The Edokas' Destiny

  The Edokas’ Destiny

  The Mate Index Book 2

  Lykeia

  CONTENTS

  The Edokas’ Destiny

  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

  Epilogue

  Glossary of Terms

  Author’s Note

  ©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 Artist: Tara Gamon

  Chapter 1

  E’budar grinned as he flicked through image after image of attractive females on the viewscreen. Such sweet variety on Earth, he was undecided which he preferred the most. Long and lean were delicious, yet he itched to hold a small and curvy female like Vidok’s mate, Sara.

  Then again, he loved the attitude, and red hair of the human Trish. To make matters more complicated, before him on the comm screen there were even more variations of females available—differing vastly in appearances and personality.

  So many options. So many flavors of humanity. E’budar wasn’t particular; there was something he enjoyed about each one he looked at.

  Sha’melor kicked E’budar’s feet off the desk, sneering down at him in disgust before peering intently at the comm screen. “What are you looking at?”

  “Mating profiles,” E’budar replied with a grin. “For twenty credits a month, you can subscribe to Earth’s Mati Index. It just went up a few days ago. These are females who have registered to be intergalactic mates.”

  His brother leaned forward, eyes narrowed at the images flicking by. “They did not waste any time,” he observed. “Do not tell me you already threw away twenty credits on it.” He sighed at his younger brother’s sheepish look.

  “I was curious,” E’budar muttered. “They offer a free pass, but that doesn’t allow you to message a female you may be interested in or to see additional posted photos and her personal information.”

  “And you considered this a worthwhile expense? It is not like talking to any of these females will help us know if she is our mate or not.”

  He shifted uncomfortably under his older brother’s inquisitorial eye. “I just thought it would be interesting to get a bit of experience talking to human females.”

  Sha’melor calmly raised a brow. “Do you, or do you not, spend time daily speaking to Vidok’s mate, Sara?”

  E’budar pouted slightly. He knew he was acting childish but he didn’t know why his brother wouldn’t relax for a change and let him have a little fun. “I know, but it is not the same. I can’t flirt with Sara or say things that would make Vidok want to pull my arms off the next time he sees me.”

  He groaned inwardly as his brother folded his arms over his chest in clear disapproval. “Let me get this straight. You have wasted twenty credits to indulge in sexual conversations with random females.” Sha’melor’s hand drifted up to pinch the bridge of his nose. E’budar had the sneaking suspicion that he was mentally going over Council codes in order to rein in his patience.

  He cleared his throat and tried another angle. “It could be looked at as a kind of research. Just because we can’t select a mate from a database doesn’t mean that a thorough understanding of how it works wouldn’t be beneficial.”

  Sha’melor’s black eyes slowly opened to regard him speculatively. He knew he temporarily won the argument when his brother sighed loudly.

  “Very well, E’budar. Since you have apparently been spending hours staring at this site, tell me what particulars you have learned of how Earth is managing the accessibility of their females.”

  E’budar flashed a toothy grin at his brother and replied, “Well, the basic layout seems to be organized in the manner of a voluntary registration to the system.” He clicked the profile of a female with choppy blue hair and brown eyes. He pointed at the details that flooded the comm screen. “The females who want to participate sign up and log their personal information. They include basic information such as pigmentation, height, weight, and age, as well as statements toward what their interests are, their background, and what they are looking for in joining the Mate Index.”

  He sat back so that his brother could get a clearer look at the site. Sha’melor’s face relaxed with piqued curiosity. “I didn’t realize humans came with jewel tone hair pigmentation,” his brother muttered to himself.

  E’budar grinned. “They don’t. I asked Sara some time ago about human pigmentation when I had noticed all the differences between the VaDorok mates. She’d said quite a bit about natural human coloring, but has also mentioned that many human females use products to enhance their features and artificial color their hair.”

  “Hmm,” Sha’melor tapped a claw thoughtfully on the desk. “So the humans who are interested in mates register on their end, while other species register to use the system, and Earth provides all this service for twenty credits. I imagine that doesn’t include transportation of the mates.”

  E’budar winced. This was where it was going to get unpleasant. He cleared his throat. “No, the twenty credits is merely the subscription fee. After mate selection, they do ask for a nominal processing fee—a few thousand credits, I believe.” He snorted, “Processing—sure. Anyway,” he hurried on, “after you pay that, then you get your lovely mate sent out to you by the nearest trade vessel heading out that way.”

