The Spawning (39 page)

She hadn’t even registered imminent death at the time. Everything had happened too fast and the fear that had surged up inside of her had slowed her wits, leaving little room for thought and reaction. She thought she might be dead now, though, if Khan and Teron and the others hadn’t arrived when they had.

Deborah might be dead—all of them.

She didn’t know what had happened behind her, but the image that rose in her

mind was that Deborah had ended up diverting the second beast to allow the other women to reach safety.

If she hadn’t ….

Pulling a little away, she tipped her head back to look at Khan, wondering how he and the others had managed to arrive so fortuitously. She wasn’t certain it was a good idea even to bring it up. All things considered, it might be one of those situations that was better ignored, simply tucked into a hole and covered. She asked anyway. “How did you know we were in trouble?”

He eased a ragged breath from his chest and lifted a hand to stroke her cheek, settling his palm there and curling his fingers along the side of her head. “The sound you THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 175

can make that you use to tell the others to close the gate.” He swallowed with an effort.

“We were hunting when we heard it.”

She hadn’t realized they’d been around enough to understand what the whistle

signified. It made her feel better, though, to realize that they’d been close by, hunting in the woods while she and the women had been gathering whatever food they could find in the ‘cleared’ areas. They would’ve felt safer at the time if they’d known it, she thought a little wryly.

He tilted his head, moving closer to match his lips to hers. Gladness rolled

through her in a heated wave. It seemed like forever since he’d kissed her. She surged toward him to meet his advance, her lips parting with sudden breathlessness as she felt the infinitely welcome pressure of his hard mouth on hers. A tremor traveled through him as he sucked lightly at her lips. An answering echo went through her. Everything inside of her seemed to hesitate and then to melt into a heated pool as he settled is mouth more firmly against hers and she felt the first, light caress of his tongue along hers.

It
was
a caress. As intimate as their joining was, his touch was soothing, gently appreciative, non-demanding. She still felt heat and want rise inside her. She felt the strength flow from her. She felt intoxicated as she absorbed his essence into her being, felt him almost as a part of herself, as if his spirit had moved inside of her and entwined with hers.

He ended the kiss as he’d begun it, a slow withdrawal, lingering to test the

softness of her lips by plucking at them with his, as if he was as reluctant to break the contact as she was. He tucked her head against his shoulder when he had, settling his cheek on the top of her head.

His hands moved almost restlessly over her, stroking her, but lightly as he’d

kissed her, the intent of his touch to soothe, not to incite desire. It did anyway. She couldn’t be so close to him and not feel it, especially when it had been so long, but it also achieved the aim to soothe. She was still surprised that she dozed off.

She woke when she felt a hand close gently around hers, lifting her eyelids with an effort and staring in groggy confusion at the face that swam into her view. Teron’s dark brows were drawn together as he carefully stroked salve along her cut and then wound a bandage around her hand. He studied her hand for a moment when he’d

finished and finally lifted it to his lips, holding it there for a long moment before he settled it again where it had lain before … along Khan’s side.

She discovered when she lifted her gaze to his face that he was watching her. He pulled her close for a brief kiss as if he’d only been waiting for her to acknowledge him and then carefully disentangled himself from her and climbed from the bunk. She rolled to the warm hollow he’d left on the mattress beside her, dragged in a deep lungful of his scent and, listening vaguely to the stir of movement around her, comforted with the knowledge that Teron was attending the injuries of the others, she allowed herself to drift away again.

She felt strangely disembodied when she woke again, disturbed by the increase in activity around her. Realizing with a sense of surprise that they’d all napped and it during the day, Miranda wondered briefly if Teron had given them something to make them sleep. Wryly, she admitted to herself when she realized she couldn’t remember him doing so that she spent a good part of every day fighting the urge to climb into her bunk and sleep. She supposed it must be the pregnancy that made her feel as if she never had THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 176

enough sleep.

It was hard to say when exhaustion had become as integral to her life as fear and hunger.

