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After the first of many meetings with Earth's most prominent world leaders, Queen Molly ordered the Royal Ball to begin. She would be meeting with them many more times over the next few days of course, but for now this was a chance for everyone to really relax, and for all her would-be suitors to try and win princess Mayali's heart.

Admiral Karen and captain Mike both tried to get out of it explaining they were both happily married, but of course Queen Molly insisted that was no excuse. All would participate, and thus so it would be.

"It would be easier if the princess was the same breed as my Erika, but nonetheless you can count on me, Admiral." Mike relented, getting into the spirit of things.

"Bloody hell man, just let it go. We all know she wont be able to resist the charms of an englishman." Captain Patterson remarked.

"No, she fall for my Russian charms." Dimitri Poloniev remarked. "Maya did not say I hung like donkey for nothing you know."

"That blood traitor's word means nothing here." Mayali's brother Prince Korne remarked. "But if you are indeed so equipped, you just might have a chance with my sister."

Do not forget me." captain Cheng said. "Just because I have only toys do not think I go down easily."

"We will see who wins her heart." Karen finally remarked, getting into the spirit of things.

Not long after that, the festive music exploded into action, and the Royal Ball really got going.

It lasted late into the night, and by time things started winding down, everyone had the opportunity to dance with princess Mayali, including all of Admiral Karen's group, and all the humans as well. Each tried to outdo the other, really turning on the charm hoping to win over the princess for themselves. Everyone made such a good showing it was impossible to guess who would be successful until it was over.

Captain Patterson was fairly confident he had been successful, as Mayali even commented how chivalrous he was Though he worried his unfamiliarity with Canine royal matters would be an issue. He'd learned enough of Canid society during his time in the Expanse, or so he hoped. but only time would tell.

Meanwhile Admiral Karen, all but assured of her 'victory' attempted to 'seal the deal' reciting Canid love poetry.

Many of the others were simalarly sure of themselves as well.

At the start of the grand feast that followed, Princess Mayali informed the runners up of the 'bad news', announcing that she had chosen Dimitri Poloniev as her mate. Not Admiral Karen as everyone had predicted, and much to her mother's disappointment, not any of the Canine nobles who had come from throughout the empire to try and win the princess over.

Queen Molly announced thew would be wed following another grand feast in the morning, and had assigned everyone guest quarters for the night.

Dimitri tried to explain that he had a ship to run, and couldn't just move into the Royal palace like that, but Queen Molly insisted the couple had to live together for a minimum of five years, before taking any job that would mean being apart for more than a day.

With her quick thinking and brilliant intellect Karen offered a solution. Since Dimitri couldn't move into the Royal palace because he had a ship to command, Perhaps Mayali would be willing to move to the Suvorov instead.

Queen Molly wasn't thrilled by the idea, but reluctantly agreed it would satisfy Royal tradition nonetheless.

Mayali on the otherhand was overjoyed by the prospect of it. Unlike her mother who dispised Maya. Mayali had always dreamed of the sort of adventure that awaited among the stars. This gave her the chance to make those dreams a reality.

"Very well, but I expect to see you both back here as often as possible." Queen Molly said, then to Dimitri, "Mayali is young. Her wonderlust for adventure is what led to her being on that ill fated starliner and ultimately her capture by the Xians. You may find you have to protect her from herself at times."

"It is honor to have the chance." Dimitri said. " I will be keeping Mayali safe. And Suvrov is pride of Mother Russia, she will be safe."

After that the feast truly got underway, and everyone gorged themselves on the strange (to most humans) gourmet Canid foods, and potent fancy gourmet drinks. For the most part it was rather uneventful, though it was pretty entertaining watching Mayali teach Dimitri about food sharing, and also some of the drinks came as quite a shock.

In particular, Chloe Landry was fond of a particularly pungent smelling yellow liquid which sparkled as it had tiny bits of powdered gold in it. She didn't mind when Karen informed her it was made from the fermented tallow of a feral apelike creature that lived in the jungles of the planet's largest moon, though that did put a lot of other people off trying it, even more than the smell did.

There were plenty of other drinks at any rate, and by the time they all turned in for the night, everyone was at least more than a little 'buzzed'.

