Taking a chance on an alien.
But I was willing to take the chance Kren was my One. I’d been looking for him my entire life. Just my luck he turned out to be a prisoner on a distant planet called Gharr.
I scaled up the steps that led to the research center. Each one brought a slight pain in my groin. It was to be expected with the pounding it received.
The Supervisor was at work instructing the other scientists and his assistants when I arrived.
Did this guy ever sleep?
He turned and smiled when he saw me.
“Ivy. Wonderful to see you again. I trust you made some… progress with Kren?”
“I did. Actually, that’s what I wanted to see you about. You see—”
“Just hop up into the chair and we’ll begin the test.”
“I don’t need to have a test. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“You didn’t have intercourse?”
“No, we did. Several times. But—”
“And did he ejaculate inside you this time?”
I couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder at his assistants. Could they hear what he was saying?
“Yes,” I said, “but—”
“So, hop on in the chair and we’ll see what we have.”
I sighed. Fine. I’ll get in the damn chair. At least then the Supervisor will let me talk.
I hopped in the chair. It leaned back as he picked up an electronic device. He ran it over my belly and abdomen.
“What I’m saying is, I don’t want to do this anymore,” I said.
“Don’t want to do what anymore?” the Supervisor said, focused intently on his machine’s readouts.
“This deal we have. I don’t want to do it anymore.”
“You don’t want to return home?”
“No, I do. It’s just… I don’t want to lie to Kren anymore. We have this… connection. I feel bad about using him for our idea. I don’t think it’s a bad idea. It’s just… I would prefer for us to talk about it so we’re on the same page. Who knows, maybe he would agree to do it anyway. He might surprise you.”
The Supervisor raised the device and peered at the results.
“Doctor?” I said. “Are you listening to me?”
“You’re pregnant.”
“What?”
For a moment, the words he used didn’t make any sense. It might have been said in a foreign language I had no knowledge of.
“Pregnant?”
“Yes. It appears one of your… rounds last night hit the bull’s eye,” the Supervisor said.
I blinked. None of this made any sense.
“What do you mean? I can’t be pregnant.”
“But you are. Look.”
He extended the device to me and I peered at it. None of it made any sense except for the word POSITIVE written across the middle.
Okay… So, this made things a little more complicated…
Who was I kidding? It made things a whole lot more complicated.
Stay calm, I told myself. Relax.
I would tell Kren I was pregnant. He would stand by me. He’d be the father and everything would work out fine.
Except he explicitly told me he didn’t want to have a child in prison. He didn’t want to raise it here.
And he would blame me.
Not unreasonably, either. I’d been the one to say I wanted him to cream inside me. I was the one who instigated our sex last night. I was the one who made him feel bad about our sex being “incomplete.” It was total bullshit. It was always awesome.
I felt sick.
“I… I have to talk with him. With Kren. He needs to know about this.”
“I can’t agree with that. He will be unpredictable. I don’t know how he’ll react when he finds out you’re pregnant with his child.”
I climbed from the chair and stumbled, unsure what to do. I needed to return to the Prize Pool. I needed to talk to Harper. She would know what to do. She always knew what to do.
“Excuse me,” I said.
“You look a little unsteady on your feet. Come, sit down. I’ll give you—and your baby—something to help you relax.”
My… baby?
Gulp.
Oh, God. Now I really did feel sick.
What had I been thinking? Why did I think having a baby with an alien was a good idea? I hadn’t been thinking. I must have gotten hit over the head with something heavy.
The Supervisor led me to a large leather chair. I leaned back into it and rubbed my temples.
“I need to think this through. It’s only been one day. You guys must have the morning after pill, right?”
Something bit me on the neck. I reached back and my fingertips came away with a small drop of blood.
Then I noticed the device in the Supervisor’s hands. An injector.
“Did you inject me with something?”
“I’m afraid it was necessary. We can’t have you wandering off and telling Kren everything about what we’ve been up to now, can we?”
“We can’t?”
My head felt heavy and drowsy and I could hardly keep it upright. It slapped one of my shoulders and then rolled over to the other side.
“I need to… speak to… Harper…” I said.
“You won’t be speaking to anybody outside this room for quite some time. I’m afraid you’re very valuable property right now and you’re incubating something very important to both me and the shrale empire.”
Ngh? I said. At least, I thought I’d said it.
Instead, it came out as a random thought with no real shape of its own.
My eyesight turned fuzzy and then dark.
I couldn’t remember another thing.
Kren
I had been reborn. Making love with Ivy was the most thrilling and exciting thing I’d ever done. Every inch of her spiked my arousal and I couldn’t wait to be with her again.
But there was risk.
What if she was taken again by another fighter? Used and tossed aside like garbage?
I couldn’t stand it. I wouldn’t stand for it.
Ivy was right. There was no way I could protect her forever. There was no way I could remain strong enough to ensure she was always safe.
One loss and I might lose her.
Surviving in this place was fine for me. Not for her.
I was excited that for the first time in my life I had someone worth living for, someone besides me and my own
