“I just…just feel so drawn to you,” Ellina admitted. “If you had a chewchie of your own, I would almost think they were exerting some pull on us.”
Ty frowned. “So they can influence your sexual desires too? I thought as much after Asher and Lisa…” He cleared his throat. “After what I saw at my friend’s domicile.”
“Oh, yes.” Ellina nodded. “Chewchies absorb and reflect emotions and they can magnify them as well, especially in the case of sexual desire.”
“Well what happens if your chewchie doesn’t like the chewchie of the person you’re with?”
Ellina shivered.
“Ugh! I can’t imagine being mated to someone whose chewchie Lor didn’t like! It would be a miserable existence. And honestly, I don’t think I would like the person who was connected to that chewchie in the first place. It would be like…being divided against myself. It just wouldn’t work.”
“I see.” Ty looked at Lor thoughtfully. “It seems these little guys have a great deal of influence over their owners.”
“They do, but that’s a wrong word. Nobody ‘owns’ anyone,” Ellina corrected him. “It’s a relationship—an incredibly close one. Having a chewchie is like…having a part of your heart outside your body.” She shook her head. “I can’t explain it any better than that.”
“Well, Asher and his bride, Lisa seem very happy with their chewchies,” Ty remarked as Lor leaped from his shoulder and snuggled under Ellina’s chin affectionately. “It seemed to enhance their bonding—at least from what I could tell.”
“Oh yes—because their chewchies are a matched pair!” Ellina exclaimed. She sighed sadly. “I wish that Lor could find his pairing but that’s never going to happen.”
“Why is that? Does it have something to do with you being the Potentate?” Ty asked.
She shook her head.
“It’s more to do with Lor being a rare Sacred Blue chewchie,” she explained. “He can only mate with another of his kind, but they’re almost non-existent. Right now, the only other Sacred Blue chewchie that I know of on the entire planet is Shel, Grandmamma’s chewchie and she is much too old to mate with Lor. Nor would she want to.”
Ty frowned. “If they’re so rare, how haven’t they died out by now? I mean, if another chewchie isn’t found to mate with Lor, won’t that mean the end of their line?”
“Not necessarily,” Ellina said as Lor perched lightly on her head. “Legend has it that a Sacred Blue chewchie is only hatched when a noble or royal worthy to have it is ready to welcome it and bond with it. So…” She shrugged. “Another will be hatched down the line, sometime. Hopefully when I, myself, have a daughter who has the Sacred Blue skin and she is ready for a chewchie of her own.”
Ty looked at Lor sympathetically.
“It seems hard on the little guy that he’ll never find a mate, though. I thought he’d automatically mate with whatever chewchie belonged to the male you eventually choose as your consort.”
He didn’t look very happy at the idea, Ellina thought, as though the idea of her finding the correct consort and settling down upset him. Which was foolish, since eventually she would have no choice but to choose a male to join with—when her Heat Cycle began.
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “Mated people do not always own mated chewchies—having a matched pair is actually somewhat rare, you know.” She sighed. “The most I can hope is that whoever I choose as my consort with have a chewchie that Lor wants to be friends with. That’s really the best-case scenario for the two of us.”
And reaching up, she stroked Lor’s soft, fuzzy fur. Her little companion sent her a mental image—a female chewchie with fur of Sacred Blue. The feeling that accompanied the picture was one of longing and hope that nearly broke Ellina’s heart.
“I’m sorry, Lor,” she sent to him mentally. “But you and I both know that’s never going to happen.”
For even if another Sacred Blue chewchie was suddenly hatched, it would have to be matched with a male that she herself could call as a consort in order for Lor to mate with it. There was just no other way for a Potentate’s chewchie to be mated. And since all the nobles who were considered proper candidates already had chewchies of their own, there was no possibility at all of Lor getting a mate. For no one could have two chewchies—it would be like having two hearts.
But Lor persisted, sending the image with even more clarity and the feeling of hope intensified.
Ellina shook her head.
“No,” she murmured to him. “No, don’t delude yourself, my dear. You know that can’t happen.”
“Know what can’t happen?” Ty asked, frowning.
“Oh, forgive me.” Ellina sighed. “It’s just Lor—he hears all our talk about matched pairs of chewchies and he keeps sending me images of a female Sacred Blue chewchie he hopes to meet and mate with. Which is, of course, impossible.” She stroked Lor’s fur again. “Sorry, Lor.”
“Well, if he thinks—” Ty began but just then there was a rap at the door and the guard outside stuck his head in.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty,” he said to Ellina. “But the High Priest of Thufar is here to discuss the order of the Grand Promenade later today.”
Ellina barely bit back a groan. How could she have forgotten that the Grand Promenade was today? Gods, how tired she was of public appearances!
Though not nearly as tired as she was of dealing with the High Priest.
Still, there was nothing to do but face him head-on. Taking a deep breath, she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin.
“Let him in,” she told the guard.
Chapter Twenty-one
“Well, hello, my dear. I mean,
