Reggie sighed and leaned back against his chest.
“Okay, Walooth, I have to admit that this is perfect. Thank you.”
He lovingly brushed her hair away from her sweat-slick face. It still bothered him that she was feeling so ill.
“It is my pleasure to share this with you.”
She turned in his arms, her blue eyes shining softly as she met his eyes. She leaned in and he welcomed her embrace when her lips glided against his own and begged for entrance. He surrendered to her thoroughly, mating his tongue with hers in a languid dance without a concern in his mind or hearts.
He should have known to pay attention when they were exposed above the canopy. There were not many dangers for a Vori above the canopy, but that did not make it so safe.
It was not until she was ripped out of his arms that he realized his mistake.
The cry of the massive mogva shrieked within seconds of its sharp claws closing around Reggie and ripping her upward into the skies, its great wings beating. Walooth let out a shout that felt ripped from his hearts as he flung himself upward from the trees, his claws drawing blood on her arm as his hand just barely closed around her arm before the mogva shot up out of his reach.
For a moment, Walooth knew true terror as he was suspended over the canopy, flying rapidly over the jungle with every pump of its wings. He could not allow the mogva to take them any higher or further, or he risked their very lives. The only thing he feared more than plummeting from such heights was losing Reggie to predator.
Below, he could hear the shouts from the clan as they passed over the nesting grounds. A bellow that he assumed had to come from Shaagra rose wordlessly into the air.
A sound of rage and sorrow.
Walooth grit his teeth. Reggie was in his care. He was not as big or strong as many of the Vori males, but he could at least care for and protect his mate. With an angry hiss, his arm shot forward to grip the large claw around his female. He knew he was taking a calculated risk, but he saw no other option. His tail barbs were neither large or strong enough to inflict damage on a mogva, but there was one thing nature had given him.
Closing himself off from any possibilities that could make him hesitate, Walooth thrust forward and sank his fangs deep into the digits of the talons gripping her. The mogva shrieked, his wings batting ineffectually through the air, dropping from the sky as he pumped venom into its veins.
Walooth prepared himself for the moment the talons relaxed and he clutched Reggie tightly to him, shutting out her screams of terror as he flung himself toward the rapidly approaching trees, whipping his tail in their plummet, seeking anything to grip to break their fall.
His hearts beat furiously in his chest as if they were trying to burst free from him. It was little compared to the pain they met from branches scratching them as they fell down through the canopy. Walooth turned his body to try to absorb the worst of the impact from limbs they crashed through. By some miracle, he could feel the trajectory slowing with every branch he managed to even briefly grip with his tail.
When he felt his tail finally secure a hold, although it terribly wrenched the muscles from the tip of his tail through his abdomen, he coiled his tail around it with desperation. His arms never loosened even once from their lock around Reggie. His breath expelled painfully from the weight of her body crashing into him, but he welcomed it, knowing it meant that she was safe.
She shuddered against him. “Ohmygod, ohmygod. Walooth, are you okay?” she whimpered.
His lungs still hurting so as to prohibit him from drawing enough air with which to speak, he contented himself with stroking his hand over her back. He prayed to the Mother of the Nest and the sentinel Fathers that their clan would find them quickly. He was not certain just how long he would be able to hold their weight hanging in their air by his tail before his muscles gave out with fatigue. He could already feel them burning from the exertion of stopping their fall.
After a while, a voice drifted up from beneath them.
“Walooth! Hold steady, I am coming up!” Shaagra commanded.
“Hurry!” he gasped.
Shaagra proved himself quick climbing into the trees because Walooth did not spend more than a few minutes more hanging before he felt the weight of the male leaning over him, his own tail wrapped overlapping Walooth’s tail. With a grunt, Shaagra dropped down in front of him and pulled both of them into his wide arms. Walooth could feel the glide of Shaagra’s tail twisting on the branch as he slowly drew them right-side up.
Panting in exhaustion, he opened his arms to release Reggie into Shaagra’s embrace. The male’s eyes focused on him, a warm light in them. His hand gripped Walooth to steady him even as Shaagra clutched Reggie close to his body. Walooth leaned against him, grateful for the steady support until he regained enough energy to slowly make his way down the tree following after Shaagra and Reggie.
Once again, he suffered through Vadal treating his wounds, but both of his nestmates looked upon his with pride. He was not so certain he deserved such regard. If he’d been paying attention, Reggie never would have been in such danger from the mogva. Reggie lay beside him, her eyes closed panting softly into the pillows, her hair once more dampened with sweat.
Walooth grimaced. “This was all my fault.”
Vadal raised a brow. “How so?”
“I never should have taken her from the nest. She was just so hot and I wanted to give her the pleasure of enjoying the Viiper Falls from the upper canopies to help cool her when she was not feeling well.”
“She is unwell?” Vadal frowned and turned to run one of his numerous instruments that Walooth could not discern from another over Reggie.
Walooth closed his eyes. “She has been feeling overheated the last several days. I thought maybe it was just the heat of Vora getting to her, although it seemed unusual. I very much regret my error in this. Vadal, Shaagra, please forgive me.”
