The Degan Incident Ch. 12

As Bastian cradled Callan in his arms, I looked around the backyard of Bastian's parents' house in stunned silence. I couldn't believe that all of this was for me and my baby boy.

Nydia had pulled out all of the stops. Callan's party rivaled our bonding ceremony. There were some very close family friends present, but mostly it was family. Uncles, aunts, and cousins of every age. All of Bastian's siblings were able to come, even Martan.

They had a big tent set up with tables and chairs. A big buffet held all kinds of delicious food. The yard was decorated in colorful pastel decorations made of paper. Inflatable animal shapes that reminded me of balloons hung from the tree branches.

Everyone was so sweet, warmly greeting us as they arrived. Most of them were very tactile, giving both me and Bastian congratulatory hugs. They all wanted to touch or kiss Callan, and I heard many times how cute he was and how well behaved he was.

After everyone had greeted us, Dashel and Nydia finally each gave me a hug and I hugged both of them tightly.

"Thank you so much," I told Bastian's mother. "This is all so wonderful and unexpected."

She rubbed her hand over my hair fondly. "Of course. The family is celebrating my grandson's birth. You will just have to get used to it. After all, you are family, too."

She pressed a kiss to Callan's forehead before leaving to scold one of the teenage cousins for popping one of the balloon animals.

Elia smiled at me, her hand resting on her swollen belly as her tail slowly swung to and fro behind her. "It's nice that my baby will have a cousin so close to her age. I am very close to my cousin who is the same age as me. We still talk every day."

I looked at her in surprise. I think that was the first time I realized that Callan had cousins, and would probably have plenty more to come. He wouldn't have any siblings, but he would have other family his age that he would grow up with.

I didn't have parents, or even aunts, uncles, cousins or grandparents. But Callan did. He would never grow up alone; he would always have family. I looked around at everyone laughing and talking. Yup, he would always have family. A big, crazy Degan family. And I was eternally grateful that my son would have what I didn't.

Bastian put his hands on my shoulders and I tilted my head back and looked up at him.

"Are you happy, little one?"

I nodded, blinking back the tears. "Yes. I've never been happier."

* * *

As Callan grew the next few weeks, it became apparent to me that his Degan DNA was more dominant than his Human. He may have looked mostly human in the face, but he was getting bigger and stronger every day. Already he looked like a healthy six-month-old even though he was not quite three months.

Callan was now starting to eat semi-solid foods. His favorite was a mushed up fruit that resembled a banana, though not quite as sweet. It was also Bastian's favorite snack, so I wasn't surprised that Callan loved it.

Callan could also sit up by himself and lift his head and was at the beginning stages of scooting around on his belly.

Bastian assured me that he was a perfectly normal Degan child and his growth would slow once he began to walk. The thought of him running around so soon terrified me. I didn't know if I would be able to keep up. I was still learning how to be a daddy.

With me having Callan mostly under control, Bastian began to work again. Since he worked from his home office, it was great having him home with us. We ate our meals together as a family and he would occasionally take breaks to spend time with me and our son. And if I needed anything, he was right there.

Bastian was meeting a client at the Capital City today, and I was a little bit frazzled at the thought of having to take care of Callan all by myself for the first time. Thankfully, Bastian would be home more often than not. It was only once a month that he might have to meet clients in the Capital City.

Callan lifted his head up and looked up at me and made a series of cute baby noises. He gave a smile that showed off the beginnings of his teeth. Mishu ran circles around Callan, making the boy giggle. Callan managed to grab Mishu's tail and give it a tug. The banti responded with a tongue attack to the face, making Callan laugh even harder.

"He'll be crawling soon," Bastian said as we fondly watched the boy and his best friend play.

"It's barely been three months," I said with a sigh. "I'm not ready for that."

"If you need help..."

I shook my head. "No. I don't need help. I just... I don't want him to grow up too fast."

"He'll slow down after a year. Trust me."

"He's gonna be bigger than me when he grows up, isn't he?"

"Probably."

"You could at least lie to me to make feel better."

He bent down and kissed me, slow and sweet. "Better?" He nibbled along my neck and nipped at my ear. "I will see you tonight. Maybe if you tire out the boy today, we can put him to bed early." He pressed his cock into my stomach in case I didn't understand what he was really after.

"I love you," he whispered in my ear before flicking his tongue along the shell, sending ripples of pleasure down my spine.

