“I’ll do it.”
“You’ll…”
“I’ll marry you. Be your husband. Provide for you and your child.”
Sweet relief, like Terratribe II honey, poured through my veins. My knees nearly buckled with the sensation.
“Oh,” I said, blinking back tears and beaming at him. “Thank you! You’re sure?”
He looked offended by the question, his black brows knitting together over his glowing eyes.
“Why the blazes would I not be sure?”
“I just… I’m just checking,” I replied. I stroked my stomach. His gaze followed the movement of my hand. “It’s a lot to commit to. I’m just… Making sure you want to.”
He took in a rough breath, then growled, “I am not in the habit of doing things I do not want to if I can help it.”
“So… You want to marry me, then?”
His throat muscles leaped, as if with a sudden hard swallow.
“Yes,” he rasped. He stabbed his tail towards the house. “Now get inside and wash your hands. We have more to discuss.”
“You got it,” I said with a grin, hurrying in ahead of him. Ahead of myfiancé.
I was officially engaged.
Things were finally looking up.
9
ZOHRO
Iwatched to make sure Jolene made it safely inside before I went looking for Wyn. My wounds weren’t actively bleeding, and I could no longer hear the genka hurling itself at the fencing, so I’d bandage them later. Right now, I wanted to retrieve Jolene’s things and get Wyn settled for the night.
I walked in a daze, the past rushing up against the present and curdling bitterly. Jolene’s story and my sister Meryn’s fate were so similar as to seem almost cruelly staged. Like a punishment for my past failings.
Both Jolene and Meryn had been impregnated and subsequently abandoned by putrid and unworthy scoundrels. Fifteen cycles and spans of stars between them, but somehow both my Zabrian sister and the human woman I was now engaged to had come to end up at the same place. Males without honour, it seemed, were facets of all worlds. Or, at least, of my old world. And Jolene’s.
Fifteen cycles…
By the empire, Meryn’s son would now be older than I was when I was convicted and exiled.
But the similarities between Jolene and Meryn ended with the pregnancy and abandonment. They were strikingly different women. Meryn was like our father – reserved. An enormously skilled surgeon; kind in a quiet, sturdy sort of way; deeply introspective and intensely thoughtful. She did not speak without careful consideration of every word and she did not show emotion easily. The happiest I ever saw her was early in her courtship with Xander. The only times I ever saw sorrow in her were when our father died.
And when Xander left her.
But Jolene…
My hide warmed at the mere thought of her. The simple sound of her name in my head was enough to make my gut swoop, then tighten. Where Meryn had always been a calming influence in my world, Jolene was like a bolt of pure, ecstatic sensation. Words fell happily out of her mouth like she’d never run out of them. She smiled endlessly, as if it cost her nothing. Surprise, fear, and worry all showed themselves freely on her face, as if it had never occurred to her to hide any of them from me.
I would not marry her as some kind of twisted alleviation of my guilt – providing a familial life for her when I could not do so for Meryn. I wanted her because I wantedher.I’d wanted her before I knew her fate had so closely mirrored my sister’s.
And I still wanted her after.
I’d probably still want her even if she’d murdered someone.
My spine tightened. My breath scraped my throat.
