He had spilled an oil of some kind on himself, and he was busy wiping it off, but I mistook some of his obvious tattoos for oil, too.
“I’m not presentable for the new princess,” Thane angrily scowled at Kol. “Imauni.”
My mate laughed. “I think you look just fine, like a young one with a skin rash after he got into an alder berries bush.”
Thane’s glare told me that he’d love to beat the shit out of Kol. I nudged my mate, so he’d stop teasing the busy male. Kol put his muscled arm around my shoulder.
“This is my female.”
Thane rolled his eyes and focused on me.
“Princess Nova,” he said and placed his fist on his chest before he bowed. “It is an honour to meet you.”
“You really don’t need to bow. I’m not really a—”
“You’re my mate, shiva,” Kol cut me off. “You’re a princess through our mating.”
I was never going to be able to wrap my head around that.
“Yes, but still—hey, wait a second! How come you aren’t freaking out at Thane for looking at me and talking to me?”
No male—except Mikoh and Nero—was allowed glance in my direction or mutter a word to me. And more than once, Kol had attacked them both when they made me laugh. Kol had been very firm about no one interacting with me since our bond snapped into place and I became his mate.
Kol raised a brow. “Because he is Thane.”
He said that like I knew the meaning behind it.
“Explain,” I demanded.
“He is my brother in arms.” Kol shrugged. “I trust him, and my instincts do, too. He is like Mikoh and Nero to me.”
“In other words,” Thane interjected, “he knows I pose no threat to take you away from him but if I push him, he’ll still attack me.”
Oh.
“Well.” I nodded. “Okay then.”
Thane’s lips twitched then he flickered his eyes to Kol.
“The deceleration wasn’t smooth.” Thane had worry laced in his tone. “Are you well?”
“Did you not hear my announcement?” Kol questioned.
As if on cue, one of the engines roared. Thane raised an eyebrow. “I never hear you in here unless you contact me through our comms.”
“I forgot.” Kol waved him off. “It was nothing anyway.”
“Nothing?” the male blinked. “It stalled engine one, I had to shut off its access to the reactor core just to restart it. Doing that mid-flight is very dangerous, you know that.”
I looked up at Kol. “You said I did well.”
“You did,” he assured me. “Gravity pockets are all over space. Anyone could fly into their path when deceleration is issued and cause an engine to stall.”
“Excuse me?” Thane cut in. “Did I hear that correctly? You let a female pilot the Ebony?”
I could hear amusement, as well as disbelief, in his tone.
Kol set his jaw. “For one minute, yes.”
“Why?” Thane asked, astonished.
“She … she was crying … and I wanted her to stop.”
Thane stared at Kol, and he waited about two seconds before he burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. “You’ve … gone … insane.”
My lips twitched as Thane bent forward and whacked his hand against his knee as he laughed. I didn’t mind that I was the source of his laughter. I quickly realised that women—females—have a very long way to go before the males of the Maji race will see them as equals. To be honest, I didn’t think the males would ever see the females as something other than gems to protect. And I wasn’t sure that was a bad thing.
“I am still in my right mind,” Kol growled.
“You’re not,” Thane insisted, still laughing. “You let a female pilot the Ebony because you wanted her to stop crying.”
Kol scowled. “She is my mate; it pains me when she cries.”
“That is why I won’t ever take a mate,” Thane said, chuckling as he wiped his arms down with his rag. “The only female I will let rule me is the Ebony.”
Kol tensed. “Nova does not rule me.”
Thane deadpanned, and it only caused Kol to scowl at him harder, and that made me laugh. Thane switched his gaze to me, and he beamed a huge smile. Kol suddenly growled, and almost instantly, Thane dropped his gaze from me, but he was still smiling.
“You have tamed him, my princess.”
Kol grumbled something under his breath that made Thane snicker.
“I don’t believe this one will ever be tamed; he is prepared to attack every male I glance at.”
“He won’t be like this forever.” Thane winked. “Your mating is fresh. After a few decades, his instincts will calm, and he won’t be bothered if other males look at you and speak to you … within reason, of course.”
“A few decades?”
Thane laughed. “At least five.”
Normally, that kind of talk would prompt me to say ‘I’ll be dead in five decades’, but Surkah had assured me many times since Kol and I became mates four days ago that the chemical essence of my bond with him would slow my aging dramatically. She had no proof other than a reading her lissa thing projected to her. For Kol and every other Maji, Surkah’s word was as much proof as they needed, as she was a healer, but for me, it didn’t hold much promise or make a lot of sense. It made as much sense as being able to hear Kol’s thoughts and feel his emotions. I was either going to be young for very long time or get old and wrinkly sooner than the Maji thought.
Only time would tell.
“It’ll take him that long to calm his arse down? Are you kidding me?”
Kol belly laughed along with Thane.
“I’m not human, shiva.”
“Yeah, you’ve said that a million times, but how different you are is still baffling to me. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. You’re a complete weirdo, my mate.”
Kol stared down at me then lifted his hands to my face, rubbing his thumbs over my cheeks before he lowered his mouth to mine. Almost instantly, I leaned up on my tiptoes and returned his kiss. My arms went around his waist, and my mouth moved with his. I hummed when I parted my lips, and his tongue snaked inside. When he pulled back from our kiss, he was making that rough purring sound I loved so much.
Placing the tip of his nose against the tip of mine, he dragged the tip up the bridge of my nose before he stopped at the point between my eyes. He pulled back slightly and replaced the tip of his nose with his lips as he planted a gentle kiss to the spot. My stomach instantly burst into butterflies. Kol had done that very action the morning after our mating. I had woken up, and he did the exact thing with his nose on mine, and when I asked him what he was doing, he told me it was a mate kiss, a sacred gesture between mates and cherished family members.
He explained it as an action of deep love between mates.
I was greatly touched by the action, and the meaning and emotion behind it, but I quickly turned the conversation to our being able to hear each other’s thoughts and began to learn all about that part of being a Maji’s mate. I didn’t want to discuss love with Kol because I wasn’t anywhere near that point with him to be able to say it. He hadn’t told me he loved me, but I knew he was very close to doing so. I knew our mating was different for him; it had a completely different effect on him. He didn’t just feel possessive of my body; he felt possessive of my heart, too. Our mating not only ensured he was mine and I was his, but it also gave me his heart without asking if I wanted it. I knew I had to be very careful, or I’d break it.