Surprising Their Mate by Kallista Dane

Author:Kallista Dane [Dane, Kallista]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kallista Dane
Published: 2018-11-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Kyra

“I can’t believe it’s here. Tonight we’ll have our private celebration, then tomorrow company’s coming!”

Ceres had been darting around the house all day, unable to sit still. One minute she was rearranging strands of garland on the tree, the next she joined me in the kitchen to see if the latest tray of pala cake was ready to come out of the oven.

Traditional Tharan kitchens were not the marvels I expected after seeing their starships and hovercraft. The culture was still confusing to me – mixing highly advanced technology for defense and space exploration with centuries-old inventions in the home. But they seemed to like it that way.

When I questioned it, Jax explained. “We need to be able to defend our world against advanced civilizations, but that doesn’t mean we want to live our daily lives the way they do. Out of touch with nature. Hunting for our food, building a fire to cook it instead of pressing a button – this is the way we honor the Ancient Ones.”

“Ancient Ones, my ass,” I grumbled when I burned my arm pulling a tray of pala cakes out of the huge wood-fired oven. “Give me a shiny button any day.”

“What did you say, my love?”

I whirled around. Jynn had come into the kitchen bearing a platter piled with hunks of meat from the stag he and Jax were roasting over an open pit outside.

“Do you have somewhere I can put this? We’ll finish it up tomorrow in the oven with some durba tucked around it for flavor.”

“Never mind. I was talking to myself,” I said. “I think that platter will fit on a shelf in the cold storage room downstairs.”

“Oooh, I love roasted durba!” Ceres exclaimed. “Here, give me the platter, Papa. I’ll take it down there,” Ceres said.

“It’s too heavy for you,” Jynn protested.

She gave him a peck on the cheek and took the dish from him. “I’m stronger than I look. See?”

He smiled as she headed down the stairs to the storage rooms. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think she really is your daughter. She certainly has your stubborn streak.” He came over, took one look at my face then examined my arm and kissed the angry red streak. “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

“My arm? No, it’s okay.”

“I didn’t mean that. I meant hearing her call Jax and me Papa.”

“No. I’m glad she has accepted you both as her fathers. I think it was easy for her to do that. She never knew her real father, so there’s no emotional struggle.”

“Give her time, Kyee-rha. She loves you. Anyone can see that. She’s just having a hard time expressing it out loud. You of all people should understand how difficult it is to let down those walls.”

We’d had this discussion several times since Ceres came to live with us. I took her under my wing and into my heart when I first met her on Tanis Major. Young and alone, a lowly slave girl battling to survive in a hostile world.

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