Page 71 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

"Fair enough," he pressed out, not looking too happy about it.

The big doors opened, letting in a gust of icy cold air, and another thought hit me. "What about oxygen?" I asked, suddenly worried, remembering how on Earth, mountain climbers had trouble breathing on mountains and even brought oxygen tanks.

He shrugged. "We'll find out."

The pilot emerged, "Do you want me to wait, sire?"

"No, everything needs to be done by tradition," Seth ordered.

"Does tradition demand that we freeze to death, or can we grab some blankets?" I asked in an attempt to lighten the mood.

The pilot opened the door of a storage unit from where he pulled out thick coats and blankets, among an assortment of bags and supplies. I gave Seth a grateful look for having, as usual, planned ahead, unlike me, who just went with the flow.

Seth helped me with the coat, which was thin, but the warmest thing I had ever worn. The temperature on board theAsphodelwas always the same. There was no need for warm clothes, making me grateful that my alien mate was such a planner. I would have frozen to death if this endeavor had been left to my planning.

We left the transporter, and I took a few tentative breaths, the air was cold but otherwise fine.

Arm in arm, we watched the platform retract and the transporter take off soon after.

"Now what?" I asked, looking around. I wasn't sure what I had expected, maybe a welcoming committee, or at least one person, but there was nothing but us and the breathtaking view. We could see for miles, even though there wasn't much to see. Just mountains after mountains.

The city we saw when we flew in was miles off. I didn't even know in which directions. There were only, ragged, but strangely beautiful mountains especially in the weird twilight enveloping them. Everything had the appearance of abandonment.

Seth opened one of the packs and pulled out a small cylindrical object. Curious I stepped closer and watched as he pulled the lid off and a flame sprang out.

"Fire," I exclaimed happily.

Seth gave me an amused look and shook his head.

"What?" I exclaimed. "I don't know all your little tricks yet."

"I have a few more," he winked.

After some more digging, he produced gloves, hats, and scarves for the two of us.

"You are prepared, aren't you?" Gratefully" I took the offered things . There was no snow, but the wind was chilly.

"What do we do now?" I asked again.

"I guess we'll wait for a little while."

"And then?"

He sighed. "We'll start to walk toward that city we saw."

"Seth, there is nobody here," I argued.

He shrugged. "We'll find out; we came all this way."

I rolled my eyes, in exasperation. He had me by a mile in the stubbornness department. So I took a seat on one of the blankets on the hard rocky ground, while Seth scanned the area through binoculars for a while, before he sat down next to me.

"It's kinda sad," I remarked.

"What is?" he asked, giving my cheek a kiss.

"All this." I made a swooping gesture with my hand. "It was probably really pretty once. It's amazing and frightening what a difference a sun makes."

"Yes," he agreed.

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