by Maia Starr
Kandyr laughed. “That’s not going to work.”
“Yes it will, because it will be us three, our word against yours,” Neevon said.
“Please stop this. We can figure this out,” Sabine whispered quietly.
“Then do it. Do what you must. I don’t care anymore. Anything is better than the jealousy I have to endure sharing her!” he shouted.
“Please stop!” Sabine shouted. Suddenly she bent over and vomited.
“Sabine!” Kandyr said, moving to her side.
“Get her a chair!” Priah shouted.
“I’ll get it!” Neevon said.
“I’ll get some water!” I said.
We were all putting our differences aside. We had to, she didn't look well. She sat in the chair, but she was still bent over holding her stomach. “I don't feel well.”
“Call the medic, now!” Kandyr shouted.
Neevon moved away to use the radio communication to call the medic tent and get a medic out to our house. We all stood beside her, rubbing her back and talking her through her illness. This was not good. We had all been fighting over her, but if she grew ill and died, she would not be there any longer. Our fighting over her would be for nothing. If our stress over our arguments were making her sick, then we were to blame. We were the ones overexerting her, not taking care of her. We were only thinking about ourselvesand now she could be sick.
Twenty minutes later, the medic was examining her. She had stopped vomiting and was laying down on the couch in the living room area of the human house.
“It is just as I thought. It is nothing to worry about. You have all just been very successful, the medic said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The human female is pregnant. That is the whole point of all of this isn't it? To breed with the human female. You must have received a list of the symptoms to watch out for with your human when you received your marriage documents,” he said.
“Yes, of course. We have all just been so busy with our work,” I said, realizing that maybe I had forgotten to grab that information when creating this fake marriage.
“Well, she is in good health. She is with child. Congratulations on a successful breeding group. Make sure that she gets plenty of rest, she must be fed very well, and no heavy lifting of anything. You can continue to breed with her but be very careful. Our bodies are much heavier, do not press your weight on top of her. Other than that, you have months of taking care of her before a child is born. I am putting her in my rotating schedule now and I will come to check on her once every 3 weeks.”
“Whose is it? Whose child is it? Which one of us?” Kandyr asked.
“I can't tell just yet. It is much too early, but it could be any one of you! That’sthe point isn't it? I must get going to my next appointment. Once again, congratulations,” the medic said, standing up and walking to the door. I walked with him, shaking his hand.
After I closed the door we all turned to look at each other and looked at Sabine. She looked frightened.
“I am pregnant? I am with child,”
“Yes, that is why you have the sickness,” I said.
Kandyr moved to her side and held her hand. “You don't have to be scared Sabine, I am here for you. We will get through this together.”
“WE will all get through this together,” Priah said standing on the other side of her.
“What are we going to do now? What are we going to do with him?” Neevon asked.
“This changes things, doesn't it? We can't turn him in now, the way we were going to. Obviously Sabine needs all of us.”
“Do not turn him in. I cannot handle that kind of stress. Why can't we all just get along? I need you, all of you. I can't have you turning against each other this way. It is not good for me and it is not good for the baby,” Sabine said.
We knew that she was right. Our eyes were on each other, trying to process and figure this out.
“How can we trust that you are not going to try to take her away from us, like you said you would?” Priah asked Kandyr.
“You don't. You can continue to not trust me, but I promise youuSabine, that I would not do anything to put you in danger. You need to be here at home, not on some dangerous escape with me that can put you and the child at risk. I promise you, you will both stay here,” he said to Sabine. Then he looked at us, “If you want to believe that I would promise her and keep that promise, that is up to you. I don't care what you think. But I want to take care of her, and that means staying here.”
“I believe him,” Neevon said.
“I do to, but I will still be watching you,” Priah said.
“Then it is settled. No more arguments. We have to do this together. For Sabine and for our child,” I said.
We nodded to each other and agreed. Sabine smiled a brilliant smile.
Chapter Nineteen
Sabine
I felt such relief when I saw Kandyr walk in the door. My heart jumped for joy, I could hardly believe that he was really there. I thought for sure that he had been killed in action out there being a soldier, a hard Commander. So when I saw him I couldn't contain myself, I ran to him and threw myself into his arms. I knew then that I was in love with him.
But then, something unexpected happened. They all started arguing. Out of nowhere my husbands were enemies to each other. The truth came out, Priah had overheard that Kandyr wanted to take me away. But I had never agreed to it. In fact, I had discouraged it, but now they knew and the trust between our family had been broken. This led to chaos and eventually to this moment of me finding out that I was pregnant with an alien child.
“What happens now?” I asked as I laid on the couch with my husband's around me. I looked at them, beaming with pride that I was pregnant.
“Now, you rest. We together will prepare dinner. But you are going to go upstairs and sleep, and I am going to take a shower, wash the mission off of me,” Kandyr said. He scooped me into his strong blue arms. His tattoos moved with the flexing out of his forearm as he carried me from the couch to the staircase.
