HIGHLANDER: The Highlander’s Surrender Bride (Scottish Alpha Male Pregnancy Romance) (56 page)

Slowly, the spinning sensation in her mind began to fade away.  Her eyes, though slightly blurred for the overcharge of energy, began to clear.  She closed them, trying to realign her senses as every part of her body seemed to be trembling with power.  The light generated by Ian’s body, by the strange and beautiful bond that they had shared began to dwindle.

Slowly she became aware of other feelings.  She felt the floor under her bare feet… then her legs stretched out, her warm skin touching the cool glass-like floor… her back felt sweaty and the glass kissed at her skin there.

She felt Ian disengage himself from her and even behind her closed eyelids she saw the bright brilliant light of his alter form.  She felt a pang of regret, thinking that she would never so intense a feeling… so deep an experience… ever again. 

When she opened her eyes she rolled onto her side.  The floor was cool, or maybe it was just her senses returning to normal after being exposed to so much heat, like something fresh out of a microwave.  Her breathing felt shallow but with every breath her lungs seemed to return to their conventional rhythm.

The light of Ian’s presence, as dazzling as it had been when first she had seen it, seemed to pale compared to what she had just witnessed.  It was like looking at a candle after staring at a spot light.  Still, there was something utterly beautiful in it all.

She felt… satisfied.

There was silence between them for a few moments before Ian finally collected himself, the smallest flickers of energy fading from his glass-smooth skin, and he walked to where she now laid and sat cross-legged on the floor before her.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice still hypnotic though he did not sound fatigued at all.

She smiled and was able to nod her head.  “Oh my God…” she said, her voice sounding hoarse. 

“I’m sorry,” he said softly.  “The effects will pass soon enough.”

She reached out and put a hand on his glowing knee.  “I… I don’t want them to…”  She tried to form words but her mouth felt lazy and limp after having so much energy within her.  “Is… is there… any-any way…?”

“To do it again?”

She looked at him imploringly, hoping that he would deliver the answer that she wanted to hear.  She waited with bated breath for him to speak. 

“No,” he said, regretfully.  “It can only happen this way once, Lanie.  That is the way it has always been done.”

She felt the prick of regret at his words but knew that she could not argue against it.  He was the one with a long family history of this sort of thing, so of course he would know better than she did.   But that did not stop her from wondering.

“When… you’re back… in your human form… will it…?”

“Be the same?” he answered again for her.  “No,” he said, his hand clasping around hers.  “No… I’m afraid that in my alter-ego, I’ll be no greater of a lover than any other human man you may have ever had.” 

She squeezed his hand, sensing the regret in him. 

“You now carry my heir,” he said, his voice changing and becoming serious.  “He will be a child of your body, but he will be born with the abilities inherent from my ancestors.”

She licked her lips and looked at him meaningfully.  “
He
?  You already know it’s going to be a boy?”

“I do,” he said with a nod.  “That is the way it has always been done.”

She found that to be something easy enough to live with.  “So…
he
inherits my looks, but your brains?”

Ian chuckled.  “I could not have said it better myself.”  He put his other hand atop hers and held her with both of his strange glowing extremities.  “I realize that this is a tremendous sacrifice for you, Lanie.  But please know that I will do everything that I am able to keep you safe… and our son.”

She found enough strength within her to sit up and face him.  Though he still wore no face, she could imagine a look of promise upon him.  She squeezed his hands.  “The rest of my life living at a palace on top of the world… there are worse ways to spend my life.”

She leaned in and kissed him.

Chapter 8

It wasn’t long after that one incredible night that time seemed to become nothing less than a blur to her.  Days turned into weeks, without her actually realizing it.  Weeks turned into months, and months turned into her third trimester and she was ready to give birth.  Before Lanie knew it she had given birth to a child of two worlds.  Wonderful as it was, she could not deny to herself that there had been times when she had been fretful, even terrified of what the birth was going to be like. 

Was her child going to be born with a body that radiated with light?  Was he going to have a face?  What were people going to think – or do – if either event happened?

