table. Your mother recommended I replicate something called rallonak. She says it’s one of your favorites.”
“I’ll help you get everything on the table, my sweet mate. Come,” he said, leading her toward the kitchen. “The sooner we feed my parents, the sooner we’ll be alone, just the two of us.”
She appeared scandalized for a moment and looked around. “Sh, Rem. What if your parents hear you say that?”
“Then they will know that I cannot get enough of you,” he said, grinning when her cheeks turned an even darker pink and her neck became flushed too.
Dinner was a success, as far as Rem was concerned. His mother spent much of the time regaling Tyra with stories from his childhood, most of them embarrassing, of course, and Tyra shared a few tales about her own childhood on Earth, though he noticed she carefully kept to stories that occurred before the death of her father.
To Rem’s great relief, neither of his parents asked about her reasons for leaving her home planet. His parents asked a few general questions about Zone 15, such as inquiring about the climate, and nothing more.
When it came time for dessert, Tyra replicated an Earth dish called chocolate cake, which practically melted in his mouth. He was glad his replicator was the latest model and included many recipes from Earth cultures, in addition to traditional Marttiaxoxalian dishes.
“Oh, bright stars,” his mother said, leaning back in her seat. “I am so full that I do not think I can move. Tyra, you made an excellent dinner. Thank you.”
“Yes, thank you for inviting us to dinner, Tyra,” his father said. “We enjoyed it very much.” He glanced at Rem’s mother and the lower line of his forehead ridges rose up. “But now it is time we depart. It is getting late and I am certain our son and his mate would appreciate their privacy.”
“But—”
“No arguments, Alissina. Remember what we talked about.”
Rem noticed Tyra repressing a smile when his mother sighed dramatically. “Very well. I suppose I am getting rather tired.” She straightened in her seat and smiled at Tyra. “I enjoyed spending time with you and getting to know you better today. I can already see that you’ve made our son a very happy male.”
“Thank you, Alissina. I enjoyed our time together, as well, and I really appreciate you taking me shopping.”
They finished saying their farewells and Rem’s parents finally departed. After the door shut, he guided Tyra upstairs as he called out a verbal command to put the house into lockdown for the night.
As she got ready for bed, he ventured to his library and scanned the security report of her travels today. It was an automatically generated report, made possible by the wrist comm she had worn, that displayed images of her in the city with his mother. There were thousands of security cameras on the streets of Ressiktron and in all public shops. He examined each image, telling himself he was only checking to ensure she’d been entirely safe during her trip out of the house.
Liar, a voice in the back of his mind whispered. He growled under his breath and continued looking at the images, even as he realized what he was truly doing—he was checking up on Tyra to ensure she hadn’t spoken to any young males.
But his growls deepened when he came upon an image of her in a bakery, smiling and waving at Chexxa and Frinik, then another picture of her looking at Chexxa, her eyes wide with surprise, or perhaps it was fear. He couldn’t be sure. But he knew one thing for certain—Tyra had smiled at the males and waved at them.
Alarm filled him when further images revealed Chexxa had followed Tyra and his mother for quite some time through the city as they’d continued their shopping excursion.
How could Rem have been so stupid? He should not have allowed his mate to travel into the city without him. She was young and beautiful, a prime target for a young and foolish male like Chexxa. Obviously, the male held some sort of infatuation for Tyra, otherwise he would not have followed her around for so long.
Rem proceeded to watch several video clips that the security report had included. The first video clip showed Chexxa and Frinik had smiled and waved at Tyra first in the bakery, before she had greeted them. This made him feel somewhat better, but not by much.
Several of the images and videos showed Tyra looking over her shoulder quite