Van, Becca - Help Me Fly Again (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (9 page)

Sandi had never seen two men move so quickly. One minute they were rolling around on the bed, the next one of them had picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. She didn’t even care that she had an audience. She was feeling just too lousy to care. Once Sandi was done, she was feeling so much better, except for the fact she was so lethargic. She had never felt this way before and didn’t like it one little bit. She knew she was a terrible grouch when she didn’t feel up to par, but to actually be physically sick made her feel like a wrung-out dishrag.

Sandi lifted her head to see Dreab and Erup staring at her with concern. Now that she was feeling a little better, the lack of privacy bothered her.

“Do you mind?” she asked with a raised brow.

“I’m not leaving,” Dreab stated from his lounging position against the doorjamb.

“What the hell gives you the right—” Sandi started then stopped as she glanced around at her surroundings.

The bathroom she was in was as opulent as any mansion back on Earth. The cold floor beneath her feet was a light, white marble color with streaks of gold and gray. She raised her head and glared at Erup and Dreab.

“Where the hell are we?”

“You are in our home, my mate,” Dreab stated, keeping his face blank.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You are in our home, Sandi,” Erup reiterated.

“Get out of here, right now,” Sandi said in a voice so low and quiet, her mates had to strain to hear her.

Sandi was furious. She was so angry she was shaking. She wanted them to leave her so she could clean up and get a hold of her temper. If she lost control, she knew she would end up saying something she would regret. She watched as they left the room, closing the door behind them quietly. She got into the glassed-in shower cubicle, letting the warm water run over her tired, aching muscles. Once done, she got out and dried herself off with a big, fluffy towel. She had no idea why Dreab and Erup hadn’t brought her to their real home before, but she intended to find out. She hadn’t done anything to make them feel threatened and wondered if they didn’t trust her.

Sandi walked back into the large bedroom and found a long, wide piece of colored cloth on the end of the bed. She picked it up and wrapped it around her like a toga, tying the ends together above her breasts. She walked along the cool marble floor, following the sounds of her mates’ voices. She stopped in the entrance to a gourmet chef’s dream kitchen with her mouth hanging open. She snapped her mouth closed, her teeth clicking together, and walked over to sit at the kitchen bench.

“Why the hell didn’t you bring me here right away? Why did you let me think you hadn’t evolved from the dark ages yet?”

“We wanted you to like us for who we were, Sandi, not for what we have. Plus, we didn’t know you very well. We weren’t sure whether you were going to be a danger to our clan. I’m sorry we didn’t trust you, but you would have done the same thing to us if we had crashed onto your planet.”

Sandi thought over what he had said. In a way he was right, but they were more courteous than humans were back on Earth. They would have been locked up in a secure facility and treated like bugs under a microscope. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to get control of her anger.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m not feeling very well, and I tend to be a real bitch when I feel ill, but that’s still no excuse. I can’t believe you didn’t trust me.”

“Would you not have been cautious about a strange being arriving on your planet and taking them into your home?” Dreab asked.

“You’re right. I know the people on Earth wouldn’t have been as hospitable as you have been to me.”

“What’s wrong, Sandi? Do you want me to call our healer to take a look at you?” Erup asked as he moved around the kitchen counter and sat on a stool next to her, taking one of her hands in his.

“No, I’m okay. I just feel a bit nauseous, and my stomach has these weird flutters.”

“What? What do you mean by flutters?” Dreab asked as he moved closer to Erup and Sandi.

“I don’t know. It’s like there is something inside me, moving around. Oh my god. Tell me you didn’t,” Sandi said as she covered her mouth with her hand and rose from her stool.

“Didn’t what, little one?” Dreab asked.

“Tell me you did not get me pregnant! You did, didn’t you? Fuck, what have you two done to me? Ever since I’ve arrived on this planet, you two have made choices concerning me without my consent. You didn’t tell me everything about the mating. You didn’t tell me I could get pregnant even though I was using contraception. Why didn’t you talk to me? If you had told me what was happening instead of keeping me in the dark, I would have understood you and your culture better.” Sandi sobbed, pain stabbing into her heart. She felt so betrayed. They hadn’t trusted her, and even though she understood why, she felt so hurt. She couldn’t understand why she was behaving the way she was. One minute she wanted to hug them and love them and the next she was feeling torn and hurt.

They had kept their real home from her, and now she was carrying their child. She loved them so much. They had inveigled their way into her heart and soul. Even though Dreab told her what to do most of the time, she knew it was because he wanted to keep her safe. And Erup was so much more sensitive than his brother. He often talked to her about the problems their clan faced and asked for her advice and opinion. She wanted them to love her for who she was, even when she was being prickly and irrational like she was now, but she knew they didn’t love her in return. They would have trusted her and told her about the real home a lot sooner if they felt any affection for her.

“Now I know you have lied to me. Based on what I’ve seen of your real home, you probably have all the things I will need to fix my ship. You will please get me the parts and tools I need to get off this God-forsaken planet. There is no way I’m staying here and giving birth to…to…to one of your younglings. I have had enough,” Sandi stated without any inflection, turned away, and headed back to the bedroom. She gave a snarl of satisfaction as the door slammed closed behind her.

Sandi had never been so uncertain in her life. One moment she was angry with her mates for concealing things from her and the next she was elated. She loved the thought of having their children. She’d felt it necessary to take a stand against her mates as she couldn’t let them get away with making decisions for her and not discussing issues with her. They had known she was pregnant yet had not said a thing to her. Had they wanted to push the fact she was with child under the carpet? Did they not value the life of their own flesh and blood? She didn’t want to leave them and take their child away. She wanted to stay with them and build a life filled with love, joy, and happiness, and to be able to nurture their child with them by her side. But she had a dreadful feeling time was running out. She knew her colleagues were coming for her. She was going to have to go back to Earth whether she wanted to or not. At least she would be taking a part of her mates home with her.

