Chapter Sixteen
Noel
For a few days, I did nothing but lay about in bed, stroking my belly as it grew and eventually hardened. In my delicate state, I barely wanted to move, only to nest in the warmth of our combined scents and darkness.
Doc sat in a chair by the bed, smirking as we reviewed ancient texts depicting Naleucian reproductive cycles, what little info Raziel and Nirem had left behind. My reading comprehension of the old language was juvenile, at best.
I’d known my primary mating channel would expand, but not how, as Doc had a holoscreen poised between us with a display of my insides again. I tried my best not to feel any sort of shame as he zoomed into my groin and showed my mating channel and how it would split wider, naturally, and heal quickly. Purposefully. Which, I didn’t particularly feel fond of the prospect. To no surprise.
“Well, at least your pelvic bones are naturally split for an egg to pass. I have a nerve block on standby so you don’t have to feel it.” Doc gave me a half grin that I wanted to slap from his face.
“They certainly feel loose enough.” I flinched as a clatter came from down the hall. Repairs to bay doors were being made to create safe areas for the young, as Sarge was moved to farther down the hall to another room. I didn’t see the move as necessary so soon, but he had hinted that our frequent mating was disturbing him. Still, the bare room with a cot in the corner didn’t bring out the paternal instincts I thought it would. Vil promised me once they bought a few baby things, it’d feel right.
I only needed my babe and enough food to sustain my recovery, which I sincerely hoped was going well enough.
It was a shame our kind didn’t make milk. My nips had gone permanently hard and were somewhat swollen. Vil’s attention to them wasn’t doing me any favors though. He had a suction force worthy of his bloodline. Even my cock ached from attention. Though, I could always go again. Vil merely needed to proposition me with interest, and my body fell to pieces for him in a breath.
“I think we’re on track though. Tomorrow morning, I’ll come in with the shots to get things rolling.” He gestured for me to roll onto my back, off my side, to let him prod at me more. He avoided my belly and focused instead on my hips, verifying what I’d said. “Pliable!”
Another crash echoed from down the hall and I groaned with detest. I was so tired of the noises and Vil being away. “Are you sure I can’t have a full meal?” I pouted as he pointed me toward a nutrient shake settled on a nightstand.
“Proper food.” Whatever that meant. I hadn’t seen actual food in hundreds of years. I’d been frozen, running on a waning glucose drip and forced into a modern society where even MREs had gone the way of the dinosaur.
An odd thought occurred to me that I’d outlived an MRE, and I stifled a chuckle.
“What’s so funny?” Vil stood in the doorway, glistening with sweat. His heady scent of fresh perspiration made my tail curl in invitation.
“I’ve outlived an MRE.”
“Not by much.” Vil grinned and shimmied over, hesitating before sliding into our nest. As much as I loved the scent, my body tensed at the thought of dirtying it. “I’ll go get a shower.” He sighed and lumbered off, Doc watching the whole while.
“Progenitors…” Doc swallowed hard, eyes following Vil tightly. “He’s evolving…”
“I doubt he’s a pokémon.” I raised an eyebrow as Doc gave me one of those long, uncertain stares before pulling up a viewscreen to research what I’d mentioned.
“Horrid little creatures… Feral children cage fighting animals. No wonder we abandoned Mater Terra.” He shook his head. “You hear that Vil!” Doc shouted over his shoulder toward the bathroom as the showers kicked on.
He stepped out, face pinched, stark naked. I’d wanted to be jealous as Doc stared him down appreciatively, but I’d learned in my short time aboard the ship that they really didn’t view their sexuality or nudity as anything special. “Hear what? Pokémon stuff?”
“No, the food part! Don’t let him whine until you break and feed him. He needs a clear stomach for the surgery, and I do not want to deal with vomit.” Doc crossed his arms. “And food in his stomach may slow down the laying, so keep it liquid.”
I grumbled, but Vil gave us a thumbs-up before shimmying back into the shower.
