“I can’t!” she called back.

She was running, too, unmindful of the crowds, dodging, weaving, and she was crying. And then her mother was before her, folding her in her arms, crushing her with the strength of her emotion. Shanelle didn’t care. She was hugging back just as strongly, and laughing, and still dropping those silly tears. It felt so good to be back in the embrace of this kind of love, where nothing could go wrong because her mother wouldn’t let it.

“Oh, baby, never again.” Tedra leaned back to clasp Shanelle’s face, her aqua eyes devouring her as if she had never expected to see her again. “Twenty times I almost came to drag you home. I drove your father crazy. I drove myself up a wall worrying.” She laughed then. “But you’re here, you’re all right-you are all right, aren’t you?”

Shanelle laughed, too. “Yes.”

Tedra gathered her close again. “And you’ll stay that way. And you’ll stay here. No,” she whispered at Shanelle’s ear when she felt her stiffen. “You aren’t to worry. If I have to let you go, I will. I’ll even keep Martha on the Rover so she can take you out of here if necessary. But I will do everything in my power to ensure that it isn’t necessary.”

“Even if it isn’t a Sha-Ka’ani that I want?” Shanelle asked hesitantly.

Tedra leaned back again with a sigh. “You’ve made your choice, then? You’ve already met the one you want?”

“No.”

“Then we will worry about who he is after you’ve found him. Your father isn’t entirely closed-minded about this. He wants your happiness just as much as I do. But we’ll talk about this when we have more time.”

That comment drew Shanelle back to the fact that they weren’t alone, that they were in the middle of a crowd on a lane between arenas, and just now the center of attention. “Why is everyone staring at us?”

Tedra chuckled. “Well, for one thing, Corth charged right after you on that hataar you two were riding, knocking people every which way. You know you’re not supposed to leave his sight.”

Shanelle glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, Corth had caught up to her and was standing right behind them. “I guess I wasn’t thinking.”

“And for another thing,” Tedra continued, giving her another squeeze, “I think I can safely say we’ve just made a complete spectacle of ourselves. Let’s hope this doesn’t get back to your father, or I’m going to be in trouble for running off without an escort.”

It was Shanelle’s turn to chuckle as she looked over her mother’s shoulder and saw who else had just arrived. “Too late.”

Tedra groaned and said, “Farden hell,” before she glanced back to say defensively to her lifemate, “I was not about to wait for her to reach me once I had spotted her, Challen. It would be totally unreasonable for you to expect me to after her nine months’ absence.”

“Best you remember whose idea it was for her to absent herself,” Challen told her.

“That’s right, run it into the ground, why don’t you,” Tedra snapped back.

“Woman, you are coming very close to challenge for no reason.”

“I am?” Tedra said with some surprise. “Then you aren’t angry with me?”

“Not when your impulsiveness is understandable. Now do you release her so I may greet my daughter properly.”

Properly was not to hug in public, and Challen began by merely looking Shanelle over from head to foot, lifting her face and studying it as Tedra had done. Then, to her immense surprise, she was drawn forward and engulfed in a warrior’s arms. Challen didn’t squeeze her, but she felt surrounded by his strength-and his love.

“Your mother has missed you,” he told her formally, but with feeling.

She grinned widely. You had to read between the lines with a Sha-Ka’ani male. It was rarely “I,” usually “a warrior,” or in Challen’s case, “your mother.” But she knew he was speaking for himself, and he knew she knew, and his own smile was incredibly beautiful.

He hadn’t changed at all in the time Shanelle had been away, but then she hadn’t expected him to.

In all the years of her life, she had never noticed her parents growing older, because they just didn’t look like they were growing older. But it was a known fact that the Sha-Ka’ani aged well. And Tedra, though not a Sha-Ka’ani, was still a Sec 1 heart and soul, and she had always taken extremely good care of her body, which in a good many cultures was considered a lethal weapon. Not in this culture, however, and not to her lifemate, who was just short of seven feet tall and had the strength to go along with such a large body.

Shanelle grinned up at her father now, craning her neck to do so. “I’m so glad to be home. And I thank you for the airobus. That was a wonderful surprise.”

“What airobus?” her father asked.

“Challen, I think we should get back to the pavilion now,” Tedra put in hastily.

“What airobus?” he repeated, looking down at his lifemate.

“All right, the one we bought her. That is why we sent her to Kystran, to learn how to pilot. That is what she wants to do, something useful-”

“Something her future lifemate is not likely to allow,” he calmly pointed out. “Did you consider that when you convinced me to let her go to Kystran?”

“No, but you obviously did,” Tedra grumbled. “Why did you agree, then?”

Challen put a hand to her cheek, suddenly grinning at her. “You can ask me that, chemar, after everything you did to get my permission?”

Hot pink cheeks, fortunately, went well with the blue of Tedra’s chauri and cloak. Only the cloak needed to be blue or white to denote whose house she belonged to, but she was honoring Challen by wearing all blue today, right down to her sandals. Now she wished she hadn’t.

She knocked his hand aside, but that just got a chuckle out of him. Her embarrassment was a subtle punishment for buying that bus without telling him. She knew it. She knew him too well not to know it. And she could only hope that would be the only punishment she would be getting. But a glance at Shanelle showed she was aware of it, too. Farden hell. That was all Shanelle needed, one more reminder that warriors were not the easiest men to get along with, when she had yet to experience any of the benefits of trying. And on top of that, to be told outright that her future lifemate wasn’t likely to let her fly… She could kick Challen right now.

“You don’t know what her lifemate is going to do-or do you?” Her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit. “You haven’t made a decision without telling me, have you, babe?”

Both women waited anxiously for his answer, Tedra ready to blow a fuse if it was the wrong one, Shanelle merely with dread, and it began by being not at all reassuring. “When a decision is made, woman, you do not need to be told of it beforehand. But no, such has not yet been decided.”

Shanelle let out a sigh. That had been too nerve-racking. “Father, I need to talk to you about this decision.”

“This you may do, yet is the decision mine to make, yours to accept.”

Shanelle gritted her teeth. “I know that, but does that mean you won’t take heed of my own wishes in the matter? What if I make my own choice?”

“Then it will be my hope that I can accept your choice.”

Shanelle blinked. “Do you mean that? You’ll really consider my preference?”

“Certainly, kerima,” he replied gently. “Did you think I would not?”

No, of course he would. He loved her. He wanted her to be happy. But the key word was if. If he could accept her choice, then she could have her choice. If he could not, then she would have his choice. But that was still better than what she had been anticipating, that he would have made his decision before she found someone for herself, that it would then be if she could accept his choice.

“Stars, you people are absolutely depressing,” Martha chimed in with blatant disgust. “What happened to the happy homecoming?”