1.31

Karrick had slipped away from Ty’s and Kaylee’s during all the commotion and started the walk home. His mind was in turmoil. How could he have not realized that she was having twins? And which baby had he felt the instant connection with? It made no sense. Rubbing a hand over his face he tilted his head back to stare up at the heavens. Maybe the deity that the humans called God would shed some light on this situation.
“Well?” he demanded after a few moments. He heaved a sigh when he still didn’t get a response then continued on his way home.
The old house that he and Kava shared came into view. Even from down the block he could hear the music blasting from the garage. He shook his head. He didn’t really feel like talking to anyone right now but if he missed their usual work out session Kava would nag him until he told her. Cutting across the yard he headed toward the garage.

He winced when the garage door opened and the music hit his ears. It was some kind of rock music that she swore by and that he could never understand. He stood in the door way for a moment and watched as his sister pounded on the punching bags. She must have been at this for awhile, he realized since he could smell the fragrance their body put off when they were overheated. R'ouglians didn’t sweat. They didn’t have those glands but while the scent they gave off when overheated was offensive to them, most other species considered it a pleasant fragrance. He had even found merchants at the market that had been able to duplicate the scent and were selling it as a fragrance.
Sighing, he stepped into the garage.

“HI-YA!”
Out the corner of her eye Kava noticed her little brother enter the garage. She inwardly frowned at the distracted look on his face. Steadying herself she kicked at the bags in rapid succession before swiftly bring her leg down and going for a right hook. Karrick walked by without even acknowledging her. She frowned. They had had always been close. Maybe because they came from the same donors and grew up in the same household. She tentative tried to reach out to him with her thoughts but quickly receded when she encountered a jumble of emotions and chaotic thoughts. Her frown deepened.
She had woken up this morning to realize that Karrick was already gone. When she had contacted The Wise they had told her that Kaylee had gone into labor and they wished to visit her for a minute. She had known then that Karrick had gone to see the birth of his true mate. She would think that he would be ecstatic at finally getting to meet the one person that had been created solely for him. She shook her head. She would never fully understand her brother.

Karrick punched half heartedly at the bag as the music continued to thump around him. Twins. The Wise had to have known that Kaylee was carrying twins. Why hadn’t they told him? Maybe he could have spent more time trying to decipher which one was his future mate instead of assuming that he already knew. Karrick liked to be prepared. Sometimes he thought if he hadn’t went into the warrior caste he might have enjoyed the medical field. Facts and numbers rarely changed. When fighting one always had to be aware of every variable and then try to predict each and every outcome. It was taxing on the brain and body. Giving one more punch, that would have knocked a full grown man out but Karrick considered a tap, he walked over to the weight bench.

He studied the weights. Kava had been on here last. He usually kept the weights at six hundred and fifty but Kava insisted that she was trying to keep her girlish figure so she always dropped it down to five hundred. Adjusting the weights he absently began his repetitions as his mind wandered.
Okay, so there were two babies. A boy and a girl. Granted, it would be natural, at least for humans, to think that the female child was his true mate. However, R'ouglians didn’t pay attention to the gender. The reason was simple. His people were able to alter their genetic makeup. It was believed that the Creator had made them this way so their race wouldn’t die out.
So, going down that vein he thought, if the girl child was his mate he would have to be the one to change. The females of his race were the ones to carry the seeds while the males carried the children. They still had the same equipment as humans, Karrick had taken note of that in the locker room, it just looked and functioned differently.
Curious, he had initiated intercourse several times with human females and the result had been much like a sneeze. A tingle, an outburst and then it was over. They had laid their twitching and mouths hanging open like dead fish while he had calmly gotten dressed. He didn’t understand the fuss.

Kava grinned as her feet beat a rapid temp on the treadmill. This was what she enjoyed. This is what she had been born for. Her body was an instrument and she enjoyed pushing it to the highest level it could go…and then going one step further. As Nirvana screamed about teen spirit, just what did that mean, she upped the speed until her feet were just a blur and her hearts were beating a rapid tempo in her chest. Absently she noticed behind her that Karrick was moving at a slower pace. Usually he would do reps of two hundred with his arms and then switch to his legs in the span of ten minutes. Today he was moving at such a slow pace she would be surprised if he finished before it grew dark. She scowled and then slapping the off button she hopped off the treadmill and walked over to him.

She stood staring down at him for at least five minutes as he continued to absently lift weights. He was somewhere else completely and if there wasn’t any focus while training the muscles in the body were just going by memory and weren’t being pushed to the limit.
“What do you need Kava?” he asked her suddenly.
“I need to understand why you’re so…distant Karrick. Your body is here but your mind is somewhere else completely. Brother, you met your true mate today. Why are your emotions much like Kaylee’s when she was PMSing?”
“When she was what?”
Kava shrugged. “Its something that human woman do apparently. One minute their happy and the next their blubbering all over the place. Annoying actually. It’s like watching a grivcha eat its young and then wail about losing it.”
Karrick smiled. “Ah yes. A grivcha. Do you think they survived?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They probably ended up making themselves extinct. Come Karrick. Don’t change the subject. What bothers you?”
“Do you realize that you speak to me differently? Your more apt at picking up human slang than I am but yet you still speak to me as if we were on our home world.”
“That’s because you are my home brother. Now sit up so we may talk.”

