The Heartstone Saga Vol. 3 Capitulo 13
Chapter 13:
Courting Cordy
 
 
The lone Hornet queen descended on Kettering, her heart aflutter with surprising nerves.
She had never been on a date before.
A blushing Cordelia had suggested it when she dropped by the bakery to finally pick up her pie, though at that point Oldeera could care less about pastry, she just wanted to see the fiery girl again.
She had desired others before this, had sent out her Hornets to bring them to her, to sate her lust and theirs to be sure, but like all monster girls there was more that she craved from them.
All of her previous paramours were good people, and all would likely have made fine bond-mates to some monster girl out there. But even with the very few of them who she allowed to touch her heartstone, she just felt there was something… lacking.
When she had heard there was a new Empath, naturally she reached out to him, as many girls would. She knew little of him before he was brought into her bower, and though she admired, respected, and even lusted after him based on what she had learned since, he still wasn’t the one who caused her heart to pound in her chest so hard she was certain those around could hear it.
Now it was the scowling face of a certain local baker’s daughter who made her nether lips moist.
But the confounded girl drove her crazy! One second she pulls away, the next she dives in for a kiss. She yells at her, and is then crying in her arms moments later.
Oldeera was a queen; she was supposed to be the capricious one!
She shook aside her reverie as Cordelia emerged from the bakery. The brunette was still wearing her blue and white apron dress, the one that had torn the other day, and she had flour on her nose and one cheek.
She started at the sight of the queen waiting for her.
“Oh! Um, you’re early. I was just about to head upstairs to get cleaned up.”
Cordelia fidgeted with her hair as she spoke, the feel of the queen’s eyes sliding over her body making her self-conscious, a fact the Hornet didn’t miss.
“You look fine honey, in fact I prefer you this way.”
Cordelia swallowed and took in the queen’s attire: she was once again dressed in her chitinous armour, though she wasn’t carrying a lance.
She shouldn’t have been surprised; when she had suggested a date, Oldeera was perplexed, and admitted she had never been on one before, something about being a queen and her girls bringing her willing suitors all the time.
“Well, I should wash my hands anyways.”
“Would you like me to wait here?”
“No, you can come up, my dad and my sisters are still inside.” She said with a quick shake of her head.
There were more than a few people on the street, and some of them were openly gaping at the sight of the queen.
Even in her armour she was a knockout, soft curves in all the right places, with her cleavage all but spilling out of her chest-plate.
Due to their wings all of the Hornet’s armour had to have the same design, shaped similar to a tube-top to leave their upper back and shoulders bare.
But while the eye-catching monster girl ignored the numerous eyes on her, Cordelia was uncomfortable at the extra attention, so bringing her inside seemed the safest choice.
She took Oldeera’s hand and pulled her around the right side of the bakery to the stairs leading to her family home.
Once inside she let out a sigh at the thought of what Kettering’s rumour mill would make of her and the Hornet queen.
The locals weren’t malicious or overly nosy with their gossip, but they weren’t shy about it either. With Nameless’s return still shrouded in mystery, everyone in town was afire with curiosity and Cordelia wasn’t keen on being pulled into the center of it.
“So this is your home? It’s very… cozy.”
The Hornet’s eyes shifted around the living room, while the girl with flour on her nose closed the door behind them.
Cordelia’s father had raised three girls here, and it showed. Strewn all around the comfortable furniture of the room were his recipe books, Christine’s textbooks, and to her utter mortification, a pile of Helen’s laundry waiting to be sorted sitting on the couch.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a mess but its home. I know it’s not what you’re used to but-”
Oldeera flapped her hand with a poo-poo gesture.
“Nonsense! It’s lovely.”
“It didn’t used to be so messy, back when mom was around. But now Christine’s always studying and dad keeps me and Helen so busy in the store...”
She was scrambling to pick socks up off the floor, but Oldeera leaned down and took her hand in hers.
“Honey, it really is okay, you weren’t expecting company. Do you really think my hive is so pristine when I’m not having someone kidnapped?”
She had pulled the smaller girl to her feet, and now they were almost nose to nose.
“Y-yeah.”
“Hmm?”
“Yeah I do think it’s pristine all the time. You do have a lot of hands after all.”
Oldeera wiped the flour off of her nose with her index finger, a smirk on her face.
“Fair point. Tell you what, next time you come to visit, I’ll have my girls empty my underwear drawer all over my bower!”
