Freed By the Alien Prince by Tori Kellett
Chapter Eighteen
N’ameth refused to put Sascha down. Even when Zak turned up, he refused to let her go. So in the end, Voren flew them both back to the palace, and happily left his king, who had arrived shortly after, to sort everything else out. N’ameth’s only priority was the female he cradled protectively in his arms. She’d woken nearly immediately after practically stopping his heart. Cezar had checked her and he confirmed no injuries, just said she was in mild shock. Sascha was quiet for once and that more than anything scared the hell out of him. It wasn’t like Sascha to be so docile. She’d bitten someone who was holding a blaster to her head, and Voren had shot him.
N’ameth would have been unable to. And he didn’t think he would ever forget the sheer terror he felt when Lam’saak held her.
“N’ameth?” Sascha blinked up at him and smiled. She was on a hover bed in the medical bay, and Azlaan was running tests. “I feel like such an idiot.”
He brought her hand to his lips and gently kissed the tip of every finger. As much to reassure himself as to comfort her. “I am in awe of your bravery. It is I who am an idiot for not considering there was another way into the tunnels.” He pressed her hand to his lips for a moment. He didn’t think his heart would slow down anytime soon.
“You can’t think of everything.”
N’ameth glanced up at Azlaan, suddenly aware he was waiting patiently. Azlaan drew the other stool out and sat on the other side of the bed. He took a breath, and in that moment, N’ameth’s heart plummeted. “No,” he whispered, half rising to his feet as if in protest at whatever bad news his brother was going to impart.
“Sit,” Azlaan ordered. “Nothing’s wrong.”
N’ameth nearly fell to his stool, and Sascha giggled. It was such a delightful sound he hadn’t heard before, he had to blink a few times to make sure his warrior’s eyes didn’t leak accidentally.
He doubted he was fooling either his brother or his mulaa, who squeezed his fingers. “What is it?”
Azlaan grinned and pressed some buttons on the monitor attached to the bed Sascha was lying on. N’ameth knew the leads didn’t have to reach her, that the actual bed itself was monitoring all her systems.
Azlaan turned up the volume. N’ameth frowned at the distinct sound of her rapid heartbeat. Surely, that was too rapid. He glanced at Sascha, but she seemed okay, and then looked at his brother in confusion. “Why is it so fast?”
“Because it isn’t hers.”
It took N’ameth far too long to work out what Azlaan meant, and it was only when Sascha gasped and her beautiful brown eyes turned all liquidy, that he understood what Azlaan meant.
“And that is why you briefly lost consciousness. Females expecting young, especially soon after conception, can have naturally occurring highs and dips in hormones, causing the heart rate to increase while simultaneously relaxing the blood vessels, leading to brief dizziness and loss of consciousness.”
“But isn’t it too soon to tell?”
Azlaan nodded. “For the berries, or the other natural ways, yes, but the scans on here will show immediately.”
“But a baby’s heart doesn’t start beating until five weeks,” Sascha said slowly. “And—” She flushed. They both knew when she had likely gotten pregnant.
Azlaan shrugged. “Ishtaan physiology is different. A young’s heart will start to beat after ten days.”
N’ameth glanced at Sascha and watched as a single tear rolled down her cheek. “My Sas’ka,” he whispered, completely forgetting again he wasn’t supposed to call her that. “I’m sorry. I—oww.” He rubbed his arm where she had just punched him. Azlaan got up and retreated to what was probably a safer distance.
“I’m crying because I’m happy, you great doofus.”
N’ameth blinked slowly. “Doofus?” He smiled tentatively. She’d said she was happy, but she was crying, and then she had hit him.
“It’s a term of endearment on Earth,” Sascha said. She had a straight face, but her eyes twinkled teasingly.
He smiled slowly, then abandoned any pretense and stood, lifted her from the bed, and settled himself back down. Azlaan had to rush back over and turn off all the shrieking monitors. That was better. N’ameth nuzzled Sascha’s neck. “You will be an amazing matriche.” He nodded to himself. “I think ten’s a good number.”
“Number of what?” Sascha asked incredulously.
“Young,” he said with a satisfied smirk and found the only way he could stop her from hitting him again was to kiss her senseless until she was suitably distracted. He was very pleased to learn that it didn’t take long.
“So, what’s the plan?” Callie asked two weeks later. They were both sitting in her suite, complete with gava juice and cake—or as near as dammit. Neela had gone into raptures with the latest delivery from the Alliance. Apparently with the discovery of the second crystal vein, they were now in a much stronger bargaining position.
“There are eleven of them,” Sascha said in wonder, knowing exactly what Callie was talking about. All the children were now ensconced in the palace, including both girls who showed no sign of the sickness. “I can’t possibly choose one over another.” Especially as Kash’ta had been calling her matriche for ten days. He also seemed to be spending a lot of time with Gye, who had introduced him to Neela and, more importantly, cookies.
Callie grinned evilly. “But didn’t you say N’ameth wanted ten kids?”
“Not all at once!” Sascha’s voice rose in panic. “And we haven’t even thought about a school yet.” Because Rachel had been correct. There were indeed a lot of kids running around unsupervised.
“Your personal guard would help.”
Sascha met Callie’s expression, and they both burst out laughing. Q’at had indeed turned out to be a delight. His grandfatherly ways had delighted the kids, who were soaking up everyone’s attention like giant sponges, and he was busy organizing everyone’s life. Even the concept of chores was delighting everyone, and Rachel especially seemed to be friends with Serena, the oldest female from the caves. Apparently Serena wanted to be a warrior and Rachel obviously saw no problem with that.
