Vaxa’an swallowed hard, hope making his chest expand.“I will not,luxiva.”
“I—I missed you today,” she murmured, her tone bordering on shy.“I’ve had a lot floating around in my head today but that’s the only thing that I knew was undeniably true.I missed you.And I want to tell you that, even though I think it might be a little crazy, thatImight be a little crazy,” she said, shaking her head, “that I think it’s possible you were meant to find me and that I was meant to be here.I mean, how else can we explain the fact that I’m here with you now and that your…your Instinct led you to me?And how else can I explain that feeling when we first reached the rah-vrax-tour, like your Fates wererealand that they weretherewith us.In some crazy, cosmic way, I’ve been thinking that maybe we were brought together for a reason.”
“Wewere,luxiva,” he rasped, grasping her by the shoulders, running his palms down her arms, and circling her wrists.“We were.I have felt it since I first saw you and I had only hoped that you would feel it in time.”
“I do,” she whispered.“And it scares the shit out of me.Everything about this place, about Luxiria, aboutyouscares the shit out of me.But in a good way.”
Vaxa’an frowned.“I will never hurt you,luxiva.There is no need for you to be scared.”
She smiled, a little laugh escaping her.“It’s an expression, Vaxa.It’s a good scared, I promise.”
There were some things about her language that he feared he would never understand but he let it go.Instead, he ventured with, “The crystal is back on the column.”
Kat swiped her tongue out to wet her lips and then nodded.“Yes,” she whispered.“I put it back once I realized that I couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to you.And I realized that that was my answer.”
A breath hissed out of him and his grip tightened, needing her to say the words.“You will stay with me?”
Kat smiled, bringing his hand up to kiss his scarred knuckles.“Yes, I will stay with you, Vaxa.”
His need for her grew to an intensity that he could hardly bear as every single thread of tension released from his body.When he lifted her off the ground, she gasped.He could not wait another second to be inside his mate, so he ripped at his coverings and then dragged the tunic she still wore from this morning up her thighs.
“Oh,” she breathed when he surged inside.“L-Luxirians love sex, don’t they?”
“You have not realized that by now, mate?” he growled, nipping her neck.“Matings connect us in a way that words sometimes cannot.”
Happiness welled inside him, a feeling that had been a rarity in his life until his Kat had appeared, a gift from the Fates.
“Vaxa, one more thing,” she breathed, her eyes finding his.Her voice went soft and she whispered, “I…I’m falling in love with you.I wanted you to know that.”
Vaxa’an touched his forehead with hers, reaching out with thefellixixso he could feel her more intimately.In a gruff voice, he rasped, “Perhaps wordscanbe better than matings.”
Kate smiled through a soft moan and then he leaned forward to capture her lips, tasting her words, pulling them deep inside him.
And even though neither of them spoke after that, Vaxa’an showed his femaleexactlyhow he felt in return.
EPILOGUE
“Are you sure?” Kate asked Privanax, staring at the Luxirian doctor.“Like one hundred percent sure?”
Of course, she’d already had her suspicions, which was why she’d come to the labs in the first place.She’d had Vaxa drop her off on his way to a council meeting and said that she would get a ride back to their house.It wasn’t an abnormal request since Kate had been helping Privanax quite often with his research.The doctor wanted to know every little thing about her species, and even though some of his inquiries embarrassed her, she was glad to be of some help to him.
It had only been a few weeks since the mating ceremony and during that time, Kate had been settling in nicely and finding her own place in their world.After she’d told Vaxa that she would stay with him, and after he finally stopped distracting her with sex, she’d told him that she needed something to do on Luxiria.She didn’t want to sit around the house all day while he went about his duties.It would drive her crazy.
So, shortly after she’d told him about her job on Earth at the publishing house, he’d assigned her to their archives in the center of the city.When Vaxa had first brought her there, she’d fallen in love.It was a grand hall filled to the brim with ancient scrolls and books about Luxirians and their histories and stories of the Fates.Of course, she couldn’t read any of it, but with the help of the archivist, an older Luxirian woman named Bruxilia, whom she was quite fond of, she was learning the Luxirian language little by little, learning to recognize spellings of some words even though they were difficult for her to pronounce. Bruxilia kept her busy with other tasks and Kate returned home at the end of each day with pride.
“Are you questioning my ability to read my own Coms,lavrix’an?” Privanax retorted.Kate was quickly learning that the doctor could get a little prickly when he wanted to be.
Kate bit back a grin but then let out a long breath, looking down at her stomach.She hadn’t had her period since she was back on Earth and she knew that it had been longer than a month.But it went beyond that.She’d just…known.
“Well, I guess I won’t be needing this anymore,” she murmured, raising her wrist, which still held the birth control band that Privanax had put on her before Vaxa had taken her to rah-vrax-tour.
“No, you will not be,” he replied simply, reaching out to take it off.She rubbed her bare wrist.Kate would be lying if she said she wasn’t relieved.Vaxa had started glaring at the band when he thought she wasn’t looking, as if he loathed its very existence.“We will need to monitor your health closely,lavrix’an.This child will be a first for Luxirians…and for humans.We need to ensure your safety and make sure your body can withstand the demands of a Luxirian young.”
“I understand,” she said softly.She should be frightened at the prospect of having an alien child, but she wasn’t.It was just one more reason why she knew she’d made the right choice in staying.She hadn’t regretted her decision at all and Vaxa reminded her every day through his actions why she’d chosen him over her home planet.
“Have you told the Prime Leader about your suspicions?” Privanax asked, running some sort of metal tube over her body, glancing at his Com every few moments.
“No,” she said, shaking her head.“I wanted to be sure before I told him.”
