“That is fucking barbaric!”
“It means a female would have a stronger mate to protect her.” Kol shrugged. “It is the Maji way.”
“I can’t believe this,” I said with a shake of my head. “Are you telling me that you are my … intended?”
Kol smiled. “Yes.”
My heart slammed into my chest and my stomach erupted with those stupid fucking butterflies.
“No, you will not take another choice from me. I picked Vorah!”
“And I beat him!” Kol snarled, the smile vanishing from his face. “I could have killed him to end the intention, but I didn’t because I knew he didn’t know that I had the intention of having you.”
I had to sit back down on the bed by the time he finished speaking because I had a strong feeling I would have otherwise collapsed on the floor at his declaration.
“Since when did you have an intention for me?”
“Since the very moment I first laid eyes on you, and you fainted before me.”
That was almost romantic, but I refused to admit that out loud. I got up, spun away from Kol, and hugged myself with my arms.
“You’re a prince,” I reminded him. “Shouldn’t you be married to a nice noble Maji female?”
“Nova—”
“Won’t your parents, your society, expect the royals to keep their bloodlines pure?”
“You let me handle my parents and the people.”
That meant yes.
I shook. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
I noticed that Surkah had moved away from me, and when hands touched my shoulders, I knew they weren’t hers.
“I will be a good mate,” Kol said softly. “I will care for you, I will provide for you, and I will make you happy. Just … just give me a chance, shiva.”
My eyes welled with tears.
“I’ve been so horrible,” I whimpered. “Why do you want an awful human like me?”
He turned me to face him and swiped his thumbs under my eyes.
“Because I have never known a female so fierce or one with so much pride. Because I have never seen true beauty until my eyes rested on you. Because you challenge me, fight me, and treat me like a regular male and not a prince of the people. Because your stubbornness matches mine, and because I have never wanted a female in my two hundred years the way I want you, shiva.”
I brought my arms around his waist and pressed my forehead against the top of his stomach.
“I’m so scared, Kol.”
I’m terrified that I have growing feelings for you, feelings I had no way of navigating.
He tipped my chin up until I was looking into his violet eyes.
“I will take your fear away. I promise, shiva.”
I licked my lower lip. “What does that mean?”
“What does what mean?”
“She-vah,” I pronounced it the way he did. “You’ve called me it a few times.”
“I hadn’t realised I have been calling you it”—Kol blinked—“but the closet words in your language that the translator can find is ‘one to be treasured’.”
“That’s so sweet.”
Kol smiled down at me and brought both his hands to my face where he stroked his thumbs over my cheeks. “Will you accept me as your intended?” he asked me, his voice soft. “Please?”
I squeezed his waist. “I thought you won the right to be my intended?”
“I did.” Kol reflected. “But I’m learning that you want to make some decisions instead of them being made for you.”
My body began to tremble.
“I’ve never had a boyfriend,” I whispered. “I’ve never … never known anything about being intimate with a man. I’ve never even kissed one. When you touched me yesterday … I’ve never experienced anything like that. I’m clueless, Kol.”
“It will be my honour to teach you, shiva,” Kol murmured as he lowered his head. His lips barely touched mine before Mikoh said, “We need to get to the bridge. If warp is not activated soon, we will lose time.”
Kol growled so deep in his throat I felt it on my lips.
“Kiss your intended later, friend. We have work to do.”
Kol turned to face his friend.
“I give the orders, Mikoh,” Kol snarled. “Not you.”
Without warning, Kol surged forward and smashed his fist into Mikoh’s face, and before I had time to verbally react, Surkah was on her brother’s back and was biting down on his shoulder. Kol’s roar was deafening, but either he scented Surkah or knew with his mental comm thing that it was her, because other than letting out a roar, he didn’t make a move to remove her from his body. He didn’t make a move to touch her at all.
Surkah was growling, and I noticed it wasn’t only her teeth sunk into Kol’s flesh, but her nails were imbedded into Kol’s skin too. I winced for him, knowing how much it had to hurt. I moved towards Kol and Surkah, but a warning growl from him kept rooted me to the spot. Mikoh was already on his feet and moving towards Kol with his eyes on Surkah. I was suddenly so scared they would both team up and hurt Kol, and before I knew it, tears fell from my eyes and hiccups tore free from my throat.
“Come,” Mikoh purred to Surkah. “Come to me, faya.”
Surkah reacted like she was an android. She released Kol—who didn’t even wince— and grabbed Mikoh’s hand and pulled herself flush against his body. He stroked her back as she nudged his chest with her face and gripped his arms with her hands. Surkah didn’t really look like Surkah; her eyes were charcoal black, and she looked like she was acting on instinct when she saw Kol hit Mikoh in a way that was not playful.
This must be the edge thing they mentioned.
“Leave,” Kol ordered the pair. “We will be on the bridge in two minutes.”
Without a word, Mikoh and Surkah left the med bay, and Kol turned to face me. I stopped a step away from him, not out of fear, but out of worry.
“Why did you do that?” I asked, wiping my tears away. “Why?”
He rolled his head onto his shoulders.
“Mikoh questioned me.”
“So you punched him?”
“It is the—”
“Maji way,” I finished. “Yeah, I know.”
“Why do you cry?” he asked, frowning. “I don’t enjoy seeing you weep.”
“I thought they were going to gang up on you, and it scared me.”
“Shiva.” Kol rumbled with laughter. “Surkah attacks me at least three times a moon cycle when I hit Mikoh in her presence. Some days she does not care and on others, her instincts as his intended force a reaction. Their bond is so close to being in place that they may as well have already mated. You have much to learn about the people.”
I most definitely did.
Kol stepped towards me, and it was at that moment that I realised we were alone, and apprehension gripped me. To drive the mood toward conversation, I asked. “Do you have cameras in all the humans’ rooms?”
Kol blinked at my question but nodded. “Of course, we can’t have a male assigned to every human, so monitoring you seems the best way to keep you safe.”
I dropped my gaze to my hands.