“Well, I would have preferred you asked me first, but since I’d been planning to leave, it’s okay. Especially if no one saw us. But I’m still a little confused. How long was I out of it? After we…um…” She blushed. “After we were together, I must have passed out. It wasn’t just that it felt so good, although it did, believe me. But the energy we shared was off the charts.” She paused. “You felt that too?”
They nodded.
Zehn leaned forward. “Lore and I share, connected as mates. We feel things together. But when we were with you, without intending to, we bonded.” He swallowed, and Lore was surprised to find his bond-mate as nervous as he felt. “We joined, Mandy.”
Zhen glanced at him.Five Hells, how do I tell her we’re mated?
Carefully.
Mandy blinked. “Um, yes, we joined. A good way of putting it.” She coughed, obviously nervous. “But it was dark when we joined. Now it’s not.”
“Much time has passed. We ran for most of the night and half a day,” Zehn told her. “We were concerned with the humans interested in you. And our enemy is close by. We must get you to the village to be safe.”
“Franklin didn’t care? That’s a shocker. I thought for sure he’d…” At Zehn’s look, Mandy tapered off. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”
Zehn wisely remained mute. Lore did the same.
“You guys justtook mefrom the resort? No one said anything?”
“No one saw anything,” Lore explained. “As Zehn said, we left under the cover of night.”
Far from being irritated or even overjoyed, Mandy appeared stymied. Lore thought that better than angry.
“You were leaving,” Zehn accused. “Why did you come to us if you wished to leave?”
“I was going to say good-bye.”
Lore frowned, hearing the lie for what it was.
“Look, I wasn’t trying to use you or anything.” Mandy bit her lower lip, and Lore wondered if she realized she did that when discomfited. “I mean, I was just going to watch. Zehn said I could.” She tried to convince Lore of what, exactly? “Then I just…I couldn’t help myself.”
Lore blew out a breath. “Neither could I.”
“You affect us in a powerful way,nueshka.”
She cocked her head. “What does that mean?”
Lore was pleased she didn’t seem more upset. “It means ‘my pretty.’”
“’I’ll get you, my pretty,’” she said in an odd voice and grinned. “Something I saw on an old Earth vid. What the witch said to Dorothy.”
What is she talking about?he asked Zehn.
Who cares? She’s not angry…yet. Let’s not push her too far.“Mandy, the male who hurt you yesterday. Do you know him?”
She shook her head, but Lore could sense some untruth. He shared a knowing glance with Zehn.
“He will be a danger.” Zehn nodded. “I feel it.”
She sighed. “Probably. You guys should really take me somewhere—away from the resort and you—and let me go. Then forget you ever knew me.”
“No.” Zehn was adamant.
Lore agreed. “Never.”
For all that she seemed to want them to leave her, she seemed relieved that they’d said no. “Well, then, I guess we should get to your village.”
“After we’ve rested.” Zehn seemed more tired than usual.
