Page 15 of 20% Stud 80% Muffin (Alien Fated Mates #1)

15

A yla Rowtee waited beside me in Dr. Ten’s lobby, her hands resting on her belly. “You must be relieved that Dr. Ten is familiar with Nacer youngling delivery?”

Her wings fluttered behind her, brushing below a neat line of framed medical certificates mounted on the wall. “I’m so luck—” She’d started to reply when I was called in for my appointment.

I shrugged an apologetic goodbye. “I’ll see you at the market.”

With a deep inhale, I braced myself to open the door. The time for getting to the bottom of this…allergic reaction had come.

Doctor Ten was Nacer, the same species as the Rowtees, and his eyes were pinned to his datapad. “Well, isn’t that interesting?”

I shifted from one foot to the other. A bead of perspiration rolled down my temple. To sidetrack myself from my increasing nerves, I blurted, “When’s Ayla due? I mean…of course, I can ask her myself. Not trying to pry or anything.”

The doctor peered down his long beak at me and tipped his head. “Do? I don’t believe that is translating correctly.”

“The baby. When will it arrive?”

“Right, of course.” The doctor’s eyes lit up. “The first youngling on Tern. Won’t that be extraordinary?”

“I want to add some windows to their nursery as a gift.”

The doctor’s head lifted from his datapad, and he tipped it to the side again—a gesture with a plethora of meanings, this time it likely meant he was confused.

My hands were so deep in my pockets that the seams started stretching as I rocked back and forth and offered an explanation. “An opening with a clear cover that allows sunlight in.”

Doctor Ten scanned his office walls. “How wonderful. I may need some of those myself.” His eyes lingered on a few spots as if mentally placing where the windows might go. “Mrs. Rowtee has two months until her youngling arrives.”

Doctor Ten scrolled through my results on his datapad. “Isn’t that interesting? You say your muscles have increased in size to the point your clothes no longer fit, and that your voice has deepened.” Dr. Ten counted out my symptoms on long, knobby fingers. “You seem to lose control of your emotions when you’re in the presence of Makir, a Lornian. Anything else?”

I cleared my throat. “My dick, I mean penis, has gotten wider and…”

“And?” Dr. Ten’s patient eyes assessed me as he considered all the information I’d laid out.

How the hell do I say this?

His talons clicked across the floor as he walked to a pod-like chair and prompted me again. “And… ”

When the words wouldn’t come, my eyes focused on a long line of curious shapes. Medical equipment sat on immaculately clean and organized shelves along the southernmost wall. There would be enough room along the top of the wall to install lamar windows that wouldn’t affect the room’s privacy but would add warmth and comfort to the sterile space.

The doctor cleared his throat, snapping me back to the present.

Jesus Christ, Geo! Just spit it out. “My dick is way thicker than it was on Earth and…” Dr. Ten casually broke eye contact, likely to put me at ease. “Makir calls it a lock. My dick expands and won’t release when I’m in his”—I choked—“womb.”

Heat flooded my cheeks, washed over my neck and warmed the top of my chest. The mirrored surface of the cabinet across from me reflected a face I barely recognized, besides the embarrassed flush. Why couldn’t that have changed with the rest of my body?

“I can assure you everything is perfectly normal.” The doctor smiled warmly. “Please take a seat.” He gestured to the pod. “The analyzer will perform a full body scan—completely painless, of course—and we will go from there.”

Apparently, doctors from across the galaxies had one thing in common. They all agreed that things were perfectly normal when they were about as far from fucking normal as I could imagine.

My fingers tapped the polished armrests. The drumming clashed with the whir of the contraption but masked my deafening heartbeat as the pod sealed around me. With a grip like steel, I steadied myself against the dark and unsettling swoosh, and squeezed my eyes shut. When nothing appeared to happen, I grimaced and chuckled at the same time. What seemed like seconds later, the hatch popped open.

“Nurse Claice will have the analysis prepared in just a moment.” Dr. Ten flipped to a diagram on his datapad. “How much do you know about Lornians?”

My face burned hotter. I had no idea what species Makir was, but presumably, he was the Lornian Dr. Ten was talking about.

I knew fuck all about the guy beyond him being irresistibly cute .

“They’re blue, furry and have tails,” I blurted.

Oh, and he has a dick pocket, a tine and a…womb.

