“From the first moment,” he answered and a prickle of awareness rushed over her arms.“My Instinct began to awaken before I had ever even heard your voice.”
“But that was…”
That was at that disgusting bar on Petrika.She’d spoken to him for the first timeafterhe’d taken her from there, when they’d been walking down the empty, filthy streets.
He’d known even then.
“It awakened fully when I saw you for the first time,” he added, “at the night rooms, after you fought against me.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, dazed, but even as she asked him that, she knew why.
“How could I?” he replied.“I hated myself for even thinking that I could give you up to that Azatian filth.I tried to deny what was happening, but in the end, I could not.Iwouldnot.Then, when I brought you here…I had vowed that I would find you a way back to your home.If I had told you that you were my fated mate…I could not take another choice from you when I already had much to atone for.”
“You don’t owe me anything, Dev,” she said softly, gripping his shoulders.“I already forgave you for that.I understood why.And now I understand even more…after what Sarkon said.”
“About what?”
“Pidixa,” Cara murmured and Devix’s eyes slid shut for a brief moment, his head dropping back to the glass of the shower tube.“Sarkon had him?”
“His confession,tev.”
“You could have cleared your name with that,” Cara said softly.“And instead…you chose me.”
“Always,” he said, his gaze snapping open to regard her.“Nothing matters more than you, female.”
“But…you could’ve returned home.You could’ve seen your brother again,” she whispered.
“Rozun is my home now,” Devix said, stroking down her bare back.“I have made peace with my exile.I would have liked to see my blood brother, to speak with him and apologize, but I would havenevergiven you up for the chance.You must understand that.Tell me you do.”
“I do.I do understand,” Cara whispered, leaning her forehead against the side of his neck, wrapping her arms around him.“I don’t know what I did to deserve such a wonderful…well, mate, I suppose,” she murmured, smiling a little.
It was bittersweet for her, knowing that he’d given so much up for her.
“Will I be your mate then, female?” Devix asked quietly.“Will you accept me as such?”
She pulled back to look at him and she cupped the side of his face, her fingers tracing over the scar that his brother had accidentally given him.
Cara smiled and said, “I realized this past week that I couldn’t imagine saying goodbye to you, even if you’d somehow found me a way back home.I’m falling in love with you, Devix.”His chest rumbled in a purr, pupils flaring.She continued, her voice dropping to a whisper, “And I’d already made my mind up to stay, even before I knew what we are to each other.And I think that maybe I have an Instinct of my own and it chose you too.”
“Luxiva,” he rasped.
“Now, shhh,” she murmured, kissing the side of his face, brushing her lips over the bridge of his nose.“We have a lot to figure out, but we have time.Lots of it.And right now, I just want to cuddle because you’re so damned good at it, among other things.”
Devix huffed out a surprised laugh and Cara had never heard anything more beautiful.She had it so, so bad for her Luxirian.
“You say you did not know what you did to deserve me,” he murmured, his arms wrapping around her, the water still cascading over them from above.
His lips pressed against hers and she felt his words whisper across the space between them.
“But,luxiva, I do not know what I did to deserveyou.”
EPILOGUE
Two weeks later…
“Baby,” Cara whispered in Devix’s ear, leaning over him in their bed, the furs falling to the side.Through the large, floor-to-ceiling window, she could see the swirling, colorful lights of dawn creeping down underneath the canopy of the trees.
A sleepy responding purr made her smile.Her male was a hard worker, she’d discovered.An extremely hard worker and he was exhausted from the day before, working off his frustrations by hauling overtwentyloads ofpillervapods, just in time for their trip to the market that day.And those suckers were heavy.
