Chapter 11 #2
Jhola and her husband Sivh had been with the Praghan family since before Khel and Lhor’s birth. With their own son having died young, they had shifted their parental affection towards the two Geminates and followed them to Veredia when they decided to move.
Zhara landed the shuttle in its reserved slot on the large landing pad by the house.
A swarm of butterflies took off in the pit of my stomach as we disembarked and made our way towards the imposing mansion.
Sensing my nervousness—unjustified though it was as I had already met her parents and most of her siblings—my mate took my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
I gave her a sideways glance with a sheepish smile, feeling silly.
We walked up to the house hand in hand, and as soon as we set our feet on the first step of the short staircase to the main entrance, the main hardwood doors, adorned with intricate patterns, flung wide open.
“Gavin! At long last, I meet my little princess’ mate!” Jhola exclaimed, her skinny arms wide open, and a broad smile splitting her wizened face in half.
A shy smile stretched my lips, accompanied by a wave of relief as we slightly hastened our speed up the stairs.
The elderly lady greeted us with an effusion of hugs that warmed me to the bone. The Xelixians used to be extremely hands off due to the Taint, the disease that had decimated their species for generations. Now that the Veredians helped find the cure, many things were changing on their homeworld.
Jhola all but disappeared in my embrace, she was so delicate and slender. It always whipped my protective instincts into a frenzy whenever I held someone so fragile. She squeezed me hard before taking a step back and patting my chest as if to confirm my sturdiness.
“My Zhara’s Ghan! She waited so long for you!” Jhola said, her dark green eyes devoid of sclera brimming with joy. “Congratulations, my darling,” she added, turning to sweep Zhara into another bone-crushing hug.
She giggled prettily while returning her housekeeper’s tender gesture.
She often spoke to me about Jhola and Sivh, who the family pretty much considered as another set of grandparents.
As pure blood Xelixians, the couple both had the traditional silver-gray skin of their species with the chevron-shaped bridges on their foreheads.
Although on the skinnier side, they both looked very healthy and full of energy.
Then again, Xelixians had an average lifespan of one-hundred-and-forty years, and this couple was at least half a decade shy of one hundred.
So we still had a long time to enjoy their presence and for our own children to meet them once the wretched Great War had come and gone.
“I hope you’re hungry!” Jhola exclaimed, barely giving her husband a chance to greet us as well. “After your terrible ordeal, you need to refuel! Thank you for saving our babies.”
Her voice slightly broke with emotion on that last sentence, and she ended up giving me another hug. This time, I couldn’t help laughing even as her husband shook his head tenderly at her.
“Give them a chance to arrive, female!” Sivh grumbled with amused disapproval.
Jhola mumbled a begrudging apology, before releasing me.
“It’s okay. I appreciate the warm welcome,” I said with a silly grin.
“Now off you go! Give your mate a tour and help him settle in. By the time you’re done, lunch will be ready on the terrace,” Jhola ordered Zhara.
Not waiting for my mate’s response, she gestured for her husband to follow and then scampered off in the direction of what I assumed to be the kitchen. The older male once more shook his head with amusement, winked at us, and then followed in her wake.
“They’re awesome,” I said with a grin.
“They’re the best,” Zhara concurred affectionately before leading me through a tour of the house. “My parents are at work, Tharek is in school, and Rhad and Vahl are at the training camp. So we have the house to ourselves for at least a couple of hours.”
She shamelessly seized the opportunity to make me visit their respective rooms, which were truly beautiful, warm, and inviting.
The amount of colors used both on the walls and in the furniture pleasantly surprised me.
Xelixians usually stuck to monochromatic colors mostly in the white and gray spectrum due to their old obsession with purity.
The Veredians were the exact opposite, with a predilection for pastel and earthy colors.
Having been raised on the colorful—and sometimes quite extravagant—Venus Hive pleasure barge, I couldn’t picture living in an environment that would be bland and lackluster. So this pleased me tremendously.
I loved the simple elegance of the decor, unpretentious, and uncluttered, which didn’t put luxury over comfort.
