Chapter Twenty-Two
Yawning, Jess stretched her aching muscles. Surprisingly, not only was she lying on a soft surface, but a heavy object lay across her, pressing into her torso.
The last thing she remembered was how cold she had become. She shouldn’t be warm and there shouldn’t be anything weighing her down. She strained to open her eyes.
The male in front of her slowly came into focus. Even with blurry and distorted vision, she would recognize her giant anywhere.
“Rasha?” Her voice came out as a painful whisper.
He was nose to nose with her. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. “I’m here.” His thumb gently massaged her earlobe.
She reached out to him and grabbed his arm, needing to make sure he was really with her. “What…how…where am I?” Her mind struggled to find the words to ask him.
He stopped her with a finger on her lips. “Shh, don’t try too hard. You are still recovering from hypothermia.”
She tried to remember everything that had happened. She was following José to the dome. Somehow she fell…her ankle…the pain…her head…so cold.
She kissed the tip of his finger. “How did you find me?”
One side of his lips quirked into a smile. “I stepped on you.”
Her eyes widened. “Stepped on me?” she asked in disbelief.
“I didn’t want to miss seeing you so I shuffled along the ground, praying I would find you.”
She rubbed her leg. “Is that why I’m so sore?”
Confusion crossed his face. “You were in the healing tank. You shouldn’t be sore. Maybe it did not have time to complete its cycle?”
She kissed him and placed a hand on his arm. “Calm down, I’m just kidding.”
“I thought I lost you.”
Don’t cry. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“You couldn’t chase me away.”
But she had to. His place wasn’t here with her. He had responsibilities that needed to be taken care of.
She pulled back. “Rasha, why are you here? Where is Marcie?”
“Don’t worry about her. I’m here for you,” he said.
“But Marcie and the baby?”
A flash of pain crossed his face. “It was a lie. She was not carrying my child. She wasn’t pregnant.”
Jess stroked his cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be, I’m not. You’re the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.”
She rolled onto her back, pulling the blanket up to her chin.
“Don’t start this again, Jess. It’s you I want and you I’ll be with. We won’t debate about it.”
She had wanted to tell him all the reasons why it wouldn’t work, how he could find someone better than her, but her words failed.
“Do you love me?” he asked.
If she told him no, he would probably leave her alone and find someone else. Someone better than her. But her heart wouldn’t let her lie. “Yes.”
He pulled her back into his arms. “I love you too. See, that wasn’t so hard. You are not alone in this existence. You’ll never be alone again.”
I’ll never be alone again.
She nuzzled into his arms, enjoying the way she fit perfectly into them. “I dreamed about you.”
He lifted his head to look at her. “You did?”
“Yes, you were holding me just as you are now and you wouldn’t let me go.”
He tightened his grip. Her body molded effortlessly into him. “That wasn’t a dream. It was real.”
“Rasha, I want to be with you but I feel like I’d be cheating you out of something better. I can’t give you what you want or need.”
“What can’t you give me?” he asked, seemingly unperturbed.
“You’re the head of the Sonis Royal Guard. You’re expected to mate with someone strong.”
“You are more than a warrior could ever ask for. You are perfect the way you are.”
She shook her head. “Children…I can’t…” She trailed off. “I saw the way you reacted when you thought Marcie was pregnant. You’d be denied that if you were with me.”
He stiffened under her. “I will understand if you want to wait for children. We’ll enjoy our time together first.”
She rolled away from him and sat up on the edge of the bed. “If I could, I would. I want nothing more than to be able to give you the children I know you want, but unless you can go back in time and stop the brothel owner, that bastard, from removing my uterus, then it’s not going to happen.”
He kissed her shoulder. “What is a uterus? The report from the healing tank stated you were missing an ovary, a kidney and an appendix, but besides missing those items you are intact—healthy.”
“It’s wrong!” she said. “Those bastards yanked out my uterus so I wouldn’t get pregnant while I was whoring for them. Why the hell would they remove my ovary, kidney and appendix too?”
“The machine is not wrong.”
She twisted the blanket in her grasp. “No, they put me in one of those tanks and when I came out they told me they removed my womb.”
“They either lied or they didn’t know what to take out.”
“They knew everything,” she whispered. They had advanced alien technology. Everything had been right out of a sci-fi movie.
“Jess, do you believe the brothel owners told you the truth? You’d believe them over me?”
She fought through the wall in her mind that guarded the most heinous memories.
When she’d arrived at the brothel, the owners had her get into a healing tank. Once she got out, all her childhood scars had been erased and they had happily informed her she was free of her womb, adding there wasn’t room at the brothel for halfling offspring. They had laughed and cackled as they said it, leading her out in chains to the room that would become her prison.
“I…I…don’t know,” she said, confusion making her thoughts murky.
“Computer,” Rasha called out. “Give me a verbal account of all Jess’ major organs.”
The room soon filled with an accounting of her organs, starting with her brain. By the time the computer listed her stomach, her heart raced. Small intestine, large intestine…her breathing increased. At the mention of her uterus and one ovary, she inhaled sharply.
They had made a mistake? “That…that can’t be right.”
“Computer, does Jess have everything required to bear my children?” he said, enunciating “my” as if she would think of having someone else’s.
“Yes, the human female has all the organs needed to bear children for a Sonian male.”
While she struggled to comprehend what the computer had said, Rasha puffed out his chest next to her. “You will bear my children in two Sonis cycles.”
Children? I can have children? Jess grabbed and squeezed him as hard as she could. “I’ll have your children!”
Rasha grabbed her tighter. “Good. I think we really should get started now.”