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  His weight pressed her into the bedding, and he soon shifted to one side, letting her breathe.

  He turned her to face him and kept a wing curved around her to keep her warm. Rad whispered against her cheek, “I dreamed of you.”

  She rubbed her cheek against his. “I dreamed of you.”

  “And I am very glad of it.”

  They cuddled together as the afternoon sun danced across his wings, wrapping them in beautiful and defused light.

  As he closed his eyes with a smile on his lips, she smiled at him with her new vision, giving her a whole new outlook on him; she was sleeping with the ocean itself, and it was a pretty nice place to be.

  The bots poked her awake, and she woke from her nap in the centre of the bed, alone.

  Zel slipped into her robe and followed the bots down to the med room. Time for another scan.

  This time, after the scan, the machine flickered and told her to remain where she was. Apparently, there was a little bit of something that the machine needed to check on.

  Bright light glowed and concentrated on her lower abdomen. A little nervous, Zel checked the readout. The baby was fine; her lady parts were just unused to rough handling.

  The glow faded and the machine scanned her again. It was a clean bill of health.

  A slight sound in the doorway brought her attention to Rad. He was still naked, and he had a frown on his face. “I did not think you would be awake yet.”

  “The bots woke me and nagged me into coming down here.” She hopped off the exam bed and wandered over to him. His shoulders gleamed wetly and the smell of the sea was on his skin. “You went for a swim?”

  He pulled her toward him with his hands on her hips. “I did. Hello, mate.”

  She blushed and closed the distance between them for the kiss. “Hello, mate.”

  “Did you rest well?”

  She chuckled. “Yes, until the bots woke me.”

  He frowned. “Just a moment.”

  He moved past her and checked on the scans. His expression could have cracked rock. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in discomfort?”

  “I wasn’t. Well, not then. The ache came later, after I was awake.”

  He sighed. “I need to take better care of you.”

  “I can take care of myself. A few minutes of regeneration won’t hurt me.”

  “No, but they are accelerating the pregnancy.”

  She blinked in shock. “Really?”

  “Really. The baby is one month ahead of his scheduled development based on the implant date.” He scowled. “That is very disappointing.”

  Zelia was worried. “Why? What will happen?”

  “Well, I will have to be very careful with you, and I did so wish to lose myself in you once again.” He returned to her and stroked her neck and shoulder with one hand, moving her robe away from her skin. “My mark is really lovely on your skin, but it will take a few more couplings before you begin to experience the benefits.”

  She touched her skin in his line of sight. “I didn’t even feel the bite.”

  He grinned. “You were distracted at the time. I waited until you were occupied with your own release before I marked you.”

  She looked up and noted the fangs that were rarely visible. “You didn’t need to bite me. I am already pregnant.”

  “But now, you are exclusively mine. It is primitive of me, but I do enjoy that fact.”

  Zel sighed and headed to the kitchen. She needed something for dinner. Skipping meals with her baby on board wasn’t a great idea.

  “You do not like the idea of being exclusively mine?” He followed her.

  “Yes and no. I don’t like the idea of belonging to anyone. All my life, folks didn’t claim me but used me. Now, I have no purpose, but I am claimed. There is part of me that wants something in the middle.”

  He shrugged. “You made the first move between us. I cannot help being ruled by my instinct. You know what I am, what our child will become.”

  She tapped the controls of the kitchen bot, coaxing it to steer the meal into something she would enjoy.

  Zel took a seat at the dining room table, and Rad came with her, grinning at her.

  “Why are you smiling, Rad?”

  “I am just trying to imagine your moods once the pregnancy is further along. I am thinking you might even get to the point where you breathe fire. This is going to be fascinating.”

  She drummed her fingers on the table. “I am also going to get as big as a house.”

  He waved that away. “You are starting a new life. That takes effort, energy and space. You offered it all without a second thought.”

  Zel frowned. “Sure, you say that now. I am sure that when I am close to my due date, your gaze will wander.”

  He laughed. “You are amusing. I have had hundreds of opportunities for women over the centuries. You are the one I want. Even others of your kind hold no appeal for me. You are the woman from my dreams, and only you will do.”

  She looked at him and burst into tears as the bot brought her her meal. She sobbed and blotted her eyes with her sleeve. “I think the hormones are going to come sooner rather than later.”

  He was looking at her with a wary expression, and he came to a decision. He pulled her plate in front of him and pulled her into his lap.

  She settled on his lap and set about having her meal; her emotions settled as quickly as they had stormed. Once she had eaten, she pushed the plate away. “This is going to get very old, very quickly.”

  Rad chuckled. “My holding you?”

  “My mood swinging. I like you holding me.” She leaned against his chest and let herself relax.

  “Shall I tell you a story?”

  “Please.”

  “Once, many years ago, I landed here and came across a voice in the soil of this world. It wanted to help others heal, but it could not reach them. I worked with it to produce machines that used the crystals that are only found on this world and only when it chooses to make them.”

