13. Ivy

We lay in bed, him spooning me, his arms wrapped around me, our hands interwoven.

Painting was a stimulating experience for me. I kept looking over at him and smiled. Sometimes he full-blown turned me on and I needed to taste him right then and there. I'd never been that attracted to anyone.

I thought about the underhanded mission I was there to carry out—to get him to impregnate me and turn me into a surrogate for a child he would never even know he had.

It was different when it was to save a species, when it was with a male alien I didn't know. Even if it was for me to return home, could I honestly put my hand on my heart and say I no longer felt the same way about the whole deal?

No. I couldn't. We'd grown closer and I wasn't sure I could undo those emotions.

Or if I even wanted to.

The thought of jumping on a shuttlecraft and leaving this place without him felt… alien and wrong now.

I got up and sipped some water from the dining table. I glanced at the painting and was pleased with my handiwork. It was probably the best painting I'd ever done.

When I first saw his reaction, I thought he didn't like it, as if I had destroyed one of his few memories from when he was a child.

But it wasn't that at all.

It reminded him of his happier moments in life… and he'd gotten upset.

How bad did your life have to be for you to get upset at thinking about happy moments in your past?

I was pleased he liked it. He said he would hang it on the wall opposite his bed so he would see it and think of me every time he went to sleep and when he woke up.

He was a fighter and a brawler but he came out with some of the most romantic things and he didn't even realize he was saying them!

I turned, and my eye caught on the notepad where he'd been scribbling his little doodles.

I caught a pair of eyes and turned back to the pad.

Kren lay on his back, relaxed after yet another intense sex session. They only got better and better the more we did it.

I picked up the notepad and flicked through the pages. His scribblings were random things at first, strange abstract images that didn't look like anything I recognized. And then he began to draw faces, or parts of a face, beginning with the eyes, a nose, fingers, and hands…

And then he put them together. As I flicked through the images, they morphed into me, each one becoming more and more accurate, each one capturing me a little better, until I came to the final picture.

It was a more beautiful version of me.

Was this how he saw me? Every time he looked at me, he saw this gorgeous woman on the page?

And when we kissed and made love… it wasn't the lovemaking of a fighter claiming his Prize, which was harsh and aggressive, the way Dreth treated me. It was much more than basic fucking. It was making love.

And the reason for that was we were in love.

He was in love.

I was in love.

I dropped the notepad and the pages fluttered as they hit the tabletop.

Was I in love? Had I opened myself up to him and let him into my heart?

I was supposed to be a surrogate for his child. I wasn't supposed to fall in love.

But that was what I'd done, wasn't it?

I glanced at him, still asleep in the bed.

I calmed and relaxed.

Yes, I thought. I had fallen in love with him, and unless I missed my guess, I thought he was in love with me too. It was there in every gesture he made and every expression he shot my way.

We were in love.

This wasn't meant to happen. I was never meant to enjoy being with him this much.

I would call the deal off, I decided. I would call it off and find some other way to return home.

The Supervisor had a shuttlecraft outside his residence. Surely, I could get to it somehow and get away?

Even the thought of that left a sour taste in my mouth. Leaving this place without Kren…

I could picture myself at my desk now, typing in numbers and getting flustered because they didn't add up.

Who cared? Who cared if the columns didn't make sense?

What mattered was ensuring I didn't give up the best relationship I'd ever had. What mattered was not throwing away everything with Kren and being able to see him again.

He slept soundly beside me, having sweet and deep dreams. A curl of hair lay at the base of one of his horns. I ran my hands over those gorgeous curved horns.

In love with an alien.

It made what I had to do next hard but necessary.

I had to ditch the deal.

I was floatingon cloud nine when I awoke the next morning. I should have been exhausted with all the late-night activities we'd gotten up to. My body was tired but my mind was clear.

My plan was simple.

I would go see the Supervisor today. It was easy to see him as the guards outside Kren's cell would take me right to him. I would tell him I didn't want to continue with what we'd planned.

Instead, I would figure out some other way of being with Kren. He was still young and strong. He would remain the champ for some time to come. I was willing to make a go of the relationship.

I shook my head. It sounded crazy even to my ears.

Taking a chance on an alien.

But I was willing to take the chance Kren was my One. I'd been looking for him my entire life. Just my luck he turned out to be a prisoner on a distant planet called Gharr.

