Page 35 of The First Omega Made
“Still don’t know.” I swallowed hard and kept staring at the ceiling as he slid the door closed and locked it.
“Can you at least give me a clue? I’ve been nervous as fuck all day and can’t figure out where this line of static in my head is coming from and it ain’t Vil, Noel, or Nexus.” Sarge sighed and pulled up a stool, flopping to sit beside me. He grabbed my hand without hesitation and squeezed.
I rucked my shirt up and gestured at the slightly swollen surface of it.
“Bad food?” His tail twitched, and that foreign static pricked at the back of my mind, too. I bet it was louder in the med bay than elsewhere in the ship.
“Egg.” I managed to hoarsely mouth the word and bathed in the long silence.
“Is it infertile?” He canted his head and stared at my belly.
“Fertilized.” I laced my fingers tightly over my chest, resisting the urge to touch it.
“By just me? I thought that—” Sarge audibly gulped.
“A Naleucian omega can store sperm and keep it alive for some time, apparently.” I took a deep, shaking breath. Gorm was good for a fuck, but a mate he was not and sure as fuck was not who I wanted in my forever.
“Oh. Gorm.” He nodded slowly. “Do we tell him?”
“I’d be a dick not to, but how do you feel about this?” I’d wanted a baby since the moment I held Nexus’s egg. Every time the little scamp piped up, saying my name and ran through the med bay or snuggled against me, my heart sang. I could have my own.
“Well, I don’t think Gorm would make a good parent. I don’t know if he’d want to be involved, but he does do well with Nexus.” Sarge placed a hand so gently over my belly I only registered the warmth for a second before his touch. He closedhis eyes as if in prayer, listening to that other static—a new life in our bond.
I couldn’t stand it, and I reached for his hand, pressing mine down atop his. “I don’t want Gorm to be between us anymore. I don’t love him.”
“I knew that. If I thought you did, we’d be having a different conversation. I don’t love him, either.” Sarge rubbed his hand in a slow circle.
“What do you want to do about it?” I held my breath in wait for the alternative.
“I want a family, to raise a baby with you, and to love you as long as this body allows me.” Sarge leaned over and pressed his lips to mine; the kiss we shared a special one full of the song in our bond. It was music unlike any I’d ever heard. “And the child is from this body, but this body is me. We are fused and one. It’s not even a host. It’s me.”
“I think Noel used his own blood to complete the fusion. This is you, now.” I studied his face as I said so and instead of sadness or disgust, there was only utter joy.
“Then, he is mine. If truly Noel used his own blood, my essence, however edited it may be, will live on.” He laughed once and shook his head. “And we thought taking a Naleucian body would kill us.”
“It just ruins you for all other bodies.” I frowned, but Sarge only kissed me again.
“I don’t want another body. I want you and that’s all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve never wanted to reproduce as a Colthraxian. I voluntarily had myself desexed. My gamete organs—I had them severed.” Tears blossomed in his eyes, and I treasured how easily he could show his feelings in this new form. “Do you know why Shafa said it was a crime to mate an omega?”
“Because we’re disgusting broodmares who ruin their polyamorous ways?” I shrugged, but didn’t push him away.
“Because a disease wiped so many of them out that there were so few left. Even omega young died in their shells.” Sarge traced his free hand over my head. “And yet here you are. Noel made you, and so many died from Noel’s genes because they, too, were omega. You survived.”
The kiss he gave me at the end of that bombshell made me melt. My toes curled, and I whimpered into the kiss. “Then let’s pray our little one is an omega, too.”
“I think we need to head to Starbase Delta and return to Paradise. I know where the Naleucians live, now.” He sniffled and took a shaking breath.
“Merriel. You know what to do.” I couldn’t hide my smile.
“Alright! Live action lizard Jerry Springer!” He beeped out, and both Sarge and I stared at his sensors and bewilderment blossomed in the bond.
Chapter Nineteen
Sarge
Noel and Vil made their way to the med bay before we could curtail Merriel’s enthusiasm.
“I heard there was some space Jerry Springer happening.” Noel strolled in, holding a half-asleep Nexus in his arms. He gently put the tyke to sleep in the quarantine room while I quietly pulled up a view screen and looked up what the fuck a Jerry Springer was.
