Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Delaney
Delaney was stress baking. What a surprise.
She carefully slid the tray of sugar cookies into the oven and closed the door. Turned the timer on. Leaned back against the counter.
What if Maelic got the escape pod communications operational? What if he left?
She frowned and shook her head. Of course he would leave.
Her stomach flipped. He would still leave.
She swallowed.
The impromptu sex had been amazing. More than amazing.
She’d never known she was into Christmas light bondage, but hey, you learn something new every day.
She’d been a little disappointed he hadn’t locked that freaky knot inside her, but with how she was already slightly sore, it was probably for the best.
Plus she wasn’t even on birth control.
He’d come inside, but she guessed that the whole knotting thing would have significantly increased the risks. The idea of a half-moth baby didn’t fill her with the dread it should have. Instead, her traitorous heart actually skipped a beat at the idea.
What the hell is wrong with me?
She didn’t even know him. Or his weird alien mate bond stuff.
How could she be his mate? What did it even really mean for him? For her?
The front door opened and she stiffened. She untied her apron and set it on the counter, meeting Maelic halfway to the living room. She cleared her throat, about to say something, when he started.
“I apologize.”
She blinked.
“I should not have told you like that. I should have explained myself right away when I noticed the bond—”
Delaney cut him off. “What is a mate bond exactly?”
Maelic scratched his neck. His antennae twitched.
“A mate bonding in my species is something we refer to as luminance.”
“How is it different from the whole heat and rut thing?”
“Artaisans have ruts and heats. That is something that begins early in adulthood. We usually pair up and ride it out during those times.” He paused.
“But luminance is different. It is something more significant. I know you are mine because of my body. My pheromones are out of control, for one. But I can feel the bonding chemicals in my fangs. This is a sort of venom to anyone but you. It is something that only forms for males who have met their luminance.”
Delaney gave him a confused look. “I don’t follow.”
“When luminance begins, the body will begin to exude chemicals—in my saliva, seed, and fangs. It is meant to be used to complete a physical bond. If I were to bite you during sex and lock with you, then it would be complete. My pheromones would regulate without my damper mask, and you would smell like me. Anyone who crossed us would know we are mated.”
Delaney blanched.
He could have just done it when they had sex. She wouldn’t have known what was happening.
She swallowed. “Why don’t you find someone else? I can’t be your mate.”
Maelic shook his head.
“Our bond is permanent. Even if I never mark you, I would never find another. Because there is no other for me.”
Delaney was reeling. She had no idea what to say.
“I will not pressure you on this. I was… not able to call for an extraction.” He took a deep breath and reached forward, gently rubbing her arm. “It is a holiday, no? Why not let us focus on that. We can wait a bit longer for this conversation. You can think about it.”
She just stared at him.
“Maelic, I—”
The sharp sound of the timer going off had her moving toward the kitchen. She turned it off, slipped on some oven mitts, and pulled the cookies out.
Maelic’s antennae flicked with interest. She snorted.
“I’m guessing you’ve never had a cookie?”
“I have not. If it is like your other foods, I would be very excited to try one.”
She laughed for real this time and began to put them onto a cooling rack.
“We have to let them cool for a minute and then decorate them.”
“You humans really are obsessed with your decorations.”
“Oh, we definitely are. But for this, we use a sweet frosting to kind of paint the cookies.”
Maelic looked intrigued.
It took a bit to show him how to use the piping bag, but there they were—in the kitchen, decorating cookies like everything was perfectly normal.
As if he hadn’t just dropped the mate bond bomb on her. As if she wasn’t somehow the soulmate to an alien.
Delaney added the finishing touches to her Santa cookie with a pleased smile.
“That is interesting,” Maelic said.
“This one is Santa.” She chuckled and took a bite of his head.
Maelic blinked, a little horrified. She giggled at the reaction.
“Should we actually watch a Christmas movie then? Maybe that would help you get the whole holiday spirit thing.”
She plated up some cookies and poured a couple glasses of milk.
The lights on the tree were off. She hadn’t even bothered to put them back on after the whole… incident. Didn’t want to risk sending Maelic into another pheromone-fueled episode, though part of her wouldn’t have minded a repeat performance.
But the ambiance was still nice. The room smelled like vanilla and sugar, like every Christmas before this one.
She flushed thinking about what they’d done in this room only hours ago. Bound to a tree by Christmas lights while an alien went to town on her probably wasn’t in any of Grandma’s holiday decorating guides.
The atmosphere was completely different now. Not just from this year—from every year before.
She cleared her throat and turned on the TV to some cheesy Christmas romance about a princess switching places with a baker who could be twins with the said princess.
Maelic sat next to her and they watched the movie, eating their cookies and sipping milk. It was relaxing.
He edged closer as the movie went on, his hand wrapping around her shoulders like it belonged there. Her body relaxed into the touch.
Maybe it did.
The leads were already falling for each other and it had been, what, two days? She wanted to roll her eyes at how unrealistic it was.
Then she remembered she’d let an alien eat her out within twenty-four hours of meeting him.
She stuffed another cookie in her mouth.
The movie ended, and oddly enough, Maelic looked moved by it. She cocked a brow.
“It was so touching that those two females found true happiness with their true mates.”
She snorted and nodded.
“Yeah, I mean… it’s not exactly realistic. Love isn’t instant like that.”
Maelic studied her, giving her a wry smile.
“It is not. Love is something that is built over time, yes. I also realize you humans do not have any sort of mating bonds to assuage doubt of commitment.” He tilted his head. “But it seems you do have bonds. Marriage, is that not correct?”
