The chair hummed faintly beneath her. A moment later, several curved metal objects floated up freely from the chair’s base to hover over Shay. Blue circles sparked to life along the undersides of the objects, bathing her in a soft glow. Her hand tightened around Drak’s.
Two more screens appeared in the air beside the first. Urgand turned his attention to them. “Give me a minute to get my bearings. Things are in weird places in your kind.”
“I’m surethingsare all in the right places,” Shay said drolly.
“I haven’t had any problems,” Drakkal offered.
Urgand glanced to Drakkal and then Shay before returning his attention to his displays. “Yeah, anyway…the youngling.”
His fingers manipulated an image on one of the screens, turning and resizing it; from her angle, Shay couldn’t really make out what it was. The light from the displays reflected in Urgand’s dark eyes, making them seem aglow.
“How do you want to do this?” he asked, glancing at her again. “You want to see?”
Trepidation and amazement filled her. See her baby? She’d actually, for the first time, get toseeher baby? She settled her hand on the side of her belly. Countless times, she’d felt the baby moving and shifting inside her; that alone had been astonishing. There was a life growing inside her, a tiny little person. But even knowing how advanced medical technology had become—even back on Earth—she’d somehow never realized it was possible to see her child before it was born.
“Yes,” she replied, shifting her eyes from Urgand to the holographic screen.
“Just a second.” He muttered to himself again as he returned to the initial control menu. “This is Volturian tech. They always make their shit so damned complicated.”
“Should we call Razi?” Drakkal asked. “He’s an expert on all things Volturian, isn’t he?”
Urgand smirked. “An expert if you want to know the appropriate gifts to bring to a Volturian wedding, maybe. Here it is.” He moved a hand to one of the other screens and made a motion like he was grabbing something with his fingers.
A three-dimensional hologram formed in the air near his hand. When he cupped his hand around it and moved his arm, the hologram moved with it. He positioned the hologram over the floating scanners, leaving it to hover overShay’s belly.
She knew what she was looking at instantly, but it took several seconds for it to truly settle in. “That…that’s my…”
“Your cub,” Drakkal said, awe in his voice as he leaned closer.
The image was so clear, so crisp, showing more detail than Shay had imagined possible. Her eyes roamed over her baby’s features, from its closed eyes to its little nose and mouth, from the rounded curve of its ear to the dark hair on its head. It shifted, kicking, and Shay felt it from inside at the same instant.
She laughed, and tears welled in her eyes. “Running out of room, aren’t you, Baby?”
“Guess it’s a terran trait to be so small and frail-looking,” Urgand said.
Frail. That one word was enough to tear Shay’s eyes away from her baby to look at Urgand. Her heart quickened, and something on the machine beeped, flashing red for an instant. “Frail?”
Oh God, what’d I do?
Drakkal growled menacingly; Shay didn’t have to look at him to know he was glaring at Urgand.
The vorgal frowned. “Calm down. I saidfrail-looking. Just like Shay and Samantha. As far as I can tell, this youngling is healthy. She looks perfect.”
Relief flooded Shay, and it took her a moment to register what else Urgand had said. “She? It’s a girl?” Her eyes turned back to her baby, moving along its body, and sure enough, the proof was there. “I’m having a girl?”
“You’re having a girl.” Urgand fiddled with something on one of his readouts. “Looks like you’re about thirty-two weeks along. About eight more to go.” He pressed another option, and a sound began to play—it was like someone rapidly banging a sheet of metal. “She may be tiny, but her heart is strong.”
Drakkal gave Shay’s hand another squeeze and leaned down further, nuzzling her neck. “Like her mother’s.”
Shay laughed thickly, struggling to hold back her tears. She turned her face toward Drakkal and closed her eyes, pressing her forehead to his. “A little girl. And she’s perfect.”
“Also like her mother.”
She opened her eyes and drew back to look at Drakkal. Her heart constricted at what she saw in his eyes. They were focused on the hologram of her daughter, bright with wonder and adoration but also hard with the same savage protectiveness he’d shown toward Shay. That one look was enough for her to know without a doubt that Drakkal would always be there for Shay—and, more importantly, that he would always be there for her baby.
She released his hand. The action caused him to turn his attention toward her. There was a brief question in his eyes before she grasped his face and pulled him down, pressing her mouth to his. An answering rumbled vibrated from his chest. She kissed him firmly, fiercely.
“I love you,” she rasped against his mouth, kissing him again and again.