So I pushed him away playfully. “Enough with all that. I faced a god and endured his trials to free your love. Blahdy, blah, blah.”
Shale gaped at me as his dad laughed.
“What I want to know is when exactly did you mate me? How the fuck did I miss that?”
Shale's shocked expression broke, and he joined his father in laughing. “You will always be like this, won't you, Mate?”
“What? Unbelievably handsome, witty, and irresistible?”
“Yes, all that.” Shale grinned and nuzzled my cheek. “But also incorrigible, with a soul bright enough to light my way out of darkness. My brave, unbreakable doll.”
I grinned at him. “Yes, I will always be like that.”
He grinned back.
Then I narrowed my eyes at him. “Are you going to tell me when we mated or what?”
Shale snorted. “You know when it was. Those four days we spent together, locked in my tower.”
“I thought you were just randy because you hadn't had sex in forever.”
“I thought that too.” He grimaced. “I feel like a fool now. I should have recognized the signs. The way I couldn't get enough of you, right from the start. How you fascinated me. How I—”
“Couldn't stop coming?” I asked. “I thought that was kinda weird. You camea lot.”
Shale's dad burst out laughing again, and my stare shot to his mother. I was mortified.
“I'm so sorry! I can't believe I just said that in front of you!”
“Don't be embarrassed,” Duchess Thera said. “It's a part of the mating. I was shocked too. But it's not ejaculate, it's their essence. Shaleros was binding his soul to yours. Or he was trying to. I'm not sure how far your bond got without his love to complete it.”
“It got far enough for that fucking Sea Dragon to notice,” Shale said with an eye roll. “And still, I denied it.”
“Well, in your defense, it seemed impossible,” I said. Then I went still.
“What is it?” Shale asked.
“You,” I whispered. “You defended your goddess against King Vaxarion.”
“Yes. And?”
“You defended the Goddess?” Duke Naven asked in shock. “After all she's done?”
“She is still our mother, still the deity who gave us mating magic,” Shale said. “She deserves our respect. It angers me that even you can't see that, Father.” As he spoke a golden glow infused his skin, and all of us stared at him in shock.
“Son,” Duke Naven whispered.
“No!” Shale slashed his hand through the air. “Ensarena was wronged by her lover. Yes, she did some horrible things to us, but the god who wronged her had just been freed and her children were taking his side. I respect Karadas too, and I understand now that love can't be denied, but I can't help but feel that we have wronged her too. We were disloyal.”
“Shale,” I said.
“I know.” He shook his head. “She can be fierce, but she loves fiercely too. She—”
“Shale!” I shouted. “You're glowing.”
Shale finally looked down at himself, then launched to his feet in shock. “What the fuck?”
A shaft of sunlight suddenly surrounded him, and Shale lifted his face to the sky, his expression shifting from shock to bliss. He held out his arms and grinned up at his goddess. The Goddess of the Sun.
