Hearts of Ishira (Hearts of Ishira Saga) (51 page)

“I do not know what I will do if something happens to our little warrior,” Hunter murmured softly. Jace stared at him.

“You have fallen in love with her?” Jace asked quietly.

Hunter slowly nodded, turning agonized eyes toward the younger man, feeling for once as though he was the one who needed guidance, not the other way around. Jace had yet to make love to Arianna. Perhaps he did not fully understand how incredible she was, how loving and giving she could be. But Hunter had. Many times now. Twice last night and once upon waking this morn. She had looked so lovable and sexy, lying there with her disheveled hair and sleepy morning smile. When she had stretched and the blanket had slipped from her breasts, it was all he could do not to pounce on her immediately.

He had, out of politeness, waited until she had stretched and yawned
. Then
he’d pounced, much to their combined delight. She was so very uninhibited first thing in the morning.

“I fear that I have. If something happens to her now…” Hunter’s voice trailed off.

They were quiet for long moments, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, scrubbing a hand over his weary face, Jace sighed.

“I will take her to the med center and run more tests in the morning,” Jace said. “I have to be missing something. Perhaps if I get one of the other ladies to act as a sort of… control… so I can see if there is anything out of the ordinary with Ari…”

His voice trailed off and both warriors cocked their heads toward Hunter’s bedroom, listening to the growing sounds of distress coming from their Ri. Throwing each other horrified looks, they rushed into the room.

She dreamed of blood, of pain, of a tearing sensation in her lower body, and she awoke crying at the very real pain gripping her. Terrified, she curled into a ball and breathed through the abdominal cramps, praying that if this was a reaction to some of the foreign foods she’d been eating recently, it would kill her quickly, rather than slowly.

When the cramp eased up, she found that Jace was holding her, rocking her and rubbing her back a bit. It helped. She was able to relax for a little bit before another cramp hit her.

“It feels like I’m being ripped in two!” she wept into Jace’s chest.

Then she felt a gush of fluid between her legs, and fear nearly stopped her heart. Mortified and scared at the same time, she looked up at Jace.

“I… think I’m bleeding, Jace!” she said, her voice small and scared.

The medic in him sprang to alert and he immediately swept her out of bed and through the main living area. Hunter followed on his heels.

When they arrived in the medical wing, Jace nearly tossed her onto the scanning bed, punching commands into the machine before she could really get her bearings. She held perfectly still, her heart thundering, as another cramp seized her. Tears slid down her face, leaking into her ears as she stared up at the ceiling of the med center. Her fists clenched against the agony in her belly, but she stayed still, by God. She wanted to know what was happening to her.

A minute later, when Jace opened the machine, he and Hunter both looked pale, stunned.

“What?” she asked, her voice quavering. Hunter was shielding from her, which only frightened her more. “What’s wrong with me?”

“It’s… odd.” Jace finally told her. His face recovered some of its color as he handed her a medical gown and a thick pair of short pants, along with some scraps of material usually used for bandages. She blushed mightily, but allowed Jace to help her into the bathroom so she could clean herself and change clothes. He paled again at the amount of blood on the chemise she’d been wearing that evening, then shut the door so she could do what needed doing.

When she emerged, shaky and hobbling, Hunter picked her up like a child and deposited her on the closest bed. He looked to be in shock. Before either man could say a word, another cramp seized her and she doubled over, but wouldn’t allow either of them to touch her until it passed. Breathing heavily, she sat back and looked at them, wondering what was happening. The shock on their faces was scaring her.

“Jace, please,” she begged softly. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing.”

She frowned at him, not understanding.

“Nothing? That’s impossible! Something has to be horribly wrong! I shouldn’t be feeling this way, hurting where I’m hurting. And I certainly shouldn’t be bleeding from where I’m bleeding, unless something is really badly damaged inside me! Was it because Hunter and I made love? Did it do something we had no way of knowing about?”

