The Voris' Mate Read online

  CONTENTS

  The Vori’s Mate

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Epilogue 2

  The Vori’s Mate

  A Mate Index Alien Romance

  S.J. Sanders

  ©2019 by Samantha Sanders

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without explicit permission granted in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction intended for adult audiences only.

  Editor: LY Publishing

  Cover Art: Samantha Rose

  Prologue

  Regina Witlock, or Reggie as she preferred to be called, grinned at the dark purple male who beckoned her. He looked like something out of one of her college texts books when she’d taken Mythology 101 as an elective course. She had barely squeaked by with a passing grade—she couldn’t tell Jason from Hercules—but she knew her mythic beasts, especially the sexy ones. Nothing in myth screamed sex like the naughty little Satyrs.

  Granted, this guy in front of her was massive, topping well over six feet, and wasn’t quite the same thing as a satyr. Coloring aside, he had four horns rather than two, some rather strange bony spikes at his elbows and wrists, and had no tail. Still, it was enough to get her interested.

  She pouted a bit. She would have enjoyed playing with a tail. From a bit of light reading she had been doing lately, it was an erogenous zone for several species. She’d spent the last several nights reading a new blog just published on the Intergalactic Intraweb called A Human on Dorok, and it was absolutely fascinating. It was a shame that the VaDorok rarely left their homeworld unless they were playing hired muscle. She would have enjoyed hitting that.

  Oh well. Satyr Guy was a great backup as far as she was concerned.

  Not as hot as the blue-scaled stud she and her best friend Destiny had seen fooling around in an alley, but he was definitely fuckable in her book.

  Reggie felt a momentary pinch of sadness thinking about Destiny. Her best friend was gone. Who was she going to talk to now?

  Destiny had been her only confidant for a long time, especially after she married Paul. Her friend had never understood her open relationship with her husband, but she had accepted it—even without knowing the reasons why Reggie invited so many men to her bed.

  True, she’d enjoyed a period of experimentation in her early twenties, especially when she was away at college. Destiny, her roommate, was well aware she wasn’t some blushing virgin.

  After graduating with a major in literature, her parents decided it was best if she settled down and started really thinking of the future, which meant, for a young woman of her social standing, finding a suitable husband. Paul was a friend of her father’s and a perfectly nice man. They got along great when they were introduced, and she it didn’t come as a surprise when he began to come calling for her, pulled out the big guns to romance her, and eventually proposed marriage.

  They hadn’t been married long when she discovered his extracurricular activities. She’d been angry enough to pack a suitcase and march right home to her family.

  It didn’t last long.

  Her family let her know in no uncertain terms that if she were to separate from Paul, she would not be welcome to go back home. Buckling under pressure from all corners of her family, she returned to her husband.

  From that point began her descent into a pattern of loveless flings while she enjoyed the material comforts provided as Paul’s wife. She wasn’t proud of herself, but time and time again she failed to find the courage to strike out on her own against her family’s wishes.

  Everyone thought she was so bold and brave. Yes, she could be bold and pursue that which she wanted, but she was not brave. Destiny was the brave one. No matter what hell Reggie raised, Destiny was the cool one under pressure. Now Destiny was gone, and she was alone in a world that was an uncertain place.

  Facing it alone scared the hell out of her.

  Now that didn’t matter. She’d been ashamed to tell Destiny that Paul had filed for divorce just a few days ago. He was upgrading to a younger model, a chirpy size four brunette with more boobs and hair than sense. He claimed that not only had she failed to provide him with children, she’d let herself go. She had gained a few pounds, sure, but going from a curvy size six to a curvy size twelve wasn’t all that awful.

  But Paul wasn’t completely a heartless bastard since he was “giving” her their expensive condo in the city and a very small sum of money as a parting gift. A hundred grand that might float her for a year or two if she pinched her pennies. Life in Seattle was ridiculously expensive, worse since becoming a trade hub for visiting aliens.

  Of course, she could sell the place, leave Seattle behind, and find some backwater place she could actually afford, but the idea of starting over completely alone was overwhelming.

  If she were honest with herself, she wanted a new life somewhere else with a guy who wanted her above all else. As she began to read of offworld romances, she dreamed up a new direction she desperately wished her life would take. Of course, she didn’t know if the Mate Index Distribution Program would even take a woman over thirty. They made no bones about only looking to register women in their peak fertile years.

  Not that she knew if she could even be with an alien that way, for that matter—which is what made her screw up her courage and bring herself down to the docks that night and into the company of the alien satyr. If she managed this, she might be able to give registering a shot for her own happily ever after.

  Without reservation, Reggie adopted her familiar swagger and smut-laden smile. Although she didn’t have a translator, since the only legal means of getting one was through the Mate Index Distribution Program and she didn’t have the courage to procure one illegally, Destiny knew body language would be enough to communicate for what they were going to do.

