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

41. Saylor

41

SAYLOR

“ S ek!” Wren yelps leaping the short distance to his side and grabbing his face between her hands.

She plants kisses all over his face until he groans. As I watch the affection, my chest swells with happiness for her. Sek’su is pale. Really, really pale. The black spiderweb is still spreading over his chest with trailing tendrils. While he accepts Wren’s love and does try to return it, my outside perspective allows me to see how much it’s taking out of him. The effort is clearly draining his limited strength.

“Wren,” I say, touching her shoulder. She ignores me. I tighten my grip. “Wren, he needs to rest.”

She tenses and plants several more loud smacking kisses before she quits resisting and lets me pull her back, though she keeps her hands on his cheeks and never takes her eyes off of him.

“Sek,” she whispers.

“My treasure,” he replies, raising his hand to caress her cheek.

It’s such a simple moment between the two of them, but I feel every bit like the third wheel invading their privacy. Unsure what to do with myself, I take a step back. I should go, let them have this time while they can.

I don’t even want to think it but that doesn’t stop the dark thought that lies beneath my desire to leave them. This could be the last moment they have. That thought immediately leads to the idea that I also might have already had my last moment with Khiara.

My stomach rebels. Bile rises, burning its way up my throat, forcing me to swallow and push it back down.

No. He’s fine. He’ll return to me. He has to. I’ll even… babies are fine. I’ll figure it out.

I walk towards the door to leave, but Sek and Wren remain in my peripheral vision and all I can think is that if he dies, she’ll be left with nothing. No remnants of him or their love. Nothing to put into the future. No mark on this planet that shows the love they had.

I swear to myself that will not be Khiara and me. As soon as he’s home, safe and whole, I am going to get pregnant. Once I do, I will be the best pregnant woman of all time, if only he returns to me. I want him to give us a child. My womb aches with an emptiness, something I’ve never felt before.

The images of Rosalind with her legs spread and the head of her baby emerging, forcing her body into a contortion that I never wanted to experience or to see in all honesty don’t matter. Pain is momentary, and a life that Khiara and I create - that’s forever. That’s a future long beyond the span of our own lives. That is worth it.

And I want that. I want that more than words.

Reaching the door, I lift it enough to slip out, not wanting to disturb my friends or break them from their moment together. As I lift the smooth, cool leather there is a sound that stops me in my tracks.

The cries of a baby.

Cold chills race over my limbs, leaving goose-pimples in their wake. My stomach quivers and I involuntarily gasp. I look over my shoulder and both of them are staring at the door too. My smile is so wide that it makes my jaw hurt, but there is nothing I can do to stop it. Tears fill my eyes. Tears of joy. Tears of life affirmed.

“Rosalind?” Wren asks.

I can’t speak around the lump in my throat, so I nod with great enthusiasm. She smiles, looks down at Sek, then kisses him on his forehead.

“Soon, my love,” she whispers but I hear it clearly since it is an echo of my own decision.

Sek’su murmurs something that I don’t catch. She wraps her arms around his neck and once more I’m the third wheel. I slip out the door, leaving them to one another.

In the hallway, I stand looking around, unsure what to do with myself. All there is to do is wait. I should go see if anyone needs help. The quake was really bad and I’m sure that there is even more work to be done than there was, even if no one was hurt.

A woman emerges from the room that Rosalind is in. She has light brown hair that drops to the middle of her back. Her delicate features are dominated by large, dark eyes. She pauses to wipe sweat from her forehead and take a deep breath.

“Is she okay? And the baby?” I ask. She startles, jumping and turning towards me. I raise my hands palm out while ruefully smiling. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine,” she says. There are heavy bags under her eyes indicating a long lack of good sleep. She purses her lips and shakes her head. “I didn’t realize anyone was here is all. Figured everyone was busy with the quake.”

“My friend, well her mate, he was poisoned. I was checking on them,” I say, gesturing towards the door to the room.

“Oh, right,” she says, rubbing her face and eyes. “They’re fine.”

I blink having to take a moment to figure out if she means Sek’su or Rosalind. I assume she means Rosalind, but it’s a guess.

“The baby?” I ask.

She nods dropping her hands heavily to her side.

“Can I ask…” I trail off realizing I shouldn’t. It’s stupid and selfish and this poor woman is clearly stressed to the max. The last thing she needs is me asking ignorant questions or pestering her. “Never mind.”

“No, it’s fine,” she says, a half-smile forming. “I’m Addison, by the way.”

She walks closer extending one hand in a friendly greeting. She’s prettier than I thought at first. It’s not so much her face or build, but her attitude and the way she is that makes up for the lack of good skin care and sleep. She has an aura of gentle kindness to her that is calming and inviting.

