by Brenna Lyons
Raashh’s voice was slow and calm. “I do not think you do understand me. Yes, your mate is at risk. Grave risk, and I can do nothing to help her. Perhaps the scientists can.”
The frank analysis nearly weakened Arren’s knees. “I thought you said this isn’t a Xxanian problem.”
“It is not. Xxanian females’ bodies selectively eliminate down to one fetus when two or more catch. Allowing more than one to gestate is a human frailty, and I cannot begin to guess how it will affect your mate.”
Arren reeled at the news, and his seir’s hand tightened. He stared up at the pureblood Xxanian elder, at a loss to reply.
“We need SLAL,” Raashh informed him. “As soon as we can reach them.”
“We?” Arren could hardly follow the conversation in his shock.
“My son’s mate, my nest daughter, is at risk. My gran-vvaasheen are at risk. The entire nest stands with you, Arren.” He looked over Arren’s shoulder. “Daveed, prepare my shuttle. We will contact Rayn from orbit.”
“Right away.” Daveed loped away.
Arren forced his mouth to shut, swallowed a lump inexplicably stuck in his throat, and managed words. “Thank you…my seir.”
****
“Will my nest daughter and gran-vvaasheen live?” Raashh demanded.
Arren swallowed hard at his seir’s fury. The elder’s ridge plates and frills were extended, and he towered over Stephen Rayn, the head of Xxanian studies at SLAL.
The scientist seemed unconcerned. “I vow to do everything in my power to see to their survival, just as I did with your son.”
Daveed and Arren stared at each other. His elder brother shrugged.
Raashh sank back a step, and his frills wavered.
Rayn sighed. “When Marie died, Arren should have died with her. You know the lengths we went to. And now your son is here, presenting you with his young. Do you believe I will give him any less than I gave you?”
Raashh’s frills folded to his head, and his ridge plates disappeared. “We will not lose Sandy. I will not fail a female of my nest so grievously again. Now…tell us what you intend to do.”
Carew threaded an IV into Sandy’s arm. It was a testament to her condition that she didn’t react to it. Arren had learned she had an intense dislike for needles and hypos.
Rayn broke the tense silence. “We can force enough nutrients into Sandy’s body to support two Xxanian young, but the less she does, the better. Swimming or floating in a bathing pond will be preferable to walking. She cannot work.”
“Of course not,” Arren agreed.
The scientist tipped a head grimly. “We want to encourage her to carry as long as possible. As it is, it will be difficult to get her to four months.”
“Four?” Arren protested. “Can a young one survive being born so soon?” The typical Xxanian pregnancy was five months. The typical crossbred pregnancy was almost six months. A rare few lasted just under five.
Rayn focused on him, his expression solemn. “Most probably. I want to keep Sandy in a nest environment as long as possible. At three months, we have to bring her here. We can arrange a low-gravity nest suite for you both.”
Raashh interrupted. “I will provide plants from one of the satellite nests.” He focused on Arren. “Choose a nest for your mate’s care.”
The words to refuse stuck in his throat. It was presumptuous to assume Arren would move back into the nest.
I don’t have a proper nest, and I can’t do this alone. “My childhood nest. It is most calming.” And close to the pool.
A look of discomfort flitted onto and then off of his seir’s face. “Precisely why I chose it for you.”
“Will you have space for one of my assistants?” Rayn asked.
Raashh straightened at the question, and his ridge plates undulated.
Rayn waved off whatever protest Raashh might have been about to voice. “I have a few unobtrusive males on staff. Tim would be a good choice.” He motioned to the one he’d introduced as Carew. “He has dealt extensively with Evan and Zondra Duncan.”
To Arren’s surprise, Raashh looked to him for an answer instead of making a decree for the nest.
Arren considered it carefully, scanning his gaze over Tim Carew before he answered. “If it will keep Sandy and my young safe, I will agree to that, but he won’t be sleeping in our personal nest.”
