“Nova?”
I dug my head further into my pillow, and a low rumbling chuckle sounded.
“My shiiiiiva?”
The hum of a voice singing low was so relaxing, it did nothing but want me to remain asleep for a little longer. I tried to push away from the hard, warm mass next to me, but when it vibrated and deep laughter sounded, I became aware as I began to awaken.
“Kol?” I murmured. “Please, sleep.”
His arms tightened around me slightly.
“I cannot, little one,” he replied. “You have napped for five long hours, and me for four. The feast will begin soon, and we must be in attendance.”
I groaned loudly.
“I just warped eighteen trillion miles through space to get here for this damn feast,” I grumbled. “Let me sleep some more, or you’ll be carrying me to it.”
Kol laughed merrily, and it only made me groan louder because I knew any chance of going back to sleep was well and truly off the table. I sighed as I rolled onto my back, shivering when my body touched a cold section of the mattress.
“Are you tired?” he asked softly.
“Uh-huh.” I rolled back over, coming face to face with him. “But so incredibly relaxed at the same time.”
Kol’s lips twitched as he reached up and pushed strands of hair from my face. His eyes scanned my face, and a soft glow formed around his irises. I sighed in appreciation but made sure I kept my gaze adverted so he wouldn’t see the reflection of the glow in my eyes.
“Nova,” he hummed.
I looked at his plump lips. “Yes?”
“You told me you loved me,” he whispered.
I blushed as I smiled. “I remember.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Did you say it because of the amazing sex?”
“No.” I laughed. “I didn’t say it because of the uber-amazing sex.”
Kol smiled wide. “You said it because you truly love me?”
“Yes,” I said, reached up to cup his cheek with my hand. “I said it because I love you, sweetheart.”
His chest swelled, and I swear he was about to burst with how happy he felt, and that made me happy.
“You aren’t scared that you think it’s too fast?” he asked, worry laced in his tone. “I know you humans do things at a slower pace.”
I shrugged. “It’s not like I can control loving you. Every human person is different. No rules or time limit exist about falling in love with someone. I used to think time was a huge factor, but you have proven me wrong. I’ve known you seven days, and I am in love with you. Would some people find it insane, impossible, or completely stupid? Sure, but they aren’t a part of this relationship, so the opinions of sheep don’t matter.”
Kol pushed himself up, placed his right palm against the side of his face then rested his hand on it as his elbow pressed into the mattress, supporting him. He stared down at me with confusion.
“What are sheeps?”
“A sheep is an animal back on Earth. It can be used for food, and its fur can be used to make fabric. It is a sweet animal, very placid,” I said then grinned. “And it’s never sheeps, just sheep, even if you’re referring to more than one.”
“Oh,” Kol chirped. “Like Maji.”
“Huh?”
“Maji is used as a plural and singular when referring to the people.”
I nodded in understanding. “Yup, that’s exactly it. Sheep means one of the animal and many.”
“Then I agree with you; the opinions of sheep do not matter. I love you, and you love me, and that is all that matters.”
“You bet your ass it is.”
Deep laughter rumbled up Kol’s throat. “I want nothing more than to lie in our furs with you all day and night, but we must ready ourselves for the feast. It starts soon.”
I suddenly shot upright. “I don’t have anything to wear.”
“What?”
I looked down at my naked torso now that the furs had fallen away, and I groaned, loudly.
“You ripped my outfit from my body. Surkah made that to fit me especially, and you ripped it. Shit.”
“Do not fret,” Kol said as he sat upright and placed a kiss on my bare shoulder. “I contacted Surkah when I awoke and told her about your ruined clothing, so she made you a new one.”
“A new one?” I questioned, turning to look as he got out from under the fur blankets and stood from the bed, naked as the day he was born. “But she didn’t fit me for this new one.”
Kol snorted as he walked over to a large door and entered it. “Surkah has the memory of an Elder; she forgets nothing. And I mean it. She memorised your measurements and made you another ensemble based on that memory.”
