Dorian had cautioned him when he first bonded with Ania that there was very little heat in the Pleiadian female for him. But he hadn’t needed his intuitive friend to know Ania’s physical desire was lukewarm. He had been very aware that after many centuries of setting aside the physical side of herself, Ania never had reached the point of being more than mildly aroused by their physical bonding.
Yet her lack of desire had not put him off from formally mating her. He had been convinced that Ania was all the mate he would ever want or need. While part of him had been irritated by her reticence, another part had considered her coolness a challenge. The first time they had actually shared a bonding vibration had rivaled the moment he’d earned his captain’s rank. Every experience after that first one eclipsed all others he’d shared with any female.
He had no regrets in mating Ania. His regrets were only about not stopping Conor’s men in time to really save her.
“I’m not upset that he helped you. Dorian just should have checked with me before he came to see you,” Synar said, knowing it wasn’t fair of him to hold such a view.
Ania turned away to keep him from seeing her irritation. “My friendship with Dorian is centuries older than you are. I will not allow it to be disrespected no matter what you think of me. My interactions with him are not your concern.”
“I am not talking about your friendship with Dorian. You are I are still mated, Ania. It is disrespectful to let another male touch you other than to render aide,” Synar declared, all but choking on the hypocrisy of his words. Irrational or not, he didn’t want Dorian touching her. In fact, he didn’t want any other male touching her. Ever.
“Your accusations are invalid since you and I are no longer mated, Synar. To pretend we are is an illusion that serves no one and I will not be a part of it. The last two years of pretending were quite enough, even in my long lifetime. Check your records. Our mating agreement has been formally severed.”
She had drafted the mating dissolution form the day Synar said he might never come back for her. After the commissioner announced Synar was still legally responsible for her, Ania had decided to move forward with the dissolution. Sending the form and getting the acceptance back in a mere instant had barely hurt at all. It had seemed the only logical thing left to do to end a relationship that was over in every other way.
“I have seen no dissolution notification,” Synar said, a bit shocked that Ania would take such an official action without first informing him of her intent to do so.
Then he found himself morbidly wondering how the Pleiadians could accept a formal dissolution of their mating if they no longer considered her a live entity. Bureaucracy was always confusing, no matter how advanced the planet. By Pleiadian laws, he owned Ania’s body, if not the spirit within it now glaring at him. Coming out of his musings over the matter, Synar realized he’d been staring the whole time and swallowed hard at the anger radiating from her.
“Why did you feel the need to dissolve our arrangement after all this time? Is there someone else you wish to mate?”
Ania shook back her hair. If there had been another male, she would not have waited until now to dissolve it.
“My bonding availability is no longer your concern. I simply refuse to deceive any creature deliberately, even those of your crew that I do not yet know. While I packed at my parent’s house, I filed the dissolution form. It was acknowledged instantly. Trust me, our separation is legally, as well as spiritually, real. Isn’t that why you put me in my own space?”
Ignoring Ania’s angry pronouncement, and not ready to discuss their sleeping quarters, Synar turned his attention from the technical details to the bigger issue he needed to understand.
“What else do you know about the outcome of your inquiry?”
Ania turned her back to him and pretended a great interest in the contents of her room. It kept her anger from escalating to a point of wanting to attack him.
“The details were not published before we left. The best of my intuition has been stripped from me in the last two years. But what knowing I do possess tells me you have my answers. I am being as patient as I can be in the circumstances, Synar. I want to know what is going on.”
Curse Malachi, Synar decided. He was behind Ania knowing. He was supposed to be suppressing her awareness. Was the demon truly so determined to shed Ania’s body that he would hasten their confrontation? There was no available host body on the ship for the demon to use in place of hers. If Ania chose her death, Malachi would have to go into the amulet. In the amulet would be nothing but a void. So what could Malachi be planning?