Rosemary
Her vacation flew by. She would be returning to Earth, and by extension real life, the next day. She had to find a new job, a new car, and figure out a way to deal with Vince once and for all.
That sounded a lot more ominous than she intended. She just needed him to sign the custody agreement, like he said he would.
Threatening him or calling his bluff would mean he’d drag his family and all their money and reputation into it. They’d spend a fortune to protect the family name. Rosemary was tempted to skip the courts altogether and just go directly to his family. Granted, the last time they spoke, they flatly said they were not interested in whatever piece of garbage Vince knocked up or his illegitimate bastard.
Their words still stung.
They’d be interested if she threatened to sell the story to the media. Vince’s parents could force him to sign over custody, and the situation would be over.
Or they could drag her to court, bury her hopes with the best legal team money could buy. They’d take Michael, not because they cared but because they could.
Nope. There had to be a better solution. She just needed to think. Tomorrow’s marathon shuttle journey would give her plenty of time to think and peruse job listings.
She pushed tomorrow’s worries out of her mind. She still had one more evening with her sister and one more evening to enjoy herself.
Tonight was the last night of Golau. The Rhew family, with human guests, gathered on the back patio. Lanterns illuminated the dark, casting a warm glow. Shadows played across the Mahdfel men’s features. With their horns, they appeared as fierce creatures out of a nightmare. She knew better. She noticed the way Seeran cocked his head as he listened to Hazel. She noticed the way Oran, ever silent and filled with dignity, reached out to his mate of many decades to share quick touches. She noticed the way Lorran went out of his way to make others comfortable, even at his own expense. She even noticed the way Mene patiently endured Michael’s endless questions and demands for piggyback rides.
Hazel found herself a proper family, and jealousy tugged at Rosemary.
Tani settled next to Rosemary on the bench. “Are you cold? You Terrans look like you should always be cold.”
“Sorry,” Rosemary said, half paying attention.
“It’s the thin skin. How can you keep the warmth in?”
“We manage just fine.” She had plenty of insulation, apparently. Her gaze narrowed on Mene.
Tani chuckled softly. She followed Rosemary’s gaze but said nothing.
“What is it like?” Rosemary finally asked.
Tani didn’t ask for clarification. “Mostly good. I have a good mate.”
“But you had to leave everything behind?”
“Do I look like I’ve left anything behind? I’m celebrating Golau in my family’s ancestral home with the male I love and the strong sons we’ve made. Our family grows every year.” She patted Rosemary’s hand. “The Mahdfel have been on Sangrin for three generations now. Being claimed as a bride was not such a strange, new idea for me.”
“Three generations? Don’t they leave, eventually?” Would they leave Earth once the Suhlik threat vanished?
“Have the Suhlik stopped attacking your planet?”
“I guess not. There was an attack on the moon base a year ago, I think.” Rosemary had vague memories of news reports. “But there hasn’t been an attack on Earth in years.” Not since she was a teenager.
“The Suhlik will never stop, and the Mahdfel will always honor the treaty.”
“As long as they get women.”
Tani shifted on the bench and faced Rosemary. “They get a new generation, who will lay their lives down to protect their mothers, their mates, their children, and any other Mahdfel territory.”
Rosemary nodded politely but said nothing. She didn’t agree with the price of protection. As far as she could tell, only half the Earth’s population had to pay. It was unfair.
“Now we have the genetic test, so finding a mate is easy.”
“Um, I guess. I’ve never been tested.” Rosemary was unsure of Tani’s motives. She knew the woman could be sneaky, obviously. This entire trip was a ploy to introduce Rosemary to her smarmy and grumpy sons.
“Before the test, the Mahdfel went by scent. A compatible female would smell more alluring than an incompatible female.”
“That sounds…” She searched for the correct word.
“Tedious. When I was a youth, eligible females had to attend one social event a month. Basically, we lined up in a room with tacky paper decorations and poor lighting and stood around while the Mahdfel males sniffed us.” Tani smoothed down the front of her robe. “It was humiliating.”
