Page 39 of Treasured By the Alien Rogue

Would he have respected the gods’ wish if I had? I doubted it.

“I’ll show you.” I strode over to where Amanda stood beside the entrance to my shroom. I wanted to hold her, reassure her, but I’d have to wait until this was settled. “It will be alright.”

“Can your traedor take me away from you?” she asked with a shake in her voice.

“No. Never.”

My adopted mother left her shroom and strode across the open area, joining Bork, Tribon, and Cresar. Her gaze flicked my way. “Did I hear someone fighting?”

“I have claimed a mate,” Tribon snarled. “Xax refuses to give her to me.”

I strode back over to them. “The gods sent me a sign yesterday showing me that Amanda is my mate. Tribon hopes to take her from me. I was about to go retrieve the plant they sent as their sign to prove this.”

“Get it,” my mother said, concern shadowing her face. Her gaze traveled to Amanda, and her eyes softened. She had no younglings of her own other than me. I knew she one day hoped for grandyounglings. She would see my mating as a wonderful thing. She would welcome Amanda with open arms.

But she was also our elder, the one who enforced the will of our god.

Leaving them, I went inside my shroom, but the plant was gone. I returned to the ground and peered in all directions.

“Did you move the plant?” I asked Amanda, my heart turning into a solid lump in my throat.

She shook her head. “I can’t remember if I saw it this morning. We both looked at it last night, however.”

Had Alexa absorbed it? I should’ve left it outside rather than bring it into my home. With heavy feet, I walked back over to where the others waited. “The plant is gone, absorbed into my shroom. But it was a sign from the gods. I know this in my heart.”

Tribon scratched his shoulder, gazing from Digaray to me, to Amanda. I didn’t miss the longing in his eyes because the feeling was echoed within me. With so few females, most of us had resigned ourselves to the fact that we’d never have a mate.

To think the gods could find them and send them to us. However, it appeared they hadn’t asked permission, and I didn’t like that. But how could I argue with the will of the gods?

“Without the sign, it’s hard for me to come to a decision,” Digaray said carefully.

Bork nodded. “I saw a plant myself, though I suppose it could’ve been related to anything.”

My heart sunk.

“Does Amanda have the mark?” my mother asked. “Do either of you display the sign of your mating?”

“Yes, show us your mating mark,” Tribon sneered. “If she’s your true mate, the gods will show it in this way as well.”

“We don’t have them yet,” I said. Why didn’t we? If this was the gods’ intention as I insisted, why wouldn’t they declare this to the world with matching marks on our skin?

I flipped my arms back and forth, hoping something had appeared since I last looked, but other than scars from hunting and working with wood, my skin remained unchanged.

Tribon sucked in a breath and shot it out. “What’s your decision, Digaray? Does this female belong with our clan traedor or with my second, Xax?”

Digaray grunted. She said nothing for a long while, just looked back and forth between me and Tribon before her gaze lowered to the ground.

Fear shot through me.

I didn’t like that she was still frowning, that her face hadn’t smoothed, that she wasn’t immediately declaring that Amanda belonged with me.

Even more, I didn’t like her next words.

“This is what I will do,” Digaray said. “It’s the only thing I can do.” Her sad gaze met mine. “I’ll travel to the island of the ancient gods and ask them who should mate with Amanda.”

Chapter 16

Amanda

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