Page 9 of Possessed By the Leonid King

“How many months would this take?”

He had to think for a minute. It had been so long since he had celebrated the arrival of cubs. “Five months is a typical gestation period for Leonid Queens.”

“It’s nine months for humans. Split the difference and figure on seven?”

Seven months of her company? He might go mad.

But at the end of that time... he would have cubs. Maybe daughters. The next generation of Queens. Names for them popped into his head.

Silvia.

Alana, after his late sister.

Maybe he’d get lucky and have three.

And these daughters would live. If he had to take them out of the Felix Orbus Galaxy, he would.

Or maybe they would inherit their human mother’s immunity.

By Bastet! What if he could give his daughters a fighting chance simply by choosing a human and mixing in a little science?

Years of feeling helpless and lonely seemed to vanish in a rosy (if tarnished) dream. He could do something for his people. He could do something for this human.

They would have to write up a contract. They would have to write up several. What if he and the human weren’t even compatible? What if Marcus’ booster didn’t work?

Layla’s voice was low and without her brashness of a moment ago. “So? What do you think? Want to try it? I can negotiate on the price. That cub bonus thing might have been pushing it on —”

Rupex stuck out a paw and seized her hand. He completely wrapped around her hand and wrist with plenty of room to spare. Dainty little thing. Not something one would say about a Leonid Queen, that was certain. “We will write up terms to our mutual satisfaction.”

She smiled at him, breathing out a shaky little sigh. “To our mutual satisfaction.”

WHILE LAYLA SETTLED into the rooms down the corridor from his, Rupex went on a research binge. He looked at the costs of properties on Sapien-Three. For the cost of a shack on Leonid-One, he could have a modest estate on Sapien-Three. He had his eye on one, a white house on a lake, well-gated and a reasonable distance from other dwellings. For some reason, Rupex liked the look of it and wanted to imagine Layla there, safe and protected, away from men who would harm her and sell her, away from these “labs” that sounded like something out of old horror tales, rounding up children to experiment on!

But it would be her money. She could do as she liked with it.

Rupex tapped the com screen and punched in Marcus’ code. “Marcus?”

The grizzled face appeared. “Captain?”

Oh no. Formal titles. Marcus was upset. “What is it?”

“You first.”

“How can you be sure the chromosome booster will work with Layla—our current human guest?”

“Whose blood do you think I was using for my initial research? I took a pint while she was sleeping. Standard protocol when taking cargo transfers from off-world. Well... a sample. A pint wasn’t regulation size, I admit.”

Rupex groaned. He was a bit of a rule-breaker himself, but Marcus seemed to have reached the “Fuck it all” stage of his career. “Marcus, you’re going to get us banned by the trading unions!”

“Knock a hundred credits off her passage. Say I bought it. Then it’s legal.” The Leonid in the white lab coat shrugged.

“Saying that the booster works—”

“It will.”

“That helps her get pregnant. What will help her stay pregnant?”

“Routine injections of the booster. Here, look at what the simulator has generated.”

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