Page 98 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
He and Rebel may not have been well suited for one another as mates, but they shared history and they shared loss. They caused each other pain, yes, but they had also been friends once. Her brother had been Winter’s closest friend when they were kits. He remembered her toddling after her brother, Revel, holding onto his tail.
Their marriage was a legal loophole to escape from war. Of course he would help her, gladly. He only wished he had done more to save the rest of her family. While he and Rebel had no great love for one another, they did have affection. At least initially.
Whatever happened between them, whatever pain they caused each other, they always agreed to put Zero’s wellbeing first. That was the reason Winter only spoke of Rebel with caution. He never wanted Zero to hear him disparage his mother. Rebel had been his friend once, and she deserved that modicum of respect.
The universe was full of those who loved nothing better than to malign and slander Rebel’s memory. Winter could not protect his kit from every malicious word, but he could be damn well sure that Zero never heard it from him.
Winter sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. Brooding would get him nowhere. He needed to find his mate and apologize.
He found Marigold on the back lawn, bundled up for the chilly night air and lying on a blanket, staring up at the stars.
Standing in the shadows, he watched his mate in the moonlight.
“You might as well come on over here. We’ve got a conversation to finish,” Marigold said.
Marigold
“You long for home.” Winter stepped partially out of the shadows, the moon highlighting the angles of his face, but his eyes remained hidden.
“A little,” she answered. His body tensed, as if he expected her to run away back home. “I just like watching the stars.”
She patted the blanket next to her, but he remained standing. “There’s this old Earth concept of the Music of the Spheres. Celestial bodies, the heavens, move in harmony and they produce music.”
“I am unaware.”
“The sun, the moon, and the planets all have a unique tone based on orbital rotations. I always thought it sounded like bunk but now, from here, I can almost hear it.”
She paused, listening. The wind rustled the few remaining leaves on the trees. Some kind of animal churred in the night. A vehicle’s engine hummed in the distance. Sounds of conversations spilled out of the caretaker’s cottage, two male voices rich with warmth and amusement.
What struck her was the silence between those sounds. On ships or stations, there was always the background ambient noise of generators, ventilation, and the hum of electricity. In the night, it was truly quiet.
“That is the wind,” he said.
“The soul of a poet,” she said dryly. Sensing he might leave, she reached for his hand and tugged. “I’m just teasing. Please sit with me.”
“You are upset with me.”
“I was. I still am, a little. We needed to talk. Do you know this is the longest I’ve ever been on a planet? Like, planets are weird and weather is so weird,” she said, steering the conversation briefly away from danger to put him at ease. She didn’t want to have a screaming fight. That wasn’t in her nature, but they did need to discuss unpleasant things.
He settled next to her, and she rolled closer for his warmth. His tail brushed against her thigh. “The weather in general, or a particular phenomenon?”
“All of it, I guess.” She turned her head, studying his profile in the moonlight. Her gloved hand found his, and she laced their fingers together. “Rain, wind, snow, the heat, the cold, and who knows what else. It’s chaotic but I like it. I like this.” She squeezed his hand, hoping he understood.
“You have only experienced a mild Corravian storm.”
Yeah, he didn’t get it.
Mari turned back to observe the sky. The stars seemed so far away, even though she knew the distance from the planet’s surface to orbit was minimal. She had spent her entire life up there, sealed away in containers of various sizes and moving through the dark.
“I don’t miss it,” she said, surprising herself. “I mean, I miss my family and friends, but I never had the itch to always be on the move. Not like my mother.” Valerian was always on the move, looking for the next enlightening experience. “When I was a kid, I wanted to belong to a place, to have friends. Roots.”
“That is familiar. Zero desired the same.”
Yeah, she remembered the kit watching a group his own age with yearning eyes, wanting to be part of the crowd but not knowing how.
“He’s doing fairly well at making friends. Do you know he asked a girl out on a date?”
Winter sat upright. “He is too young! Who is this female? Have you met her? Why have I not met her?”
