Chapter
Eleven
G wum settled on a branch and smiled as the little female sat among his plants. He did not think anyone had ever admired them as she did. Most Bia did not consider anything but the most glorious flowers worthy to plant around their homes. His was a practical exception and never truly garnered much outside of respect offered for his perceived “sacrifice.” No one considered the fact that genuinely preferred the plants which offered so much usefulness to his community rather than the most ornamental of flowers. Besides which, there were plenty of true beauties that created small waves and crests of blooms among the dense foliage.
And among them, Noelle was the most beautiful. He rubbed his chest absently as he watched her, unable to quite believe that it had not ceased beating as captivated as he was by the image of her illuminated by her own pink glow and the gold of sunlight-kissed fog drifting around her. Sitting among the flowers and colorful leaves, she appeared as something precious sent from the gods for a fleeting time among them.
She ran a finger lightly over the newly planted tender nangash sapling closest to her, a smile lifting the corner of her lips in a delicate curve. The pale violet leaves were trimmed in pink that seemed to almost glow where she touched them. It was all an optical illusion, of course. Nangash did not possess any bioluminescent characteristics but her own illumination grew by the day, so much so that it shimmered over the leaves beneath her fingertips. The pale pink of the leaf edges just made it more visible.
It was hard to believe that there were other of her species out there and at least one that had been taken into the Warderoon clan without a word from them. Why would they not have shared such news?
Her breathy sigh of pleasure skated over his skin like a caress, so much so that he was barely able to remain still when his instinct demanded that he go to her. It thrummed in his blood and sang so sweetly that he fairly trembled with it. As if she heard his innermost thoughts and desires, she looked up at him, a smile on her dark pink lips.
“This is so incredibly beautiful, Gwum. Do you really leave this place for days and weeks at a time? It hardly seems possible that it doesn’t demand all your attention to care for it.”
Her words, though simply spoken, rained upon him like the most exotic elixir, their cadence caressing his senses with the hot bloom of pleasure. He shivered in response. How had he not noticed before that her voice could tease the sensitive receptors in his ears as acutely as any mating vibration? As he luxuriated in the peace and beauty of the moment with her, he experienced a breath of clarity. He recognized it and trembled with the shock of it.
Jymlina. His jymlina. He had assumed that it was misdirected and confused instinct, but the call of her vibration issued from her voice was just as effective as that which issued through the skin of a Bia female. He was just aware of it now, and after so many days with her, his reaction was growing nearly uncontrollable. It all made sense now—his strong responses to her and the undeniable pull he experienced, even if it terrified him when it came to what it meant for their future—but he still did not understand how it could have possibly happened.
Aware of her focused attention on him and the quizzical rise of her brow, he shook his head in an attempt to focus.
He cleared his throat and gave her a knowing smile. “The plants mostly take care of themselves. I selected the placement of my dwelling to take advantage of several environmental factors that would naturally support plants with varying needs and applied to where I positioned them too. Everything here has been created quite intentionally.”
She pursed her lips, and he was startled when a musical sound escaped her. “That’s really something,” she observed and smiled broadly as she continued to take in the careful tiers of his garden.
Gwum settled back and indulged his desire to watch her, enjoying her rapt fascination and curiosity. He delighted in every single discovered pleasure and was eager to watch her explore further when their peace was shattered by a sharp song that broke through the trees. Noelle reacted as expected, and the female froze warily before ducking into the flowers as much as she could manage while Gwum’s eyes rose to a lone male making his way through the branches above them.
The lanky form of his elder brother was as unmistakable as it was unanticipated. An unhappy sigh escaped him. He could have sworn that he made it back to his dwelling without anyone in his family taking note. What was the male doing here anyway? Jyel had been long mated for several revolutions and seldom returned to their maternal home. It almost seemed like a plan set up to intentionally vex him. He frowned and straightened, planting his hands on his waist in annoyance as he waited for the male to descend.
“Gwum, there you are!” Jyel called, his deep voice cheerful despite Gwum’s dark glower. “Mother caught sight of your return as she tended her garden. She did not think you saw her signaling to you, so she sent me to fetch you, especially as she spied that you had a small female with you. As you know, it has been Mother’s fondest wish for you to mate. Even if it is fruitless without offspring, she is delighted that you will no longer be alone and is already planning the mating feast.”
Jyel craned his head to catch a glimpse of Noelle through the flowers and leaves, but Gwum puffed up with ill temper and pushed the male aside. Privately, however, he wanted to groan. How had his mother deduced so easily who Noelle was to him when he only just discovered it himself?
Catching the male by the arm, he dragged him aside with a hiss. “Are you insane? You do not just say such things. We are not mates, and for you to claim it as such so simply?—”
“She has not chosen yet?” A look of shock made Jyel’s natural swarthy deep purple coloring fade noticeably as the male grew pale. “But just seeing you there… you look like a mated couple. And Mother was certain.”
“Well, Noelle is not,” Gwum snapped in a low voice. “She is not Bia or Gwyr. She is?—”
“An offworlder,” Jyel finished with a knowing nod. “We had just recently received word of what happened in the Warderoon territory. It is a fascinating story. From what I understand those found by the Warderoon look very much like Bia, but it was from some sort of modification to their physical form.” He peered up at Noelle’s barely visible glowing face. “This is their natural form?”
“Accentuated by the spores of the water saroong. Their skin is thinner all over and so they glow thus when intaking it.”