“Can’t have a full stomach, but can I at least have a full backside?” I groaned and splayed out, earning a swat to the leg from Doc.
“No heavy lifting or strenuous activity.”
“Fiiiiiine.” I sighed and slumped in bed, my mood sobering a little. “But we’re totally doing it.”
“I assumed nothing less from you two.” Doc opened a viewscreen and typed out some notes before heading out. “Perverts.”
I rolled my eyes and soon enough found a clean Vil in our nest, snuggling up to me with wandering hands and a nervous tone in our bond. “Make me forget, and we can go to sleep.” I leaned up to whisper into his ear and nipped playfully. The shiver and brightening of the tone made all my worries melt away. “I can’t be bothered when your soul’s song needs me to hear it.”
“And where will I be when you’re out under surgery? Hmm? I’ll have all this song in here and nobody to hear it.” Vil tapped his chest, and I offered him a wan smile. “And we don’t even know if they will survive hatching in space. You said your own clutchmates didn’t.”
I shook my head. “They had a critical fluid leak in the bariatric chamber where they were held in stasis. I survived by dint of being right in reach of the airlock when Nirem grabbed what he could. He never said, but I thought he always meant to grab his and Raziel’s young. Their assigned omega had two eggs.”
“It’s possible to have more at a time?” Vil’s eyes brightened, and I laughed.
“One or two is the norm. Three isn’t uncommon, or so I was told.” I tangled my tail with his, the clean scales against my own, a treasure I’d hold on to during my trials to come.
“Good, we can practice with this one. Doc can adopt him if we screw it up.” Vil gently prodded my belly, his finger hitting a soft layer of scaled flesh over the hardened surface. Doc had declared the shell thick enough, but there was a certain hesitation on both our parts with anything strenuous or that could put pressure on my belly.
“Perhaps?” I nuzzled into his neck to nip affectionately, reminding him whose fangs marked him as he’d marked me. And I’d never be able to tell him how greatly I appreciated what he’d done to clear my mind, the things he obliterated, knowing I’d suffer. He may have claimed me for a lifetime, but he’d lobotomized trauma that I never wanted to relive.
“And you’re okay with it?”
“As long as you’ll be there when I wake.” My winding tail trailed his inner thigh and made him shudder. Such a strong, worthy male to be undone with a touch.
“I’ll be there. With our egg.” His pointed tongue darted out and caught between his teeth for a second as he absorbed the touch and affection. Maybe the reason hybreeds fucked so often and freely was because they all had trauma, all relying on their lizard brains to overtake emotions they no longer wanted to feel. And it was my new goal to find each one of their sorry little lizard brains a mate or two. Because if I got to feel this good? So should they.
A question tickled the back of my mind. Humans spent years staring at one individual, sometimes more, wishing they’d find the love and attraction that meant forever. Naleucians knew straight away, so love never missed them. There was no question I loved Vil, but how that love would look would take time. “Good. And I’ll seek comfort in you and make you whole as you will me.”
Vil gasped with a gentle quiver as my tail cradled his own, twisting about it in invitation for courtship. His cock responded, his spines rose, and with extra care, we fucked until sleep took us and nothing mattered.
***
When Merriel’s voice chipped in over the speaker, I pried eyes open that didn’t want to adjust. The blurry, bright world around me sank into the dull, industrial tones of Vil’s room. A large, warm hand palming my bottom flexed, claws dragging up my back, over the slits where my wings came free and a grunt of morning protest stirred me. “Morning, sleepyheads. Doc’s outside and is doing the foot-tapping thing I hate.”
Vil groaned and climbed out of bed, rustling to change sheets and blankets while I carefully sidled out of bed, the small bump of my egg nestled securely within me, the life within already inexorably linked to me in a way nothing other than my progeny would be.
I opened the door and stepped back, earning a glance up and down from Doc, paired with a nod of approval. If Vil didn’t have to wear pants—neither did I. And I had far less to show the world. “Well rested?”