It was a fear that had dogged on the heels of her every thought up until it came time to deliver him.  She had tried to win Ian over with the idea of having a private delivery in case just such a thing happened.  Perhaps she could have a couple of home-trained midwives to tend to her… ones that she could bribe into secrecy if the need should arise.  She had the money… or maybe Ian had some other means to ensure secrecy that she was unaware of. 

She had expressed her fears to Ian and his only response had been to give her that reassuring smile that always seemed to melt her inside and say, “No need to worry.”  On several occasions he explained that there would be nothing untoward about their son’s birth.  That it would be as natural as any other human birth anywhere else in the world.  He had tried to convince her at least three times a week that she had nothing to fear.

She had tried not to be afraid, but the fear was always there, like a shadow in a dark corner that even sunlight couldn’t eradicate. 

But when the day came for little Alexander to be born, she had gone into the delivery room with no small amount of fear, despite Ian’s assurances.  But when the time finally came there were no strange lights and her baby’s face looked just as human as hers’ and his father’s.  To solidify the point that her fears had been groundless, the doctors, once they’d completed their analysis with the best medical technology that Madison Tech could provide could detect no defects in him.  He was, they had said, quite healthy.

With her greatest fears come and gone, she felt as all mothers had.  She was both relieved and a tad concerned for what lay ahead in her child’s future.  A future that she still knew so little about and therefore knew nothing about how to prepare him for it.  The notion made her feel a little helpless.

To ease the burden Ian had taken on some of the responsibilities of performing the day-to-day business duties that were hers, so that she would have more time to spend with their son.  The extra time helped to build assurances in her mind that she could still be useful.  And Ian, like always, had some wise an inspired remark to apply to the situation.

“There is a second universal constant,” Ian had said, “in nature the male is essentially useless in childrearing.  Alexander will learn plenty from me with regard to his duties to the world.  But his duties to humanity… the best teacher he can have for that is you.  You are
fully
human after all.  Who better to help him understand that, than you?”

As per usual, Ian’s words provided her with comfort.

She lay on her side on the plush carpet, Alexander sitting upright in his tiny diaper and seemingly watching her.  Once or twice she caught him tilting his head and looking at her through the sides of his eyes, much like his father did occasionally.  All she could do was smile back at him and gently laugh as he played with her watch, shaking it like a rattle and occasionally putting the steel housing of it into his mouth. 

“Go ahead, sweetie,” she said, patting the boy’s dark hair.  “It’s been through worse… and it’ll be yours one day.”  She smiled as she looked on at her son. 

Alexander smiled back a toothless grin at her and shook the watch happily, a delighted squeal leaving his lips.  And for a moment, only for a moment, she thought she saw a gleam of unnatural light behind his eyes.  Most mothers, she knew, would have been terrified at such a sight, but all it evoked in her were memories.  Memories of a day that she had relived in her mind thousands of times in the last year.  And with each reflection, her skin tingled, like she was right back there in that room with Ian in his purest form.

More than once she found herself craving the experience again, though she kept reminding herself again and again that Ian had told her that it simply could not be.  He had not elaborated on why this was so and she respected his wishes enough not to ask.  Though she could not shake the feeling that if they were to attempt such a physical act again, something terrible would happen.

“How is he?” said the voice of her baby’s father.

She rolled over and saw Ian standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame.  He was without his jacket and his suit vest, and the shirt he wore had a few buttons popped open.  He stood with his hands in his pockets, watching the pair of them silently, like any good guardian would.

She smiled at her husband.  “He’s alright… he spent an hour turning my pad over in his hands.  I think he was trying to figure out how to take it apart.”

Ian chuckled and stepped into the room.  She rose to her feet to meet him.  She wrapped her arms around his waist and he cupped her face in his hands, planting a gentle kiss upon her lips.  The kiss was electric and still powerful in its own right, a remnant of that day a year past.

She turned around and he put his arms around her waist, before allowing them to gently travel northwards and cup her breasts.  She chuckled and playfully slapped his hands.  “Do you want your son to see that?”

