Venomous: Erotic Science Fiction Romance (Alien Warrior Book 1) (39 page)

“You mean other than
you
?” I snipped still angry. “You didn’t listen to me. You were going to
hurt
–” I choked off unable to accuse him aloud.

“They were not to know,” Nāga said. “The scans indicated you were unwell.”

Venomous’ hold on me tightened to a painful degree then relaxed. “For all I knew, your mind was infected.” He plonked me back on the observation table then lifted my chin. His face creased with disquiet. “Forgive me?”

Mollified and needing him close, I propped my chin on his shoulder. Fidgeted. “Are you happy about this?”

A stroke to my back, a cheek to cheek touch. “There are no words for the joy in my hearts.”

On the L’Odo slave planet the mere notion of getting pregnant made me want to break out in hives.

Safe in Venomous’ embrace, head to his warm chest, his hearts thudding with power under my ear, I felt something else.

As he inhaled my scent, and caressed me with aching tenderness, frantic sparks of excitement merged to create a blazing core of joy.

Even if I had been too unnerved to be pleased, I’d unconsciously declared how I felt about becoming a mother, moving to protect my unborn child as soon as it was threatened.

Scary, yes, but a miracle too.

“I am to be a father,” Fiercely rasped. He looked bonked on the head. “Serpent’s Hood, my kindred will hold festival for aeons.”

My lips parted in surprise as I wondered why he spoke with possession over something he had no hand in creating.

“Indeed.” Venomous bared fangs in a grin. “Our union bears offspring.”

My mouth opened to question them but then closed.

Watching them clap each other on the back, I gave up trying to understand their ‘nest mate’ ways.

They were happy.

What might I ask other than clumsy questions that would dim the outpouring of joy?

Preoccupied, Nāga asked, “Rä’Na, how long does a human gestate?”

“Nine moontides.” I twisted to face him. “Give or take two cycles either side. We divide it into trimesters. Three.” I paused, thoughtful. “That’s pretty much the sum of all my prenatal knowledge.” I snapped my fingers. “And that giving birth? Not so much fun.”

Nāga didn’t appear surprised. “Like the Verak.”

“Everything is ... normal?” I asked then held my breath.

“Yesss.” He glanced up. “Normal as can be considering nothing like this has been seen before on Rök or Earth. You are healthy, it grows strong.” Finally, he held the tablet behind his back then smiled. “You will greet your hatchling in three moontides. I offer congratulations.”

“
Three moontides
,” Fiercely breathed. “So quickly.”

“So that’s unusual for you guys too, huh?”

“Yesss.” Nāga’s mouth curved. “It takes two solars after laying for an egg to hatch.”

My head popped forward on my neck as I gaped. “Seriously?”

“We keep it warm and safe in the furs. The life giver dedicates herself to guarding the nest, and her male protects the lair.”

“What about work?”

The three Rä’Veks stared at me as if I’d sprouted horns.

“There is no work during nesting,” Fiercely said in a tone filled with outrage at the suggestion of an alternative.

“How do you pay the bills? Buy food?”

“We have not consumed the fossil fuels of our planet for aeons, and kindred on the nesting calendar bring gifts of grain and meat.” Venomous appeared startled I didn’t know this. “Fruit, roots and roughage are taken from the garden. Wild yeast is caught and preserved. Eggs from the Zýt. Mylk from the goodbeast.”

“What else do you need?” Fiercely demanded.

They peered at me as if telling me sky was white and grass blue, but they didn’t appreciate how outside the realm of my experience it was.

Fiercely asked, “Where would you get your food on Earth?”

“We’d visit the supermarket. It’s a place where all the food is stored in bulk.”

Venomous looked as puzzled as the rest of them. “How do they keep so much fresh?”

“Uh, chemical preservatives.”

“That explains the frightful levels of toxins stored in your tissues,” Nāga muttered.

“Your kindred would not be insulted if you did not honour them on the nesting calendar?” Fiercely asked.

“Firstly, I don’t have any living family,” I motioned to them, “aside from this one.”

They sucked in breaths and keened.

Venomous also stroked me, already gleaning this much about me from our conversations on the slave planet.

“It’s okay.” It touched me it affected them. “My life is different now. Secondly, I don’t know what a nesting calendar is.”

