The Clone’s Mate by Susan Trombley

Forty-Two

Claire and Thrax’s visit marked a shift in Subject 34’s attitude towards my pregnancy, which in turn brought us closer together again. Now, he was excited, anticipating the thought of being a dad and no longer spouting doom and gloom about how dangerous his offspring would be.

Sure, both Thrax’s children possessed lethal venom and stingers, but they had learned not to use them to harm anyone unless they had to defend themselves. Claire and Thrax gave us tons of advice and even some instructional videos on how to deal with our newborn if he reflexively stung.

My new doctor was also more positive about the pregnancy and even showed eagerness to oversee the birth of such an unusual hybrid. With Claire’s medical information, she was better able to design a meal plan for me to keep me from being too drained for both my own health and my other baby’s growth. Of course, Subject 34 was a big part of that plan, and to my relief, his new attitude about this pregnancy brought back his desire to make the most of feeding me.

That was a relief because I felt that “need” Claire had mentioned all the time. I pounced on my mates at every opportunity, and they alternated their days off so that at least one of them was always home to attend to me. They really were treating me like a queen, even though I insisted on returning the favor, uncomfortable with the experience of being giving anything I wanted with nothing expected in return. Michael had never done that for me. Every gift, every nice gesture, every dime spent on me came with strings attached.

Life went far more smoothly after Subject 34 and I bid farewell to Claire and Thrax, who couldn’t visit for very long since Claire had a major fashion event to attend in New York. I didn’t pay much attention to the world beyond our little settlement, but I did consider her offer to design fabrics for her clothing label. It would be an honor to know that my art decorated one of the most popular up-and-coming designers to hit Earth’s fashion scene. A designer who was already a household name on Akrellia.

Ilyan and Nirgal avoided Claire and Thrax while they were in Groom Lake, but me and Subject 34 spent all the time we could with them in their temporary housing facility, allowing us both to get well acquainted with them, their precious babies, and the details of their own unusual stories and life on Hierabodos V.

I hoped my family could visit them one day on their home world. Perhaps I might even feel comfortable enough to bring Ilyan along, though he might not feel that degree of comfort. If not, I would never force him to accompany me. It was enough that Subject 34 and Thrax were now as close as their kind could be to each other. Neither was very social, but Thrax had learned to be more comfortable around people and even had an extensive list of true friends and allies now, and my 34 had made me and my mates his family and had even managed to form tentative friendships with some of the workers in the medical center.

Everything was going wonderfully in our lives as my due date neared, and we all anticipated the birth of my two sons. There remained only one dark cloud over our happy little family, and that was the uncertainty of Ilyan’s fracture.

One day, when Ilyan was the one home with me, he cornered me as I was leaving the shower. Though I felt like a blimp, hauling around a lot of extra belly without much extra anywhere else on my body, despite my high calorie diet, he still looked at my naked form with hunger in his eyes.

My mates’ desire for me would never cease to amaze me, yet I’d looked at myself in the mirror lately and I didn’t recognize the woman looking back. She looked more beautiful than I could ever recall being before I was abducted. My skin glowed, my hair had a luscious shine and fullness to it despite the sprinkling of gray, my eyes sparkled, even though crow’s feet crinkled at the corners of them. My body felt firmer and more toned from all the bedroom activity, even when I had been a little fluffier before my pregnancy.

Most importantly, I wore an expression of true joy that made my smile bright and lifted all my features, changing what had once been a rather average appearance into something beautiful. I had blossomed from the love of my mates, and they had helped me to fall in love with myself as I got to see myself the way they saw me.

Ilyan’s hunger matched my own as he caught me by the hips, yanking my towel away from me to toss it on the floor. He pushed me towards the bedroom, and I didn’t hesitate to bend over the edge of the bed, groaning a little as the position relieved the pressure on my lower back.

Then I was groaning for another reason as he buried his length inside me without ceremony. His hands rubbed over my naked body, unconcerned with the drops of water left behind from my shower as he thrust into me from behind.

Then he suddenly froze, only his shaft twitching as he stood behind me.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Rhonda?” he said in an odd tone.

