Chapter One #2
“Yup, me and my brother both. He’s waiting until I am settled before he hits the waves, and I don’t want to leave Aksalla. I like working for Keska.”
“And you don’t want to hit the waves because Hyreno isn’t safe.” Vallu burped her baby and nodded.
“Definitely not. They have funny rules, and I don’t want to end up in a group situation and belonging to no one.”
“Oh. Got it.” Vallu held her child and nodded. “That would be horrifying.”
“Yup. I don’t want to be the town bike, and that is pretty much what I am left with.” Hemma shrugged. “Or the town boat?”
Vallu smiled. “Wanna hold him?”
“Sure.”
Vallu plopped the baby in her arms, and Hemma smiled down at the little guy. “You live in a good place with good people. Don’t take them for granted, little guy.”
The baby looked at her and smiled, and his eyes closed.
Vallu smiled. “You are good with kids.”
“I worked in the creche in Uradda before I activated. I look very human, so it was easy to attach me to the ambassador without question.”
“What are your main activations?”
“All Hyreno, including the sealed gills.” She chuckled.
“Like what?”
“Strength, the gills, and multiple vocal cords that make a freaky sound. I have a friend with sonic attacks, but my voice apparently wins for listenability through a sheet of water.”
She settled the baby on her shoulder and rocked him slowly.
Vallu looked at her. “You don’t have any side effects from not using your gills?”
“Nope. Healthy as a horse. I have a humidity room at home, though. Keska set it up for me. A cool misting once a week does the job.”
“I can’t imagine. You are in a rough position.”
“It’s fine. I like working with Keska. We travel the world, and I see it all from behind her. It’s a very safe place to be.” She touched her necklace and sighed.
“And safe has been in short supply.”
“Yeah, that’s a word for it.” She smiled sadly.
“But there is new life being born. Moving forward isn’t done without struggle, and the couples who have managed to craft the next generation are proving they didn’t fight for nothing.
So many died. Nearly half the active population just disappeared in the five years before the walls came down. ”
Vallu paused. “I didn’t know that.”
“They didn’t advertise it. Oh, I also have a learning and comprehension activation. So does my brother.”
“Wow. So, you have pursued higher education?”
“I have challenged a few tests and been successful.”
Vallu grinned. “Thought so.”
She glanced down at the baby, then up, and then her gaze snapped down. “The riding lesson is over. They are headed over here. All of them.”
Vallu put a hand on her arm. “It’s fine.”
“You might want to take the baby.”
Vallu murmured, “Are you preparing to fight?”
“Not until you have the baby.”
“In that case, you are hanging on to him. They wouldn’t dare touch a hair on his head.”
Hemma looked over and said, “Lady Daycross. Please take your son.”
Vallu looked at her and quietly said, “No.”
They got to their feet as the crowd of men approached. Vallu smiled, walked to Etgar, and wrapped her arms around his waist. Their kiss was sweet if a little difficult to analyze from Hemma’s angle. Kissing a muzzle was difficult, but Vallu obviously had a lot of practice.
The child started fussing, and one of the Sethir knelt next to her. “Pressed into babysitting?”
Hemma nodded. “Something like that.”
He chuckled. “You look familiar. Have we met?”
“I don’t think so. I live in Aksalla. I don’t get out much.”
She knew what was coming before he flared his nostrils and recognition shot through him. Hemma looked at him and met his gaze. He looked her over. “Hemma. I keep replaying our last encounter.”
“So do I. My cooperation bought my brother’s survival.”
He froze. “What?”
“It wasn’t a hobby. I was ordered to do it to save my sibling from torture. He’s graduating this year.”
The expression on his face got complicated, and he frowned. “Stay there.”
“Right. Like I have an option. Have you ever tried to standby with a baby?”
He frowned and gestured to one of the other guys, and they wandered over to watch her so she didn’t go anywhere.
The Hyreno looked down at her. “They are upset.”
“I know. Uradda has been engaging in that practice for decades. That is why we have so many omegas in the population.”
The Hyreno said, “What now?”
“Yeah, the Uraddan survivors have about twenty-five percent omega genes. The Hyreno were an easy source of material.”
He tensed. “You are proud of that?”
“It is a fact. I haven’t been allowed to even converse with another active until I was rescued.”
“Wait. What? Are you an omega?”
“I would be, but everything has been disconnected. It was their favourite move.” She flipped the baby onto her shoulder and rubbed his back as he fussed and then settled.
“That and keeping family hostage against our good behaviour when we left the city on assignment. They tortured them in front of us just to remind us what would happen if we tried to act out or get away.”
