“Yeah. I know that now,” he murmured. “Can I say something weird?”
“Always.”
Ze’farr chewed his lip. “It’s like you cracked open my skull and rooted around with your claws until the fear was gone.”
The imagery shot an unexpected bolt of desire through my belly. In a perfect world where no harm would come to him, I would have loved to indulge that urge. But a shared fantasy of it was close enough.
“Really?” I asked, quiet and low, unable to conceal my lust.
Ze’farr rubbed his thumb across my hand. “Yeah. Kinda like alobotomy, except not as scary,” he added with a chuckle.
I deduced that alobotomyhad something to do with rooting around inside human brains.
“I see,” I replied.
It was impossible to forget the memory of the Ripgrass I had accidentally killed. The object of my obsession, destroyed by my own actions.
But I knew better now. I would always handle my human with care. Instead of hurting my mate, I helped him. My influence had altered him for the better.
“You are saying,” I began, “that I took you apart. And it fixed you.”
He met my gaze with a wry smile. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
My chest opened up, free and spacious like a meadow. I did not know whether he understood how much his words meant to me. I held him closer, cradling his face against my chest, wishing I could bury him in the space between my ribs.
“You complete me,” I murmured.
Ze’farr made a soft sound of surprise. His thin arms clutched my lower back in a display of mutual possessiveness. “I feel the same way.”
His love and his touch aroused me.
My words came out in a throaty growl. “I wish to return home now, so I can fuck you senseless until evening.”
A high laugh escaped Ze’farr. When he pulled out of our embrace, he awkwardly shifted the front of his covering. Was that a bulge I saw?
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I need that.”
17 /Epilogue: Assistant 23
a.k.a.
Epilogue: Ze’farr
“So...we really are the last four humans on Eukaria, huh?” I said.
The humans in question—Levi, Jaeyoung, Paz, and I—were helping to clean up the table. It was Kii’ran’s birthday feast, and their celebration had been wonderful.
“Not counting the half-human kiddos?” Paz said, glancing over his shoulder at the three of them. Kii’ran, Chey’ish, and Dai’zee were playing kick-the-tumbleweed with some villagers while their Maeleon parents watched. Their expressions beamed with pride.
“Yup. A whopping grand total of four,” Paz finished.
I handed a plate to Jaeyoung, then paused. “Do you guys think I made the right choice?”
Jaeyoung neatly stacked the plate on top of the rest. “When you erased Eukaria from the ship’s positioning systems?” He shrugged. “That’s not a simple question to answer. There are so many factors involved—”
“And it almost got us all killed, remember?” Levi interjected. He waved a potato-like tuber in his hand. “If we’d seen Eukaria was on the map, I could’ve landed the ship properly instead of crashing.”
“Sure, Captain,” Paz said playfully.
