Draguna Doragon: I actually made up the clan name myself, for the nice reviewer that asked . (Yeyinde)

And here is the next instalment! I hope you enjoy!

Kim giggled again. It seems she couldn't stop giggling this morning.

After yesterday and their mating romp, Katel had insisted they stay in bed all day, only getting up for the bathroom, food, and at one point Kim had persuaded him to let her check on Terre.

All she got for her troubles however, was a hiss and a locked door.

That had troubled her, 2 days and Terre not leaving her room?

But she soon forgot her worries when Katel smelt her anxiety, and gave her something to take her mind off it…

Speaking of Katel, he was laid on his back, out like a light, one arm lazily by his side, the other draped over Kim's hip, giving her a nice warm fuzzy sensation.

She was snuggling.

Never in her life, had Kim ever thought she would ever snuggle.

But here she was, her long black braids tucked behind her ears and falling down her back behind her, her emerald eyes bright with blissful content and her peachy body a pleasant contrast to Katel's. Kim carefully hovered her hand over his stomach, and traced her fingertips delicately over the ripple of his abdominal muscles. The black flame birthmark that covered his chest seemed more significant to her now, a personification of his nature. Hot tempered, and eager to burn those stupid enough to cross him, but warm and full of life when respected. And Katel deserved respect.

Her exploring fingers glided like feathers up his chest, and she used two fingers like legs to step from one diamond shaped mottled brown birthmark, to the next. All around the base of his neck, and slowly round the outside of his face.

Katel stirred, unconsciously leaning into her innocent ministrations, and brining yet another giggle from her lips.

I could get used to this, you know. Waking up with you by my side.

Her fingers retreated down the arch of his front, performing their own elegant ballet over his colossal pecks and back down to his abdomen, all the while his steady breathing never changed tempo. Kim smirked evilly, and smoothed her hand to his warm skin, and down under the covers sprawled haphazardly over his buff hips…

She chuckled when a thrumming clicking vibrated through his throat and chest softly. A few more dangerous flicks of her fingers, and she would have him.

Kim leaned up on one elbow, and brushed the back of her fingers over the ridge of his thick member. The clicking became slightly louder, more insistent, and two amber eyes opened, immediately searching for her.

And when he found her, he looked down her still naked body with approval, before turning her over.

"Good morning." She chuckled, finding it very amusing that a few cheeky strokes to end up with her on her back, again, and being pinned by her new mate Katel.

"Good morning." He clattered, dipping his face into her neck and nuzzling her with his mandibles.

"Did you sleep well?" he nodded, not taking his face from her intoxicating neck. Their powerful smell of sex still clung to them even now. And we have already inconvenienced the shower… he smirked against her neck, his mandibles opening slightly, as he remembered exactly how they broke the shower. No matter, he would fix it. And then they would have to test its durability again… "Any nice dreams?" at that he looked up, a look in his amber eyes which plainly said I'm-a-predator all over, before opening his mandibles and silencing her morning chatter with his overpowering tongue. Kim moaned softly, losing her adventurous fingers in his dreadlocks and turning her head to one side for a better access point to him. The feel of her velvety tongue over his was almost enough to drive him into a total state of nymphomania.

When they parted for breath, Kim licked at one of his lower mandibles before placing a sweet kiss on the other. "I'll take that as a yes then?" he clattered, pushing himself up to his knees before her. Kim sat up to, and stretched her arms up. In doing so, she allowed Katel to see her ample 'milk glands' as he called them, jiggle slightly.

Was he doomed to see her exposed and want to spend the rest of his life in bed, with her, mating madly?

It seemed that way to him. "OOoooh, I need something to eat I think. And some water, and perhaps a shower." He raised a brow at her, making her blush. "When it's fixed. Maybe I could borrow the one in Terre's room…" her face fell instantly, as did her hands to her knees. "I haven't heard from her in days. Maybe she's really sick, or dying." The urgent look in her eyes screamed PANIC. But Katel did what he did best, pulled her close and pushed the foreboding worries from her mind with a tender embrace. He then reached over to the bed side table, and placed the translator on the back of his neck.

"You can only go to her after you have dressed, eaten, and prepared your mind. A clear mind is a ready mind." He brushed his mandibles over her face, and pulled her to her feet next to the bed.

"Alright. But…where are my clothes?" at a glance, Kim couldn't see them anywhere. She could have sworn she put them down on the bed…

"I will get you some more." Katel let his talons brush against her hips as he walked over to the wall. He pulled it open, swinging the doors to fold on themselves and reveal what looked like a wardrobe. "I made a spare set of clothing for you. Here." Katel threw the change of clothes to her, before getting dressed himself. He decided the best way to get out of here without his primal urges insisting on him to take her again, was to keep his back to her and put as much clothing on as physically possible.

