With eight guards helping, Hen's things were loaded onto Monna in only a couple of minutes. I had let Sheph know that we had a permanent medical technician available and she was ecstatic at the news and said she would let everyone else know, too. Hailey sat down in the pilot seat to take Monna out of standby mode while I strapped Hen into the seat behind the pilot.

“Before you leave to begin your life's journey with your mate, there is something we should tell you.” The first avian woman said from just outside Monna's side hatch. “Hunter, I... we... we have done something...” The first avian woman tried to tell me something important and was having trouble finding the right words to express herself.

I caught the thoughts from her mind of what she wanted to say and I stepped out of Monna's side hatch, took her into my arms, and kissed her. The eight guards drew their weapons and took off the safety, then put their clawed fingers into the trigger holes to wait for their shot to kill me.

“Hold.” The second avian woman said, even though she wanted to see if my words about the personal shields were right.

I broke the kiss and the first avian woman stared at me in surprise. “Even chirps and tweets in your own language can't tell you how honored I am that you found me worthy enough to gestate an egg, solely for me.”

They all stood there and watched as I formed Presence Claws around my fingers and reached up and groomed the top of her head. I found a few loose feathers and some down, so I gathered them together and put them in a bag of holding.

“I will keep this for the day I can complete the trust you have placed in me, Honored Matron.” I said and stepped next to the second avian woman.

“Don't you dare touch... Mmm Hmm!”

I kissed her and cut off her tirade and groomed her at the same time, then tucked her feathers into a different bag. I broke the kiss and she glared at me as I repeated my words. I stepped over to Val and she grabbed me and kissed me before I could do it myself. She broke the kiss and smiled at me as I groomed her head and stored her feathers and down into a separate bag.

I said the same promise to her and all three avian women were both happy and shocked that I had accepted their proposition of having children with them without an argument or being angry that they had done it without talking to me first. I knew the time and dedication needed to gestate an egg, especially after so long in an enclosed environment, and it touched my heart that they would give me their first egg. When I tried to tell them that, Val covered my mouth.

“We wanted to thank you, and it was Second Ranked's idea to give you one each.” Val said.

I looked at the second avian woman and she turned her head and wouldn't meet my eyes. “Then I am doubly grateful.” I said and stepped back in front of her. “I know you still hate me for tricking you all this time, and I will keep my word and present myself to the Aviatoma people after my honeymoon.”

“Hunter, that won't be necessary.” The first avian woman said. “You've done enough to...”

“Is it because I'm not an Aviatoma that you would deny my pledge?” I asked.

“No, I...”

“Then you cannot tell me that I've done enough for you.” I said and looked at all three of them. “I will keep my word and assume the shame publicly.” I said, then I gave the second avian woman a kiss goodbye first, which kind of broke proper protocol; but, no one said anything, because they knew I kissed her first because it was her idea for the eggs. I kissed the first avian woman next and then Val last. “I will meet you back on your home planet as soon as I can.”

The eight Aviatoma guards gave me quick nods of approval and I gave them a guard salute and chirped their call to arms. They saluted back and readied their weapons.

“Hailey, let's go.” I said and stepped into the cargo shuttle.

Hailey took off immediately and slowly moved away from the guard formation as I sat down beside her in the cockpit, then eight shots from the guard weapons passed by us to send us on our way. Hailey fed more power to the engines and Hen squawked happily behind us and Monna giggled as we took off up through the sky.

“Somebody's been tweaking their engines.” I commented.

“Jelly and Daniel have been playing around with the output ratio of the energy conversion manifold.” Monna said. “It was Jelly's fiance's idea.”

“Oh? He's a fiance now?” I asked.

“Oops.” Monna said. “Um... when she tells you after the honeymoon, pretend it's a surprise.”

Hailey and Hen laughed and I shook my head at the easily spilled secret. Hen heard us talking to someone else and couldn't figure out who it was. We landed inside Adona's shuttle bay and Hen was astonished that she didn't have to squeeze her feathers through the shuttle's bottom docking hatch or traverse an umbilical hallway. She always seemed to lose extra feathers when she did things like that.

