I blinked. “We pressed on it again.”
A hint of a smile stretched his lips. Was he making fun of me? “Then, if it happens, we will do that.”
Zhari came to stand next to us as Maxwell exchanged some words with another man I’d never seen before.Must be the ones on the human base here…They mentioned it in the shuttle.
“Here is her bag, brother. Make sure you find her some clothes, she does not have much and the few she has are not going to be comfortable for her here.” She paused, wiggling her eyebrows. “Or not. Maybe you will stay naked until her heat…”
Ghauro’s tail around my waist tensed and his eyes ignited.Nope.Not going to let that happen. No way. Escape.Two months. Icouldn’t—
“So, this is where we part ways,” Maxwell said, walking back to us as the other man scurried away toward the edge of the forest. “We’ll see you two in a month for the report.”
My heart sank in my stomach. “A month?”
Oh, his smile said everything he wasn’t voicing. “We need to follow the advancement. Until the pregnancy is confirmed, we’ll see you two each month for blood testing and ultrasounds.”
Shit. If Ghauro were to go alone and confirm I had escaped at some point, the deal would be off. No debt erased. No potential extra money to give my grandmother…
“Whatblood testing?” Ghauro sneered.
Maxwell lifted his hands in surrender. “Just a way to check if a woman is pregnant and ensure the fetus is developing as it should.”
His lips pulled back revealing perfectly aligned and white teeth. “Are there not any other ways to check both these things?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. “A needle and a few drops of blood taken out will notdamageme. It won’t alter my value or whatever else you’re freaking out about.”
Maxwell winced and Ghauro’s family stood quiet as he slowly turned his face to me.Shit. Did I say something wrong? Was the amount of blood I had something that mattered here? What—
“Yourvalue?” he clipped.
“Mel,” Zhari started, her voice soft. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know, what areyoutalking about?” I said defensively, trying to step away but still imprisoned by my husband's damn tail.
“I told you,” she said. “Mated pairs look after one another. Your health is his concern now, and the fact thatstrangerstake blood from you or perform theunspeakableexaminations they did back on the ship…it is not something we—Ghaurowill accept.”
“What unspeakable ex—”
“Later,” she gritted out at him before returning soft eyes on me. “Yourvaluehas nothing to do with all of this. If you are ever hurt or sick, you will not be worth less. You will only have a husband and most of his family fussing over you and forbidding any outsider from getting close until you are better.”
Oh.Oh.
So my husband was secretly a softy who didn’t like the fact that other people had their hands on me while I was vulnerable.
That explained his insistence on his sister staying by my side at all times. Whyshehad freaked out in his name about the—examinationsI had been subjected to.
Damn that man for melting the first layer of defense around my heart…
8
Let me down, you green savage!
Ghauro
Iseethed in silence as Melanie and I walked to the slightly secluded area where we would be starting our mated life—a larger shed on a piece of land that belonged to my clan, thirty minutes away from my family’s village.
I let her walk in front of me, ensuring her back was covered from the potential predators lurking around now that the night was falling. They did not usually come too close from where we lived as we hunted them on sight, but we could never be too careful. I had a mate to protect and look after now.
A mate whose health and privacy was violated during the last three days, according to my sister. It made me want to pick up a fight, but the humans were already gone and my beautiful bride did not deserve to be the target of my wrath.
