Episode Eleven Difficult Decision

Z oron

"Szoka, you will mate the female?" Reese asks the naga. "Boreas, you'll mate the male? Then the four of you will become a pack?"

When they both agree, Reese rises and motions for Zoron and me to leave the hut while the four of them mate.

Before we leave, though, Reese stops his forward movement and tips his head as if he's listening to something none of the rest of us can hear.

"Wait," he says, then remains still.

The medic raises his hands to waist level, faces his palms toward each other, and waits, head tipped as if he's in prayer. He shakes his head, inches closer to the four who are tucked in the pile of furs, and alternates lifting his hands as if they are catching an invisible ball.

After long minutes of Reese making these slight hand movements, he shakes his head in frustration, then slowly lowers his hands.

"First, the ailing ones must be mated. Then I can perform the Energy Transfer. But there is no reason for these two sick people to mate someone they don't really wish to mate when Holy Mother-Father tells me the Energy Transfer will not work."

My heart slams in my chest. This is terrible news. To come all this way over bouncing terrain hoping to heal these poor souls and then to hear from the medic it won't work. It's tragic.

Reese turns to Eldar and me. "Holy Father-Mother tells me you two are a match for the pair. Eldar to mate with the female, Zoron to mate with the male. You two can heal them. The four of you would become a pack."

"No." Eldar's refusal is soft, respectful, and final. "I have a mate."

My strong lover, a match for my huge centaur body in every way, tucks closer to me, seeming to need my comfort in a way he never has before.

"That's a death sentence to these two." Reese's voice is accusing as his gaze bores through my mate.

"I have a mate." Eldar bites out as he steps toward the medic, his chest pressed out, silently asking for a fight.

"Yes. It's obvious how much you love each other. That doesn't have to disappear when you bring two others into your mating bond."

"No." Eldar feels no need to explain. His refusal is starkly written on his perfect face.

"They're breaths away from death," Reese says. "There's no time left to go back to the compound for more recruits. Mother-Father tells me you two can save their lives."

He looks at me, perhaps wondering if I can sway my partner. Even if I could, I wouldn't. Eldar and I don't function like that. We're our own people. We don't bully each other into doing things.

"You, Zoron? Will you help?" the medic asks.

I think it through, imagining all the combinations. Even if I save one life, the other dies. I'll ruin things between Eldar and me, and whoever I save will forever be without their original mate.

"It would have to be both of us. Saving one of them would doom all of us to unhappiness. I would only do it if Eldar agreed, and he's already given you his decision."

I'd wondered if the proudborn had slipped into unconsciousness, but he opens his eyes and spears Eldar with his golden gaze.

"Please. Save our lives. We'll ask nothing else of you."

The way his head heavily falls against the pillow tells me he won't hear the rest of our discussion. Evidently, those few words took all the energy he possessed.

"I'm not sure it will work that way," the medic says. "If you're all mated, I don't know if you'll be able to go your own ways after."

"Do it," the naga hisses. "Haven't you dreamed of a female mate your whole life?"

"Fuck you," my beloved elf says. "I have a mate. Cock or cunt doesn't matter. It's his heart I love."

Despite the serious mood, his pronouncement makes me smile and I dip to kiss the top of his head.

"Let them have their beloved, too," the medic goads. "Do the right thing."

Something about this statement made my mate consider it in a way he hadn't. His eyes narrow and he doesn't move a muscle.

Time seems to stand still as he thinks, tipping his head, deep in thought.

Finally, he exhales slowly and, voice filled with reluctance, says, "I'll do it."