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Chapter Thirteen

D ax

It’s been an odd couple of weeks. I’ve lived in this ship with twenty-three other souls, all of whom know me, yet I don’t know them at all. Well, I didn’t, but now I do. They’ve all told me stories about myself and my relationship with them. It’s obvious they all like and respect me.

There’s a running joke as every gladiator reveals his past. They all recount with relish detailed stories about how many times they beat me in sparring matches. Then they clap me on the back, laugh, and admit they never beat me. Except for Zar, he won a match after the females came aboard. He told me he thinks I let him win so Dahlia wouldn’t think I was bloodthirsty.

I’ve divided my time between the ludus , the hold where I’ve been working on my projects, and Dahlia. We eat breakfast and dinner together. After breakfast, I walk her back to the little common room at the junction of the males’ and females’ hallways.

Three of the males can’t read. I helped her set up a classroom here. She’s even asked my opinion on some teaching techniques since she’ll have to use translation boards and she wasn’t certain how to do that. Now, all we have to figure out is how to get Stryker, Steele, and Aries to sign on.

I learn more about Dahlia all the time. You’d imagine a woman as educated, beautiful, and well-bred as her would be arrogant and unapproachable. You’d be wrong. She’s fun and open and sexy as hell. I grow closer to her every day.

Stepping out of the shower, I dry off. I’ve asked her for a ‘date’ tonight. Maddie, the cook, made us a special meal at my request. I’m going to serve it to Dahlia in the solarium.

I also spoke with Maddie to understand Earth customs, to make things special tonight.

I stroked myself in the shower —twice —imagining Dahlia’s scent and the feel of her lips on me the day I woke up on this ship a few weeks ago. I knew I’d never get through this date without pouncing on her if I didn’t ease myself before I met her.

Her daily proximity is both a blessing and a curse. I itch to have her, my cock becomes more insistent every day. But we both want a relationship, we want it to be real and meaningful, and I don’t want to rush it.

I’ve been a slave since birth, I know nothing about relationships, but she does. From what she says, we’re doing well at building a foundation. My cock, however, insists the foundation is built and wants to get on with the relationship activities. I snap his growing interest with my finger and put on the black leather kilt and sash I’m told I made.

I proceed first to the kitchen, then bring our food to the small solarium at the back of the ship. Dahlia told me this is her favorite place on the Fool’s Errand . It’s surrounded on three sides by floor-to-ceiling windows and even has a see-through roof. She says she loves it here.

I stride back to her cabin and knock. She opens the door and beams at me. In case I missed how beautiful she is, she stands back, twirls, then steps forward again.

How could I fail to notice how gorgeous she is? The bright blue of her dress matches the color of her eyes. It’s cut low on her breasts without being too provocative. Hugging her figure like a second skin, it curves to her waist then bells out at her hips and drops all the way to the floor.

“You’re so beautiful, Dahlia, we’d better get moving or I’ll drack you right here in the hall.” I can’t hide the raw desire in my voice. Her mouth forms a little ‘O’ of surprise at my bold words, then she flashes me a close-lipped grin.

As we walk down the hall she stops, causing me to glance behind. I must have missed something, because she tips her head toward her feet, then lifts the hem of her dress a few inches.

A laugh bursts out of my mouth. Underneath that beautiful, shimmery, fancy gown, she’s wearing her mukluks —the ones I made for her.

“I told you you’d find the perfect opportunity to wear them,” I joke.

She slips her hand into mine and we laugh and tease all the way to the solarium.

Stopping just inside the doorway, she tells the computer to turn off the lights, slides her arm around my waist, and takes in the view.

I hadn’t paid attention when I came in earlier to set things up, but it’s amazing. The wide expanse of space is overwhelming. The word ‘infinity’ takes on a new meaning.

Slaves don’t exactly get the best seats in the house when we’re being shipped all over the galaxy to risk our lives in the next fight. I’ve never had the opportunity to see stars scattered all over the universe before.

“It’s… humbling,” I breathe.

“We had a room like this on the old ship. I spent as much time as I could there. It reminds you of your mortality while at the same time offering limitless possibilities.”

As we watch the stars, I glide my arm around her and pull her closer.

“Whoa, did you see that?” She points to the trail of a shooting star.

