Marcus grimaced. “Sorry.”
Seth smiled and shook his head. “You’re going to have to get past this if you’re going to have more children.”
Marcus’s eyes flew wide. “What?”
Seth shrugged. “I helped Ami through her first pregnancy. I can help her through another.”
Marcus shot his wife a look, his face full of both excitement and fear.
Ami smiled. “We’ll talk about it another time. Go.”
Marcus looked stunned as he circled around to his daughter’s side and took her hand. “I didn’t think—”
“Go,” Ami repeated, her voice both firm and laced with affection.
Nodding, he ducked his head to brush a kiss across her lips, then accompanied his daughter from the room.
Lisa’s hand tightened around Taelon’s. She began to breathe deeply, in through her nose and out through her mouth.
“How far apart are her contractions?” Melanie asked.
Taelon looked at Ami.
“I don’t think it’s even been five minutes since her last one.”
Melanie blurred. When she stilled, an electronic device rested on a rolling table beside the bed. Reaching across Lisa, she untied the gown and started to part it.
Taelon shot a hand out and gripped the side closest to him to keep Lisa covered. Seth was still in the room!
Melanie shot Amiriska a look.
Amiriska wrinkled her nose. “It’s a Lasaran thing. He doesn’t want Seth to see her.” She turned to him. “But it would be no different if she were giving birth on Lasara. Half of our medics are male. And Seth is only here in a healer’s capacity.”
Melanie smiled. “It’s okay. I can expose her belly and keep the rest of her covered.” And she did, drawing the fabric back in such a way that Lisa’s breasts and sex remained covered. “I’m just going to attach these fetal heartbeat monitors.” She used black straps to attach two devices to Lisa’s belly. Jagged lines instantly appeared on the screen of the electronic device next to her. Melanie studied them. “My ears were right. Baby’s heart rate is strong,” she announced with a smile. “Now let’s have a look.”
Moving to the end of the bed, she fiddled with the sides and unfolded two odd-looking additions. She patted one. “Put your calves up here.”
Taelon’s eyes widened when Lisa bent her knees, parted her legs, lifted her feet, and settled her calves on the raised curved surfaces. He swiftly glanced at Seth.
Leah reached up and covered Seth’s eyes with one hand, looking as if she wanted to burst out laughing. Seth smiled.
Melanie donned a pair of thin blue gloves. “Okay, let’s see what we can see.”
Taelon hastily shifted his gaze to Lisa’s.
She, too, looked as if she wanted to laugh. “You look very uncomfortable right now.”
“I am,” he admitted.
“Yep. You are definitely in labor,” Melanie said on a laugh. “You’re already dilated seven centimeters. Three more and the baby will be ready to come.”
Lisa’s hand tightened around Taelon’s again as her breathing increased. A muscle in her jaw tensed as she clenched her teeth.
“That was even faster than the last one,” Ami commented.
Melanie draped a sheet across Lisa’s lap and legs. “Okay, Seth. You can look.”
Leah lowered her hand and winked up at him.
Still smiling, Seth moved to stand at Lisa’s head and rested a hand on her shoulder.
Taelon stiffened.
Lisa’s jaw unclenched. Her hold on Taelon’s hand loosened. Relief blanketed her features. “Oh wow,” she murmured. “That’s as good as an epidural. The pain is totally gone.”
Seth smiled. “You’ll still know you’re having contractions, but this way they won’t hurt. And I can monitor your every system through touch. Everything is good.”
“The baby?” Lisa asked.
“She’s good, too.”
Taelon’s instinctual objection to the other man’s familiar touch evaporated. He caught Seth’s gaze. “Thank you.”
Seth nodded with a smile.
It seemed only a few minutes passed before Melanie said, “Ten centimeters. Okay. Looks like this baby is very eager to be born.” Then she was folding down the end of the table and what seemed like a flurry of activity began.
Taelon didn’t understand any of it. He just held Lisa’s hand, feeling utterly useless.