Alarmed by his behavior, I pulled away from him, his erection slipping out of me as I crawled onto the bed and turned around to face him.

He stared at me with a betrayed look in his eyes, the dilation of his arousal constricting until his eyes were green, but not the warm green I was used to. They had hardened as he regarded me, as much as his expression did.

“Tell you?” I asked breathlessly, shaking my head in confusion.

“Why didn’t you tell me what my fracture did to you?” he said, this time in an outraged tone. “What he used my body to do to my queen?” He pointed at his chest, still wearing a shirt, though he’d pulled his pants down to free his erection and now they crumpled around his ankles, seemingly forgotten by him, even though his shaft had gone flaccid in his obvious distress.

“Why would you keep such a thing from me?”

I climbed to my knees, moving towards him with my hands reaching for him, but he took several steps away from the bed. “I’m so sorry, Ilyan! I didn’t want to hurt you or upset you.”

“Upset me?” His tone remained outraged, but I detected his feeling of betrayal beneath it. “You kept something this huge from me because you think I’m too weak to handle being ‘upset’ by it?”

My eyes widened with my shock. “What? No! Ilyan, it’s not like that!”

He bent to grab his pants and jerk them back up to fasten them around his lean waist. “Do you know, I’m being flooded with memories now from my fracture. Some of them are true nightmares, and some are… enlightening. But nothing I’m recalling comes close to the painful realization that you let him hurt you using my body and never once told me about it. You never even hinted that he’d done something like that to you!”

“Ilyan,” I whispered, even more shocked by his revelation that he was recalling more of what his fracture had done, “I didn’t tell you at first because I knew you would be angry at yourself, because he is a part of you. Besides, there was nothing you could do about what happened. Nothing that could change it. And, besides, I ended up…,” I bit my lip, not sure how he would take my confession, “liking it.”

I watched him warily, feeling very vulnerable kneeling on the bed naked, my belly bulging in front of me, my breasts heavy and sore, my stretchmarks adding to the map of life experiences that marked my skin as clearly as Nirgal’s stripes marked his.

He turned his face away from me, his jaw ticking. His fists clenched at his sides as his wings tucked tightly against his back in a defensive posture.

“You liked it?” he ground out. “When he scraped you without your consent?”

I shrugged helplessly. “I mean, it was without warning, but I wouldn’t say it was without my consent. Honestly, I was excited enough that I would have told him yes, even if he explained what he was about to do first. It was uncomfortable—maybe even painful, yes, but the overall experience was… exhilarating, and I wanted more.” I cocked my head as I studied him, trying to gauge his reaction to what I was saying. “Do you not recall how excited I was during that encounter?”

He gave nothing away in his expression, but his defensive posture didn’t relax. “You were frightened. That’s what I recall.”

I shrugged my shoulders, trying for a nonchalance I definitely didn’t feel. “I’ve been frightened before and still greatly enjoyed myself, Ilyan. I don’t want my mates to be too hesitant to chase their own pleasure with my body, for fear that I won’t enjoy it too.”

“You are our queen, Rhonda!” Ilyan finally turned to look at me, his eyes pinning mine. “We can never hurt you.”

I crawled closer to him, until I balanced on the edge of the bed. “Ilyan, you said you would never hurt me, unless I wanted you to.” I reached for his shirt and caught a fistful of fabric.

He let me tug him closer, his arms sliding around my waist, my belly keeping me from pulling him against my naked body.

“I liked what your fracture did to me, Ilyan,” I whispered against his lips. “I wouldn’t mind if he did it again.”

He pulled his head back, staring down at my face as his eyes began to dilate again. “I don’t think he and I are separated anymore, Rhonda. This flood of memories… I think they’ve come because I am healing. Being with you, being accepted by my mate, it’s cured me of my fracture.” He slowly shook his head. “I wasn’t even sure that was possible until now.”

“So,” I said, my heart leaping with happiness at this news, and hope that he was correct, “does that mean Evil Ilyan is now a part of you again?”

His mocking grin was answer enough before his lips claimed mine.