by Lucy Kelly
Thinking of children and remembering what Natalie had gone through just a short while ago, BianCa was suddenly anxious to get in the room.
“Are you going to be able to get into the room? I feel it’s very important,” BianCa stated.
“Yes, but we’ll need some tools. Also, I’m going to need to borrow your tablet,” said Thors.
“My Lord, young Lorman, the builder—it’s possible he can help you with this task,” said Melbas.
“Where might we find young Lorman—not to be confused with old Lorman?” he asked with a smile.
“Oh, well, as to that, they’re all still in the room, aren’t they? You didn’t say they could leave. Old Lorman died some twenty years ago. So there’s just young Lorman, who’s about fifty and very young Lorman, who’s expecting his first this spring,” she said, making Thors laugh again.
“What will you call him—baby Lorman?” he asked, laughing at his own joke.
“Melbas and I will go back and find this young Lorman for you and send him with the tablet and some tools. Then I’ll disburse the household back to their jobs. I’ve yet to deal adequately with the black-haired witch. She’s had her first lesson. Now she knows legs are longer and stronger than arms. For her next lesson, I’m going to teach her never to mess with me or mine ever again,” said BianCa.
“Be careful—she can still hurt you,” said Thors, pulling her into his arms.
“I will be. I really like this new life of mine. I’m not going to risk it,” she said, before she kissed him. Like always, a simple kiss turned hot and heavy in the blink of an eye.
“Newlyweds,” Jarmin joked, even as he smiled.
Melbas nodded and beamed. She grew hopeful for the future of her people; because, as the eldest, she did consider all of them her people. She would let them have their fun and then she would gently lead them where she wanted them to go.
Chapter Eighteen
Grace had been having trouble getting comfortable when she went to sleep at night. Last night, it had taken six strategically placed pillows for her to be able to rest. Her Ankida then carefully lay around her. She could no longer sleep draped over Justyn, with Jalen and Jett on either side. These days, one of her Ankida had to sleep in another room because there wasn’t enough room on the bed.
Last night, it had been Justyn, so he was getting his reward now by waking up his wife with his head between her legs. Jalen and Jett were worshipping her breasts. Her pregnancy had made them so sensitive—they could bring her to orgasm simply by giving her nipples a little attention. Grace woke as her first orgasm rolled through her and she cried out.
“Oh, God, oh,” she moaned.
Justyn had raised her legs over his shoulders. He drank up the evidence of her first peak and was now urging her to a higher one. He pushed one finger deep in her anus, at the same time as he pushed two fingers inside her tight channel to reach both of her pleasure centers. When the orgasm hit, she arched her back up off the bed, squeezed her thighs on either side of Justyn’s head and pushed her feet into his back.
In the aftermath, she tried to catch her breath. Her Ankida watched as the flush faded from her skin and she settled back against the sheets.
Grace looked around at all of them. “I don’t mean to be so selfish. I love you all. I’d like to give back what you just gave me—but I really have to pee!”
They laughed as they helped her up from the bed. Then they all turned to watch as she quickly waddled her way into the bathroom, wrapped in a sheet. The further along in her pregnancy she became, the more beautiful she was to them.
She was walking back into the bedroom, a secret smile on her face, when the communications panel signaled an incoming message. Grace detoured to answer it. Jalen brought over a robe, tucked it around her as he pulled away the sheet, and gave the babies in her womb a good morning kiss.
When the call ended, she knew her Ankida would surely miss the blowjobs she’d been planning. Unfortunately for them, she was a woman on a mission. She needed to get going.
She ran into the bedroom as fast as her belly would let her and headed over to the closet.
“Grace, do you need any help?” asked Justyn. He’d taken a quick shower and had just finished dressing.
“I need to get dressed and go see Catherine. It’s important,” she said, grabbing the first maternity dress she saw.
Justyn got a worried look on his face. “Is it the babies? Are they coming? You don’t need a dress. I can carry you in a blanket. Jalen! Jett! Hurry up! Grace is having the babies!”
