by Dixon, Ruby
“Probably having sex with Zennek again,” Georgie comments, dragging her hand through the steamy water.
“She’s been insatiable lately thanks to the pregnancy. Me, I get swollen ankles,” Megan complains. “She gets a kicked-up libido.”
“I’m pretty sure Marlene was born with a kicked-up libido,” Nora giggles.
“Like you’re one to talk. We hear you guys going at it every night.” Georgie rolls her eyes. “Your voice in particular echoes really loudly.”
Nora just giggles again. “Can I help it if Dagesh has incredible stamina? Or that he’s turned on by my big pregnant boobs?”
“Ew?” Megan teases. “Did I want to know that?”
“About as much as I wanted to know about your foot thing?” Nora replies sweetly.
Megan groans.
“Foot thing?” I ask, my face scrunching in confusion. “You mean like Cashol has a foot thing?”
“No, like Megan does.” Nora wiggles her brows. “You should see her go on and on about how veiny Cashol’s ‘strong feet’ are.”
Georgie makes a mock-gagging noise.
Megan just groans again and lowers herself under the water’s surface, as if that can hide her from the good-natured laughter in the cave. I try not to giggle too much, but the happiness in the cave is infectious. It’s so nice to see my friends again. I love everyone in the South Cave, but half of our family is here.
It’s nice to come home, even for a little while.
* * *
I towel off and sit near the pool, chatting with Georgie while I wait for my hair to dry. It’s been the laziest of afternoons, but I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Tomorrow, I’ll pitch in and help Sevvah around the cave, or Maylak, or sew with Georgie—whatever is needed. Today, though, I’m being a lazy, indolent slug and loving it.
Sessah trots over to where we sit. He’s Aehako’s younger brother, just a small scrap of a boy, but I could swear he’s shot up by several inches in the last few months. He’s got a serious look on his face that reminds me a bit of Rokan, but when he approaches me, his grin is all Aehako. “Mother told me to come and get you,” Sessah says. “She made a meal just for you.”
“I’ll be there soon,” I promise him, glancing at Georgie. “Where’s Aehako?”
“He’s talking with Rokan.” Sessah gives me a toothy grin. “Did you bring me a present?”
I reach out and tweak the long braid over his shoulder. “Your brother might have been making something for you,” I say, knowing full well that there’s a carved slingshot for him in Aehako’s packs. “What are they talking about, your brothers?”
“Dreams.” Sessah’s answer is cheerful.
My blood runs cold. I think of Aehako’s worried confession from a few days ago. “Dreams? What kind of dreams?”
Sessah shrugs, already bored. “I’ll tell Mother you’re coming.”
“Be right there,” I whisper, my gut churning as he races away. The baby in my belly flips and I absently caress it, fighting the panic rising inside me. I think of how serious Rokan and Aehako looked. How they quickly changed topics when I approached, guilty looks on their faces.
Aehako assured me that he didn’t have the “knowing” dreams like his brother does. But…what if Rokan is having bad dreams about us, too? What if something’s wrong with the baby?
What if I’m not meant to have one after all?
I feel cold all over.
“Kira?” Georgie asks as I get to my feet. “Are you okay? You just got really pale.”
I nod absently. “Uh, just gas.” I pat the small swell of my belly. “You know how it is.”
“Boy, do I ever.” She gets to her feet, slightly awkward. “Come hang out after dinner if you’re not too tired? I’ve missed talking to you.” She squeezes my hand and gives me a warm look.
“Will do.” I turn toward Sevvah’s cave, but I can’t concentrate on anything. I can’t concentrate on Sessah coming back out to retrieve me, holding my hand in his smaller one. I pick at the delicious root chowder with chunks of fresh fish in it. Normally I’d devour two bowlfuls, but I have to force myself to eat tonight. My stomach is too upset, and after dinner, I claim fatigue and that I want to lie down. Sevvah helps me set up a bed and a fire in one of the storage caves so Aehako and I can have privacy, and I curl up in the blankets, watching the fire crackle as my thoughts churn and churn.