  Sha’melor straightened, his lip curling in distaste. “So it is as we thought. Earth is, more or less, selling the females of their population to any male willing and able to pay the absurd fees they charge for the privilege. And to top that, they trust the women’s care to veritable strangers rather than boarding them on passenger vessels.” He leaned back and sighed wearily. “I suppose we are going to have to leave it in the hands of A’Jular. I hope to the gods we don’t get dragged before the council to explain how we got a human female.”

  E’budar scratched his jaw ridge, unsure if he should tell his brother what A’Jular planned. Sarat it. “A’Jular has a plan,” he said slowly.” “He has contacted the Mate Index Distribution Program authority in a territory called United States to inquire after a mating hunt permit. It is on the fine print of their website.”

  “What are you not wanting to tell me? Or A’Jular for that matter, since he has not brought this plan of action to my attention.”

  “Well, it is very expensive,” E’budar drawled hesitantly.

  Sha’melor’s brows arched quizzically. “From what you say, this whole process is expensive.”

  “Yes, welllll...” he hedged, “it is even more expensive.”

  “How expensive?” Sha’melor’s black eyes narrowed as his spines began to lift subtly.

  E’budar shrank down into his seat a bit. His brother had menacing down to an art-form when he went for it. “Normal mating fees are ten thousand credits. A mating hunt permit is a hundred thousand.”

  “What?” his brother exploded. “Of all the… That does it. I am going to file a complaint with the Intergalactic Council once and for all, and bring this before the Council of Clans. That is extortion! What Earth is doing has to be unlawful. The fees they are asking for are unreasonable, and takes advantage of other species. Please tell me A’Jular did not already pay it!”

  E’budar shrugged. “No idea. Comm him and find out.”

  He listened with some amusement as Sha’melor bit out a great many choice profanities as he left their nest. Who knew his brother had it in him? E’budar never heard his esteemed elder brother let loose such a torrent. He was still chuckling to himself when he thought to comm Sara. Since A’Jular had set her up with a comm unit in her home on Dorok, they had talked nearly daily as he quizzed her about human societies, food, child-rearing, and anything else he could think of. As his only human friend, he really wanted to see what her opinion was on the Mate Index.

  Sara answered immediately, her daughter tucked up against her, clinging to her shoulder with tiny retractable claws. E’budar’s heart melted a bit. Although Edoka had a fierce appearance that made other species nervous, even an inoffensive member of the species such as himself, he loved children. Younglings of any species were wonderful, and the cute, fuzzy VaDorok babies captured his heart easily. While Sha’melor had professed some interest in seeing the recorded images A’Jular took of the VaDorok young when they were newly-born, he’d been the one who repeatedly reminded his brother not to forget to make the recordings in the first place. A’Jular had merely lifted a brow at him but otherwise acquiesced without commenting.

  His nest-mates would laugh if they knew he was already making a private stockpile of things for their own hatchlings, for the possibility that they find a mate. Small soft dolls, thick teething toys for cutting their first fangs, infant-safe oil for their delicate scales. He was prepared for a half dozen hatchlings any time their nest was finally blessed with them. He wiggled his fingers at little VaAbora, who gave him a gummy grin.

  “E’budar! How are you? Have you seen the monstrosity that is the Mate Index?” Sara asked in outrage.

  He snickered to himself. He knew that Sara was going to go off the bend when she saw it. “Hello, dear little Sara! I was just looking at it now. Sha’melor, in fact, was just here giving me his low opinion of it.”

  Sara snorted. “E’budar, what they are doing is extortion.”

  “Hey, that’s what he said,” E’budar chuckled.

  “Something has to be done about it though,” she said with a scowl. She really was a cute little thing when she was being grumpy. E’budar looked forward to such looks from his own mate. Stoking females into a frenzy of temper was so much fun. Of course, Edoka females weren’t nearly quite as fun. They weren’t as tolerant as humans, nor did they have such an easy sense of humor. And they were rather prickly—literally. Sara never stayed mad at him long when he teased her.

  He shrugged unconcerned. “Well the Index doesn’t really technically affect us, though Sha’melor hit the roof—I said that right, yes? —when I told him what the hunt fees are for finding one’s mate the natural way on Earth. Did you get to that part?”

  “Wait a minute,” Sara typed for a moment on a corner of the screen and her jaw dropped. “This is just… I can’t believe… how are they getting away with this?”