“A visitation and gift giving schedule for the solars of isolation,” Fiercely enlightened. “They also bring word from the provinces. There is the communications matrix, of course, but it is not the same as hearing it from a live source. Public news broadcasting is biased and you lose nuances.”

The Rä clearly had a strong sense of kith and kin, and even the smallest blood relation was cherished.

Coming from a tattered family, it was daunting.

Thinking on what I’d learnt, I frowned. “Nāga, I don’t understand how a Rä female can give birth to an egg without, forgive me if this is insensitive, cracking it.”

The healer sobered. “It happens. Sometimes the egg sets hard early. Even if the hatchling survives the laying, the nesting
and
the hatching, they are deformed, and do not survive long. Taking an egg away from a life giver during nesting, damaged or not, is dangerous. They are ferocious during that time. They have been known to kill to protect it.”

Explains why my hysteria didn’t faze him.

“How soon do they, uh, lay after conception?”

“Within two cycles.” Nāga tapped a claw to his chin. “I surmise your gestation period is accelerated because you are incubating your offspring inside an embryonic sac, as the Verak do.”

“What is that?” Fiercely asked sounding worried.

“A membrane,” Nāga replied. “Think of it as a soft, thin egg.”

“So her egg is
inside
her body.” Fiercely leaned against the table as his knees wobbled. “It is there, we just cannot
see
it.”

Venomous pressed two palms to his brille and breathed out harshly.

His lower hands patted and rubbed me.

They looked relieved I was carrying an ‘egg’ but I had bigger concerns. “What about pain relief? Is my system and the baby’s ... hatchling’s compatible with your drugs?”

Nāga gave me the Rä chin drop. “I do not understand.”

“I’m pregnant. That means labour.”

“Labour?”

Stares of absolute non comprehension.

“Laying ... labour ...
whatever
. When the hatchling comes, I will have excruciating stomach cramps to push it as it crawls out.” I feared I’d start hyperventilating at the thought of what was to come. “
Labour
.”

Fiercely bent to study my stomach in morbid fascination.

“There is no pain in egg laying,” Nāga stated.

I eyed Venomous’ broad shoulders.

Skimmed my gaze down his very,
very
large four-armed frame.

I faced Nāga. “My labour will not be painless.”

“Nature will prevail. You breed. Your body would not allow this to take place if you could not lay.”

Cold at the thought of a natural birth, having seen enough films to know I was in for a world of hurt, I pressed a palm to my forehead.

Chaotic thoughts smashed together. “Okay. Okay. You’ll be my healer?”

“As I am the only Rä with practical experience of your kind, modest as that practice may be, I deem it best. We glimpsed the problems caused by one ill-equipped with Seeker of Hottest Rock.” Stern, he switched his attention to Venomous. “I need to see her once a cycle.”

Fiercely straightened. “So much?”

“This will be my first human laying, Rä’Vek. I must monitor the hatchling’s development to catch any irregularities before her time to lay...labour.” He made a notation on his tablet. “I need to put in a request with the Senate for permission to contact the medical subsidiary of the Intergalactic Alliance. The more data we have on offworlders similar to Lumen of the Stars the better. I would rather be over prepared than lacking knowledge if a complication arises.”

“That will not be an issue,” Venomous stated. “I will speak to my father.”

“Comm me if you have any concerns. Unless an emergency, do not let another healer touch her without consulting me first.” Nāga clicked his teeth. “Even then scrutinise their every move until I arrive.”

“We heed your words.”

“Our gratitude,” Fiercely said his expression and tone of voice heartfelt. “If you had not come upon us when you had....”

“Think no more of it. If you will excuse me, I have an engagement with my Rä’Na’s kindred.” The glimmer of excitement lighting his eyes died. He bowed out the enclosure. “Good parting, Rä’Veks. Honoured Rä’Na.”

I stared after him. “I feel bad. He’s alone.”

Venomous sighed. “He has his kindred. They will care for him.”

“Does he have offspring?”

“No,” Fiercely replied.

Shaking off my sadness, I placed both hands on my stomach. “I’m excited.”

“So am I.” Fiercely grinned. He pulled out his communicator. “I’m going to comm my father. He has prayed for a hatchling to spoil for solars.”

