Page 29 of The Royal’s Bumblebee (Operation Colonise #2)
Ultimatum
Izule.
I chuckle, draped over a large plump beanbag on my right side in a grand social room with my siblings.
Billie is laid on her right and snuggled against me, so I have my tail curved back over the beanbag as a protective wall between her and the rest of the room.
I have my head propped up on my right fist and my left arm is draped over her waist.
It’s been a few months now and my family is used to my mate.
Their beanbags are all facing ours, but they don’t make any loud or sudden movements, and they don’t make an attempt to touch her.
They are wearing plain colours without patterns and no one wears anything shiny.
Even Vrujac is being nice to my mate and forgoing his usual golden adornments.
Likely because he has learnt his lesson.
If Billie isn’t comfortable, I will take her back to our nest, to the abyss with what he wants. Vrujac is trying to have us out and social as much as possible. Alaric is due to make a visit today, so it’s important to him that Billie is seen. Billie is here for this reason, but she holds a handheld device to allow her to ‘casually work whilst being social’.
“Can you believe it? She’s already gravid.”
Jajana is coiled up around the beanbag to our right with a letter in her hands.
“Wow.
I didn’t know Szelor had it in him.”
Halas snorted from beside our sister.
“He didn’t waste any time to tangle with ‘The Lady of the Jungle’.”
“I would wager it’s more likely that the Rapali huntress pined Szelor to the ground and mounted him into a tangle.”
Vrujac sneered, not a fan of the Rapali at all.
“Zassa is now our sister through Szelor, and at some point will likely visit, so you will need to be kinder about the Rapali, brother.”
Jajana gently chided the King.
“Besides, Szelor writes like he is displeased with most aspects of his life in the jungle, but not about his new mate.
He seems to rather like her.”
“He likes bumping pouches, more likely.”
Uczaz sneered to one side and shared a nod with Vrujac.
If Saxci was present she would have shot him a warning look, but she was not feeling well today.
She’s feeling the strain of being so close to laying her egg.
“There is more to a relationship than sex, you Gissoks!”
Jajana hissed and I chuckled, which earned me a stare from my mate.
“I agree.”
I quickly save myself from getting a hood full later by siding with my sister.
“Happiness comes from more than just shucking.
If Szelor is happy, then it is from more than mating.
Companionship comes from more than someone’s scent or slit.”
Billie nodded at me and returned to looking at her handheld screen.
She’s wearing a long loose brown skirt and a sleeveless vest.
Her brown bob is neat, and the code on her smaller screen is reflected in the lenses of her glasses.
“See? Izule agrees with me.”
Jajana hissed at our brothers.
“Izule has his mate laid beside him.”
Vrujac chuckled with a glass of liquor in his right hand.
He took a sip and winked at Jajana’s pout.
“Our brother will say whatever he has to, to ensure he’ll get to ‘bump pouches’ with her later, rather than have to take himself in hand instead.”
“Ha!”
Halas snickered and I shoot him with a warning look.
“Like Izule ever has to take himself in hand anymore.”
“Brother?”
I warn him.
“What? You float about the place with a big dopey grin on your face at all times.
You’re getting laid so much you are permanently laid back.”
Halas sticks his tongue out at me and dares me to correct him.
“I will take you to the wrestling mat.”
I warn Halas, but I’m smirking as I say it.
Billie and I are active with our mating.
There had been part of me that expected sex, stimulus overload, to be something Billie would struggle with.
I find that as long as I let her initiate it, we’re good.
Wonderfully, she initiates mating at least once a day.
By the time 5pm comes around I’m practically drooling with anticipation.
Billie can do anything if she’s given the time, she tells me.
I am reaping the rewards of my patience now, as she is snuggled with me with my nosy siblings clustered around us on bean bags.
She wouldn’t have been able to do this a few months ago. Now she seems comfortable here, typing away on her phone and smiling as she listens to us bickering as siblings do. I am pleased that she and Hannah have started to spend time together again. Tumva has started as one of the Elite Guards, the lover of Billie’s sister, and therefore living in the guard barracks. When I go hunting or have to attend a royal gathering with my siblings during the day, I am reassured to know that Hannah can visit Billie. If she isn’t working. If Billie has planned her visit. Honestly, Billie prefers to be undisturbed as she works.
“My King.”
Ambassador Rerasha slithers into the room, his bright orange scales and yellow wrap around skirt making me dart my eyes down at Billie.
“Rerasha.”