For most that meant retiring to their guest quarters, but Dimitri spent the night in Princess Mayali's royal bedchambers, and from the sound of things Karen reasoned neither of them actually got much sleep.

This was confirmed the next morning, as despite having been bathed by the palace servants, the scent didn't lie.

Though she doubted the humans could smell it, Karen's sensitive nose told her Dimitri carried the princess' anal gland scent and estrus honeyscent, which meant they had done much more than sleeping that's for sure.

"You would not be able to keep up." Dimitri playfully informed Mike. "Mayali is like sleeping with bear."

"So is Erika." Mike replied.

The conversation was cut short, as Queen Molly entered the great dining hall, and final preparations for the wedding were completed.

Many humans were surprised by the elaborate pagan ritual involved, though those who had gone into the Expanse with Maya were at least familiar with the canids' pantheon of gods and goddesses to some extent.

Literally everything down to the food and drink, was all ritually prepared, and offerings were made to each of the gods and goddesses in turn. The high priestess, a blue-eyed husky-wolf hybrid, veiled in long hooded 'temple' robes which hid most of her features, then proceeded to bless everyone present, and finally led them all in a prayer asking the gods to bless this wedding and watch over the new couple, and give them many offspring.

Next the couple were bathed in lustral water, which Karen knew was one thing Canid and earth weddings had in common. Well Hellenic pagan earth weddings anyway. She had never seen or heard of their orher practices and only knew of this as Tom had once explained it to her.

The cleansing bath was the only thing similar at any rate, unless of course you count the fact that the Canids also worshipped a large pantheon of deitys.

Once the cleansing was done, the high priestess then proceeded to lead the wedding in a manner nearly identical to the way Maya had done for Mike and Erika's wedding, albeit with a lot more formality and without the drawling mispronunciations Maya had used.

The process continued in that manner, from the marking, sniffing and accepting eachother's scent, to the blood binding that saw the couple officially wed, and the ritual anal sex that followed.

At this point the priestess explained to the offworlders present, that in canid society, anal sex was seen as the truest expression of love, and that mating sex would take place later that night. She also insisted for ritual purposes that when Dimitri finally came, Mayali was to clench tight as he dismounted, and simulate the turn and tie for all present.

Once that was done, the great wedding hall exploded into a mass of wild orgies, offerings to the goddes of love and fertility, Kayla.

At that point, Queen Molly gave the newlyweds use of her royal chariot, and sent them out with two of her Elite knights, to explore the capitol city, and the countryside beyond, so average citizens could see Princess Mayali finally had her mate. They would return at midnight of course, and have mating sex before going to bed.

.........................

Meanwhile Shore Leave proceeded as usual for Tom and the others. Well except that the hotel resort and spa where they were taking their shore leave was much nicer than most they had expected.

The hotel had rental 'cars' which used deuterium turbine engines, and rode on a cushion of electromagnetic fields generated from the bottom of the cars. They even had a large 'bus' type vehicle which operated in this manner, for when large groups were going to the same places around the capitol city.

"Ah don' lahk it." Vice admiral Ashley commented. "Ah mean, Ah enjoy relaxin here, an' the spa treatments, an' actually goin' t' a real temple, but Ah don' lahk leavin a job unfinished."

"Yeah I know what you mean." Tom said. "Xenia and Jerry are still out there. But I'm glad to get to relax. Besides, Admiral Karen knows what she's doing."

"Karen's got a plan t' deal with em, shure, but still it don' feel rahgt takin tahme off." Ashley said.

"This could be the last chance we get to relax for a while." Hank offered. "Let's just enjoy the calm before the storm."

"Ah reckon yer rahgt." Ashley said. "S' jus' kinda' borin'."You're more like Maya than you realize." Tom said. "Maya stop it, that's not food." he scolded the young pup gently.

"Probly jus' needin' a chew toy." Ashley remarked. "Here, lemme see."Tom handed young Maya to Ashley, and sure enough, the young pup took right to the chew toy Ashley offered.

"You know, as difficult as it is for us to be doing nothing about Xenia and Jerry, it must be torture for her." Kayla remarked. "Being fully aware of everything but trapped in the body of a pup like that."

"Haha yeah, being mistaken for a pup is bad enough." Tom remarked.