by Stasia Black
“What, like…an ovary?” Giselle asks. “She only has one ovary?”
“Yes,” says an impatient voice. “Who is this female and why is she here?”
“She is the spe— The female candidate with the ideal genetic makeup that our King was first intended to mate.”
“What?” ring out both Juliet and Giselle’s voices, perfectly echoing my own. What the fuck are they talking about?
“Take a deep breath, my love,” I hear Shak’s voice. “Yes it is true my mission was initially to impregnate your friend.”
Jesus fucking Chr—
“But then I met you and I have never looked at another since. Nor will I.” After a brief pause, his voice comes again, almost a bark. “And this missing organ means that Ana cannot have children?”
“No,” Juliet says at the same time the doctor says, “yes.”
“What your chief medical officer apparently doesn’t know is that a woman with one ovary can get pregnant,” Juliet continues heatedly. “Is her other ovary working?”
A pause. “The other organ appears to be unharmed.”
Oh thank God. My forehead drops to the door in relief. I’m not all the way broken. Just mostly.
“There,” Juliet says. “Problem solved. Ana can still bear children. Why don’t all you neanderth—” She pauses as if taking a breath. “So why doesn’t everyone calm down, I’ll order some food brought in and we can—”
“Your Majesty, surely you cannot condone the continuation of—”
“Enough,” Shak says.
But the voice won’t shut up. I think it’s the doctor. “I do not understand. When right here we have the female with the ideal DNA makeup whose genome we have already sequenced and determined to be perfect. The soldier can simply mate her instead since she is obviously superior to the other—”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Ezo warns in a growl from right outside the door and then I hear footsteps walking away. He must have been standing guard right outside my door but now he’s heading down the hall to the rest of the group.
“I do not want any other female than Ana and I will not have any other female but Ana.”
“Quiet, soldier,” someone snaps. “Do not speak in front of your betters.”
Those sons of—
I’m about to swing the door open and tell them all exactly where they can shove it when the hissing voice speaks up again.
“This is not a matter of preference. It is a matter of life and death. We need to secure the future of our race. Your Majesty, you know there have been rumors of mutiny on the ships. Well I am here to tell you that they are more than rumors.”
This silences everyone.
“Now more than ever, we must demonstrate to our people that our Queen’s pregnancy was not a one-time aberration. Many question whether this child about to be born to you will even be Draci enough.”
“What?” Giselle cries but the voice cuts her off.
“It is a delicate time and a wise ruler would know that another pregnancy is needed to both calm fears and reassure your subjects. You have been made King but you have yet to prove yourself. As I have said, there are many who would see your kingship undone. You cannot let down your entire race because of a single person, human or Draci.”
Oh.
Shit.
I back away from the door even as I hear Ezo begin to argue loudly.
Oh God, what am I doing? The stakes here are so much bigger than I thought. And Ezo has the chance to be more than just a soldier. If he produced a child, he would be a hero to his race.
All he’s ever wanted is to fit in, to belong. And to save people.
I’m costing him everything and for what? He’d run away with me and leave it all behind but what can I really give him in the long term? I might not ever be able to bear him children.
He’s just been blinded by good sex and thinks it’s more. Okay, it’s been great sex, but still. What else is there between us, really? He barely knows me.
That’s not true, a small voice argues.
But there are too many other louder voices.
Deformed, that was what the doctor called me.
Why can’t you be more like your friend Giselle? I remember my father looking up from my sixth-grade report card with a frown. You’ve disappointed me, Ana. Again. I’d tell you to try harder but I’m not sure you even can. He sighed and pinched between his eyes. This is pointless. Just go to your room. And as I left, I heard him mutter under his breath, At least there’s her sister.
I’ve always been a failure and nothing has changed.
I wanted to believe—
I wanted to pretend—
I turn and sprint for the window as tears pour down my cheeks. I have to get out of here. Ezo deserves better. He deserves someone like Giselle.
I unlock the window, shove it open, and hike my legs over, one after the other. And then I run for my car.
Chapter Nineteen
Ezo
I cannot believe what the doctor and first advisor are suggesting. They would discard my mate with so little thought and without consulting me at all.
I know this is the Draci way. I’m nothing but a pawn to them. A lowly soldier.
But now I know what it is to be a man. And I know what it is to love a woman. They will not take my Ana from me. Not while I still draw breath.
I open my mouth to tell them so when the Queen suddenly cries out and clutches her stomach.
“My Queen!” calls the doctor, both he and Shak rushing to her side.
Just in time, too, because she slumps and seems like she might have fallen to the floor apart from their support.
Water gushes from between the Queen’s legs and makes a puddle on the floor.
“Her water’s broken!” the female called Giselle says. “The baby’s coming!”
“We need to get her to her bed,” Shak calls but Juliet shakes her head.
“No time. Oh God, Shak!” Her face twists in pain as she lets out an agonized grunt.
