Dark Choices - I. T. Lucas Page 0,43

love with her?

Perhaps.

But Edna wasn’t in love with him.

“I don’t understand. How could we have bonded so fast? We barely know each other.”

“I’m not sure, but the lack of desire for anyone else is the first sign of the bond. There is also an element of addiction, but it’s too soon for that.”

“What addiction?”

Edna sighed. “It’s part of our strange genetics. When an immortal couple is exclusive with one another, the female gets addicted to the particular venom of the male she’s having sex with. That’s completely independent of a bond and can even happen to a couple who aren’t in love. After she becomes addicted, other immortal males are no longer attractive to her, and she is not attractive to them. Once her scent changes to match her mate’s, he becomes addicted to her as well. It usually takes weeks, even months of daily sex for the addiction to set in, so that’s not what is happening to us.” She looked into his eyes and whispered. “As difficult as it is for me to accept, we might be fated for each other.”

That was a romantic concept that many clan members believed in. They also believed in the Fates choosing mates for them.

Rufsur found it ridiculous.

He’d chosen Edna, not the Fates. It was his decision, and there had been nothing supernatural about it. She was a fine woman, intelligent, beautiful, kind, and one of the most prominent members of the clan.

Apparently, he had a thing for powerful women.

“You are a logical woman, Edna. I‘m surprised that you believe in such nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense. I’ve seen it at work with other couples. Just look at Amanda and Dalhu. Do you really believe that their pairing could have happened without the Fates’ intervention?”

He shrugged. “They fell in love. It happens.”

“Amanda tried to fight it and ran away, leaving Dalhu behind locked up in the dungeon. She thought she could forget him, but she realized that she couldn’t and that she had to fight for them to be together. The entire clan was in upheaval, Kian couldn’t even stand to look at her, and Annani had to get involved.” Edna smiled. “I helped too, although my contribution was limited to finding a legal loophole.”

“What was it?”

She waved a dismissive hand. “That’s not important. What I’m trying to say is that they fought to be together against impossible odds and won.”

Rufsur leaned toward Edna, so his face was in line with hers. “So what’s the moral of the story, my lovely lady judge?”

Edna swallowed. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. If you believe that we are destined for each other, then instead of fighting the connection between us, you should fight for us to be together. Am I right?”

29

Edna

Edna pulled back. “Maybe I overreacted.”

Why the hell had she jumped all the way to that conclusion? Rufsur had probably been with several females since the last time they’d been together, and despite his proclamations to the contrary, he probably would be again before returning to the village for the wedding in two weeks.

The thought was enough to make her blood boil, but wasn’t it what she wanted? It would prove that they hadn’t bonded and they were not each other’s fated mates.

And as for her, a lack of interest in males was nothing unusual.

“You are just scared,” Rufsur said.

She shook her head. “I don’t know what came over me. As you said, we are not in love. So how can we have bonded? And there is no way you are addicted to me. You might think that you don’t want to be with anyone else, but two weeks is a long time for an immortal male to go without sex. You will most likely change your mind.”

“It is a long time to abstain. But I haven’t been with anyone during our previous two-week separation, and I have no intention of doing so during the next one.”

“Perhaps you were busy with work?”

“I’m never that busy.”

Edna crossed her arms over her chest. “Last time, you admitted to me that you hadn’t been with anyone since Kalugal caught Jacki and Arwel. That was long before you met me, which means that it’s not unusual for you to abstain for long stretches of time.”

Rufsur sighed. “I don’t want to argue with you. How about we eat breakfast and then go back to bed? It seems that we communicate most honestly with our bodies.”

Ouch.

He was accusing her of being dishonest, and there was something to it. She loved being with him,