“He’s two months old, love,” he whispered in her ear.  “And he’s clinically unaware of anything that goes on around him.”  He cupped her breasts again and gave a gentle squeeze.  This time she relished the sensation, savoring his ability to tease.  Maybe they couldn’t return to the sanctuary and relive that day, but he made the effort to keep her satisfied in his human form.  And in that regard he succeeded… often and with flying colors.

He kissed the side of her neck and rested his chin against her left temple and together they watched their son as he continued to thrash the only heirloom that she had in the air. 

“I just saw something,” she whispered, “behind his eyes.”

“The light?” Ian asked familiarly.

She nodded.  “Is that bad?”

“No,” he responded.  “It’s just nature, taking its course.”

“I’m worried,” she admitted.  “If someone sees…”

“No one will,” he assured her.  “You can see it because you’ve seen me in my true form.  It’s imprinted on your mind.  It’ll never go away, like a vaccination, only it allows you to see things that everyone else can’t.  There’s nothing to worry about… that’s the way it’s been for millennia.”

She licked her lips, feeling the uncomfortable question rising inside of her.  She had been loath to ask, but part of her knew that the sooner she knew then the better it would be for her and for her son.  “How long will it take?”

“For what?”

“Until… you know… he becomes more like you?  On the inside, I mean?”

Ian kissed her temple.  “Well, technically he’s
already
like me on the inside.  But if you mean how long before he can show his other side, that won’t happen for a long time yet.  He won’t begin to show the signs until he hits puberty.  We will, of course, tell him what he is as soon as his language skills begin to develop.  You’ll find that he has a higher IQ than other children, so it won’t be too difficult, and on some instinctual level he will know what he is.  Our words will simply validate those feelings.  The sooner he comes to grips with that, the easier the transition will be when he reaches adulthood.”

“Voice of experience?”

He sighed.  “My mother thought that it was best to keep the truth from me until I hit my teens.  My father very strongly disagreed.”

“Did she get her way?”

He shook his head and he freed his hands from her breasts and interlaced his fingers with hers.  “No, she didn’t.  And in hindsight, I was glad for that.”

“Why?”

He lightly tightened his grip on her fingers.  “It’s a big responsibility, Lanie… protecting the world.  And protecting it from threats that the rest of the world doesn’t even know exist?  It goes without saying that it’s a thankless job.  There’s no acknowledgement from anyone for it.  He has to learn to accept that.  The sooner he comes to terms with that, the better.  It’s a large responsibility to shoulder… it’s better that he takes it a little bit at a time from a young age rather than all at once.  Too much could crush him… especially if he spends years thinking that he… that he…”

“Can live a normal life?” Lanie offered.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could tell that Ian looked rather somber.  The look told her that he had spent plenty of time before now pondering this very problem.  And that perhaps somewhere deep inside he wished that he didn’t have to subject his own son to the selfsame fate that he had literally been born to fill.  But, as so many of his ancestors must have done, he saw no way around it.

Alexander gurgled and gave a delighted cry at the both them.  The sound seemed to resonate within, filling her with the same kind of power that she had only experienced once before in her life.  Whether she liked it or not, her son would have a very large chore to do one day.  And someday he too would have to pass it on to his child.

She looked at the watch that her infant held and could not help but smile.  Her boy had been named for her father.  Somehow there was a strange kind of symmetry in knowing that that watch would belong to her son one day, just as his name belonged to her father. 

Alexander’s father would pass to him the ability to protect the world with a massive machine that even now she could not entirely comprehend.  And she would also pass to him a second but considerably less impressive device that would make him feel invincible. 

In a way, she felt sorry for her son.  Her father, she could imagine, would be proud that her son would not ever need to enlist in the military. 

But he’s still going to have to fight, isn’t he?

The voice in her head was right for once.  Yes, he would have to fight, but not today… and not for years to come.  Until then, she was content to simply stand there in Ian’s warm embrace and watch her son play. 

The warmth of his skin, her accelerated heartrate, and that familiar sensation of the boiling air lingered around them.  To her, it was no longer the strange phenomenon of being so close to a creature that was – in part – born on another planet. 

To her, it was nothing more or less than the sensation of love.

THE END