“Take some of my blood too. If you don’t need it, Lila or Saxon can have it,” he tells Susie, who quickly sets him up.
“You better get back to the transporter, Max. They were just about finished and will be returning. Lila and Tirrian are going to remain behind and torch the facility.” Link rubs his eyes and watches the monitors carefully, nodding at what he sees.
“Isn’t that going to alert the rest of the facility that there was a secret level?” Rick points out, and Zeydan shakes his head.
“No, it’s completely sealed off from the other level. No one should be any wiser, and they will close the tunnels after they are done, but even if anyone does discover it, Silac wiped the computers, and nothing will survive Lila’s and Tirrian’s fire.”
“Her heart rate is stabilizing, and her blood pressure is slowly getting better. Hopefully she is out of the woods physically. Now we just need to worry about her mental state.” Link turns to study his monitors and nods, looking pleased.
“We need her to be okay. She needs to take her powers from the orb,” Zeydan says quietly. There are one or two other refugees here getting treatment, and they all seem to be sleeping, but you can’t be too careful.
“I’m sure Tabbris will see her before the ship leaves if you ask her to. She may want the memories removed permanently from her mind, and Xavier can do that for her or, if not him, then his parents, but that means the little girl will need a family to raise her,” Link assures him, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
“She didn’t want her child?” I ask, feeling sympathy for both the woman and child.
“Sometimes women who have conceived through rape don’t want the baby. It is understandable, but it isn’t the baby’s fault, and we want it to grow up without being subjected to hate from its mother,” Susie explains, and I nod my understanding.
“Echo and I will take it,” I offer, feeling such overwhelming sorrow for both parties. “We would be honored to give it a home. Nobody should ever feel unwanted.” I know that Echo sometimes feels like this—not from his family, since they loved him with all their heart, but because of the general consensus for male omegas that Mazlan perpetuated. My mother is working hard to banish that stupid idea, but it is a work in progress.
“Thank you, Maxsim.” Link nods at me. “I think Brannock has already suggested that Nikos could feed her because he is feeding Hali and Ty and is used to babies with teeth.” His gaze slides to Rick, and he winces. I don’t think anyone would notice, but I was paying sharp attention to the pretty cyborg whom Echo wants to join us in bed. He is an admirable and capable man whom I would be happy to share my omega’s heat with, not to mention attractive. “There was another woman there who was feeding an infant, and she offered, but she is Skarrian and not used to infants with teeth.”
“Is this the same woman who was raped?” Rick sounds furious, and Link shakes his head. “So there are two Skarrians? Two illegal Skarrians?”
“Actually, both of those women were known to the circus, but it was unknown that they had disappeared off the radar for reasons you will understand. Head back to the transporter room and wait for them. I think you may know one of them, Rick,” Link says mysteriously, and I want to question him, but he gives me a small shake of his head. Rick takes off, not wanting to ask any more questions.
“Go with him, he may need some support,” Link says. “Lila found her parents. They aren’t dead.”
Susie gasps, dropping the tray of tools she was moving, and they clatter to the ground. “Her parents are alive? Oh my god, were they tortured too?” she asks as Mark hurries over to help her.
“Poor Lila,” he says, waiting for Link to answer.
“I don’t know if they were tortured. They looked healthy enough, but I know they were forced to try to breed with other captives.”
“Forced?” Aarin asks, his eyes not leaving his sister. “How does one force someone to breed?”
Is he really that naive? We all look at him with speculation, and he waves his free hand. “I mean, I know there are ways, drugs and all, but would human drugs work on any of us?”
“Apparently yes. Something called GHB. All the captives had a low tolerance for it, and they used it regularly,” Link says flatly. “Go, Maxsim. Broderick and Marcus were best friends, and I think Rick was courting Alina when they died. I’m not sure he’s going to take this well. He will blame himself. Xavier thinks his parents are going to do the same. Smith is a dead man walking.”
I hurry after Rick, my mind swirling with this new information. Lila’s parents are alive. She must be so happy but also completely devastated. They have been gone twenty years, which means Smith has had them for that long. I can’t stop the growl that rumbles from my chest in one continuous long sound. People in the corridor see me coming and get out of the way, the smell of their terror tainting the air around them.
When I get to the transporter room, it’s already humming. I stand next to Rick and wait for the incoming travelers. The screen shows Xavier’s ID. When they materialize, he gives us a jaunty wave, but his eyes are weary and strained.
He, Saxon, Silac, and Brannock are standing in front. Brannock has a baby cradled in his arms, and I clench my hands as the urge to grab it takes hold of me. Wow, that’s an interesting reaction. Until Lila had the krakens, I was indifferent to babies. I knew Echo wanted them, but it wasn’t a priority for me. It was all about keeping him safe. Things have certainly changed, though, and I am just about as crazy about our children as he is. Thethought that this little one is going to miss out on her mother’s love because she was created in such a horrible way hurts my soul. It’s better for her to be raised by us, people who can love her unconditionally, and it’s not like one more is going to make a difference at this stage.
“I’m just going to show the humans to the holo deck. We can get them settled, and they can decide what they want to do. I may need Matthew’s help going through all that data.” Silac steps down from the platform and waves a hand. Four wide-eyed humans follow after him, one male and three females. Their eyes get even wider when they catch sight of me.
“Whoa, what are you?” the male asks boldly, and one of the women smacks him on the arm.
“Matthew, that’s so rude,” she hisses. “Please excuse my husband. We haven’t seen one of your species before, and his scientist mouth talks before his brain can stop it.”
“I understand, I am not offended,” I reply, and Xavier chuckles.
“Wow, Maxsim, that is showing real growth. I am so proud of you,” he teases, and I flip him off, very much liking the Earth gesture.
“Fascinating,” Matthew mumbles, and his wife just huffs and tugs his arm as they follow Silac, the two other women hurrying to keep up.
“Hey, so is there a spare bed in the med bay? Ghosie needs to take a load off.” Xavier waves a hand behind him. The three of them part, and there’s the bear, flat on his back, levitating above the ground with a small child sitting on his chest, combing a finger through the fur on one of his arms and singing about a whole new world. Behind him are a man and a woman who has a baby cradled against her chest in a sort of sling contraption.
