Trained in Blood [Lords of the Expanse 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  Chapter Eighteen

  It was hours later when Violet moved from the place on the bed. Frowning she looked around. “How did I get here?” Moving she went to the door and placed a hand on her aching head. When the door opened she saw the young officer. “Where is Titan?” She needed to know that he was all right.

  ‘‘On the command deck, my Lady,” the officer said with a bow of his head to her. “He was needed to finish the battle we are currently in.” Not that there had been another explosion against their vessel for the last two hours, leading her to believe the other ship might have been destroyed. “If you wish, my Lady, I can contact him and alert him that you are awake.”

  Racing down the corridors Titan slapped a hand to the scanner at his quarters and stepped in to see Violet wavering on her feet. “Out,” he ordered the officer before moving to his wife. “Violet, love, you should still be resting,” he reprimanded softly, his arms wrapping around her.

  Her arms moved around his waist automatically and her head rested on his chest. “And so, too, should you, husband.” She complained but rubbed her cheek to his chest. “I woke alone, I don’t like to wake alone,” she whispered. “Can we kill the lights, Titan? My head actually is hurting.”

  Telling the computer to go to low lighting, he left only the tiny lights under the edges of the furniture on to ensure that they could still see enough to move around without trouble. “Come, love, let’s get you back to bed,” he told her quietly as he shifted her enough to walk with her into the other room.

  “Tell me about the Syndicate ship. Have they pulled back or been destroyed?” she demanded, and it was a demand, her tone telling him she needed to know everything. “Did you get any information from the men who boarded us? Why they thought to be so bold?”

  Helping her back into bed after he pulled off her dressing gown he covered her as he moved back to undress. While he didn’t want to scare her, he knew she had the right to know. “They were planning on taking you and then, when their medical team had you, they were going to dissect you and the baby to find new and fun ways to kill our people.” Sliding into the bed with her he wrapped his arms around her. “And I happily and quite gleefully blew their ship into little pieces,” he said with a growl.

  Wrapping her arms around him she nodded. “I’m glad that you did that then. Hopefully they weren’t able to get off and escape. I know that’s bloodthirsty of me.” She shrugged. “But any who wants to hurt our child deserves to die a slow and painful death.”

  “While it goes against all good conduct of a warrior and the laws of battle, we destroyed all the escape pods,” he admitted to her softly. “I was not going to allow any chance of another coming for our child, Violet, or for you,” he whispered, kissing her cheek. “I love you, Violet, and, no matter what, you are always mine to protect.”

  “And I love you, too,” she whispered and then said, “They lost all right to live when they crossed into our space and willingly boarded us with the knowledge that they would be taking a pregnant female. The Syndicate needs to be sent a warning and if that’s not one, I don’t know what is.”

  “It was a good start, but they will continue to test us,” Titan predicted with a certain knowledge of the enemy. “We will need to ensure the Alliance knows of this and prepares for all that will come of it, for I do not doubt there will be repercussions for the acts here. We will also need to send the word to the Syndicate that if they even approach the safety zones they will be turned away with force.”

  “I just wish that I knew why they had suddenly become so brazen?” She sighed and shook her head. “First my mother hands me over to them, her heir, the only woman who will be able to carry the Seer line through yet she sent me off to become—” She stopped dead, a shiver wracking her form. “And now them coming into the safety zone and the Alliance territory as if they owned it?”

  Hugging her closer to him he rubbed at her back gently. “Don’t think of it, love,” he said softly as he stroked her bare back. “You are safe now and I will always keep you safe. I promise you that, little one,” he murmured against her ear. “I do not know why they suddenly grew a set, but we will discover it and we will ensure that they pay for their stupidity.”

  “I have to agree fully.” She rubbed her hands on his back, simply holding on to him for the comfort that he gave her and giving it back as best she could. “For now though we will simply focus on us. The three of us. We will learn how to be the family we have begun and everything past that will simply wait.” She knew it wouldn’t, but it sounded good to say it.