Delaney nodded.
“Yes. We do get married, but it’s not exactly the same thing. People usually know each other for years first.”
“What about your grandparents?”
“Well… it was different back in their time.” She shifted next to him. “They did get married quickly. Grandpa always said he knew when he saw Grandma that she was the one for him.”
Maelic cocked a brow, expression smug.
“A wise male, your grandsire.”
His hand closed on her arm, his thumb rubbing a soothing circle. Her heart skipped a beat.
He leaned down, breath tickling her ear. “I think I understand how he must have felt.”
She swallowed.
“Just let me hold you, astara. I will not ask more than that from you tonight. We can just talk.” His eyes held a vulnerability she hadn’t seen before. She couldn’t find it in her to say no.
She didn’t want to.
“Fine, I can do that much.” She leaned into his arms, relaxing. He was so warm, and the rumbling from his chest was soothing.
“Tell me about your life on Lunthra.”
Maelic stiffened. After a beat, he nodded. He took a breath—deeper than necessary, like he was bracing himself
“I left when I was only fourteen cycles old.” He paused.
“I mentioned that I lost my parents, but there was more to it than that.” His voice took on a bitter edge.
“We had left the planet to celebrate my parents’ mating anniversary.
Just some galactic tourist fleet trip. It should have been perfectly safe, but things went very wrong.
A slaver intercepted the voyage.” His jaw tightened. “Barvarti.”
He said the name like a curse.
“I was too young to do anything. My pheromones were entering a very unstable period, and I was not yet ready for my first damper mask. The shock and scents of everyone around me made things very difficult to control.” His voice went hollow.
“I lost control of my senses. Couldn’t focus.
Couldn’t fight. Barvarti’s males were everywhere, and I was useless. ”
His jaw locked. She could see the muscle jumping beneath his skin.
“Barvarti grabbed my Papeer. I remember…” He stopped. Started again. “I remember my Papeer telling me to run. Begging my Mamir to run with me. But I couldn’t move. I was frozen.”
Delaney’s chest tightened. That nightmare. Run. Please—just run—
“My Mamir tried to shield me. She put herself between me and Barvarti’s weapon.” His voice cracked. “I screamed at her to stop. To just run. But she wouldn’t leave me.”
The silence stretched, horrible and heavy.
“Barvarti smiled,” Maelic said flatly. “He looked right at me. Made sure I was watching. Then he shot her. My Papeer lost his mind. Attacked. Barvarti shot him too.”
His hands were shaking. “And that male just… laughed. Like it was funny. Like watching a child lose everything was entertainment.”
Maelic’s voice dropped to barely a whisper. “I heard my Papeer’s last breath. Smelled my Mamir’s blood. And I couldn’t do anything. I was fourteen cycles old, and I couldn’t save them.”
The silence stretched between them. Delaney’s hand found his chest, trying to offer him something to soothe the long-buried pain. But she knew some wounds would always be past the point of comfort.
“I would have died. If Katan had not shown up when he did.”
“Katan?”
“Yes. He is the captain of the Axioms. He had been chasing Barvarti’s crew at the time. He saved my life. In more ways than one. I owe him everything.” Maelic’s gaze grew distant. “I did not return to my home planet. I started training with Katan to become an Axiom after that incident.”
Her heart clenched. She couldn’t imagine losing her family like that and then leaving everything she’d ever known behind.
Delaney shifted closer, her shoulder pressing into his side. He startled, just slightly, then relaxed, his arm coming around her like it had been waiting for permission.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. It felt useless. She said it anyway.
Maelic dipped his head, his antennae brushing her hair. “I know.”
They sat like that while the house settled around them. The TV murmured quietly, forgotten. Outside, the wind rattled the windows, cold and insistent.
After a moment, Maelic shifted again. He reached into his pocket and hesitated.
“I made something,” he said.
He placed it in her palm. A small carving, rough but careful. A moth, wings spread wide.
Her throat tightened. “Maelic…”
“It is not good,” he said quickly. “But it is meant to be a promise.”
She traced the carved wings with her thumb. Warm. Real.
“I like it,” she said. “I like it a lot.”
She stared at the carved moth in her palm. This ridiculous alien had spent hours making this for her. With his hands. Because he wanted to give her something.
Grandpa used to carve little wooden ornaments for Grandma every Christmas. Clumsy things, never perfectly symmetrical, but Grandma had treasured every single one. Kept them in a special box, hung them on the tree first every year.
“It’s not about the craftsmanship, Delly,” Grandma had told her once. “It’s about the time. The thought. Your grandpa sat there with his hands and made something just for me.”
Delaney’s throat tightened.
This wasn’t a fling. This wasn’t grief-fueled bad decisions or pheromone-induced insanity.
This was real.
He’d lost everything—his parents, his home, his childhood—and somehow, impossibly, he’d chosen her. Wanted her. Not because she was special or had anything to offer, but just… because.
And she was falling for him.
Had already fallen, probably. Somewhere between the Christmas lights and the cocoa and the way he’d carried her out of the woods when she’d been falling apart.
Oh no.
“Maelic,” she whispered.
He looked down at her, those red eyes soft in a way that made her heart ache.
She didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t know how to. Just pressed closer, the carved moth clutched tight in her fist.
His face relaxed. Just a fraction.
He drew her closer, his chin resting lightly on her head. She let herself stay there, listening to his steady breathing, pretending—just for tonight—that this was enough.
She knew better.
She stayed anyway.