I keep thinking of Aehako’s guilty expression. Of how he and Rokan both looked uncomfortable when I showed up. How quickly they stopped speaking.
Dreams, Sessah said.
I touch the rounded bulge of my belly. Here I thought all of my dreams were coming true. What if I’m wrong, though? What if this is just another one of life’s cruel jokes?
Do I…need to prepare myself for the worst? Just the thought makes my breath catch. I…can’t. I just can’t. If something happens to my baby or to Aehako, it’ll break me. I’ve been strong through so much, but I can also only take so much. I need to see Maylak and have her tell me what’s wrong, but the thought of finding out those answers frightens me even more.
I don’t want to know. If avoiding her means I can prolong the inevitable, I’m going to hide in this stupid cave for the next few days and beg Aehako to take me home early. I can’t handle bad news about my baby. I can’t.
I put my hands on my stomach and cradle it gently, too terrified to even cry. Under my hands, the little one kicks my bladder and spins, and I’ve never been so glad to have to pee in my life.
* * *
I must drift off to sleep at some point, because I wake up when Aehako slides into the blankets beside me, and the fire is out. The cave is chilly and he puts his hands on my warm body, rubbing them up and down against my bare arms. “I thought you were going to come and get me when you went to see the healer,” Aehako murmurs against my ear, spooning my body with his bigger one. “What did she say?”
I can hear the hurt in his tone. Does he think I would go without him? He doesn’t realize that I’m in here, hiding from the world. “I haven’t seen her yet. I’ll go in the morning.”
He leans over and kisses my cheek, holding me tight against his chest. “Are you feeling well? Is everything all right?”
You tell me, I want to scream. But I don’t. I can’t be mad at him. If he’s talking to Rokan behind my back, it’s because he’s afraid of upsetting me. He wants to try and “fix” whatever he can without alarming me. It’s sweet, and it makes me love him all the more.
I’m everything to him, just like he’s everything to me. Him…and the baby.
I roll over and face him, studying his handsome, broad features. He doesn’t look devastated or stressed—at least, no more so than usual. Is he trying to hide it from me in all ways? My heart aches with such love for him. I don’t know how I managed to end up here, planets and planets away from my own, to land in the arms of this man, but I’ll be forever thankful for it.
Whatever happens in the future, we face it together.
I cup his face and kiss his mouth fiercely.
Aehako groans in surprise at my initiative. He licks at the inside of my mouth, the ridges of his tongue sending hot flutters through my body. His tail wraps around my ankle, and he slides his big hands over my ass, kneading my muscles. “On your knees, my pretty mate,” he murmurs between kisses. “Let your male take care of you.”
“Yes,” I whisper. I want that. I want him to take care of me. I need it. His touch is like a drug, and I want it to send me spiraling. I bite his lower lip hungrily, and then turn, getting on all fours. With my belly growing, this is becoming our position of choice, and just putting my palms on the blankets makes me get all hot and bothered. Maybe Marlene isn’t the only insatiable one lately.
“Love how needy you are,” he murmurs, tugging my leather leggings down and pushing my tunic up to expose me.
Am I needy? Maybe I am. I need to connect with my mate. I need to feel his touch. I need him to make me forget all my worries.
A little g
asp escapes me as he glides his hot, aching length through my folds from behind. I’m wet already, but that erotic touch makes me even wetter. I love the drag of his ridges through my pussy, love how big he feels, how invasive against my spread folds. I lean forward a bit more, pressing my cheek to the furs and arching my back.
“So beautiful,” Aehako murmurs, lightly raking his fingers up and down the backs of my thighs and my buttocks. The touch sends little frissons of shock through me, my nipples tightening. So good. How does he always know how to make it so good?
Then he’s pushing inside me, so big and thick that I can’t stifle my moan of pleasure. He grunts as he sinks deeper, his hands tight on my hips, and I know what’s coming next, but I’m still not entirely prepared for when his spur pushes into my back entrance, pressing in the most exquisite and deliciously unnatural sort of way. It shouldn’t be nearly as amazing as it is, but making love like this makes me completely and utterly crazed with need. “Move,” I whisper, my fingers curling in the furs. “Please, please move.”
