Chapter 18
JAY
“I thought you told us everything,” Xan says.
Hex shrugs, looking pleased with the shock on our faces. “There were a few surprises I didn’t want to ruin.”
Damn him. I went from feeling like I was in the know for once to feeling like I’m in the dark again, but at least I’m not alone in the dark this time. I cling to Xan’s arm, just to re-ignite Hex’s jealousy, before I ask where Braxton is.
“He’s with my husband in the bar,” the other hybrid says. “We were surprised to hear that Captain Henrix told Numbers he was on his way to Mars, before Braxton even had a chance to call him and say they needed to talk, in the dome.”
“Well,” I say, “you might be amazed and frightened to learn that I have nanoparticles inside me that let Xan know when I’m in big trouble.
They figured out I was with Braxton when something happened to me, so they decided to follow him here.
That’s when they got the surprise that I, Jaxus Cross, am a hybrid now, thanks to the doctor and commander. ”
The other hybrid gives Xan a look and waits a beat for him to explain himself, justifying his part in all of this. When he doesn’t, the hybrid tells us, “I have heard a lot about you, Doctor. And you, Jaxus. So far, it does not seem like the captain was hyperbolic when he spoke of you.”
Xan shoots Hex a glare. “What have you been saying about us?”
“Just enough,” Hex says, “that I’m sure no one inside this facility will be surprised to hear that one of you snuck nanos into the other, who schemed his way into becoming a hybrid.”
The other hybrid looks between Xan and Hex, watching how they scowl at each other. “Do you ever feel like telling these two to get a room, Jaxus?”
I laugh, nodding. “All the time, but they don’t want each other like that. They just happened to fall in love with me at the same time, along with Braxton, so they only want to be in a bedroom together if they’re passing me around in it.”
“What a heavy burden to bear…six givers at once,” he says with faux horror, but tries and fails to force it into his expression, which shows how intrigued by the idea he actually is.
“I like a challenge,” I say, earning a smile from him.
“Then you’ll love my kids. You may have heard of my oldest, Axel.”
I was pretty sure everyone in the Solar System—and hell, maybe even the Deppoxyl system—had heard of Axel Lory.
He was the hybrid child of Lieutenant Lory and Xerxes, the Giver who was banished from the Solar System, after him accidentally changing Lieutenant Lory was basically seen as an act of interstellar terrorism by at least half of humanity. “Does that mean you’re—”
“Oh, no, no,” he says quickly. “That bastard, Lory, took off and left Axel in the care of NVs, in an NV compound, a long time ago. I’m Griffin Otto. You can call me Griff.”
“Call me Jay,” I say.
He acknowledges my request with a nod and a grin that deepens the dimples on his pale gray face. “Ride down with me, Jay.”
“We’ll go after you,” Hex says.
“Why?” I ask, still clinging to Xan.
“It’s not advisable for two hybrids and two NVs to ride in the elevator together. Our combined weight would strain the cables.”
“You gave them portals but you couldn’t help them build stronger elevators?” I’m starting to think Hex wasn’t the best NV manager for this secret project.
“I am not in the mood to explain my actions to you any further today, little one.”
“Like you’re ever in the mood for it…”
“You two need to get a room more than me and Hex do,” Xan says as he takes back his arm and gets on the elevator with Griff, leaving me and the captain to ride down together.
“Fine,” I tell Hex, as the elevator doors close. “Don’t explain your actions. Explain what’s going on with Griff.”
“There’s not much to explain. His father founded the Otto Corporation, a federal contractor that does a lot of work for the United States government.
And most of that work has been focused on NVs since their arrival to the Solar System.
Before humanity turned against us, Griff and his husband, Leon, were introduced to a Giver through his father, and he and his husband invited that NV to a dinner party at their home. ”
“I bet people were willing to murder to get a seat at that dinner table.”
“The response by those they knew, to having such a guest at their home, was overwhelming. So they canceled the party and had an intimate dinner with just the three of them. Then one thing led to another, and the NV spent that night with them. And in the morning both Leon and Griff were changed—and turned to his father and the government for help. Leon is the only non-born hybrid who became a Giver hybrid, so far, but Lieutenant Lory wasn’t the first human who became the first Seed Bearer hybrid. That was Griff.”
