“That is worse,” says Shathar hoarsely.
“Indeed. So you should not give yourself up. Because I want you here, too.”
He tilts his head to look up at me. “That doesn’t make sense, Khesan.”
“You don’t feel it?” I return his gaze intently. “Don’t you smell it?”
He pauses at my question, then sniffs the air. I lean in even closer, so he can get a whiff of me—and all at once, his eyes turn into huge circles.
“Mate scent,” he says, aghast. “That’s what that is. But it’s… different than Fiona’s.”
I nod. It is the same smell, and yet also its own.
“Is that you?” He shakes his head, disbelieving. “Have we?—”
“Mate bonded?”
Shathar’s mouth opens and then closes again. His jaw works as he thinks, but he doesn’t pull away from me.
“Perhaps much more makes sense now.” He leans in again, propping his head on my shoulder. “All three of us are mates.”
“I believe we are.”
We are both quiet for a long and heavy moment, lost in our thoughts. When the cold grows too much, though, we are forced to go back inside.
At the door, I stop Shathar, and he turns to me. Raising a hand, I run my thumb along his high cheekbone, and his fans lift in pleasure. When I lean closer, he does, too, until I can feel his breath on my face.
First, we tip our heads and touch our foreheads together. Then, when we’re nose to nose, I kiss him. And what a relief it is when he kisses me back, and we get to enjoy this strange human thing together.
When we pull apart, we are both panting, and I am most certainly erect under my pants. Now I am wondering all sorts of things, like how he would feel under my hands, how he might moan if I were the one licking his cock.
“What of us now?” I ask, stroking his arm. “If we have both bonded, too?—”
“You know Earth law. It doesn’t matter whether we are mates or not. Only one of us stays.”
I falter. “But it’s not fair. Not now that we know!”
Shathar smiles fondly at me. “You have so many feelings inside. But the law doesn’t care about fair. In a way, nothing has changed. I will simply be saying goodbye to two of you.”
Fiercely, I pull him against me, wrapping my arms tight around him as his tail winds up my thigh. “I won’t say goodbye to you, Shathar. Not now.”
Instead of arguing with me, though, he says, “I am glad that I know the truth, so I can best spend my remaining time with both of you.”
The sun is just now coming up, and Shathar and I stand there together, hands linked, as we watch the sky lighten.
“I think I may be tired now,” I say. “Shall we go to bed?”
Shathar nods, and we head down the stairs to the room where everyone else has passed out. We each take our positions again to either side of Fiona, and she shifts and mutters something incoherent as we adjust her. I rest a hand over her belly, and Shathar does the same, so we are both holding her together.
The following day is the last day we have before Fiona must return to her regularly scheduled job. It is New Year’s Day, I am told, and there will be even more celebrations.
I decide that I will tell Fiona what we have learned. It will make our complicated situation even more so, but I must be forward and upfront with her. My heart is fuller now, more complete, and I want to share that.
Around noon, we say goodbye to our friends before getting in a car to go home, and after tonight, I do feel like they are our friends. I could see last night how Marguerite envied what Fiona and Amara have, and I wonder if perhaps she, too, longs for that everlasting companionship.
I hope she can find it.
Fiona is already sleepy again by the time we get home, so Shathar and I bundle her up on the couch in a blanket and let her nap while we do chores. I take the garbage out, as Fiona taught me, because collection is tomorrow. Shathar begins looking through his cookbook for one of his recipes. When I’m finished, I wash and ask him what he’d like me to do to help.
