The Last Omega in the Galaxy (Scales and Tails of Fate #1)

Chapter Fourteen

Noel

I needed no other incentive than to use the restroom the next morning when the scent of food tickled my nostrils. I had to remind myself that food was necessary as I rushed into the small quarters to relieve myself and hunt for my toothbrush, which Sarge sent over at some point. Finding toothpaste was the simple part.

I stared at my feet, tapping out a tune on the floor while I scrubbed at my teeth, examining myself with a prideful little smirk. If I doubted the virility of my mate, I did so no longer. The slight hillock of my belly was all the proof I needed that an egg had taken occupancy within me, building itself all the necessary components to survive.

So, when I turned to exit the bathroom and found Vil staring at me with amorous intent, his dark gaze grew fierce when he homed in on where my hand lay. “I’ll be the first hybreed over 30 percent to have ever produced spawn.”

“And as I told Doc, you will have made a pure Naleucian, as your Tal is only in your mRNA. I wonder if they’ll be alpha or beta.”

“What if they’re both, like me?”

“They won’t be,” I said. Shaking my head, I pulled him in to press our bodies into one another. “You are a chimera, not a hybrid. I looked at some imaging with Doc. You have two sets of reproductive gamete-generating organs. Your alpha is carried in your testes I assume and beta internally. That’s why I needed to be taken from both sides to conceive. Your reproductive erroneous set likely has no relation to you from recombinant creation.” With enough shuffling of the decks of DNA, one could create siblings with enough genetic diversity to prevent certain unfortunate breeding practices from cluttering genetic lines.

Vil stared at me like he didn’t know how to process what I’d told him but nodded, eventually. “Some of my brothers had to have their spares excised.”

His generation, if I recalled well, had horrible side effects, but the ones that lived, thrived . I’d known about his line before being frozen, but not enough, nor had I seen them. Had I have seen them, our reunion would have been far more awkward, as he’d been just a boy when they stored me, or perhaps not hatched yet. If I recalled correctly, they’d been incubated by Tal.

Vil pressed a kiss to my lips and palmed a hand over my belly before slipping unapologetically into the restroom. I parted ways from him and snuggled back into our slightly crusty nest and found a clean-ish spot to wallow into as I dreamed of old stories Nirem had told me of omegas bearing eggs. How they would nest in fanciful beds and be doted upon by their obedient alpha and beta until they laid their egg and went broody, nesting until their little hatchling crawled free with a stretch.

I’d been hatched from an egg, unlike most Naleucians back when I had been born. Omegas had volunteered to birth live for the journey, the shells much easier to survive space travel than the gestational pods.

Unfortunately, a lack of care or foresight made my siblings’ eggs unviable, and even I had been a potential loss, as my pale colors made Nirem certain I was sickly.

But my youngest memories had always been Raziel’s disappointed stare and Nirem’s apologetic one. Had I been any other gender, I doubt they’d have been happy, either. My singular presence meant their mission had failed.

I didn’t hear Vil return, but when he did, I rolled into his arms with open affection, rubbing my cheek across his chest. “Is this where I demand my alpha feed me while I complain of some malady or another?”

Vil laughed. His throaty voice barked notes of happiness that made me want to smile at him. In that way, he reminded me nothing at all of my patrons. Perhaps that was for the best. I liked it.

Vil pulled a blanket in to snuggle us together, all the while sniffing at me lightly. “Perhaps. I cannot guarantee excellent fare, but it’s food and nutritious.”

I shrugged. “Ever had an MRE?”

If I wasn’t mistaken, Vil paled a little and nodded. “Over four hundred years ago and the memory still haunts me.”

My upper lip curled as we shared that when he paused. “What work did you have to do with the military? I know they kept you as a specimen…”

“Kept me for breeding purposes, but eventually they figured out all the errors with their math and our genes, and Raziel and Nirem were long gone, along with any pure samples. My best use, at that point, was spare organs until the population started rejecting our genes.” I shrugged, and he cupped my face, eyes that deep black full of bottomless concern. “And then I was a soldier who couldn’t die.”

