I look at him, my voice barely more than a whisper. “There’s something else.”
He frowns, moves closer, palm splayed wide across my skin.
A shudder runs up my spine, this time not from pain but from recognition.
He goes still, eyes burning like embers, every line of his body tight as a bowstring. “You carry my child,” he says.
Tears sting my eyes, not from weakness, but from the shock of wanting this so badly I can’t hide it.
He traces my belly, his hand dwarfing my entire midsection. “It is very early,” he says, voice rough, “but I sense her life.”
“I didn’t really believe this was possible,” I say. My voice cracks on the last word.
He grins. “I did.”
I laugh, the sound wobbly. “This doesn’t feel real.”
He kisses me, soft this time, mouth moving slow over mine.
“We will protect her,” he whispers against my lips. “You. Me. Our world. Xytheos must survive. Must remain stable. Become stable again.”
He has to correct himself because we both know that my arrival, the crash-landing of twenty human women mated to biome rulers with strange powers, has pushed Xytheos the closest to chaos it’s been in a thousand years.
I close my eyes, lean into the safety of his chest. “Dana is smart. She’ll find the connection between Hushbite venom and Xytheos,” I say. “Maybe whoever did that is involved in what’s going on with the Stone.”
He nods. “It is a good start.”
I try to focus on the next step, but my hand drifts back to my belly. “How long is gestation?”
He shrugs, like a mountain moving. “Impossible to say. Scans will tell us more.”
The room is quiet. I reach up, grab a fistful of his hair, and pull his mouth down to mine. The kiss is desperate, a promise and a warning. He answers in kind, pressing me into the bed, his hands roaming, never settling.
We make love again, slower this time, no urgency, just the knowledge that something new and impossible grows between us.
After, he cradles me in his arms, hand spread wide across my abdomen, as if daring the world to try and take what we made.
I breathe in the scent of him. “We’re ready,” I say, meaning all of it.
Rythar laughs softly. "After trying to civilize you, war seems like an easier challenge.”
I swat at him, laughing.
He catches my hand, his smile fading as he looks into my eyes. “I was not ready for you, Elena. No male could have been.”
His hand spreads over my abdomen. “But I will be ready for her.”
I cover his hand with mine.
“We will be a family,” Rythar says.
I drift toward sleep, the mate bond humming, his arms a wall around me.
I follow the circuit between Starfallen Brides as far as I can go, but no matter what I do, I can’t reach my other friends. It’s up to Sophia now.
CHAPTER 40
FORBIDDEN COMMUNICATION
