Page 24 of Healing the Leonid Doctor’s Heart (Felix Orbus Galaxy #6)

“ I like the idea of a pre-honeymoon,” Marcus said as the shuttle set down at Leo Falls, a small planetoid in the beautiful, tropical zone of the liquid belts surrounding Leonid-One.

“The little shack we’re staying in is called Ru’s Rest. Don’t let the term shack fool you.

Layla and Rupex had the place turned into their private love nest. We’re just borrowing it.

Rupex’s family owns this little island.”

“They own an island !?”

Marcus was glad to see her perking up. Their first cycle hadn’t worked, and Abi was worrying about disappointing him, even while her betrothal bracelet was shining on her wrist. “It’s a small island.

An islette, if that’s a thing. There used to be multiple two-room places, probably similar to Sapien-Three standards, but a little bit. ..”

“Primitive?” Abi said with heavy sarcasm in her voice.

“Primitive or simplistic. Anyway, you know that type of thing—bathroom in one room, everything else in the other? The two still standing are Ru’s and his sister’s.

Jaxson comes here sometimes, too. Just to remember Alana,” Marcus’ voice faded.

“They never had cubs. Couldn’t have. Not compatible. He loved her still.”

“Well, maybe there’s hope for him and Kaylie... If either one of them will ever bloody well admit they’re more than friends.” Abigail peered out the shuttle window, face breaking into an awed smile. “Marcus! It’s like... It’s like one of those tropical paradises!”

“It is. There are humid, tropical woodlands, the beach, and you can fish right on the sand... I can chase my Queen along a dark, jungle path, pin her down next to the crystalline pool, and spread her out on a rock like a picnic.” Marcus licked his lips.

“I promise, I’ll take you somewhere fancier when we have more time.

With the program in such early stages, and all the hoops they make us jump through—when it was their idea as much as mine,” Marcus stopped grumbling, seeing that the joyful look was fading from Abigail’s face. “Sweetie?”

“No, no. That’s fine. I’m happy to wait to postpone the wedding for another cycle or two, until Skyla finishes her obstetrics certification.”

“She’s a hard worker. Good to have on the team. Like you.” He took her hand.

Abi smiled at him, but she shifted restlessly in her seat. “Honey, are you sure—”

“Abi. I brought all the injectables and boosters, the mini scanner, the hemoanalyzer and refills. I brought a lab in bag, basically, just like you asked. I’m not ready to give up after two cycles, but you look so miserable sometimes. Are you sure you want to keep going?”

“I want to keep going. It’s going to take time. It takes time for lots of Felid couples with no problems, doesn’t it? Sometimes?”

“It sure does. Starting a third cycle if we don’t see some results this week is no problem. We can take time off in between. You must be getting tired of feeling so... so...”

“Horny as hell? Needing to be ravished three times a day by the sexiest Leonid in the galaxy? Um, no. Not really. I am getting a little tired of looking like a pincushion, though,” she looked ruefully at her arms, bare against a deep purple dress that matched the bands of clouds they were passing through.

“Beginning descent. Please remain in your seats and ensure your harnesses are in place,” a computerized voice chimed from the shuttle’s control panel.

“Well, I’m certainly not complaining,” Marcus laughed.

“Since we’ve got a little time where we’re stuck in one spot.

.. I wanted to show you this.” He tapped the media viewer’s screen on the passenger side of the shuttle, and files began to scroll.

“I want you to do something with me after we get married.”

“What? Learn to speed read?” Abi squinted at the files racing past. “What is all this?”

“Request to join the Leonid System Registry of Adoptive Parents.”

“Adoption?”

“There are several hundred Leonid cubs from ages three to six in strained foster care systems. Before the Queen Fever came along, it was rare to even have a dozen. Prides take care of their own. But when an entire pride is wiped out, or the remaining members are hardly more than cubs themselves... It happens. Do you want to be the mother of my cubs?”

“I do! You know I—”

“Whether or not we have a cub of our own through biological means, we can be parents. It would be hard work, but that’s what you do.

You never back down. You’re a survivor and a fighter, and you make it look so easy, my Queen.

” Marcus stroked her arm and concluded with a painful truth, “I hope this will erase any lingering thoughts in your head that you have to produce a cub for me to be worthy of my love. I love you forever. Remember that. That’s the whole thing, Abi, forever.

Not ‘forever if you do this’ or ‘I love you if you do that.’”

“Why don’t more Leonid Knights adopt these cubs? Or widowers like you?”

“Archaic prejudices about Leonid Kings and their roles. As more couples come to grips with life after loss and quarantine, those numbers will go down—and we can make a start.”

Abi said nothing for a minute, but he could smell a spike in her arousal, flooding his senses, making him dizzy—making him itch to remove his harness and pull her to the shelf-like bed in the shuttle.

“We’ll fill this out when we get back. We’re on pre-honeymoon right now.

” Abi switched off the media viewer with a deep, contented sigh.

“Agreed. But after we get back, no matter what happens this cycle, we fill out these forms?”

“Absolutely.” She took his paw and squeezed. “What’s the first thing you want to do when we land?”

Marcus’ eyes glittered golden as he took a deep, long breath, pulling her scent deep into his lungs. “I think I’d like to go for a stroll. Get something to eat.”

GO FOR A STROLL. GET something to eat.

Should have known that wasn’t as innocent as it sounded, Abi thought as she ran along the sandy path, dress torn into tatters by her lover’s claws.

She could hear Marcus pounding on the ground behind her as she turned into the dense thicket of trees, their wide, deep green leaves blocking out the setting sun.

