Kwin

by Trudie Collins

  “Luka, where are you?”

  Luka pulled her horse to a stop. She wasn’t ready for this conversation, but she cared too much for Canis to ignore him.

  “I’m going home. I couldn’t bear to see Kwin married. I’m sorry I left you. I’ll arrange for you to come and join me as soon as I know it’s safe.”

  “Kwin’s worried about you.”

  Hearing his name brought tears to Luka’s eyes once more. “Tell him I’m fine.”

  “I am not going to lie to him. I can hear in your voice that you are anything but fine. He wants you to come back.”

  “I can’t.”

  “He wants to talk to you. He thinks he can do so through me, but you will have to open your mind to let him in. Will you?”

  Luka desperately wanted to hear Kwin’s voice, but she was afraid. She couldn’t cope with seeing him with Shona and she was scared that he would manage to talk her out of leaving. “No,” she telepathically said.

  “He didn’t get married.”

  Luka almost fell from her horse. She slid down then crumpled to the floor. She hugged her knees to her as tears of joy began to flow.

  She felt a probing at her mind and dropped her barrier.

  “Luka.” Kwin sounded so relieved it made her smile. “Where are you?”

  “I don’t know.” She described the route she had taken and the last signpost she had seen.

  “Stay there. I’ll find you.” Luka foolishly nodded her head. Then Kwin’s voice sounded in her head again. “On second thoughts, can you get back to where the signpost you mentioned is located?”

  “I think so.”

  “Good. Let me know when you are there and I can tell you where to go next. I’m on my way.”

  “Alright.”

  “Just one more thing. Luka, I love you.”

  Luka was too overcome with emotion to speak.

  She expected Kwin to break the connection, but he didn’t. While they rode toward each other, he told her everything that had happened. He would not stop apologising for not telling her before the ceremony.

  As he rode in her direction, he kept feeding her directions. He wanted to get to her as soon as he could. She felt the same way. When she stopped outside a village inn, he told her to wait there; he wasn’t far away.

  Minutes felt like hours until eventually he came into sight. He practically jumped off his horse and ran to her. Without saying a word, he took her in his arms and kissed her.

  “Don’t ever run away like that again,” he said when he released her. “I was so scared I had lost you.”

  “I couldn’t stay.”

  “I know. And I’m sorry. Now you need to come home with me. We have another wedding to organise.”

  Luka pulled away from him. He was offering her everything she wanted, but she wasn’t sure she could go ahead with it.

  She placed her hand on his face. “Have you really thought this through? We can’t have a family together. Your kind and mine can’t breed.”

  Kwin shrugged his shoulders. “So we adopt. Any other objections?”

  He kissed her before she could voice any of them. He kissed her in a way that made them all flow from her mind. She was in his arms; nothing else mattered.

  “So will you marry me?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “Definitely yes.” Then she kissed him.

  “If you keep kissing me like that,” he said when he managed to break free, “we are going to have to book a room at this inn.”

  “I think they’re shut for the night.”

  “So I’ll wake them up.”

  Luka laughed. “Let’s go home.”

  Instead of letting go of her so she could mount her horse, he picked her up and placed her on his own before climbing up behind her.

  “Now I have you,” he whispered in her ear, “I’m never going to let you go.”

  Luka relaxed back in his arms. When she had left Shona’s house, she thought she had been heading home. Now she realised that home wasn’t a place, it was wherever Kwin was.

  She had no idea what her future held, but it no longer scared her. She was in Kwin’s arms; nothing else mattered and never would ever again.

  From Trudie:

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