“True.” Moving away from the table, Matrix dropped heavily into one of the carved chairs and then winced. “I think I’ve started to become accustomed to the pillows the humans have been scattering about. This is not the first time I’ve expected to be greeted by something with a cushion only to land on stone.”
“It is amusing how quickly we’ve become used to the comforts the women have brought with them. I have a new understanding for their love of something soft,” Sparx murmured, his mind drifting back to his mate and the softness he’d reveled in a mere few hours ago.
“I am happy for you, brother.”
Sparx blinked his way out of the daydream he’d fallen into and gave the other warlord a grin that was no longer a rare occurrence. “Me too, ‘Trix.”
“Tell me—” Matrix leaned in, bracing his elbows on his knees. “Is it everything K’hor has made it out to be?”
“The mating?” he asked, not quite sure if he understood what his friend was referencing.
“Yes, the mating. Does it really feel how he described?”
Sparx sat back and thought on the question for a moment. When Matrix gave him a look, he simply held up his finger asking for more time.
“Yes and no,” he started. “From what Lucy has said, she experienced some of the same physical discomfort and confusion that Juniper had. Although it didn’t seem nearly as bad—”
“Because K’hor and Juniper waited too long to finish the mating, right?”
“That’s what the healers believe,” Sparx said with a nod. “The human body isn’t equipped to handle the mating like ours. Their need is amplified and uncontrollable. If I hadn’t gone to Lucy when I did, she would have eventually fallen into a coma like Juniper.”
“Well…I am glad that did not happen.”
“Same,” Sparx agreed wholeheartedly.
“You’re welcome, by the way.” Matrix leaned back and gloated, his hands crossed behind his head.
“I’ve already thanked you for standing in for Fyier, ‘Trix.”
“I’m not talking about that,” he said with a wave of his hand. “I’m talking about the thanks I deserve for telling you to go and give in to the mating. Who knows how long you would have tried to hold out if it hadn’t been for Colby and I telling you that you were acting like an idiot.”
“You’re right. On all accounts.” Sparx nodded at the truth coming out of Matrix’s mouth. “To be honest though, the urge that was riding me to mate with Lucy was strong enough I wouldn’t have been able to fight it much longer than I already had. Even if you hadn’t pointed out how foolish I was acting. There was no way that I could have denied myself or my mate.”
The way he felt as a newly mated Djaromir was something he was still trying to come to terms with. It wasn’t as if he didn’t understand his feelings or how important Lucy was to him—he did. He was simply unsure of how to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. The worry he had for her wellbeing. The cravings he had for her when she wasn’t near. The single-minded focus he had for her when they were together.
All of it was new to him. He just needed to figure out how to manage it all without driving himself crazy in the process.
“Is something wrong?” Matrix eyed him from where he was sitting.
“I am starting to feel odd,” he answered, even as a tingle took residence at the base of his spine.
“Ill? Feverish?” Matrix threw out a few other options, none of them an accurate description.
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Like I’m missing something.”
“Do you want to go over the communications—”
“Not that,” he immediately retorted, a feeling in his gut telling him he needed his mate and nothing else. “I think I need—”
“Oh thank God we found you!” Rue yelled from where she was standing next to a pale-looking Lucy at the entrance of the command center.
“What happened?” he asked, rushing over to the women.
Picking his mate up in his arms, he moved her to the center of the room where the chairs were gathered in a circle. Sitting her in one, he knelt in front of her, his hands on her cheeks as he looked into her eyes.
“She said she wasn’t feeling good about twenty minutes ago,” Rue answered quickly, following closely behind. “Give or take. I hustled her here as quick as I could, considering we didn’t know how the hell to get here. FYI, your girl there has the worst sense of direction. Seriously. Don’t let her go walking around here alone if you want to keep tabs on her, or at least put up some damn signs. She could get lost walking down to the laundry room at our complex, and we’d lived there two years.”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” Lucy complained, even as she leaned forward to run her nose along Sparx’s neck. “C’mere.”
He had no other warning than that mumbled word before she slid out of the chair and wrapped herself around him where he was still kneeling. Her lips grazed his jaw and ear before landing on his neck where she tucked herself into him.
With little effort despite the extra weight he was holding, Sparx stood, holding his precious burden.
“You may want to…” Rue reached down and tucked Lucy’s skirt around her bottom, keeping her appropriately covered as she clung to Sparx.
“Thanks,” he muttered, grateful her friend was watching out for her. Using one palm underneath to secure the cloth, he turned to the other warlord he’d forgotten about in the rush to take care of Lucy. “I should get her back.”
“Uh-huh.”
Sparx frowned at Matrix where he stood, his mouth open and a surprised expression on his face.
“Are you all right?” he asked, shifting Lucy into a more comfortable hold as she kissed and nuzzled his chest.
“Uh-huh.”
“’Trix?” Sparx began to grow worried
