Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Lila
“Have you thought about any names for the babies yet?” Mira asks halfway through a pleasant meal. It’s not anything I’m familiar with, but it’s delicious nonetheless—some kind of steamed fish with a delicious sauce over rice with green vegetables.
Cas and I exchange a glance, and once more, I’m hit with a sense of guilt. Seriously, I’m going to suck as a mother. We don’t even have a room or anything organized for them, let alone names or belongings. “We don’t even know what sex they are yet,” I hedge, and Mira and Murphy chuckle.
“Why don’t you ask your kraken? She will know,” Mira explains, and I glare at Cas.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I’m kind of sick of being blindsided by all this information I should know by now.
He winces and grabs my hand. “I didn’t know about it, to be honest. I’ve been so busy with Dylan leaving and having to get Tirrian and Silac up to speed that I haven’t really had a chance to think about everything you need to know—not to mention worrying about you during your bonding with Saxon.”
“Tirrian Drayce is with the circus? How on Earth did the Adams brothers get the dragon king to send his son as a performer?” Murphy sounds incredulous.
“Last I read in a gossip magazine, he was on the hunt for a mate. They speculated that his dragon is ready to breed, and he’s becoming increasingly more difficult.
Gossip from inside the palace says he’s aggressive and cantankerous and fussy, so none of the female dragons who have been paraded before him have satisfied any urges.
He’s sent them all away in tears,” Mira tells us.
“Why does that not surprise me?” I mutter under my breath.
“He volunteered actually,” Cas offers, and my mouth drops open in shock.
“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person? He doesn’t seem capable of any kind of unselfish behavior.”
“It’s weird. He’s been really nice to everyone else.
He’s well liked among our troupe, and even more so than Dylan because he’s not a man whore.
You are the only one I see him act aggressively toward.
He was sick of the constant parade of female dragons.
Yes, his dragon is pushing him to mate, but not to any of them.
In fact, he said his dragon has become downright aggressive and angry, and if he didn’t leave when he did, he would have eaten one of the females. ”
“So why is he so in my face all the time?” I’m annoyed and slightly hurt by it, if I have to be honest. I’ve never done anything to him.
“I think maybe because his dragon is being so fussy, he kind of feels sympathetic toward Dylan. He thinks that Dylan found his mate and you stole him, which is not the case at all. Dylan and I were never like that. We occasionally kept each other company when he didn’t have someone else and I was horny, but it was only my human side that was interested.
It was all I could do not to let my kraken kill him while we were intimate, because he was vehemently against it, which is why it was only a time or two,” Cas explains, and I’m kind of surprised about how open he is in front of his parents.
There would be no way I’d be talking about previous lovers in front of my grandpas.
“Didn’t I warn you it would go badly?” Mira taunts him, and he rolls his eyes.
“Yes, Mom, you did. You are always right,” he placates her, and she preens as Cas and Murphy exchange amused glances.
This, right here, is what I want. This sense of family and love and companionship. It is life goals, and I can’t wait to have it with my guys.
“How about you and I do some shopping before you head back to Skarr? I’d really like to be involved, and I bet if I called some of Cas’s sisters, they would too. Most of them have kids and will know the latest and greatest things you will need for sure.”
“That sounds amazing,” I tell Mira with gratitude.
I hadn’t realized how desperate I was to have some motherly attention.
I’m practically jumping at the chance to spend time with Mira.
“I’m clueless. Actually, I’m less than clueless.
I’ve never been around small children, and I couldn’t even keep a goldfish alive,” I say, and Murphy and Mira exchange horrified glances while Cas laughs out loud.
“Don’t look so worried. I have plenty of experience. I have lots of nieces and nephews, and she has another mate and two others she’s going to bond with after she’s given birth. Hell, the damn warlock is her mate. If he can’t keep our babies safe, no one can.”
The worry on Mira’s and Murphy’s faces clear.
“Yes, of course you’re right. Wow, you have some serious power in your mating group.
The warlock, General Saxon, and Link Digicon, heir to Pleasure Bot Industries.
Not to mention Lila’s own family pedigree.
There is nowhere in the galaxy you won’t command respect. ”
“There’s also the new matriarch of Iceen’s son and his omega mate.”
