with: liiiitttle HUMANS,’” and gesture to Gracie for her opinion. “Is this or is this not Bash’s song?”
“Oh, I think it’s perfect.” Gracie’s smile is victorious but she drops her arms and folds her hands in front of herself almost demurely. “But if we intend to do this, if this is what would make you happy, Isla, then it seems that we need to start the hiring process for a good crew. A trustworthy crew. I mean, you know I have nothing against Rakhii—but you know how they are,” she says with a lot of significance in her tone. “This brand new bunch of guys will have to be vetted to ensure they won’t see all the beautiful humans running the show and start thinking that they could simply take one or two or all of them for their own—”
“You’ll have the same men,” Bash decrees. “The ones I’ve trained to fear me who you’ve taken from my quarry will be the ones you keep.”
I glance over at him. “You don’t have to give up your guys. Ignore what Gracie’s deviously insinuating there. We can hire our own aliens to do this. We can train them ourselves.”
Bash glares at Gracie—not like he’s angry at her, but just because his eyes are set all fierce and minatory at the idea of exposing women (me) to fresh, yet-unterrified Rakhii who really do have a tendency to see a woman, bond to her, and sort of take off with her.
Bash turns his minatory look on me, only making it soften a little. “If you trained raw men, they would grow madly infatuated with you.”
“You are so good for the ego,” I tell him.
“Whereas my men all know who you belong to,” he declares. “They would never dare risk my wrath.”
Gracie pretends to be absorbed in looking at her fingernails. “So… we get to keep all the guys we’ve already taught how to build sets?”
Bash sends her a skin-peeling glower that thankfully seems to bounce right off of her wide, wide grin. “Keep your cowed males. I’ll break in a new set for my quarry.”
“Awesome! Then my work here is done,” Gracie calls, giving a little bow. But she can’t quite straighten once she’s bent over, and I’m both surprised and glad when Bash moves for her as fast as I do to help.
But neither of us are as quick at reacting as Dohrein. He’s right behind her, taking her elbow and her shoulder.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Gracie tells him and us. “But we’d better get me to a bathroom. I’ve got to check myself.”
“Are you well?” Bash asks, his forehead scales wrinkled up enough to show he really is concerned.
“I either peed myself or my water broke,” Gracie answers on a sigh. “And I’ve been ready for this kid to come for two weeks, so it’d be grand if it wasn’t incontinence.”
“Wow. Pregnancy sounds…” I start.
“Oh, it’s a blast,” Gracie agrees. “Just wait til you’re carrying the spawn of your husband. Yours will have horns.”
“Awww,” I coo, just imagining it.
“Not for days after the young emerge,” Bash corrects. “Hornbuds don’t erupt inside a mother’s womb,” he chides Gracie, like otherwise I’d have been worried.
“Our babies are going to be so cute!” I exclaim.
Bash’s tail slithers tightly around my waist. “They’ll be magnificent. They’ll be half you.”
“Oh boy, he’s about to get lucky with a line like that.” Gracie gives me a smile of thanks. “Which is good. You make sure he’s happy, we got what we came for, this was a good night,” she concludes, waving at Bash and me before Dohrein closes his arms around her and flies her down.
“We’ll need to check on her to see if she really is in labor,” I tell Bash.
“Later,” he promises. “Where in this rigging can we mate without having to worry that we’ll fall?”
EPILOGUE
ISLA
Bash has gotten a little nicer with the other humans. A lot nicer actually, but I’d never point this out to his face. He still likes to growl and look impatient, but everybody can feel the difference. He’s more tolerant. He still says terrible things about humans just so we all think he can’t stand us, but inside he’s 110% pro-human race. Or at least a high 90%. (It depends on the day.) He’s also genuinely more relaxed. Yes, he’s still dead serious about deadlines and getting work done, but he’s not going to kill anybody for taking an unscheduled pee break.
(It helps that he’s got very few humans who work