It had been Isobel who had surprised them all this time though. She was leaving at the end of the cycle after agreeing to mate the vice-regent of Vedur and had found out there was an indigenous population—the Sarta—on Vedur eschewed by the ruling classes. Apparently, it wasn’t just the vice-regent who was a snob. He’d caught sight of Serena and explained it was likely that her sire had mated one of the Sarta. It was illegal on his planet and led to banishment. The idea of a seven-year-old girl, as she was when she was banished, living on a prison space station didn’t seem to concern him. And Sascha knew Serena had spent six years in the hell of that place before crashlanding on Ishtaan a year ago. The Rachel mini-me seemed very pragmatic though.
Callie and Sascha agreed that even Isobel hadn’t liked that, but she had been mollified when her mate-to-be had presented her with a necklace of Idris rubies. They deserved each other, Sascha concluded.
The door opened and Zak and N’ameth entered, both immediately swooping on their mulaas. Sascha had found that she liked being picked up and cradled as if she was made of glass, especially if it was followed by “unseemly public displays of affection,” as Q’at had called them. At least he had until the first time Ama—the youngest female from the caves—had thrown her arms around him and kissed him soundly on the cheek. She had been thrilled because he had agreed to take them to visit his village, and they were going to ride on a hell-cat.
He’d airily told Sascha then that perhaps it was permitted amongst families. But then she’d seen Darlen, one of the little boys, holding his hand. She didn’t call him on it obviously. It wouldn’t do for a warrior to look soft, and she snorted as her own battle-hardened warrior cuddled into her shamelessly.
“How did the meeting go?” Callie asked immediately. A N’olaan delegation had arrived to discuss the events at the caves, and Sascha knew it would have been difficult.
“They’ve rounded up and imprisoned three individuals responsible for the theft of weaponry and equipment Lam’saak was able to smuggle here,” N’ameth said tightly. Sascha placed the flat of her palm over his heart and felt the immediate rumbling as he relaxed. She knew Lam’saak’s betrayal had hit N’ameth hard.
“And they’re narrowing down who was responsible for using one of their cellular transporters and had access to a ship,” Zak confirmed before thoroughly kissing Callie.
“Which is good, right?” Sascha asked.
N’ameth eyed his brother and then seemed to decide it was an excellent idea to copy him. After a few minutes, when they both seemed to remember they weren’t alone, N’ameth drew back and grinned. “And even better, Tamrath is organizing the next delivery of fruit trees and seeds. They are loaning us some engineers who have experience with your type of irrigation systems, and Zak has promoted Zurtak to organize his own team to ready as much as he can before the start of the Wet.”
“I bet Lexie’s happy Tamrath is going to be at the palace,” Callie said, and Sascha agreed. Lexie’s reaction upon seeing the N’olaan warrior—all seven feet of badass, complete with tail—had been good to see. She definitely wasn’t pining over N’ameth anyway.
“How’s Tee’a?”
The older man had been found unconscious, clearly badly beaten and left for dead. He was recovering slowly, but rather than living at the palace as he had been offered, he had decided to move to Brey’s village, and he had been welcomed there.
Sascha wriggled happily, and Zak tightened his hold with a soft groan. His eyes dilated. “I think I need to kidnap a certain Earth female and take her back to my lair.” He waggled his eyebrows.
Sascha giggled, agreeing wholeheartedly.
N’ameth stood and effortlessly held her. He kissed her so tenderly her heart melted. She bopped him lightly on the nose. “Lead on, my warrior.” Because she didn’t think this prince had kidnapped her at all.
Her alien prince had freed her.
Rachel closed the lid of the toilet and sat down on it as her insides threatened to revolt. She stared disbelievingly as the paste turned red, which according to Sascha, who had been sworn to secrecy, confirmed she was pregnant.
Fuck.
And unfortunately, she knew she was exactly three months pregnant. She wished she could forget the evening before she had been transported to N’ameth’s cruiser, but the memory was seared into her brain. The three motherfuckers who had pinned her down and told her in no uncertain terms that promotion wasn’t for the likes of her and proceeded to demonstrate exactly why, wasn’t something she was going to forget. They thought she couldn’t identify them underneath the ski masks, but she’d known who they were—the same fucker she had bested with the M16 so many times on the range, and his two idiot buddies.
At least no one knew. Sascha had told her that an Ishtaan baby’s heart started beating at ten days. This indisputably human baby’s heart wouldn’t have started beating until five weeks, so any scan on the cruiser wouldn’t have picked it up.
Fuck.
She was just earning the respect of the Ishtaan warriors, and now this?
Rachel stood and turned to the mirror. Did her normal light brown skin look paler? Keeping her eyes fixed on her face, she placed both her hands on her completely flat belly in disbelief. If the test was correct, it wouldn’t be flat for very long.
Her lack of periods could easily be explained by the punishing physical regime she had set for herself. But she knew. She hadn’t been sick or anything so obvious, but as she strived for as much physical fitness as she could, she knew her own body. She had recognized that some activities were tiring her when they had never done so before. Plus, she thought her breasts had enlarged slightly and were definitely more sensitive.
What did she do?
She had tried to put off choosing a warrior, but she knew even Callie would insist upon it eventually. The problem was the one warrior she wanted wouldn’t consent to marry her even if she asked him. She knew he couldn’t impregnate a female, but she wasn’t supposed to know. She wasn’t supposed to know a lot of things. But as her Nana had always said, she had two ears and one mouth, it meant she was supposed to listen twice as much as she spoke. That didn’t mean she could get Voren to listen. Even knowing he wouldn’t need to get her pregnant probably wouldn’t sway him. Because he was as stubborn as she was. Stubborn, infuriating, and sexy as all hell.
And absolutely perfect for her.
Ready for the fireworks between
Rachel and Voren?
Taken by the Alien Prince
Coming December 1
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