“Yes, that’s true.” He nodded in my direction. “Makir, however, is a special type of Lornian. He’s an omega, an extremely valuable asset to his species.”

At my blank expression, he continued, “I can see from my quick analysis of reproductive relationships on Earth that an omega is likely not something you are familiar with. A brief explanation, if I may?”

I nodded. Whenever I tried to speak with Makir about the changes happening to me, I got distracted. His crisp juniper scent, my bossy mouth or…his furry tail would get in the way.

But really, it was just me. Avoidance was my specialty.

“Outside of Earth, many species have omegas. They are cherished and protected in their families until they find a mate. Omegas are often the calm voice of reason in a family, taking on the role of mediator, and of course, they are excellent parents—extremely nurturing.”

The doctor projected an image from his datapad of a Lornian family against a shiny bronze wall, tails entwined as they leaned into each other. “They must be matched with an alpha who services them throughout their heat every full moon unless pregnant. It is painful to the omega otherwise, and the household may be distressed if the omega suffers. Omegas can be male or female, and as you mentioned, the males have wombs to allow them to carry younglings.”

Perspiration beaded across my forehead. Jesus, is Makir pregnant? Why the hell didn’t he tell me he could have kids? Contraception had always been a matter of preventing sexually transmitted diseases. I’d never considered the possibility of getting a partner pregnant.

“Younglings?” I barked.

“Yes. Quite wonderful isn’t it? We need so many more here in Yurstille.” His beak bobbed cheerily, oblivious to my distress. “That was a rapid-fire ABC on omegas, and every species may have slight variations, but the most important thing to know about omegas is how vulnerable they are under the influence of an alpha.”

The doctor continued while I half listened, still hung up on kids. “The pheromones an alpha emits erode an omega’s sense of reason. As a result, they are susceptible to every whim of the alpha, and I’m sure you can imagine the negative implications that has had on the lives of many omegas. For that reason, omegas are often cloistered away from society. Additionally, their scent is irresistible to an alpha when they are in heat and unmated.”

Irresistible was an understatement.

“What the hell have I gotten myself into?”

I was only aware I’d said those words out loud when the doctor raised placating hands. “Now, now, let me assure you this is wonderful.”

The doctor scanned through more information on his datapad. The white feathers along his wings tucked behind his back in a neat stair-step pattern. My heart ticked like the timer on a bomb, and I grew lightheaded and shivery all over. What else could he add to that? It’s too fucking much. With stilted steps, I clambered back into the pod. The seat deflated like a whoopie cushion when all my weight landed on it.

“Oh dear.” The doctor placed his solid hand on my shoulder, and I shrugged it off. “Clearly, I’ve distressed you. Is there someone I can call to fly you home? Nurse Claice always tells me, ‘ less is more, don’t overwhelm them with too much information,’ but I want to be thorough. Wouldn’t you agree it’s better to have all the facts?”

The doctor talked to himself as he dampened a cloth and placed it on my forehead.

I tapped out a message to JayJay. “I’m fine. My friend can pick me up.” I pushed his hand away. Heat swamped me, and the wilder part of me— the alpha? —took over as I wrestled with the new information.

Dr. Ten smiled, all beak. “Yes, yes, you’re exhibiting alpha signs,” he muttered as he stepped away. “I will send some information to you. Please read through it carefully. We’ve barely mentioned alpha traits. I encourage you to set up a second appointment to discuss any questions you may have. I will leave you in peace until your friend arrives.” The door swooshed shut behind him, and I dropped my face into my hands.

Pink clouds of dry soil puffed up from where I stood outside the doctor’s office, toeing the earth with my boot while I waited for JayJay. I stretched into the beginner set for tai chi, desperate to settle my rattled nerves. I’d never dreamed of being a father before. Brush left knee and push. As I rolled the idea around in my head, it didn’t strike me as the world’s worst idea, but I still wasn’t sure it was something I wanted. Grasp bird’s tail. Plus, Makir was running hot and cold. He was calling me Archbuilder again, for fuck’s sake. Step forward, parry, block and punch.

Would a child tying me to Makir be a good thing? Sex with Makir had been off the charts, but I hated how I turned into an asshole in his presence, and he didn’t deserve that. Fist under elbow. He was such a sweetheart. Way too good for the likes of me. Turned out anyone—well, any alpha—would have the same reaction I did when he was in heat. Turn body and chop with fist. I wasn’t even someone he found special, just some asshole he’d happened to be trapped with because of pheromones and the moon. Fuck, life on Tern was as complicated as life on Earth—maybe more so. I wished Ginger was here. She’d know what to do.

