Chapter 19
Zander
“I’ll be back tonight,” Drondia said as she bid us farewell.
“Thank you,” I replied as I held the door open for her.
I went back inside and headed straight for my perfect family.
“You should rest,” I commented after setting our food down at the table.
“You just want to hold her,” Fatima teased.
“Maybe,” I replied in a sheepish tone.
I loved holding little Zamena. She was so tiny. So perfect. I wanted to hold and protect her as much as I could.
“Alright, fine,” Fatima replied in a light tone and lifted our daughter up to me.
I held her to my chest much like I did when Neelu first handed her to me. Her cry was loud and demanding and it gave me hope she would be fierce and stubborn like her mother one day.
“Go ahead,” Fatima smiled up at me earlier that night. “Go show her to the dekes. Go show them our daughter.”
It was our tradition for the father of a newborn sietling to hold them high and announce their arrival to everyone in the village. I had dreamed of this moment, but never thought I’d get to live it.
My heart welled with joy and a tear streamed down my face. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, go,” my mate smiled up at me. I lifted her hand to my lips and kissed her gently.
“You two are everything to me. You’re my whole world.”
I looked at my mate for a long moment before I took that first step toward the door. There was a crowd gathered outside and everyone went silent as I stepped into the night.
I held our baby high and proudly announced, “Fatima has done it!” My mate has given birth and is doing well!”
Cheers and whoops burst forth from the crowd.
“She will be called Zamena, for she is the child of Zander and Fatima!”
More cheers sounded from the crowd. I pulled my arms back so I could rest my daughter against my chest again.
“Congratulations,” Tarak said as he clapped my shoulder. “I am here if you need anything.”
“As am I,” Orsu added.
“You can count on me as well,” Drovo said.
“Thank you.” I’d never felt so much apart of this community as I did right now, holding my baby girl, and receiving promises of help from the other new father’s of the dekes.
I looked back through the open door and found Fatima staring back at me with a watery grin on her face. I had a mate and a child. Life couldn’t get much better than this.
Fatima
Five months later
“She’s getting so big!” Drondia commented when I walked up to her and Karo as they sat on a blanket in the sand.
“Big and full of smiles,” Karo added as he held out his hand so Zamena could grab onto one of his fingers. He had a way with babies. He never failed to make them smile and laugh.
“Is Zander back yet?” Drondia asked looking over my shoulder.
“Not yet, he’s got two more people to fly over and then we’ll all be here.”
Winter had faded and the weather had turned hot over the past few months. Just as I predicted, as soon as word got out that Zander could fly a mother and child to the beach, he became a very popular male. Jax had agreed to help fly people as well.
Now, once every two weeks, we would have a party on the ocean shore. Orsu would grill meat over a fire, Julie would bring a dessert, and we’d let the babies crawl around on blankets while we sunned ourselves and took turns swimming in the ocean.
“There he is,” Drondia pointed to Zander who was carrying the last two party goers on his back.
He extinguished his flames and knelt down on one knee so Beatrice and baby Bhaz could get down. Rhaz was there in an instant to help Beatrice onto the sand. They untied Bhaz from the swaddle on Zander’s back leaving him free to roam around once again.
My mate stood tall and scanned the crowd looking for me. I waited until his gaze met mine then waved with a bright smile on my face.
He gave me a broad smile in return then jogged in my direction.
Zander was perfect. The months had come and gone and he’d stayed by my side. He didn’t run screaming as I feared. Instead he was there for every night feeding, every burp, every blow out, and every smile.
“They were the last people who needed flown over,” he commented before giving me a quick kiss on the lips.
“Why don’t you two go swim or take a long walk while we watch Zamena?” Drondia offered.
“I got her to smile last time,” Karo commented. “I bet this time I could get her to laugh.”
“I have no doubt about that,” I chuckled.
“What do you say, my kira-si?” Zander looked down at me with an undeniable heat in his eyes. “Should we take a quick dip in the ocean?”
“That sounds good to me,” I grinned up at him then handed Drondia the baby.
