by Sarah Marsh
“I said that you’re pregnant, and that’s why the venom isn’t affecting you anymore.”
How could they be so calm when he was explaining something so fucking huge! Like it wasn’t one of the most important things that had ever happened in her life?
“Why do you both seem so calm about all this?” she yelled. “I’m freaking out here!”
“I’d hoped that you would be fertile. You’ve been in season for two days.” Luca shrugged as if that were the most normal behavior in the world. “Now we get to keep you.”
At least Bae had the decency to look alarmed at what Luca had just said, his eyes going ever wider and quickly turning to see her reaction.
Mari blinked back at both of them for several seconds before her jaw dropped in disbelief.
“Oh my God, did you man-trap me?” Her voice was now fairly shrill, making Bae wince, but Luca still seemed unconcerned.
“I don’t know what that means,” was all he said back with a blank expression.
“On Earth, some women purposely get pregnant to try and get the man they’re dating to marry them,” she explained with an eye roll.
What she wasn’t expecting after her explanation was a wide grin to appear on Luca’s handsome face.
“Yes…we did that,” he answered before turning thoughtful. “But I’d say it was more of a dragon trap, if that’s how you’re going to word it.”
A thousand emotions raced through Marisol all at the same time. Could this be for real? Did she actually have a life beginning inside of her? She almost choked on the happiness that quickly rose up, but it wasn’t the only emotion brought forth. Alongside that joy was raw and undisguised fear.
“How could you do this without discussing it with me?”
“You told me how much you wanted a child.” Luca looked at her, confusion on his face. “That your previous mate would not give one to you. Well, we’ve given you one, and now you cannot doubt our commitment to be with you.”
She just stood there staring at them both, dumbfounded. But in Luca’s simple, rational logic, she supposed he was right. Men out here were so different than the men back on Earth. At home, some men left women and children every day without even giving it another thought. Could she trust that these men really meant what they said?
“But how can you say you want to be with me forever? We barely know each other.”
“Marisol”—Baelion moved closer to take her hands—“we know. Everything about you captivates us. You are strong and smart and beautiful—and you’ve already given us the most amazing gift you ever could. Our child grows inside of you.”
“A shifter female would not question this.” Luca ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “We wouldn’t have impregnated you if we didn’t know you were our mate, Mari. It’s simple.”
The dirty look Bae gave his partner made her laugh through the tears that were building in her eyes at Baelion’s words, but as oblivious as always, Luca just looked back at him and shrugged.
“What?” he said. “It’s true.”
“Mari, we know you were prepared to do this alone to have the family you wanted, but you don’t have to.” Bae continued, “Let us love you and be the beginning of your new family.”
“This is a huge decision. I can’t just ‘follow my heart.’ I’m an adult. These things have to be decided with your brain, not your hormones.”
“Not for us. We know you’re the one. What are you so afraid of, Marisol?”
She glared at Luca for pushing the issue. “Can’t you understand that because of my ex I have some issues trusting men? I need time.”
“Well, our child growing in your womb will give you fourteen months to get used to it, but we’re going to be in your life. Do not paint us with the same brush as your former mate. We’re nothing like your human males,” Luca grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.
“And it’s been years, Mari,” Baelion gently added. “Don’t you think it’s time to let go of your past and begin your life anew?”
“You’ve trusted us to keep you safe here, haven’t you?”
“Well, yes…”
“Then trust us that we will keep you safe in all ways. We would never do anything to hurt you.” Mari could almost feel the torment in his voice.
“My heart knows that, Luca.”
“Then why are you still afraid?”
She paused, trying to keep it together. She didn’t even want to admit to herself what the root of her fear was, let alone say it out loud, but here she went….
“Because! I never felt one tenth of the feelings with Jordan that I feel when I’m with you both, and his betrayal devastated me.” Her heart was pounding as she said the words she hadn’t even been brave enough to admit to before. “I’m terrified that if I go all in and give you my heart, and you decide you don’t want me, that it would blow to smithereens what’s left and I’d never be able to love anyone ever again.”
She was pretty much bawling. She’d completely lost control. “Do you know I’ve been alone so long now that I actually jump when someone touches me? That’s not normal, guys. I’m broken. Why would you even want me at all?”
They gathered her up in their arms, trying to comfort her. Once again offering her so much more support than her previous husband had ever attempted.
“A very wise woman once told me that our scars don’t mean we’re weak. They mean we are survivors, stronger than whatever tried to defeat us. Just because your scars are emotional, Mari, doesn’t make them any less real than what you see on our skin.”
She hugged them a little bit tighter and hoped that they wouldn’t be angry with her—but it was just too much to take in. Her head was spinning.
“I just need a little time to think,” she whispered, but her heart hurt when she felt their bodies tense with what must have been disappointment, disappointment in her of course. They’d both talked about how brave they thought she was, but that wasn’t the truth really. The truth was that she was a coward.
Chapter Thirty-One
They released her, and Luca limped away toward the path leading into the jungle under the stone archway. “We should go,” he said quietly.
