Free Davin's Quest by Bianca D'Arc Page A

lonely and she did too. With Harry spending most of his time in the alien city, she was missing her brother sorely. Davin helped her as much as she thought she helped him during the lonely times and they talked frequently, long into the night when they both should have been sleeping.
    Through all this, she managed to keep the crystal’s communication properties secret from everyone in the family except Harry, of course, but he wasn’t telling. She normally wasn’t a secretive girl, but she hugged her growing friendship with the Chief Engineer close to her heart. It was private and she wasn’t ready to share her burgeoning feelings for the man who talked her to sleep each night.
     
    “I really enjoy talking to you, Davin. You’re as sensible as Harry, and you don’t treat me like a child.”
    She was wrapped up in bed, snuggling into her blankets against the chill mountain air. As she did almost every night, she called Davin, knowing that he was alone in his quarters, relaxing, his workday having drawn to a close as well. She cherished these moments when they could talk.
    They talked about all sorts of things. He told her about spaceflight and the wonders of his people’s homeworld, now gone, and he told her stories from their ancient past. She told him the things her mother had taught her about the old world and the way things used to be. Sometimes they talked about their daily routines or funny things that had happened to them that day, but always, they talked.
    She felt she knew him perhaps better than she knew anyone, including Harry, who now spent so much time away from home, she felt a little estranged from him. Davin had filled a place in her heart that had been emptied by Harry’s embrace of his mother’s culture, and though she loved Harry dearly and always would, she found there was room in her heart for Davin as well.
    “Are you trying to tell me your esteemed brother treats you like a child? I refuse to believe it.” Davin’s voice was pleasant, warm and entirely yummy, she thought, especially when he was engaging in teasing banter with her.
    “Well, you should,” she protested. “He’s been here for two days and he refuses to answer any of my questions seriously.”
    “What sorts of questions have you been asking him?”
    She hesitated. “Well, I heard something perhaps I shouldn’t have heard and I wanted to know more.
    From his expression, Harry knows what it means, but he won’t tell me. He keeps teasing me so much, I’m ready to punch him.”
    Davin’s chuckle warmed her as she snuggled further into her bed. “What is this thing you perhaps shouldn’t have heard? Maybe I can clear it up for you.”
    “It’s a term. I heard Papa Mick say something about something called a resonance mate, and then he saw me and got all quiet. I think they were talking about me and I want to know what it means.”
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    Davin’s sigh filled her ears. “They probably were talking about you, Callie, and I’m sorry you had to hear it, but I will tell you, if you wish. It has to do with an ancient tradition of my culture and the way my people used to join with their mates. While I was at your ranch I passed on the information to your parents and we discovered that they were true mates, much to my surprise. I didn’t realize our traditions could apply to humans as well, but then I realized that you all have at least some Alvian DNA, so perhaps it is that side of your nature that allows the tests to work.”
    “Tests?” She was more confused by his words than enlightened, but she was willing to let him explain.
    “In ancient times, when my people still had strong emotions, males would seek their life mates by the use of three tests. If a pair succeeded with all three tests, they were proven as true mates and they joined forevermore.”
    “Like marriage,” Callie thought out loud.
    “Yes, but there is no way true mates can divorce. There is no recorded history of any true pairing ever wanting