The words tumble out before I can stop them, and everyone in the cavern stares at us. Aehako’s father Oshen, his mother Sevvah, Asha — they all look at me as if I’ve grown another head.
Then, Sevvah gasps and a smile breaks across her face. “My son! You resonated? And to such a lovely human!” She beams at me with matronly warmth.
“No resonance, Mother,” Aehako says, and pulls me against his side, carefully steering me away from a gaping Asha. “I’ve chosen her as my mate, and she’s chosen to be mine.”
I wait for Sevvah to question this, but she only smiles. “Equally wonderful.” She pulls at the laces of Aehako’s leather tunic, but it’s clear it’s not going to come off like that.
I step back out of Aehako’s grip. “Take off your shirt so your mother can see the wound.”
He removes his clothing, and then hands his tunic to me with a wink. “Not back an hour and my mate’s having me strip down. You see why I took her as my woman? She’s demanding.”
I blush.
Asha’s still standing there, and I sneak a peek over at her. She is frozen in place, an unreadable expression on her face. It’s clear she doesn’t belong, and it’s also clear she’s making no attempt to leave. This is awkward. I feel bad for her. I know she’s throwing herself at Aehako, but it’s clear that she’s miserable, all thanks to a khui that picked someone else.
Her gaze flicks to me and I offer her a tentative smile.
She scowls at me and storms away.
So much for sympathy.
Sevvah shakes her head and takes a handful of the wooly herbs out of the bowl I’m holding. “That one has a hard head. Perhaps now that you’ve taken a mate she’ll get it out of her mind that you should be together.”
“One can hope,” Aehako says drily. He hisses when Sevvah presses the bundle of herbs against the wound.
“This should be stitched,” Sevvah tells him.
“Maylak can fix it.”
“Maylak will be exhausted trying to save Haeden,” Sevvah insists. “I won’t have you bleeding out while you wait for her to recover. You have a pretty mate to take to your furs. The last thing you want is to spend your time moaning in pain.”
“Not when I’d rather spend it just moaning, eh?” Aehako teases.
Oh my God, I can’t believe he just made that joke with his mother. I stare at him, horrified and unable to laugh.
As if she can read my thoughts, Sevvah rolls her eyes, taps his cheek with her hand, and says, “Behave, you randy fool.”
A giggle escapes me, and Sevvah flashes me a grin. Maybe the whole mother-in-law thing won’t be so bad after all.
“So,” Sevvah says as she readies an awl and a thick length of cord. As she pulls up a small stool, her husband Oshen retrieves a bowl from a shelf over the fire pit and carries it forward with gloved hands. Hot water. He sets it down nearby and Sevvah dips a bit of leather into it, then dabs at the edges of Aehako’s deep wound. “Where will you and your new mate be caving?”
“Caving?” I ask.
“What, you don’t want us here, Mother? I am wounded.”
My eyes widen. Sharing a cave with Aehako’s big family? And trying to have sex while doing so? The idea is unthinkable. But there’s no place else to go, either, and Harlow – and any hopes of a stonecutter – are gone. This is something I haven’t even considered, and I shoot Aehako a worried glance. Does he really want us to live here?
But even as I look over, he winks.
Sevvah snorts. “The last thing a young mated pair needs are two old ones and two boys snuggled up in the furs nearby. Your mate will want more privacy than that.” She dabs at his wound again, then looks at me. “Since there are so many newly mated pairs, there is talk of opening the caves to the south for the winter and splitting the tribes.”
“Then we’ll go there,” Aehako says, wincing as his mother tends to him. “Kira and I will definitely need our own space.”
“A noisy one, is she?”
“The noisiest,” Aehako says proudly.
I’m so going to die of embarrassment.
• • •
I must drift off to sleep at some point, because the next thing I know Aehako is kissing my brow and tucking me into bed. I should get up, but it’s so warm and safe and I’m curled up next to him so I just snuggle down closer and drift back to sleep.
It’s heaven, pure and simple.
I wake up at some point because I feel like someone’s staring at me. I squeeze one eye open and Sessah – Aehako’s much younger brother – is gazing down at me. I feel a little awkward and shy under his scrutiny. “Good morning,” I say in his language, since I know it now. The words feel fluid on my tongue, and I realize this is the first time I’ve been able to say more than just ‘hi’ to the younger ones, who haven’t been out to the elders’ ship for the language dump. I decide to show off a little. “Am I sleeping funny? Is that why you stare?”