“I’m Saylor?—”

“I know,” she interrupts with a big smile. Then realizing she cut me off, shrugs and shakes her head. “Sorry. Everyone knows who you are.”

“I suppose,” I agree.

“You had a question?”

I feel completely out of sorts. I want to know, but then part of me really doesn’t want to. What if it’s terrible? What if the damage is permanent and irreversible? Would I still want to go through with it? Do I tell Wren before she commits herself to possibly being deformed for life?

“Yeah… never mind. It’s stupid.”

“The one rule I’ve followed all my life,” Addison says, “is that the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.”

“Oh,” I say in surprise.

It’s not a rule I’ve ever heard. In fact, the wrong question at the wrong time has caused me innumerable problems in my life. The downfall of having your every word, every micro-expression analyzed and searched out for meaning that you may or may not have intended in it.

“I know,” she says shrugging. “Probably not a rule you have used in your life, but then I’m not you. I’ve never wanted the spotlight. Honestly, I prefer to be as far from it as possible.”

I smile, truer and deeper because her admission warms my heart and displays an understanding that people outside the gilded cage Wren and I live in rarely understand or admit that they know.

“Yeah,” I chuckle. “Definitely not something I’ve ever been able to think with.”

“Right, so your question?” she turns and looks down the hall then past me. “We’re alone. It’s safe, and I promise I won’t feed it to those do-nothing vultures who’ve served literally no purpose even before the ship crashed.”

“You sound like one of us,” I observe, and she smiles, then nods encouragement.

Heat creeps over my chest and onto my cheeks. This is a stupid, terrible question but I need to know. I have committed my heart and myself to having a baby and I’m not going to back down from that, but I don’t want to be broken either. I like sex. A lot and I don’t want to lose that.

“I, uhm, I saw…” I trail off too embarrassed to admit that, so I change direction. “I haven’t seen any… the women who’ve had… you know… hybrids… they only have one…”

“That’s not strictly true,” she says. “There are a few of the first group who are pregnant again.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

If they did it again, then their parts work. And how bad can it be if they’re willing to go through that again?

“You’re worried about having a hybrid baby?” I bite my lower lip and nod. She smiles and places a reassuring hand on my arm. “Don’t be. I don’t know how, but human and Zmaj bodies are compatible.”

“It was… I mean… I saw…”

“Oh, you were the one who opened the door,” she says, understanding on her face. I nod. “I know it looks horrific, but oh—” She cuts herself off and her eyes widen. “You’re worried about after.”

“Yes,” I say too quick. “Am I terrible? I feel like I’m terrible.”

Her smile is as reassuring as anything even before she shakes her head.

“No, not at all,” she says. “Of course you are. Especially given what you just saw but believe me your body is made for this. It will hurt, sure, and it will get a bit rough, but you’ll pull through.”

“But after…”

“It takes a month to six weeks, but you’ll return to perfectly normal.”

“What if… what if it’s not a Zmaj?”

“Well of course it’s fine, that’s been happening for thousands of—” she stops and shakes her head as understanding comes over her face. “An Urr’ki?”

“Uh, yeah,” I say.

She nods, her brow furrowing.

“We don’t know, yet, about the compatibility of the two species, but in general… they’re smaller when grown.” She is thinking hard and it’s clear that she’s mostly talking to herself. “The only point of concern with them would be how the tusks form and when. It might be necessary to do the birth in reverse, but that brings its own difficulty. It shouldn’t be that much different than the Zmaj horns, but those are cartilage at birth, only hardening outside the womb…”

My eyes are wide. My stomach is churning in open rebellion as a cold sweat forms on my forehead.

“Oh,” I say, feeling faint.

Addison pulls out of her deep thinking when she sees the effect she’s creating. She grabs onto my shoulders to steady me while shaking her head.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I was thinking out loud. Assuming that the species are compatible, I assume that… well the parts fit and are at least mostly… normal?”

I swallow and nod.

“Uh, yeah.”

“Okay, then it is a safe assumption that your body is also willing and able to bear the fruit of such union.”

“Union?” I ask, feeling lost.

“That the pregnancy would be carried to term and not be… bad,” she says clearly changing the way she ends the sentence.

I don’t know what word or words she was going to say but I’m grateful to her for not saying them. I’m already feeling weak kneed and faint.

“Oh, good,” I say, not feeling much in the way of actual relief.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Uhm, sure?”

“How… different are they? Do they have multiple? Are they shaped differently? Bigger? Smaller? I’m sorry, but I’ve been really curious about it. Purely from a scientific perspective, you see. I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to the girl who’s mated with one of them.”

