Lore yanked him back, but Zehn continued to spend. He angled his cock over her chest, letting his scent embed into her body, covering her full breasts.
Their beautiful mate shared in their orgasm, the waves of pleasure, as well as the phelthar, too much for her.
Zehn watched as Mandy passed out with a smile on her face. He rose slowly, turned to face Lore, and was shocked to feel unsteady on his feet. Filled with joy, he started to tease his bond-mate when he saw Lore’s dark expression. “What’s wrong?”
“Zehn, I did not mean to. But the phelthar hastened the need.” Lore looked more upset than Zehn had ever seen him. “My body was not my own.”
And Zehn knew. “You gave her your second seed?”
Lore’s pain amplified, so that Zehn felt the male’s guilt as his own, a dark and twisted hurt that stirred old insecurities. More proof that Lore wasn’t deserving of love, too different, too uncontrollable, that he’d put his mate in harm’s way. No matter that it wasn’t a physical harm, but an emotional pain she’d feel soon enough, the trust of a new mate shattered before it could take root.
Zehn clenched his temples. “Stop.”
“I’m sorry.” Lore’s grief tore at him. “She will never forgive me.”
“It was an accident.” He hugged his bond-mate. “You didn’t meant to get her with child. Besides, there’s no guarantee it will take.”
Lore’s eyes glowed, still green, pulling at Zehn’s own energy. “It already has.” Lore pulled back and took Zehn’s hand. He placed it over their mate’s belly.
Zehn couldn’t believe what he sensed. Such power coiled inside Mandy, and not just hers either. But Lore’s and…Is that child mine too? How is such a thing possible?
You gave her your second seed when I did.
Not in her womb.
Lore shrugged, his gaze on Mandy’s taut belly.I don’t know. I feel the truth of it. Our son lies inside our mate. Our mate who plans to leave us far behind.Lore nodded to the satchel they’d found earlier. And after watching her hurry about her hut, shoving things in another sack. Preparing to leave.Perhaps she has the right of it with me.
No. You are mine. And she is ours.Zehn hugged Lore to him once more. “We have to make this right.”
After a moment, Lore hugged him back, the fierce need for acceptance and affection amplified.
“As I said, you are mine,” Zehn reminded him as they withdrew from each other. “As is she. The Maker sent her to us, Lore. How else could she carry our child so quickly?”
Lore pondered what he said and nodded.
Zehn let out a relieved sigh. “We need time to show her what we can be.”
“What we already are to each other.” Lore’s eyes turned normal again, one green, one gold.
They watched each other, not saying what the other knew.
“We leave.”
Lore nodded. “Together.”
“Now. Let’s go.”
***
It didn’t take them long to send word to the village for a replacement. Zehn and Lore left under the cover of darkness, sensing that the human males would try to follow. They needed to know exactly what Mandy had to do with the Earthers. But not here, not now, when they’d all been blessed with the ultimate gift.
A child.
Lore didn’t understand how it had happened. He’d been so careful, had given her his second seed once already—safely on her skin. But her fire had been raging inside him, the need for her to become his and Zehn’s like a compulsion. One he obviously hadn’t been able to deny.
He carried her tightly to him, running next to Zehn deeper into the jungle, in a race to cross the border before the humans or Welcome’s security caught them.
Technically, they were breaking the treaty. He wasn’t too civilized to deny pride in his actions. A real barbarian took what belonged to him, and Mandy was his and Zehn’s in every way that mattered. They just needed to make her see that truth.