Well, colour me impressed.
“Surkah is awesome.”
“What does aw-som mean?” Kol called from the room he entered.
I wondered what he was doing.
“Awesome means something that is really impressive.”
He snorted then. “Surkah will love that you think she is awesome then.”
He still didn't say awesome correctly, but I didn't mention it.
I grinned. “I’m sure she will.”
Kol re-entered the room, and to my disappointment, he was no longer naked. He had thick, gold, fitted bracelets around both of his wrists. Loose fitted bright blue pants that hung shockingly low on his hips but were cuffed tight around the ankles. He was in the middle of clipping small, shiny objects between the freshly braided pieces of hair on his head. They looked similar to the jewellery Surkah had in her hair when I first saw her without her Ebony attire on. I also noticed that his skin had more of a glow to it, too.
“Why does your skin look like that?” I questioned. “It didn’t have a radiance to it on the Ebony.”
“It’s Ealra.” Kol shrugged. “When we’re away from our planet, our appearance becomes a little dull. Spacecraft air is Maji-made, and our skin is a living breathing organ, so it suffers a little out in space, but when we return open, it can breathe easier. Does that make sense?”
“Yes,” I said. “Human skin is the same I guess.”
“My brothers who have been out in space the longest will look very sickly when they return, but once they are reintroduced to Ealra’s atmosphere, they will regain their healthy appearance.”
I focused on the scarred claw marks on his chest and swallowed.
“I shouldn’t find those scars as attractive as I do,” I muttered.
I flicked my eyes up to Kol and found him grinning. “Females of all species are impressed by strength, and that is what scars represent. They mean you survived whatever greatly hurt you at one point. They’re badges of honour that I carry with pride.”
I hummed. “You carry them very well.”
Kol shook his head, grinning. “Come. I have sent for servants to aid you in dressing.”
I froze. “I’m naked.”
“They’re female servants,” he said, an eyebrow raised. “No male would ever lay eyes upon your naked form, they know the penalty is death.”
I remained unmoving. “Kol, I was mortified when Surkah was dressing me … I’m not comfortable with being naked. Even right now, I’m embarrassed because we’re aren’t having sex.”
“Shall we have sex to take your embarrassment away?” he teased, but the flash of hunger in his eyes told me if I said yes, he would be on me in seconds.
“Nice try, buddy.” I roll my eyes. “But you’re the one you said we had to leave soon… isn’t that why you woke me?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “The feast begins in”—he closed his eyes for a moment then reopened them—“fifteen minutes.”
“Shit!” I panicked. “Where are the females who are going to help—”
A loud rap sounded on the door and cut me off midsentence.
“They’re here,” Kol said as he moved towards our bedroom door and opened it.
“Kol!” a female voice bellowed. “You’re going to be late to the feast for humans. Why did you not call me earlier?”
I widened my eyes when a tall female with blue skin entered the room, her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed at Kol. She looked like she was in her late thirties, but I knew that meant she was a hell of a lot older in Maji years. She also wore a basic ensemble, not flashy like the one I previously wore, and she had no jewellery on, yet she still looked stunningly beautiful. Her fiery red hair only hung to her shoulders, but it was a thick mass of curls that made a statement all on their own.
“It is good to see you, Eena.”
Kol leaned in and kissed the female on the cheek, but she gasped and quickly leaped backwards away from him.
“You’re mated!” She spat at Kol. “And you kiss me in front of your female? Kol!”
She turned to me and bowed her head. “I beg your forgiveness, my Princess. I will accept any punishment you offer without resistance.”
Excuse me?
I looked at Kol with wide eyes, and saw that he had rolled his.
“Eena, she is not Maji. She does not attack over simple things like a Maji female would. She doesn’t have those kind of instincts.”
“It does not matter!” the female quipped at him, her head still bowed to me. “You do not disrespect your mate like that. Have I taught you nothing?”
Who the heck was this lady?
Kol sighed. “I apologise.”
