Page 54 of Bred By Sor'en

“Hue?”

I glance up, thinking about how odd it is to hear him use my name. “Huh?”

“I am dying. I have waited for too long.”

The glass beaker drops to the grass as I stare at him like he just grew a second head. “Why would you say something like that?”

I slip off the stool, getting to my knees to reach the beaker where it bounced under the table, when suddenly his hands are on my face, making me gasp, forcing my attention back to him. “When a Xyrelith is close to death, the spirits whisper across the cosmos. They have a lot to say. I have been listening, and I have overstayed my welcome somewhere my soul no longer belongs.”

I shrug him off, but he doesn’t let me, so I screw my eyes shut, refusing to look at him. My heart pounding so hard in my chest even he can probably hear it. “Stop.”

His worn fingers dance over my shut eyes gently, and my heart aches. “Perhaps you should offer those flowers to your mother. Plant her in your mate’s fields and give her a proper goodbye. Let her rest too.”

My lip wobbles and tears squeeze through the cracks in my eyelids as he tries to soothe the tremor. “How can I say goodbye to her?”

How can I say goodbye to you?

He laughs, letting go of my face.

My eyes burst open so that I can glare at him. It helps when he grabs my hands, squeezing them softly, because right now, he's okay. For right now, he's right here.

“Hue, she is already gone. And what a beautiful thing to be loved by a child. You gave us both something special. But it is time for goodbyes.”

I scramble away from him, getting to my feet. The beaker forgotten so quickly that it makes me dizzy. “Look, we could’ve had a really nice day and you’ve gone and ruined it.”

He just smiles from his spot on the ground. “Our goddesses have a way of forcing such things, star child.”

I shake my head, helping him to his own feet, ignoring the fact that this time he lets me. Sucking in a calming breath as I snatchmy basket of shitty flowers from his chair, desperate to get them out of his tent. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jin.”

I’m not halfway home on a craft before a large black shadow tackles me, the bars releasing just in time before I crash into them. “Melion, what the hell!?” I curse as he lifts me with his warm air, sweeping me in a blur toward the house. The sight of the cart reversing to zip back toward the docking section of the city center lets me know my mate sent him to get me. Sor’en, being Sor’en, already thought to return the cart for someone else since, apparently,Iwill not be needing it.

“You know I’m supposed to be your favorite now, which means you should listen to me,nothim.” I sink into his swirl, apparently no longer deserving an outside view, as he offers me a tendril of shadow, as if to compound why I am not his favorite. “Fair enough.”

All in the matter of a few moments, I am back in our home, discarded gently-ish on the recessed center. I barely have a domtic to get my bearings when the smell of freshly cooked food fills my nose and makes my mouth water. Not even fully getting back to my feet, my legs tangle in the long skirt of my dress when Sor’en’s mouth is on me, kissing me, testing the seam of my mouth in ways that make my bones turn gooey before he pulls away and abruptly dumps metaphorical ice water over my head. “Me’alma has gone into labor.”

I blanche, still trying to untangle myself. “No, I just saw her. She was fine. Isn’t it too early?”

He nods, helping sort me out before leaving to load up a plate with said yummy food. “Labor comes on quickly in our females. It is early, but she and the youngling should be fine. It will simply be a painful affair.”

He swoops me off my feet, sitting on a stool before depositing me on his lap and dragging the plate toward me. His handresting oddly on my stomach. I shove it away, scratching the area instead. “I can’t eat at a time—"

He settles me deeper into his lap, his cock vibrating against my ass. “It is time for your midday meal. You will eat, then we need to gather fresh flowers for her. She has requested you prepare them with your blessing.”

I pause my bratty wiggling. “Wait, what?”

“You mean a great deal to the female. She wishes for you to prepare her labor veil as well.”

My mouth pops open before closing again. “I-I don’t even know what that is.”

“It is similar to the bonding veils, but much shorter. I will guide you in blessing it.”

“Why is she veiled during labor?”

He offers me a bite of my favorite lumpy white stuff he callsflamet. I take it despite the unease growing in my stomach because I am pretty hungry. I’m always hungry lately. “To hide her unbalance, should she make faces or sounds that are—"

“That’s insane,” I interrupt around another bite. “Doesn’t she need that now?”

He shakes his head, pressing his face deep into my neck to nuzzle me, wiping oil across my skin there. “It will be a while yet, maybe even a solar since it is so early. But we need to be ready when she is.”