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.”
I should be horrified that he’s told everyone what we’re doing, but I’m too happy to even care. I peek over his arm and look back at the others in the cave. Tiffany and Josie are standing together, whispering, but they have smiles on their faces. Asha looks forlorn and lost. The other hunters simply laugh and call out jibes about Aehako and his prowess.
All the while, my khui sings and sings and sings.
Aehako carries me into the cave and gently sets me down on the pile of furs that will make up our shared bed. They’re still bundled into rolls for transport during the move. We’ve been so busy overseeing the others that we haven’t had time to set up our own cave. “Wait here,” he tells me, and stalks to the entrance of our private cave, propping the stretched leather privacy screen in front of the entrance. All the while, I watch his ass flex under his loincloth, his tail flicking madly as he walks.
A tail has never been so sexy to me. But right now? It’s driving me wild with need. Oh wow. I press a hand to my chest, and I can feel everything vibrating from the strength of the khui’s song. It makes me want to reach out and touch Aehako…or myself. My thighs press together tightly and I fight down the very real urge to flop back onto the blankets and stroke my clit until I come. I’ve never been this utterly sexualized. The khui is making it impossible to think about anything but grabbing Aehako and licking him from head to toe.
So, so hard to be me. So hard. Truly.
Instead, I reach for the rolls of the furs and work on untying them. We’ll need something to lie on. My fingers, however, don’t seem to want to work properly. My hands are shaking and I’m distracted. All I can think about is Aehako and sex.
Boy, they were right about this khui thing. It’s like someone flipped a secret switch inside me and made me into an instant nympho. It’s so strange. But I’m not unhappy about it – not in the slightest. I have to fight the urge not to cry out of sheer emotion, and my fingers pick at the leather knot uselessly.
I feel – rather than see – Aehako come and sit behind me. My khui’s acutely sensitive to his, and our matched purring sounds feel strange and yet so right.
His hands come up from behind me and he cups both of my breasts in his hands and kisses my neck. “My mate. Truly mine.”
The emotional tears I’ve been fighting finally burst free. I clutch his hands against my breasts and sob.
I feel his big body stiffen. “Why do you weep, Kira?”
“I just n-never t-though it would happen for m-me,” I babble. I’d resigned myself to being the only human amongst the others that couldn’t have a baby when having children was so vitally important to the tribe. And Aehako had wanted them. I’d never considered having one myself.
It wasn’t until now that I realize how badly I want those things. And it overwhelms me. I weep even as he shushes me and his embrace goes from sensual to supportive. He strokes my hair and murmurs as I cry against his chest. I’m not unhappy. I’m the opposite. And I have no idea why I’m so weepy, but I’m happy and so full of emotion I could burst, and I guess tears are the way it’s coming out.
“Shhh,” he tells me as he strokes my hair. “Everyone will think you are miserable at the thought of carrying my child.”
A hiccupped giggle escapes me.
“It’s true,” he murmurs, and his hand slides down my arm, gliding over my skin. “They will say she is sorry that her khui has such poor taste as to mate a clever, beautiful girl with a fool like him.”
I snort at that. No one could ever accuse Aehako of being a fool. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I am not. There are twice as many unmated males as there are the human women. Do you not think me the luckiest of males that I would resonate for you? I do.”
I sigh, my tears drying because he’s so sweet. I love this man so much. He’s always seen me, even when no one else has. My flaws have never mattered to him – my smiles are the only thing that does.