“No. Nothing like that,” Tim groused in English. He switched to Xxan to continue. “I’ll only enter your personal nest to administer medical aid, run tests…or to administer IVs. The IVs will be timed. I’ll have to administer at least one during the sleep cycle, but I’ll try to disturb you as little as possible when I do it.”
“We’ll have to sleep in clothing then,” Arren noted to himself.
Rayn took over. “We will be outfitting Sandy with a bio-tracker. Tim will carry the report plate.”
“Should Arren also have one?” Daveed asked.
“Why?” he shot back. “I won’t be leaving Sandy. Anything that requires my attention can be sent by courier or accomplished by electronic transfer from the nest.”
He expected Raashh to deny the installation of electronics in the nest. His seir tipped his head in agreement. “See to it, Daveed.”
Arren met his brother’s questioning gaze. “My Identi-chips are in the s’sanuea. Everything on the desktop of my nest office will do for now. We can arrange with Betty to send whatever else I need later.”
Daveed clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You know I will see to it.”
“I’m…starting to.”
His brother offered a tense smile and headed for the shuttle bay.
“Wait!” Arren shouted after him.
Daveed turned back in seeming shock.
“Her lamp. Sandy can choose whichever of her possessions she wishes brought to the nest later, but there is a lamp next to the bed that she must have near her. It’s precious. Antique. It has been passed from mother to daughter in her family for seven hundred years, Daveed. Nothing must happen to it.”
His brother hesitated for only a moment, then tipped his head. “I’m honored that you trust me to see to its safety.”
“I do.” He wondered at it, but it was true. Arren nodded, then turned back toward the bed.
Raashh came to Sandy’s bedside and stroked the side of one large finger along her cheek. “We will not fail you, little daughter.”
****
Sandy shifted on the bed. She must have fallen asleep at her desk again. She mumbled Arren’s name, her mind still too foggy to consider getting up.
Movement to her left announced Arren rushing to her side, and Sandy reached for him. The skin under her hand was covered in smooth, cool scales. She pulled back and opened her eyes.
The massive reptile sent her scrambling back to the headboard of the bed. Movement closed on them from every side, and Arren gathered her to his chest, soothing sounds rumbling between them.
“It’s my seir, Sandy. Calm down. It’s my seir.”
She nodded. “Just startled me,” she managed. Little details started sinking in, first and foremost the IV line in her arm. Sandy looked down at it, trying to work out why she’d needed one. She hadn’t thrown up a single meal. How could she dehydrate?
Someone cleared his throat, and she looked that direction, meeting the eyes of the closest lab-coated man.
He offered a tip of his head. “Welcome to SLAL, Sandy. I’m Stephen Rayn.”
“I’m in space?” When did that happen? Why had it happened?
A strained smile was his only immediate answer. “Raashh and Arren brought you here for medical care.”
She peeked up at the Xxanian elder and nodded her thanks. “I’m sick?” Her heart pounded at a worse possibility. “Or there’s something wrong with the baby?” She looked Rayn’s direction, hoping for a negative response.
Rayn paused for a moment. “Babies,” he corrected. “Carrying one Xxanian young one is difficult enough for a human Hauaa. Carrying two causes a
few problems.”
“You’re not suggesting—”
“No,” the scientist at Rayn’s right cut her off. “If we try to terminate one, you would probably lose both. It’s better to help you carry both as long as your body can tolerate it.”
Her breathing eased a bit at that pronouncement. “But?”
Rayn took over again. “But you’ll be on bed rest.”
“I can’t seem to stay out of bed for very long anyway,” she groused.
“We’ll have to live at Raashh’s nest,” Arren inserted. “I will be working from there.”
Sandy chanced another look at the elder. “Is that…okay?” She stopped short of asking if Arren was willing to risk his family’s mistreatment.
“Yes,” Arren assured her. “It is.”
Raashh snorted in a manner that said he’d found her question offensive.
He understands English. Does he speak it?
