Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (88 page)

“Your boys make a wonderful alarm clock,” Ri said pertly, offering an impish grin to her mother-in-law. Aleah stared at her for a stunned moment then gave a sly smile in return.

“They take after their fathers, then!” She winked and both women giggled like high-school girls. Aleah sobered first, her gaze a bit troubled as she heard Jace calling for Sean out on the balcony. She sighed and offered Ri a smile. “How are my grandchildren this morning?”

Ri patted her tummy. “Growing like crazy. I think Jace measures me every time he looks at or touches me lately. They’re growing much faster than humans normally do.”

“You’re only two months along, which is half-way there for a Thorsani,” Aleah agreed, her eyes narrowing on Ri’s expanding waistline. “But even for our people, you’re rather big.”

“Hunter felt one of them kick this morning, and was able to see a little foot,” Ri told her.

“That’s wonderful!” Aleah gasped. She went on to describe how Sean, Hunter and Jace’s fathers had reacted when she was pregnant with them, how goofy the men were while trying to communicate with their children in the womb.

As they assembled breakfast and set the grains to simmer, Aleah’s speculative gaze kept returning to Ri’s belly until Arianna finally laughed, took the older woman’s hand and placed it over the babies. For a moment, nothing happened then Aleah sent a wistful shaft of energy through her hand. “Come on, kick for grandma.”

And the babies did. Delighted, Aleah squealed softly and pressed both hands to Ri’s tummy, concentrating hard on letting the babes know who she was and how much she loved them already.

Ri grinned as she watched her other-mother coo and talk to her baby-bump. The older woman certainly didn’t look like a grandmother, with her rich blond hair, bright blue eyes, clear skin, and golden tabby markings. Her face had the barest trace of age lines around her eyes. Arianna hoped she looked as lovely and young at two-hundred fifty. Hell, she hoped she was able to
live
that long! But Aleah was still young, in the eyes of her people. The Thorsani tended to live nearly seven-hundred years, so it wasn’t surprising that Aleah and her mate looked as young as their children.

“What are you doing, Leah?” Geoff asked, coming up behind his wife and grinning at her.

“The babies are kicking and communicating with me!” Aleah laughed, taking her mate’s hand and pressing it to Ri’s belly. Arianna rolled her eyes indulgently. Thorsani were naturally a touchy-feely people. She was lucky that someone wasn’t touching her tummy at all hours of the day and night. Then she decided that the only reason they weren’t was because they were usually busy running the colony.

Hunter came over to be part of the fun as well and with all three focused on them, the babies were practically doing acrobatics inside their warm home. Ri could feel their delight and curiosity in the energies surrounding them and loving them.

But as Ri laughed at Geoff and Hunter making fools of themselves talking to her belly, she looked up and caught Jace’s forlorn expression before he could hide it. Sobering, she sent the others, Readers all, a gentle command to quiet and back away. Aleah looked up, caught Jace’s scowl before he turned and disappeared out onto the balcony once more. Ri started to go after him, but Aleah held up a hand and shook her head.

“Let me talk to him,” Aleah said softly. “He’s always wanted to be a Reader, has always been fascinated by it. I’m sure he’s feeling a bit excluded right now, though he knows there’s no one to blame for it.”

Hunter watched his mother leave, stricken. He hadn’t thought about how much his brother was missing by not being a Reader. He blinked at Ri, helpless to fix this particular issue. Sensing his turmoil, she wrapped an arm around his waist, holding him and offering him soothing energy to help calm his thoughts. His arm automatically came around her, his hand landing on the side of her belly, gently rubbing there, as though unable to help but touch the lives within. She felt his guilt when he realized what he was doing, what his brother could not do. He started to remove his hand, but Ri pressed it to her, holding him there.

“It’s not your fault,” Ri reminded him gently. “He can’t be a Reader just from wishing it so, from what you have all told me.”