Vrujac nods in greeting to the Ambassador and waves a hand to the empty beanbag beside him.
“Are you alone?”
“No, he isn’t.”
Alaric walks beside him with a dark grey suit and his hair in a neat quiff.
“It is a pleasure to see you again, King Vrujac.”
“And you as well.
Please, join us.”
Vrujac waves to the beanbag beside him again, and this time Rerasha and Alaric take their place.
Rerasha coils around the beanbag and Alaric tries to look as regal as the rest of us as he sits in the middle of the beanbag.
He crosses one leg over the other, draped over Rerasha’s orange tail, and leans back against his side.
I see my brother lift up and puff his chest out with his hood.
It’s Alaric who is the important ally, here, so my brother pays the human the most attention.
“Ah, Billie.”
Alaric tries to address my mate, but she continues typing on her handheld device.
“Are you well?”
“Of course she’s well.”
I answer for her and widen my hood.
“I am taking excellent care of her.”
“Calm yourself brother.”
Vrujac chuckled and flicked the end of his tail over towards me.
“Alaric was not insinuating otherwise.
It’s…small talk, isn’t it?”
He checked with Alaric, who smiled and nodded.
“Exactly that.”
“I don’t like small talk.”
Billie speaks without looking up from her screen.
“She doesn’t.”
I shrug with a grin, and Alaric chuckles.
“Regardless, it’s good to see Billie.
Her work for Allico Inc is vital.”
“How so?”
Jajana politely asks and a servant slithers around to pour drinks for everyone.
I abstain.
I don’t want to have any buzz from the liquor dampen what will take place once we’re done here.
It’s 4pm, after all.
“Well?”
Alaric chuckles and looks over at Billie.
“We’ve had confirmation this morning that the next wave of Allico Inc vessels has been successfully redirected to AU 418.
Thanks to the data mined and transmitted from our global satellite systems Billie has programmed and coordinated.”
“So Humans will colonise Lazevis?”
That’s what we call AU 418.
Vrujac hummed curiously and pushed for more information.
“What do you know of the planet? You didn’t know Thelia was already inhabited when you set off from your home planet.
Can you tell if Lazevis is inhabited?”
“Earth was 100 years in hyperspace away.”
Billie spoke up and looked over at Vrujac’s chest.
“Even with our best deep-space telescopes, we couldn’t tell if Thelia had sentient life forms present, until we arrived.
AU 418, however, is the sister planet to this one, so yes.”
Billie nodded.
“We have been able to see structures on the planet’s surface that are not naturally occurring.
Agriculture and architecture are indicative of a sentience race.”
I smile with pride at my mate.
She is so intelligent.
“Which means there is a high chance that there is a native sentient species present, or there was, at least.”
Rerasha added and adored Alaric with his eyes.
Ah, now I remember.
Those two are lovers.
“Which is why I’m here.”
Alaric took a deep breath and cleared his throat.
I see him looking at Billie and I tighten my coil. “Billie?”
He addresses her and she lifts her head to show she’s listening.
“Your work is very important to us.
We have just set up a state of the art communications centre in the Delta 4 compound.”
My pupils sharpen as I realise what he’s about to say and shoot my eldest brother a warning stare.
“You will have the main office to yourself, and plenty of space between you and everyone else.
20 agents will work directly under you and we can coordinate further colonisation on Thelia, as well as AU 418.”
“Alaric tells me that’s where you were going to be stationed when you arrived? As per your specifications?”
Rerasha helps his lover.
“You said you came here to discuss business?”
Vrujac narrows his eyes on Alaric.
“And I am, but this was the only way to see Billie in person, so I had to come to the palace, since she’s declined every invitation I’ve sent her to come to one of our colonies.”
“Of course she has.”
I hiss and I don’t give a damn if my brother glares at me in warning.
Billie is mine, and I’ll bite this shucker before I let him take her.
“She works efficiently from her office in our nest.”
“She would have access to better technology in the Delta 4 compound.”
“Oh, the same compound that was recently raided?”
Uczaz wades in and I owe my brother a drink later.
“That’s hardly a safe place for someone so important to your people’s survival, is it?”
“Nowhere on Thelia is safer than in my palace.”
Vrujac adds.
“You wish to talk about safety?”
Alaric sits more upright.
“One, on the last Gcorket this very palace was invaded by Naltik and Eryan forces.”
The ambassador tenses behind his human lover, but Alaric is fierce with his stare at my brother.
