Page 18 of Mated By Twilight

Between the two of them, they warned the rest of the troupe about what was incoming. Of course, they already knew they’d be bringing home a human mate, but it was rather expected that she would have already known she’d have two mates and would bond to them accordingly.

Corvidair promised to be welcoming, and Skara assured them that she would welcome her as a friend. They made a few changes to their – currently, her – room and asked for space to be made for them in crew quarters so they could hang some hammocks to sleep. As the two most popular actors in the troupe, they got their own room, second only in size to Corvidair’s quarters as he was both the owner of the troupe and the captain of the ship. Skara had her own room, though it was smaller than theirs as she was by herself. The others all either shared small rooms, or got an even smaller, fully private room. They certainly weren’t going to make their future mate take one of those rooms, so they would share one instead, giving up theirs to her.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be long before they could move back in.

Chapter 8

Leah

“We’ve arrived at the station, Miss Williams,” Sollit said, walking into the room where Tillos was helping her step up onto another luggage cart so she could sit on her suitcases again.

“We did?” She asked, surprised. She hadn’t even felt them move. Surely, she should have feltsomething, right? When they like attached, or whatever? Actually, she had no idea how any of this worked, so maybe she was just being stupid again.

After an uneventful night in a nice, alien hotel, the two had showed up at her door with breakfast on a tray. They ate, packed, and they put her back on a luggage cart to take her through the city, to a hover, which brought them back to the space port. Luggage cart seemed to be their preferred way of transporting her, which she didn’t really mind, though she found it funny.

She had her own room in the transport ship right beside theirs. It was small, but she didn’t need much space. They came over during the day and told her about the troupe and their ship, the Twilight Star, and what life was like on the road – metaphorically speaking.

Talking with them was surprisingly easy. That was – excluding the whole two mates thing – probably the most surprising part of them so far. She could count on one hand the number of timesshe’d seen her parents just sitting around, talking. And even then, it was more like her father was talking and her mother was just sitting there, listening to him.

But they didn’t do that. They asked her questions and asked for her input and opinion. It was odd and she found herself, embarrassingly often, without an answer to give them. Luckily, they accepted ‘I don’t know’ as an answer without complaint and just said to tell them when she thought of one.

They only spent one night on the transport ship and, the next morning, they showed back up telling her that they would arrive soon. That had prompted her to pack up the things she’d used that night – her ancient MP3 player, her dirty clothes, etc – and get them ready to go.

But she thought that she’d feel the ship docking or something. Right? Or maybe hear the engines turning off or something? Some sign that they’d actually arrived. But there wasn’t one. Just the two males telling her that they’d been alerted through their combots before pushing her – on the cart – out of her room and into the hall.

This time, it was Tillos who was pushing the cart – though that was a bit wrong to say, since he wasn’t actually putting in effort, he was just guiding it – while Sollit walked in front. They moved through the transport ship, down and out, following the others who were getting off at this station.

A real space station. Jinron or something like that? Tillos told her it was a popular food destination. It boasted about having restaurants and bars from every Coalition species within its walls.

But first, they had to check in to the station. Logging their entry here. Something that took a bit longer for them since Leah washere on special visa. When she mated her males, she would be considered a citizen of their planet, but for now, she was considered an offworld human.

Eventually, however, Tillos got them all cleared and they were free to make their way to the Twilight Star.

“Ready, Miss Williams?” Sollit asked as they approached the door that led from the exit tunnel into the station itself, smiling at her so sweetly.

She nodded, fixing her purse in her lap.

They were still calling her Miss Williams. What was up with that? Should she be calling them misters… snap, she forgot their last names. She’d been so focused on the fact that there were two when she’d been introduced, it hadn’t stuck at all.

Though, they didn’t seem to mind when she just addressed them by name. So, why were they calling her Miss Williams? At this point, she was afraid to ask in case she had made another stupid mistake like not realizing she had two mates.

That worry was pushed back in her head, however, as the door opened up.

She leaned forward, excited, but she was quickly disappointed. They didn’t go into the station itself. Instead, they stayed on the docking platform. A busy, huge room where all the exit tunnels from the various ships were emptying. People mingled, coming and going in a huge crowd. It was incredible, but it wasn’t the station she was promised.

They crossed the dock after leaving the connecting tunnel, going straight to their destination – the entrance of another connecting tunnel. Which made sense, as they were going to their own ship. It wasn’t like they could go to the restaurants orbars she was promised. Not with all her luggage still with her. But she couldn’t help but catch and long for the distant strains of upbeat music and the scent of something foreign and delicious as they passed the entrances leading into the station itself..

“We’ll see it soon,” Tillos said, surprising her into turning to face him, “The station. We’ll have a chance to explore it later, I assure you.”

Leah smiled quickly, not wanting them to think she was upset. “Right. Thanks.”

He gave her a short nod, bobbing his head in acknowledgement, before she turned forward, focusing back on their destination. That was still exciting too. She couldn’t already be thinking that she was bored of spaceships. That seemed like such an insane thought considering how incredible they were.

On Earth. They were incredible, and rare, on Earth.

The next tunnel was identical to the last – long, basic, boring. It took them to a door that opened as Sollit approached without him even needing to scan anything. She leaned forward, curious about her new home.

“Welcome!”