Epilogue

After several days of meeting my family and recovering from that, Squire and I took some time to ourselves so that I could show him my home. Southern Terzik was, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful cities on the entire planet, and I saw it through new eyes as Squire and I explored. The natural elements included in our architecture delighted him, and I'd caught him whispering praise to the plants and flowers more than once.

Today, we were back at the brothel for the twelfth day in a row. After that first day, I'd worried that Squire might have issues being here himself, or when I might need to be here. But it seemed as though he'd worked through his moment of possessiveness and could now look at my employees as friends. Possibly family? He was a natural caretaker, and I'd heard from Veska that Squire was excellent at emotionally supporting every employee. He had even commiserated with Contar for several hours after his father passed away.

Joy was the theme today, however, as Layleen had brought her triplets to visit as their first outing since their birth. Squire had coached everyone not to call the babies bunnies, but that hadn't lasted long at all once the humans got a look at the little bundles of gray and white fluff.

Layleen came over to where I sat and shoved her tablet under my nose. I took it away from her so that I could actually see the screen and found a photograph of a young Earth rabbit.

"Clearly," she said, "there are a great deal of differences between those creatures and Pips, but…" She trailed off before whispering, "I'm not offended by the word bunny to describe my children. Look at that thing. It's adorable, and so are they."

I smiled and handed the tablet back to her. "I understand. I'm less and less offended by being called a tiger now that the people saying it do so with regard. Many humans attach great qualities to such creatures."

"That's it exactly." She gestured to the three human women cooing over the baby one of them held. "I might even consider renaming Sersee and call her Bunny."

I was fairly certain her mate wouldn't approve. "Isn't Sersee Ravind"s mother's name?"

"Oh, hush." Layleen whacked my shoulder before she went to take over the calming of a fussy baby.

I chuckled at her until an alert on my tablet had me checking it. Another message from Alam with yet more information about the unrest on Earth. Though not widespread, several of the distribution centers had been broken into and vandalized. It was causing local police to increase patrols and making neighbors feel unsafe. Alam was curious about whether sending our own to investigate and patrol might help. I had my doubts, but I'd also seen the way a Cero could shut down even the loudest protestor simply by looking at them.

Regardless of what Alam chose to do, he'd requested my return in the coming days. They needed additional supplies—mostly foodstuffs not available on Earth—and had another round of volunteers ready for transport. Since everything indicated that the brothel owners and patrons were very happy with the humans they had, I was keen to bring back more and expand the program into the smaller cities and towns.

Squire wasn't eager to leave Nor tomorrow, but he was happy to help where he could. Aside from his incredible skills at relaxing me, he had become a brilliant assistant. It was our secret that he was better even than Layleen. That she'd chosen to devote herself to the raising of her children suited us just fine, and I was glad to see her smiling so often.

After letting Alam know we were on schedule for our return, I set my tablet down again as I watched Squire stand up from the floor where he'd been holding one of the babies. He came over with the little white one tucked under his chin and seemingly sound asleep. As soon as he got to me, he handed over the baby. Of course, I carefully cuddled them against my chest even as I looked curiously up at him.

He nibbled his bottom lip for a moment. "Have you ever considered becoming a father?"

The little bundle on my chest began to fuss, and I absently patted their bottom while I smiled at my brilliant and perceptive mate.