Shock made my head swim.
“W-what?”
His anger was still palpable as he explained, “I have been collecting these trinkets for you since before I was even a horde warrior. Before I was aVorakkar. Some jewels were my mother’s. Others I acquired fromDothik, from outposts spread across Dakkar, from merchants and stalls and traders that come from all across the universe.”
“Arokan,” I breathed, frozen, my heart thumping so loudly in my chest.
“You think they belong to others? They do not. They belong to you and only you, Luna. From the moment I saw you in your village, they have belonged toyou.”
I’dreallyfucked up this time.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I—I didn’t know.”
“Nik, it is obvious you did not,” he scowled.
A weight released off my shoulders as I studied him. There were no others, I realized with relief. He was too angry that I thought he had ‘strayed from our furs,’as he’d put it. Now, I realized he hadn’t. He wouldn’t.
I had a lot of explaining to do.
Carefully stepping over the—huge—mountain of gifts, I hesitantly pressed my palms to his bare chest, feeling his heat beneath them.
He still wore a scowl and his anger was still evident as I looked up at him.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Arokan, I really didn’t know. Please forgive me. I never meant to…to insult you.”
Which was what I’d done. Perhaps without realizing it, since I didn’t know what the chests were, what they represented. But I’d also questioned his loyalty, his fidelity because I didn’t know whether the Dakkari were monogamous like humans tended to be.
“Dakkari…” I started hesitantly. “They only take one mate?”
His expression darkened. “Do humans take multiple? Is this something I need to consider in my future with you? Because I willneverallow you to take another, or so much astouchanother male. Know this,Morakkari. Absolutely not. You will ensure his death if you do.”
I blinked. “No,” I breathed. “No, Arokan, we only take one mate.” I groaned, closing my eyes. “This is a mess. A complete mess I’ve made.”
I needed to explain this, as clearly as I possibly could, even if it revealed my jealousy. Because there was no way around it. Not now.
“At first,” I started, “I didn’t care if you had others.”
He growled, looking away, irritated.
I turned his face, so he looked back at me. “You can’t blame me for that. I was a virgin, taken from my home, everything was new. I was scared and uncertain. As long as my brother was safe, I didn’t care. So when you gave me that night dress from one of the chests, I just thought it belonged to another. I thought nothing more of it.
“But then, it changed. Something changed. Maybe it was after thetassimaraor even before then, I don’t know. All I know is that when you gave me that necklace before the Ghertun’s trial…I could hardly look at it because I thought it—I thought it was someone else’s.”
“It was,” he said, his voice sharp. “It was my mother’s. The way you reacted to it…I simply thought you did not like it.”
I pressed my lips together. “It was beautiful. But it made me…it made me jealous. So jealous I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”
Arokan blinked and he made a sound in his throat, some of the rage in his eyes lessening.
“Then whenever I evenlookedat those chests, I couldn’t help but feel jealous. Truthfully, until just now, I’ve hated them. I’ve hated the sight of them.”
“Kalles—”
My voice shook with nerves as I said, “Then we stopped having sex.”
Arokan stilled.
Meeting his eyes, though my face was burning with mortification, I admitted, “I thought you were going to other females because you certainly weren’t coming to me.”
