And there was no faking something like that.
The tears he’d swiped away came back en force. They streamed down his cheeks and collected under his chin before dripping onto his thighs.
Joe wasn’t lying.
He loved Ezra deeply.
Yeah, he’d made mistakes, but he hadn’t stayed away because he’d lost interest in being Ezra’s dad.
Love like that was the kind that made people stay.
“Ezra,” Titan said softly, setting a hand on his lower back. “Look.”
Ezra blinked the tears from his eyes and looked at the bassinet just in time to see the final egg come apart. The two babies inside rolled gracelessly out of their shell and started chirping and clicking, prompting their siblings to come over and say hello.
“They feel safe,” Titan said, and Ezra laughed wildly.
It felt like his heart was in flight.
“It’s not just that,” he said. “They don’t just feel safe—they feel loved.”
And he knew it beyond any possible doubt, for that was exactly how he felt as well.
38
Titan
With the offspring safely hatched and now snuggled up to Ezra on his large and comfortable bed, Titan saw their guests out of Ezra’s unconsciousness quarters so his young family could enjoy their unconsciousness in peace. It had been a long and emotionally rife night, and he was eager to join Ezra and the offspring in rest and relaxation, but before he could shut the door and retire, an odd sight caught his eye.
His father had not gone to be with his mother.
Rather, he stood facing the wall, having cornered the Great Slut.
“You have some nerve, showing up to the hatching of an important government official’s clutch after having gained clearance to enter the planet on falsified documents,” his father fumed in Darvrokian. “If word were to get out…”
“Word about what?” the Great Slut asked calmly. “The fact that I saved your grandoffsprings’ lives?”
“It’s not worth it, babe,” said Human Martha, who hovered nervously nearby. While she could not understand the language, she had no doubt picked up on the hostility in Titan’s father’s tone. “Let’s just go, okay?”
“It is totally chill, boo,” the Great Slut replied in English. “Mr. Leon may be harshing all of our mellows, but I am not sweating it, as this is what is considered small stuff. Not everyone is able to go with the flow as well as I do, but maybe this is for the best, as the conversation we are having is needed to be had now, before it has a chance to harm our Ezra and his Mini Mes any more than it already has.”
“What are you talking about?” Titan’s father demanded in Darvrokian. “I have done nothing wrong.”
“By a certain point of view,” the Great Slut said with a shrug, “but in my eyes, having felt what I felt in that room, you’re just as guilty as I am. The only difference between our crimes is that while I risked my newfound freedom to see my son and be with him on one of the most important days of his life, you did everything in your power to tear yours down and make him feel great shame.”
Titan’s father went red in the face. “Lies!”
“You think so? Why don’t you go touch him, then. See how he really feels?”
Titan’s father’s mustache trembled, but he did not speak, and he did not move.
Nor would he look at Titan.
“My love, maybe now isn’t the best time to have this conversation,” Titan’s mother tried, barely speaking above a whisper. She kept glancing at Al and Human Jude’s offspring, who Al and Human Jude were attempting to remove from the situation without success. Like all Darvrokian offspring, they were adept at evading capture and breaking free of containment—useful traits for a prey species, but not so useful for parents—and were using these abilities to wriggle out of their parents’ grasps so they could remain with the group, eager to witness the situation unfold.
“I won’t cause a scene,” the Great Slut said with kindness, offering a sympathetic smile to Titan’s mother. “All I was planning to do before Mr. Leon cornered me was to have a quiet, private conversation, but it seems that’s not within my rights. Just as well. What I wanted to say in confidence can also be said aloud: I understand that you don’t like me, and that’s fine, but if you take that hatred out on my son or his offspring, my slutty ways are going to be the least of your problems.”
Titan’s father had been silently simmering, face turning redder and redder until it resembled the sky during a double sunset on the planet of Darvrok 6, but finally, he could take no more. The anger that had been simmering inside of him burst free, and he puffed his chest in an act of aggression, pointing a trembling finger in the Great Slut’s face. “You act as though you know everything, as though you are superior to me for accepting what has happened, but you know nothing about me, or my love for my son. Do you think I’ve made the choices I have out of spite? Because I had nothing better to do than hate?”
