Chapter 25
JAY
Hex doesn’t let go of me once. Not even when he sits to pilot the ship. I’m still in his arms when he flies us out of the ambush, and soon we’re flying over cities and forests. Continents and oceans.
I drift off in his lap, my head on his shoulder, until he whispers in my ear to wake up, as we touch down in a clearing near a military base. The Derecko is hovering over it.
“A Derecko officer is bringing the other scoutship here for me to fly, and I want you to stay in this one, and not move,” Hex orders. “I’m dropping Braxton and the others off at the base, and then I’m going back to Mars to bring the rest of the Ottos to Earth.”
“Why can’t I come?” I don’t want to be left alone while I’m exhausted and wounded.
“The humans don’t know you’re a hybrid yet,” he reminds me, “and we need to keep it that way for now.”
He stands, holding me as Axel and Nox help Leon out of the ship bed, and put his arms over their shoulders. His eyes are squeezed shut and his breathing is labored. They guide him out of the airlock, and Braxton takes a bloody sheet off the bed before Hex lays me down.
They both kiss me, Braxton saying, “Just rest, and you’ll heal soon,” before they go.
* * *
When the airlock closed, and I was left alone in the scoutship, I drifted off and slept for hours before I finally woke up, every muscle in my body still aching.
“So, what cool stuff has been happening without me, Numbers?” I pout, running a hand over my sore shoulder to test how that injury is feeling. “Let me know how much I’m missing.”
“You are missing quite a lot,” the AI assistant says, without missing a beat. “Several countries are about to sign a new treaty with Eppo, now that they know about the threats this planet could face, and that one of them was already present on Earth for many years.”
“So they know about the Exxlars?”
“Xan informed them while he gave the message Trembly stopped Captain Henrix from delivering.”
“And where is Trembly?”
“He and the bears were captured and are being held on the Derecko.”
I bolt upright and wince as a sharp pain shoots through my torso. “Ow.” I lie back down and ask, “That can’t be safe for the crew, can it?”
“They were no match for the crew, once the tech Exxlars can control was removed from their bodies. Trembly and the bears have been put into a cryogenic sleep and will be sent to the Deppoxyl system, so we can study how they evolved to control our tech. Then we will develop new thought transmitters, along with an inoculation treatment for humans.”
“Cool,” I cough, and groan. “Are there a lot of creepy things like Exxlars in the universe, Numbers?”
“Oh, yes, Jaxus. The universe is full of terrifying beings. But Givers, and their allies, are rarely defeated by them.”
“That’s good,” I murmur, then pass out.
It’s warm when I wake again, sometime after the sun rose. Someone brought me a sheet that doesn’t have blood on it and tucked me in properly. I’m touched until I see who it was.
“I thought you’d never wake up,” Axel says as he floats over to me, in a hover chair he must have brought from the Derecko. “I had to nap to heal, but it was more like a power nap. Woke up feeling like my old self in no time—but I didn’t let those bears fuck me up as badly as they got you.”
“I didn’t let the bloody thing drop a thousand pounds on me.”
“A thousand pounds?” he repeats with a snort. “Numbers, how much do bears like that actually weigh?”
“Even the heaviest weigh less than seven-hundred,” Numbers says.
“Excuse me for not keeping track of how much the average bear weighs,” I grumble. “It felt like a thousand pounds.”
“Well, it shouldn’t have,” Axel says, giving me a long look. “Nox, Tarzon, and I aren’t much younger than you, and we could pull a tree stump out of the ground and karate-chop that sucker in half without breaking a sweat. One bear shouldn’t have been that big of a challenge for your hybrid form.”
“Okay, that’s a really specific, wild claim that I don’t really believe,” I scoff. “But, even if that’s true, you were all born hybrids and I wasn’t, so maybe that’s why I’m weaker.”
“Or, it could be a hatchling. Griff said he feels weaker when he’s pregnant, like his body starts automatically reserving strength for the birth right after conception.”
“It’s that bad?”
“I don’t think popping out hatchlings sucks too much, but two days before he gives birth his body does all this weird internal stuff to route that little sucker to the exit point. Then everything just kind of…reverts back to how it was, two days after the birth.”
“I wonder if my hatchling will come out more like me or more like his Giver dads,” I say, putting a hand on my stomach.
“I came out more like my Giver dad. Even got two hogs.”
“That’s lucky.”
“Not really,” he says with a grimace and tense shoulders. “They freak humans out. You should see the faces they make when they give me physical exams.”
“Well…I don’t think all humans would make those kinds of faces. I know I didn’t.”
Axel raises a curious eyebrow at that. “Weren’t you afraid they wouldn’t fit without tearing you a new asshole?”
“A little,” I laugh, “but Givers have a way of doing it that makes it work, without injuring anything. I could give you some pointers.”
His red face freezes with a thoughtful look, which seems as attached to it as his eyebrows. “I should probably do tongue stuff first, right?”
“Definitely. Tongue stuff is a must.”
We go over multiple tips he can use when he loses his virginity to a human, and Axel looks more and more relaxed.
“I can’t wait to try this stuff out,” he says, with a dreamy look in his dark eyes. “I’m glad Braxton made me check on you. Do you want to eat something? He told me to bring you fresh food.”
I shake my head, staring up at the gray ceiling. Food isn’t what I want. All this talk about first times is making me think about mine with my Givers. I want them. I miss them. And, although I’m sure he’s busy, I wish Braxton had brought the food himself. “Did he mention coming by later?”
“Nope. He’s in the middle of getting an interstellar treaty signed by as many heads of state as he can, so it will probably be a while.”
“Yeah… That makes sense.” I really shouldn’t pout, and should just be proud of them.
All three of the loves of my life are important enough to be involved in an interstellar treaty. That’s absolutely mental! And one of them even started working on a backup planet project for me.
But I guess it can be hard to feel grateful when it’s hard to believe how lucky you are—and you’re still adjusting to your dream life being just within reach.
“You know what? I will eat now.”
Axel goes to where we store food on the ship and retrieves a covered plate he put in a preservation cabinet, then hands it to me. I remove the lid and I’m hit with all the best smells: crispy bacon, cheesy omelet, and the grassy scent of steamed green beans. My favorite breakfast!
Okay, I’m not feeling any less loved now just because the commander didn’t bring this himself. His love for me is in every bite I take, filling me with warmth and calm. By the time I finish eating I feel safe and at ease in a way I haven’t since the NVs told me I was being sent back to Earth.
I’m still really hungry, though. Braxton gave me portions that are three times larger than what I would normally woof down, but there’s an achy, empty sensation in my stomach no more than five minutes after I eat my last piece of bacon.
I mention this to Axel and he smirks at me.
“Griff says the same thing when he’s eating for two.”
Well shit. “Numbers, how soon can I take a pregnancy test?”