The Varkari

Example

At the fourth meeting, that was exactly what happened. I was getting used to coming, sitting, eating a variety of barely cooked meats and random, packaged human food, listening to them talk about us as if we were not among them, and sometimes watch them shout and snarl at one another.

Margaux, Maria, and I were in the middle of a new game we had invented, which we called Smugglebuzz because the Varkari had not determined what it meant. The jist was that we would drink as much alcohol as possible without being too obvious, but as we became progressively more intoxicated, we pretended that we were incredibly sober. The first to slip up or have their male point out that they were drinking too much, lost. The last to be discovered won the game.

That night, Tultan, Zanthar, and Exer were mingling with other males, leaving us at the table. When I was sure that nobody was looking our way, I stuffed my hand into the bag Exer brought and pulled out a flask that I had hidden inside.

"Give me your cups, quick," I whispered, craning my neck from side to side, keeping a look out.

"What are you up to?" Maria asked.

"It's Varkari alcohol. They don't know I found it, but it is extremely strong," I said, pouring about a shot's worth in each of their glasses and slid them back.

Margaux looked absolutely delighted. "Thank you, babe. Ugh, I'm so glad that they don't have fetal alcohol poisoning."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"Yeah, it's not a thing for the hybrids and their tech would fix anything anyway. We're both pregnant," she laughed like it was obvious. "Do you think we would be drinking if it could hurt the babies?"

Flabbergasted, my mouth opened and closed. I was not sure if I was shocked at the information or the fact that they were both pregnant. "Uh, congrats?"

Maria giggled. "When you stop holding out, you will get pregnant right away," she assured me.

"I'm not ready for any of that," I shook my head and took a tiny sip of the papaya–and-bacon-flavored liquor.

"Oh my god, this tastes like s**t," Margaux said, covering her mouth.

"Don't make a face," I warned her. "It counts."

"Get your f*****g hands off me!" Some girl was shouting from the hallway.

The three of us turned toward the doorway in unison, most of the males clustered around the banquet hall also quieting to see what the ruckus was about. A male that I had seen before strode in proudly, dragging a kicking brunette that was berating him with colorful words.

"Ooh, a wild one," Margaux commented. "That's going to cause a ruckus."

I did not want to see a ruckus, but the seated unmated males began to rise and the ones that were standing very still with pupils slowly eating up the golds and oranges. Goosebumps started on my arms and spine again and the need to flee returned.

We all watched as a few more new faces came in with more Varkari, a group of previously unmated males that always sat together. It looked like they had attended the same auction by the way the girls leaned together, but they could also be terrified. I scanned their necks quickly one after another, noting that three of the six were already bitten. The brunette was not.

Throwing all of her weight backwards, she dug her heels in with a shriek of rage and several males twitched, muscles bunching, ready to surge forward. Her "owner" snapped his jaw at her, something I was learning was a warning, then gave a bristling snarl to the rest of the room. Spines flew up along his shoulders as he observed the other predators looking at what was his. The tension in the air was growing by the second and I squirmed in my seat.

Margaux leaned back in her chair with an amused smile, too callous. "Oh yes. Zanthar did say they went out together and found a cache of girls living in a school bus. That's going to piss off the others since they did not go through the proper channel."

"Why is she doing that?" I breathed. "Can't she tell what she's doing?"

"I don't know, but she is going to figure it out any second," Maria whispered back.

"Becca, stop," another of their group said.

"I'll stop when this piece of s**t lets go of me! I'm not his f*****g property!" Her hair flew about as she put all of her strength into hitting him, not realizing that he was not even paying attention to her.

"Stop looking at her," the male growled low. "She's mine."

"She doesn't act like she's yours." A voice spoke up.

"-doesn't want to be yours," someone else echoed.

"We captured these humans ourselves. Go find your own or do not be so lazy that you must buy yours," one of his groupies bit back.

Zanthar sighed in that bored way of his and put his hand in a pocket. "You should have prepared the unmated ones for our customs better or left them at home. Now there will be a bloodbath for your arrogance."

"Yes? And who will challenge me?" The male goaded.

To our surprise, the Speaker stepped forward, light reflecting off of his blown pupils in an eerie flash, armor descended where it could be seen and spines ready. Except, he was not looking at the brunette, but a mixed girl with a short high-top who was frowning. Her male had three silver hoops drilled through one of his horns.

"That is my female. I challenge you for her," he said to that male, eyes never leaving hers as if they were both trapped.

Several things happened at once. The Speaker and the hooped male launched for each other, crashing loudly in a flurry of spikes and plates almost too fast for me to follow. The light-skinned girl turned and ran for the door, stopping short when the guards crowded in her path, reaching for her. Three other males surged forward, attacking the belligerent one with the brunette so he was forced to release his hold on her. One of the three attempted to grab her, but she dropped down and started crawling under a table.

Mated males struggled to get back to their tables, while some of their mates took the opportunity to scramble away from the fighting. A table screeched as it was torn off the cylindrical base that acted as a dumb waiter and went flying. Some were trying to corral the terrified women, others were fighting to claim them.

It was absolute chaos.

My breaths were coming in short pants as I panicked. I spotted an exit by the stage and craned my neck to look for the one I thought I had seen at the back of the room. The only other went to the hall and bathrooms. This could be my moment to run, to get out of the Varkari city.

I weighed my options, scanning the masses of bodies, skidding chairs, and shattered glass. Legs straightening, I stood up, ready to make my escape and turned for the back exit where there were abandoned tables and no fighting.

"Ellie," Exer exhaled, putting a heavy hand on my shoulder. I was so nervous, my knees almost buckled. He was pulling another girl along, a hand on her swollen belly. "You sit here, my dear. I'm going to see if anyone else needs help."

