Orc’s Forbidden Claim (Red Planet Dragons of Tajss #33)

37. Saylor

37

SAYLOR

V isidion is on his knees cradling Rosalind. He’s hunching protectively over her. Dirt and small rocks fall around us, making a sound like heavy rain. Screams fill the massive chamber of the arena as the ground bucks and shakes. I’m thrown into the air.

One of Visidion’s wings smacks me in the face as he snaps them open. I’m being tossed up and down, unable to stay on my feet. I crawl towards the tunnel, hoping it might give some protection against the quake.

The rumbling is loud enough to almost drown out the screams, but one long, low groan rides over all the other noise. It’s coming from Rosalind. It’s an unending sound that boggles my mind. How can she do that and not take a breath?

Visidion leaps up, wings wide-open, and he glides while I crawl in his wake. It’s slow, bruising progress, as the ground continues to rebel against its one job of being steady and reliable. Ahead it almost looks like the waves of an ocean, something I’ve only seen on old Earth vids.

He makes it into the tunnel and doesn’t slow down or look back. I don’t blame him. His mate is clearly in labor, and that baby is coming. I’ve heard stories about hybrid births. All of us have. Instead of nine months of pregnancy, they average twelve months and when they come… the babies are huge. Twelve to fourteen pounds is what I’ve heard. Maybe more. And they’ve got wings, tails, and usually the nubs of what will be their horns.

Just thinking about it makes my pussy ache. How the fuck do you shove something that big out and not be deformed after? It’s not natural. Yet lots of women have given birth to them and no one says anything more about it. Surely, they’d be talking about their wrecked vaginas if that was the case, wouldn’t they?

How big will Khiara and my babies be? Can I do that? Will it be the same? He’s not as big as a Zmaj so maybe not?

I’ve never, in all my life, had baby fever. Some of the other girls have, but never me. I’ve never been interested in having a baby in the first place, but here I am, bouncing up and down on the unruly ground wondering what my unborn children will be like.

Focus. Idiot. This is dangerous.

As if to accent that point there is a blood-curdling scream. I look over my shoulder in time to see someone fall from somewhere high up on the spiraling tiers that go around the arena. I can’t see who it is, but there is no doubt it’s a human. The poor soul screams and flails, plummeting towards the ground in what must be a fatal fall.

I feel sick and I reach an ineffective hand out as if I might be able to stop them by the Force or some other mystical power, but here in reality, there’s nothing I can do. I turn my head, not wanting to see the inevitable ending, but the scream stops before it should.

I dare a glance back. A Zmaj is gliding down in a circle. It takes me a moment to process what I see. The Zmaj must have leaped off one of the lower ramps and caught the person who is now in his arms.

These are good people. So are the Urr’ki. Somehow there has to be a way to get them all to see it in each other. There must be a way to bring them together. The ground must disagree because it bucks hard, tossing me up. I fly through the air, hitting the wall next to the tunnel I was aiming for, hard enough that it knocks my breath out.

I lay in a heap struggling to get air. My eyes fill with tears as my vision grays out. I must pass out because when my sight clears the world is quiet. The rumbling has stopped. People are running around checking on each other. Someone looms large in my vision.

“Are you okay?” they ask, their voice too loud for some reason.

I nod unable to form words yet. My chest burns, my back hurts, and my head is throbbing. I touch the back of my head and find a goose egg forming at the crown. It’s tender to the touch causing me to gasp in pained surprise.

“You sure?” the person asks.

“Yeah,” I say. “Others need help.”

The man nods and goes out of sight. I push myself up, the ground has thankfully returned to stability, and I get unsteadily onto my feet. Looking around I’m not sure what to do. I should help, but how? Where?

Rosalind. I need to make sure she got help.

That makes the most sense in the confusion. I turn and stumble my way down the hall following the direction I saw Visidion taking her.