Not much further away, Walooth was enchanting members of clans with his displays of illusion. Reggie had no idea her mate was such a talented illusionist. He played with fire and water; he tricked the eye with his sleight of hand. Reggie joined the cheers when he concluded his performance with a pleased flush and a bow to his audience, but the love in his eyes was all for her.
“I can’t believe all of this fuss is for them!” She stared in disbelief, her hand resting on her belly.
Vadal’s ruby eyes turned toward her, sparkling with mirth.
“It is nothing unusual,” he said, his voice warm. “It is rare enough for nestlings to come that the clans of the family always gather to celebrate a new addition to their number. I have seen events with as many as eight clans together many times the size of this one. That you are producing liveborn young in the way of the mountain Vori is being particularly celebrated by Shaagra’s clan who hope to regain their ancestral ways.
“Their nestlings suffer the most. The mountains are hard on eggs, which is why their kind had evolved to bear live young. This is common among the mountain and river Vori most specifically, and both groups suffer for its loss.”
Suddenly, Reggie was struck with clarity as to why the Agor clan members had been approaching her all day, broad smiles on their faces, requesting to lay their hands on her belly for the blessings of the clan. She hadn’t understood, but now because of Vadal, she could see the hope that her nestlings would bring.
“Are they staying until they’re born then?”
“You could not pry them away,” Shaagra announced as he dropped beside her. “As it is, all the clan Mothers, by tradition, will be present for the birthing. They are preparing a birthing nest for you,” he said, nodding his head toward some kind of structure, before which a large altar was crudely fashioned.
As the sun began to sink, she noticed Fathers Morsu and Nokvolo hauling a large wooden image of the Mother of Nests from Esfalee’s nest to the large altar. Those standing nearby raised a sound of appreciation; horns, likely taken from some beast, were blown. Females threw handfuls of perfumed flowers over the image as it was set upon the altar. Numerous necklaces made of stone, wood, and flowers hung around its carved neck.
It wasn’t until the smell of the burning of resinous woods permeated the air, along with the intoxicating smell of flowers, that Reggie was aware of their first ripple of pain. Reggie’s breath hitched and she wiggled to adjust her girth to a more comfortable position.
She tried to ignore it as evening set in. The grounds were aglow with bonfires, but as the evening progressed, the pains got worse until she couldn’t hide it from her mates any further. When her body arched up and a sharp sound caught in her throat, Shaagra swept her up immediately against his body.
Esfalee signaled to the attendants to clear the way to the birthing nest as she and the other clan mothers followed close behind in Shaagra’s wake with Vadal and Walooth. Vori all around her began to mutter prayers to their ancestors and the Mother of Nests.
Reggie tried to say a few prayers of her own, but more than anything, she wanted to scream at the awful pain. This was no graceful delivery. Destiny had made her own delivery sound like something graceful and beautiful—easy, even. This was nothing short of brutal.
Shaagra lay down on the birthing pillows and brought Reggie perched, fully supported, into his coils.
“Shaagra,” she panted, her eyes stinging with sweat, “if you set me on you, I am going to get all kinds of blood and birthing yuck all over you.”
Her mate snorted. “If I can stand getting blood from a gutted kill all over me, I have no doubt I can handle whatever is within you.”
“Famous last words,” she bit out around another surge of pain, so strong that she nearly leaped off his coils. Her water broke, gushing amniotic fluid everywhere. She felt Shaagra stiffen, but the smart male did not recoil. If he’d pushed away from her, she probably would have slugged him… maybe.
Vadal ran an instrument over her belly. He frowned. “Reggie, how long have you been in pain?”
She wrinkled her brow in thought. “Oh, a few hours.”
He sighed and put his equipment away. “You are ready to birth,” he told her calmly.
“Yeah, no shit. Figured that one out like three minutes ago,” she said. She felt blessed that Vadal never took offense to any of waspish moods when they hit her. If any situation deserved it, this one did.
Holy fuck, did she hurt!
Walooth bathed her with cool water as she labored for what felt like hours, her body straining to deliver her babies. Several times, Shaagra shifted her with the assistance of the clan mothers, trying new positions to help draw their young down. All Reggie knew was that she ached demonically and desperately wished she’d delivered little eggs like Destiny had.
How did she get so ripped off on the whole baby or egg thing? Next time, she was going to personally petition the mother of Nests for eggs, damnit.
Vadal looked down, a little pale, but a smile pulled on his lips. “I see the crown coils! The head is crowning.”
Shaagra craned his head and immediately paled, and even Walooth to the side looked more pink than red. Reggie snorted. She’d tried to warn them, but did they listen to her? Nope.
Only the clan mothers looked unperturbed, though none of them had probably seen such a thing before either. All the same, they handled everything with the same kind of silent efficiency that she imagined they used running their clans.
Esfalee broke into a grin when the baby slid from her body. Reggie looked down, watching the tiny winkies that had been extruded in her womb slip into little body of her son at the contact of the cool evening air. His scales were dark with birthing fluid, and he scrunched up his face and let out a loud, demanding squall, the length of his tail lashing around.