“I just… I was so excited, I didn’t think of his feelings,” Hunter murmured, disturbed by his behavior. “I know the joy of talking to my child in the womb, but Jace can’t know it. That’s …”

“Something you can’t change, love,” Ri interrupted gently. “Which drives you crazy, since you like making things right for people. You need to accept that you can’t fix this and just be there for him.”

Ri sighed, hugging him once more before backing up. “Breakfast is nearly ready. Another ten minutes, and the grains will be done. Would you keep an eye on them while I go see if I can find Sean? I don’t think Jace found him out there.”

Hunter nodded mutely, lost in his own troubled thoughts before she turned away.

“Jace, love,” Aleah murmured as she stepped onto the balcony. Her gaze immediately found her son at the other end of the lovely garden overhang, leaning against a muskywine fruit tree. His face was dark, his eyes brooding and his lips set in that thin line that Aleah knew meant he was feeling sorry for himself. He was such a happy person, normally. If he was any of her other sons, she would chastise him for being so self-pitying, but this was not a normal situation. He had every right to feel left out. Sighing, she wandered over to him, her fingers trailing through the last of the summer blooms that lay against the railing.

“You don’t have to say it, Mom,” Jace muttered, running a hand over his face. “I know I’m being a child, feeling sorry for myself.”

“Jace, love,” Aleah said, sliding her arm around his narrow waist and laying her head against his chest, “You are allowed, just this once, to feel this way.”

“I am?” he asked with an arched brow, one arm coming around her, hugging her to him. They had been separated for so long that both took comfort in the other’s nearness whenever they could. She nodded, watching the sunrise over the mountains.

“You are. I’m sorry that we didn’t consider your feelings when we were interacting with the babies. It just didn’t occur to me, though it should have. I will try to contain myself from now on, when you’re around.”

“It’s okay,” Jace sighed, his body relaxing a bit. “I just… I want to feel the same thing Hunter did this morning. The look on his face when he traded energy with his baby… Hell, it could have been
my
child he was talking to, for all we know.”

“It could have been,” Aleah allowed, nodding. “We didn’t know which was which when I was carrying Siae and Kale. But Karl, Kess and Geoff sent both babies their love and energy, every chance they got. And the boys knew it. It was truly amazing, and I’ll never forget it. Every single time I’ve been pregnant, my mates and children have been able to exchange energy with the babies.”

“Except for me,” Jace sighed, leaning his head back against the tree.

“Except for you,” Aleah echoed. “But that doesn’t mean that the babies will love you any less, sweetheart.”

“I know that,” Jace said. “I don’t remember much about Kess or Karl, but I know that their energy got to me, even if I couldn’t send it back. I thought of them as my fathers from the start, just as I did Geoff.”

“It is our way,” Aleah nodded. “But I can understand your frustration and your wish to take part. I wish I could make this better for you.”

“None but the Gods of Ishira can bestow the gift of Reading, as far as we know,” Jace reminded her gently. “I am sure that the gods have a reason for denying me the gift.”

“Perhaps,” Aleah said, looking up at her son. “Or perhaps they knew that, had you been born a Reader, you would have taken a path other than medicine, and they did not wish for you to do anything else.”

“I guess that’s a possibility,” Jace shrugged. Sighing one last time, he straightened from the tree and hugged his mother’s slim waist. He frowned when he felt her ribs. “But as my little one often says, ‘it is what it is’.
I
will survive.
You
, on the other hand, are still far too thin for my peace of mind. Some of the humans might be naturally slender, but Thorsani women are not meant to be so small.”

“I’ve been eating almost non-stop since I got here, Jace!” she protested with a laugh. He shook his head, the sparkle back in his eyes. Aleah sighed silently in relief. Her other children could brood when the mood struck, but her Jace had always been the sun in her sky, her laughter and joy.

“Not good enough,” he lamented. “I’m afraid I am going to have to prescribe extra helpings, snacks between meals, and Ri’s sticky buns at every available opportunity.”

Aleah laughed, delighted at his quick return to playfulness.

“You only want to be sure Ri keeps the sticky buns on hand, so
you’ll
have them,” she admonished him. Jace grinned wickedly down at her.

