Right of Refusal (Terran Reset Book 7) Page 4

  “Your children will be fine. I am sure of it.” He pressed his forehead to hers.

  Bea sighed and leaned back against him. “I am glad. Are five really showing up on the scans?”

  “Of course. One for each of them, and one for me.”

  The room erupted as the guardians rounded on Ssran-Lianic.

  He looked at them, and his eyes glowed bright enough to illuminate everything around him with red light. “I am the avatar, this is my world, and I have never had children before. I want children with this woman. She’s a survivor. You may keep your opinion of our connection to yourself.”

  “And you didn’t tell Minerva-Gaia that you were hijacking my uterus.” She murmured it quietly.

  He chuckled. “No. There was no need. Your contract provided for creating heirs for guardians of Ssran. Lianic used to be one.”

  “Sneaky bastard.”

  He lifted her chin with two fingers, and he gave her a kiss that took her breath away and left her thighs slick. She panted when he lifted his head.

  “And you, dearest Beatrix, have the hormone load of a female carrying five offspring. For now, it is just a general arousal, but as you progress, you will seek sex with all males who have a child inside you. The genetic reinforcement will make for healthy children.”

  She exhaled sharply. “Oh.”

  He tapped her chin. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to take us all at the same time unless you just want to get it over with.”

  “How violently will I seek it?”

  He shrugged. “It depends on who has sought to win your favour. The more affection you have for them, the more... aggressive your pursuit.”

  She shivered. “Right. Okay. Good to know. I can ignore it for now.”

  Ssran-Lianic stroked her hip. “Why are you ignoring it?”

  “Because I have to deal with this information.”

  She tried to get up, but she was pinned in place.

  Toln took her hand. “Ssran, hand her over, please.”

  Her comfortable chair handed her over to Toln. She held herself away from him as he sat on a couch with her in his lap.

  “Caretaker Bea, I am sorry that I hurt your feelings. We spend our time risking our lives or being pursued by alien women and locals who want to know what we are like in bed. We are toys to them, so it is a reference to the connection being temporary. If I had known you were listening, I never would have mentioned turning you in for a breeder.”

  “You can just forget we ever met. It’s fine.”

  “We are also used to women who can’t handle our attributes, and I assumed you were one of them. I mean, I should have checked, but if you were stunned by us making you cum through your clothes, the investigation that would ensue would have shocked you to your soul.”

  She frowned. “Investigation?”

  He held up his hand, and his fingers lengthened and wiggled.

  She was fascinated and confused until his hand delved under her skirt, and the writhing fingertips moved against her skin. “What are you—ack!”

  The twin writhing fingers moved inside her, pressed to the base of the knuckles. She gripped his wrist and whimpered. The fingers moved up, and up, and up, and she whimpered again, not sure what was happening.

  Toln kissed her softly, and a bit of the panic subsided. She felt the fingertips three inches above her navel, and she shivered. Toln kept kissing her as he slowly withdrew his fingers. She was leaning into him as he pulled his digits out of her, and then, he smiled against her lips as he held up his fingers. The length of them causing the other guardians to shift in excitement.

  She glanced at his fingers, and they were about thirteen inches long. She backed away from the kiss, but Toln followed her. His fingers reeled into normal lengths.

  She was about to say something, but his com unit started beeping, as did the other guardians.

  He regretfully lifted her off him and set her on the couch. “To be continued, Bea.”

  She exhaled and sat on the couch while they all left. She looked at Ssran-Lianic. “Emergency?”

  “Yes. There is a building collapse two hundred kilometres from here.” He was calm and poured her a cup of tea. “If you would like me to help you with any holes in your experiences, I am happy to help. I am delighted to offer myself for your learning.”

  She looked at him. “You slipped your own offspring into me?”

  He shrugged. “It was an opportunity to have a child. I was not going to let it pass.”

  “Ah. Is there a copy of my contract around? I would like to educate myself on that before anything else. I am guessing that I missed a few things drifting in and out of consciousness on the ship.”

  He smiled. “Of course. Sit with me, and I can answer any questions for you.”

  She looked at him warily. “Why can’t I just use the tablet over here?”

  He smiled. “Because it is keyed to my DNA. It is a secure unit.”

  She snorted. “Oh.” She got up and walked over to him, letting him draw her onto his lap again.

  He settled her against him, and they went over all of the clauses in the contract. She looked at him and his innocent expression.

  “Wow. You are just sitting there looking like you didn’t completely draw this up in your favour.”

  He chuckled. “Your avatar pulled in some of the more outrageous suggestions that I put in for her to take them out. She did a very good job, but she also admitted that considering the necessity of you taking lovers during gestation, it was fine to set a time restraint on your celibacy.”

  “So, sex is necessary for the development of the offspring?”

  “Yes, they absorb the pheromones and genetic material through the membranes during early development. It is a like-to-like situation. A female having multiple partners during her heat is normal, and different fathers for her children are standard. Regular contact with the paternal donors is healthy for the offspring and speeds their development.” He chuckled. “It absorbs through the wall of the matching offspring and increases the size and a healthy immune system.”