* * * *

Dreab and Erup followed Sandi out of the room with their eyes. They looked at each other and both spoke at the same time.

“She is going to leave us.”

“How were we supposed to know her birth control would not work against our seed?” Dreab asked with despair.

“I don’t know, brother, but we have a lot of groveling and explaining to do,” Erup said.

“I think we should tell Sandi that we love her. We have not once said how we feel about her, and she may think we are only using her for her body.”

“I think you may be right, brother. I just hope our mate will accept us and our younglings when she has had time to process all the information. She is such a strong-willed female, but underneath that tough exterior she is crying out for our love and affection. She looks at you with fire and love in her eyes when she thinks no one is looking. The pain and yearning on her face is almost too much to bear.”

“She looks at you the same way, brother. Do you think she will ever accept us for whom and what we are, as well as our younglings? I do not like to see her so angry and unhappy. I do not think I could survive without her,” Dreab stated.

“We cannot keep her here if she doesn’t want to stay. I think we should help her fix her ship and let her leave if that is her wish.”

“I don’t think I could continue on if she leaves us, but you are right. She needs to have the choice to leave if that is her heart’s desire,” Dreab said with a sigh.

“Let us give Sandi time to calm down and then we will go and join her and talk to her. I will see about finding parts for her ship, and if we cannot fix it, she can have one of the ships from our fleet.”

“From what I saw of her spacecraft, it will be impossible to fix. Just have one of the ships from our fleet prepared for our mate to depart in.” Dreab growled and stormed from the house.

Dreab wandered the underground tunnels and caverns of his clan’s home. His heart felt heavy and ached in his chest. The thought of Sandi leaving him was tearing him apart.

Chapter Eight

Sandi sat on the side of the large bed and placed a hand over her lower abdomen. She tried to contain her smile of elation at the fact of being pregnant with their child. Maybe she would be able to talk her colleagues from IDSE into letting her stay. She didn’t want her child growing up without all its parents. Even though she had told her mates she wanted to fix her spaceship and leave, she had lied to them. She had let her emotions rule her tongue and said things she hadn’t really meant. She wanted so desperately to stay.

She had never thought she would settle down and have a family of her own. She had dedicated all of her time to her career and her flying. She knew other humans didn’t understand her dedication, but they had no idea what she was really like.

Sandi had lost her parents just after she had started on her career path with IDSE. A forensic investigation had confirmed Sandi’s parents had been killed by an experiment gone wrong in a lab. The explosion had rocked the foundations of the building her parents had been working in, but luckily no one else had lost their lives. But then a letter had been found amongst the rubble. A previous disgruntled employee had killed innocent people just to get back at them for being fired. The perpetrator had taken chemicals and put them in bottles with the incorrect labels. What she had never found out was why her parents’ lab had been targeted. The news of her parents’ death had been spread far and wide. Her colleagues at IDSE had treated her as if she was made of glass and would snap at any moment, not speaking to her unless she spoke to them and giving her a wide berth if they ever happened to be in her vicinity. She could tell they didn’t know how to handle the fact her parents had been killed in a so-called secure facility and knew they felt guilty in some way for her parents’ deaths.

Sandi had learned to close herself off from people and had vowed she would never get married and have children. There was no way she wanted her kids to go through the anger, despair, and grief she had after her parents’ death. She knew now that her emotions had been her way of grieving, but she didn’t want her child to miss out on having all its parents in its life.

Sandi had a lot of questions she wanted—needed—answered, but she wanted to make her mates stew for a while. Hopefully they would seek her out and explain things to her before she had to ask. Surely they weren’t that insensitive. But they were men, after all. Men just didn’t seem to understand the female psyche. They were such straightforward creatures. They always seemed to think of themselves first, and when they weren’t thinking with the head on their shoulders, the small head between their legs took over.

Sandi began to think about what her child would look like and whether she would give birth the normal way. She had a vision of giving birth through her mouth and began to laugh at her overactive imagination. She couldn’t handle the images anymore and was about to go in search of her mates, but before she could move, the door to the bedroom opened.

“Sandi, we have a meal ready. We thought you might be hungry,” Erup said hesitantly from beside the doorway.

“Yeah, I am starving. While we eat, I have some questions I want answered from you two,” she stated as she jabbed a finger into the air toward Dreab and Erup.

“All right, little one. Come and eat first, and then we will answer all your questions,” Dreab replied from behind Erup. He and Erup moved ahead of Sandi and pulled a chair out for her at the table.

Sandi looked down at the steaming food on the plates on the table, and her mouth began to salivate at the delicious smell.

“What is this?”

“That is what you would call meat and vegetables. We have a food simulator to provide us with all of our needs,” Erup explained.

“You mean I could have been eating this instead of rabbit food all the time? You two owe me big-time for deceiving me,” Sandi said with a scowl. She picked up her utensils and cut into the meat. She groaned with pleasure as the wonderful flavor burst on her taste buds. She didn’t say another word until she had eaten everything on her plate. She sat back in her chair, replete for the first time in days.

“Okay, question-and-answer time, boys. How do your females give birth? And what am I going to be birthing?”

“I imagine you will give birth the way any female does,” Dreab replied as he raised an eyebrow arrogantly.