“Relax sweetie, I’m just kidding.” She sits up, smiling. “Last night was amazing. Sure, I’m a little sore, but it’s been a while and I’ve never had sex with two guys before, or while being pregnant. I just need a shower and I’m good to go.”
I release the breath of air I was holding in and sigh in relief. “Do not scare us like that.”
“Oh, trust me, if I have a problem with something, you’ll know,” she says, her face falling somewhat flat.
Ca’lek glances at me and then to her. “What is it?”
She slowly sits up, hands fumbling together as she tries to find the right words. “We...mated...didn’t we? We’re bonded now. I just can’t help feeling bad about your agreement with Sa’rin. We broke it last night, didn’t we? This is all my fault. It’s like going after married men.”
“No,” Ca’lek growls, pulling her chin towards him with his hands. “Don’t ever feel that way. You are our mate now. Not Sa’rin. What we had with her was an empty promise made by our families to secure our line. We were not even at the meeting when the contract was drafted and signed. Besides, she would have never been happy with us, nor us with her, and I’m sure she only wanted the mating because she believes it would have elevated her status.
“Best case scenario she would have mated us until she was with young, and then left us. What’s done is done. I do not regret it and I will not have you blaming yourself for saving Va’naar and I from a lonely, miserable mating.”
My hands find hers and I gently squeeze them. “He’s right Polly. You are a much lovelier, gentler mate than Sa’rin ever was or could have ever been to us. You have been driving us mad for cycles. We did not realize at the time, but we had been fighting the mating heat since you came aboard; before you started producing pheromones.
“We have met Sa’rin many times in the past. Never once did she ever trigger a mating heat with us. Never once did she so much as stir our interest like you have. If there was ever a sign that we were meant to bond, it is that. A contract is nothing, the heat is what truly matters. With you it was beautiful and real, but with her, we would have had to take a pheromone supplement to trigger an artificial heat to mate-bond with her.”
“How is that even possible? I’m human. I don’t produce pheromones,” she asks, her face wrinkling in confusion.
“Come,” Ca’lek suddenly says. “We will see Ha’dir before we go to the surface. He may be able to answer our questions.”
∞∞∞
Ca’lek
With an arm wrapped around her shoulder, Polly leans against me. I can’t help but feel satisfied that I’m the one to escort Polly to Medical this time and not Va’naar. It makes me grin even more when he quietly whines behind me as if I stole his favorite toy. Of course, my mate offered her hand to him, but he shook his head when I hissed a warning beneath my breath. What a good secondary.
“Do you think he’ll have answers for us?” she asks when we exit our cabin.
“Of course,” I reply, pulling her tightly against me as I smile down at my beautiful mate.
As we continue onward, I reach into my pocket and pull out my comm and send a silent message to Ha’dir threatening him to be ready for us as soon as we arrive. He sends an immediate confirmation that he’s in the medbay waiting. Va’naar had contacted him while Polly and I showered, enjoying a little time to explore each other further while we cleaned up.
Ha’dir had everything already prepped when we walked in. The table had already been lowered to make it easier for Polly to climb up on it, and the scanning unit was on and in position. I nod my head, thanking Ha’dir for being so proficient.
“Polly, please, have a seat,” Ha’dir says, motioning to the examination table.
Va’naar and I help her up and steady her as she lays back. Va’naar steps off to the side and holds her hand while I stand next to her, placing myself between her and Ha’dir. I know he would never hurt her, but as a newly mated male, I am instinctively suspicious of other males being too close.
Ha’dir hides an amused smirk because he knows exactly how I feel. Poor male lost his entire family; mate, pups, and his primary quite a few solars ago when the ship they lived on had been attacked and badly damaged. The widower is a good male and will not judge us too harshly for breaking our mating contract, knowing all too well the predicament our parents placed us in.
“Hey Doc,” Polly says and smiles, using the nickname she’d given him the day she came on board.