“Not to me,” she snarled. “To your female.”
With another sigh, he said, “I’m sorry, Nova.”
I shrugged. “It’s all good.”
Eena rose back to her full height then and regarded me with a warm smile.
“I am overjoyed to meet you, Princess. I am still in shock that our Kol has mated!”
Our Kol? I asked my mate.
Kol stepped up alongside Eena. “Eena was my nursemaid during my minor years. She cared for me when my parents could not, so she is very much like a mother to me.”
Eena waved him off. “I am a servant of the Royal Family, nothing more, nothing less.”
“A servant wouldn’t talk to me the way you do,” he teased her.
She growled at him, and it made him laugh. “I’m going to feed Tosha while you aid Nova in dressing. She does not know how the ensembles work yet.”
He left the room without another word, leaving me alone with Eena.
“I appreciate you coming to help me,” I said, softly. “But I must warn you … I’m very shy about my body.”
Eena nodded. “Kol informed me that humans are more reserved about nakedness.”
I remained unmoving on the bed.
“Come. Do not worry about your body. I barely notice anything other than the fabric when I aid a female in dressing.”
I plucked up the courage to do as she asked. I got out of the bed, completely naked, and it was only then that I realised I hadn’t cleaned up after Kol and I had sex because I went right to sleep instead.
“I need to relieve myself first. Is that okay?”
“Of course,” Eena replied. “There is connecting cleansing room next to Kol’s clothing quarters. I’ll have your ensemble and body chains laid out and ready for use by the time you return.”
I nodded and quickly crossed the room, my arms crossed over my chest to cover my breasts. I entered the cleansing room and availed of the relief pod first. I entered the cleansing unit and activated it with my hand on the wall. I let the water fall over my body and washed my hair and body at a rapid speed with the wash gel. I quickly exited the unit when I finished and stood still as a blow dryer started up automatically. When I was bone dry, less than a minute later, I quickly brushed my teeth with Kol’s toothbrush—I couldn’t find a new one—then re-entered the bedroom.
Eena had everything laid out on the now made bed and gestured me to her side. I saw the fabric of my outfit was jet black and had a reflective shine. There was blue body jewellery this time, and hair clips and pins with what looked like gems attached to the top of them. I followed Eena’s every instruction during the dressing; I didn’t even make a sound when she styled my hair, even though sometimes she hurt my head while she braided my hair back into a thick, chunky, long braid hung down the middle of my back.
“Beautiful,” Eena beamed in her assessment after I was dressed. “You will steal Kol’s breath.”
I blushed. “Thank you, Eena.”
“It is my pleasure and honour to serve you. If you do not need my aid any further, I will go and see if Princess Surkah needs any last-minute assistance.”
I shook my head. “I think you’ve taken care of everything.”
She bowed as she backed towards the exit of the room. “Until our next meeting, my Princess.”
And like the snap of my fingers, she was gone.
Kol, I said reaching out to him. I’m ready.
He entered the room a couple of minutes later with Tosha in his arms. He stilled when he saw me, and I froze when I saw the kit. God, it was so adorably tiny and terrifying at the same time. I kept my eyes on it as Kol released her and set her on the ground. She sniffed around the floor for a few moments then trotted out of the room and away from me.
I exhaled a deep breath. “She scares me still.”
When Kol didn’t respond, I looked up and found his eyes were glowing so beautiful, I gasped.
“What?” he asked, closing the distance between us. “What is it?”
“Your eyes,” I murmured, seemingly caught in a trance. “They are so stunning, that glow makes my heart stop.”
“Thank you, shi—what?”
I blinked. “Hmm?”
I flinched when Kol gripped my upper arms and pulled us both to our feet. “What did you just say?”
Oh, hell. I knew I should have never mentioned the glow.
“I’m so-sorry,” I stammered. “Is that a sensitive subject for Maji? I didn’t know—”
“When have you seen my eyes glow?” Kol asked, cutting me off.
