Page 44 of The Omega's Unexpected Bounty
My gaze went up, and the holograms floated next to each other as if our babies were touching. These two boys would grow up together with each other. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?
No, it wouldn’t.
There must have been something in my scent because Graden hugged me tightly. Just a simple caress but I think I felt more in his hug than any other physical thing we did together. His forehead furrowed, and I looked up questioningly. “Something wrong?”
“No, but my father wanted to see me after this and asked that I make sure to see our child before I do.”
***
Chapter Twenty-Four
GRADEN
My father’s hand went quickly over the canvas while others dried around the grey stone room. Images of silver, crystal spaceships left a globe of blue and white. In others were paintings of battles against Gloom cube ships. The orange-yellow sun exploded behind them.
“A far away solar system and something loved destroyed. A small price to pay for an empire to continue. Wouldn’t you agree Graden?”
“Yes, but I suspected our warriors would have preferred killing each Gloom personally.” My chest went out as I imagined. “Especially slowly.”
“I thought that way once, then I simply wanted them dead. They were too dangerous to be loose in the galaxy. Other races would have yielded against our might. They released a virus that killed nearly all our Femeni. There were those that thought the Gloom should die when they started their hostilities.”
“The Hand,” I said flatly.
“Yes, the previous Emperor, thought the Hand was better than the Boot. They took the opportunity and used it to build up their forces to intimidate. If we had the force of will to–” The paintbrush snapped in his hand, and I raised my eyebrows.
He gently sat the broken brush down. “I wanted to talk to you about your mate.”
“Is something wrong?”
“If there was, would you do something about it?”
“Of course.”
“Such as?”
“It depends on the nature of the problem.”
The answer pleased him, and he smiled. “I have two sons both with developed skills, natural talent, and weakness. The people adore you, and you’re an accomplished warrior.
“Weakness?”
“You aren’t your brother which is his weakness. Your strengths he lacks. He’s not a people’s king – not a monster like the Mad Emperor, but…” His voice trailed off, and he slapped his hands together. “Caan is who we were discussing.
He turned around while the greasy paint smell grew within the stone chamber.
He said nothing while his arms crossed. I was taller than him – age took away some height but none of the severity in his wrinkled frown. For a moment I was a small child again awaiting a chastisement. It usually was Balo and I but not today.
“Do you have an authentic mate?”
My eyebrows rose. “Is this about Caan’s Human–”
He shook his head no quickly. “For the most part, it does not matter. We took the Humans and altered willing ones into Omegas. Discovering Earth was serendipitous.”
I smiled at my father’s use of the Earthling’s term. It was a rare time whereourword wasn’t as beautiful. My people believe in many things, but most agree there’s something out there in the universe. So far,itlooked out for us. Unlikely events happen, and most often they end up in our favor. Those that didn’t, challenged us and made us strong.
A natural Human Omega is rare. One that could kill an entire mining colony? Even more so, yet it gave me a mate. It was chance, and eventual good fortune as my father and other Volardi would say.
“I care not if he was Volardi, altered, or the first natural Omega. There is nothing wrong with having a mate you don’tinitiallycare for. Your Oma was much the same. He was from a minor family on an unremarkable island on the other side of our planet. Not that it matters of course. The previous empires learned their lesson about inbreeding, and I wanted to cast my net wide as they say. He was pleasant to look at and traditional. We weren’t matched in the lottery, but we grew to love each other. Since he gave birth to you and your brother, that is obvious.” He paused then smiled. “Come now Graden, there’s no reason to make that face. I taught you both where little Volardi come from.”
