I shrug. “A code. Just for us.”
Instantly, his fans flare, and I laugh at his reaction.
After putting my plate in the dishwasher as Fiona instructed, I head back to my room to work out for a while, building my strength. Then I check my communicator, and my parents have sent me a message to check whether or not I have arrived safely, so I type out an answer to let them know I am now on Earth with my new wife. I even admit that she is my fated mate, so they have no reason to worry.
They worried much before I left on this journey, but they understood why I needed to do it. Arshur didn’t hold what I needed, what I wanted.
They are so far away, and it is difficult to imagine I might not see them again. But it is worth it to have found Fiona. This will be my new life, and I am excited about it—if I can simply get Shathar out of the way.
“Khesan!” I hear Fiona call out a few hours later. “Do you want to leave soon?”
“Capisce!” I call out as I leap to my feet and head down the stairs.
Chapter Ten
Fiona
It’s not far to the local bowling alley, which is where I’ve decided to take Khesan. I haven’t been bowling in ages, and I’m not very good at it, but it’s easy to learn and I think we’ll have fun.
What I didn’t anticipate was that the human bowling shoes wouldn’t fit Khesan’s clawed feet. Both the guy working behind the counter and I aren’t sure what to do, so he simply shrugs and says, “Guess he’s playing without. Should be fine. Just don’t drop a ball on yourself.”
Khesan rubs the back of his head. “Sorry,” he says as we leave the counter.
“What for?”
“That I can’t do all the things humans can do.”
I offer him a smile. “It’s all right. I’m sure there’s lots of things you can do that I can’t.” I gesture to the sides of my head. “I can’t tell everyone I’m pissed off without saying it out loud.”
Khesan snorts and grins back at me. “A good hiss helps, too.”
“Here,” I say, handing him a bowling ball. “Do your fingers fit into those three holes?”
Khesan demonstrates doing what I ask, and it looks like it’ll fit him.
“It’s so heavy,” he remarks as we head back to our lane. “Very odd.”
“So it can knock over all the pins.” I point at the white pins sitting at the end of the bowling lane. “If you can get a bunch of power behind it and throw straight, you have a better chance of knocking them over.”
“And the goal is to knock over as many as possible?”
“Exactly.”
I demonstrate with my first throw, winding my arm back as I approach the lane, then swinging it forward as I release the ball. It hits the waxed floor and rolls fast, straight toward the pins. But then it veers to the right, much to my displeasure, and only strikes two of them.
I groan and step back. “Well, that’s about par for the course for my bowling skill,” I say with a laugh. “Your turn.”
“Par for the course?” Khesan asks as he approaches the lane.
“Sorry. More sports lingo. Just means it’s the usual for me to miss.”
“I’m sure that’s not true. And it takes time and practice to master anything.”
Khesan winds his arm back like I showed him, then swings forward. He releases the ball a little too late, though, and it flies through the air, much higher than I expected. I brace myself as it hits the lane with a heavy thunk, then rolls slowly toward the pins.
“All right, you have to let go a little sooner,” I tell Khesan, giggling as his ball drifts into the gutter, only to hit the gutter guards. It doesn’t even knock over one pin before disappearing.
“Sorry.”
