Chapter Five

Three weeks later, Jess stared at the pile of boxes around her before shooting Val a look of disbelief. “But you can’t go.” She waved her hands. “There’s all this unpacking to do, and the twins will be here in just a few weeks. You have to tell them no.”

Val crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just tell the Armada no. I’m one of the best warriors in the fleet, and I’ve been given an assignment on the home world. I’ll be back in two weeks.”

She shook her head, barely resisting the urge to throw a fit. It would do no good, and she hadn’t done anything so juvenile since she was a child. The idea of him leaving her, even for a couple of weeks, filled her with panic, and it also made her angry. “It isn’t fair. The Dazon Empire expects us to give you children and be your genetic matches, but they don’t give you any special dispensation for family situations.”

Val scrubbed his hand on his face before nodding. “It is unfair, my love, and I promise you this is my last deployment. I’ve been reassigned to the consulate being constructed on Earth’s moon, and I can be at your side in a matter of moments. We have this lovely dwelling, which is large enough for us and our girls, and I’m going to be living here with you. I have to do this last mission, and then I’ll be yours. All yours,” he said almost with a hint of warning, though his eyes were teasing.

She wanted to continue protesting and fighting, but it wasn’t productive. He was in the military, or the Dazon equivalent of it, and she knew human troops faced the same kinds of difficulties. If you were a soldier, you did as you were commanded. She didn’t know if separating from service was an option for a Dazon warrior, and she didn’t want to risk his life or his freedom by insisting he not go. “Just a couple of weeks?” she repeated.

He nodded, his solemn expression transmitting the sincerity of his promise. “Just thirteen Earth days, my darling mate. I promise I’ll be back for the birth.”

Slowly, she let her stiff posture relax and took a step to meet him when he moved closer to put his arms around her. Things had moved quickly in the last three weeks, since they had lost their little boy. After leaving AmbaCorp, they had sought out a larger house, and though they hadn’t yet had a bonding ceremony, she knew they would soon.

She had yet to utter the realization that she loved him, because it still felt new and fragile, but they were well on their way to an established relationship.

She was going to miss him bitterly while he was gone, and not simply because there was unpacking to do or preparations for the birth. Even when they were apart for just a few minutes, she started to feel restless and edgy. He truly was the missing part of her, and now he was going to be missing for two weeks. She hated the Dazon Empire with a burning passion in that moment for stealing her mate from her.

When he led her to the newly delivered couch, she tried to suppress her anger as she lost herself in lovemaking with him. Over and over, they reached for each other deep into the night, eventually moving to their new bedroom, until she fell asleep around dawn, too exhausted to keep her eyes open a moment longer.

When she woke a few hours later, he was gone.

“Look at you. You’re absolutely glowing,” said Jada as she sat down at the café table where they had arranged to meet for lunch. “How far along are you now?”

“Technically, I’m nine weeks along, but actual gestational age of the twins is probably around thirty-four weeks.” She looked down ruefully at her swollen stomach. “And I’m enormous.”

“Well, it is twins, and Dazon babies are on the larger side, and you just sort of popped out quickly. It’s not like you’ve had an actual thirty-four weeks to get used to the changes.” Jada patted her hand. “Still, it’s exciting, isn’t it?”

She nodded, though a moment of sadness passed over her. “It’s exciting, but also bittersweet. Each time I see a scan of the girls, it reminds me that their brother should be there too.”

Jada’s expression betrayed her sorrow. “I know, honey, and I’m not going to tell you to be thankful for what you have. It’s such a platitude. You have every right to acknowledge the loss you’ve gone through and remember him as well as celebrate the girls.”

She blinked as tears filled her eyes, cursing the hormones coursing through her. She was surprised when she saw Jada reach for a napkin and wipe her face as well. She didn’t think she’d seen Jada cry in the entire time they had been friends, and her eyes narrowed.