“I understand you have some questions. Do you have concerns about your pregnancy? Any new developments I need to know about, my dear?” he asks, eyeing the mate marks on her shoulders with a knowing grin.
She blushes at his tone.
“Enough, Ha’dir. You already know we mated her. She has apparently been the one producing the pheromones that put us in heat. We want to know how,” I snap at him.
Chortling, he turns to his console and starts the scanner. While it runs, he grabs a bio-analyzer and presses it to Polly’s arm. She flinches slightly as it takes a blood sample. Va’naar voices the growl I just barely suppress and she squeezes his hand.
“Let’s see what this says,” Ha’dir comments, looking hopeful. The analyzer beeps when he inserts it into the dock and presses a button. Data rapidly scrolls across the screen. He hums under his breath.
“What does it say?” Polly asks before I can.
Va’naar leans over trying to see the monitor as well, who almost gets in Polly’s way. Scowling, I slap the male across the back of his head. What is his damn obsession with the medical equipment? The male can’t read a damn bit of what it says, but he insists on trying anyways.
Ha’dir’s brows draw up in surprise and he mutters to himself before responding. “That can’t be right. Give me just a moment.”
Several long minutes pass while he reads over the data and repeats the test two more times. Each time he presses the bio-analyzer to Polly’s arm, she winces and it makes me growl. Both Va’naar and I are beginning to lose our patience, while Polly taps her fingers in anxious worry.
“What is the hold up?” I ask, grasping the edge of the examination table for control.
“Well, I can tell you the species of at least one of your babies,” he announces, then scratches his head.
“Really?” She sits up, excited. “But I thought you said last time we wouldn’t know until I gave birth.”
“Well, you have traces of the hormone heshlin in your bloodstream. Only Eshkalir fetuses produce that hormone. One of the pups must be at least half Eshkaliran,” Ha’dir explains, looking up from his reader.
“Eshkaliran? But...aren’t they extinct?” Va’naar inquires as he drops our mate’s hand and slips past me to take a look at the data himself.
I growl low in my throat, remembering the last time he got his hands on one of Ha’dir’s medical devices. I still have a bruise on my abdomen from it.
“As far as anyone knows, the pup she carries is the only one. From what I understand, the Viktoids hunted the Eshkalir people relentlessly, attacking colonies and kidnapping any survivors, they even carried off the dead. No one has seen any of them in the last fifteen or so solars,” Ha’dir confirms with a sad look in his eyes. “They must be using stored DNA to breed clones on their ships...or something. I can’t really be sure at this stage.”
“This is amazing,” Va’naar replies, looking at the data with an excited gleam in his eyes. He strides back to Polly and presses a soft kiss on her forehead. “You are a wonder.”
I snort, rolling my eyes. As if he actually understood a damn lick of what he read.
“Can’t say I had much to do with it, but thanks.” She smiles up at him and I leave a mental note to give her two kisses in the same spot later, so when she smiles at me it will be brighter than the one she just gave Va’naar.
“I’m curious, what do the Eshkalir look like?” she asks.
Ha’dir presses a few buttons and brings up a visual of the species. Polly leans o
ver to look closely at the device.
“Look at the fingers,” she says in quiet awe. “The male baby has three fingers like that.”
“That still doesn’t explain how she was producing those pheromones,” I say, reminding everyone of our original intent.
“Well, the Eshkalir homeworld is a dangerous place full of large predators and deadly plants. The people living there evolved certain biological adaptations to ensure the survival of their race. Mated individuals stood a higher chance of survival. Pregnant females received a hormone from the fetus that caused them to produce a pungent pheromone only their mate could detect. This allowed their mate to track them at any time. Regular coitus kept the pheromone in a fixed state, but if she became separated from him for too long, the pheromone changed, becoming stronger and easier for him to scent.”
“Get to the point already,” I sigh, interrupting Ha’dir in aggravation. By Vren’s unholy balls the male could bore someone into permanent stasis.