“When you first made me orgasm back on the Ebony.” I spoke fast. “And a bunch of other times since then. The ring of black that usually lines your irises glows brightly, and it enhances how violet your eyes actually are.”
Kol moved us over to the far side of the room and stared at himself in the full-length mirror that appeared from the wall. He stared at himself for a long time, and I had no idea what to say or do, so I just stood next to him and waited for him.
“It is not common for a Maji’s eyes to glow,” he eventually rasped. “It only occurs when a Maji has found his or her fated mate.”
Fated mate?
“I don’t understand,” I said. “A fated mate? What is that?”
I recalled the Hailed Mother mentioning the term, but I couldn’t think of what she said.
“I am foolish,” Kol said with a shake of his head before a huge smile stretched across his face. “I should have known I had found my fated mate. That is why the first moment I saw you, I got a pain in my chest. It’s why I crave to see you, to hear your voice, to scent you, to touch you … to claim you. The glowing of my eyes when I’m in your presence is alerting you and me that you are mine, and I am yours. We’re truly fated mates, Nova. We say males who claim females when the urge is strong are fated mates, but true fated mates … their eyes glow when in the presence of their fated mate.”
“But I’m not a Maji.” I frowned. “How can we be fated mates if we’re a different species, and I don’t have the same internal structure as you?”
“I am unsure. I never thought it possible have a fated mate outside our species, but it changes nothing. You are my fated mate, Nova.”
“I’m still unsure as to what that means, exactly,” I replied. “Does it change anything about our mating?”
“What?” Kol shook his head. “No, it just means we are the others’ fated mate.”
“Again,” I said, scratching my neck awkwardly. “Still not understanding why that has you smiling so wide, and why it makes your eyes glow.”
“How do I explain?’ he said more to himself than to me. “Okay, imagine us as two halves that make one whole thing … that is what fated mates are to the other.”
I choked on air.
“Soul mates,” I stated. “You just described soul mates.”
“Are soul mates destined to be with one another?” Kol asked.
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Then I say fated mates means the same as soul mates.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just stared up at Kol in disbelief.
“Do you know how rare this is?” he asked, his eyes glowing brightly.
I shook my head.
“None of the people has mated their fated mate on Ealra,” he explained. “My parents are not even fated mates.”
I frowned. “What if your father met a female who was his fated mate?”
“As he is already mated to my mother, he would mostly likely befriend her with my mother’s blessing. He would feel connected to her, but not romantically because of his bond with my mother. It would be the same if my mother met her fated mate. It has happened a few times before we came to Ealra; the Elders told tales of such matings.”
“So fated mates don’t always end up together?”
“No,” Kol said. “And that it why our mating is even more special … we are meant for each other and have bonded together, shiva.”
Holy shit.
“How has it only been seven days since we met? Two of which I was unconscious for.”
Kol laughed as he lifted his hands to my face, cupping my cheeks. “I keep asking myself the same thing. I can’t remember what my life was before you entered it.”
“Me too,” I whispered before a small smile spread across my face.
“I should have known the pull to you was too great,” he continued. “I should have trusted my body’s need for you.”
My smile faded, and I leaned back.
“Your body’s need for me?” I questioned.
Kol lost his smile, too. “What’s wrong?”
“Why did you word it like that?” I asked, stepping out of his embrace and putting some space between us.
“Shiva.” He frowned and reached for me.
“No,” I said after a moment of silence. “Don’t touch me. Just answer my question.”
“You deny me?” he asked, and I felt the pain in his words as if they were a thousand physical blows.
“I’m just saying I need a little space right now to—”
“No,” Kol cut me off.
“Kol,” I stressed. “Be reasonable.”
“You hesitated when I asked if you’re denying me,” he growled.
“Because I don’t understand it,” I explained. “You have to give me a moment to absorb and understand what you’re saying.”
“I don’t understand, Nova. Why are you upset?”
“You said your body knew I was yours.”
“My body does know you’re mine.”
“Your body knows?”
