The Tradrych Strain- The Complete Series

by Marissa Farrar

  I glanced up at the others. “I can’t just leave him.”

  Miko stepped forward and stroked the baby’s head. “You don’t have to. He’s ours now, isn’t he?”

  I blinked back tears, a painful lump blocking my throat and strangling my words. “You mean that?”

  Nad nodded. “Yes, Tara. He’s all of ours to raise now.”

  “And you, Diarus?” I asked the Athion. “He’s not even your species.”

  Diarus shrugged. “He’s not yours either, but you already love him.”

  I did, it was true. I had the moment I’d laid eyes on him. If only I’d allowed myself to see him at the birth, he’d never have had to go back to Rhett.

  Fresh tears filled my eyes.

  Movement came outside the room that had been the nursery, and I turned to see we weren’t the only ones who’d come down. I spotted Zoe, and Trovik, and Avery, and so many others. I didn’t only have the support of my three guys, I had the support of all of them.

  “How are the rebels going to stay together with Aleksy dead?” I asked Nad. “I’ve destroyed everything.”

  “We’re not the rebels anymore, Tara,” Nadeusz said. “We’re just part of the people. With your help, we’ve changed things, in this part of Tradrych, at least. I’m not going to say that there won’t be bumps in the road. Of course, there are going to be those who aren’t happy and would rather we continue the regime of violence and kidnapping, but there are more who don’t want that now than do, and over time, those numbers will only increase.”

  I blinked back tears but managed to nod. “What about the women and all the babies who have been born?”

  Zoe stepped forward. “I’ll stay, Tara. I’ll stay here and help.”

  I didn’t miss the way she glanced over her shoulder at Trovik as she spoke. This was exactly what Aleksy had been hoping for—that, given time, women would form relationships with the Trads, just as I had done, and they would choose to stay.

  He’d been right.

  “I will, too,” Avery offered. “I can’t say I’m not scared, but I don’t have much to return home to. I might not have asked for this child,” she touched her swollen belly, “but it’s grown inside me, and I feel connected to it somehow. I don’t want it to grow up unloved.”

  There would be male Trads who would want some part in raising the babies, too, though I suspected that may be difficult initially, given the circumstances of the pregnancies.

  It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was a start.

  OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS, upon hearing what had happened, Trads released human women from their homes and allowed them to return to us. They came to us in the backs of hover transporter vehicles, and with each arrival, I searched their faces for those I’d known from before.

  Finally, someone I’d been hoping to see again showed up.

  Dawn had been next to me in the pods when I’d been held captive here. I’d always regretted not being able to tell her what had happened to me.

  She spotted me when she stepped out of the back.

  “Tara!” She ran over, and we hugged each other hard. “I can’t believe it. I’m so happy you’re safe.”

  “You, too. What have you...?” I stumbled over my words. “I mean, how have you been since...?”

  She paled and glanced away. “I’m not sure I want to talk about it.”

  My cheeks heated. “No, of course not. Stupid of me.”

  I doubted many of us would want to talk about what we’d been through. Not yet anyway. Perhaps in the days and weeks to come we’d be able to, and then we’d start to heal.

  Dawn’s expression brightened. “I’ve heard we can go home.”

  I smiled tearily and nodded. “Yes, we’re working on it, but the first ships will leave within a month, we hope.”

  “That’s incredible.”

  I sucked in a breath, knowing I had to ask her, even though I thought I already knew what the answer was. “Some of us are staying and taking care of the babies we gave birth to. They don’t have mothers, and it’s important for them to have a female influence in their lives, to stop history repeating itself.”

  She shook her head, tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Tara. What you’re doing here is amazing, and I’m truly in awe of you, but my situation isn’t the same as yours. I already have children back on Earth, and they must be missing me terribly, and I’m missing them. This baby doesn’t have anything to do with me. It’s not my child. Maybe I’m a terrible person for thinking that way, but I can’t help it. I want to go home and I have to put my real children first.”