“Mmm-hmm. Is there a name for that?” I point off to the left. It’s a swirling cascade of colors ranging from greens and yellows to blues and purples.

“Nebula. Amazing, huh?”

She turns in my arms and rests her head on my pec. Her hands clasp my shoulders and she moves us in a slow circle. We’re dancing to the silence of the stars. Her body sways against mine, her breath releases in little puffs onto my chest. The scent of her hair drifts to my senses. It’s more intimate than sex.

We dance for minutes, well, it’s swaying actually. We’re having a conversation with no words. She’s burrowed into my heart.

Dahlia

“Hungry?” he husks.

Oh yeah. I’m hungry all right. My nipples are hard and tight, my core is clenching, I’m hungry for the hard erection pressed into my belly. But all I say is, “Yes.”

“I asked Maddie to make your favorite dishes.” Removing the lids off bowls of manwan danar and exxan casserole deluxe he looks at me expectantly, to make certain he ordered the right things.

I flash on the moment when Asher entertained us with an elegant dinner. He personally removed the cloche of the dish in front of me, and my terror at seeing the dead rat-thing on the fine china only inches from my face probably took an entire year off his age —as well as off my life.

I force that out of my mind and ground myself in the moment. Smiling at Dax, I bring myself back to the present and tell him he got it exactly right.

We share about our pasts during the meal. His childhood, his whole life, was grueling, but he mostly tells me about the fun times. No wonder he makes light of so many situations and teases mercilessly with his pals —this was his coping mechanism to survive Hell.

I reach over and grab his hand. “You could be so bitter, Dax. You could be bitter and angry and mean. Yet you’re none of those things. In all that misery you found a way to make jokes and have fun and see the good in your friends. I admire that about you.”

He pulls my chair out, lifts me into his arms, then dances me over to the couch; it’s about five feet from the bank of windows and is the most comfortable thing on the ship. He pulls it out at a diagonal, sits down and cuddles me onto his lap, my head on his shoulder. Because he tipped the couch out, we both have a perfect view of the stars.

He kisses the top of my head. “I’ll tell you the things I like best about you,” his voice is gravelly, filled with passion. “You’re giving and generous and kind. When you have to be firm, you do it as gently as possible. Trust me, telling me you didn’t want to share sex was not an easy thing to hear.”

He’s sliding his fingers through my hair, like he’s petting me. I’m almost purring. “I don’t remember any of the torture Asher put us through, but I can picture it through the stories you told me. I see you in my mind’s eye —brave, strong and full of courage. You’re everything a male could want.”

Those words hang between us like a shining diamond.

He’s rocking me softly and petting my head and I feel it —I feel his love. It takes all the courage I possess —more courage than I needed to endure Asher’s dungeon —to peek at his face. He smiles and keeps his gaze on me.

It’s like tantric eye gazing only different. If possible, it’s more intimate. He’s here. My Dax. He’s missing a few memories, but the real Dax, his humor and compassion, his quick wit and nimble hands —they’re all here.

“I love you, Dahl. I love you and I feel as if I always have. You told me about Larry and Balentime’s Day and weddings and rings. I know they’re important to you.”

He sets me on the couch and gets down on one knee. I’m crying, my hands covering my mouth like Miss America pretending to be excited and humble. But I am excited and humble and expectant and thrilled. With Larry, our wedding was a foregone conclusion since grade school. I never got the down-on-one-knee proposal.

And he is —down on one knee. And it’s really, truly Dax smiling out of those gorgeous green eyes.

“Dahlia, my love, will you marry me?” He smiles at me expectantly, no hesitation.

“Yes!” My heart is racing, I’m smiling; my grin so huge my face is stretched tight. He reaches under the leather sash crossing his chest and pulls something out.

“I made you a ring.” He places it in the palm of his hand and offers it to me. I’m certain he has no idea which finger it goes on. I pick it up and admire it.

It’s a simple band of wood as black as midnight. It’s smooth as silk. As a kid, I made a few wood projects with my dad and to get something this small so flawless and smooth takes hours of sanding.

“It’s wonderful, Dax.” Just as Larry’s ring was a symbol of Larry, this ring is all Dax. It’s perfect and handmade and came from the heart. It’s nothing fancy, yet it’s beautiful in its simplicity —just like my Dax.

“You put it on this finger.” I show him.