Cordelia snerked at the image of the Hornets deliberately making a mess in the bower, though eventually the image devolved into a topless pillow fight, the queen draped on her bed in the middle, regally presiding over the action.
She gave a quick shake to dispel the fantasy.
“Right, well, I’ll just be a few minutes.”
She escaped into the bathroom she shared with her sisters, and was even more mortified than before to see the state of the place, but shook it off as she had a quick wash.
A few minutes later she came back into the front room to see Oldeera with one of Christine’s textbooks in hand, absently flipping through the pages.
“Your sister is interested in lost technology?”
“Yeah, she wants to go to Algrade to study.”
The Hornet’s eyes widened.
“Admirable, but I hope she understands just how selective they are in taking on new students.”
Cordelia nodded.
“She knows, but it’s what she wants, and dad is really supportive so she’s going for it. She sent her application in a few weeks ago so we’re all waiting to hear.”
Oldeera set the book down gently.
“And what about you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your older sister strives to be a machinist, is there something you wish to do?”
She shrugged.
“Guess I’ve always assumed I’d take over the bakery from dad someday.”
The queen drifted over to her and took her hand again, playing with each of her fingers while Cordelia’s heart fluttered.
“Well, you are a gifted cook, that pie was scrumptious!”
Once again the two were very close as the queen played with her fingers.
Cordelia coughed slightly.
“So we should get going, for our d-date I mean.”
The queen tilted her head to one side with a sly smile.
“Or… you could give me the rest of the tour of your home, I would dearly love to see your bedroom honey.”
Her sweet breath washed over Cordelia’s cheeks as she leaned in, but the baker’s daughter knew that would be a very bad idea and shook her head.
“I share a room with Helen, and she’ll be coming upstairs soon.”
Oldeera’s face fell, but she quickly recovered.
“Well, then, lead the way.”
“Lead the way?”
Cordelia was still stuck on the idea of showing Oldeera her bed, so the queen flicked the pad of one finger over the girl’s nose teasingly.
“On our date, honey. I told you before I’ve never been on one, and I’m kind of curious.”
With that she backed off and Cordelia let out a shuddering breath.
“Okay, yeah! Sure, I figured we could go for a walk? That is, do you… walk?”
Oldeera laughed out loud, the warm peals filling the room.
“I do have legs honey! Or hadn’t you noticed?”
She crooked one leg out, turning her curvy thigh at the knee to give Cordelia a better look.
The Hornet queen simply didn’t know how to stop flirting.
But before Cordelia could react to the teasing display, Helen burst into the room.
“Holy crap!” She exclaimed when she stopped short of plowing into Oldeera from behind.
The Hornet queen wore a warm smile as she turned to face the youngest child.
“You must be Helen.”
Helen’s eyes were wide and her mouth agape.
“Y-yes, I’m Helen.” She leaned sideways to look around Oldeera at her sister and continued to speak through a fixed smile; “Cordelia. There’s a Hornet in our living room!”
Cordelia swore.
“She can hear you!”
“I know that!” She said defensively as her eyes flicked back to the queen.
The queen raised one eyebrow.
“Helen, as lovely as it is to meet you, your sister and I should probably leave for our date.”
Cordelia dropped her face into her palms, now the Katje was out of the bag.
Helen’s jaw dropped as she stammered for several moments.
But then surprised the queen by letting out a squealing noise and vibrating while holding both fists to her chest and stamping her feet.
“Um, what?” The Hornet blinked.
Then Helen threw her arms around the startled queen’s waist and hugged her with her face pressed sideways into her armour.
“That is so cool! I hope you have sooo much fun! Oh Christine is going to flip out when I tell her!” She let out a little gasp; “Are you going to share your heartstone with her? No wait, I’m not supposed to ask that, am I? Sorry! This is just so exciting!”
Oldeera had her arms out to either side while the young girl expressed her excitement. Then she let out a helpless laugh and returned the hug with her arms over Helen’s shoulders.
“Oh! I like her, can I keep her? Pretty please?” She looked back at Cordelia who was doing her level best not to murder her sister.
To make matters worse she could hear her father’s footsteps coming up the stairs outside, and that was yet another conversation she wanted to avoid.
So she leapt forwards and seized the queen by her hand to drag her away from Helen and outside onto the stairs where she came face to face with her startled father.
