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Bonding Ceremony
—a wedding-type ritual
which takes place after the Claiming Period if the bride chosen by
a Kindred warrior has allowed him to have bonding sex with her and
joined her mind to his.

Bonding Sex
—the extra step a Kindred
warrior takes to bind his bride to him permanently during
intercourse. For the Beast Kindred, it is the use of the mating
fist. For the Blood Kindred, bonding sex means sex during
penetration. Twin Kindred bind a bride to themselves by entering
her and coming in her at the same time.

Claiming Ceremony
—a sort of engagement
service that takes place when a bride is first claimed by a Kindred
warrior. He declares his intentions toward her and she vows to obey
the laws of the Claiming Period.

Claiming Period
—women who are drafted
are required to go up to the Kindred Mothership and spend a thirty
day “claiming period” with the warrior who has chosen them. If, at
the end of that time, they have managed to resist the charms of
their Kindred mate, they are allowed to go back down to Earth and
resume their normal life. However, if they succumb to their Kindred
male’s seduction, they are mated for life and must move to the
Kindred ship to live, leaving everything else behind and seeing
their family and friends on Earth only infrequently. Of course,
many women are unwilling to give everything up at the drop of a
hat, draft or no draft. But the Kindred have a secret
weapon—devotion to their female’s pleasure and attention to detail
during incredibly hot sex.

Claming Period Rules
—The Claiming
Period lasts for four weeks during which the Kindred warrior
attempts to seduce his chosen bride and she tries to resist
him:

The Holding Week
:
the Kindred
warrior may hold his bride.

The Bathing Week
:
the warrior
and his bride bathe together and he is allowed to massage her with
scented oils and make her come.

The Tasting Week
:
the warrior
is allowed to perform oral sex on his bride.

The Bonding Week
:
sex is
allowed but it is completely up to the bride whether she will take
things a step further and allow bonding sex which is a special and
specific process to the three different types of Kindred males.
(Most women have given in well before this point but a few do
resist.)

The only way out before the claiming period
is up is a breach of contract. This can happen if the Kindred
warrior does not strictly follow the rules and tries to skip
forward in the order of allowed events or by breaking one of the
rules laid down by the Kindred High Council. These rules—mostly to
do with restrictions on communication with Earth—are for the safety
of everyone aboard the Mothership and are nonnegotiable. Ignorance
is no excuse for breaking them and will result in immediate
termination of the claiming period.

Convo-pillar—
A half inch long insect
which resembles a brightly colored caterpillar. Convo-pillars were
genetically engineered by traders on the fringe colonies around
Rageron to translate alien languages by communicating via thought
waves to their wearer’s brain. They have been outlawed by the
Kindred High Council because their notoriously unreliable
translations cause more conflicts than they solve.

Dream Sharing—
occurs when a Kindred
warrior’s mind aligns with that of his bride and they begin to see
each other’s day to day activities and memories in their sleep.
However, the alignment of the two (or three in the case of the Twin
Kindred) minds can take several forms and is not limited to
sleep.

Fireflower Juice
—an alcoholic beverage
made from the Fireflower plant native to Rageron. It resembles milk
in appearance but has the flavor of honey, vanilla, lavender and
blueberries.

Kindred
—a race of genetic traders who
have traveled the universe for centuries looking for viable matches
to expand their gene pool. Since a genetic anomaly ensures that
their population is ninety-five percent male, they are specifically
looking for women.

The three genetic trades the Kindred have
already made have resulted in three very specific types of men. But
though they take on some of the physical characteristics of the
race they are trading with, the Kindred gene always ensures three
things: physical prowess, extremely large and muscular body
structure, and undying loyalty to the female of their choice.

Krik-ka-re—
a Scourge tradition in
which the mind life of one being may be traded for or ransomed by
another.

Kusax—
a special knife made from the
tainted metal at the core of the Scourge home planet. One scratch
can be deadly as it infects the wounded person with a soul poison
which ensures a slow, agonizing death.

Law of Conduct—
the Kindred law which
says every warrior is responsible for the good behavior of his
bride and gives him the right to punish her—within reason. Often
the “punishment” is sexual in nature and some brides become serial
offenders simply to experience their Kindred warrior’s particular
form of discipline. ; )

Luck Kiss
—a kiss performed by the best
man and maid of honor at a Kindred Bonding Ceremony in order to
bring the happy couple good luck.

Mate of my kin
—the way Kindred
warriors refer to the brides chosen by their brothers. It is
analogous to the English term sister-in-law.

Marks of Possession—
the Scourge way of
marking a female as their mate. The Marks of Possession include a
close-fitting collar, piercings in the nipples and clitoral hood,
and a brand on the inner hip or the top of the buttocks. Scourge
with Kindred blood also desire to scent-mark their mates but they
require the traditional marks of their kind to really feel bonded
to the female of their choice.

