He appeared just as stunned as her. “They are…” He shook his head. “How?”
The Watchers said, “We harvested eggs and sperm and combined them. We had to fill in a few gaps and make some minor changes to ensure they would be viable and able to procreate. Seven female. Six male. A baker’s dozen.” They giggled.
“From us?” Semeera whispered the question. “You harvested eggs and sperm from us?”
“Yes. From anyone else wouldn’t make sense.”
“They’re our…” She ended on a shuddering gasp, blinking furiously to hold back tears. “You…” Tears fell and she couldn’t stop smiling.
Babies. Hers and Kader’s. Their children. They had children. Together.
She stumbled over to Ijmru and pulled them into a hug, touching a Watcher for the first time since meeting them. “Thank you.”
“Ohhh, Semeera Boswell of Earth is touching me. I like it.” Ijmru hugged her back with their hands gripping her ass.
“Hey!” She pulled back and glared down at them.
Ijmru tittered at her with their eyes sparkling.
Kader hissed and pulled her back against his chest. “Mine.”
Ijmru nodded. “Yours. And very squishy.” They flexed their fingers to simulate the way they’d squeezed her ass.
Imoor smacked Ijmru on the back of the head. “Pervert.”
“Jealous.”
“Yes, but you are still a pervert.” Imoor looked at Semeera. “May I have squishy touching too?”
“No.” Semeera pressed closer to Kader.
“Shoot. Oh well. Maybe next time.” Imoor faced the pods. “Your children will exit the pods in two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” She looked at the pods and then the Watchers. “How long have they been in there?”
The Watchers said together, “Twelve months. We decided against accelerating their gestation.”
“And you’re just now telling us?”
They shrugged. “Knowing before now wouldn’t have changed anything. You cannot have them yet.”
“So why not wait until they were ready to be born, if that’s your logic?”
“Now was best so we wouldn’t have to explain why your next tour is delayed.” They showed her similar mischievous smiles. “You’ll be busy.”
“Understatement.” She looked at the pods. Thirteen children. All at once. She would be a mother.
That meant Kader would be a father. Except his people didn’t believe in parents raising their kids. That’s what grandparents were for. But it wasn’t like they could go to Home World and drop their hybrid children into the family clutch. For one thing, that might freak out the natives.
“Kader?”
He snapped his gaze down to hers, wonder filling his eyes.
“Is this okay?” She held her breath, too scared to ask her real question. Was he going to avoid his children and make her raise them alone?
In this moment, their two cultures were clashing.
He said in a low voice, “There is no clutch. No elders.”
“No.”
“Just us.”
“And us,” the Watchers said with glee.
Kader rapped his tail against the floor. “Just us,” he said with emphasis then nodded. “We will manage.”
Semeera felt her heart swell with love. “Together, right?”
He cupped her head between his hands and pressed his lips to hers. “A warrior never abandons his duty. I am a warrior and my duty is clear—safeguard my family. I will watch over and guide them with you, my mate.”
She hugged him tight, whispering her love into his ear.
And then reality crept in.
She released Kader and looked at the pods. “We’re about to have thirteen children. Back when kids were still an option for me, I only wanted two at most. Now we have thirteen. We will never sleep again.”
The Watchers giggled. “Sleep? You’ll never fuck again.”
Kader gasped in horror. “What?”
Semeera nodded, hating to agree. “Yeah. There’s that too. Sorry.” She patted his chest, mildly amused by his pained expression. “I don’t know how human our children will be, but I remember having an uncanny sense of timing when it came to interrupting my parents’ sex lives. I couldn’t even tell you what the hell I was interrupting them for. I just did. Frequently.” She chuckled. “Which, now that I think about it, just means my parents were having a lot of sex. Or trying to anyway.”
A hiss left Kader as he regarded his offspring. “This is why my people have clutches.”
She continued petting his chest. “Chill, lover. It’s fine. Besides, we’re on a ship full of Watchers. Automatic babysitters.”
The Watchers said, “That means it is and us. No tail smacking away the truth.” They giggled.
Narrowing her eyes at them, she said, “They can always watch the kids for an hour or two while we have fun.”
Kader didn’t appear convinced and was probably worried about leaving his offspring in the hands of the Watchers. Never mind that the children had been in the Watchers’ hands all this time while Semeera and Kader hadn’t even known they existed.
They knew now and were already protective of them, as parents should be.
Semeera turned her mate so he looked at her. “And…” She drew the word out and gave him a sultry smile. “We still have two weeks until they are born, right?”
Heat filled Kader’s gaze.
“I have it on good authority that expectant mothers are always extra horny.”
Imoor said, “That doesn’t apply to—”
She pointed at Imoor to shut them up and then pressed close to Kader. “What do you say, Daddy? Want to make Mommy feel better?”
Kader swept her into his arms and charged out of the room. They’d barely made it down one hall before he had her pressed against the wall with his hard erection surging into her drenched sex. Neither of them cared about the location. The Watchers were everywhere. Always watching. Semeera was sure they’d even recorded some of their sessions to sell to their clients.
Whatever. It was a small price to pay for bliss. And she had a ton of it, with more to come in the future.
From far away, a feminine-sounding Watcher said, “You’re cleaning up after them this time.”
Another Watcher whined, “I did it last time. You do it.”
Semeera giggled and then gasped as her orgasm swept over her.
Kader followed right behind her, overflowing her with his hot seed while whispering words of love.
“So messy,” a Watcher grumbled.
The Watchers were neat freaks, and they’d just gifted her and Kader with thirteen babies. Eh well, she’d let them figure out their mistake the hard way.
* * *
The End
About Zenobia Renquist
Zenobia Renquist is the alter ego of D. Reneé Bagby, or simply Reneé to her friends. An Air Force brat turned Air Force wife, she was born in the Netherlands and has traveled all of her life, calling many places home. She’s an avid world builder who loves torturing her characters on their paths toward happily ever after. When not concocting new ways to give her characters a hard time, she enjoys crocheting, reading shoujo manga, watching anime and Asian dramas, or bingeing a series on Netflix.
Find her online:
zenobiarenquist.com
[email protected]
Alien Mate Experiment Page 23
