Lois bucked against him eagerly. It had been too long for both of them. Already, he could feel his velvet growing damp, his movements smoother. His cock tingled, waking up to the fact that it would soon be called upon. It had been so long since he’d been inside her that it had started to lose her shape, and that infuriated Zir. Soon it would be as if they were not mates at all. Lois reached between them to touch it, but he nudged her hand away. The touch of a hand now might confuse it even more. It didn’t use to be a problem, when they mated all the time and his cock was sure and solid in its shape. Now he just wanted it inside her as soon as possible, not to let it form to the inside of her hand instead.
“Zir, it’s okay, do it…” Lois whispered, shifting on the bed as if to brace herself. She looked between her thighs, ready to watch.
Zir hesitated. He would like to take longer with her, to make sure, but he supposed with his cock losing her shape, it was less likely to hurt her than it otherwise might have been. Still, as he took his place in the cradle of her hips, he took a few seconds to rub his cock over her sex, wetting it as best he could.
He’d just lined the head up against her entrance when there was a crash from the other room and they both froze. Lois sat up on her elbows, looking towards their bedroom door, and Zir tugged the covers up, making sure that if a child did run in, they wouldn’t see anything they shouldn’t. They listened, but when there was no other noise, Zir turned back to Lois. He knew her mind was on whatever might have happened in the other room, but he thought he could get her back.
“It was nothing,” he said, dipping his mouth to her neck again.
She stopped him with a hand on his chest. “They could be hurt.”
“They are fine. Volin children are very resilient.”
As if to argue, there was another thud, followed immediately by an outraged shriek.
Zir hissed a sigh, rolling off Lois as she got up and quickly dressed, pulling her robe on before leaving the bedroom to investigate, her brows pinched in concern. He stared at the ceiling. He loved the children, he did, he loved being a father and having a big family with Lois, but… He also loved his mate and he loved fucking her, and he felt as if he had an abundance of one with none of the other.
He pushed his crest down and retrieved his shorts to join Lois. Sometimes the children would only respond if they were both there, not taking Lois seriously on her own. He knew it hurt her, but she didn’t always know what to do when the boys climbed up to hang from the light fittings, so it was better if he was present. Volin children stayed small for years until their first growth at five or six. It made Lois underestimate what they were capable of, since to her they looked like babies, even if they could talk and walk and climb and claw.
He left the bedroom and headed to the living room where he heard Lois gasp and scold the boys. “Bor! Taz! What are you doing? Get down from there!”
He found her with her hands on her hips, and put his hand to the small of her back in support. He saw Bor had climbed up onto the bookcase again, apparently knocking or throwing down one of Zir’s wooden Volin ornaments, and a large hardback book. Taz sat on his butt on the carpet as if he had fallen, hissing up at his brother, his little crest bristling.
Bor ignored Lois. He had realised Lois wouldn’t climb up after him, and her style of parenting was one of expecting to be obeyed rather than physically dragging her sons from the perches they got up onto. She and Zir had discussed how best to raise the children, of course, since neither of them had been parents before, and Zir agreed her style was best. It was better that the children learn to obey of their own free will, and learn what good behaviour was, and the rewards of doing as they were told. He accepted that simply moving them where he wanted them to be because he could would only teach them that ‘might makes right’ as Lois put it, and that when the children got too big for that, they wouldn’t have learned to listen.
But they didn’t always have time for that.
Still, he would give Bor the chance to do the right thing.
“What happened?” she asked, sounding exasperated as she rounded the couch to pick Taz up off the floor and out of Bor’s firing line.
“Nothing,” he squeaked.
Zir didn’t believe him for a second. “Bor?”
“It’s not my fault Taz fell! It was his idea!”
“Are you alright, Taz?” Lois asked, checking him over.
Zir suspected he knew what had happened. The boys had become friends in the orphanage before Zir and Lois adopted Taz, and when they decided to grow their family further, they had adopted Bor as well. They had been inseparable, amusing each other endlessly with games and schemes that were largely harmless, since they were both so small. They were an adventurous and competitive pair, but there was only so much they could do. Then Bor had hit his first growth a few weeks ago, and was now a hand taller than Taz and still growing. He was capable of more mischief now, of climbing higher and lifting more and reaching things previously out of reach, which Taz found utterly unacceptable, pushing himself to keep up and often failing, dropping things or falling off them. Zir guessed that one of them had suggested climbing the bookcase, and only Bor had made it.
As Lois tended Taz, little sulking ball of pride that he was, Zir crossed to the bookcase to try Lois’ style of parenting.
“Bor, get down,” he ordered, arms folded and voice stern.
Bor shifted on his hands and knees, his back barely clearing the ceiling, and peeked over the edge. He didn’t look very victorious. He looked worried.
“Do you need help?” Zir offered quietly.
Bor glanced at Taz, and finding him distracted, nodded. Zir reached up and lifted Bor down, setting him on the floor where he stayed, watching Taz.
