Page 46 of The First Alpha on the Planet
“We’re not letting them hunt vermin.” I cringed as I said the words out loud, earning a sidelong glance from Liru, as if the very suggestion was as disgusting as I found it.
“Then how will they learn to hunt?” Zurok blinked in surprise.
I restrained every urge to say a word more and resigned myself to the fact that my child would grow up like a feral animal.
As the struggle within his shell grew more intense, Risel’s egg shook and pulsed, a singular motion at first, as if he were getting comfortable, but no matter how the little one within shifted, it couldn’t seem to sit still.
“Siblings are said to hatch simultaneously due to motion of their sibling in the nest.” Liru watched with wide, glistening eyes, and I swallowed hard. One more minute, two. It made no difference as we watched our little one pierce his shell with a singular ripping claw.
Another swipe and shred of claw chipped away a leathery chunk as dark slime pulsed within the pale flesh and dark scales of a little one within, bright golden eyes staring up at us as a head pushed free, gasping for their first wet breath.
Instinct took over as I pulled the little one to my chest and cleaned off his face, squeezing his nose a few times to make sure his airways were unobstructed.
Little scales like hydrocarbon fuel on water on a dusky evening, oil slick washed up on a beach, gleamed under the slime over skin a shade darker than my own, certain to gain pigment as time went on to something of a creamier shade than Wallace’s lovely amber flesh. Little wisps of hair, the same shade as my own, dark and inky blue, stuck up all different ways. And right away, I could tell he wasn’t omega by the absence of internal genitals. The only question was… I felt down his back, and little spines bumped under my fingers, much like Wallace’s.Alpha.Which meant the beta…
We smiled down at our little one and glanced toward Risel as his shell split. Silvery scales glittered over his arm, tanned flesh still soggy. And beyond that, a mess of dark hair and pretty pink eyes—a little beta. Liru and Zurok took him into their arms to share, wiping the mess from his lips and nose. “Risel is a beta.”
“Beautiful.” Zurok touched over the little one’s face and stumpy tail, letting him squirm and claw at the air with little whimpers for comfort.
“Damn, they’re kinda cute for someone as ugly as me.” Wallace laughed and earned a dubious glance from everyone else.
I almost wanted to take credit for their good looks, but recalled an omega donated fairly little to a child born. And I wouldn’t dare say that Robard was responsible for their beauty. Wallace was an extremely handsome male, especially by Naleucian standards. With the last of his transformation, his bronze skin and dark lips were not uncommon among the Naleucians, but they viewed pallor differently.
Wallace took our child from me and stared him down with amazement dancing in his wonderful eyes. He blinked tears away and held the squirming youth to his chest. “There’s a tradition.”
“Alpha colony. Alpha born. I’m an N03 transition… First generation born. AL…” I twisted my lips as Wallace leaned down to kiss our little one’s head. “How many eggs have hatched so far?”
“Nine so far. We have eleven more on their way.” Zurok opened a window in the air to peruse the reports.
“AL3 10…” I grinned. “X is roman numeral…”
“Alex. I don’t think it means anything Naleucian.” Wallace frowned. “There’s talex, which is this floral nectar I like for sweetening. Alexna, which is the distance between stars…”
“Alex is a wonderful balance of sweetness and the distance in our stars.” Zurok nodded in approval. “He will not be shunned for his name likeWallace.”
Wallace’s eye twitched.
“Not my fault your name meansforkin their language.” I laughed as he leaned over with a grin.
“Certainly, it is not the worst name, even among the newborn.” Liru frowned. “Gorm has chosen a partner—they are not mated at this time, but he named their young one.”
That was news to both Wallace and me as we glanced up. Wallace frowned and hesitantly waited to hear.
Zurok shrugged. “Toast.”
“What?” I blinked to be sure I heard correctly. It was not a Naleucian word at all.
“He does like toast,” Wallace nodded with a sigh.
We turned our attention back to the newly born of a species long thought extinct in its purest form.
One we finally belonged to.
I had riches untold in a world that I didn’t belong to anymore, a world that had treated me and all of my kin like broken tools for far too long. All of us, machinations and creations made for war. Which made what was coming next the hardest thing that needed to be done.
“We need more betas and alphas.” My voice cracked as I said it, and Zurok nodded in quiet agreement.
I stared at my little one and caressed his hair with a gentle stroke. “I want a few months for him to grow stronger.”