She looked over as Kessie, Baola, and Lii were putting their horses away with the stable hands. Salat was still standing with the alphas and nodding as he explained something. The guys were all staring at her.
“You are a psychic?”
The man near her chuckled. “Most Hyreno are to one extent or another. Not the same for Uraddans?”
“No. They restrict that when we are in our early teens. They only select the most malleable for psychic duty. They were used to interrogate us after our assignment to make sure that we hadn’t slipped information to anyone.”
“Oh.”
She felt the touch on her mind, and he swiftly started rifling through her memories.
She swayed with pain and nausea as he looked for evidence of what she had been talking about, and she started shaking violently. “Vallu!”
Hands took the baby, and the seizure took over. Hemma felt herself thrashing and smelled blood.
Hemma opened her eyes to Kessie’s worried expression. “Hey, shortie.”
Kessie looked upset. “You had a seizure.”
“Yup. That’s the reaction when outside psychics delve into my Uraddan memories. They planted a lot of stuff that they didn’t want anyone to find. The seizure is a failsafe. An emergency switch. I am guessing he stopped looking as soon as I flopped over.”
Vallu’s voice spoke from behind her. “Yeah. You could say that. Salat tried to beat him into the turf. The other Hyreno stopped Salat, but a few of them had to be healed. After you, of course.”
“Thanks.”
“That happens every time?”
“Well, you know the alphas, they go too deep without warning.” She chuckled and slowly sat up. “Salat went home?”
“Yeah, just for the day, he will be back to take you back to Aksalla later today. Your brother says that Sorooth and Keska are still going fine. No signs of them yet.”
Hemma nodded. “Good. I am sorry to have put you out. This is Friday?”
“Yes. Salat will be relieved that you are here. That’s an amazing necklace, by the way.”
Hemma touched the necklace and exhaled. “It’s an emergency beacon. If I need her, she’s there.”
“You didn’t need her yesterday?”
“No. It wasn’t going to kill me. At this point, only going to Uradda would kill me.”
Vallu nodded. “We are a similar size, so I put you in a spare nighty. Kessie slept in Lii’s pyjamas at her insistence.”
She looked at the heavy silk and smiled. “I will pay you for dry cleaning.”
“Don’t worry. Etgar tears them all the time.”
Kessie hugged her. “A whole bunch of those men are waiting outside the door.”
Hemma nodded. “Of course they are.”
She pushed to her feet, and Kessie helped. Vallu darted over with a robe that matched the nightgown. Vallu said, “We will get you something to wear. There was blood all over your outfit. Did you know it doesn’t come out?”
“Yup. Sorry.”
“And it’s blue.”
“Knew that, too.” She stroked Kessie’s hair. “Right. If the talk gets adult, cover your ears.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Vallu smiled.
“Lady Daycross is backing us up. Everyone will be polite.”
They left the guestroom, and Vallu steered them down the hall to the dining room. There was a table full of men with three spaces available for them. Vallu helped her sit, and Kessie sat at her left.
When they were all seated, the man who had thudded through her brain said, “I am very sorry. You didn’t say I was causing pain.”
“One, you didn’t ask, and two, you should have been able to feel it if you hadn’t been rolling around in salacious details.”
His skin darkened. “You could have mentioned the failsafe.”
“Would you have listened or just thought that the Uraddan spy was trying to stop your investigation, Official Chilar?”
He jolted. “You know my name?”
“You were in my head for over a minute. I am fussy about who I let inside. Your name was the least I could do. You don’t want to know what kind of info I pulled out of you at the same time.” She smiled and covered Kessie’s ears. “Unlike most alphas, I can pull out.”
She let Kessie’s ears go, and the men looked sheepish.
“So, gentlemen, you go back where you came from, and I am going back to my life as a housekeeper.”
Etgar was holding the baby and said, “They want to know if you are registered with the BDC?”
“Nope. What I have learned about that kind of interaction isn’t particularly fun or welcoming.”
The alphas muttered, and one said, “We cherish and protect our omegas.”
“Having experienced what you do with a female you feel is not an omega, I would beg to disagree.” She made a face and shuddered.
He opened his mouth and then closed it.
“Also, my brother is applying to Hyreno next year, and I am not going to have him associated by relation with anything of this nature.” She sighed. “I am also trying to apply for genotyping so that we can learn which Hyreno grouping we are related to.”
The men froze. She smirked. “Hadn’t figured that part out. My brother has unopened gills; I have markers that have been scarred shut. That means that, willing or not, we are related to at least one Hyreno out there.”