Page 45 of Meat

Last night, she’d had a very broken conversation with Jale—if one could even call it a conversation, considering the limited vocabulary involved. But the gist of Jale’s curiosity had been clear.

“What this?” he had asked, hand on her rotund midsection.

Alyx had laughed at first, not sure if he was making a joke or not. But then she had seen the genuine curiosity in his eyes, and in Krogg’s and Ravnar’s eyes as well.

Did they really not know?

She did not know the word for baby, so she did her best to explain with what limited vocabulary she had at her disposal.

“Ukkur,” she had answered. “Little ukkur.”

Jale’s brow had rumpled in confusion at that.

“Little ukkur?” He had touched her belly so tenderly. “This little ukkur?”

Alyx had nodded, and the ukkur gathered around her had looked perplexed.

“Mother,” she had said in English, pointing to herself. “Mother.”

“Muh-ver?”

She had pointed to Jale. “Have mother? Jale, you have mother?”

He had looked at Ravnar and Krogg, who had appeared even more confused than he was.

“No mother. No have.”

“Nith make,” Krogg had added then. “Nith make ukkur. No mother.”

Alyx had assumed that something was getting lost in the translation. They had misunderstood what it was that she was trying to communicate, that’s all. Surely these handsome, muscular ukkur males had not been born from hideous and stringy nith, right?

She had decided to give it a rest. A topic for discussion when their ability to communicate with each other was better.

For now, Alyx’s three ukkur males understood at least that it was a child in her belly. An ukkur child. An ukkur and human hybrid. And what’s more, they seemed to understand that they had put it there, planted it with their seed. Exactly which one of the three it belonged to was uncertain, but it did not matter. All three of them were protective of her and of the unborn child, that much was clear.

Alyx finished up her third plate of Krogg’s pie.

She was stuffed now. Her stomach felt like it was going to burst from so much food. But somehow, at the same time, she was still hungry. At a cellular level, her body didn’t feel satisfied.

It must have been the baby growing inside her.

Still, with all the ksh that Krogg had put into the dish, it should have been more than enough to sate her and the child. So what exactly was this strange craving creeping up from the depths of her belly?

Jale sensed that something was up. Soon Krogg did too. They looked at Alyx inquisitively.

Suddenly, the craving shifted.

It turned into pain.

A sharp, steely pang stabbed at Alyx’s abdomen, doubling her over. Her first thought was that she was already experiencing contractions. She’d seen so many women go through those, even though she had never done so herself.

But something about it wasn’t quite right. It didn’t feel like a contraction. That should be more of a clenching sensation, her uterus working to push the baby out.

This was different. This was hunger, but multiplied a thousand times over to a degree that Alyx had never thought possible. Even during her days-long self-imposed fast on the nith cattle ship, she had not experienced hunger pangs like this. Not even close.

Another sharp pang twisted her insides and sent cold fire shuddering through her veins.

“Alyx!” Jale shouted.