Nikhil(79)

It was love at first sight, Mackenzie. I just knew it in my soul. Your dad was it for me.

Mackenzie hadn't understood half of her mother's words then, but she had felt the happiness and truth behind them. How had she forgotten that?

That's how she'd felt from the first moment she'd woken up to Nikhil carrying her out of that mine. Her soul had known she was safe and she was supposed to be. Why was she questioning it now because she wore some stupid bead?

"What is wrong, Mackenzie?" Nikhil's deep voice had her looking into his softly glowing eyes.

"Nothing is wrong. I'm just thinking."

"About this?" He moved the hand that had been circling her waist, holding her securely against him, to her fingers that were still touching his bead.

"Yes."

"It bothers you. To wear my bead?" His eyes dimmed with hurt.

"Not in the way you are thinking." She pushed herself up to rest her elbows on his chest, knowing he could easily handle her weight.

"Then in what way?" he asked, and when she didn't immediately answer, the arm still around her waist tightened. "I need you to tell me truth, Mackenzie, as much as you need me to tell you mine."

"I know. I just don't want my truth to hurt you or harm you. Never you, Nikhil."

"And you think it will."

"Yes. Because my ways, my beliefs, and traditions are not yours or your people’s."

"So I will learn them, but I can't do that if you do not tell me what they are. So what were you thinking?"

"I was thinking about cutting off your True Mate bead," she told him honestly.

"What?!!" Nikhil roared, nearly knocking her off the bed as he reared up.

"Nikhil!" she cried out, grabbing his shoulders as she felt herself start to fall. His arms immediately caught her, but the look in his eyes was pure devastation.

"You do not wish to be my mate!" The anguish in his voice tore at her soul.

"That's not what I'm saying!" She framed his face with her hands. "Nikhil! Let me explain!"

"There is nothing to explain! Only when a mate finds the other one completely unworthy will they cut the bead from their hair."

"That's NOT what I am saying!" she yelled at him. "Do you honestly think I could consider you unworthy after what we just did together?"

Nikhil froze from lifting her off him to get out of bed. "Then what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I hate that the only reason everyone accepts me as your True Mate is because of some stupid bead! That I hate knowing the only reason I'm with you right now is because of it. And I'm saying that I hate the fact that you would have just left me with Luol and walked away if it weren't for the same damn bead!" Tears were running down her face by the time she finished.

"You think I would have abandoned you... if not for my bead..." Nikhil whispered.

"Yes!" she all but screamed at him.

"And this bothers you..." He used one of his rough thumbs to gently wipe away her tears.

"Of course, it bothers me! I don't need some damn bead to know how I feel about you. To know that I love you. I feel it here," she touched the place where her heart was," and I feel it in my soul. I know you are my other half, but you wouldn't if..."

Her words were cut off by Nikhil rolling her onto her back and silencing her with a hard kiss that went on and on.

"I would never have abandoned you, my Mackenzie," Nikhil told her when he finally pulled away just far enough to let her breathe. "I couldn't have, bead or no bead. The moment I held you in my arms, I felt a contentment that I did not understand. There were others that could have taken you to Luol. I should have let them and stayed with my warriors. It was my duty, but my place... My place was with you. Only you."

"That's only because of the bead," she argued.

"I didn't know it had transferred, Mackenzie. A Kaliszian has to see his True Mate bead on a female before he knows. I never saw it and never would have if Luol hadn't pointed it out to me before he closed the deep-repair unit. I was feeling all this long before that."

"You didn't know?" she asked hopefully.

"No." His lips brushed hers as he continued to speak. "I will confess that I will be forever grateful that you wear my bead, for without it others would try to steal you away from me. They would never believe one as amazing and beautiful as you could have true feelings for me."

"You would clobber anyone stupid enough to try," she said giving him a wobbly smile.

"I would kill them, Mackenzie." Nikhil's words were flat, hard and direct. "You are mine and only mine."

Mac reached up to grab the braids that had fallen over each of his shoulders, as her concerned brown eyes looked up into his. "Would you really kill for me, Nikhil? One of your own people? A Kaliszian?"