Page 6 of Mated By Twilight

“Miss Williams,” he greeted with a slight hiss to his words. His diction was wonderfully crisp, however, considering it was coming from a huge muzzle. “I am ambassador Tzomei. I’ll be taking you through the immigration procedures. If you’ll just follow me. We have a few things to do before I show you to your room where you can wait for the travel ship.”

“Er, sure,” she muttered, getting to her feet. Amazed they were able to hold her up, considering how numb and weak they suddenly felt.

She was really talking to an alien. Like, a legit alien. It was the first time she’d ever done so, and it felt weird. Not because he was an alien, but because it was strange to finally come face to face with someone her family would have hated so completely.

Her parents were staunch anti-aliens. The one-time Leah suggested that they might not be so bad, they’d gotten angry, and her father had hit her. They told her that the Lord made humans inhisimage, not aliens. And aliens, therefore, were godless, unholy creatures. Demons, more like, come to tempt them into sin and corrupt their minds. Some of the people from the church had even begun tossing around the idea that the aliens were actually the coming end of times and that fraternizing with them was a quick way to condemn your soul forever.

That was years ago now though. Leah didn’t know she’d have an alien mate, so she had allowed her family to put whatever ideas they wanted in her head. And if agreeing meant that her father didn’t hit her again, then that had to be a good thing, right?

If her parents ever found out what happened to their daughter, she was pretty sure they’d both have massive coronaries. Though she doubted it would matter. They’d completely disowned her at this point. They’d probably say it was only right that she become a demon’s whore after turning her back on them and the church.

And now, a mere five years after she last saw them, Leah found herself walking in step with one of those aliens as he guided her through the, admittedly, very nice spaceship. She wouldn’t compare it to a luxury hotel, but it definitely wasn’t a cold, sterile, dark spaceship either. The colors were bright, and everything was trimmed in more silver and bronze like the landing shuttle. All things considered, it was actually very nice.

“If you have any questions, feel free to ask,” the alien male, the ambassador himself, said, giving her a kind look. At least, she thought it was kind, it was hard to tell since his face didn’t change that much, but he sounded nice anyway.

Leah gave him what she hoped was a confident smile in return. “I’m kind of surprised the ambassador himself is handling basic immigration procedures.”

He chuckled. “There aren’t that many humans leaving Earth, believe it or not. There have only been a few who have mated through True Match, and even fewer who successfully immigrated without a match. Humans need a sponsor to care for them when they leave the planet, and those who don’t have mates have a hard time finding one. Maybe I’ll need to hire someone to do immigration procedures one day, but there aren’tenough of you to justify it as of yet. Besides, I enjoy meeting the humans who come through here. You’re very interesting.”

Leah laughed nervously, pushing back her hair behind her ear. “I don’t know about that. I’m pretty ordinary. Erm, so what are we doing?”

“You have to have your language imprint. Your mates have requested you have Standard imprinted over their native tongue. They travel throughout Coalition space, and so speak Standard most often. If it becomes a problem later, they’ll have you imprinted with their native tongue then. We’re also going to do a medical scan, fix any problems we might find if you like, and, if you want one, we can do the birth control procedure.”

“Er, procedure?” Her heart skipped a beat.

“It’s nothing invasive. We’ll just turn off your ovulation.”

Leah frowned, not entirely sure she liked the sound of that. Was it healthy to be messing with her body that way? What if they turned it off and couldn’t turn it back on? Oh, wait. What if this was also her mate’s request? What if he didn’t want kids? She couldn’t let that happen! She had to have his kids. It was the only way she could be sure that he wouldn’t get rid of her!

“You don’t have to do it, of course,” Tzomei said, reading her expression easily.

Leah nodded quickly. “I-If that’s okay? I mean, I don’t want to make more work for you. And I guess if my mate said I should, I better. But, er, no, actually, it’s okay. I mean, it’s fine, I don’t…”

“Nothing will be done without your permission, I assure you,” Tzomei cut her off, giving her an understanding look. “If you don’t want it done. It won’t be done.”

Leah nodded, biting her lips. Unable to bring herself to justsayshe didn’t want this strange, alien procedure done on her. That shewantedbabies as quickly as possible. That it would be best for her because it would solidify her presence. She just couldn’t bring herself to say it.

“Right in here,” Tzomei gestured when she fell silent.

The room he led her into had a big bed in the middle. It wasn’t at all like the pod she’d gone in to get her initial scan. She’d compare this more to an old-fashioned stretcher – thin and metallic around the edge. Tzomei had to give her a stool to climb onto it. She sat down, surprised by how comfortable the thin material was. She fully expected to feel the metal through the padding, but she didn’t. Wait, was there even metal under this thing? What…?

While she was trying to figure it out, another person came into the room. They were a different species to him, one that she recognized because she’d seen them on Earth before. Tzomei was a ratchi; this new alien was from the other human sponsor species, a domini. They were a species with three eyes and the ability to camouflage into their surroundings. Leah couldn’t tell if this person was male or female, but they were wearing a white coat, while their skin was the same gray as the shirt they wore underneath it. They nodded at her as they moved to the controls for the bed.

“Just lie back,” Tzomei told her calmly, giving her a smile. “It won’t hurt at all. It’s not like the True Match scan.”

Leah didn’t argue as she laid back. The scan had been acutely uncomfortable. It felt like she’d been struck in a chest with a giant, cartoon mallet. It drove the breath from her body and left her reeling. She’d even thrown up afterwards.

With that memory now back in the front of her mind, Leah tried to remain calm as three rings came down from the head of the bed, circling her body, and pulsing with a creamy white light. She tried watching all three of them at once as Tzomei talked her through what was happening and what was going to happen next – both in the exam and in general.

They were starting with the medical exam – a standard procedure. They had to make sure that she wasn’t sick, wasn’t bringing any sicknesses out into the universe, and also that she was ready for going out there herself. Without asking, Tzomei told her that she would be immunized, but not in the traditional way that humans were used to. Her immune system itself was going to be tinkered with by the machine to prepare her for potential, common diseases.

No needles was pretty nice, but she was again uncomfortable with the idea of alien technology messing with her internal organs. She didn’t think they were going to do something bad deliberately, but she couldn’t get her dad’s voice out of her head. She could practically hear him shouting that they were going to brainwash her, implant something weird in her, harvest something from her. What he believed the aliens were going to do to any humans leaving Earth changed from topic to topic, but it was always bad.

But Leah wanted to believe in them. She had lost her family, all her friends, everything, and had bet it all on this match. She kind of needed them to be good.

And certainly, it didn’t seem like anything untoward was happening so far. The scan didn’t hurt, and when it finished, the domini gave her a quick rundown of all their findings. She had a large scar on the back of her head from where her father had thrown a cup at her when she was little. They offered to heal itback to normal and restore her ability to grow hair in that small spot. She also had fibroids in her uterus they offered to remove. She declined the former but accepted the latter – if only to see if it made her periods less painful. But she didn’t want to mess around with unknown technology any more than necessary.

That was also why she declined them turning off her ovulation. They warned her that she would still have her period if she didn’t, and that other aliens wouldn’t really understand periods so tending to herself during that time might be difficult, but she assured them that it was fine.

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