Chapter Seven
Wallace
On my way out of the medical facilities, I passed a line of new hybreed alphas and betas, glancing around at one another with excitement bubbling in their bright eyes. “Good luck, dudes.”
“We don’t need luck! We already found it.
” They shoved at one another as they hustled into Fel’s office.
The sweet male had been pacing and excited for days, wanting to see if his egg managed to fertilize.
In any case, sperm was there, an egg was released, and the sperm was alive!
Against all odds. Even his Colthraxian body had dwindled down to proto-organs and a nervous system. All wonderful signs.
“I’m headed back home, Fel. When you decide to do the scan, tell me,” I called aloud, prompting Fel to stick his head out and grin brightly.
His tail flicked in a nervous little shiver, and I focused on giving him a reassuring lift and flex back toward him, telling him that I had confidence in the future.
“I look forward to fulfilling the part of friend with you, Fel. And if not, I will fulfil the Terran role of friend and help comfort you if you’re disappointed. ”
Fel brightened. “I look forward to either thing. We shall consume our entertainment together as companions.”
“Yeah!” I whipped my tail around as he stuck his from the doorway, and we exchanged a little fist bump equivalent they called knocking. That was what the translator said, anyway. I was still learning.
The streets were less occupied than they once had been; the season in full swing still as our crewmates ravaged their way through the city.
Gorm had found a third or fourth wind in all of it and was back out there.
I was just happy to go back to the closest thing to a home I had.
I kinda missed waking up to Nexus barging into my room and racing all over me like the spaniel I had as a kid.
They’d evolved beyond a currency system since the population had become so small.
Everyone had roles they needed to fill, and mine was in my culinary skills.
So, in my passing training and assistance, a local bakery sort of equivalent had learned to make a hybrid of sweets pairing hybreed tastes and Terran cuisine to the local palette.
They were adding new recipes to their repertoire by the day.
But, as they were en route to the home I shared with Vil and Noel, I stepped in with a smile that was returned to me from two sets of eyes.
A pink-scaled male and his dark-purple-scaled partner, Tee and Vish, waved at me excitedly.
“Wall-Esh! Your change is spectacular!” Tee called my name using their similar sounding word. “You are as your name implies, every time we meet.”
There was no direct translation for my name, not in a single word at any rate, but it translated out to the specific kind of relief one felt after scratching an intimate part of their body, with intimate being the precise term, as it didn’t mean merely genitals, but could be any vulnerable and erogenous place.
“I really should change my name, shouldn’t I?” I laughed as they beamed.
Vish waved me off, his tail flicking in annoyance.
He flicked his light-lavender hair and gave me a devilish wink from pretty powder-blue eyes buried amid dark sclera.
“Your name is fitting. You are a sweet relief to see. There’s no need to impress you, even as an alpha.
You do not seek to breed anyone, so your rejection does not sting.
And you always bring a sweet taste to my tongue. ”
“That is the kind of flirting I respond to,” I said, waving a finger at Vish as I perused the walls of the shop where various treats lay behind glass doors in individual cells.
There was one in particular, made from fruit that looked rather like a bright-red pear.
The interesting thing was, due to crystallization of the pigment with their sugar equivalent—a sucrose adjacent molecule, refracted bright and almost-poisonous blue once cooked. “Where’s the rample tartlets?”
“We were running low, so I set two in back.” Vish brought out a little package made from a type of a seed pod that, once dispersed, left a rather soft and paperlike sack.
“You’re the best.” I walked to the counter to take it and halted when they added a slightly larger sack beside it. “What’s that?”
“This one is for Noel,” Tee beamed. “He will be very hungry.”
“News is out, already?” I shook my head and laughed.
Vish gave Tee a reprimanding swat with the tip of his tail. “Yes, due to unfortunate gossip. We have, what was Merriel’s phrase for it… Ah, yes, we have consumed the tea!”
“Well, you know probably as much as I. Thank you for the rations, acquaintances.” I nodded and waved them off as they beamed.
I strolled on, approaching the estate as I let myself in with a shout announcing my presence—if Merriel didn’t tell them, anyway.
“We’re in the parlor,” a disembodied voice spoke from the ceiling, Vil transmitting the message.
As I strolled, a remotely operated probe, sparkling new in gleaming white ceramic coating, hovered in behind me.
