Page 37 of My Christmas Alien Mate

My eyes, however, gravitated toward a desk, behind which sat a man who could have been Galexor's exact carbon copy, except he appeared several years older.

"Galexor, it's good to see you, son, and you brought a guest." The man rose to an impressive height and walked toward us.

"I'm High Commander Kzod Ghar-Huhn, and you must be Amber McGregor. Galexor told me a lot about you."

He had? "Thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you too."

"Sorry I'm late." The doors opened, and another man entered. The similarities between all three men were obvious, but where Kzod looked like an older version of Galexor, the man who had just entered looked only a couple of years older than Galexor and more… severe. As if the burden of the entire universe rested on his shoulders.

"Ah, Adred, I'm glad you could make the time. Amber, this is my oldest son, Adred," Kzod made the introductions.

"Nice to meet you," I held my hand out, first to Kzod, who, after an initial hesitation, took it, and, waiting for my example, finally shook it vigorously.

Adred was a bit more hesitant. His grip was firm, and I felt the suppressed hardness behind it.

"You are a human?" Adred asked when he relinquished my hand.

"Don't be rude, you know what she is," Galexor hissed.

"And you are a Scekyn," I said, ignoring Galexor, eyeing Adred up and down like he did me.

His lips twitched slightly in what might have been a smile for him, and he gave me an imperceptible nod.

"Let's have a seat," Kzod suggested just when the doors opened again and a parade of drones entered, carrying baskets filled with baked Christmas goodies.

"Now what?" Kzod asked.

"We brought some presents," Galexor explained, grinning widely.

"Presents?" Adred echoed as if the concept was alien to him. Which, I supposed, it was, given that they didn't celebrate birthdays and Christmas.

"The humans have wonderful traditions. One of them is called Christmas," Galexor explained his newfound knowledge, based on what I told him and countless Christmas movies we had watched together.

From out of nowhere, Galexor produced a red Santa hat I hadn't even known he possessed and put it on his head. "Ho, ho, ho."

A snort that turned into a full-blown laugh escaped me when I noticed the astonished faces of his father and older brother.

"You look ridiculous," Adred hissed, making me wonder if he had any other tone of voice. Curiously, though, he stepped toward one basket a drone placed on the large dining table, which was quickly becoming nearly invisible under all the other baskets.

"Try this." Galexor picked up a piece of my peanut fudge and held it out to his brother.

I didn't realize that I was holding my breath as I watched Adred's scowl when he peeled the fudge from the candy wrapper. His scowl, however, changed the moment the fudge entered his mouth.

"Good, eh?" Galexor demanded, handing another piece to his father.

Myfatherandbrothermay have both been battle-hardened, hard-core soldiers, but I knew their weaknesses. Even though we didn't have chocolate or cookies or any of the other goodies Amber and I had baked and cooked, we had similar sweets in the Galactic Union. I had never paid as close attention to cooking as I had with Amber, but I was quite sure that there was no sugar or chocolate in the entire Galactic Union. Our sweets were made from something similar to honey. Sap that was derived from fruits and flowers, some even from trees.

I put my arm around Amber and grabbed one of the baskets she and I had made and carried it to a smaller table by the couches, forcing the others to follow us.

My father typed a command into the table console and four cups of hot seclat, one of the Galactic Union's favorite warm drinks, which I thought compared somewhat to the coffee Amber liked so much and I had come to crave, appeared. It wasn't as bitter though and deep, dark red instead of black.

"So you decided to stay on Earth?" My father came straight to the point.

I felt Amber stiffen. Automatically I brushed my hand over her arm up and down to soothe her.

"Yes." I reached for another peanut butter cookie because they were my favorite.

Kzod's glance moved between Amber and me, took in the way we sat and something like a proud fatherly smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Are you sure you're ready to give up your rogue pilot days? Just before you left, you told me how flying a new prototype is what you lived for."

---