First his brown shorts with a hanging cloth attached over it, short, above his knees, and his body mesh under that. He kept this up with his utility belt of deadly weaponry, and started clipping on his cutting disk, and withdrawn spear.

"How far away from Earth are we?" Katel raised his head at the question, but continued to pull on his metallic gauntlets. They ridged sharply over each knuckle, allowing swift fluid movement, unlike the Earth versions he had seen in glass boxes. They also had lethal wristblades just waiting to pierce the bone and flesh of his pray.

"Many years by Ooman travel. Why do you ask?"

"I was just curious." He looked over his shoulder, and realised it didn't matter how much he put on, the sight of her just made him want to take it all off again.

Kim had her black braids tied high up in a ponytail, cascading down her back. She wore a leather skin corset, thick, good for the lessoning of stabbing and blade attacks, and excellent at defining her athletic, feminine figure. It held her milk glands in place, and her moulded into the dip of her waist, and the curve of her hips. It made her shoulders look strong, with only thick straps holding it up, and a square skirt that came down to her knees. It was made from a thick material, resembling brown denim, but obviously came from the hide of a large animal. It had rectangular strips cut into the sides of her legs, all the way up to her hips. Only the belt held the two pieces together and in place.

And underneath all of this, she wore a brown version of his body mesh.

Kim thought it made her look like a cross between a cowgirl, and a hooker. She laughed at that, and her emerald eyes lit up brightly.

It was enough to send Katel crazy.

Since when had he become so susceptible to the mere presence of this female? His famous self control and curt restraint had been striped from him, along with his sanity, by nothing but a simple smile and proximity of this woman.

And yet…that didn't seem too bad. If it was going to happen, he was glad he was reduced to the very emotional messes he sneered at back on home world, if it was with Kim.

Quickly, the distance between them as cut short, and Kim found herself embraced in his muscular arms. "You big softy." He clattered at her.

"You won't be saying that after our training session today." She raised a brow, looking into his gleaming amber eyes. "I intend to up the stakes. We shall be returning to home world, and you must be ready."

"R, r, ready?" she didn't like the sound of that. "Ready for what?"

"To impress the Clan, of course." He lifted her chin with one clawed finger, and traced her face with his mandibles. "You are my mate now Kim, I have the right to present you to my family, and my clan." He then clattered loudly. "I mean, I think they have the right to meet their future Qu…" Katel quickly cut himself off, realising he had just dropped himself in the Kainde Amedha pit.

Kim's eyes had grown to the size of two large saucers, her lips slightly open and her hands frozen on his chest.

"Wh…"

"Ahem." He cleared his throat, and stepped back from her. "I will just go and check the bridge. We wouldn't want to go off course." His futile attempt to run for it (the only time a Yautja will try to escape is when they have angered their mate. Usually the male is the one retreating), was just that. Futile.

"WHAT were you about to say?" he stopped at the door, already anticipating what was about to happen.

If the drone and it's halfbreed Ooman Queen were sleeping…they wouldn't be for long. "There future WHAT!" Kim marched over to him, and pushed his shoulder.

Little did she know that was an insult, and a challenge.

On instinct, Katel whirled round, his long dreadlocks whipping through the air until his amber eyes locked onto enraged emerald ones. His mandibles were already flared, a roar just waiting in his throat. Katel had to try really hard to contain his impulse to bark in her face and demand respect. She doesn't know, I better warn her.

"Do not push my, or any other Yautja's shoulder like that Kim. You will soon find yourself in combat if you do."

"I'm not pushing 'any other Yautja'." Kim scowled, poking at his shoulder again. "I'm pushing you! Katel, I demand to know what you were going to say. I think I have a pretty good idea, but I swear." She pointed her finger right at his face, a sign of disrespect none had ever dared to show him. "If it is what I think it is, you are in some serious trouble, on a HUGE scale!"

Katel growled deeply, mandibles still flared, his temper flickering within him once more.

It seems that Kim had already forgotten her perfect depiction of him already. Like fire, that should be respected. Or it would burn you. And the fire in his eyes at that moment, looked perfectly hazardous to scorch her whole.

"Kim."

"What!"

To Kim's utter amazement, Katel suddenly bent over laughing, the trilling sound tickling at her ears while his shoulders shook. "What!"

