I desperately wanted to believe him, deep within my soul, but I was afraid of being hurt again.
Looking into his eyes, I yearnedto give in to my instincts and believe everything he said. If I could just convince myself that I was hisluwaeri—his fated mate given to him by his species’ Mother Tree—and enjoy the experience he was providing, maybe, just maybe, I’d finally be loved and truly happy with my life.
All I had to do was pretend for a little longer, because if this wasn’t real, at least I could enjoy myself and be happy with someone who wanted me—regardless of the baggage from my past.
If this were a simulation, nothing around us would be real—only our relationship would survive into the present when we woke up in the real world.
“I want to believe you—trust in whatever this feeling is that seeded itself between us.” I licked my lips as I let go of his leafy shoulders, realizing for the first time how rubbery they felt, like the beefy leaves of the succulents in my bedroom at the team’s house. “But I need answers.”
“And I will help you find them.”
“Thank you very much.” Sighing with relief, I rolled back my shoulders and nodded, giving him a gentle smile, astounded by his hyperfixation on my hair. “I can’t explain it—”
“I can assist you in obtaining answers to any questions you may have.” He shifted his longing gaze to mine. “Whatever you require. Just let me know.”
“Thank you for making such a declaration, even though we only met... unconventionally.” I leaned forward, grabbing his chest, needing to reconnect with him—with my new present. His vines tightened around me, binding me to him as the runes along the wall pulsed as brightly as his teal gaze. “I can’t say I understand how it feels to be... forever tied to some sort of smart high-tech hometree, but I’m glad you found and rescued me and tended to my wounds.
“I consider myself extremely fortunate to have met you, especially before you became desperate enough to torture yourself by venturing into space in search of me—yourluwaeri.
“I can’t explain how I got here or what’s going on between us now, but I can see it in your eyes, how you yearn to care for me despite the fact that we’ve only met.”
“I only want what’s best for you...” His mouth dropped open in surprise, and his eyes darted back and forth between his hand in my hair and my face. “However, I can’t deny that I’d love to be able to touch you—”
“You can.” I bit my bottom lip, unable to stop my soft chuckles. “I don’t mind.”
His hand clasped a clump of my hair without hesitation, his brow furrowed as he concentrated on rubbing the individual strands. The intensity of his stare concerned me, but the words were stuck in my throat as I failed to ask clarifying questions.
“I hope my vines bloom for you one day,” he whispered, his voice filled with a yearning that stunned me to my core.
My mouth fell open from his bold—and sweet—declaration.
It was another sign of how certain he was that I was his fated mate—hisluwaeri—and that we were destined to be together.
“Does your head hurt?” He leaned in closer to study my ear, his breath heavy against my neck. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, but you had other questions that I needed to address first, so I couldn’t gauge your body’sreaction to my work. I tried to be gentle when I installed the universal communicator, hoping that the Giving Pool would be able to alleviate the pain, but I wasn’t sure how it would feel once you awoke.”
“Was that the reason I woke with a slight headache?” I reached for his hand, his fingers leading me to a small metallic C that was securely attached to the side of my head and then wrapped around the top helix of my ear. My eyes widened in shock. I was taken aback. There was no tenderness or feeling of extra weight. “I wouldn’t have noticed it if you hadn’t pointed it out. I was too preoccupied with the world around me to notice.”
“That’s how we can communicate easily with each other,” Zyre explained, tilting his head and combing back his vine-like hair to reveal the same curved device attached to his pointy green ear as mine. “The IPA provided these universal communication devices to our representatives to ensure that all citizens in our galaxy could communicate with one another.
“I wanted to make sure I could calm you down when you awoke, so you didn’t inadvertently hurt yourself or try to fight me after the ordeal with the pafeldae.”
“How thoughtful of you...” I muttered, dropping my hand as I reached for his. It was much smaller on his ear, almost like an earring, but it had the same shape and feel as mine. “It was my fault for thinking this was just a simulation and assuming I understood you because it was part of the program. I had no idea how we could communicate until you started explaining how your world works.”
“Your arrival was unexpected. It’s the best I could do to make the experience more welcoming.”
CHAPTERELEVEN
ZYRE
Myluwaeri’scheeks darkened as she bit her bottom lip and dipped her head before averting her gaze. Something about the red tone made her skin look even more like the sun cresting over the mountains, its rays basking on the treetops at the start of a new day.
It was a beautiful sight to see her on my lap, leaning close while wrapped up in my vines. It only made me want to officially claim her as my own by planting my seed within her.
She was my future, and I was determined to show her that the Mother Tree had pairedus for a reason.
Myluwaeriwould be the origin of mytserwa.
I hoped they would prefer her beauty to my dullness, but now wasn’t the time to get ahead of myself. She hadn’t expressed any desire to conceive tserwa, not when she was more concerned with figuring out how she got here and why. It was critical that I remain vigilant and prevent my vines from wandering into areas she may not have wanted them to explore.
