Who I Belong To

"You lie," grunted the white beanpole, his words so dry he could cut someone with them. But it didn't phase Axis in the least.

Then again, Axis was at least three times the size of the other male, so it wasn't like he was much of a threat to him.

"According to our information, Midnight Across The Vast Fields is the next in line for the position of Alpha," continued the Viarvi.

"Then you might want to update your information. My younger brother relinquished his title a few moons ago. He has now been disinherited by our father," shrugged Axis, and I couldn't help for a moment to feel bad for his brother.

In our commune, the worst thing that could ever happen to you was for your family to turn their backs on you. It couldn't have been easy for his brother.

The white beanpole shrugged his thin shoulders, the most human movement I had seen him do. "Your father has 72 other sons to choose from. I don't think he will miss you."

Holy shit. And I thought I had a lot of siblings, but I really had nothing on Axis with 74 brothers. Maybe his father and the Prophet should meet up and exchange pointers. 

"He won't," assured Axis. "But that doesn't mean he won't retaliate against anyone who harms his family. It would be seen as a direct challenge against him."

There was a long pause as if the Viarvi was frozen. Then, suddenly, he dropped to the ground, not moving.

"Frack," grunted Purple Dude as he kicked the male's white robes. "He's dead."

"I know that The Alpha has been known to invoke fear in others, but not to the point where they drop dead from it," sneered Axis before spinning around and bringing me back toward the furs.

Unfortunately for me, the black one at the very top had suffered the most from the explosion. There was dirt and debris all over it, turning it almost grey in color. "Don't worry, Little One," grunted Axis, grabbing all the furs that could be salvaged into one arm before walking away. "I have more of the medvjed furs in my ship."

"Stop!" shouted a bunch of males as they rushed forward, their guns drawn, and stared at the scene in front of them. I think they were one of the more interesting species I had ever seen. They looked to have an entire fish on their head, the rest of their humanoid body coming from their belly.

The tail of their head flicked back and forth with their agitation. They literally looked like fish out of water right now as they stared at the much larger werewolf and demons.

"No one is allowed to leave," continued their leader and I could feel Axis' sigh of frustration.

"We had nothing to do with its death," sneered the werewolf, and I looked over his shoulder to the beanpole that was crumpled on the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

One of the fish people walked toward the body. He crouched down and inspected it, turning the head from one side to the other before moving on to his limbs. "He's right," grunted the fish coming to his feet. "He was killed by a katutxoa."

There was a gasp going around from all the bystanders that I hadn't noticed until right that moment. They became restless, shifting from side to side before the majority took off in a mad sprint.

"Hurry up and quarantine all the ships docked to the station," shouted the head fish, completely forgetting about me and Axis, let alone the other males. "We are going to have to go down into a full lockdown. No ship is allowed to leave without a thorough inspection. Then we will fumigate everything before we can reopen."

Five of the eight fish species spun around, sprinting off in different directions as the tails in the back of heads waved side to side with every step it took.

If I wasn't terrified about what was going on, I might have burst out laughing.

"We'll take her back to my ship," said the Silver Dude, sorry… Ba'dqeel, as he reached out to take me from Axis' arms. The wolf simply growled, holding me tighter.

"Frack that," shot back Axis. "I'm taking her to mine. She is my mate, after all."

Ba'dqeel looked around, noticing the smaller silver male's attention focused on us. Leaning forward so that he was almost squishing me between their bodies, he hissed at the werewolf. "She goes to my ship, or she loses a mate. Kind of like your Alpha, she can afford to lose one or two mates."

Instead of taking his words like the threat I was sure they were supposed to be, Axis simply smiled. "But I have the furs on my ship."

----

I was seated on He'dtaalh's lap as the two of us watched Ba'dqeel and Axis take on the two demons that made my skin crawl.

We had gone to Axis' ship to get all the furs, but since all the ships were on lockdown until they were fumigated, we couldn't actually do anything but bring them all back to Ba'dqeel's ship.

Apparently, he was considered the head ambassador of his people, which meant that little things like lockdowns and deaths didn't apply to him at all.

"She has to be returned to the Viarvi," grunted the male I now knew to be Vi'dta. He'dtaalh had given me a crash course on all the names of the males in the room, including his own, and I was trying to commit them to memory. Too bad I really sucked at remembering names.

"No, she doesn't," grunted Ba'dqeel, standing on the other side of the table from his nephew. "She is a hirini from our planet and needs to be returned."

"That's zezena shit, and you know it," sneered the princeling. I was never a fan of Prince Eric from the fairy tale, and that impression was being superimposed on the real-life prince in front of me. The male was a complete and utter dick, and I had met my fair share of them.

"Either way, she doesn't belong to the Viarvi either," snarled Ba'dqeel.

The male beside the prince, Nai'dqa, was about to open his mouth to say something when the door to the conference room opened, and a very upset male entered.