Interlude

Chapter 1

Lila

I’m frozen on Silac’s lap, and his arms have tightened around me in his anger. I hear him hiss aggressively, but I stare down at the beautiful, deadly man in front of me, and I’m kind of speechless. I know Bubby said he’d been acting suspiciously, but I had never considered this was the reason why. Brannock’s eyes glisten with shame and guilt, and I really don’t know what to say or do. Thankfully, one of the others does.

Xavier waves a hand, and Brannock is wrapped in bands of light and dragged up off the floor until he floats in the air, completely trapped. He doesn’t struggle or fight, just heaves a resigned sigh at my warlock mate’s actions.

“Please let me explain,” he begs. Thankfully, Link is able to keep a cool head and organize everyone around me.

“Cas, do you and the cats want to take the kids back to our place and get them settled?” In the wake of the announcement, Ghosie, Max, and Echo hurried to soothe the crying toddlers. Each of them holds one of our babies, who blink wearily, their faces blotchy with tears.

Cas and Max look torn between wanting to comfort our kids and finding out what Brannock is talking about, but Ghosie and Echo are completely focused on the little ones.

“I’ll go,” Ghosie offers, “if the alpha doesn’t mind me accompanying his omega. You two look like you want to be involved.” A rush of warmth flows over me at the bear’s thoughtfulness. He really is nothing like how he portrayed himself to his brethren.

Cas bites his lip and looks carefully at the carevasta bear. He just joined us, and we don’t know enough about him yet to blindly trust him with our babies, but Xavier waves his hand.

“I fully interrogated him while we were on the ship. I even dug into his mind, and he isn’t hiding anything. Everything he told us about his faction of bears is true. They do love their children, and much like warlocks, they wouldn’t do anything to harm them or Echo,” he says to reassure the alpha and father.

“Are you okay with that, Echo?” Max asks our omega, who quickly nods his head.

“Yes, if Xavier says he can be trusted, then that’s good enough for me. He also helped our mate, so that gives him points in my opinion.” Echo smiles gently at the multicolored bear. There isn’t a single aggressive bone in his body. He’s so sweet and accepting.

“Cas?” I ask, and he stares intensely at the bear, his eyes flicking from his own lovely, stormy blue to the black of his beast. It’s like they are having an internal conversation. I know the feeling well.

“Yes, that’s fine, but if you do anything to hurt our babies or omega, we will eat you,” he threatens in the growl of his beast, his eyes are pure black.

Ghosie bows his head respectfully. “I would expect nothing less.”

Echo takes Jack from Max, as I push Silac’s arms away from me. He’s reluctant to let me go, but they drop away, and I give my children kisses, trying to soothe them, but they seem perfectly content snuggled into the bear’s and cat’s fur. I guess that is one bonus of having fur. I whisper to them to sleep well and then move out of the way so Cas can also do the same. The rest are too focused on Brannock to do anything, not to mention Saxon and Tirrian who are frozen, but the babies don’t seem to care.

The five of them take their leave, and Cas and I return our focus to the Aaz’axian. Eric and William look furious and are glaring at him, but John looks sad.

“We gave you a home,” he says mournfully. I think he feels disappointed. I know I am.

“Yes, and I’ve struggled since the moment you treated me with more respect than anyone who knew my race ever did,” Brannock tells my grandpa, who has sat back down, the toll from his illness showing in the strain in his face.

“I don’t understand. You told us you weren’t compatible with other races and that you never finished with your wife. How can there be a child?” Xavier asks, his confusion evident in his tone, but before Brannock can answer, Link steps in and puts his hand on my warlock mate’s shoulder.

“Why don’t we all take a seat and talk about this calmly?” He waves at all the chairs that were pushed back and overturned in everyone’s annoyance.

“Fine, but he stays contained until we get to the bottom of this,” Xavier argues as the rest of us return to the seats we were in.

“What about these two?” I ask, stopping between a frozen Saxon and Tirrian, and Xavier winces.

“I think I’ll leave them like that for now. Their anger is explosive, and they can’t think straight. They are likely to harm him before we can get the whole story.”

“They will be angry at you,” Max murmurs as he retakes his seat, the one Echo sat in next to him empty now.

“I don’t envy you,” William remarks, agreeing with Max, “but I think you are right. Can they still hear the story?”

“Yes, of course,” Xavier answers.

