Page 13

NATALIE

I fiddled with the neck of my shirt and shrugged my shoulders in vain, trying to make a little more room inside the constricting cloth.

My once favorite Hard Rock T-shirt was too tight, and not because my weight had changed.

Well, my boobs were still huge after getting pregnant and feeding Akylla, but I felt like I was choking.

Had it really been that long since I’d worn regular clothes? Surely not.

I studied myself in the mirror, making myself focus on the actual changes in my body.

I barely recognized myself. Even the way I stood was different.

The tip of my chin, the way I held my shoulders, the spark in my eyes.

Newfound confidence radiated from me, gained from seeing—and surviving—some crazy shit and coming out on the other side even better.

My arms and legs were more muscular, my skin tanned and glowing with all the perfectly concocted smoothies I drank each day.

My hair had never been so lustrous and shiny.

Sure, I hadn’t been to the salon for a trim in months. But that didn’t impact the fullness and sheer volume of hair I had now. Even the texture seemed different, each strand thicker and curlier, tangling all the time and waving about my face like Medusa’s head of snakes.

Which made me do a double take. Nest of snakes. Snryx’s tentacle-like implements. Was my hair turning into something else entirely?

“Negative,” Snryx replied. “The composition of your hair is still primarily keratin, though yes, the average diameter has increased from sixty-five to over one hundred microns.”

I gave him a bemused smile, shaking my head. “It’s amazing that you know that.”

He blinked, a slow, deliberate veil over his glowing amber eyes. “We’re actively monitoring every cell in your body.”

“Why?”

He gave me another slow blink. Not a veiling, I realized.

He wasn’t trying to hide anything. He simply needed a brief processing delay while he tried to find the most correct words to answer my questions.

“To better understand our mate’s needs. If your nutrition is sufficient.

If any organ is experiencing undue stress.

If you have any pain or injury, no matter how small, that might need attention.

The medbot is fully integrated with your Sirian cells, so the stream of data from every primary system is now constant. ”

Whoa. Invasive and creepy in a way—but also touching.

They were monitoring me constantly—so they could take care of me.

That’s why I was never hungry or thirsty or overly tired or lonely.

I didn’t have to express a need or emotion because they already knew, and more importantly, they seamlessly integrated caring for me into their squad duties without complaint.

Which included Akylla. They all doted on her, changing her diapers and playing with her every chance they got.

Even more importantly, any time my fond appreciation while I watched them with her started to turn a little sad or yes, jealous, they immediately brought her to me, so I still felt like her mother.

So I still had time to build my own special bond with my baby.

A mother looked back at me. A Mother , the last of a nearly extinct alien race.

I wasn’t Natalie Whit, graduate student extraordinaire any longer. I carried ancient, lost—invasive—DNA. Tiny mrion cells marched through me now. Changing me down to the diameter of a single strand of hair.

“Am I still human?” I whispered softly, my voice trembling.

Kroktl’s eyes flashed red flares of secret symbols that I could translate without even thinking about now.

Supreme confidence and loyalty. Fierce love.

One hundred percent dedicated to keeping us alive, no matter the cost. “You’re still Natalie, as courageous and tempting as the first night I scented you in the jungle. ”

“I think you’re more human than ever,” Snryx said, drawing my attention to him. “Myrm sent their fragments here for the sole reason of finding someone like you. They don’t want to replace or rebuild you. They’re simply strengthening and highlighting the traits that make you special.”

My hair, for example. Because none of the squad had a single hair sprouting anywhere on their bodies. The way my mind worked, making leaps that made sense to me—but might not be as logical and methodical as even our brilliant medic or xenobiologist.

Kroktl kissed the top of my head. “You’re one in a billion billion, Natalie Whit, and you’re our extraordinaire.”

Turning into his embrace, I tucked my arm around his waist. “Well, I’m certainly extraordinarily hungry.”

:Dinner’s ready and waiting,: Rizan replied immediately. :Would you like us to bring it to the bedroom or the dining room? Your human friends are eating at the table now.:

I didn’t care to see Dr. Snyder—but Holly was another story. As soon as I thought of her, a cascade of ideas and thoughts sparked through my mind.

She wanted a squad of her own.

There had been another squad close to the cave—though they’d attacked us. Were they still alive and hunting us?

Would they even want a human mate?

Or would they try to eat her? Shudder.

What made Kroktl not want to eat me? Had he sensed the fragmented Myrm cells lying dormant inside me? Or had it truly been a serendipitous moment of being in the right place at the right time and smelling?—

“We could find out,” Snryx said.

I jerked to a halt so suddenly that he ran into me.

He immediately steadied me, his implements soft as they brushed my arm and forehead.

The same as when he’d tended the wound on my head.

The concussion. He’d taken brain scans then and probably blood too.

Before any of the other guys’ DNA was inside me. Only Kroktl’s.

A file pinged on the grid, already flowing data through me.

My blood composition. Brain waves. Blood pressure.

Body temperature. Bone density. Even though I didn’t have Snryx’s medical understanding, I could feel the dehydration in those numbers.

Shivers of shock. Exhaustion, a bone-deep ache that strained my heart and organs.

“Could you compare my first blood sample with Holly’s? See what’s different between us?”

“Of course.”

An image flickered through my mind. Holly sitting at the table, chatting with me, while Snryx simply walked past her. One brief, negligible touch of his implement to her shoulder or neck—and he’d have the sample. She wouldn’t even know.

Which gave me the ick. “If she’s willing, I mean. I wouldn’t want to run tests on her without her consent.”

“Noted. How long would you like the sample retained?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer. I wasn’t even sure where he’d store the blood sample.

In one of the implements? Then it’d make sense to empty it out at some point simply to make room for other tests.

Especially if one of the squad was injured.

“Is there a time limit? Like how long can you keep it fresh or stable outside of her body?”

He let out a huff of amusement. “I could keep a thousand human blood samples stored indefinitely without issue. I simply wasn’t sure how you’d feel about another human’s DNA being stored in my databank. Let alone a female.”

I paused just outside the doorway into the dining room, though I couldn’t see the table or our guests past Kroktl’s bulk. I switched to the grid so the waiting humans wouldn’t hear. :Are you saying you want another female?:

:No! Fuck no. That’s not what I meant at all.

: Snyrx lowered his head toward mine, implements undulating around us.

:I want no other but you. I’d go so far as to say I’m incapable of absorbing any other female’s DNA even if I wished to.

But this sample will be inside me, stored, until you say otherwise.

I didn’t want to anger you by concealing facts. :

I turned enough to brush my mouth against his. He startled under the brief touch, as if me voluntarily touching him was unexpected and rare. A disillusion I needed to dispel—with each of them. :Why would I be angry at you for doing the very thing I asked you to do?:

He didn’t answer with words—but emotions.

An erratic, frantic surge like a hurricane splitting into dozens, tearing him apart.

Uncertainty, because emotion wasn’t something in which he specialized.

None of the squad did. They couldn’t—until they came to Earth and were freed of DSC’s programming.

The squad functioned as an emotionless killing unit, reacting instantaneously to threats or commands.

They hadn’t thought for themselves or even understood that was something they could do.

Let alone feel.

Love. Satisfaction. Desire.

I cupped his cheek and pressed my lips to his again in a soft, lingering kiss. :Thank you for enduring such confusing and conflicting feelings for me.:

:You’re the star, the center of our galaxy. Everything we do is for you. Always.: