Page 19 of Monstrous Hunt
On the grid, I tried to focus solely on him.:Do you want privacy?:
:She may need you close.:
:We’ll prepare fresh food,:Rizan said.:I ordered quite a lot of seafood given the location, so it needs to be checked for her allergy.:
:Right behind you,:Lohr replied.
The two of them headed to the kitchen, and I fell into step behind Kroktl. Not one of us waited for our alpha’s command or approval of our actions. Which told the truth clearer than any words.
Axxol was not our alpha any longer.
* * *
KROKTL
Passingthrough the large building that Rizan had acquired, I scanned the rooms, looking for a soft, comfortable bed. I didn’t notice much else, other than the house’s size. The rooms were spacious with large windows overlooking the ocean. Picturesque but not secure at all, and after seeing Axxol surge up out of the lake, lying in wait undetected to steal Natalie away, I hated the deep waters even more.
I went into the first room that had a bed. Lay her gently onto the mattress. And then fell on my knees beside her and buried my face against her breasts, holding her. Listening to her heart. She was still breathing, her pulse steady. She smelled the same as before, lush and intoxicating, but now I couldn’t get the burning stench of ozone out of my mind.
Remnants of Axxol’s power lingered on my skin too. For the first time, I started to understand her desire to wash her skin clean and start anew with just the natural scent of her body. And mine.
Snryx sat on the edge of the bed and began another scan. At least he didn’t have to wrap her up in every implement he possessed to keep her alive this time. Which only made me shudder and clutch her harder.
“She’s stable and resting deeply. Our little human is remarkably resilient.”
“You said she was brain dead. Did she suffer any lingering damage to her cognitive abilities or memories?”
“I won’t know for sure until she wakes, but her brainwaves are normal for deep sleep. Her nervous system appears undamaged. In fact, she may have created some new neural pathways in her brain.”
“Dumb that down for me.”
On the grid, he showed me a glowing image of her brain and upper body. Her spine glowed with pearly light down her back and up into her brain. Filaments spread throughout her body like tree branches and roots, some flaring with different colors. As he zoomed in on her brain, more colors blinked and glowed. Her temple had a white spot roughly the size of the tip of my thumb.
“That’s a scan from the first night when you sent out the SOS, including the concussed area on her brain. Take note of the patterns and colors everywhere else. There are some areas of red, which indicate high brain activity, but everything is mostly yellow and green.” Another image flipped onto the grid. This one looked the same to me, except the white mark from the concussion was gone. “This was a few days later when I confirmed she was healing well. Overall, the brain activity is still similar to the other.”
He switched to a new image, and I inhaled sharply. Flares of red and orange crisscrossed throughout both hemispheres of her brain with very little green and yellow areas.
“Exactly. All those expanded red spots are neurons receiving new transmissions, indicating a great deal of activity that wasn’t there before.”
“How?”
With a shrug and a smile, Snryx withdrew his implement. “Honestly, I have no idea. It could be exposure to the jump technology itself. After her entire system shut down, perhaps some of Axxol’s power stimulated new areas of her brain. Though I suspect it’s something else entirely.” He paused until I shot him a glare. “You’ve been changing her DNA all along.”
Stunned, I recoiled, dropping my hands from Natalie like I was contaminating her. “What? How? Why didn’t you say something?”
“As part of your mating, you both adapted to new, strange situations. Completely different species coming together, forging something new. Your fluids were healing her, whether you licked her injuries or climaxed inside her.”
Fuck. I came inside her so many times that I probably could have filled up her entire body with cum already.
“Then add in the pregnancy,” Snryx continued. “Mothers and their young share blood and DNA naturally. It’s possible that because she’s pregnant, her body had a ready supply of stem cells from the embryo and naturally tapped into that resource to heal itself.”
I heard Lohr and Rizan enter the room, both carrying fresh smoothies and loaded plates. They set the food items on a wooden storage chest by the door and then slowly came closer, Lohr at the foot of the bed and Rizan opposite me.
As if she sensed our concern, her eyelids fluttered open. I immediately leaned closer and carefully wrapped her small hand between both of my monstrous palms. “There’s my baby. How are you feeling?”
She turned her head slightly, a small smile quirking her lips. Recognition flared in her eyes.
She knows me. She remembers me.Relieved, my shoulders drooped, and I pressed her fingers to my lips.