I used Presence to carry all of her things and she wasn't surprised by that at all. I led her up the stairs and gave her the room directly across the hall from the medical bay. Hen squawked in surprise at her room, which was enormous in comparison to her old lodgings.

“Can you stay with the normal bed for now or make a temporary nest with blankets until we can get a proper nest built for you?” I asked and put her things down where she wanted them.

“Yes, False Tiercel.” Hen said. “You have already exceeded my expectations. Having to wait for a nest is something I never expected to be able to do while in your care.”

I nodded. “I know this is a bit of an imposition; but, do you want me to give you a light grooming before we enter the medical bay?”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Hen's face flushed red and it almost matched her brownish feathers and she let out a low warble of embarrassment. “I couldn't possibly ask you to do that, not after you shared an egg with the Honored Matron.”

“You do realize I'm a False Tiercel.” I said with a smile and formed the Presence Claws on my hands and then gently and carefully groomed her head, her shoulders, her forearms, her back, then her thighs and her calves. For someone only five feet tall, she produced a spectacular amount of loose feathers and down. I took out a sack and put everything in it for her and her face was bright red.

“It is a terrible crime that you are only a False Tiercel.” Hen chirped and tweeted, because she couldn't speak common properly at the moment. “You almost made me enter gestation and I barely know you.”

I chuckled and used my claws to comb her feathers on her head. “I've had a lot of practice with grooming.”

Hen closed her eyes and warbled happily. “You are part of a mated pair now, so I can't offer to (chirp warble tweet) you in thanks.”

“I thought you just said you barely knew me, and you would offer to (chirp warble tweet) me already?”

“You would already be on my blanket nest and we would be (squawk chirp).”

“Hen! Such language!” I exclaimed and she gave me a demure smile. “I like you, too.”

Hen warbled a laugh and I led her across the hall and into the full medical bay. She let out a squawk of shock. She had known intellectually that it was a full medical bay; but, she had expected one bed, one operating table, and a standing medical scanner. It almost blew her mind that we had the full size lay down professional medical scanner, operating equipment, six recovery beds, and two operating tables that could double as recovery beds if necessary.

“Feel free to check everything over.” I said. “It's completely stocked and any time anything is used, it's automatically ordered by the ship's AI, Adona.”

Hen squawked loudly. “You have an AI onboard?!?

“All of our ships do.”

Hen gave me a look, then what she heard on the shuttle flight clicked in. “That was an AI, too?”

“That was Monna, and Adona is her mother.”

Hen's mouth dropped open and she stared at me.

“Well, have fun looking around. I've got an appointment that I have to get to and I need to go.” I said.

Hen nodded and walked over to me and looked up at me. “May I offer a blessing?” She asked and I nodded. She placed her hand on my crotch and I felt a touch of Presence. “The Great Goddess Of Flight blesses you with the Cloaca Kiss.”

To my surprise, I grew fast and extremely hard. I instinctively knew that it wasn't going to go away for a long time.

“In your next joining, your egg fertilization will not fail.” Hen said in satisfaction. She kept looking at my face for thirty seconds and kept her hand on me. She didn't rub it or try anything sexual, though.

I looked down at her hand and then at her face.

“You're not an Aviatoma. I'm making sure your reaction is not just a temporary thing.” Hen said. After another thirty seconds, she nodded and removed her hand. “Your mate will be very happy with you.”

“I'm not so sure about that, especially with the weapon you just loaded me up with.” I said, almost jokingly. “This is going to be her first time.”

Hen squawked at me in shock, grabbed my hand, then dragged me out of the medical bay and down the stairs and over to the shuttle bay. “Young lady, I need to bless you.” She said to Hailey, who was waiting by the shuttle hatch for me. “You didn't (chirp warble tweet) yet and you need to be blessed.”

Hailey looked at me in surprise and I looked down at myself. She saw the bulge there and her eyes widened, then she gasped when Hen put her hand on her dress at the level of her crotch and she felt Presence touch her there.

