Page 80 of What Makes an Alien a Dad?

Now, I was laughing, too.

“I’m all for that kind of violation!”

We found a nice spot under a much smaller, locally grown tree away from the main path of the park. I helped him spread two self-inflating cushions for us to sit on. He took out a round sphere with milk from the basket, then adjusted his daughter at his chest.

I stole little glances at the baby. Her pale-gray fur looked soft and downy on her head but so short on her face, the sun cast a sheen on her tiny button nose and her high Voranian cheekbones. The tiny buds of horns graced her forehead like two dark peas. I wished I could see the rest of her—the little hooves that kept kicking me from the inside only two weeks ago, the tail, and her belly. I wished I could hold her. But I didn’t ask Kear to take her, reining in my instincts.

He turned the sphere with my breast milk in his fingers and fitted its nipple into the baby’s mouth. She eagerly sucked on it.

My chest tingled as the baby nursed. The day she was born, I was asked to consider pumping my breast milk for her. I wasn’t even sure how long I was going to stay on Voran, but I immediately agreed to do that. I’d been pumping twice a day, in the morning and at night. But this was the first time I got to see my efforts’ final destination.

“What’s her name?” I asked.

He took a suspiciously long time to answer before finally blurting out, “Anika.”

I sucked in a breath, sitting back. “You took my grandmother’s name.”

He shot me a tentative glance. “Does it make you angry?”

“It depends. Why did you do it?”

He dropped his gaze to his daughter, watching her nurse.

“I...” His brows moved together in concentration. “I wanted her to have a stronger connection with you, even if neither of you knew about it.”

“We’re not supposed to have any connection after her birth. I was just a surrogate.”

“I know. But I thought it would be nice for her to have something of yours. After you...if you left. She is the only Anika in this part of the Galaxy.”

“The only Voranian baby with a human name,” I added.

“And for now, the only Voranian baby grown in a human woman’s womb.” He peered at me again. “Are you angry about the name?”

I probably should be. But I didn’t feel angry. Instead, sadness filtered into my heart at the thought of leaving them both soon. With the five-month-long journey between our planets, even visiting here didn’t seem feasible.

Blinking the sadness away, I stared at the fluff of fur between the baby’s little horns.

“She’s adorable.”

He nodded, holding the baby in a rather awkward position that probably made his arms sore.

“Why did you never tell me she was yours?”

He shifted uncomfortably.

“I didn’t really tell anyone. Those who knew found out from the research paperwork that few people had access to.”

“Why did you decide to become a father?”

“I didn’t. I never planned for this to happen.”

“What?” I stared at him incredulously. “How could you not have planned it? It’s not like she’s an accidental result of drunken night of passion.”

He glanced aside. “No. She is the result of working late into the night, running out of frozen sperm specimens, and ending up using what I had...um, on hand, so to say.”

“You used your own sperm in tests,” I finished for him.

“Yes.”

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