Not a smart move, bringing up the event that took our father from us.
“Billie was right in the middle of all that violence.”
“And I protected her.”
I hiss deeply and Billie shrinks down beside me.
“I kept her safe and secure in my nest.”
“Listen here Alaric.”
Vrujac slides off his cushion and looks ready to hiss down at Alaric, but Jajana waded in with the icy smoothness of a Queen.
“Alaric, we had no human casualties.
Billie is safe here, with Izule, and every Royal in this room would put themselves between her and danger.
She is a member of this family.”
“Too shucking right she is.”
Halas just earned himself a drink as well.
“And?”
Jajana speaks as if to tell our brother to back off and let her deal with it.
She raises a hand to wag a golden scaly finger at Alaric.
“Delta 4 compound was recently raided by the Rapali, leaving many wounded humans in the wake of another being stolen.
From the heart of your security wing.
If you can’t even protect a botanist, how do you expect us to believe you can protect my brother’s mate?”
“And of course?”
I finally weigh in, lifting up from the beanbag and surrounding Billie in the tight coil of my tail so she is hidden from view.
“Billie is my mate.
Your compound is not built for Ucfeni to live amongst you, and I will not be parted from my mate.”
“Please see reason?”
Alaric tried to reason with me. Ha.
“I see no reason for you to think you can take my mate from me.”
If he tries I’ll bite him.
I’m seconds away from baring my fangs at him, but Billie’s hands on the top ring of my coil distracts me. “Billie?”
“Excuse me?”
She speaks softly and pushes her glasses up her nose. “Alaric?”
“Yes Billie.”
His hand is over his com-gem, and I wonder if he plans on summoning Allico security officers, but he’s not that foolish, is he?
“My work is important for our people, yes?”
“Vital, yes.”
He speaks with relief, like Billie has seen reason.
No, I don’t buy it.
“Okay.”
Billie nods.
“Let me keep working like I am, here, in Izule’s nest, or I’ll quit.”
She turns to look up at me and I grin at her.
“I’m not going.
He can’t make me.”
“No, you’re not, my love.”
I lean down and intend to scent her lips with my tongue, but she pushes up to press a kiss to my mouth.
It’s the first time she’s kissed me in public, so I gasp and smile into the kiss.
When she releases me she’s blushing and pushes her glasses back up her nose.
“Billie, please, you weren’t supposed to be in the sponsorship program, but when you chose to become Izule’s charge, we went with that.”
He tried to sound like he was being reasonable, and we weren’t.
“But your sponsorship term has finished now.
We need you at the Delta 4 compound.”
“I don’t care.”
Billie rested her hands on my coil and looked to Alaric’s chest as she spoke.
“I am happy to keep working as I am, or I can quit.
Either way, I’m not leaving Izule.
We are mates.”
“Yes, they are.”
Vrujac lifted up higher on his tail.
Good.
If he didn’t take point on this, I would, and my fangs would already be out.
“Billie is as good as my sister.”
“Our sister.”
Jajana physically moved between the outsiders and the rest of our clutch.
“I think you’ve overstayed your welcome, Alaric.”
“We can continue to discuss other matters.”
Vrujac slithered over to Alaric, making it clear we are still allies, I bet, but also nodded towards the exit.
“But Billie is non-negotiable.”
“But the prince can’t continue the Royal line with a human mate.”
Rerasha tried to back his partner.
I ululate with a gravelly wrathful edge.
How dare he comment on if Billie and I can breed.
That is none of his business, nor does it change how I feel about my mate.
“He doesn’t need to.
He’s my 37th brother, and isn’t required to breed at all.
Now have a safe journey.”
Vrujac is hissing at the edges and struggling to contain his anger on my behalf.
He just got a drink on me as well.
In fact, all my siblings have earned my gratitude as they made a line between me and Billie, and the outsiders.
I kept Billie in my coil as Rerasha escorted the human leader away.
“I won’t go.”
I blink and look down at my mate.
She has put her handheld device away and her hands are tugging at her skirt.
Her honey brown eyes are fixed on my mouth and I use both hands to rub her shoulders.
“No, you won’t.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“I don’t want you to go either.”
I chuckle and adore her with every scale on my body.
“…good.”
Billie nods and shuffles closer to hug me around my waist.
“Can we go back to our nest now?”
“Yes, we can.”
No one stops me as I lift Billie into my arms and wind quickly down the palace corridor toward our nest.