  She snorted. “You know I am going to test this, right?”

  He grinned. “Of course. Who will your subjects be?”

  “Lioth, I think, and... Vehn? Just because they are different physiologies.”

  “Not Toln?”

  “Um, no. He’s... a bit of a jerk.”

  He chuckled. “Yes. And he will learn the error of his ways very shortly. Will you accept a sincere apology?”

  “I might if he spends three hours in the dark on a strange world in the cold with strange animal noises and no powers. What was he doing with his fingers?”

  “He was showing them how deep you were. Bottoming out is what they are most concerned about. That is where the injuries occurred. Stretching you is easy, but nothing could be done if you had a short channel.”

  Bea grimaced. “So, it was the first thing you had altered.”

  He smiled. “Yes. Everything else could be conditioned, but that was physical and needed immediate management. The same with your ovaries. They had to be moved to make sure that everything was in the proper position.”

  She huffed. “Right. So what now? I have quit the caretaker position with the guardians; I can’t hide with you forever because you are going to have me on my back or knees in a matter of hours.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  She looked at the tablet and then down in her lap. “Because you have been stroking my sex like it’s a pet for the last five minutes.”

  He chuckled. “But, you are so soft.”

  “Shut up.”

  He pressed his mouth to her neck, and she had to ask, “What happened to your claws?”

  He pulled his hand out, shining with her juices. “They fold in. We do this for tracking purposes, normally. Keeping scent from prey for tracking later, but it is also handy when doing this.”

  His claws were fol
ded forward against the scales of his first knuckle where the pads of his fingers would be if he didn’t have fine scales on his digits. There was a slit in the fingertip that she hadn’t noticed before. He let her look for a minute before he started licking his fingers like they were a lollipop. His tongue flicked around his fingers and wrapped around them. Her eyes widened, and she stared, hypnotized by how that small action was affecting her. She tried to ease from his lap.

  “Where are you going, Bea?”

  “Uh, I am going to have a nap.”

  “You just woke up.” He sucked on his fingers and then pressed his lips to her neck.

  “Um, don’t you have avatar stuff to do?”

  “I am doing avatar stuff. Ssran wants to make sure our child gets off to a good start.” He licked up her neck, and she shivered.

  A knock at the door distracted him, and she slithered loose, moving to stand behind him as a citizen came in to speak with him. She exhaled at her escape and listened to the emissary asking for an alteration to the coastline for his new resort. She had to listen; Ssran-Lianic had her wrist in his hand.

  Chapter Five

  When the guardians returned, they were surprised to see her. Ssran-Lianic had gotten tired of her attempts to ease away, and she was currently situated in a cage.

  She was curled up on a comfy couch in the cage, but the bars definitely kept her in. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and stretched. She then remembered that she was naked and curled up in a ball again.

  She huddled in a corner, and she heard Breth ask, “Ssran-Lianic, where are her clothes?”

  He said casually, “She kept trying to run, so I took her clothing, then I put her in the cage, so I didn’t have to watch her all day.”

  She pulled a cushion in front of her and glared at the guys who were staring at her. She kept counting the bonuses to her current situation. She had her body under her control, mostly. She had extra decades to live, and she was going to have an entire collection of offspring.

  She just had to get through a few months with guys trying to control where she was, what she did, and who she did. After that, she could do what she wanted. It was in the contract.

  Bea just had to stick it out past the birth of her kids. Their kids. Custody would revert to the father and the Ssran creche. She was just the surrogate.

  After her day at the research facility confirmed that the embryos were healthy and in development with their pre-shells intact, Ssran-Lianic had decided that she needed to either be with him or the guardians, and if they both were busy, she would be in the cage. This was covered under the security clause of her contract. They had the right to protect her once she was carrying, and since she landed on Ssran with occupants, this was immediately enforceable.

  She glared at them through the bars.

  Breth crouched in front of the cage, face to face with her. “You know, Bea. Normally, we rescue ladies from situations like this, but you have to be in either our care or his. You are safe here.”

  She looked away from him. “I’m cold.”

  Breth looked to Ssran-Lianic. “She says she’s cold.”

  He looked up from his tablet. “She doesn’t retain body heat like we do. No scales. She gets cold faster. The night she arrived, she would have been freezing.”

  Toln blinked. “What would the effect of that cold be on her?”

  Ssran-Lianic shrugged. “Insecurity, impaired cognition, impulse control. Base fear response. Add to that her hunger, and she would have been desperate for acceptance and shelter.”

  Toln ran a hand over his face. “Got it. I started something I should have waited for. She smelled hot.”

  “Ah, you will have to get used to that. She smells hot because she is hot. She also finds us very attractive, so she gets slick touching us. It gets more intense when she tastes us, but you did nothing wrong except not assuring consent. She was too frightened to say no.” Ssran-Lianic flicked through his tablet, and he continued to work.

  Toln came to the cage and put his hands around the bars. “Beatrix, can I apologize?”

  She looked up from her cushion. “No. Not until I have clothes on.”

  He smiled. “Why?”

