Zyriq was not sure how it happened, but he was now jealous of Pach. The male who reminded him of a young one than a trained warrior was now a rival for Baila’s smiles.

If Zyriq was not so honorable, he would simply toss Pach from the ship and pretend he was unaware of the male’s location. But he was honorable. Damn the stars.

Pach held Baila’s arm as he led her around the observation deck, his grip gentle and pace slow due to his bonded’s large stomach.

And there went another of her smiles directed at Pach. Perhaps Zyriq could simply cut out the male’s tongue. Then he could not speak and make Baila laugh. That seemed an excellent plan.

Zyriq stepped away from the doors, moving deeper into the spacious deck and snaring his bonded’s attention. In that moment, that split-second that he watched Baila’s smile widen and eyes sparkle, he realized he had no reason to be jealous. His bonded might smile at others, but the pure joy on her features was only for him. Her laughter with Pach was a pale comparison to the laughter he heard now.

“Zyriq, did you really run around the palace naked and relieve yourself in the plants because that’s how your ancestors lived?” Baila’s eyes twinkled, happiness etched into every inch of her body. As if the pain of yesterday was a distant memory.

Then his mind processed her words. He turned his attention to Pach and narrowed his eyes, glaring at the young warrior. Perhaps he was not a good companion for Baila after all.

“You are too young to have been alive during my early years. Who spoke of the events to you?” Though Zyriq had a very good idea.

Pach coughed and tugged on the neck of his uniform while he stepped away from Baila. “Uh…”

“Pach?” Zyriq drawled his cousin’s name.

“Your dam considers me her favorite.”

“Pach?” He hardened his voice.

“It would sadden her if you should injure me. Or my brothers.”

“Who?”

Pach shuffled backward, glancing behind him every so often to gauge the distance between him and the exit. “It is truly your sire’s fault. If he employed more steadfast guards then—”

“Pach,” Zyriq snarled and the warrior bolted.

“I believe I am needed on the—” Pach’s last word was cut off by the deck’s doors sliding shut.

Zyriq strode forward, intent on hunting the warrior and beating an answer out of him. Except a small soft hand stroked his arm, fingers playing over his heated skin.

“Leave him alone,” Baila murmured and he heard the smile in her voice before he saw it on her face. He turned to his bonded, reveling in her happiness. This was what he ached to see every day of their lives.

“I only wish to know who carried stories.”

“Uh-huh,” she snorted, lips flashing him a teasing grin. “And I’m sure you were going to ask politely, too.”

Zyriq straightened his uniform. “Of course.”

She eased into his embrace, ducking beneath his arm and snuggling close. “The Morean definition of polite or Earth’s?”

He grunted. He did not like Earth’s definition and yet he knew Baila was not fond of Morea’s version. He remained silent. He could not get into trouble if he did not speak.

She tipped her head back, chin resting on his chest while he stared down at her. So sweet, so beautiful, so his. “I like hearing those stories, though. It makes you…” She frowned and rubbed his thumb between her eyebrows, brushing away the wrinkles. “It makes you real.”

Now Zyriq frowned. “I have never been not real.”

Baila pulled his hand from her face and twined their fingers. “I know that. I just meant…” She huffed. “You seem so perfect. So strong and put together. As if the world wouldn’t dare to go against you. You want something done and it’s done. What Pach shared told me that at some point, you weren’t perfect. You made messes, played tricks, went to bed without dessert, and filled the palace with alien sheep because your parents wouldn’t let you have a pet.”

Zyriq snorted. He recalled that event and he couldn’t hold back his grin. “I was not alone. My younger brothers helped.”

Though he had refused to implicate them in the task. Zyriq was the only one caught so he was the only one to suffer.

“Pach’s stories helped me realize that for all of our differences, we’re still the same.”

Zyriq could appreciate Baila’s words, but he could not stop himself from shaking his head. “No, yabi. You are better—more—than I could ever hope to be. You are the perfection I hope to achieve someday. Your strength steals the breath from my lungs.” His hands went to the roundness of her belly. “You have carried our young and stood strong against the one who would have taken you both from me. You fought to live alone on Ark Station Zeta, pregnant with an alien young while working to support yourself.”

He gathered a few strands of her hair and tucked them behind her ear. “There are ways for a female to remove young from her body and yet you did not. You did not make your life easier by ending the life of our young.”

“I couldn’t.” Baila’s hand came to rest on top of his. “I’m carrying a part of you. There was no way I could let that go.”

Zyriq breathed deeply, drawing in his bonded’s natural scent, the sweetness that clung to her skin. “We are both fighters, protectors, in our way. Life is not perfect. It is not pretty and empty of pain. It simply is. There is laughter and there are tears, yabi. I only hope there is more laughter and joy echoing in the halls of the palace than cries of sadness.”

Mischief danced in her eyes. “Unless our kid decides to move in a few hundred alien sheep.”

He snorted. “My sire outlawed those ‘sheep’ from the city. There are none to be found near any longer.”

“A kid with you as his father and me for a mother will always find a way.”

He was not sure if she was teasing or spoke the truth. And he was afraid to ask. “We will hire additional young-minders. He will have a minder with him every moment. No, two minders.” Though two each for Zyriq and his brothers had not been enough… “Perhaps four minders.”

Baila giggled, the laughter high-pitched and clear as it rang through the room. “You don’t think that’s overkill?”

“Pach does not know all of the troubles I stirred with my brothers when we were younger and we each had two minders. If our young one is anything like me, he will require more than two. No question.” Zyriq was torn between pride that his young would get into so many things he shouldn’t and anxiety over having to manage such young one.

“You keep saying ‘he.’” Baila rubbed her stomach. “Is there a test that was run that identified the baby’s sex?”

“I…” Zyriq stared at his bonded’s rounded belly. “It is simply tradition. The first young of the Warking has always been a male. The first young of the first son has always been male.”

“Always?”

He nodded. He had not ever heard of a deviation from that tradition.

“But the first son hasn’t ever bonded with a human woman either. A human woman who comes from a family that only gives birth to girls.” She waggled her eyebrows. “How do you think the planet would take having a Warqueen instead of a Warking?”

It would be… disastrous, an uproar, unending arguments and much, much snarling. He would make sure his blades were sharp.

“I do not care how the planet—or the people—would react to such a thing. I only know my own response.”

Baila licked her lips, pink tongue darting out, and he ached to chase hers with his own. “What’s that?”

Zyriq spoke from the heart, the depth of his feelings imbuing every word. “Joy. Joy because I will have my bonded and my young. There is nothing else that could ever matter more than the two of you.”

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Station Commander’s Surrogate

Piper fled Olympus Station with a broken heart, finding solace in the far reaches of the galaxy as an exo-botanist breeding rare plants. She left behind an unspoken love and a cruel sister, who enjoyed making her suffer. Eight years later, the last person she expects to hear from is her sister’s husband, especially bearing the news her estranged sister is near death, and her baby needs a  womb to continue developing after Pippa’s passing. Somehow, she finds herself agreeing to act as a surrogate and steels herself to face the man she’s never stopped loving—the man who married her sister and never realized she existed years ago. Things have changed, and as she learns the truth about Weston and Pippa’s miserable marriage, old feelings she thought dead return. He seems to be falling for her too, but can she let herself love Weston again, or is it too late for them?