His eyes round in his face. “We’re mated? Just like that?” He looks shocked and a little scared.

“No. Things are different in space. We can do it any way we want, but I’d like a ceremony. And a little party.”

His brows knit, he looks disappointed.

“But I accepted your proposal.” I lean forward, close my eyes, and brush his lips back and forth with mine. “Dance with me some more.” Pulling him up, I throw my arms around him and sway to the nonexistent music.

“I love you, Dax. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.” And I mean it.

He kisses me, hard and claiming, his tongue breaching my lips, tasting me. Then he pulls back and asks, “Tell me how to be a good mate, Dahl. I want to be the best male in the galaxy for you.”

“You already are, Dax.”

I try to snake my hand under his loincloth, but he pulls it away. “Maddie explained that it’s custom to wait until after the mating ceremony to consume.”

“Consume? Oh consummate. Remind me to wring Maddie's neck next time I see her."

“She lied to me?”

“No, she told the truth. It’s just… an inconvenient truth,” I admit. I suppress the urge to pull his hand close and press it into the juncture of my thighs. “I’m dying to consummate with you.”

“Me, too. I had to stroke myself twice before I could leave my room tonight. I didn’t want to consume you in the hallway.”

“How about here?”

“I want to do this the way you always wanted, Dahl. Just the way you pictured it when you were a little girl. Well, that would be difficult because I’m certain you didn’t picture it in space. With an alien. A huge male of another species. Without your friends and family.” He’s serious now. “Will that bother you? Not having your people here?”

“These are my people now. This will be nothing like what I imagined as a little girl. It will be better. Because I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

My big guy beams.

“ S tand still,” Savannah scolds through the pins clamped between her lips.

“Sorry.” I try not to fidget, but I’m wiggling, trying to relieve some of my anxiety.

“Okay, take it off. This better fix it. We don’t have time for any more alterations.” Savannah was a clothes horse when she was abducted, now she’s become our resident seamstress. She whipped up this wedding dress out of patterned white on white Mirasian silk we found in the hold.

“I hid this fabric months ago. I knew there’d be a special occasion we’d want it for. Truth be told, I’d hoped it would be for someone’s wedding. I’m so happy for you, Dahlia.”

I nod. It means a lot to have such good friends to surround me on this special day.

Petra hurries in with her makeup and hair kit. Her hair is royal blue today and done up in a bunch of braids and pigtails. She looks fabulous as always.

“Chair,” she barks.

“Stop wiggling,” she scolds seconds later when she’s applying mascara. “Seriously Dahlia, you’d think this was the most important day of your life or something.” She beams a huge smile, then hugs me. “You and Dax are so cute together. If you’re even half as happy as Shadow and me, you’ll have a fabulous life together.”

Half an hour later my hair is coiffed, my makeup’s complete, the dress fits me to perfection, and everyone is telling me “it’s time.”

Axxios stopped the ship in midair so everyone can attend the ceremony. They’re all waiting in the solarium, which is bursting at the seams with my friends and the potent champagne we discovered in the original cargo hold.

Savannah and Petra escort me to the solarium, and somewhere on the short trip all my jitters disappear and the most beautiful feeling of calm surrounds me.

I’ll be walking into that room a single woman and leaving as part of a team. I’ll have a forever mate. My big, gorgeous Dax, who tells me how much he loves me whenever he feels like it —which is often. Who’d have thought being abducted by aliens would be the best thing that ever happened to me? Well —a picture of Dax naked in the shower flashes in my mind —almost the best thing.

My calm disintegrates after I walk through the solarium’s double doors. The room is full of all my friends, but Dax draws my eyes like a magnet.

He’s even more gorgeous than usual. His brown hair is cut tight around the sides with a thick lock hanging over his forehead. He’s polished the black leather kilt and sash to within an inch of their life. But it’s those leaf-green eyes, focused only on me that take my breath away.

“Welcome friends to the wedding of Dahlia and Dax. They asked me to say a few words.” Captain Zar looks serious and excited at the same time. “I’m certain I speak for everyone when I say we’re all happy you two have found each other. I hope you will love and cherish each other forever.

“Dahlia? You’ve prepared your…” he consults his notes, “vows?”

My hands flutter, and my heart thumps; I have no idea how to stop it, so I plunge forward.

