Thrace left with Gregory, with the understanding that Agg would follow with Rafe and Ilson.
With a careful adjustment, Agg rebalanced Rafe over his shoulder, trying not to bruise his precious cargo. The ends of Rafe’s trailing hair tickled Agg’s back. The most he’d done to Rafe’s hair had been to lop off the excess whenever it grew past Rafe’s shoulders.
Although the special table Ilson had built had suspended Rafe above the table itself for regular daily exercise and stimulation—and the elimination of most of the physical side effects of spending so long in such a deep sleep—it had been easier let Rafe’s hair grow than to try to keep it neatly trimmed.
He’d managed to do better with Rafe’s fingernails and toenails, but that was probably because Rafe’s hands and feet had been easier to get to and manipulate on the special table in Agg’s natural form. He’d only finished construction of his human a few short weeks ago; he’d woken Rafe as soon as he’d convinced Mother he had enough control over his new form not to revert involuntarily at every turn.
Ilson had adapted the technology that had supported Rafe’s deep sleep from data he’d gotten out of the Yeeru mothership a great many years ago. The communication between the old bo-pads and the mothership continued to fail, making the data harder to get to with every passing year.
Someday the mothership’s shields would fail and someone would find a way to haul it up out of the depths of the ocean, even if piece by piece. But until then, the ship remained in its watery grave, buried so deep in the dangerous ocean that no one had seen it in more than three thousand years. Every image of the mothership in existence had come from the time before the Canton Wars, when full-blood Yeeru and humans had managed for a time to live in harmony, creating a remarkable civilization together, the remains of which one only had to travel to the sixteenth to see in all it’s terrible glory, half buried under the polluted waters of Lake Lucine.
The Canton Wars had cost them all and left behind a legacy of distrust and conflict that lingered. The New Canton Republic was the latest attempt to forge a new civilization made up of both human and Yeeru. While the Repub seemed to be holding steady, the tension between humans, Yeeru, and the half-breeds seemed to be on the rise again.
Unfortunately, the commcast had been full of reports of the growing hybrid population. Since hybrids had all the characteristics of Yeeru and none of the humans, certain anti-Yeeru organizations had become more popular than ever as they warned of an impending catastrophe, blaming Yeeru—again—for the theft of their world and the destruction of the magic castes that had ruled humans before the Yeeru mothership had crashed into the ocean and changed their world forever.
Even Agg could see that news of the resurgence of the Yeeru mating wouldn’t do anything but bring strife to the already struggling republic. So the mating remained a secret the Yeeru Conclave was determined to keep away from humans for as long as possible.
But not even the Conclave knew that Agg’s adopted nestling Cole and his mate Kyle had somehow created a nest with magic. That was a secret no one outside Mother’s territory shared.
If humans discovered that the interbreeding of humans and Yeeru was creating Yeeru with magic, the world might very well disintegrate.
On the other hand, Agg had more pressing matters to deal with, such as taking Rafe back to his temporary home which had been a gift from Thrace and Gregory. Agg already had thoughts about where he wanted to mark his own territory, but he’d waited, knowing it wouldn’t be long until he was ready to wake Rafe.
He settled one hand firmly on Rafe’s ass and held Rafe to him with his other arm across Rafe’s thighs. In as solemn a tone as he’d ever used, he said to Ilson, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for my Rafe. I’m in your debt.”
Ilson fluffed his fingers through his pale brown hair and smiled. “Mother appreciates it when her nestlings help each other out. But don’t worry. I’ll collect, someday.”
“A fair deal,” Agg said.
“Bring him back to my lab for some more tests after he calms down. I’ve learned more from him over the last ten years than I learned in forty studying dead humans. I want to follow up.”
Agg nodded. He started to turn away but Ilson stopped him with a hand on Agg’s arm. Agg barely resisted the sudden surge of Yeeru instincts at the unexpected touch. He still found it difficult to rein in his monster when something startled him.
“Put some pants on him. Humans don’t usually like it when strangers see their genitals and their asses. If he wakes up naked again, it’ll just make him less tractable.”
Ah. Agg frowned. “He really didn’t appreciate how considerate I was trying to be earlier. I’ll have to explain that to him again.”
Ilson let out a soft snort but turned and pulled something from a shelf under the table behind him. “I kept the clothes he arrived in. They’re old but there’s no reason they won’t still work. He didn’t lose much mass during his sleep.”
Agg gently lowered Rafe to the ground again. He took the clothes from Ilson, tossed the underwear and shirt aside, shook out the trousers to be sure nothing had crawled inside, and then crouched beside Rafe’s lax body. He carefully worked the trousers up Rafe’s legs, then fastened them just as carefully, his breath hitching as his fingers tangled in the curling pubic hair around Rafe’s cock.
As Agg worked to straighten Rafe’s pants, Ilson walked over to the special table where Rafe had lain for so many years. He ran his hand over the sleek edge. “The technology worked surprisingly well, even if it didn’t do exactly what we wanted. I expected more negative side effects of such a long sleep, but Rafe seems perfectly healthy. It’s almost a disappointment to have to retire it now.”
Agg didn’t want to know how surprised Ilson had been that his efforts with Rafe had been positive instead of negative. The whole idea that something could have gone wrong twisted him up inside in a very unpleasant manner.
He patted Rafe’s groin gently. “He seems comfortable enough.”
Ilson looked down at Agg, his gaze skimming just long enough to stop at Agg’s groin. “I don’t have anything for you to wear, sorry.”
Agg had come to the cavern as his human, but he’d been an oceandog inside Ilson’s laboratory that morning and hadn’t been wearing clothes. He couldn’t just create a set of clothes out of his living flesh, although he could keep the pliable material inside him once he’d put something on if he morphed into one of his other forms.
Until he’d created his human, he’d never had to worry about clothing. Yeeru didn’t wear clothes—it was a hindrance to an instantaneous reversion; making room for the extra mass deep inside his other forms added to the time it took to revert, even if it was only a fraction of an instant. During a fight with another Yeeru, that time could be the crucial difference between one vanquishing one’s enemies or one ending up as nothing but a splatter of bits and pieces spread across a rival Yeeru’s territory.
“That’s fine.” Agg pushed against his knees and straightened, then leaned back down to haul Rafe over his shoulder again. “I don’t care who sees my genitals or my ass. I went to a lot of trouble making them, they deserve to be seen.”
Ilson laughed softly and gathered up whatever it was he considered important enough to take with them as they left. It could be a while before anyone returned to the makeshift laboratory.
They walked out together into the tunnels, and Agg felt a strange regret. His life was about to change again, and he hoped he was ready to be the man his Rafe needed him to be.