Page 36 of Golden Darkness
“I am bound by contracts of care to the crew and to my colonists on my worlds. Out here, it is best not to have things ambiguous. When we sign a contract, any Hmrain who wants you will know they will have to contact me or kill me to take over my territories and you.”
Janessa leaned back. “What the actual fuck. That kind of thing doesn’t happen, does it?”
“No, Hmrain generally try to steal companions and breed them before their bondholder can find them.” He sighed. “But if we don’t have a contract, I have no means to get you back. I can’t prove you’re mine. No one knows who you are yet.”
She tensed her lips and then remembered the station, the frightened faces, and the training lines and classes. Humans were entering a new universe that had been theoretical until their world cracked. She wasn’t equipped to be out here alone. “Fine, show me the contract. I will sign it.”
He sighed. “I do not like how grim you have become.”
“This is the normal me. I am very practical about my chances out here now that the Vel-ech have mutated my normal mind into a companion brain. I need you for more reasons than my affection for you. The thought of being without you scares me.”
He caressed her spine. “You will never be without me, but we still need to take precautions. If you are in a registered contract, your face, print, and ocular scan will be as well. You will exist in the archive, and any peacekeeper outpost will be able to contact me.”
“To retrieve your property?”
“To retrieve my mate and destroy anyone who dared to take her from me.” He tilted her head up and pressed a kiss to her forehead.
She smiled. “If I was my normal self, that wouldn’t have been a consideration.”
“But, it was not your standard self that woke me, crying out in pain that echoed through my nerves. It was not that self that was dying in my arms. I have never known the other you, only the woman you are today.” He kissed her again. “I like this woman. She is fun and serious, bright and amusing, serious and considerate, and she loves to learn. Her hair silky and the colour of a Vrakash tree, her eyes flash with her moods, and she prefers leggings to skirts and boots to shoes. And she is also keeping the Hmrain etiquette learning module for last, after snail keeping.”
Janessa smiled. “Wow. You have been paying attention.”
He nodded. “Nothing else has been my focus. Even our chats with Neebath have involved keeping you safe. I have managed to connect with all of the owners of the stolen items. Several are willing to come to a neutral point and pick them up from a secure courier. But for three, we have to go world by world.”
“One direct handoff is the container to the archive.”
“Correct.”
“The other two?”
“Two of my younger siblings.”
“Oh, so that is why the contract.”
“Correct. One of them is not a concern. One of them is.”
She nodded. “Right. So, when did you want to sign the contract?”
“I have a standard one, but I think we had best tailor it. Few species need to build in the consumption of blood.”
“Yeah. There are only eighteen on the list so far.”
He chuckled and eased out of her. She complained and tried to keep him inside her.
“Greedy, but I am hungry. All of this wanting to get other males off your skin is exhausting.”
He moved down her body and licked between her thighs before biting near a previous spot and inhaling her as he sucked.
When he licked the wounds closed, she muttered, “Why do you always lick from there?”
He grinned and loomed over her. “I like the view.”
“Oh, you are joking.”
He shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t joke about that.”
She frowned, and he kissed her. She tasted herself on his lips with the tang of blood. There wasn’t a lot. It was all for him.