Rosemary pictured something akin to a high school prom with crepe paper streamers and the vague smell of gym shoes, waiting around for a bunch of muscle-bound brutes to peruse the goods. “Going by scent seems imprecise.”
“Very.” Tani leaned in and lowered her voice, “Pregnancy is always risky, you know. Carrying a Mahdfel baby to term is very taxing on the body. They’re big and grow fast. Many females cannot sustain it. Often they can only have one child.”
Oh, sweet baby cheese. Panic fluttered in her stomach. “Is Hazel going to be okay?”
“She is stubborn and does not listen, but she is strong.”
That did not ease her worries.
“I knew when I met Oran that he was the male for me.” A wistful tone crept into Tani’s voice. “When he entered the room, I knew. I felt this electricity in the air. He walked right up to me. Zero hesitation. He bent over and looked me in the eyes. He said, ‘I am Oran Rhew, son of Dason Rhew. You are for me.’ And that was it.” She clasped her hands together and sighed.
“But what about your life? How old were you? Weren’t you worried you’d never see your family again?”
“And has your sister been whisked away to the far side of the galaxy, never to be seen again?”
Rosemary narrowed her eyes. “I don’t like it when you make a good point.”
“Call it the privilege of age. I have all this experience and wisdom to impart.”
“I think you like to meddle.”
Tani’s bright laugh slipped out. Oran glanced in their direction but seemed satisfied to leave them be for the moment.
“What about Michael’s father?” she asked.
The change in conversation made Rosemary’s head spin. “Um, he’s not in the picture.”
“Is he deceased?”
“No, Vince is very much alive.” And a pain in her tuchus. “He’s just not interested in being a father.”
“Mom! Look!” Michael clutched a golden sparkler in one hand and demonstrated how to write his name in “Terran” for Lorran, who demonstrated how to write his name in Sangrin. She was lucky Lorran didn’t show him how to write his name in the snow. “Are you looking?”
“Yes. Very nice, honey.”
“You were very young when the Suhlik came,” Tani said, dragging Rosemary’s attention away from Michael’s antics. “The fear is fresh in your mind.”
“You mean when Earth learned we weren’t alone and our nearest neighbors were psychopaths hell-bent on destroying us? That tends to stay fresh.” Rosemary could never forget the smell of burning. Everything burning: buildings, plastic, and sometimes people. That kind of soul-crushing stench stayed with you.
“It’s a good life. When we were newly mated, I went with Oran while he served his clan. We lived on a battle cruiser, much as Seeran and your Hazel do.”
“But why? If the Mahdfel’s mission is to forever fight the flipping space lizards, why drag women and children into that mess? It’s not safe.” Hazel shared a harrowing tale of how their ship had been boarded by the Suhlik. Boarded. Not shots fired from one massive ship to another massive ship, like in the movies. Actual Suhlik were in the vicinity of Hazel. None of that was cool.
Tani sighed. “The Mahdfel were designed to fight, yes? But they were also designed to mate. The Suhlik wanted their slaves to make more slaves, but they can only have male children.”
“Seems like a design flaw to me.”
“The Suhlik controlled access to the females. Granting a mate as a reward. Taking that mate away as punishment. Holding them hostage to prevent rebellion.” Their plans didn’t seem to work in the end. The Mahdfel rebelled. “Their instincts are to have their mates close by, to protect them.”
“By bringing them to battlefields?”
“If the females stayed behind, undefended, alone, what would they do if the Suhlik returned? And the Suhlik always return. They raid and capture Mahdfel children.”
Rosemary shivered at the image. She had never seen a Suhlik in person, but she didn’t have to see their weird lizard eyes to know they were heartless monsters. Whatever they did with the captured children was not good.
“Is Hazel safe? With him? On that ship?” It was such a hard concept to accept: keep her safe by bringing her to danger.
Tani nodded. “Safer than if she stayed behind on Earth.”
