Page 11 of Flower of Seshana

“Would you consider a cursed male?” he had asked playfully, but his laughter had died at the decisive nod of her head.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to take anyone I loved and who truly loved me in return. No curse or circumstance would keep me from him.”

She still remembered the look on his face as he stared at her thoughtfully, his eyes brightening with obvious delight. She didn’t understand why he was looking at her that way, but his soft trill sent a zing of warmth through her. She shamelessly basked in it despite the niggle of guilt she felt over enjoying the fruit of such sad circumstances.

“Of course you would,” he murmured in a note of wonder, but then he had affectionately ruffled her hair before redirecting her attention to something else.

She would have marveled at what seemed like a curiously humanlike gesture except that she had been living with him long enough to notice just how infatuated he was with her hair. He was always touching it—at first when she was unlikely to notice but quickly growing bolder as the days passed. Now he would run his claws through her tresses whenever she was close enough to give him opportunity. She had fallen asleep many nights with the big male stroking her hair as he crooned sweetly to her.

The two were so different and yet so complementary to each other that they fulfilled her needs as much as they seemed to satisfy certain needs for each other. Gone was the silent rivalry as they struck some kind of accord, and Alexandra didn’t miss it in the least. Instead, she found herself really seeing both males rather than a trumped-up image of themselves they tried to present out of some sense of competition. And she liked that.

Kethan, with his sweet shyness as he offered her small gifts of anything he perceived as something that she liked, was the romantic of the two. He went the extra mile to put the little touches in every moment, even their mealtime, to the point of often making Quillen chuff with laughter. It never bothered Kethan, however, and she admired that. There was genuineness to him that touched her heart because she knew that everything he said and did was entirely true to himself. A quiet, introspective, and intelligent male, he matched her own bookish nature and tendency to work long hours in silence. Her work habit did not even annoy him as it had so many of her boyfriends. Not only did he pick up quickly on whatever she was trying to do but he was also content to simply work quietly alongside her if not accompanying her around the nara at anygiven hour without her needing to ask. He was also physically demonstrative with his obvious affection. The moment he discovered that she was open to physical displays of affection, he frequently petted her whenever the opportunity presented itself, even if it was nothing more than the tip of his tail hooking around and stroking her ankle as it currently was. It was all very endearing, and the more she was in his company, the more she wanted to remain there and soak it all in.

Quillen, on the other hand, was the more practical and cunning of the two. He paid attention to details and fulfilled simple needs, working in little things that could easily be overlooked but made her days brighter. Even if it was nothing but a sly remark that brought her a moment of laughter. He did not pet her as often as Kethan, but he always remembered to slip her glasses from her face at night and store them safely within the low table that stood next to their bed every night before lulling her to sleep with his hand stroking through her hair. But what he lacked in social mobility he more than made up for with the breadth of his knowledge as he was able to isolate the best plants among those that they gathered for her specimen boxes with nothing more than his trill and the fanning of his ears in response to receiving the returning vibrations.

She couldn’t forget that he defended her either. Quillen, in many ways, seemed to be the unspoken protector of the nest and those who dwelled within it—which somehow also seemed to apply to her since that first night she slept so peacefully between them. She blushed at the memory of the way their tails slid against her legs, belly, and back in rolling strokes as they shifted in their sleep. Even that first night, they had subconsciously gravitated to her, as if desperately needing a connection of flesh between them. Naturally, come morning it went uncommented upon, as did the way they brushed their blunt noses against her, half-awake as they sniffed at her groggily with interest.

It was as if they smelled her arousal. Something that seemed to repeat night after night. Every night, arousal rippled through her as their warmth and musk completely engulfed her and their scaled bodies and tail slid erotically against her. And every morning they were drawn instinctively to breathing in the scent of her skin. She had no idea how much longer it would continue before they realized what was going on, and almost dreaded it.

Would they expel her from the nest? She didn’t think they would abandon her on the mountain, but she also knew that they never ventured far out into the desert due to the fazthal beneath the sands.

She shivered, recalling Quillen’s description of the beasts. It had been late in the day while they were preparing their meal, and he had taken it upon himself to “entertain” her with tales of the numerous predators that occupied Seshana that she had never heard of—and she was certain would live in her nightmares once she was no longer nestled between Kethan and Quillen.

