[A/N: Again, please forgive another prolonged break in publications. I try to add new chapters more often, but usually, that's where my efforts end 😅

Enjoy!]

A few days later, when the two of you were lying on your bed in the cellar (in order to fit, Othiel had to tuck his legs where you placed yours) and reading one of your books... Well, actually you were reading out loud and Othiel was more interrupting than listening; he stroked your shoulders, licked your neck and tickled your ears with his tail feathers. You didn't protest much and were about to give in to his encouraging gestures, suggesting that you go to his hideout when a terrible noise interrupted you.

Othiel jumped up faster than you could even think to do it and was gone in the blink of an eye.

You slid off the bed and followed him towards the main entrance to the hideout, where you could already hear raised voices. Others joined you along the way, also concerned about the noise. It wasn't that late yet, most people were awake. When you reached the main hall, you saw a rather unexpected sight; Othiel stood over the General and Anton, who were lying on the floor. They were keeping watch that evening. General was wounded, his head was cut, but he was conscious. Next to him lay the broken door's wing and at the opposite end, in the entrance, stood three heavily armed roughskins.

Your knees melted. Everyone seemed to be terrified, but somehow no one ran away when they saw the aliens. Maybe because no one was able to move out of fear.

They were saying something in hoarse and low voices, in their native language, which you now recognized. You knew only a few words, so you didn't understand much. You promised yourself that if you survived, you would ask Othiel for more lessons. The newcomers clearly addressed him, but he did not respond. Ignoring them, he leaned over the guards and helped the General up. Only then he stared at the newcomers and moved towards them. 

You were afraid that something bad would come of it, so you decided to take action. You stepped out of the crowd and joined Othiel, standing by his side.

The roughskins looked at you and immediately grabbed their weapons, but all it took was Othiel's low growl to calm them down.

'May we know why we owe such a late visit?'  you asked calmly. You didn't know if they knew your language, but you hoped that your companion would translate if necessary. They seemed surprised. The largest, dark red one, approached and looked at you closely, then turned his gaze to Othiel and said something in his own language.

'I wish she understood what we're talking about,' Othiel replied. 'Especially since she asked a question, so please answer.'

Roughskin turned to you, bowing slightly. 'Apology. We feel brother in this place. A place full of humans... Humans don't imprison him?'

He was doing much worse than Othiel, but you understood that he wasn't as motivated to learn your language. The most important thing was that you were able to understand what he meant. He surprised you the most with his respectful tone. However, you didn't allow yourself to lighten the mood with a joke, knowing that roughskins don't understand jokes anyway.

'You can see we're not imprisoning him. Othiel is here willingly, so you can go away and don't scare humans,' you said simply.

Suddenly, the second roughskin spoke up. His skin was reminiscent of coffee with milk in the semi-darkness of the corridor. He spoke in his own language, but the red one immediately translated. 'Wentuk asks, do you know what you're do?' 

Othiel growled lowly again, but this time you silenced him with a wave of your hand.

'I don't understand...?'

'We feel that you and Othiel are close, but not yet connected..., you can still... give up..'

'What is he talking about?' Uncle Julius said. Clearly he wasn't the only one who wanted to ask this question. There was a slight commotion among the rest of the people. You preferred the roughskins not to answer. If you understood correctly, you didn't want to discuss such things on a forum.

'Why would I give up?' you asked quickly, hoping your uncle's question would go ignored. And so it happened.

'Othiel not speak about that?' The red one looked from you to Othiel.  'He is e'barin - prince! Son of the Highest Female!'

Your eyes almost popped out of their sockets. 'WHAT?!'

'The female knows nothing!' he growled at Othiel. 'She must know! You drag her into this without her consent!'

'I don't want to drag her in anything,' your companion replied menacingly.

'Your trick has failed!'

'This isn't a trick,' Othiel struggled to control himself. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw him trembling, making nervous movements with his tail, and ruffling his feathers like he rarely did. The same could be said about the two roughskins standing opposite, a red one and a light brown one. Only the third of them, the smallest one, almost the size of a tall human being, remained calm and composed. He had greenish skin with leopard spots and black feathers, and on his shoulder, you saw a large pouch instead of a shotgun. He watched you carefully as if he didn't hear the others arguing.