  Getting horizontal didn’t necessitate being able to understand each other.

  Case in point, Satyr Guy understood her signal very well, as quick as any human man.

  As he watched her, his expression alert and his lips quirking into a sexy smile, she had a feeling that he was more than her match at the game of seduction. His inviting grin was so beguiling and full of heat that she finally understood exactly what “panty-melting smile” meant. She found herself instantly responding to the easy curve of his lips.

  Luscious lips that she could happily spend the entire night exploring.

  Straightening her back, she thrust out the generous swell of her breasts and walked over with a distinctive roll of her hips. No hesitation, no second thoughts. She drew in a sharp breath of sexual desire and took his offered hand. Her smile didn’t falter as he led her along the halls of the trading vessel until he pulled her, silently, into a cryo-chamber. Reggie instantly dug her heels in.

  When she turned in a panic to flee, she came face-to-face with the male, his expression grim and determined, now holding a long needle in his hand. She twisted her arm back and forth in attempt to brea
k his grip, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the needle from jabbing into her neck. She barely got out a squeak of alarm before a cool darkness descended upon her.

  Chapter 1

  Doctor Vadal es’Etale tried once more to ignore his comm as he finished his notations on the Vori species for the council. It was the final part of his responsibilities as part of the intellectual trade, to provide information on his elusive species to the Intergalactic Conference of Medical Personnel.

  He glanced down at his comm and noted the time. He really had to wrap this up. Pressing the record symbol, he made his final notations regarding the reproductive habits of the Vori.

  “—in order for the female to bear a clutch of young, the pair of Vori males circle around the female as they engage in coitus. At that point, when the female reaches the peak of her arousal, her mates bite into her, injecting a hormonal stimulant that causes the female to mature and release eggs during the five-day period that the males’ sperm is alive within her.

  “While this evolutionary trait is common also to the Edoka, the egg yield is lower for the Vori. An Edoka male’s bite will only release one or two eggs for each male that bites her. There are rare instances where a male would trigger a release of three eggs. For the Vori, it is estimated that each male’s bite will rarely cause more than one egg to drop, sometimes two.

  “Between two males, this can average in a total of usually two eggs in a clutch, although it is not uncommon for only one egg to be fertilized—”

  His comm beeped at him insistently again and Vadal bit back an uncharacteristic snarl. Clearly, whoever was trying to get ahold of him was determined. With a sigh, he accepted the transmission, but then smiled to see the deep tarnished-bronze face of his nest brother Shaagra.

  “Greetings, brother. How are you today?”

  Shaagra smiled and inclined his head. “I am well. I hope this day has been a pleasant one for you.” At the nod of Vadal’s head, he continued hastily, “I know you are busy, but I wanted to comm you and let you know that I have finished all the stonework on our nest and filled the sleeping area with plenty of soft fibers to keep us comfortable with our mate when she arrives.”

  Vadal broke into a relieved smile. He had been worried about the progress on the nest with only one of them remaining on the planet to work on it. Traditionally, it took a pair of nest-brothers months to prepare a nest. No male worth his scales would hunt out a mate without a proper nest to bring her to.

  It was bad enough that males had to work together to actively subdue their desired female in sort of ritualized combat to prevent themselves from being harmed by the voracious hunger of a female in her sexual frenzy, but if their nest did not meet her approval, she could reject the pair of male potentials. Logically, he knew that a human mate would be different, but they could do no less for her than they would for a Vori mate. That Shaagra managed it alone was a big relief, even if he felt slightly guilty for leaving the bulk of the work to his nest brother.

  “How are you comming me here at the space station?” he asked, his curiosity piqued. Few Vori owned comm systems. When he left it last, their den did not have one.

  “Oh, I am in a private comm room at the central building at Evath,” Shaagra said with a broad smile. “I wanted to research human mating customs to get an idea of what may bring our mate pleasure and what sort of sexual stimulus human females respond to.”

  Vadal frowned in confusion. “How are you carrying out this research?”

  “There is all manner of websites on Earth that give you tutorials, live cam-chats, and vids on how humans mate. I decided that a live chat would not be as much help, so I eliminated that option, but the vids were remarkably helpful.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Truthfully, I am not sure how females enjoy the attention of their males, if these vids are accurate.”

  He paused and then broke into a huge grin. “Did you know that human females engage in mating for pleasure? Not just once every three months when they come in season. It is fascinating.”

  From the eager grin on his nest brother’s face, he didn’t think fascinated was the most accurately descriptive word for it.

  “You went to Evath to watch vids on human sex?” Vadal asked. He wasn’t surprised; Shaagra had expressed a keen interest in sex play, but he didn’t think that Shaagra would go all the way to Evath to indulge his curiosity.