I look Dax square in the eyes and see his compassionate smile; this calms me.

“Dax, I love you more than life itself. I discovered that in Asher’s dungeon. I would have died for you, as I know you would have died for me. Sometimes I regret that it took me so long to discover the miracle that you are, but it allowed our love to blossom.

“Lucky me, to find such a great man in one package: smart, funny, kind, loyal, and devastatingly handsome. A man of integrity. There are so many things I love and adore about you.

“I am so excited to start this, the beginning of our great adventure together.”

There was more, but my voice is quivering and I think I said everything that needs to be said.

Dax smiles, winks at me, and leans over and whispers, “You did great, Dahl,” into my ear. Lucky for me he has no idea he just broke protocol, because it touches my heart.

After a long silence, Zar prods, “I believe it’s your turn, Dax.”

I’ve seen my big guy in many moods: angry, protective, lusty, and loving. I’ve never seen him shy. He swallows twice, then grabs my hands and begins.

“Dahlia, I wasn’t fully alive until I met you. What purpose is there in life without someone to share it with? Having you is having everything. You’re beautiful, but that’s not important. It’s your heart and soul that connect to mine —that’s what I cherish about you.

“Now that I have you, I can’t imagine life without you. I promise to be the best mate you could ever want. Although I’d die for you, Dahl, I want to live with you for the rest of our lives.”

I’m glad he’s moved his grip to my elbows, because his vows made me weak in the knees. The words and the look in his eyes allow me to see into his soul.

“The ring,” Anya prompts from the sidelines.

Dax gets down on one knee and grabs my left hand. Closing his eyes, he kisses each knuckle like it’s a form of worship. He reaches under his sash, which is directly over his heart and retrieves the ring. Slipping the ring on my finger, I smile when I realize it’s still warm from his body heat.

“Kiss your mate,” Zar intones solemnly.

Even as a young girl, I always wondered what the bridal kiss would be like. Would it be fake? Staged? Embarrassing in front of all your friends and family? It’s none of those. It’s bliss. It’s totally familiar and completely different at the same time.

He’s not just my FWB or friend or even lover. He’s my mate. We’ll be together forever until death do us part.

I’m brought back to reality by whooping and shouting.

“Toasts!” shouts Maddie as she opens a bottle of alien champagne.

The toasts go on forever, yet they don’t last long enough. I’m here with all my friends! And they’re all so happy for me.

“Let’s move this shindig to the dining area,” Maddie says, then repeats it again after Stryker lifts her up so she can shout over the din. “I’ve been cooking nonstop since you announced your wedding. All that food wouldn’t fit in here.”

Dax lifts me up and carries me to the mess hall along with the throng. Golden-skinned Axxios sidelines us, claps Dax on the shoulder and gives me a peck on the cheek. “Best wishes, I hope you’re as happy as Brianna, Braxxus, and me. Mated life is even better than I dreamed of. My sincere good wishes. I’ve got to hurry back to the bridge,” he says, then jogs off.

We spill into the dining area and the smells of the meal assault us. We’ve had parties before, but I’ve never seen this much food. I don’t know where Maddie found the time. And there’s a real honest-to-God wedding cake with three tiers and carved wooden facsimiles of Dax and me.

“You did those?” I point to the figurines. There’s so much happy noise I had to reach on tiptoe to shout near Dax’s ear.

He nods. “And that.” He waves his hand toward the long, formerly empty wall of the rectangular room.

Hanging on the wall is a four-by-eight-foot three-dimensional wood carving about four inches thick. It depicts a hillside full of trees and dotted with flowers. It’s stained a rich mahogany, except for the flowers, which are tinted the subtlest shade of cornflower blue.

Dipping his mouth to my ear he says, “It was what I saw out my window from my barracks as a boy. That view was the best thing about my boyhood. Those flowers? I’d swear they were the same color as my beloved’s eyes.”

My heart constricts, my jaw tightens, and my eyes tear up. I made it through the wedding without tears, but this? This tender, giving side of my big guy? The sweetness of the moment clenches my heart like a fist.

“I couldn’t love you more,” I tell him, then grab his hand to pull him over to admire the carving. He couldn’t have gotten any sleep, I think, as my fingers skim the smooth surface of the wood. It’s amazing a person’s hands could accomplish this.

“I always said you were handy.”

“That’s a real word?”