Smiling briefly Karrick did as instructed then planting his hands stared straight ahead. “Kaylee had her babies.”
“Yes, I know.”
He looked at her in surprise. “You knew she was having twins?”
Kava nodded. “I spoke to The Wise several months ago. They said-”
“You spoke to The Wise and you didn’t think to tell me that Kaylee was having twins? I was most surprised at this turn of events.”
Kava shrugged. “Karrick, you know that I don’t care for babies. I consider them parasites at best.”
“You like Gabe.”
“Gabe is a warrior. I can understand him. Babies…I will never understand them.”
“Kava, do you not ever think of having children?”
Her reply was a short curse in their native tongue. “No. Karrick, I am a R'ouglian female. We don’t get the urge to have children. You males are.”
“Even after all these years on Earth Kava? Don’t you-”
“No Karrick. I am a warrior. I would not make a good mother. But this isn’t about me. So, you met your true mate this morning. What I don’t get is the long face.”
Karrick stood. “I couldn’t figure out which one was for me. What if I’m never able to figure it out and I pick the wrong one?”

Kava slapped one hand into the other. “Karrick,” she snapped. “Use your head. These children were just pushed through a dark, damp channel and thrust into this loud, noisy world. They have to adjust before they’ll open themselves up again so that you can sense them.” She sighed and threaded her hands through her hair.
“You always were the shy one Karrick. You’re a fantastic warrior but when it came down to the killing move you’d always hesitate before finishing it.”
“I don’t enjoy war Kava. I like to think that those we fight were forced into it. I try to search for a little remorse before I granted them peace.”
“Peace is not to be found for us Karrick. Not until there is peace everywhere.”
He tilted his head. “We don’t fight so much on Earth.”
“That’s because if we even came out scientist would want to swarm us, poke at us, prod us. Make us their projects. You know this Karrick. Why else would you disguise the way you look when you go to away games?”

“Kava?”
“Yes?”
“I-I thought I had came to terms with having a true mate but now meeting the person who I will love beyond anything…it’s a scary thought. Why me? What do I know of love?”
“It is your path Karrick.”
“And what is yours sister?”
She looked away. “My path is my own. There is nothing I can do to prevent it even if I wanted to. I embrace it.”
He leaned in touching foreheads with her. A symbolic gesture between family members. “What would I do without you?”
She cupped his cheeks. “You will live and tell your children about their kick ass aunt of course.” She pinched his cheeks when he rolled his eyes.

Karrick enjoyed cooking. Living in the barracks with the other warriors and living on rations was what he had been used to. After being here on Earth he couldn’t imagine going back to that bland food. He hummed to himself as he stirred the ingredients in the bowl. Although he did miss some of the traditional food of his planet. Those foods couldn’t be duplicated with Earth ingredients.
“Kava are you going to eat?” he yelled. After coming upstairs his sister had headed into the shower.
“No, I have a date!” she yelled back from the bedroom.
The bowl clattered on the counter and Karrick quickly righted it before the contents spilled. He frowned. “A date? Do I know this man?” he demanded.
Her laughter reached him.

He had just finished eating when her arm came over his shoulder and she picked up his bowl.
“How do I look?”
Karrick studied her. Kava never wore dressy clothes. Ever since crash landing here she had been fascinated with the ‘alternative’ culture. Now, his sister looked as if she’d never even stepped foot into a pair of jeans or a leather corset.
“You look beautiful Kavanh K’atri. More beautiful than our female donor and I always thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.”
Kava brushed a hand over his head before rounding the table and heading to the sink.

“He wants to take me out somewhere special so suggested I wear something nice.”
“Who is he?”
She shrugged. “Just some rocker that’s out to impress me with how much money he has.”
“Does he not know who I am?” Karrick asked, offended. Sure, he wasn’t as big a name as Ty but still…
“Nope, why would I tell him that you could buy and sell him? I’m enjoying all the effort he’s putting in to try and bed me. Then I’m going to rock his world and leave him begging for more.”
“Kava….”
She shrugged. “No worries Karrick. As I haven’t been so lucky as to meet my true mate I still don’t have a womb.” She shuddered as she dried off her hands. “Can you imagine me with a womb? The horror!”
Karrick had to laugh at her facial expression.

Looking over at him she grinned.
“So, what are you going to do if the girl child is your mate? I’ve seen the wistful looks you used to give the men when they were carrying. Karrick, you were born to be a father. To carry your child close to your heart. That's what the Creator intended.”
He shrugged. “In order to have those children I would have to be the one to produce the seed.”
“Meaning that you would have to destroy your womb.”
He tapped his fingers on the table. “Yes.”
“Karrick-”
A car horn interrupted her. She stared at him for a moment before blowing him a kiss and heading toward the stairs.

Karrick walked into the bedroom and looked out the window to see a laughing Kava race down the sidewalk and throw herself into the arms of a blond headed man. He steadied her before he bent down to place a hungry kiss on her mouth. Karrick closed his eyes.
It would have been better if he hadn’ t known that he had a true mate bond. Now he would never be able to even casually date. And he had to wait at least eighteen years. And there was no guarantee that which ever twin was his mate would want him back. Just because there was a mate bond didn’t mean that he would have their heart. They could fall in love with someone else. Humans were fickle creatures.
Turning away from the window he laid across the bed.

Eighteen years. While it wasn’t long in the g rand scheme of things it seemed to stretch before him like a black hole. There would be no one else for him. There couldn’t be anyone else for him. And so…he just had to wait.