Jeltom swept me into his arms, holding me so tightly to his chest that I could barely breathe. That’s when I knew everything was going to be all right.
Chapter 14
Jeltom
Mariska was trembling, but her legs were steady as she stood in the tight circle of my embrace. Her face was pressed to my chest and her hands were digging into the back of my shirt, tight fistfuls that reassured me she was holding on and not letting go. I’d almost lost her, but my cousin had come to the rescue.
“You okay?” I asked him, because I knew that must have been rough on his senses. He had to have felt it, being that close when I’d shot and killed the Rhico and injured the Kertinal, again. He shrugged, but he looked pale in the face and unsteady on his feet. Experiencing the death of another could cause burnout in a strong empath. I had constantly feared for Danitalin during our hostage situation—that she’d die from extreme burnout—but she’d pulled through.
Avertom was a tough bastard as well, and he visibly pulled himself together. “I’m fine,” he gritted out. “Your female—or should I say mate—is injured, though.” I growled, pushing Mariska slightly away by the shoulders so I could check her over. Injured? How, and when had that happened? He was right, though, furrows had been cut through the sleeve of her pale blouse, and blood stained the fabric red.
“They’re just cuts, and they’re not that bad,” she assured me, but her smile was tremulous, which I was certain meant that it pained her. “How did both of you know? How did you find me?” She was looking around the path and seemed to only now realize that it wasn’t the road directly to her home. Koratalin had takenher the other direction at one of the few forks along the way, neatly putting us behind the farm that neighbored hers and off the beaten path. This was a road only occasionally used to head high into the mountains. It led to a cave once used by the locals to seek shelter from the meteor storms.
“I sent my waitress through a shortcut to Jeltom, but I had only a vague suspicion something was wrong then. Asatina is fast, so she arrived well ahead of you,” Avertom said, and he stepped over Koratalin’s body to inspect the two dead lying nearby with a grimace. “I followed you because I sensed something off about that one’s mind.” He kicked Koratalin with the toe of his boot. “I would have acted faster, but the death of her guard crippled me for a moment.”
I was incredibly relieved that Avertom had been that sensitive to the threat. Without Asatina showing up when she did, I might never have realized in time that Mariska was in danger. She could have been dead by now. I knew what it had cost Avertom to strike down the crimelord as well, and I gave him another worried once-over. He wasn’t bleeding, though, and he appeared calm and steadier already.
Shrugging out of my shirt, I wrapped it gently around the cuts on Mariska’s arm. “Thank you, I owe you one,” I told him. “Let’s get you home, my sweet Valentine.” I cupped Mariska’s cheek and, because I needed the assurance, quickly dipped to kiss her upturned mouth. “I’ll come back to take care of the bodies. The sheriff will know what to do with her.” I began to point toward Koratalin’s prone form, right behind Avertom, and froze. She was gone.
“Where did she go?” Mariska muttered. “I didn’t see her move…” Avertom began to swear, and I knew why. Out of the three of us, he should have known it right away when she moved. He should have known it the moment her mind stirred back to wakefulness. For her to have fooled him either meant hehadgotten burned out or she had managed to mask herself from him somehow.
“Go,” my cousin said. “I know just where to hide those bodies so they’ll never be found. Turn on your shields when you get home. I’ll get a few men to comb the hills tonight.” I wasn’t going to refuse such a gift, especially when it was still technically Valentine’s Day. I was dead set on courting my mate properly, according tohercustoms, and a near-death experience only made cementing our bond more important in my mind.
“Thank you,” I said. Sweeping Mariska into my arms, I strode up the path right away. I’d pay my debts to my cousin later, perhaps whenhefound his Valentine. Avertom didn’t move, but he was peering at his comm as if he were considering whom to call for help. To offer to make two dead bodies vanish was a sign of true loyalty. It wasn’t the kind of crime you could easily cover up in a town of empaths. Avertom would manage, though, because he was an ingenious fiend when it came to mischief. I would keep my mate in her home—and preferably in bed—until the feelings attached to this situation had faded.
Somehow, through all of it, Mariska had kept hold of her basket, and now she clutched it in her lap and peered at it, a little stunned. “Not one egg broken, can you believe that?” she said. The statement was so bizarre after what had just happened that it stunnedme. I stared at her earnest face, then into the basket with her box of eggs. She was right, not one was broken. I threwback my head and laughed. Not one egg broken… We’d broken heads, but not eggs, back there.
When the last of my laughter died out, Mariska raised her hand to my face and kissed me gently. “I think I’m in love with you, Jeltom. Is that okay?”Is that okay?I blinked. She was in love with me, my mate said she loved me. For once, I regretted not being able to sense the feelings of another, because I would very much want to feel her love for me. Then she said, “Are you serious? Are we really true mates somehow?”
