Page 39 of Right Next Door
She faced him with a high head, arms crossed. “Bymymeasurements, which I’m going to say are the ones that really matter here, you arenotmy mate. Therefore, why would it be your responsibility to solve, fix, or otherwise address my problems?”
His jaw tightened, the muscles around his short muzzle going taut.
“Precisely,” she nodded once, accepting his silence as agreement.
Turning, she began walking again. Annoyingly, he immediately fell in step beside her. She deliberately ignored the stare he kept on her face as she tried to, once again, enjoy the pretty garden. It really was a lovely place. The fluffy insects were super cute too.
“I see the pamphlets were not exaggerating,” Tsok said at length, but she refused to turn and pay attention to him again. “You have declared that you are fine. And clearly, there is some underlying problem that makes you say this. I just did not realize that you would be so completely obstinate about not informing me of what I must fix.”
“You don’t have to fix anything,” she assured him with a sweet smile.
“Very well.” He inclined his head. “Keep your secrets, female. I shall figure out what is wrong and fix it on my own.”
She highly doubted it. And even if he did, she was determined that she was not going to forgive him. He really was acting like her near death experience wasn’t even worth considering? No, she was not going to point out something so glaringly obvious. She was not going to beg for his attention. She had no intention of forgiving him either, so why bother telling him?
Let him bump around in ignorance for a while. As far as she was concerned, his worry didn’t matter.
Chapter 16
Tsok
His female had set him a challenge, and he was determined to meet and surpass it. If he could just figure out what it even was.
She declared she was fine – a human female flag that meant something was wrong. So, it seemed the pamphlet was correct about that.
Therefore, the pamphlet seemed a good place to start to find an answer.
He re-read both the summarized human pamphlet all matched mates were given and also the human experiment findings he had special access to. He spent marks just trying to figure out exactly what part of the process he had messed up so badly.
That look in her eyes…
She wasn’t just unhappy with him. She wasn’t just angry. She actively disliked him.
Being someone’s mate wasn’t a guarantee that you would like them. It didn’t even mean that you would love them. Matings could turn sour. Not as easily as other relationships, for sure, but the consequences were much more severe if they did.
It was rare, but there were even instances where mates were only ever friends. The bond didn’t force feelings of attraction or affection, it just made them easier. It was a bond between people, that was it. A strong one unlike any other, certainly. One that meant a person often couldn’t live without the other, sometimes very literally. But the shape of the bond, the form of it, the results of it, differed from person to person. There was certainly a commonality of romance and lust, but it wasn’t required.
There was nothing stopping Misty from disliking him – or, more accurately, there was nothing that wouldforcehertolike him. Even if they were properly bonded. Which, as she had pointed out, they were not.
Something that irritated him for some reason.
That was why he had gone back to the basics. He scoured the human experimental data with a careful eye, trying to find a clue.
“Er, honored char?”
He blinked, looking from his holodisplay to Davard. He hadn’t heard his assistant come in, but he couldn’t miss the confused look on his face as he saw what he was researching.
“Were you saying something?” Tsok asked, leaning back. Grimacing when his neck muscles protested their stiffness. How long had he been reading? The data was extensive and long, a great deal had to be cut to make the pamphlets easy and quick to read. That just meant he had a lot of studying to catch up on to learn about his human.
“I was just wondering why you were examining the human social data so closely. Is there a problem with the honored charina?”
“Apparently. I seemed to have misstepped somewhere. Though I do not know where.”
Davard frowned. “How is that possible? You never even speak to her.”
“Exactly! So, what could I have done wrong?”
“That is a conundrum,” Davard frowned. “She always seems happy and fulfilled when she’s going about her day. She hasn’t expressed anything to me.”