Deja Vu. How funny, we had this conversation before. It’s the same Dax in the same gorgeous package. Lucky me.

Maddy cooked all our favorite dishes, but neither of us are hungry. We do the stuff-cake-into-your-new-mate’s-mouth thing. It initially scandalizes the aliens who can’t quite understand why it’s a tradition. All of us women shrug and say variations of “don’t ask me.”

Then Stryker feeds Maddie, Maddie reciprocates and within sixty seconds every person in the room has icing on their lips. There are long moments of licking icing off your mate or FWB’s lips, and then the party grinds to a swift halt as couple after couple grab each other by the hand and leave to go ‘consume’ each other as Dax would say.

We thank Maddie, who’s halfway to the exit herself, hand in hand with Stryker. I’m not sure who’s pulling whom.

We make our exit unnoticed and hightail it to Dax’s room. We decided to live together here rather than my cabin. Somehow I’ve always felt safer here.

Although we giggled as we ran down the hall together, now that we’re behind closed doors things are quiet and serious.

I’ve had sex with Dax dozens, maybe hundreds of times —from forced matings to casual sex, to that night in the hotel room on Aeon II with his fake collar on. He’s never had sex with me —not this Dax at any rate. Well, there was the quick mistaken-identity-blowjob, but he wasn’t in love with me then; he didn’t even know who I was.

I’m nervous and a little shy. I look to catch his mood. He’s serious, but always the alpha male.

He sweeps his hand under my hair and clasps my neck, pulling me close. Barely brushing his lips back and forth, he releases a groan of what seems like love and longing.

“You mentioned you dreamed of this night, Dahlia. I want it to be exactly what you want.” His hands travel my back from hips to shoulders, like a racecar driver at the starting gate, all revved up waiting to take his foot off the brake.

I thought of it a thousand different ways, always with Larry, always sweet and loving and uninspired.

“The way I dreamed was for my husb… for my mate to love me any way he wanted.” I suck in a nervous breath, this makes me feel so vulnerable. A frisson of sexual energy zings to my core.

“Mmm, any way? I’ve got many ways in mind. And then we have tomorrow and the next day and the next until forever.” He nips my bottom lip, pulling it into his mouth and sucking. Bending his knees, he bucks me against him, my vee pressed against his rock-hard cock.

My eyes shock open. How could I ramp up this fast? My nipples are hard points against his chest, already desperate for his touch.

After turning me, he presses my front against the metal wall, then lifts my hair and tips my head forward. Biting and nibbling the back of my neck, he slides my zipper down.

I’m already panting with desire as his hands sweep out from my neck to my shoulders. I feel my dress whisper against my skin then puddle on the floor.

He sucks in a breath, “You’re beautiful, Dahl.”

He strokes my arms from shoulders to wrists, barely grazing against my skin. Every cell in my body is on heightened awareness, waiting for the next tender assault.

His thumbs skate downward on either side of my backbone, his hands easily spanning along my sides. Being in his grip like this makes me feel owned, knowing those long, strong fingers could touch me anywhere.

And they do. They stray to the outer swell of my breasts, never touching, only teasing. Amping me up.

His thumbs slide to the two dimples in the flesh near my tailbone, his hands extending around to my hip bones in front. His fingers are inches from my clit. I’m burning for him and he hasn’t touched one erogenous zone yet.

Closing my eyes, I suck my bottom lip between my teeth and pay attention to every nuance of his next move.

Hooking his thumbs in my panties, he skims them down my legs. This isn’t the swift, let’s-get-to-the-good-part removal of panties, but a sensual, downward glide. His hands stroke from hip to knee to ankle as if he has all the time in the world.

A little puff of noise escapes me as I tremble with urgency, eager for him to continue his explorations.

“You like that?” he asks, then brings those huge, rough hands upward, retracing the same teasing path to my waist. Rotating his hands forward a few inches, he glides down my body from waist to ankles again. This time his fingertips graze the sides of my mons then move inward to skim down my inner thighs. It’s slow and sensuous.

Little strikes of lightning zip from his fingertips to my clit. I love him and hate him and want to grab his cock and nestle it against my core all at the same time.

Perhaps he senses my impatience because he grips my wrists and plants my hands on the wall high over my head.

“Step out.”

