Page 22 of The First Omega Made (Scales and Tails of Fate #2)

Doc

Nineteen days to port left, and I was already gravid as hell. My belly, full and rounded, hung low in my chest in a way that had Noel impressed.

“Was I ever this big?” Noel sat on my stool swinging his feet as Nexus batted at his tail playfully.

“No, but we induced you early. Maybe you would have gotten bigger!” I glared but couldn’t muster any venom in it. “Now, are we doing the gross thing or not?”

“Fine. I told you what to look for, but why you insist on doing a checklist, I do not know.” He pulled a new window up and gestured. “Are your hips feeling loose and pliant?”

“Yes. Since yesterday, and let me tell you, it’s not fun fucking like that.” I grumbled and Noel nodded, his face a mask of understanding.

“Alright, and has your arousal fluid thickened and increased?” Noel glanced over.

As I thought about it, it did seem a little more plentiful, but I didn’t have a large span of experience with it. “I think so.”

“Okay, your temperature has spiked. That’s good.” Noel compared some documents to his checklist. “And your channels have shortened. This will make the split easier.”

Noel pondered over a 4D scan. Progenitors help us if he ever put his mind to evil. The male could read like lightning. “Oh, and how is your bond doing with them?”

“Still just this odd content feeling. Sarge is obsessive about it. He says it seems antsy, but I don’t feel it.” I shrugged.

“That’s interesting.” Noel’s flat voice was so hard to read at times, but interesting was not a word I wanted to hear from him, as he was usually far more concise with his answers.

“So, you’ll lay anytime in the next week.

That’s all I can say. We know the relative time of conception, but I’ve got so much conflicting information.

All I can say is you’re ready. The calmer you are, the easier it will go.

” Noel closed the window and stared me down, his head tilting.

Our eyes, so similar now, met for a brief moment before he reached out to rest his hand over my swell.

“Make sure to reassure him. They feed off your bond, too, you know? Nexus knows when I’m upset. ”

“Nobody else can tell if you’re upset, you apathetic Popsicle.” I glared and Noel’s eyes narrowed for a moment.

“Live through what I have and see how adept you are at interpreting your own heart.” Noel stared me down, and I shrank back, realizing what I’d said.

“I—I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. I’m—” Tears stung my eyes, and I winced as they emerged and wetted my cheeks.

“You said it because you’re hormonal and were thinking it.

I’m supposed to forgive you and make myself believe you’d ordinarily never say such a thing—despite you constantly thinking it.

” Noel blinked once and turned, using his tail to scoop Nexus up as he whimpered, little full lip trembling.

“It is alright, Nexus. Your papa is weird, and you will learn that is just one of the prices I pay to live as I am.”

The babe sniffled and Noel slipped from the room, far too quiet as he soothed his little one.

Vil’s harried footsteps pattered down the hall, breath labored as he caught up with his mate. Soft whispers quieted to nothing as they left my hearing’s range.

“I’m such a piece of shit.” I sobbed into my hands and didn’t move until Sarge, likely keying off my own sensations, came jogging in.

“Doc?” Sarge wrapped his arms around me and let me bury my face in his chest. His comforting scent drew me in and eased my tears.

“I fucked up. I was so mean to Noel just now.”

“When have you ever been sorry you were mean?” Sarge snorted and I slapped his arm.

“I called him an apathetic Popsicle! Nexus was crying because he was upset. I did that.”

“An apathetic Popsicle?” Sarge patted my back a few times. “Yeah, that’s dick.”

“How do I apologize for that?” I huffed.

“‘I’m sorry I’m a dick? Sorry I say mean things sometimes? Despite being an apathetic Popsicle, I love you to pieces?’” Sarge gave me a gentle squeeze.

A moment later, our moment was interrupted by Noel stepping in without Nexus in tow, his expression as flat as ever. “Knowing you feel bad makes me feel that much better.”

I peeked over Sarge’s arm and pouted, the pale vision of him wobbly from tears.

“I’m well aware that I’m not great at expressing myself.

It’s who I am, and I may change in time, or you may change.

