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

39. Saylor

39

SAYLOR

F inding Rosalind isn’t hard. All I do is follow the screaming. Okay, it’s not screaming. Not quite. It’s a high-pitched, constant, ear-grating screech that should be impossible for any human to make.

Standing outside the leather door, knowing that the sound must be muffled by it and it’s going to be so, so much worse when I pull it aside, I try to prepare myself. The problem is, I have no idea how. How do I prepare for something I’ve never seen and honestly, as I’m now realizing, know very little about?

Childbirth is a concept that I know, of course. Everyone does, and my education was not lacking, but how it actually works, the details, none of those have ever been part of my world. I’ve heard it’s painful and it’s gross with lots of fluids and other body things that I’d just as soon not think about, so I never have.

My stomach is churning and cold sweat beads over my chest and arms. I close my eyes and take two deep breaths. The unending sound finally breaks and there is a brief moment of silence. I hear muffled voices inside but cannot make out what they are saying.

Feeling ready, or as ready as I’m going to, I grab the leather of the door. It’s thick, heavy, and smoothly cool to the touch. I lift it, stick my head in, see way more than I ever wanted to see, and jerk right back out of there.

“Nope,” I mutter. “No-oo-pe.”

I pace the hallway. Did not need to see that. How can a woman’s body, anybody’s body, do that? It’s not right. Not right at all. I walk back to the leather door, intent on going inside and facing up to this part of life, but then it hits me.

Why? Why am I putting myself through this?

Rosalind is with the healers and her mate. I have zero business in that room. I did what I set out to do before she went into labor, which was to cover for Khiara. No, that didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. No, we didn’t really resolve the possible issue, but that’s not my fault now, is it?

Looking down the tunnel at the next door I make up my mind and go there. I should check on Wren and Sek’su anyway. They might need me. Rosalind has, well she has everyone that can help her, and I do truly hope she’s okay.

Can she be? Can her… will she be able to…

“Ugh,” I groan, pushing it all out of my head.

Female bodies are amazing. That’s the only thing I can settle on that brings me any comfort. If my body, anyone’s body can be that deformed, that misshapen, and then bounce back to anywhere near what it was before, well that’s just incredible. Well done, universe. Well done.

“How is he?” I ask, ducking into the next room.

“What is happening out there?” Wren asks, not leaving Sek’su’s side. “That quake almost bounced him off the table. I barely kept him up and now I can’t find anyone. Were a lot of people hurt?”

And this is the moment I realize that I don’t know. I saw the one person who was saved by a Zmaj, but I have no idea if anyone was hurt in the quake or not. I shrug, closing the distance between us. There is a soft rattling, crackling sound to Sek’su’s breathing that my attention latches onto and it makes my stomach churn.

“I’m not sure, but…” I say trailing off. I force myself to look away from Sek’su. Staring at him isn’t going to help and if anything, it will only make Wren worry more. “Rosalind is, uhm, she’s having her baby.”

“What?” Wren exclaims the question in a loud voice.

I see she is welcoming the distraction. The image of what I saw when I looked through that door is forefront in my head but I’m not going to share that with her, not now at least. Eventually, I will. When Sek’su isn’t fighting for his life. She needs to know since only an idiot would think the two of them aren’t going to end up pregnant. She could be pregnant right now for all I know, they certainly bang enough.

“Yeah,” I nod.

“Where? Is that the shouting?”

“If you want to call that shouting, yeah,” I nod. Even here on the other side of two thick stone walls with heavy leather doors suppressing it the groaning shouts can still be heard.

“Oh,” Wren says, her voice dropping along with the look on her face. “Did you… is she… okay?”

I know her well enough to know what she’s asking. How bad is it? And I want to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, yelling in her face it’s bad. Run! Get out now before your poor pussy gets put through that.

I want to, but I don’t. And I’m not going to. Because… because I don’t know why, because. Because this is life, isn’t it? The icy tendrils of fear trail through my guts, but hybrid baby or not, our bodies are made for doing this.

Furthering the species into the future is the most natural thing in the universe. Sure, we all have sex for fun and pleasure, but that’s not the real reason for it, no matter how good it feels. It feels good to make sure that we females will keep doing it, knowing damn well it could or will result in what I saw Rosalind going through.

Or something like that. What do I know about it? I’ve never given a thought to having a child before. No guy I have ever been with was father material, not in a million years. I wouldn’t have ever let that happen, but now…

Khiara. Would our children be green? I can imagine that. That’s okay, tusks though. What if they have tusks when I’m trying to get them out? That sounds… painful.

It will be fine. I’m suddenly and unexpectedly certain. The chill fades and in its wake is nothing but a knowing that this will all work out fine. Dozens of women have had Zmaj babies already, so I’ve got that going for me. I’m in love with an Urr’ki, so the necessary stretching to birth any coming children will be, by their very genetic nature, less than it will be for Wren.

Sorry, Wren. Hope your pussy bounces back.

“Yeah,” I say. “There are healers with her and her mate, Visidion isn’t it? I think that’s his name.”

“That’s him,” Wren agrees. She takes a deep breath and holds it a moment before exhaling sharply. “Good. That’s good. The last time I saw her, I couldn’t believe how big she was. You saw her, right? I mean… wow.”

“Right? I can’t believe her body, any body, could be that shape and not, I don’t know burst.”

We look at each other and then we’re laughing. I know it’s a stress laugh because once it starts, I can’t stop. Wren isn’t stopping either. We’re both crying from laughing so hard. Supporting each other and gasping for air. The laughter echoes off the walls filling the room with much-needed mirth.

“Wha..t is funny?” Sek’su asks breathlessly.