by Sonia Nova
“Want to take over cutting the cookies for me?” she asked. A baby’s cry sounded from the other room. Zeriq was used to hearing them after spending most of a full day in the house with the children, but he still couldn’t tell if the cries were happy or not sometimes. “I’m going to go see if Naomi needs anything.”
The human female Naomi had volunteered to watch the babies, and the half-human, half-Ezak-X children seemed to be a handful.
“Hazel, don’t worry about us,” Naomi said, walking into the kitchen at just that moment. She was carrying her little girl, Elara, while Alyssa and Xarq’s son, Max, crawled behind her, reaching forward to grab her ankle. While Elara looked much like any human female baby – except for her pale gray complexion – Max had more of the indications of his Ezak-X parentage. His little horns amused Zeriq to no end.
Zeriq had never had a childhood, not like these babies, and it was truly wonderful to see these partially Ezak-X children growing up healthy and happy.
“We’re just going to hang out in the kitchen with everyone else,” Naomi continued. “I think Max missed mommy and daddy.”
Xarq and Alyssa paused from where they were working on dinner on the other side of the kitchen and went to their son. Xarq picked him up and Alyssa offered him a piece of the apple they were slicing for pie. He took it and chewed on it, which gave Zeriq a peek at a few sharp teeth.
“Where’s Arez?” Naomi asked, looking around for her partner.
“He went to the grocery store to pick up some more heavy cream,” Alyssa answered. “We didn’t have enough.”
“The store on New Year’s?” Hazel asked. “Good luck to him.”
Was there something dangerous about going to the grocery store on this holiday? Zeriq wasn’t quite following the nuances of the women’s conversation, but it didn’t matter. He still didn’t understand a lot about Earth, and sometimes he had to let it go and do his best to just listen.
He noticed Xarq hand Max to Alyssa and go back to chopping fruit, so Zeriq followed his lead and decided to go back to cutting out gingerbread men shapes while he listened to the women talk.
“So, Elara really doesn’t have the sharp teeth or the horns?” Hazel asked, looking at Naomi’s little girl and letting the baby grasp at her finger.
“Nope. When it comes to Ezak-X features, she just has the thick black hair and ashen complexion, so far,” Naomi answered.
“I hope you know how lucky you are,” Alyssa said. “Sure, Max’s horns are the cutest, but those teeth… You know how much a teething baby likes to chew on everything, anyway? He’s doing that, but imagine holes in everything a baby puts in their mouth. That’s what I’ve been dealing with.”
The women laughed.
“Have you thought about kids, yet, Hazel?” Naomi asked, and Zeriq’s hearing perked up. He could almost feel the minute rise in temperature as she blushed.
“Not really,” she said. “Things are complicated right now. Before all this, I had just been offered a job with the Alliance, and they’re still holding the trainee spot for me. I have a few weeks to decide what I’m going to do, thankfully, because they understand that after everything that’s happened, I need some time. Zeriq is stationed here in the Solar System and there’s no changing that, so…”
Naomi and Alyssa made understanding noises.
Zeriq looked up from his gingerbread men, only to meet Xarq’s gaze. The Ezak-X male had a strange expression on his face, and he kept looking from Hazel to Zeriq and back.
He was about to confront the male and ask what he meant by the looks, when it hit him too. The cookie cutter fell out of his hand and onto the counter with a clatter.
That scent… It had been masked by all the fragrant scents of human holiday cooking, but there was no mistaking it now that he had detected it. It was Hazel’s scent, but different. Her hormonal changes had changed her scent, and Zeriq had known something was a little different since this morning, but hadn’t really been able to put a finger on it. It stung a little that another Ezak-X male – Xarq – had realized it before he had.
She was pregnant.
“Are you okay, Zeriq?” Hazel asked, walking away from the other human women and joining him at the counter.
He nodded. “You may need to decide sooner rather than later,” he said, looking into her eyes.
“What?” she asked, tilting her head in confusion. Zeriq saw Alyssa and Naomi make eye contact and gasp. They had figured it out, too.
“You’re pregnant,” he said.
“Wait, what?” she breathed, looking at Zeriq, then to the others in the room, and then back to Zeriq. “You can smell it, can’t you? How long have you known?”
“A few seconds,” Zeriq answered. “I didn’t realize what the change in your scent meant, but now… there’s nothing else it could be.”
Hazel just stood there, a shocked expression on her face, until a huge smile spread on her lips. “I don’t know what to say,” she said. “Zeriq!” She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him.
Alyssa, Naomi, and Xarq all shared looks. “Dinner can wait a couple more minutes. We’ll give you two some privacy,” Alyssa said, smiling almost as big as Hazel was. With babies in tow, the rest of them left in the direction of the living room.
“Pregnant,” Hazel breathed, looking up into Zeriq’s eyes. “The miracles just keep coming.”
He stroked her hair, unable to look away from her beauty. The beauty of his female. Carrying his child.
“This is the sign I was looking for,” she said softly against his chest, and Zeriq could smell the saltiness of fresh tears in her eyes. “There’s no way I’m going to Inea now.”
Zeriq let out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he had been holding. He wasn’t going to try to dissuade Hazel from following her dreams, but getting a transfer closer to the Alliance capitol where everyone else in the universe wanted to work too would be near impossible. He realized he had secretly been terrified she would choose to leave.
But no.
They were staying together. Him, Hazel, and… their baby.
“A family,” he breathed quietly.
“What?” she asked. “I didn’t hear you.”
“Family,” he said louder, his voice choked with emotion. “We’re building a family. I’ve never… This is new to me.”
She smiled at him, understanding. “It’s not like I’ve had a baby before, either,” she said. “It’s new for me, in a way, too. This is our family that we’re starting together.”
She stood on her tiptoes, her arms wrapped tight around him and her eyes moist and sparkling with happiness. Her lips brushed against his and they kissed in an all-consuming, passionate kiss that made heat spread throughout his entire body.
Zeriq wanted to take Hazel right then and there, against the kitchen counter. But that wasn’t appropriate by Earth standards, he had figured out. He knew that tonight, when they were alone, after good times of eating and talking with the other couples, they would be able to express their love for each other in whatever ways they wanted.
Zeriq felt so complete, in a way he never had before. After so long, learning about families and observing them from afar…
He finally knew what it meant to have a family of his own.
* * *
THE END
Thank you for reading!
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Check out the earlier books in the Mate of the Beast series HERE!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sonia Nova is an author of Science Fiction Romance. She loves to write about sexy, dominant alien men and the women who melt their hearts. When she is not writing, she can be found watching sci-fi movies, reading, and dreaming of her very own alien hunk!
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