He does as I ask, retreating slowly, and then in the next moment, his hips slam into mine. His spur invades me again, and it just makes everything ratchet up to eleven. I gasp with every thrust, whimper every time he pulls back, and within minutes, my toes are curling and my calves feel tight with the onset of an orgasm.
“Please,” I choke out again, and the way he breathes my name on his lips does something to me. The shudder of it starts low in my belly, and the next thing I know, I’m coming, my entire being tightening in a wild, impossible release that feels exquisite and is somehow exactly what I needed.
Aehako thrusts into me, his movements careful and precise until I clench tight around him, and then the breath heaves from his lungs and he’s coming, too, his release making our bodies slide wetly together even as he thrusts deeper. I moan one last time as he covers me, his heated skin pressed to mine, and then he collapses in the furs, his arms tight as he drags me with him.
I squirm on the blankets with him, because his spur is still buried in me from behind, and it’s…not the most easy-to-ignore sensation. Now that he’s sated and relaxed, maybe I can get him to tell me what’s going on.
“So…” I begin quietly. “Is there anything you want to tell me?”
12
AEHAKO
I flex my hips against my mate’s backside, loving the feel of my cock—and the tip of my spur—seated in her body. Even after several turns of the moon, the eagerness for mating that resonance brought to us feels unabated. I can see her flick her mane, and I get hard. She looks at me through her lashes and I get hard. She snores and puts her cold feet on me…I get hard.
Truly, I am the luckiest of males.
So when she pats the arm I wrap around her waist? I get hard. I lean in close and brush my lips against the curve of her small ear.
“So. Is there anything you want to tell me?” Kira asks.
I try to think, but it is near impossible with the hot clasp of her body holding my cock. “I…love you?” Humans like to hear the “love” word often, so I try to tell it to Kira many times a day. Sometimes she is moody because of the kit, though, and needs to hear it more often. I think for a moment and then add, “You look very beautiful today?”
She slaps my arm and then wriggles out of my grasp. My cock leaves the warmth of her body and then she moves away from me on the blankets, grabbing new furs as if she is going to make a nest for herself. “You are impossible. Just tell me already!”
I sit up, confused. “Tell you what?”
Kira meets my eyes and to my surprise, she looks as if she is about to weep. “Don’t do this to me, Aehako. Tell me what’s wrong with the baby.”
My heart seizes in my chest. It is my worst nightmare coming true. “What is wrong with our kit?”
“You tell me!” She bursts into tears. “No more secrets! You can’t withhold secrets from a pregnant woman!”
“I do not know what you mean, Sad Eyes.” I slide across the blankets, moving toward her and trying to take her in my arms, ignoring her feeble slaps. “Tell me what is wrong with our kit. Did you feel something bad? Did something move that is not supposed to move?” A new worry hits me. “Did I hit it with the head of my cock?” Sometimes when I tilt her hips just right, I get so deep that I worry about such things, even if it cannot be true. Unless…
She makes a noise that is half snort, half sobbing. “Don’t make me laugh! I’m mad at you!” Her small fist smacks my chest.
I want to be relieved—so I did not jab my son—or daughter—with my cock—but she keeps crying and my heart will not slow down in its fevered, frightened pounding. “Kira, I am very confused right now.”
“You said you would tell me if there was a problem with the baby, but I caught you talking to Rokan and you changed subjects and had this look on your face—”
“What look?” I sputter.
“The guilty look!”
I have a guilty look? Wait. What does this have to do with my brother? “Is there something wrong with our kit?” I ask again, trying to stay patient.
“You were talking to Rokan about dreams,” she cries, swiping at her cheeks. “You tell me. What do the dreams mean?”
I stare blankly. I still have no idea what she is talking about.
At my expression, she continues. “Sessah said you were talking to Rokan about dreams. You told me your dreams weren’t like his! That you didn’t have the knowing sense!”