Ha’dir gives a sheepish chuckle, realizing he was droning on, then supplies us with a simple answer. “The pheromone is meant to attract her mate. The unborn pups make her horny and in turn, that makes you both horny so you will seek her out. Since you were still unbonded, it appears to have also triggered your mating heat.”
Va’naar and I both glance at each other.
“So, we wouldn’t have mated if it weren’t for the baby?” Polly asks, her voice sounding a little worried and sad.
“It is a chemical reaction, yes, but it only works on mates who are already bonded or in the process of bonding. You three must have felt a connection from the beginning. You were drawn to each other before she started producing the pheromone. The stasis the Viktoids kept you in would have prevented the baby from producing the hormone because you never exhibited signs of distress. Once you woke up, your fear response to the Viktoids triggered an adrenaline rush, which in turn triggered the baby’s hormone production.
“It takes a few cycles for that hormone to manifest as an actual pheromone, but it starts out as a simple scent trigger. The three of you were reacting to each other before the pheromone had time to kick in. It is entirely possible you could have become mates without it, depending on how stubborn some males can be,” Ha’dir assures her with a sidelong glance at me. “The baby just speeds it along a little so there are protectors nearby for the birth.”
“That’s not really reassuring—”
I place a comforting hand on my mate’s shoulder, stopping her as I lean in. “Ignore the doctor. He is being overly technical and that is never comforting.”
“But the medical—”
“You aren’t helping either, so be quiet.” I turn my head and scold Va’naar, but when I look back at Polly, she has her arms folded across her chest and she’s scowling at me with her fierce green eyes.
“Don’t talk to him like that!”
“I will address my secondary in any way I feel necessary when he says things he knows nothing about, especially if those things cause you distress. The medical information may say one thing, but I know what my heart says and my heart tells me that we would be yours, with or without the pups in your belly. We are mates. Everything else can take itself to the deepest depths of Vren’s unholy hells,” I say, then give a firm nod.
“Aww, Ca’lek. That’s so sweet,” my mate says with a tear in her eye.
My ears flatten on their own, giving away my embarrassment.
A chuckle behind me causes me to turn around. “You. Out.” I yell at Ha’dir, who leaves the room with a satisfied grin on his face.
“We are mates. When I saw you in that room, before I smelled you, before I heard your voice, before I held you in my arms, I wanted you. I itched to touch you. And I fought it, I denied it. I was so certain that I had to stay true to a contract I never wanted. Do not doubt that we are meant to be,” I say, wrapping her in my arms.
Va’naar embraces us both, burying his nose in the space between her head and mine.
“We didn’t meet in the normal ways that mates meet, but never doubt that we love you,” Va’naar whispers in a tone so low I barely hear him.
Polly’s only reaction is to tighten her arms around us both. I say nothing more, though I feel I’ve already said too many of the truths in my heart for today.
Chapter 8
Polly
“Look how pretty these are,” I gush in excitement. Holding up an artistic arrangement of shiny, colorful beads, I think about how nice it would look in a nursery where my babies could see it.
Ca’lek smiles patiently, placing a hand on my lower back. “Come, my mate. You can look later,” he promises, nodding to the merchant who takes the bauble back from me.
“That’s what she said,” I tease, tongue in cheek.
“What who said?” Va’naar asks behind me.
I giggle. Ca’lek looks just as confused as Va,naar sounds.
“Human joke,” I say, waving it off. “Promise we can buy some shinies after your appointment?”
“Of course,” Ca’lek assures me. “Just let us take care of selling the serum to the local doctor and we will spend as much time as you like in the market.”
“Good, let’s get this over with,” I say with excitement, while Va’naar chuckles at my enthusiasm.
Ca’lek walks beside me with his hand on my back, subtly steering me through the crowd. Va’naar follows close behind and watches our backs. Every so often, Ca’lek’s fluffy plume of a tail brushes against my arm, waving from side to side as he moves. Hiding a sneaky grin, I wrap my arm around his waist. He glances down at me and smiles, not suspecting a thing. I smile back, lying my head on his shoulder as we stroll towards our destination.
