It had the same sandy color and swirling markings, but whereas Jude’s eggs had tapered into a cute little dome at the top, Ezra’s egg was a total unit, almost cubic from how thick it was, and much wider than Jude’s had been—enough that he’d need both palms to hold it, and not just one. The markings that appeared and faded away on its shell were also abnormal. Jude’s eggs had all displayed one pattern in one color at a time, but this egg was flashing multiple patterns at once, and in an array of colors.
For a moment, Ezra was terrified something was wrong with it, but that couldn’t be right—what it was doing was way too complex for it to be broken. But then… what was going on?
He glanced nervously at Titan, who looked besotted.
“It is quite big indeed,” Titan said, beaming at the egg. “It is no wonder that your delivery thus far has been difficult—you are so extraordinary that you have created us an extraordinary egg. Even were I not able to use touch telepathy to confirm, it is clear you have produced twins.”
“Is that uncommon?”
“Quite uncommon indeed.”
The stirrings of another contraction put a swift end to Ezra’s bliss. How many more eggs were inside him, waiting to be born, and how long would it take? During Jude’s delivery, the rest time between eggs had varied, but it had never been long. Very soon he’d be back to pushing, and it wasnotgoing to be fun… especially if the rest of his clutch turned out as big as this first humongous egg.
He tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry.
“Will they all be like that?” he asked quietly. Titan must have noticed his nervousness, because he finally stopped making heart eyes at their egg to look Ezra over in concern.
“Many sorries, but I cannot say for certain,” he admitted. “If they are, it would be exceptionally unusual—an anomaly that would warrant research by our brightest scientists and other scholastic minds. Most likely, the remaining eggs will be a normal size, but no matter what happens, please do not have fear. The toll on your body will be great, but it will also be temporary, and when you are done, our clutch will be here.” He held the egg out to Ezra. “Lay your hand upon it and allow the offspring inside to renew your determination. Their joy is radiant. One touch and you will feel it, I am sure.”
Even had Ezra wanted to resist, he wouldn’t have been able to. His fingers were like metal and the egg a magnet, effortlessly drawing him in.
He made contact with his palm, smoothing it over the egg’s soft shell. It was surprisingly cool to the touch, far more leathery than a bird’s egg while still rigid enough to maintain its structure, and the lizard part of his brain was overjoyed about it.
Or was it…
He paused, searching deep within himself for the truth.
Was that feeling of joy coming from him, or was it coming from the egg?
As his fingers slid across the shell, absently stroking, the patterns on the egg stilled, and the shimmering colors it had been displaying all turned pink… the same pink Ezra so often saw in Titan’s eyes. The joy he’d felt intensified, and in that moment Ezra knew it wasn’t just speculation—somewhere in his brain, like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, was an emotion separate from his own.
“They’rehappy,” he breathed. He raised his gaze to meet Titan’s, and found him watching the scene with a placid smile.
“They are not the only ones,” he said. “Your eyes—they have turned pink.”
Ezra frowned. He reached over to the bedside table where he’d left his phone and opened the front-facing camera. His face was flushed, his hair a mess, and he looked bone-tired in a way he hadn’t since that forty-eight-hour Smash Bros. tournament he’d participated in when he was eighteen, bringing home second place, but all of that was to be expected after what he’d just gone through.
What couldn’t be so easily explained away was the color of his eyes, which were now dusty pink.
“I really am an alien, aren’t I?” he asked no one in particular with a resigned shake of his head, then sucked in a sharp breath as his belly began to cramp. Likely sensing this, Titan removed the egg from his reach and set it in the celestial-themed bassinet Buttons had been using as a cat bed, then returned to Ezra’s side and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, cupping Ezra’s face in his hands as he did.
“You are many things,” he whispered when the kiss concluded. “You are an excellent ambassador and an honorable friend, a being of considerable intelligence and tremendous wit, and a teacher who has taught me lessons I should have learned many rotations ago. You are a passionate lover, and already such a devoted father. Human, Darvrokian, both, neither—it is of no consequence. You are my sweet Ezra, and that is all that matters.”
The pain of Ezra’s contractions was now almost impossibleto ignore, but he managed a wobbly smile as he rested his forehead on Titan’s, heart full to bursting.
“I love you,” he said then, and it came easily, the words so natural on his tongue that he had to wonder why he had ever thought them impossible to say.
“And I you,” Titan replied. He kissed him again, and then said quietly into his ear, “Bring the rest of our family onto the planet now, so that we can all be together. Do not have fear. I am here beside you, and I will never, ever leave.”
And moments later, when the next contraction hit like a truck and caused Ezra to bear down even when he felt like crumpling, he realized that Titan was right.
He didn’t have to be afraid.
For the first time in his life, he did not feel alone.
29
Ezra