Another bound and a crashing amongst the trees sent birds scattering, and claws ripped the bodice of her dress off, leaving her in panties and a bra that barely held up her swelling breasts.

All the injections must have jump-started some hormone or other, and her breasts were aching for touch, their nipples hard and incredibly full.

Marcus’ tail suddenly snapped around her wrist, pulling her back. He sprang from all fours to tackle her into the soft sand under the canopy of trees, already naked body pressing into hers.

Abigail guided her hands into his broad back, feeling small and vulnerable under such a magnificent, snarling, predatory beast—and yet she throbbed with excitement in all the right places, knowing she was that beast’s most beloved, cherished treasure.

Her ankles locked over the back of his thighs, and her hips lifted desperately. “Such a gorgeous King I have.”

“Queen,” he hissed, sinking his cock into her aching slit, stretching her around him, and burrowing in deep as she arched.

His teeth snagged her bra and tore the cups from the white satiny band, leaving them to fall free.

With a satisfied grunt, he latched on and sucked hard as his hips rose and fell, pressing her deeper into the pebbly sand.

“Marcus...” she cried, and realizing no one was there to hear her, she shouted louder with every thrust until her frantic, orgasmic screams seemed to rattle the frond-like leaves above them.

“THAT LITTLE PUSSY ISN’T done for the night,” Marcus warned, briefly releasing her breast. “I want to fill you so full, Abi. I love the way you swell when you’re full of me.

” He rolled and pulled her on top. “I love the way you look when you’re full of me.

” He let out a dark, chocolate-y chuckle as he pushed her outer lips apart with his paws and watched the way the meat of his cock filled and stretched her pussy to its limits.

“Work yourself down on me. I want to watch my spines sink into your pretty little pussy before they start to swell inside of you. You love it when they swell in you, don’t you, my Queen?

Puts all that delicious pressure on your upper wall, right under your clit.

” As he spoke, he licked his digits and then circled them around her bead, watching her sway and moan as loudly as she liked, every inhibition gone.

“One day, I’ll buy you a paradise like this,” Marcus swore, moved by the look of radiant, erotic bliss on her face.

“You already gave me paradise the second you said you loved me,” Abi whimpered, head thrown back to the rising moon, pussy clamped on the rapidly engorging spines of his cock.

“And that is why I love you, my Abigail. You’re enough for me—but I’m also enough for you,” Marcus marveled.

“WE CAN SKIP TODAY’S tests and shots if you want, precious.” Marcus rubbed Abigail’s arms as she slept, curled up in his embrace in a paw-woven hammock stretched between two trees in front of their little cabin.

“No, no. I think we ought to try for twelve cycles. After that, we can accept that sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”

“And by then, we might already be parents.” Marcus stretched and carefully uncoiled himself from around his naked, flushed wife, with her swollen pussy still leaking his cum and her breasts flushed a soft pink from all of his adoration.

With a yawn, he staggered back to the shuttle where it was resting in the sand, drowsily going inside and grabbing his kit from the cold storage.

Operating out of pure muscle memory, he fed the vial into the hemoanalyzer and switched on his tablet, yawning as he pressed the needle to Abi’s thigh. She barely moved when he took a bit of blood, her confused moan sleepy and adorable.

“I need my shot,” Abi muttered sleepily, holding out her arm.

“Let me see what adjustments we have to make.” Marcus rubbed one paw across his eye and started unpacking the booster serum from its cryo-sealed tube. “You should be seeing a drop in your progester— Wait.”

“I’m waiting,” Abigail mumbled, curling more tightly into a ball.

Marcus was suddenly wide awake, looking at the numbers the hemoanalyzer was spitting out.

Progesterone 180 ng/mL.

His heart seemed to stop, and he smacked himself in the chest to ensure that his finally healed heart didn’t give out now, even though it might be skipping a beat in happy disbelief.

FCG 18,000 per unit.

“Abigail.”

His voice was so soft and so serious that Abi was instantly alert, sitting up and blinking into the early light. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“You’re pregnant.”

“I’m what?” Abi gasped, trying to climb out of the hammock.

Marcus hastened to help her. “Your progesterone level is sky high, and your FCG—that’s the Felid pregnancy marker—is way out of range. In the best way! I mean... Abi, I don’t want to get your hopes up, but with these numbers, there is likely more than one cub.”

Abi put her hands on her middle, eyes now wide awake and wide in general. “Pregnant? We actually... We actually are?”

“Blood tests can’t lie. Can’t be mixed up with someone else’s, either. We’re on a deserted island, and yours is the only blood being tested. You’re pregnant.”

“Oh, Marcus, I — We’re not going to stop the adoption, though, are we? We can’t just leave a cub who needs us behind!” Abigail declared.

“And just when I think I can’t love you any more, Abigail,” he whispered, cupping her face in his palms, pulling her close for a kiss.

“It’s mutual, Marcus,” she whispered back, moving his paw from her cheek to join her hand over her middle. “Would you mind awfully if we left our pre-honeymoon early and went back home?”

Home. She called his ship home. The Queen he was in love with, the Queen who cared about his people, his work, and who was carrying his children, would choose him over all the romantic getaways and luxuries she deserved.

“I wouldn’t mind in the least, my love. I can’t wait to take you—and our cubs—home.”

If you enjoyed this book, I would love it if you left a review!

Keep reading if you want to see a sneak peak at Talos and Wendy’s story, as well as read about the next book in the Felix Orbus Series!

There’s also a sample from my monster romance collection of standalones, the Pine Ridge Universe. This time, you’ll be meeting a sweet cinnamon roll of a mothman in Velvet Wings.