Jaeyoung shrugged. “What about it? No one’s forcing you to board on the return flight—and that’sifI can even fix it. It might be damaged beyond repair.”
He didn’t sound particularly upset. I suspected Jaeyoung was so enthralled by Fhi’ran’s local healing techniques that the ship hadn’t even crossed his mind lately.
Paz put his hand on Levi’s shoulder. “Yeah, man, chill out. You’re pregnant, remember? You gotta take it easy.”
“Like you’ve been doing, Paz?” Jaeyoung asked wryly.
“Hey, I’ve been busy,” Paz argued. He didn’t elaborate.
“Sure.”
It was obvious to me that Levi’s comrades fully supported him, yet he refused to accept their acceptance. It was like he was afraid to be happy.
He shook his head. “Aren’t you going to tell me that the hormones are influencing my decision or something?” he challenged Jaeyoung.
Jaeyoung almost looked offended. “Hormones or not, your decision has always been the same. You’ve wanted to live on Eukaria since the day we arrived. Am I wrong?”
Levi’s jaw dropped. “I... No.”
“I rest my case.” He offered a smile. “Levi, nobody thinks less of you for wanting to live here. You have a mate. You’re about to have a baby. You’rehappyhere. Why would we want to interfere with that?”
Levi slowly raised his head. His eyes watered with emotion. “I don’t know... I just figured you two would think less of me.”
Paz snorted. “Why, because you found a hot husband and got knocked up? Isn’t that, like, the goal for a ton of people on Earth anyway? You just happened to do it on a different planet. One that’s kinda awesome.”
It pleased me to hear Paz speak of Eukaria that way. It was clear to me that both of Levi’s friends enjoyed their time here, too. And they weren’t alone. I felt it in my bones that somewhere on Eukaria—in this village or outside of it—their mates were waiting for them.
“Thanks, you guys,” Levi murmured. “But what are we going to do about the admiral? We can’t just keep ignoring his calls forever.”
“I can,” Paz interjected.
“And I sure as hell can’t tell him I’m pregnant,” Levi continued.
Paz tilted his head. “Okay, yeah. What if we lie and say we got abducted?”
“No,” Levi said immediately. “I won’t reinforce the admiral’s beliefs that every other life form is an enemy.”
As he spoke, he pressed into me. I smiled and stroked circles in his side with my tentacle.
“True. I guess faking our deaths is out of the question, too?” Paz offered.
Jaeyoung clicked his tongue dismissively. “Too dramatic.”
“What if we all gave him the cold shoulder and stopped answering his calls?”
Levi snorted. “That’s not very diplomatic of you.”
“Hard to be diplomatic with douchebags,” Paz argued.
“That’s literally your job.”
“I’m on vacation.”
“Since when?”
“Since my captain crash landed us on a tropical-vacation-central planet.”
“Can we stop bringing that up?” Levi grumbled.
