by April Zyon
“I’m very happy,” she assured her brother. “He is everything that I could possibly ever want and need in my other half. The spirits are the ones that put our paths together. I know now that I had been created for him and him alone. I love him, Petr. I miss you, though. Gods, I miss you so much.” She had never gone this long without at least talking to her brother via video conference and it was hard on her.
“We’re working on a way to hide the transmissions if we’re close enough to one another to talk. It’s going to take a little time, though, Adira. The conversations will have to be short, but in time we might be able to work something out to make them longer. The biggest concern is our security network systems, and getting around them so the communications aren’t logged with command.” He gave her another hug and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “For now, though, I have to leave. I love you, little sister, and think of you often. I will send word to you as soon as I’m able, but try not to worry if it’s not for a time. It’s not like we do this all the time, after all.”
She nodded and hugged him once more. “I love you too, Petr. So much.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I miss you so much. I look forward to being able to see you again. Look forward to being able to have talks with you. Perhaps one day you will be able to come and see the children when they are born? I hope?” She wanted her brother there when her children were born, prayed that they would be able to reconnect then.
“I’ll see what we can do,” he said softly. He took a step back, moving a hand to cup her cheek, and smiled at her. “I love you, poppet. Be good, and try to cause as much havoc as I know you can for this Craegin pain in my ass. Had I thought of it sooner, I’d have bloody well introduced the two of you.” Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to her hair. “Keep her safe, General, or the next time we meet I won’t pull any punches.”
Fintan snorted, but kept his mouth shut. Likely a good thing, given how emotional Adira was.
Adira nodded and when Petr moved her from his arms and into her husband’s, she turned and sobbed her heart out. She looked back over her shoulder at her brother, she said, “Please send word often? Either with Bracken or Fin? Please?” she begged. “I just want to know that you are okay. Please?” she whispered to him and hugged her husband again.
“I’ll send messages whenever I can,” he promised. Then he disappeared around the crawler.
Fintan gave her a squeeze. “Come, we need to get out of here before he starts the engines up. And we definitely can’t be in here when he takes off.” Keeping his arms around her, Fin led her slowly out of the landing bay. He stopped once they were outside the doors and turned on a display so she could watch as Petr left the destroyer.
She watched as her brother took off, her fingers touching the display, and she looked up at Fin once more. “Thank you,” she whispered to him. “For giving that to me. Thank you so much. I can’t believe you did that for me.”
“Of course I did that for you,” he said. He kissed her lips gently. “I knew you were missing him, and since the communications aren’t secure enough for ship-to-ship transmissions across the borders this was the only way. It took us this long to plan it down to the last detail, and to get our schedules to work well enough for the plan to actually be useful. He’s right, though. We are working on figuring out a way to communicate. It’s a giant headache right now, but we’re getting close. Soon you’ll be able to have talks with him in real time. They won’t be long, but at least you can see and hear him now and again.”
“If anyone can do it I know that you are the one,” she assured him and nodded. “I know that if anyone will be able to get through this it’s you,” she whispered and hugged him tightly. “Whatever it takes, I know that we will be able to do this. I’m just thankful to have whatever time that I can get with him. He’s my brother. He’s the only family that I have, or rather, had. I have you and our babies now,” she said with a grin.
“Such faith in me, little wife. While I’m humbled by it you should know this is still going to be a risk. Our people haven’t had open communication for a long time. Too much anger on both sides, I’m afraid.” Taking her hand in his, he led her toward the lifts. “I’ll make sure you get as much time to talk to him as I can manage. But those times will be few and far between for a long time.”
“I know.” She took a deep breath and nodded. “I know that they will, and that will make it all the more precious.” Resting her hand on her belly, she leaned into him. “Do you think that perhaps he will be able to one day see our babies? To hold them and spend more than five minutes with us?”
“Hopefully, Adira. I’ll see what I can do to find a way for him to come for a longer visit. I know some of the moon outposts need visits, and with them so far out there’s little to no satellite coverage on them. That’s why we have the patrols on the borders, to protect the outposts as much as we can. Perhaps it’s time we take a journey that way. If your brother can do the same on his side of the border we might be able to time it right for him to come over for a few hours instead of just a couple of minutes. Let me talk to Bracken about it once he joins up with us, and get his thoughts on the matter as well.”
That had her nodding. “Thank you. That would work wonderfully. Anything at all that we could do.” She closed her eyes and leaned heavily against Fintan. “I’m hungry. Can we eat and then go for a nap?” She was emotionally drained. She had gone from an exceptional high to a deep low with the knowledge that her brother likely wouldn’t see her children.
“Of course we can. We’re heading for food right now. We’ll get a tray and take it back to our rooms so you can snack on it before having a nap, and then have something after you wake up.” He began to rub a hand up and down her back gently. “I wish I had an easy solution for all of this, Adira. I hate seeing you so unhappy.”
