Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Pregnant & Angry

Makayla sat on the couch, holding Lauren while she sobbed. Kaitlyn sat nearby, wringing her hands. Lauren hadn't said a word to either of them. When they picked her up, she was puking over a rock, and Daxter was nowhere in sight.

When Makayla and Kaitlyn surrounded her and helped Lauren into the spaceship—Lauren simply shook her head and whispered, "Let's go."

She hadn't said another word since.

Although Kaitlyn and Makayla had a pretty good idea of what might be wrong. When Lauren wasn't sobbing, she was throwing up.

The sister's eyes met over their cousin's head. They were back in the village where Kaitlyn lived. Falcon and Viktal had been kicked off the ship until she and her sister could figure out what was going on with Lauren.

Makayla knew the men had probably gone into the desert searching for Daxter. She figured the dragon-man would show up pretty soon. He better show up. She had assumed he was out there, close to where she found her cousin. If he had just left Lauren out in the desert alone, Kayla would kick his ass. She motioned to Kaitlyn to get some water. Lauren had cried so much, she had to be dehydrated. Once again, she tried to get her cousin to respond, "Lauren, sweetheart. You need to take a sip of the water Kait has for you."

"Come on, Little Bit," Kait cajoled, using Lauren's childhood nickname. "I brought you some soda crackers, too. Kayla has some from home. They helped me. Maybe they will help you."

It was like a switch flipped. Lauren immediately quit crying and sat up, wiping tears from her face. She looked at Kaitlyn and took the glass of water and crackers. "Why do you need soda crackers, Kit Kat?"

Kaitlyn flounced down on the couch beside Lauren and took her hand. "Because I've been sick for weeks. Makayla used the ship med bay to do a test. I'm pregnant. Do we need to test you, too?"

At Kaitlyn's questioning glance, Kayla shook her head no, telling her sister to leave her out of the discussion for a moment. They needed to get Lauren talking and not complicate things further.

Lauren's reaction surprised her. She started laughing. Only it wasn't a happy laugh. It was harder, more sarcastic. "Oh, I'm pregnant alright. That damn dragon!" Her tone was more than a little angry. "He took off his sperm inhibitor. The one he told me that all males on Megoth are fitted with at the first sign of maturity. Supposedly, it isn't removed until they marry or form a contractual bond for the reason of having children. Imagine my surprise. We aren't fucking married yet. Nor do we have a contractual bond. He didn't ask me. He didn't talk to me, he just did it. And do you freaking want to know what else?" She wasn't calming down.

Kayla looked at Kaitlyn, who now looked almost as mad as Lauren. Oh, hell. This wasn't going well. She took Lauren's hand and held it. "What Little Bit? What else?"

Lauren lifted her gaze and looked into Kayla's eyes. "He didn't tell me what would happen when I got pregnant. I'm human. He's a dragon-male. I've been so very sick. And the baby dragon changes my body and now I'm telepathic. All sorts of people started talking in my brain." She swallowed and wrinkled her nose. "It freaked me out, Makayla."

Lauren looked over at Kaitlyn and frowned. "Why do you look so mad?"

Makayla didn't get a chance to stop her.

Kaitlyn hissed. "Sperm inhibitor? All males on Megoth are fitted with them? What in the hell happened to Viktal's? Why didn't we have a conversation about getting pregnant if he took his off?" She looked at Makayla. "At least Falcon didn't make the choice for you!"

Lauren gasped. "Makayla, are you pregnant, too?" She bounced. A tiny smile on her face.

Makayla decided to hell with it. They were going to spend a day or two man-bashing their mates. Maybe a week. She nodded at Lauren. "I am pregnant. And no Kaitlyn, he didn't get my permission. I told him explicitly that I didn't want to get pregnant right now. He told me… and I quote, ‘We don't need birth control. You won't be able to get pregnant until several months after your conversion. Once that happens, I can control when my body releases active sperm.' I even asked him if that control ever failed, and he told me no. That his control was absolute." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and scowled.

The other women reached out their hands, patting her back. Lauren asked, "Umm, Kayla. If you are pregnant, what happened to that control?"

Kayla tilted her head back and closed her eyes. "Falcon said he might have miscalculated. No. That wasn't the word he used—it was misjudged . He said he may have misjudged the timing." She looked over at her sister and cousin to find them blinking.

Lauren had one hand over her mouth, obviously holding back peals of laughter. Her eyes were sparkling.

Makayla might just forgive Falcon in a decade instead of a century—for helping her make Lauren laugh.