“Uhm, it’s quite… normal, I guess. Bigger than most humans but not ridiculous or anything. I assume they’re not all the same, like a human. Khiara has… uh… one. No… ridges like the Zmaj.”

She looks as if she’s cataloging every word I say with great care. Which makes me feel even more awkward. Of course, I’ve talked with the girls about dicks and especially about the ones one of us was fucking, but that was fun and giggles. This is cold and clinical and awkward.

“I’m sorry. I’m making you uncomfortable. I don’t mean to, it’s curiosity. Like I said, the only stupid question and all.” I smile and nod but can’t deny that I’m glad this conversation is coming to an end. “Do you want to meet the new baby?”

“Huh?” I ask, my head spinning at the sudden change in direction.

“The baby? I’m sure Rosalind won’t mind. She’s a very proud momma, as she should be.”

“Uh, yes? If you’re sure it’s okay,” I say.

The image of Rosalind with her legs spread, face, and pussy both contorting to completely impossible and unnatural shapes as she pushed the new life out is front and foremost in my head. I try to not see it before I walk through the door, because what could possibly be more awkward than that?

“I’m sure,” Addison says, turning to the door and lifting the leather without further hesitation.

The smell of the room fills my senses first. I’ve never smelt anything like it. It’s not unpleasant, not in the slightest. The fearful memory washes away as I inhale deeply. The scent is fresh and new, and for some reason it makes me feel hopeful. As if a beautiful future is opening up ahead of me with a bright shining path that can only lead to something better.

I hesitate just inside the door; Rosalind is propped up on the bed with a bundle in her arms that must be the baby, but I can’t see anything of the newborn. Visidion is at her side, leaning in close and whispering to the child.

Tsi’tel, the healer, is across the room working on something, but he is peripheral to the main show of the loving couple. The glow on Rosalind’s face fills the space around her. The room is lit with torches like most of the compound. Their orange and yellow flickering casts her in a light that washes away all memories of what she was doing moments ago.

She is beautiful. The way her eyes sparkle looking down at her baby. There are no signs of her age. The lines on her face are invisible. The gray at her temples becomes more of a beauty mark than anything else.

My heartrate is high, but it also feels as if I’m frozen in place, standing here barely inside the door. I don’t want to break this moment. It’s too perfect.

“You want to meet him?” Rosalind asks.

She doesn’t look away and I wasn’t sure she knew I was here, but her words are addressed to me. I take a step forward and clear my throat.

“May I?” I ask, surprised by the trembling in my voice.

Rosalind looks up for the first time. She smiles and makes a bobbing motion with her head. I approach the bed with a growing sense of trepidation yet hope. It’s weird and doesn’t make sense, but this is the first time in my life I’ve been near a brand-new baby. A new life. One that didn’t exist, outside her belly at least, only a few minutes before.

Swaddled tightly in a blanket, all I can see is the side of the baby’s face. It’s nestled to Rosalind’s breast, hiding most of the uncovered skin, but what I see makes my breath catch and my heart skip.

One brilliantly green eye is wide open, which I didn’t think was the case with newborns, and looking around even as it suckles. The flickering light dances off the itty bitty, tiny scales that cover its cheeks. It has a shock of dark hair but on the temple, in the same place as its mother’s gray, is a bright, pure white patch.

It seems to lock its eye on me and I would swear there is a questioning look, as if it's wondering who I am. There is a popping sound as it breaks away from her breast and turns to look at me. The face of the baby is even more breathtaking.

Its horns are little nubs right at the thick hairline. The nose… by all that’s ever been holy, that nose. It’s small, but a perfect duplicate of Visidion’s. It blinks then its lips curl into a smile almost immediately followed by a belch so loud it seems to echo in the room. Rosalind and Visidion chuckle but all I can do is stare with my eyes wide and my heart soaring.

“Thank you for helping get Rosalind here,” Visidion says.

“Huh? Oh, I… I didn’t do anything,” I say, not looking away. I can’t look away. This little newborn holds full sway over my attention.

“You helped,” he says, placing one hand against his chest. “And I am grateful.”

“Saylor, I’d like to introduce you to T’vori,” Rosalind says.

“What a beautiful name,” I say.

“It means ‘creator’ in your language, or close enough,” Visidion says.

“Creator,” I whisper as the baby twists and turns until Rosalind replaces it on her breast. “Uhm, I… is it…”

“A boy,” Rosalind says. “Impossible to tell at this age, don’t feel bad.”

I nod because I don’t have any words. The feelings I’m experiencing are more than anything I’ve ever had in my life. It feels like waves of emotions are crashing together in my chest that I can’t define or make sense of, but the one thing that they coalesce into is clear.

Hope. There is hope.