“You are doing all that you can in order to ensure that a solution is found. That’s all I can ask for. Somehow and someway this will all work out, I just know it,” she told him with a half smile. “That feels good, when you rub my back like that.”
“I’ll give you a massage when we get back to our quarters. It will help you to sleep, I’m sure,” he said softly. He moved his hand up to her neck and gently squeezed. “For now, food, and then your massage, and then a nice long nap.” When the lift doors opened he walked with her to the dining hall, where they quickly filled a tray with all of her favorites, plus a few additional dishes for Fintan to eat.
“I love how you take care of me.” She finally smiled. She heard the whispers then and laughed. “Didn’t last until we made the dining hall. That’s too funny,” she was saying as she giggled. “Seems as if the doctors couldn’t wait to tell, or the guards that were on deck when I told my brother?” It wasn’t her brother that they were whispering about, but the Little General and his sister. She then laughed out loud when she heard one of the men asking how long it would be before Fintan was wrapped as tightly around the little girl’s fingers as he was around Adira’s.
Fintan shot the man a look and hustled her along to their rooms. “Ignore them. I will be firm with both our children, but loving. You know that, right? Though they are correct about the fact I am wrapped around your finger. I’ve known that from the moment you tried to take care of me on your crawler. I’ve only wound around tighter with every passing moment since then.” He let them into their rooms, closing and locking the doors at their backs.
That had her grinning and she shrugged. “I know that. I also know that you would do whatever was necessary in order to ensure our safety and that of our children. I know that you will be fair but firm with both of our children, just as I will be. I think that they are trying to tease you.” She moved as close to him as she could get. “It’s good that they didn’t see that you nearly passed out when you learned that there were two. I think that they would have been even more amused.”
“You dropped the data pad when you got the news, and were at least as pale as I was. I may have been beyond stunned,
but I noticed that detail, little wife.” Helping her to sit down in a chair, he pulled another close to hers and sat at their table. He set the tray down before wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “Not every day a man finds out he’s having two children, especially since for the entire pregnancy they were pretty clear it was only one.”
“I was stunned, to say the least. As Petr said, we thought multiple births were a myth. To find out suddenly that we have two.” She shook her head.
“I definitely understand that,” he said. Pressing a kiss to her cheek, he gave her a squeeze. “Now eat some of this food. You look ready to fall over from exhaustion, but we both know you won’t sleep worth anything if you’re hungry.”
“No, I won’t.” She piled her plate with food and smiled at him. “I’m happy. Even more now. I can’t believe that you were able to do that for me.” She was still stuck on the fact that he had done all that he had for her, to get her to see her brother. It amazed her. “For now, food, and then we will figure out everything else. Right?”
“One item at a time, yes. Eat before I feel the need to toss you into the bed and insist you sleep. Even if it’s only a few bites, Adira, you have to get something in there. You are, after all, eating for three.” Fintan actually managed to deliver that line with a straight expression, and surprisingly without her smacking him for pointing out that she was pregnant with twins. Not that it lasted all that long before he was snickering.
She just looked at him when he delivered that line, then dissolved into laughter with him. “Oh heavens. One day, very soon, I venture to guess, you’re so going to be sorry for that. When I’m in the last stages of this pregnancy and big as a house, you are going to just about kill someone because of how cranky I am and we both know it.” He was temperamental now when it came to her. When she got to the end of the pregnancy she knew that it would grow even more.
“You are much too nice to actually kill anyone, little wife. Everyone knows that. What they also know from the last time they didn’t have enough of your favorite cheese around is you’re not above ordering me to kill someone, though. Why do you think we haven’t run out of a single one of your favorite dishes since that time?”
That had her laughing; she couldn’t help it. She bent over because of how much she was giggling. “Yes, I noticed that they hadn’t ran out of either the honey tea I love, or the cheese. Amazing. You are too good to me and so is your crew. We need to do something special for them for putting up with me and my emotional self.”
“I’ll give them additional leave time when next we’re home. As it is, most of them already are receiving danger pay. The guards especially.” He gave her a smile before he stole a piece of her cheese.
She gasped and looked at him. “They are not.” At his look, she shook her head. “I didn’t realize that I was such a terrible burden. Those poor men.” She was teasing him; she hoped he knew that. “Whatever you are paying them simply can’t be enough. Having to walk around with me, sitting in hydroponics with me. Mercy.” She was grinning. She couldn’t seem to help herself, not when her husband was near.
“They like it when you sit around in the hydroponics, at least you’re not moving then and they can relax. Again, that’s my fault. I may have been a little too harsh when I gave them the instructions and consequences. I swear to you I’ll let them know that they can only do what they can do with what they have to work with.”
“I would appreciate that. Stressing our guards out before our little ones get here just isn’t good. After all, if you have them this stressed watching over me, what happens when you order them to watch over me and our babies? I think you will have a mass of men and women that will jump ship, so to speak.”