“Cordelia? What-”
“I’m going out dad! Helen’s messing with your recipe books again!”
“Oh that little-” Completely ignoring the Hornet, he pushed past them both on his way inside; “Helen! I keep telling you, not everything needs to taste like pumpkin!”
With her family distracted, Cordelia and a very amused Oldeera made their escape.
“This is so much fun! I like our date so far!” The Hornet enthused while the breathless girl had both hands on her knees panting from the sprint away from the bakery.
“It hasn’t even started yet!”
“All the same.” Oldeera casually reached out and intertwined her fingers with Cordelia’s; “I’m enjoying myself immensely.”
With a pretty blush from the young girl they went hand in hand as they continued walking through Kettering.
Once they were away from the bustle of the marketplace, Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief; the eyes of the townsfolk had followed them all the way out of town.
Seeing a couple on a date wasn’t unusual, and seeing someone on a date with a monster girl wasn’t unusual either, but Oldeera and the Amazons were a new fixture in Kettering, and the locals still weren’t used to seeing the warrior breeds in the small community.
That and nobody fully understood just why they were there to begin with.
Cordelia knew that when she got back, her entire family would ambush her, even more curious then the rest of Kettering.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Oldeera spoke again.
“I like your family, and your home.”
“Thanks.” Cordelia mumbled, still embarrassed and eager to change the subject; “So what about you? Your home I mean?”
The queen’s cleavage swelled distractingly as she shrugged.
“Since I pledged my hive to the Aegis my home is wherever they need it to be.”
“That sounds sort of lonely.”
“We are warriors honey, don’t let the crown fool you. I chose to fight to protect monster girls everywhere, and the Aegis is the best way to do that.”
“So you’ve traveled a lot then?”
“Yes, I have been to many of the city-states. After all, you’ve seen just how fast my sweets can fly.”
Cordelia winced.
“Yeah I have, I’m still sort of queasy.”
“I am sorry about that. If I’d known-”
“It’s alright. I’m over it.”
There was a lull in the conversation.
“How about you honey? Have you traveled at all?”
Cordelia shook her head.
“No, I mean, I’ve been shopping in Wayfelt, they have more stores, and we went to Garland once when I was really little, with my mom.”
“I see, and if I might ask, where is-”
“She died, when I was seven. Wasting sickness.”
Oldeera sucked in her breath.
It was a horrible way to die.
“I am so sorry.”
“It’s alright. We, my sisters and I… mom made dad keep us away when it got really bad, I just remember her being kind of frail and tired a lot, though she was always smiling.”
Another lull as the pair walked, but then Oldeera looked around at the road.
“Where are we going anyways?”
“No clue.”
She blinked in surprise, causing Cordelia to qualify her words.
“I mean, I had a clue, but it was dumb so I changed my mind. Some date huh?”
Oldeera giggled and bumped her shoulder against Cordelia’s.
“I wouldn’t know, my ‘dates’ in the past were usually a lot more graphic than this.”
The girl blushed at the thought, remembering the heat between them in the queen’s bower.
“Yeah, I can imagine.”
Oldeera stopped walking and gave her an amused look with one eyebrow raised and one antennae lowered.
Cordelia backpedaled as she realized what she just said.
“I mean, I can’t! I don’t! You naked! I don’t imagine that!” She sputtered.
“Oh, and why not, am I not pretty?” The queen pouted.
“No! I mean, yes! You’re very pretty!”
Cordelia was completely flustered as she tried to find her way out of the hole she had inadvertently dug with her words and Oldeera grew more amused by the second.
“It’s alright honey, if it makes you feel better, I’ve imagined you naked several times now. In fact…”
The queen deliberate drew her eyes up and down Cordelia’s figure as she bit her lip.
“In fact, I’m doing it right now.”
Cordelia blush intensified and she crossed her arms over her chest.
“Y-you! You’re horrible!” But despite her words she was soon laughing.
After a few more teasing digs, the queen took pity on her.
“So, where did you want to take me?”
Cordelia nervously fiddled with her hair for a moment before answering.
“Apple picking.”
“Hmmm?”
“You said you liked my pie, so I thought we’d visit the orchard. In Kettering it’s actually kind of a first date tradition. Like I said, kind of dumb.”
“That doesn’t sound dumb at all! I love the idea!”
Cordelia shifted a bit in discomfort.