'You want to destroy us all!' The red one roared at Othiel, who took a step forward.

'If you don't calm down, I'll destroy you in a moment!'

'Are you threatening me?!'

You and the gathered people simply stared at this exchange, but finally, you decided you had to intervene again before it escalated.  

'Okay, enough! Othiel, calm down! Can someone explain this to me? Maybe let's go sit somewhere private...'

'None in private!' Uncle's voice roared again. 'This applies to us too! We have the right to know. Explain everything to us here and now.' 

'You have nothing to say here!' The green roughskin, who had remained silent until now, hissed at him, and it turned out that he was the most fluent in your language. 'The princess will decide.'

'Who's the princess again?' you groaned tiredly. 

Othiel replied to you, clearly embarrassed. 'You, (Y/N). He's talking about you.'

***

You were sitting by the hearth, the fire was still slowly burning. Almost all people, you and roughskins. Despite the fear, everyone wanted to know as many details as possible. Even the General with a bandaged head sat listening to every word. Thougskins explained that because Othiel chose you as his companion, you became untouchable to them. They couldn't hurt you. This was how their law worked. There were no species-specific regulations because probably no one expected that connection was even possible in an inter-species relationship.

Not only that, you were untouchable, but also if there was an eventuality you were in danger, all roughskins should protect you, even at the cost of their own lives. There was a matriarchy among them, so when Othiel fell in love with you, you, as a female, immediately became as important to them, or even more important, than he was. And that was, quite fine... You could give them minor orders, which means you could protect your people with words, and Othiel couldn't do that...But that wasn't the end of the revelations. 

They left the most shocking news to the end.Othiel sat right next to you, and you felt his tension build as his kinsmen explained everything to you. You couldn't understand why he didn't tell you all this himself until the green one - Geong, said: 'If you and Othiel connect in... the act of love, how you call it here on Earth, we're saying you exchange semen... Then, whether you want it or not, you will become our ruler, the highest female of Earth. Othiel is the son of the Highest Female, the most important one, and that makes his mate almost as important. This is how our sacred law works. When conquering new territory, and this is new territory..., it is taken over either by the highest-ranking female present at the time of the conquest, or by the only female present. If you fuse with Othiel, your species will not matter. You will become both for us, another ruling female. You will have the right to sit on the council.'

You couldn't believe it. Just like that, you were going to become a ruler... It was sick, unbelievable, impossible... And yet, it gave you the opportunity to put an end to it all.

'What if your females come?' someone from the crowd asked, it was probably Bea, but you weren't sure, it all upset you too much.

'They'll have to respect (y/n).'  Geong replied. 'Only Othiel's mother can object...'

You looked at Othiel, confused.  'Why didn't you tell me earlier?'

He looked at you,  his eyes sadder than you've ever seen. 'I didn't want to put this on you so quickly...' 

'Is that why we never...?' Suddenly enlightenment came upon you. 'You weren't afraid of their reaction... you were afraid of mine! How will I react when you tell me that I must rule and divide!'

Othiel just nodded.

'Wait a minute, did I understand correctly? If our (y/n) lets this monster posses her, will she be able to rule you all?' your uncle interjected. You didn't like that he talked about it so casually.  'Will you have to listen to her?'

'Yes.' Othiel admitted as the other toughs didn't bother to answer. 'Every word she says will be sacred to all roughskins here on Earth.'

'Then what are you waiting for? You could have sent them all away long ago!' - Vincent shouted at you. 'You're boasting that you're helping us so much because you're flirting with this creature, but you could really help the whole world... Everyone already knows you're a whore so it won't make any difference...'

At that moment, several things happened at once. Aunt Samantha hit the boy with the ladle she held in her hand, your parents got up from their seats indignantly, Ellen screamed: 'Someone gag this idiot!' But roughskins were the fastest. The blink of an eye was enough for Othiel to throw himself at Vincent and lift him up by his clothes. The others stood around with their blades pointed at him. Apparently they either already knew the meaning of the word slut or understood from the general tone of the boy's statement that he had insulted you. 

There was complete silence. Everyone stared at the scene in horror.