“You are going to let her sleep, right?” Neevon playfully shouted after us.
“Yes, even though that will be hard for me to walk away from,” Kandyr said looking down at me as he walked up the stairs. I looked into his gentle brown eyes andthey were full of love.
“I missed you deeply. I was so worried about you, that you would never come back,” I said.
“The thought did cross my mind. But the longer I was away from you, the more I suffered. My feelings have not changed for you, Sabine. I love you deeply,”
“I love you Kandyr. I realized that these last few weeks. I am so happy that you have returned to me.”
He smiled a brilliant grin, his white teeth flashing in contrast to his blue skin. He is absolutely gorgeous with his dark hair falling over his brow. I pushed it back away from his face, caressing his stubble beard with the back of my hand and running my thumb over his lips. We smiled at each other.
He walked into my bedroom and placed me on the bed. He pulled the cover over me.
“Get some sleep. Rest, we will call you for dinner later.”
“Okay,” I said. He placed a soft kiss on my forehead and walked out closing the door behind him. I felt content. I felt really good, everything felt right for the first time in a long time. I sunk into the very large bed and before I knew it the fatigue over took my body. I realized then that this was why I had been very tired, emotional, and always hungry. It was because I was growing a child inside of me. A big smile came across my face as I realized that fact. I couldn't put myself first anymore, it didn't matter what I wanted. I had to put the child first and think about the best things for my child. I couldn't run away and take this child away from his fathers. Whichever one it might be, the best place for the child would be having for alien Dain soldiers protecting it, and that is what I had in this home. This was a safe place away from the battles, away from all the death out there. The child woul
d be safe in this house and I meant to keep it safe no matter what.
When I woke up from my nap, we had the best dinner that we had ever had. It was a celebration, and my husbands had made four different kinds of food. There was a feast of roasted vegetables, rice, herb salad, chicken, and even dried fruit for dessert. I felt like a queen. I was getting used to this every day, feeling less and less like a prisoner and more like a queen in a tower protected from the outside world.
A few weeks later after that day, I was sitting with the medic as he drew blood from me.
“I don't understand how you can possibly tell,” I said to the medic.
“Our technology is much more advanced than the humans. We have a way of analyzing the blood quickly. I already have a blood print of each of your husband and it will be easy to match to find out who the father of the child is now that you are in a more advanced state of pregnancy at 2 months.”
“That is incredible,” I said feeling anxious as I looked at my husbands pacing the living room. They were just as anxious as I was, wondering which one of them was the true father. Would this change anything, I wondered. The tension that had been there between us had mostly gone away, though I knew there was a seed of suspicion toward the Commander from all of them, but I couldn't blame them for that.
“We have a match,” The medic said.
Everyone in the room stopped. They stood there with wide eyes and it made me want to laugh out loud because it was actually quite adorable. They were all very nervous and anxious and I thought about how vulnerable these strong extremely tall aliens looked in this moment. They had a big heart.
“The father of your first child matches with Priah,” the medic said.
“Woohoo!” Priah shouted.
I laughed uncontrollably as I watched him bounce around the room. The others looked disappointed of course, but not too much.
“Congratulations,” They each said to Priah. They went around shaking hands and I thought about just how sweet this was. I couldn't believe just how much I was adapting to being the wife of an alien group. I was actually happy.
“You are in good health and the child is well. I will come again in 3 weeks Sabine,” The medic said to me.
“Thank you,” I said.
Priah came to my side and kneeled down. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it gently. “I am so proud. I pledge my love to you Sabine, I would give my life for you and our child. I just wanted you to know that.”
Tears welled up in my eyes.Then again, I was pregnant and everything made me emotional, but his words touched me deep inside. I love him deeply as well. What was happening to me? Was it possible to be in love with four men at the same time? I knew the answer to that question, yes.
“That means everything to me Priah,” I said.
I had feelings for all of my husbands and I couldn't strip one husband of his child. There was no way I would ever run away with the commander now and take Priah’s child away from him. I would be happy no matter what. This was truly the start of our new family.
Chapter Twenty
Commander Kandyr
I felt happy that Sabine was glad to see me when I returned. I couldn't stay away from her, even though I thought that I could. But going on a dangerous mission to the mine outfields only made me realize just how much I loved her and I did everything I could to get back to her. When she confessed her love to me, it made it all worth it. Finding out that she was pregnant, I couldn't lie, I hoped that the child was mine. But when I found out that it was Priah’s child, I knew then that I could not take her away out of my own selfish desires. She belonged here, it was his child and we were a family and I agreed to not try to even think about taking her away. In truth it had just been a lapse in judgement out of my raging jealousy and getting used to adapting to sharing a human wife that I was in love with.
After finding out that Priah was the father, another week went by of us making sure that Sabine had every comfort in the world, was fed well and had a lot of rest. But then the unexpected happened, putting her in danger.
