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“Excuse me?” Her voice squeaks.
“I can’t make a promise to you that I won’t kill him if the opportunity presents itself to me,” I say. “That’s my determination. But I’ll promise you that I won’t seek him on Earth. Is that fair?”
“No!” she cries.
“Would you beg for my life like this if he came for you here and challenged me?” I ask her. “You know that if I fought him, there’s a chance he would defeat me.”
“First of all, he wouldn’t. And secondly, no, there’s no chance he could kill you!”
I want to smile at that comment, but I suppress it.
“I’m glad you’re so confident in my abilities, but any fight can take an unexpected turn.”
“You’re eight feet tall, made of muscles, and trained for battle. That’s not even mentioning the superior space guns—”
“Yes, keep talking of my strength and superiority… It pleases me. Out of curiosity, how tall is this male?”
She glares, not finding the humor in my invitation for further flattery. “He’s only an inch taller than me. Six feet.”
I shrug in confusion until she shows me, hovering her hand above her head.
“That’s an inch.”
“Point taken,” I say with a snort. A civilian hardly taller than Kaye? It wouldn’t be a fight at all. Clearly the male lacks intelligence, so there’s no worry of being outwitted if I go up against him. I cannot believe he had my beautiful mate at his fingertips and failed so terribly.
Cheating… The thought disturbs me. Now that I think about it, I’m very aware of the practice in many traditional mating cultures. Sometimes rutting others outside a matebond is accepted or encouraged, but more often it’s not. My people are lucky to avoid that drama—a blessing of the Kali’Ka. I can’t imagine what insanity I’d go through if Kaye had sex with another, but I realize with sudden panic that this is a possibility now. If she doesn’t want me, I might have to live with that. Nausea washes over me.
“This whole conversation is ridiculous because he clearly doesn’t want me back and has moved on entirely,” she’s saying, dragging a hand over her face. “In my opinion, no one deserves to die for just being a rude, cheating bastard son of a—”
“Do you still love him?” I ask.
“Is that really a part of your decision-making?”
“No. I simply want to know,” I admit.
“I haven’t loved him in a very long while,” she replies. “Happy now? Can you please not murder in my name?”
“You’re very concerned about murder. You must’ve realized your mate is a killer.” My laugh has a cold bite. “The finest killer in the galaxy is now at your disposal. Many would be thrilled to play out their revenge fantasies. Especially on one who wounded them gravely like he did to you.”
“No one deserves to die,” she says quietly. “And I won’t be the reason for anyone's pain if I can help it.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,ti kori. There are plenty that deserve to die. Do you think that this pitiful male spends any time feeling guilty for being the reason for your pain, hm? Oh, that pain might be in the past, but he put you through it, didn’t he?”
Her eyes start to look shiny.
“You got the information, and I got my promise,” she says. “So that’s the end of the discussion.”
“Don’t pretend that his actions didn’t hurt you.”
“You don’t understand my reasoning at all.” Her voice is wobbly. Water starts to spill from her lashes. “You don’t fix pain with more pain.”
“Why are your eyes leaking?” I ask. “Are human tear ducts sensitive to recycled air? We can get specialized filters or—”
“I’m just crying!” She huffs, wiping the corners of her eyes. “It happens when I’m upset.”
“I apologize,” I say with a sigh. I want to know whether it’s my brutish words that upset her or the memories of her unfaithful mate. It wouldn’t be a good sign that she cannot stand my harsh judgements. I’ve only shown her the slightest taste of my dark side. Would she cry if I told her all the terrible things I’ve done? If she turns away from me after this conversation, how could she possibly know my soul fully and still accept me? Perhaps the spirit has cursed me, delivering a perfect mate, but one who’ll never love me.
“I promise I will not end this male’s life.” I will certainlynotbe agreeing not to hurt him though. I’ll reserve judgement for a potential encounter with him in the future, though I hope I never lay eyes on the human for his sake.