'Outraging females is punishable by death in our world,' said the red roughskin.

'This is not your world,' Vincent squeaked.

'But our rights!'

'Enough. Let him go,' you exclaimed. They withdrew at once, except for Othiel. 'Othiel...' you said his name with emphasis. You didn't move from your spot, you knew you didn't have to.

'He hates you, (y/n)....'

'That's his problem,' you interrupted him. 'Could you leave him and come back here, we still have some important details to discuss.' 

Othiel complied with your will, released Vincent, placing him brutally on the ground, but did not fail to give him a blood-curdling look. He joined you by the fire, but this time your father grabbed the boy's clothes and started dragging him along. Now I'll talk to you.Your mother and Aunt Samantha, still holding the ladle in their hands (she was probably looking after the stew she was preparing for the coming day when all the commotion started), trotted after them too.

You ignored it. You had other things to sort out. 'Okay, listen, I don't want to become any kind of ruler,' you said to the roughskins. 'But honestly, you give me little choice. If I ask you now to leave our planet and let us be, will you listen?'

'Even if we listened, your current position does not oblige us to obey such orders. You can decide about your group, protect it, or any specific area. But you can't order us to leave, any more than you can order us to stop hunting. Even if you want, already as ruler, for us to leave Earth... you will have to leave with us, together with Othiel, ' Geong explained.

'What? I'll have to leave Earth?' This prospect may not have frightened you so much as made you very sad. Didn't Othiel himself say that Earth was far more beautiful than Okan'tyt?

'You can't be the highest female without roughskins around.'

You nodded sadly. You had no desire to save the world, but everything pointed to you having no choice. 'I see.'  You looked at the red roughskin. 'Tell me again, what's your name?'

'Why? Me do something wrong?'

'No... I just know their names already,' you pointed at Geong and Wentruk. 'I would like toknow yours too.'

He was surprised but answered. 'My name Ryn'etyr.'

You nodded again. 'It was nice meeting you, gentlemen. Thank you for the information. I think I need time to think now. If you have nowhere to go, you can stay here for the night, but I would ask you not to wander around the hideout so as not to scare humans...'

'We have somewhere to go,' Geong said. 'Don't worry about us.'

You smiled slightly to him. 'Good night then. Othiel will see you off.' 

Before anyone tried to stop you, you went to the cellar, to your safe corner where you could think in peace. Everything inside you screamed that you didn't want, you couldn't be a ruler. It's too much responsibility and you'd have to leave Earth and fly to a dying piece of rock floating far far away. Although you were indeed given a great opportunity to free your home planet, the price you would have to pay for it was high. But on the other hand, wouldn't roughskis try some other tricks? They were in a hopeless situation, it was difficult to say how much time they had left, but sooner or later Okan'tyt would surely become uninhabitable. They'll have to figure out something to get out of that planet and find a new home if they want to survive.

You were tired and had a hard time concentrating. You decided it was the hardest thing you had to deal with. Your mind was already starting to make speeches to Othiel to leave you and find someone else who would have the courage to take the chance and save humanity. You felt like you were about to go into escape mode. You'll start running, getting away from here, until you're hunted down by a random roughskin who doesn't know your position yet, or you'll be hunted down by savages.

You were afraid that people would start putting pressure on you, that it was a waste of time, there was no point in waiting... Well, you could just export the roughskins far away from here and forbid them to come back... If you don't do it, some people will certainly start blaming you. But you didn't want to do anything out of a sense of obligation. So far, you listened to the whispers of your heart and it didn't do any harm, but this time it told you that your place was on Earth and you shouldn't leave.

***

Othiel led his kinsmen to the exit, where someone put the broken door back on its hinges. He wondered whether to threaten or maybe... maybe it would be better if he did what (y/n) would have done...They stopped in the doorway, Othiel looked at all three rougskins and spoke in his own language.  

'I'm asking you to be discreet for a while...'

'You're mocking! You're sabotaging our mission, panning some revolution and we're supposed to keep quiet about that?!' Ryn'etyr growled. 

'You have a partner, right?' asked Othiel, trying to contain his anger with great difficulty. '

Yes...'