I’m not well-versed in how Naleucians behave…

” Noel strode across the bay and tidied up a little, organizing one of my cabinets.

One of the many reasons I didn’t feel anxious about him in my space. He put things back.

“I was able to tap into memories before this body was infected. He had an omega he loved and a beta he was partnered with… They were openly affectionate without the bond.” Sarge pulled away from me and I sniffed.

“Nothing like you, Noel. I’m sorry. That stent in the cryo really did a number on you. ”

“I was this way before.” Noel pulled open a view screen in midair and panned through a plethora of files before pulling up a video of a much younger Noel. His head was shaved, body rigid, eyes focused somewhere offscreen. “I think I was about fourteen Earth years old when this was filmed.”

“Filmed?” Sarge tilted his head.

“Recorded video. They call it filmed because it used to imprint individual images on a polymer sheet they called ‘film’ and spanned them rapidly to create video. Highly inefficient.” Noel stared at the screen as his body snapped into action and leaped out of view.

He’d been in a war zone, unflinching to the background noise of ancient explosive technology. Percussives shook the camera, and Noel was nothing but a camo-clad blur, tail whipping as screams rang out. Dozens dead in mere moments as I looked away.

Noel stared at his hands as the camera cut out to a scene with his younger self ramrod straight, covered in human blood and seated in a metal chair. The way he spoke was chilling, confirming his orders were met. Noel shut the video down and pulled away.

“They made you…” I froze up. War was something that everyone had knowledge about, but human earth wars were something else entirely—cold and unfeeling.

“Kill people? Yes. Lots of people. There was a reason they put me in stasis. They couldn’t kill me, and I was dangerous.

It’s what all the first generations were made for.

Once they figured out what I was good for, that is.

” Noel cleared his throat and closed his eyes, taking a few even breaths.

“Maybe it was this. Maybe it was partly because I was never meant to have a mind to begin with. I was meant to be harvested from and spread, but who knows?”

“In any case, Noel, I’m glad you’re here. Even if you are weird. But we all are.” I offered Noel a half grin. “Thanks for everything.”

“It’s nothing. It is nice to have omega company, even if you are a horny space lizard.” Noel forced a smile that didn’t meet his dark eyes.

A soft ding preceded the scoreboard popping up.

“Space, space, space, space, space,” Noel said, peppering the scoreboard with tallies. The smirk that followed seemed genuine.

Before I could say anything, a twinge of pain wrapped itself over my belly, constricting my stomach into a hard knot. I breathed through the sensation and glanced up, finally realizing what Noel had been petering about doing. He’d been gathering things for the birth… Laying. “You knew?”

“Good guess.” Noel offered me a nod as he strode by with a stack of linens in his arms. “Now get to your nest before you get more dreadful to deal with.”

I slid from the table with a soft hiss of unease and relished the sensation of far too much slick pooling in places. “Things are definitely getting wet down there.”

“Wait until your phallus retracts. The sensation is violating.” Noel marched into my quarters next door where Sarge and I had shacked up, and made himself comfortable, bringing in a stool and the likes.

“My phallus…what?” I shuffled in behind him and slid into my nest of tangled blankets and pillows. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” Noel stared me down before perching on the stool. “Vil and Nexus will stay away. I am here until Eggbert makes his appearance.”

“I regret that name from the bottom of my heart.” I pulled a blanket over myself and kicked my shorts off. “Eggbert…really?”

“Eggitha?” Noel canted his head.

“No. We already decided on Noah.” I sneered at Noel before pulling the blanket over my head.

“It is a good name. I shall call him Noah. Eggbert is stupid.” Noel’s stool creaked, and I peeked out, ready to say something, when another sensation wracked my belly.

It started as a contraction, clenching around my egg and forcing things down.

All as to be expected until the sensation that Noel had described to me happened.

My internals became more internal . I didn’t know it could retreat that far into myself with such a strangely hollow and violating feeling.

I gasped and nearly crawled out of the bed, hand braced on my stomach.

“Progenitors’ sake! Fuck!” I pedaled my legs and kicked at the blankets while Noel watched me, unfazed.

“Like a woodpecker’s tongue, right?” Noel stared me down, and I lost track of my sensations while puzzling that piece out.