When Bastian pulled away, I was finally able to put together a coherent sentence. "I love you, too."

Bastian picked up Callan. "Be a good boy for Daddy. Your sire loves you." After giving Callan more kisses, he handed our son to me and I hefted his weight onto my hip.

"Say 'bye bye,'" I told Callan.

Callan and I waved to Bastian as he left for the day.

* * *

When the front door chime buzzed, I frowned. We weren't expecting any visitors.

"Who could that be?" I asked Callan as I lifted him up and set him onto my hip. "Jeez, you're getting heavy." I wiped some dribble off his chin, pinched one of his chubby cheeks and tweaked his earlobe, and then tapped the control to unlock the door.

Rando the snobby ex was the last person I expected to see standing on the front porch. I rolled my eyes and let out an exasperated sigh, not even pretending to be polite. "Yes?"

He stared at Callan, dumbstruck. "Is... Is Bastian here?" he asked, not taking his eyes off my child.

I tightened my grip on Callan and took a small step back. "He's not available right now. Thanks for coming by." I started to shut the door, but he stopped it with his hand.

"He has Bastian's eyes." Rando finally looked up at me. His eyes filled with pain and anger as he stared at me. "You gave him a child?"

Before I could respond, I felt a rush of fur against my leg. Snarling and snapping, Mishu lunged at Rando's leg.

Rando backed up quickly and kicked his boot at Mishu. "Get away, you filthy beast!"

Callan giggled happily, pointing his hand at Mishu, clutching and flexing his fist as if he wanted to grab Mishu by the tail. Thankfully, he was totally oblivious to the nasty man at the front door.

"You need to leave," I said to Rando. "And don't ever come back. Come, Mishu."

I shut the door behind me. I looked at Callan. "Remind me to tell your sire that leaving his exes with security access is so not cool. He of all people should know better. Isn't that right?"

Mishu gave one last growl at the door for good measure, then followed me into the kitchen.

As I prepared lunch, my comPad chimed with an incoming comm signal. I smiled when I saw that it was Dashel calling. I reached over and tapped the screen to answer the call.

"Hello, Sire," I answered with a smile.

"Hello, little one. How are you, and how is my little warrior?"

"We are doing great."

"Nydia and I were speaking this morning. It's been too long between visits."

It hadn't been *that* long, but I loved Bastian's parents and was more than happy to spend time with them. "Would you like to come for dinner tonight? We would love to have you."

"Yes, that would be very nice."

I felt a tug on my pant leg. Callan had managed to shuffle on his belly to my feet. I bent down and picked him up, then picked up my comPad and sat down, holding the display so that we could all see each other.

"Say hello to your grandsire, Callan."

Callan lifted his hand and scrunched his fingers at the screen, mesmerized by Dashel's appearance. I maneuvered the screen in time to prevent Callan from smudging it with fingerprints or pressing the controls like he was apt to do.

"Hello, my sweetie." Dashel mimicked Callan's "wave" and smiled a toothy grin. I could see that his green eyes were a little bit misty and it warmed my heart to know that he loved both me and my child so much.

"So what are your plans this afternoon?" Dashel asked me.

"Well, Bastian is in the city for business, so we are going to have a picnic lunch by the lake. Then maybe take a nap in the hammock, if I can get this one to cooperate. Hopefully we won't have anymore unpleasant interruptions."

"Interruptions? What do you mean?"

"Oh, it's nothing. Bastian's snobby ex stopped by."

"Rando?"

"Yes."

Dashel grunted his disapproval. "Bastian should not have left you unguarded. I will send someone for you."

"It's okay, Sire. We are safe here."

* * *

After finishing up our chat, I took Callan and Mishu out into the backyard with our lunch basket. I laid down our blanket and we had a lakeside lunch in the sun. Callan made a mess while he ate, but Mishu always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to catch any stray food.

I had just finished changing Callan's wet diaper when Mishu let out a low-pitched growl. The banti's hackles rose and he took a defensive posture while staring into the trees.

"What is it, boy?"

I pulled Callan close to my chest and looked around. As Mishu's growls turned into loud barks, I started get a really bad feeling about the situation. It was time to get out of there. I needed to get inside and call Bastian or Dashel as soon as possible.

