It was perhaps the most impulsive thing I’d done in my life, I reflected as I gently pulled out of him and rolled onto my side. I found I didn’t regret a thing. Not fucking him, not kissing him, not denouncing his public proclamation of our future Bonding.
He turned a thoroughly sated but somber gaze to me. “So, does this mean we’re going to be sex friends pretending to be Intended or…?” Pilar’s upper fangs peeked out adorably, biting his lower lip in consternation.
I brushed an errant lock of his hair away from his face before pressing a kiss to his temple. “Or,” I confirmed. “It’s definitely the or, if by that you mean I plan on keeping you. You’ve wormed your way into the very fiber of my being and I want to explore whatever this is between us for the rest of our lives.” I frowned slightly. “I’m sorry that means you’ll outlive me by quite a bit. You guys live, what, three hundred years or so?”
“Closer to four, sometimes a bit longer,” he replied softly. “I’ll be one hundred and seventy-six in three lunar cycles.”
I knew he was probably older, but hearing him confess just how much so bowled me over. I was thirty-six, fast approaching middle age and he was, by his people’s standards, still a rather young man.
“Well, I’ve got another thirty or forty years left maybe,” I replied, trying to keep my tone light.
He shook his head. “I refuse to accept that.”
I sat up. He was rejecting me now?
He grabbed my arm. “No, whatever you’re thinking, no. I’m not turning you down. I just refuse to accept we’ll have so little time together.”
“I don’t think there’s much we can do about that,” I replied, feeling sad at how fleeting this time with me would work out to be for him. I wasn’t going to back out now because of it, even if that did make me a bit of a selfish bastard.
I’ll just have to make sure he understands it will make me happy to know he will find love again, I vowed to myself.
He didn’t say anything, instead reaching up with an elegant hand, his calloused fingers gently tracing the planes of my face as if to commit it to memory.
“Do you want children?” he asked suddenly.
This was a conversation best not held in the nude, I decided, tucking myself away. I reached into my pants pocket, relieved as hell to find I had a clean handkerchief still stuffed in there, and used it to wipe him off before putting him back together. He smiled softly at me the entire time, patiently waiting for my response.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind kids. I mean, if we can have them together, that would be awesome,” I replied lamely.
“And if we can’t, would you be happy raising fosterlings?”
“Adoption, you mean? Or kids who’d come and stay before going somewhere else?”
He regarded me steadily. “We could do both, or either, or neither.”
“I’d be good with kids who needed a place to stay for awhile on top of us keeping some to be ours always,” I confessed.
He hummed. “I can see you with a large brood.” His smile turned dazzling. “Human children and Ilyirzi and if we can have biological offspring, a few of those too.”
Just like that, I could also picture it, all these kids, of varying ages, playing on the floor together, a cat curled up on a windowsill watching while a farthil, a native canine-like beast kept as a pet, chewing on a bone by our feet as we sat nearby watching our kids. My heart began to yearn for this reality.
“Yes,” I whispered. “We should do that.”
He nodded. “Then we shall.” He waggled a finger in my face. “And as for the lifespan thing, don’t worry about that. I’m certain the High Lord would not have given his blessing if they didn’t know we could spend a lifetime together.”
I wanted to believe that was true. Well, he hadn’t been wrong about anything so far, so I decided to optimistically go along with it as well, until proven wrong. It wasn’t as if the matter was something I could control myself anyway. “All right,” I said. “So, when should we hold the ceremony?”
“I should take you to meet my fathers first, then I think we should hold a small ceremony as soon as possible. I want to place you under the full protection of my government as soon as possible and if we are bonded, you can claim citizenship rights that your Council will find impossible to deny.”
“I want Richard protected from these ridiculous charges too.” I was prepared to be adamant about this, but I needn’t have worried.
“He’s your cousin, by blood relation, correct?”
I nodded. “He is.”
“Then he can claim by relation as well as position.”
“Position?”
“You heard the Hand and the High Lord. They wish you to represent the human population here. I have no doubt that once we are bonded, you’ll be given a newly created post as part of the High Lord’s staff to pave the way for that.”
“As what? Some sort of advisor on human affairs?”
“Possibly. Whatever it is, you’ll be able to keep Richard on as an assistant. He basically is an assistant to you now, yes?”
“Sort of,” I admitted. “He’s a junior law enforcement officer that works under me.”
Pilar languidly stretched his arms over his head. “Maybe they’ll put you somewhere working with the Hunters, even.”
“I’d like to be able to keep working on this case,” I admitted.
“And you shall,” he promised. I leaned down to peck him on the lips.
“When can I meet your folks?”
“How about tonight? I’m sure news of my getting an Intended, and a human one at that, has reached them through the gossip circuit by now.”
I laughed. “Then I suppose we better go face the music, huh?”
“You don’t mind?” he asked, sitting up, a wrinkle appearing between his brows, marring his perfect features.
I smoothed it away with the pad of my thumb. “Not at all. I wish I could comm my and Richard’s folks as well. God knows what they’ve been told about us.”
“I think we can assume your Council is listening in on your settlement’s internal comms.”
My heart sank. So even if it was possible, they’d realize we were in communication and probably harass them, too. That is, if they weren’t already while busy smearing our reputations.
“If I send a bat, do you think they’d notice the message capsule on its leg?”
The question took me by surprise. “You can use them like that?”
“Yes. But it’s easiest if they can home in on a known location.”
Just like that, my hopes were dashed.
“I just need to show them where to go, mentally,” he hastened to explain. “Do you have a picture? Then they can home in on the correct person to approach by scent. Your family will smell similar to them.”
“The Summoning involves telepathy?” I asked in awe. It explained so much as to how they told the critters what to do and where they wanted to go.
He grimaced. “More or less. It’s hard to explain. I don’t know enough of the right words to tell you in your language.”
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. Inside I carried a photo of my dads, standing in front of our house. This time of night, they’d be getting ready for bed, if they weren’t asleep already. I fished it out, handing it to him.
“They live in Freedom Rings,” I explained.
“I’ll do my best. You write a short message and I’ll get it sent off today.”
“Thank you,” I said huskily. “I just hope they haven’t been put in any kind of danger by the investigation.”
“Have them go to the station we were at,” he said. “Tomorrow, at this time. I’ll have a carriage sent for them, using the official reason as them coming to attend our Bonding.”
“Richard’s too?” I asked hopefully.
“Write them a message as well. Tell them if yours don’t contact them tomorrow before sundown, to go to them and bring them. That way we know both have gotten the message.”
“I don’t have a photo of his parent’s place.”
He regarded me steadily. “I see. Well, we’ll just have to hope your parents get this message and go to them.”
He got up, walking over to a small desk in the corner. He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, setting them on the desk. “Write it small so we can cut it off as a narrow strip and roll it to fit inside the capsule. I’ll go downstairs while you do that and fetch a capsule to put it in, then do a small Summons.”
“Will we have time to do all this and go see your parents?”
He nodded. “It will only take a few of your minutes. Then I will comm my fathers to let them know we’ll be dropping by. We can bathe and change into fresh clothing then and be there in time for last meal.”
He made it sound so easy. If only! I crossed to the small desk and picked up the pen. “We best get cracking then. We need to stay one step ahead of those assholes.”
He kissed my cheek. “I’ll be right back,” he promised before leaving me to it.