Page 60 of Single Stroke

“Mate!” the healer growled even louder and extended his hand in a peremptory gesture of summons.

Eyes wide and legs trembling, the hybrid female obeyed the summons. The healer’s hand closed over hers and he growled something into her ear. The female sank to the floor on all fours. The healer groaned and pushed up her skirt.

“I can’t watch this,” Louella moaned, but was unable to turn her head away as the healer kneeled on the floor and positioned himself behind his mate. She could not turn off her ears either as the female’s high cry pierced the air in the room when her mate plunged into her body. He bent his body over hers and held his mate’s hips, holding her tightly against him until they both cried out in a shared eruption of pleasure. The healer then bowed his head and pressed tender kisses to the nape of the female’s neck. He murmured something again into her ear. The female’s head remained bowed, although Louella could see the flush of pink coloring her pale cheeks.

Before anyone could speak or the healer could withdraw from his mate’s body, golden light surrounded them. The female’s back arched and her mate’s back bowed as their bodies clenched together in an unexpected and powerful second climax that left both of them gasping for breath. The light pulsed for a long moment before gently fading.

As though bereft of support when the golden light disappeared, the female collapsed to the floor. Her mate rocked back on his haunches and gathered her in her arms, tugging at her skirt to protect what little was left of her modesty. He nuzzled her neck, raised his head to take a deep breath, then lowered his head to inhale his mate’s scent again.

Healer Jallisk’s eyes widened in awe and he focused his emerald gaze on Louella. His voice rasped, “My lady, Yk’sih has blessed us.”

She frowned in confusion.Making one of the priests have uncontrollable sex with his mate was a blessing?

“My mate has conceived,” the healer explained, answering the unspoken question.

“Surely, you can’t tell that early?” she blurted.

“You do not understand,” the healer said as he rose to his feet, cradling his mate in his arms. “Elodie was among your group of brides. She received the injections that rendered her infertile. Yk’sih has healed her infertility.” His lips peeled back in what was almost a smile and definitely fierce, reminding Louella that, despite his blunted claws, this healer was still a predator. “We shall have a daughter, a preciousdaughter!”

“Elodie?” Louella whispered to herself, the name registering vaguely in her memories. Then she wondered why the god picked that particular healer.

As though reading her mind, Healer Jallisk said, “I am the only healer among the nine of us who is mated.”

The other priests began to stir and grumble. One by one, they got to their feet and blinked in mild confusion.

“Healer Jallisk, why is your mate here?” one of the high priests demanded.

“Yk’sih summoned her to me and gave us his blessing. He approves of the initiative to set a medical standard for Ahn’hudin,” Jallisk replied, dipping his head to nuzzle Elodie.

One of the other priests inhaled deeply, nostrils quivering. “She has conceived!”

They can tell that just by smell?Louella bit her lip to keep from blurting the words.How can they know so quickly?

The other priests followed suit and inhaled deeply, opening their mouths to catch the scent molecules on the backs of their tongues and throats, tasting their air. They murmured excitedly among themselves while Louella and the Chief Scientist waited in silence.

“I must take my mate home and tend to her,” Healer Jallisk said.

“Of course,” Louella replied, making a mental note to speak with Evangeline about her experience as a hybrid bearing an Ahn’hudi child. Pressing a hand against her own belly, she said, “Return when you can and we’ll resume our work. There’s a lot you may not know about human pregnancies that will probably apply to a hybrid female’s pregnancy. I can help.”

Healer Jallisk nodded. “Of course. Thank you, my lady. Such knowledge will be most valuable and appreciated.”

The healer departed, the other priests following him, no doubt to pester the poor male with questions and offer unsolicited advice. Louella turned to face the Chief Scientists and said, “Wow. I guess your gods really are involved with their people.”

“Yk’sih tends to be more involved than the others,” he replied.

Louella barely refrained from rolling her eyes and looked up as Yas’kihn entered the room.

The remaining eight high priests muttered among themselves about the miracle of Elodie’s pregnancy. Their discussion veered off into speculation as to whether supplication to their god would so bless other hybrid mates and open their wombs to their mates’ seed. Yas’kihn moved to her chair and held out his hand.

“We’re not fucking broodmares,” she muttered under her breath as she placed her palm in his, resenting that the priests’ only concern seemed to be how many children they could get from the brides who were sourced from off-world species.

Yas’kihn did not know the reference, but he certainly recognized the anger building in his lovely mate. He hissed, calling the priests’ attention to him, and said before Louella could storm off in a fit of pique, “Let us return to the matter at hand.”

The priests bowed their heads, submitting to the emperor’s heavy dominance, and turned their faces toward Louella, their gazes speculative.

“Don’t eventhinkit,” she growled.I am not going to let Jax rut me in front of them. Besides, I’m already pregnant, right?

The priests looked offended, although she wasn’t sure whether it was her tone or her words that gave offense. At that moment, she didn’t care. Given the miracle that occurred in their midst, the priests focused their discussion on reproduction and what adjustments in health care the hybrid females needed to conceive and bear children.

---