Chapter Five

T he feeling of flying was incredible. She nearly reached up, but her crown was sitting steady as if it were made for her.

“Look, Harwin. The world is opening for you.” Ra murmured it, and she turned her head to look.

A few kilometres away, there was a city rising out of the sand. Buildings. There were completed buildings rising, and Ra banked and flew onward to a second outpost rising near a river.

They flew on and saw seven more cities. Two of them were on the edge of an ocean. They were all rising slowly and deliberately from the sand and dirt they were nestled in.

He banked again and flew back to the pyramid.

“Why did you do that?”

“When I rested, I sent my people away to other worlds. I wanted them safe and flourishing and wanted no interruption until a handmaid would wake me.”

“Why a handmaid?”

“I held out hope for a family one day. Having a female would have made that process easier.”

She blinked. “Uh, yeah. It can’t be easy just to gestate a child in a canister at your size.”

“The size isn’t the issue; it is the energy required to grow a child of my kind. I will need to remain with you about ninety percent of the time and make sure your energy levels are up. It is taxing for the gestating parent.”

“Yeah, I can imagine.”

He chuckled. “I have no need to travel. If my people need me at all, they can come to me. To us.”

Harwin looked at him, and then, she looked at the rising city that they were flying past. “You had a world buried beneath the surface. There must be huge machines to bring them to the surface.”

“Displacement does most of the work. There are small engines to start it, but then, the soil and sand run under the city and push it upward. I thought it was quite clever at the time. I buried two cities this way on your world, but I am guessing they were never discovered.”

“Not in my lifetime. Now, they never will be.”

He smiled slightly. “Are all your people gone?”

“Yes. The survivors are all off-world. The rest starved to death.”

“Ah, well, I can set off my beacon then. I will do it after we are settled. There will be calls. Many, many calls.”

“Why?”

“Because your world is mine, and they did not contact me before stripping it of my people.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. If the beacon responds, all the funds gained by the station with your people will go to me.” He chuckled. “I am very good at choosing resilient species.”

She blinked. “Resilient? We died when that rock hit the surface.”

“You survived long enough for the station to arrive. That is a feat in and of itself.”

There was genuine admiration in his tone.

She didn’t have anything to say. He continued their flight, and it was when the pyramid came into view that he asked, “Why did you only list females on your list?”

“There were males, if they were bonded to humans, but human males get aggressive when they see their own species’ females attracting males of other species. Not all, but many. Too many. They want to mate with the other species’ females but don’t want their female counterparts to experience partners of other species. It’s stupid. It is not all humans, but it is enough that I don’t want the ladies to be uncomfortable. They deserve a stress-reduced environment when they don’t have to watch who they talk to.”

“That does not sound like society has improved since I was there.”

“Some parts advanced, and others regressed. It just takes the wrong person in power to send ripples through an entire country or the right person. I guess.”

He smiled. “So that has remained the same.”

“As technology has advanced, there are fewer physical barriers to men and women doing the same work, and that has caused whole other problems.”

“And now your world is dust, and you are here. You cannot do what I can, and I cannot do what you can, so we have a partnership.”

She chuckled. “It is more than most unions started with back home. At least we have a basic understanding.”

“We do.”

“Do you know why the thief arrived on the surface?”

“Oh, yes. He and others like him spend time in orbit waiting for an opening in the global protections to attack in search of some of the riches I have stored. Also, some of my technology is still vastly superior to what is on the current market.”

He reduced altitude and pulled up as he changed position for a landing.

“You have learned all that in the few days since you woke?”

“You were in repairs for about a month. I caught up to the worlds around me just as I have done every time I have rested.” He smiled. “It is easy when you have set an entire star system to keep track of the worlds around us.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I guess that would make sense.”

“Information from thousands of worlds has played through the room where I rested.” He chuckled and walked into the shadow of the pyramid halls.

“Why are you still holding onto me?”

“Because I will set you down when it suits me, and I have plans for where I will settle you. I have been keeping you in my arms but out of the building so that we had some time between signing the contract and pouncing on you.”

“So, you were killing time?”

“I was using the flight to get used to the feel of you.”

She looked up and heard the light clashing of the metal on her headdress. “Ah. That makes sense.”

“Does it? Good. It was frustrating as hell.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

He glanced down at her as he walked to the stairs and began the climb upward. The team must have packed it in for the day because she didn’t remember seeing them.

“So, we are going to ratify the contract?”

He chuckled. “We are going to start. Once our relationship has begun, we can take our time, and you can begin ordering your people from the catalogue.”

She shook her head. “That sounds so wrong.”

“Well, I have already ordered the first batch of five hundred that you have selected.”

