“We’ll have to have a bonding ceremony,” Al’s mom said to his dad. She crossed all her arms and pursed her lips. “Perhaps by the oasis next to the Twin Dunes, where everyone of value will be able to see our son has found his True Mate. We will need to educate both of them on their manners beforehand, though. Human Jude is quite rude.”
“Perhaps it’s a cultural difference,” his dad suggested. “Or hormones from the birth.”
“Even still. Should we have the ceremony before or after the hatching?”
“Best to have it after. Human Jude will be reluctant to travel with the clutch. We don’t want to cause him undue stress—the offspring will be affected.”
“Mom, Dad, stop,” Al said, rubbing his temples with his two upper arms. “There isn’t going to be a bonding ceremony.”
“Oh, now you’re too good for a proper bonding ceremony?” His mom shook her head in disgust. “Young ones today are always so averse to tradition. It doesn’t need to be a large ceremony, but you’re not going to become bonded in some government office.”
“No, Mom. Ugh.” Al pressed his lower two palms against his eyes and said nothing for a moment. When he dropped them again, his eyes were gray like a gloomy, rainy day. “There’s not going to be a bonding ceremony because there’s not going to be a bond. We’re breaking our betrothal.”
Al’s parents gaped at him.
“That’s absurd,” his mom said.
Al shrugged dejectedly. “Humans don’t have the concept of True Mates, and our partial bond happened without Jude’s knowledge. He asked me to sever it, and so I will. I will not keep it in place without his consent.”
Al’s parents rounded on Jude at once, and all superiority Jude may have felt when he was standing up for Al trickled away under their scrutiny. They were really quite imposing, and he suddenly felt likehewas the kid about to get scolded by his parents.
“How could you do that to him?” Al’s mom nearly screeched, her voice an octave higher than her normal speaking voice. Jude instinctively shifted the eggs closer to him and bared his teeth, and Al’s dad, no doubt wanting to avoid a future in which Jude latched himself teeth-first to one of Al’s mom’s arms, put a hand on his wife’s shoulder.
“Be calm now, love. We don’t want to upset the offspring.”
“But this is absurd!” Al’s mom snapped, not any calmer. “It’s selfish! He’s willing to give Ξ.A.kr’ξ??’p brain damage because he’s not comfortable with the idea of a bond? Does he not realize how rare it is to find a True Mate? Theaudacity.”
“Hold up,” Jude said. “What do you mean by brain damage?”
“She didn’t mean that, it’s a mistranslation,” Al said quickly.
Jude squinted at him. “Mistranslation? I’m literally speaking your language right now.”
“Oh, shit,” Al muttered. “I forgot.”
“Brain damage?” Jude asked again, and Al’s parents’ fury was on Al once more.
“You didn’t tell him?” Al’s dad asked.
“Why must you always act without thinking, Ξ.A.kr’ξ??’p?” his mom chimed in.
“What didn’t you tell me?!” Jude said more loudly than either of them, getting frustrated at the runaround.
“Um… everybody?”
They all turned toward the doorway where Corbin, white as a sheet and shaking, stood beside Ezra. Corbin had been staying to help out with the eggs, but he still hadn’t exactly made peace with the fact of their existence. Jude imagined the arrival of Al’s parents, not to mention Al—still nude, for the record—and in his true form, was probably expediting his acceptance at an uncomfortable speed.
“What’s up, man?” Ezra asked, frowning at Corbin with concern.
“Right, well, I was hiding in the bathroom because of the whole”—he did an all-encompassing gesture to indicate everything going on—“situation,and when I finally stopped dry-heaving and went to go get a glass of water, I noticed that there’s a growing crowd of people gathering on the front lawn, and I couldn’t help but wonder, ah, Mr. and Mrs. Alien?” He looked at Al’s parents. “Where exactly did you park your spaceship?”
Al and Jude exchanged a glance.
“Shit,” Al said in English, just as Jude said, “Shit,” in Al’s native tongue.
“This conversation isn’t over,” Jude said pointedly. Then, sheepishly, he added, “But let’s deal with the spaceship thing first.”
21
