Chapter 20
Zyair woke up with only one thought on his mind—Layla and the baby. Well, maybe that was two thoughts. Not “the baby,” either. His baby.
He turned carefully onto his side and looked at her. She was sleeping peacefully. Her mouth was partially open—oh so kissable—but he restrained his urge to wake her. She had been up in the middle of the night throwing up again.
“Why do they call it morning sickness?” she had wailed.
“Maybe it’s morning on Earth right now,” he replied. “Do you want me to look it up?”
“Go to…”
Whatever she was going to say was lost as she was sick again.
He had read all the pamphlets she had brought home from the clinic. One had a list of explanations of all sorts of complications that could happen during human pregnancy. Zyair was surprised humans managed to reproduce at all with everything that could go wrong.
The one problem he was particularly focused on right now was Layla’s virtually continuous vomiting. The information he had read said that women, particularly those who were slender to begin with like Layla, had to be careful not to lose too much weight in the beginning of pregnancy.
Layla didn’t have a family, not one that she wanted to be a part of anyway. He wanted to give her the family she had always wanted, and that began with a binding ceremony to make it official.
He went to the bridge and confirmed the autopilot was doing its job. The Jorvlen ship they were following at a safe distance was still in tracking range. Zyair programmed the autopilot to veer slightly starboard and then resumed the pursuit. He added some code to disguise the personal ship as a large cargo vessel.
Hopefully that would be enough to fool the Jorvlens. If they thought they were being followed, they would see Zyair’s ship peel off in another direction. Then when they saw the cargo ship making for the same planet as them—whichever planet it was, they still weren’t sure exactly—it shouldn’t arouse suspicion.
In the galley, he fixed himself a small breakfast. He refrained from asking Astrid to make anything for Layla because he didn’t know what would appeal to her. He was, however, intent on making sure she ate something.
“Okay.” He rubbed his hands together as he sat down with his food and his tablet.
Astrid could probably answer all his questions, but this was something else he wanted to do stealthily. He glanced in the direction of the bedroom but saw and heard nothing.
Human binding rituals, he typed into the search engine. Since Layla wouldn’t have any family at the ceremony, he thought it might be nice—even, perhaps, romantic—if he incorporated some items that were familiar to her.
The computer took its time. Zyair had long suspected most planets had some algorithms to discourage looking up anything about humans. It wasn’t surprising given that everyone else in the galaxy considered them inferior, but right now it was annoying.
He scrolled through the links he got, which were mostly of… feet. Very deformed feet.
“What the fuck?” Zyair muttered. Humans did this to their children on purpose? Unbelievable. For the first time, he had a palpable realization of the kinds of things Layla had been subjected to by her family. His family was estranged over far less, after all.
He kept searching and found some videos that seemed promising. He had just found some info on what was called “engagement rings” when he heard the distinctive sound of movement in the bedroom. He got up and checked in on Layla. She came out of the bathroom, smiling.
“How are you?” he asked.
“I feel pretty good.” She grinned mischievously.
“Can you eat?”
“I think so. Can I shower first?”
“Sure.” Zyair gave her a hug and went back to the galley to program breakfast. He was sure he overdid it, but he wanted to make sure Layla ate something. He also wanted her to start weighing herself, but he decided to wait until tomorrow to broach that subject. Today was the day of the “proposal,” as the humans called it.
Confident Astrid had all the details for Layla’s breakfast and his, er, second breakfast, he went to the tool supply closet. He had a moment of indecision, the white or black rubber washer. He picked white because it matched his markings.
Layla was seated at the small galley table when he got back. He immediately got down on one knee.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
It wasn’t the auspicious start he had expected and hoped for. He had watched several proposal videos, and the female human seemed to know immediately what was happening when the male struck that particular pose. He decided to persevere anyway.
“Layla,” he said seriously, “I want to take you as my mate, for life. I offer you this ring, as… is tradition in your culture, to make the promise to you that we will be bound. For life. Forever.”
He held up the gasket triumphantly. She smiled and Zyair was filled with so much happiness, he thought he would burst. She was so independent. He really hadn’t been sure what she was going to do or say.
“Here,” he finished rather lamely and held out the ring.
She slid off the chair and onto his knee. She put both her hands on his face and turned it toward her. Then she kissed him very tenderly.
“You put it on this finger,” she said, pointing to the fourth finger on her left hand.
“Like this?” he asked, sliding it on.
“Perfect.”
She held her hand out and admired the new look. Now that was something Zyair had seen in every video.
I got it right,he thought confidently.
“I’m so happy.” Layla grinned ruefully. “But I’m also starving.”
“Then eat,” Zyair said immediately.
He picked her up and set her back on her chair. He sat down next to her. The sliding door in the wall opened as soon as his butt made contact with the seat. He reached into the compartment and took out his food.
“How long does a Lorr engagement usually last?” Layla said.
“Depends,” Zyair told her. “But you and I have special circumstances.”
“You mean…” she replied, grabbing his hand and placing it on her abdomen.
He caressed it lovingly. “I have to recover the stone first,” he said seriously. He did not want to cloud the proposal with cold hard facts, but he needed her to know the truth. “If something happens to me and you are bound…”
“What?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what my father will do. He could disown me, like he did my eldest brother.”
Layla gasped.
“I don’t care,” Zyair continued. “But you are going to have my child. And I need you to make the decisions for that child and not be bound by Lorr rules or customs because we were mated.”
“Well, there is only one thing we can do then,” Layla said.
“What’s that?” Zyair asked.
“Find the stone, stop the Jorvlens, and prevent the war. Then we can get married.”
“That’s three things.”
“Oh, shut up,” Layla said, but she was smiling.
Zyair smiled back. He also decided to take her back to bed as soon as she was done eating. That actually took a while but ended up being worth the wait. Well worth it.
In the meantime, he checked with Astrid. They still were tailing the Jorvlen ship, and Astrid had orders to land wherever the ship did.