Reggie reached for her son and the nestling was set on her belly as Esfalee began to buff his body with a soft fibrous cloth. The clan mother paused and gasped as the glow of the bonfires hit the male’s scales sending out a radiant rainbow of color. Reggie stared at them, her finger tracing a scale that shifted in color from one end to the next from blue to fire-orange. Her son was painted with rainbows! Suddenly, the little male blinked, staring up at her with eyes as purple as amethysts, flawless and clear.
A whisper of sound fell around her, and Reggie looked up to see all the clan mothers folded down over their coils in surprise and wonder.
“Never have we seen such a thing in generations upon generations,” Esfalee murmured. “For as long as any of us can remember, we have all had red eyes. Only in some of the eldest ancestral portraits do you see different hues.”
Reggie marveled at her beautiful son. Gently, Walooth took him from her arms just as her body began to tense for another contraction. Reggie whimpered, knowing she had to go through it three more times.
Several hours later, Reggie reclined against Shaagra, his body cleansed of blood and the birthing pillows removed to be burned before the Mother along with all the afterbirth. She couldn’t help laughing when she saw the horrified looks on their faces when they’d seen the bloody aftermath of childbirth. Poor Walooth had endured seeing four babies enter the world with fortitude but passed out at the sight of the afterbirth.
Not that Reggie could altogether blame him. It wasn’t exactly pretty.
Now her males were coiled beside her, each holding an infant. The clan mothers had each held the babies and gave their blessings upon them before leaving their family to their peace. The announcement of the successfully delivery of all four nestlings raised a shout of such volume that her opalescent little daughter, whose scales shone with hues of white, cream, and pink, whimpered and opened her brilliant pink eyes for just a moment before settling back into sleep.
Vadal held their son, still marveling over his exceptional coloring that seemed almost a perfect blend of all three of her mates. The sight made Reggie’s heart warm with pleasure. Shaagra held a daughter of the most beautiful h
ue of royal purple that faded into lavender at the tip of each scale. In Walooth’s arms rested a daughter the color of sapphires, twin to their son.
Tradition wouldn’t allow them to name their young before ten days passed, when the infernal spirits no longer lingered. That was a good thing because, while tons had been suggested to them, their family hadn’t settled on any. Except…
“Vadal, when the times comes, I would like to name our son an Earthen name.”
Her mate looked surprised but then he nodded, a pleased smile on his face. “Of course, Reggie. They may be Vori in every way that matters, but they still have your ancestors to pay respect to.”
“Good,” she said, a tender smile tugging at her lips.
Reggie watched as Eyuul entered their birthing nest, the first of Vadal’s brothers who would come to pay respect. His eyes shone with warmth as he looked upon their children, lingering on her son.
Her beautiful son would be Morpheus, lord of dreams.
Days Later
Vadal peered at the cells on the projection. Cells from all four of his nestlings, carefully and gently scraped, were pulled up beside several others taken from his clan. He paused as he noticed a subtle difference in female cells.
Could the mutation be that simple?
Hours later, Vadal had meticulously cataloged and recorded every discrepancy and sent the information to scientists he’d worked closely with on the Intergalactic Space Station. To his surprise, they reviewed his research with enthusiasm and returned his comm immediately. They assured him that it was a minor mutation, one that could be treated with ease.
It was such a small thing, but one that never would have been found if his daughters had not provided their cells.
Armed with knowledge and support from his clan and the scientific intergalactic community, Vadal was on the frontier of providing his species the help they needed to treat the unnatural, aggressive madness in their females that seemed linked to this mutation—and their fertility issues.
Vadal closed his eyes in thanks to the Mother of Nests and the Father Sentries. His young were born with returning ancient features; they could treat the madness that terrorized their species, and now their females would be able to successfully bear healthy nestlings with fewer worries.
Suddenly, the future of Vora looked much brighter.
Epilogue
“Morpheus, get back here,” Shaagra called as their son slinked beneath heavy fronds. Reggie held Miree firmly, her sapphire body writhing in attempt to get away from her mother. Her good children, Vree and Osha, lay in their fathers’ coils, their tiny crown coils floating around their little heads tranquilly.
Reggie wasn’t going to point fingers, but she felt fairly certain that pale Vree and her sweet purple Osha were the progeny of Walooth and Vadal respectively. Her monster twins could have fathered by none other than Shaagra, who was currently wading into the brush with narrowed eyes.
It seemed every time they left their nest, the twins were bound and determined to cause trouble. Shaagra had suggested taking Morpheus into the mountains to spend a few months with the Agor clan. Among his clan, they began to teach males to hunt and track at the age of three revolutions.
Reggie couldn’t believe it had already been that long. In all that time, she’d only had one regret: her inability to mend fences with her parents. Oh, she’d tried, but they made it clear that they wanted nothing to do with her or her alien offspring when they called her babies abominations. To her face. Unfortunately, her mates had been within hearing distance and had been murderously angry. It was perhaps a good thing that their family was nowhere near Vora.