Zir stroked his head. He knew Bor always responded to Taz’s anger with his own, but he also knew Bor didn’t like Taz being mad at him. They had been best friends and now, through no fault of his own, Taz treated Bor as if he had wronged him. But Taz should hit his first growth soon, and then he would stop being jealous, and the boys would go back to normal. Zir and Lois would have to be even more vigilant as the boys’ schemes grew with them in size, but the brothers’ friendship should heal.
He picked up the book and the ornament and replaced them on the shelf.
Lois walked Taz over. “Taz, say sorry for yelling and calling Bor names.” She must have got the story from him while Zir was rescuing Bor.
Taz grumbled, but he’d been through this enough times to know resistance was futile. “Sorry.”
“And Bor, say sorry for throwing things at Taz.”
“Sorry.”
“And I think we deserve a sorry too since it was our things you threw and you could have broken them, and you were doing something you knew you shouldn’t have been doing.”
“Sorry.”
“Sorry.”
“Okay.” Lois kissed them both on the head. “I just don’t want you to hurt yourselves.”
Both boys rubbed her kiss off their scales, their little faces scrunching in distaste. Zir was always amused by that. Kissing might not be a Volin practice, and Lois’ soft lips might ‘feel weird’ as they had complained when they were first adopted, but they would get used to it, and if they grew up anything like their father, they might well end up craving soft human kisses one day.
Lois straightened and gave Zir a look of amused indulgence, as if to say Can you believe these two? and he smiled. “Are you okay to start breakfast while I get the girls up?” From the bedroom, their Gadjits’ alarms started ringing, making Lois turn. “We need to make a start or we’re going to be late.”
And that was it, their morning scheduled, their opportunity for sex lost. Zir hid his disappointment. “Are you two going to behave?” he asked the boys, bending over them where they stood sulking a foot apart. “Remember you’re friends. It is not Bor’s fault he is growing, and Taz, you will reach your first growth soon too, and then you will forget this foolishness, so do not say anyth
ing that cannot be forgotten in the meantime.”
“How do you know?” Taz asked.
“How do I know what?”
“That I will grow like Bor soon?”
Zir was taken aback, but then he supposed, maybe he had never explained it. He knelt beside them and took Taz’s arm. “Look, you have more scales growing,” he pointed out, letting his thumb claw catch against the extra scales crowding in over his others. “This is so your body can get bigger.” He took Bor’s arm and showed Taz where he still had some extra scales sticking up in ridges, and where they had flattened out to mesh with the rest. He had noticed the extra scales when he bathed the boys, but he’d just assumed they would know what they meant.
“It’s itchy,” Bor complained.
“Yes!” Zir replied, remembering his own growths. “The next one will be even itchier!”
“When’s that?”
“Two or three years from now. You will go from this big,” He held his hand up where he estimated Bor would stop growing this time. “To this big!” He added about a foot and a half to that height. Bor looked apprehensive, probably thinking of the uncomfortable growth period, but Taz looked excited. It was more than twice the size he was now. “You’ll be the same size the girls are now,” Zir mused, feeling something strange and poignant in his chest, like nostalgia for something that hadn’t happened yet, and he realised he would miss these days when everyone had grown up. “Of course, they might be as big as Lois by then.”
He scratched his chin. The girls would probably have a growth in a year or so. Was that to be the norm in their family, always somebody growing? It felt like he’d never be able to catch up and just settle, as if it would race by and then before he knew it, it would all be over and the kids would be grown and move away…
He frowned and told himself to stop being so sentimental and foolish. The girls had almost seven years of schooling left, and the boys hadn’t even started their formal education. No need to start missing them yet.
He looked up as Lois came back, herding their two twin girls, Lia and Nia, in front of her. Twins were rare in the Volin, and females who would raise two babies instead of one on a strange planet without a mate were even rarer. Kib at the orphanage had been sure the girls would never find a home, so Lois and Zir had offered. In terms of their development, Lois estimated they were the same as eleven-year-olds, joking that they seemed to be poised on the edge of teenage rebellion.
Zir knew she was more right that she knew. On Teiss, the girls wouldn’t have stayed with their father much longer. They were half Zir’s size, but that was big enough for them to fend for themselves, and their independent instincts were manifesting before his eyes. The girls loved to throw back at them that they weren’t their real parents and they didn’t have to do what they said, and that they were old enough to look after themselves and make their own decisions, but this was tempered by a watchful, wanting look in their eyes. They had been abandoned by their parents, and couldn’t bring themselves to reject the comfort and love being offered to them now.
The girls were wary of Zir, perhaps because he was male and their own kind, but they could be persuaded to cuddle with Lois on the sofa while watching TV, and they liked everything Zir and Lois bought for them. They liked the softly furnished bedroom, the clothes, the posters and accessories. They liked to be provided for and welcomed.
Lia yawned as they automatically went to sit at the dining table, then blinked in confusion when there was no food.
Lois looked around. “Zir? Do you want me to…?”
“No, no, I’ll do it, you get ready,” he said, pushing to his feet. Lois could have the bathroom first while he got food on the table, then they would switch and she would watch the children. Once they were dressed themselves, they would dress the children, and take them to the community school and nursery before work. “Go sit down,” he told the boys.