Harwin looked at him. “You did?”

“Of course. This place was always designed for them. I missed your people, and this is the world I had set aside for them. I will take in any of them who are willing to settle here.”

“That’s nice. I think I should see if Kris could fit on the list.”

“Oh, yes. Your partner with the merchant.”

“Yes. I checked, but she isn’t on the available listings. That means she’s somewhere that doesn’t have a lot of communication, or her communication is being restricted.”

Harwin froze. “What?”

“It is less sinister than you think. You were out of contact for weeks. Anyone looking for you would have come up with silence.”

She blinked. “Right. I am going to look for her every day.”

“You are within your rights to do so.”

Harwin sighed. “You don’t understand the bond we have.”

“That bond might still exist, but it is the past. Your bond to me takes precedence.”

“The one we are about to begin.”

He chuckled and walked into a set of rooms with doors high enough to double Harwin’s height. “Correct. I seem to recall that privacy was helpful for humans.”

Harwin’s head spun as he set her on her feet. “Uh, it is. Sex is ridiculous enough without additional witnesses for a couple getting to know each other.”

He chuckled. “Do you need help disrobing?”

“Since I am pretty sure the bots stapled me in, yes, please.”

Ra nodded. “Turn so that I can open your collar.”

She turned, and the weight of the shoulder-covering collar was removed. His hands slid around her waist, the belt was unclasped, and that weight came off as well. He knelt down and got her feet free of her sandals, and then, she was in the soft white wrap and the crown.

He removed his own belt and shoes and then led her by the hand over to a long couch with wide, curved arms. He sat and leaned back on one of the arms with his wings draped over it.

He put his hands on her waist and lifted her so that she was straddling his thigh and her dress was up past her knees. She reached out and braced herself with hands to his chest.

“Will you try and just feel, Harwin?”

“I will try. Are your hands clean?”

He chuckled. “Yes.”

“Fine. How are we starting?”

He pulled her close, and their kiss began as a soft contact that picked up intensity as her nerves became focused, and heat spilled into her blood.

His hands caressed her waist and hips, and each move was slow as if waiting for signs of panic. She relaxed and kept all the small touches, the careful hold when they flew, the grip of his fingers around hers, and everything else in her mind as his hands moved, and then, his mouth left hers to lick and nibble at her neck.

Ra lifted her and moved her to ease the amount of bending he had to do, and she braced herself on his arms, head, whatever she could grab as he moved her around. At some point, her dress had left her, and he eased her to her back on his legs. He could see all of her from this angle, and as he teased her sex, she closed her eyes. Feeling was a lot better than seeing.

His fingers worked against her, circling and sliding until he grazed her clit, and she jolted. From there, he worked with two hands, circled with a fingertip, and slowly worked two fingers into her.

She gasped and tried to keep her hips from moving, but she gave up and shifted with his slow caresses.

Harwin felt the tension building, sweat glowed on her skin, and then, her control broke, and she convulsed.

To her surprise, as she was clenching and fluttering, he withdrew his fingers and slid his hands under her thighs to lift her to his mouth. The caress suddenly got much different as he sank his tongue into her sex and withdrew to give her a slow lick.

It was their first time together, and he made it last.

Her inner thighs were throbbing, partially from the enthusiastic abrading by his teeth and the new puncture marks. The rest of the throbbing was just from being held wide for hours and the current depth of penetration that she could almost ignore until she breathed.

Ra cuddled her. “Harwin, are you well?”

“I think so. A little tired, but otherwise fine.”

He kissed her temple. “Good. I think a bath is in order.”

“I don’t feel nearly as sticky as I thought.”

He laughed. “You needed it, so you kept it. The bite gave you the control nanites you needed to activate repairs.”

“What kind of repairs?”

“Things that will make our coupling easier and less dangerous for you.”

“So, that is why my navel is warm.”

He chuckled. “It has gotten that far already? Good.”

Harwin sighed. “Lovely.”

He lifted her off him, held her close, and stood up. “A nice traditional bath will be nice. I have not been able to soak with anyone since I left your world.”

She sighed and chuckled. “It feels like a stereotype to want a nap.”

“If I weren’t Hmrain, I would join you, but I have to negotiate with some other bond centres today. I wish to get you more of the free females and those mated to folk who exist on Hmrain domains.”

She smiled and leaned her head against him. There were some darker marks on his arms, and when she looked at her hand, she realized it was nail marks. She had clawed the hell out of him. “Sorry for the claw marks.”

He chuckled. “I have thick skin, and yours will adapt as well.”

She sighed.

The room that opened was fragrant and humid. He stepped into the pool-sized bath that had flower petals floating on the surface along with the shimmer of oils.

