Page 29 of The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate

The frustration bled from him so suddenly, his head spun. “I do not know how.”

“Of course, you do. The instinct will guide you, if you but listen to it.” Her expression softened, and she cupped her palm over his jaw. “I believe she longs for a substance calledchocolate. Perhaps you could start there.”

“Chocolate,” Zoran murmured, knowing he mangled the human word. “Do you believe she will love me?”

“How can she not?”

He clicked his teeth once in raw humor. “So says every mother.”

“So this mother knows.” Her hand dropped away, and she stepped back. “Accompany an old woman home, then go find your mate. She awaits your fetching.”

“Fetching?”

“A human thing. I believe it has something to do with pets, though for the life of me I cannot pinpoint the connection.”

Zoran remained baffled as well, though he would go about this fetching if Mia insisted. First thing on the morrow, he would oversee delivery and disbursement of the human supplies they had ferried from one planet to the other. Perhaps among those he could find some of thischocolatehis mate coveted.

Chapter Nine

Mia hummed happily as she set up her new office. While the town reminded her more of a sleepy rural village than a bustling regional center, the science and research complex was state of the art. She’d been given a tiny, enclosed room located on one side of a large open space dominated by lab equipment and transparent workboards.

The central workspace was shared, but this room was her own. One wall of her office was a series of viewing screens similar, as far as she could tell, to computer monitors, like the one in Zoran’s quarters aboard the spaceship. These were joined together in such a way that they could either function individually or as a seamless whole. Another wall held a window overlooking the jungle and a third held the door and a wall-mounted workboard. Additionally, she’d been given a sleek desk and chair, a small tablet, and a bookcase, though what she’d do with the latter remained to be seen. The Xeruvians seemed to rely on digital storage and all her books were back home.

A brief spurt of homesickness swirled through her. She pushed it down, more easily this time. Nothing she could do about that now. Better to focus on what she could change and do than what she couldn’t.

She’d just integrated her tablet with the Xeruvians’ major scientific database when someone tapped politely on the door. Mia pulled it open. One of the Xeruvian scientists she’d met early stood on the other side, her hands folded politely behind her. When Alara had brought Mia to the science center, she’d introduced her to everyone in such a flurry of names and faces that they’d become a blur.

Mia vaguely remembered this female, a fellow plant scientist. She was taller than Mia by half a foot and sported small, decidedly feminine horns sprouting from above her temples. Her hair was dark and pulled back in an intricate braid, accentuating her high cheekbones and slender nose. She wore a loose linen tunic and pants, closed-toe sandals, and a single wide, copper-colored bracelet on her left wrist. Mia recognized the bracelet as a smaller version of the one Zoran had worn when he’d abducted her.

For the life of her, Mia couldn’t pinpoint the other female’s name. She tried out a Xeruvian greeting, certain she was mangling the pronunciation. “Kii-la, nona-il.”

My soul greets yours. Or, more literally,my soul to your soul.

The female’s face lit up and she rattled off a string of Xeruvian. Mia shook her head and pointed to her ear. No translator. Alara had explained that they had manufactured enough to fit most of the Xeruvians the humans would come into contact with during their first week. Two human women had already tried using translators geared toward Xeruvian physiology with mixed results. The Xeruvians hadn’t wanted to attempt making translators specifically for humans until they had an actual human to work with, beyond the ones who’d already tried. The diplomat and one of her friends, who was still on Earth. Something about their different physiologies? Apparently, those two women had found the process of adapting to the translators rather sharpish.

The female in front of Mia laughed and tapped her ear, too. “My apologies. I forgot for a moment that you have no translator.”

The sound came from the female’s bracelet. Mia deduced that it must be connected to her translator, similar to the system Zoran and the other warlords had used aboard their spaceship. And still used now, she thought with some amusement. Otherwise, she wouldn’t understand a word of what he was saying.

She stepped back, silently inviting the other woman in. “What was it you said?”

“I was correcting your grammar.Kii-lais correct, though your pronunciation is…imprecise.”

Mia grinned. “To be fair, I’ve only heard it twice.”

“From one male to another?”

“Now that you mention it, yes.”

The Xeruvian bowed her head solemnly. “Then you did very well.”

“And the rest?”

“Nona-ilis said to a male of higher standing. For females of equal or higher standing, the correct form isnovala.”

Mia’s mouth formed a silentoh. “What term did Alara use when she greeted the other females here?”

“Novala-la,” the female said promptly.

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