She examined Jada, taking in her air of exhaustion and the wild way her hair bunched around her head, clearly having seen no attention besides being shoved into a scrunchy. Since her health had been restored, Jada had gone back to regular salon sessions, and she was usually very neatly put together. It wasn’t like her friend to look so tired and rumpled. “Are you pregnant?”

Jada looked startled for a moment, and then she giggled. “Yes. I was going to tell you over lunch, but you guessed and stole my thunder, dang you.”

Jess smiled at her. “I’m sorry about that, but it’s just so obvious.”

Jada looked at her with a small smile. “It’s because I’m glowing too, right?”

Jess hesitated for a second. “Um, sure.” She didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings, so she decided to go along with that fiction.

Thankfully, Jada laughed a moment later. “I’m kidding. I look like hell, and I feel terrible, but in a wonderful way, if that makes sense? I’m only a couple of weeks along, so about six or seven, and I’m just starting to feel it.”

“That’s amazing. Congratulations. Did you and Ryland require any assistance?” she asked delicately. To her knowledge, they still hadn’t determined if human women with Kaiser’s Syndrome and Dazon men could reproduce the traditional way, or if they required laboratory assistance to get the sperm and egg to make a viable blastocyst.

Jada shook her head, her eyes sparkling. “It happened the usual way. It wasn’t an accident, not at all, but nobody knew if we could reproduce. The only other hybrid pregnancies in existence were all created by the horrible Dr. Ha, but we’ve confirmed for their medical literature that humans and Dazon can get pregnant just by lovemaking, and they don’t need laboratory intervention.”

“That’s good news, I guess.” It certainly was, though she had a feeling it would make human women even more desirable to the Dazon males, and she didn’t know what that would mean for Earth society or the women who had Kaiser’s syndrome. Events would have to unfold before anyone would really know.

So far, there was still an uproar over the fact aliens existed, and the government had made no further information available about what they were trading with Dazonia Major, or what the Dazons required from them. As she went out and about, subject to speculation wherever she went, it was difficult not to reveal what she knew.

Only Val’s measured words, and his logical insight that the truth might cause an even bigger panic, had kept her silent. That, and she didn’t want to explain to random strangers where she had acquired her information, or have anyone know the babies inside her weren’t completely human.

She shuddered as she remembered Pradheep’s reaction to the news, when he had dropped by to see her four days ago, and she hadn’t been able to hide the pregnancy any longer. When he had heard the full story and finally accepted it as truth, and not some delusion on the part of his ill sister—and if he’d been thinking straight, the fact that she was no longer confined to a wheelchair should have proven the veracity long before he’d believed her—he had ranted and raved and insisted she dispose of the alien hybrids immediately.

Instead, she had ejected Pradheep from her house and told him not to come back until he could accept his nieces, including their alien heritage. It had been a tense confrontation, but she hoped the separation wouldn’t last long. She had yet to tell her parents, and she dreaded that as well, but she had a feeling they would take it much better than Pradheep, since she was technically mated to the father of her children and would probably make it official with a bonding ceremony in the near future.

Once he returned, of course. He was due back that night, and she was impatient for his arrival. She had missed him as much as she had expected, and though she had filled her days with activities, each day of the past two weeks had still seemed to drag.

Everything felt just a little empty without him, and even the pleasure she experienced performing functions that had been impossible for her for the past few years, like the simple joy of walking in the park, didn’t seem to be as enjoyable without him.

It was kind of ridiculous, but there was no point in fighting it. She loved him beyond all sense of reason, and since he felt the same, though neither of them had actually said the words yet, there was no harm in allowing her feelings to progress. She was going to tell him she loved him as soon as he returned from his mission.

The evening seemed to tick by with incredible slowness, but finally, he was there, simply folding into the living room with a flash of lightning. She cried out in shock at the sudden arrival, and then with joy at the sight of her mate. Jess lumbered to her feet, which was no easy task at the advanced state of her pregnancy, and threw herself into his arms. “You’re back. I missed you so much.”

He held her tightly against him for a long moment, as though soaking in the joy of holding her, before finally pulling back with obvious reluctance. He looked down at her, brushing hair off her face before he bent his head to kiss her. It was a slow and tender touch, and he seemed to pull himself away with a great deal of reluctance before the kiss could deepen.

