Ellwood’s voice dragged her back to the conversation.
“Chose? Consummated? In other words, she’s already married to this person?”
“Mated. Yes. Remember that Meredith has been here at the consulate for more than three months. She’s had ample time to meet someone she wouldn’t mind being mate to, and since the male in question is willing, there was no reason not to let her choose him.”
He sighed, rubbing a hand across his forehead. “And what other choice was she given for punishments?”
“Two, actually.”
He looked up at her expectantly.
“She could have left the consulate and faced the American justice system, or she could have stayed on lockdown within the consulate, doing whatever chores we found for her.”
“For how long? What would the sentence have been?”
Jannie shrugged. “For the rest of her life, of course. Leaving the consulate meant she would face American justice.”
“Not if you moved her to another consulate,” he pointed out the obvious.
She smiled. “Now why did I never think of that?”
Ellwood shot her a sour look. “I know you, Janice.”
Too well. “I needed a long-term solution for Meredith. If I moved her to another consulate, the US authorities would try to extradite her from wherever she was.”
He grumbled his agreement to that. “Off the record...”
“Yes?”
“I’m glad you found a workable solution. It’s going to be a tough sell to the authorities, but how are they going to argue it?”
“How, indeed?”
“Is there any word on adoptive families for the surrendered children? You have how many now?”
“Just the three so far. They’ll be leaving on the ship tomorrow with their adoptive parents.”
“So quickly? I thought it took three months to get people from Sakk to Earth.”
“These parents aren’t coming from Sakk. Remember, we have colonies and consulates on eighteen worlds, in addition to Sakk.” It was a half-truth, but she didn’t want to share the news of who would be adopting the children unless he asked directly.
The nest parents coming in on the ship that would take Jarem and his family out had been rerouted on their way to a seed world. A retiring nesting pair had agreed to stay on to take care of a new set of babies, until another couple could arrive from Sakk to take on the duties of care to adulthood for the toddlers in the group.
“And you believe you won’t have problems placing any children who are surrendered?”
Jannie smiled widely. “We will have prospective adoptive parents at the consulate at all times. When children are surrendered, they will be placed with parents immediately.”
He seemed stunned by that pronouncement. “So you won’t be using a foster system at all?”
“No. It’s kindest to the children if they are placed immediately with parents.”
Ellwood nodded. “That should shut the naysayers up.” He waved. “Have a good day, Janice. It seems I have a lot of work to do.”
“You, too. Good luck!”
He groaned and then shut the connection. Jannie laughed. Ellwood complained about his job, but she suspected he liked the challenge and protested more than was necessary.
****
Master Beldon accompanied them aboard the ship. He walked ahead of them, armored, one hand on his sword hilt. It would have bothered Meredith if Jarem and Janice hadn’t explained that it was ceremonial.
Meredith and Jarem came down the ramp behind him. Jarem had Todd cuddled to one shoulder and Sammy perched on the opposite hip; Meredith carried Alice. Each of the children held a favorite toy—Todd’s attached to his wrist with a soft cuff, so he couldn’t throw it, and Jarem had an overstuffed duffel bag full of supplies hooked over one shoulder.
Meredith had started to separate which toys they should take along and which they should leave behind for the next group of children, but Jarem had corrected her. The consulate had already stocked age-appropriate toys, supplies, furniture, and clothing up to 4T in both girls’ and boys’ styles. Since most of the toys had been gifts from warriors, they expected the children to take them along. At that point, Meredith had resorted to separating which toys they would have in the rooms aboard ship and which would be boxed to be transported directly to Jarem’s ancestral home.
She’d done the same thing with the clothing. She’d boxed clothing that was more than two sizes larger than the children were currently wearing for storage aboard ship and had the rest sent to their quarters, just in case of growth spurts.
Since she was officially a Sakk mate, Meredith had been informed she was eligible for the stipend given before a mate moved to Sakk. She’d had to use hers to purchase from catalogs and online, but Meredith didn’t mind. As she’d told Janice, “Give a woman unlimited credit, she’s sure to find something she wants.”
They’d spent the last week switching the babies over to the Sakk form of waste wraps and training wraps. Though it had taken Meredith time to get used to wrapping them correctly, she had to admit they were more comfortable and just as useful as disposable diapers. With the laundry machine set right next to the changing table, she used it as she would a diaper pail and started the wash once a day.
They’d settled into family life with a minimum of fuss. While Sammy had distrusted Meredith for nearly a month, she’d latched onto Jarem almost immediately. Todd was an easy baby who, much like Alice, loved everyone on sight.
Right on cue, Alice patted Meredith’s chest with the stuffed bunny in her hand. “Mama.”
Sammy glared at her and snuggled closer to Jarem. “No. Daddy.”
Jarem laughed. “And it seems you each have the parent you wish to have, so no arguing, girls.”
The warriors rushed back and forth, peeking looks at them as they made their way through the landing bay. Something told Meredith that it was busy work. Just an excuse to get a look at the babies coming aboard. One stopped to gape at them, then hurried along at a sharp sound from Beldon.
