Page 36 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid (Hybrids of Yulaira #1)

“Cordelia is… she is special to me,” Rentir offered haltingly. “If she has changed me, I do not feel worse for it.”

“That’s all very well and good for you, but what of those who do not wish to be bound to a female?” Xeth demanded. “What if the others become bound to a female that they do not admire as you do this Cordelia?”

Rentir rubbed the back of his neck, having no argument against the point Xeth was making. Ven looked down at his brother with alarm, no doubt wondering if Thalen had been ‘compromised’ as well.

“Worse,” Haerune interjected. “What will happen if more than one male is influenced by the same female? You have been pushed to the precipice of violence by my mere presence, and I am your brother, your oldest and closest friend.”

Rentir’s blood ran cold at the thought. It would be bloodshed, undoubtedly.

“What are we meant to do? Quarantine them all?” Rentir bristled at the notion. “We did not fight for our liberation to imprison others, surely.”

“We?” Xeth muttered.

Haerune glared a warning at Xeth, tendrils twisting angrily.

“It is not the same,” Ven argued, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “We must think of the danger to them, to all of us.”

“I will not allow it!” Rentir said.

Ven stepped closer, glaring. “You do not have the authority to make such a decision.”

“I could say the same of you.”

Ven sneered at him. “Then I shall call Yelir up here and catch him up on the events of the past few days, as I should have in the first place.”

Rentir’s blood ran cold. “You can’t,” he said, throat tight. “Not without Thalen here to mediate. You know what will happen.”

He would take control of the males on the upper floors, and he would not bend to compassion for the women.

One whiff of this, and he would throw them into quarantine without a second thought.

Or worse—if he knew the Aurillon wanted the women, he might seek to use them for bargaining power.

He was not an evil male, but he was pragmatic.

“Put your cocks away,” Xeth snarled, flicking his tail hard. “You even look at that comm, and I’ll put through the ground, Ven. The last thing this situation needs is Yelir putting his spin on everything.”

Rentir was surprised by the show of allegiance. What had he said when he’d asked him what his problem was? The same thing that’s wrong with you. Had Xeth… bonded with one of the women?

What of those who do not wish to be bound to a female? he’d asked. He shared a knowing look with Rentir. Were his new instincts causing him to rebel against the idea of imprisoning the women?

Haerune sighed, sinking into one of the plastic chairs.

His tendrils went limp and spilled over his shoulders.

“I do not know that quarantine is necessary. We are not yet sure what causes the change to occur. Lidan has made casual contact with some of the females, and he is unchanged. I have been in close proximity to them for days, though I have not touched them, and I feel no different.”

“Did Thalen have contact with them?” Ven asked.

“Ah… not that we are aware of,” Haerune answered before Rentir could explain about Sophia and her branch. Surely being clocked over the head wouldn’t cause him to bond with her, anyway.

Ven’s tense muscles eased.

Rentir paced a few steps, contemplating. He stilled, looking at Xeth. “The answer must be in the commonality between you and I. Which female have you attached to?”

Xeth’s jaw ticced, and he stared pointedly at the far wall as his tail raged. It smacked a chair hard enough to tip it over, the loud clatter echoing off the empty walls.

“Her name is Seren,” Haerune supplied on his behalf. “The one with red hair.”

Xeth’s scyra sharpened, lashing a gouge into the wall before shifting back to its neutral shape. The tips of his ears twitched.

“And you touched this Seren?” Rentir probed.

Xeth glared at him. “She was all but nude, and it is cold on the mountain during the early dawn,” he spat. “I feared she would die of exposure.”

Rentir blinked. “Just how closely did you touch her?”

Xeth growled, the sound a bass rattle that kicked around in Rentir’s chest. Rentir held up his hands in a gesture of peace until Xeth subsided with a scoff.

“I have touched and kissed Cordelia,” Rentir said. “Though I believe I have been attached to her long before that.”

“What is kessed?” Haerune scratched his head.

“Kissed,” he said, correcting. “It is when you press your mouths together. The experience is… arousing.” His cock pulsed in agreement.

“So, there is a word for it,” Xeth murmured. His gaze went distant.

“You have kissed Seren?”

He blinked, looking momentarily confused by the question. “No, of course not.”

Ah, then he meant… Noa. The males had been lovers for many years in secret.

It had been Noa’s loss that served as the spark of their revolution.

Rentir looked at Thalen in the medpod at the far end of the room.

If not for Thalen’s willingness to implement his plan ahead of schedule, Xeth would be long dead for the violent treason that had followed news of Noa’s “retirement.”

Haerune sighed. “There is no sense in speculating, for now. The best course of action is to avoid direct contact with the females until we know more.”

The door slid open, revealing Fendar’s familiar, scarred face. His long, red hair billowed forward with the shifting air pressure in the room. He rolled his neck, cracking it loudly as he stepped across the threshold.

“Thalen?” he asked.

Ven stood aside so he could see that their leader was still being treated by the medpod.

“He’ll live?” Fendar frowned at Thalen’s battered body.

“He will,” Haerune said.

Fendar’s gaze drifted over them, narrowing as he took in the tension of the room. “This is about the females, I presume.”

He righted the chair that Xeth had knocked over, sinking into it with a weary sigh.

As he stretched out his legs, his hooves screeched over the stone floor.

His tail draped limply over the arm of the chair, too fatigued for even a twitch.

He turned all three of his weary, yellow eyes on Rentir.

“So, are you agonizing over your female, as well?”

Xeth growled a warning that Fendar didn’t bother to acknowledge.

“No,” Rentir said, smothering his doubts about the way Cordelia was keeping distance between them. “Far from it.”

Fendar nodded in approval. “Good. What point is there in all we have achieved if we refuse to embrace our futures?” He crossed his ankles, slumping in the seat. “Unless we intend to take up the work of our creators, we will have to find another way to continue our kind.”

“We do not have a kind,” Xeth grumbled. “We are amalgamations, dissimilar even to each other.”

“Not all of us,” Ven murmured. “You really think we can… procreate?”

Fendar shrugged. “Why not? What say you, Haerune?”

Haerune’s tendrils writhed an anxious rhythm. “I don’t know. I have not seen any evidence that we were sterilized—there would have been no reason to bother, without any females present. But that doesn’t mean our genes are compatible with life.”

“But they could be?” Ven pressed. “There’s a chance?”

Hesitantly, Haerune nodded. Ven sat back down in his chair, apparently stunned to silence by the revelation.

Rentir wasn’t immune to it, either. Cordelia willing, he could potentially have…

kin. What did he know of being a father?

The idea of such a thing towered over him, making him feel immeasurably small.

“I have a sense about it,” Fendar offered, and they all looked at him uneasily.

Fendar’s ‘senses’ were hardly ever wrong.

They were nearly prophetic. “We do all share auretian genes, and Haerune has alerted us to our human DNA. There’s no reason to believe we couldn’t mix.

Isn’t that a terribly amusing prospect? Imagine a dozen little Xeths running all over the base, kicking the other hybrids in the shins and demanding their extra rations. ”

“You are tiresome,” Xeth grated.

“Funny, I’m sure you hear the same often enough.”

Xeth bristled, his black claws lengthening.

“Put those away.” Fendar waved a lazy hand.

“I’m not getting up to fight you. I’ve been awake for three days straight trying to get those Aurillon bastards out of our systems. Worthless fools.

If it weren’t for the Gidalan’s AI, they’d never make it past my firewalls in the first place.

” He closed his eyes, resting his head against the wall.

“Well?” he rumbled without moving. “What are we going to do about the females?”