Chapter 15 #2
I think my head was in danger of falling off, since I was smiling so hugely. “I do,” I whispered, bending down to kiss his forehead. “I do. I love her so much, and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to feel the Mate Bond with her.”
His eyes slowly closed. “Goodnight, Dad. Love you.”
“I love you, son,” I whispered, brushing another kiss over his forehead. “Goodnight.”
I was in a thoughtful frame of mind as I got ready for bed, and was a little surprised Kesha was still awake when I joined her.
This bed was so much smaller than mine at home, and with all four of us in one room, I didn’t think I’d get much sleep, despite my lack of sleep last night and the stress of the day.
Still, I was looking forward to snuggling with her.
However, as I pulled her into my arms, she surprised me by holding up her phone, the screen’s brightness turned down low. “Did you see this?”
I squinted. “I haven’t seen anything. What’s so important?”
“Giza emailed us both. He said that Milo and Jay stopped him in town yesterday while they were running errands with Brakkor and Joss, and he thought we ought to know.”
I wasn’t completely familiar with the older male, although I’d met him a few times.
He was the orcs’ memory keeper on the island, which went hand in hand with his tattoo studio, a traditional orcish way of marking memories.
He was the one who organized all our ceremonies and holiday festivals, and while we hadn’t had much interaction, his younger Mate had been the lawyer who helped most of us work through the legalities of moving to the island.
What had the boys—wait, hadn’t Jay said something about Giza when we’d been in the grass at the lighthouse?
I stacked my hands behind my head—I’d given Kesha all the pillows, knowing how many she needed to sleep comfortably at home—and pulled her closer as I closed my eyes. “Okay, read it to me.”
She snuggled closer, and I could hear the excitement in her voice as she began to read quietly.
“Korrad and Kesha: Your sons stopped me yesterday in town to ask me some very specific questions about Mating. Not, as I assumed, the mechanics of it, which is what I would have asked about when I was their age.”
I snorted, my lips curling, and Kesha nudged me.
“He says they wanted to know if it was possible to have two Mates. We—the two of them and I—were talking about it the other day at lunch, and I remember them saying they were going to ask him. I didn’t think they’d actually track him down.”
Two Mates.
How could I get this lucky? Even now, my Kteer was humming in satisfaction, just having Kesha curled up beside me. It was as if I’d spent days claiming her, marking her, before I even realized who she was.
But I was doubly blessed because she was my Mate, ordained by the gods below, but also someone I’d fallen in love with first.
She began to read again. “Blah-blah-stories from the ancestors, blah-blah. Oh, here we go: Few people know this, but when I was younger, back in our homeworld, I loved a female who loved me in return. When she found her Mate, it devastated me, and I flatter myself to think, disappointed her as well. Even then, I knew I would one day carry my clan’s histories, so I spoke with the elders, wondering if my love’s Mate died, could I still have a chance with her.
I learned that it had only happened once in the combined memory of our elders, where one Mate died, and the female had found another Mate a decade later.
The fact that it was so rare, and that the female in question was undeniably happy with her Mate, made me realize there was no hope for me, so I emigrated to the human world where I was blessed beyond measure to find Harper. ”
Kesha paused here in her reading, and I gave her a little squeeze. “Harper is his Mate. She’s younger than him, and they have a kitling—she’s probably about two years old now.”
“The rest of the email is just him saying that he told the boys this story, that theoretically it was possible to find another Mate if the first one dies, but it was incredibly rare. After the conversation, he realized why they were asking, and figured we ought to know.”
I snorted again, smiling into the darkness. “Because it could be awkward if our sons were expecting us to wake up one day Mated.”
She poked me. “That’s exactly what happened.”
“Yeah,” I drawled, tugging her gently until she fell across my chest. “That’s what happened.”
We were silent for a long moment, and I could hear the soft sounds our sleeping sons made. Then Kesha exhaled, her breath cool against my bare chest.
“It’s true though, isn’t it? As soon as you said it, I realized it was true. I know you, Korrad. There is a knowing—that’s what you said about the Mate Bond. For a while now, I’ve felt like I could guess what you were thinking, even.”
Hearing her say that settled the last of the Bond into place, and my Kteer rejoiced to know it wasn’t just me who felt this way.
“It’s true,” I told her, absolutely. “This weekend together…” I couldn’t think of that, because I knew I needed to resist the urge to touch her with our sons in the room. “I think our heightened emotions today probably nudged the Bond to show up when it did.”
“I could feel your panic and your relief,” she murmured sleepily. “And your eyes have been glowing all weekend.”
Contentment filled me. “They have, haven’t they? I was stupid not to realize what was happening earlier.”
“We would have figured it out eventually. It took Jay being in trouble, us having to work together, to trigger it.”
She sounded so certain, and I would bet she was right. Still… I squeezed her. “Kesha, it wasn’t us working together, it was you. Orcs have sensitive hearing, remember? I could hear what you were saying to Jay today in that little space—I heard what you had to do to get him out.”
Gods below, just remembering it was heart-breaking.
Kesha shifted on my chest. “I said what I had to say to—”
“No, you don’t get it.” I pressed a kiss to her hair.
“You reached him when no one else could. I don’t mean that he was in a small space, dkaar.
I mean…” I swallowed, my throat suddenly thick with emotion.
“You remember what I told you Friday night, about how you complete our family? You treated him no different from Milo—you called him baby, you worried about him, you cried over him.”
She lifted her head, and I imagined I could see indignation on her face. “Of course I did. I love him.”
When I squeezed her, my chuckle slipped out.
“That’s my point. You love him, and he loves you.
You didn’t just reach his body when he was trapped today, you reached his heart and his mind.
You told him he didn’t have to carry the weight of the world, you told him it was okay to be a little kid.
You did that, Kesha. You let him just…be. ”
She froze, then I heard her exhale as she slowly lowered her head back to my chest, and I thought maybe she was finally getting it.
“That’s what I meant when I told you there was no use keeping score, love. Because how could a house and health insurance possibly compare to that gift?”
When she huffed a little, “huh,” I thought maybe she finally understood.
“I love you, Kesha.”
I felt her smile, felt her snuggle closer, and there in the darkness, I smiled.
“I love you, husband.”
“Mate,” I gently corrected, my heart swelling with pride and my Kteer vibrating with contentment at the word.
Kesha yawned, then wrapped her arm around my middle. “Mate,” she agreed.
And long after her breathing settled into sleep, I lay there, listening to three heartbeats which were my whole world.
My Mate. My sons. My family.