He turns to me, stabs his spear in the snow, and then takes my other hand in his. Both of our packs are on his big, strong back, and I’m only in charge of myself, so my hands are free. “Georgie,” he says. “I do not hesitate because I feel your request is foolish. I only worry over my precious mate. I do not want to endanger her days after she has come into my world. Not when she carries my kit in her belly. Not when she is my reason to breathe.” He shakes his head at me. “I wish to understand why you want to go back. You have been hiding secrets from me for many days now, and I need to know the truth of it. All of it. You can trust me with everything. Do you think I will judge you?”
I swallow hard. He’s right. I’m being far too secretive. “It’s just hard for me to rely on others. I’m used to doing things on my own. I’m used to being the one that tries to fix things.” I take my hand from his and gesture at the cave. “Even here, I’m trying to do the best I can for everyone.”
“I am your mate,” Vektal says, deep voice gentle. “If you cannot turn to me, who can you turn to?”
He’s right. Even though I feel my request is a strange one, I know he’s right. “I want to go back to the old ship because Krissy and Peg and Dominique died and we didn’t give them a proper burial. Everything was so crazy that we didn’t have time to give them a proper send-off and I feel like I failed them.” I swallow hard, trying to prevent the knot determined to form in my throat. “I need to give them a real farewell.”
He doesn’t laugh. He doesn’t say I’m crazy. He just watches me with those too-knowing eyes. “This is important to you?”
“Very.” They were my responsibility and I let them down. The least I can do is bury them.
“Then we will do this. We will have a good honey-moons. We will bury the dead, and then we will retreat to a cave and mate feverishly until you smile once more.”
I laugh. Strangely enough, I already feel a little bit lighter. Sharing this with him was good. He didn’t act like I was crazy for wanting to travel several days up a mountain into dangerous territory all to bury a few strangers who are long dead. “Thank you for understanding, Vektal.”
The look he gives me is intense. My big alien moves forward and cups my cheek. His fingers are warm despite the drifting snow and chilly wind. “You do not need to thank me, my sweet resonance. You are my mate. There is nothing I will not do for you.”
He’s such a good man. I’m really the luckiest of women. From the moment I met him, I’ve never felt so safe and protected. So understood - even when we had a language barrier. Our cultures are different, our planets are different, but somewhere out there, someone in the Cosmos decided we should be together forever.
I’m eternally grateful for that. I smile at my handsome alien and squeeze his hand. “Shall we go?”
3
VEKTAL
A few days later
I kiss my mate’s bare shoulder to wake her up. “Georgie, my resonance,” I whisper. “It is dawn.”
She groans and rolls over in the furs, burying her face against my chest. “Five more minutes.”
I grin, holding her close. She can sleep for a few more moments if she wishes. This is our honey-moons after all, a special trip for just the two of us. I stroke her back, tracing the curve of her spine as she drowses against me.
It has been a hard three days for my Georgie. If it was me alone, it would not take this long to make it back to the humans’ flying cave, but there is no reason to hurry with my mate at my side, so we stop at a hunter cave each night and sleep on a bed of furs and eat fresh food. That part has been nice, though she has been too tired for mating. I do not mind as long as I get to hold her, but it is not a very good honey-moons by human standards, I think. But this is what my mate wants, and I can refuse her nothing.
She has walked resolutely in the snow next to me as much as she can. Sometimes she grows tired and her feet begin to drag, and I carry her in my arms like I would a kit. She grumbles about it but holds onto my neck, relaxing, and when she presses little kisses against my skin? It is worth everything.
Georgie yawns and rubs her eyes. “I’m up.”