Then he couldn’t even hold her hand because Melanie and Ami told her to grasp the backs of her thighs near her knees and push. Melanie started to count while Lisa held her breath, raised her head and shoulders off the bed, and bore down, her face turning red with strain.
“Ten.”
Lisa fell back against the bed, breathing heavily.
“Okay. Again.”
Melanie counted while Lisa pushed, repeating the process over and over again, her face reddening, a vein beginning to pulse on her forehead.
Fear stabbed Taelon like a dagger. He was going to lose her. She was going to die.
Seth spoke in his head. She isn’t going to die. All women look thusly in childbirth.
He looked at Seth, wanting desperately to believe him.
Beside Seth, Leah nodded. It’s just hard to push a big baby through such a small opening. If Seth says she’s going to be fine, she’ll be fine. So will the baby.
The pushing and pausing seemed to take forever.
“There’s the head,” Melanie announced with a grin as she met Taelon’s gaze. “She has red hair. Do you want to see?”
“No!” Lisa nearly shouted.
Everyone looked at her.
This time her face reddened with embarrassment rather than strain. “Sorry. We haven’t made love yet, and I just don’t want his first memory of my vagina to be of seeing a fuzzy red head moving around inside it.”
Everyone but Taelon burst out laughing.
Taelon was still too drekking nervous to laugh, so he just shook his head at the medic. “No, thank you.”
Melanie told Lisa to push again. The next thing he knew, Melanie was laying a tiny baby on Lisa’s bare tummy.
Lisa rested both hands atop the naked newborn.
Taelon stared down at them both, unaware of anything else in the room as the infant squirmed and moved her frighteningly tiny arms and legs.
This was his daughter, this being who would barely fill both his hands.
He looked up at Lisa and felt his heart swell at the tender smile that lit her face as she caressed the baby’s red hair.
The newborn scrunched her face up in a frown as she opened and closed her mouth as though seeking something to put in it.
Lisa met his gaze. Tears welled in her eyes. “She’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful,” he forced past the lump in his throat. So many emotions tumbled through him that he almost couldn’t speak. “You’re okay?”
“I’m good,” she replied. “Just tired.”
Reaching out, she took one of Taelon’s hands and placed it on the baby’s narrow little back.
His heart clenched. Tears burned the backs of his eyes as he raised them to meet hers. “Thank you,” he uttered hoarsely.
A tear trailed down her temple as she nodded. Reaching up, she curled a hand around his nape and drew him down for a kiss.
Chapter Sixteen
“What now?” Taelon asked.
Marcus’s shoulder brushed his as he motioned to the squirming infant lying on the narrow table before them. “Now you use this little gadget to hold the diaper in place.”
Taelon frowned as he watched his sister’s husband attach a T-shaped device to the soft folded cloth Taelon held in place on the baby’s lower abdomen. “Are you sure I’m not putting too much pressure on her tummy? She’s kicking her legs a lot.”
Marcus grinned. “You’re doing fine. That’s just what infants do. Next you secure the diaper cover over it with these snaps.” He folded the colorful fabric up and snapped it. Then he unsna
pped it and opened it. “Now you try.”
Taelon wiped sweaty palms on his pants before he gamely attempted it.
“Tighter,” Marcus instructed.
“Are you sure?” He didn’t want it to be uncomfortable.
“If you don’t, it will leak. Trust me. Adira went through eight or ten diapers a day as a newborn. I learned very quickly how to do this right.”
Taelon bowed to the man’s experience and finished diapering his daughter.
The tiny beauty kicked her little legs and waved her fists.
“Have you chosen a name yet?” Marcus asked.
He shook his head. “There was so much going on that we didn’t even have time to think about it really.”
“Don’t forget to support her head.”
Taelon cupped his daughter’s head, her red hair soft against his palm, as he lifted her and settled her into the cradle of one arm.
“I asked Ami to name our daughter.” Marcus smiled when the baby reached out and curled her fingers around one of his. “She wanted a name that would represent both worlds, so she chose Adira.”
