Deep Penetration; Alien Breeders I by Stacey St. James Page B

keep her?” Koryn said tightly.
    Tariq sent him a look of
surprise. “You object?”
    Anger flashed through Koryn. He wasn’t
in a position to object and they both knew it. His bloodlines and
family name were almost the equal of Tariq’s and yet ‘almost’
wasn’t good enough—now. He had neither the power nor the position
to demand a breeder of his own—not in their current circumstances.
If they hadn’t found their nursery devastated, their purebloods
vanished into thin air or dead ….
    He still wouldn’t have been in a
position to demand Emerald if Tariq had wanted her, he thought
angrily. He could choose one if they’d found enough to go around and as long
no one of higher class or power wanted her, she was his.
    Even Tariq stood to lose her if
someone of a higher position decided to claim her.
    That was why he refused to wait, Koryn
realized abruptly. It wasn’t just his eagerness. It was the fear
that she’d be snatched from his grasp.
    His anger waned as that settled in his
mind. It wasn’t a bad plan, he decided once he’d gotten past his
anger and could think straight. If she was breeding, Tariq could
keep her in seclusion and if it was known that he was sharing her
she wouldn’t attract undue notice.
    It did little to cool his
resentment that he couldn’t claim her for himself. He wasn’t
certain he could’ve brought himself to share her with Tariq if
their roles had been reversed, but then he knew Tariq well enough
to know it was eating at him that he had to regardless of his
efforts to behave as if it didn’t matter. “No,” he responded finally, his own
voice tight with reluctance. “There’ll be
no way to keep the other men from talking, you know. Too many have
seen her already. She might not have attracted so much notice if
not for the hair.”
    Tariq snorted. “You think they noticed anything above her
breasts?”
    “ You and I
did.”
    Tariq downed his
wine. “That’s why I intend to keep her
confined in my quarters. I suggest you double your efforts. I
wouldn’t propose it if things were different, but it wouldn’t be a
bad idea to make duplicates if you can get enough genetic material
to do so.”
    “ Not that I don’t see your
point, but I’ve been damned lucky to get what I have!” Koryn retorted angrily.
    Tariq turned to look at
him. “What about the woman you found
today?”
    Koryn frowned. “I don’t know,” he said
doubtfully. “Possibly. I think it’s more
likely I could get enough from the male to make two.”
    “ I don’t give a fuck
whether the women have breeders or not!” Tariq
growled.
    “ They do,” Koryn retorted dryly, “and there are some powerful women behind this
enterprise.”
    “ They’ll be happy to learn
that we’ve found nearly three times as many men than we have women,
then,” Tariq said sourly. “I hope to fuck it isn’t a trend, but it’s
beginning to look that way.”
    “ It’s a little early to
arrive at that conclusion, although I’ll agree it is certainly
looking that way, but I’m not sure it will count in our favor with
the women when we haven’t managed to clone even half the men we’ve
found.”
    The comment effectively
distracted Tariq. “It would suggest a war
as the cause of this mess—either among themselves or with invaders.
The council—everyone—is going to want to know what happened and
we’re going to need the right answers.”
    “ We haven’t found anything
to support that,” Koryn said
sharply.
    “ Except the ratio of men
to women, you mean?”
    “ Except that,” Koryn agreed. He glanced at Emerald, saw that her
jaw was set and her eyes sparkling with anger and repressed a
smile. “Emerald doesn’t look especially
gratified by your claim.”
    Tariq flushed
uncomfortably. “I hadn’t realized I said
that in her language,” he said
ruefully.
    Koryn stared at him a
moment and chuckled. “I hadn’t thought I’d
live to see the day a woman rattled you that much.”
    “ You haven’t seen