When it came right down to it, as much as he was a source of amusement in contrast to the more serious Kethan, Quillen was also her rock and stability and the gruff hiss that made the frightening things of Seshana melt away. And damnably, she couldn’t imagine leaving him any more than she could leave Kethan.

She glanced at the males from beneath her eyelashes and bit back a sigh.

Oh, Alexandra, what have you gotten yourself into?

Truthfully, deep down in her heart of hearts, she didn’t want to leave but sadly didn’t know how to stay either. How could she make that commitment when Darvel still held her contract? Not to mention that she didn’t even know if they wanted to actually keep her or if they were simply just enjoying her company while she was there with them. She didn’t know how much was real, orhow much she was just perceiving through the lens of her human perceptions and expectations. She didn’t let herself dwell on it, however. Live in the moment had become her new motto, and she lived by it as much as a painfully shy woman with interests that had a history of making others avoid her could.

There was only one thing that marred her peaceful life in the Zir and that was a certain group of males who formed the core group of hunters for the nara—Therxian and his few supporters among them. They eyed her suspiciously whenever she was out and about within the nara and made her feel every ounce of their disapproval. At least she didn’t have to spend much time in their company since the males took to the skies early in the day only to return long before the fog thickened at nightfall. That was her lone consolation. That and having Gamay there to spend time with whenever Quillen and Kethan were called to join the efforts of the hunt. Enjoying the company of the healer was easy, not only because she was Kethan’s mother and knew more amusing anecdotes about the male than he likely suspected that she was privy to but also because, as both healer and midmother for the nara, she was an amazing source of generosity and knowledge.

Granted, some of said knowledge was incomprehensible to her because it dealt with the application of sound frequencies for treatment, but when discussions shifted to uses of different types of soil and plant life, she was all ears. She took samples of everything Gamay introduced to her and copious notes on its uses. She even took samples of the various types of dirt and mud, within which she was certain she would find distinct microorganisms related to their application. In fact, she was taking so many samples that she was quickly running out of collection containers.

She activated the closure on another collection, sealing the specimen inside. The yellow flower was visible for just a moment before the container immediately crystallized with the cryogenicmist activated within it. In the past the cryogenic system with the collection box had seemed like overkill—there was a battery life of one thousand years on each box, allowing the potential for scientists to preserve and store samples for long periods of time—but now she was grateful for it. She didn’t know how long she was going to be among the Vahel, after all, and though she certainly didn’t need a thousand years, it was a relief to not have to worry about the samples losing genetic integrity while awaiting transport back to her lab.

Of course, she couldn’t complain about her current accommodations… or her assistant. She smiled privately to herself as she glanced over at Kethan as he studiously sketched a diagram of the sample in front of him in her book. Although she had taken numerous photos of the samples upon returning to the nest with them, she had appreciation for the old methods, which included labeling various parts of the plants and their uses. And it turned out that Kethan had an even greater eye for detail. Thanks to him, she also had all the information recorded in the Vahel script as well as her notes in English.

And that was not even considering the fact that, despite Therxian’s best attempt to expel her from the mountain, the other Vahel were openly friendly with her—no little in part due to Kethan or his mother accompanying her at all times. Quillen was also never far away, but it seemed that the Vahel kept a respectful distance from him, withdrawing entirely from the area whenever he was around.

“You are deep in thought,” Quillen observed in a soft trill, drawing her back to herself.

Setting the specimen box aside, she smiled over at him, noting that he had already finished separating the samples while she had been lost in her reverie. “It’s nothing. Just noting that I’m nearly out of specimen boxes. I imagine that after another few days my task will be as complete as I can manage for thetime being. I can’t imagine how I will transport them all,” she added with a quiet chuckle. “In their collapsed and folded form, they’re a lot easier to carry.”

Quillen trilled with amusement, his gavo snapping in agreement despite the speculative look narrowing his eyes. Kethan, however, was more direct with his thoughts. He frowned over at her as he slowly closed her notebook that he had been sketching in.

“So soon?”

She grimaced a little as it seemed that time had passed quicker than she had imagined, and she shrugged. There was no sense in bringing down the mood.

“Soon enough, but not yet,” she assured him with a smile. “After all, there is plenty of work still to get done.”

The males exchanged a look, but she turned away to busy herself with another task to hide her tumultuous feelings. She didn’t want to make the moment even more uncomfortable than it was. Dashing her hand against her cheek, she reached for another basket of plant material Quillen sorted for her.

“Let’s continue, shall we?”

Chapter

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