Daneth had to suspend his medical mindset, which screamed for him to strap Lamira down to his examination table and pull the young out of her by whatever means necessary, putting an end this agonizing waiting. But he trusted Bayla, who insisted that birth was a natural event.
“I think it’s working,” Lamira gasped.
Bayla squatted beside her. “I see his head!”
Zander leaned forward and began murmuring in Lamira’s ear, almost as if in prayer. “Lamira. You’re doing so well, beautiful. Our son is almost here. Just relax and let him come. Make your music, little one.”
“Uhhhhh,” Lamira, Leora, and Bayla sang again. Lamira’s tones shortened and then stopped as the infant slipped from her body into Bayla’s waiting hands.
Daneth surged forward, ready to scan and provide emergency care, but Bayla held up a finger. “He’s perfect,” she murmured.
And he was. A pair of tiny horns twitched on top of his bald, wrinkled head, declaring his Zandian genes, despite his light skin.
“Let me see him,” Lamira whispered.
>
Bayla quickly wrapped a spidersilk blanket around the child, still tethered to his mother by his umbilical cord. “Lift her up on the bed now.” It was beyond strange to hear Bayla giving Zander orders, but their prince obeyed, scooping Lamira up and holding her in his arms on the bed.
Bayla placed the infant in Lamira’s arms. “You’re not quite finished, my lady. There’s still the afterbirth.” She tugged on the cord as she massaged Lamira’s abdomen. The placenta emerged on the next contraction.
He moved in to clamp and cut the cord and perform the scan on the tiny half-breed.
“He’s perfectly healthy,” he declared when he finished.
Lamira burst into tears of joy, and even Zander’s eyes watered as she put the babe to her breast to teach him to nurse.
Bayla, too, started to cry. He wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her against his much larger body. “It will be our turn next,” he murmured in her ear.
She turned in his arms and gazed up, lashes wet with her tears. “I love you, Master.”
Now his eyes stung. He claimed her mouth, kissing her until his clothing grew tight and constrictive against his heated flesh. He had to pull away or risk vecking her against the prince’s wall. “I love you, too, Bayla. Tonight, we mate.”
Judging by her look of happy confusion, she didn’t know the Zandian mating custom of piercing their females and adorning them with crystals. Good. Then he’d surprise her. He already knew there’d be no question of her submitting to him in any way he asked her.
“Shall I make the announcement to our species?” he asked prince Zander.
Zander didn’t take his eyes off the tiny infant, who’d already learned to suckle. “Yes. Thank you.”
Chapter Thirteen
“We received a transmission from the palatial pod, Master Seke,” Tomis said, checking their ship’s data after another long planet rotation of following dead end leads in the pursuit of Master Seke’s daughters.
“Open it.”
The hologram sprang open, featuring the head and shoulders of Daneth, the prince’s physician. “A new Zandian prince has arrived.” The doctor beamed. “Lamira gave birth to Zander’s son this evening. Both the infant and the mother are in excellent health.” He bowed, and the transmission flickered off.
Seke gave a shout of joy and immediately sent a transmission to his mate, Lamira’s mother.
An incoming transmission made Tomis’ smile fade. “Master Seke,” he called out sharply, interrupting his mentor’s conversation. “We’re receiving a transmission from Zandia.”
“I’ll return in a moment, my love,” Seke promised, ending the transmission and swinging around to join him at the ship’s controls. “Answer it.”
In all the solar cycles since the Finn had overtaken Zandia, they’d made no contact, choosing to ignore the existence of the few remaining Zandians, just as the United Galaxies chose to ignore the petitions Zander had filed demanding the return of his planet and its resources.
A hologram sprang open, and it took all Tomis’ training not to flinch at the grotesque figure hovering in midair before them. Short and grayish, with a round head and a mouthful of pointy teeth, the Finnian king appeared more beast than intelligent being.
“I am King Fluut of Zandia. Who are you?” the ugly being snapped.