“You’re okay, little guy. Just relax. I’ll get you out of there.”
He made quick work of the snare, detaching it from its anchor points and gently releasing the animal’s trapped legs. Freed, it bolted into the brush in a flash.
“You’re welcome,” he called after it with a laugh. He turned to Maria, noting her questioning look. “We did not need it for food,” he explained. “And even if we did, it is a juvenile. Two bedrock rules of the Oraku are never take what you do not need, and never harm the young. To do so is cruel and wasteful, and the land will curse you for it.”
“I thought you didn’t believe in all that mystical stuff.”
“I don’t. But that bit always resonated with me.”
She wrapped him up in a warm hug. “And you say you had a reputation as an asshole.”
“Not my exact wording, but yes, I suppose so.”
“Well, I wholeheartedly disagree.”
“And I’m glad for it. But you didn’t know me before. I was not always the best person. And this was not so long ago.”
“Maybe you weren’t, but people change, and I’m quite fond of who you are now.”
“And I amveryfond of you too,” he said, punctuating his words with a kiss.
A strange tingle and a faint glow surged in both of their chests, their runes flaring in unison.
“Whatisthat? Do you feel that too? I noticed it the othernight, and it’s super weird. Not bad weird. Just different, ya know?”
He just stared at her, tears threatening to well up in his eyes, a look of utter happiness and disbelief on his face.
“What is it?”
“I–it’s just?—”
“What is it, Zeph?”
“It’s our Infalas,” he said, a single tear escaping the corner of his eye. “I experienced this feeling once before, but for the briefest of times. It was the most incredible of things, but my last Infala bond was broken, and quite violently at that. I didn’t think it would be possible for me ever again.”
Concern mixed with Maria’s loving gaze. “What happened?”
He lowered his head slightly, memories, and the shame of them, coloring his mood. “Let’s just say that I have come to realize that no matter how terrible a moment in my life it was, I deserved it.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true. And I wouldn’t change it for anything. It hurt, yes. Hurt terribly. So bad I wanted to die at times. But that ordeal made me look at my life. I meanreallylook at it. Reassess everything. And I realized then that there was a different path. A new direction I could take, if I could manage it. A whole new way to go through life. And the power of being bonded, no matter how briefly, is what set me straight.”
“But the pain you suffered?—”
“Made me the man I am today. And it brought us together. It madethispossible.”
Maria’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you sayingweare bonding? Like,Infalabonding the way Darla and Shalia did with their partners?”
He lifted her shirt, exposing her breasts, and, moreimportantly, her Infala rune, the design alive with power, changing into something new. He ran his fingers over it, sending a jolt of something quite new through her body, her nipples hardening to diamonds. But it wasn’t just sexual. Not simple arousal. This was deeper. A connection. Something far more intense than she’d imagined when the others had described the sensations.
He lifted his own top, showing her his Infala as well. Where it had formerly been dark and still, new life had sprung forth. It was active, and it was faintly glowing in unison with hers, changing slowly into a new design.
“We are not there yet,” he said, lowering their clothing, his hand moving lovingly to her cheek. “But it is undeniable. Though in the earliest of stages, and incredible as it seems, we are Infala bonding.”
Maria felt her legs wobble at the sheer magnitude of what this meant. The others had given her lengthy and sometimes graphic details about their own unions, and now? Now it looked like she was going to join the club. And from what they’d said, it would be incredible.
But they weren’t there yet. It would still take time. Whether days, weeks, or months, no one could say. Zepharos’s rune had been thought dead, and there was no telling how long it might take for it to fully heal and morph to match hers. But they were on that path, and there was no going back. And truth be told, Maria didn’t want to, crazy as it would have sounded not long ago.
