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28
Narelle ignored the bickering males. “No, their business with you today is almost done. They must announce to you the time and place for the next battle and it must be within a day. If they fail to provide an opponent within that time they forfeit. If their opponent does not appear and they do not replace him with someone else from the list then they forfeit.
“We will meet Jack Danner at 10AM in the courtyard in front of the Embassy,” Lunnae sneered.
“See you then, Tinkles,” Jack said hearing an angry growl in response. With a nod to Narelle he made his way to the elevator. He had some calls to make.
“What do you mean you can’t come to see your son?” Elissa said using her monarch voice.
“I’m kind of under house arrest at the moment. I’m waiting for a Judge to come to my apartment to begin her babysitting session. Which will last 244 more days apparently.”
“I don’t understand why you need a Judge to watch you. What have you done?” she asked with a pout.
“It’s actually what we did. We had a child which apparently made me your Consort. This pissed off a certain group of Altarian males but especially one who filed a challenge against me as Consort. Unarmed combat against all 245 of them, one a day for 245 days.”
“Jack, Altarian males are no match for you!” she purred.
“That’s what got me in this trouble. They also filed an Abstinence Clause. No sex with females until the end of the challenge.”
“WHAT!?!”
Jack leaned back from the screen. The Queen’s outburst was a little more emotional than he expected.
“THAT WON’T DO! Jack, I want another baby!” she cried.
“What? But you just had one!” Jack exclaimed.
“Yes, but to keep the ages close I want to immediately get started on having a girl like Leffera is having!” the Queen complained.
“Leffera’s having a girl? I’m having a daughter?” Jack asked, stunned.
“Oh! I’m sorry, maybe I wasn’t supposed to say anything until Leffera mentioned it,” she said, looking contrite.
“I’ll be speaking with her shortly,” Jack said, pulling himself together. “Listen, I don’t think there is any way out of this challenge but to play it out. The next time I get to have sex is 244 days from now.”
“244?!? I heard 24 days which would have been tortuous enough. Oh Jack, you’re not going to last!” she gasped.Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.
“Wow! Thanks for the vote of confidence!” he growled.
“It’s not a lack of confidence in you Jack. It’s simple biochemistry,” she tried to explain.
“Yeah, whatever. Listen I will try to visit as soon as I can. I want to see my son. Have you named him?” he asked.
Elissa looked a little bashful. “Actually, I was hoping you would have a good name for him, like you did for my grandson.”
“I do have a name but I need to see him to see if the name fits him,” Jack explained.
“Wait! I’ll get him!” Elissa jumped up and rushed from the room. Jack was left looking at the empty room. He heard a cooing sound as Elissa walked back into the room with a bundle in her arms. “Jack, may I present to you, our son.” She held the tiny baby up to the camera.
Once more he couldn’t get over how tiny Altarian babies were. He was squirming a little and made a cranky face. Jack started to cry silent tears as he smiled at the little miracle.
“Jack? Are you sad?” Elissa asked, surprised.
“No. These are tears of happiness. He’s perfect! He just made a face that reminded me of my grandfather. If you wouldn’t mind I’d be honored if we could name him Max,” Jack explained.
“Such a short name!” she said and Jack could hear the question and hope in her tone.
“Yes, that’s the version friends and family use. The formal, full version is Maximilian,” he said and smiled at the look of surprise and excitement on her face.
“Maximilian! That is a perfect name for our son! So grand and proper for a Prince! It has that unique sound in the middle yet rolls off the tongue!” Elissa gushed. “Oh thank you Jack! You’ve made me so happy! I cannot begin to tell you!”
“I’m glad I could give you this as that other happiness is going to have to wait,” Jack said.
“We will see!” the Queen said, her regal voice back. “I will speak with you tomorrow. Sleep well!”
Jack was left looking at the blank screen as she hung up.
“Good night, Max,” he whispered to himself.
He ran his fingers back through his hair and realized he still had the rubber band tying it back. He tugged it off and shook his hair out. God! It was getting long! He dropped the band on his dresser.
He walked out of the bedroom to see the two agents sitting comfortably in his living room.
“No sign of the Judge yet?” he asked.