“Well, now that you mention it, that
would
mean she’d have to have them around all the time, wouldn’t it? I hadn’t thought of that!” He chuckled as his mother giggled, then steered her toward the door to the suite. “Let’s go see how breakfast is coming along.”

Chapter Two

Streaks of purple and pink, orange and red spread across the sky, lighting the valley and the compound with a wash of rosy color. Above him, the sky lightened from star-studded black to dark purple, plum, before finally, with a flash of fuchsia, it settled into its normal amethyst. Scraping his hands across his face with weariness, Sean watched the morning break over the mountains that surrounded the colony.

He walked slowly along the edges of the compound, careful not to step on the multitude of the furry little
kimis
that seemed to follow him wherever he went. The darn things adored him, just as they adored Arianna, and probably because they were both highly empathic. Sean sighed. The sight of her, laughing as the little creatures nuzzled her and demanded petting, stole his breath and his heart every time. The love she sent out to the creatures, the unconditional acceptance of them, made him want so badly to be part of her inner circle, to be included in that sphere of love that she bestowed on his brothers and the gentle animals that had made themselves part of the colony’s life.

Cursing beneath his breath, he tried to force Arianna from his mind and instead focused on putting one foot in front of the other. How could he long for her when she was the reason he was out here?

Well, to be fair, she was only one of the reasons. He had slept on the balcony, but the couch that was so comfortable for whiling away an afternoon in the sun was not so comfortable for a full-grown, injured Thorsani warrior to sleep on through the night. He had aches in parts of his body he’d never imagined he would, which was impressive, since he’d been known to sleep in some strange places throughout his long and active military career.

Those aches and the pain of his recent laser wound hadn’t awakened him, though. No, it had been the sexual energy permeating the household this morning. The balcony ran the length of the living area of the suite, with his parents’ bedroom on one side and Hunter’s on the other. Between the two bedrooms, Sean was in a state of aching need. Having developed the skill very early in life, he’d managed to shut his parents’ energy out. That hadn’t been a problem.

But he was unable to block Ri. The way her mates made her feel, the way she responded so passionately and sensually, was tearing him apart. Every time he saw his brothers’ plaits in her hair, it hit him again that she belonged to them, but not to him. It felt wrong, on a soul-deep level, that she wasn’t his, as well. Not because he had once been part of his brothers’ team and was again, and not just because he had found himself in love with her.

If she had shown no interest in him, if she hadn’t let him see into her soul the day he saved her, he wouldn’t have fallen so hard and fast for her. But her guard had been down and he had seen the essence of her that day. He’d seen, in an instant, what had caused his brothers to fall in love with her, what made them so very protective of the tiny Earth woman. She was so strong and delicate, equal parts shy and sensual, incredibly intelligent and in some ways naive. She was a small, curvy bundle of contradictions that fascinated the Counselor in Sean and made him want to delve into her mind for hours at a time. He wanted to see how she worked, how she managed to smile when she had every excuse in the world to never be happy again.

But she
was
happy. She laughed, smiled, giggled, and played as though her heart had never been broken, as though she didn’t know what it was like to lose her entire world, not once, but twice. She had managed to overcome all of the tragedies life had thrown at her, adapted, and found love again. She was thriving in a world that was completely new to her, with mates that were a different species, from a different planet and culture. The light within her was awesome to behold, a golden glow that warmed Sean’s soul each time he touched it. Just being near little Arianna was enough to renew his strength, to bolster his belief that life after the attempted genocide of his people would return to a new definition of ‘normal’.

But he wanted that life to include her. He wanted to be a part of her family before the babies came. He wanted to be there when she gave birth to children that he fervently hoped would one day call him ‘papa’. He wanted to give her more kits to love, children that would call his brothers ‘dad’, as well. He wanted his kids to have the huge, loving family that he’d grown up with. And just like his mother had been the center of their world so many years ago, Sean desperately wanted Arianna to be the center of his and his brothers universe, the shining star around which all of them revolved.