Page 28 of Devin (Warriors of Etlon #5)

Val

N othing in the world could be much more embarrassing than waking up, stark naked and having your new mother-in-law wanting to meet you for the first time, especially if you are covered in sweat from the night before when her son had pounded the fuck out of you repeatedly.

Devin, for his part, seemed as surprised as she was that his mother had shown up randomly, and he did escort his mother downstairs as fast as he could.

Val jumped out of bed and into the shower, still red with her shame and embarrassment.

She replicated a clean outfit and then sheets.

There was no way she’d get caught on a sheetless bed again with nowhere to hide from someone who had a direct eye shot from the elevator to their bedroom.

That might be a design flaw that she’d have to bring up with Devin.

An open floor plan was one thing, but getting caught in the buff was something else.

The com beeped. Val smoothed down her hair and ran her hands over the little sundress that she’d pulled fresh from the replicator.

It was simple, but she didn’t want to take the time to program anything else more complicated.

She answered the call. The whole wall illuminated with the screen.

Meadow’s face was huge. She looked around furtively.

“She’s not here,” Val said.

“I am so sorry,” Meadow gushed out. “We were all napping when she arrived. And Kave? The idiot just sent her straight up!”

“I was naked.”

“Oh, God. At least you two weren’t doing it? I mean that, that would have been-”

“Can we please change the subject?”

“Yes, right. Is that a waterfall? Your place is gorgeous! Do you think he can add a waterfall to my place?”

That was not exactly the type of conversation pivot that Val wanted. Asking Devin to change any of his designs would not be good for their tenuous relationship.

“Do you have any details about Devin’s mother? Why she’s here?”

Meadow shook her giant head. Val was going to have to figure out how to change the settings on the wall-o-vision. She’d never had enough money to afford places with fancy screens or AIs. Talking to Meadow’s six foot tall head was disconcerting.

“Other than the fact that she must have some serious clout to get a transport here? I mean there are so few people out this way. Part of that is on purpose. It’s super safe. I mean who wants to invade a planet like... except the Suhlik did a few months ago, but that was an isolated incident.”

“Okay,” Val said. That told her nothing about her mother-in-law, except that she was determined and possibly rich.

“Can you dig a bit deeper for me?”

“Me? Deeper is my middle name… wait that could be taken the wrong way. Forget I said that. I was a librarian, you know!”

Meadow’s face clicked off the screen and the wall once again faded into its original color.

“Thanks,” Val said to an empty room. She got into the lift and headed down to the courtyard.

Val tried not to think about the other piece to Meadow’s comments.

The Suhlik had been here? She’d seen illustrations and vids of the shiny golden death lizards, but it hadn’t occurred to her when she landed that they were something to worry about here.

They had said Jane had killed several, but Val had assumed that was when Jane was a soldier in the service.

Val filed the information into the things she planned to ask the ladies about when they had some more down time.

In the far corner of the courtyard, she could see Devin walking away with his mother and a very black man.

Not human black, but inky black. Even his clothes that he wore were dark, but not as dark as his skin.

If she hurried, she could catch up with them.

But then she’d be out of breath, and sticky and sweaty.

No, this required a slow walk, letting them make their way to the base camp.

Hopefully she would be able to give Meadow the time to dig up some information on her mother-in-law.

Any information to help her bond from the beginning would be awesome.

She’d yet to figure out Devin, but hopefully his mother could provide insights.

She seemed ready to talk, if anything. Most of what Val had caught seemed to indicate he’d already listed a lot of her faults.

Did he really think she was that ugly?

Val shook off that thought as she crossed the pavilion. Last night had proved that even if he thought she was hideous, it had no effect on his ability to harden his cock and fill her multiple times.

Val had not gotten a close look at her new mother-in-law, and other than the fact that she was the color of a banana, Val could not say whether she was ugly or beautiful or somewhere in between. She’d been too busy hiding.

By the time she crossed to the path back to the camp, she could see that the three of them had settled at the mess tables, and Goru had come out to meet them.

Perhaps she could sneak around them unnoticed and go directly to Meadow.

As she drew closer, Devin lifted his head up and made eye contact.

The others followed his gaze, and she gave up all hopes of sneaking. They all knew she was there now.