"Don't you see?" he stood tall once more, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We are just as bad as each other. We are the perfect match!" Katel never thought he would ever meet someone else with the same reaction time from calm, to furious in his lifetime. But Kim proved him wrong.

"…you're changing the subject!"

"Come, sit. If you clam yourself, I will explain."

"Too right you will." She muttered, grumpily following him to the bed. She was all furious and ready to take him down, when he laughed and seemed all happy with her. It had totally taken the sting from her anger and she couldn't get it back. damn him.

"My people, the Yautja, are split into many Clans. Mine is the largest of all of them, the Toj Yen We are also…quite influential back on the homeland."

"Influential?" Kim raised her brow again, her arms folded and knowing she was in for more than she had bargained for here.

"…we have much honour, and own much land. It has been that way for hundreds of millennia. We are respected and trusted by not only our clan, but all the other clans too. In fact…we are obeyed."

"Obeyed?" the look on Kim's face clearly said get-on-with-it. "And what do you mean by that?"

"As my mate, you will also be obeyed." He paused, and hoped she would leave it at that.

But this is Kim, we're talking about. Since when in her life had Kim 'leave it alone'?

"Like a politician? Or the wife of a warlord?"

"Or a Queen." Katel braced himself. Any second she was going to erupt, he knew it. Her eyes would widen, her fists would clench and she would hiss and scream with all the might in her delicate little body. He even stiffened, encase she lashed out at him.

"…Royalty." Kim blinked at him, as if on a loop signal. "Like royalty."

"Yes." Right, here it comes. Any second now.

"A Queen? Of an entire race?"

"All over the galaxy."

"And this would make you…?"

"The future King. I was a prince, but now that I am mated…"

"A prince? You're a prince?" Kim seemed very calm. Too calm. He predicted this was the calm before the raging storm. And the storm would be similar to the ones in the southern lands, were trees were uprooted and entire buildings thrown from one side of the world to the other. "You're a prince?" she repeated. "This whole time, a prince. Royalty. Frigging royalty." Oh Gods, here it comes. "All this time, the military base, the explosion, us, and you never thought to tell me THAT YOU'RE A FUCKING PRINCE!" if he were still a pup, he would have ran for cover right now. Kim had risen to her feet, in the exact posture he had predicted, fists by her sides, feet shoulder length apart and panting with rage through bared, gritted teeth and a scowl that could turn his bronze Awu'asa white. "HOW could you not TELL me YOU'RE A PRINCE! Something like that is supposed to come up in conversation you know. Like when you asked me to be your mate the first time, you could have said 'oh, and by the way'." She stomped her foot. "'I'm a prince of a frigging super race of warriors, spreading all over the galaxy, and possibly the next one, and you will be a fucking Queen if you agree'. DIDN'T IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU THAT I WOULD WANT, no, NEED, to know something like that?" Kim collapsed back onto the bed, holding her head and looking to him pleadingly. He didn't like this, she looked vulnerable right now, not at all the raging fury she had only moments before. "I can't be a Queen. I can't rule your people."

"Our people. You are my mate, and as such, you inherit all that is mine, including my heritage and culture. And title."

"Why Katel." She rested her forehead on his chest. "Why didn't you tell me."

"For three years, I have never introduced myself as Prince Katel Toj Yen. It never occurred to me to do so with you." He sighed. "It never occurred to me that you would be Queen of my people until now."

"You never even thought about telling me?" Katel stroked the back of her head, and thrummed in his throat, a natural mechanism to sooth a distraught mate.

"I had…thought about it. When we were separated, and I stayed in the trophy room, I thought of many things. At first the life we wouldn't have, the pups we wouldn't sire, then my family being able to honour and bless us, and our pups. And then I thought about being a lone ruler for the rest of my days if I returned."

"If you returned?" she looked up, too hungry, to exhausted to stay angry at him. And besides, why did he not think of himself as a Prince for 3 years? If she was a princess, she wouldn't hide that for any time of her life. So why did he?

Katel looked away shamefully.

"I am not…as brave as you might believe me to be. I am honoured still, but I could not bare…life in my kingdom. You see, I refused all prospects of mating that my parents put before me." He took one of her slender braids and twirled it around one claw. "Maktel was always the perfect son. Mated, pups on the way, brilliant leadership skills, responsible. Level headed. The perfect prince, and the perfect son." He leaned over her, taking in the unique scent of her hair that he had come to love dearly. Like the rest of her. "I decided that I had had enough of being compared to him, and shamed for not following his example. Mostly for not securing an heir and my…temper." He cleared his throat, and melted when Kim reached up, and cupped one side of his face with her strong, but soft hand.