“Boss man, you dancin’ again?” JayJay rumbled as he pulled up on his hoverbike.

I climbed on behind him, leaving as much space between us as his seat would allow. “I’m so tired of riding like a child clinging to its parent on these damn bikes.”

“Dr. Ten has put you in a much better mood, I see.” His lawnmower-like laugh vibrated the seat .

“What the fuck is an alpha?” I shouted over the downdraft as we flew to Makir’s hovery.

“Dominant, assertive, desirable…” JayJay trailed off, reciting a list of words no one had ever used to describe me.

“I don’t get it. Dr. Ten said Makir’s an omega and requires an alpha to service him while he’s in heat.” I hated the term ‘service.’ It sounded so institutional, like I was a dick for hire or something. “I’m not an alpha!”

JayJay’s huge palm reached back and clapped my knee twice as his body shook. “Whatever you say.” He didn’t even have to raise his voice to be heard over the downdraft.

Ten minutes later, the tension had mostly bled from me. As we approached the hovery, the proximity to Makir loosened the tether, and my shoulders eased. JayJay rode his hoverbike through one of the three brand-new bay doors. I barely had a chance to absorb what my crews had accomplished since my return from the cave with Makir before the tether grew taut once more, its urgency pulling me forward.

Laughter spilled out from the courtyard. Apprehension launched me straight off JayJay’s bike, and I jumped over the newly installed back gate toward the fear zinging through the tether. The pool, glistening in the overhead sun—no longer a mud-filled hole—teemed with splashing bodies.

I stormed to the pool’s edge, fuming. “Tino, Sully, get the hell out of that pool and back to work. The bay doors still need to be installed. Get on it,” I barked. My skin was on fire, and the hairs on my arms stood on end. Makir scrambled backward in the pool, where Raz circled him like a shark.

I strode to the pool’s edge nearest Makir. Eyes wild, he splashed toward me as I’d anticipated. We were drawn to one another like magnets. As soon as he drew close enough, I squatted low, hooked my hands under his armpits and tugged him straight over the lip of the pool and into my embrace. I didn’t care one bit that my overalls were now soaked .

“Enough,” I scolded Makir. “You don’t like the water and can’t swim.” I scooped my arms under his legs and carried him like a new bride toward his bedroom, heedless of our audience. “You were going to be over your head in the next couple of steps, and you didn’t even know it.” I cautioned a bewildered Makir.

Raz’s Lizzard tail lashed the water. “But, Makir, you were about to offer to s-s-show me your nest.”

Makir whimpered, still cradled in my arms as I turned and snarled, “Over my dead body.” I’d deal with our unwanted guest later. Right now, Makir was priority number one.

JayJay’s lawnmower laugh rumbled behind us as we moved out of the courtyard toward Makir’s room. “Not an alpha. He thinks he’s not an alpha.” Laughter filled the courtyard and carried down the short hall.

Makir traced a finger down my forearm before looking up at me from under his long lashes. “Geo, are you okay?”

Gently placing him in his nest, I rushed toward the bathroom, pulled a fluffy bath sheet off the heated towel bar and returned to his side. Dabbing softly, I blotted Makir’s wet fur. I loved the swirls his velvety fur made as he dried.

“Geo…” He batted my hands away and took the towel. “I’m demonstrating the pool to a few potential customers for you. Raz is one of them.”

I stood tall and threw my shoulders back. “I don’t need him as a customer.”

Makir stood and dried my arms with the towel. His ginger and juniper scent covered me—so good. “Calm down, okay?” he purred. My heart rate slowed, and my muscles relaxed.

Shit. I’m an idiot.

I stepped away and shook out my arms. “Sorry about that,” I muttered. With the threat taken care of and my wild side tamed, I focused on every detail of his room. Tino, Sully and their crews had taken my vision and smashed it out of the park. The warm pink walls mimicked the soft curves of Makir’s original construction. The mixture of the soil, graneth stalks and water added an organic texture to the walls that I couldn’t resist running a finger over.

