Mohrn’s lip quivers in a smile. “Blasted slippery humans.”
A laugh brays out of me, startling me. I throw my arms around phem in a hug. “Annoying big pink bastard.”
Phey kiss me and, finally, that does harden my cock. Mohrn has become quite the kisser since we’ve been together. I think phey finally understand why we humans find it such an appealing activity.
I finally step back so Mohrn can summon H’looder back into the consultation room.
One more round of explanations and questions follow before Olarte and Davies are summoned to the room.
I spend so much time with Mohrn and no other Pfahrn that when I’m with just one, as opposed to seeing a bunch of them all around, I sometimes think it’s weird seeing one who is the usual green and red. When the couple is brought into the room, I spend a few minutes studying Olarte while phey and Davies talk to the doctor and Mohrn.
While that’s not how it’s being labelled, Olarte will basically be fucking me.
I’m sure this is how many erotic novels have started over countless eons, but this is my life and my ass.
This is my marriage and my future.
Our future.
I am the one who feels it—literally and emotionally—when we’re making love and a memory pops into pheir mind about what I did with the Guyardiens to protect phem. Mohrn gets nearly growly, insists on looking me in the eyes as we fuck, kisses me like phey need the air from my lungs to survive.
Phey have pheir own issues. Since we’ve been together, I’ve become a cherished and dare I say protected mate.
Not exactly a role I object to, either.
Fuck you and your judgment, if you look down your nose at me.
One of Mohrn’s few regrets—besides running off that day—is that I felt it necessary to do what I did with the Guyardiens to protect phem. Phey know I didn’t physically object to it, at the time. It was before Mohrn bit me for the first time, too. I never would have done it after. Wouldn’t have wanted to, and wouldn’t have been able to.
Even now, Mohrn gently cups my chin in pheir hand and tips my face back for a kiss, brushing pheir lips back and forth across mine as phey do.
Pheir gaze locks onto mine. Tipping pheir head forward, phey think to me in that soft, gentle mental voice.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I whisper, because I want it in the air, not just in pheir mind.
“Let them give you something for your anxiety,” Mohrn says. “Please?”
Davies laughs, but not rudely. “Don’t feel bad, man. I’m going to let them shoot me up with happy meds.”
I should be stronger than this. Still, I nod. “Okay.”
“I won’t leave you,” Mohrn says. “Never.”
I close my eyes again and deeply inhale and smell…love.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Simon
Mohrn cradles me in pheir arms as Dr. H’looder calls in a tech who doses me and Davies through the temporary IV ports that we’ll wear for the foreseeable future, as well as gives both the two Pfahrn IV ports for dosing them with whatever they’re going to use on them during the procedure.
Then each couple is put in their own curtained area so we can change out of our clothes and don hospital gowns that loosely belt in the front and which make me feel, ironically, even more naked. I take a little comfort in the fact that Mohrn looks positively ridiculous in pheirs, and pheir almost silent sigh and nearly invisible scowl as they look down at phemselves makes me giggle before I hug the big pink bastard.
It’s not long before a couple more techs join the party, so to speak, and somewhere in there I feel the meds they dosed me with kick in. Mohrn and I are taken into the procedure room first, and I can’t stop giggling as I look at the contraption.
“I bet that’s the fanciest sex sling ever made!”
Then I trip on air while crossing the room but Mohrn has already scooped me into pheir arms so I don’t even come close to hitting the floor.
Then again, I’m so fricking high right now, I’m flying, man.
One of the techs helps phem get me arranged. My feet are placed into stirrups and comfortable straps fitted around my ankles to keep the slippery human from falling out.
I feel…no shit, I feel damned good. I don’t know what they gave me, but it’s pretty good stuff.
Mohrn climbs into position in front of me, facing me. Basically, once I’m impaled on phem and phey’re secure, the whole contraption will rotate forward to give Olarte and Davies room to get in there behind me.
They strap my torso in so I’m secure. “I’m not sliding out of this thing, I guess.” I feel pretty good about myself that I can make my mate smile, even in this situation.