“A what? Is that a euphemism?”

“No, it is a bird that pecks wood, eats bugs and things, has this really long tongue that sucks in and wraps around its brain.” Noel brought up a view screen in midair and played a fairly apt video.

I stared as my thoughts strayed to Mater Terra before I’d left.

Most species of Picidae had been extinct a generation before I was born.

Of all the birds that survived, we still had pigeons, and a colony of magpies had repopulated a rather bleak planet we’d dubbed New Australia.

Unfortunately, it too had giant spiders, ’roid-raging hopping rats and had somehow been given the wrong opossum—the north American one. It fit the bill, so to speak.

“Noel, I care for you dearly, but why are we researching birds while I’m about to lay an egg that I really shouldn’t have ever been able to lay?

” I breathed through my nostrils and relished the fading echoes of that sensation.

“And yes, my cock sucked back deep inside me, and I don’t know if it’s ever coming out. It’s terrified!”

“Made you think about something else for a minute.” Noel gestured toward my bedsheets, which were streaked with fluid and a light twinge of magenta blood.

“That you did… This hurts a lot less than I imagined.” I reached between my legs and regretted it. Things felt wet, burned slightly, and horridly loose, like the seam from my slit had opened and…yep.

“Mm-hmm… It gets worse.” Noel nodded. “I’ll be here with you.”

“I appreciate this, Noel.” Sarge gave Noel a nod before sliding in beside me. Whatever was going on between my legs didn’t seem to faze him. I imagined it wouldn’t, as he was a body burrowing parasite… was . But it didn’t matter. He was mine.

A quiet voice rang over the speakers as I rested, waiting through one contraction after the next, waiting for the pain to grow. Merriel spoke up. “Can I alert the crew? If so, status?”

I winced and breathed through a contraction that made my ears ring with pressure and sighed. “Sure, whatever you want, Merriel.”

“Not too much longer. He’s in good health and high spirits.” Noel’s words brought me some peace as I gave a testing push to see if things shifted any at all. Aside from my belly doing some kind of odd pulse, it didn’t seem to do much but burn between my legs.

“Right on.” Merriel added no further comment, much to my appreciation.

So, when sometime later, another contraction hit and I pushed hard, lifting my tail high while angling my body in the bed, I forgot about the witnesses, forgot about Noel being there, and prayed that we had a healthy egg.

Another contraction came, and I pushed. It burned and ached, making me shake with a pain I’d never experienced before. But I knew immediately I’d do it again as my hips lost feeling and tingled. “C-compressing my spine.”

“By design, I assume. It happened to me.” Noel approached slowly and provided counterpressure to my leg as I bore down and guided Sarge into rubbing my hips.

In my more experimental solar rotations, I’d had some rather embarrassingly large toys, but nothing prepared me for birth.

I cried out loud and exhaled, the pain ending abruptly at my navel as that tingling sensation grew fiercer.

I arched my back, breathed through it, and pushed again, unaware of how long I’d been at it.

And when it all stopped, the breath punched free of my lungs and I fell forward, my body shaking. “I can’t do it. I—can we just cut it out?”

Noel glanced behind me and then back to my face, but Sarge did the laughing. “Doc…”

He pulled me away from my awkward sprawl as my aching body echoed with another contraction around…nothing. And in the middle of our nest, in a slick, wet depression, was our egg. Vibrant blue shone back at me, like the color of my scales.

And as if all logic fled my brain, I snarled and lurched forward, clawing for my egg to bring him to my chest, bundling around it.

“We have an egg. Make sure Doc is given his space,” Noel said as a ding rang out from Merriel’s holo scoreboard. “And that one doesn’t count.”

“Totally does,” Merriel muttered.

“Fuck off, both of you. Space jerks.” I grumbled as I wrapped my arms around my egg with a gentle touch. Noel gave me some kind of speech about cleaning me up and walked Sarge through it because I was far more territorial than he had been. All I wanted was my egg, Sarge, and quiet.

It didn’t take me that long before Noel gave us just that, proclaiming everything good. After all, I’d been made for it.