Anup/Sourang 18 (Patreon)

Huh. I actually finished this one.

I guess it still needs a title.

Hope it was worth the wait!

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“You will not,” said Lunsdie. He spun his cheap steel span so the tip hit Rrrr’s wrist. The sourang yanked back his arm and clutched the wounded appendage to his chest. Though a span could easily break bone, the anup doubted he had struck that hard—just enough to show his seriousness, he hoped.

“You dare…!” hissed Rrrr, but Ckkkrt was already trying to diffuse the situation, stepping between her rivals.

“Do not do this,” she said quietly. She pressed her palms to Lunsdie’s chest, the warmth and tenderness tugging away his anger, leaving him thinking about that morning when the two had kissed and cuddled in Lunsdie’s far-too-small bed. “I know you’d prefer I stayed, but I can’t. Rrrr is my mate, and I’m his apprentice. I should never have run away.”

“No. No. No. Please,” he begged. With one paw, he grabbed her forearm, gripping it tight. The other paw held his span, unwavering and pointed at Rrrr’s face. “You can’t go. He made you miserable. Remember? You said he made you feel used, that he only wanted you so long as he didn’t have you.”

“Of course, I remember,” she whispered.

Rrrr growled and loomed closer, rising up so he towered above Lunsdie. “Touch me again with that stick, pup,” he warned, “and I’ll break the damn thing over your head.”

The anup held no doubt that he could. It was not an idle threat.

“You don’t have to go.” Ignoring Rrrr, Lunsdie struggled to keep a whine from his voice.

“Oh, yes, she does,” said Rrrr. He slapped the span aside and grabbed Ckkkrt’s wrist once more. Lunsdie held onto her arm, but not with the same possessive anger.

“Would somebody please explain what’s going on here?” begged High Priest Arnalruk, stepping closer—to the limit of what was permissible or perhaps even a bit too close. Though the spectators all around were so flabbergasted by people touching in public that slightly overstepping his limits was but an overturned cup in a rain shower.

Rrrr turned to the priest. “She is Ckkkrt, my apprentice. I say where she goes.”

“She’s not your apprentice anymore!” Lunsdie shouted.

Ckkkrt sank in upon herself slightly, her wide shoulders drooping with her whiskers. “This is not for me to say. I am apprenticed—”

“Only I can say when her training is complete!” Rrrr growled over her. “And I doubt such a day will ever come!”

Lunsdie puffed out his chest. Though not pointing his span, he continued to hold it high. “Ckkkrt has taken me as her apprentice. She can’t go with you. She has an obligation to finish my training.”

“Apprentices are forbidden from taking on an apprentice of their—” Rrrr roared, but the high priest’s voice brought everyone to silence.

“Surely, there’s no need to squabble, no need for the solution to be one or the other,” he said with a firm, authoritative tone. “Come. The four of us can go up to Rrrr’s home on the hill. We’ll sit down and discuss a compromise where both apprentices can get the training they need.”

“No!” Rrrr shouted. “She is mine!”

All around, anup ears lowered. The high priest hardly seemed surprised by the larger sourang’s demand, but still, he focused on no one else. “Rrrr,” he said, “I realize you come from an alien world, but things are different here on Anuptec. On this world, no person may ever claim ownership of another.”

Without letting go, Rrrr stepped closer to the cleric, putting his nose so close to Arnalruk’s that they nearly touched. “She is not only my apprentice,” he growled, “but my mate as well.”

High Priest Arnalruk’s ears raised high. “Oh,” he said after a breathless pause, “well, that changes everything.”

Ckkkrt’s eyes met his. “It does?”

He nodded. “I’m afraid so,” he said. “On Anuptec, marriage is sacrosanct.”

She turned back to Lunsdie, her whiskers flaring with a question. In a reverent voice, he explained to her, “No one may come between two mates. Not even prison may prohibit a couple from being together.” His heart was breaking. It felt like someone was pounding nails into his chest.

The sourang lowered her eyes and slowly turned to her mate, though she could not meet his triumphant gaze.

“But…” whispered the anup. She began to pull from him, his touch sliding across hers until their palms touched, until they were clinging to one another by their fingertips. “You don’t love him.”

Rrrr yanked, and their paws came apart.

“No!” Lunsdie shouted. He turned to the high priest and actually pressed his palms against the anup’s chest. “You have to help me! We’re in love. She’s my mate.”