I scaled up the steps that led to the research center. Each one brought a slight pain in my groin. It was to be expected with the pounding it received.

The Supervisor was at work instructing the other scientists and his assistants when I arrived.

Did this guy ever sleep?

He turned and smiled when he saw me.

"Ivy. Wonderful to see you again. I trust you made some… progress with Kren?"

"I did. Actually, that's what I wanted to see you about. You see—"

"Just hop up into the chair and we'll begin the test."

"I don't need to have a test. That's what I'm trying to tell you."

"You didn't have intercourse?"

"No, we did. Several times. But—"

"And did he ejaculate inside you this time?"

I couldn't help but glance over his shoulder at his assistants. Could they hear what he was saying?

"Yes," I said, "but—"

"So, hop on in the chair and we'll see what we have."

I sighed. Fine. I'll get in the damn chair. At least then the Supervisor will let me talk.

I hopped in the chair. It leaned back as he picked up an electronic device. He ran it over my belly and abdomen.

"What I'm saying is, I don't want to do this anymore," I said.

"Don't want to do what anymore?" the Supervisor said, focused intently on his machine's readouts.

"This deal we have. I don't want to do it anymore."

"You don't want to return home?"

"No, I do. It's just… I don't want to lie to Kren anymore. We have this… connection. I feel bad about using him for our idea. I don't think it's a bad idea. It's just… I would prefer for us to talk about it so we're on the same page. Who knows, maybe he would agree to do it anyway. He might surprise you."

The Supervisor raised the device and peered at the results.

"Doctor?" I said. "Are you listening to me?"

"You're pregnant."

"What?"

For a moment, the words he used didn't make any sense. It might have been said in a foreign language I had no knowledge of.

"Pregnant?"

"Yes. It appears one of your… rounds last night hit the bull's eye," the Supervisor said.

I blinked. None of this made any sense.

"What do you mean? I can't be pregnant."

"But you are. Look."

He extended the device to me and I peered at it. None of it made any sense except for the word POSITIVE written across the middle.

Okay… So, this made things a little more complicated…

Who was I kidding? It made things a whole lot more complicated.

Stay calm, I told myself. Relax.

I would tell Kren I was pregnant. He would stand by me. He'd be the father and everything would work out fine.

Except he explicitly told me he didn't want to have a child in prison. He didn't want to raise it here.

And he would blame me.

Not unreasonably, either. I'd been the one to say I wanted him to cream inside me. I was the one who instigated our sex last night. I was the one who made him feel bad about our sex being "incomplete." It was total bullshit. It was always awesome.

I felt sick.

"I… I have to talk with him. With Kren. He needs to know about this."

"I can't agree with that. He will be unpredictable. I don't know how he'll react when he finds out you're pregnant with his child."

I climbed from the chair and stumbled, unsure what to do. I needed to return to the Prize Pool. I needed to talk to Harper. She would know what to do. She always knew what to do.

"Excuse me," I said.

"You look a little unsteady on your feet. Come, sit down. I'll give you—and your baby—something to help you relax."

My… baby?

Gulp.

Oh, God. Now I really did feel sick.

What had I been thinking? Why did I think having a baby with an alien was a good idea? I hadn't been thinking. I must have gotten hit over the head with something heavy.

The Supervisor led me to a large leather chair. I leaned back into it and rubbed my temples.

"I need to think this through. It's only been one day. You guys must have the morning after pill, right?"

Something bit me on the neck. I reached back and my fingertips came away with a small drop of blood.

Then I noticed the device in the Supervisor's hands. An injector.

"Did you inject me with something?"

"I'm afraid it was necessary. We can't have you wandering off and telling Kren everything about what we've been up to now, can we?"

"We can't?"

My head felt heavy and drowsy and I could hardly keep it upright. It slapped one of my shoulders and then rolled over to the other side.

"I need to… speak to… Harper…" I said.

"You won't be speaking to anybody outside this room for quite some time. I'm afraid you're very valuable property right now and you're incubating something very important to both me and the shrale empire."

Ngh? I said. At least, I thought I'd said it.

Instead, it came out as a random thought with no real shape of its own.

My eyesight turned fuzzy and then dark.

I couldn't remember another thing.