Mohrn leans in for a kiss. “No, my slippery little human is quite secure.”
My hands are free, and there are convenient handholds I can use, but I only want to hold on to Mohrn. One of the things I do feel badly about is that they’re going to strip a small patch of pheir hard outer skin from near the juncture of pheir neck and shoulder so I can bite phem there while we do this. It won’t be as strong an effect as it is when phey bite me, but they’re going to intravenously pump phem full of synthesized venom, just like they’ll be medicating Olarte.
Hopefully, it’ll be enough to trick the Pfahrns’ bodies into producing two fully fertilized eggs by the time we’re done today. Plus, Davies and I will get second doses of venom from our mates in the process. H’looder says that should help with things on our end of the equation.
Luckily for us, the eggs come out small during the initial implantation and first growth period. The yolk sac develops rapidly and largely, and once the egg is…well, laid, the baby gains size and mass as it uses up the yolk sac, the egg wall thinning and stretching to accommodate its growing size, until it’s finally born a little larger than a human baby.
At least, that’s how it usually happens. With all sorts of variables, we just don’t know if there will be a success or not this time. We’ve been cautioned not to expect a success this time.
H’looder is reasonably certain they can “grow” us a baby in the lab, but I’d rather save that for last resort.
The old-fashioned way first. For a bunch of reasons, but including that they wouldn’t be eligible, under current Pfahrn laws, for citizenship, birthright, status, or inheritance.
It’s something Mohrn wants to work to change for the future, for others.
I reached out and boop phem on the nose, earning me a smile.
H’looder fits a sensor on my pinky. “What’s that for?” I ask as I try to squint at it to bring it into focus.
“To adjust the bionanotech. Eh, so you’re not…uncomfortable during the process.”
I think about cracking a joke, but Mohrn kisses me and distracts me. Phey’re really good at that, did I mention that?
Then phey slide pheir cock into me, and I moan, grind, find myself tipping my head to the side, wanting phem to sink pheir teeth into me. This is familiar to me. There aren’t too many nights we don’t wear each other out before bed like this.
Well, not like this.
Phey wrap pheir arms around me, and I feel the entire frame rotate forward and tipping me toward Mohrn. I smell an antiseptic tang, then Mohrn lets out a pained hiss.
I immediately want to go grunt on whoever is fucking with my mate, but I’m all strapped down, and—
“Shhh, it is fine, love,” Mohrn whispers to me in Standard as pheir arms tighten around me. “I am all right.”
“Sorry,” the technician says.
“It is all right,” Mohrn assures him. “Please, continue.”
Pfahrn heal wicked fast, so we won’t have too long before I can’t bite phem there again. Although H’looder said he is working on developing a cream or something to help thin the skin so we might be able to have me bite Mohrn there in the future. They haven’t quite been able to get the right results with bionanotech.
Being able to do that wou
ld be utterly and completely groovy with me. In fact—
“Focus, love,” Mohrn grunts, and I realize we’ve started.
Man, they gave me damn good drugs. I never even heard Olarte and Davies come in, but now I realize, yeah, there’s something going on down there that feels reeeeeallly good, and—
Mohrn’s hand cradles the back of my head, pressing my mouth to pheir shoulder. I feel badly about biting phem there, but—
“And…now,” H’looder says.
Mohrn’s teeth pierce my flesh, making my cock suddenly stand up and fucking howl, man. I reflexively bite down, the way I always do like this, except this time instead of thick, chewy skin, my teeth break through and I feel a jolt surge through Mohrn’s body beneath mine.
A low, deep growl rolls from pheir lungs, through me, through our connection as I hear light and smell sounds. I am vaguely aware of Olarte and Davies doing their thing just behind me, feel something uncomfortably orgasmic going on inside me, but my world begins and ends with Mohrn.
And I feel…something else.
It’s more than the usual pressure I feel when I’m bottoming to phem and we’re hot and heavy and phey’re in the throes of pheir deepest mating heat and phey connect to me. It’s almost bordering on pain when H’looder’s voice breaks through my fog of pleasure.