“No, I cannot,” whimpered Ckkkrt.

High Priest Arnalruk’s ears raised high, his eyes wide open. At this point, the crowd had run out of gasps and stared in jaw-slackened silence. “Your … mate?” he asked in disbelief.

Lunsdie’s eyes opened wider as he realized who he was speaking to, who he was touching. Oh sure, he couldn’t contract Collapse from an alien like Ckkkrt, but Arnalruk was anup! He pulled his paws away but stood his ground, his growl bitter, “Well, she would be my mate, but the orthodoxy would never bless a trader’s marriage.”

“Come on!” growled Rrrr as he pulled. Ckkkrt had stopped fighting it.

With tears in his eyes, Lunsdie shouted at Arnalruk, “She left him! She doesn’t love him. In fact, she hates his guts!” His world was falling apart. He couldn’t bear the thought of life without her, the thought of returning to his home alone, of trying to move on, of living, breathing, eating if she wasn’t there.

“Wait a moment,” said the high priest, the tip of his span now resting in the crook between both sourang’s wrists. He waited until Ckkkrt met his eyes. “Do you love him?”

Her eyes red and brimming with tears, she looked down upon him. Her lips trembled, then she shook her head.

“Do you love this anup?” he asked.

Ckkkrt glanced over at Lunsdie. She opened her muzzle, but no words came out. Eventually, she nodded with the tiniest of movements.

Arnalruk blinked. “Well, I can’t allow this.”

Everyone froze.

“She is my mate!” Rrrr screamed down at the high priest. “You cannot change that! Mates are sacrosanct—”

“It doesn’t sound like she—”

“Mates are for life!” Rrrr screamed. “Taking a mate is a lifelong commitment. No one can change—”

“She left him,” repeated Lunsdie. His voice was quiet, and he didn’t dare smile, but deep in his heart, he felt a tiny flutter of hope.

“Mates are for life!” repeated Rrrr.

“No,” Arnalruk said calmly, turning to the giant sourang.

“They are!” Rrrr shouted. “On our world—”

“You are not on your world,” said the high priest. “On Anuptec, marriage lasts only as long as the couple wishes. If she left you, then clearly, she doesn’t wish to be your mate.”

“But…” Ckkkrt whispered.

Rrrr moved closer to the high priest, their foreheads nearly touching. He lowered his voice, but Lunsdie could still hear them. “Think long and hard,” whispered Rrrr. “I know you. I know you better than anyone. If you betray me, I will destroy you.”

Arnalruk stood still for a long moment before a hint of a smile spread over his ears. “You can’t destroy me,” he said.

“No?” asked Rrrr with a wicked sourang grin. “I know things—”

“Of course, you do,” said the high priest. “I have no doubt that you could turn the orthodoxy against me, that if you tried, I’d lose my job.”

“I could.” Rrrr grinned wider. “And I would.”

“But if you think that would destroy me,” the high priest said, “then you don’t know me at all. I became a priest because I want to help people, and I became high priest because I’m good at direction and keeping the church moving.”

The priest put his free paw on Ckkkrt’s and pulled gently until the two sourang released their grip. “But losing my position,” Arnalruk explained, “will never take away my desire, my ability to help people.”

To Lunsdie, he said, “Come now. I may not be high priest long, but for the moment I am. If you two truly love one another, then let’s go to the cathedral so I can sanctify your marriage.”

Lunsdie blinked, his head spinning in confusion. “We’re traders,” he reminded the priest. “You want us to go … inside the church?”

“If you want to, then we should go now,” said High Priest Arnalruk. “We won’t have this opportunity long, but perhaps it could be a start…”

Lunsdie took Ckkkrt’s paw. “Is this what you want?” he whispered.

She wiped at her eye, brushing tears onto her shoulder. She leaned close to him, her words barely audible, her warm breath making his ear twitch. “If it’s what you want.”

The crowd waited in silence, each holding their breath.

Then the three were running, forcing their way through the crowd, paws gripped tightly to keep from getting separated. Spectators dove out of the way, nearly bumping into one another.

The trio ran across the street and across the cathedral’s courtyard and up the long staircase leading to the church’s front door.

By the time they reached the altar, the three were out of breath and almost couldn’t manage to exchange vows.

Almost.

The End

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BlKruGkgsJEEb-K-pdzK5spizIT2k3y2f7UwCR6G_FA/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?