  I reached out and took her hand, squeezing it tight. Tears shimmered in my own eyes, a reaction to her emotions. I always cried when I saw others cry. “You don’t have anything to be sorry for. I totally understand. Go home and see your kids. Give them an extra hug from me.”

  She forced a smile. “I will. And thank you for everything you’ve done for us. I can hardly believe it.”

  “Honestly, I feel the same way. It’s all totally surreal. But I’m happy now, as crazy as that seems.”

  My heart twisted at the loss of Aleksy. He’d made the ultimate sacrifice for me, and I still didn’t want to believe he was gone. Though we hadn’t been in a relationship, like me and the others, I’d believed we could have headed that way, if Nad and Miko and Diarus had agreed. We’d shared some intimate moments together, and I struggled to accept I wouldn’t see him again.

  I showed the new arrivals around. The area where the pods had been located was now sealed off, and we’d divided all the workspaces into living areas instead. I had my own area, too, which I shared with Nad, Miko, and Diarus, and now the baby as well.

  I let Dawn get settled in and went to take a break. Miko was watching the baby in the couple of rooms that had become our private living quarters.

  “How’s he doing?” I asked as I entered.

  Miko placed his finger to his lips and softly closed the adjoining door to the room that was now a proper nursery, not a freaking cage. “Sleeping.”

  “Good.” I smiled. He’d been a happy, easy baby, so far—not that I had any experience of human babies, never mind alien ones.

  Miko caught my hand and tugged me to him. “You look like you could do with some sleep as well. You’re spending too much time taking care of everyone else and not enough time taking care of yourself.”

  “Sleep is for the weak,” I said, grinning up at him. “And anyway, aren’t you supposed to be taking care of me?”

  He leaned down and kissed me. He’d replaced his piercings now that we were no longer wanted by Borys, and I preferred him with them in. I figured I’d grow my hair out sometime soon, too, but for the moment, I liked it how it was.

  The door opened behind us, and Diarus and Nad walked in.

  “Not interrupting?” Nad asked, his tone teasing.

  “Actually, you are,” Miko growled, yanking him to me.

  I giggled but twisted to look at the others. “Nothing you’re not welcome to join in on.”

  “Is that right.” Miko pouted. “And I thought I had you all to myself.”

  “No way,” Diarus said. “We share around here. Remember?”

  “Well, right now she’s mine.”

  Miko kissed me hard, melting my knees. I pressed myself up against him, enjoying the hard planes of his body. I knew exactly where this was going, and I loved it. There was no place I’d rather be than with these three, naked, exploring each other’s bodies.

  Miko broke the kiss long enough to pull my top up over my head, and then Diarus was behind me, unclipping my bra.

  “You’re so bad,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at him, and he brushed a kiss across my skin.

  “I can be badder.”

  He yanked down my pants and panties and swiped my backside with a swift spank, making me yelp.

  “Shh, the baby,” Nad hissed, but one glimpse in his flame-filled eyes told me he was only teasing. He was enjoying this as much as me.


  I kicked away the rest of my clothing and twisted in Miko’s arms to face Nad and Diarus. “Now your turn.”

  They didn’t hesitate, tugging t-shirts up over their heads, revealing bunched muscles and skin pattered with red-and-gold scales in the case of the Trads, and, for Diarus, blue skin that would have been smooth if not for the scars.

  Miko scooped me up from behind, and I squealed and mock-thumped at his shoulder. He threw me down on the bed.

  “Spread your legs. I want to taste that pussy.”

  I wasn’t about to argue.

  He dropped between my open thighs, his mouth closing over my slit. His tongue slid up and down and then pushed into my channel. I arched my hips from the bed, groaning with pleasure.

  Nad and Diarus stepped in, their dicks leading the way. They kneeled on the bed, and I reached for them both, circling their cocks with my fists, masturbating them while Miko licked me. They both felt so different in my hands—Diarus, long but slender, while Nad was thick and ridged. Hands went to my breasts as I pumped them, fingers twisted and tweaking my nipples, heightening the sensation in my pussy.