“The Great Goddess Of Flight blesses you with the Cloaca Opening.” Hen said, almost desperately.

Hailey felt herself grow very warm and tingly down there.

“During your next joining, it will be both easy and enjoyable.” Hen said and kept her hand there, and Hailey gave me a questioning look.

“We're not Aviatoma, so she's just making sure it worked.” I clarified for her and she nodded. Just like with me, after a minute, Hen removed her hand.

“I almost caused you both pain, False Tiercel's mate.” Hen said in relief. “An unprepared mate could be disastrous, especially with a mating blessing.”

“I'll explain later.” I said to Hailey. “Hen, enjoy yourself. The others will be back onboard tomorrow and you'll head back to our home with them.”

Hen nodded. “Thank you, False Tiercel.” She said and left at a fast walk.

“What was that all about?” Hailey asked and her hand touched herself through the dress. “Why am I still warm and tingling?”

“Probably the same reason I'm still standing at attention.” I said and her eyes dropped to my crotch again, then her Presence pulsed and I absorbed it. “I think we better get over to Hela.”

“Yes.” Hailey said and when she looked back at my face, another pulse went out from her and I absorbed it. “I'm glad it's only a short hyperspace jump to our destination.”

“Me, too.” I said and we climbed onto Monna and flew her out of the shuttle bay and over to Hela. Her shuttle bay was barely big enough for the shuttle with only about five feet clearance on each side.

“It's really tight inside you, Hela.” Monna said. “Try to take it easy on me, okay?”

“I can make no promises.” Hela responded and both Hailey and I laughed.

“It's okay. We're only hopping to the next system.” I said. “It's a day away.”

We left Monna and went up into Hela's cockpit. Hailey took the primary pilot seat and I sat beside her in the co-pilot seat, then we eased the oval shaped ship out of orbit. We had been pre-cleared, because of the wedding, and we left through a light traffic lane and jumped into hyperspace.

A day later, we somehow kept our hands off of each other.

It seemed that the longer we waited to consummate our marriage, the more Hailey tingled and warmed up between her legs and the harder and stiffer I became. It was starting to become painful for the both of us, and we didn't even wait for clearance before we flew, at full speed, towards our parking orbit. The local landing authority wasn't too happy with us; but, Hela was ecstatic at the 'hot' insertion and Monna practically begged us to ride her as fast as we could.

We obliged.

We had already packed for our one week stay at the resort hotel and jumped aboard Monna, then we did the fastest orbital insertion in history. Monna absolutely loved us for doing that, despite the armored flight escort that stopped us from making a hot zone landing at the resort hotel's designated landing pad. We didn't quite ignore all of the warnings they gave us and slowed our descent to a more reasonable speed, then we came to a landing on our reserved spot.

I apologized sincerely, told them what was wrong, and no one believed me... until I carried Hailey in through the front door of the main hotel with our bags floating behind us and they saw our glowing crotches.

“Go! Go! Go!” The security guard said and waved us through the lobby and the clerk at the main desk entered our information as we passed by.

“I'm sorry about this!” I nearly yelled and used Presence Run to blow by everyone and took Hailey to our large suite on the top floor in an instant. The various doors between the lobby and our suite ceased to exist as I carried Hailey through them and across the threshold of our room.

In the next instant, my specially ordered suit and her custom made dress evaporated as our Presences dissolved them and left us completely naked. We landed on the bed in the proper positions and Hailey looked down at my glowing firmness and then at my face.

“My beloved.” Hailey said, barely above a whisper. “I am yours.”

“My beloved.” I responded and our perception of the world around us faded. “I am yours.”

There was only us, our bodies, our Presences, and then as I slid forward and Hailey accepted me completely, time seemed to stop. Nothing moved. We didn't breathe. We didn't blink our eyes. Nothing but us seemed to exist. Our bodies became one and our Presences were no longer separate. Where I began, Hailey was there. Where Hailey ended, I was there. All of time and none of time seemed to be real and happening at once.

“I love you.” Hailey and I said as one.