“Your bots must be exhausted.”

He chuckled. “They regenerate. They are repaired every day. They also clean all inactive biologicals. The blood from the pirate and his body are now being recycled into textiles at the molecular level.”

“Oh. So, like the dress I was wearing?”

“Correct.”

“Ah. Ick.”

“It saves materials in harsh environments, but it is very easy to mutate for those who would use it for ill. I don’t delude myself that I can craft a program so adaptive that I can keep intruders out indefinitely.”

“Maybe some of the new citizens will be able to come up with a concept that will work around it. They are clever. Many are extremely clever.”

“I look forward to meeting with them. They sound like education has been good for your people.”

“It doubled the workforce with the same number of jobs. It made either being a parent or not was vilified by factions.”

“It sounds complicated.”

“It was.” She rubbed her forehead. “And so tiring.”

“Parents no longer choose the partner?”

“Not in most societies. The children on my continent are expected to join the adult world at eighteen and live on their own. It was a way to fill the empty spaces that had been created when the original peoples had been confined to small areas. Plant a house and claim some land.” She sighed.

“That is a change.”

“We would find new homes hundreds of miles away from our original birthplace, and we had to start over again. Have a bad relationship, move and start again. It has created a very tense society. Others in the world are far calmer.”

“I see. Well, this is a new society, and it will be arranged to my specification.”

“Beginnings always work well.”

“I will monitor things so that the society develops evenly. There are resources and options available, and males are not a necessary accessory, nor are females.” He stroked her back. “First, we will make them secure and stable, and then, their education begins.”

“Education?” She yawned.

“Education, evolution. Call it what you like. The humans who are coming to Aten are survivors, and they are going to be given every opportunity to become whatever they like.” Ra paused. “There are some experimental subjects on your list.”

“Yeah. They were considered subpar when it came to matching intelligence or emotional understanding or both. They weren’t bonded out; they were sold outright to find out what the modern human could withstand.”

“The offer was accepted, and they are on their way.”

Harwin felt tears leaving her eyes. “Thank you. They deserve to live their life in dignity.”

“They will, but they are not the women you knew.”

“Whatever they are, I am going to help them settle.”

He tilted her chin up and kissed the tears away. “Sex has made you emotional?”

“It is the first true rest I have had in six years, so I supposed it was an emotional release that I hadn’t thought about.” She chuckled. “I needed it.”

“It is now my pleasure to provide you with that release whenever you or I need it.” He chuckled and kissed her lips.

She blinked and leaned up to him. “It’s going to wear me out.”

“No. I am quite confident that it will not.”

“Well, as long as you are confident. But how do you know?”

“Because your lust is rising again, and I have only kissed you.” He smiled and stroked her cheek.

She relaxed against him and sighed as the warmth and oils in the water relaxed her. “When will people start arriving?”

“Three weeks.”

“How long will the archaeologists be here?”

“As long as you like. They are enjoying themselves and asking me frequent questions.”

“I also would like to hear the explanations.”

“Then, get some rest and relax, and you can join us.”

“Wait, so I can’t join you if I don’t rest?”

“Correct. You push yourself. That is no longer necessary. If you push yourself, you and I will have a chat, and no one will see you until you are rested again.”

“Why are you concerned?”

“You are in a new evolution. I need to keep you under strict observation until you are complete.”

“What happens then?”

“You have the world at your feet, so anything can happen.” Ra rubbed her back and murmured against her temple. “Now, rest. Tomorrow will be taxing, and you still need to eat.”

“Taxing?”

“This is not a one-time event. You will rest, you will change to fit me and change to fit the future I have for you, and our coupling will become easier if more intense.”

She sighed and leaned against him. “Maybe I can introduce the word quickie into your vocabulary.”

He sighed. “Maybe in a few decades, but you have remarkable stamina, and I want to be there for every gasp and tremble.”

Harwin dozed off. “Me, too.”

* * * *

R a waited until she breathed evenly and bathed her gently, careful of all the marks he had left on her. They were already healing but still hot pink against the pale gold of her body. The gold was darkening, and he smiled. The elders were all blood drinkers, but they were able to give their mates more than the younger generations. More life, more power, and more affection. The elders were made more emotional so that they could care for those around them, but it also made losses agony. Dozing through grief was a default, but looking down at Harwin, Ra could sense his craving for the health and prosperity of the beings around him. Harwin was his jewel, his queen. When he imagined a consort, it was a strong, emotional, but amused woman who would stand at his side and not fawn over him. Harwin suited him perfectly. Her world was gone, and he was going to make sure that she found as much to live for as he did.