It takes me a moment to realize he wants me to step out of the dress surrounding my feet on the floor.

After I’ve kicked the dress free, he presses my palms against the cool metal wall. “Don’t move,” he says, then slides his palms from my hands, down my arms, along my sides, giving a quick unsatisfying tease to my breasts while avoiding their aching tips, stopping at my ass. He scoots me forward until I’m pressed against the wall.

The cool against my nipples hits me with a burst of surprise, pleasure, and need. A tiny hum escapes the back of my throat even though my lips are sealed.

“Dahlia likes this?” he rumbles into my ear.

I nod, which he rewards with attention to my sensitive ear. He licks and nips, then breathes in and sucks air out until I’m squirming, pressing my ass back to steal a touch against his cock.

Nipping my earlobe a bit too hard, he scolds, “Not yet.”

He nudges my feet back so I’m tilted toward the wall, my weight on my hands and forearms. One thumb and one finger now start at my forehead and make the slow journey down the midline of my body, barely touching my skin in places. They caress the column of my throat, the inner mounds of my breasts, and my belly.

In my mind I’m ordering his hand to cup my sex, to circle my clit, to penetrate me, but he detours to the crease where leg meets torso and slides provocatively down my inner thigh.

“Dax, please.”

“I will, Dahl. I will please you. Soon.”

He pulls off his clothes —finally —then flattens against me, his cock throbbing against my back. He’s as affected by this as I am.

His hand begins its slow journey again, from hairline down. This time both finger and thumb graze a nipple. I thrust out my breasts for more as I nudge my ass back to feel him against me, but he keeps traveling south to my knees.

Licking the flat of his tongue up my neck, his hand begins its next circuit. This time he plucks my nipple and I moan with pleasure, pressing my breasts, my entire torso to greet his touch. His left hand joins the party and both hands are rolling and plucking my nipples until I feel wetness sliding down my inner thighs.

Still working my nipples, he slips his feet between mine and nudges them apart. Why did he feel compelled to do that? The air on me, the openness, accentuates my need.

“I’m empty, Dax. So empty.” I’ve never wanted anything as badly as I want him right now. “Please. I need you inside me.”

His cock is riding my back, we’re pressed so closely together. He’s so hot and hard and oh so male it makes my mouth dry. I want him so intensely I’m desperate.

Bending his knees, he thrusts between my legs. I can feel how slick I am by the wet noises his cock makes as he slides along my inner folds.

Heaven. It feels like heaven when the head of his cock teases past my core and then...God. Dear God, he bumps my clit once, twice, three times and sends me into orbit. Screaming in pleasure I feel every muscle in my body spasm, clenching and relaxing in release.

“Dax.” I can barely speak, my lips are numb from coming. Who knew?

He lifts me up, carries me to the bed, sets me down, and flashes me a wicked smile. Fucking handsome devil.

“Good so far? We haven’t even consumed yet, Dahl. Face to face now, my love. I want to see every expression that crosses your beautiful face.”

Dax

She’s so expressive, so exquisite, so responsive —I’m loving the show. Her eyelids flutter closed the moment I crawl between her legs and put my mouth on her breast. I pay attention to every sharp intake of breath, every heavy puff of out-breath. I notice when her head thrashes against her pillow, and when her hands tighten in the sheets. I notice when she whispers my name. My cock becomes more impatient when she moans my name in ecstasy.

I’ve dracked a lot of women in my life. I’ve never made love. I want this to be special for both of us.

Capturing her chin in my hand I catch her attention and make certain we’re gazing into each other’s eyes. This, this is what I want —the connection.

“Dahlia.” That’s right, I’m making love to Dahlia. My Dahlia. My love. I put my weight on my hands, my back arched so I can continue to watch every expression on her precious face.

I spear into her and groan in pleasure, breaking our connection for a moment as my eyes close in ecstasy. Then we’re connected again and her perfect body squeezes around me like a welcoming fist.

She’s writhing under me, calling my name, lifting to meet me thrust for thrust. She’s close, but struggling to get there. Nipping her ear and her collarbone get her closer, but she can’t find her release.

“Come for me, love,” I coax. And she does. Her body tightens, muscles spasming, her channel clutching my cock, and I release into her. All the while our eyes stay locked. It’s bliss. We’re a mated pair. I’m the luckiest male in the galaxy.