“Who could go into radioactive areas…” Vil said as I nodded slowly. “Where they still harvested from you on the sly…”

“Just because I heal doesn’t mean I wasn’t still radioactive.” I huffed bitterly because I could be clean again in a month or two, but they just didn’t let me. They didn’t let me do so many things. Memories flooded back and my breath hitched before Vil had me clutched tightly to his chest once more, kissing me as humans did, something I found strange but pleasant, considering I never saw Nirem and Raziel kiss one another, though they were mates, themselves.

“Food. We need to eat. You need to eat, especially.” Vil snorted and drew his hand over the slight distension of my belly, tracing a clawed fingertip around my navel. “And they always told me I was sterile. Hah.” Vil’s voice, nervous as much as it was anything else, petered out with a huff.

“Doc looks forward to this. Though I don’t know how he will go about tending to my delivery.” I stroked with a gentle touch over the surface with Vil. Truth told, I intended to rely on instinct alone. “There’s every chance it may not hatch.”

Vil pressed his lips and shook his head. “If it doesn’t, we’ll try again. After all, you are stuck with me.”

The admission gave me a flicker of hope. I could bear young. I was of value to an alpha. I had no wars to fight. No superiors to report to. “Okay.” I nodded, doing my best to hold back a smile, but he brought it out of me in no time with a slow grind and a kiss before swatting my ass with his tail.

“Ow!” The sting made me scramble up and out of bed. The pain wasn’t terrible, more of a motivator, but I still rubbed at the spot and gasped when he chased after me, hugging me into submission.

“Put some clothes on.” He groped my ass and went about throwing clothes on himself as I went for the few pairs of shorts and shirts I’d been given by Doc.

They didn’t match the navy-blue shorts and somewhat-pink top, like a white shirt had been washed with red things. They were ill-fitting, like most of the things I’d worn, and Vil scrutinized me. “We’ll buy you new things once we get to port.”

“If you want.” I didn’t want to press him. I’d taken so many liberties, so it was the least I could do to be frugal and indifferent.

“I do.” Vill wrapped his tail around mine for a gentle squeeze as he strolled by, the gesture a familiar one. I’d seen Raziel and Nirem do it often and as bittersweet as it was, I enjoyed it.

I followed Vil into the hallway and into a main wing we’d avoided between the med bay, airlock, and cockpit.

The strange shudder of the ship continued beneath my feet, but I grew accustomed to it quickly enough, almost forgetting it the second the scent of something edible lured my focus away.

An audible growl had Vil tugging me along, hair a loose mess over my shoulders that I really should have combed. I felt self-conscious as we pushed into an airlock door and met a rowdy dozen men spread about a few tables with plates of dubiously colored food and the scent of what could only be alcohol, though it wasn’t one I was familiar with.

Vil ushered me in from behind him and the clamoring of life stopped as many sets of hybreed eyes turned toward me.

“Blessed be…” someone whispered.

“He’s a real fucken’ Progenitor? Looks kinda scrawny,” another said but earned a swat from another as Gorm stood from a farther-away table and beamed.

“Noel! Come, bring Vil over and sit. It’s the captain’s table anyway!” He scooted to make room and had his tablemates move over, placing me right between him and Vil as we sat.

A rather sour-faced male hung his head from a countered window and rang a bell. “Two up!”

“That’s us.” Vil rose to his feet once more and brought back two plates of food. Everything was in pastel shades: blue, purple, pink. All pastes of some variety, save for more of those white popcorn soggy things. I couldn’t complain, though, as I ate a spoonful the moment Vil tied into his.

“So?” Gorm grinned and eyed Vil, something malicious twinkling in his eyes.

“Keeping him. What’s done is done.” Vil shrugged as he rasped out through a mouthful of paste. The strange pink stuff had a chicken-like taste.

The scrapes and clicks of bowls subsided as curious ears tuned in. Tensions rose and every second of silence that followed made me tense, as if ready to fight.

“He’s making an organ donation for the ship as a gesture of goodwill. We’ve mated, so it’s not an easy fix.” Vil’s face showed no emotion.

Whispers passed around and Gorm perked up, speaking for them. “Guys, meet Noel. He’s our new crewmate and Vil’s lifemate. We’re going to be nice to them, right?”

