“What is aunt and uncle?”
“My mom’s sister and her husband,” I explain. He seems to know so many random facts about humans, but things that should be common knowledge seem to escape him. It’s…odd. “Do you know about siblings?”
“Yes,” he says. I’m not sure if he’s telling the truth or lying to get the conversation moving. Whatever the case, it doesn’t matter. “And they locked you in a room?” The question comes out in a low growl. Oh. He sounds angry.
That’s…different.
I shrug. “No. More like, they kept me in the house and refused to let me outside past the front door for…” Well, for years, but I don’t say that. “A long time. I was only ever allowed to attend school, and it got worse when the Vyastil began moving into houses nearby and getting jobs in our community.”
He huffs quietly. “I do not associate with those Vyastil.”
My brows dip. “Why not?”
His tongue teases his lower lip, then he says, “They are here for different reasons than I am.”
“Well, anyway, I don’t like being stuck inside after all that. And this room kind of reminds me of their house. Back then, I was still trying to get over losing my parents, and it felt like…so much. I don’t want to go back to that.”
His tail tightens a bit more, and it feels like a hug. “What is the average age parents leave their young?”
“Well, I was just a kid, but they didn’t leave me on purpose. They died, and my aunt and uncle had to take me in.”
His ears flick. “That was…difficult for you?”
I huff. “Yeah. It wasn’t great. I loved my parents. They were different. They wouldn’t have…” I stop. I don’t want to tellRathyn that my aunt and uncle were raging bigots who would be foaming at the mouth with anger if they knew what I was doing.
It seems needlessly cruel.
“What was the age you were allowed to free yourself from your confinement?” he asks.
“Eighteen. That’s when I became a legal adult.” He looks confused again, but I don’t explain further. If they walk earlier than ten months old, they probably don’t hang around their parents for the first quarter of their lives. “Are yours still around?”
“I do not know. We don’t contact our birth givers once we are self-sufficient.” He says this with no emotion, which gets me right in the chest.
I’m not the kind of guy who wants kids, but it’s wild to think that if I did, they might not have any emotional attachment to me. I would give just about anything for five more minutes with my parents.
Rathyn tugs me close with his tail and leans in, dropping his forehead against mine. “You are…” He takes a deep breath. “Sad.”
“What the fuck? You can smell sad?”
“I feel it inside here,” he taps my temple.
I lean into his warmth, and his hand creeps into the space between us, but just as his fingers brush mine, the lock clicks and the door swings open. The man from before walks in with a Vyastil at his heels.
It takes me a second, but eventually I recognize him. Eissa, from orientation.
Beside me, Rathyn stiffens, then inclines his head. Eissa smiles, looking more relaxed and almost human in a way that Rathyn does not.
“Everest,” Eissa says in his low, melodic rumble. He extends a hand, but before I can offer mine, Rathyn tightens his grip onme and pulls me back. Eissa doesn’t look surprised. He smiles a little wider and pulls his hand back. “Commander Vale.”
Rathyn inclines his head again but says nothing.
“It seems you’re asking to negotiate a companionship contract,” Eissa says.
Rathyn shifts in his chair after Eissa takes his seat, and I realize that he might actually be someone important. I quickly do the same when I see that I’m the only one standing, and I fold my hands on the table.
I kind of wish Rathyn would take mine again, but at least his tail is still touching my calf.
“Is this, like, a problem?” I ask in the tense silence.
