Page 37 of Interlude

“How are you feeling, Echo?” I ask him, noticing his belly is a little more round today than yesterday.

He smiles brightly. “I feel good, strong, and I have quite an appetite. The babies must be growing.”

“That’s good. Would you pop down and visit with Nik? I think he’s lonely, and he can’t move a lot anymore, which makes swimming difficult.” His bright look fades, and a crease appears between his brows with his worry.

“Of course I can. He must miss Lila a lot,” he agrees.

“Take this with you.” Cas puts Jack on the sofa next to me and Cally and holds up a tablet. “Link told him about the mermaid movie, and he wants to watch it.”

Maxsim groans. The kids have made both cats watch it over and over again with them.

“He wants to pick Earth names for his babies as well,” I explain, and his disgruntled look disappears as Echo nods.

“It is a good idea. Maybe Lila can suggest some for us too. I like the tradition of naming our babies Earth names.” He rubs his own belly with the hand not holding Cordelia.

The babies don’t take long to finish their bottles, and the three of us lay them down in their beds to rest, all of them out before we leave the room.

“I need to find some clothes,” I tell the two of them, leaving them to return to the kitchen while I head to my room. My eyes drift to the clock on my bedroom wall. Lila and the guys should be returning to the harvesting ship soon. They were planning on contacting us to give us an update. Maybe I’ll go to the bridge so I can be there when it comes in.

Maxsim

Once Echo helps put the babies to bed, he leaves me and hurries off to check on Lila’s can of tuna. I can see his worry for the merman, which makes me anxious because I don’t want anything going wrong with Echo’s pregnancy, but I can’t be selfish and demand that he doesn’t go. It’s a fine line I have to walk to keep my mate and my alpha tendencies happy.

Maybe it will be a good distraction. He was worrying something fierce about Lila, and Link said his blood pressure got too high and he needed to rest. He refused, not wanting to miss out if something went wrong with the mission, so I fucked some submission into him, and he quickly became pliable and had a nap once he was full of my cum. He looked so pretty on the end of my dick, but it did feel like something vital was missing without Lila. I’ll have to fuck her into submission when she returns too. I’m sure she will give me a reason to need to, since she’s very feisty.

I smile and reach down, adjusting my cock, which has decided to make itself known with my dirty thoughts.

Instead of worrying about Echo, who is perfectly safe, I switch my worry to the mate that is not perfectly safe.

“I’m going to the bridge to see if there’s any word from Xavier or Lila,” Link announces when he returns from putting the kids to sleep. He returned from the pool wearing nothing but a pair of tight boxer briefs, but now he’s covered in another one of his uniforms. The cyborg is a very handsome man, and Echo suggested that maybe once our babies are born and Lila or he go into heat again that Link can help us. He explained that he can create a bulge like a knot with his nanobots. It’s how he helped Lila the first time. I can’t say I wasn’t intrigued, but I’m not sure I could control my jealous tendencies and not maul him if he did. Maybe due to the fact that he doesn’t smell like a cat, my jealousy wouldn’t be too bad. After all, the omega controls who they have in the streak, and if both of mine want him to join us, then who am I to complain?

“Can I come?” I push away from the counter, abandoning my drink now that there’s finally something for me to do.

“Sure, what about you, Cas?” Link asks the kraken who shakes his head.

“No, Echo went to spend time with Nikos, and I don’t want to leave the children unattended. Let me know what happens, will you?”

I can see the worry for our wife in his eyes, and we both quickly assure him we will keep him updated.

“Maybe it’s time we started looking for a nanny,” Link muses.

“Or two,” I add, thinking about the coming four additions.

He grimaces. “You’re not wrong. We’re going to have to return to running the circus soon, which will keep us all busy. It won’t hurt to have some help with the children.”

We make our way along the corridors, walking instead of taking the sideslip. “Are you worried about the mission?” I ask the cyborg after a moment. I can practically feel the tension dripping off him.

“Kind of. I just want to be done. Waiting drives me nuts. I know I wouldn’t have been much help, but I wish I could have gone with them. This separation is hard.”

I nod my head, my tail twitching behind me with agitation. “I know exactly how you feel. I’ve never felt so disadvantaged by my species as I have since I’ve been Lila’s mate. Before, I was happy keeping to our own den and environment, but now, I wish that I had high temperature tolerance as well.” It’s been playing on my mind since they had the mission to Rilu. Both Echo and I have discussed asking the warlock for a more permanent weather charm, which he spelled Echo with so he could sit underneath the sun lights in the Aquilian living space with Nikos. That way we aren’t a liability to our wife and the rest of her mates, and we can participate in missions. Well, I can anyway. I wouldn’t risk Echo’s safety, even though he is a formidable fighter, but it’s the alpha in me needing to protect his omega. The only reason I’m slightly more relaxed about Lila going is because I’m confident in her mimic ability making her damn near invincible.

“That’s easy to fix. My lack of power is not,” Link grumbles, and I slap him on the shoulder.

“If we were all running into danger, there would be no one to look after our young. You are just as important if not more so because you protect our offspring. Lila would be inconsolable if anything happened to them. Don’t doubt yourself, my friend,” I say gruffly, not great with emotional stuff but wanting him to know he is a valued and important member of our streak.

We reach the flight deck and find Saxon with Broderick, but both Silac, Tirrian, and Ghosie are here too. I guess the three of them are just as anxious as we are, since their affections for Lila are well-known, but they don’t have the added distraction of our family to keep them busy—not yet anyway, though I doubt it will be long before they are full members of our rapidly expanding streak.

“Have we heard from the away team yet, Rick?” Link asks as I take a seat at one of the empty consoles, nodding a greeting to the four men.

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