He wouldn’t call what he made for breakfast ‘cooking’. Maybe once he would have actually tried to make a meal for himself and Lois, but it wasn’t efficient with four children with different tastes and needs.
“Girls, can you set the table?”
They groaned, but came into the kitchen to get what they needed. “We just woke up!” Nia complained.
“So have I.”
She huffed, but she took two bowls and spoons and the carton of oat milk back to the table. Zir handed Lia the boxes of Lucky Charms and Cap’n Crunch. It wasn’t what he had imagined feeding his daughters, but honestly, he was tired and they were picky and it wasn’t worth the argument first thing in the morning. He made a cup of choba for himself, and put some on the table in the often vain hope the children would have any. He despaired for the state of their scales, but he’d long since learned they didn’t care. They looked healthy enough, and he would make sure the boys would have some since they were growing.
Taz and Bor only wanted fruit in the mornings. Zir ate a more traditional Volin breakfast, and Lois would make herself coffee and toast. At least they had got the girls trained to put their bowls in the dishwasher when they were done.
Zir listened with a wince to the sound of Bor and Taz’s little claws carving up the chair legs as they climbed up. Bor was big enough now to stand on the chair and eat from the table, but Taz still sat on the table itself. Maybe Zir and Lois should have done something to discourage it early on, but he was so small it seemed harmless and now… There was no way he would consent to a baby’s high chair. It wasn’t even worth suggesting.
He finished with everyone’s plates and brought them over. The boys tucked in silently, and Zir was grateful, even if it was because the brothers were still uncertain of each other. He ate in peace while he could.
Lois joined them, dressed for work, and started putting together the kids’ lunches. “Remember we have the party tonight.”
“What party?” Lia asked.
“Office party, for the holidays, so your uncle Xin will be looking after you!” she said with a big grin, trying to get the kids excited.
Zir saw the girls exchange a look. If they were wary of Zir, they were even warier of Xin, a male they didn’t know as well.
“I don’t like Xin,” announced Nia.
Zir felt the sharp bolt of pain and guilt slice through his chest briefly, leaving a dull, old ache behind. It was his fault Xin was the way he was, and yet he was offended on his brother’s behalf. At the same time, he didn’t want to leave his children in the care of someone they didn’t like.
“Nia!” Lois’ voice was sharp. She knew what had happened to Xin, that he had lost his son when he had been shot by the Rhacahr by accident while Zir was carrying him.
“What?” Nia grumbled, trying not to be chastened.
“He’s Zir’s brother and there’s nothing wrong with him! He cares about you kids and he’s doing us a favour by coming to mind you for a few hours.”
“He’s too quiet,” Lia joined in.
“Why do you have to go?” said Nia.
“Because our friends put a lot of effort into this party and it would be rude not to go,” Lois said, but Zir knew that wasn’t the reason. They didn’t know the organisers personally. As guilty as it made them both feel, they hadn’t been alone together since they’d adopted the kids, and they needed this time to check in with each other and, Zir hoped, get at least a good long kiss out of it.
“I like Xin,” Bor said. “He lets us climb on him.”
Zir bet he did. After losing his own son, Zir doubted there would be anything his brother would deny his nephews.
“Behave, okay?” Lois said, adding the lunch boxes to the four schoolbags she set by the door. “I need you to be good tonight. Remember there’s four of you and only one of him.”
“We’ll just stay in our room,” Lia said as if it was somehow a threat.
“That’s fine,” Lois answered. She looked at her watch. “Zir? Thirty minutes.” She made an apologetic face and he quickly downed the last of his choba, standing to tak
e his turn in the bathroom. He’d have to be quick, but when was the last time he hadn’t had to rush?
Behind him, he heard Lois say “Girls, time to get dressed.”
Zir gave himself a quick rub down with the choba oil, swirled the foaming dental cleanser around his mouth, then dressed, taking a few minutes to find a clean shirt. He ran through his mental checklist of his security pass and his work tablet, his wallet, Gadjit, and keys, then went to check on the boys. The girls could take a long time dressing because they often changed their mind or became fixated on wearing one specific thing, or they argued over who got to wear something, but the boys just didn’t get started, preferring to play. When he went into their room, Taz was sat on his mattress on the floor, still in his little baby onesie with his baby tablet. Bor had got halfway, with a pair of pants on backwards, then laid down with a picture book.
Zir grabbed some clothes out of their drawers and shoved the boys into them, with a minimum of fidgeting and complaining, too distracted by their books and games. Zir let them hold onto them as he knelt down to wipe their faces, crawling from one to the other. He heard the bathroom door and the girls’ voices, signalling the bathroom was free. He checked the time. Lois had eight minutes to get the girls dressed. Zir took the boys to the bathroom to make them clean their teeth. He waited by the door with his hand on one of them while the other used the toilet, then shuffled them to the hall, waiting for the moment they realised they were about to leave and suddenly decided they didn’t want to.
Taz’s game tinkled a little tune and he looked up, noticing that they were stood by the front door. “I want to take my colours,” he said, moving to go back into the apartment.
“They have colours at the nursery,” Zir replied, blocking him with his foot.
An Office Alien Christmas Collection (Office Aliens Book 5) Page 13