“Doctor, what’s happening?” Shak shouts at the same time that Juliet’s wings flare outwards from her back, extending to their full six-foot span. Several of the King’s advisers stumble backwards to avoid being hit by them.
“He’s coming,” Juliet cries. “There’s not much time.”
“Help me get her leggings off,” Giselle says to Shak, and together they tug the black leggings off the Queen. Only her long t-shirt dress keeps her somewhat modest.
But then her great, golden wings begin to flap, creating such a storm of wind that trinkets and decorative vases around the room crash to the floor.
Shak holds her waist but not even he is strong enough to keep her on the ground. She lifts up, her bare legs shuddering as she twists with pain.
I watch on, helplessly.
But the Queen is not the only one with wings in the room. The doctor unfurls his wings and then he lifts up off the floor and flies right to her side, the both of them hovering near the ceiling of the huge room.
“You are doing so well, my Queen.”
“What the hell is happening?” she cries.
“This is how the Draci of old were born, my Queen.”
“Why the hell didn’t anybody tell me that?!”
“We did not think— You are human, so—”
A long, agonized shriek cuts him off.
The doctor flies to position himself between her legs. “He is crowning!” the doctor shouts and all the advisers and representatives in the room crowd as close as they can from the floor.
“You’re doing great,” Giselle calls. “Just remember to breathe!”
Shak says nothing, his face pinched and pale as he stares up at his mate, but his lips move silently in prayer.
I look around. Ana should be here. To witness this and support her friend. But right as I turn to go for her, the Queen wails louder than ever.
I look up to see her wings flapping furiously, her hands clutching her belly, and her fac
e contorted.
“Push,” cries the doctor, lifting his hands between her legs to catch the baby.
The Queen pushes and the entire room waits with bated breath as she screams with her effort.
“The head is out!” the doctor cries. “Just give me one more big push.”
The Queen does and we all watch in awe as the Prince is born into our new world.
“He is colored like a human but he has golden wings!” calls the doctor. “And a ridge on his brow. He is Draci.”
A roar of celebration goes up from all the Draci on the ground. This is what they’ve been waiting for. The confirmation that our race will go on when so many had given up hope.
I see it so clearly now.
They will not allow me to stay with Ana if they do not think she is a good enough candidate for a mate. They will try to come between us. Shak might be on our side now, but it is like the first adviser says. He has only just been made King and he will feel the pressure of his position.
It’s a risk I cannot take.
Ana and I must run. And what better time than when everyone is distracted?
I back away while everyone cheers and then steal back down the hallway. I yank open the door to the room at the end. “Ana, we must go, n—”
But I stop in my tracks.
Ana is not in the room.
I extend my tongue and scent the air. She went towards the window. I shove it open, praying I will find her right outside.
But she is not there. I follow her sent all the way to the vehicles. Her car is gone.
Ana has left me.
Chapter Twenty
Ana
I drive and drive and drive some more. I passed Reno about half an hour ago and just kept going, on into the desert. I have to pee but I still don’t stop.
I spent the first hour of the drive crying my eyes out and now I just feel numb.
I don’t know where the hell I’m going. I just got in the car, pulled onto the highway and kept driving.
Away. I just had to get away. Where no one can find me for a while. I even ditched my cell phone half an hour in.
Not that it was ringing. If anyone noticed I was gone, they didn’t give a shit.
Then again, I’m not even sure Ezo knows how to work a cell phone.
“Not thinking about that,” I whisper, staring determinedly at the highway in front of me. Reaching down, I crank up the radio.
Death metal blasts through the car. Maybe if I play it loud enough, it’ll deafen my heart, too.
I’m finally forced to stop when my tank is out of gas and I see a rest stop ahead. I ran out of electric charge a long time ago. The hybrid is only supposed to run on gas in the most extreme of circumstances and since I didn’t exactly know I was headed out of town, I didn’t bring a spare battery.
The charge stations are so few and far between, so at least I found one before I was totally out. I pull off the highway and park to plug in. I blink my eyes against the heat and swipe my forehead.
Jesus, it really is a desert out here.
I put my hand over my eyes to block the sun and look out past the highway. I can see for miles. There are uneven hills in the distance, but all of it is covered by the thinnest layer of scrub brush. Mostly it’s just dirt, though. Dirt and dust. I turn my face away as the wind blows more grit into my eyes.
I think I’ll go wait out my charge inside. I glance at the gauge. It’ll take about fifteen minutes to fill up.
More sand blasts me as I walk over to the ancient charge station.
It was clearly once a gas station back in the day and they didn’t put much energy into any restorations when they switched to electric.
I can still see the faded letters of where the old Exxon sign used to be underneath the slightly newer SunCo sign.
A bell over the door rings as I walk inside.
An ancient old man sits behind the register, a trucker’s hat low on his head. Is he asleep?
Dead?
No one else is around. Fine with me.
God, that sand is making me itchy everywhere. I blouse my shirt away from my chest and scratch at my arms as I hurry towards the restroom and relieve myself.