“They changed after a threesome?” That must have been awkward for Griff to explain to his dad. “And the government chose to keep it a secret?”
“While scientists and physicians tried to figure out how they changed. When they were conducting that medical investigation, Lieutenant Lory became a hybrid, and the news about him and his baby got out. The public’s reaction to that made Griff and his husband decide to keep their change a secret, until NV and human relations improved. ”
“Which never happened,” I say solemnly, as Numbers announces the elevator is all ours now. We get on and are taken deep into the ground before we’re let out on floor five of ten.
When the doors slide open, it looks like the sterile white elevator has taken us to Hawaii. There’s a lot of bamboo, colorful lanterns, and mini palm trees are growing out of the center of the tables.
Xan and Griff are waiting for us with a small green hybrid who looks a lot more human than Griff.
He shoots bubbles at us out of a toy gun, going “Tch, tch, tch, tch ,tch,” before he runs off to a fish tank, pretending to shoot at it with extra aggression, his arms jolting with the force of the fake shots.
“That was Ponk,” Griff says, “and don’t be offended. That’s how he says hi to everyone, when he has his blaster.”
Before I can respond, two other small hybrids, with bright auras, run around us as we pass the tank.
“Are those the last of them, or are there more?” I can’t help but ask like I’m surrounded by a pack of exotic creatures.
“There’s also Nox, who is in the game room with Axel, and Tarzon, who is visiting his grandparents on Earth.”
“And those sleep-depriving balls of joy are Mozley and Maximus,” a deep voice says, right when the other small hybrids jump Ponk and take his blaster. They look pretty human too, but their reflexes are definitely not.
And even with so many human features, the trio of young hybrids is such a strange thing for me to witness, especially since I thought for so long that there weren’t any young hybrids in the Solar System.
I assumed the first child I would have with Hex, Xan, or Braxton would be the first hybrid hatchling who would be born since Axel.
“They certainly seem like they could tire you out in no time,” I say to whoever just spoke, as I sit at the bar. The voice came from behind it, but I don’t see anyone there.
“Where’s Braxton?” Griff asks, as he reaches for a pitcher of a slushy drink that looks like lava, and pours some into a cup that looks like a coconut.
“He decided he couldn’t wait to inspect the leaks Hex fixed—even though he didn’t really come here for that—and he knew Hex was coming right down,” the deep voice says, as it remains difficult to pinpoint where it’s coming from. “I think he’s worried about getting chewed out.”
“I think he’s right to worry,” Hex says gruffly.
“What the hell is happening here?” Xan asks, staring just as hard as I am at the empty space where the deep voice is coming from.
“Oh, my apologies, Doctor,” Number says. “I forgot to provide you and Jaxus with the permissions you’ll need to see everyone in this dome, since you don’t have top clearance. Just one moment and—ah! There we go. I updated the cloaking commands.”
Leon finally comes into view—and I immediately get why you would need top clearance on this planet to get a good look at this hybrid.
Blimey, I think, how big was the NV he had a threesome with?
The guy is a nearly eight-foot tall orange giant, in a Hawaiian shirt, with hands as big as my head.
“The cloaking technology does a fairly good job of making Ponk, Mozley, and Maximus look human around here,” Numbers explains, “but it is hard to cloak Leon without glitches, even if someone is only watching him from a distance. It’s much easier to make him invisible to anyone we don’t want seeing him.
That is one of the many accommodations we have to make for our lovely, giant scientist to live comfortably here with his family. ”
My jaw is on the floor, right next to Xan’s, as I think about all the special accommodations that have to be made for this beast of a hybrid. His husband chuckles at us.
“Those reactions never get old,” Griff says, grinning.
“None of your children are this big, are they?” Xan asks.
Griff shakes his head. “They’re all shorter than me. Leon was unusually tall before the change so we think that’s how he ended up like this.”
“Good,” Xan says, glancing at me. “I hope Jay doesn’t give birth to any hatchlings who have your husband’s proportions one day.”
“Even if his are as small as mine, they will still be a challenge,” Griff warns, laying a hand on his stomach. “They get rowdy—even in here—really early.”
“H-how rowdy?” I sputter.
