Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Lan’ara was grateful for the comfort of her old mentor. Tante Na’lla had been like a second mother to her, after her parents had died. It felt good and cathartic to come and speak to her about the trouble with Nate, now that he had finally drifted off into a troubled sleep. Lan’ara had slipped away from the hut they were sharing in the Healing Grotto so she could meet Tante Na’lla and express her feelings.
On Careesa Prime, venting your feelings meant asking someone else to share your pain—quite literally since everyone here had empathic abilities and could feel what you were feeling when you shared. So it was no small thing to have a person who cared about you enough to literally help you carry your emotional burden.
“I know Dream-sharing is different for everyone, Tante but he’s supposed to be my fated mate!” she said, looking up at her mentor.
“Are you sure he’s the one?” Tante Na’lla asked. She pointed to the healing wrap which was still around Lan’ara’s neck. “Did he hurt you?”
“That was an accident—he didn’t know me when I first released him from the stasis frame. He was half crazy with fear and anger. Besides, the pool healed me—see?”
Lan’ara reached up and removed the wrap, glad that she’d gotten into the Outermost Pool with Nate. She wouldn’t have wanted him to see the finger marks he’d left on her when he tried to choke her. He’d been out of his head and she had been foolish to release him without anyone to help her control him and calm him. He had told her he wasn’t the kind of male who hurt women and she had felt the truth of his statement as a certainty.
“I’m sure he’s the one,” she told her mentor. “And he’s promised to at least attempt the Claiming Period…but I know he only agreed to it so he could see his friends again.”
“It doesn’t matter why he agreed—the main thing is that you calmed him and helped him process some of his anger and pain.” Tante Na’lla gave her an anxious look. “Though perhaps you took on a bit too much of his burden. You’re pale child, and I can feel how tired you are.”
“He has such strong emotions, and so many of them are negative,” Lan’ara said. She rubbed her aching temples where a headache was brewing. Nate’s emotional burden was vast indeed—greater than almost any she’d ever felt before. She wondered how he could bear it—it must be like carrying a mountain on his back all the time.
“You need to pace yourself,” Tante Na’lla said sternly. “Don’t try to heal him all at once—you’ll break if you’re not careful.”
“I just want him to feel better.” Lan’ara blinked her stinging eyes and swiped at a tear that had escaped to roll down her cheek. “I want to heal him, Tante—but there’s so much to heal!”
“Slowly,” her mentor counseled her. “Don’t take too much of his burden upon yourself too quickly, my dear. Try to enjoy your Claiming period. Are you going to do the entire month here at the Healing Grotto or go someplace else?”
Lan’ara bit her lip.
“I had thought that maybe we would shorten it a bit,” she admitted. “Nate is very anxious to be allowed aboard the Mother Ship to see his friends and he can’t go until I can promise that he’s at least somewhat healed of his trauma and won’t be a danger to anyone.”
Tante Na’lla frowned, her wrinkled face creasing in disapproval.
“What did I just say? Take things slowly. You shouldn’t rush the Claiming Period, child.”
“I’ll try not to,” Lan’ara promised doubtfully. “It’s just…I want so much to heal him. And I know that seeing his friends again would make him feel so much better.”
“If you’re not careful, your body will begin cannibalizing itself to try and heal your prospective mate,” Tante Na’lla warned. She fixed Lan’ara with a stern look. “Have your breasts grown heavy with Healing Nectar?”
“No,” Lan’ara denied quickly. But she couldn’t help crossing her arms over her chest protectively. Were her breasts fuller than they had been? And were her nipples more tender? Surely not—she must be imagining it, she told herself.
A female Empath of Careesa Prime only began to make the Healing Nectar in extreme circumstances—often when her mate had suffered a debilitating physical injury or had gone through a traumatic emotional loss.
The nectar was a sweet, sticky, amber liquid that distilled a female’s healing Essence into its most concentrated form. It was good for healing almost any ailment—mental, emotional, or physical—but it drained the female who made it—sometimes almost to the point of death.
“No, I’m not making any nectar,” she said again, trying to reassure herself as much as her mentor. “I’m sure everything will be fine. We’ll just have to get to know each other—or Nate will have to get to know me—during our Claiming Period. I already know him—much of him, anyway.”