“Five minutes out.” The one sitting in the chair by the window said. They hadn’t offered their names and when asked they just stared at him. He recalled Gee and Bal’s stiffness at first but they showed some personality at least.
It was getting close to 10PM and Jack had a special call to make with Leffera. He’d need his privacy for that one but he needed to be sure that he wasn’t going to default based on a technicality.
Jack found himself needlessly tidying his tidy apartment and realized he was doing it because of the judge who was going to be there any second.
The two agents got to their hooves and went to the front door. Jack hadn’t heard anything but they opened the door. The judge was standing in the doorway framed by the two ebony agents which may have been why her white fur seemed to shine. Or it could have been the fact that she was standing under the ceiling light. Regardless of the cause the brilliance of her white fur was jarring. He knew intellectually that the monochromatism genetic mutation which caused the agents to be entirely black from their fur to their eyes also produced the opposite, a completely white Altarian. He just hadn’t been prepared to see one in person. She stood in the doorway staring at Jack with the same look of surprise.
“Horns!” she said.
This was enough to jar Jack out of his stupor. He moved closer. “Yes, hi! I’m Jack Danner, the human with horns.”
She squeezed her eyes closed. When she reopened them she seemed calmer, more controlled. “My apologies Ambassador Danner. Of course. Please forgive my rudeness in staring and blurting out the obvious. I was caught unprepared.”
“As long as you forgive my rudeness at staring. I also wasn’t prepared to meet someone with your unique coloration. It’s quite beautiful! I mean you’re quite beautiful!” he stumbled.
Her eyes snapped to his and he could see she was looking for something in his expression or tone. When she saw he was just giving his honest opinion she smiled sweetly then shook the expression from her face.
“I am Judge Aaros. It will be my duty to ensure you abstain from sexual contact with females for the next 244 days or until the challenge is withdrawn by the applicants.”
Jack nodded.
The agents nodded to the judge and looked at Jack. “We will be back in the morning to take you to work.”
“Uh, I want to get back to my morning exercise routine. I run a few miles at a pretty brutal pace for Altarians.” He looked at the judge. “Apparently I have to keep you in my vicinity. How is that going to work?”
“I can follow you on my personal skimmer. I rode it to get here tonight,” she replied.
Jack turned back to the agents. They were giving him smug looks. “We can keep up.”
“OK, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. You may want to talk to Gee about it. I start at 7AM,” he said. With matching smirks the agents left.
Jack glanced at the time. Just about time for the call. He walked into the apartment with Aaros following.
“I need a point of clarification. When the rule states I cannot have sex with females may I assume this means sex where both partners are within physical proximity and are able to touch each other?” he asked carefully.
The judge looked at him askance. “Of course! What else could it have meant?”
A tone from the bedroom announced an incoming call. “That would be a friend of mine calling. We were going to have phone sex.” He began to blush.
“Phone sex?” she said, confused.
“Hold that thought.” Jack walked into the bedroom and answered the call.
“OH THANK GOODNESS! I thought you were going to make me wait until the morning! I’m going crazy here!” Leffera gushed.
“Hi Leffera! Hold that thought a minute. I have a court assigned roommate I have to confer with before we can proceed,” Jack said and watched her eyes go wide as Aaros walked into the camera’s view. “Leffera, this is Judge Aaros. Judge Aaros, this is Leffera.”
They exchanged hellos and the judge turned back to Jack. “How do you intend to have sex with your communication device?”
“Well, first off I don’t intend to have sex with the device. We will touch ourselves while watching each other.”
“Ooooohhhhh Jack! You’re going to be naked too!?! This is going to be better than I thought. I may have to come over there afterwards to clean you though!” Leffera moaned.
“Actually you can’t. Long story short, my role as Queen’s Consort is being legally challenged by a group of males and one of the conditions is I must abstain from sex with females until the challenge ends. 244 days from now,” Jack explained.
“OH MY GOD! JACK, YOU’LL NEVER MAKE IT!” Leffera yelled in dismay.
“What the hell is it with everyone having such a low estimate of my willpower to resist sex?” Jack growled.
Leffera began to cry.
“Ah, please don’t cry! It’s going to be ok! I swear it will,” Jack pleaded.