Bae lingered a moment, then gave her a sad smile and offered his hand to her. Mari took it and followed behind him, her stomach twisting into knots. She knew she’d let them down. She walked along in a daze, her mind running through all that had happened since she’d left Sirus—no, she went even further back, to what her life had become back on Earth before her abduction.
When exactly had she given up on finding a partner she could count on? The realization hit her suddenly. Still to this day, she was letting Jordan make her the victim. She’d let him turn her into a woman who didn’t believe she was enough. Not enough to make a man happy, not enough to make herself happy.
She’d told herself that she had to settle for a half-life, that she didn’t really deserve all those things other couples had. Somehow, day by day, Jordan had chipped away at her self-confidence like a sculptor and she hadn’t even noticed. If she hadn’t discovered his deception about the vasectomy when she did, would she have eventually given up on her dream of having children, as well? Would she have mitigated the disappointment by convincing herself that the old clichés of “it was all for the best” and “it just wasn’t meant to be” were really true?
She had wasted years wrapped up in her anger toward him—really, in her anger toward herself, as well, for letting him do that to her. Mari finally realized that by not letting go of that fury, she’d essentially built her own prison of self-doubt and fear. She felt like a fool when she recognized what that bitterness and pride had almost cost her.
Marisol suddenly stopped walking. Baelion turned to look back at her with confusion. “Is everything all right, Mari?”
“No,” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
This is crazy. Isn’t it? Mari looked at both of the men in front of her, and she believed every word they had
said to her in the clearing. In her heart, she knew they were telling her the truth. It was her brain that was fighting, telling her to be cautious, and that men sometimes lied—just like Jordan had. But there was nothing worse than regrets in this life, and she never wanted to look back and wonder what would have become of her if she’d done the brave thing and followed her heart when these two had asked her to take a leap of faith. She didn’t ever want to look into her child’s eyes and admit that she had been too much of a coward to follow her heart. She refused to be the one to set that example. The world was hard enough to begin with. As a parent, she hoped to teach her children to be brave and fearless in the pursuit of their dreams.
So she did the only thing she could—she said yes.
“Okay. I choose you. My answer is yes.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Mari?” Luca’s expression was cautious. “That you agree to be our mate?”
She nodded, and the look of surprise and joy that crossed both their faces was priceless. Baelion roared and pulled her in for a huge hug, and she felt Luca’s arms come around them both.
“I thought you would fight us more, to be honest,” Bae murmured in between kisses.
“To be honest?” she answered back with a sniffle and a laugh. “So did I.”
* * * *
Luca was healing quickly now that he had shifted and his wings weren’t agitating the wounds. They made their way on foot down the path that led toward the resort. The wounds on his side were only causing a mild pain now, but even if they weren’t, how could he feel any pain after what had just happened? He couldn’t even describe how happy he was in this moment. Marisol was pregnant and had agreed to be their mate, and it seemed everything he’d tried not to dream of having was just within his reach.
“I can’t believe I’m actually pregnant.” Mari beamed at them, a hand resting on her stomach. “This doesn’t feel quite real yet.”
“Just wait until you’re chasing around a shifter child who can’t control their flame. Then I assure you it will feel quite real,” Luca mused. A memory of his family couldn’t even dampen his mood. “I had five brothers and sisters. Dragon young are a handful.”
“Hey, were you being serious about the fact that I’ll be pregnant for fourteen months?” she asked with a small frown. “That’s quite a bit longer than a normal pregnancy back on Earth.”
“That’s normal for a dragon.” He shrugged.
“Will our baby even be a shifter?” she asked. “It’s going to be half human, after all.”
“Luca’s brother, Grae, has taken a human as his mate, and their child is full dragon.” Baelion trailed behind them, watching for any sign of danger. “That’s one of the reasons that your kind is so sought after. Your genetics seem to be rather malleable, the offspring created often taking after the father’s race.”
“Dragon genes are quite aggressive under normal circumstances, but no one could have guessed that carrying dragon offspring would change the mother’s genetic makeup,” Luca added, looking back at her. “Grae’s mate Talia has still retained her body’s resistance to toxins even though their child is now over a year old. When we get back to Sirus, we can contact them to find out more.”
“Huh, well that’s a bit creepy,” she murmured, “but kind of cool, I guess. At least those little flying fuckers can’t get me now.”
“Well, we’d rather not risk it, so hopefully we don’t run into any more of them.” Baelion shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe they attacked you twice.”
“It’s total discrimination if you ask me.” Mari actually sounded hurt by the fact that neither Bae nor himself had held any interest for the tiny creatures. “Tigger was totally mauling that first one before it turned on me. I rescued it from death and tried to feed it! I can’t believe it would be so ungrateful.”
Luca couldn’t help but smile at his new mate. She was utterly adorable in her outrage. Finally, after a couple of hours of walking, the path opened up to reveal the extravagant resort—well, what was once an extravagant resort, anyway. The jungle had begun to retake the land. Vines and new trees covered the structures, giving it the look of a long-forgotten relic. They carefully wound their way through the main square until they reached the huge docking bay that housed all the shuttles.