As if answering her, the elder cupped his fingers under her chin. “Li-ttle daugh-ter,” he pronounced in stilted English.
She managed a smile for him. Raashh didn’t seem so bad to her. I may find he is in time.
Rayn drew her attention back. “Let’s go over the treatment plan, Sandy. After that, we’ll let you get back to the nest.”
Chapter Twenty
Two days later
The movement of air drew Arren’s attention away from the quarterly reports. He tongue-scented, unsure who would enter his personal nest without calling out softly first.
“You need something, Raashh?”
As if he’d taken it as an invitation, his seir moved closer. “Looking in on my nest daughter and the young ones.”
Arren turned from the desk and watched as his seir leaned over Sandy. Raashh massaged Sandy’s quickly expanding womb and made cooing sounds that would soothe the young ones. He’d never seen his seir act so solicitous before.
Maybe now is the time to ask. “What did Rayn mean when he talked about saving me?”
Raashh went rigid for a moment, then relaxed. “Your Hauaa died when you were a young nurser, little more than a week old. I thought you knew this.”
“I know I have no memories of her, but I didn’t know when she’d died.” No one ever discussed it. Why would I?
“It was my failing. Marie complained of pain, but I’d foolishly equated it to the pains Daahn’s mate suffered after Andy’s birth. I did not seek medical attention for her, as I should have. Marie was strong and healthy, and I was attentive to her needs. I told myself… If it was serious, we would know it, Marie and I. I would act to protect my mate. She chided me so often about being overbearing about little things.” He laughed harshly. “You are the better mate, you see. When your mate and children are at stake, there is no such thing as a ‘little thing’.”
Answering that was difficult. “She died when I was very young, and I should have died with her. Rayn said I should have. But I didn’t.” Arren hadn’t thought a young babe could survive without its mother.
Raashh didn’t reply directly to that. He seemed lost in bitter memories. “She died when Daahn and his mate were visiting with young Aleeks. My killing rage was fierce. I thought I’d lost both of you, and I had no one to blame for it but myself.”
The elder paused, stroking Sandy’s womb as if he was as comforted by the move as she would be, if she were awake. “Daahn had no choice but to incapacitate me. I woke with him standing over me, my mate dead. My younger son…gone.”
That piqued his attention. “Where was I?”
“It took me the better part of a week to calm down enough to ask that question. It took almost another for me to calm enough for Daahn to trust me with an answer,” Raashh groused. “Until then, he would only tell me you lived.
“Daahn had summoned Mac to take his mate and gran-vvaashee to his nest, while he handled me. He ordered Mac to take you to Rayn. If anyone could save you, he’d hoped it would be Rayn. I think he knew that losing both of you would end me.”
Arren considered the moment he’d learned Sandy was seriously ill. It would have ended him, but he’d always thought his seir was stronger than that. “Go on.”
“You were half dead when Mac carried you off the shuttle and handed you to the scientists at SLAL. Human milk substitutes nearly killed you. They put” —he motioned to the IV absently— “the tube in you while Rayn put out a call for anyone nursing a crossbred child.
“There were two. One was a human weaning her young one; the other was a crossbred female actively nursing. The crossbreed’s milk was complementary to your needs, and Rayn synthesized milk from samples he’d taken from her.”
His seir offered a slight smile. “Rayn’s mate became your…suurahget…Hauaa. Eva carried you in a sling, skin to skin with her. They fed you with a human style bottle. By the time Daahn trusted me inside SLAL, you had bonded to her.”
“Which meant I couldn’t be separated from her,” Arren guessed.
“Not until you’d weaned. I could not bring you to our nest for months after you were taken from it. Your health was too fragile. When I…we did, Rayn and Eva stayed here” —an encompassing motion to the personal cave Arren was sharing with Sandy— “in this nest. It was calming, one of Marie’s favorite satellite nests, and it was close to mine.”
There was more, Arren was certain. “You blame yourself for more than my Hauaa’s death.” He didn’t question it.