“Adira is the shortened form of our mother’s name, Adiransia.”
“It also means strong or powerful here on Earth.” Marcus grinned. “And she is certainly that.”
Taelon studied him. “You love my sister.” He had only known Marcus for a day, but he had done what Lisa had advised and watched the couple carefully. Their bond was as firm and full of affection as his parents’ bond.
“I love your sister,” Marcus acknowledged. “Deeply.”
Taelon played with his daughter’s tiny toes. “Deeply enough to leave your life here on Earth behind and voyage to Lasara with us?”
“Yes.” He didn’t hesitate at all.
“We won’t be going with you,” Amiriska said behind them.
The men turned to face the bedroom’s doorway. Lisa and Amiriska stood watching them.
Lisa appeared to be fully recovered from childbirth, thanks to Seth. She stood straight, showing no weariness. Black cargo pants and a black shirt hugged very full breasts and a waist so tiny he could span it with his hands.
Her arms and legs remained thinner than she liked, but Seth had assured her that she would return to a healthy weight now that she was eating more frequently.
Taelon thought her beautiful whatever her weight. “What?” he asked belatedly.
The women joined them.
As soon as Lisa was close enough to touch, he wrapped his free arm around her and pulled her up against his side.
She smiled when he kissed her forehead, then turned her attention to the baby.
Ami moved to stand beside Marcus, her face full of both defiance and reluctance. “We won’t be going with you. We’re staying here on Earth.”
Marcus frowned down at her. “Ami, I told you long ago that if you ever found a way to return to your planet, I would go with you.”
“I know. But your life is here. And your family is here.”
Marcus shook his head. “You are my family, sweetling. You are my life. You and Adira. I go where you go. Remember?”
Taelon liked his brother-in-law even more for that. He would thank him for his sacrifice as soon as he convinced his sister to return to Lasara, a task Taelon never thought he would have to undertake. “Amiriska, your family is on Lasara. Mother, Father, Duras, Gefen, and Levik are all expecting you to return.”
“Yes,” she said. “My family is on Lasara. And I’ve missed you all so much that I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve cried thinking I would never see any of you again. But Taelon…” She shook her head as though uncertain how to explain it. “I have a family here now, too. I have a husband and a daughter and so many others here who love us.”
“Riska—”
She held up a hand. “I’ve also built a life for myself here that I’m not ready to give up. I feel needed here… in a way that I didn’t on Lasara. I feel like I have more purpose here.”
Confusion battered him. “But you are needed on Lasara. You’re one of our best diplomats.”
“One of the best,” she stressed. “Many more could take my place.” She rubbed her forehead. “I’m not really explaining this well. It’s just…” Lowering her hand, she shrugged helplessly. “I’ve changed. I’m not the same person I was on Lasara. On Lasara I was a sheltered princess who negotiated treaties with allies. When people approached me and spoke to me, they did so deferentially, but they only respected me because I was a member of the royal family.”
“That’s not true. You are widely respected for your intelligence and ability to make even sworn enemies form alliances.” She didn’t really believe she had no value on Lasara, did she?
“Perhaps. But here it’s different. People here respect me because of who I am, not because of the family I was born into. They respect me because I’m strong, because I’m fierce.”
A pang of uncertainty struck. Taelon would’ve never described his little sister as fierce. He and his brothers had always declared themselves her protectors because they loved her and wanted to keep her safe. By doing that, had they inadvertently made her feel unworthy?
“For the first time in my life,” Ami continued, “I got to do the protecting. I served as the guard.” She held up her small hands. “With these hands, I have fought in battles. I have protected others. And I have saved lives.”
Marcus nodded. “She has. As soon as she recovered from the torture she endured and began to conquer the fear it instilled in her, Seth, David, and Darnell trained her so she would always be able to defend herself in the future.”
Another pang struck. He and his brothers had never done that for her because they had always been there to protect her. Had that left her feeling weak? Vulnerable?