  An idea came to mind. Maybe I was crazy, but right in that moment, it was what I wanted.

  I lifted my head to look down at Miko.

  “I want to feel what it’s like to experience you ejaculating your eggs inside me. I want to feel swollen with them. I want my pussy to be full and heavy.”

  I released Nad for a moment and grabbed the back of Miko’s head, my fingers knotting in his hair as I dragged him up. His body shadowed mine, and I kissed him hard, thrusting my tongue into his mouth.

  But he pulled back. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Take me. Fuck me like you want to impregnate me.”

  A haze of lust settled into his deep-blue eyes, the flames around the pupils dancing. He reached between us and took hold of his cock and positioned himself at my entrance. I’d gotten used to his size now, and he pushed into me, sinking deep.

  I started to stroke Nad again. I didn’t want any of my guys to think I’d forgotten them. As Miko thrust inside me, I tugged them closer still, so their cocks were each side of my mouth. I took it in turns, licking and sucking Nad, before twisting my face and doing the same to Diarus. Both of them watched me with slack lips and hooded eyes, and I knew they were enjoying this almost as much as I was.

  Miko’s thrusts had started slow, but now he drove into me, harder and faster. Nad’s hand trailed from my breast, across my belly, leaving goosebumps on my skin, to settle on my clit. He strummed my most sensitive spot, and I turned my head to suck him deeper, while continuing to stroke Diarus from root to tip.

  Miko groaned above me. “Ah, fuck, Tee. It’s happening. If you changed your mind, you gotta say now.”

  “I want it,” I gasped. “Give it to me.”

  I felt him expand inside me, stretching my inner walls. It was an insane feeling as the ends of his cock parted like the petals of a flower and one of his eggs pulsated up through his cock and settled at the opening of my womb.

  The pulsing of his cock happened again, and my orgasm powered through my body. I experienced it right in my core, as though every internal organ throbbed at the same time. My vision went black at the edges, and a scream of pleasure escaped my throat.

  Nad grabbed the back of my head and ejaculated into my mouth, though his cum didn’t contain any eggs. I swallowed what I could, the rest dribbling from the sides of my mouth, and then quickly turned to Diarus. The Athion had managed to hold back, but one lick to his slit sent him skyward, and he let out an expletive and came, too, his semen landing in thick, hot ribbons across my chest.

  I fell back onto the bed, breathing hard. The others slumped down with me, Miko still between my legs, holding his weight off me with his elbow, and the other two lying either side of me.

  “Holy hell,” I managed to breathe, barely seeing straight.

  In a way, I felt as though I was continuing to be fucked, since the feeling in my pussy was that I was full. I was heavy and swollen with eggs. Like some kind of fertility goddess.

  “Lie still,” Miko told me, “and they’ll dissolve.”

  “That was insane. I can’t explain how it feels,” I said. “It’s like you’ve left a sex toy inside me, and even though you’ve finished, I’m ready to go again. My orgasm is just hovering on the brink.”

  Nad leaned over and kissed me, the corners of his lips quirking.

  “It’s a good thing there’s three of us then.”

  Epilogue

  Twelve months later.

  TRAD BABIES, IT TURNED out, developed far quicker than human children.

  I laughed as little Alek rose to his feet and then proceeded to tumble, head over tail, in a roly-poly.

  Everyone in the room clapped and cheered, and I exchanged happy smiles with the others. Alek turned to me and gave me one of those goofy grins that made my heart explode with love. I loved Nadeusz, Mikotaj, and Diarus, too, but nothing compared to the shock of the love I felt for Alek. It had hit me out of nowhere and been the last thing I’d been expecting, but it was real and pure and beautiful, and I wouldn’t do anything to change it.

  How could anyone not love a child who smiled in such a way?

  It turned out Rhetarz hadn’t even bothered to name his child, at least that was what we’d surmised from the slip of paper inserted into the pen where the baby had been kept, and we’d discovered no other records. Of course, there was the chance he’d simply given the baby his own name, but that wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t going to allow the child to be a constant reminder of his father, and having his name had been one step too far. Instead, we gave him the name of someone we’d all loved and admired, and it suited the sweet, blond-haired little boy far better.