  “We will insist it wait,” he told her with a faint smile, kissing the end of her nose. “How are you and our darling child doing?” he asked as he slid a hand over her belly to begin a gentle massage.

  “We are doing well, Titan. Slightly hungry though, truth be told.” But she didn’t want to move from where she was. “How is the proud papa doing?” Her hands moved over his shoulders and down, needing to touch as much of him as she could while he caressed her belly.

  “Tired, a bit of a headache,” he admitted, resting his forehead to hers. “Very happy that my wife and child are safe and healthy,” he murmured, his eyes drifting shut. “I think I may just nap for a moment,” he told her before he turned his head to yawn widely.

  “I’m fine with that as long as I can turn over first.” She shifted in his arms so that her back was to his front and his hands lay over her belly and their child possessively. “So much nicer,” she murmured and adjusted her head on his shoulder. “Nap, darling. We will wake later.”

  Brushing his lips over her neck he breathed her in. “I love you, Violet,” he whispered before he yawned again. Settling down he tugged up the blankets even higher before placing his hand back on her belly. Titan snuggled into her heat. Closing his eyes he held her tight to him and, with her fingers lightly stroking the backs of his hands, he was soon drifting off to sleep.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Two months later

  Screams rent the air, tearing the calm to shreds as another contraction hit the woman laboring in the bed to give birth to the new heir. Obscenities were hurled toward the father to be, words that would send the most seasoned of war veterans running for cover.

  Another pause as the mother panted through the lull in pain and closed her eyes, tears falling. “Something’s wrong, Titan.” She had been in labor for eleven hours, hard birthing labor for nearly two, and the look on the midwife’s face confirmed her words.

  Holding her close to him Titan looked to the midwife. “Tell us.” He bit out the order. He was exhausted, crankier than his Lady wife, and half deaf from her screams. He’d rushed back from the city after a long day with the Alliance and beating his head to the wall yet again only to find Violet in agony and screaming bloody murder.

  “He’s very large, my Lord,” the woman began. “Your son, he’s a very, very large child and he is trying to come out feet first, almost sideways,” she added. “My Lord.” She swallowed hard, the sound audible. “My Lord, we need to somehow turn the child or we will need to take the child out through the Lady’s stomach.”

  Violet screamed again in pain. “Whatever you have to do. Please just do it, Titan!”

  Stroking back her hair gently Titan pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Do whatever is necessary,” he ordered the midwife with a sharp look. “Make sure that both mother and babe survive.” Or else you shan’t, was what hung silently in the too-humid air.

  Nodding in understanding of the threat hanging in the air the midwife whispered, “I need to get something. I will be right back.” She told him and then stood. “If you can do something for your Lady wife, my Lord, please place her in a trance or force her to sleep so that she won’t feel the pain of what I’m about to do?”

  Nodding he watched the birthing woman moving, his eyes never leaving her form and so, too, with the guards just inside the space. Titan was taking no chances with his Lady wife’s safety, hers or their child’s. “Violet, l
ove,” he said softly, hugging her to him as he stroked her cheek. “I need you to focus on my voice. I want you to push everything else aside and find your calm center inside.”

  Violet’s eyes opened and looked into his. “I’m trying, Titan,” she whispered and began tumbling into the abyss he was creating for her. She would no longer feel the midwife touch her. “I love you, Titan,” she whispered softly as she slipped deeper into the trance.

  “Keep breathing slowly,” he told her, letting his voice drop a little more. “I’ve got you safe, you are always safe in my arms,” he murmured, his voice dropping even lower. “You are my life, the very breath in my lungs,” Titan said as he watched her, the actions of the midwife noted from the corner of his eye. “Nice and easy, in and out, everything else falls away but you and I. Nothing else exists in this moment.”

  Violet nodded and breathed with him. “Good job, my Lord. Keep her there,” the midwife said as she pulled out a long, wicked-looking silver blade. “Keep her anchored to you, my Lord. I will do this as quickly as I can.” Another female came in closer with towels for the babe when he was born.

