Page 46 of Bred By Zyros
“Return my child to their mother or I remove your head from your body, and it is born amongst your blood,” I warn.
The moment of hesitation lasts solars, my worried glance falling to my Melody. She’s not crying anymore, her big blue eyes unfocused on the moon.
Please. Please do not take her from me.
Do not take either of them.
I have served you, my goddesses.
I have bled and suffered, and all I ask is to leave with them both.
“Please.” It takes me a moment to realize that one was out loud, that the ragged hiss choked in agony was mine alone.
The moment the female passes our child back into my arms, my attention is back on my mate. I comfort her, but the words are heavy, choked between my own cries as I force her attention to me, her eyes fighting to stay open.
No.
Awe and wonder fill her blood-smeared, pale face as I pass our child into her arms just as the first piercing cry fills the night.
A baby’s cry.
It is the most beautiful sound, and shewilllive to hear more of it.
I lower my head to her legs, whispering out an apology before I force a scream from her throat.
I will heal you, my sssaryth. I swear it by the goddess, and then I will take the both of you far from this place.
twenty-six
Melody
Elaria is perfect. I never knew I could feel a love as deeply as this. A smile fills my face as her tiny tail wraps around my arm. The elders say she is quite a bit smaller than any Vrircik they have seen, when we reluctantly allowed them to see her from a distance. She shares her dad’s coloring, albeit much paler and mixed with the vibrant crimson of her moon. She shines every bit as bright; her frizzy tuff of pale hair leads me to think it’ll be closer to my shade than his. I was both shocked and grateful to find out that baby Vrirciks are more or less ready to go after just a handful of solars. I’d spent the first few days sobbing uncontrollably as my milk refused to come in, despite having been told I wouldn’t need it. Unlike most babies, Elaria doesn’t need heavy feeding in her first few domtics, just warmth and rest, a sort of hibernation period as she grows heavily, relying on the nutrients she bulked up on in her shell. Another, much larger tail tightens on my ankle—my mate, who is packing the rest ofthe ship while I lounge in the sun with our daughter. His eyes are watery with emotion. I hadn’t dreamed having a child would turn rude, grumpy Zyros into a big baby, but it has.
The first few days after the night she was born were…harsh. I’d nearly bled to death. Oddly enough, I’d managed to find a species humansaren’tacceptable breeders for. Zyros had thought quickly to heal me with his silva, the same way he had in the jungle that very first day. He’d rushed us both to the nearest space station once I was stable enough to move, and by all accounts, we were perfectly fine.
I watch as he loads the last few gravity carts of crystals before he comes to collect us. Instead of letting him carry us on board, I gently unravel little Elaria from my arm, passing her to her dad. She makes a tiny whimpering sound, much preferring my warmth to his cooler scales, which delights me greatly and bothers him to no end. My fingers work quickly as I take the clearing in for the last time, undoing the clasp on my holo pager. I’d already reset it, keeping only what the remaining Vrirciks wouldneed. While the Intergalactic Alliance had explained thoroughly what had occurred, no doubt because they were forced to, the new female in charge, a pale-yellow female I scarcely remember from the day I was taken, had refused any compensation.
Instead, they opted to have their tech removed.
Completely.
She’d allowed herself to be scanned for health abnormalities too, as well as several others, following her lead. It seems, at least in them, the effects of the machines run off… can’t be reversed. The chemical compound that comes with Serpentium being broken down to its raw core is highly toxic, but mostly to beings housing estrogen, or the alien equivalent.
Perhaps it’s wrong to offer them this.
But the gravity of what that likely means is…choking.
Especially since my own health scan had informed me I wouldn’t be able to carry again, I’d opted for sterilization after that to be sure neither of us would have a risk of reliving the trauma his people have known. The scarring from his saliva, like on my leg, had beenextensive. The news had felt shattering at the moment, but I’m okay with it the more days pass. I have everything I could ever need.
The Vrircik people will likely go extinct. I won’t see it in my lifetime, due to their naturally long lifespans, but it will happen in our daughters. Elaria, by all accounts, will be the last of her kind. That fact only confirmed our choice to leave.
Zyros' slitted eyes meet mine as I hand the device to him. Ultimately, there is no one more deserving of deciding the fate of a people who harmed him so terribly. Zaelshar slips from the wood line then, all four of his enormous arms filled with baskets of my ssseerafa leaves. I give a watery half laugh. He’s been gathering them in copious amounts and bringing them to us since the birth, having apparently spent a great deal of time watching us collect them before. Although he still refuses to meet my eyes, I’ve long since forgiven him. I help him with the baskets, setting them inside the overloaded ship before whispering a thank you.
Rising on my tiptoes, I press a kiss into my mate’s chest, giving his arm an encouraging squeeze. “Whatever you choose, it’s the right thing,” I whisper. He doesn’t ask where I’m going as I head off toward our old cave, refusing to step inside with it looking so empty. I’m surprised how much the idea of leaving hurts after such a short time.
I plop down at the mouth, my bottom lip already wobbling as a gaggle of little dudes hop toward me, all warbling and chittering as they do. A thick lump lodges deep in my throat as one hacks up a crystal, letting it flop into the ground, making the otherschitter and hiss disapprovingly. It’s slimy, kind of gross, like them, but I take it anyway. “Thanks, little dudes.”
I don’t have anything to offer them, so I just sit and watch for a while as they carry on, my heart splitting in my chest.
