THREE
DEVIX WATCHED HIS female sleep as the colorful, swirling morning light began to stream into their quarters. It shimmered through the glass window, filtering through the tops of the pillerva trees just outside their dwelling, and danced on top of the furs lining their sleeping platform.
For all its beauty, Devix could only spare it a single glance before his eyes returned to his slumbering mate. Her golden hair was tossed across the cushions and the little hairs fanning from around her eyes were resting against her upper cheekbones. He’d never seen anyone as beautiful as her.
He’d tired her out the previous night, but they had been ravenous for one another. Living in the capitol, living among a large population of beings, they had to be more discreet about their matings. Unlike Luxirians, most beings tended to be more private about sexual intimacies, which had never made sense to Devix. On Luxiria, it was not uncommon to hear loud matings. Sex was celebrated in his culture. They had festivals and lunar celebrations centering around it.
But there, in Rozun’s center, they could not be as free as they’d become accustomed to. The first night of returning to their true home in the southern region was always the most intense because they were freed from the restrictions placed upon them in the capitol.
Devix huffed out a breath and placed his forehead against his sleeping mate’s. Closing his eyes, he breathed her in, listening to her heartbeat thrum under her breast, the most comforting sound in the entire universe.
She humbled him. She honored him. She overwhelmed him at times with what he felt for her.
“Tervax rixa,” he rumbled when he saw her wake, her eyelids fluttering, blinking the sleepiness from her eyes.
Immediately, she smiled, her back arching in a stretch that only served to aroused him.
“I’m still amazed,” she whispered, her voice still groggy with sleep, “that you can get me this sore.”
He came up on his elbow so he could peer down at her. “I did not hurt you, did I?”
“No, never,” she whispered. “It’s the good kind of sore. I promise.”
He nodded. “Should I get the healing salve?”
She chuckled, blinking the last remnants of sleep from her gaze and she pressed a small kiss to his lips. “No, I’ll be fine. Now hold me. I want to have a lazy day in bed with you. I think we’ve earned it after this week.”
His lips twitched. “My demanding female.”
But he did as she asked, wrapping his arms around her, feeling her head slide into the space between his shoulder and neck.
It was his favorite thing to do…simply hold his mate. Even more than mating sometimes, although that came in a very, very close second. Nothing surpassed just being with his Cara, feeling her warmth against him, scenting her tantalizing scent in his nostrils, listening to her soft breaths and contented sighs.
And he smiled when he realized she’d drifted back to sleep. ‘Lazy day’ indeed.
So he was surprised when a little while later, she jolted from her position, sitting up in their sleeping platform, her hand covering her mouth.
“Cara?” he questioned, his brows drawing tightly together, concern making his stomach roil. “What is wrong?”
“Nothing, I…just…” she trailed off, swallowing. She blew out a breath, her golden hair trailing down her bared back, and she looked over at him with a small smile. “I’m fine, it passed.”
He frowned. “What passed?”
“I—”
But then she was off the sleeping platform, her hand covering her mouth, racing out of their quarters.
Devix jumped from their sleeping platform just as he heard the door to the washing hub slam shut.
Worry sickened him.
“Luxiva?” he rasped, naked as the day he was born onto Luxiria, outside the washing hub door.
He heard sounds of her retching into the chamber pot and he frowned, bursting inside the quarters.
He saw her nude form crouched, emptying the contents of her stomach.
“Cara, tell me what you need,” Devix rasped, coming to kneel at her side.
She gave another heave. “Wet cloth,” she murmured before she threw up once more.
Immediately, Devix fetched her a clean cloth and wet it from the shower tube. Once he handed it to her, he placed his hand on her back, desperate to comfort her, wondering if he should summon a healer or take her to the capitol that very morning.
Cara gave a groan before wiping her lips with the cloth, her face twisting in disgust. She fumbled with the silver pad next to the pot and the bile swept away, shooting through the tube system he’d built under the dwelling.