Meadow came waddling over at high speed just as Val got to the table.

“Well?” Devin’s mother glared at him.

“This is my mother,” he said. She actually slapped him on the pectoral muscle.

“Grena,” Meadow supplied. “Daughter of Portuso, Supreme Commander of Takalia, Lady of the Rings of Eternal Light, and Torchbearer of the High Council.”

“That’s right. At least she can introduce me properly.” She slapped her son again for good measure.

“She’s third in line for the throne, after her older brother and sister. That means Devin is seventh,” Meadow continued.

“As Mahdfel, I gave up my claim as soon as I was old enough to do so. It is not fitting for a-”

“So he’s like a prince. Or maybe a duke. An alien duke. The titles don’t quite translate, but it’s close enough. That makes you a duchess! Your Grace.”

Meadow tried to bow, but was thwarted by her belly.She just giggled instead.

Val just sat there slack jawed, eyes darting from Meadow to Devin to his mother. If he came from a rich family, that sort of explained some of his behavior, and why he had been less than impressed with her. She was a homeless out of work waitress with a prison record. He was alien royalty.

“And?” Grena smacked her son for a third time.

“This is my mate.”

“Val, just Val. No titles or anything.”

“Lovely,” the inky black alien said. He was even darker up close. Not a hint of his skin, teeth or nails showed a trace of other pigmentation. “I’ve heard so much about you.” He held out his hand and Devin growled, actually growled at him.

“Really?” His mother said. Devin would have probably been slapped by his mother again, but he actually stood up, circled around and sat next to the alien, putting himself between them.

“I am Captain Cocak.”

Thankfully, both Meadow and Val sniggered at the same time. The way he said his name made it sound like cock up, or someone stumbling over a word.

“Have you heard of me?”

“No. We don’t hear about many aliens on Terra,” Meadow said. “It’s just that your name is a little funny in English. It’s one of the languages on our planet.”

“Terra has many languages? How… quaint.”

“This is the mate of Goru. He is the one to speak to about delicacies for your cargo hold,” Devin said with a pointed look at Meadow.

“Oh, right. Captain Cock up, if you will follow me,” Meadow said. Cocak stood up and made a little bow to the crowd. He followed Meadow toward the command center. Goru must be on shift, which is why they were the only ones up so far.

“I see you have no problems sending him away with someone else’s mate,” Grena said. “Please, sit,” Grena patted the bench next to her.

“Is there anything I can get you first? Something to drink, or eat?”

Val was comfortable standing at the table, offering food. She wasn’t comfortable chatting with a princess, or a duchess, or whatever.

“Quite fine. Sit.”

It had gone from a request to a command. Val sat and glared at Devin. He could at least facilitate some conversation.

“I see you are Terran. I heard that Terrans come in many shades of brown. What shade are you?”

Val looked at her skin, which had darkened in the sun the past few weeks.

“We generally call my skin color white, but now I’m rather tan.”

Her eyebrows raised. “So you change back to white?”

“A paler shade, when my skin is not exposed to the sun for an extended time.”

“That’s not very white.”

“Yeah, but we’ve got years of history and racism built into our culture.”

“I remember reading about that. You had a liberation fairly recently.”

Liberation? Did she mean women’s lib? Or the end of slavery? Val wasn’t sure, so she just nodded her head. “Racism was based mostly on how light or dark your skin was.”

“What a silly notion. No wonder it took the Suhlik so long to invade your planet.”

Val did what she always did when a customer said something she wasn’t quite prepared for. She smiled and nodded.

“And your family? What do they think about your match?” Grena asked. It was a polite and diplomatic question, but it was loaded with subtext and if this woman was third in line for a throne, she knew how to play the game at a level way over Val’s head. Val answered honestly.

“I don’t have a family.”

“Is that customary on Terra?”

“No, my parents are dead and I don’t have any siblings,” Val said. She was all alone in the world and at their mercy.

“Children! Yes, I suggest you have two, and see how it goes from there. I know how hard Mahdfel boys are on the uterus. After all, I produced one myself. I would have had more, but his father had the gall to die gloriously in battle.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Val replied, a bit stunned for anything more than pleasantries. Grena was already planning their family? She must have wanted Devin to settle down almost as much as Kave.