Then I scrub at my face with the dribble of water that comes from the faucet, no matter how much I turn the knob.
And great. There’s no paper towel to dry my face. Of course there isn’t. I lift the bottom of my shirt and swipe at my face. At least for once I’m not wearing any makeup. We were just going to see the doctor, after all. Then I expected to head right back to bed with Ez—
Pain slices deep all over again. No. There’s no more Ezo. If I can do one Goddamned thing right in this sad, disappointment of a life, it will be to set him free.
That’s why I tossed my phone. I’m shit at self-discipline, as my dad knew so well even at the age of 11. I can’t trust myself.
But Ezo deserves better, dammit.
I glance up at my face in the dirty mirror. Puffy, red rimmed eyes? Check. Bloated face? Check. Sallow skin? Check.
I love you, my Ana.
God, will I ever be able to get that silky tenor out of my head? I close my eyes and turn away, grabbing my purse and slinging it over my shoulder.
When I come back out, there’s actually another person in the little store. An awake and live looking one, anyway.
A woman, maybe in her forties. Attractive. Casually dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt but still elegant looking, somehow.
What the hell is she doing all the way out here? Maybe she’s on a day trip from Reno or something? Though I don’t know what there is to see out here except scrub brush, more sand, and more scrub brush.
“Hello,” she says and I realize that I’ve just been staring at her like a rude bitch.
“Sorry,” I mumble, turning away to head for the snack aisle.
But when I get there and look up again, she’s standing at the end of the aisle. She walked around the long way to get here. Guess she’s starving for some Snickers, too?
I nod my head politely at her and then go back to scanning the wall of junk food.
“What is so special about you, human?”
Say what?
My head springs up just in time to see her eyes narrow on me, looking me up and down in disgust. “You are nothing.”
“Excuse me?” I had to have heard her wrong.
“The fact that this weak, bastard usurper of a King thinks any of your filthy race are fit to do anything more than clean the shit from the bowels of our sewer chamber just shows what an idiot he is.”
Oh fuck. She’s a— I didn’t even think they were transforming female Draci into—
“You are friend to the Queen, are you not?” She sneers the word Queen. “And mated—” another sneer— “to one of the abominations?”
Abomin— Does she mean Ezo? “So what are you?” I ask. “You look pretty human to me.”
She takes another predatory step forward and I stumble back, running into the rack behind me.
She laughs, an ugly hissing sound and her eyes gleam red. She opens her mouth and steam hisses out the sides.
“I am Draci where it counts.”
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck.
Run. Run!
I turn and run but she’s on me in a second, grabbing me by my arm—
Fuck! Ow, oh God—
And then I’m airborne. But not for long. I crash into the wall of the convenience store. Pain explodes at my back. There was a rack of something I just crashed through and my head bangs dully on the floor.
Ow. Shit. Get up. Get up! But I can only blink in shock and barely lift myself up on an elbow before she’s standing over me.
Oh God.
I’m going to die. Right now.
I’m going to die in the middle of nowhere, killed by some psycho alien chick I don’t even know.
And I never even told him goodbye.
Ezo, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.
I
see the truth of it all now so clear. Too late to make any difference but still. In the last moments of my life, I state my truth.
“I am not nothing,” I declare, my voice trembling. “I am Ana Lucinda Villarreal and I am loved.”
I barely get the last word out before she opens her mouth and fire gushes towards me in a blinding wave.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ana
I throw my arms up uselessly in front of my face.
The fire hits.
But it…doesn’t hurt.
What the—
The alien woman is as surprised as me as I look from her face down to my arms. My long-sleeved shirt was completely incinerated.
But gleaming blue scales on my forearms, just emerged from beneath my skin, protected me from the fire like a flame-repellent shield.
Holy shit!
We did it. I’m pregnant. Oh my God, I’m carrying Ezo’s baby.
Unless I die in the next ten seconds.
“I did not believe it could be true…” she whispers, staring down at me, stunned.
I take advantage of her momentary distraction, rearing back and kicking the bitch in the cunt.
And this time, she goes flying.
Fuck. Me.
I jump to my feet, all my earlier pain overridden by adrenaline, and hold out my hands.
She stands, fury burning in her red eyes.
“Look, I don’t know who you are, but we don’t have to do this.”
“I am Siccua, daughter of Sauqunuc, sister of Sacraasu, the true Queen of the Draci race, slain by the bastard usurper. You are an abomination,” she half-spits, half-growls, “a stain upon our noble race. And I will suffer none of your kind to live.”
She pulls out a blazing, neon blue alien knife looking weapon, holds it high overhead and runs at me with a screaming roar.
Shit! But I stand my ground. I won’t flinch and I will fight until my dying breath. Because I will most likely die. She’s a full Draci, hundreds of years old and I’ve only just begun my semi-transformation. I have no doubt that she’s still many times stronger than me.
But I have more to live for.
