Haven 4 AVOW - Sandra R Neeley Page 0,31

smile fell slightly.

“Are you well?” he asked.

“Yes. I can feel the cramping beginning, though,” she answered.

Lo'San swept her up in his arms, and held her against his chest. “Then I’ll carry you.”

“Like I can’t walk for myself?” she asked.

“No, like I enjoy carrying my female. Relax and allow me a bit of pleasure, hmm?” he asked.

Synclare laughed and did as he asked, relaxing and laying her head against his shoulder as he carried her to the lift that would lead them to the residential floor and to their home.

~~~

Lo'San tucked the comforters around Synclare where she lay in their bed. He’d stripped her, put one of his soft undershirts on her, because it was her favorite thing to sleep in, and put her right into bed. She was putting on a brave face for him, but he could tell she was already feeling unwell.

“I will be right back with a cup of litah and your medication,” Lo'San said.

Synclare nodded and leaned back against the mountain of pillows Lo'San had piled behind her. She didn’t even try to smile — she was feeling that poorly.

Lo'San came back momentarily and handed her the litah he’d made for her. “Is there anything else you want, my love?” he asked.

Synclare eagerly drank down the litah in larger swallows than usual, knowing the medication that would ease her symptoms was mixed into it. “Could you tell me another story from your childhood? I like hearing about you and your brother and the trouble you got up to,” she said, with a soft smile on her face.

“You just find it hard to imagine that I was ever anything but dignified and controlled,” he accused.

“Don’t forget, I get to see you at your most uncontrolled,” she said, raising an eyebrow at him. “And I love that part of you, but I really like hearing about young you as well.”

“Very well,” Lo'San said, settling in beside her to tell her another of his stories of childhood antics. “I’d forgotten how much I miss my brother,” he admitted. “I am very pleased to tell you of our adventures,” he said with a smile. As soon as he got comfortable, his tablet beeped. Grumbling he moved to the edge of the bed and reached for it. It was Zha Quin letting him know he was on his way to the Command Deck to meet with him as requested.

“I have to go, Sink Lar. I requested a meeting with Zha Quin and he is on the way to the Command Deck as we speak,” Lo'San explained.

“That’s fine. I’m already feeling drowsy anyway.”

“I’ll check in on you as soon as I can. If you need me, either use your wrist communicator, or ask Missy to call for me,” Lo'San said.

“I hate to do that, then everyone knows your wife is calling you at work,” she said, grimacing.

“I do not care. You are feeling ill. If you need me before I return, either method will get to me immediately.”

“Alright. If I need you I’ll call. But now, I just want to sleep,” she said, tossing a couple of pillows to the foot of the bed and snuggling into those still behind her.

Lo'San kissed her head, tucked the comforter around her once more and left her to sleep through the worst of her reactions to the hormonal treatments.

Chapter 9

“Come here this instant, Ko’San! Do not make me wait!” Ph‘eel shouted into the communicator mounted on the wall beside her favorite window seat.

Almost immediately the communicator crackled to life with Ko’San’s reply. “I am in the fields, dear one. I shall be there as soon as possible.”

“You will be here sooner!” Ph‘eel demanded.

There was no reply as Ko’San was already on his way to answer his mate’s request.

Several minutes later Ko’San entered the living space of the expansive home he shared with his mate, and her three other husbands. He could hear the sound of Ph‘eel’s children upstairs playing with their nannies. Not all were his, but all were his wife’s, and that made them all his responsibility as well as the responsibility of all of her other husbands. “I am here, dear one. I came at once,” he said, walking toward where she sat perched on her window seat, staring at the rather large communicator she held in both hands.

“You should have been here sooner,” she complained, before turning the communicator around to face him.

“Of course, dear one,” he answered, thrilled that his mate had called for him above her other husbands. They were