Page 29 of A Mate for Haax

“Well, I had planned to show you our home.”

She tilts her head. “Our home?” There is a questioning lilt in her voice.

“Yes, it is the home I built for myself and my mate. You are my mate, therefore it is our home.”

She plops into the copilot’s chair beside me. As we approach the planet, I notice that a storm has blown in. It makes our descent a little bit more difficult, but not impossible. Who knows how long this storm will last, so I decide to take us in the back way to the planet. Only the military knows of this entrance.

It will take longer to reach our destination, but I would rather do that than risk another crash. If we crash this time, too, I have a feeling Esme would never fly with me again.

She looks over the control panel out the viewscreen. “What is all that stuff? The glow is dim.”

“Looks like there’s a storm happening planetside, so we need to go in the back way.”

“Ohhh… the back way. That seems like fun.”

She looks at me and winks. “Naughty, mate. Always.”

“But, seriously, is it like a military landing area?”

“Yes. You are correct.” I point to a section of the storm area that's clear. “We’ll enter over there and then backtrack to the space station.”

She nods. “Cool.” I can feel her excitement through the bond; almost feeling the way her heart pounds in her chest.

As we fly closer, the planet seems to swell to an even larger size up close. The bright neon colors that normally paint it are muted from the storm swirling around us. We fly out of the darkness of space around us and head towards the storm free zone.

The viewscreen expands from straight ahead to down as well. Esme gasps as she looks down. Finally clearing the storm, the gorgeous neons of the jungle emerge beneath us. I take a deep breath. It’s good to be almost home. Earth is nice, but I like Grekaria more.

We will breach the middle of the storm cloud and then head to the west towards the space station. Unfortunately, I can’t just park the ship at my house, and as much as I want to take Esme home and do all manner of wicked things with her, I will need to check in with the prince and Daax first.

Air howls around the aircraft as we travel through the storm. Luckily, the anti-gravity additions to the ship keep us from being swept into the turbulent winds surrounding us and plummeting to the ground.

A few minutes later, the doors to the spaceport are opening and voices start ringing through the comms, summoning me in. I slip into the designated spot and hit the controls to turn off the engine. Looking over at Esme, I catch her face wreathed in utter joy, and my hearts beat out a happy tune.

“Welcome to Grekaria, Esme.”

Chapter 17

Esme

Everywhere I look, a splattering of neon colors my surroundings. It’s like walking through Avatar. Every single thing glows and sparkles. I never truly believed it would be this bright here, and a part of me wishes I had sunglasses because all the brightness is getting to my eyes. Looking around makes me realize how dull and boring Earth is in comparison.

“I am going to take you to our home, and then I will speak with my brother.”

“Sure.”

Haax hits a few buttons on the control panel, and a voice greets us. “Sir.”

“Yes, hi. We will need a cruiser to make our way to my dwelling.”

“Right away, sir.”

He looks at me before lifting a hand to move a stray hair from my cheek and tuck it behind my ear. “Thank you. There, now they will be ready for us.”

Haax gets our stuff together on the ship while we wait. We’re heading toward the road to wait for the cruiser, and I keep an eye on my surroundings. I’m not shocked to see that things look exactly like they did at the compound, only a lot more modern. The houses look like technology advanced aliens built them, and I guess that’s true.

Haax leads me to where the cruiser will arrive, but then turns to speak with someone briefly. Out of nowhere, something hard whacks into me, and I’m on the ground. My vision is blurry. My head is spinning. I hear my name, but it sounds like it’s being called in one of those movies where everything is moving in slow motion.

The pain doesn’t immediately register but slips through as my world comes back to reality. Shades of green and yellow hover above me. Haax, my brain instantly supplies. “Esme.”

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