Page 43 of Loaned to the Leonid Knight

“So do I. I’m glad to learn from you. And teach you. I think... I think that is how the best couples must be, Sasha, to survive a world that can be unkind. Even in a place that is as successful and normally peaceful as the Felix Orbus Galaxy, misfortunes strike, and hard times,” he swallowed and blinked several times, “hard times find even the most prosperous. I know your planet has not treated you kindly. I know there must be other opportunities that would open up to you if you had the creditsfrom bearing a cub for the surrogacy program. You wouldn’t need to rely on my little place on Lynx-Nineteen.”

“What are you talking about? Little place?” Sasha sat up, neck deep in the foamy pink clouds filling the water. “What about your orchards? The herds? That’s going to need a big area.”

“Yes. Well.” Gideon seemed to struggle to get a smile to stick on his face, “I don’t think I want it, if it comes at the cost Farhet is demanding. The price is high, but... I spoke to him today. And he made it very clear what he was paying for. The only thing that stopped me from telling him that I would stop ‘taking his place’ in this surrogacy program is what would happen to you, Sasha. If I left—you would be given another partner.”

Sasha gasped. “What? Leave? But you said—”

“Not leave you. I would never leave you. So I won’t. I will not. I only... I only considered it because of the price. Not the one Farhet will pay in credits. The one I’ll pay in blood.”

Sasha studied Gideon’s grave face as his head bent down. She could see his golden eyes studying his reflection in a particularly large, shining bubble.

“Your child?”

Gideon nodded. “Ourcub. Our child. I know he or she will have a wonderful future. They will be loved and spoiled. I am selfish for wanting to keep you from your financial freedom and your grand new life—and my own new life, too. Our new life together.” He coughed. “I could not bear to lose you to another because of my selfishness.”

Sasha shook her head slowly. “Do you think I would call you selfish for wanting a family of your own?”

“You don’t understand.Ididn’t pay for this right. It’s not even a right, not in our world. It’s a privilege, and I didn’t purchase it; I didn’t earn it. I wasn’t ‘vetted’ or selected by hoursof testing, thousands of credits, or lengthy applications. Farhet was. This is his right. I am a stand-in.”

“Butyou’rethe one I would pick. And I wouldn’t have a problem giving a child to a wonderful, loving couple, or even a single father who wanted a child to love.” She swam into Gideon’s arms. “Tell me he wants the baby so he can love it. Because he’s lonely and has no family. Tell me he’s dreaming of tiny paws to hold, or pushing her on a swing, singing her to sleep.”

Gideon couldn’t look at her pleading expression, nor could he seem to face his own reflection in the glassy bubbles. He closed his eyes, head bowed. “He has a father, a brother, and scads of cousins, even some old aunties. He wants the child so he can claim control of the influential, wealthy Imazi Pride. Not for love or loneliness. He wants a child before his brother has one, and as his brother must woo and court a Queen, then marry her, then wait to produce an heir...” Gideon reiterated what she already knew, his voice sinking in despair by the second.

“Would you... Would you be happy with fewer credits? Without your orchards and the farm? You’d have to keep working. You might not be able to ever invest and use all those things you learned while you were stuck working for Farhet.” Sasha ducked her head underneath his downcast face, lifting his chin until his eyes opened. She peered into his face as she stroked his wet arms, the fur like soapy wet silk beneath her hands. “Just tell me the truth—like you always have.”

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you don’t lose the credits you were promised, Sasha. That you don’t have to return to that planet—or sleep with someone who does not love and cherish you, who would not protect you and worship every inch of you!” Gideon cried, face desperate.

Sasha put calming hands on his cheeks. “Listen to me. No one should make you choose your child or your lover. I don’t want the credits. I wantyou.”

Gideon blinked in shock. “Me? But, you understand, I will not have a vast fortune in credits, either? I know you are not shallow, Sasha, but you had plans. Plans and dreams! Life on Sapien-Three sounded so lonely and harsh. I could not bear to send you back there.”

“You had plans and dreams, too. And harsh? Lonely? Oh, baby, we were just eating different flavors of the same misery.”

“You are so wise, my love, but—”

“Hey. Listen.” Sasha’s voice snapped him to attention, then softened as she admitted, “My biggest dream, the one I told myself to stop believing in, was finding a person who would make the world a better place for me. Someone who would make me believe in love. And want his touch. Want... Want a life, not just an existence where you drag from one day to the next. Can’t we still have that little life, Gideon? No, that big, happy, wonderful life where we’re together?”

“Sasha, I have not properly wooed—”

“We’ll have time to woo each other—and I have something to tell you. Something that I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want to take awayyourplans,yourdreams.” Sasha let out a long rush of air, gearing up for a breakneck sentence that had been dying to burst out for hours. “I talked to Dr. Marcus when I got my injection today. He doesn’t think this surrogacy thing is perfected yet. I mean, after all, we’re the first couple in this brand new program. Yes, he still wants to help Felid Knights find human Queens to have children with, but as mates, husbands and wives. He wants things to run like a matchmaking agency with reproductive help for couples who click. For people like Farhet and other surrogates who don’t want a relationship, he wants to keep them on a waiting list for trials of artificialinsemination, something he thinks they are only three or four years away from developing. The medical trials still need test subjects to prove the chromosomal compatibility booster works consistently, like he claims. A dozen cases across millions of Felids isn’t much. So... So he said I would still be paid as a test subject if I left the surrogacy program. He was talking to the other Felids who are signed up, and he was probably going to talk to Bastet Mercy. Since he’s the guy who developed the program, the meds, and wrote all the studies—I don’t see how they can refuse him. He’s in charge of the program.”

“But... I would not be a test subject. I didn’t sign—”

“They have to have males and females for this to work, Gideon. I think Marcus assumed that we were a pair. Because we are. Where you go, I go.”

Gideon blinked, seeming to take his time processing this new onslaught of information. “I... My contract has not been formally severed. I told Farhet I would not return, but he made the terms clear—three years’ salary to enter this program.”

“And you did enter it. You boarded a shuttle, went through hypersleep, medical tests, and studied human female anatomy.” Sasha squirmed, suddenly freshly aware of how close she was to him. How much bigger he was, even while she stood, and he sat on the ledge of the tub. Her heart beat faster. “Studied it intimately. I mean, the only objection I could see him really making and having a case for is if you didn’t actually... What would he call it?” Sasha teased her fingers along his sides now, working towards his hips.

Gideon let out a low, guttural sound when she began to stroke his semi-hard cock. “I didn’t breed you.”

Her belly tightened, and her pussy, which was getting terribly greedy around Gideon, gave a persistent throb. “That sounds... I don’t know. Primal? Instinctive.”

“That’s how a King should feel around his Queen. His mate.”

Her hand massaged over his tip, the most sensitive space on his cock next to the rings of soft spines that swelled when she gripped him.

“I don’t want him to have any objections.”