A loud argument down a side aisle draws his attention and he turns towards it, placing me behind his back. The argument winds down as quickly as it starts, which makes Ca’lek relax. He turns his focus back to the path ahead. Taking my chance, I reach out and grab the base of his tail, running my hand down its length to the end.
Ca’lek yelps, jumping away from me as he comes completely off the ground. Every hair on his body stands on end and he clutches his tail in both hands like a child’s blankie. The look he gives me is one of shock and disbelief.
Va’naar bursts into guffaws of mirth at Ca’lek’s expression, and comes up beside me laughing. A stony look forms on Ca’lek’s face as he listens to Va’naar, then his eyes shift to mine. I wink, reach over, and give Va’naar’s tail the same treatment. Va’naar jumps even higher than Ca’lek as he yelps.
I can’t understand how he didn’t see it coming. His expression of shock mirrors Ca’lek’s so perfectly, I lose my composure and burst out laughing as well. With their fur standing on end, they look like a pair of terrified cats, their usual stoic self-control completely destroyed with a single yank of their soft, floofy tails.
“You two should see your faces,” I say, then laugh, holding my belly.
The babies roll and kick under my hands, almost as if they’re amused as well. Both males hurriedly smooth out their fur, combing manes and ruffs with their claws, before they stalk back to me.
“You know we will be more than happy to fuck you any time and just about anywhere you like, my mate, but I swear to Vren if you yank our tails in public again, I will turn you over on my knee for a spanking you won’t soon forget,” Ca’lek threatens, scowling.
My mouth drops open in shock.
“Lewd behavior like that is highly inappropriate, my heart,” Va’naar chides.
“Hold up a sec, lewd behavior? What lewd behavior?” I ask, somewhat confused over the sudden turn my little prank had taken. Glancing down, I realize both males sport large, very obvious, and very uncomfortable erections.
“Tail pulling is highly sexual in our culture,” Va’naar explains, his smile patient and calm.
He takes my hand and pulls it into the crook of his arm where he thinks he can keep me out of trouble. Ca’lek growls in exasperation and stalks off ahead t
o clear a path. “You just announced to us and everyone else who knows Mephidaean mating practices, that you want sex and you want it now.”
“Oh,” I squeak, blushing in mortification. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”
Va’naar chuckles at my embarrassment and pats my hand. “It is alright, my heart. We like that you want us again so soon, it is just not a good time, or place. There are far too many witnesses around and some colonies do frown on public fornication.”
My blush burns brighter with every word he says, until I have to hide my face against his arm. Ca’lek must have calmed down enough to return, because another hand pats my shoulder in addition to Va’naar’s hand on my arm. There is a gusty sigh on the back of my head.
“It is alright, my mate,” he says, patting my shoulder again. “You did not know.”
“Is there anything else I need to avoid so I don’t make another embarassingly public demand for sex?” I mumble into Va’naar’s thick ruff.
He chuckles above me. “Just don’t pull our tails. Now, we do need to get going before we’re late.”
Turning me with care, he steers me back onto the path and we head in the direction of our appointment. Much more subdued after that mortifying moment, I waddle along beside him, watching Ca’lek’s back as he leads the way. I can’t quite hide my grin when I realize that even though he had smoothed the rest of his ruff into place, his tail is still very poofy.
∞∞∞
Va’naar
“We’re here,” I say when we reach the old medical center.
The lack of people outside seems strange. I was under the impression there would be people waiting for the medication we carried. I can’t help but wonder if we are later than we had intended and everyone else was sent home, or there just aren’t as many sick as we have been told. Though, perhaps they are being tended to somewhere else?
The doors burst open and someone emerges, rushing down the steps to greet us.
“I was beginning to worry that you would not make it today,” the male says, greeting Ca’lek and I with enthusiasm. “I am Aelid, the clinic’s manager, and I will be negotiating the deal on behalf of Nuular today.”
The Alien Pirates' Treasure (Star Pirates Book 1) Page 8