“You won’t be alone. I’ll be here … just outside the chamber with Kol. He doesn’t want his mate out of his sight any more than I want you out of mine.”
“He and Nova are mated six months though, a little more than six months actually since they mated on the journey to Ealra.”
“Maji consider couples newly mated for at least a decade, male instincts are wild during that time.”
“That’s so bizarre.”
“If you have any worries or queries about your new role as princess, Nova can help you. She’s very wise about the females of your species. Kol says she is a bottomless pool of knowledge.”
I had no idea what he meant by that.
“You talk about Kol way more than your other brothers, you know?”
“Kol is my favourite brother.”
“You shouldn’t have a favourite sibling, Ezah. That’s not nice.”
My mate chortled. “I only mean his presence is my favourite because I spent so much one-on-one time with him over the decades. I was his mentor, you see. When a father has so many sons, he cannot mentor them all, so an older brother takes on a younger brother as a charge and relays all the training and teachings his father instilled in him.”
“So you taught Kol to what, fight?”
“How to be a male,” I answered. “Father still had heavy input with the raising of all his offspring, but the duties of training, fighting, and learning a trade were all down to my teachings. It is why Kol is a skilled shipmaster. I taught him.”
“And who taught you?”
“Elder Roe,” Ezah answered with pride. “He is one of the Elders who hail from the old world. Aboard the Ebony, the only craft to make it off the planet Maji’s surface, all Maji who were rescued were young ones and mainly adult females. Sadly, the majority of those females were mated, so when their mates died during the destruction of the planet …”
“They died not long after,” I finished. “That’s what happened to your grandmother, isn’t it? She made it onto the craft with just your father and uncle as tiny babies, but because your grandfather died, she died a few days later.”
I nodded. “That is how my father became the Revered Father of the Maji. He became the eldest surviving brother as no sister had yet to be born to produce an heir.”
“That is so sad.” I frowned. “Your whole planet, nearly all of your species … just gone in the blink of an eye.”
“Ealra is my planet, tola. Ealra is the birth planet of all Maji except for the Elders who escaped the planet Maji.”
“How old was Elder Roe during the escape?”
“He was only thirty-three, a minor, when he took command of the Ebony. Apart from my father and uncle, he was the one of the youngest males to survive on the day of the planet’s destruction.”
“Remarkable.” I slide my arms around Ezah’s waist. “Elder Roe saved you all then?”
“He’s a very big reason. His bravery to take command of the Ebony with only untrained minors and some males in their forties for a crew was incredible. He was a varlet to one of my father’s older brothers, who was a shipmaster himself. He learned through shadowing my deceased uncle, and that knowledge saved everyone aboard that day. The Ebony being commanded through comms was massively helpful too.”
“And you learned from him?” I asked. “You must be a great shipmaster yourself.”
“I am skilled.” Ezah shrugged. “I taught Kol, and he was chosen for the Earth mission over me because of my edge tendency, which I understand completely.”
I played with the thick gold cuffs on his wrists.
“I love how your face lights up when you speak of your brother. He is so special to you.”
“He is, even more so after the trouble I caused when you humans arrived here.”
I leaned back, my eyebrows dug in tight.
“What does that mean?”
Ezah’s lips parted slightly, and for a moment, he looked panicked, then he took a breath.
“He almost killed me six moon cycles ago,” he said, blowing me away. “The day you females arrived on Ealra, to be exact. Not long after the welcoming feast.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“I don’t believe you,” I said quietly. “You’re his brother. Why would he ever try to harm you?
“Because I stole his mate.”
Time seemed to slow down as I processed Ezah’s words.
“Why would you steal another male’s mate?” I questioned, an edge to my voice. “Maji mate for life, don’t they?”
I was horrified to find an unpleasant feeling spread across my chest at the thought of Ezah wanting another female. I never felt this when he spoke of Kovu because I felt a connection to him through her death because it hit close to home.
“I didn’t want her for myself,” Ezah explained with an amused snort. “I took her for my brother’s sake.”