As for her ex, Reggie suppressed a gleeful snicker. That younger model, his love of his life that he’d abandoned her for? She left him two years later and took half of his fortune with him for a man half his age. Served the rotten bastard right. Although Reggie felt satisfied with the turn of events, in a twisted way, she was grateful to him because that put her on course for meeting the males who treasured her beyond everything else and whom she loved.
Walooth gently set Vree on Vadal’s coils before slipping up behind her and wrapping his arms gently around her waist. His broad nose nudged her neck affectionately as he breathed her in, his hands caressing her belly. Reggie was pregnant again, and thanks to the merciful gods and the Mother of Nests, she was carrying two perfect little eggs this time. She knew that technically, with three mates, her body should have produced three eggs at least, which meant that one egg passed without being fertilized.
But that was the way of things on Vora. It was rare that all one’s eggs would be fertilized. That Reggie had borne four children was nothing short of a miracle to most of her Vori kin. Having two eggs growing healthy inside her was a gift.
And as of late, with the gene therapy that Vadal’s work had introduced into Vori communities, it was a blessing more and more females were looking forward to. Last she’d heard, even the Great Matriarch of the Western Continent had bore a clutch of six, all hatched, though before she had struggled to hatch even one.
All of Vora was bestowing honors upon Vadal. He’d been offered such great opportunities to join scientific teams all around the planet and reap his accolades, but he refused, preferring the quiet life as clan healer. His ambitions realized, he no longer felt the drive. Instead, he spent most hours of his days playing with their nestlings on the great rug in their central room.
She leaned back against Walooth, enjoying his warm embrace and the light touch of his lips as she glanced over at Vadal patiently and affectionately holding his daughters within his coils, his crown coils relaxed and calm flowing around his shoulders.
These days, he was always at peace, and it did her heart good to know that she helped bring that to him.
As if feeling her eyes on him, Vadal looked up to meet her gaze, his lips curving seductively. A promise for later after their nestlings were asleep. The trail of Walooth’s tongue backed up that promise.
“You little monster! That is the last time I dive into Nixai bramble after you,” Shaagra hissed. “You came within inches of falling into the river and then what would you have done?”
Morpheus took a deep breath and let it out in gusty sigh. “Sorry, va.”
“You would be sorry if you fell into that river. River Omlo is not gentle and would pull you down and eat you if you are not careful. You are still too small to wander away from us.”
“Yes, va.”
Shaagra muttered under his breath but held their son close to his chest, the tiny face tucked up against his neck. Not a trace of anger lingered on his face, but a little fear remained. Reggie stepped away from Walooth to approach her other mate, her hands rising to crease the frown of worry gently from his face.
“He’s okay,” she murmured. “It’s an experience he’s gonna remember. He won’t go near the river again without permission—isn’t that right, Morpheus?”
“Yes, sa.”
“Good.”
Together they reclined on the soft grass, enjoying the distant roar of the waterfall and the rush of the river just beyond the brush. This was their favorite place to picnic, an Earthen traditional that her mates had developed a great fondness for. It was their special place as a family. Reggie was stolen from Earth, but she had made her home on Vora—and could never regret it.
Epilogue 2
Eyuul slid away from the happy sounds of his brother’s family. He didn’t want to envy his brother, but he did. A male like him would never find a mate. No female would have a male who couldn’t enter into the bonding lock with a nest brother.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand it or agree with it; he just couldn’t do it. Everything within him recoiled at the idea of sharing his nest and mate with another male. He knew it was selfish and terrible in the eyes of the Vori, and it meant that he was destined to live his life alone.
He made his way winding along the path of the river, lost in his thoughts when he noticed a small movement in the
shallow waters near the bank. Frowning with concern that it may have been some injured Vori or beast, Eyuul didn’t hesitate to rush the edge of the bank. It was one of the few calm places in the river where he could hope to safely approach.
When he made his way down, he drew to an immediate halt. Lying in the shallow waters was a human.
A female!
His head snapped around, looking for any sign from where she might have come or if anyone might be looking for her. All he could see was the raging white foam of the water. His hearts stuttered. She could very well be dead. The mass of red hair falling down her face obscured her features from him, and he couldn’t say with any certainty whether or not she was still among the living.
Tentatively, he leaned forward and pushed the thick mass of wet hair away from her face, looking upon the sharply defined, beautiful features of the female. Even more tentatively, he touched her chest and felt the soft intake of breath and the beat of her heart.
The Mother blessed her—she lived!
Shifting her weight into his arms, he held her close to his body, enjoying the smell and taste of her on his receptors when he flicked his tongue. He wanted her. She was his. It would flaunt all of Vori customs, but he wouldn’t let her go. He would take her high into the mountains and keep her secret from them all until the day came when she’d pull him into her mating embrace. Until then, she’d be his secret, and Vora would keep it safe.
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed the Vori and their mate Reggie. When I wrote the VaDorok, I knew that I wanted to write of this species right away. I always have had a fascination with gorgons, nagas, lamias and the like, so to bring it to life in an alien species was absolutely amazing. I also enjoyed the hell out of Reggie’s character and turning the whole thing on its head with an experienced heartbroken female pairing with emotional and physically scarred untried males. Playing with concepts of matriarchal society was also a rush.
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