An armored man met them at the far side of the bay and bowed deeply. “Welcome aboard. Your rooms have been prepared. If anything is amiss, please let me know directly. Only older, widowed warriors are allowed in the nest areas. If you see anyone else in the area, report it immediately. For your safety, of course.”
“We will,” Meredith assured him.
Jarem started questioning him. “The furniture was set up as I requested? And the food requirements the cooks at the consulate sent along? Are your cooks prepared to handle the children’s needs?”
The captain nodded. “Just as you specified. I will guarantee the young ones and your mate will be comfortable aboard my ship.”
“Good. We should see our quarters then.”
Beldon turned to them, placing a hand on each child’s head in turn. Then he nodded to them. “You are in good hands. Have a safe trip.”
He was gone before Meredith could thank him.
They followed the captain through the corridors, and Meredith tried to remember everything he pointed out: dining halls, the medical bay, and more. She turned her head, trying to find anything she could use as a landmark to find the garden again.
Jarem leaned close to her and whispered. “You and the babies won’t be allowed to leave our quarters without guards. The lecture is for me, not you.”
“Oh. Of course.”
The captain stopped at a set of double doors and barked out a command in Sakk. The doors slid open, and Meredith headed inside. She stopped, gaping at the size of the space.
“Good God.” It slipped out without decorum.
Jarem appeared beside her, smiling, one eyebrow raised. “Only the best for our children,” he quipped. “Only the best for my mate.”
“How...?” The rest didn’t emerge. Too many questions fought to be the first out.
“The walls are temporary structures. This is a nest intended to bring dozens of matches from a seed world
. Refitting it to be home to a family of five wasn’t difficult, and these structures and furnishings can be reused for future family passages.”
She wandered through the rooms, stunned. They’d set up a living room, dining room, and three bedrooms. The cribs, high chairs, playpens, and changing tables had all been relocated from their quarters in the consulate, complete with the Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat mobile hung over Todd’s crib. They’d created a home in the nest room. There was even a small kitchenette area.
Most likely for heating formula for Todd and storing snacks.
A squeal of delight brought Meredith’s head around. Sammy was running across the room with a cookie in each hand.
“Already at home.”
Jarem nodded his agreement.
****
Three months later
Meredith smoothed her dress and fussed with Alice’s curls. Sammy sighed in her sleep, curled up on the padded bench with her head on Jarem’s thigh. To Jarem’s other side, Todd slept soundly in a Sakk carry-basket. She wished she could be as calm about meeting Jarem’s family as the children were.
Or as comfortable about how I look. Alice was wearing a cazta in deep purple and a pair of soft black Mary Janes with white bobby socks. Sammy wore a baby blue ruffled dress that reached her knees, white tights, and a pair of high-top tennis shoes that matched the dress. Todd wore a pair of infant dress pants with a white shirt and brown boots.
By comparison, Meredith felt more than a little silly in the Disney-style floor-length gown with matching gloves that reached her upper arms. If it was yellow, I’d be the very image of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. It wasn’t yellow, of course. It was a rich Hunter green that complemented her eyes.
“Cup.” Alice put her hands out to Meredith, opening and closing them in a ‘gimme’ motion. “Cup, mama. Peeze.” Though she’d reached physical milestones faster than most children Meredith knew, her speech patterns hadn’t evolved yet.
She’s only a year. Next week, she reminded herself. If her speech patterns didn’t start maturing soon, there was plenty of time to have the Sakk healers work with her to improve it.
Meredith smiled and pulled a cup of fortified almond milk out of the bag between her ankles. In the next minute, it was stuffed in Alice’s mouth, and she twisted the closest curl to her face around her hand.
Nearly naptime. It was a safe bet all three children would be asleep when they reached Jarem’s home.
“We’ll be there soon,” the man in question intoned.
Meredith nodded in response.
Her apprehension made little sense to her. The message that had arrived from Jarem’s parents the month before made it seem that they weren’t adverse to the less-than-customary additions to their family. Still, she worried that they were being gracious to cover their disapproval.
He reached out and took Meredith’s hand. “They’ll love you. All of you.”
She nodded, though she wasn’t sure that was true.
Jarem cocked his head to one side and seemed to consider her. “Something is bothering you.”
“You’re so sure they’ll like us.”
“Love you,” he corrected.
Meredith sighed.
“They will. The only reason they didn’t meet us at the shuttle was that they have no transport large enough to bring all of us to the ancestral home.” He’d explained that before.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I’ve told you about my family.”
She nodded. He was the only child of a couple who were now too old to have more children. He had two older uncles, widowers who had produced only female children, all of whom had left the nest and mated before Jarem was even adolescent. “There are no children in the house and haven’t been since you were a child.”
And Jarem is thirty years old. That’s a long time without children. Would his parents and uncles be too old to accept the many changes children would bring into their lives?
As if he heard that question, Jarem shook his head. “You’ve agreed to carry at least two children for me. Even if we don’t have a boy, Todd is able to carry on our family name into the next generation. The worst thing they can imagine is the family dying out and the ancestral home falling to ruin.”
Meredith took a calming breath. “Okay. You know them better than I do.” That goes without saying. I don’t know them at all.