  His nest brother laughed. “No, now that I am finished with the basic construction of our nest, I had to come to get some pillows and a few things that our female may appreciate for her comfort.”

  Vadal nodded his head, impressed with his nest brother’s foresight. But Shaagra had always been a considerate male. So much so that some females, interested in both his disposition and brilliant coloring, more than once tried to overtake him so that they could forcibly add him to their harem. Vadal was relieved that Shaagra was equally cunning as he was kind-hearted. He always managed to escape, and all the females in their region had long given up their pursuit before Vadal had left for the space station. In truth, he would not have been comfortable leaving his nest brother if that weren’t the case.

  He gave Shaagra a concerned once over.

  “You have been okay in the city? No one is bothering you.”

  The male laughed, exposing his long, sharp white fangs. “No, brother. The females have not bothered me at all. In fact, they all grumble and give me a wide berth when they see me now, after that last one fell into a nixai bramble last time she tried to secure me in her coils.”

  Vadal sank down into his lower coils as he felt the tension ease out of him. The Vori were a strict society in some ways. In the old days, both males and females prized remaining untouched until they found their mates. Now, with their numbers so unbalanced and their females battling their own madness, males who were captured by a greedy female seeking to add her to his harem would often remain with the female after she subdued and bred him. If a male rejected mate bonding with a female after copulating, it was considered a significant disgrace and often led to active shunning.

  To be shunned was to be exiled to a lonely, empty life and be driven from your nest. Naturally, because of this, many males avoided the rare females of their species, even while at the same time desiring to breed daughters with the hope that the madness would eventually correct itself in their species.

  Vadal hoped that adding humans into their gene pool, even with their genetic coding that yielded to dominant DNA of other species, would result in the birth of healthier Vori. He was certain that the madness of the females and the fertility issues were both directly connected to their planet being a closed system for countless generations.

  “When are you returning to Vora?” Shaagra asked, his lips twitching upwards in anticipation. The bright orange coils framing his face twisted around him with interest.

  Vadal sighed and rubbed his broad, flat nose. Deep down, he worried how a human might react to one of his species. From his research on the Intergalactic Intraweb, he discovered that many humans are not fond of land reptiles called serpents that resembled the lower flanks of a Vori. It could be more challenging than either he or Shaagra anticipated.

  That Shaagra was eager for his return warmed his hearts. They had found each other when they were young and formed a strong bond. The level of comfort, affection, and loyalty would be necessary to keep their den secure and their mate happy. A disrupted den could become dangerous. A good bond between the males was necessary on Vora.

  “I should be departing the Intergalactic Space Station by standard evening time, unless something comes up. At worst, I may be delayed a day or two, but I am not anticipating any problems.”

  “And our mate?” he inquired eagerly.

  Vadal pinched his lips together thoughtfully. “We should have enough credits amassed that when I have returned to Vora, we can look at the Mate Index and see if there is any female who may appeal to us.”

  Shaagra sighed. “It will not be the same as being able to smell and
taste them before we choose, but at least it is better than nothing.”

  Vadal hissed his amusement at his nest brother’s sudden petulance.

  “Be thankful to the Mother of the Great Nest that we do not need to these things to find our mate like some species do. We are in position to be able to choose freely from the Mate Index any female we like. That we cannot smell or taste before choosing isn’t an insurmountable problem.”

  Shaagra conceded the point. They both knew that they were fortunate to be able to take advantage of the Mate Index, even if it meant using their entire life savings to acquire a female for their den.

  Vadal, as a doctor of prominent standing in Evath, and Shaagra would be a desirable pair for breeding and companionship. Yet they had put the matter of finding a mate off for years, slowly building their den as their time and interest demanded rather than being in any great hurry. That Shaagra had managed in a revolution what they hadn’t bothered with in over seven was a great accomplishment.

  When Vadal had contacted Shaagra during their scheduled monthly comms with news of human compatibility, Shaagra couldn’t contain his excitement. He loaded everything he could find regarding human customs into his handheld personal comm unit to prepare for a human mate. Vadal had too, but he spent so much time engrossed in his medical practice that he resigned himself to being underprepared and learning about his mate as situation demanded.

  Not for the first time, he wished that more single human females were permitted to leave Earth. He had heard a rumor that Earth wasn’t allowing any females off-planet who were not mated. The entire process would be much easier if mates could meet the traditional way.

  The only young female to come aboard recently was the daughter of the new ambassador, and she was starting to show signs of the golden mating flush common to offworld Tagith mates. He wondered if anyone suspected that the two had mated. Regardless, she was clearly no longer available. Even if they hadn’t officially mated, the Tagith representative, Dareth, was quick to growl at males he thought to be intruding on his claimed territory.