Not that they didn’t get plenty to eat when they did eat, but on the ‘good’ days they had two meals and the rest of the time only one. That made for a lot more time anticipating getting fed than time spent with appeased hunger.

She wasn’t sure if it was the smell of food that had aroused everybody or the

heightened level of sound indicating that the Hirachi had arrived. Sluggish, she moved to the edge of her bunk and rubbed her eyes.

When she dropped her hands, she discovered Deborah was watching her, a half

smile curling her lips. She lifted her brows questioningly. “What?”

Deborah chuckled. “Crazy woman! I couldn’t believe you were trying to fight

that thing with a knife—a big, big knife, granted, but still a knife!”

Miranda shook her head. “You should talk! A spear?”

“I didn’t have time to decide whether to run or not. The damned thing was too close to run. I didn’t want to face it, but I didn’t want to give it my back even worse.”

“Exactly,” Miranda said dryly. “I sure as hell wouldn’t have pitted myself against that thing with a knife if I’d thought I could outrun it.”

Deborah was a silent a moment. “You scared them,” she said finally. “I don’t think it looked the same way to them … or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered either way.”

“I figured that was why they were so angry with me, but it was still almost more unnerving than that thing.”

Deborah’s gaze flickered over her. “It shouldn’t have been. They love you. I don’t know about Gerek and Adar, but I suspect they do, too, from the way they hovered at the door so anxiously.”

Miranda felt her face redden, but her pulse sped up. “You think?” she said a little hopefully.

Deborah winced. “It was almost …
excruciating
watching them hover over you as if they were afraid to breathe hard for fear you’d crumble to dust. I don’t think. I know. I squirmed, but I couldn’t seem to look away. I
know
I’ve never seen any man act that … worshipful over any woman. I was eat up with envy, I don’t mind telling you.

But then Blain came in and cuddled me and he was adoring enough to appease my latent hostility toward you for having Khan and Teron worshipping at your dainty little feet.”

Miranda snorted. “These mud slashers? Dainty?”

“Beside their boats—dainty,” Deborah retorted with a snicker.

Miranda couldn’t help but grin. “An
Amazon
would be dainty next to these guys,” she murmured ruefully. “I must say, though, as intimidating as it is sometimes, and sometimes downright awkward, it’s nice being around guys that make you feel dainty and feminine.”

“And squishy and soft,” Deborah agreed wryly, getting up.

Miranda followed her out, trying to decide if Deborah really thought Khan and

Teron cared about her or if she’d just been teasing, and if she’d thought so, was she right? She’d certainly found their gentle attention comforting and soothing, and she was sure they’d done that because they’d realized the incident had scared her half to death even though she’d been in too much shock to fully take it in. It was hard to decide, though, if it had been merely sympathy that had inspired it.

THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 177

There was no getting around the fact that the Hirachi, in general, seemed to have a tremendous capacity for gentleness, despite their size and fierce appearance. They’d been infinitely patient and careful of all of the women from the very beginning when they’d certainly had no reason to care one way or the other what happened to them.

She thought a lot of it was because of their own experience. It had helped them to empathize when they might not have otherwise. She thought it was also because, despite their superior size and the mixture of curiosity and contempt they’d seemed to feel for the

‘little people’, they’d felt compelled to protect them
because
they’d thought they were too small and weak to take care of themselves.

And, of course, they hadn’t been able to prove them wrong—not because they

were too small and weak to handle their situation but because they were just poorly equipped. They were too ‘civilized’ to be able to rely on their natural instincts for survival and too pampered by the civilization they’d been snatched from to be able to cope with an environment where nothing was familiar. When all the tools and

accoutrements of the combined minds of mankind had been snatched away, they’d been left with nothing to work with but their brain and their two hands—no survival skills or knowledge.

If Khan and Teron—or even Gerek and Adar—cared about her the way she

wanted them to, the way she felt about them, though, wouldn’t they have wanted intimacy? How could they love her and not also want that?

