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

to divorce. This joining is permanent. Resonance mates are each others’ perfect matches. Theirs is a bond that is completely unbreakable and soul-deep. Or at least, that’s what the ancient texts all say.”
    “So when you were here my parents took these tests and passed?”
    “Yes. To my amazement, your mother and her mates are all truly bonded in the ancient way of my people. I’ve done a lot of research on the matter since returning here and I’ve found only rare instances in my culture’s past where more than two people were mated together.”
    “But there were some,” Callie prompted him. She knew her parents’ arrangement was different than the way it would have been in the old world. Her mother had been honest with her about that once she’d been old enough to understand, but she also knew that every one of the O’Hara men loved her mother truly and deeply. They belonged together.
    “Under extraordinary circumstances there were a few notations in the ancient records of unions of three or more resonance mates and they all were happy, true unions, but they were a rarity.”
    “What sort of extraordinary circumstances?”
    He sighed before continuing. He sounded tired, she thought. “In one case, there was a crashed interplanetary shuttle that landed several families on a small moon with no way to communicate their location. They weren’t found for many, many years. In that time, the children had formed true bonds and there were several multi-partner joinings. There was an overabundance of males in relation to females, so somehow more than one male managed to resonate with each female. The phenomenon was studied once this group was rescued, but each of the joinings was true and legitimate, and lasted the rest of their lives.”
    “Well, isn’t that like what happened here on Earth? There are so few women left, maybe God or nature or whatever made allowances for the lack of women.”
    “That’s something I’ve been tossing around in my mind as well but I don’t know how to prove the theory. It’s not my area of expertise, after all.” He chuckled and she relaxed a bit. This was, by far, one of the more interesting conversations they’d ever had.
    “So what are the tests? Are they hard?”
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    “Not especially hard, no,” he told her softly. “Actually, you’ve already passed the first one, without even knowing it.”
    “What?” She felt a bubble of excitement shoot through her at his sexy, low voice in her ears. His tone had turned rumbley and she felt her skin heat, though she didn’t quite understand her reaction.
    He chuckled intimately in her ears. “The first test is called the Hum. When two compatible people touch, a Hum sounds as their energies join and multiply. Every time your mother touched one of her mates, I heard the Hum.”
    “But I’ve never heard anything when Mama touches one of my dads.” She was truly confused.
    “The sound is outside the range of human hearing but I proved my point to your Uncle Mick. He had equipment that could pick up on the sound energy and he was satisfied it was real.”
    “And I passed this test? How? When? And with who?” Her voice was a whisper.
    “With me, sweetheart. I touched you last year, right before I left your family’s ranch. Remember when you delivered that meal? That was your parents’ way of letting me test my theory. Our hands brushed and I immediately heard the Hum. Mick was at the computer and he saw the readings too, so your parents know the truth of the matter.” His voice dropped even lower. “We Hum, Callie.”
    She couldn’t speak for a long moment, breathing rapidly as something skittered through her insides.
    “So that means we’re compatible or something?”
    Davin chuckled. “Compatible? Yes. But there are other tests before anything more important can be proven or disproven.”
    She gathered her courage. “Would you want me to be your resonance mate?”
    “More than anything.” His quick,