I meet his gaze and cup my ear. “Say that again? I didn’t hear you.”
“You heard me. He just checked your ears.”
“Yeah, I know,” I say with a huff and then snuggle back into him. “Take me home, Rathyn. I want to go to sleep.”
And so he does, this time without any argument. When we’re back in the confines of the apartment, he tucks me into his bed, and this time, I fall asleep in his arms.
twenty
RATHYN
My Everest is asleep. I do not trust the human doctor to know what he’s talking about, even though all of Everest’s vital signs say that he is healthy. He is sleeping more than usual, and I will not be satisfied until I know he’s safe.
I summon Cielo, who stares at me with wide eyes—less afraid of me than before, but he understands his place now. Especially now that I trust he does not feel a need to touch my human.
“Watch him. Summon me immediately if he shows any signs of distress.”
Cielo nods. “Is he injured?”
I hesitate, then decide he’s allowed to know more intimate details. “He ingested some of my breeding seed. I do not know the effects on humans.”
Cielo’s eyes widen, and he nods. “I will keep a close eye on him.”
I feel better about this. They are…friends. I do not like the idea that Everest forms attachments to anyone else but me. It is a new emotion. A very different emotion. One might call it a little too human, but it seems I have no control.
I thought binding him to me as a companion would help ease the need I have for him. That the cravings would dissipate. But being in close proximity to him at all times only seems to make it worse.
Any other logical Vyastil would terminate the contract immediately. But I can’t bring myself to even think of that as an option.
It makes something inside of me ache.
With a breath, I press my palm to the portal side and summon the location of Eissa. He is the closest thing I will ever know to a parental figure, the same way humans have, and he made it very clear that he would help me with my companion upon signing the contract.
I do not know if his help will extend this far, but as he has been the liaison between the Vyastil and humans long before we were established in their world, I trust him not to judge me unless judgment is necessary.
I step through and find Eissa sitting at a long table, flicking through a tablet while eating. He looks mildly startled to see me.
“I am going to assume this is not a social call.” He’s stiff, at attention, nervous. The Tarek at the border have been quiet over the last few months, but none of us will be at ease until there is no longer a threat to our people.
And now that humans are ours, the risk has doubled.
“This is regarding my human.”
He settles and says, “Ah, Everest,” the human way. Gesturing to a chair, he invites me to sit.
“You have had a human companion before.” It’s not a question. Eissa was the first, but he does not talk about it often. His records were redacted and sealed, and I have never felt the need to ask.
Until now.
“Was it…” My words fail me. Everything I wish to ask goes against everything I am. There is an attachment that is forbidden. There are intimacies that would have me publicly flogged and ridiculed. I would lose my position as Vyastil commander.
And yet. I wish to know.
“You like him,” Eissa says after a long moment. “You have enjoyed pleasure with him.”
I bow my head in shame, though I do not feel ashamed. “It was…unexpected.”
“I had a feeling. You were drawn to him the moment you tasted him in the clinic.” Eissa hesitates. “You are connected.”
