Page 44 of Mated By Twilight

“We’ll see you in a half a mark?” She asked. An eager question.

One he was only too happy to confirm as he stepped back, leaving her to her private time with Tillos.

Chapter 19

Tillos

Leah stared after Sollit for only a moment before focusing on him. She smiled, her expression dazed. Sollit had been feeding her – he could tell by the lusty, unfocused look in her eyes. Approval and desire burned in him. He wanted to feed her as well.

For now, he took her hands and stepped her back off of the alcove. It was his turn for their date, and he’d chosen a slightly different location.

“Did you have fun?” He asked, leading Leah out of the vine maze.

She nodded, smiling as she focused on him. “It was a good idea. This separate date thing. I feel like I understand you two a bit better now.”

“Good.” Tillos gave her a cocky little half grin. The date had been his idea. It was pleasing to know that his instinct had been right. “If you have any other questions,aevea, I’m happy to answer them for you too.”

“Well, actually,” she started, her face still bright from his brother’s kiss. “I asked Sollit this too, but I just have to make sure. You’rereallyokay with this? With the three of us?”

Tillos laughed. “How cautious you are. Is it really so strange to you, as a human, that both of us would want you equally, and be happy to share you together?”

“Kind of,” she admitted with a grimace. “Men on my planet… they don’t share. I mean, maybe some do? It’s not really fair for me to say no, never, because of course there is going to be someone who has done it before. But in general? No, never.”

Tillos hummed thoughtfully. He understood, but in the opposite direction. He couldn’t imagine mating a female without his brother being beside him. Wouldn’t it be lonely? Wouldn’t a pair be more overburdened than three working together?

“There are avanava females that mate other avanava females,” Tillos said thoughtfully. “They seem happy to me, but they do have more work between them than three.”

Leah blinked at him. “Are there gay males avanava?”

“Naturally.”

“And they mate in groups of four?”

Tillos laughed. “Yes, of course. Are they supposed to leave their twins behind?”

“This is so weird to me,” she mumbled. Her face turned red, and she whipped her head around. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way! I’m sorry.”

Tillos chuckled, putting his arm around her shoulder. “I wasn’t offended. Our ways are different. I’m glad you’re curious. The more you know, the more comfortable you’ll become with it. But to answer your question, it’s a biological imperative that we mate with two males to one female.”

“Huh? Why?”

“The way we mate determines gender.”

Leah frowned. “Like… how you two mate together?”

Tillos grunted in confirmation. “If we mated one-on-one, our species wouldn’t be able to survive because all younglings born would be females.”

“What? How does that… what?” Leah shook her head quickly, like she was trying to get her confused thoughts back in order.

“It’s simple. Don’t overthink it,” he chuckled. “Males in my species determine gender. If one male inseminates a female, the resulting youngling will be one female. Both males need to inseminate the female – either at the same time or one right after the other – in order for two males to be born. One male alone cannot produce males. Therefore, if we only mated one male to one female, we would only produce females.”

“Oh…” Leah breathed, blinking quickly as she digested that information. “Two makes… How does that even…”

Tillos chuckled. “I’m afraid I didn’t study the sciences,aevea. At least, not beyond the basics. I don’t know exactly how it works. I just know that a single sperm will produce a female, but when two sperms, from both brothers, fuse on the way to the egg, they produce a male.”

“Huh…” She made a funny face. “So, it’s kind of a requirement that you mate together. Oh. Duh. That’s not… I’m dumb.”

Tillos chuckled at how flustered she suddenly became. Like the truth of what they were and how they mated finally hit her. It was rather precious, and he found himself kissing the top of her head.

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