It takes me a moment to compute what Cas just said. Hold up!
“Say what now?” I ask him, setting my knife and fork down and turning in my seat to look at him.
“Well, you did win the mate challenge for Maxsim, and his mother Astrea is insisting that you abide by it.”
My mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water. I’m completely speechless. “But… He… I…”
I can’t form any sentences because my brain is completely short-circuiting. “Lila, you did realize that it was a mate challenge, didn’t you? That if you won, you would take Maxsim as your mate.” Caspian reaches for my hand and gives it a little squeeze as I look around the table hopelessly.
“I thought I was just a stand-in for Echo because he wasn’t allowed to fight her,” I say quietly, and Cas sighs.
“We should have explained this to you better. Yes, you were a stand-in, but by standing in, you were acknowledging that you were happy to take both of them as mates if you won. There hasn’t been a male omega in so long that I guess that bit of knowledge has been forgotten.”
“No, there have been male omegas, they were just held captive and abused,” I growl, my voice coming out slightly inhuman.
“But why is the matriarch insisting on it? She has the power to absolve Lila from her responsibilities, and lightning cats are usually so specist.” Murphy looks adorably confused and so much like Cas that I can’t help but smile.
“Because it turns out that Lila is also a whisperer.”
Murphy and Mira gasp at Caspian’s announcement and look at me with wide-eyed awe.
“There hasn’t been a Skarrian whisperer in years. Their families have been hunted and killed off, or they went into hiding.”
“Yes, the matriarch is thrilled at the reappearance because it’s not actually about the fact that they can control lightning cats.
That power was used in the past to help their youngsters get control of their own tempers and shifts.
It’s why a whisperer is compatible with both alphas and omegas.
She is hoping that with Lila’s emergence, more might come out of the woodwork and inject some much-needed new blood into the race, so she is gifting her son to Lila in an act of goodwill so any other whisperers will learn that the old regime that hunted and killed them is gone, and the new one wants to welcome them with open arms.”
“And gifts of sons apparently,” I mutter. “But Maxsim hates me. Echo is cute and kind and sweet, but I can practically feel Maxsim’s jealousy waft off of him. The matriarch is delusional if she thinks he’s going to accept this.”
“He will and he has. His matriarch has ordered it, and he can’t disobey her. He loves and respects her too much. That’s not saying you aren’t in for a fight.”
“Well, I don’t actually have to bond with them. I can just let them be their own couple and come and go as they please. As long as it looks like we are cohabitating, we shouldn’t offend his mother,” I suggest, and Mira’s lips turn down in doubt.
“I’m not sure how it works. The whisperer side of you may not let that happen. Because you are both alpha and omega as needed, you may find yourself being drawn to them.”
“You may even go into heat or rut yourself,” Murphy adds, and my mind whirls and my eyes cross.
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, and even I can hear the panic lacing my voice.
“Hey now.” Cas stands up and holds his hands up to his parents.
“Let’s not overwhelm her. There is a lot to talk about, what with her new mimic abilities too.
If she ever needed a crash course in galaxy species, it’s now, but it can also wait until after the babies are born.
We need to take it step by step, and that is the most important thing.
For Lila and the babies’ health and safety, they need to be born before we worry about anything else. ”
“Yes, son, but she will need to know all of the ins and outs of mating with each of her mates, because with her mimic abilities, things are different. She is capable of providing any species with babies, so she has also become a hot commodity. Heck, the dragon prince might be so aggressive toward her because his dragon is attracted to her.”
Fuck my life. Who would have thought that my new Skarrian abilities would have made me the perfect baby mama for everyone? This is not what I thought I was signing up for when I was told I was going to get powers. I thought I’d be part Storm or part Magneto or something, not Octomom.
“Yes, please, let’s play ‘pretend Lila is not the perfect breeding machine. Right now, these are the only three children I plan on having. I wasn’t even planning on these, so while I’m happy and I will love them with all my heart, I am not ready to add to that.
Seriously, I may suck at this whole mother thing, and then the guys will be left picking up the pieces of my children’s broken hearts.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Shit, the Celestians may even be wrong, and I might not even be a mimic. ”