She swallows hard. “Will you accidentally hurt me?”
“Never.” The word comes out fierce. Absolute. “It makes me desperate for you, not violent toward you. But I need you to understand what claiming means.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s an ancient ritual. A recreation of the mating hunt our ancestors performed on Chronos, before we became civilized. We still perform this hunt all the time, it is basically equivalent to a human wedding ceremony. But instead I will invoke the ancient language and I will tell you to run and I will chase you and hunt you down. Your job will be to fight and make it hard for me to claim you.
“I fight?”
“The longer you evade me, the more you resist, the more honor you bring to us both.” I pause. “Naomi broke Chief’s arm during their claiming. He still brags about it.”
Her eyes go wide. “She broke his arm?”
“Dropped a heavy door on it. Snapped the bone.” I can’t help the pride in my voice. “Males display their wounds from a claiming. Scars. Broken bones. Bite marks. If you can hurt me, you should.”
“That’s...” She shakes her head slowly. “That’s not at all what I expected.”
“The other Brides say it’s terrifying and thrilling at the same time. The adrenaline, the instinct to run and hide and fight. And when I catch you — and I will catch you — you’ll want me to claim you. The pheromones will make sure of that.”
“And then?”
“Then I mark you as mine. We mate.” I force myself to say the rest. “And you will likely conceive immediately. The claiming is designed for breeding. That’s why scenting is tied to fertility.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
“I want you to be my bride, but I also need to know this is what you really want. That’s why didn’t say anything at first when I realized the scent was confirmed at the med lab. You’d just discovered that you could conceive. And you were probably still thinking you were returning to New Earth.”
She nods, her expression serious.
“You need to know everything about what mating with me entails. Right now I have scented you and yes, it would be very difficult for me if you left and went back to your life on New Earth, but it is something I could handle. We haven’t yet clasped hands and mated. But if you did decide to leave after that, I would literally die. Before taking part in a claiming ceremony with me you need to know that Xylan mate for life. There is no divorce.”
“Yes, I’ve heard that before, that’s there’s no divorce in your species.”
“And you will become pregnant immediately. You just learned today that you can have offspring. Do you want to be a mother?”
Her eyes widen. “That’s a good point. Just yesterday I was thinking that I’d never be able to become pregnant and now you’re saying if we had sex I’ll be pregnant right away.”
“Do you want to have children?”
“I do. I really do. I was hoping that one day I’d find a husband who wanted to adopt. I just…I thought that was like a minimum of five years in my future, not right this second,” she smiles.
“While you’re thinking about that, there’s something else that is very important to consider. If you decide to mate with me, you’ll have to remain with me on Timbur for the rest of my lifespan. We could leave occasionally on vacations, but I cannot ever relocate and take a job elsewhere. My fever bond with the Illibrium crystals is permanent. Breaking it is possible but traumatic, basically every miner’s worst nightmare. My oldest brother was forced out and had to break his bond and leave his personal crystal behind, which was terrible. If you become my Bride, you will live here permanently. And I would hope that you would agree to living here, in this compound, with my family.”
She bites her lip. “And what about my career?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s something else I was planning on finding out about before mentioning all of this to you. I don’t have a solution yet, but I will. Leah mentioned they need someone to document the mine’s processes. Roxy works with the IHO on their healthcare initiatives. There might be options for you, helping with these projects.” I force myself to say it, even though it costs me, “But I can’t promise you the life you had before. I understand if that’s not enough.”
She’s quiet for a long moment. I can practically see her mind working, turning everything over.
“So let me make sure I understand,” she says slowly. “If I clasp your hand, I’m agreeing to marriage forever, no divorce, instant pregnancy, living on Timbur permanently, giving up my apartment in Singapore, never going back to my old life, and being chased through... where exactly?”
“Most likely the jungle here on Timbur, or in a holo suite that will hold a recreation of the original forest on Chronos.”
“Being chased through a forest by a seven-foot alien who wants to—” She cuts herself off, her cheeks flushing again. “And I’m supposed to fight you. And probably lose.”
“You will definitely lose,” I agree. “But you’ll make me work for it.”
“And everyone will know? Your family?”
