I lifted a brow and looked at my mate. But she wasn’t looking at me any longer, she was looking at the baby with longing in her eyes.
“Someday, Rezzer. Someday, I will give you a baby.”
Kristin groaned from the bed, taking her time as her gaze wandered up and down my frame. “Good luck, girlfriend. I thought a Prillon baby was big. I can’t imagine an Atlan. But then, you’re at least six foot. So much more room.” She was rubbing her abdomen, but she was smiling. “I hate tall people. It’s completely unfair.”
Kristin sighed, the sound odd, but Caroline seemed to understand because she was grinning like the two women had shared some kind of secret.
“Six-one when I have to admit it.” Caroline recited the numbers as if they meant something. I’d have to ask her to explain later as the words did not please the other female.
“God, I knew it. It’s so not fair.” The new mother was studying my mate with a look I knew well from our days in the field together, hunting Hive. “What did you do back on Earth anyway? Rachel was a scientist for some massive pharmaceutical company. I was in the FBI.”
“No way.”
“Way.” Kristin adjusted the blanket around her thighs and tried to reach for one of the pillows.
She struggled with it, and before I could blink, Tyran was there. She smiled at him with a softness I had not seen before. I knew her with an ion blaster in her hand, ready to hunt. This new version of her, soft and submissive, loving, was completely foreign. “And Lindsey is a public relations or journalist or something. She’s making videos and handles the Colony marketing campaign back on Earth.”
“I saw them.” My mate confirmed. “She’s really good.”
“I know, right?”
Kristin settled back into her newly adjusted pillows as I held the baby. She’d fallen asleep, and I found I couldn’t stop staring at her tiny little features, a mixture of Earth and Prillon warrior. She had her mother’s softer features, but a golden tone to her skin that was lovely. Hunt and Tyran were going to need an arsenal to protect her from interested males. Gods, what if our child was female? I needed to begin gathering weapons now…
“So?” Kristin prompted.
“So what?” Caroline asked.
“What did you do? Back on Earth?”
“I was a market analyst on Wall Street. A broker. I was getting ready to open my own firm.”
“What happened?”
“Convicted of insider trading.”
“Did you do it?” Kristin asked.
Caroline chuckled. “Me and Martha Stewart.” Her gaze slid to me, then back to Kristin. “This sounded like a better option than prison, plus all the fees, and I lost my license.”
I had not heard any of this, but then I had not asked. I did not know what Wall Street was, or this style of trading my mate discussed. But Kristin understood, and she seemed unaffected by the revelations.
“So, you’re an analyst.”
Caroline shrugged. “I’m good with patterns and money. Great with financial statements and seeing through bullshit numbers.”
“Excellent.”
Hunt stepped forward, and I handed the babe to her father. Well, one of her fathers. With Kristin’s genetic beauty on such display, it was impossible to determine which of the Prillon warriors had sired her. And I had been told that her mates preferred it that way.
“You can help the acquisitions and new arrival teams. With the new mates arriving here and on the other bases, and an increase in the number of contaminated warriors we are receiving, we could use someone with your skills to help us anticipate and determine what supplies and personnel to request from the Fleet.”
Tyran stepped forward and lifted the baby from Hunt’s grasp with a hungry look in his eyes that Hunt appeared unwilling to deny. “Yes, Lady Caroline. Hunt here could use your help. The whole base could use your help. Governor Rone is also setting up new defense perimeters, and we’ll need to figure out how to supply the warriors out on patrol as well as create a schedule for payment and deliveries to the Fleet with so many of our warriors spending more time on patrol.”
“Payment? What do you all pay with? I thought you were all dependent on the Fleet. That everything was generated by the S-Gen modules and no one paid for anything out here.”
Hunt shook his head. “No. We don’t pay with any type of money you would recognize. But we have the largest supply of the minerals necessary to run our transport technology. It was the reason the Prillon Prime decided to place the Colony here, on this ugly, forgotten world. We don’t pay for anything, but we do have production quotas that need to be met.”
“You’re miners?” Caroline’s gasp was outraged. “They banish you and turn you into miners?”