“I love you, Jessminda. I bitterly regretted having accepted the assignment, and I’ve already made it clear to Commander Darvig that I will resign my commission before I accept another mission like that one. I won’t be torn away from you or our children again.”

“Can you do that? I mean, could you leave the Armada without regret, if it comes to that?” Her heart rejoiced at the idea, but she was cautious, knowing such a decision could fester and turn to bitterness directed toward her if he changed his mind.

“Easily, though I don’t believe it will be necessary. Before you, my career and protecting the Empire were the most important things in my life, but they seem of little significance now that I have you and our daughters are on the way. You are the most important thing in my life now—you and the babies. I swear to you I’ll never voluntarily leave you again. I love you.”

“I love you too.” She hugged him before kissing him again, this time not bothering with sweet and gentle. It had been too long since they had touched each other, and the kiss rapidly escalated, as did the touching and stroking. They fell to the floor together in a frenzied rush, clothes tossed haphazardly away before their bodies surged together.

It was only afterward, as she lay cuddled against him in the rosy glow of aftermath, that they spoke again. “How are you and the children?” His hand splayed possessively across her naked belly.

“We’re doing well. No one really knows what to expect from a human/Dazon pregnancy, so Dr. Wy is just projecting based on commonalities and averages for both species’ pregnancies. He thinks the girls will arrive within a week or two, and there has already been a birth among the other human women Dr. Ha used in his experiment.”

He nodded. “When I was debriefing at the consulate, one of the men mentioned that in celebration.”

She tried not to let a hint of her apprehension show. “It’s not entirely a celebration, my love. The woman who gave birth wasn’t strong enough to survive the labor. They saved the babies, but they couldn’t stop her hemorrhage, and she died.” Her voice broke on the last word. She hadn’t even met Weizerit Abebe, though she had probably seen her when they were all held at AmbaCorp, but she couldn’t have picked her out of the lineup. Still, it was sad and scary to know the first human woman to give birth had died due to complications from the pregnancy.

Val stiffened against her, his eyes shadowed with fear. “I won’t lose you, my mate.”

She put a hand on his chest, patting softly. “Dr. Wy thinks I’m much more stable than she was. From what I heard, she lived with uncaring relatives before Ha took her from Nezret, and Abebe was in poorer health than many women with Kaiser’s Syndrome when she was impregnated. After your group arrived, and Dr. Wy administered the nanotechnology to the women impregnated, it healed her, but she still had problems all along. Other than the loss of our son, I’ve had a complication-free pregnancy.”

“I won’t lose you,” he said again, even more intensely.

“I’m sure you won’t.”

His lips tightened. “The human woman, had she taken the father as her mate?”

Jess couldn’t help a grimace of distaste. “No, she hadn’t. I don’t know exactly who the father was, but I did hear he was part of the team that was holding the women hostage, so I doubt anyone bothered to inform him, and she certainly would have wanted no part in bonding with him, I’m sure.”

Val nodded, looking slightly reassured. “Then there was no one to speak up for her and insist she be saved over the children. That won’t happen with you, my mate.”

As his words sank in, her eyes widened. “You can’t do that. If it comes down to it, you tell them to save the babies.”

He gave her a fierce scowl. “No. We can have more babies, but there will never be another you for me. You are my priority, Jess.”

She let out a soft sigh as she curled against him again. If Dr. Wy wasn’t overly concerned, she was trying not to be, and it was likely to be a moot point. She didn’t like the idea that he would choose her over the children, because her babies were everything to her, but she couldn’t deny it warmed her to know he would pick her in that situation.

They had come together to start with because of a pregnancy neither had expected or planned, but now they were mates in every sense of the word, aside from an official bonding ceremony, which would be something to handle in the near future. She would never be grateful to Ha for his machinations, but she couldn’t regret how things had unfolded, and she was thrilled beyond measure to have found the one person meant to complete her.