His nest was lined with thick white linobee furs. I swallowed hard when my mouth went dry. There was definitely room for two in there—it would be like sleeping in a cloud. My nostrils flared. Ginger and juniper perfumed the air, soft rugs warmed the high-gloss floors and a breeze drifted through the high-timbered ceilings. A slab of concrete installed as a desk added a bit of masculinity to all the curves. Along the exterior wall, a sliding lamar door opened into the courtyard.

“I’ll…get out of the way and see how things are…progressing in the hovery.” I spun on my heel and walked to the sliding door, which I stumbled through before hunting down Tino and Sully. All I did lately was apologize for snapping at people.

Makir’s voice followed me into the courtyard. “Geo, you don’t have to go.”

Hell yeah, I did. I’d likely do something else idiotic if I remained in his vicinity.

Tempted to peer over my shoulder to catch another glimpse of Makir, I forced myself to leave. He’d probably be standing there, beautiful, damp and dumbfounded, dismayed at the asshole he’d chosen to service him during the full moon. Plus, when he stood by that nest, I couldn’t stop imagining my naked skin pressed to his luxurious velvet as we sank deep into the linobee furs and each other.

Enough of that train of thought. I forced the fantasy out of my mind, stomping past potted plants and Makir’s fern-lined walkway. Where had they found the fantastic greenery?

I marveled at the tropical oasis I found myself immersed in. My eyes widened, taking in each frond and leaf. My crew had created this? JayJay’s booming voice led me to where the Rock Dwellers were installing Makir’s bay doors. “Come on, boys, I need a drink. We’re celebrating the bang-up job you did on Makir’s place and I’m saying sorry for being a shit.”

Tino, Sully, JayJay and the rest of the Rock Dwellers’ hairless brow ridges furrowed, but they stowed their tools fast as lightning before I could change my mind. “No need to apologize, boss man.” Tino slung his heavy arm around Sully and grinned. “You have a lot on your mind.”

“Just got to take care of one thing before we head out.” As I expected, when I reached the pool, Raz still lingered. No longer in the water, his scaly limbs were spread out on one of the loungers, like a vacation brochure. His tail looked obscene as it jutted from the rear of his tiny, patterned swim shorts.

Are those ducks?

“Raz! This is a construction site and unsafe for those not working on-site or who are not occupants of the home. I’ll have to ask you to leave.” I waved my hand magnanimously toward the back gate—the exit closest to his home.

Raz startled upright in his chair. He must have been dozing. “Makir invited me.” His jaw unhinged in a long yawn.

Like hell he did.

“I’m sure you understand the liability the building authority would face if any unfortunate accidents were to occur here.” My lips may have unconsciously formed a snarl. Raz had overstepped one too many times and had planted himself in enemy territory. My hands fisted at my sides, the urge to drive them into his jaw barely contained.

His wary glance dipped to my hands as I advanced toward him, and he quickly popped off the chair and scooted toward the fence. “Well, I do have a mantu roast on the grill.” He tripped over his tail in his hasty retreat. “I’ll go and check on that.”

But his sneer, combined with the slam of the gate as he exited, sent a loud and clear message.

Fuck, I hope my big mouth isn’t going to cause more trouble for Makir.

Boisterous Rock Dwellers filled the tiny cantina and transformed it. The drinks flowed so freely that I wouldn’t have been surprised if I woke up with a tattoo on my ass in the morning. Fortunately, I hadn’t seen a tattoo artist in Yurstille yet.

Tino’s elbow nearly knocked me off my stool, where I sat wedged in beside him, but I was curious about the landscaping, so I persevered with our conversation.

“The plants in the courtyard… How did you get a hold of them?”

“Well, you would know if you had returned from the rocky outcrop with us,” he teased. Beer spilled from his mug and sloshed through the knee of my overalls. “A couple of the enforcers have green thumbs and brought seeds from their home planets to propagate. Their little nursery is taking off.”

After securing a ride to the nursery with Tino the following day, I paid the tab and set my sights on the door. Thoroughly bruised after the back pats from a bunch of half-drunk giants, I departed into the cool night air with my spirits considerably improved.

I vowed to reward my crew monthly with an early day off and an open tab, but the real reason I wanted to escape pressed down on me.

Makir. The tether tugged and urged me toward him. Our brief exchange this morning—if you could call me wrestling him out of Raz’s reach an exchange—hadn’t been nearly enough to satiate my need.