Tiffany rolls her eyes. “Here we go. Princess is going to lobby for your cave, just you watch.” She saunters away. And she’s probably not wrong. It’s clear that a long, long time as one of the few single women in the sa-khui tribe has made Asha rather spoiled and demanding. Of course, she’s mated now.
Of course, I am, too. And she’s touching my mate’s arm and pretending to cry, and the sight of it irritates me. I watch as Aehako reaches out and pats her shoulder, trying to comfort her. “Your cave is one of the nicest. I promise.”
“It’s small,” Asha pouts.
Oh, for Pete’s sake. She doesn’t have to share with anyone except her mate, which makes it twice the size it would have been if she’d had another mated couple squeezed on top of her. I sigh with irritation as she takes Aehako’s hand and tries to pull him toward her new cave, as if to give him a personal tour.
Enough of that.
I step forward, approaching Aehako’s back. As I do, I notice his expression changes to one of horror as he stares down at Asha. Worried, I quicken my steps—
And hear the unthinkable.
Aehako’s resonating and Asha’s got her hand in his.
Shoe? Dropped.
PART SIX
KIRA
I can’t breathe. My heart’s pounding in my chest so hard that my blood is thumping in my ears.
Aehako just resonated for another woman. I’ve lost him.
The shock and grief is overwhelming. I stare at their joined hands, and look at my mate. He puts a hand on his chest, and I can hear it thrumming from over here.
He’s resonating – his khui is reacting to the presence of his perfect mate.
And I’m not it. Asha is.
“I don’t understand,” I say. I can barely hear my own voice over the roar of blood in my ears. “Asha has a mate. You can’t resonate to her.”
You’re mine, not hers.
It’s too unfair. Aehako is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I’m going to lose him so quickly? A sob chokes my throat. My heart thumps a wild beat.
My handsome mate stares down at his chest, and then releases Asha’s hand. “I’m not resonating for her.” He turns to me, and his eyes seem unnaturally blue and bright.
The heartbeat in my ears pounds louder, faster. It keeps speeding up—
And then I realize what it is.
And I collapse with joy.
A moment later, Aehako’s big arms go around me and he cradles me to his chest. “Kira,” he murmurs, and holds my head tucked under his chin. “My Kira.”
My own chest reverberates and thrums with resonance. That pounding that I was hearing? It wasn’t my pulse. It was my khui, responding to his.
How is this possible?
Even as I wonder, my body changes. Intense feeling and need sweeps over me, like a full-body flush. A sexual flush. I feel my thighs press together, and the ache to be filled settles deep inside me. My nipples feel oversensitive, and my skin aches even as my khui sings a humming beat along with Aehako’s.
I cling to him, torn between hope and despair. “I…don’t understand.”
He laughs, and the sound is full of joy and wonder all at once. His mouth presses on my forehead, and he kisses me as we sit in the midst of the cave, collapsed around each other. “What is there to understand, my mate? Your khui simply needed more convincing.”
I laugh, and my laughter turns to tears. “But…I can’t—“
“Perhaps you can.” He strokes my hair back from my face. “The khui adapts you to live here. Perhaps it changed more in your body?”
I stare at him in wonder. Maybe it did. Maybe the khui finds the broken parts in a body and mends them. All I know is that I’ve always been told I could never have children. And yet here I am, resonating to the man I love.
“You are quiet,” he murmurs, and his arms tighten around me. “Are you not pleased?”
I press my head to his chest, listening to the sound of his khui singing to mine. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. “I am beyond joy. I can’t even…” Hot tears well up. “I never imagined…”
More than the child, more than anything…Aehako is mine forever.
He growls low in his throat, and I feel the press of his cock against my hip. “Shall we go to our cave and please our khuis?”
I choke out a laugh, clinging to him. “Yes, please! Please!”
Aehako gets to his feet, and I immediately feel bereft – and needy – the moment I’m no longer pressing my skin to his. But then he scoops me up into his arms, and I’m filled with such utter joy once more that nothing could break my happiness.
Nothing at all.
He heads toward our new cave and calls over his shoulder, “My mate and I will be busy. Do not bother us.”