Kaias blinked.
 
 “Say it with me,”Olivia said softly. “Fingers.”
 
 “Fing-gurs.” He said slowly.
 
 “Fingers.” Olivia nodded.
 
 Kaias repeated the word and snorted. “Why are you giving me a lesson right now?”
 
 “I need you to understand.” She pleaded with him. “This is my life.”
 
 “Fingers?”
 
 Olivia shook her head. Tears had begun to flow down her cheeks. She knew she was going to look awful by the end ofthe conversation, but she needed to do this. Kaias required to understand.
 
 “Words.”
 
 “Wer?”
 
 “Words.” She repeated the word slowly. “It's words.”
 
 Kaias repeated the English until he had the word.
 
 Slowly, his eyes softened. He brought her hands to his bone crown. Olivia's fingers danced on the bone, feeling the intricate grooves and patterns. They were like fingerprints; no two were the same. It made each person from Vrex unique and beautiful.
 
 Kaias purred against her touch. His face dipped close to the crook of her elbow. He kissed the delicate space of her arm.
 
 “What is that in your language?”He asked between kisses.
 
 “Bone crown.” She replied, “We call it abone crown.”
 
 Kaias nodded. Hearing her words, tasting them from his lips, was a whole new experience. He narrowed his eyes, languishing in her touch.
 
 “Say your name.”He demanded.
 
 Olivia's fingers trembled against his bone crown. She shook her head, holding back her emotions.
 
 “I can't lose me,” she pleaded in English, “you can't order me to lose everything that is me. If I say this name, I lose myself.”
 
 CHAPTER ELEVEN
 
 Kaias pulled her to him. He lowered his face to the valley of her neck and inhaled. She smelled of him, sugar, and a day of work in the heat. Olivia was so adamant, her body shook beneath him. Nothing she said made any sense. He couldn't understand a single thing from her mouth, but he understood tears.
 
 “Olivia,” he whispered her name. “You are Olivia.”
 
 “You want me to be something I cannot say,”she whispered between soft cries, “I cannot lose me.”
 
 Kaias held onto her. Was this what she was worried about? Losing herself? Was he asking so much of her that she was breaking in his arms? He couldn't allow that.
 
 It was another thing that made humans so vulnerable. He needed to protect her. But from her tears, he wondered if he was the one causing her pain.
 
 He nipped at her skin, enticing her to focus on something else. Beneath him, she softened, becoming a pliable puddle. Her hands caressed his bone crown, sending a purring growl from his midsection to rise up. His cock jumped at attention, hardening at her touch.
 
 “You are my Kou,”he repeated again.
 
 His guards and Maia were shocked that he used the term for Olivia. It was an older term for their Heartbound partners. Kou was directly from Koureshtka. It meant the goddess sanctified the union. That breaking the union was a sinful act. Anyone who touched Olivia would pay with their lives.
 
 Only Olivia or he could break their bond. It was a true partnership, something Olivia seemed to understand on a visceral level. What he was asking of her was selfish and not at the same time. The title would protect her from Auryn or anyone out for his throne. She would be seen as a goddess and, as such, should be treated as one.