Knock. Knock.
The sound made us all stiffen in our chairs as we sat at dinner that evening.
“We are not expecting company,” Priah said.
“And the medic is not due to come,” Neevon added.
“He usually comes during daylight hours,” Jate said.
“I will check, but arm yourselves in case,” I ordered. They all stood up and grabbed their blaster guns.
“What is going on? I’m frightened,” Sabine whispered.
I looked out through the small glass hole in the door. I could see that it was one of our own. I opened the door.
“Commander Kandyr, good to see you. Is Jate available?” He said.
“I am sorry, do I know you?” I asked not letting him in the door.
“I am Lieutenant Dirgo, Jate knows me,” He said.
Just then Jate came to the door. “Lieutenant Dirgo, what are you doing here?”
“Do you want your neighbors to hear?” He asked.
I opened the door and he came into the foyer. Neevon, Priah, and Sabine stood at the edges of the room.
“This is a very nice home. How did you swing to get one of these? These are usually reserved for the generals and sergeants are they not?” Lieutenant Dirgo asked as he came in looking around.
“What is it that you want Lieutenant?” Priah stepped forward.
“I do want something Priah, you are right about that.” Then he walked toward Sabine. “So this is your human. She is very beautiful, I could see why you would put so much risk into having her.”
Jate took a step toward him and I put my hand out grabbing his arm, holding him back.
“Lieutenant, why don't you cut to the chase and tell us what you are doing here?” I said getting angry at trying to hold my temper.
“You are very straightforward Commander, I have heard that about you. I have heard that you are the most loyal Dain of all, so I was surprised to hear that you went along with this farce. I know what you all did. I thought it was strange when I saw Jate us to go in the base in the command unit at a station, a system station. I had worked with him long ago, in the marriage systems but he left. But after I did some digging, I realized that he had done what I had always thought about doing but never had the guts to do. He made it so that you have a human wife, all of you. You faked the documents and hacked into the system.” he said with a wide grin.
“That is a lie,” Neevon said.
“We have a human wife the same way that everyone else does, the lottery system.” Priah added.
“That is good, denial. I see what you mean. You have 72 hours before I go to the authorities. In that 72 hours I want Jate to do for me what he did for himself. Hack into the system, make it so that my number is next in the lottery. I'm not as picky, I don't care which human it is, pick any from the human camps. But if I don't get a letter on my bed letting me know within 72 hours that I have been chosen, I will turn you all in. Your human will be taken from you and you will all be arrested and thrown into the prisons.”
“You son of a bitch,” Jate said stepping toward him. Once again, I put my hand out stopping him. I turned to the lieutenant, my mind already working.
“It's not that easy Lieutenant. Jate had to mark us and get us ready in person. We will need to meet with you again in 24 hours after we have this all set. Where should we meet you?” I said.
He was quiet as he looked at me suspiciously. Then he finally spoke, “On the lakeshore by the broken pier, do you know where that is?”
“Yes, I do. Meet us under the pier on the shoreline, we can't be seen. As you know there will be questions, we can't have anyone seeing us interacting or they will figure out what you have been up to and we wouldn't want that,” I said.
“Yes, right. I will meet you in 24 hours under the pier. Don't keep me waiting,” he said.
He walked out the door. I watched out the window, holding my hand up and keeping Neevon, Jate, and P
riah from letting out the list of profanities that were ready to escape their mouth. I watched as the lieutenant walked out of the gate and out of sight.
“Alright, he's off the property. But keep your voice is low,” I said turn into them.
“Son of a bitch!” Jate said.
“That bastard. What do we do?” Priah said.
“We can’t let him get away with this. Jate, how easy would it be for you to do what he wants?” Neevon asked.
“I could do it. It won’t be easy. It wasn’t easy the first time. But if I have to I will. We can’t let him tell the authorities,” Jate said.
“They will take Sabine from us and put us in prison. No, we can’t let that happen,” I said.
“So, it’s settled? Jate is going to do what he wants?” Priah asked.
“What’s going to happen? If you go to prison, all of you, what will happen to me? What will happen to our child?” Sabine said frantically. Tears were rolling down her face. I pulled her into my arms.
“Shh, it’s alright. Nothing is going to happen to you,” I said.
“That’s right. We won’t let it. We will protect you,” Priah said, rubbing her back. The three of them gathered around her, touching her, soothing her.
She pulled away from me and looked at us with tears in her eyes. “I don’t feel well.”
“We can’t let this happen. Look what this is already doing to Sabine. We can’t have her sick with worry. It is not good for her or our child,” I said getting angry.
“So, what do you suggest?” Priah said.
“We do what the lieutenant wants,” I said. “We have 24 hours, give him what he wants and then he will go away and leave us alone. This is our family now and we have to stick together to protect it. This is just an obstacle, like any other mission. We will get over it. Stay sharp, stay focused. That is the key now.”
Chapter Twenty-One