He nodded. “When the geneticists evaluate human females, they are looking for these alterations.”
I wasn’t sure that I believed him about the serum. What I’d feltfor him had been so powerful, and so unlike anything I’d experienced before. Maybe the Drakes weren’t aware it had that effect? But what I asked was, “Why are Drakes looking for females with talents, weird eyes, and good color perception?” I was confused. I could see why two of them might be useful things, but why all the secrecy around it?
He visibly swallowed, before saying, “Females with that genetic sequence have proven to be compatible with Drake physiology.”
When I just stared at him, wondering if I’d interpreted that right, he grimaced, and said in Primal, “They can mate with us. And now, with this newest serum, they can have our offspring.”
My heart slammed to a halt. “No. Fucking. Way.” The words emerged with an outraged squeak, but the reality was that my pulse was bounding, and warmth flooded clear through me.
This was even worse than mating.
I turned to bolt, but somehow, he was between me and the door. He reached to me, but when I recoiled, he held his hands up instead. “Wait, please,” he said, and the genuine emotion in his voice froze me to the spot. “You should have been told all this at your evaluation. It is custom to do so.”
“I might have been, if I’d had one.”
His eyes widened. “You have not been evaluated? That—explains much.” He rubbed his temple hard with one hand before he continued. “My people are dying, Jaz. But the Drolgok scientists have discovered that some human females can save us from extinction, by having Drake offspring.”
“So, you’re using us like broodmares?” I couldn’t believe this. Zyair wasn’t any better than Kurt and Travis.
“Brood—mares?” he asked.
“Animals used to breed.”
“No. I mean, yes, many of the Drake clans see them that way.” Zyair seemed increasingly agitated. “But my elder brother—the leader of the Raptors—wants to enter a new, cooperative relationship with humans. He believes that would work for both of our species.”
They needed human females to give them children. How likely was it that they would seek human cooperation, when they didn’t need it? I eyed him, not sure I could believe what he was claiming.
“So I could give you children?”
He nodded.
“And you could tell that by the way I smell? The Taziers sniffed me and called me ‘ripe’. Is that what they meant?”
His nostrils flared, and his eyes flashed emerald as a muscle jumped in his jaw. “It means that you are ready to take a Drake as a mate.”
“Is mating a permanent arrangement?”
His mouth straightened. “Once you fully mate a Drake, there is a chemical exchange that takes place that binds you to that Drake forever.”
His voice was so hoarse it almost obliterated the final word.
“So I’m bound to you?” I could barely whisper it. To come all this way, and end up caged anyway…
“Triads mate one female. You have not mated with Rhodes or Xandros yet,” he said quietly. “So you can leave now and be fine. Most likely.”
I tried to ignore the pain in his voice, and in his eyes. “What would happen, if I’m notfine?”
“The chemical bond is like an addiction—if not renewed regularly, your body would go into withdrawal.” He straightened. “I assumed that you knew all this. I thought that Senaik brought you along because he had plans to mate you. I should have realized the regulators would not have let you leave Earth, if they had known you were a breeder.”
“So do YOU want to use me as abreeder?”
“No!” His reply was sharp with denial, and he took a long breath before continuing. “You and me—I thought you were accepting the mating, that was what I asked. But I did not know we wouldlock. It is not a mating thing, it only happens when you find your truemate.”
True mate? “What is that?”
His hand lifted, as though he wanted to touch me, but then it dropped again. “It is a Fated thing.”
Fate? My ears heard the word, but my mind shoved it away.