He then ripped the blanket from the bed, rushed over and started wrapping her up. He finally stopped talking long enough for her to get a word in edgewise.
“Stop!” she laughed, slapping at his hands, even as Jalen and Jett rushed into the room. “Don’t pick me up, help me get dressed.”
She was having trouble talking, she was laughing so hard. Her men were so cute the way they worried about her. She got a good look at Jalen and Jett. Jalen was dripping wet and had a towel slung around his waist. Jett’s chin was covered in hair-removal foam and he had his teeth cleaning wand in his hand. Just seeing how they reacted sent her into another peal of laughter. She was still trying to stop Justyn from wrapping her up.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen, spreading around to her lower back.
“Ouch! Ooh, Justyn—I changed my mind, wrap me up and get me out of here,” she said, letting out a long moan.
All three of the men freaked. Justyn swooped her up in the blanket and the three of them rushed to the door. As they were running down the hall, Jalen’s towel slipped from his waist and he tripped over it and fell into Jett, knocking him down. Justyn didn’t stop, he just kept moving. Somewhere in his brain, he knew it was too soon for the babies to be born. She was barely six months along.
Jett and Jalen stumbled to their feet and ran after their brother and mate. Jalen didn’t even notice that he was now naked, the towel left behind in the corridor.
Rushing as he was, it didn’t take long for Justyn to reach the medical bay, even carrying Grace. He wasn’t even breathing hard as he shouted for help. Jalen and Jett arrived just as the medical came in from the back. Taking in the problem at a glance, he turned back to the exam rooms and told them to follow.
“Put her down on the bed. I’m going to call Catherine and then get her vitals,” said the doctor. He went to the com link set in the wall.
“There are scrubs in the closet just outside the room,” he mentioned to Jalen, as he activated the link.
Jalen, realizing he didn’t have a stitch on, hurried to get some scrubs. For the moment, Grace didn’t seem to be in pain so he felt it was safe to leave the room for a brief time. Still, after grabbing the scrubs, he took them back into the exam room to dress.
The medical, Kashir, took Grace’s pulse and blood pressure as her Ankida looked on.
Grace was feeling fine now and she wasn’t comfortable lying flat on her back. She tried to sit up. When she felt another sharp pain, she gasped.
“Don’t try to move. Just stay still, my love,” urged Justyn.
Catherine rushed in as Kashir was finishing her vitals. They conferred briefly before Catherine came over to the bed.
She gave Grace a smile as she ran her hands over her swollen belly. “I know we have all of these great advanced medical devices but I like to stick with what I know best. So I’m going to pull out my stethoscope and give a listen. I’m sorry if it’s cold.”
“I feel fine, I really do. The sharp pain I felt is completely gone now,” said Grace.
“Well, you’re here, so let’s not waste the visit. I’ll give you a complete check-up; you’re due to start weekly exams, anyway. Now, tell me exactly what happened to make you feel the need to rush in here before breakfast,” she said.
Grace went on to explain, with Justyn adding in a word here and there. Jalen and Jett listened closely because they had rushed in from the bathroom and hadn’t been in the room w
hen it happened. As she went on with the story, Catherine kept a hand on her belly, checking to see if her muscles tightened with a contraction.
“So you were laughing when the pain started?” she asked.
“Yes, they were being their overprotective selves and I was hurrying, trying to get dressed. Justyn got the wrong idea.”
“But then you had a pain anyway?”
“Yes, it was sharp, but then it went away,” said Grace.
“Why were you trying to dress in such a hurry?” Catherine asked.
“Oh! I can’t believe I forgot! BianCa called.” Grace, in her excitement, moved on the bed and felt another sharp pain. “Ouch.”
Catherine immediately checked her.