“Then leave them. All that growling and aggression won’t help now. We don’t want to trigger Brannock’s berserker mode. He seems calm and rational for now, and that’s how we want to keep him,” Eric says through gritted teeth. He is slow to anger, but when he does, it’s like the flames of hell are fueling his rage. “Plus, it will be easier to kill him if we don’t trigger it,” he adds, and I’m not even surprised. My family is all about protecting ourselves, so I’m surprised nobody popped him the minute he made that announcement. Maybe we’re maturing.

Xavier moves Brannock with a flick of his wrist, so that he’s now floating above the table we sit around. He makes him spin slowly so he can see everyone at the round table, and I’m going to guess to also keep him slightly off balance in case he tries anything. He looks like he’s not going anywhere though—Xavier’s bands of light are tight.

“Start with the child, and we will get back to Smith,” William demands.

I sit down, this time in the chair next to Silac that Ghosie had been in. I take his hand and give it a squeeze, because he keeps hissing violently and flaring his hood. I hadn’t even noticed he changed from his two-legged form to his half form. His large snake body is curled up under him, and his scales rustle restlessly in agitation.

I look around the table. Cas sits with Link on one side and Max on the other. Tirrian and Saxon are frozen in place, their chairs tipped back behind them. My grandpas are on the other side of them, all seated with their arms crossed and glares on their faces. That just leaves Xavier, who doesn’t look as angry as I thought he would. In fact, he seems to be concentrating on something. In the past, he said Brannock’s mind was like a vault, very hard to get into, and unless he gave Xavier a reason to suspect him, he wasn’t going to intrude. I guess this is exactly what he was waiting for, but it looks like maybe Brannock has given him full access, because he just appears resigned.

I watch my warlock husband as his face runs the gamut of emotions. I know he seems like he’s cold, calculating, and unfeeling to the world, but that’s an act. This man feels it all, and in front of the people he loves, he isn’t afraid to show it. His frown slowly eases as he digs through Brannock’s memories. Occasionally, he scowls, but then he finally sighs and closes his eyes.

“I understand now.” Xavier opens his eyes and nods. “Tell them,” he demands before taking a seat on my other side and grabbing my hand, giving it a squeeze.

“Caspian was the only one who wasn’t present when we talked about this, but Aaz’axians are not compatible with any other race,” Brannock begins. “We have barbs on our cocks that pierce a female’s inner walls and lock in. It’s only when I get close to my peak that the spikes activate. A female Aaz’axian secretes an enzyme that numbs their inner walls, allowing the barbs to pierce and cause pleasure, setting off the female’s orgasm and allowing her to release an egg. In any other race, that would create excruciating pain.”

Cas winces, but the rest of us have heard this already.

“So while I was married and had sex with my wife, I could never reach completion.”

“She never knew?” Link sounds skeptical, and Brannock grimaces.

“I got very good at faking it and always made sure she orgasmed so she was distracted and didn’t notice that I hadn’t.”

“So how did the child happen?” Silac hisses aggressively, and I shake off Xavier’s hand so I can climb back onto my snake’s lap and run my hands over his scales in an attempt to soothe him. His body undulates, and I’m wrapped up in his tail. I actually really love how it feels, especially when it’s a little tight. It makes me feel safe and secure, kind of like a weighted blanket.

“I loved my wife very much. Seven hundred years is a long time to be alone, and I took a chance to grab some happiness where and when I could, but this was the first time I married, and she desperately wanted a child. I knew it would never happen, though, so I kept mesmerizing her to forget about it.”

“Wait, mesmerize?” I ask. Why haven’t I ever asked about his powers before? I mean, I know he has berserker mode and can glamour, but that’s it.

“Yes, like the Vilaxian can,” he responds, and Link takes over.

“Aaz’axians and Vilaxians are distant relatives. Vilaxians can compel people, and so can the Aaz’axians.”

“Do you drink blood?” I ask, because I’m sure everyone else knows the answer.

Brannock kind of shrugs as much as he can while still wrapped up in Xavier’s light bands. “We can, but it’s for fun, not for nourishment like the Vilaxians. It kind of works like alcohol on our system and makes us drunk.”

“So you compelled your wife to forget about wanting a child?” Cas asks, trying to get the conversation back on track.

“Yes, but for some reason, the compulsion would wear off, and I got tired of seeing her cry every time she got her monthly bleeds.” There are tears in his eyes. “So I agreed to IVF, knowing it wasn’t going to work, to appease her. The enzyme a female secrets is essential in the conception of a child. Not only does it numb their walls, but it strips the sperm, for lack of a better word, of its protective coating, making fertilization easier. Prior to the plague that struck all our women, we were an extremely fertile bunch.”