The miles passed in near silence, and Alice fell asleep. Finally, the transport glided to a halt. Jarem lifted Sammy to his shoulder, and she opened sleepy eyes.
“We home, Daddy?” she grumbled.
“Yes. We’re home.” He stood and lifted Todd’s basket in his other hand.
Meredith placed the empty cup in the bag, looped it over her shoulder, and lifted Alice to the opposite one.
A knock at the double doors seemed to ask permission to open them.
“We are prepared,” Jarem offered in Sakk.
The doors opened, and Jarem stepped down ahead of her. One of the warriors held out a hand to help Meredith down. She took it, self-conscious though doing so wouldn’t have bothered her on Earth. It wasn’t something Sakk males typically did. Only the fact that Jarem’s hands were full of sleeping or sleepy children excused another male daring to touch her for any reason but an emergency situation.
A ground-shaking cheer went up, and Alice startled in Meredith’s arms. Thankfully, she didn’t start screaming and crying. Instead, she rubbed a fist into her eye and looked around.
One hand went out and cycled in the ‘gimme’ move again. Alice started bouncing up and down on Meredith’s arm. “Ba-oon, Mama. Ba-oon. Ba-oon.”
She looked up, stunned by the sight of not only a massive crowd but further the banners, ribbons, and...sure enough, balloons. Though Meredith couldn’t identify what they were made of, they clearly resembled fully globe-shaped balloons in bright colors and marked with Sakk glyphs in contrasting colors.
Sammy snapped a look at Alice, followed her line of sight, and started making the same request of Jarem. Todd, true to form, slept through it all.
People closed on them from all sides, reaching out to touch the children. Meredith’s heart pounded out a warning. This had the potential to become a mob, if things went badly.
Jarem smiled and greeted one person after another, and she reasoned that he wouldn’t do that if he believed there was danger inherent in this scene.
“Clear a hole,” a voice thundered in Sakk.
The crowd parted, and a slight, older woman came down the aisle, surrounded by three hulking men. Meredith didn’t have to ask who she was.
Jarem’s mother. Arrayanne. It was more difficult to identify the three men, since the brothers looked very much alike. Meredith offered a smile, hoping for the best.
They looked from one baby to the next, seemingly stunned to silence. Completely oblivious to the situation, the two girls continued to ask for balloons.
At last, Arrayanne said something in Sakk Meredith didn’t understand. The male at her back marched back the way they’d come. He returned a few moments later, his hands behind his back. When he reached the others, he said something she didn’t catch.
Arrayanne turned and accepted two balloons from him. She offered one to each little girl.
Sammy hesitated to take hers but did so at Jarem’s urging. One of the brothers reached out and tied the ribbon around her wrist to avoid the usual loss of balloon catastrophe most toddlers suffered. Sammy turned and hugged Jarem, shooting shy looks at his family.
Alice started clapping and laughing. She reached for the bright-colored globe and patted it clumsily.
“It is so good to hear babies laugh again,” Arrayanne noted wistfully.
Meredith dusted off the Sakk she’d been learning. “These young ones need to laugh.”
“The whole town rejoices.”
“I can see that.” Who could miss it? Of course, it made sense. Two little girls meant the possibility of mates for the sons of the families ga
thered to meet them.
“Are the young ones hungry?”
Jarem answered that time. “Anyone willing to offer a cake or pie will soon find themselves in favor with the girls. Todd has not progressed to more than vegetable paste, grain mush, and milk.”
Meredith laughed at the rush of people towards what she suspected were food carts. She had no doubts their children were going to be spoiled rotten.
Section Two: Clipped Wings
Hayley and Parrin; Holly and Trabor
Chapter Seven
Hayley smoothed the layers of purple silk over her thighs, her nerves jumping. Two weeks ago, she’d been just another secretary. Then her sister had convinced her to come to the Sakk consulate in Hartford to be tested. Hayley had gone along as a lark, just one more time she would go along with Holly’s flights of fancy.
Only this time, it hadn’t proven to be a wild fantasy. From the moment the testing pad had turned blue, indicating that Holly and Hayley were crossbred human-Sakk females, her life had changed at a whirlwind pace.
Holly’s question—spoken aloud but to no one in particular—that Hayley’s ‘birth defect’ may have been partial wings had sent the Sakk into a frenzy, and they’d all but begged to examine her medically.
There had been no need to ask what the scans had shown. The flurry of wings fluttering in excitement had sent Hayley’s stomach into a similar tizzy. Apparently, though the alien race was winged, and they’d reportedly found a winged Earth-born child, it had never occurred to them that crossbred Sakk, born on Earth, might have stubs of wings that had been surgically removed by doctors who didn’t know what they signified.
In less than an hour, she’d gone from an office drone to something akin to a princess.
Whoever said fairy tales don’t come true?
Reinforcing the mental image of her new status as royalty, the Sakk prince had arrived by shuttle from Arlington, Virginia within an hour of her medical scans, just to meet Holly and Hayley and to welcome them back to the Sakk race.
Unexpected Mates (Sons of Heaven) Page 5
