The feeling of shame welled inside of me so suddenly it took me off guard. I wanted to hide under our stone. In all my life I’d never felt this embarrassed. It was like being caught masturbating by your grandmother. I was baffled as to where this feeling wasing from. Then I realized it was clearly the result of something happening to Damien and his Brothers.
“Mama, why is your face all red?” Jonathan asked standing right in front of me.
Niah stood right beside my son and he was also staring into my face. I looked like a familiar color to them. Rees could turn that shade in his cheeks, especially when he was upset. It wasn’t like their stripes, this was different. They were very curious why I could turn the same color as their Brother.
Something my husbands had experienced had made them feel terribly humiliated, but I couldn’t focus on them. The little boys were right in my face poking at my pink cheeks.
“It feels the same, only warmer,” Niah said and the rest agreed with him.
They’d definitely seen this before, when Rees got red cheeks sometimes. The Child Keepers had thought it was illness, but the Healers said it wasn’t.
“Why are they red?” Mycah asked reaching to pinch the cheek again.
“I felt… embarrassment,” I said pushing them all back a little. “Humans get red in the face sometimes when they feel certain things.”
That didn’t exin to them why Rees would get the same way. I pulled the little boy toward me and examined his family mark.
“Rees had a human breeder in his line,” I said pointing to the mark. “It was a long time ago, though.”
The boys all looked at Rees’ mark and then at each other’s marks. Mycah was excited to find the same symbol on Jonathan. They couldn’t understand why they all didn’t have one. They wanted their marks to look the same. I was ready to exin when I sensed my family close.
Damien and his Brothers strode through the infirmary’s entrance and I smiled broadly seeing them. I knew they weren’t hurt, but it was good to be sure, nheless. Seeing them unscathed and dressed for battle made me feel better. It still wasn’t clear what had made them so upset a little while ago.
I noted a second family following Damien and his Brothers. The second family all had long hair and their thick, leather coats looked to be for travel. Considering the thinyer of dirt coating them, they must have been traveling. Each of the five men carried arge bag over his shoulder, a sword on his back, and a gun at his waist. The family following my husbands looked as tough as Rayn and his family, but without the friendly smiles.
I got shes of conversation bursting through the bond. Damien was ashamed and he didn’t really want to show me what had happened. Secrets were not tolerated though and I felt him relent a moment before the men stopped in front of me.
“Rynal!!!” Aiden shouted jumping up and down on our stone.
The new men picked up our five little boys and examined them each thoroughly. The little ones reacted to these new faces like they’d been fast friends for ages. Mycah and his Brothers hugged their necks and kissed their cheeks. Jonathan tasted the man who held him, which didn’t seem to bother the man at all. Aiden’s hands immediately sought the long hair of his breeder and caressed the locks lovingly. The boys knew this family from Aiden’s memory.
In my mind’s eye, I saw the conversation.
“We do not enjoy being connected to SLAVERS!” they had roared when they’d met Damien and his Brothers in the transport storage area.
Aiden’s male breeder and his Brothers had loudly bemoaned that they had to be linked through their boy to such dishonor. These men wanted their extended family to be honorable and noble. They would have to spend time with us and be close to us, because of our boys. vers were not what they would have chosen at all.
I stood and made up my mind to greet the new men. The best way to dispel their anger was to prove to them I was not a ve. They were obviously confused about this ongoing rtionship.
“I am Ciara, from Earth,” I said pleasantly to the man that appeared to be the lead Brother, he was holding Niah. “My mates are Damien and his Brothers. It is good to meet you all. Aiden has been asking for Rynal for ages.”
Before the man had a chance to speak I rose on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against his cheek with a smile. I also hugged him lightly before backing away.
“It is how humans greet family,” I exined as he looked quizzically down at me.
I exined hugging and kissing and then waited for the man to respond to me.
“I am Hodlen, born in the T’sparian Mountains,” he said sounding surprised.
I moved from man to man and introduced myself. Each of the men got a kiss and a hug. I made eye contact and smiled congenially. I made sure my mannerisms were of anything but that of a ve. These new men Hodlen, Rynal, Spartian, Tos, and Kee seemed genuinely taken aback by the greeting.
I looked at their bags and noted the sleeping pads wrapped on top. These men had no ce to stay and the camp was really crowded.
“Our bed is small,” I offered politely, “but we would share with family. Would you stay with us?”
Damien had never felt more pride. I was acting exactly as I should. Our bed was mine to share and offering it to these men would be the honorable thing to do. They would have refused my husbands, but Damien had a feeling they would not refuse me.
“You must have been traveling a long time. I’m sure a bed would be a nice change. We would all fit and you would be morefortable,” Damien interjected politely.
Hodlen looked from Damien to me and I saw the first hint of a smile as he responded.
“We left our mountain with a group of twenty familiesing this way as soon as the fighting in our area decreased. That was five day cycles ago,” he said.
“The fighting ended sooner there?” I asked curiously.
The isted mountain camp Hodlen and his Brothers had lived their life in had almost no ore. The dry barren area surrounding it had none at all. It was the perfect ce to hide a camp because of that. The minimal aliens that had attacked that area had been quickly destroyed.N?velDrama.Org owns ? this.