Page 21 of Not So Stranded
“Anywhere I’m with my mates is a great place to raise a family.”
He smiled down at me and nodded, looked back out to sea, but then frowned at me. “Mates? Plural?”
I nodded.
“So polyamory is normal for cecaelia?”
Crap. This was going in a direction that had his scientific brain getting excited.
“Kit?”
“Yeah?”
“Zenori is my mate.” I cleared my throat because I sounded breathless. “And so are you.”
He blinked down at me for a solid minute, and I didn’t know what to say, so I just let him process whatever was going on in his head. Then he checked a few readings on the panel in front of him, did things to cut the engine, and finally he sat down on the floor. I settled lower there as well, wondering if maybe he wanted to be eye level as we talked.
“What does being mates mean to you?” he asked seriously.
Okay, so we were going to work through it logically. I could do that for him.
“It means we’re compatible in every way that would make us good partners.”
He nodded. “And how do you know that applies to us?”
“Well… Okay, this is going to sound like magical woo-woo, but the first time I saw you, it felt like someone punched me in the chest.” I rested my hand over my beating heart. “I felt the same way when I saw Zenori for the first time, too.”
“Did Zenori experience the same reaction?” He cocked his head at me, curls bobbing onto his forehead before he brushed them away.
“Yes.”
“How does breeding work then?” Kit asked with a frown. “If you weren’t a hybrid able to host your own eggs, would the two of you have separated?”
“Some leave,” I said with a nod. “Some stay. I have memories of ancestors who did both.”
Part of me was thrilled that he was giving this so much consideration. The rest of me just wanted him to say he felt the same way about me.
“But you and Zenori want to stay together.”
I nodded.
“And…with me?”
I nodded again.Here we go.
He visibly gulped. “I have to be honest here. I, um… I didn’t feel?—”
“You didn’t feel it. That’s okay.” I smiled, trying to reassure him. “You’re not cecaelia, right? Why would you have a cecaelia’s reaction?” His lips twitched with a grin, and I took that as his relief that I wasn’t disappointed or that I understood. “I get it,” I told him. “I thought you should know how I feel since we’re heading to a place where a lot of humans and cecaelia are living together as mates.”
“You told your dad.”
It wasn’t a question, but I answered anyway. “I did. And as gruff as he was on the phone, Dad’s really looking forward to meeting my mates and welcoming you into the family.”
Kit’s gaze flicked behind me. “Am I Zenori’s mate, too?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t attracted to you and invested in our relationship.”
I watched him seem to mull that over now as well. At least he was absently nodding—that seemed positive, like consideration. Like he was open to the possibilities.