She was crying, she was so scared by the time she was done. Jace’s brow furrowed in concern, as did Hunter’s, but neither offered comfort. Instead, Hunter strode to the medical scanner and turned the screen so that she could see it.

For a moment, she didn’t understand what she was looking at, though she had far too much practice looking at scans and x-rays of her insides. More than any woman of her age should have had. Then she felt the shock as understanding hit her like a ton of bricks.

“I… that shouldn’t be there,” she breathed, touching the mass of her womb on the screen. She threw a perplexed look at both men. “That was removed. It was faulty. Damn thing tried to kill me. Why is it there? Could there be a software glitch? This can’t be my scan. I don’t have one of those anymore!”

“The scan would indicate otherwise,” Jace said drily. Hunter’s brow rose in question as he faced her once more.

“But… I had to have my womb removed five years ago, to save my life. I don’t understand why the scan is showing that I now have one, but I promise you, it was not there when I left Earth!”

“Do your people, perhaps, regenerate organs and you forgot to mention that little detail?” Hunter asked, his voice hard and clipped. Ri stared at him, hurt and bewildered at his tone and the fact that she couldn’t Read him at all. What was he thinking, that she had purposely misled him to try to play on his sympathies? She felt her heart clench, that he could possibly think something like that of her. Her tears fell in earnest as another cramp seized her and she doubled over, lying on the bed.

Hunter started softening even before Jace spoke, though, realizing by the look on her face that he might have jumped to conclusions far too quickly. Sighing, he let his shield down and Read her. When he saw that she had no idea what was going on, he felt horrible.

“Ri, what was wrong with it, that you had to have your womb removed?” Jace asked, his expression thoughtful and curious.

“It was a family trait, I think,” she told him miserably, hugging herself since neither of them seemed inclined to do so. “My dad’s side of the family always had issues with their female parts, and all of them had trouble conceiving or carrying a baby. It wasn’t really a surprise when I started having problems, but I hadn’t had any kids yet and had already lost one, so it broke my heart when I had to have the hysterectomy.”

“A family trait?” Jace asked, grabbing her hands, growing excitement in his voice. “Not an accident or injury that required its removal, but a genetic defect?”

“Well, yes,” she answered, wondering why he was suddenly grinning. Jace whooped and grabbed her up, kissing her soundly before depositing her back on the table and hugging his brother. Hunter gazed at her, stunned, as the information processed.

“It’s
genetic
, Hunter!”

While Arianna didn’t understand, Hunter suddenly seemed to, and his smile was enough to light the room. It took her breath away, even if she was still really confused, hurting, and grumpy. When he, too swept her up and kissed her until her head spun, she grew even more confused. Jace swung around and tapped a few commands on the scanner’s touchpad. The screen now displayed two scans. Hunter carried her closer so that she could see better.

“Both of these are your scans, Ri,” Jace said excitedly, pointing out the injured ribs on one, the healing ribs on the other. Then he pointed to the empty area on the first one, and the uterus on the second. She still didn’t fully understand. It appeared that she’d regenerated her womb. But how in the world was that possible?

Before she could ask about it, her belly seized once more, doubling her over in pain and bringing both men to her aid instantly. Hunter held her close as Jace pressed a syringe to her arm and gave her an injection of muscle relaxer. In moments, the cramp had subsided and she was trying to catch her breath from it.

“What did you give me?” she asked thickly as the medicine took effect and she felt the now-familiar weightlessness. Jace grinned.

“A mild muscle-relaxer,” he said, “For the cramps. And this,” he pressed another syringe into her other arm, “Is one more booster for the medicine I gave you the first day.”

“Oh.”

“Arianna, do you remember what I told you about that vaccine the day you came here?” he asked gently, threading his fingers through her hair. She shook her head.

“Something about it fixing things in me?” she muttered. He nodded enthusiastically.

“It doesn’t just fix damaged stuff like broken bones and wounds. It also identifies and repairs genes that are damaged by environmental factors. Our people have had to deal with chemical and biological warfare for many years now, so we developed the general medicine with nanos that would also repair damage to DNA that such things might cause. I’m betting that it was only in recent generations that your father’s family had issues, am I right?”

