The Alien Prince’s Omega by Lorelei M. Hart
Hanson
“What is this for again?”Kagin asked, our second cart full of baby gear. He found my need to rush preparation amusing, but he didn’t get it. Half of the items we were purchasing needed to be put together, and that took time, and with me having spent a few days on Thulnara, I was quickly running out of it.
My belly was already to the point I was wearing old joggers of my brother’s and a tee shirt that barely fit, which was half the reason we’d driven two hours to get supplies. Any locals seeing me would put two and two together that I was too pregnant too soon. The shifters would get it. Some of them had accelerated births, but humans… heck no.
“That is for the baby to lay in if I need to pee,” I snapped. “Sorry. I don’t know why I’m so… this.” I hated how quick to frustrate I was. “It’s called a bouncer and it is basically a safe place for baby to lay down, and it bounces, which babies enjoy.” Or human babies enjoy. What if our baby hated all of this? What if he prefered Thulnara. What if…
“Rupling. It is fine. Everything will be fine.” He ran his thumb along my mating mark. “We will figure all things out. No decisions will be made for us.”
It was as if he could see directly into my worries. “You and I are a team, as you say. And we will decide when it is time.”
We’d spoken about where to live and raise our baby. He was next in line to be king, and I would never take that from him. He knew this. It was a conversation we kept coming back to. Kagin would give up everything for me and I for him, which put us in a holding pattern.
The only thing we decided for sure was that I needed to make sure my practice was taken care of, and that while we had a gorgeous nursery being prepared for us on Thulnara, I needed one on Earth. One filled with everything a baby could ever need based on my shopping patterns.
“I know, my love. It’s just… a lot to adjust to very quickly.” I leaned into his side.
“This says that it comforts babies and allows them to safely co-sleep. We want that, correct.” He reached for yet more baby gear. He was doing it to appease me, and I appreciated it more than words could ever express.
“Thank you.” I kissed his cheek. “I think we have everything we could need, and anything else we can order to be delivered. Let’s go home and put this all together.”
After paying a bazillion and a half dollars, loading the car to the point we could barely fit it all, and driving home, I was good and ready for a nap.
And by good and ready, I meant that I fell asleep waiting for the water to boil for our dinner and didn’t wake up for five days.
“Five?” I had to have heard him wrong. “How is that even possible?” And why did Kagin seem not at all fazed by it?
“You are with babe. You need sleep. Next time might be six days.”
I flipped the blanket from me and started to climb out of bed. I was ginormous. Like super ginormous.
“I need to pee.” I plopped myself on the floor and waddled to the bathroom. I freaking waddled.
I glanced in the mirror on my way out. “Kagin, we have a problem.” I placed my hands on my belly, my little one wiggling around inside. Best feeling in the world. Too bad it was shrouded in fear.
“You desire help, my rupling?” He was right there at my side. Of course he was.
“If this is five days, then I will not be able to carry this baby to term. I am already the size of a man about to give birth to twins any day.” Or triplets. Had I not been sure of who my babe was and that they would be fine, I'd have sworn there were multiples growing within me. “I still have days left.”
“You will be fine, my rupling. Come and see. I fixed all the things. Our baby will have everything you desire.” Not an ounce of concern filled his voice. “Come with me, love, and then let me give you food.”
He led me to the spare bedroom where, sure enough, every single thing we’d purchased was put together and set up like it belonged in a magazine. “It looks—wow.” I tried to wrap my arms around him and failed, my belly in the way.
“I used your computer and found some examples of what the set up was, but we can change it however you want.”
“It’s… it’s perfect.” More than. “Thank you.”
“Your coloring is off.” He brushed my brow with his hand. “You… you are pale… not your normal hue.”
I waddled back to the mirror, and sure enough, my face looked awful where it had not only a few minutes earlier. “I think maybe we should go to Thulnara and see the midwife.” It wasn’t like I could go to a human or even shifter one. “Can we go now?”
“Of course, my love.” And we left right then and there.
Even though it was my third trip across the galaxy, it still was surreal, as if maybe I was still sleeping.
Five days.That still didn’t seem possible, and yet all evidence said that it was.
I didn’t know if Kagin called ahead, however they did that, or if the midwife just sensed it, but they were there greeting us and whisking me away not to a medical room, but to Kagin’s quarters.
From the time we entered Thulnara, I held onto Kagin for not only comfort, but so I could understand what was going on around me. This whole waking up and being the size of a small continent was scary enough without having people around me talking in a language I still didn’t understand.
“I was surprised I did not see you yesterday,” the midwife explained as I gripped Kagin’s hand. “I had some concern that maybe you gave birth unassisted and that I failed the crown.” They did that thing with their hands clasped together. I needed to ask Kagin more about that, but this was very much not the time. The traveling had me feeling off. Not bad, per se, but not myself either.
“I still have days left.” I tried to count and wound up dizzy from it. “I know I do.”