Dreams. Dreams. I think hard, trying to remember what it is I talked to Rokan about that would have had me look guilty and dreams and…oh. “I told Rokan that you and the kit were all of my dreams coming true.”
Her tears ease, a little. “You…what? You did?”
“Yes. And Sessah heard that, I assume.” I am going to throttle my little brother for scaring my mate.
“But then why did you look guilty when I came up to you?” She stabs a finger at my chest. “I know you. That was a guilty look. You wear it every time I say I’m tired and then you pretend you just want to cuddle. It’s never just cuddling.”
I am caught. She is right. It is never just cuddling. I try to think of what else I spoke to Rokan about… and then I know what it must be. “We talked about moving back to the main cave. Me and you. I spoke with Rokan about it.” I hesitate. “I did not want to say anything to you because you are very stubborn about making the South Cave our home, but I do not want to be a half a day’s walk from the healer if you need her.” I reach out to touch the small swell of her belly. “And now I am convinced that we should if there is something wrong with the kit.”
“Wait. Wait. I thought you said you didn’t talk about the kit.”
“I did not. You are the one saying something is wrong—”
“But you just said—”
“I do not know what I am saying,” I exclaim. “All the blood is in my cock still, and you are trying to talk serious things when my mind is soft. All I know is that I am taking you to the healer—right now—and we are going to get answers.”
When I reach for her, though, she grabs my wrists, a puzzled look on her face. “So you didn’t talk to Rokan about the baby?”
“I told him I was excited and scared. I think I might have used the words ‘pissing myself with fear,’ but he said every new father feels like that.” Now I am even more terrified, though. I place my palm against her belly and I cannot feel anything moving. Now, I am starting to panic. “When was the last time you felt the kit move?”
“Do you really want to move back?” She looks startled.
“I want to know how the kit is doing.” I can think of nothing else right now. I touch her stomach for a moment longer, but nothing moves, and a sliver of fear pierces me. I jump to my feet and wrap a blanket around Kira’s shoulders. “We are going to see the healer right now.”
“You’re naked—”
I scoop her up into my arms and carry her out of the cave.
“We just had sex, Aehako,” Ki
ra hisses at me, struggling to get out of my grip. “At least let us clean up before we go visiting—”
I hesitate, but only because she struggles in my arms so. I set her down gently. “Hurry, then.”
A few breaths later, Kira and I are clean enough, and she throws one of my tunics over her body, grumbling when I pick her up again. “It is the middle of the night,” she protests again. “If there’s really not a problem, we should wait until morning.”
At this point I do not know if there is a problem or not. I only know I am terrified for my mate and my kit. I do not care if I wake up Maylak. She will understand. All I care about is making sure my Kira—and my child—are all right.
Kira makes another protest as I cross through the cave. “If you didn’t talk to Rokan about the baby…I think we’ve just freaked each other out.”
“It does not matter,” I say stubbornly. “We are going to the healer now. We are getting answers.”
She sighs, but does not struggle. I have no doubt she wants to see the healer, too, but she worries she will be too much trouble. There is no such thing as “too much trouble” when it comes to my mate and my kit, though. It does not matter how much trouble we are, only that all is well.
The privacy screen is to the side, but Kashrem sits up as I storm into their cave, rubbing his eyes. “Aehako?” he asks, his voice low. “Is all well?” Maylak is curled up at his side, her pregnant belly enormous. On her other side, her young daughter Esha is curled up against her.
“I need Maylak to check my mate and my kit,” I say.
“Please,” Kira adds in a sweet voice. “We’re very sorry to wake you up in the middle of the night.”
“No, we are not,” I say, equally sweetly. “We are just worrying ourselves stupid.”
Maylak rubs her eyes, waking up as we talk to Kashrem. She yawns at my words, hiding her face behind her hand…or perhaps she is hiding a smile. “Come sit,” she says, patting the blankets. Her belly seems enormously swollen, but her smile is easy. Kashrem takes Esha into his arms and hugs her, heading out of the cave with the sleepy little girl.
