“Who? When? How?”
Sitting up, she turned to face him. She crossed her legs and rested an elbow on one knee and propped her head on her palm. He sat up also, leaning against the bulkhead at the head of the bunk.
“I’ll take those in order,” she said with a grin. “Who was my great-great-grandparents, or maybe that’s four greats? I’m notsure. Anyway, she’s kinda famous in the family. Her name was Han and she was a bounty hunter and took an assignment to capture and turn in my great-great-grandfather.”
“She was a Talin?”
“Nope, she was human,” Amina said. “Mom and grandma always talked about her with a lot of respect. She was fast, smart, and tough. She collected bounties on all kinds of species. Anyway, she found Zeph, and they fell in love. Well, it wasn’t that simple because they ended up having to steal his sister’s kids from a cresh. Then Han married Zeph so he could have Ilgorian citizenship.”
He could tell where this story was going. “And then they adopted his sister’s family?”
“Yup, his sister, Sandar, and her husband, Rensom. But they didn’t stop there. They also adopted an Ugarian named Tumoro and another adultlette Talin named Malsum. Those two met a human named Layla, and all three of them ended up getting married. It was a sweet story I should tell you some time.”
“Was it Han and Zeph that founded TML Freight?"
She shook her head. “No, it was Tumoro and Malsum that started our company with one ship. Later, after they met and married Layla, the three of them expanded the company.”
“But where did the wealth come from? Even one ship is expensive.”
Her brows wrinkled. “There was something about Zeph stealing a ship or something. Han sold whatever it was and divided the proceeds equally between three parties: her and Zeph, Sandar and Rensom, and Tumoro and Malsum. Han and Zeph set up a Jinjoo rescue with their portion. Sandar and Rensom started a small research facility that studies the grasslands back home. The facility is amazing; they’ve figured out how to use the grass to make these wall decorations you see in almost every Ugarian home. Ineeko is a major exporter now.”
“That explains why so many members of your family work for TML Freight,” he said.
“And a lot of us work for the Jinjoo rescue, and there’s full tuition paid for anyone who wants to get a formal science degree.”
He focused on her hands again. “I’ve met human-Talin hybrids before, but they all had more than a single characteristic.”
“Like I said, I’m mostly human. One of Han and Zeph’s kids married a human with an Ugarian grandparent. Then it was all humans from then on. My sister can purr, and my brother doesn't need much sleep. Genetics are fun because we all came out different.” She pointed at her head. “A lot of other humans are super jealous of my hair.”
All these revelations made him feel foolish and very scared. “You knew. You knew all along.”
“Knew what?”
“What it meant to be with a Talin. The significance of rubbing my bonding oil on you,” he said.
She blinked and sat up. “What did you call it?”
Hope blossomed as he pointed to his cheek. “Bonding oil. Talins scent-bond with their partner, otherwise neither partner is fertile. Originally it was thought impossible to scent-bond with a human because you don’t have scent glands to produce oil, but now we know that it can happen.”
“Well obviously it’s possible; Han and Zeph did it,” she said with a laugh.
“You don’t understand," he said. “When a Talin is scent-bonded, they are addicted. If we’re separated from our partner for too long, we can die.”
“What?” Amina’s eyes went wide and her head fell off her hand. “You rub your oil over me all the time. Are you…uh…”
“Yes,” he said, answering her unfinished question. “I’m truly and completely addicted to you. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you, doing anything and everything that makes you happy.”
Amina blinked rapidly, as if trying to hold back tears. “All that talk about wanting to marry me, that was all real, wasn’t it?”
“Completely,” he said. “From the moment I met you on Polkor, I was infatuated. I’d never known a bright-haired human, undaunted by the smell or danger of a Hulg station. Who wouldn’t want to know you better? When you were there to bring me back after I lost Ruby, I knew the ancestors had guided both of us to meet.”
A memory from that time floated through his head. The prick of pain at his neck. Then he thought of the two Ossisos she’d managed to knock out by herself. He didn’t remember seeing any blood or gashes.
“How did you do it?” he asked, taking both her hands in his to examine them again.
“Huh?” she asked with a frown.
“How did you defeat two fully grown Ossisos? Even with claws, that would be a difficult feat,” he said.
