EPILOGUE
“What do you think about Kadran?”
Lounging in the grass near the banks of the pond in the Garden, Jaiyu leaned back against her mate’s chest, a contented smile on her lips as he rubbed her rounded belly. Twin beams of moonlight streamed through the glass dome, the pale-blue rays sparkling over the still waters. Since no other humans had access to the Garden so late at night, it was quiet and peaceful, and she relished every minute of the time they spent together there.
“For a male?” Draken asked, disapproval in his tone.
“Female,” she corrected. “I think it’s going to be a girl.”
They had decided not to find out before the birth, but with their little miracle arriving in a few short weeks, they really needed to settle on a name. In the months since they’d been mated, they hadn’t fought about much, but they still couldn’t agree on what to call their unborn child.
“Sorry, isha, but it’s definitely going to be a male.” He chuckled when a tiny foot kicked at his hand from inside her belly. “See? A warrior, to be sure.”
Jaiyu rolled her eyes. “I’m glad you’re amused. It doesn’t feel so great on my end, you know.”
Draken combed her hair back and kissed her temple as he resumed rubbing soft circles around her stomach. “Calm down, little one,” he murmured over her shoulder. “Take it easy on your nalla.”
When he said things like that, it was all too easy to forget why she’d been annoyed with him in the first place.
“In case I haven’t told you, I think you’re going to be a really great dad.” She knew he worried about it because of the turbulent relationship he had with his own father, but there was no need. “Am I ever going to meet your parents?”
“Not if I can help it.”
His sister was over the moon about becoming an aunt, but there had been no communication from his parents at all. While Draken said he didn’t care, she knew their silence hurt him. There wasn’t much she could do to change that when his mother and father refused to even acknowledge her as his mate. Instead, she vowed to love him with everything in her to make up for their absence.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Draken whispered in her ear. “Don’t worry about my parents. I don’t.” He rubbed their cheeks together, then kissed her temple again. “What about Si?”
Jaiyu tilted her head as she considered it. “I think I like it.”
“You do?”
It was strong, yet just soft enough. It was short, easy to pronounce, and wouldn’t lead to unrelenting teasing from the child’s peers. She also liked that it would work for either a boy or a girl. In fact, it ticked all of her boxes, but she wasn’t ready to concede just yet.
“I do. We’ll add it to the ‘maybe’ column.” She repeated the name in her head a few times. The more she said it, the more she liked it. Naming their child was an important decision, though, and she didn’t take it lightly. “Can you think of any others?”
“Hmm,” Draken mused. “Saison?”
Jaiyu wrinkled her nose. “That’s terrible.”
It also sounded way too close to Jason.
Attacking the mate of an Aleucian came with severe consequences, she’d learned. Draken could have demanded the man’s death, even if he hadn’t killed Jason himself. After a conversation with Captain Otar, however, he’d decided death was too quick and too easy for the guy. As it stood, Jason was probably wishing he was dead.
One year in an anti-gravity, deprivation chamber was a slow torture she wouldn’t wish on anyone. Once he served his time in the Rack, he’d be moved to a cryocell, frozen for an indefinite period of time. It had been explained to her that he wouldn’t be awake or aware, but he would still dream.
She shuddered as she imagined the nightmares that would haunt him.
“Are you cold, isha?”
She shook her head but snuggled deeper into her mate’s arms anyway. Not wanting to cause him unnecessary worry, she didn’t tell him what was on her mind. Besides, it wouldn’t do to linger over things she couldn’t change. This wasn’t Earth, and human laws didn’t apply here.
“I love you,” she said instead, arching her neck to kiss the underside of his jaw.
“I love you, too. More than anything.”
His lips ghosted along the shell of her ear, making her shiver as arousal flooded her. No matter how many changes her body had undergone as it prepared for motherhood, Draken always made her feel beautiful and desired.
“Time to go,” she announced, her voice already verging on breathless.
“We still haven’t decided on a name.” There was a teasing lilt to his tone as he swiped his tongue over her mating mark, setting off tiny explosions of pleasure.
Names could wait. She couldn’t. “We have time. Let’s go home.”
Whether Earth or Aleucia, the quarters they shared or her old, tiny pod, the location wasn’t important. Wherever Draken was, that was her home.
THE END