“Ugh,” she murmured, leaning into his embrace and dropping the cloth to the ground. Then her eyes snapped to his and she said, “That son of a bitch sold me bad begawwi meat! That’s probably why he was so nice to me yesterday. Ugh, I will give him a piece of my mind when I see him next.”
Devix’s brows pulled together. “Okerwi?”
“Yes, that cheat! God, do you feel okay? I made you breakfast yesterday morning with that meat.”
“I feel well, luxiva,” he murmured. “Perhaps humans are more sensitive.”
Her eyes widened. “Do you think that meat made anyone else sick at the restaurant yesterday? I had, like, nine or ten customers yesterday.”
“There is no way of knowing, luxiva,” he said, trying to calm her down. “However, I find that most beings do not sicken from poor quality food.”
“Poor quality,” she repeated, squeezing her eyes shut and sighing. “Just when I was starting to get somewhere.”
“Cara,” Devix said, cradling her cheeks in his palms. “I do not understand why you are upset by this.”
Her eyes snapped open. “Because it’s important to me that I don’t serve ‘poor quality’ food to paying customers. I had a good reputation back home about the quality of my ingredients, like most chefs I know…or knew, at least.” Her shoulders sagged and to his horror, liquid welled up in her eyes.
Devix dragged her in his arms on the floor of the washing quarters. “Do not do this,” he murmured down to her, wiping away a stray drop of liquid when it rolled down her cheek.
“Cry?” she asked, wiping the top of her cheekbone with her wrist. “I want to right now. I’m just feeling sorry for myself and I figured I’ll get it all out now.”
“Do you…” he trailed off, swallowing, not knowing if he should ask the question. But not knowing would almost be worse to him. “Do you have regrets, female?”
“About what?” she asked, looking up at him with her wet eyes.
“About choosing Rozun over Earth,” he finished, gritting out the words. “About choosing me over Earth. Is that why you are sad? Why you cry?”
Cara’s lips parted, her body freezing for a moment before her eyes narrowed. “No! How could you say that?”
“You mentioned your reputation back ‘home.’ You mentioned these chefs you knew and got sad,” he explained.
A breath wobbled out of her along with a sniffle. “Devix, no. No, of course not. I just…”
Her tears began to stop and she wiped the last of them away, though her brown eyes remained glassy. Luxirians did not ‘cry,’ so it was strange and disturbing to see, especially when he knew it was from her sadness.
“Listen to me,” she said softly, catching his attention. “I have never, not once, regretted staying here with you. Rozun is my home now. You are my home now and it doesn’t matter to me where we are in this universe. I’m sorry for making you think that. I’m just adjusting to life here and it will take time. And I just get frustrated sometimes thinking about starting all over with this restaurant. And when I’m frustrated, a small thing can seem so big, when it’s really not in the grand scheme of things.” She reached up to touch the bone of his jawline. “Okay?”
His arms squeezed tighter around her. “Tev.”
Cara sighed in relief and dropped her forehead to his shoulder. “I guess I ruined our lazy morning in bed by throwing up and crying all over the place, huh?”
“The morning is still new,” he said. “We have the whole span ahead of us, with no responsibilities. We can still be ‘lazy.’”
Cara wrapped her arms around his middle, her cheek still pressed into his body.
“My favorite kind of day.”
* * *
Three days later, however, her sickness didn’t pass. And every morning and even sometimes in the afternoon, she would bolt to the bathroom.
Cara had been convinced the first day—and even the second day—that it was just food poisoning and it would pass eventually. But by the third day, she finally gave into Devix’s pleas that they leave for the capitol earlier than planned so that he could take her to a healer.
So, they left the third day to return to Rozun’s center and as Cara watched their dwelling get smaller and smaller in the distance, as she tried to keep her nausea under control when she felt saliva begin to fill her mouth, she couldn’t help but worry that something was wrong. Very, very wrong.