“I’m sure you’ll see for yourself, very soon,” Leon says. “I swear, all I have to do is look at Griff for a little too long and then—BOOM—he’s pregnant. With three mates, there’s no way your child-free days will last longer than a month. Tops.”
“And you can’t just be one and done like some humans,” Griff says. “Like Givers, hybrid bodies are totally unresponsive to birth control.”
“Totally?” I gulp.
“It’s one of the few things we’ve never been able to alter without causing too much damage to our genetic code,” Xan says.
“Powerful technology can bend a lot of things to its will, but sometimes its will isn’t greater than what nature intended, and our species evolved to resist being neutered, above all else. ”
“You could cut off our balls,” Braxton says as he joins us, “and they would grow back.”
“Thanks for that valuable information,” I say with a grimace. I don’t like to think about his balls being cut off, even if they would grow back.
“So, how did Hex’s work on the transportation system turn out?” Xan asks the commander. All eyes are on him as everyone waits for someone to address the elephant in the room, which is bigger than the islands of Hawaii.
“No sign of any problems,” Braxton says, speaking casually, like we’re not all here to hide my new form from Solar System tattle tales, because my joining with the commander turned me from human to hybrid. “Came out perfect.”
“Looks like I can say the same for your handiwork,” Hex comments, looking at me to make his point clear.
I should have known he would be the one to end the small talk with a jab. Maybe he does it because he just wants to get this talk over with, or maybe—like Griff and Leon, who are watching with eager eyes—he’s yearning for some drama.
Braxton puffs out his chest and sets his jaw, not acting at all like the respectful subordinate the captain is used to. He also looks slightly amused by how pissed off Hex is, which will just piss him off more. “You have something you want to say to me?”
“Maybe not,” Hex grumbles. “I’m sick of talking, and trying to get any of you to understand the severity of what you’ve done.”
“So, what are you going to do, report us to the Council?”
“Don’t be stupid.” Hex steps up to the commander like he really does have a hankering for an entertaining escalation. “I’d rather wipe the self-satisfied smugness off your—”
“Go ahead, Captain.” Braxton stands his ground, close enough to lean forward and kiss the other NV, as their auras touch. “It’s fine with me if you want to throw a punch, but make sure it’s a good one if you’re going to do it in front of everyone, because you know I won’t go down easy.”
“If I were you I wouldn’t put out statements like that with so much confidence,” Hex says through clenched teeth. “It turns out, you’re easier than any of us ever thought you’d be.”
That wipes the amusement off Braxton’s face. He spits out something that sounds like a fuck you in his native tongue, before adding, “I didn’t know Jay was going to change.”
Even though I don’t speak the language I can tell Hex shouts something like bullshit back. “That’s no excuse. All three of us agreed we would never join with Jay. Not if we couldn’t all have him.”
“Which was honestly a messed-up decision to make without his input, and so was permanently grounding him,” Braxton argues. “We’re in deep shit now, but—you know what? I’m glad he changed, and I’m glad I’m the one who did it.”
“Aww, Commander,” I say, holding a hand over my heart, which has been beating pretty fast while I watch these two sexy alien men getting worked up. “I love you.”
“Love you too, little hybrid.”
“So that’s what we’re calling him now?” Xan asks, like I’m the family puppy.
“Braxton doesn’t get to decide that on his own,” Hex snaps.
“And you shouldn’t have decided to keep your seven-year plan a secret, or I wouldn’t have tricked Xan or Braxton into changing me,” I argue. “None of us have been including all of us in our decisions like we should have.”
“Seven-year plan?” Braxton repeats. “What’s that?”
Hex’s posture is so tight I’m worried he will get stuck that way, looking like someone who is thoroughly pissed off, and miserable with a stick up their ass, for the rest of his life.
Can’t let that happen. Must save him from himself.
I get up from the bar and pull on his arm, pressing him against me to put more space between him and Braxton. “Let Xan fill him in. I want to talk with you, alone, Captain.”
“Are you sure you want to go now?” Griff asks, eyes lit with amusement. “This was just getting good.”
Leon hides a snicker behind one of his massive hands. “You’ll have to excuse my husband. Things can get boring and repetitive in this dome, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen any NVs go at each other.”
“Don’t worry, as long as we’re here, you’ll have a front row seat to all kinds of entertainment,” I assure them.
Then I drag Hex to the elevator.