“Wait.” I looked between them. “I get the feeling Rä don’t conceive easy or often.”

Venomous grinned. “Yesss, it is a special time.”

“Would you mind if we kept this to ourselves for a while? Just until I’m settled.”

Crestfallen, Fiercely clicked his teeth as he looked at Venomous.

“If it makes you happy,” Venomous agreed seeming disappointed himself.

“Thank you.” I slid off the table. “Now let’s get out of here.”

We climbed into the glider then set off for Venomous’ lair.

He lived in the same district as his parents, so we agreed to stop there first for what I hoped would be a low-key gathering as he reunited with his people and introduced me.

“What is that material in the drains?” I looked at the pavement. “And the walkways?”

“Feldspar,” Fiercely answered. “It is a popular a building material for the watercourses and bathing enclosures due to its high mineral content and antiseptic properties.”

“Everything is so pretty here. It glitters.”

“The shine is called adularescence. See how the lustre comes from within?”

“And you use it for drains?” I sounded as incredulous as my expression. “It reminds me of moonstone from Earth. The gem isn’t too expensive, but still, not used to manage sewage.” I paused. “You don’t have sewage as I think of it though, do you?”

“Aeons past we used chemicals to filter impurities from our water. Is that so on Earth?”

I nodded an affirmative.

“We found it harmed us and the soil. We are a closed world, and once our healers conquered the worst of the bacterial infections that plagued us, it became a case of maintaining ecological harmony, which we as a people are a part of, more than the stripping of impurities. The algae, moss and Feldspar act as natural filters. The waste water travels the aqueducts, rubs against the rocks and plant life and is purified then reused. It is why you see water everywhere.” He smiled. “Simple but effective.”

“So all of it is dirty?” I gestured to a slanted wall we passed that cascaded water. “That kind of ruins the magic.”

“The large particles dissolve before the water leaves our lairs. What you see here is going through the last of the cleansing process.” He gave me a stern look. “It is safe to drink from fountains, but not the gutters.”

On a gust of wind, my hair streamed over my face.

I pushed it over one shoulder, holding onto the ends. “Sweetheart. That will
not
be a problem.”

We passed under a canopy of flowers growing on arced, curlicue trellises.

Kneeling, my fingers strained to reach a fat cluster of blooms as we idled.

“How do you know my hearts are sweet?” Slowing behind another glider, he studied me. “Do humans eat the flesh of other humans, so you think mine might be tasty too?”

Straightening in the back seat, Venomous cocked his head then fell back laughing.

Hearing this, I dropped my arm to the side of the transport to keep from toppling out of it as I spun on my seat to gawk. “Fiercely! It’s an endearment. Humans aren’t cannibals.”

“Yet you have a name word for sweet tasting hearts.” His brille narrowed. “And for humans that eat humans.”

I threw my hands up. “It means I think you’re sweet
emotionally
.” I blinked then wagged a finger. “I don’t even know why I call you it. You’re so touchy and argumentative.”

Fiercely looked sceptical, but let it go to focus ahead as the congestion cleared. “Look there.” He pointed to a clearing in the rooftops where the city roads converged. “It is the Senate Quarter. It leads to the marketplace.”

Gripping the padded headrest of the seat adjacent to him, I shielded my eyes with a hand and squinted at the bustling hub.

Glider traffic and the goodbeast bridleway flowed in that direction.

I twisted to Venomous. “May we go? Can we? Please?” I bopped side to side, excited to explore my new home world. “
Please?
”

Smiling, he rubbed a thumb across my lips. “There is nothing I will not grant you when you smile at me so.”

Fiercely altered the glider’s course in a sweeping arc over the spiral tipped domes, and we soared towards the city centre.

We flew under a pavilion then floated around until a docking port opened then landed in front of a cylindrical post, a strip of metal near its apex, etched with a flashing cipher.

As we disembarked, Fiercely swiped his personal communicator over the numerical glyph, and the blinking light vanished.

The transport was entombed in a protective force field once we stepped out of range.

Walking between them, my head swung side to side taking in the architectural splendour as we followed the footpath into the marketplace.

Streams of people ambled around, and many stopped to stare at me, but I barely noticed them, starry eyed at the urbane shopping precinct.