Shaagra looped his hand gently through his crown coils, tightening just enough to catch his attention as he tilted his head upward to meet his eyes. Shaagra’s expression was firm—but kind.
“Walooth, you erred in judgement when you lost your attention to your surroundings, but you saved our mate. You are not just a breeder mate, although you are our third. You are our nest brother in truth in every way and Reggie’s mate. Rest brother and heal.”
Walooth closed his eyes one more, a lightness filling his heart at those words. They recognized him as brother and with rights of a mate. He was Reggie’s mate in all ways that mattered, even though anyone else would just see him as a breeder mate, a third taken with no purpose other than to be another body within the nest. His skin shuddered with joy and he felt his tail twitch upon the pillow. He did not open his eyes until he heard Vadal’s voice.
“Brothers!” Walooth peered over to where Vadal looked up from Reggie’s side, his hand caressing their mate. Shaagra leaned forward over her with concern, his crown coils lightly caressing her skin.
“Is she well?” Shaagra’s voice carried the full weight of his concern.
Vadal nodded, a smile of the likes of which Walooth had never seen on the male’s face.
“Reggie is perfect in all ways,” Vadal announced, his red eyes shining. “Our mate is gravid with young. Our nest will soon enough greet our young.”
“How many eggs does she carry?” Walooth felt his excitement build and could not resist the question.
Vadal peered at his screen, a frown puckering his brow. “These readings do not show eggs. If I am not mistaken, I am looking at three Vori young encased in her womb without shell.”
Walooth felt himself chill with uncertain dread.
“Will our young not survive then?” Shaagra lamented, his sorrow clear.
“Actually, I think they will be born as VaDorok and human young are born, as other species who do not bear shelled eggs to mature external of their bodies. Our nestlings will be born live from her body.”
All three males contemplated this, a
nd not one could quell their shudder.
Chapter 21
Reggie pressed a hand against her stomach. She’d awoken to the sounds of her mates chattering around her. “Pregnant?”
Vadal clicked in the affirmative. “You carry three within you, Reggie. It is too soon to tell the sex, but they are there coiled around themselves in their own sacks within your womb.”
Reggie’s brow creased with confusion. “But I thought it would be like what you told me about the Edokas. Shouldn’t I have an egg sack like your females?”
“It is strange,” Shaagra muttered in agreement. “Vadal, are you certain they are as they should be?”
Vadal laughed. “You should be the last to say so, Shaagra!”
“Why should he?” Reggie asked.
“Although it is not common knowledge, it is well documented that in times in the distant past our species were more diverse, this included not only in features which you now see more common but also in reproduction. In particular, the mountain Vori were known to carry live young where their territory was both cooler and fraught with more dangers. Although, Shaagra should know this of his own ancestors, such traits would have at some point been part of the mine and Walooth’s periphery clans near the mountain.”
It was Walooth who posed the million-dollar question.
“If these traits are no longer existent, why should they manifest now? And if they are showing up due to breeding with a human, what would this mean for our nestlings?”
Vadal rested back on his coils and regarded Reggie thoughtfully. “I really have no definite answers, or really any answers until our nestlings come, but I suspect it will be a good thing. Allowing our species to diversify once more will make healthier clans. This is the problem of planets like ours who have been unable to interbreed with offworlders until now. A closed system eventually breeds out all its diversity and mutates problems. Adding new blood has kept those planets which could breed among others healthier than our own.”
Reggie felt her eyebrows shoot up. “You think it may be an issue of a genetic mutation?”
“Those are my thoughts, yes. But until we, or another Vori-human mating, produces nestlings for me to compare against current populations, I will not know with any certainty. The habit of human reproductive cells responding to the genetic DNA of other species so as to shift just enough to mimic it is something quite unique in the universe. Truthfully, no one really knows what to expect.”
Reggie felt her breath catch with excitement. “If you’re able to isolate the mutation, is it reversible?”
“If our offspring are showing throwback traits, it is likely that human-Vori pairings will completely lack the mutation. This means that we may be able to artificially manipulate the genes in our existing population.”
“What would that mean for humans on Vora?” Reggie dreaded the answer, if it meant she might remain the odd human on all of Vora.
“Oh, we will still need to interbreed with humans if we don’t want a repeat within a generation or two. Do not worry, Reggie. You will not be the only human,” Vadal laughed, anticipating her concern.
As she ran her hands over her belly, she wondered what the babies would look like. There was no way to know which of the males fertilized which of her eggs. Perhaps that was a good thing… still…
“This is such news!” Walooth’s eyes brimmed with excitement. “I will have to send word immediately to my clan.” He pulled his comm from his vest and immediately bent over it
Shaagra nodded, a broad grin splitting his face, his scars pulling up in familiar creases of happiness that she so loved as he dug out his own. “I as well! All the Agor clan will celebrate such news. Our clan has even fewer nestlings than most.”
“And I must give news to my mother,” Vadal enjoined. “She will wish to hear of this immediately.”
“Don’t you think that is a bit premature? I mean, we don’t even really know who fertilized which one,” Reggie put out there carefully.
All three males stared at her blankly—and then laughed.
What was so funny about that?