  “They are alive?”

  “Yes. We choose their locations very carefully. The world is wanting to wake, but it wishes to wait a few more thousand years. Until that time, it will continue to provide the galaxy with the crystals that power the healing units that do so much more than simple scans.”

  She nodded. “And you have put those crystals into the bots in the house as well.”

  He chuckled. “How did you guess?”

  “It would take a scanner to have detected the minor irritation left behind by our coupling.”

  “About that, I will leave you alone if you do not wish to engage in a physical union with me.”

  Zel turned to him and her eyes were wide. “Are you kidding? My sex drive has never been really aggressive, but if you are trying to keep my mate from me, we are going to have words.”

  He exhaled in relief. “Good. I will try and take more care with you. Our first time was rather abrupt.”

  “That was my fault. I wanted you inside me, and I didn’t want to wait. Next time, foreplay is in order.”

  His hand moved over her hip. “How soon would be too soon?”

  “I believe that sex and swimming should have the same rule. Wait one hour after dinner.” She chuckled.

  “I have never heard of that.”

  “I think it is to avoid belching at an inopportune moment.”

  “I swear to not let you do anything until the hour is up.” He turned her head toward him and brought his mouth down on top of hers.

  The hand on her hip moved and shifted until it was nestled between her thighs, pressing for space as it rocked against her clit. She widened her thighs in invitation, and he moved against her, stroking her slowly while his tongue delved in and around her mouth.

  She relaxed and let him stroke her skin, caressing the inner flesh with one finger until she could hear the wet welcome. A second finger slid into her and worked slowly back and
forth while his tongue mimicked the motion.

  Rad brought his free hand up and slipped it into her robe, caressing each breast in turn, cupping, weighing and lightly squeezing each mound until the connection between her nipples and her clit was apparent.

  When she was moaning and squirming on his lap, he withdrew his hands and lifted her to face him, settling her with her knees on either side of his hips. His cock was between them, and she reached down to arrange him at her entrance, easing him into her.

  He smiled. “Remember, slow, steady and carefully.”

  She laughed and lifted herself before dropping in a short pulse.

  He scowled and held her hips. He controlled her motion, and soon, he was inside her with her resting on him completely.

  Rad kept his hands on her hips, and to her astonishment, his cock began to undulate inside her without him moving an inch.

  She stared at him while the most extraordinary thing happened within her. He ran a hand between them and stroked her clit until she shrieked in surprise. His groan followed seconds later, and this time, she felt the bite of her mate.

  The pressure of his teeth sent her senses spinning, and she was sure that life couldn’t get any better than this moment. She dared destiny to prove her wrong.

  Chapter Eight

  The dishes hit the floor with a crash, and Rad was at her side in an instant. “What is it?”

  Zel put her hands to her belly and focused inward. After six months, the tiny piece of life was fluttering its little hands and feet. She smiled at him. “It moved.”

  He waited until she moved her hands, and then, he put his palm over the entire span of her abdomen. His face fell. “I don’t feel anything.”

  She put her hand over his and changed her vision. She mentally tickled the small person inside her, and it stretched and waved its feet.

  His expression of amazement lit the room. She grinned and tried to focus on the feel of the fluttering and not the sight of his hand on her belly.

  She stood there until the kicking ceased and had to pry Rad’s hand away from her. “It will do it again. I am pretty sure of it.”

  He looked down at her as if he wanted to keep his hands there indefinitely. “It was amazing.”

  She snorted. “Don’t tell Suri that. She finds the idea of babies repulsive.”

  He nodded. “It is one of the criteria for their order. They can’t want to have a family. The abbey becomes their family.”

  “That seems a little odd.”

  He put his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. “We all find our places in the worlds as we can. Your path isn’t their path.”

  She wrapped her arms around his hips and leaned against him. “It just seems so strange to turn your back on the idea of carrying on your own bloodline.”

  He chuckled. “You decided that a male was superfluous to your new life as a parent. That is not a common way to raise a child in either of our species. It was your choice.”

  “And yet that isn’t the way it turned out.”

  He pressed a kiss to her temple and whispered, “I am very charming.”

  She felt her shoulders quake, and then, she burst out laughing, clinging to him with her strength and the power of their expanding attachment. When she finished her emotional outburst, she leaned back and wiped her eyes. “Yes, you are.”

  He took her hands and smiled. “Swim with me?”

  “This you or the other you?”

  His gaze twinkled. “Let’s start with this and see where we go.”

  She laughed. “Fine, but no going too deep.”

  “That wasn’t what you said last night.”

  Zel chuckled, “That was this morning and that is a different matter. Come on, Rad. Take me to your seas.”

  He didn’t need to be asked twice.

  * * * *

  Rad watched his mate as she swam with the brightly hued fish, exploring the brightly coloured undersea world that had been out of her reach even one day before.

