Page 60 of Bred By Sor'en

I sit there blankly for a moment, my mind processing her words for so long she shifts uncomfortably in my lap. “Sor’en, I’m trying to tell you that I’m—"

I’m on my feet in the next instant, letting out a celebratory roar so loud the city is no doubt in a frenzy. My mate cartwheels her arms as I toss her in the air, catching her with a flourishing spin. “With child! You are with my child!” I laugh like a madman, suddenly pacing the field with nowhere to go, my breathless, stunned mate in my arms.

“Sor—"

Her words cut off as I heave her higher in my arms, pressing my face into the small swell on her stomach. I had noticed, of course, I had noticed. There is no inch or divot of her body I am not innately familiar with, but how I had not put two and two together will baffle me until the end of my days.

She giggles. My mate’s belly is very ticklish as I nuzzle my face deeper into it. “So, you are happy?”

I bring her lower in my hold, gently… more gently than ever, setting my precious gift on her bare, odd human feet. “I amhonored beyond compare,” I assure her, cupping her face as tears well in her eyes. “Happiness is beneath me. I am soaring far above that threshold.”

She huffs out a little sob. “You’re soweird.”

My eyes widen. “That is why you are itchy. I have no doubt. It is the child's toxins. There has never been a Xyrelith child born to an outsider before. We must get you to a health pod. We—"

She yelps as she’s hauled back into my arms. Swatting my back as I head for my datapad inside to hail a cart. “Sor’en, you’ve stepped on the cuttings!”

“A Xyreliths mother's toxins can counteract the toxin from her child as it grows… your body is not equipped to—"

“I am fine, he would never harm me.”

I stop in my tracks to stare up at my mate. “He?”

She shrugs. “It feels right.”

“A son.”

I close my eyes, setting her back down, suddenly feeling the need to steady myself as I send up a silent prayer to the skies. Goddesses, find me a way to become worthy of my child. Worthy of a son.

A second later, my mate is taken by a swirling, shadowed storm of excitement, her laughter echoing through the field.

thirty

Hue

As it turns out, Sor’en had every right to be worried. We’ve spent the last few days receiving healers from other domes, every elder that also possesses a vagina, even some that don’t, and of course, the Balla’mar’s constantsupport.

His boasting that his dome was the first to bear a hybrid child was hardly balanced.

Sor’en hadn’t been technically wrong either when he scanned my biology shortly after we arrived. Of course, I was… notawakenorawareof the scan, but it was good thinking on his part. Humanscanbear Xyrelith children, but not without help. It is a highly taboo thing for a mated female to receive toxin from someone who is not their mate. For both parties, so much so that it was quickly decided to do so under the veil, so nobody knew just who was sharing.

The females hadn’t hesitated, though. Extracting their own maternal toxin to keep me alive. Something of a protective barrier against the toxins our child is making. It’s one hell of a double-edged sword having a Xyrelith baby. In the past few solars, our little death omen has rapidly been producing toxin to get me ready for the big shebang. Which is great, his rapid growth would hemorrhage me otherwise. On the other hand, without outside help, the very same toxin will also kill me since I lack any natural way to dilute it.

Fun times.

My body is worn, in a constant state of exhaustion, random sudden bursts of violent illness nearly gluing me to the beds of the temple until we’d worked out the correct dose. It is only because of that borrowed toxin that, thankfully, they can produce at will and a near constant dose of happy flowers that I am a halfway functional being. But that wasn’t the only change. I waddle toward our bed, grateful to finally be home, and glimpse myself in the mirror. My sides are bruised deep purple, along with my lower stomach and pelvis. Stretch marks line every inch of open flesh from my thighs to my breasts.

I look like I was just in a vessel crash.

It was not the easiest thing to see your body change so rapidly, to have so little time to adjust to an ever-changing concept of self. From a grieving daughter to space trash, breeder, to kidnapping victim, to the mate of a death-touch alien, grieving friend, and now a mother. It is… a lot to process, and I’m not smearing shit on the walls, so I think on a scale between doing well or doing terribly, I’m somewhere in the high upper middle.

Sor’en helps me onto the bed as I fail to stifle a wince.

“You are supposed to tell me before the pain reaches this level,” the male in question scolds softly.

Scoldsme! While my body is being ripped apart by his creepy little alien baby.

I grimace, patting my stomach. “Sorry, you’re my creepy baby too.”