Actually, she knew how. Unless they were a hell of a lot more different than

human men than she thought, their needs should have overruled any reservations they had. Any man that didn’t try for sex at least occasionally just didn’t want it.

She would’ve liked to think it was only something different about them, but it was clear from the selection of lovers that they enjoyed recreational sex just like their human counterparts. They didn’t
just
have sex for procreation. They got serious once it came time for the spawning, apparently competed aggressively for the opportunity to reproduce. The rest of the time they seemed perfectly willing to be very civilized about it—satisfied as long as they could look forward to having sex with their lover on occasion—but they
still
wanted sex or it wouldn’t be a common practice among them to select lovers.

She couldn’t tell that
anybody
was getting any, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She might’ve felt worse if she was the only one being ignored, but it certainly didn’t help her feelings that she was in the company of the majority.

Maybe they just found it a turn off that the women were small enough it made sex a little awkward trying to match up? Maybe they were put off by the fact that they had to be careful not to crush them or break anything?

Maybe they’d never really wanted the women available and, having indulged

their needs after a long drought, they didn’t really need because they didn’t actually want and never had?

Maybe they loved her—them—like a cute pet or a friend, not like a woman?

Maybe they just couldn’t really see the strange little aliens as women at all?

Gerek greeted her with an enthusiasm when she reached the gathering place that seemed to belie her disturbing thoughts, grabbing her up in a nearly crushing embrace and kissing her until her eyes crossed. “Wild woman,” he murmured with a mixture of teasing amusement and censure when he leaned away and captured her face with one THE SPAWNING Kaitlyn O’Connor 178

hand, adding firmly, “No more trying to battle beasts twice as big as you are.”

“You’ll have to tell them not to be fighting me for berries,” she retorted dryly.

“Believe me, I would’ve run if I’d had the option.”

He studied her face lingeringly. “I’ll do that.”

There was a seriousness about his mobile face that she rarely saw. He released her after a moment, though, handing her off to Adar. Adar squeezed her tightly and kissed her a little wildly. She thought it might have turned into something more interesting if Khan hadn’t thumped him on the back, distracting him.

He glared at Khan a moment and then seemed to collect himself when he saw

Khan was holding a plate of food. Grinning at her a little sheepishly, he released her and tugged her down to sit with them and eat. Neither her earlier harrowing experience nor her carnal interests dulled her appetite. She thought maybe it was her lingering self-consciousness, though, that made her notice the surreptitious glances the men cast toward her burgeoning belly.

She wasn’t altogether certain they were even aware of it. They seemed to be

trying hard to ignore it, in point of fact.

It said a lot for her own focus on sex, she thought wryly, that she thought, at first, that their interest was focused a little lower. It was the uneasiness she saw flicker in their eyes that finally penetrated her preoccupation with sex and made her realize it was her stomach that held their rapt attention.

She felt
more
uncomfortable when that dawned on her. Trying to be casual and not alert them to the fact that she’d noticed, she glanced down at her belly herself, wondering if she’d dropped food in her lap. She didn’t see any globs or drips, though.

She didn’t even see that her belly was particularly noticeable. There was a definite bulge there but it seemed to her that she was getting wider faster than she was ballooning outward. The small waist she’d once been so proud of had virtually disappeared.

She definitely looked pregnant, but she couldn’t see that the change was enough to warrant the alarm she caught in the glances they exchanged with one another.

It unnerved her, made her wonder if Teron had found something he was worried

about and had told everyone but her.

Shouldn’t she
feel
something if there was anything wrong, though?

Almost as if her thoughts had somehow been transmitted to the tiny being

growing inside of her, she felt a faint flutter. She paused with her hand halfway to her mouth, held her breath, searching inwardly and trying to decide if what she’d felt was nothing more than her own body. Dropping her food back on her plate, she settled her hand firmly over the place where she’d felt the almost imperceptible movement. The slight pressure made the flutter feel more pronounced when it came again.