“Yeah, it’s just, there will be other people there, and after Helen and my dad…”
Oldeera frowned.
“Are you… ashamed to be seen with me?”
Once again Cordelia was backpedaling frantically.
“What?! No! Not that, I’m so sorry, I would never!”
With a sniffle, the Hornet queen turned her back and her bare shoulders shook.
“Oh shit! No please, Oldeera, don’t cry! I didn’t, I’m not ashamed! Why would I be?!”
But Oldeera kept her back to the girl, her shoulders still shaking.
Cordelia was growing frantic as she tried to move around her, but Oldeera kept turning away.
“Please, what can I do? Please tell me what I can do to make you believe me?”
Her shoulders stopped moving, and she mumbled something.
“What? I can’t-”
“Kiss me. Like before?”
The young woman’s heart pounded at the thought, and she was so desperate to make the queen smile again that she immediately agreed.
“O-okay, sure if that-”
Oldeera abruptly turned and gripped her cheeks, pressing their lips tight together. Though surprised, Cordelia couldn’t help but respond to the passionate embrace as she wrapped her arms around the queen and moaned into her mouth.
They stayed in each other’s arms for several minutes, their tongues dueling as their passion mounted.
It was heady, it was needy, and it was making Cordelia entirely too horny to be safe, so she finally tore her lips away with a gasp, though Oldeera buried her face in her neck as her head tilted to the side.
“Oldeera, fuck, okay. Let’s, ahh.”
The queen took a couple seconds to deliberately suck on the tender flesh of her neck and give her a nice hickey, before she pulled her face away.
“Oh I feel so much better now honey, thank you!”
The Hornet leaned back, their arms falling until they were standing apart with their hands clasped together.
“You… you were faking it just now.” Cordelia accused.
Oldeera at least had the decency to look a bit guilty, but then she winked.
“Something you should know about me honey, I’m a bit of an opportunist. I hope you aren’t too put out with me?”
She again adopted her best pouting expression, the one that made Cordelia want to suck on her bottom lip and kiss her all over again.
Cordelia struggled for a few seconds, trying to figure out whether she was mad, amused, or flattered as she pulled her hand free of the queen and rubbed her tender neck.
She shook her head and decided to take the queen’s deception as a compliment.
“Yeah, I get that impression. And no I’m not mad.”
The kiss had been good after all.
“Oh goody! Well, if anyone stares I will command them to leave. So why don’t you and I go pick some apples?”
Cordelia rolled her eyes at the bold statement, but once again took the queen’s hand to do just that.
__________
 
It was late when Miranda poured herself another cup of coffee in Lucinda’s kitchen.
Whenever she closed her eyes she could see the lettering of the shipping manifests that she and her team had been poring over for the last day and a half.
At this point she was running on coffee and sheer grit.
With a shake of her head to clear the cobwebs, she turned to go back into the living room with the girls, while Lucinda had long since gone to bed.
Jan’s head had slumped down into the sheaves of paper before her and she was snoring softly, Kala was likewise asleep on the couch with papers all around her.
This kind of investigating wasn’t their area.
Meanwhile Jez and Lilly were sharing the coffee table and busily going over their own stacks of manifests.
The papers in front of Jez were in perfect order while she was humming absently. The piles in front of Lilly were a disaster but the big wolf glared at the papers doggedly, determined to suss out their secrets.
Miranda gently scratched at Jan’s ears to wake her.
“Any luck puppy?”
The Wolfen sat up quickly, eyes shooting open and a piece of paper stuck to her cheek.
“I’m didn’t sleeping!”
Miranda smirked as Jan’s tongue curled out in a yawn.
“Right. How about you Lil?”
The pack-leader growled low.
“Paper is meant for the bottom of birdcages. How can anyone hope to find anything in all-”
“Found something!” Jez shot out of her seat with several sheaves of paper in hand.
Her outcry woke Kala, who promptly rolled off the couch and onto the floor in a flurry of rustling paper before leaping to her feet, her eyes glassy.
Miranda tilted one eyebrow up at a now sheepish Lilly before turning to her smallest bond-mate.
“What have you got baby?”
“Apricots!”
Blank looks greeted her smug expression.
“Apricots?”
“Uh-huh!”
Miranda rubbed at her eyes and set her coffee down on the table.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What about apricots?”
“They’re not in season!” Jez said while waving her papers around.