A sound of mourning escaped Raashh’s throat, and his frills tucked close to his body in a sign of shame. “You were a Dominant. My failures…changed something. I cannot know what. Perhaps it was the loss of the nest environment in your early weeks or the loss of your mother’s changing milk…or our mixed scent carried in her milk. Perhaps it was the loss of family scent soaking into your skin and the addition of the scents from SLAL. Perhaps it was the trauma of nearly dying. I can never know precisely how I failed you, but I did.”
Arren ground his teeth in frustration. “I am not a failure, and I am sick to death of being referred to as one.”
Raashh offered a piercing glare not unlikely the ones he shot Daveed when his elder brother had offended Raashh. It wasn’t an expression Raashh typically spared for his Subdominant son. On some level, Arren found it heartening that he did so.
“And, at times, you are so very like a Dominant, I believe the change in your scent and your diminished size is some error. It must be. Not even your brother would dare say the things to me you do.”
A smile curved Arren’s lips up. “You know what the humans say, my seir. The runt must fight the hardest to stay even.”
Raashh’s brow wrinkled, as if he hadn’t understood that. “Which makes you the stronger man,” he offered gruffly. “But do not presume too much. I tolerate much from you, like your appalling manner of dressing, but impertinence means I will test your strength as I would your brother.”
“I welcome the test of a brother warrior.”
His father paused as if he meant to say something more, turned, and strode toward the center nest. “You will not when you have tested me for the first time.”
Arren bit back a laugh. If it meant his father saw him as an equal, he would nurse his bruises with pride.
****
“You understand what will happen?” Arren asked.
Sandy nodded. Arren’s description of the Xxanian custom of bathing a new female member of the nest didn’t sound all that disturbing to her—certainly no more disturbing than communal steam rooms were and less overt than the private dining rooms at Xxanian restaurants were—but they seemed convinced she would balk at it.
Tim looked from the readout of her condition to Arren. “Honestly, not too stressed. If she crosses the line—”
“I know,” Arren cut in. “You’ll warn us from out of view, and we’ll forego this for now.”
Sandy rolled her eyes. “If you’re done treating me like a barely-legal virgin…” She moved to stand.
Arren vaulted to his feet and scooped her from the
lush sleeping mat.
She met Tim’s gaze and motioned to her position. “Is this really necessary?”
He darkened. “Unfortunately… Yes. The less time you spend on your feet, the better. Arren will carry you wherever you need to go. If he’s not there, for any reason, Raashh will. If it’s an emergency, Daveed or I will carry you, but I can’t imagine Raashh and Arren are both going to be gone at the same time while you’re carrying.”
“Not a chance,” Arren agreed. “Tim… If you would…” He motioned toward the doorway to the center nest.
“On my way.” He left their room.
“What is he doing?” Sandy asked.
“Letting Raashh know you’re ready to be bathed.”
“Oh. Okay.”
Arren headed out after him.
Raashh waited for them in the center nest, but Tim was nowhere to be seen. Daveed and his sons stood to Raashh’s left. Sandy wondered at that, since she knew they weren’t permitted in the pool while she was bathed.
Daveed tipped his head in a formal show. “This welcome would typically start with a formal introduction of you to Raashh, but since that has already happened, we will skip forward a bit.” He stepped closer and bowed deeply. “I welcome the sister to the nest. If you require any comfort or protection, know that every male is at your call to provide for you. You honor us greatly with your presence.”
“Wow. That’s…that’s very nice.” It was. It was an incredibly sweet vow.
He smiled as he straightened. “It is usually said in Xxan, but since you don’t know enough Xxan to understand it yet, I wanted to be sure you understood what we promise you.”
“Thank you.”
He stepped aside and waved his sons forward. They bowed together and the older started speaking. “We welcome the female to the nest. If you require or wish for anything, we are at your call. You honor us greatly with your presence and the young you add to the nest.”
The younger added his comments. “May you carry well and safely, Hauaa zhhaaia.” They straightened.