Mishu suddenly became silent and when I looked down, he had rolled onto his side with his tongue hanging from his mouth. He had a red-tipped object sticking out of his neck. I gasped in shock, pulled the dart out and tossed it aside. I didn't want to leave him, but I became panicked. I pushed up to my feet, but before I could run, I felt a sting in my arm.

I immediately pulled the dart free, but I could feel traces of the sedative taking effect. I tripped over my feet, and Callan rolled next to me as I fell forward onto the ground.

He began to cry.

"It's okay. Daddy's here."

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, overtaking what sedative I managed to absorb. I crawled to my boy, but before I could pick him up, a boot to the chest kicked me backwards.

I screamed in denial, but the boot on my chest kept me from moving. Fugitive Captain Brilsch looked down at me with a sneer. I grabbed at his boot and tried unsuccessfully to dislodge him.

Rando moved from behind him, holding my son.

*Oh hell no!* "I'll kill you!" I screamed with rage as I struggled to free myself from Brilsch's boot.

"We have to go," Rando said to Brilsch. "Hurry up."

Brilsch leaned down and grabbed me by the arm and jerked me to my feet. "Let's go, human."

As Brilsch dragged me across the yard, I turned back to see Rando following with Callan in his arms. My baby was screaming and crying and it was killing me.

"Let me have him," I pleaded. "Please. I'll come with you if you just don't hurt him."

Brilsch jerked my arm and painfully shoved the end of his phase pistol into my side. "Shut up."

A small shuttle pod was waiting in the front driveway. Brilsch pushed me through the hatch and shoved me into a chair. Rando and Callan followed after me and Brilsch took the pilot's seat.

I gripped the seat's arm rests as the shuttle lifted off the ground and began to ascend.

Brilsch tapped the comm panel and Senator Bestro's face appeared on the view screen. I ground my teeth together and bit my tongue. Dashel had said he was a harmless old windbag. Apparently he was not.

"Do you have them?" the Senator asked.

"Yes."

"I'm transmitting the rendezvous coordinates now. Tie up your loose ends."

"Understood."

The transmission ended suddenly.

Brilsch tapped at the screen controls and the computer announced, *Navigation locked in. Autopilot engaged.*

"There's been a change of plans," Brilsch said. He got up and turned, drawing his weapon and pointing it at Rando.

"What are you doing?" Rando said, cringing and shrinking backwards into his chair.

"I need them to lure out Drago. But I have no further need for you."

As much as I despised Rando, I didn't really want to see him killed in cold blood. At least not while holding my child. I directed my attention back to Brilsch. "The senator's just using you, you know."

Brilsch threw his head back. An evil laugh erupted from his throat. "Do you think I'm stupid? Of course he's using me, just as I'm using him. I had him hooked as soon as I slipped him my ten inches." He groped his cock through his leather pants, before turning his gaze to Rando. "It's just that good, isn't it Rando?"

Rando's face went red and he tried to respond, but it came out a stammering mess.

Poor stupid Rando. I almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

Brilsch motioned with his gun. "Give the brat to the human."

While giving Brilsch a scathing look for calling my son a "brat," I reached over and pulled Callan away from a shaking and frightened Rando.

Callan calmed somewhat when I picked him up, and I buckled him into the seat as best as I could. I gave him a kiss on the head, saying a little prayer that he would be okay and that we'd both get out of this alive.

Rando was practically in tears as he begged for his life. "Please, don't do this. I helped you get in. Undetected, just like I promised. You know I'll do anything. Please."

The computer sounded an alarm and red lights began blinking like mad. Brilsch turned to look at it.

Now or never. Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I had this one chance.

I took it.

I leapt forward and threw myself at Brilsch as hard as I could. It was enough to knock the gun away, but not enough to knock Brilsch down.

The back of Brilsch's hand to my face was like being hit by a truck. He knocked me to the floor and I scrambled to get away from him.

I was momentarily shocked when Rando joined in and jumped Brilsch. As the two fought, I quickly recovered, and jumped behind the ship's controls.

The sensors showed we had three shuttles closing in on our location. It had to be Dashel or Bastian! I needed to get to him, or at least slow us down so that they could catch up. I disengaged the autopilot and the ship lurched as manual control activated. My fingers flew across the controls as I tried to turn the ship around.

A blow to the back of my head stunned me.

Brilsch tried to pull me away from the controls and I banked the ship hard to starboard, enough to get Brilsch to lose his balance and let go of me.