I nodded, and then I continued walking. “Yes,” I said, and I began to tell her the story of Pyra and Pato—of the ancient healers who had created the foundation of our society. “They were supposedly lovers so true that their bond was fated in the stars. It was a bond hallmarked by signs, and those signs, we’ve been having them. It shouldn’t be possible; this is just myth. But here we are.”
“What kind of signs?” she said, but her face said she had a pretty good idea already. As I listed them, her smile grew and grew, more radiant with each word I uttered. Here I’d been, thinking I was a warrior too scarred and rough around the edges to ever fit with a lady as beautiful and classy as her. I’d worried over my callouses and scars, feared she would want someone more like Avertom. But wewerefated, I believed it. I fit with her because a scarred warrior was exactly what she needed, just like I needed her brightness and laughter, her cheerful chatter to draw me out of my darkness.
“I love you, Mariska. I wanted to prove to you that I could do it right—celebrate your Valentine. Things haven’t gone entirely to plan today, but will you still let me?” I asked. Dinner would bewaiting for us, and I had been informed there would be dancing, too. I had even been sent a playlist of appropriate music. Dancing was new to me; I could not recall ever having done it before, but for Mariska, I’d gladly try.
“Of course. And just so you know, I really wanted to celebrate Valentine’s with you too. It’s not all about the guy giving flowers and chocolate, you know. It’s about spending time with the person you really like, or love. I think we can manage that…” Her smile was wide, and my chest felt warm with what had to be happiness. Perhaps there was a bit of relief too, that she did not consider the day ruined yet. She was a tough female, truly.
The farm came into sight as we came around a bend in the road. It sat on the edge of the yard, and honestly, it had begun to grow on me quite a lot. An inspection of the sinuous curves of the chimney had told me it was sound, there were no cracks or obstructions. The flowers that grew all over the cottage also didn’t hide damage to the slate tiles. In fact, the stone cottage was surprisingly sound. Next year, I’d replace the porch floorboards, but Mariska had already begun painting the railing, and it looked much better.
With the fences fixed and the grapevines going into hibernation for the cold season, the place looked peaceful and… renewed. I could not wait to see it when everything turned lush and green again in spring. “It’s getting there,” I said to my mate. “We just need to replace the shield generator before meteor season, and we’re all set.”
Her serene expression turned into a slow frown as she considered this. “I don’t think I can afford that. That’s starting next month, right? We have to sell some wine first.” She didn’tknow yet that I’d managed to salvage her first batch with my experiments in the barn. I’d planned to reveal that over dinner tonight by serving her a glass of her own label. My belly tingled in excitement as I tried to picture her reaction.
“I can afford a shield generator,” I said instead. “I already ordered it, in fact. I did so last night, after you fell asleep.” Her surprised—and perhaps slightly suspicious—look began to morph into a glare, as if she couldn’t believe I’d done that without consulting her first. So I rushed on: “I have some contacts; I got us a very good deal. You can afford it, I promise.”
I paused by the current, very old device and leaned her rump against the rust-covered edge. As Avertom had suggested, I began flicking on the device, watching carefully as the machine struggled to come to life. I had fixed it, but it would really only last as long as its weakest link; parts would keep failing until, pretty soon, I would not be able to fix it at all.
“A farmer is nowhere without the shields,” I said as I explained the sorry state of the device to her. “Even just one meteor can destroy everything. I’m not letting anything get destroyed here, least of all you, my mate.” No, the thought of losing her to something as preventable as that was unbearable. I was going to keep her safe, protected, at any cost, and paying for a highly advanced shield generator was nothing to me.
“Fine,” she said, her expression growing soft and sweet. “Iwasreally worried about it. Do you think we can make the vineyard profitable, together?” The edge of loneliness in her tone reminded me that my Mariska struggled to let anyone in, that Avertom had resorted to trickery to get her to ask for my help, and that in her heart, she hoped I’d stay. I would, because therewas nothing in the entire Zeta Quadrant now that could pull me away from her.
Chapter 15
Mariska
My arm only hurt a little, but Jeltom fussed over it for a long while, treating the cuts with an actual tissue regenerator until the wounds were almost gone. I had no clue his medkit was this advanced, but when he hauled it from the barn, I was honestly a little impressed, and a tiny bit scared. Either he was a man who liked to be prepared—really prepared—or he’d needed all of this at one point. Since he wore a knot of scars on the front of his shoulder from where he’d been shot, I believed it was the latter.
Once my injury was taken care of, I still felt a little shaky from the adrenaline rush earlier. Everything was a bit of a confusing mess, but I wasn’t in a rush to get answers. We’d talk about it over dinner. First, I wanted to wash up quickly and make myself look pretty. Making the brownies for Jeltom would have to wait until tomorrow, but at least we could try to make this date thing happen somehow. I wanted that, I really, really wanted to take back my life that way.
