I rush back to my room as fast as my legs can carry me. My guest is banging on the walls, her voice echoing through the Ua halls.

So much for keeping a low profile!

I searched my feelings, I prayed to the Mating Star, I asked the ancestral spirits for wisdom, but it hasn’t brought me any answers or inner peace. In fact, I feel more confused than ever.

Have I made a grave error in leaving her alone? I figured she needed a moment to herself (and in truth, feared that if I stayed with her I would have crawled under the covers as well and made her mine), but perhaps I have miscalculated.

My heart is pounding like mad as I race down the steps. I am never this emotional or this nervous. Already the human female is driving me mad! Is this what the elders meant when they said love is dangerous?

She must be my Chosen. My Zorashi symbols light up whenever she’s near, and my heart feels like it belongs to her. Still, I’m in no way prepared for a bond this strong.

As I race through the hallway, I nearly collide with Elder Dalmat. He’s obviously dosed up on Lovespores, and his robe is very loosely tied. I avert my gaze.

“Davor,” he says, “I’ve been looking for you!”

“Is it urgent?!” I say, barely slowing my pace.

“As you run to answer the impassioned mounds drawing you to the sacred fruit, remember to focus on the eyes.”

I stop dead in my tracks. “What?!”

“Remember that when the time comes, young monk,” he says with a nod before stumbling on.

A tad more confused than I already was, I continue on. I would never dream of seeking the human’s sacred fruit!

Well, not without her approval, that is.

I dream of it constantly.

And every inch of me hopes that her approval comes swiftly…

I arrive at my room, press down on the entrance orb, and enter to find the human female nearly climbing up the wall! It seems she’s scouring the ceiling for structural weaknesses.

As my eyes find hers a shiver runs down my spine. Her heart thumps so hard, I can hear it all the way over here.

Does she feel the same way I do? Is she nearly overtaken by savage lust as well? These thoughts prickle my skin as I clear my throat.

“My name is Davor,” I say. “I think you were looking for the door. It is over here, but it is coded to my DNA.”

She crosses her arms over my chest, looking at me with distrust. My tunic is way too big for her, and I haven’t made up my mind if it’s incredibly cute or extremely sexy on her curvy frame.

Probably both.

“Am I your prisoner?” She says.

I shake my head. “Absolutely not. You are my guest. I haven’t caught your name yet, though.”

Her green eyes, so familiar to me, are filled with a mixture of anger and shame. “You’ve caught a whole lot of other things, though!” She fusses, gesturing at her luscious curves.

“Pardon?”

“My clothes!” She says, her cheeks growing redder with the second. “Y-y-you t-took them off!”

“Ah, yes. You were wet.”

“How did you know that?!”

I raise my eyebrows and gesture at her still soaking wet clothes.

“Oh, right, the clothes. Yeah, I was talking about that as well,” she says, talking ever so quickly.

“Your name?”

“Leah,” she says, crossing her arms defiantly. “Leah Booker.”

“Leah,” I say softly.

What a beautiful name.

“You are safe here, Leah.”

“And where is here, exactly?”

“This is a Kazimir Temple, of the Sacred Order. This particular one is called Lagoon Over Trou—“

“No, I mean, what planet?!” She says.

“Oh. New Exon, of course.”

Her red cheeks now turn pale. “So it’s true…” she sighs, sitting down on my bed with a deflated look. “All the way here…”

“You must be starving,” I say. “Hold on.”

I return a moment later carrying a plate of Key’s and Bey’s tea and some sandwiches. It’s one of the one human meals we’ve adopted. The taste pleases us.

She grabs the cup with both hands and guzzles it up, and as she munches on her sandwich, she looks up at me.

“I’ve seen you in my dreams.”

“What have you seen?”

A small smirk appears on her beautiful cheeks.

“Not enough.”