“When her training finished, Seth assigned her to serve as my Second or personal guard,” Marcus continued. “And in the first battle we shared, she helped me defeat thirty-four psychotic vampires.”
Two standing against thirty-four? Taelon didn’t know whether he should be terrified for her or furious at Marcus for putting his sister in such danger.
As though reading his mind, Marcus raised both hands in a universal gesture of surrender. “Hey. Don’t blame me. As soon as I realized how many vampires we’d be facing, I told her to get her ass out of there. But your sister is as stubborn as a mule and refused.”
Ami grinned up at him. “You love my stubborn streak.”
He arched a brow. “Not when it scares the shit out of me.”
While Taelon tried to process the image of his tiny sister fighting in hand-to-hand combat against insane vampires, she turned back to him.
“Even though I haven’t been out guarding Marcus’s back since Adira was born, I still play an important role. I help Darnell train Seconds and put them through their paces so they can better aid their Immortal Guardians. I use my gift to help Seth track missing friends and family and alert him if the enemy is near. And once Adira is older, I can resume my former duties as Marcus’s Second and go back to aiding him in battle.”
Marcus frowned. “That will be decided at a later date.”
This time she arched a brow. “That has already been decided.” She turned back to Taelon. “My whole purpose in coming here was to save both our planets, to save our peoples. Seth and the Immortal Guardians and their Seconds just prevented freaking Armageddon, Taelon. They literally saved the world. It wasn’t the first time. And I helped them.” Such pride and happiness shone in her face. “If I leave, I won’t be part of that anymore. Mother and Father will expect me to return to my diplomatic duties and will assign more guards to shadow me because they aren’t going to know how to deal with my having been tortured. I won’t be able to touch my husband as much in public because I’ll be heavily scrutinized as a member of the royal family. And I like being able to touch him and freely express my affection for him. I like it when he does the same with me. I like Darnell and Seth and David and everyone else here huggin
g me and openly expressing their affection for me. Yes, it took me a little while to get used to it. But I really like it, Taelon.”
“We could change things on Lasara,” he blurted, trying to find a solution. “We enacted the laws prohibiting touch between unmarried males and females to slow our planet’s population growth. But now that our people have such difficulties reproducing and are facing extinction, we don’t need that.”
“You know how long it would take to enact such a change. And I have no idea what Marcus would even do there. He’s a warrior. He’s spent the past eight centuries hunting every night and engaging in battle. But there aren’t any wars on Lasara. To fight in battles there, he’d have to join the Lasaran military and leave the planet.”
“Fuck that,” Marcus spat out. “I’m not leaving you and Adira. I’ll find something else to do with my time.”
“Like what, honey?” she asked gently. “When Gershom was targeting me and Adira, you stopped hunting so you could stay here and protect us. You never said it, but I could tell the inactivity drove you crazy.”
He glanced around the room, opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head. “I don’t know. But we’ll think of something. We’ll figure it out when we get there.”
“No, we won’t. Because we aren’t going.”
Taelon’s heart clenched when he read the finality of her decision on her face as she turned back to him.
“If I stay here,” she said, “I can still accomplish what I set out to do. I can still help save both our worlds. I can continue to help Seth and the Immortal Guardians protect humanity and I can serve as the Lasaran ambassador to Earth.”
He blinked. “What?”
Ami motioned to Lisa. “I was right. Earth women—at least those who are gifted ones—are compatible with Lasaran males. With Seth’s help and the network’s connections, I can look for gifted ones who would like to volunteer to move to Lasara, look for lifemates there, and help us repopulate our planet. I’ve already talked to Seth about it, and he’s given me the okay.”
Marcus’s eyebrows flew up. “Really?”
“Yes. Though the long trip there makes him nervous, he said he would actually be relieved that gifted ones would be able to find sanctuary in a place where people won’t hate or distrust them because they’re different.”
The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance Book 1) Page 25
