstrosities surrounding us. “What is this?”
At the same time, Jalek and I both said, “Earth tradition.”
“Hmmm.” The general resumed moving up to the front of the room. “I certainly won’t be having that at my mating ceremony,” he muttered.
Jalek and I gave each other smirking glances, both working to hold back our laughter.
I suspected the general was in for two worlds’ worth of surprises when he finally actually met his mate.
Met his match, is more like it.
I had certainly met my match when I jumped in to save Nora from her attacker.
She might not have been my perfect genetic match—at least not according to the scoutship computer—but she was my perfect mate. And anyway, the scoutship had been wrong. No matter what the other female’s genetic match with me might have been, it could not have been any better than the 97% match the computer aboard the Battleship Levelock had given us.
That scoutship’s computer had been flarked.
Nora and I belong together. As do Jalek and Lucy. As will the general and his mate, once he finds her.
I had not seen Nora all morning long—another ridiculous Earth tradition. No wonder she had run away from her last mating ceremony. If it had been half this involved, I didn’t blame her. It was a wonder any humans ever ended up together.
But she had sworn it was bad luck for me to see her before the ceremony. “And besides,” she had said, “I have a surprise for you.”
When she appeared in the doorway, I instantly saw what she had meant.
She wore garments almost exactly like the ones she had been wearing when I picked her up in the nature preserve on Earth.
Almost.
Because whereas that clothing had been pure white, this wedding dress matched almost perfectly my clan colors—the color of my beast’s form and of my skin. Her pale skin glowed against the black and green fabric.
Oddly enough, she also carried a cluster of clipped flowers like the ones hanging above us, tied together with a ribbon in the traditional soothing colors of our walls.
It was the perfect blend of human and Drovekzian culture, and it was all I could do to keep from rushing to her.
Ours, my beast growled, sending me images of carrying Nora back to our quarters to fuck her senseless.
Later, I promised my beast, and he subsided—but not before sending a wave of sensory memories to me from the last two weeks. The way her pussy tasted when I licked it, the way she writhed and moaned beneath me as I pounded my cock into her. The way she had taken each individual mating spike into her mouth and sucked it until my cock was too swollen to fit inside her—and the way she had then sucked the tip of my cock until I exploded into her mouth.
I shifted uncomfortably, trying to adjust my growing erection as my beast chuffed in amusement.
Sometimes my beast was horrible.
Nora made her way to me slowly, preceded by Lucy, who insisted on sprinkling dead petals on the floor and humming something that might have been a song.
When Nora reached me, she handed the dead flowers to Lucy and took my hand. I leaned toward her, wanting nothing more than to kiss her, but she whispered, “Not yet. The kiss comes at the end of the ceremony.”
I nodded. We had agreed on the traditional vows of a Drovekzian ceremony and the various trappings of a human ceremony, so at least when General Galatov began speaking, the words were familiar to me.
“Welcome honored clowder members and Drovekzian clans,” the general began. “Here today we witness the mate bonding of Lutro Dax and Nora Marlin. They hereby proclaim the completion of the bond that shall tie them together for eternity.”
Normally, that would be the end of a Drovekzian ceremony, and the party would begin.
Alien cultures have alien ways.
I smiled as Galatov recited the next bit from Nora’s Earth traditions.
“Do you, Dax, take Nora to be your bound mate forevermore?”
I frowned, trying to remember the correct answer. “I do.”
“And do you, Nora, take Dax as your bound mate forevermore?”
“I do,” Nora replied.
“Then you may exchange rings.”
Earlier that week, I’d had to tell Nora that the ring she wanted me to wear would almost certainly get lost when I shifted. So we had compromised. Instead of placing a ring on my finger, she looped a long metal chain around my neck.
When I shifted, it became a collar—a sign of domestication on Nora’s world, but now a symbol of love for both of us.
Similarly afraid that she might lose a chain from around her neck, Nora had opted for a ring.
It didn’t matter to me. I didn’t need the outward symbols. But my mate did, and I was happy to give her anything she wanted.
When that part was over, the general said, “You may kiss the boo-ride.”
“Bride,” Lucy and Nora hissed at the same time.
“Bride,” General Galatov smoothly corrected.
Human rituals were certainly more ornate than Drovekzian mating rituals.
I guess that’s necessary in a world where it’s impossible to be certain how much your mate truly loves you.
As I captured Nora’s lips with my own, I was left with no doubt whatsoever that she loved me. I felt it echoing through our mate-bond. I could not wait to begin the rest
