The Alien Prince’s Omega by Lorelei M. Hart
Hanson
“That was…wow… nothing like what I expected.” I held onto Kagin as we entered his world. In my mind, I had spaceships and teleportation devices as the mode of transport, and this was… wow. “It was so fast. Like if we wanted to we could go back and forth and not be… home doesn’t… never mind.”
It had been two weeks since we’d marked one another, two weeks since we’d decided that nothing, not even being from different planets, could keep us apart. Two weeks since I became the happiest I’d ever been. But it was time to rejoin reality, the one that said it wasn’t just us we needed to think about. Kagin had an entire planet and a family to get back to.
Aside from not wanting to avoid the inevitable any longer and needing to meet my father-in-law, we’d traveled back to Thulnara for a variety of reasons, from making sure things with Umon had just been what they appeared to be, to figuring out how it was I’d marked Kagin’s back.
I still puffed out with pride each time I saw the mark. I did that. I marked my mate. He was mine.
After all this time, I finally understood the big deal. I always listened with enthusiastic nods and squeals when a friend showed their marking. That’s what you do. But it had always been that—being a good friend. Now I got it. I wanted to show everyone.
“Yes, my rupling, we can go back and forth.” He squeezed my hand and held it. “Our first trip will be to see First Father.” It saddened me that I wouldn’t meet his Second Father at the same time, but seeing I was an alien on their planet, it made sense that the king should approve of my presence first.
Me. I was the alien. That was a lot to take in, but then again, all of this was.
Not that I wasn’t terrified to meet the king of an entire freaking planet.
“He will approve?” my voice squeaked. Please let me remember all of the greetings, such as the arms being pressed together and the signs of respect. I only had one chance to make a first impression… wasn’t that how the saying went?
The walk to meet my father-in-law distracted me from my worries. The vortex was beneath the palace, but as I discovered, there were no doors. Kagin walked through walls, but even though I was on Thulnara, I was still human. My rupling had to burn holes in the walls for me.
Eventually we walked into what I soon discovered was the King's private chambers. Kagin held my hand, not only for comfort, but so that I might understand the words spoken around me.
“Son, you have been wandering the stars, I see.” There was no anger in his eyes, but his posture and intonation had me unsure of where he stood on all of this. His eyes flicked to the Hanson-sized hole in his wall. “And destroying the palace.”
“You see or Umon informed you?” Kagin, on the other hand, I had a feel for. Kagin was teasing. What a relief.
“His hearts no longer break for you… his gift of finding you has given him what he longed for… respect from me and the council of elders.” The king took a step closer and lowered his voice, “He is quite the tracker and meant neither of you harm… he is simply Umon.”
“This is my rupling, First Father. His name is Hanson and he bears my mark and I his.” I moved my clothing to give him a better view.
“He is of our kind?” his father asked as his gaze flicked to his destroyed wall. I’d been wondering that myself. Could I possibly come from a line of humans who had met and mated with someone from Thulnara?
“We do not know. Does it matter?” Kagin asked. “He is mine and I am his. We are ruplings. Everything else is noise.”
My stomach decided to pick then to revolt. I bent over, my hands on my middle, trying to figure out the quickest route to somewhere, anywhere not where I was about to puke. My father-in-law was speaking to me or maybe Kagin. I didn’t even know. I understood none of his words.
“Hanson.” A vessel was placed in front of me. “For your projectile.”
I wanted to tell him I didn’t need it, that I was fine. But I very much did need it and hated that puking was going to be my first impression. I barely set it down and I was whisked away to their healer, both Kagin and my father-in-law never leaving my side.
“I’m fine,” I kept saying, and I was too. Just vomiting made me feel a thousand times better. “I’m just not used to such long distance traveling.”
I reached for Kagin’s hand, hating that I couldn’t decipher what the doctor was saying, and was relieved when I felt his hand on my own.
“The mark is the sign of a true mate. This zialt is not of our kind, but he is the one meant for you out of all the beings in the galaxy,” the doctor or healer, I wasn’t sure the difference, said. He mentioned both in the chaos.
“Was it the traveling that made me ill?” I’d hate to be sick every time we went back and forth, but I also couldn’t imagine not being on Earth at least part of the time. I would, of course, if that was the only way to keep Kagin, but I very much didn’t want to.
“Oh, you are not ill. You are with child.” With child. I was having a baby. No, not just any baby. My blue baby, the one I had loved for so long.
My eyes were blurry, already filled with tears from the joy of it.
“Rupling, are you hurt?” Kagin asked,
“Oh no, my love. I’m not hurt. I’m so very happy.” He kissed me, not even caring who saw, nor did I. We were having a baby. Our sweet little babe.
“As am I.” He brushed his lips on my forehead and then looked at the healer and asked, “How much time to prepare?”
“Oh you have time. The gestation is quite new.”
“So we have three?” Kagin asked. What was he saying? Surely he couldn’t mean…
“No. But a solid two and a half,” the doctor replied, and my mind raced to elephants. I had always felt bad about them for being pregnant so long, and from the sounds of things, I was going to be pregnant even longer.
How was I going to explain that to my clients and friends? “I’m just over due by a year. No worries.” For the first time in my life, I wished I were an elephant.
“I’m going to be pregnant for two and a half years?” I gasped.
“Oh, sweet rupling. Of course not. Two and a half weeks.”
“Two and a half weeks?” I pushed myself up. “We need to go home. I have so many things to prepare.” Even a rabbit had a full month to get ready. “I don’t even have a crib.” I jumped off the bed. “Come on. We have to go.”
I didn’t even know what my father-in-law was saying to the healer and my mate, but he was completely amused. I didn’t have time to be bothered by it. I was having a baby in two flipping weeks. Two!