Unexpected Mates (Sons of Heaven) (37 page)

Darm moved Sandy from the transport cart to a full-sized
bio bed
, and the healers gave them a moment of privacy to dress her in a
tova
nursing gown. In the next moment, Gabin was between her legs, his hands deep inside her, his expression grim.

“He’s coming fast.”

“No. It’s too early,” she repeated.

“Look at me, Sandy,” he ordered. When she complied, the master healer offered her a tip of his head. “Remember that you are dealing with a race who had interstellar travel when Earthlings were living in caves and forging simple metal tools.”

She nodded.

“Children are vital to us, and more research has gone into the saving of them than you can imagine. We have the ability to aid your son, but not until he is out of your body. Do you understand me?”

“You’re telling me to push?” she guessed.

He tipped his head. “When you feel the need to. Yes.”

The healer Gabin had sent away rushed in, pushing a small clear box, loaded with medical tools. Gabin nodded and ordered a sterile field. The shield came up, and the air within smelled of uba leaves.

A natural disinfectant. Often used in sick rooms for those with immune problems or communicable diseases.
Darm wanted to ask if the babe would suffer lowered immunity, but he didn’t want to stress Sandy. Nor did he want to waste the healers’ time.

It seemed there was no time to waste. Sandy curled her head toward her womb, squeezing down hard on Darm’s hand, her scream echoing off the walls. Her legs shook in the effort to bring their son forth, small as he must be.

“That’s good, Sandy,” Gabin encouraged her.

One of the other healers handed Darm a wet cloth and tipped his head toward her. He nodded in understanding and started bathing her face and neck with soothing herbs.

Words emerged, though he hardly knew what he was saying to her. Promises that their son was strong and would fare well overlapped with praise for her efforts at bringing him forth.

At a momentary break in her need to push, Sandy leaned against his chest, gasping for breaths. A smile curved her lips.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You’re calling him
our
son.”

“Well...he is. Isn’t he?”

Sandy nodded and started pushing again, her face contorting in pain.

At the next break, he asked the question he’d been thinking of asking for days. “What is his name, Sandy?”

She shook her head. “Shouldn’t we...discuss that together?”

“I know you have your heart set on one,” he countered.

“How could you know that?”

Darm pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I know
you
.”

Sandy moaned and started pushing again. Another shout of pain left her.

She collapsed against his chest at the next break. “Darren.”

“Our son’s name?” he guessed.

“Yes. That’s the name I...” Sandy started pushing again.

“I like it. Darren, it is.”

It didn’t take long for her to deliver him into Gabin’s hands. Sandy sank to the pillows, and Darm went back to bathing her with the herbal water.

The silence was nerve-wracking, and Sandy noticed it. “Is he okay? Why isn’t he crying?”

Darm looked over his shoulder, watching Gabin administering an aerosol medication to Darren by way of a tiny face mask. “They’re checking him.”
Sakkan, please. Let him survive and thrive.

She struggled to sit up, and Darm blocked her way. “You need to lie still for a bit, Sandy. You...” He looked to the closest healer, pleading for help.

The healer tucked a blanket around her. “Your blood pressure is a bit low, due to the labor. Stay here for a moment, please.”

“But our son! I want to hold—”

Darren let loose a piercing wail, and Sandy startled. In the next instant, she was crying hard.

Darm didn’t have to ask why she did. She’d been terrified that their son wouldn’t survive, that everyone was hiding the fact from her. Hearing him alive was too much for her to bear in her fragile state.

He hugged her, whispering assurances that Darren had the best possible care on Earth.

At last, Gabin brought the
tova
-wrapped babe to them. He was small enough to fit in Darm’s hands, held fingertips to fingertips, but Darren was kicking and beating his fists, his face screwed up in fury and deep red.

The master healer produced a small tool and showed it to Sandy. “This will help you feed your young one. It will allow him to eat breast milk, which is best for him.”

“How do I use it?”

One healer raised the head of the bed, while Gabin showed her how to attach the adapter to her breast. Darm passed their son into Sandy’s hands, and he took to eating like a young bird to his mother’s beak.

Tears rolled down her face, and she laughed at Darren’s expressions.

****

A knock at the doors brought Darm’s head up. He glanced at Sandy, smiling at the fact that she was finally getting much-needed sleep.

Gabin went to the door and opened it, waving someone in.

Sakkra strode into the medical bay, smiling weakly at the sight of Darren in the
bionette
. “I take it your son is doing well?” he inquired.

“Very well, thank Sakkan.”

“Good. Good.” He glanced at Gabin and raised an eyebrow. “Then perhaps our master healer will see fit to release the lock-in before change of shift?”

Gabin went red-faced, mumbled apologies, and set to work releasing it from his work station. Darm chuckled at the oversight. In the rush of the birth, none of them had been concerned with anything but the most pressing concerns.

Sakkra ambled to the shield, peering at Darren through the light antiseptic mist within. According to Gabin, he would require nearly three months of isolation time within the sterile field and daily medications to build his fledgling immune system and respiratory system for longer than that.

But Sakkra’s concerns were more mundane. “We have no
cuzta
or training wraps for a babe so small. I will see if we have any warriors skilled in fabrication on Earth. If not, I will send for smaller
cuzta
from Sakk, and we’ll use the human equivalent of training wraps.”

Darm nodded. “My thanks for your help.”

“I will make a general announcement this morning, when I tell the men your good news.”

A smile pulled up at Darm’s lips.
I have a mate. I have a son.
He would be the envy of the consulate.

“The main medical bay is yours for the duration. The consulate will be using the battle bay.”

