“I’m not a client,” the female said and Dravka almost felt disappointment at the words. “I’ve come to introduce myself as Madame Allegria just hired me to run this establishment for the foreseeable future.”
His hearts began to pump harder, blood circulating through his veins.
“She did?” Khiva asked, frowning, his eyes running over her, regarding her with new eyes. Dravka felt a flare of something that felt like envy.
“My name is Valerie Browen,” the girl said. She couldn’t be older than 21 or 22. Young…and yet her eyes were old. So fucking old. “I’ve just come from Genesis. I—I’ll be running the front desk downstairs and seeing to all your needs on a daily basis. I’ll be living on the property as well. What is your name?”
“Khiva,” was his response, though his name sounded like a question itself. Valerie nodded once.
From across the Cluster, Dravka caught Ravu’s bewildered look and Tavak’s shrewd one.
“Why did she hire you, Miss Valerie Browen?” Tavak asked, his tone a little mocking as he said her name.
But Valerie wasn’t rattled by the male’s question. She simply regarded him.
“I suspect because I’m her niece,” came her dry response. The ripple of tension in the Cluster was palpable. Even Khiva’s face seemed to darken ever so slightly. “And what is your name?”
“Tavak,” he finally said, after a long moment of strained silence. He jerked his head over to his brother, who was still sprawled across the armchair. “This is my brother, Ravu.”
Finally, Valerie’s eyes caught on the last Keriv’i male in the room.
Him.
Dravka stood from his seat and watched carefully as her eyes seemed to widen on him. Her pink lips parted, though they were still downturned. She blinked once, twice.
His hearts were still beating quickly. Her voice was stirring something within him and when he stepped close, he caught a whiff of her scent. Clean and smelling of lemon soap. Underneath that, he smelled her warmth and his jaw tightened with want. He needed to consume that warmth.
His pupils dilated on her until the light in the room seemed to glow.
In the back of his mind, he had a suspicion of what was happening.
Thenuvur’u drava.
The linking.
His kind formed strong bonds and attachments. Then again, the Keriv’i had always believed that thedemavs, their deities, led them to these bonds, to their mates.
He’d never responded to a female like this.
And when he caught her gaze with his own, the corner of his lips lifted. His hearts were thundering. He felt…excitement. Something other than numbness and the endless feeling of waiting.
Because maybethiswas what he’d been waiting for.
Shewas what he’d been waiting for.
“You look sad, Valerie Browen,” Dravka murmured, approaching her until she had to crane her neck to regard him.
He saw her throat bob with her swallow.
“I’m sad,” she whispered, her brow furrowing, “because my mother just died. And now I’m here. And I don’t know what comes next.”
Ache bit at his chest.
Grief was highlighted in her gaze. Grief he was very, very familiar with.
Even still, there was a strength in her eyes too. Shining and bright, just hidden. She was an honest being, unapologetic for her feelings, unapologetic about her grief or why she was here.
“I know that sadness well,” he told her, dropping his head in a gesture of respect.
