“We’ve been talking about it for a while, and a lot of us are going to go the Brangelina route,” Georgie says. “Combine our names with our mate’s names, since the babies are going to be the first of their kind.”
“Yeah, it’d be a little weird to have a horned kid running around named ‘Joe’ or ‘Billy’ when everyone else is named things like Raahosh and Vektal,” Liz adds.
“So like…Georgie and Vektal would be…Georgal? Or Vektie?”
Georgie makes a face. “We have a name picked out and it’s not as bad as that.”
“Oh, come on. It could be worse.” Liz’s lips twitch. “It could be Raahosh and Vektal’s names we’re mashing together. Their kid could be…Rectal.”
Laughter explodes in the cave, and for the next few minutes, we crack up trying to make awful pairings of names. Liz jokes that their kid will be called Ho-shiz and Kira and Aehako’s called Crack-ho, and we all lose it again.
“Stop, stop,” Nora gasps, clutching her sides and giggling madly. “You’re going to make me pee on myself.”
“Easy for you to say,” Stacy chimes in, wiping tears from her eyes. “I had this discussion with Pashov last night when we were in bed. He told me that he thought our baby should be called Shovy. For Stac-y and Pa-shov.”
“Shovy!” Liz howls. “Oh God, that’s the worst!”
“You guys be quiet!” Ariana bellows at us from her cave. “I have a stinking headache!”
We sober up, but a few giggles still escape the group. I’m grinning so hard my face hurts. It’s moments like this I’ve missed while being alone with Rukh. The seaside cave is quiet and lovely and spacious…but it’s lonely, too.
But if things hadn’t happened like they did, I wouldn’t have my Rukh and my baby on the way. I pat my stomach and the baby kicks me in response. I like how things turned out. “So, how is Kira?” I ask. “She’s at the other cave, right?”
Georgie nods and rubs her belly absently. “She’s great. She’s so stinking happy with Aehako. You’ve never seen someone smile so much, really. It’s wonderful to see.”
I don’t know Kira as well as Georgie and Liz, but I’m glad to hear that. “And Claire?”
Nora wrinkles her nose. “She moved in with that pushy Bek guy.”
“Oh, so they resonated?”
“Didn’t say that,” Nora corrects me. “He’s just so determined to have her as his mate that he moved her in anyhow. He’s super bossy. No one likes him.”
“Maybe he’s good in the sack,” Marlene chimes in.
Stacy breaks out into the giggles again.
Marlene shrugs. “Maybe so. It is not the worst reason to have a mate.”
Georgie doesn’t look quite so convinced. She glances over at me again. “Tiffany’s doing awesome, of course. Last time I saw her, she had three guys dancing to her tune. She never picks one over another. Just lets all three of them pay attention to her. They give her all kinds of gifts, too. Girl’s got it made. She doesn’t have to hunt, doesn’t have to do anything. She could lie in bed all day—“
“Like Ariana,” Nora whispers.
Stacy elbows her.
“—But you know that’s not how Tiff is,” Georgie continues. “I swear she loves this roughing-it shit. Last time I visited their cave? She told me she was saving her pee because she read in a book that pee made a good leather curing agent.” She wrinkles her nose.
“Remind me not to ask her to make me any clothing,” I murmur.
Stacy giggles again.
A sharp cramp shoots up my belly and I shift in place, uncomfortable. I’m used to things cramping and flexing and adjusting with the pregnancy, but that was a particularly sharp one. I barely pay attention to the conversation as Georgie talks about Josie, and how she and Haeden still hate each other and it’s a source of amusement for the tribe to watch them bicker. Georgie looks at me as she talks and I smile, but I mostly want to get up and walk out this cramp.
“Well?”
I glance over at Georgie. I missed what she was saying. “Hmm?”
“I asked if you’re going to stay with the tribe or if you’re going to go when Rukh leaves?”
I stare at her in shock. “He’s leaving?”
Her expression grows worried. “He told Vektal that he wouldn’t stay here.”
I don’t know what to say. Rukh hasn’t discussed anything with me. In fact, every time I bring up when we’re going back to the seaside cave, he changes the subject. Dread fills me. Is…is he going to leave me behind? I thought he loved me. “I don’t know,” I whisper to Georgie.