Chapter 27
KAELION
Dinner goes…surprisingly well.
I don't know what I expected—Shahar’s teasing, Solvi's excessive enthusiasm, Lyn's awkward perfection.
I fell into it faster than I would have liked, maybe.
I felt too comfortable with my mixed family, with how Lyn sat with Solvi on the sofa after dinner and let Solvi show her all her drawings…
with how Flicker seemed to warm up to Lyn now that we weren't sneaking around.
I have no idea why I was afraid. Hadn't had time to interrogate it as Shahar helped Solvi pack an overnight bag so she could take her to stay at a fancy hotel for the evening, as Shahar winked and said good night.
And now…we’re alone. Me and Lyn.
And I am…incredibly nervous. Because I'm wondering if all of this was only appealing to her when it was a secret, when there was excitement behind sneaking into my bedroom, begging me to fuck her…
This is mundane. Comfortable.
Does Lyn Walker like comfortable?
“Your kid is so fucking cool,” Lyn says from the sofa—a glass of Jotun mead in one hand, a stack of Solvi's drawings in the other. “She has real talent. I would have been so jealous.”
I let a bemused smile curve my lips, coming over to sit on the other end of the sofa. “You liked to draw?”
“I liked the idea of drawing, but I was never able to commit to anything I wasn't good at,” Lyn laughs. She shakes her head and leans forward to put the drawings down on the table. “I had an artist's soul, but none of the skill…or willpower.”
“Funny,” I murmur. “You're the most stubborn person I know.”
She snorts, then she glances across the room to where Flicker is snoring in her bed. Lyn bites her lip, thinks about it…
Then she slides across the couch and straddles me.
I let out a low, rumbling sigh as her thighs settle on either side of me—as her hands smooth over my tendrils, making them twitch. I tilt my head up to kiss her, and she moans against my lips.
Mine…
“Tell me this isn't a mistake,” she whispers.
I pull back just slightly, brow furrowed. Her eyes are wide at first, but they flick away from me in a heartbeat. “What?”
She bites her lip. It makes me want to drag my tongue over the spot, to taste her, to command her mouth to kiss and moan instead of voicing these endless hesitations…
“This,” she says, gesturing around. “Me. Here.”
“I don't get to make that call,” I tell her.
She groans. “First time you've ever decided not to be bossy and of course it's when I desperately need advice.”
“I can't give you advice when I'm not an impartial actor.”
“Boo.”
“And it sounds less like you’re asking for advice and more like you’re asking for orders.”
She cocks her head at me. “Maybe I like being told what to do.”
“You do not.”
“Maybe—”
I reach up to grasp her chin before she can move in to kiss me again. I want to air this out—get it in the open before she can distract me. She’s awfully good at distracting me.
“Lyn,” I say, “do you actually want this?”
She hesitates. My heart stutters.
“God, yes,” she whispers. “I want it. I want this very, very badly.”
“To fuck me?”
Another catch of her breath, cheeks flushed. “Not just that.”
“It’s not just physical.”
“Not at all,” she huffs out a laugh. “I’m like…so into your brain. And your sweet family. Even your fucking…snake dog thing.”
I smile. “Flicker?”
“Can I call her Fucker? It just rolls off the tongue.”
The drakon lets out a little growl from the corner.
“I don’t think she likes that,” I say.
“Too fucking bad.”
Lyn tilts her head to escape my grasp, then she leans forward…and this time she kisses me slow, savoring it, enjoying it. I slide my tongue across the seam of her lips and she lets me in, moaning and melting, her hands splayed out on my chest now…
When she pulls back, her eyes are glazed.
“This is not a mistake,” I assure her. “We are doing this above the board because it is not a mistake. And if you decide you don’t want to do it anymore…you aren’t trapped, Lyn. You will never be trapped with me.”
She looks comforted for only a split second before she frowns.
Then she says something that surprises me.
“What happened with you and Shahar?”
I suppose it should make sense—humans don’t mate for reproductive purposes only, not usually. Lyn must assume that me and Shahar were in love once, that we were bonded…and that we broke apart. Human males who have done this must come with risk.
I move her gently off my lap, turning my body so I can face her as she sits beside me on the couch.
“It was never like that,” I explain. “Not like what you’re thinking.”
“You’re divorced though.”
“No,” I say. “My people…we don’t have marriage rites like yours. Most matches amongst the Nyeri’i, especially if they’re undertaken while young, are a result of our desire to maintain our species. You know our history—”
“The Trinity, the destruction, yeah,” she nods. “So there aren’t a lot of you…”
“Which requires us to procreate with others of our species, otherwise we could cross-breed ourselves out of existence,” I say.