Vadal reined in his laughter and lightly flicked the other two with the tip of his tail. “My apologies, Reggie. I’m not laughing at you. We forget sometimes that you don’t understand Vori culture.”
“It does not matter to Vori which male gave his genetic material. A nest is one,” Shaagra explained, his eyes gleaming still with amusement. “We are your mates and as such all nestlings belong to us and are considered ours by our clans. It is why we formed our family names by joining our clan names together. Upon mating to EtaliAgor.
“Even though Walooth is not socially recognized as part of the mated bond, he would still be recognized as part of us and as father too. It is the way of us and the way of our gods, the Fathers unindividualized from each other but are one together with the Mother from whose nest all life comes.”
Walooth nodded. “We are all the fathers, and our young will be equally loved, cared for, and taught by all of us. That is our way.”
Reggie’s eyes widened as she absorbed the implication. Her mates would never favor any one child over the other based on biology. Their children would be raised knowing all three of the males as their fathers in equal share.
Vadal’s comm chirped. “Ah, Mother received my comm and wishes for me to come to her immediately,” he said with a laugh. He leaned forward, his coils lightly looping around her, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I will return soon. I am certain she has many questions she wants answered, but I will get away as soon as I am able to.”
Reggie leaned into his embrace for that brief moment before Vadal unwound himself from around her and left their nest. She wasn’t bereft of touch for long. Shaagra and Walooth inclined back on the pillows, drew her down, and embraced her lovingly between them, their tails coiling and wrapping around her.
***
Vadal followed his fathers back into his mother’s nest, into the central room where she kept her office now that her nestlings were all grown and gone with nests of their own. He had memories of what the nest had been like when he was younger. The cool comfort of it, lying with his brothers on the finely woven Morith rug she so prized. A gift given to her by Father Nokvolo, ordered from Mora Two the day Vadal hatched.
“Vadal!” she greeted him enthusiastically, embracing him. “Such wonderful news! How many eggs are we to expect?”
“No eggs, Mother. They are arriving in the old mountain way.”
She frowned, her expression perplexed until understanding came upon her.
“Truly? There have been no documented live births among the mountain Vori for at least eight hundred revolutions.”
He clicked his affirmation. “It is a good thing. With human blood mingling with ours, we may see traits return that we haven’t seen for generations. Our young may also be the key to solving our own fertility issues.”
His mother relaxed into her coils, a soft smile playing about her lips. “Your nestlings will be a double blessing then.”
“We must arrange a proper greeting for them,” Nokvolo spoke quietly from his left. Nokvolo was the quieter, and more patient, of his fathers. Yet he had big hearts, always welcoming his nestlings.
Father Morsu clicked, his face lined with happiness. “How long then, Vadal? And how many nestlings should we prepare your nest for?”
“After six lunar cycles, in my estimation, we will greet three nestlings.”
A jubilant hiss filled the nest, as did the small celebratory cacophony of the striking rattles of their tails. One unfamiliar with the Vori might have thought the sound was a display of threat, but like most species, their sounds had nuances. He paused. “Reggie might wish to share the news with her family on Earth. Has my comm system arrived?”
His mother looked over at Father Nokvolo with a brow raised in inquiry.
“We received a system yesterday. I was uncertain for which nest it was intended. I had planned to go around and ask after it. Now
that we know it is yours, Morsu and I would be happy bring it over and assist in setting it up.”
“Many thanks, Fathers. I am certain Reggie will be thrilled to have it.”
***
Reggie watched the males work tirelessly, hauling equipment into the nest and hooking cords up. The long-promised comm system had arrived. She’d hated to disillusion Vadal about her family. She had no interest in speaking to them, not even to give them news of their offspring.
Not after the way they’d treated her. Not that they would accept alien grandchildren, anyway. They’d been among the most vocal to sneer at the Mate Index when it opened to applicants.
Father Morsu adjusted the viewing screen on the wall. “How is this, Reggie? Is this a comfortable height and angle for you. You are so small I don’t wish you to be straining to see it well.”
Reggie gave him a thumbs up. “It’s perfect! Thank you, Father Morsu and Father Nokvolo. I’m so grateful for this.”
The older males smiled with pleasure, and Reggie had a flash of insight on how her own mates would be many years down the road. Their bodies still firm but carrying a bit more thickness, their scales of a duller, softer hue, and faces lined deeply from laughter and ready smiles.
“We are pleased that we could assist, Reggie,” Nokvolo returned with a calm, gentle smile.
She offered the males the simple hospitality of food and drink, but they declined kindly, eager to return to their own nest and Esfalee. No sooner they were out the door, Reggie clapped her hands together.
“Okay, guys. Let’s get this thing going. How do I call Destiny?”
Within a matter of minutes, the image of a familiar woman clutching a cute blue-scaled baby to her chest firmly, despite its wiggling to get away, appeared. In the viewing screen, Destiny leaned forward, her eyes wide.
“Ohmygods! Reggie!” she shrieked. “Where are you? What in the world happened?”
“It’s—a long story.”
“I am all ears, and then I am going to have A’Jular pack-up the starship for a visit. I have to see everything with my own eyes and make sure you are really okay. So, you better prepare for company!”
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