Page 30 of Healing His Mate

Kaiva pauses, her gaze going unfocused. “No, we will not alert them yet.”

Within moments, the rest of the group arrives, including Waldric. “You came too?” I ask as I stand beside him at the back of the room.

He wipes his hands on the rag draped over his shoulder and shrugs. “Cloh-ee grew very concerned when Aye-vah told her to rush over here, knowing you were still getting evaluated. She suggested I come as well.”

I am glad Cloh-ee urged him to come along. Whatever announcement Kaiva is about to make has nothing to do with my injury, but I have no doubt the news will be shocking, and I find comfort in his nearness.

“Okay,” Aye-vah begins as we all circle around her and Kaiva. “Kaiva has been looking over the data from our blood and cell scans, comparing it to when Kate, Chloe, and I first arrived, to the most recent work-ups.”

Kaiva steps forward and clears her throat. “I have also looked at the initial cellular work-ups of the new humans and compared those to yours as well.”

“Wait, where’s Kate? She should be here too,” Cloh-ee says, looking around as she holds a sleeping Vahla in her arms. I have not yet laid my eyes on Cloh-ee and Varrek’s child, but I find myself longing to see her face. To see how the child of a human and Trovilian looks. There is even part of me that wishes to hold her.

“They are at the caves,” Bruvix replies. “I shall send a comm to Nee-roh so they may listen.” Once Bruvix reaches them, he holds up his screen pad facing Kaiva, so the two can listen in.

“The cells of Cloh-ee, Aye-vah, Kay-teh, and Elle-noor have changed significantly since they first arrived,” Kaiva continues. “At first, I thought the change was only in Cloh-ee and Kay-teh, and as Cloh-ee was recently with child, and Kay-teh is currently, I dismissed the changes being related to pregnancy. But looking over Elle-noor’s and Aye-vah’s as well, I can see a clear correlation between when the cells began to change, and for all four of you, it is when you completed the mate bond.”

“Ah, the power of alien sperm,” I hear Kay-teh mutter from the screen pad in Bruvix’s hands. The rest of the humans giggle in response. “Changing how though? Are my boobs going to get bigger?”

I have not met this human or her mate yet, but I have heard stories about her odd sense of humor.

Kaiva chuckles and turns her screen pad in our direction, showing us the colorful blobs. “Nothing like that, Kay-teh. What I think is happening, but I cannot be certain of this just yet,” she pauses, “is that the aging process humans naturally go through is slowing for you.”

She quickly swipes through several screens until landing on a screen that is split into four quadrants. “This is Cloh-ee’s data from her first days on Oluura. Notice the rate at which her cells would shift.” The images Kaiva is showing us do indicate a change. The cells are slightly different colors and shapes. There is also some shading in the center that appears to grow.

She swipes to the next screen, which is a single image. “This is after she completed the mate bond with Varrek.” And the next screen, showing another quadrant. “These are her cells after the mate bond, but during the same length of time as before it. Look at how they differ.”

Kaiva is right. The cells in each of the four quadrants look exactly the same, whereas the cells in the first image look slightly different in each quadrant. It appears as if her cells have frozen in time.

“They are no longer aging, then?” I ask.

“That is my theory,” Kaiva says, nodding. “Perhaps with the interspecies mingling of blood and seed, the humans will live longer than is typical for their race.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Cloh-ee says with a sigh, pressing a kiss to Vahla’s forehead. “I’ve always hated the idea of Varrek living to two hundred and me dying at eighty.”

Kaiva audibly swallows, her gaze dropping back to her screen pad. “There is something else.” She pulls up another screen with eight quadrants. These cells look very different from Cloh-ee’s. “These are Varrek’s cellular changes. His cells seem to be aging quicker than normal, and they began accelerating after the mate bond.”

“You are saying Cloh-ee and I will die together,” Varrek says, a hint of elation in his voice that shocks me as he gazes down at his mate, and then his daughter. “We are now aging together, at the same rate.”

“Yes, my son,” Kaiva replies, her tone solemn. “I will have to do several more tests and monitor all of you more closely in order to confirm these findings, but that is what I think is happening.”

The sadness in her voice makes sense to me. His happiness at this news does not. He is going to live a shorter life simply because he mated a human? How tragic. “That is quite unfortunate,” I whisper to Waldric. “Can you imagine?”

His lips purse, then he gazes down at me thoughtfully. “I could imagine. I do not find it unfortunate in the slightest. It is beautiful knowing you will not live even a moment without the person you would die for.”

I am learning that Waldric is an unwavering optimist. It is a nice sentiment, certainly, but discovering your life will be cut short because of your chosen mate is not something I could so readily accept.

The syncing of cells to align age between mates is a common occurrence among Trovilians, but as we all typically live two centuries, it is not such a dramatic diagnosis to receive. Trovilian mates will either lose or gain a few years in order to die when their mate does. But between Trovilians and humans, the gap is much more significant. Will Varrek lose a hundred years of his life because Cloh-ee is so very fragile? Or will Cloh-ee gain a hundred by being mated to Varrek?

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as Elle-noor leans into Bruvix. He wraps his arms around her and presses a kiss against her mane. It seems they are fine with this outcome as well.

Puzzling.

“What about me?” Kay-teh hollers. “You said my cells changed too? Even though Niro isn’t Trovilian?”

“Ah, yes, Kay-teh,” Kaiva says, her focus returning to the screen pad in her hands. She swipes through several images before turning it around to face us once again. “These are your cells. They have indeed changed, but not in the same way the others have. I do not think your aging process has halted.” She presses her fingers together and then spreads them apart across the screen, making the image in the third and fourth quadrants bigger. “Yours are starting to look like Nee-roh’s, as if your cells are transitioning into a draxilio.”

Well, that is interesting.

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