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Lucas blinked. “The tournament?”
“To celebrate the arrival of new humans. It’s a thing here. Kind of like gladiator games?” Maria swept into the room, dropping her bag on a table and pulling out cloth. “Are you from the US?”
“Colorado,” Lucas confirmed.
“Colombia.” Without hesitation, Maria pulled a sturdy stool into a clear part of the room. “Will you stand up here so I can take your measurements? Nothing’s off the rack on Thorzan, I’m afraid. But hey! Who doesn’t love a perfect fit?”
With Maria’s hand to steady him, Lucas stepped onto the stool and she set to work with ribbons and cloth and pins. It was all more than I understood, and Lucas looked uncomfortable to be at the center of things, especially in nothing more than his small shorts and the robe I had given him, silky and too large so it draped off his shoulders.
“So this is all about babies, huh?” Lucas asked Maria in a soft voice. Perhaps he did not think my hearing was very good.
“Well, sort of. Not entirely. Will you be... donating?” Maria asked him after taking a pin from between her lips. I did not understand her hesitation, or Lucas’s flinch.
“He may, if I am victorious,” I said, grinning.
Lucas went a shade paler and shook his head. “Nope. Not a chance. I am not donating anything.”
“No?” I could not keep the hurt from my voice. Lucas did not want to provide for the Thorzi. He did not desire my children. Ours.
He looked square at me and swallowed hard. “I am not having a baby.”
My face fell. My breath escaped in a whoosh as I dropped down onto the bed. I had chosen a keeper of the history of his people—of my people—who was beautiful and easy to please and so intelligent.
But he did not want our children, and that knowledge stung.
“It’s... not really like that,” Maria said with an uneasy laugh. “I mean, having a baby. None of ushavebabies. Like, where would yours even go?”
“My ass?” Lucas grimaced.
“All Thorzi have wombs. Not all humans do,” I mumbled, staring at my knees. “My mother carried me inside, but it was... nontraditional. Our people are warriors. It is not safe to carry young. Crux the Progenitor oversees the continuation of our species from his lab.”
“See, none of that is making me feel any better,” Lucas said.
Maria smiled, pinning cloth in place. From her knees, she looked up at him and shrugged. “It’s a donation. Genetic material. Even for women, some... zappy little tractor beam does it. Not invasive, but weird and tingly. Think of it like, uh, a sperm bank? But to save a whole species from extinction. You’d give a little semen to save rhinos, wouldn’t you? Thorzi are just a bunch of sexy rhinos.”
I scowled at her. “Are rhinos in need of semen?”
But that didn’t seem the point here. She waved me off, even as Lucas blinked my way. When she stood, she looked directly into Lucas’s eyes and touched his shoulder. He leaned into her too, and that made me ache. Perhaps he was not interested in me, so much as interested in touch and closeness and comfort.
“It’s not as bad or as weird as it sounds, Lucas. And when you’re done, that can be it. The Thorzi seem to like humans to care for the kids—like we’re all soft and made for that kind of work—but if that’s not your thing, there are plenty of humans who find other stuff to do. Every so often they come asking for more donations. But nobody’s putting a baby anywhere near your ass, I promise.”
All of this was strange to me, but it filled a need Lucas had. His eyes flicked my way, a bit of his color returning to his face.
“So, if you win, are you going to be fathering a bunch of children?” Lucas glanced my way, but only for a moment. Just as fast, he fiddled with the folds of the clothes Maria was pinning to his body.
Did he care if I fathered children with other humans?
I had never done it. No one wanted me to weaken my genes further by making offspring with a human. My father wanted me to pick a Thorzi mate. And it was true-born Thorzi who won the tournaments. Every tournament. Always.
“No. The tournament winner may share their gametes with one human of their choosing. It is how we ensure the next generation will be strong. Then some gametes are shared with our greatest warriors. Each time Crux returns with humans, he offers my father first choice among them, but my father has no mate but my mother and refuses. Most, once they have a child of their own, allow others their chance. And some gametes are picked by lottery, from those who have made their wish for a child known.” I leaned toward him, a grin pulling at my lips. “If I were to win, I would choose to mix my gametes with yours, Lucas.”
Another hard swallow. That made him nervous. I had meant it to compliment him, to excite him.
My smile faded. “I have never won.”
It was the right thing to assure him. He did not want me, so there was no reason for him to worry himself now.
Maria straightened, pulling the cloth from around Lucas’s body. She gathered her things. “I’ll have these ready before the tournament, but since you’re, you know, stuck on a new planet, I’ll go ahead and send clothes as I finish them.”
