Life was slow to get back to normal after Zarbonov came home from his mission. The basic pattern stayed the same. He rose at dawn, pressing kisses to my cheeks and lips until I woke up too. We bathed and ate together, though stories from my life on Earth replaced the language and cultural lessons. Then he tucked me back into our silks and left. Everything that happened after breakfast changed entirely.

As much as I loved carrying a little piece of Zarbonov and me with me, being pregnant was harder than I ever imagined it would be. I never got morning sickness or swollen feet. Instead, I got sudden shifts in my energy levels that often led to a fainting spell and gut-wrenching headaches. For the first few months, whenever Zarbonov wasn't home, I left the curtains drawn and the sheets over my head.

On the days when I couldn't get out of bed, I lay there thinking about the women in the Room. At Mirna's request, Ingendia had taken over my language lessons. As the women learned the language, some of their fears disappeared. Mirna claimed that the rate of successful sittings had increased, which meant fewer women like me were stuck wasting away in the auction house.

A high scholar bought Beth two months after I found out I was pregnant. She sent me a note a few weeks after that, telling me that things were going well and she would stop by as soon as they came up for air. Well, Beth was too sweet to use those words, but I knew what the first few weeks of married life were like when your husband was a Xiban.

To make matters worse, Zarbonov's work hours kept going up. The Primen expected him to be on-call at all hours. When Zarbonov objected to spending late nights away from his mate, Carzon started coming to the manse and having his meetings with Zarbonov at the main table.

On those nights, he swept into our chambers, bringing a wave of cloves and lavender with him. He snatched my hand from my side, or wherever it was, and brought it to his lips to kiss my knuckles. Then he told me I just had to bring the baby to see his wife and children after it was born.

"When you are feeling stronger, of course," Carzon said. "I remember well how delicate a time the carrying can be for human women."

There was a time when Carzon's slick manner would have annoyed me. But after months of listening through the door while he and Zarbonov talked, I learned that Carzon was more cunning than vicious. The fact that he thought my mate had a brilliant strategic mind didn't hurt his status in my eyes.

As the rainy season started, my symptoms started to improve. The headaches disappeared one morning and never came back. I had more energy every day. No surprise, since my appetite tripled once I could get out of bed.

Poor Ingendia resorted to serving two full breakfasts two keep up with my appetite, one when for Zarbonov and I to share, the other for me to eat alone. That trick worked for a few months. Then Ingendia had to beef up my mid-morning snack. As I closed in on month seven, Ingendia enlisted the help of the kitchen staff.

They never came farther into the house than the main room. Ingendia was the only servant in the house with that right, and the further my pregnancy progressed, the more territorial she got about it. I got the sense that there was a struggle brewing among the servants, but other than telling Ingendia I would kick anyone who messed with her in the shins, I stayed out of it.

Zarbonov insisted, and he had ways of convincing me of things. Most of the time, I was still too tired for sex, but our playtime in the mating chamber had inspired all kinds of games. Some nights, he would lay me down in bed, tracing his fingers over every inch of my naked body until I shivered and begged him to stroke me. Others, he settled between my thighs, lapping my swollen lips to orgasm after orgasm until I fell against the bed in a pleasure-induced haze.

Then one night, fourteen months to the day after I’d first laid eyes on the Bay of V'Dal, the healer returned to our chamber. Giving birth to a half-Xiban, half-Human baby was harder than carrying one. It was harder than I ever imagined, and I needed help from the healers along the way.

But it was worth it. Growing up the daughter of a rich man who would as soon throw things at me as hug me, being kidnapped from a party and taken to a strange alien world—the lessons, the struggles, the failures—everything in my life leading to that moment had been worth it, because for the first time, my reality was better than any dream.

I had the love of my life at my side and our baby boy in my arms.

My name is Ella jan Zarbonov, mother of Arran vin Zarbonov, and I am home.