There was a long pause as the other girls shared confused glances, until the froggy rolled her eyes and explained.
“They’re not in season, so how come this manifest lists a whole wack of them coming into this warehouse two weeks ago?”
Miranda took the papers, her interest piqued. The other waited while she scrutinized the shipping order, Jan’s long tongue curled out in another yawn.
But the older woman sighed and her arm dropped.
“Jez, this manifest is for canned apricots.”
The Gripau’s smile faltered and she screwed up her face as she puzzled over the problem.
“Oh… do they grow those differently?”
Jan snickered.
Miranda lifted the papers and began reading again.
“No, but canned goods keep longer so they can…” She drifted off as she flipped through the pages of the manifest.
Kala leaned over her shoulder, fully awake now though her hair was a mess from her paper pillow.
“What is it?”
The older woman gave a slight shake of her head at the Amazon while she read onwards.
Several minutes later she stared at her Gripau with an intense look on her face.
“Jez, where is the fourth page? The inspection report?”
The little green girl looked helplessly to the other piles of paper in front of her, then back at Miranda.
“That’s all of them, I swear!”
“What is it?” Kala repeated from behind her, insistent now.
Miranda drew in a deep breath and held up the papers for the others to see.
“The declared weight doesn’t match the number of cans, hell it doesn’t match twice this number of cans!”
“Okay?”
“And more importantly, where is the inspection report?”
“I didn’t lose it!” Jez protested again with a stomp of one tiny foot.
Lilly patted the frog on the head as she moved to stand next to Miranda.
“No, but maybe the warehouse staff did?”
“They submitted this whole stack to the public archives, most of which are just duplicates of their own records, but misplaced the most important piece of paper in the bunch?” Miranda shook her head; “Not bloody likely.”
They were all on their feet now, eager to solve the mystery.
Staring at the page again, Miranda smiled.
“Girls, looks like we finally have a lead.”
__________
 
It was past sundown when Cordelia and Oldeera flew back to the bakery.
In the dark the human girl found she wasn’t so afraid of being airborne. That, and the Hornet queen stayed close to the ground and flew at a reasonable speed.
They stood at the bottom of the stairs leading to her home.
“This was, really nice.” Cordelia admitted with a coquettish look.
Her voluptuous date bit her lip.
“It was, and I would very much like to do it again sometime.”
“I’d like that.”
There was that same awkward moment again, and just as in the hive before Cordelia darted in for a kiss, but unlike last time the Hornet was ready for her and returned the kiss with vigor.
It was several minutes before they finally broke apart, and Queen Oldeera smiled coyly with their faces still close together.
“Maybe next time, our date can be a bit more… graphic.”
She ran her tongue quickly over Cordelia’s lips.
Cordelia swallowed.
“M-maybe.”
A shudder went through them both at the word, but the young girl stifled a yawn.
“But for now, I really need to go to bed! We start work early.”
“Of course honey. Sleep well, and be sure to picture me naked in your dreams.”
Oldeera gave her a saucy wink and with one last peck she flew away into the night.
It was a couple minutes before Cordelia made her way up the stairs on rubber legs with her little basket of apples, it was really late in the season so pickings had been slim.
But her blissful expression was short-lived when she opened the door and saw her family waiting to ambush her.
“You two took forever to say goodnight! How was it? Was it amazing? She’s so beautiful, I bet it was amazing!” Helen gushed.
Christine immediately followed up with questions of her own.
“So what are the Hornets doing here? What are this woman’s intentions? Is she kind to you?”
Mercifully, her father interceded on her behalf, or so it seemed.
“Girls, give her some air-”
Cordelia took a breath when her sisters backed off a bit, but then her father jumped on her instead.
“-so that she can answer some questions! Especially the one about her intentions! Remember what I said Cordy! These are Hornets, they aren’t like the local Lambdas, they’re fighters! You need to be careful.”
She groaned.
“Daaad, it’s not like that! She’s really very nice and sweet.”
And a good kisser from what I saw!”
“Helen!” Christine admonished.
“What? She is! I mean-” The youngest daughter drew in a sharp breath as she tugged the collar of Cordelia dress to one side; “Are those hickeys?!”
Cordelia groaned as her family jumped on her again.
Outside the bakery, hovering in the air not far from the second story, Oldeera watched the drama unfold with a smile on her face before flying back to her hive.