  Her pale limbs moved easily through the water now, the toned muscle supported her as she changed direction and floated above a tiny school of fish, protecting them from a larger predator, just for a moment.

  The small protrusion of his child was just becoming visible, but the mind was sending out flickers of emotion that struck Rad randomly, as well as affected Zelia’s self-control.

  He was very happy that she had decided to enter the Alliance, one way or another. If she had not, they would not have found his genetic request and sent her to him. He would still be waiting.

  She turned to him with her golden hair spinning outward in a wide halo. She nodded and swam upward to get some air. Her ability to hold her breath was up to six minutes, and she was going to be able to do so much more.

  Each week, he checked the scanners, and she was becoming more and more Drai with every day. He wasn’t telling her of her change. She had enough to deal with. Her hormonal shifts were off the charts, and her body was in full riot.

  Swimming wasn’t just a means to spend time with her; the pressure of the water was helping her transition. If she had gills or another shape, he would recommend that she spend the next few months in the ocean. That wasn’t possible, so he would bring her into the water whenever he could. Her transformation would not complete until after the child was born, so he had his duties as mate to carry out. He had to take care of her and keep her spirits up until she could stand on her own.

  He was just lucky that when it came down to taking orders, she did as she was told. It cut down on the amount of negotiations in the bedroom and outside it.

  * * * *

  Zelia twirled and floated in the currents that were now visible to her altered sight. She didn’t know where her love of the ocean had come from, but she thought it might be the man floating nearby and watching her.

  He could use his wings to propel himself in a way she had not imagined was possible when it came to moving underwater.

  Small fish clustered at a respectful distance around him and larger predators were just outside the reach of his aura. They didn’t even come within two hundred yards of Rad when he was swimming. It was amusing.

  She examined the oysters showing off their pearls, tickled the anemone and swam in circles with tiny, bright fish. When she felt the need to breathe again, she nodded to him and kicked upward, letting the spent air trickle out of her lungs as she ascended.

  Rad followed her to the surface, and when she had filled her lungs with air, he shifted and put her on his back, rising from the waves.

  She held tight to the fine hairs on the back of his neck as he playfully cut through the water for a bit before rising to undulate all the way to the house. She laughed and lifted her hands up, letting the wind lash every part of her.

  The urge to seek out joy, laughter and pleasure was a new one, but she embraced it as she had a thousand other changes in her life.

  When Rad stilled under her, she gave in and hung on. The next moment, he corkscrewed through the air, and she was laughing and gasping again.

  Here, there were no true days of the week, but she liked to think of every day with Rad as a Friday. There were just so many possibilities right around the corner.

  * * * *

  Finding a Drai medic who was willing to travel to an alien world to deliver the child of an ancient was even harder than it sounded. Zelia left it up to Rad, because she really didn’t know what was involved.

  After he stormed into the dining room with a foul temper for the fifth time, she finally stepped in. “Rad. Sit.”

  He blinked at her tone of command, and he parked himself at the dining room table where she was arranging a quilt for the baby.

  “You are having a problem finding someone to deliver this baby, right?” She stroked a hand over her kicking belly.

  “Correct.” He reached out and patted the bump.

  “Ask for another Terran. I have been checking the ro
sters, and there are at least four midwives and several with a healing talent in the lists. Apply for one of them for a few months.”

  He blinked. “I can do that?”

  “Apparently, it is quite common. They specialise in Terran mothers and non-Terran fathers.”

  He nodded and got up, heading back to the com unit. Someone was about to get a talking to.

  Zelia chuckled, sat down and continued quilting the small blanket covered with ocean patterns. She was nearly done with the layette for the incoming arrival, and there was still three months left.

  Keeping herself occupied had become a full-time job. She had learned of fashions and traditions of species she hadn’t even imagined. Education had always eluded her back on Earth, but here, there was nothing else to do. Sociology was her favourite study, along with anthropology. Drai history was rich, and their rituals were formal in the extreme to keep the males from destroying each other in competition for their mates. Zelia surmised that the lack of competition had ceased the ability to transform. If they didn’t need to fight, they didn’t need their fighting forms. They evolved out of their most striking feature.

  Zel really hoped that her child had the full capabilities of its father. If it could fly, that would be wonderful, but if it was a girl, she hoped that some of the psychic abilities would make themselves known.

  It took two days, but Rad was finally satisfied that a midwife with the necessary qualifications would be willing to attend.

  She would arrive within the month and be delivered by Guardian courier. She was already in touch via secure com unit and giving orders.

  Zelia laughed at that announcement and supervised the bots preparing the baby’s crib.

  Rad went to folding the laundry and putting all of the small things away. “Is the child really going to need all this?”

  “Let’s see, the amount of meals per day, diaper accidents, crawling around and drooling. Yes. Yes, they will.” She smiled at him.

  “How do you know so much about it? You have told me that you have no siblings.”