“Good, excellent. Fertilization commencing.”
I know he’s monitoring everything with a tiny bionanotech sensor up in there, but that’s still kind of creepy.
When another wave of pleasure rolls through me, my cock explodes all over Mohrn, turning what little space is between us all hot and sticky. Somewhere in that blaze of pleasure and not-quite-pain, I feel…light. Then I realize it is because I’m light—Mohrn has me wrapped around phem and is stretching out on a bunk, and phey’re still inside me, but we’re covered with a light blanket, and—
“Shh, rest, love,” phey whisper.
So…I do.
* * * *
I wake up at some point and lift my head, but Mohrn’s hand firmly splayed across my lower back keeps me in place.
“Stay,” Mohrn says.
“How long was I out?”
“Maybe thirty minutes.”
“Hell, feels longer than that.”
H’looder’s voice cuts through my mental haze somewhere beyond my peripheral vision. “We need you to remain still for a little longer, please. About ten more minutes. Then we’ll reset for round two.”
I lay my head back down on Mohrn’s chest. “Okay.”
Phey keep the one hand on my lower back and play my hair with the other. I’ve always thought that’s sweet, that phey’re so fascinated by my hair.
Mohrn’s body is warm and solid, yet with enough give I feel like I was meant to lie here.
Don’t get me wrong, we take turns playing big spoon. Even though, you know, phey’re kind of the bigger spoon by default. Plenty of days, after a long day at work, phey’ll come home and, after dinner, snuggle with me on the couch or in bed, pheir head in my lap while I read or while we watch a vid or something, and phey take comfort from me. It’s not all me playing needy husband.
This is, however, one of those times I’m happy to let phem take control and be in charge and take care of me.
I search for any hint of darkness in pheir thoughts right now and am relieved to find none. Pheir fingers gently massage my scalp.
“See?” phey tease. “I did not kill Olarte.”
I snort. I know if I look right now I’ll see what passes for a snarky expression on pheir face. “Oh, my god. We might be parents.”
“That is the general plan, yes, Sy. Did you not understand the result? Or perhaps you did not read the information packet?”
Snarky tone—check. I wish phey were ticklish. This would be a good time to tickle phem for that.
Instead, I blow them a raspberry and then I lie there, feeling safe and loved and thankful that I answered a crazy-sounding ad.
And that I didn’t read the information packet.
When H’looder and the technicians begin the reset, Mohrn won’t let me walk. Phey carry me over and gently ease me into the frame, where this time I sit side-saddle. I realize now, with my drugged haze receding a little, that there’s a diaphanous but opaque privacy screen between us and the other couple. I didn’t notice it the first time.
Then again, the first time I was high as fuck.
Doesn’t interfere with the process at all, and doesn’t muffle sounds, obviously, but it does make it mentally easier on me.
Mohrn’s focus is me.
I focus on pheir face as phey get into position, a tech actually reaching in there with a gloved hand to help out with the positioning.
That makes me feel better, too. This is…clinical.
Mohrn’s eyes gaze into mine as pheir breathing starts to change. It’s weird knowing those signs and yet knowing it’s not my body phey’re currently plugged in to. I’m aware of Davies letting out a soft moan behind me, and Olarte whispering to him, but it’s like from a distance, thanks to the drugs.
Mohrn is here, with me.
“I love you,” phey whisper to me in Standard. Phey nuzzle my ear. “My sweet, slippery human.”
I somehow hold back my manic bray of laughter. “Big pink bastard,” I mutter.
“Okay,” H’looder says. “Are we ready to begin?”
It feels like this time it takes longer, but maybe that’s just my perception and my drugs wearing off. I still explode and make a mess—I kind of can’t help it—when Mohrn bites me as I bite phem. I focus on that, on me biting phem, on the feel of pheir arms around me, pheir teeth in my shoulder, pheir breath in my ear, pheir thoughts in my mind.