“Okay—we’ve got good news and bad news. Good news is you aren’t in labor. Bad news is you’ve pulled—or maybe torn—a muscle, one you’ll need when you are in labor. First, we’ll determine if it’s pulled or torn. The determination will tell us how long you’re going to have to stay in bed. Now, I can see you’re burning to tell me something. So if you promise to hold very still, you can tell me as I use some of this advanced Nephilim technology to examine your muscle. Remember to hold still. If I need you to move, I’ll direct your Ankida to move you.”
Catherine went to a cupboard and pulled out an instrument. As she leaned over the table, Grace spoke.
“BianCa found out why Natalie lost her babies. Her Ankida poisoned her.”
Catherine nearly dropped the scanner, she was so shocked. The men started growling deep in their throats.
“Wait a minute! They didn’t do it on purpose. They were poisoned first,” she nearly shouted.
“Okay, this is obviously going to be a serious discussion. Believe me, no one wants to hear this more than I do. Natalie had to be sedated last night. It will help her recovery tremendously if we can tell her what happened.”
Catherine had been running the scanner over Grace as she spoke.
“You have torn the muscle, but I’m not comfortable performing surgery on it when you’re this far along. We’ll get you a truss to support the muscle and those babies you’re carrying. You’ll be spending the remainder of your pregnancy on modified bed rest. No bending, twisting or lifting anything heavier than your glass of juice at breakfast. If you need to stand or get out of bed, let one of your Ankida be your muscle for you. Justyn can carry you back to your quarters and we’ll replicate a chair like Addie’s for you. Actually, we’ll replicate two—one for your quarters and one for Addie’s. You can sit together when you want to have another movie marathon or just visit together.
“Now, as to this information from BianCa—after you’re settled in, your Ankida are over their fright and you’ve all had something to eat, I’ll come by with my own Ankida. This information is going to have a bearing on so many. As head medical officers, they need to hear it, too. We’ll also need to contact our counterparts on KowLer, if BianCa hasn’t already done so. Of course, we’ll need to treat Peet and Reeko as soon as possible. Is there an antidote to the poison?”
“Yes, BianCa said there is an antidote. It was the middle of the night there. They are out in the middle of the country, so she contacted me while they were waiting for a medical to reach them,” explained Grace.
“It sounds like it’s going to take a while to get all the data. Go home and put your morning back on track. I’ll relay this to Addie when I go for her daily exam. Don’t worry about Natalie; I’ll take care of her and her Ankida. I want you to concentrate on your own babies and your own Ankida. Will you do that for me?”
“Yes, I’ll be good. I’ve had torn muscles before; I know what to do,” said Grace.
“Thank you, Catherine, for what you do for Grace and all the women on the ship. You are also pregnant and we haven’t forgotten. I’m sure we interrupted your own breakfast. We are grateful for all your sacrifices. If there is anything you need that we can provide, please let us know,” said Jalen.
“Thank you, Jalen. I’ve been enjoying taking care of all the women. They’re allowing me to help them deliver new life. It’s the best job in the world. There is one thing you could do for me, though. We have a lot of hormonal women on the ship. So no more streaking, okay?”
Grace started laughing at the red flush suddenly staining his face and she held her side at the pain. “Oh, don’t make me laugh.”
****
An hour later, when Catherine went to see Addie, she was shocked to observe Addie and her Ankida angry with each other. She asked the men to leave the room by telling them her own Ankida had some extraordinary news to share. They weren’t happy about it, but seeing the message in Catherine’s eyes, they left. Perhaps Catherine would be able to make sense of Addie’s anger and she would act rationally again.
Catherine could tell now was not the time to pull out the blood pressure reader or her stethoscope. A lot of times, just talking to a patient was the best medicine.
“Okay, girlfriend, what’s up? Don’t say nothing—because when I walked in, the tension in here was so thick you could cut it with a knife.”
Addie gave a big sigh. “I got a high-speed transmission from Glynnis. She had a lot to say about Malpha.”
“What has the bitch done now?” asked Catherine, her voice going hard.
