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He had a thunderous expression.

“Ranna’s paying for it. I had an issue ten days ago, so she set me up on her med account.”

“A point where I forgot to anticipate what you need.”

She sighed. “Can we just start over?”

“I don’t think it’s that simple.”

“Why not? I can start over a thousand times if it lets us put our mistakes behind us.”

“Is that all it takes for it to work?”

“As long as we still want each other. Yes. So, if that’s true, we can just start from now.”

He held his hand out to her and placed his palm up. She placed her hand in his. “What level of me can you tolerate?”

“I can take it all. What do you really want to do?”

“Programming. I already made a bot to look for defenders who are free to move and have all the specifications that Ranna wants in her mate.”

He sighed. “How long have you been working on this project?”

“A few weeks. I have five candidates who will be good for her. They all are compatible with food and the environment of Arro.”

He caressed her cheek. “If you are good with it, we can show them to Ranna tomorrow.”

She smiled. “I guessed you would say that.”

He smiled and leaned in to kiss her. “I can work from the home office during the pregnancy.”

She looked at him. “Would you? I need a hug at the weirdest times, and things have been a strain.”

“Can we consummate this new agreement?”

She looked at her silk nightdress. “Um, I suppose. The doctor will be here in twenty minutes, though.”

He flipped her to her back and slid the silk up, kissing the growing mark on her belly. From there, he slid down between her thighs and licked, stroked, and slid his fingers around and around until she shuddered in his arms, and then he did it again.

By the time she was sitting in front of the medic, she was glowing, and Rath was doting. The doctor was only too happy to discuss the development of the hybrid. They came up with a food and environmental plan for her to keep her calm, as she was very emotional.

Rath kept hold of her hand with his wing around her back when they had the discussion. As fresh starts were, they started strong with plans for their child.

The doctor gave them as many files as she had been able to find about Hmrain-Terran crossbreeds. All were healthy so far, and most had wings.

By the end of the visit, they had a lot of information, and most of her fears had been eased, both by the doc and the warm hand at her back.

Riley patted her belly. “Restarting now. Relationship debugging in progress.”

* * * *

Ranna looked at thedisplays of Hmrain-born defenders from three different worlds. Riley was laughing. She had been very blunt in judging the looks of the males, and that is when Riley cleared her throat. “Uh, Ranna, just ask them questions.”

Ranna stilled. “What?”

“Live connections. Ask them questions.”

All five guys grinned slowly.