Page 27 of The Pregnancy Pact

Even as I accepted this sorrowful fact, an idea sprang to mind.

Caide.

My reckless bastard son had fallen for a human woman, who he claimed was his mate. Although I doubted the veracity of such claims, I could not deny my son’s love for his bride. He’d given up a life of wealth, ease, power, and prestige, with the chance to one day step into my position, all for that one female.

Perhaps he could help me understand.

My soul recoiled. I was currently on my way home from Earth, having been rejected by the son I’d—truth be told—always rejected, and I needed advice from him? After I’d spurned and mocked him for choosing a human wife?

J’tet!

How had I gotten into this mess?

I sank into the nearest chair, seeking any form of support.

Normally, I was quite adept at thinking through solutions to even the thorniest of problems. It was not in my nature to surrender, to give up, to lie down and accept defeat. But this particular chain of events was proving monstrously difficult to overcome. Mostly, I wanted to fetch myself a drink from my liquor cabinet. Although alcohol would serve for nothing in the long run, it would temporarily relieve my distress.

No.

Alcohol was what had gotten me into this mess to begin with. If I’d not brought this Lorelai, this human woman, on board the ship to bed her, I would never have given her lyven to begin with. I’d never have imbibed myself. We would never have gotten drunk. We would not be married. The Council would not have decided my having a human wife and siring a human heir was a grand gesture of goodwill, peace, and harmony between the humans on Earth and the Asterion Overlords.

I groaned in despair.

No more lyven. Ever, I swore. Lyven is what led me to this sorry impasse.

And if I could not drink, I must act. I knew that. But, what to do?

You could start by finding the human female, I finally decided. One step at a time. Find her. Act. Do something. Anything except sit and wallow in despair.

Releasing a breath, I pressed my palms on my thighs and stood. Wallowing was for the weak. I was not weak. I would search the ship from top to bottom and side to side if I must. I had to find her. Much as I loathed to admit it, the idea of her putting herself in any sort of peril was loathsome.

You need her, my conscience whispered.

Was that all?

My tangled thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door.

I moved to answer it, expecting to see a server—possibly the Doreethan female who had shown glimmers of interest in me. Perhaps the captain had received another message from the Council that he wished to share with me.

No.

On the other side of door stood the human woman.

My wife.

Chapter 15

Lorelai

When I stood up to Overlord Ellax, it was like standing up to my former husband, standing up to the battle scars and wounds of a horrible relationship that had taken what was meant to be the most sacred bond in the universe and twisted it in ugly, deadly ways. It was standing up to the all the years I’d been beaten down. It was standing up to my future having been wrecked, and all of the forces, external and internal, that seemed determined to select my destiny.

Then I’d fled. I only had so much fight in me. A warrior can only keep going so long before they retreat. A soldier can only march so long before their legs collapse. And a woman with my past can only assert herself so much until the demons return, poking with hot needles, slicing with deadly knives of doubt, carving at scars and re-opening old wounds that have never fully healed.

I fled because I didn’t know this man, this alien male, like I barely knew myself. I’d been trying to get to know myself again, after all those years of pouring my entire being into my sons and failing marriage. The first, I’d never regret. The second? Well, I simply didn’t have it in me to endure it a second time. I crumbled. I ran.

I didn’t go far.

One thing about me—I’d well and truly had enough of flight. For the brief span that I’d settled into my new life, my new job, I’d felt a sense of control, of direction, of strength and purpose, that I hadn’t felt in ages. I couldn’t lose that now. I wouldn’t. So, I ran from the Overlord’s room, but not to find a hidey hole and shut out the world. It was to get away long enough to think. I paced the space ship’s corridors at a faster clip than I probably should have. I passed a variety of crew members, some with humanish features and some more alien, all of whom had glanced at me in surprise but didn’t try to stop me.