Tati doesn't say a word. She just stares at us for three silent seconds, her eyebrows lifting slowly.
Then, with the motion of a woman who came prepared for this exact brand of idiocy, she reaches into her medical kit on the floor. She pulls out a syringe filled with a bright, glowing blue fluid.
She stands up, steps over the unpacked boxes, and stops right in front of Vael-Torin.
"Vael, arm," Tati commands.
Vael blinks down at the blue syringe, his jaw tightening. "Is this a supplement?”
"It’s a twelve-month hormonal contraceptive block for Draegon males," Tati says sweetly. "It’s safe, it’s highly effective, and it’s going to keep you from turning this construction site into a nursery before Poppy processes her trauma appropriately. Do you approve?”
“Poppy?” Vael asks.
“Well,” I trail off, then nod. “Yeah. I think a year with just the two of us actually sounds pretty wonderful. Then we can revisit. Yeah?”
Vael-Torin lets out a disappointed rumble, but he turns his shoulder, allowing Tati to take his bicep in her arms.
PFFT.
The pneumatic syringe delivers the injection instantly. Vael doesn't even flinch, though his lips pout in an adorable way that makes me want to squeeze him.
"There," Tati says, disposing of the syringe in a little box in her kit. "Now that you’re not adding to the family, we have some feelings to talk about."
Vael’s staring down at his arm as if it has betrayed him, and a laugh tears out of my throat. I press a kiss directly to the spot where he got birth controlled.
"Don't worry," I whisper. "We can still practice."
He smiles at that, and Tati sighs deeply.
CHAPTER 35
POPPY
The downtown districtof Sueva’s capital city does not look anything like Earth.
Thank fuck.
The buildings are a breathtaking blend of towering,ancient trees and glass that glows with a soft,warm amber light.The streets are paved with smooth stones,and the air smells of roasting nuts,damp earth,and a potent,fermenting honey wine that the locals brew in clay casks.
We are sitting in a semi-private,U-shaped booth at the capital's liveliest tavern.According to the humans who’ve been here longer, it was the only tavern for a long time. The table is stacked high with platters of flatbreads,roasted meat,and a towering pitcher of scorch your taste-buds-off alcohol.
Lily sits across from me, andnext to her Ellison relaxes in a soft Sueva-spun gown.Selene’s actively tearing a piece of flatbread apart, and Lucy sits beside her,her cheeks still flushed from her Draegon heat,though she is smiling happily as she sips her honey wine.
How she’s withstood the heat this long, I have no idea.
I stare down at my drink,my finger tracing the rim of the cup.The noise of the bustling tavern fades into a dull hum.Theweight of the last few weeks—the guilt that has been rotting a hole in my stomach since the moment we stepped onto that cursed satellite—finally rises all the way to my throat.
I set my cup down with a softclack.
"Okay," I announce briskly. “I need to tell you something.”
The table goes quiet.Lily stops her cup halfway to her mouth, jaw open.Selene keeps up her aggressive bread-chewing, though.
Good for her.
"I need to say something," I start.My throat hitches, but I force the words out."I messed up.I fucked up so incredibly badly."
I take aragged breath,my hands squeezing each other in my lap.
