Page 13 of Enchanting Her Mate

“Does any other part of you vibrate?” I ask once I finally come down.

“No,” she says with a half-giggle. “Our tongues do not vibrate naturally. It was a procedure I had done on Sufoi.”

“Oh,” I reply, surprised by the admission. “Why would you want that done?”

“Why do you think?” she asks, rhetorically.

I laugh at how silly my question was. While the memories of my previous orgasm with a partner are hazy, I am certain I have never had one as good as that. Alu’s vibrating tongue was a magnificent surprise. “Of course,” I eventually reply.

At some point, we both fall asleep on the couch. I am awakened when Alu carries me to her bedroom and climbs into bed beside me, but it takes only a moment to drift into a deep slumber once more.

I awaken to find the spot beside me in bed completely empty, so I grab one of Alu’s shirts from off the floor and throw it over my head before I wander down the hall in search of her. It is far earlier than I care to be awake, with the sun still low in the sky. But when I find Alu sitting in the doorway to the balcony, Mek on her shoulder as she feeds him small berries, I am thrilled I was not asleep to miss this.

She does not notice my presence, as her back is turned, and so I continue to watch her. She asks Mek how he slept the previous eve and if he thought she could have bested the reptilian creature that broke through the floor of the balcony, and he lets out a low cooing sound between berries.

“I agree,” she says to him. “This balcony is too dangerous to stand on. Though I do not know how I am going to fix it.”

The sight of her like this, calm and still, but with her uniquely curious spirit, makes me think she would seamlessly fit into the clan. I think the coven would even grow to like her. Most of the time, Alu is quite loud. It is not just in the volume of her voice, but in everything she does.

Her lack of fear seems directly connected to her clumsiness, as the fear of repercussions the rest of us feel after making a mess or breaking something is simply not there. She is not afraid of how she is perceived by others, either, which is a quality I am envious of, but also contributes to her inability to detect common social cues.

These little parts of her personality are not flaws, and they do not define who she is, because at her core, Alu is essentially an open beating heart who happens to take the form of a beautiful female. They make me like her more than I did, which was already quite a bit.

But that is me.

It is not the clan, and it is not the coven. I worry that they will find her presence obtrusive, and I worry even more that her feelings will be hurt by the way she is treated. I do not want that, but I also cannot stay here forever. I must return to my coven eventually. The question is, will Alu go with me? Or at least visit me occasionally, so that we may continue this…whatever this is between us?

Quietly, I back away from Alu and Mek, and grab my boots by the front door before I step outside. I am curious to see if the dark energy I felt the previous day remains, and if there is anything I can do to clear it.

This time, I approach with caution once I reach the end of the narrow dirt path. I pick up a long, thin twig from the ground and hold it out in front of me as I continue forward. The moment the tip of the stick breaches the surface, something races up the length of the wood and sends a painful spark into my palm. I drop the stick instinctively and take a step back to reassess.

Instead of entering it, which the source of this energy clearly does not want me to do, I close my eyes and focus on bringing it to me. Keeping my feet planted, I turn my palms toward the sky as I envision pulling a corner of that energy toward me. I need just a sliver of it to get a sense of what it is and what it wants.

After several moments of this, the dark energy does not move. While my mind screams at me to turn back and give up this pointless pursuit, I find I am far too intrigued to walk away. If this were a cluster of dark energy in a far corner of Oluura that no one in our clan would ever cross, I would be inclined to leave it be. But this is right next to Alu’s home. I cannot just leave it as it is. For her safety, I must learn more.

Since I cannot bring it to me, I step forward once again. Last time, I felt like I was drowning in it while enveloped in the cluster. This time, however, it is only when I stick a foot inside that I am knocked to the ground. The energy here…it has strengthened. How can that be?

There is a whisper in the air as the energy fills my lungs. I cannot understand the words, as it is a language I am not familiar with, but it sounds as if it is sayingseccoossvun.

A groan releases from my throat as I flop onto my belly and crawl away. My palms are covered in scrapes and my head is pounding, but eventually, I break free. When I turn around, I am shocked to discover the short distance I traveled from where the cluster of dark energy begins, and where I am now. It felt like I was crawling through mud, a slow, miserable slog to escape its clutches. Something inside of it did not want me to leave. It wanted to keep me there.

“Jo?” I hear Alu call out from the front of the cottage. I rub my palms against my tunic, trying to clear away the dirt as I stumble back toward her.

“Morivikka,” I say, offering the standard Trovilian greeting once I emerge from the dirt path. “You called for me?”

Her brow furrows as she looks at the direction from which I came, then back to me, then back down the path once again. “Where were you?”

“Oh, I was collecting some twigs to make a sigil,” I lie.

It is enough to convince her, though, because she smiles brightly. “Kate sent a comm on the screen pad. She wishes to speak with you.”

I follow her into the house, relieved she did not question me further when I clearly returned without a single twig in hand. Alu gives me her screen pad, and I take it into the spare bedroom. I send a comm back to Kayt and a moment later, her pale, freckled face appears.

“Jo!” she shouts excitedly. “I miss you. How’s your stay been? Is Alu being a good host?”

“Yes, yes,” I reply with an amused tone. Kayt has grown protective of me during our friendship. It is nice knowing she cares so much for me. “I am having a splendid time. I have been working on my magic here, strengthening my focus, and it is going well.”

She must see something in my expression, or perhaps the darkening of my cheeks, because she leans in close to the screen pad and gives me a discerning look. “Are you two hooking up?”

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