“Is that necessary?” The battle bay was smaller and less equipped for everyday use.

Sakkra sighed. “It is prudent. As it is, everyone will want to offer gifts and prayers for the young one. We will have to keep order by insisting on medical lock-in for the three of you and high sterilization protocols for everyone and everything moving in and out.”

Darm nodded. “I understand.”

“Good. I should get going then.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Darm hesitated, then erased the fourth message he’d started to compose. He’d tried issuing an ultimatum, but the thought of his mother reading it had been more than he could bear. Pleading for their acceptance made him seem weak, and that would never do. A dismissal of his parents’ opinions before they were fully formed was hurtful and presumptuous. A clinical recitation of the facts had proven no better.

How do I do this?
Now that Sandy and Darren had been properly claimed as his own, he couldn’t put this off any longer.

He’d never had difficulty speaking to his parents before. That thought made him reexamine his approach to telling them about the choices he’d made.

They are my parents. I should speak to them as I always have.

That in mind, Darm turned to the console and started typing a new missive.

My dear mother and sire,

My life has taken a wondrous turn of late, and I hope you will accept this blessing as I have.

A young match came to the consulate. She’d encountered an Earth-born Sakk-descended male, and they’d conceived a young one between them. Like many human males, the sire has no appreciation of the gift of mate and young. Rejected by the sire and by her own nest, Sandy came to the consulate—unprotected and bearing, seeking shelter in return for whatever work we would offer her.

Over the several
sa-sen
she has sheltered in the consulate, I have been her personal guard. I have protected her, soothed her
Kahdi
, and won her affection. She is a beautiful and loving woman, and we mated only yesterday.

Being late in her term, mating sent Sandy into early labor, and she delivered a fully-winged son. Though he will require close observation of the healers for an extended period of time, he is strong and determined. In many ways, he reminds me of you, father. I have claimed Darren as my own, as we both love him dearly.

I realize you may not accept these choices. If you can, I would like to bring Sandy and Darren to our ancestral home on Sakk when our son is old enough for such a journey.

If you cannot accept them, I will grieve your loss and remain on Earth with my beloved family. My place is with my mate and son.

May Sakkan keep you in health and safety, always in good cheer.

Darm

Darren fussed from his
bionette
, and Darm let out a soothing coo.

My place is with my mate and son.
He sent the message to the ship leaving comm range and hurried to his son’s side.

****

Three and a half months later

Darm entered their quarters with the tray of food and slid past the partition. He smiled at the sight of Darren noshing at Sandy’s full breast.

“Would you like me to feed you?” he offered.
Again.
Darren ate often, and it coincided with meals with regularity.

“No. He’s nearly done.”

He set the tray on the bedside table and fluffed Darren’s hair feathers, whispering a prayer for his strength and health. They’d only been released to their quarters a few days earlier, and Darren was still under constant monitoring.

“Oh, there’s a blinking light on the comm board. I don’t know what it means.”

Darm looked up, his heart stuttering at the blinking blue light.
A message. It must be my parents’ reply.
It surprised him that it came so quickly. They must have had luck in sending a message back on a far-flung vessel nearly the moment they’d received his.

“Darm? Is there a problem?”

“Not at all. I just have to check the message queue.”

She made a faint sound of agreement, and he took his leave to the main console in the sitting room. His hands sweating, he punched up the message.

My dearest son,

Mother.
Was it bad news? His mother rarely wrote missives.

Your sire and I were most surprised by your message. We wish you would have trusted us with news of your mate as you grew to love each other. I only hope you avoided doing so as not to raise the family’s hopes for your happiness without return. It would pain me to think you feared our rejection so completely.

Oh, but his mother did know how to chastise him. Thankfully, he could honestly tell her he’d been unsure if Sandy would ever choose to mate.

He went back to the missive.

Preparations have begun to welcome Sandy and young Darren to the ancestral home, with your sire’s usual military precision. We await news of your arrival.

May Sakkan bless and keep you all.

Impatiently,

Your sire and I

He commed the healer in charge of Darren’s care.

“Is there a problem, Captain?” he asked urgently.

Darm switched to Sakk for his reply.
“How soon will my mate and son be able to travel to Sakk?”

“I was not aware Sandy had made that decision.”
His voice was guarded.

“I mean to ask her, but I need to know when they will be allowed to travel before I do that.”

The healer hesitated.
“On the next monthly transport, I should think.”

“That soon?”
He’d expected a longer wait.

“Is that a problem, Captain?”

“No. Simply surprising.”

The healer chuckled.
“As always with a young one, Captain. Good day.”

“Good day.”
Darm closed the comm and hurried back to Sandy.

****

Darm came through the curtain, smiling widely.

“Good news?” she asked, settling Darren back in the
bionette
that monitored him, day and night.

“I believe so.”

Sandy settled on the mattress and lifted the plate of food into her lap. “Tell me while we eat?” She was ravenous and had been since Darren’s birth.

Darm settled beside her, but he didn’t reach for the food. Sandy took a slab of the sweet cornbread off the tray and added it to her plate. She loved it, and it seemed the cooks made a batch every day, whether the men were eating it or not, just for her.

“What would you think about going home with me?”

She was abruptly glad she hadn’t started eating yet. She might have choked at that question. “To Sakk?”

“That would be home,” he teased, but there was something sad in his eyes.

“You have family there,” she guessed. Strange that they’d never discussed that before.

“We all do. Yes.” He didn’t add that she didn’t have family on Earth. Darm didn’t need to. As her personal guard, he’d probably read her file in detail.