Longing shot through me. I should be the one to comfort him. I shouldn’t have upset Seth in the first place. My stupid mouth had gotten me in trouble again. Shocker.
After a minute, Seth drew away and gave me a shaky smile, though he stayed pressed against Kal’s side, holding his hand in a tight grip. “Anyway, Kal and I got married, basically.” He gave Kal a sappy look. “We fell in love.”
I grunted. Sure. Fall in love with the dude that kidnapped you. That was healthy.
“And you?” he asked.
“Got taken in my sleep. Woke up on a ship. Was sold to a fighting ring for a couple years with Teddy.” At the thought of Teddy, I shot a glance around the crowded cafeteria. He was nowhere to be seen. A stab of… longing, hurt, I wasn’t even sure went through me. We’d been inseparable, and he’d left me without a word. Perhaps that husband of his had made Teddy leave? I would have to make sure Teddy was safe too.
“Did you…?”
“I didn’t have to fight,” I replied. “We cleaned up after the fights and burned the bodies. Not pleasant, but we survived.” That was putting it mildly. I shook off a blood-curdling scream and the thud of desperate hands against metal. The “dead” fighters weren’t always dead when Teddy and I had to dispose of them. I would never forget it, not for as long as I live.
Seth grabbed my hand, and I entwined our fingers, all the while fighting the urge to yank away and hug myself. The feel of our palms touching… I forced the sensation to the back of my mind, lest I remember other times skin rubbed against mine.
Seth said, “We’re together now.”
“We are.”
I forced a smile to my lips, staring into his deep brown eyes. I’d spent years looking into these eyes, then spent years missing these eyes, and now I never wanted to look away. After everything we’d been through, here we were again. I was never going to release him.
Kalvoxrencol was two soulbeats away from launching across the table or dragging Seth away. He couldn’t decide on which choice was better. Both would make Seth mad. I hated interfering with such things, but Kalvoxrencol was more fragile than most.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t rely on my next younger brother. Serlotminden and Bartholomew had made only a token appearance in the canteen before disappearing with fucking on their minds.
Thank the Crystal, Zoltilvoxfyn recognized our younger brother’s plight. He and his mate Caleb walked toward them. Caleb was trying to socialize with the other humans, but he was struggling. He didn’t look human anymore, because he wasn’t.
He’d been a wayward human spirit who had died many cycles ago. Zoltilvoxfyn, because of his inner fire, could see him. They fell in love, and the Crystal ended up forcing Caleb’s soul into an empty drakcol body.
Caleb sat next to Vince and smiled and leaned his cane against the table. “I’m Caleb. Nice to meet you,” he said in garbled human speech.
He struggled to speak his native language, and the ship’s NAID—Network of Artificial Intelligence for Drakcol—couldn’t translate him when he did. Edith, a sentient NAID, did better, but she was linked to Kalvoxrencol’s system back onTamkolvanloknol. Caleb’s Drakconese was near fluent, but he liked to speak in human speech. It made him feel human while the mirror told him he was not.
Caleb held out a hand, and Vince recoiled as fear and disgust washed through his mind. He didn’t want to touch anyone—this seemed to be the same response he had when someone attempted to touch him. Only Seth and Teddy were acceptable, and even their physical affection wasn't highly desired.
Zoltilvoxfyn held his mate close when Caleb’s expression fell.
Seth explained, “Caleb’s human. It’s really complicated.”
Shock followed by disbelief rolled through Vince.
“It’s not so complicated,” Caleb said as he launched into the story.
Vince listened, but his thoughts returned to Seth.
The emotions and thoughts bouncing around the canteen were a lot, but between my uncanny ability to sense Vince perfectly and my brothers’ and their mates’ sweeping emotions, it was enough for me to want to crawl into bed and seek sleep to simply have a break.
Seth glanced at his screen for what must have been the thousandth time, and I suppressed a laugh. He couldn’t stop checking on his and Kalvoxrencol’s unborn child. It was an obsession. His anxiety—I believed that was the human word for the medical condition he had—made it difficult for him to be away from their kit.
“What?” Vince asked.
Seth grinned. “Kal and I are having a baby.”
“What?” Vince’s voice was laced with pain as the agony that whirled through him nearly sent me to my knees.
He turned the screen around to show the growing fetus in a tube of green liquid. “Drakcol technology allows for same-sex couples to have kids. As well as inter-species ones,” he added, cheeks pinking. “This one is mine and Kal’s. The doctors don’tknow how long our baby will gestate, because humans are pregnant for forty weeks and drakcol are pregnant for eighty-two, roughly. Our rotations are not exact.”
Drawn in by Vince’s spiraling emotions, I walked in his direction to… I was unsure, and yet, I couldn’t help but close the distance between us. He needed someone. He needed protection.