“Solvi is the result of such a match. Shahar and I…we’re friends, dear friends, but we never intended on staying together.
We knew that we didn’t feel that kind of love for one another.
She knew that, somewhere out there…somewhere out there, her mate was waiting. ”
Lyn’s brows knit, the scientist in her already mapping implications. “So you didn’t…break up.”
“No,” I say. “We concluded something that had been entered into with clear terms. There was grief, yes—but not loss. It was simply over..”
She worries her lower lip. I can almost see the next spiral lining itself up.
And yet—she surprises me again.
“Do you need to have another kid?” she asks. “For your people.”
I take a moment before answering.
“No,” I say finally. “I do not.”
Her shoulders drop an inch, but her eyes stay sharp. “Not biologically?”
“Not culturally,” I clarify. “And not ethically.”
She exhales, slow. “Okay. Because my brain immediately went to—”
“I know where it went,” I say gently. “You’re wondering whether being with me comes with an unspoken obligation.”
“Yes,” she admits. “And whether that obligation could ever land on me. Accidentally. Retroactively. Like…well, like a trap.”
“It won’t.”
“But your people—”
“My people are concerned with survival,” I say. “Not coercion. After the Trinity fell, we learned—painfully—that survival without consent isn’t survival at all. It’s just a slower extinction.”
I didn’t know how painful these memories would be, not as they surface one by one. Memories of life on the flotilla…of a time before that, when our planets were shattering slowly, when the Boreans offered us salvation if only we would bend to their will.
My people know the price of those chains.
“So,” she says carefully, “having Solvi wasn’t…a requirement. It was a choice you and Shahar made.”
“Yes.”
“And another child would also be a choice.”
“Yes.”
“And if you never had another one?”
I meet her gaze. “Then I would still be considered whole.”
She swallows. “Even if you were with someone who could have kids, but didn’t want to?”
“Especially then,” I say. “Because that would be an honest life, not a strategic one.”
“So this isn’t like with Shahar,” she breathes.
I reach up to cup her cheek now, smoothing my thumb along her cheekbone. “With Shahar, I made a conscious choice to do my duty. With you…none of this has been a duty or a chore. None of it. If anything…it has all been impulse. My feelings for you are entirely against my will.”
She laughs, closing her eyes and unleashing a dramatic sigh. “You sure know how to make a girl feel loved.”
“I hope so,” I say, entirely seriously. “Because I’ve never been in love, but I think…I think this is what it feels like.”
Her eyes snap open again, go wide. “Wow…that’s fast. I’m not—I don’t know if I’m ready—”
“It wasn’t a demand, just a realization,” I tell her. “Like I said—you are not trapped. Not with me. Never with me.”
She studies my face like she’s searching for the trick. For the part where I become unreasonable. Possessive. Unrealistic.
“You’ve never been in love?” she asks quietly.
“No.”
“With Shahar?”
“No.”
“With anyone?”
“No.”
Her mouth softens at the edges. “And you think this is it.”
“Yes.”
There is no point in hedging. I’m not a subtle creature.
She watches me for a long moment after that, like she’s bracing for impact that never comes. When it doesn’t—when I don’t crowd her, don’t grab, don’t try to seal the moment with urgency—something in her finally gives.
“Okay,” she says quietly.
She shifts closer again, slow this time, sliding back into my space as if testing whether it still belongs to her. Her knee bumps mine.
“I’m not ready to unpack all of that,” she admits. “Or decide anything. Or be brave about it.”
“You don’t need to be brave,” I say.
Her lips quirk. “Good. Because what I am is…very aware that I want you.”
She stands and stretches her arms over her head, which makes her outfit ride dangerously high up her thighs.
When she drops her arms again, her hands go to the buttons of the garment…
then slowly begin to unbutton them. In a matter of seconds, she’s pulling it from her shoulders, shimmying out of it…
revealing a set of matching, sheer lace underwear that leave very little to the imagination.
She looks over her shoulder, batting her brown eyes at me.
“Take me to bed, Dr. Rhyss,” she says.
I stand and scoop her into my arms, and before she can stop me, I toss her over my shoulder. I take a handful of her generous curves and slap her ass gently, making her laugh uncontrollably.
“Anyone ever told you you’re a freak?” she asks.
I snort. “You have no idea.”
Then I do exactly what my female desires…and I take her to bed.