Mother of All Life
—the main Kindred
Deity, a kind and benevolent goddess whose teachings include
respect and reverence for all things female.

Numala—
a Blood Kindred name which
means “liquid pussy.” It refers to a female who produces more than
the regular amount of lubrication when aroused.
Numalas
are
much prized by the Blood Kindred and sought after as mates because
they are more likely to be able to accommodate a Blood Kindred
warrior’s larger than average cock.

Psychic-Knife—
a torture device
developed by the Scourge which is able to break the mental and
emotional bond between a Kindred and his bride.

Rage—also Protective Rage or Berserker
Rage—
a state of altered consciousness that comes over a Kindred
warrior when his bride is threatened. It floods the bloodstream
with endorphins and causes such intense anger and aggression that a
Kindred in this state becomes a killing machine who will die to
protect the woman he has claimed.

Sacred Grove
—an area of green and
purple trees that houses the temple of the Mother of All Life. The
Kindred Mother ship has been equipped with an artificial green sun
like the one on their home world in order to allow these holy trees
to grow and flourish.

Scourge
—a genetic trade gone wrong,
these menacing outsiders have twisted desires and sexual needs
fierce enough to frighten away even the most adventurous. Their
need to dominate and possess their women completely has led to a
strange prophesy that they must fulfill…or die trying.

Scourge Prophesy
—“One of two, alike
and yet different—the double fruit of a single womb from the third
planet of a yellow sun. She shall be marked with a white star
between her breasts.” These words were spoken by Mee’ah—the last
living female of the Scourge race who was believed to be a great
seer. The Scourge are a dying race, forced to create new members in
artificial wombs called flesh tanks or vats because they have no
females. Yet, because they have some of the same genetic
characteristics as the Kindred, they are able to create only male
children and each new generation is weaker than the last. The
prophesy refers to the woman the Scourge believe will be able to
mate with the AllFather and bear only daughters to rejuvenate their
race.

Take-me
—an animal native to Twin Moons
that has been domesticated by the Kindred for transportation aboard
their ship. The Take-me has green fur and two heads, one on either
end. Each head has three purple eyes. The Take-me has the unique
features of being to expand and compress its mass which makes it
ideal for storage. Because they originally lived in caves, most
Take-mes stay very contentedly in small dark areas in the Kindred
food prep areas where they live off the scraps and leavings of
their master’s meals. They can eat almost anything except banana
peels which they are allergic to.

Tharp—
an animal that looks very much
like a thin fur blanket which can be worn as a garment.
Tharps
are cultivated on Tranq Prime and prized for their
ability to multiply their host’s body heat and keep them warm in
even the most frigid conditions. A
tharp
can be worn by only
one person— as a neophyte or youngster it imprints upon a host and
will slowly starve if parted from them.
Tharps
are
intelligent and capable of limited movement. They live as long as
their host and subsist only on body heat, needing no other form of
sustenance to survive.

Think-Me
—a thin silver wire worn
around the temples which facilitates mental communication between
people who already have an intimate connection.

Touch-U
—a flat black mat-like animal
native to Tranq Prime which the Kindred have adapted to be a home
health appliance. The Touch-U is capable of giving a gentle massage
or an all-out erotic experience depending on which button is
pushed.

Twin Kindred
—come from Twin Moons—a
world of vast, stormy oceans dotted with craggy but beautiful
islands. True to their namesake, Twin Kindred always come in pairs.
The brothers are not identical, however. There is always a light
twin and a dark twin. These labels refer not just to skin, hair,
and eye coloring but to the twin’s moods and perceptions of the
world. The dark twin in the pair is usually more moody and
withdrawn while the light twin takes a substantially brighter view
of life. The twins are closely linked and able to sense each
other’s emotions. They cannot be separated by long distances or for
long periods of time without severe pain. They must also share a
woman, linking her into their mental and emotional exchange for
very intense ménage sex.

Urlich—
a type of dog bred by the
Scourge. At maturity they are modified with machinery to heighten
their sense of smell and intelligence which results in a
cyborg-type animal. Once in pursuit of whatever scent has been
programmed into their brains, the
urlich
are utterly single
minded and incapable of stopping until their prey has been cornered
and captured.

Wave
—a Kindred cooking appliance which
emits thousands of finely collimated beams of heat to cook food in
under a minute.

Zichther
—an animal native to the
jungles of Rageron, the zichther resembles a small bright blue
teddy bear in appearance until it opens its mouth and reveals three
rows of incredibly sharp, shark-like teeth.