  Titan saw the midwife taking a deep breath from the corner of his eye, before she quickly made the incision on the lower part of Violet’s belly. Slicing through the skin and muscle she worked quickly before Violet’s body tried to heal itself from the injury. With sure and strong movements she cut into the sac where the child was and pulled him out unceremoniously and plopped him onto the waiting hands, with the towels, of the other midwife.

  Quickly she began to use a waxed thread to stitch up the cut she had opened on Violet and when done she pulled back. “She will hurt a lot until her body has healed her completely, my Lord. Don’t let her out of the bed until she has completed the healing process.” Standing with bloodied hands she smiled. “Your son.” She looked to the child. “We will let you move him where you want him and then move your wife so we can change her bedding. After that, my Lord, you need to take blood so that you can feed your wife. She will need it.”

  Nodding to the woman Titan kept the eye contact with Violet as he lifted her into his arms and settled her in the chaise to one side. Backing up he carefully maneuvered to lift his son before going back to his Lady wife, the boy cradled close to him even as he slowly began to bring Violet up and out of the trance. “Nice and slow, love, deep breath in and out,” he whispered. “I want you to come awake now, love, but do not move. There will be pain, you will want to shift, to move, but you must not. Do you understand?” he asked, holding the tiny quaking form of their son where she’d see him upon waking.

  Very slowly Violet came out of the trance. Several things hit her all at once. The pain, it was burning and intense, but more than that was their son who looked at her through his father’s eyes. She felt herself sniff and then sob. “He’s perfect,” she whispered finally and wanted to hold him, wanted to touch him but every movement she made hurt so she simply lay there, waiting.

  “He looks just like his mother,” Titan said with a smile as he touched her cheek. “I know you’re not comfortable right now, love. They are just cleaning up the bed and then we will lay you back in there and get you all settled. And then you can hold our boy here,” he added looking down to the wide eyes that were all his. “He’s beautiful, Violet,” he whispered, peeking to her. “You were amazing, love.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without you.” She leaned heavily against him and smiled as she looked into the face that was their child. “He’s so big.” He was large, for a newborn that was. “But he’s so very perfect, Titan. We did really well with him, didn’t we?”

  “He’s only going to get larger, love,” he pointed out softly to her as he kissed her hair lightly. “If my ancestors are anything to go by, he’s going to be at least my height and breadth. But he is perfect. We did brilliantly, my Lady wife. He will grow large and strong and with your influence he will be a better man than I ever was.”

  “I don’t know about that, Titan.” She smiled as she looked up at him. “He will be a wonderful man because he will have the both of us in his life, Titan. He will be a wonderful man because he will have not just me, but you as well.”

  “If you say so, love,” he told her quietly, kissing her gently. Brushing his fingers down her cheek he looked up as the midwives stepped back from the freshly made bed. Passing their son to one with some concern Titan eased Violet up in his arms.

  Violet hissed in pain as he moved her, her eyes clenched tight and gripped at his shirt tightly in her fist.

  “I know, baby,” he whispered at her sound of pain. “Slow, even breaths, love, not too deep or you’ll really hurt,” he warned as he moved quickly but smoothly to the bed. Easing her down on the cool and crisp sheets he pulled up on her gown. “Let’s get this off of you so you’ll be comfortable.”

  She nodded and bit her lip. “Can you send them all away please?” she asked and clenched her hands on his chest, her eyes darting past him and then back. “I just want some time alone with you and our son, please?”

  “I will, love,” he promised as he got the gown bunched at her waist and covered her with the sheet. Turning he took the baby from the woman and thanking them all, got them out of the room quickly. Locking the door he moved back the bed with his son. “Here’s Mommy,” he murmured as he laid his son on the bed. “Off with this,” he said to Violet and pulled the dressing gown off of her.