Rando tried to pull Brilsch away from me as I tried to adjust the descent. With Brilsch on top of my back trying to change the course, the ship's nose dived.

I tried to adjust, but it was too late. We were going down too fast. I grabbed the chair's arm rests and braced myself as the ship plowed nose first into a field of wheat.

Everyone went flying on impact.

My head slammed into the ship's control panel and my vision went fuzzy and I faded in and out of consciousness.

I opened my eyes and shook my head to get my bearings. The ship had come to a stop, crashed in the field. The ship was titled at an angle towards starboard and it took a moment to adjust my balance. The cabin lights flickered and the emergency lights had been activated. The acrid smell of burning plastic filled the cabin as smoke began to obscure my vision.

Pushing to my feet, I kicked Brilsch's prone body away from me. A warm trickle ran down the side of my face and I pressed my hand to my throbbing forehead to stop the flow of blood.

I didn't care that I was bleeding. I had to get to my screaming son.

Pulling the front of my shirt over my nose to filter the air, I pulled Callan from the seat and hurried to the hatch. I tripped the emergency option and the airlock disengaged and the door fell open and landed on the ground. Since the ship had landed at an angle, with the door gone it was a higher jump than I would have liked. Having no other choice, I held Callan tight to my chest and jumped off onto the ground.

I landed on my feet and let out a breath of relief. "It'll be okay," I whispered as I rocked Callan, trying to soothe him. "Your sire's coming."

*Please let him be coming.*

"Stop right there."

I tried to shield Callan as I slowly turned to see Brilsch jump from the ship. He looked beat to hell with a bloody nose and bruised brow, but he had the gun trained on me. One look in his eyes and I knew that he was going to use it this time.

I started to back away.

"I said stop!" Brilsch shouted.

A phaser blast at my feet had me quickly obeying. I weighed my options, but I came up short. I didn't see any way that Callan and I were going to get out of this.

But then a warrior's roar told me it was too late for Brilsch.

Bastian was here.

Brilsch swung his gun towards Bastian, but Bastian threw a knife. It pierced the captain above where his heart should be—if he had one. Bastian threw the weight of his entire body at Brilsch, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

While they fought, I backed away.

I was suddenly surrounded by Dashel and a unit of military officers.

"Sire!" I let out a cry of relief as his arms surrounded me and my baby boy.

"Are the two of you injured?" he asked as he looked us over.

"No, we're fine."

"But you're bleeding."

"I don't care. We have to help Bastian."

I looked over Bastian and Brilsch. The two were crouched in an attack posture, slowly circling each other, each looking for an opening. Brilsch had pulled the knife from his chest and was wielding the bloody blade in his right hand. A bloom of red spread from the hole in his uniform, but he seemed barely affected by it.

Brilsch wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as he stared down Bastian. "I've been looking forward to this for a long time. I am sick of your ugly face."

Bastian snarled and flexed his fists. "The last thing you'll see before you die is my ugly face."

Brilsch swung the knife at Bastian, who easily dodged it. Bastian grabbed ahold of Brilsch's wrist, tightening and forcing him to drop the knife. Bastian used his other fist to strategically punch Brilsch directly in the knife wound.

Brilsch yelled in pain and kicked Bastian's chest with his boot, knocking him backwards.

"Is that the best you can do?" Brilsch prodded between panting breaths.

Bastian sneered, narrowing his eyes as his face contorted with hate. "You will see my best when I kill you for what you did to my bondmate."

Spotting his gun in the grass, Brilsch dove for the pistol at the same time as Bastian. The two men wrestled on the ground until the gun went off.

"Bastian!" I screamed. I tried to run to him, but Dashel held me back.

When Bastian rolled away with a agonized groan, I let out a cry of relief.

As Brilsch let out a gurgling cough, Bastian grabbed him by a fistful of hair and forced Brilsch to look up at him, to stare him in the face.

Brilsch's body went limp as he took his last breath.

Bastian pushed to his feet, then kicked at Brilsch's body. It didn't move. He kicked it again just for good measure.

The vacant expression on the sadistic man's face told me that he was truly dead this time.

Two of the military officers pulled a dazed Rando from the crashed transport.

As they led him to their ship, he stopped in front of me. "I... I'm sorry."

I handed Callan to Dashel. I hauled my fist back. A right hook across the jaw knocked Rando flat on his ass.