Norah searched Lukyan’s face for an explanation. “We’re having another mating ceremony, Lukyan?”
Lukyan placed his fork and knife down on his plate before he turned to answer her. “Of course, we need to do it right.”
“We did it wrong before?” Norah was confused and inexplicably angry.
“We did what we had to do before, but we need to do it the right way.” Lukyan spoke the words as if he had just given her the most sensible answer available. Norah wondered if he was so used to be categorized as the logical one that he had begun to think all his thoughts were logical. Norah looked around the table. Every person had stopped eating and was focused on her and Lukyan.
“Can we speak privately for a moment, Lukyan?” She rose and walked to the bedroom. Lukyan followed behind. He shut the door quietly.
“Is something wrong?”
“Tell me why you want to have another mating ceremony.” Norah sat on the corner of the bed and carefully folded her hands in her lap. Her instinct was to pace, but she wanted to maintain the impression of calm. Even though the sheets were clean she could still smell the sex in the room. The scent was not helping her composure. She tried to ignore it by breathing through her mouth.
“We didn’t do it properly before. I wanted to do it with my friends and family there.”
“Why?”Because you love me and you want everyone to witness it?
“Because that’s the way it’s always been done.” Norah’s heart ached. Her mate didn’t want to share his love for his mate with his friends and family, he wanted to honor tradition. Well to hell with tradition. Nothing about their relationship had been traditional thus far, why start now?
“I’m not doing it.” Norah stood up and walked out the door.
Lukyan rushed behind. He caught her in the hallway. “But, Norah, when we had the first ceremony I said I wanted to do it again.” His words were whispered. Norah looked over her shoulder at the group seated around the table. They all appeared to be making great efforts to ignore her and Lukyan’s conversation.
“I don’t recall that.” She made an attempt at privacy by keeping her voice low.
Lukyan gave her a bewildered look and ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, I do. I said I wanted to do it over, the right way.”
She lifted her head and looked up at his emerald eyes. “I don’t want to have another one. And let’s be honest, you don’t want to have another one, either. Not for the right reasons. You don’t love me, Lukyan, and until you do I don’t want to talk about this again.”
“But—”
“Do not say you love ne. You do not want to say it, not really, so don’t.” Norah words were a whisper, barely audible to her own ears.
“I—” Lukyan paused. Norah could see the struggle on his face. Was he looking for the words to change her mind? Was he trying to find a way to convince her that he did love her? Or worse, was he unable to speak because deep inside he knew she was right? He didn’t love her. Pain stabbed at Norah’s heart.
She turned her back to him and wiped away an unshed tear. She took a few seconds to compose herself before she returned to the table. Although she was no longer hungry she dished out another spoonful of mashed potatoes, just to have something to do with her hands. She could feel the tension in the room. The group, previously gregarious and happily talking around bites of food, now studiously inspected their plates and avoided eye contact.
Dejected, Lukyan sat down next to her. He didn’t rearrange his napkin or pick up his fork. No one spoke for a very uncomfortable amount of time. Finally, Cate cleared her throat.
“So, what gift did you get?”
Norah looked up.Gift?
“The gift from the Goddess. Lukyan, you didn’t tell her about the gift?” Cate gave an exasperated look to Lukyan.
“There wasn’t exactly time to talk about it, Cate.”
Cate rolled her eyes. “Everyone gets a gift from the Goddess after their first transition. Dimitris is a natural born leader. Everyone wants to follow him.” Norah nodded, though she understood little of what Cate was saying. “Your mate sees patterns, which is part of why he’s so very logical.”
“Has he told you about his lists?” Alek leaned forward and peeked around the sullen Lukyan. Norah couldn’t help but laugh at the eyebrow waggle Alek gave.
“Alek —” Cate pointed to her brother-in-law — “can move things with his mind. Saved this guy’s life a few months ago.” She stuck her thumb toward Dimitris, and he pretended to try to bite it, causing Cate to laugh and Norah to jump. After her giggles subsided she said, “And Mylo is super strong.” Norah looked at Mylo who was sitting at the foot of the table. He was quiet, even more so than Lukyan.
“How much can you lift?” She didn’t really know what else to say to him.
“All of it.” He said the words without an ounce of humor, but Alek and Dimitris laughed like it was the best joke they’d ever heard. Norah looked at Cate who just shrugged.
“And what about you, Cate? What’s your gift?”