You wanted to settle down in the plush cushions of the burgundy sectional couches and poufs of the living area.
You wanted to angel dive onto the comfortable mattresses of the massive beds.
Even the bathrooms add some of the largest, recessed bathtubs I had ever seen.
I immediately clamped down on the naughty thoughts that popped in my head at the prospect of sharing one with my woman, how the water would lap at the delicate markings on her skin, and the endless strands of her silky hair would float on the surface.
The guest suite was even more perfect than I had hoped.
Not only was it spacious and the type of apartment I would have rented for myself, but it was also located at the end of a long corridor on the opposite side of their training holodeck, offering perfect privacy as it was detached enough from the rest of the main house to really feel like its own independent dwelling.
The thought of staying here for much longer than just my recovery flitted through my mind.
We definitely would need to have a conversation regarding our future, including living arrangements.
As I had run off to the rescue mission without packing anything, I was grateful to find they had brought my basic necessities bag from the barracks with extra outfits and clean underwear.
Depending on how long they intended to allow me to stay here, I might have to go back and get a few more things including changes of clothes.
My jaw dropped when we walked out onto the stunning patio facing the natural pond pool.
A long, oval table with enough seats for twelve people stood to the left of the large patio doors, and directly in front of the water.
It wasn’t the stunning beauty of the landscape that triggered that shock, but the outrageous amount of food crowding the table.
Zhara burst out laughing at my flabbergasted expression before dragging me to my seat.
“Others are joining us, right?” I asked warily.
She shook her head, her yellow eyes speckled with green sparkling with mischief as she settled in her chair.
“Nope. This is all for you. And fair warning that Jhola will be hurt and think you dislike her food if you do not clean up every single plate,” Zhara said teasingly.
“I’m going to die trying to eat all of that!” I exclaimed.
“I have faith in you,” she said without the slightest hint of sympathy before reaching for a tray filled with very juicy looking steaks.
She piled on an obscene amount of food on my plate before putting a normal portion on her own and then gesturing for me to dig in.
My distraught groan turned into a delightful moan when I bit into the tender and perfectly spiced morsel of what turned out to be rhomak steak—a Xelixian creature comparable to a boar on Earth. Zhara chuckled approvingly then started eating as well.
Although I came nowhere near cleaning up the entire table, my gargantuan appetite—necessary to fuel my massive Braxian body—still kept me from being too heavily berated for not eating more. Still, I was begging for mercy by the time I called it quits.
“Just so you know, you will have to eat these types of meals for the next few days as we need that fuel to finish mending your body,” my mate said, this time with a sliver of compassion.
“I can hardly breathe, I’m so full,” I whimpered with an exaggerated air of distress.
She laughed and playfully slapped the back of my shoulder.
“Stop whining, you big crybaby,” she said teasingly as she stood up. “Let’s bring this inside and then we can go for a walk while you digest.”
I gladly stood, my stomach feeling on the verge of bursting as we brought the leftovers and dirty dishes inside.
Jhola all but kicked us out, giving both of us an earful for not letting her do her job.
Zhara laughed and kissed the older woman’s cheek, which only earned her a resounding slap on the rear.
“Ow!” she exclaimed with pretend shock while rubbing the ‘sore’ spot and looking at Jhola with an overly wounded expression.
“Off you go, you brat!” Jhola said, pointing a finger outside.
“Fine, you bully,” Zhara mumbled.
“What was that?!” Jhola demanded.
“Nothing!” Zhara exclaimed before grabbing my hand and all but running out of the house through the patio doors.
I laughed, loving the genuine affection and playful nature of my mate and the staff—although they were really extended family. It immediately made me feel at home as I shared the same type of interaction with my Nana Hope.
We walked hand in hand through the large garden leading up to the ryspak orchard, chatting amiably, with Zhara sharing various anecdotes of fun times—and a few more reckless ones—with her brothers and friends.
Each time we walked past a specific area, she would point it out with vivid details about the incident.
Although she had told me about some of them over the years, she’d never been able to go into as much detail as they were always recordings that she had to keep relatively short.
It still felt surreal to me that we were finally together.