Chapter Ten #2
Gideon slapped his view screen on and enjoyed the momentary look of fright on his employer’s face at his shirtless, mussed form. I look savage. And satisfied. “I don’t know. It does not matter. What will you do if it is a girl?”
“Well, I— I.. That is unimportant, honestly. It hasn’t happened yet. You look horrible, Gideon. Worse than usual. No wonder the human Queen doesn’t want to mate with you.”
“No wonder she didn’t want to mate with you, Farhet. You recoiled from her physical appearance. If you had looked past it, you would have seen she is charming, clever, sweet, and kind.”
“Only little Knights worry about a Queen’s kindness and sweetness.
She showed you pity, and you think it is something wonderful on her part?
Ha!” Farhet scoffed. “She was all over me, too. That is why I rejected her advances. It was unseemly and disgusting to feel her naked skin pressing all over me.”
Gideon swallowed down a hiss. That wasn’t true. Couldn’t be true. “Did you imagine she would be fully clothed and ten feet away while you mated with her, sir?” he asked, keeping his calm as Farhet became ever more rattled.
“How dare you speak to me like that! I—”
“You will do nothing, sir, because you can’t.
There is no other chance for you to procure a human surrogate at this time, and even if you could, you wouldn’t bed them.
Another surrogate male will not be tolerated.
It was a bait and switch on your human Queen, and she had every right to reject me, or any others you were allowed to send—and Dr. Marcus has made it clear that you wouldn’t be allowed.
Sasha likes me. Chose me. If she didn’t, you would be out of luck, and your brother would soon become the King of the Pride.
You need me, and it displeases you. Your need has allowed me to free myself. ”
Farhet scowled for a moment, and then his arrogant features relaxed.
Gideon knew from a decade of working with the older Leonid that this never meant anything good for a rival in a business acquisition or a political sparring match.
“You’re right, Gideon. You are free. You are free to go off and live on a dusty little planet with the vast wealth I will give you once that human Queen falls pregnant.
You will be free to never think of me again, but your child will be well off.
He will have riches and success you could never have.
You say I need you? I think in reality, you have always needed me, and we can see that it will continue into the next generation.
I have things to attend to. Go and take care of your obligations. ”
The call ended, and Gideon was left shaking. Shaken at the thought of what Farhet had just said, and shaken at the thought that if he no longer wanted to go through with this, but Sasha did... then he would have to share her with another.
She doesn’t want another. But she cannot live on broken contracts. Could three years of my salary and just one cycle of this program be enough for us to start somewhere? I couldn’t invest much in property development. The orchards, gone. Goats, vanished.
Sasha... Would Sasha be gone, too? Would she feel as though she had to fulfill her obligation to the program, because it is such noble work?
What kind of a King would I ever be if I put my own desires above that of helping my population rebuild?
“I’M SORRY I’M LATE.” Sasha watched Dr. Marcus review the hemoanalyzer results, smile, and take a vial of the booster serum off the counter.
“Ideally, we should try to keep it to close to the same time every day. I’m glad you saw my message, so I didn’t have to come and wake you up. I don’t want to pry, but you and Gideon seem to be enjoying one another’s company.”
“We are.” Sasha blushed and held out her arm for the needle.
The injection was short and painless, and Dr. Marcus beamed at her. “You know, ahem,” he coughed, “watching you and Farhet, meeting Farhet, is vastly different than watching you and Gideon. I’m not a young King, and I hate to admit when I’ve made a mistake, but I think I might have.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“When I started this idea, I only cared about rebuilding Felid lives, Felid families. I lost my wife and our four cubs that she was carrying.”
Sasha clapped a hand over her mouth. “Oh, Marcus,” she whispered, stricken. “That’s so horrible. And I know every single person in this galaxy has a similar tale.”
“It’s true. So when Layla arrived here, as freight, human cargo to be shipped to the Lynxian System, there were rumors going around that the Lynxians were hunting humans for sport.