  E’budar laughed at the gaping fury on her face. “Easily, I’m afraid. But no worries, little human. Sha’melor, after letting loose a string of profanities that I frankly did not think he had in him, left to make an official complaint to the Intergalactic Council.”

  He leaned forward, noticing a blink of a waiting comm. He frowned. Who was comming him now? He brought it up in the viewscreen. He smirked as he saw it was A’Jular. He looked back to Sara. “I will have to talk to you later, Sara. I have a comm coming through from A’Jular. Sha’melor must have commed him to tell him he was not, under any terms or circumstances, to pay such exorbitant fees for a hunt.” Sara smiled in understanding and waved farewell as he ended the transmission.

  He stretched and grinned widely as he answered the communications from his brother. “A’Jular, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you. I was just talking to Sara. I’m afraid you missed Sha’melor though.”

  On the screen, A’Jular scowled darkly and grit out, “I just talked to Sha’melor, thank you. May I ask why you decided, in your ineffable lack of wisdom, to tell him how I was planning on acquiring our female?”

  E’budar offered a lazy shrug. “You know how Sha’melor gets. He guessed that you were planning something expensive and pried it out of me.”

  “You realize he froze me out of the accounts, and told me—and I quote—there was no way in two hells that I was going to spend a hundred thousand credits to hunt a female,” he growled. “So now I get to finish this trip to Earth as strictly a trade run.”

  “Well, he said he was going to file a complaint with the Council. Maybe he is hoping to get the pricing issue resolved before they gouge us. You know, both Sara and Sha’melor said it was extortion.”

  A’Jular winced slightly and huffed. “I know it is extortion. If we didn’t have the credits, I wouldn’t even consider it. As it happens, we do have it, and I am of the opinion that finding our mate is worth it. Hells, I would be happy to go out on twice as many trade routes to make up the expense.”

  E’budar shrugged again good-naturedly. He understood why A’Jular was upset; he wasn’t too happy himself. He had been eager to hear news of their mate when A’Jular found her. Sha’melor put a substantial kink in things, but he would wait and see what could be done first before he started plotting in earnest. For now, he just needed to get his more volatile nest-mate focused on something else.

  “Are you planning on getting more coffee?” he asked innocently, diverting his brother’s line of thought.

  A’Jular paused, narrowed his dark eyes for a moment and with a weary sigh nodded. “Yes, I get very good trade from Dorok with it. Although I don’t have another trip planned to Dorok just yet, I figure we can store it until then. Apparently humans love the stuff. They also asked me to bring something called chocolate, and a popular earth product called hair conditioner.”

  “Why not just trade replicators programmed with human products?”

  A’Jular snorted. “Because the VaDorok prefer to limit their technology to only what they consider necessary. They don’t consider replicators anything of the kind. Said they prefer to feed their mates and young ‘real’ food.”

  E’budar nodded with interest, making a mental note of goods necessary for keeping a human woman happy. He clicked his claws as he recalled, “Oh, I forgot to tell you. I got an excellent price on those alpak furs your brought back from Dorok.”

  His brother frowned. “I hope you got market value for them. They are superior furs of their kind. I kept the best one, of course, for our nest, but all of them were exceptional.”

  E’budar nodded enthusiastically. In this, he could be completely honest. “They took the lot for a very generous sum of credits. Said their younglings were off constructing their own nests, so they planned on giving them as nesting gifts. Oh! The client is also asking about the blankets you bought back a few lunar cycles ago. Apparently one of their friends got one from us, so they are putting an early bid in for one.”

  A’Jular grinned broadly. There was nothing his brother enjoyed more than aggressive trading and turning profits. Of the three of them, A’Jular was the more ruthless, which is why he normally handled the bulk of the business end, while E’budar managed the books. “We will need to put in an advance order with the human Macy then. Next time you speak with Sara be sure to pass the request along so that she can let her know at their lunar gathering.”

  His brother droned on about the order, but he began to tune him out after the first ten minutes. E’budar had half a mind to start browsing the Mate Index while his brother talked at him, but instead turned slightly as he heard the chime as their door opened. He sat back a bit to better see who was entering and cursed.

  “A’Jular, I have to let you go. Mother is here,” he said in a low voice.

  His brother automatically stilled, eyes widening as he frantically signaled to him to not turn the comm over to their dam.