Damn it. I looked between the ongoing fight, now spraying droplets of blood onto the white tables, and the exit, torn and confused as they rolled and snarled their deafening roars. I couldn't think with all the shouting. I spun toward the stage, searching for another pathway, but my eyes landed on the Admiral.

He was angled toward the fight, but the bright yellow rings were watching me. But there was a chance it was just a trick of the light reflecting in the back of his eyes, too. I looked past him to the door and back once, twice. I moved my chair a few inches to the side, adrenaline filling my body, preparing to bolt. His silver-black spines prickled upwards.

Fuck. He knew. He f*****g knew I was going to run.

"What are you doing, i***t? Sit down," Margaux hissed at me.

I startled, looking away from the male that terrified me and to her confused face. It was then that I realized the girl next to me was sobbing, arms wrapped protectively around herself. "I-I...I'm sorry. I got...spooked is all. Here, have my water," I said, giving her my glass and pulling my chair back, folding into it.

Shaking all over, I downed the alien alcohol in one gulp, turning to look at the fighting one last time. While I kept my face toward it, I looked under my lashes at the Admiral to find his gaze on the fight as well, spikes sheathed. So it had been a warning. Damn it.

The Speaker rose from the fray, absolutely soaked in blood from the mouth down to his thighs. His plates had nasty, deep grooves across the front and long slashes on his inner arms dripped more crimson liquid onto the floor. When he turned toward the poor mixed girl with a proud gleam in his eye, she screamed.

"No! No! No! Please! Somebody help! I didn't do anything!"

My heart squeezed at her cries, but the guards holding her by the arms simply handed her to him. He took her wrists and said something to her, too quiet for our human ears, but she looked absolutely stricken, round eyes streaming tears.

"Please, please, ple-ee-eese," she begged him, sagging with a fear that had disrupted her motor functions, paralyzing her like an antelope. "No!"

The Speaker moved her to the nearest table and hauled her onto it on her back. She was shaking so hard it turned her wails into staccatoed notes. My hands covered my mouth in horror, but I couldn't look away as he exposed her neck and drove his canines in, drowning her voice away with the force.

Deafening cheers went up and I closed my eyes, realizing how close I had come to that very end myself. If I had run, someone absolutely would have chased me down, maybe even the Admiral. I shuddered. What was I thinking?

There was more yelling as the brunette was lifted into the air, totally unconscious and dangling limping from his raised hands. It was another bloodied warrior and not the hooped male that had brought her in either. He did not bite her at that meeting, but chose to bring her to several thereafter with an exposed and unmarred neck, always with her hair up. When I asked Exer why, he shrugged and said it was purely just to demonstrate to the hooped male and the other unmated males that he could protect what he had won. Eventually, he did lay his mark on her, but nobody glanced at me twice after that. There were always more humans being found and brought in and I made sure not to say anything above a whisper or make any quick movements.

I couldn't be sure if he was watching.

After that first fight, Konderick occasionally tagged along to the less important meetings. Exer reasoned that he could cater to the pregnant females at the table if needed. I was surprised to see just how well they acted together, with Konderick playing the respectful butler to Exer's disinterested leadership. When I told them so, they both seemed overly cheerful that the ruse was solid even to my eye and we had a celebratory dessert at home. Mine was a twinkie and theirs was blood pudding that came from a blood bag.

Tomato potato.

The meetings became very dull for me since I was unwilling to leave the table to mingle or speak in more than a whisper for fear of drawing attention to myself and the fact that I was yet unclaimed. While the Admiral and Lords would discuss the resistance of the remaining humans, harvests, food stores, expansion of the alien city, and plans for the future, I had taken to discreetly glancing around the room. Often, other women were doing the same thing. Some who were more new looked forlorn and defeated, a wrist tied to the belt of their male to keep them from running, while others looked completely at peace with their new lot in life and leaned into their mate or sat on his lap. A group that Margaux often joined treated the gatherings as tea parties and would talk loudly and cackle like hyenas while Maria and I played tic-tac-toe on napkins with a pen I had found.

My greatest trial was trying not to ever look at the Admiral. Of all the males there, he seemed the most lethal because he was far too calm. Occasionally, the hairs on my neck would prickle in awareness like someone was looking at me, maybe even him, but I never tried to find out.

After the discussions, there was the food of course. They used human chefs to prepare nutritious and balanced meals for us, but the Varkari tended to only have huge slices of raw meat on their plates or tankards of blood. Apparently, bringing in human men to drink during the festivities had not gone over well, though I couldn't imagine why. The most awkward thing to see was that often a male would drink from his partner which seemed to be a very intimate and enjoyable act for both.

Once, I secretly did glance at the Admiral to find him watching me while it happened, burning me under his golden gaze. I immediately started counting the threads of the table cloth to avoid rubbing my thighs together, his stare doing something to my body I could not contend with.

I was almost constantly on edge, but I had an excuse, didn't I? They were fearsome, terrifying beasts... and yet, my eyes were continually drawn to the bulging muscles, the rippled abdomen and sharp lines of straining pectorals and the severe lines of their otherworldly faces. The growling, snarling, and roaring helped nothing. They made sounds, purposefully to drive the human women crazy, that were primal and like nothing I had ever heard before.

The difference between these aliens and men was that the Varkari had not lost that pure male essence that existed on an instinctual level. Humans had lost all their instincts, they said. Something about the Varkari called to the base urges of every female there. I could see it in every one of their faces. It was surreal. I heard their snarls and growls and felt them way deep in my bones. The uncontrollable reaction I had was terrifying.

Listening to Konderick and Exer whisper sweet nothings to each other in the night was difficult considering I would never have my own. Months of being a placeholder and years of being single before that made a girl long for happily ever after, but I knew it was not going to happen in this lifetime.

And he noticed.