Layla made no secret she’d been drugged and trafficked by a shady boyfriend, but she honestly didn’t seem to mind leaving her planet.
To her, work was work, and a contract to be someone’s maid or someone’s surrogate was the same to her, and one paid a lot more.
When I had the chance to test something I was working on, the chromosomal compatibility booster, I pressed Rupex into considering her as a surrogate.
And they fell in love. Their ‘business agreement’ became a family.
Years later? Abi, another human who’d been trafficked and had become a dear friend of mine, was ready to start a family before it was too late.
Well, I thought, so do I. Two friends who want a child might try co-parenting a cub.
Nope. My heart was hers even before we kissed. ”
“These are sweet stories, Marcus.” Sasha wiped her hands on the pleats of the airy crimson dress she’d donned. “I like Gideon very much. I could see... well, I’ve never met anyone as wonderful as him,” she admitted, but then clamped her lips shut tight.
“I still know our species needs to be rebuilt, Sasha, but I’m not so sure if ‘surrogacy’ is the right method based on how intimate this action is and how long it can take.
It’s just that I’m a doctor. I think in terms of medical solutions, medical applications.
” Marcus took off his glasses and shook his head.
“It does need medical oversight to run this protocol, and medicine can be cold and clinical. But making a child ought to be something that has some sort of warmth and love behind it.”
“There is! Love for your people, for those who are suffering with losses, who are desperate for a family.” Sasha leaned forward and patted his paw comfortingly, happy to have a chance to use a little of the bedside manner she had never gotten a chance to use as a nurse or physician.
“It’s why I’m here. I had standards that I wouldn’t break, not for any amount of money.
Yes, I knew I would have to have a sexual relationship with the father of the cub, but I thought it would be an act for the greater good, for the love of a beautiful, kind galaxy that’s been through so much. ”
Marcus gave her a weary smile. “I agree with those reasons, Sasha, and I, too, have those standards. Maybe at first they were marred by grief that was much fresher, and years of isolation. This crew has grown, this family has grown, and my view is changing. I think that there is a way that we can rebuild a population, and yes, there will be a medical aspect to it,” Marcus sighed, “but it has to come second. I’ve been looking through candidates for the surrogacy program, the Felid candidates—and they’re all males, all doing well financially, all eager to have a family—and all single.
Why? Because if they were not, only the most reprehensible ones would likely consider bedding someone who was not their true Queen.
Those fortunate enough to have survived, either by sterilization or just pure good fortune, have done what Abi and I are doing and are looking to adopt cubs that are already born.
” He gave a sudden smile, shaking his head.
“What I need are matchmakers, or simply an influx of willing women to come to Felix Orbus. There are very few right now.”
“That’s because they don’t understand how wonderful you are—and maybe because some people can’t get past the fur, teeth, and tails.” Sasha gave him a bashful look. “I wasn’t sure I could, but I thought... Well, I’ll have to. And now?”
“Now, you think Gideon is the most handsome of males, I can tell.”
“He has a handsome heart,” Sasha said, almost defiantly.
“Indeed, he does. Do you two truly want to procreate and have this child be raised by another?”
Sasha’s face fell, all traces of relaxation wiped away. “What?” she whispered, clutching her knees.
“It’s not too late to change your mind and restructure this with me.
I’m reaching out to speak to the males who have been approved for the program to see if they would perhaps consider the fertility protocol as part of something larger.
Family-building services. It will mean that we have to add more moving parts to this scenario, but I’m willing to do things well instead of simply do them, period.
I don’t know why I was so blind before. I can only say that heartbreak clouded my judgment at first, and then I thought perhaps my story and Rupex’s story were unique. Now, I don’t know if that is true.”
“But... The contract. The money that I was promised for this—”
“Would still be yours, Sasha, if you and your chosen partner have a child. You would be our first testimonial, and you are still one of the ‘test’ cases that various medical boards have requested to prove that this treatment is truly safe in numerous cases, not just a dozen across the galaxy. You would be a paid test subject.”
“But what about the other women you recruited to be matched?”