'Do you think something like this could be planned? That feeling that completely overwhelms you... That literally kills you and makes you reborn? I simply want to ensure my partner's safety and well-being. And I want to be with her.'

Ryn'etyr did not answer to that, though he continued to glare at Othiel. 

'How can you think that I deliberately chose a human female when you know perfectly well that our will has nothing to do with it... If I had actually planned it, we would have been joined a long time ago and she would have ruled over you yet.'

'Maybe she's trying to trick you somehow? Remember that humans have such abilities?'

'That's not true,' Geong interjected. 'I've been studying humans for some time. They are absolutely harmless in this matter.'

That would explain why he knew their language so well. 

Don't worry about it, guys...' Wentruk said. 'She will not be the highest of Earth. There is one thing Othiel don't see coming; humans are weak, delicate, fragile - she will not survive connection with a roughskin. He'll probably kill her while mating.'

Othiel just smiled to himself.

'What are you doing?' Ryn'etyr asked.

'Nothing,' he wanted to smile wider, but he held back. 

After bidding farewell rather dryly, Othiel wondered whether he should leave as well. At least for a while, to give (y/n) time.He wanted her to learn about everything gradually, slowly. So that it wouldn't be a shock for her, so that she wouldn't feel any pressure. Meanwhile, as her entire community learned along with her, it's hard not to feel pressured in a situation like this. Moreover, it must have been a shock for her. Maybe she thought it was a trick on his part. That he wants to somehow use her? 

He sighed heavily, still grumbling at the door. The male who was standing guard there, feeding quite warm feelings towards Othiel. (Y/N) called him Mark.

'Didn't go your way, did it? He asked in a friendly manner.

Othiel nodded. 

'Don't worry, everything will work out somehow. For me, (y/n) doesn't have to become any highest female, she's already done a lot for us. She's not a savior to save the world, right?

Othiel didn't answer. He wasn't sure what he should do. Maybe (Y/N) didn't want to see him right now. But he wanted to see her so badly, to see how she felt... In the end, he decided to go to her just for a moment, if she didn't want to talk to him, he would leave. 

When he reached the corner where she was sleeping, he saw that she was already lying on her bed, with her back to him. It looked like she was sleeping. He was about to back out when heard her soft voice.

'Would you come here, finally?'

She didn't have to repeat it. He literally jumped onto the makeshift bed next to her, hugging her tightly. She pressed her back against his chest and stroked the arm around her. 'What a mess we made...' 

'I'm sorry you found out this way.'

'Do not worry. I understand you wanted me to find out everything from you and in my own time... I don't want to be the highest, not even a bit... but I don't blame you for not saying it right away.'

Othiel breathed a sigh of relief. 'I was afraid you would hate me. That you will think that I have deceived you.'

 'It's impossible to hate you, Othie,' she laughed, but it came out faint. Othiel hugged her tighter.

'Many humans hate me.'

'Only because they don't know you as well as I do.' 

He brushed his jaw against her temple and moved his hand to her breast. She smiled slightly, it was a good sign. For a moment he caressed her through the fabric of the thick sweatshirt she always wore to sleep.

'I don't think we should... not here...' she moaned quietly, but they both knew it was too late. Othiel ran his tongue along her neck, enjoying how intensely it felt on her. He slipped his hand under the fabric of her clothes and ran it over her belly, moving lower and lower.

'Othiel...I don't...'

'Don't be too loud.'

'Eh-that's easy to say,' she gasped, then pressed her face into the pillow to stifle a moan.He nuzzled into her neck, licking it and dreaming of finally connecting with her in the fullest sense of the word. To be in her, feel her climax with all his being, and climax in her to. These visions aroused wonderful shivers that ran down the entire length of his spine... Unfortunately, for now, only the dexterity of his fingers had to suffice. 

'Goodnight, Othie,' (Y/n) whispered a few moments later with a delightful smile on her face.

'Goodnight, (y/n)... And... how do you say it? I love you, you know?'

'I know, I love you too, Othie,' she murmured, and then asked. 'And what do roughskins say?'

'Opo ina. We are one... or you and I are one.'

He felt rather than saw him smile again.' Opo ina... Sounds nice.'