“She just ate,” I commented. “Her nap time isn’t for a while yet, so she should be a happy baby for you two.”
“She’ll be perfect,” Drondia smiled. “Now go,” the elder woman waved us away with a grin.
“I haven’t gotten to see you in your swimsuit yet,” Zander was quick to point out.
The guys were pleased to discover that we wore specific clothes for swimming in, and that they were far smaller than anything else we wore in public.
I made mine from the wings of the solete bird. It was a halter top paired with some short shorts.
“Would you like for me to remove my towel?” I teased.
“Very much,” Zander purred.
“Where should we go once I do?” There were a few private coves around the beach that Zander could quickly reach with a short flight.
“Wherever you’d like.” He smiled while tugging on my towel. I let the fabric fall away and enjoyed my mate’s heated gaze.
“I’ll never tire of seeing you like this. You’re so perfect in every way.”
He gently ran his fingers along my stretch marks. “I like these most of all. They’re proof that this is all real. You carried Zamena inside you, and now we have the most amazing little girl.”
I had been aroused before, but hearing him talk about how much he loved our daughter turned my desire into a need.
“Take me to the cove with the purple flowers,” I breathed, suddenly finding it hard to speak.
“As you wish,” Zander smiled then helped me onto his back.
It didn’t take long for him to fly me to the cove and it didn’t take long for my mate to untie my swimsuit once we landed either.
“I need you,” Zander moaned against my skin as he got onto his knees and kissed every inch of me.
“I need you too,” I replied while sinking my fingers into his thick brown hair.
His mouth found my cunt and he lapped eagerly while holding me up by the backs of my thighs.
“Mmm,” I moaned as he nipped, licked, and sucked my sensitive skin.
We’d taken our time getting back into sex after Zamena was born.
Zander had prepped me for weeks with his fingers and mouth before we attempted penetrative sex again.
But now that I was completely healed and pleasantly stretched, I wanted him every hour of every day.
I wanted him gentle, I wanted him rough, I wanted his hands all over my body, and his lips on my clit, just like they were right now.
It didn’t take long before my channel squeezed around his tongue in a orgasm that took me by surprise. I cried out, holding onto his horns. Zander held me through it then lowered me into the warm water of the cove.
“Sit in the water against the ledge just like last time.” I ordered, and my mate happily obliged.
I met him at the ledge and straddled his naked body with my own. Zander kissed down my neck and licked my nipples as I held his cock in my hand and slowly lowered myself onto the tip.
As soon as I made contact, he threw his head back and gritted his teeth against the pleasure of our bodies being joined as one. Large hands gripped my thighs as he helped guide me downward onto his thick shaft.
I held my breath, just like I always did, until he was fully seated inside me. He was so thick and ribbed, I couldn’t get enough.
“Breathe,” Zander reminded me, and I let out a gasp as his thumb found my clit.
“I’m here with you, now and always,” he vowed.
“Together forever,” I agreed.
Then I placed my hands on his shoulders and slid my body up and down his length.
I went slowly at first. I wanted to drink in this moment, this togetherness with my mate, but my need to ride him began to overwhelm me.
We’d had sex many times now. I knew exactly how good he felt, and I wanted to feel every ridge gliding through me faster and faster until I reached the top.
I quickened my pace and Zander wrapped his arms around me and held me tight. Water splashed all around us as our bodies joined together over and over again.
“Mine,” Zander growled.
“Yours,” I agreed. “Always yours.”
Then I was coming. My channel clamped down onto his cock and he let out a cry that scared all the birds away. Zander pumped into me, until he had nothing left and then when I thought it was all over, he held onto my hips and thrust into me anew.
I met him eagerly thrust for thrust, until I found myself laying flat on the grass with my mate hovering over me.
He continued to thrust and work my clit with his thumb. Then his cock started to vibrate and it was all over for me then.
I cried out his name as I orgasmed again, and he cried out mine.
We were together now. We did not glow under the full light of the moon, but he glowed for me in his heart and I glowed for him.