"You're both different people. No one could expect you to be the same. That isn't your fault."

"But it is. I made no effort to change. Instead, I fled from my problems. Like a coward." He snarled, and couldn't bring himself to look at her. "The whole reason I had been captured on your planet was because Maktel discovered my intentions and followed me there. At first I hunted, avoiding him. Apparently he had left a massage stating we had gone on a brotherly hunting trip, so we were not followed. He stayed with me for a few months, hunted with me, and left to take back our trophies, calm the kingdom, be with his mate…and then he would return with fresh supplies stay with me a few more months."

"How long were you doing this?" Kim crawled over to kneel right by his side, placing her hands on his shoulder. Katel had turned himself completely away from her, resting his elbows on his knees and hanging his head forward in disgrace.

"For three years. And the disgusting thing is, I liked it. The quality time I spent with my bother, albeit annoying, was the best time spent with him in our entire 30 years. We became closer than ever before, hunting side by side like true brothers. On Earth, we weren't princes, we were warriors, who lived for the hunt." Kim stroked his vast back, reassuring him while he continued. She couldn't help but feel pity for him now. "But one day we got sloppy. One wrong move, one wrong step, and I bumped into him."

"Why is that so bad?"

"Because I smashed him against a wall, damaging his cloaking device through the controls in his wrist." He took a deep breath. "I would not leave him, vulnerable, so I ran to him. Something we were taught never to do as pups. When on the hunt, every hunter cares for their own welfare, because if you don't watch your back, can you be sure anyone else will? And if a hunter is so unskilled that he would need help, he is not worth saving."

"But he's your brother."

"Yes, and it was my fault he was revealed in the first place." He spat, furious with himself. "His death was almost on my hands. But we survived long enough to be captured, by the Oomans you worked for. I don't know how long we were there…" As he grew silent, Kim felt a question pop up in her head insistently, one which she had repressed because she didn't want to know the answer. But…

"What did they do to you?" she remembered the scars she had found on his forearms. They had gone now…but they didn't look like regular cuts and grazes.

"They took blood samples, and other samples." Kim wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, and he placed a hand over her arms under his chin. "They tortured us, spoke obscenely to us. I am actually glad they did, or I wouldn't have learnt to understand Ooman." He clattered softly. "I don't know what they did with our blood or our equipment. But they never found our ships, which are programmed to stay in close proximity to our body signatures. I…took the liberty of adding you to the radar the other day." Kim smiled and kissed the side of his neck. "We would still be there, if it wasn't for you." He turned to face her, feeling the eternal love he knew he would feel all his life coursing through him, in appreciation and gratitude for this beautiful creature who had plucked him from the darkness, and bathed him in glorious light. "I will be proud to present you to the Clan, and my future Queen." He nuzzled into her neck, blissfully happy to stay like this for hours if she let him.

"But you said your brother is the perfect prince. Wouldn't he and his mate be King and Queen first?"

"We may be twins, but I was born first. And as the eldest, I will rule before him with my Mate as my Queen. That is why I was so pressured to change myself into their concept of a prince. Because by ancient law, I must rule before my brother. And I must have a Queen before then." He smiled, pulling her over his lap and hugging her chastely. "And now I do. I wasn't going to return to my homeland…but now I have a mate, there is nothing preventing me from returning in honour, with my trophies, and my mate. I have everything my family wanted of me, they can no longer show me distaste."

"…how about the fact that your mate is Ooman?" he blinked at her, but simply shrugged.

"All the more reason to ensure you are well prepared before our arrival. There are no rules saying that any mate or queen must be Yautja. Only that they must be skilled, true hearted, and willing. And I believe if you are not already all of the above, you will be before we return."

"…Katel…Queen? I don't think I can-"

"I don't think; I know you will be a worthy Queen. And believe in you. If you do not believe in yourself, know that I believe in you. My beloved." Kim sank into his embrace, loving the warmth she felt from him now, how much more easily he was able to express his feelings to her. Before it had all been lust. But now, she knew in her heart it was all love, unconditionally and completely. As she felt for him.

"I love you Katel. I still don't think I'm the kind of mate your family will approve of, or the kind of Queen you can be proud of…but I'll try." She kissed his forehead. "For you, I'll try."

"Queen…?" Kim snapped her head over to the door, her eyes wide as they met with onyx black ones. Long blonde hair with black bangs, pale ivory skin and trembling hands coiled around the door's edge, a hissing sound audible behind her, stood a shadow of her former self.

"TERRE!"