There were other things to think about, but I couldn’t help but take in the difference in our expressions. There was concern but also a slight grin. I’m sure I looked like someone that just hugged a toilet.

Maybe it would’ve been angrier except I had a single thought in my head.

Morning sickness. I’m pregnant.

***

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

MATROS

“Don’t be like the Soturi of old,” I repeated.

I stomped through the hallways of my royal chambers while I looked out toward the beach. Guards were within and without keeping an eye for Ryba treachery that would surely come. Gerlari was off in the distance. His wide frame was visible against the endless, moving blue.

Fuath said he wouldn’t attack our coastal cities. I believed him, yet that did not set my mind at ease. He was truthful but there was always some unsaid message behind it. I sensed trickery in his promises.

I look forward to the day where his son or daughter takes over. Perhaps the wives? They certainly couldn’t be worse. Well, they could but chances were rare.

I crossed my arms and frowned as if sending my sneer deep into the water.

What is bothering me? Really?

If I was honest with myself, it was my Femeni that gave me the greatest worry. I wasn’t a monster who treated them badly. My lost one could learn, go unescorted, and in the end that killed him.

If I ordered him to remain in his quarters when the first deaths appeared, Zan might still live.

And Layt, my Dara.

I shook my head. I wanted a mate… not an automaton, but giving a decree and having it followed had a reassuring allure. With this one? Every suggestion short of an order was met with arguments and questions.

My lips thinned as I saw him walking the beach.

He’s only doing it because I told… asked him not to.

I tried to be good to my new mate. He’s been taken away from his planet, then thrust upon a role his people never considered until we arrived.

Yet, he should be in his room while my child grows in him.

I allowed myself a slight smile and whispered, “My child. Our child.”

Such a thought would be a foolish dream earlier. Femeni both of Volardi and of Earth were incredibly rare. It would take a few generations before they are semi-common again. More generations after that before there would be enough for all.

I never expected to have one and yet, I do.

He walked up the steps, and I smiled at his darkened skin. He told me in his ‘state’ people were dark from the sun. Yet, now he had a richer tan. It was pleasing and yet the result of being outside like a willful child…

Stop that.

“Outside... again,” I said.

He smiled. “Rhetorical questions... again?”

“You should not be out.”