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“Motukalatabeli, which means ‘moment, strong, and worry.’ Very fitting for her bustling, worrying self. And Torulonmana’at means ‘why, know or stone, and in the past.’ Shourentameta’il is ‘courage, oppose, and future.’ So long.” She laughed. “I call them Auntie Mo, Auntie Toru, and Auntie Shou mostly. What does Killian mean?”
Killian paused in his step. “Little Warrior. It was my grandfather’s name, and his grandfather’s, and his grandfather’s.”
“Many great leaders,” she said. “It is nice you have so many ancestors’ prayers with you.”
One side of Killian’s lips lifted, his eyes glittering. “Many great first gooses.”
Raela snorted and batted at his shoulder. “It is a great example of leading.”
“It is,” he said with an exhale.
“The first goose works the hardest. Has the plan.”
“He is supposed to.” Killian kicked at a mushroom. “But if they don’t think I can do it, maybe I don’t even want to be first goose. Maybe I could just stay here. Sit on the grass.”
She giggled and tugged on his hand to pull them to the ground. “Like this? Sit with me?” She started to pull her hand away as they landed in the grass, but he held on tighter. His gaze locked on their entwined fingers.
His voice was low, and barely audible above the breeze. “Like this. With you,” he said.
Her heart thrummed like a hummingbird, beating out of her chest as her cheeks scorched hotter than the rays of sunlight. Her chest tightened, and she swallowed. Her aunties had no books about this. She knew the forest creatures often came in pairs of male and female, but nothing prepared her for the flush of emotions and heat that she felt when he looked at her like that. Killian huffed and slipped his grasp away from hers before pressing his palms against his eyes. He collapsed onto his back.
“Raela … I …” He hesitated.
Her heart was thudding harder if that were possible. She was about to speak when Jax lay down beside Killian, nudging him with his nose. She could tell he was speaking, but unlike previous occasions, he spoke his words to Killian alone. She frowned. What would the ancient wolf be keeping from her?
Killian glared at Jax, but then his eyes closed. “I’ll talk to him. Help him see reason.”
“Who?” Raela asked, pulling a strand of a flower through her fingers. “Who will you talk to?”
Killian sat up and took her hands back in his. Her mind and soul buzzed with pleasure, almost masking his next words. But as he spoke, all the world fell away except for him. “Raela, I know we have only known each other for a short time, but you are the most amazing woman I have ever met. You are beautiful, graceful, and clever enough to pick up a language in mere weeks. Your smile is brighter than the sun.” He leaned forward. “I can’t imagine anyone in my life, anyone in my future, except you.”
Her throat dried the words on her tongue. His gaze scorched her, so full of want and attention and … affection? But it felt nothing like her aunties’ affection.
“I’ll be back after talking with my father. Tonight at sunset. Will you meet me here?”
A thousand thoughts whirled through her mind, but steady and unmoved was her utter enjoyment of his company. If he was asking to spend more time with her, the answer was easy. “Yes. I will be here at sunset.”
Killian burst into a wide smile, and he leaned toward her, his thumb drifting along her jaw. When he brushed her hair behind her ear, his touch burned like fire, but then his eyelids fell halfway down his irises and his lips pushed out slightly. He paused, three fingerbreadths away from her face, like he was waiting.
Her mind whirled with his closeness. His hand still pressed against her head and neck and burned like the summer sun against her skin. She studied the lines of his face, enjoying the sensation of his body close to hers. But she wasn’t sure what he was doing, or what he expected from her. Her brows furrowed in a moment of embarrassed realization that she was missing something. His breath was hot on her lips. She whispered, “What are you doing?”
Killian pulled back in surprise, his brows ducking into the hair that had fallen forward onto his forehead. Behind him, Jax collapsed to the earth in a wheezing, wolfy laugh, his maw gaping open as his tail beat behind him.
Killian’s face lit with a pinkness that darkened his cheeks. She studied the wave of color. “I was—” He cleared his throat. “That is, I was going to see if—”
Jax spoke in their minds,He was going to push his face to yours. Lip to lip. Kiss your face.
Raela brought her fingertips to her mouth as it burst into tingles. “Lip to lip?” That sounded surprisingly nice.
Killian’s face was now as red as a rose. “Have you never seen people kiss? Been kissed?”
“No. My aunties do not kiss lips. Kiss wounds, hurts, bruises, yes, but not lips.”
Jax was still grinning. Killian’s face softened and he smiled as well, chuckling under his breath. “Okay, well then. Let’s back up. When two people like each other, sometimes they kiss to show the other person they like them.”
“Why not just say the words?”
Yes. Why, Killian?Jax was now on his belly, head on his paws looking up at Killian with a toothy grin.Tell us the details of courtship.
