Manix by Grace McGinty

5

Raiden

Naja took a huge step away from Finlo. “Woah, no one is impregnating me, Gigantor.”

Finlo’s lips twitched. “I didn’t say anyone was impregnating you, Tiny. I said you could impregnate Raiden.”

I watched her eyes grow real wide, and slow blink. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying here. That’s not how nature works. Maybe you guys have spent too long in the mountains surrounded by dicks all the time, but pregnancy is usually a female thing.”

I shook my head at her, stepping closer, drawing her attention. “Not with Manix. It is why we are all but extinct. Females do give birth, but they can only give birth to one offspring every nine months. Their biology is similar to that of humans really, one egg once a month. But female Omegas, they can produce up to ten eggs during a heat cycle. They do not have the strength to carry that many offspring to term at once though. That's where male Omega Manix come into the picture. Our physiology is different; it’s stronger, better equipped to carry the load that half a dozen cubs would be.”

She was still frowning. “But you don’t have a vagina.” She paused. “Do you?”

This was simultaneously embarrassing as hell and funny as fuck. I never thought I’d have to explain this to someone outside our society. It sounded preposterous, and even to the younger members of Manix, it was an urban legend. “Uh, no. I don’t have a vagina. I have a secondary urethra that extracts the eggs, and a womb for gestation.”

She swigged down more tequila. At this rate, she was going to be shitfaced by the time we got to the real issues. “Then how do you give birth?”

“In the olden days, it was a ritualistic thing performed as a Pack, involving daggers and stones and blessing chants to the Goddess. Today, we would just call it a Caesarean section.”

She was shaking her head softly, over and over, like she couldn’t stop. She slumped back onto her couch. “I still don’t understand.”

Seven huffed. “It’s not really that hard if you stop being so fucking human. You two fuck during the heat. He steals the eggs with his super sucker dick. We fuck him and fertilize the eggs in what is one very long and dirty orgy. He grows some cubs. In four and a half months, we cut him open, deliver our young, and we are finally a family.”

Gatlin growled. “For fuck’s sake, Seven.”

She was silent for a long time, and I could see the information bouncing around in her head. Damn, she smelled so good, she made my mouth water. My dick ached and she wasn’t even in full heat yet. It would be unbearable then.

She finally slid her eyes to Seven and gave him a sour look. She was looking a little more chilled out—all the tequila probably. “I get the logistics, asshole. I don’t understand what my part in this is. Do you just want me to donate eggs? I mean, I don’t think I have this heat thing that Seven mentioned.”

There was an audible grunt in the room, and Gatlin stood. He sauntered over in that way he had that made my dick impossibly harder, until he was standing in front of her, slightly stooped so he didn’t look like he was looming.

“You are nearly in heat now, Naja,” he murmured softly. “You’ll know because your skin feels hot and tight, and nothing cools it down. Your body clenches in need, and no matter how much you touch yourself, it doesn’t ease. The sound of my voice right now is making you so wet; we can all smell it. You’re responding to my Alpha pheromones, and Raiden’s Omega scent. You don’t ovulate like other humans, or even other shifters. It will come only once a year and it is excruciating and bloody and you feel like you want to die. Mating during the heat eases the pain and duration.”

She swallowed hard, and I saw goosebumps spread across her warm skin like wildfire. “Irregular periods are a sign of trauma. It wasn’t that unusual.”

My eyes whipped to Finlo, and he mouthed, “Trauma?” as I felt my hackles rising instantly.

Gatlin quelled his Alpha response to the little Omega’s statement, which was exactly why he was our unofficial leader. He kept a cool head when he wasn’t dealing with the Legion, and he saw things from alternate perspectives. He shook his head at her. “No, it is because you are Manix. And an Omega at that. Something we were so sure was gone from the world that you may as well be a unicorn.”

He stepped away, but she followed him like she couldn’t help herself. I resisted the grin because I knew what that meant. We had her, at least physically. Now we just had to convince her head and her heart that we were the best option for her. We could do it.

This bunch of ruffians had convinced me easily.

She looked back at me, and I was once again floored with how beautiful she was. “So, what? Me and Raiden have sex, he steals my eggs, and you guys go away?”

Gatlin lowered his chin in agreement. “If that’s what you wish, yes. It’s not the ideal scenario, but if that was your decision, we would accept it.”

She clenched her jaw like she was preparing for a fight. “And if I said I wanted nothing to do with this whole twilight zone scenario?”

Gatlin dropped his eyes. “Then we would accept that as well. However, you would need to move on from Montana. My Pack will protect you for this heat cycle either way, but if you stay here, other Packs will eventually scent you and come down from the mountains. Some may be less… polite with their invitations.”

I snarled at the thought of anyone doing anything to Naja against her will, and it made her head whip toward me.

“They’d rape me?”

Gatlin inclined his head solemnly. “Perhaps. The heat can make us crazy and some Manix are from a more barbaric school of thought than ours. But even if they have complete control over themselves, you are something that hasn’t been seen in many decades. They will take what they can from you, with or without your permission.”

She looked like she wanted to crumple, but instead, her shoulders went stiff like she was injecting her spine with steel. “They could try.” She looked over at Seven. “Who’d have thought that you guys, with your abduction, would be the polite option?”

She screwed the cap back on the tequila, settling down on the couch beside Ellar. I hid my smile as the soft Beta didn’t move a single muscle so as to not frighten her. I loved that man. “Say we do this, and I give Raiden my eggs. You guys leave, and then what happens next year when the, uh, heat hits again? Are you going to try and breed an army of tiny Manix out of Raiden?”

I shook my head vigorously. “Oh no. Not for many, many years after the birth of the cubs would we even consider doing this again.”

She nodded her head. “Understandable. So next year, when I go into heat again, and my milkshake brings all the Manix to the yard, what then? I’m on my own?”

Finlo rumbled low in his chest. “You will be the mother of our cubs. We would never abandon you to that fate.”

I winced when her face went pale. Until Finlo had opened his big mouth, she hadn’t thought of the eggs in terms of being actual children. I knew, looking at her, that she wasn’t the kind of person who would happily abandon her kids into the care of others, even if I did birth them.

She held my eyes as she asked, “And what would be the ideal situation?”

I couldn’t help but move closer so I could touch her, reassure her. “The ideal situation would be that over the next few days, you would get to know us. When your heat hits, we would spend our time making love in the hope that we ease your suffering through the heat, and that we would be well on our way to having a large bounty of beautiful cubs. Plus, you know, a countless amount of wonderful orgasms.” I grinned. Her lips twitched, so I soldiered on. “Then, if you decided you liked us, and wanted to pursue something more permanent with us, we’d move you back to our home on the mountain where we could protect you properly. We would take care of you. You’d never have to be scared or unhappy again.”

Her lips parted as her eyes grew so wide that I knew I was selling her a dream right now. I knew in my very soul that she’d never felt completely safe or happy in her life. I could give her that. Hell, I would do nearly anything to give her that.

As if Fate knew how close we were to getting everything we ever wanted, a cry from the other room pierced the silence.

I watched as she took a shuddering step away, building her walls back up, letting go of the dream I’d presented. She turned on her heel and moved further into the house, leaving us all staring pensively at her back.