“See? This is why I’m so angry. We’ve been blaming Malpha for everything. She is a strong-willed and opinionated woman. However, it turns out most of the manipulations attributed to her were the Council members playing her and my Ankida off each other. They never got together and figured it out because they thought she would force them into a mating somehow. She never went to them because she’s in love with them. She believed all this time the only way to save their people was to mate with them.”
“So she’s not a bitch? We don’t hate her?”
“Well, as to that, you can’t run an entire world in crisis for hundreds of years without having a strong personality. She’s just not the major bad girl we thought she was. I have practically forced her into a marriage with King Ben KowLer because I didn’t have good information!”
“So the person you’re really angry with is yourself?”
“Yes! No! I don’t know,” she said sulkily.
Catherine sat back in her chair and thought about what Addie had told her. “Instead of looking back, why don’t you look forward? What’s done is done; you can’t change the past. Malpha is going to be arriving in a few days. You need to prepare the people here so she gets the welcome she deserves. As to the marriage with Ben—well, I don’t know what to say about that. Why don’t you see how they act with each other before you do anything?” asked Catherine.
“You’re being the voice of reason and I don’t want reason right now. I want to have a tantrum. I want to run around and throw things. I want to have a screaming, jealous fight with my Ankida and then have hours of smokin’ hot make-up sex. I gotta tell you, Catherine; I really miss the hot monkey sex. You know what I mean? The three on one, moaning, groaning, acrobatic, hard slamming sex I had before I was impersonating a beached whale.”
Catherine just laughed. “I can’t believe they’ve been leaving you hanging.”
“Oh…well…as to that, they know how to improvise,” she said with a smirk. “It’s not the same, you know? I don’t get to give them the pleasure they deserve. We don’t all fit together the way we used to. I have all the fun and they have to take turns to get a piece of me.”
Catherine giggled and then sighed, “Yes, I know. I’ve just hit the stage in my pregnancy where sex has to be creative. My guys are going to have to suck it up and say goodbye to a really active sex life in the next six weeks or so. You aren’t selfish. You’re carrying a lot of babies. I, for one, think orgasms are healthy and good for you.”
“So it’s kind of like taking my daily vitamin?” Addie laughingly asked.
“Sure. I’ll even prescribe it, if you want me to. Take two―or three―and call me in the morning,” said Catherine with a wink.
“On another matter, I’ve got some really great news. BianCa and Thors have discovered the reason behind the KowLer’s inability to get pregnant and the miscarriages many have suffered, including Natalie. It seems her first husband was sterile. In trying to cure his sterility, he developed a poison to cause it. The water on the planet was poisoned. They are really quite lucky the poison only affected humanoids. It could have literally killed the planet otherwise. Anyway, the poison affects the males, killing their sperm. In some, instead of killing the sperm, it transfers to the egg and causes spontaneous abortion,” Catherine stated baldly.
“How horrible! Is there a cure or an antidote?” Addie asked, tears gathering in her eyes.
“Yes, and none too soon. I checked and since we’ve added so much time to our trip, we will need to replenish our water stores soon. If we had done that before knowing about the poison? I don’t know if any of our women would have lost their babies, like Natalie, but it’s possible. My Ankida are going to treat Peet and Reeko as soon as they get the formula for the antidote. We should be able to replicate it on board in medical. I think we should keep some on hand, just in case,” explained Catherine.
“I agree. Have you checked on Natalie this morning? She was practically catatonic last night.”
“She’s still sedated. I don’t expect her to wake for a few more hours. My hope is, when she wakes, we’ll be able to give her some good news. It will take her some time to recover mentally. I would suggest she and her Ankida take a shuttle and go on to HeVan. She needs to be able to connect with Peet and Reeko without getting pregnant. The decision to have children needs to be made by her when she’s ready.”
“What about when I do arrive on HeVan?” Addie wanted to know.
She hadn’t thought about the women who didn’t want to have children. She’d been so focused on the fact that so many were happy to be pregnant.
“Catherine, are any of the woman unhappy to be pregnant so soon? It must be really hard for many women to leave Earth, and then find they got pregnant so quickly.”