“Not if I change the codes on the life pods,” he said. At her look, he groaned. “Fine, I won’t do that either. You are a tough negotiator, Adira. I really think you got into the wrong line of work. If you’d been my interrogator I’d have likely spilled every secret I had, and a bunch of Bracken’s too.”
“That’s only because you love me as much as you do,” she assured him with a grin. “And because you happen to like sleeping in bed with me. Besides, if you will recall when you first took me you didn’t want to tell me anything other than be quiet.” Even then, though, she’d liked him, wanted him.
“Good point, but I was also still drugged, in a lot of pain, and in enemy territory. So really I was extremely well behaved, given the circumstances. I also improved greatly over the days that followed, if you recall. Once the drugs were finally gone I really started to notice my sexy little hostage.”
“Good point. Okay, I’ll give you that one.” She blushed and leaned into him. “Well I’m very happy that you began to think of me as sexy. Heaven only knows that I began to think of you as handsome the first second you touched me.”
“I will always think of you as sexy, little wife. Just as I will always love you, cherish you, and wish I could keep you naked at all times. I know, sometimes we can’t always have what we want, but I’m still hopeful that one day I’ll be able to sweep you off somewhere that I can get you out of your clothes and keep you that way for a good long time.”
“Anytime we are in our quarters I’m perfectly happy being naked.” She touched the choker at her neck and added, “Except for this, this remains always.” It was part of their deal. He owned her and she knew it. She was his submissive and he her Dominant, but it was more than that. He was her soul just as she was his. They needed each other, desperately and always.
“Definitely,” he agreed with a nod. Leaning in, he brushed his lips to her ear, then lower to skim the flesh just above where the choker rested on her neck. “We’ll need to take it off during delivery, though. From what the doctors have told me it could be a hindrance to your breathing. You also won’t be able to wear it in the following few weeks, just precautionary. Which is fine. If it affects your health in any way, it comes off. There is no way I’ll risk your life just to show others you are mine.”
She nodded and rubbed her cheek to his as he held her close. “Besides, everyone already knows that we are forever and always together. Nothing and no one will ever come between us. We are just too good together,” she said with a smile. “And you would plain and simple kill someone if they tried to come between us.” And, oddly enough, Adira couldn’t think of a single reason to tell him not to do something like that.
He gave a snort at that. “The fact you no longer sound completely horrified at the notion tells me you’ve come to accept me fully as I am. Yet another reason I love you as much as I do, Adira. Now quit stalling, woman, and eat your meal. I won’t tell you again, little wife.”
“You are absolutely right about that. I accept you for all that you are. Every single part of your being. I accept you and I will always accept you. You are mine. Always,” she told him with a grin. “And yes, food. Hungry. Food.”
Fintan pressed a kiss to her cheek, gave her neck a light squeeze, then let his hand slide down her back. While she ate he rubbed her back for her, occasionally pausing to eat some of his own food.
Once they had finished their meal, Adira curled into Fintan’s side and smiled. She loved this man. Only he could make her feel so relaxed and comfortable after having just had such an emotional upheaval. He was, quite honestly, her everything.
She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew she was in Fin’s arms and he was easing her down on the bed. “You were snoring so I thought it best to get you somewhere you wouldn’t end up with a sore neck.”
“Thank you.” She shifted slightly and sighed. “I tend to fall asleep far too easily, that’s okay, right?” Her poor guards would be having lunch with her when Fin couldn’t make it and she would fall asleep, then the next thing she would know Fin would be there. “You are always there for me, aren’t you?”
“I will always be here for you, Adira. And yes, according to the doctors, your need to sleep at the oddest moments isn’t a bad thing in the least. Given you’re c
reating life, I can’t imagine how you’re not sleeping more. Sounds rather exhausting from what I’ve managed to garner about the entire process. Thankfully women appear to be more than up to the task. I personally would likely sleep the entire time.” He undid the choker and set it aside in the box that always rested on her side of the bed. “Since you’re awake let’s get this dress off you so you can sleep in comfort.”
She touched the choker once more and smiled. “I love that thing. It makes me feel so much closer to you.” She knew how stupid that sounded, but there it was.
Once her dress was off, he went to hang it up. While in the closet he also got undressed, and when he came back to the bed he was wearing nothing at all. “You are mine to protect and look after in all ways, Adira. I’m glad you like the choker as much as you do. I was more than a little nervous about presenting it to you.” He slipped into bed next to her and drew up the covers. “I didn’t know how you might react to it. Not all our women are as pleased with the idea of being collared by their males. Even those who are married see it as too much on occasion, like all their freedoms are forever taken should they wear it. Which I suppose they could well be as I can’t speak for whatever their arrangements are with the one they’ve chosen to be with.”
She shrugged. “I don’t feel that way at all. All I know is that you are mine and I am yours. I love the fact that you care enough for me that you wanted to do that. You are all I’ve ever wanted.” She smiled then. “I love the collar and I don’t feel at all subjugated by it. I feel liberated.”