Page 71 of 20% Stud 80% Muffin
Ginger’s forehead furrowed. “You don’t want to be Geo’s mate?”
“He doesn’t know what it means to be mated to an omega. His erratic behavior is driving him crazy.” My tail slashed through the water before my voice grew soft. “In no time, he’ll tire of servicing me every full moon.”
“So, tell him,” she implored.
“He won’t want to complete the bond with me.” I sighed. Then, deflated, I said, “I’m broken.”
“Now, there won’t be any talk like that.” Jast pulled me back beside her onto the bench. “There is more to an omega than the ability to bear young.” She turned to Ginger. “Geo’s behavior will settle as soon as they are fully bonded. All partially bonded Lornians are a nightmare.”
“You can have children?” Ginger gasped, ignoring the comment about Geo’s behavior normalizing.
“No.” I hung my head, defeated.
Jast wrapped her tail around my shoulder and pulled my hand onto her hard stomach. “Makir was attacked by an alpha in his last heat on Lorne. The encounter left him…barren.”
Her unborn youngling stirred under my palm and drew me out of my head. “I felt it.” I stared at her distended stomach in wonder and held my hand over the wiggling mass. “Jast, you’ll be an amazing mother. My brother is so incredibly fortunate to have found his true mate.”
“I’m the lucky one,” Jast said easily. “The youngling loves this water.” Jast had both hands on her belly as she leaned against the cave wall, the perfect picture of contentment.
JayJay’s deep rumble pulled me back to the real world. “It’s been almost two suns.” He tapped his wristport with a gray knuckle. “Let’s return.”
Jast, the only one smart enough to have brought a towel, loaned it to Ginger while I shook off. JayJay worked his wet limbs into his clothes before we followed him up the sloping tunnel.
Ginger fell into step beside me, her stance rigid. “Makir, I’m sorry if I was insensitive. I was so blown away that a man could bear children that I didn’t listen to what Jast was saying.” She nudged my shoulder. “I’m sorry that was taken from you.” Her hand cupped mine. “He won’t care, you know.”
I met her soft eyes squinting in the dark, searching for the truth.
“He won’t care that you can’t have kids,” she repeated quietly with a little smile. “Gay men on Earth can’t have children with each other. If they want to be parents, they adopt, and most don’t bother because it’s so complicated.” Ginger dropped back to walk with Jast.
He won’t care, I thought to myself over and over again. Her words took root in my mind, and I reached for the tether between Geo and me.
25
Heat radiated from thesunbaked rocks, and I wiped my brow with a corner of my shirt while checking the last few snares with Bonic. Our time together passed in comfortable silence, but when I checked my wristport I realized our private time together was coming to an end. I wanted Bonic to understand how much I cared for his brother and that I wasn’t an overbearing buffoon all the time.
“These will make a wonderful lining for our family nest. Jast will be pleased. Only the softest fabrics are used to cradle new lives, and these are among the softest I’ve ever felt.” Bonic admired the brilliant white fur of the brace of linobee he’d trapped in the craggy rocks.
“Here”—I passed over my two linobee—“you might as well add these.”
“Thank you. Our youngling will be very comfortable.” He ran his large blue hand over the fur.
“Makir has enough linobee pelts to start a fashion line. They won’t be missed.” I chuckled.
Bonic nodded as he wound the snare wire up and handed it back to me.
“So, you and Makir are kind of a big deal?” Finesse was not one of my finer character traits.
Bonic’s deep laugh echoed off all the jagged ebony surrounding us.
“Will you make Makir leave?” I blurted before he could respond. The question had been constantly on my mind since dinner yesterday.
Bonic secured the linobee to his brace. “You’re a strange alpha. I’ve never met one so uncomfortable in his own skin. Why do you doubt my brother’s love for you?”
Huh? That wasn’t what I’d expected him to say.More like—‘You’re no match for my brother. He’s worth ten of you.’ My lack of ability to be a good alpha was what I doubted. And maybe my ability to hold Makir’s interest as a lover.
Then the rest of his words wiped out every thought, blanketing my mind like an avalanche, turning everything arctic white. He thinks Makir loves me?
“Geo, are you coming?” How had he got so far ahead of me?