I nodded and ran fingers through my hair. The mane of shimmering blue spilled over me, the strands so different from human ones in that tangles rarely took root. I suppose that was why we were often called angels. Our ethereal beauty, fine features, the glint of our scales and wings—they all paired together to create something that humans thirsted for in a way we only considered normal .
I’d been told Raziel and Nirem were average, though Nirem always insisted that Raziel was the most beautiful male he’d ever seen. I never understood it, not until Vil held me in his arms. It had less to do with secondary sexual characteristics but rather the way the song in his heart welcomed mine.
“Welp, let’s get this over with.” Doc gestured me toward the bed as Vil finished tidying things up. He’d become a little more mindful of our indiscretions since we’d united, each day feeling less and less like exposing our love life.
I stretched and crawled into bed, laying on my side and tucking my knees as Doc had me close my eyes.
I held out my wrist by force of habit. Though I waited for the prick and sting, none came, at my arm, at least. He shushed me politely and what I’d come to expect pricked at my ankle, far away from where my mind would be, out of sight. As if he understood my very nature, he patted my shoulder to make meaningful eye contact, offering me only a grin. “I listen when people speak. I also listen when they don’t. There’s a lot said between words.”
I smiled, absolutely grateful as he tucked the line out of sight. “These are just fluids for now. Once you’re good and hydrated, I’ll introduce the Pitocin. You absolutely sure I can’t interest you in a nerve block?” Doc rested a hand on my shoulder and studied my face.
“I’d rather keep my strength. I wouldn’t be happy with numb legs.” I relaxed slightly as Doc gestured for me to expose my belly. A night of rutting with some of the medicine I’d been given the night before had left my mating channel pliant and not quite sore but loose feeling, as if the tissues and my channels had relaxed the walls between them to merge as they would to allow my egg to pass. Despite being certain of the pain to come, I wasn’t sure how the pain would manifest. But I rested while Vil petered about and gave me a peck of a kiss to the top of my head on his way out. Despite the egg nearing, he had duties that even I wouldn’t allow him to ignore.
“Sounds about right. I think Sarge likes you, by the by. Vil has been on top of things lately.” Doc fiddled with something he’d brought with him. Whatever was attached to the line on my leg, I refused to look at. “He’s got goals.”
“I hardly think that’s my doing.” I shrugged and bunched up a few pillows under my head, letting the tense feelings of dread pulse through my body. As I moved, a draining sensation reversed itself somewhere deep in my channel, a violating pulse as my cock retreated farther back inside me in such a way that had nausea pulsing through my body in a wave. Its usual place resting just inside my ventral slit was no more, vacating itself to create room in my channel for our egg. “You started that stuff, didn’t you?”
“I did.” Doc pulled a chair up to the side of the bed and leaned forward, hands folded over his knees. “Feeling it?”
“I’m unsure as to the particular configuration of your genitals—”
“Outie.” Doc stared me down.
“Well, imagine that sucked into an innie.” I attempted to give Doc his most uncomfortable stare. That earned me a sympathetic nod.
“Remarkably similar to Tal bearers. Naleucian influence on their biology has made them compatible with Naleucians in that manner.” Doc pulled up some images and my chart and began the lengthy process of noting my experiences. Tal, who had full-body scales, inhuman faces, and two genders, betas and omegas. Their betas varied for dominance in almost alpha ways, but any two beta Tal could impregnate an omega. Any one beta could, too.
As I watched him type away, I drifted off, finding it easy to sleep with Doc around, until a ripple of muscular contractions tore through my belly and sent a horrible cramp down my back. Fear shot through me, and I gasped myself awake.
“Felt that one?” Doc rubbed at his eyes and stared me down just moments before Vil’s thundering footsteps and clattering claws preceded the door swishing open.
“Oh good. You’re here!” Doc scooted back, and I locked eyes with Vil, listening to the chaos in our song, the bond humming.
The look of confusion and defeat on Vil’s face brought me great joy because I knew he’d suffer as much as I would.
Wonderful!