Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,82

the mating frenzy,” Lain said into the bemused silence.

“What was that sting I felt?” I joined them in the discussion aloud, now my mouth was starting to work again. “It hurt, but it was a good hurt. No, it was a great hurt. I never thought to hear myself say that.”

“It’s the hook burying itself in the wall of your channel,” Nial informed me with his usual clipped precision.

“Hook?” I yelped, glad I hadn’t known about that ahead of time.

“It keeps you in place so the fertilized egg can go just where it needs to,” Rian added.

“I got no sting from you,” I pointed out.

“I ejaculated though,” he said. “I have every time we’ve been together. It doesn’t feel as incredible as my brothers’ experience but…”

“How do you know what they feel?” I asked lazily, stroking fingertips along a hard muscular arm that was draped over me.

“From you. I could feel you feeling what it was like for them. It got a little chaotic there for a while, until I just gave up worrying who was feeling what with whom.”

I laughed. I had to second that. I hadn’t a clue who was touching me most of the time, but I did know who was inside me. That seemed different.

“Can she get pregnant with the Theran?” Meida asked.

That hadn’t entered my head. I hadn’t been able to take the pill after being abducted, and never thought much about pregnancy, other than to agonize over the possibility of it every time we were tested. The last thing I’d wanted was to give birth to those monsters’ young.

But I’d had sex with Rian/Charsus quite a few times before Lain, and I’d never considered I could get pregnant. And I hadn’t had my period since then. I was overdue, wasn’t I?

I felt Charsus panic. ‘You can’t be pregnant with my young!’

‘Probably not. All the stress has probably made my courses late. But why is this such a big deal for you?’ Was he one of those guys who ran off as soon as a woman got pregnant?

‘It’s not about being responsible for the child,’ Charsus croaked, really spinning out. ‘We do not breed outside our own species. It is forbidden. I have no idea how I let this happen. It was as if, because it was Rian making love to you, I believed my body couldn’t function as it normally would. I should have taken precautions. This is bad, really bad.’

‘Your sister bred outside her species,’ I pointed out, feeling oddly rejected.

‘She gave birth to Danan clones with none of our DNA. That was the only reason she was allowed to become their podmate.’

‘Would a child be deformed or something?’ I asked, becoming more worried the longer he talked.

‘No, of course not. It’s just… How can I explain it? Our bodies are designed to cross the densities. It is a unique physical trait that no other Third Density species shares.’

‘But Rhain and Marissa’s pod are all Spirit-Walkers,’ I pointed out, getting truly worried now.

The pleasant buzz had evaporated in the cold hard reality of possible pregnancy. I wasn’t ready to be pregnant. My life was still in freefall, and I had no idea how it would work with my pod. Not only were they so young, but I wasn’t sure I was mother material. I was only twenty years old!

‘They’re capable of sending their consciousness into the other realms, not their bodies,’ Charsus continued to explain.

It took me a moment to remember he was describing the difference between the Danan version of spirit-walking and his own.

‘But your body doesn’t disappear when you do your soul-shepherding thing.’

‘I do that in the same way the Danans do, the way many other species spirit-walk. But if I chose to, I could disappear from Third Density and walk fully in Fourth Density. Any child I might have would be able to do the same, I assume. Although, who can say with a human mother.’ He paused to consider that aspect.

All I could do was wait to hear what would come next. I knew the rest of my pod were trying to piece together what was happening. Except for Rian, they couldn’t hear Charsus’ side of the conversation. But they could pick up the gist from my mind. They were as bemused by it all as I was.

“We are not like the Danans or any of the many species scattered around the galaxy, which were the result of genetic experimentation by humans using their own DNA. We existed long