Kol bobbed his head, and it made the sudden pain in my chest intensify.
“Do … do you think you would have mated me if we weren’t fated mates?” I asked, my heart pounding against my chest. “If your body didn’t hurt for you to have me like you said it did?”
Kol blinked. “I don’t know.”
I stepped away from him, but he quickly followed.
“What is it?” he demanded. “Why are you hurting so badly?”
He could feel the pain of my heart breaking.
“You only mated me because a chemical in your body told you so?”
Kol frowned down at me. “Well, yes, that is how a mating works, shiva.”
I pushed his hands away when he reached for me.
“Don’t call me shiva.”
He froze. “What?”
My heart was pounding against my chest, and hundreds of questions were zig-zagging through my head at a mile a minute. From the moment I woke up on the Ebony, I had been confused about the Maji, but I thought I was somewhat beginning to understand Kol. Now I was back to square one; only this time, I was mated to him.
“You don’t understand why I’m upset, do you?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“I thought from the beginning that everything with your people moved at a rapid rate, so while I was surprised at your declaration of your intention for me, I wasn’t surprised that you wanted to mate right away. I understand things work differently with your people, and you don’t do the dating thing, but that made me blind to—”
“To what?” Kol cut me off, his body tensed.
“To the fact that you’ve mated me just because your dick got hard for me.”
Kol’s mouth dropped opened. “It’s more than that, Nova.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, and what was worse was I couldn’t even distance myself from Kol to clear my head because we were mated. That meant a mental link and a growing bond that I had no understanding of. Adding a new planet, a royal title, and a large new family to the mix caused a throbbing to take up residence in my head.
“What would you have done if I wasn’t at the WBO last week and needed rescuing?” I asked. “What would you have done if you never met me?”
Kol blinked. “I would … I would have continued on with my life and my mission as normal.”
“Hmm,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “You’d have eventually taken a mate, right?”
He placed his hands on his hips. “Eventually, yes.”
I stared at him.
“I don’t understand the point of this conversation,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. “We’re mated, so it doesn’t matter what could have happened because it didn’t happen.”
“Your eyes are still glowing,” I commented.
Kol’s features softened. “They’ll do that when I’m in your presence being as you are my fated mate.”
That meant something to Kol and his people, but to me, it just meant his bodily instinct made it difficult for him not to claim me when he first met me. There was nothing even close to it being about having an interest in something other than my body. To me, it sounded like everything was strictly physical and that hurt. Kol had said how much he cared for me and loved me and so forth, but it wasn’t real; it was his instinct, his genes, telling him he felt that way.
He couldn’t have come to care for me so quickly because he didn’t even know me. Not really. We were in the other’s life for seven days, less before we became a mated couple. During that time, we weren’t even civil towards one another. I was painfully aware that I didn’t know him either, so I had no excuse for my stupidity at falling in love with him. I had no instinct telling me I needed him, so I just had my heart to guide me, and I could foresee that my final destination would end in heartache.
“Nova,” Kol said, gaining my attention. “Talk to me.”
I stared up at him. “Can we just go to the feast? I really need some fresh air.”
Kol’s stare was unwavering, but after a moment, he nodded. I turned and made a move to leave the room, but Kol grabbed my arm and tugged my body flush against him.
“Mate,” he began. “Tell me what I can do to fix this?”
“You don’t even know what you’re asking to fix, Kol,” I said with a sad smile.
That was the point. He didn’t understand why I’d be upset over him just claiming me because some chemical … some instinct told him to. I had nothing other than my foolish heart telling me to accept his intention. I didn’t think Kol’s heart even had the freedom to decide if it wanted to fall in love with me, and that made me sad. I wanted Kol to come to love me like I had come to love him … on his own. I didn’t want it to be because his body was telling his heart to love me. I wanted it to come to that conclusion all on its own, but I didn’t think that was possible, and talking about it wouldn’t change that.
He didn’t understand. Even with an explanation … he just didn’t understand.