Read Badge for Free Online Page A

thigh-high boots slid up and under the gown. “This is a good fit.”
    Ona snickered, “It is some of Haz’s fastest and best work. Whatever he saw in his workshop scared and delighted him.”
    The boots had flat soles for running and balance. They were still elegant and graceful but practical.
    “I like them.” She pivoted on the balls of her feet and laughed. “It is weird. Even a few days without shoes and I was in withdrawal.”
    “They are invisible under the gown. Lovely. Is the dress too tight?”
    Lee looked in a wardrobe mirror and snickered. It was similar to a prom dress in dark royal blue. Sleeveless with a ruffle on the right shoulder, tight to mid-thigh, the ruffles took over and frothed to the ground.
    “Is this acceptable?” She turned from side to side.
    “I am sure that Alpha Ozwin will be suitably impressed. He has been by all of your actions so far.” Ona chuckled. “Now come, we will have some tea and wait until sundown is complete.”
    Lee trailed along as Ona led the way down to the dining area and took the seat that Ona pulled out for her.
    When the tea tray was between them, Ona grinned at her. “So, how do you like my grandson?”
    Lee paused. “What?”
    “Ozwin. He is one of six surviving grandsons, and being able to act as his housekeeper is very restful.”
    “I thought he said you were the grandmother of one of his betas.”
    “I am. His cousin, Morask. He didn’t want to tell you that I was his grandmother. He wasn’t sure how your society deals with relatives at close quarters.”
    Lee was blushing at the destruction that Ona had witnessed in the bedroom. “Don’t you want to retire, do nothing?”
    Ona chuckled. “The Keymin cannot do nothing . We need to keep active or our thwarted instincts drive us mad. It was designed into us, and as long as we occupy our bodies, our minds stay sane.”
    Lee sipped at her tea and asked, “So, how did the Keymin come to be?”
    Ona snorted, “You didn’t look us up?”
    “There were limited records available to the badges. We were given more physical information on the Keymin than historical. I needed to know what I would face if I was against them in a fight. Whether it was a bar fight or an incursion, we had to be ready to face what your people would throw at us.”
    “Our people.”
    “What?”
    “You are Keymin now. Our people are your people. You have the same thoughts, instincts, passions as any Keymin woman.”
    Lee blinked and did a personal inventory. The heat was still inside her, the vibrating tension of her muscles was constant and her sense of smell was so greatly enhanced that she could pick apart the different herbs in the tea with a light sniff.
    Whatever was left of her Terran sensibilities was the only thing holding her back from running out into the population, finding Ozwin and tossing him to the ground for another ride.
    Ona patted her hand. “Don’t worry about the heat. Every woman goes through it.”
    Lee was confused. “I thought that once Ozwin and I…it was over.”
    The older woman laughed. “Days. It takes days to wear off. With the hormonal surge, if it simply ceased, you would go into shock. It will never be as strong as it was this morning, but it will remain for days.”
    “How can you stand it?”
    Ona laughed, “It only happens twice a year, and it is both before and after harvest. It keeps us busy and the men exhausted. It is when the next generation comes into their own.”
    “Because they have to do everything around the settlement.”
    “Something like that.”
    “How did the Keymin become what they are now?” Lee sat back and sipped at her tea.
    Ona grinned, “I wondered when you would ask that. The Keym were an agrarian species. Our ancestors were living their lives happily when the Sixiv dropped a nanites bomb in the middle of the weather centre of the planet. The tiny machines travelled on the wind and infected the entire planet within three years. No one knew precisely what