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He kisses me again, and this time, I bring my hands to his hair, to keep his mouth where I want and need it to be. His lips press hard to mine, a certain desperation in them. But there's still more I need to say, so as much as I hate to, I take my lips from his.
“I hurt you,” I say low.
His eyes answer me even though his mouth remains shut. There is hurt there, fading now, but there.
“It doesn't matter.”
“It matters to me. I hurt you, and still you came to me when the snake bit me.”
His brows furrow as if I've said something utterly ridiculous. “Of course I came for you. I will always come for you.”
A memory comes to my mind, one I’m not sure actually happened, given how out of it I was.
“Did you say you loved me before I blacked out?”
He smiles. “I did.”
I chuckle. “I thought maybe I'd dreamed it.”
“Was hearing those words from me something you dreamed of often?”
I smile too, now. “That are, actually.” Then, I sadden. “And you said those words to me, even though I hurt you.”
“Those words are the very least I will give you, Keri.”
“Your…Keri?”
“My Keri.”
He leans forward to kiss me again, but I stop him. “I need to apologize. All you have offered me since I came down here was affection, care, kindness. I couldn't see…you, not beyond my confusion, anger, and doubts. Or maybe I was afraid to see you. Probably both. I was so trapped in my own head, but no more. I distrusted you before, but no longer. There are so many things I'm still unsure of, but one thing I am certain of is that I want what you promised. I want a future with you. My heart is in your hands, and I know that it's safe. I never want to be without you, and I never want to leave.”
He releases a relieved breath. “I feel I have waited a lifetime to hear those words from your beautiful lips. From my mate's lips.”
My head snaps back in shock. “Mate?”
“Mate.” He brings his hands to my face. “The only one meant for me. Only me. Oh, I have so much to tell you. So much I can tell you now that you've decided to stay.”
And he does, he tells me so much, it makes me dizzy. He tells me the truth of the draft, that there's an entire village just beyond a door I've never seen in the cavern. That all the children of the village are males because humans digging into their homes released something that nearly exterminated their females and made it so all the children produced after were male. He tells me about the laws of his people that dictate what he could and couldn't tell me about any of it, the boundaries of what he could and couldn’t do to get me to stay. That none of the women sent down have been sacrificed or murdered. My body freezes, while my mind focuses in on his last words.
“Last year…My sister…” I stammer, a dangerous hope rising in my chest. Because if none of the woman sent down are killed, then that means she's—
“Grace is alive,” he says softly.
I cannot speak. I just stare at him wide-eyed.
“She is mated to my brother Olex. And pregnant right now. Your other sister, Leah, is my youngest brother, Kayo’s, mate. She is slated to be drafted next year.”
My hand flies to my mouth. “She…she's coming here?”
“Well, to the cavern Kayo makes for her.” He grins then. “Kayo's an asshole, so he'll have a hell of a time getting her to want to stay.”
“He better fucking get her to stay.”
He laughs. “You can tell him yourself when you meet him.”
“I can't believe any of this. I…grieved Grace for a year.”
“There is nothing I wanted to tell you more than that she's alive and waiting for you.”
