Page 22 of His Human Rebel
“You remain scared of our appearance?”
“Yes, especially when I meet someone new, or there is a group of you.”
“Do you want to try to eat with the other males tonight or do you want to stay and eat here? Either way, it's up to you. I want you to be comfortable.”
“Thank you.” She takes a deep breath. “I want to eat with you and the workers in the bunkhouse.” Then she lifts the tiny beast with a spot of white and gives it a kiss. “But first, we need to put these babies away in their crate.”
Chapter 8
Rake
The moon is out and the evening has a cool breeze.
We leave the house and head to the bunkhouse for dinner and for once I’m not alone and have my female by my side. She smiles when I take her hand and we stride together across the front of our domicile and cut across the road to the bunkhouse.
“This is so amazing to me, all the work that must’ve gone into you setting this new ranch up, as an offshoot from the original main ranch.”
“It was hard work,” I agree. “I moved out here in the wilderness and scouted out the best location to build a barn and later my ranch house. I hired Lorn, who was in charge of the pasture lands, directly under the ranch manager, for the main ranch while I was growing up. I’ve known him basically my whole life. He’s fifteen years older than me but still going strong and he enjoys being the ranch manager with me here on this secondary ranch. The main ranch is a historic ranch, but this is a new operation and therefore a greater challenge. It helps that he’s an expert at pastureland ecology considering I’ve got more of that than anyone else.”
“What you do here that’s different than your brothers? Or do you run your ranches the same?”
“My operation is smaller than either of my brothers’ and I like to keep it that way. It’s more intimate, but I do take in enough currency to make us highly profitable. This is because I’ve specialized in a specific type of pyrotaur that is raised only on sweet wildlands grass. Hyrrokin with specific allergies are happy to pay more for this delicacy. And there are enough of them to keep me in business.”
We approach the two-story building that houses all the employees. “This is the barracks.”
I open the door, startled to see my normally rough-looking employees looking so quiet and smiling. Lorn must’ve told them we would probably be having dinner and to expect us. All of them are clean and dressed in their best clothing.
Stella and I step inside and the door closes behind us. The Hyrrokin all stop what they are doing and stare at the glorious human female in our midst. Not one of them makes a single noise.
She remains still and hides beside me, gazing at them with eyes wide.
I squeeze her hand and introduce her to the assembled group. “This is Stella Smith,” I announce, this time telling them the whole truth. “She is a human I originally purchased as a bound. But there was mistake and she was sent here under different conditions. When she met me in town and explained her situation, I told her that I still wanted her as my bound. She has agreed to remain here with me for the next month and I am in the midst of convincing her that she needs to walk with me to the courthouse.”
The men all chuckle with good humor.
I glance down and see that her cheeks look flushed and she remains quiet, which is unlike my talkative female.
“She also carries the offspring of another human male in her womb,” I continue, “and will give birth during the rainy season. This other male is not her mate and is not ever going to be this child’s father. Therefore, I am declaring that Stella’s human child is mine and will be raised as a Flagstone. When she accompanies me to the courthouse, I will formally adopt this child. I expect all of you to treat her pregnancy as if this child were biologically mine. We will raise this human offspring in the same tradition we would if he or she were Hyrrokin.”
She glances at me with surprise.
I pull her closer and place a hand over her lower stomach. “They are both mine.”
There are claps of congratulations and my staff reach out and shake my hand and give my female welcoming smiles and greetings and words of congratulations.
I whisper in her ear, “They can scent your additional pheromone trail, as I can, and they also know the child you carry is not Hyrrokin.”
“Does that mean all the employees at the transporter station knew I was pregnant? Lorn knew when he met me earlier?”
“Yes, they knew and were confused. Now I’ve explained and we can all move forward.”
“But I haven’t fully decided yet on whether I’m staying or not,” she whispers. “We just met.”
“You can still change your mind later.” I press my lips against her ear. “Although, my hope is that you will stay.”
“Well, you are very persuasive.”
“Good.”