I took a deep breath and reached for her hand. She didn’t pull away, but I felt the tension in her fingers. “I don’t know exactly how our lives will change, but I know theywill. And I’m here for it. When I look at you, I feel like the universe gave me something I didn’t know I needed.” I was going to lay it all out for her, let her take it in, and whatever she decided, well, that would be that. “Like every conversation we’ve had, every moment spent near you, has been pulling me closer to something inevitable.” I let my colors shift, not hiding anything. Golds and warm oranges. “I think you are my mate.”
The furrow between her brows deepened. “Do you have the marks?”
“Not yet,” I replied. “But I suspect I will get them soon. I want to know more about you—your favorite foods, beyond chocolate. What makes you laugh. What you dream about when you let yourself dream. I want you to feel safe enough to tell me those things.” I paused, reeling from dropping that on her so suddenly.But all of it was true. All of it was real. “How do you feel about me?”
She was quiet for a moment, her gaze dropping to our linked hands. “I’ve never felt safe with anyone before. Not the way I feel with you. It terrifies me.”
“I know.”
“But I’m not running from it.” She looked up at me. “I saw what happened with Cleo and Rezor. How she pushed back against their bond and left. I’ve watched Rezor walk around that settlement like he’s lost half of himself. And I’ve thought, what’s the point of denying something that powerful?”
My heart was beating so hard I was certain she could hear it.
“If this is the mate bond,” she said carefully, “I’m open to it. To you. I don’t know how to do relationships. I’ll probably be terrible at it. But I want to try.”
“It is the mate bond.” The certainty in my voice surprised even me. “I know it. I feel it. The marks haven’t appeared yet, but Destran-human bonds don’t always follow the typical patterns.”
She nodded slowly. “I felt you coming for me. Before you arrived. Like I could sense you getting closer. Is that normal?”
“For mates? Yes.” My skin rippled with acute awareness of the female before me. “The bond creates a connection. Most Destrans feel it immediately, and those bonds deepen over time.”
“How will we know when it’s complete?”
“The marks will appear. They’ll burn into my skin. Permanent. Undeniable.” This was a lot to take in, and I was grateful that my mate was asking questions, rather than denying what we both knew to be true. “But I already know, Iris. I’ve known since that day outside the valley when I gave you chocolate and you smiled. Really smiled. Something in me recognized you.”
“I’m not easy,” she warned. “I don’t know how to be warm or comforting. I’ve spent my whole life alone.”
“You won’t be alone anymore.”
“I have scars.” She swallowed hard. “Not just on my face.”
“So do I.”
“I might push you away when I’m scared.”
“I’ll stay anyway.”
She made a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “You don’t know what you’re signing up for.”
“Yes, I do. I’m signing up for you. All of you. The fierce operative who takes my blaster without asking. The woman who navigates in complete darkness and knows Brakken weaknesses. The person who sits with me in a communal eating hall and tells me about being sorted at six years old.” I brought her hand to my lips, pressing a kiss to her scarred knuckles. “I see you, Iris. And I want all of it.”
Her eyes shone in the dim light. “I want you too. It scares the hell out of me, but I do.”
Then she kissed me again.
This kiss was different from the first. That one had been desperate, grateful, urgent. This one was a choice. A decision. An opening of doors that had been locked for too long.
I cupped her face in my hands, feeling the smooth skin on one side and the slightly textured scar tissue on the other. She was perfect. My thumb traced her cheekbone as I deepened the kiss, tasting her properly this time.
She made a soft sound in the back of her throat that drove me wild. Her hands fisted in my shirt, pulling me closer. I obliged, shifting on the bench to angle my body toward hers.
Her mouth was warm and demanding. When her tongue swept against mine, my skin lit up. I kissed along her jaw, down to her neck. She tilted her head back, giving me access, andI took full advantage. Her pulse fluttered under my lips. She smelled so amazingly, uniquely her.
My hands moved to the fastenings at her neckline. The black bodysuit had a series of small closures running from her throat downward. I worked them open one by one, kissing the skin I revealed.
Collarbone. Shoulder. The swell of her breast.
She froze. Her hands went to the luminescent sleeves and began pulling them back down to cast us into darkness.
