Page 40 of Ancient Rising
Den asked Addy, “Food motivation?”
“Our world was dying, and food was going fast.Delicacies of youth were long gone.”Addy smiled.“We have gotten a few things back that we were missing.Friendships and soccer.”
Molly snorted.“Football.”
Addy lifted her brows and bared the deadly fangs she had sprouted.“Soccer.”
“It is a game with a ball, and you can only use feet.Football.”Molly glared at her.
Addy paused.“Right.It’s football.”
Seventeen of the women clapped, and the others laughed.
Monique smiled.“She can be taught, but you can see where the fights came from.”
Ra laughed, and Den was still staring at Addy.Harwin watched Addy glance at him, widen her eyes, and cover her teeth.
Harwin asked, “Something about her fangs?She has worked hard to speak around them clearly.I think she does a great job.”
Den shifted in his chair.“It isn’t that.I haven’t seen a female with deadly teeth like that outside of a history book.It is stunning.”
Addy muttered, “I pierced my tongue about nine times.”
Den chuckled.“That was a few months of puberty for most of my family.It is awkward.”
She nodded and looked down.
Harwin nibbled at her dinner as the flirting happened in front of her.“Wow.”
Ra chuckled.“He did say that it would be obvious.”
Addy’s head snapped up.“What would be obvious?”
Harwin was going to speak, but Lord Den said, “Whether you and I were remotely compatible.”
Harwin watched Addy’s hands curl and her ears twitch.Addy muttered, “Oh.So, your species is what I was blended with.”
Den nodded.“They used three-thousand-year-old DNA, but yes.You exhibit the characteristics of hunting females.Modern females don’t need to hunt.Cities cover the worlds now.”
“But you are still...uh...hunting?”
He smiled.“My siblings, cousins, and family in general keep the genetic stamp of Heyba, the consort to Drenko.She had teeth like yours.She faded from our world before I was born.”
“Faded?”
Ra said, “That is what it is called when consorts are tired of life and wish to rest.The Hmrain usually goes into a period of mourning for centuries or thousands of years while they look for their consort in her descendants.”
Harwin blinked.“Oh, that’s so sad.”
Ra sighed.“It is.So, I am going to keep at least one ruin on a distant world to feed you if you begin looking tired of life.”
Harwin blinked.“What?”
“You are interested in ancient things, and I am an ancient thing, so I am singularly qualified to keep you involved and interacting with the world around us.”Ra lifted her hand to his lips.“I have walked on hundreds and thousands of worlds and will walk them all again with you at my side.”
She blinked.“Really?”
“Really.Any children we have will support Aten and the other worlds in this sector, and you and I will have a refreshment of our union in the stars.”