“You do not. Your baby is joining us today.” They looked at me as if I was a small child who didn’t understand basic concepts, but I did, and we still had time.
“How many growth sleeps did they have and for how long?” The midwife looked right past me, and they probably should have. I wasn’t doing that well, and staying on my feet was hard enough at this point.
“Just one, and for ten moons.”
Ten moons.
“You said I slept for five days!” Had I truly slept for ten? Ten days?
“Yes, five days, ten moons,” he repeated.
“Ten moons is ten days on Earth. We have but one, remember.” Dawning crossed his eyes, and panic filled me.
Ten days plus a week between not knowing I was pregnant and my time on Thulnara was seventeen days. Add to that the time, and I was at day twenty-two. No wonder I was the size of Nebraska. I was past my due date.
“I am having a baby today?” I didn’t feel like I was about to give birth. I just felt… “Owww!” I screamed. And now I did feel like I was about to give birth. “I need to know how to do this. I didn’t even take Lamaze.”
“Your body knows what to do.” The midwife was calm, but of course they were. They weren’t the one about to push out an entire person.
“Let’s remove your clothing in the bedroom.” Kagin broke through my eminent freak out.
I waddled in there and disrobed, my middle starting to tighten up to the point I was crying out again. More hand holding so I could understand the midwife.
“He should stand in position. It is near time.”
“Stand?” The midwife did not just say stand. I’d seen plenty of births of all kinds of beings in my lifetime and unless they started on all fours that was not going to happen. And really, even for four-legged creatures, laying down was a thing.
“Humans do not birth in that manner,” Kagin explained for me. “I watched many births during his sleep and they almost always are prone.”
“Then get him on the bed, because this baby is going to want to meet his First Father soon.”
They scurried me to the bed, another contraction roiling through me, this one so unbearable that no sound came from me, my body shaking with pain. “It is time. You are doing well, human.” The midwife stepped back to the corner of the room. Where were they going? I needed them. I needed a freaking epidural.
“I am here, my love. And I will deliver our baby. It is our way. The midwife is here to guide us only.” He rubbed a soothing line on both my thighs, giving me the comfort I needed. Something about that simple touch somehow made me feel—I don't know—stronger somehow. “I did not know that wasn’t your way until the computer. But that is how we get our names. I will be his First Father, for it is I who holds him first.”
I had questions. So many questions. Our baby didn’t give a hoot about them. My next contraction was my last, our little one entering this world with a cry that officially became the most beautiful sound in the world, or was it galaxy now?
“Here is our son.” Kagin slid on the bed beside me, handing our sweet boy to me, and he instantly began to root around for his breakfast.
“He is blue.” Just as I knew he would be. “It will be hard for him to blend in on Earth.” And maybe that was the deciding factor in all of this.
Kagin placed his hand behind our son’s ear, and the blue faded to the pale skin that matched my own. “That is not a worry, although he is by far the most beautiful baby, so let us not pretend he will blend.” He kissed my cheek. “You did so well, rupling.”
A voice cleared across the room. In all the chaos, I’d forgotten we weren’t alone. “Might I examine your rupling and your son, your highness.” It was the first time I heard them be so formal, and it set me on edge.
“Is… is something wrong?” I asked Kagin, my voice shaking.
“No, my love. It is just customary to formally ask in times such as this.”
“Okay,” I agreed, and the midwife came over.
“My fathers are on their way,” Kagin announced mid-exam. That wasn’t awkward at all or anything.
That had the midwife hurrying up and Kagin covering me up with a blanket just as they arrived.
“We have arrived to meet our first grandchild,” Kagin’s Second Father, who insisted I call him the same, said, a smile on his face. “Have you decided on a name?”
Both of Kagin’s parents welcomed me as their own and it was everything. They loved me because Kagin did. That was a kind of unconditional love that truly was just that—unconditional.
“No.” I’d known he was coming since before I met Kagin, and I’d thought about it not at all. Not. Once. “Kagin?”
“A Thulnaran and a human name would be best,” my First Father—wow, that felt surreal to even think about—said.
“I was thinking Scotull. The humans have a name Scott and Scotull is a common name here.” I looked up to Kagin, so grateful he had the time to do all of this while I basically hibernated.
“You are the best mate a human could ever ask for.” I leaned into his side.
“And you, my rupling, are the best mate an izleen could ever have.”
“We must be off,” the king announced. “It is time to ring the bells throughout the land. Our grandson Scotull is here, and the entirety of Thulnara will celebrate.”
They left, the midwife behind them, leaving just the three of us nestled on the bed together.
“I love you, Kagin. Thank you for crossing the galaxy to bring me my family.”
“As I love you, Hanson. Thank you for making my hearts whole.” He placed his hand behind our son’s ear, removing the glamour. “And thank you, Scotull, for making me the First Father I always dreamed I’d one day become.”
Our little guy let out his first burp.
“I guess we know where he stands on that,” I teased. I kissed his sweet head.
We sat there, just watching our son, basking in our love.
I was a dad.