Page 126 of The Weaver

Eyebrows shooting up, Cole lowered Ahmya onto her feet and retreated, displaying his palms placatingly. “Easy, man. We’re just friends.”

Rekosh curled an arm around Ahmya’s waist and drew her into the shelter of his body. “And she ismine.”

He wrapped his arms securely around her. Even his claspers brushed her hips possessively. Smiling, Ahmya leaned back against him, folded her arms atop his, and tipped her head back to look up at her mate. Those crimson eyes, once so frightening but now endearing, gazed down at her.

Cole laughed. “It’s about fucking time.”

“Yes,” Rekosh said. “It is.”

When he broke eye contact with her, Rekosh looked out at the crowd around them, at all the faces that had become so familiar, and lifted his mandibles in a smile. She felt a soft purr in his chest.

“Kaldarak. My friends, my family,” he called in vrix, his voice deep, smooth, powerful, confident. “I, Rekosh tes Loshei’ani Ul’okari, have taken Ahmya Hayashi as my mate. I have conquered her. I have claimed her.”

His eyes dipped, meeting hers and holding them. “My little flower, my heartsthread. Mynyleea. My wife. My everything. And before all, I give myself to her until all the world unravels around us…and even then, I will find some way to keep our spirits stitched together.”

A chorus of cheers rang out from the thornskulls.

Tears gathered in Ahmya’s eyes as happiness bloomed within her, so radiant and warm. When she’d boarded theSomnium, she hadn’t dared hope that she would find such happiness. She’d never thought she would have such deep, devoted, fervent love.

But it had found her. Yes, it had come at the bottom of a mucky pit in the rusted wreck of a spacecraft that had crashed on an alien planet, but it had found her nonetheless. And now that she had it, she was never going to let go.

She reached up and cupped the side of his face. He nuzzled her palm without looking away from her.

In slow but clear vrix, she said, “I, Ahmya Hayashi, have taken Rekosh tes Loshei’ani Ul’okari as my mate. I have been conquered. I have been claimed. And I am loved.”

With a growl, Rekosh spun her and lifted her into his arms, clutching her close as his hard mouth pressed against hers.

The cheers from the thornskulls swelled, punctuated by them thumping their legs on the platform and making all Kaldarak shake with joy.

All that pounding couldn’t match the thrilling thumps of her heart as she returned Rekosh’s kiss.

EPILOGUE

Rekosh lovedwhen Ahmya was awake. He loved seeing her smile, seeing her deep brown eyes light up when she laughed, loved when she looked at him with desirous heat in her gaze. He loved the way she touched him, the way she kissed him, the sound of her voice as she spoke to him.

But he couldn’t deny that he loved these quiet moments with her too, while she slept.

She lay atop him now, arms snug around his torso and cheek resting upon his chest. Her slow, soft breaths fanned across his hide, and her bare skin was delightfully warm. Even in the dull gray light of the approaching dawn, she was radiant.

Rekosh canted his head and ran his eyes over his mate. He loved seeing her features this relaxed and serene. He loved how her expression would subtly change as she dreamed, and the little moans she sometimes let out that made his stem ache. Loved how she reached for him when he wasn’t lying with her and how she clung to him when he was.

He loved her.

Every such moment, every such expression, every emotion—it was all dear to him, all precious.

And it was only made more so by the path that had led them here. All the trials they’d overcome, the dangers they’d survived, all the days he’d spent longing for her, awaiting the right time; it all combined to make everything they shared now all the more meaningful. No one, whether vrix or human, could say Rekosh and Ahmya hadn’t earned this happiness together.

Still, he knew their happiness and safety were not certainties, and had vowed to himself to never cease working, to never cease fighting, for them. For Ahmya.

Though the last thing he wanted to do was be apart from his mate, he’d gone out twice in the last moon cycle, along with Telok, Urkot, and groups of thornskull warriors, to seek signs of Zurvashi’s followers in the surrounding jungle. They’d found nothing, but they would remain vigilant. He wouldn’t allow his mate and the place they called home to be attacked.

Rekosh would face any danger to shield Ahmya from harm.

He found himself resisting the growing urge to trace her delicate features with the pad of a finger, to shift his arms, which enwrapped her securely, so he could caress her body with all four hands.

But he could not yet bring himself to wake her, not while she slept so soundly in his arms.

He barely held back a chitter. He’d crafted a luxurious nest of fluffed silk, the softest possible, to cradle her, just as she’d asked of him. Yet he could not recall a full night thus far during which she hadn’t slept atop him.

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