Have Tail, Will Travel

Chapter 1-3

The more he turned the idea of taking a mate over in his head, he liked it more and more. A female would know what to do with the kits. She could help cook, clean, and coordinate the chaos in the house. Of course, he’d want his mate to be a mate in every sense and have her warm his bed. Winter was cold and lonely on Corra. If she were easy on the eyes would be a bonus, but he wouldn’t be too particular. He’d be happy with any female that could stomach life on a colony and could stomach him.

How to find his mate…

Prospect had married his sweetheart from back on Talmar and sent for her. Merit supposed he could ask his sister to introduce him to any single female friends she had, supposing any of them would be interested in a life with him in the unsecured zone on Corra. He could only assume that Amity’s friends enjoyed the luxuries and conveniences of city life back on the homeworld. He could already hear Amity scold him in that haughty tone of hers that none of her friends were interested in a primitive lifestyle with his rough self.

Primitive. Ha.

His house had all the basics: power, plumbing, and heat. It might not be fancy with an installed AI and bots to do all the cooking and cleaning, but it was hardly a shack.

Besides, any female who got that worked up about not having a bot to sweep and clean the floors wasn’t the female he needed.

He could try to court a female from one of the larger cities in the secured areas, but he couldn’t waste time traveling back and forth, not with Clarity and Dare waiting for him at home. He needed a service that would introduce him to a like-minded female.

His co-worker and friend, Sigald, recently mated, he recalled, to a strapping tall Fremmian female named Belith. Tall, leggy, and with broad shoulders, the blue female took to life in Drac with enthusiasm. Sigald used a service called Celestial Mates.

That’s what Merit wanted, a sturdy female with long legs for chasing the kits. He didn’t care if she were Fremmian, Tal like himself, or even Corravian, so long as she could handle the primitive settlement. Given time, she might even grow to appreciate the quiet of the landscape and the close-knit community the way he did.

He kept the kits busy with carrying baskets of laundry up and down the steps. Amity complained about the chemical smell of the treatment he applied to the furniture and bedding, but short of taking a shuttle into the cities in the secured area–an all-day trip–to shop for another treatment, there was nothing he could do about it. He half-expected her to turn up her nose and refuse to help. Much to his surprise, she pitched in and kept her criticism to herself. Mostly.

After a long day, he fed the exhausted kits and put them to bed.

“Is it safe for the kits to sleep on their beds tonight?” Amity asked.

“The package claims it is safe once it dries,” he said. They treated her bed as well and she would, no doubt, worry about toxic chemicals and carcinogens.

“Anyone can claim anything on a package. They don’t regulate things like that here,” she said with a sniff.

“I’ll take my chances,” he said, shoving the stack of fresh bed linen into her arms. Regulated or not, he’d rather live with potential harm from the chemical down the road than live with itching, biting lice now.

Exhausted, he collapsed face first onto the bed. He didn’t have the energy to change into his bedclothes and fell into a fitful sleep.

The shifting bed woke him. Only one person ever crawled into bed with him.

“Bad dreams again?” He rolled over to make room for Clarity and automatically turned on the light at the side of his bed. A soft glow illuminated the room. He draped an arm over her as she curled up into his side.

She nodded, and her tail wrapped around his wrist, as if to hold him in place. The sensory guard hairs on his forearms stood on end while she snuggled in, only lying flat when she settled.

“You’re getting so big,” he said. One day, she wouldn’t be his little Short Tail anymore. “Want to tell me about it?”

She shook her head.

“Did Dare tease you again?”

“No. Not tonight.”

Merit pulled the blanket over them, the scent of soap tickling his nose. Perhaps he had been a bit heavy-handed with the detergent. “Talking about it can make it less scary,” he said.

“I was in the ground, and I couldn’t breathe,” she said, voice small.

Her timid tone broke his heart. The kits needed stability. Not just someone to cook a balanced meal and clean, but someone to hug and hold them, to love them the way he did. He felt shame at the selfish impulse that wanted to fob off childcare to any willing female.

“It was just a bad dream. It’s not real,” he said.

She nodded, tail squeezing his wrist tighter. His own tail wiggled up between them and brushed her on the nose. She smiled weakly. He’d take it.

“Is Aunt Amity going to live with us forever?”

“Not forever,” he said. He loved his sister but living with her put family love to the test. “She’s going back to Talmar next month.” Amity talked about extending her trip and rebooking her ticket. Corra lay so far out on the rim that ships into Interstellar Union territory only launched once a week.

“Are we going to go live with her?”

“No, Short Tail. Your parents wanted you to stay with me, and that’s the way I intend to keep it.” Why Prospect and Reason thought he would be a better guardian than Amity, he had some idea. He had seen the kits nearly every day of their lives. They knew him. Amity had only visited once, after the birth of Dare, and had only spoken to the kits on holidays and their birthing days. Merit could give Dare and Clarity a sense of security, even if his homemaking skills left something to be desired. Their lives had been through enough upheaval. They didn’t need to go to a strange planet and leave the only home they’ve known.

He moved to turn off the light. “Can we keep the light on?” she asked.

“Of course,” he answered, arm falling back to the bed.

Once Clarity’s breaths fell into the even rhythm of sleep, he pulled out his tablet. The Celestial Mates’ site promised a perfect match. He’d gladly pay the extra fees to rush his application.

He hoped they could deliver. He and the kits needed someone.