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She shook her head slowly.
“Well, neither did I, until it happened to me,” he told her. “And I didn’t recognize it right away. By the time I did, it was too late.”
“You told me you didn’t have a mate,” she told him.
“I didn’t,” he replied.
“Who could you possibly have developed a mate bond with?” she demanded. “There’s no one here but me.”
He waited, watching to see when it would land on her.
Her lips parted, eyes widening as her expression went soft.
“I didn’t warn you, because I didn’t realize,” he told her. “But I knew after last night that if we had even one more interlude together, the bond would seal, with or without your consent. I wanted to talk to you about it, but then you got that comm…”
He trailed off, trying to find the right words.
She waited.
“If I seal our bond, you might be able to survive without me, but I won’t be able to live without you,” he explained at last. “And I couldn’t ask you to be with me when it’s clear how much you love your children and your school. I could never take you from those fledglings when I see how much pain you feel being away from each of them for a few days. I thought it would be better to go and explain everything over our comms when you would be safe from me trying to lure you into bed again.”
She nodded slowly, something like relief on her lovely features.
“Oh, Jubal,” she said, lowering herself to the ground beside him. “One of the hardest things about being a teacher is that I do have to say goodbye to my students. I have to do it every single year. That’s one of the reasons I’m so invested in them. My time with each child is so short, I have to make the most of it. And it’s true that for a long time, I thought those kids might be the only family I would ever have, just one precious year with each of them.”
He reached out and took her hand, squeezing it to show he understood.
“I would love to have a family, and raise a child of my own,” she went on. “I’ll always be a teacher, but I don’t have to be a teacher at that school, or even on that planet. Though I will not leave them permanently in the middle of a school year when I promised them I would come back, that’s a non-starter.”
“I think it’s time for me to have a talk with my promoter about re-booking all my tour dates to Terra-58 for the rest of this school year,” Jubal said, nodding.
Her serious, mud-smudged face broke out in a radiant smile.
“Really?” she asked him.
“Really,” he told her, pulling her close. “If I do, will you accept me as your mate?”
“Yes,” she said immediately.
“Yes,” he growled, wrapping a hand around her cheek and pulling her in for a slow, romantic kiss.
The crowd outside the gates went wild, some of them screaming happily, and some in defeat.
Then Chloe whimpered against his mouth, pushing herself closer and the world outside the two of them faded away.
24
JUBAL
Jubal was lost in Chloe’s kiss, desperate to claim her.
“A carriage awaits you,” Oberon’s voice said.
Jubal tried to ignore him as he ran a hand down Chloe’s side, tracing her curves.
“It will allow you to find privacy from your fans,” Oberon said, his voice louder this time.
Red rings of Xaxxfeth.
