But it was Lainey who suddenly asked, “Wait, why are you talking like you’re not coming back home with us?”
All heads swiveled back towards Cecelia when she said simply, “Because I’m not.”
“Cecelia, seriously, you can’t just stay here!” Lainey argued.“Your home is back on Earth.”
“My home is here now,” Cecelia corrected softly, “with my mate.I could never imagine leaving him.I would never want to.”
Crossing her arms over her chest, Lainey bit out, “Luxirian dick must be pretty amazing, considering that not one, butthreehuman women are now staying behind!”
Kate and Beks, two other human women who had come to see them, were also ‘mated’ with Luxirians and were choosing to stay behind apparently.Kate was evenpregnant.
Cecelia flushed at Lainey’s crude words, but then said, “Well, heisamazing in that department, but that’s not why I’m staying behind.”
“You can’t expect us to leave you here,” Lainey continued.“What if this is a mistake?It’s the honeymoon phase right now, but what happens in five, ten, twenty years from now?”
“You don’t think I’ve thought about this already?” Cecelia cried, looking at all of them.“Rixavox and I areblood bonded.Leaving him would be like ripping a piece of myself away.And you can’t really understand what that’s like until you’ve experienced it yourself.”
Blood bonded? Taylor thought, her eyebrows furrowing.
“I’m not saying that transitioning to living here will be easy,” Cecelia said.“It will behard.I’m giving up my life on Earth, but it’s because I believe in what Rixavox and I have.And I would never be reckless with my future unless I was completely sure of it.And my future?He’s definitely in it, for the long haul.”
The group went silent, probably all sensing what Taylor did: that Cecelia was serious about her man and wouldn’t be leaving his side.Taylor recalled the look that the alien male—who she now knew was Rixavox—gave Cecelia before she’d come to greet them all not too long ago.Even then, she knew what that look meant.
It was love, desire, happiness, all rolled into one sweltering gaze.
“My staying here doesn’t change anything for you,” Cecelia continued after a lengthy pause.“The reason why they kept you sequestered was because Vaxa’an didn’t want any of the males’ Instincts to awaken if they saw you.He was waiting for my return to send us all back to Earth, but now that I’m staying, there’s no reason for you to be delayed.”
Taylor’s heart gave another nervous flutter as she thought,But what happens if one of their Instincts has already awakened?
Again, those searing cloudy gray eyes came into her mind’s eye.Taylor shivered, her nipples pebbling under her shirt even though the room was warm.
No, no, no, she thought, grappling with control.It was nothing.She was just a little stir-crazy and imagining things that weren’t there.
Yes.That was it.
Trying her best to relax, Taylor couldn’t help but ask, “So, you think we’re leaving tomorrow?”
The sooner, the better, as far as she was concerned.
* * *
When Vikan slowly ascended from his drugged stupor, the Luxirian silver moon was bright overhead, casting shadows into his sparse dwelling.
His first thought was of the human female and he felt a jolt of panic, afraid that he’d been passed out for longer than anticipated.It was a gut reaction and therefore, his newly awakened Instinct’s reaction.It was a need to be close to his fated mate, so that he could foster a bond between them, tying her to him as steadily as she was tying him to her.
Vikan squeezed his eyes shut, his temple giving a faint pound.The last of theyikavahad not quite worn off yet, but it would soon.
Frustrated shame washed over him when he realized his cock was pulsing and hard, evidence of the erotic dreams of the human female.Vikan grit his jaw, but ignored his lusts as best as he could.
Ever since Nitav’s death, Vikan had been celibate, uninterested in sex and mating, which was unusual for a Luxirian male in his prime.Luxirians celebrated sex, revered it.It was strange that a warrior, especially one of his rank and station, would go so long without mating partners, but Vikan could not bring himself to take another female.He had wanted to stay true to Nitav, even after her departure from that world.
Vikan pushed up from the central hub fire pit on shaking, weak limbs, a brief after-effect of theyikava.It was dark in his dwelling, the fire long extinguished.He listened carefully to the silence, to the soft wind whistling past his dwelling and loneliness hit him so hard that it took him by surprise.
His legs gave out and he tumbled back against the cushions.Pressing his palms into his eyes, he rubbed them, torn, needful, grim.
And for the first time, he gave himself permission to think of what a fated mate meant.
He wasn’t blind.He saw the happiness of Vaxa’an with Kat.He knew Lihvan would do anything for his mate, Beks.And now Rixavox, who had once said he couldn’t imagine being with only one female, could not fathom his existence without his Sessela and saw only her.