  “Mama,” Alek cooed.

  I put my arms out to him, and he barreled into me, hugging me tight. I buried my nose in his soft, blond curls and tried not to think about how close I’d come to giving him up.

  There was only one fear in my mind. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t help it. I glanced down at my softly rounded belly and tried to picture the new baby growing inside me.

  Would I be able to love the new baby as much as I loved Alek?

  “Come on, Alek,” Nad said, stepping toward us both to scoop up the boy. “Mama needs to sit back on the chair now.”

  Diarus tickled the boy’s ribs, and Alek folded over, squealing with laughter.

  Beside me, Miko squeezed my hand. “You ready?”

  I exhaled a shuddery breath. “Ready, but nervous.”

  The door swung open, and Ewa, the female Trad who’d helped to deliver Alek, entered. Her head was bent over a sheet of paper.

  “The blood results are back,” she announced, lifting her gaze to regard us.

  I frowned at her anxiously. “And?”

  “Everything looks good...”

  I could hear the hesitation in her voice, and immediately my heart rate shot up. I straightened. “What is it? Something’s wrong, isn’t it?”

  Miko squeezed my fingers again in reassurance.

  Ewa shook her head. “No, no. Not at all. It’s just something I haven’t seen before.”

  She wasn’t making me feel any better. “Please, just tell me.”

  “Well, the genetics aren’t fully Trad.”

  I frowned and glanced at Diarus. “The baby is Athion?”

  “No, not that either.” She shot Diarus an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Diarus.”

  He shrugged. None of us minded whose baby I was carrying, just like none of us minded that Alek wasn’t genetically linked to us either. We were a family. Perhaps not a traditional one, in any sense of the word, but through love and commitment and understanding. Even though I’d been given an injection to prevent pregnancy for when I’d been sold to Borys, I’d never actually learned how long the contraceptive lasted. Turned out, it lasted just long enough. I never would have thought it a year ago, but I was happy to be carrying another baby. Being
a mother to Alek and helping to care for all the other Trad babies we’d found at the facility, pairing them up with women who were willing to help, had awoken a maternal side of me I’d never known existed.

  Things hadn’t been easy over the past year. We were still fighting. Our district was seen as being ‘human-sympathizers’ and though we’d managed to change the way of thinking of the Trads who’d lived here, there was still the higher government who disagreed with what we were doing. As far as we were aware, women were still being bred from, and new arrivals were still being brought from Earth. The government believed their way was the best way, but I hoped, in time, we’d prove them wrong. One benefit was that Diarus’s commander with the Custos agreed that he was needed more here than back with them, so he got to stay with us. Right where he should be.

  I still wasn’t satisfied with what Ewa had said. I needed to know. “Please, just tell me.”

  “The baby appears to have both Trad and human genetics.”

  My jaw dropped. “What?”

  Nad stepped in. “That isn’t possible. That isn’t how we reproduce.”

  “Well, the body seems to have made some changes. I can’t explain it. Maybe Tara’s body identified the Trad genes because she’d already been through one Trad pregnancy, and recognized them as her own? Or perhaps being on Tradrych for the past year did something to her physically. Honestly, I don’t have an answer here. It’s all guesswork, but Tara, the baby you’re carrying is definitely half human, half Trad.”

  “What about the other women who’ve stayed?” We’d managed to launch several ships containing women who’d wanted to return to Earth, but, after falling in love with Trads as well, many had decided to stay. “Has the same thing happened to any of them?”

  “Not that I know of, but that doesn’t mean it won’t. Understandably, most of the women have held back when it comes to falling pregnant again.”

  “But they might?”

  Ewa nodded. “Yes, they might.”

  The start of a whole new species. A blend of Trad and human. My mind boggled to consider what that would mean. How would other Trads react to them? Would they be thought of as a stronger species, a better one? Or would they be seen as half-breeds and somehow inferior?