The tone of his voice suggested all seriousness, but the laughter that followed spread like wildfire.

“Vil? Monogamous?” someone asked.

“Lifemate? He can’t keep it in his pants for a week,” another said.

I knew different though. Biology had united us, and maybe one day our hearts would follow, but it was good to be chosen and adored for the time being.

The laughter died down and questions flurried about, some bitter words about the profit they’d miss out on, but the donation I had promised would go a long way to proving to them. Gorm stepped in though. “He’s a person. You can’t just enslave and sell a—”

“Progenitor, man!” The cook from the kitchen thrust his head out the serving window, brow furrowed. “Can’t really count them as people, maybe gods or something.”

“I’m no god. I am Naleucian.”

He eyed me dubiously, dark-chocolate eyes all pupil, slitted amid skin a radiant sort of brown that blended into a rainbow sheen like types of boas. “Yeah. One of the fuckers who made us all into this cursed shit.”

I twisted my lips. “It’s sad you have no blame for the humans or the Tal you bear blood from. If you knew what I’d been through, the benefits I never reaped, you may think twice. I was a disposable consequence to Raziel and Nirem, but I agreed to donate a heart. I don’t know if you’re regenerative, but it still hurts. There’s no level of anesthetization that ever made it more bearable.”

Vil’s warm hands rested on my shoulders as the cook backed down. “Wallace, come on. I know what you went through. He’s gone through worse, trust me. He popped out of one of their little petri dishes on the ride over and they didn’t want him.”

“He’s the third Nephilim?” Someone’s echoed voice sent murmurs across the room.

“Yeah. And if you got a problem, you can talk to me.” Doc stepped into the dining area, slouched with his hands in his pockets. The white coat he wore bore stains and dirt that Noel didn’t recognize.

“And me.” Gorm curled an upper lip and stared him down. Vil pulled me possessively against him, tail wrapping about my waist. The rejection didn’t hurt. The Naleucians were not the greatest people. They had foul intentions, and even I agreed with it. It was my duty to be different, not to clear their name.

“If that little egg Noel is packing over there turns out to be anything special, you’re about to be an uncle to Vil’s kid, Wallace. Want to start out on a bad foot?” Sarge cleared his throat, and the room silenced.

“What?” Wallace halted in the window, eyes wide.

“Vil is alpha beta. Noel is pure omega. Put two and two together.” Doc walked past and produced a tin from inside his coat and waited for Wallace to trade him out. “So, chill. Noel is my Progenitor and, frankly, several others here. Saved my life. The people who turned me away after were the fucked-up ones.”

I watched as Doc collected his food and stared Wallace down for a long moment, face twisted into something unrecognizable.

Wallace lifted his hands in placation and backed off. What genes the Naleucians had left behind were spread thin between the crew. There, I was able to glance between stunned faces and sad, slitted eyes, learning each of their sorrows. Second-class citizens. All children of gods that people cursed. I, a victim of the same system, steeled myself. They held no preconceptions about omegas or their roles. They only knew rejection, and so had I. They were the same in that way.

“Man… I’m all for being an uncle and shit but like… Cap keeping it in his pants?” A crewmate that I didn’t know yet shook his head, and from his scent he was in the teens, more Tal than Naleucian.

Chuckles nervously passed about as Doc made his way to the doorway and froze, fingers clenched on his food tin. “Isn’t it what we’ve all wanted? A person to settle down with? Love? A family? It’s what I want. I think there’s a small gift the Progenitors gave us, one we know next to nothing about. And we’ll see it soon enough. What Vil and Noel will share is something the likes of which we’ve never really known. Celebrate. Because if I can figure out what makes Noel so much more special than us—we all benefit.” The lingering gaze that flicked my way caught my attention. They were full of meaning, those pale-blue things. Such a small part of him carried my mark, but to him, it was everything he had left.

“I look forward to working with you.” I nodded sagely, and Doc gave me a wave before slipping off, leaving only the bitterness lingering in the air before slowly one or two people went back to eating and I stared at the alien fare before me.

Bleh.