“Will they be on that ship forever?”
“Even the best warriors age. They can serve their clan in other capacities. When my Oran’s hair turned white, he joined the Council, and we returned to Sangrin.”
“And you bought a winery.”
“It was my family’s. My parents were gone by then, but the property manager had kept it going until I could return. Come, it is nearly midnight. Time to release your lantern.”
Lanterns hung on a string above the patio. Seeran used a pole to take down the lanterns and pass them out. In her hands, the thin paper crinkled and glowed with warmth. The lantern floated when she relaxed her grip. “Hold it tight until the countdown,” he said.
“Make a wish and release you lantern on three,” Tani told Michael. He held his lantern arms fully extended, his face screwed up in concentration.
Rosemary looked down at the lantern in her hand. She should make a wish but didn’t know what to ask for, other than a way to deal with the real-life problems waiting for her on Earth.
On three, she let go. The lantern floated away, hovering a few feet above her. The other lanterns joined hers, clustering together before the wind carried them away. They scattered into the night like stars. In the distance, other points of light appeared as more lanterns painted light against the dark canvas of the night.
“What did you wish for, honey?” she asked Michael.
“Wishes don’t work if you tell them. They have to be secret,” he said with certainty.
Lorran passed around mugs of hot mulled wine. Rosemary sipped at hers and made certain Michael got the hot chocolate, not wine.
Tani settled back to her spot on the bench. “Tell me what you taste.”
“Hmm.” Rosemary took another sip, this time paying attention to the nutty and fruity flavors. “Fruit. Not bright and not too sweet. Nuts or wood. Maybe from the barrel?” Another sip. “This is nice, but it’s clearly not your best wine.”
“Indeed, no. Why waste a good vintage by boiling it and adding spice?” A smile spread across her face. “Stay with us.”
“I’d love to, but I have a shuttle to get on tomorrow,” Rosemary said with a small laugh.
“No, stay. Work in the Tasting Room.”
Rosemary leaned back, stunned. “Are you offering me a job?”
“Yes.”
“In the Tasting Room?”
“Yes. I have a feeling that customers will come to drink wine with the pretty Terran who has such amazing taste receptors.”
“I thought serving food and drink was taboo?”
Tani shrugged a shoulder. “You’re not serving wine. You open a bottle, and they pour it themselves.”
“So my job will be opening wine bottles and describing the vintage?” It sounded too good to be true.
“I want you to get self-important men drunk and sell them too many bottles of wine.” Tani nudged her shoulder. “I offer a fair wage with room and board.”
“I can’t possibly live in your house.” As nice as the offer was, she would always remain a guest in the Rhews’ home. Wait. How was that her first thought? She wasn’t actually considering this, was she? “I can’t just not return to Earth. Michael has school. We have things.”
“We have schools here. We can hire out movers to pack anything you like and ship it here. We even have a cottage on the property that you can have.” Tani pointed off in the distance. If there was a cottage there or not, Rosemary couldn’t tell in the dark. “The groundskeeper lived there, but now he lives in town with his family. We use it for storage but can clear it out. It’s not big, but there’s two bedrooms and privacy.”
She needed a job. She needed to move away from Vince. This did appear to be the perfect solution. “What about immigration?” She couldn’t imagine that Sangrin authorities would let just anyone move permanently to their planet without some type of monitoring. She and Michael had been approved to enter as tourists. She couldn’t imagine the legal maneuvering to get a work visa.
“I’ll file the paperwork,” Tani said with a wave of her hand.
“Why me?”
“I like you. I like Michael. I’m a greedy old woman.”
“This isn’t some long con to get me hooked up with one of your sons?”
“No tricks. No matchmaking, but I wouldn’t be upset.” Another shoulder nudge.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes.”
“Yes, but I need to discuss this with Michael.” He had a say in the decision, too. He’d be leaving his school and friends behind.
“Excellent. My Golau wish is already coming true.” A broad smile spread across the older woman’s face, warming Rosemary.