34. Chapter Thirty-Four

Sylas

The Town Hall is at the end of Main Street. It’s a half-minute walk from where we were playing volleyball. Now that all of us civilians are piled onto the comfortable couches that fill the space, everyone is looking at Cally, who is tucked against my side.

“Spill,” says Jenna, Noble’s mate. “What the fuck did you say to the man? It appeared as though you wrecked him.”

She shrugs. “I just asked why they were being punished. What he expected of them before he let them meet women and train for jobs.”

Although Cally receives more questions, all along the same lines, she has no additional answers. Even the soldiers, must be fifty of them crammed along the edges of the spacious room, are giving inquisitive looks Cally’s way. Evidently, they don’t know what burr is up the Colonel’s butt any more than the rest of us.

Slater strides in, still obviously fuming, and ascends the two steps to the small dais which is the focal point of the room.

“Thanks for coming,” he mumbles. That apparently concludes the preliminaries, because he launches into the rest of his statement.

“I am the Commanding Officer of this base and a firm believer that the buck stops with me. Therefore, I take full responsibility for making a massive mistake. Let me apologize and say that I’ll be giving this same speech to the southern barracks as soon as we’re done here.”

He doesn’t have notes, but his speech is eloquent as he explains that there is nothing wrong with any of the splicers on this base. “You’re all extraordinary, with high IQs, good work ethics, and a lot of heart. This integration with women was a grand experiment. I gave it a lot of thought and didn’t think we had the manpower to integrate all one hundred of you at once. Too many moving parts.”

He explains that the “lucky twenty,” as the splicers call the males in this room, were chosen because of their aptitudes for retail work and public-facing jobs. “Nothing could be farther from the truth that those to the south are rejects. They’ll be trained for other things. Now that I understand the misconceptions, I’ll be stepping up the timeline, as well as introducing them to females.”

Something inside me uncoils at hearing his words. I’d believed I was a reject, unfit, unworthy, unprepared to be introduced to women or meaningful labor. It’s good to hear that isn’t true.

“I’d like to ask any of you women who are not in relationships… if there are any of you left.” To ensure we know this is a joke, he rolls his eyes and shrugs, “To see Corporal Barton and put your name on a list if you’re willing to make a trip to the south and socialize with some of those males. Don’t worry.” He manages a small smile. “You won’t be thrown into a room with all eighty of them. We all remember what those first few moments were like when the males in this room were introduced to you.”

His gaze flicks to Forest, a ginger-haired male with a red fox tail, who suddenly howls “Noooooooo. Don’t say it.”

Everyone laughs, including the colonel. That’s Forest. The poor male couldn’t control his animal urges and pissed at Bella’s feet to mark his territory within a minute of entering this room. He’s apologized a dozen times since then. No one seems to hold a grudge, even Bella, but that doesn’t mean Forest doesn’t get teased about it at every opportunity.

The colonel winds up his remarks, apologizing to everyone again, then gives me and Chance the centaur a remorseful head nod, since we weren’t part of the original “Lucky Twenty” and spent some time in the area formerly known as the reject barracks.

The mood is exuberant as everyone files out.

“I’m so happy to hear that,” says Amber Dawn, who runs the hair salon. “After what you males have been through, I didn’t enjoy thinking the males to the south were being mistreated.”

Cally’s glowing with happiness at the colonel’s new directives, but the moment we part from the crowd, as most of them go to their barracks and we leave to make our way to our Quonset, I can smell her emotions change.

The scent of her arousal, swirling at low levels pretty much all day, every day, kicks into higher gear. As if that wasn’t a clear enough statement, she tucks herself closer to me and seems to purposely press her breast against my side.

“Maybe we could eat at home tonight? Make something easy and just chill?” I know her so well, I can read her little hints effortlessly. By her low tone of voice, I’d bet money that what she wants is the opposite of chilling.

It strikes me like a sledgehammer that this is exactly what I’ve been waiting for. When I proposed our celibate experiment, wasn’t it so we could learn each other? Know each other better? Didn’t I just admit that I know this female’s moods as well as I know my own?

“Cally?” My voice is so urgent that Tater’s ears perk and he turns to look at me. “What is my fondest wish?”

“We’ve never really talked about that,” she hedges.

“But would you hazard a guess?”

She stops walking so Noble, Jenna, Tyler, and Olivia who are all walking to the couples’ barracks alongside us, can pass us.

“It would be forward of me to say it. What if I’m wrong?”

This makes something squeeze in the vicinity of my heart, because the more she hedges, the more I think she probably knows the correct answer, which is exactly my point.

I clamp my mouth shut to keep myself from saying, “If you’re wrong, I’ll love you anyway.” I can probably blame myself that we’ve both avoided the L-word. “Hazard a guess, Cally. I won’t hold it against you. What do you think I want more than anything in the world?”

She grips my hands in hers, hard, and pierces me with her most sincere gaze.

“Two things, I think. The first is me. For me to stay, and love you.”

I nod, but stay perfectly still as I wait for her to say the second part. What she just said was obvious, but the next part? I’ve never had the nerve to breathe a word, not even hint at it.

“You’ve never said so, but I suspect you want a family.” Her eyes slip to the side to avoid me, but they return and inspect me to see if she’s right.

“Yes. Until I met you, I didn’t think I wanted a family. I mean, my life is so fucked up. I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to parent anyone. But since we met, I’ve nurtured the hope in the quiet spaces of my heart that we could have children one day.” I hug her tight, brimming with emotions so deep I couldn’t name them if I tried. “And you knew, Cally. Somehow you knew.”

Just as I’d hoped for, my female knows me as well as I know myself. I pull back to see her response to my next question. “Cally, how do you feel about… a family?”

“That’s an easy one. I never wanted kids.” She squeezes my hands more tightly, hinting that she has more to say. “Until I met you. Do you think they’ll have antlers?”

Out of all the things to say, she asks about antlers? That means she’s given it some thought.

“I guess we’ll have to ask the docs, when the time is right.”

She grips my shoulders and presses on them, forcing me to bend at the waist so we’re face to face.

“I don’t want to make a baby tonight, my love, but I sure would like it if we could practice.”

After scooping her into my arms, I jog home. A deep rumble of laughter explodes from my chest so loud I imagine she can not only hear, but feel it as my joy wraps around us.

“I’d love to practice all night long, my love. Can I say that now? My love?”

“I’m not the one who made the crazy, arbitrary rules to begin with, big guy.”