Jyel made a small sound of awe but ruined it by turning to Gwum with a smirk. “It is a good thing that Mother believes you are claimed and that your little female at least appears to be deeply bonded with you, or else you might have our younger relatives competing with you.” Jyel’s heavy hand slapped him on the back. “Just find a way to hurry and finish this mating so Mother will cease worrying.”
Gwum frowned and cast an unconvinced glance in Noelle’s direction. Is that what his brother saw? What his family saw?
“Are you certain? How can you tell?”
Jyel scoffed but not unkindly. “It is the way her eyes never leave us just now, but especially not you. She is looking to you to protect her as a mate would. She was also angled within your direct line of sight and lingering close to you as you sat out in the garden rather than exploring on her own. These are all signs of an attached female. Otherwise, she would have easily abandoned you for her own interests.”
Gwum shook his head. “She keeps me within sight because she is vulnerable to the dangers of Kren. Noelle,” he raised his voice to call over to her, “come down and join us.”
Her nose scrunched skeptically but she nodded and straightened just enough to descend safely from the higher tiers where she’d been sitting and made her way down to them. Gwum gave her an encouraging smile as he elbowed his brother to give them a little more space as she arrived at his side. Her warm body pressed against his side as she leaned into him and glanced curiously over at Jyel.
“This is my elder brother, Jyel. My mother invited us?—”
“More of an order. An invitation can be refused, but no one refuses Mother,” Jyel corrected with a friendly smile.
The corner of Noelle’s mouth curved in response, and some of the tension that Gwum felt at the prospect of how his little female might react when encountering more of his kind faded.
“Well, I certainly can’t refuse then. My grandmother raised me with better manners than that.”
Jyel’s grin widened. “Excellent. It seems that my timing was quite fortuitous that I am getting the pleasure to be the first to meet you. My siblings will be yellow with jealousy.”
Noelle laughed at his exaggeration, and Gwum frowned.
If it were not for the fact that the male was already safely and happily mated, Gwum would have been concerned about his brother becoming infatuated with his jymlina. All the same, he narrowed his eyes unhappily at him.
“What are you doing here anyway? Should you not be at Viaya’s side?” he demanded.
Jyel sighed and lifted his hands helplessly. “What am I to do? She has all of her female relatives crammed within our home and threw me out. She is spawning again, our fifth child—a daughter this time, I suspect—and as far as she is concerned, I am in the way and annoying her with my tender affections. So I am here to annoy our mother instead,” he concluded jovially.
Gwum shook his head, but he was not entirely surprised. Even healers were squeezed out except in the direst of emergencies. Spawning was ruled over by the nesting female’s female kin, and it was rare that they permitted any others present… even the mate of the female in question and father of her offspring.
“That must be comforting for her,” Noelle observed with a fond smile. “Family is important. And no one really understands what you’re going through better than other female relatives. It is a network of love and security, as well as understanding and sympathy that you don’t really get the same way from anyone else.”
“I never considered it that way before,” he slowly replied. “In my experiences with this tradition, I always saw it as a selfish and foolish whim that erroneously put priority in the wrong place, but when put that way it is easier to understand the reasoning behind it.”
“That is because you are a healer. It makes you prickly because they do not permit your involvement unless there is an emergency,” Jyel teased.
Gwum puffed up at his brother but deflated at the mirthful smile on his female’s face as she patted his hand. “Don’t feel bad. We all get a little prideful when it comes to things we feel are our responsibility. The fact that they trust you when it matters is what counts the most. In a normal birthing situation, I imagine that they have it handled and would have nothing for you to do. My grandmother delivered many babies in the swamps back home before—” She shook her head and gave Jyel a sympathetic smile. “It is a pity that you don’t get to be there to comfort your mate, however.”
The big male grinned in turn. “Do not feel too badly for me. My Viaya has the right of it. I am great with our offspring and a loving mate and father, but I am a nuisance in stressful situations. I would have been allowed to stay if I did not inspire a desire within her to strangle me or remove important parts of my anatomy in the process for saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment.”
Noelle’s laughter rang over the pond just as their mother emerged from her home, her pink eyes fastening immediately on the human with an expression of utter adoration that made Gwum want to disappear into the swamp again. His mother meant well, and she adored all of her sons’ mates as she was never lucky enough to have born a single daughter. A pale hue of purple and pink with dark pink eyes and the long coils of her crest bound at the top of her head with a red vine, his mother was over a head taller and twice as broad as Noelle, and the little human disappeared entirely when she swept her affectionately into her arms. Gwum tensed, prepared to defend his mate and insult his mother by ripping her out of her arms, if necessary, but relaxed at the soft sound of Noelle’s laughter.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Noelle gasped as his mother released her with a gratified smile.
“Such a delight! And look how unusual and pretty you are!” his mother gushed. “The Shoowilp clan is very fortunate to have you.”
Gwum winced and attempted to signal to his mother but gave it up when Noelle showed no reaction to the female’s statement. She clearly did not understand what his family assumed, but he was not in a hurry to enlighten her as his family continued to enthusiastically extend their greetings while his mother ushered her inside. Perhaps it was not such a bad thing. It made his mother happy. He could come up with a convincing story of some minor tragedy to explain why she did not return with him. They would be sad, but at least they would have this… and he would have this memory as well. For this moment in time, he could pretend that he had a mate and had the pleasure of expanding his family. At least his mother would no longer pressure him into mating. Bia only mated once, and his mourning would be respected.
Somehow that did not make him feel any better. He would endure every lecture and obvious hint from his mother for the rest of his life if he could just have the one female that he wanted but who could never be his.