Without being able to contain it, I told her about my second run-in with the prince. Nuni mashed up some weeds as I spoke and rubbed them on the soles of my feet, within minutes the skin of my feet was soothed. By the time I finished speaking, Nuni was beaming so wide that I feared that her face would be stuck smiling forever.
“You like him.”
I gasped. “I do not. I don’t even know him.”
“Fine.” She snorted. “You’re attracted to him then.”
I opened my mouth to deny her words, but I couldn’t, and it made her giggle. I fanned my face for the second time that day over a male. Not just any male, though … Prince Ezah.
“I’ve never been attracted to any male. Why did my first crush have to be a prince of all males?”
“‘Cause the fates have a twisted sense of humour.” Nuni chuckled. “A crush is a wonderful thing, sweet girl. Do you understand how very normal this is? You’re still a baby. Experiencing these things are a rite of passage for a girl.”
Nuni’s words warmed my heart. I loved that what I was feeling was normal and the same as what other women felt when they had a crush.
“I’m not a girl,” I reminded her with a teasing grin. “I’m twenty-one, remember?”
“I’m thirty. That’s practically an old lady on Earth with how young everyone died. I feel like a mama bear to you and the others. Do you know I’m the oldest woman who was rescued?”
I blinked. “I didn’t know that. Who is the youngest?”
“A ten-year-old girl,” Nuni answered. “She came here with an older sister, so at least she isn’t alone. She has years before she has to worry about finding a mate. All of the males treat her like a little princess. I’ve heard they’re all like her big brothers.”
“That’s lucky. I’m always worried males will show up and tell us we have to pick someone to mate with right away.”
“I wouldn’t mind that,” Nuni admitted. “It’d help me out because no male seems to be interested in me.”
That statement surprised me because Nuni was beautiful.
She had hair that looked like orange flames and beautiful fair skin dotted from head to toe in light brown freckles. She had pale pink lips, small but sultry. When she smiled, her entire face lit up. Her nose was small and straight, and she had huge green eyes that were most definitely the focal point on her face. To hear no male was interested in her was baffling.
I blinked. “But you’re gorgeous.”
“Sweet girl.” Nuni flushed a pretty crimson. “I think I must look too old to mate or something. All the Maji females who look young are way older than us. Maybe the males think I can’t have babies. I look my age in human years, so maybe they think I’m ancient in Maji years.”
“But you can have babies.” I said, ignoring that she thought she was old because she wasn’t. “We’ve all had full check-ups with healers, and our reproductive systems are in perfect working order. We can track our cycles now. Remember we get notifications sent to our bracelets to remind us when we begin to ovulate so we don’t go outside and cause chaos with unmated males?”
I wiggled the black band on my wrist.
It had a small built-in screen that told us the weather, our lesson schedules, our menstrual and ovulation cycles, and even when another member of the people wanted to stop by and visit us. It was a temporary solution until Maji scientists could safely implant us with comms of our own. Comms were communication devices that all Maji had.
It was more than being able to talk to each other through their thoughts; it was an all-in-one network that connected each Maji to the System that linked the people. Since the Maji had comms fitted at birth and they grew with the brain, they had to figure out a way to implant comms in human women without causing us damage.
As far as I was concerned, the little black bracelet did me just fine.
“I’m teasing,” Nuni assured me, but I could tell it bothered her that males were not interested in her. “I guess I’m just freaking out because I’m the oldest human on this planet. It makes me want to lock a male down and get things moving.”
A sensation of dread snaked around me, and in seconds, Nuni was in my space with her hands on my face. “I’m joking, honey. I’m not leaving you, do you hear me? You’ll be happily mated before me.”
I focused on my breathing.
“I doubt it,” I told her. “It’s like Hilah says, I’m a mouse. I don’t think I’ll ever be mated. The males scare me too much.”
“But the prince doesn’t.”
My pulse spiked at the mention of the strange alien who was quickly becoming a conversation topic and a lingering thought. “He scared me enough today that I ran away from him.”