“Strange that the plague only targeted women. It sounds very similar to what happened to the carevasta bears,” Max points out offhandedly.

“Hmm, yes, you’re right,” Link muses, rubbing his chin. “He said theirs was caused by a vengeful goddess who felt insulted.”

Brannock’s eyes widen. “It was said that the gods were not happy with our leadership trying to take the orb from the Una’s and that it was our punishment.”

“You know what? These old gods are popping up quite a bit, aren’t they?” William looks thoughtful. “Maybe they didn’t disappear like people thought, and they are pulling strings from the background instead of being front and center.”

“Back to the traitor,” Silac hisses. I feel him become even more agitated when we veer off track.

“So we entered the IVF program. It was hard to hide the fact that my cum looked nothing like a human’s, but I found a warlock on Earth who spelled me so it would appear normal.”

“A warlock? Which one?” Xavier asks quickly, but I can tell he already knows the answer.

“The same one I helped capture—your cousin, Xane.”

“He knew you were Aaz’axian?” Eric asks, leaning forward, but Brannock shakes his head.

“No, I glamoured myself to appear Vilaxian. He didn’t question it. Of course a Vilaxian would want their blood-red cum to appear normal.”

“What color is yours?” I ask, unable to help myself, and I hear Cas chuckle as my grandpas groan. Xavier smirks at me.

“The same color as my body,” Brannock says with a small smile, and my eyes widen. Oh yeah, nope, that would be hard to explain, all opal and glittery.

Silac gets us back on track again. “But this IVF worked?”

“IVF is a process that allows the doctors to directly fertilize the egg in couples who are having trouble conceiving on their own,” I explain to him, stroking my hand over his body.

“It shouldn’t have, but it did. My wife was thrilled, but I was completely horrified,” Brannock admits, not meeting my eyes. “It’s not that I didn’t want kids,” he continues quickly, “but I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to continue to hide what I was from my wife. I also had no idea what our baby was going to be—human, Aaz’axian, or a crossbreed.”

“How were you going to explain you weren’t aging?” John asks quietly. “You must have had a plan for that.”

Again, Brannock sighs heavily. “I was going to fake my own death.”

I gasp, horrified for his poor wife. “That’s awful,” I scold him, and he nods in agreement.

“I know, but I was going to make her a very wealthy woman. I’d been living on Earth since we escaped the war, and you tend to build up a lot of wealth in that period of time. I thought it would make up for what she was missing out on, and I was going to suggest adoption when the IVF failed.”

“But it didn’t fail,” Cas says gently, and I know he’s rolling all the information around in his brain.

“No,” Brannock says tearfully, “it didn’t.”

“How did your wife die?” Link asks, and I see Brannock shudder.

“Aaz’axian pregnancies are very much like Vilaxian ones,” he explains.

“The babies take nutrients from the mother?” Link asks, and Brannock nods.

“Yes. It’s the only time we drink blood like a Vilaxian—or the mother does at least. It helps nourish our babies inside their wombs.”

“But your wife wasn’t Aaz’axian and wasn’t drinking your blood,” Max surmises, and Brannock confirms with a jerky nod and a sob that escapes unbidden.

“I begged her to terminate. She was already getting sick within weeks of conception. The doctors told her she had some rare blood cancer, which was the only thing they could attribute her symptoms to, and she refused.”

“How did no one notice on the scans? I’m sure an Aaz’axian baby looks different during an ultrasound,” I ask, still trying to wrap my head around everything he told us.

“When she refused to terminate, arguing she wanted me to have someone when she passed, I begged Madam Aura to let her Celestian mate care for my wife. I mesmerized her into thinking she was having scans and seeing doctors. In the end, there was nothing Savannah could do. My wife wasn’t actually sick, so she couldn’t heal her. All she could do was transfuse blood until the babe was formed enough to be born. My wife slipped away as our daughter was born. She never even got to hold her.” Tears stream down the male’s face, and the wave of agony and sorrow I feel resonating from him is enough to have me hunching in on myself. I shouldn’t be able to feel it in my normal body, but it’s like these feelings are so strong, my warlock nature takes over and draws them into me.

“Let him down please,” I beg Xavier, unable to stop the sob from escaping my mouth. I can see Xavier is just as affected as I am by this creature’s emotions. Tears sparkle in his eyes as he lowers Brannock to the ground and removes the bands. The two of us get to our feet and embrace the man as he shudders, crying as he sags into our embrace.