She nodded, mute, as her brain tried to process what he was telling her. It took a moment for that to penetrate, but when it did, she blinked up at him in dawning joy.

“It… fixed me?” she breathed, her hand going to her belly in wonder. He nodded again, grinning. “So… I might be able to…”

“Bear children?” Jace cut in, his voice rough with emotion. “Yes. You should have as much chance now as any other woman to bear children. I will have to do further tests to be sure, but from what I’m seeing, your hormones are more in the normal range than when you got here, and it appears that everything is as it should be. You do appear to have cystic ovaries, but I’m sure that will resolve as the nanos work, as well. And though it looks like the nanos are returning everything in there to pre-surgical conditions, I might have to do some minor surgery, to reconnect certain things that were altered when you had the operation you speak of, but…”

His voice trailed off when she burst into tears rather spectacularly. She wasn’t quiet or pretty about it. The tears she cried were great, big, hot, tears of joy that the men took turns wiping or kissing from her cheeks as they fell. They sat on either side of her, one holding her while the other rubbed her back or shoulders or stroked her hair soothingly.

The muscle relaxers kicked in at some point and she was barely aware when Hunter carried her back to their quarters and tucked her into his bed. But this time, instead of leaving her there and sleeping on the couch, Hunter crawled into bed with her, gathering her close to his big body and holding her securely. After a few minutes, Jace, who didn’t want to be left out of this very special moment, cuddled to her back, snuggling close, his arm over both his mate and his brother.

They fell asleep like that, with Arianna snug between them, all of them lighter in heart than they’d been since the women crashed on Ishira.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

It was a new day, full of hope and excitement.

While Hunter and Jace took turns caring for her, Arianna grinned through her cramps, pressing a hot compress to her belly. Not that she needed help, really, but it seemed to make the men feel better, so who was she to argue? And they did seem to be proficient at it, knowing when to hold her, when to leave her alone, where to rub and what not to say or do to piss her off. She thought of her horrible PMS issues and was incredibly thankful that she now had a mate who could Read her mind. That would come in very handy when her emotions got out of control.

“There was a time when I was used to this,” she panted at one point, trying to catch her breath after a particularly brutal spasm. “It happened all the time, so much that I didn’t even use pain meds after awhile… I just kind of got used to it.”

“But not now?” Jace asked, grinning wryly and shaking his hand gingerly. She had nearly broken the damn thing with that last cramp. She laughed shortly.

“Not so much,” she agreed. Then she smiled up at him. “But I’m so very glad it’s back! I never in a million years thought I’d say that about my period!”

He leaned down and kissed her gently, wiping a bit of pain-induced sweat from her brow. “I cannot imagine your grief, knowing that you could not bear children,” he told her earnestly. “But I see how happy you are now. I can see what this means to you. I can only hope that we can now think about having a real family, of our own. Hunter and I want nothing less for you.”

“Jace,” she breathed, touching his cheek. He deepened the kiss, then drew back when she whimpered with pain. She laughed through her tears. “Well, that’s certainly a show-stopper!”

Jace laughed ruefully. The woman could make him smile no matter what was going on. His heart lurched at that realization. Shit. He was falling for her, just as surely as his brother had.

For two days, she struggled with the pain, and was a bit weak from anemia, since her body was not used to giving up blood for any reason in the past five years. Jace followed through with an examination that embarrassed her but didn’t seem to phase him, then declared that somehow, the nanos had figured out what needed repairing, what needed to be re-connected, and had managed to fully ‘fix’ her, with no sign of the former trauma she had sustained through surgery. Jace kept her in the infirmary with him the entirety of one of his shifts, so that he could give her additional nutrients, keep track of her iron levels, and keep the pain at bay for her. He fussed over her so much that she couldn’t get annoyed with him. Back on Earth, men tended to leave women alone during their periods. Here, her men could not do enough to help make her more comfortable.