Page 52 of Her Alien Cyborgs
“What have you got there?” Hezza tried to lean to one side to get a glimpse of what he held.
There wasn’t much room in the cabin, but they managed to find the space to stand in front of her.
“We have something for you, Alyssa,” Kalan said. “If we were truly Vardarian, this would be aharani.” He named the traditional armband mated triads wore to display their status. “But since we’re not, we’ve created a new tradition.”
With that, he held out the smallest of the three wrist cuffs they had made.
Hezza exhaled sharply, her eyes locked on the piece of hammered metal he held out to her.
“Is that…” She leaned down to look closer. “You made this out of a part of a hull patch kit?”
Before he could answer, she took it out of his hand with a soft sound of unmistakable delight. “You did!” She examined it carefully, her eyes bright and her smile wider than he’d ever seen it.
She liked it. That was good. But would she put it on?
“There’s an inscription,” Fyr’enth said. “On the inside.”
She turned it so that the light shone at the right angle. “For ourzana. Our lives began the day we met you.”
She blinked rapidly, and her voice cracked with emotion as she turned toward them. “This is perfect. Thank you.”
Then she slipped it onto her wrist. “I accept your gift and everything it represents.”
“You are ourmahaya. Now everyone will know it,” Kalan said.
She laughed. “Oh yes, they will. And if they don’t see this, I’ll tell them myself. I’m spoken for.”
She held out her hand. “Please tell me you made some for yourselves, too.”
Pleased to the point of bursting, he handed her the two larger cuffs. They were identical to hers, except for the size. All three were cut from the same piece of metal, and then hammered into the proper shape. They’d done more hammering to add a decorative design to the outside, and then polished them to a brilliant shine.
“What do yours say?” she asked.
“That is for you to decide,” Fyr’enth said.
“I supposed just putting the wordmine, in big letters would be too much?”
“Probably.” Kalan bared his teeth. “Or you could just growl at them the way you did at Sajita. That seemed to work well.”
“It did. Didn’t it? Then I’ll think of something meaningful to engrave instead.” She placed a cuff on his wrist and then Fyr’enth’s. Once fitted, they covered the bar codes tattooed on their flesh.
That felt right.
“You are mymahoyen,” she declared when it was done. “Always.”
“Always. Do you mean that, Alyssa?” he asked softly.
“I do. I once asked you to give me more time before we talked about the nanotech again. You gave me that time, and I want to give you my answer now.”
He held his breath. Maybe they wouldn’t need to ply her with pleasure after all. They’d still do that, of course, but for different reasons.
“What is your answer?” Fyr’enth asked impatiently.
The corners of her mouth lifted in amusement. “Impatient, are we? Very well. During the time you were both in the void and I was safe inside… Well, relatively safe… I realized I’d do anything to keep us together. Even die. That made my choice easy. My answer is yes.”
“Finally.” Kalan took her hand and dusted several light kisses to her fingers.
“It wasn’t that long!” she protested with a laugh that made his heart fill with emotions he was finally ready to name.