  “Hello, handsome.” She smiled, clearly instantly enamored with their son. “He looks just like you, Titan, only smaller. But he is most certainly not a tiny or petite child by any stretch. I love you, too, little man,” she whispered to their child. “He loves you, too, Daddy.” She passed on the message, one from their child obviously, to Titan as he stood over them protectively.

  Lifting a brow Titan tossed her soiled dressing gown to the bathing chamber where it could not mar anything but the large floor tiles. Sliding into the bed, a light pair of pants and shirt his only clothing, he lifted their son and settled him on his chest as he lay on his back at her side. “Is he still talking to you?” Titan asked out of curiosity never having known of this aspect before.

  “Yes, it’s really strange but he’s still talking to me and brushing me with emotions more than when in the womb.” Their son struggled to look up at him. “He’s hungry but doesn’t want to leave the warmth of you now that you are near. I can’t blame him for that either. I know it’s hard for me to leave your arms as well, husband.”

  Smiling faintly Titan shifted his son. “Well he should feed first and then he can come back to keep me company I think.” Lifting the large baby up he moved to a semi-sitting position with the pillows at his back and helping Violet up, laid their son in her arms. Wrapping his arms around her he helped with the weight of the baby so it didn’t do her any harm.

  Leaning into her husband Violet smiled as she watched their son quickly latching on and then snorting like a piglet as he began to feed quickly, hungrily. Shaky fingers smoothed over the light down hair that covered his head and a smile broke her lips. “Thank you, Titan, for giving me our son, for giving me a life outside of what was thrust on me.” She looked up with tears shimmering. “And for loving me when you had no reason to.”

  Cupping her cheek he brushed at a tear with a thumb and then, dropping a light kiss on her lips he smiled in return. “I had all the reason in the world to love you, Violet, and I’m all the more glad that you let me into your life. If you had not we would not be here now and I shudder to think just where we might each be.”

  “It would not be a very pretty place at all,” she said simply and sighed. “But we are here, we are one, and we are together. Nothing and no one will ever come between us.”

  “They’d never dare,” he teased with a smile. “You would beat them silly I should think.” Stroking her cheek lightly he looked down when their son snorted. “Have you chosen a name for this proud lad?” he asked softly.

  “I was thinking Delfan for my father,” sh
e asked more than spoke. “A man I never knew because my mother killed him for trying to get me away from the Oracle Temple. What would you think, Titan?”

  “I like it,” he said, kissing her temple. “I think that Delfan is the perfect name and a great honor for our baby boy. He will be carrying a generation past into the future so that it is never forgotten,” he murmured. “Good choice, my Lady love.”

  “Thank you, Titan.” She leaned into him and grinned. “Our next son will be TJ, Titan Junior.” She looked up mischievously at him. “So we will have to work hard on creating him. I’ve decided and that’s all that matters with that.”

  Groaning he laid his forehead on her shoulder. “If I didn’t love you so much I’d have to hate you for that,” he murmured. Pressing a kiss to her shoulder he lightly rubbed his chin to her skin. “You are a very mean female. Have I mentioned that?” he asked, nipping at her skin.

  Snickering she shook her head. “Well, what is it that you want to hate me for? The fact that I want a Titan Junior or the fact that I mention that I want to practice lots and lots?”

  “The Junior part,” he told her, giving her a slight squeeze. “Never for the practice. I will never mind practicing making babies with you,” he said with a smile. “Especially since we’ll have about a century before you will be fertile enough to have another, we can get in a lot of practice.”

  “Oh I love how that sounds. I would love to be able to have a whole century or so to practice making babies with you. It might be long enough to get it just about right to make a little girl maybe?” She turned up to look at him and smiled. “But he’s so perfect, Titan.”

  “I approve of the little girl,” he said with a grin to her. “That way I know what her name won’t be.” He chuckled slightly. Pressing a kiss to her cheek he looked to their son. “He is very cute,” he agreed. “Small, but I’m sure he will grow with time.”