“Excuse me, Jocelyn, I couldn’t help but overhear…”
As if I didn’t know orc senses were so much stronger that he likely could have heard a pin drop from across town. Still, I tried to smile politely, all the while a voice in the back of my mind reminded me that Brakkor wouldn’t worry about being polite; he’d just say what he thought.
Korrad’s expression seemed awkward, but softened as he glanced between us. “Surely you’ve noticed that there are orcs on Eastshore who are Mated?”
I nodded. “I’ve met a few of them—or at least, their wives. Zoe and Luxor, and Jess and her husband. You and Kesha.”
I heard my best friend suck in a breath, and Korrad’s gaze went to her for a moment. Was it my imagination, or did his cheeks darken just slightly before he shook his head almost sadly?
“Kesha and I aremarried, Jocelyn. There’s a big difference. Zoe and Jess aren’t wives, they’re Mates.”
I huffed. “I took enough anthropology classes to know about differences in rituals?—”
“No,” he interrupted, this time with a harder headshake. “Mating isn’t a social situation, it’s biological.There is a knowing—that’s what we’re told as kitlings. When we find our Mates…” His fingertips pressed against his chest, as if he could feel his heart. “We recognize them. They are ourforever, and the idea of being disloyal to them is just…impossible.” He clucked his tongue in irritation. “I’m not doing a good job of explaining.”
Unable to resist, I’d felt hope rising in my chest. “A knowing?” I whispered, wracking my brain for anything I’d read about this. “It’s biological?”
Korrad nodded. “For a male to forsake his Mate would be like cutting off his own arm; Mates are apartof us.” His lips curled ruefully. “Brakkor never believed in the inevitability of Mating, despite witnessing mine, but I think—recently—he’s come around.”
I stared at him, eyes wide, trying to process what Korrad was trying to tell me. “You’re saying…that Brakkor calling me Mate wasn’t just like, a term of endearment? It means we’re…what? Dating now?”
“Dating? No.” Korrad’s lips curled up on one side as he reached for my hand. “It means you two are bonded in a way that only death can part, and that I can start calling yousisternow, because your future is irrevocably twined with Brakkor’s.”
Oh, holy shit.
The sounds around me grew dim, and the edges of my vision began to go black. Was this what hyperventilating felt like? The entire world narrowed to Korrad’s amused grin, but I wasn’t seeing it, not really.
Mate.
That’s what…Brakkor wasn’t just calling me “honey” or “girlfriend” or whatever. Not even “wife”, like Kesha was—like I thought Jess and Zoe were!Matemeant something…else.
But then Kesha was pulling me around, holding me steady, piercing me with her dark eyes. “Jocelyn!” She shook me a little. “Joss, listen! You can melt down or freak out later, okay? They just called the council meeting to order, and you’re going to have to snap out of it.”
“Mate?” I whispered to her.
Kesha frowned. “I swear to God, Jocelyn, if you make me slap you to get you to focus, I’ll never forgive you.”
That sounded so much like a Kesha-ism that I found myself grinning at her. “I’d probably never forgive youeither.” Her ridiculousness had done what nothing else could; pulled me back to the present.
She was right; I could unpack thisMatenonsense later.
With a sigh, my bestie dropped her hold on me. “Oh, thank God. And for the record, youwouldforgive me. Probably thank me.”
I grinned and leaned in for a hug. “Probably. This is…” I straightened with a huge exhale. “Holy shit.”
She pushed me toward the doors to the big room. “It’s deep, yes, but you can deal with it later. You’ve worked too hard on this to flake out just before your big presentation. You have everything? Do you need water?”
“Yes, and no to the water.” I grinned over at her. “Aren’t you supposed to ask me if I need to pee? Or spit on your thumb and wipe off a smudge from my nose?”
“You look lovely.” Still, she fussed over my wispy bangs for a moment. “Give ‘em hell, Jocelyn.”
Chapter Fifteen
Brakkor
I didmy best not to fidget in my seat, if only because I didn’t want the guys to notice something was wrong. There was a reason I’d chosen to show up here with the males from the mine, rather than my brother—who’d take one look at me and know.
Dravik had settled into his new job doing small engine repair for Cairo’s body shop, and the taciturn male seemed pleased with the new arrangement, or aspleasedas the stone-faced male could be. Varron had passed the state certification to become an EMT on the island, which was as close to his old role as medic as possible. And Harkaan was well on his way to opening that microbrewery he’d always talked about.
