Asier had expected Therin to have his mate hidden away from a strange, unmated male. When he’d seen the tiny creature standing beside her Scaeven purchaser, he’d waited to be struck by the pheromonal impact of a pregnant human female.
But he felt nothing. Well, nothing except for a carefully repressed burst of protective anger for the small woman. She didn’t want to be here—she had the same vacant sadness his mother’d always lived with. The same hollowness he’d seen in Lyra’s eyes when he’d held her captive in the quarantine cell.
Pain lanced through Asier at the reminder of losing her, but something else bolstered him. Relief. He hadn’t done to Lyra what had been done to the diminished, empty woman sitting across from him.
Revolted by the conversation he had to have in front of the woman, but resolute to carry out his duties, Asier pasted a pleasantly neutral expression on his face and focused his attention on Therin. “Congratulations on your beautiful mate,” he said as warmly as he cold manage.
Therin dipped his head in response. “You are interested in securing similar circumstances for yourself.”
Asier nodded rigidly. “I might be.” His glance flicked to Therin’s silent mate. “Although I’ve heard that the… the appeal of human women drives Scaevens to madness.”
“There is truth to that. The attraction does initially drive you out of your senses. Human biology is the pinnacle of reproductive temptation.” Therin cast his mate an indulgent smile. “But, as soon as she conceives, the compulsion releases you.
Asier froze. “But your toxin—”
“Once she conceives it no longer affects her. Or me.” Therin stroked a big gray hand down his mate’s slim, tawny arm. The woman did not react to his touch. “Now that I’ve got a son on her, my mind is my own.”
The inside of Asier’s skull was ringing like a gong. “That isn’t how it happens with mates of other species.”
“No. But, then, the toxin doesn’t affect them as strongly as it does human females either.” Therin shrugged. “Their species willingly ingests ethanol and capsaicin. Who knows what strange metabolic processes humans employ? I’m a palladium miner, not a biologist.”
Asier’s heart pounded in his chest, so hard he was sure Therin would hear it. He got to his feet, unsteady. “How do I…” he trailed off, losing his thought mid sentence.
Lyra was pregnant. She was pregnant and alone and he’d… he’d just let her go.
“Here.” Therin handed him a silver chip the size of a fingernail. “It’s a computronic key. Insert it into your comm. Once activated, you’ll be contacted with the location and time of the next auction. Then hold onto the key—you’ll need it to be admitted to the auction.”
Asier stared vacantly at the chip. “Thank you,” he managed to say. “I have to go.”
He left the chip with his second-in-command, with instructions to send an unmated agent to the next auction.
Asier went to immediately to Enforcement’s transport bay. He logged his ship out for an extended operation. He was going into human territory.
He didn’t know how he was going to find her, but he would do it. He’d do whatever it took to be with her. If he had to live out the rest of his life as a fugitive hidden in human territory, dodging Enforcement’s attempts to haul both him and Lyra back to Scaeven territory, then so be it.
Only two things that mattered: the woman he loved, and the child she was carrying.
As soon as the ship completed all startup diagnostics, a distant ping came over the comm. Asier looked down at the panel, a frown etching his brow as he read the input. The ping had come from a Scaeven fleet shuttle—from impossibly deep within human territory. His heart pounded against his chest.
Lyra.
He accepted the data—a fixed set of coordinates—and set his heading.
Virgo System, Andromeda Galaxy
Copernicus Station
IG Standard Calendar 236.46.13
The pregnancy was progressing far too rapidly. Lyra was only five months along, but her water had broken an hour ago.
Wearing only an oversized t-shirt, she crouched in her bathtub, sweating and keening like an injured animal. One hand clutched Sofie’s. In her other hand, she gripped the RSP core she’d ripped from Asier’s shuttle. It was the only memento she had of him—except for the child who seemed to be tearing her body apart.
“Lyra,” Sofie said fretfully, submitting to her sister’s crushing grip through the all-consuming pain of another contraction. “We should go to the hospital. Even human births can be dangerous. You don’t know what you might be dealing with.”
Lyra panted as the contraction receded. “No. They’ll turn my son into a guinea pig.”
“You’re only at twenty-two weeks. This is too soon for labor. The baby might need help.”
“I know! But I can’t go to the—” Lyra bit the last word off in a hiss of pain as the next contraction gripped her.
With her free hand, Sofie smoothed Lyra’s hair back from her clammy face. When, after a long, tense moment, the contraction eased, Sofie gently touched Lyra’s cheek, looking into her sister’s eyes.
“Lyra. I know you’re scared. But there’s too much that could go wrong. The baby could be too big for you to deliver naturally. Or turned the wrong way. Or suffering from some kind of treatable condition. I know you’re worried about what will happen when they find out he’s not human, but that’s not important right now. You’ve been relying on home scans to monitor the baby’s growth, but they don’t tell you as much as a hospital scan. We need—”
Lyra screamed and doubled over as a splintering, hot pain knifed through her belly.
Sofie’s hand clenched around Lyra’s. “You’re bleeding!” she cried.
Lyra looked down. Blood streaked her thighs, pooled on the ceramic beneath her.
“I’m sorry, Lyra. I’m calling for help.”
“Sofie,” Lyra said faintly, her vision swimming. “No—”
“Be sensible,” Sofie snapped as she got up to fetch a comm.
“I’m trying to,” Lyra whispered, slumping against cool porcelain.
Chapter Nineteen
Virgo System, Andromeda Galaxy
Copernicus Station
IG Standard Calendar 236.46.17
Asier’s ship completed the jump from the Centauri gate, emerging into the edge of the Virgo cluster. It took only nine zeitraums to travel from the Virgo gate to Copernicus Station, but it felt like eons.
He slipped within the traffic surrounding Copernicus station without attracting so much as a single glance. The cloaking tech used by Scaeven Enforcement was beyond even what ordinary Scaevens had access to. The most advanced Ravanoth vessels might have been able to detect the faintest hint of his presence—if they’d known precisely when, where, and what to look for. But to human eyes and human tech, he was effectively invisible.
Leaving his ship orbiting at a safe distance, he boarded a shuttle—also cloaked—and launched towards the port nearest his given coordinates. He docked the shuttle in a damaged berth, far away from the hustle and bustle of the loading bay.