Page 55 of Smart@ss Cyborg

Off to the side of us, with C’vest acting as her bristling guard, Stella successfully nurses her offspring for the first time.

Grunting, squeezing her birthing comb, Becky painstakingly delivers our tadpole.

“It’s a girl!” Midwife Jane informs us.

“HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!” Paco bellows from the vicinity of the porch, making the occupants in the room jump. He follows this with a loud slam of the screen door that sounds as if he cracks it out of its hinges.

“What the hell is that?” Midwife Jane asks in alarm.

“Our little smartass,” I say fondly. Feeling fondness for everything. I’m euphoric, I realize. C’vest must be seeing all the happiness chemicals flooding my skull—and I don’t even care. I couldn’t bridle right now if someone offered me a million credits and all the shiny horses.

Becky starts to cry. Relief and sadness are a swirling mix in her brain.“Mattie,”she weeps. “If we had a girl, Joel wanted to name her… Mattie.”

“We’ve had a girl,” I confirm. “Mattie is a lovely name for a human.”

Becky… cries harder.

Unsure what to do, I pet her hair and her shoulder. “I came across literature stating that male children are more prized in some cultures. Is this the case on Traxia? Is the gender of your child causing you emotional pain?” I query.

“No,”Becky asserts.

“William,” C’vest calls, standing closer than I realized, when I turn from Becky to see why he’s interrupted my conversation with my wife.

I do a double take.

In my extreme distraction, I entirely missed that this is not a content male. C’vest isnotsettled. He is not full of jubilation and wonder at his newling and his wife’s accomplishment. Although I do see sectors in his brain that indicate he feels those things, they are being eclipsed by something much darker. He’s experiencing such dark emotion that his aggression comes off of him in waves.

Behind him, his mate is cuddled with their young. Behind the protective barrier of my body, my mate is cuddling our young. If C’vest would return to his mate’s side, all would be as it should be.

To my surprise, C’vest motions for me to leave my family and follow him to the door of the room.

Torn, I do. Because I’d do anything to move him—with the state he’s in—away from my mate and child. “What is it?” I ask.

From outside, Paco brays,“REEEE! REEE! REEEEEE…”

By the sound of it, he’s wasting away from lack of attention. His honks are trailing off almost sadly.

C’vest’s mouth is pulled into a grim line. “I can’t let Alvert remain a threat.”

“Ah.” This makes complete sense to me. With a vulnerable mate and a newborn, in his position, I wouldn’t either. In fact, I was considering hunting this Alvert person myself.

C’vest jerks his head at our women and children. “Will you stay with them?”

Stunned, I stare at him. He’s trusting me—a rival Yonderin—with his mate and child?

He exhales, impatient, and pins me with a look that stops my blood. “If I don’t come back, will you protect Stella and our son?”

Mutely I nod.

C’vest glares into my eyes. “If I don’t come back, you get Stella and our son to a shuttleport. Don’t let her stay here. It’s not safe. You hear me?”

“Yes,” I vow.

With a deep nod, he returns to his mate’s side. He kisses her and their babe.

Stella stops him by taking his hand. “You’re going to take care of Alvert, aren’t you?”

She says this quietly enough that Midwife Jane can’t hear her. Perhaps not even Becky. But my ears pick up her words easily.

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