The Lasaran (Aldebarian Alliance #1) - Dianne Duvall Page 0,39

in me that you did. I truly do find you beautiful.”

“Then what was it?”

He swallowed, almost afraid to discuss it with her. But he needed to know. “Your stomach moved against mine.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What?”

“I felt your stomach—or something in your stomach—move against me.”

He remembered the way she had seemed to lose her sanity for a moment when he’d seen her the first time, the way she had pushed at her stomach and mentally shouted, Get it out! Get it out! Get it out!

“Oh.” Her brow puckered as she curled an arm around her belly.

You have to help me, she had sobbed. You have to find me. You have to kill me. Please!

There’s a monster inside me.

“What did they do to you, Lisa?” He met and held her gaze. “Did they…” He thought of some of the atrocious experiments Sectas had accused the Gathendiens of perpetrating over the millennia. “Did they put a parasite in you?” Was that why she was so thin everywhere except her large stomach?

He knew such things existed in the universe. The yaksaba parasite on Harcos 4 would make a home for itself inside a host’s stomach and claim all the nutrients the host consumed, slowly starving the host until he or she was little more than skin and bones. Once the host was too weak to eat or drink, the parasite would then eat its way out of the host, leaving nothing behind but an empty shell.

Lisa’s belly was large, her arms and legs too thin.

The thought that one of those things could be inside her made him want to howl with fury.

Her eyes widened. “No,” she quickly said. “It isn’t a parasite. It’s… it’s…” Her words faltered. “The doctors at the base… Well, they…” Biting her lip, she closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Taelon. I really don’t.”

He squeezed her hand. “You can tell me anything, Lisa. We’ll figure it out. I’ll find a way to help you. I vow it.” The yaksaba parasite was more often than not impossible to remove without killing the host. But if that’s what this was, he would find a way to do it.

When she opened her eyes, moisture glimmered in them. “You’re so damn sweet.”

“Not sweet,” he denied. “Just concerned about you. Please, don’t weep.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just… stupid hormones.”

He didn’t know what that meant, but didn’t wish to distress her further by asking. “Don’t apologize. On my planet, tears are not viewed as a weakness but as a natural expression of one’s emotions and an ordinary response to pain or stress.”

“Your planet sounds pretty awesome.”

“It is.” He flashed her a grin. “Except for the no-touching part.”

She laughed. “Yeah. That would suck.” Drawing in a couple of deep breaths, she seemed to calm. Her tears receded. Her shoulders straightened as she again met his gaze. “Okay. You know they took samples from you, right? The doctors you call butchers?”

“Yes. And they are butchers. No medic on my planet would purposefully inflict such harm on another.” The Earth doctors were apparently no better than the Gathendiens, who were considered the scourge of the galaxy.

“And you know they took all kinds of samples, right?” she continued. “I mean… all kinds.”

He frowned. “Yes.” He hoped she wouldn’t ask for a list or a description. Some had been beyond humiliating.

“Well…” She chewed her lower lip, something he now realized was a nervous habit. “They, uh…” She cleared her throat. “They put one of your samples in me.”

He stared at her, uncomprehending. “What?”

Her hand tightened around his. And he could actually feel her anxiety increase even though he wasn’t an empath. “They impregnated me with some of your sperm,” she uttered starkly.

Chapter Seven

Taelon’s mind blanked.

A full minute passed.

“Taelon?” Lisa prompted tentatively.

“They what?”

She smoothed her free hand over her belly. “They impregnated me with your sperm. I’m carrying your baby.”

He lowered his gaze to the large mound. When her meaning finally sank in, his heart stopped, then began to slam painfully against his ribs. “You’re breeding?”

She nodded.

“You’re carrying my child?” he asked, needing to ensure nothing was lost in translation.

“Yes,” she admitted, voice hushed.

Awe filled him as he stared at the mound that sheltered his child. His child!

The Gathendiens had unleashed a virus on Lasara almost a century ago that had rendered almost all females either infertile or incapable of carrying a baby to term. Were their people not so long-lived, they would be nearly extinct. Taelon’s mother was one of the few