He could only pray they would find one that had the capability for space travel. Otherwise, they would have to contact the Coalition and wait for extraction.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Mari was still a roiling ball of nerves when they reached the docking bay. In the space of one day, her entire life had turned upside down. Not only had she found out she was finally going to have a child of her own, but she’d also agreed to accept Luca and Baelion’s offer to mate. Well, more like Luca’s declaration that she was now their mate—but nothing was perfect, right? She would never admit it to anyone, but she found his high-handedness kind of hot. Turns out she liked not being in charge, a lot.
“So which one is our ride off this hole?” Once they had gotten inside the hangar, she was surprised at the number of ships that were just sitting there gathering dust. But then again, if what Luca and Bae said was true and all the guests and staff had indeed been eaten, then they wouldn’t have taken any ships with them. Still, what remained behind had to be worth a fortune.
Baelion whistled as they approached one ship that was particularly shiny. “Luca, take a look at this. A Barillian Star Cruiser. This is worth more than what we’ve made in the last ten years.”
“She’s a beauty all right.” Luca admired the ship with a look that almost made Mari jealous for a moment.
“Winner, winner, chicken dinner,” she said as Luca went to the computer console it was attached to and began to power it up. “We should definitely take the pretty one.”
“Our mate has extraordinary taste in space travel, Luca.” Baelion laughed as the doors slowly opened and they boarded their ride home.
They hadn’t been kidding when they said this ride was high class. Everything Mari walked past was very luxurious. It made her wonder who had owned this ship and had the bad misfortune to die on this planet. The halls were all highly polished metal, and it was exactly what all the movies back on Earth had portrayed an alien spaceship to be—the irony was that, unlike this one, most of them she’d been on so far had looked more like the belly of a submarine than a ship capable of space flight. She held on to Tigger despite his wiggling. She knew he wanted to explore, but she didn’t want him disappearing. She’d once had a cat that got stuck under the front seat of her car and almost had to take it to the mechanic to get the seat removed to free the panicked animal—she could only imagine how much worse that could be on a ship this size.
“So who did this belong to?” she finally asked when they arrived at the bridge and Luca was able to access the ship’s computers. “Was it some kind of alien sheikh or something?”
“What is a sheikh?” Baelion asked her, confusion on his face.
“Like royalty, only they keep a huge harem of wives.”
“Does that really happen on your planet? How could one man satisfy the needs and care of so many mates?” Baelion seemed shocked, and his question proved just how different the men out here really were from what she was used to.
“Well, honestly, where I’m from, there’s quite a few men who only think about their own needs and not those of their partners.”
“That’s horrific.” Luca frowned. “It seems as though this ship was owned by an importer from Zelon Five. He was probably dealing in illegal goods to be able to afford a ship such as this.”
“Good, then I don’t feel bad that we’re taking it.” Baelion shrugged, flipping various buttons on the console in front of him. “We’re lucky most of the power to the resort was solar. The bay doors are still functioning. Mari, you need to strap in. This will get rough as we exit the planet’s atmosphere.”
Luca got up from his seat and showed her where to sit, before attaching the
seat-belt harness over her arms and pelvis. Then he returned to his own seat and did the same. When the doors opened and the ship left the hangar, Mari was finally able to appreciate the beauty of Draxis—especially since they were leaving.
“Hang on. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!”
Mari knew that was a mild understatement when her stomach threatened to heave on several occasions in the next few minutes. The sheer force of their takeoff and the turbulence shook her to the point of pain. Tigger’s yowling only made it worse as he tried to burrow back into her dress, clearly just as unhappy with all this as she was. All she could hope for was that she made it off this planet without throwing up all over everything.
As soon as they broke atmosphere and set a course for Sirus, Luca opened a direct channel to Guild Master Quinn to report their mission status. When the communication opened up on the screen and a familiar blonde woman’s face filled the view space, Mari smiled.
“Mari?” Sally had a desperate expression on her face and her eyes searched until she spotted Mari strapped into the chair behind Luca. “Jesus Christ, you guys, it’s been days! Mari, are you all right?”
“Sally!” Marisol squealed from her seat, tears once again filling her eyes. “Holy shit, are you a sight for sore eyes. I’m so glad to see you.”
“Luca, Baelion.” The deeper voice of the Guild Master came from behind his wife. “When our ships picked up the explosion of the station, we feared the worst. Thank the Goddess you made it out.”
“The extraction did not go as planned,” Baelion explained. “We weren’t able to get a ship from the pirates before the station exploded, and it was quite a trek to the resort to grab another one.”
“I can imagine.” Arkenon’s face finally came into view as Sally backed up to stand beside him. “Do you need us to send a team to retrieve you, or can your ship make it back on its own?”
“I’ve plotted a course back to Sirus. We should be there in approximately twelve hours,” Baelion answered.
