“What did he say?” she asked.Her tone was hesitant, as if she already knew the outcome.
“He did not want my help,” he grunted.“He told me to leave, that he never wanted me to seek him out again.We argued.Eventually, we fought.I left soon after and when I tried to find him again on Petrika a few lunar cycles later, he was gone.I searched for the next two rotations, whenever I could without raising suspicion, but no being had seen him.No one knew where he had gone,” he said, his chest tightening with his words.
“Rixavox…” she whispered.
“It came to the point where I could not rest.Every moment I was not fighting for Luxiria or performing my duties, I was searching for him.I knew I had to stop.Finally, I let him go.I have not searched for him since.”
He knew not if his blood brother was still alive.He sincerely hoped he was.He hoped he’d built himself back up from the state that Rixavox had last seen him in.It hurt to think of other outcomes.
Sessela was quiet and then she murmured softly, “It’s more difficult choosing to let each other go.Sometimes you don’t have a choice and it sounds like you didn’t in this situation.I understand.You did the right thing, Rixavox.”
Hearing her say that soothed him to some degree.Words would never heal the wounds his family unit had endured in the past ten rotations, but they helped.Especially from his mate.
“You say you understand,” he noted, dread forming in his gut.“Who chose to leave you?”
She stilled, as if she did not expect such a direct question.But she didn’t hide anything from him.Instead, she said, “My parents.”
He cocked his head to the side, his chest beginning to rumble.“How?”
She shifted in the water, her eyes flashed to the side, and Rixavox observed it all.She was not used to speaking about this, he realized.He wondered how long she’d hid it, like how he’d hid his brother.
“My mother left my dad and I when I was two-years-old,” she said, her shoulder lifting out of the water in a shrug.But Rixavox heard the pain in her voice.“She’s never contacted me, so I don’t know much about her.”
Rixavox furrowed his brow, his back straightening slightly.It was unfathomable that a mother would leave her young at that age.
“As for my dad…” she trailed off, her arms moving under the water to wrap around her body.Rixavox shifted, restless, not liking to see his female in distress.“He’d always been a little distant after my mom left.He got remarried to another woman my first year of college and he became even more distant after that.”
Rixavox didn’t understand what ‘college’ meant but he knew it wasn’t the time to ask.She’d explained to him what marriage was, however, similar to Breeding partners in Luxirian culture where both parties could separate by choice.He was realizing that humans didn’t seem to have fated mates, or perhaps they were even rarer than Luxirian couplings.
“What about during your treatments?” Rixavox asked.“He was there then,tev?”
Sessela gave him a small smile, but instead of making his heart stutter in his chest, it made it feel heavy.“Yes, for a little while.”
Only ‘a little while.’Rixavox understood what that meant: that she had gone through the majority of her treatments alone…treatments that she’d told him made her sick and tired and afraid.
The swell of anger rising within him was surprising.It made sense to him now, why she’d taken the time to thank him for accompanying her to theRillirax.At that moment, he’d been slightly…insulted that she thought it was an inconvenience for him, as she’d described it.Now he understood.
“I think I’m ready to get out now,” she said softly.Rixavox swallowed and jerked his head, rising from his sitting position.He laid out one of the coverings he’d bought for her that morning near the edge of theRilliraxbefore turning his back.
He calmed his breathing as Sessela emerged from the pool and slipped her coverings back on.He swallowed when he heard her approach him, inhaling a sharp breath when he felt her hand on the middle of his back.
Rixavox turned to look down at her.Her covering was clinging to her body, wetting the light fabric, outlining the shape of her breasts and slim waist and flared hips.Her hair was wet and her eyes shone silver.
Beautiful, he thought, awed by this creature standing before him.
Slowly, she walked into him, nudging into his body until every soft curve of her was pressed against him.Her arms came around his sides until they clasped around his back and she leaned her cheek right over his heart.
A hug, he remembered dumbly.Vaxa’an’s human mate had called these hugs.An intimate embrace.
Without further hesitation, he returned it, his chest purring against her cheek, as his arms enveloped her.
His Instinct quieted within him, content.He had his mate in his arms, safe and protected, as the Fates worked to heal her body.
Everything stilled around them as he felt her warmth and no more words needed to be spoken.
* * *
When they returned to the dwelling, they were still quiet but they never strayed too far from one another’s touch.Sessela disappeared into the washroom briefly to change her tunic but then returned to watch him start a fire in the central hub.He led her down into his quarters and he flared up another fire in the pit, letting the space soak up the golden light it produced, chasing away the chill of the northern night.