As I squinted at the Terran technology, wondering if Merriel had found himself something new to inhabit, a feminine laugh piqued from the device. A familiar laugh…
“Aw, fuck. Leticia?” I whipped around and stared at the ball.
“I recognize your brainstem chip’s signature, but your form has changed. Wallace NTH-4-690.” She hovered, a light whining noise accompanying her orblike form.
I grimaced. “Roan is here.”
With a shake of my head, I made my way toward the parlor as Leticia whizzed by me. “Ooooohhhh, Merrrrieellllll. Hehehe!”
Her singsong voice and accompanying giggle made my tail shiver with discomfort.
A spiderlike crab of a probe crawling over one of the floor cushions next to Nexus froze in place. “Leticia! Ahh!”
A rather unmanly, high-pitched scream preceded his probe retracting all six of his legs and sensors, the indicator light of his activity turning off with a sad little beep.
Vil stared at the inactive Merriel and reached over, prodding the husk. “Wondered when she’d get here.”
The orb-shaped probe of Leticia hovered over and extended clawlike legs before dropping down to pick the probe up. While the spectacle panned out, many sets of eyes locked onto the display and made no move to stop the other AI from kidnapping and absconding with ours.
“Bye bye, Merr-il.” A little orange omega waved from his spot on the floor, surrounded by little trinket toys in strange shapes and made from translucent opalescent crystal. Bright-blue eyes flicked toward me and brightened. “WALLISSSH!”
“Noah!” I opened my arms and dropped the bags as I lowered my form to the ground. One babe then two bolted toward me, and I swept them up, supporting the two with my tail to situate them. “And, Nexus! Have you two been good?”
“No! I bite!” Nexus grinned, extraordinarily proud of himself.
“Oh, who did you bite?” I leaned my head down to butt foreheads with the little one.
“Everyone,” Noel said. His yawn of a voice drew my gaze as he lay on one of the floor cushions in a languid sprawl.
A slight swell to his belly pushed out over the waistband of his linen-type pants.
The cropped top of a shirt he wore, adorned with gleaming beads, put the swell on proud display.
As reserved as he’d been about a second child so soon, he’d been remarkably pleased with it in the end, as well as Vil.
Though, they both swore they’d be more careful in future seasons.
Yeah, right.
Everyone had agreed Noel only went into season again so soon because of the new environment surrounded by other seasoned omegas. But, despite Noel’s season having passed, the estate still held lingering notes of sweetness.
“Everyone? Even Noah?” I stared Nexus down with a frown and earned a sheepish shake of his head.
“No bite Noah.” The way he said Noah was special to him.
The little one was his companion from the moment he hatched.
And his name was special among the infected omegas.
The call to attention of the Colthraxians, Colthraxia Noa.
Colthraxians eternal. His name meant forever.
The beginning of it. The first child born of an infected.
I set the two down and picked up the bag, pulling from it two pristine little blue cookies.
They each took one with little snatching fingers and ran off into another room to enjoy their treat in quiet.
And there was one more cookie still in the bag…
I could have split it between the two when they returned, but a new omega sat quietly nearby Noel, decked out in Terran clothing.
And from the sweet scent in the air, I could only guess he was on Roan’s ship and being driven to season, too.
As he gave me a sly, sideways glance, I immediately recognized his face, which had remained largely unchanged. “Roan?”
“Wallace.” His glare accompanied an unrestrained flick of surliness, almost childish in its nature. He was waiting for something.
I studied him; lean lines cut into a dusky sort of purple that reminded me of the light of a dying star filtered through a radioactive haze in a debris belt. And his hair? Dark, almost black. Eyes? They reminded me of tourmalines.
“Say it. Go ahead.” Roan glared at me as he sat up and gave me a rather churlish look. “I’m lavender.”
His appearance, the scent, the snarky tone…
For the first time in a while, my dick, ever sleeping, woke.
As if a cat curled up in a port window, watching debris caught in orbit, I could imagine one eye peeking open with a feigned disinterest. A little purr and a voice as coarse as two stones grinding together mewled a little, ‘This one is pleasing.’
Of all the omegas to perk my cock up. Roan. And my tail? It agreed, curling in that salacious invitation.
“Thought you were an alpha.” I didn’t take my usual spot, but rather shuffled over and swatted him with my tail to move over. “I like this better.”