Pheir undying love for me, pheir devotion to me, pheir eclipsing thought that phey hope even now I’m carrying our child.
Big pink bastard is going to make me cry before the day’s over, I just know it.
Once it’s finished, Mohrn holds me while a tech cleans phem and me up. I sort of fuzz out a little, but come to again as Mohrn carries me out of that room and into a nearby private suite with a large, comfortable bunk nearly the size of our bed at home.
Then I realize this is probably the same stateroom we occupied when we first got acquainted. For now, this will be our temporary home while they observe me to see how I’m doing.
Mohrn tucks me against phem, pheir body curled around mine. “Please sleep, love. You have certainly earned it.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Mohrn
My poor Sy. Once we are snuggled in bed together he is so exhausted that he falls asleep again almost immediately. Dr. H’looder wants the human halves of the couples to move as little as possible for the next forty-eight hours.
Fortunately, Olarte and I can carry our slippery humans wherever they need to go. Not that I am allowing Sy out of bed, unless he has to use the bathroom, or they need to examine him.
Both humans have bionanotech sensors that will tell H’looder if the fertilization worked, as well as help his team closely observe and monitor the growing egg, if we are successful.
The closer we come to this being a reality, the more I desperately wish for success. I want to raise a child, our child, loved and wanted and with two parents who are happy together and who strove to destroy barriers of all kinds to bring them into being.
I reach up to the control panel and adjust the bunk’s temperature two degrees warmer, and the room by five. It is not unpleasant now, but it is just cool enough I know Sy might let out a shiver and snuggle closer to me.
That is moving.
He is not supposed to move.
He will not like me very much the next few days, I suppose. Because whatever Dr. H’looder says must be done to help us reach success, I will make sure that is what is done.
I did not tell Sy this yet, but last week I went to the prison and visited Yyallohrn. Before we became parents, it was imperative to me to look mine in the eyes and ask…why?
I did not b
other locating Yyallohrn’s previous mate. While I do not agree with pheir decision, there was a contract, it was broken, and at least phey had the honor to simply leave.
Phey did not…lie to me. Deceive me.
Engage in wholesale theft of the very truth about my existence. I do not fault them.
I do not even wish to talk to Dohrn, because I know pheir motivation—greed.
I hold Yyallohrn solely responsible, and yet I seek to understand…why. Why phey did what phey did.
It is the first time I looked into pheir face since I agreed to the plan to protect what were, in fact, my biological siblings, and in truth my own birthright. Phey sat across a divided counter from me, separated from me by glass, phey in their confinement and me in my freedom.
Phey did not speak at first. I finally broke the silence. “Why did you lie to me? Why did you not want me?”
“It was bad enough my mate abandoned me,” phey finally said. “When it was obvious you were ishblane. You were to be our first. And I loved phem so very much. I fertilized the egg, and when your egg emerged…
“Well, there were none in pheir line, and it was in our contract. A clause I never dreamed would ever be used. They wished nothing more to do with me, and refused to mate with me again. I gave phem a settlement to end the contract per its terms and never speak to phem again. Dohrn wanted more land and was willing to take you in exchange for claiming you as pheirs. Pheir two offspring phey already had were too young to know any better, and Dohrn didn’t wish for a mate, anyway. The timing was perfect. In the beginning, we never had to lie to anyone. Everyone assumed you were Dohrn’s biological offspring.”
“When did the lies get easy?” I needed to know this. Is this something that would plague me, one day? This ability to ignore the truth, even when it hurt others?
Phey shook pheir head. “I had an estate to protect. Birthrights to protect.”
“You stole my birthright from me. It should have been mine.”
He glared at me. “Ishblane do not deserve birthrights. Consider yourself lucky you breathe at all. Had Dohrn not stopped by my homestead on the day phey did, phey never would have seen you, or known what happened. I had planned to take you out into the wilds and bury you before you ever emerged from the egg and drew breath. Claim you did not survive. But when Dohrn saw you, I knew I would not be able to without penalty.
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