Page 27 of Possessive Alien Mate

While she wished she could erase some of her darker memories, she wasn’t unhappy on Mars, or displeased with the male to whom she’d been randomly matched.

Rem. Her heart filled with warmth whenever she thought of him.

Was it fate that had led her into his loving arms? Sometimes she wondered if higher forces were at work, for she was starting to feel as though she truly belonged with him.

When it was time to leave, Tyra rose up and her gaze suddenly locked with Chexxa’s. He was staring at her, and even though she’d just caught him doing so, he didn’t look away. His eyes darkened and his nostrils flared. An uneasy feeling settled in Tyra’s stomach and the back of her neck prickled. She looked away from him and followed Alissina out of the bakery. Thankfully, she hadn’t noticed the odd interaction between Tyra and Chexxa.

As they finished shopping, Tyra couldn’t help but keep glancing over her shoulder. She felt as though someone was watching her, but whenever she looked to see if her instincts were right, half expecting to discover Chexxa had followed her, she didn’t see anything amiss.

Chapter 22

“You’re home early!”

Rem opened his arms as Tyra rushed toward him. He hugged her and then withdrew to inspect the new gown she was wearing. She blushed and gnawed on her bottom lip, as if nervous over whether or not he would approve of the flowing green dress.

“Most of my new dresses are green,” she said. “Your mother says it’s becoming the fashion for human brides to wear clothing in the color of their Marttiaxoxalian mates.”

“You look beautiful,” he said. “The color complements your eyes.”

She smiled. “Thanks. Um, your mother is still here. I hope you don’t mind, but she kept hinting that she would like to stay for dinner, so I invited both her and your father. They’re in the sitting room right now.”

He laced his fingers through hers and kissed the back of her hand, letting his lips linger upon her flesh. “That’s perfectly all right. You don’t need my permission to invite my parents over for dinner, though you must promise not to have them over every night.”

She chuckled. “I promise.”

“Do you need any help getting dinner ready?” he asked.

“No, it’ll just take me a minute to put it on the table. Your mother recommended I replicate something calledrallonak. 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.

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