  She sighed. “I don’t trust you on your knees if I am naked.”

  He blinked, his serpentine eyes surprised, and then, he laughed. “Probably wise.”

  Breth went to the folded clothing next to the avatar, and he picked it up, inhaling sharply. “Ssran-Lianic, what were you doing with her?”

  He chuckled. “Nothing that had not been done previously. But with consent.”

  She made a face at him. He grinned and winked.

  Breth put the clothing in through the bars of the cage. She reached for the clothes and pulled the skirt toward her. She kept the cushion in front of her, pulled the skirt on and got it in place before she reached for the top with her toes and brought it to her. She slid the fabric between her skin and the cushion and put it back on.

  She set the cushion aside, and the men groaned in disappointment. She finished fastening the skirt, and then, she sat back down with her hands in her lap.

  Breth pulled the door open with a sharp jerk, and she got up when he extended his hand. “Come on, Bea. You look hungry.”

  She walked toward him slowly and cautiously took his hand. His scaled fingers were as gentle as a butterfly’s wing as he led her out of the cage.

  Toln frowned. “Didn’t you feed her?”

  Ssran-Lianic chuckled. “She threw a tantrum and refused to be fed.”

  “I am not a child.”

  Breth murmured, “You are very small.”

  She muttered, “Parts of me.” His fingers clenched over hers.

  She chuckled then clarified. “The only way he wanted to feed me was by hand.”

  The guardians looked at each other and nodded. Vehn smiled. “It is Ssran courtship tradition. It builds bonds quickly.”

  She grimaced. “He didn’t say that. He just held me and tried to shove food in my face.”

  Ssran-Lianic chuckled. “I may have been more forceful, but you wanted to pick at your food like a toddler.”

  “I don’t know what the food is. I want to look at it. My taste and smell senses aren’t that keen yet. That will come later in the pregnancy.” She grimaced. “And they will show up backward.”

  Breth rubbed his thumb on her hand. “Are you hungry?”

  Ssran-Lianic huffed, “She eats with one of us or not at all.”

  She paused. “What?”

  The avatar cocked his head. “You are resistant to physical interaction that will soon become a necessity. This will force your hand without crossing the border of propriety. You will see this behaviour in many restaurants when there are mated couples about. It is not uncommon.”

  She blushed. “I am not here to be mated. I am a surrogate. That’s all. If the children require anything else, I will do it, but I am not asking for any... uh... attention. I know you guys get swarmed. It’s okay. I don’t mean to intrude on your lives in any way.”

  Breth whispered in her ear, “I don’t think you understand.”

  She turned her head to him. “What?”

  “You are calling to us, and we want to answer.” He stroked her cheek.

  She lowered her lashes and lifted them to meet his gaze. “I don’t know what I am asking for.”

  He paused, and his inner lid flicked back and forth rapidly. “I can show you, and you can call a halt at any point. Will you eat first?”

  She nodded.

  He led her to the table in the dining room, and Vehn brought over a tray of food. Breth sat and pulled Beatrix into his lap. She squirmed a bit to get comfortable, and he looped an arm around her hips. “Lean against me, Bea. Contact is important.”

  She sighed and leaned against him, her left side in contact with the matte black of his suit. He reached out with two claws and picked up something.

  “This is a sta
ck of vegetables, marinated and shaped into a circle.” He held it out for her, and she opened her mouth slowly before leaning forward to bite it.

  The food was as described. It broke apart full of juice and bright flavours. Her mouth responded with a rush of saliva, and she swallowed quickly.

  She blinked, and Breth smiled. “This is a ground meat with a creamy filling in a lightly sweet sauce.”

  It dripped on his fingers, so after she took the bite, she licked his hand. He shivered, and she felt motion under her thigh.

  He whispered, “Behave.”

  She nodded and sat quietly as he went through all the different items on the tray, explained what they were and what she was going to be putting in her mouth. There were all kinds of subtext as she ate, but the others managed to have a quiet conversation on the other side of the room, so she could eat in peace.

  When the tray was empty, she was surprised that she had eaten it all. She took Breth’s fingers and licked them until she had gotten them as clean as she could. His breath was hitching, and there was a slow hiss in his exhalations.

  She didn’t look up at him, but he was stroking his hand over her hip. He hissed slightly, and she looked up. His mouth came down on hers, and his tongue slid out to play. She trembled, but she was full, warm, safe, and they said they would stop, so she kept kissing him.

  He gripped her hip tighter and pulled her against him. She squirmed and said, “No.”

  He froze, and he released her immediately. She squirmed around on him and knelt on his thighs, putting her arms around his neck. She kissed him, and his surprise and the happy rumble from his chest as he wrapped his arms around her back and hips made her applaud his adaptation.

  Face to face, the kiss got intense, and as his tongue delved rhythmically into her mouth, her hips began a slow dance against his hands, and he gripped her thighs, curving his fingers around them and moving higher with every wiggle. When he eased her thighs apart, she thudded down. “Ow.”

  He kissed her neck and cheek. “Sorry, sweetness.”

  She titled her head. “You are harder than you look.”