uninvited

chapter eighteen

unimpressed

"Kellum, I do not know what your strategy is, but you need a new one. It is not working. She likes me more than she likes you. As far as the human boy, I say we forget we are a peaceful people for five minutes so that we can get rid of him."

He studied the screen in front of him. "I do not have a strategy. I do not need one."

Frick stopped pacing and sat down so that he could study him. "How can you be so calm about this?"
He moved a few things around on the screen. "What surprises me is that you are not calm about all of this. You know as well as me, that if it is meant to be it will be. I think you have been studying the humans too much."

"Can you sit there and tell me that you do not mind that human boy all over your future queen?"

He minded. Every day he minded more.

Kellum leaned back in his chair and willed himself to take a deep breath. He should be going through his reports from home. He had reports from the military groups outside the barricade. There were a million things he could be doing.

Frick was not the only one who believed that Jessalynn needed to be top priority. His advisors did as well.

The trouble is, he was out of his element with his future mate.

He has spent very little time with the opposite sex. His mother had been a queen first, a woman second.

Frey was quiet, very little trouble. Loyal.

There was Kar. She has been a part of his bodyguard regiment for the last two years. She would hate that Kellum had noticed she was a female.

That was the extent of his experience with women.

"What would you advise, Frick?"

It was just as he thought. No one knew. On their planet, they did their jobs until their mates were found. They mated then went back to work.

He was spending time with her. Time that could be spent elsewhere.

The girl was tiresome. Frustrating. More importantly, he had no idea how she would manage as queen.

If he was honest, he would admit she would have been the last girl he would have chosen.

He frowned knowing his thoughts were disloyal and unfair.

Numbers like theirs did not happen every day. None were going to come that were better. He was sure of that. Just as sure as he was that if she was meant to be his, then she was meant to be queen.

Doubts were a waste of time.

It was not as if he was not attractive to her. Now that he was taking time to notice a girl, he was very much noticing her. He was noticing things he had never noticed before. She smelled nice. He liked it when she put her hair up and he could see the curve of her neck.

They fought daily about the uniforms. Humans did not like the thought of always being in uniform. They did not seem to care that it was the most convenient thing to do. Cost efficient. Comfortable. Simple. Easy.

She was neither simple nor easy.

Some of the things she wore were distasteful and inappropriate.

His arguments meant not one thing to her. He tended to agree with her on very little but there might be somethings she could be right about.

He was still debating on which was better, sticking to what they knew, what has worked for them, or seeing Jessalynn in the garment they call jeans.

Ask him what the appeal was, and he would not even be able to explain it. She was not shape like women from his planet. Not that he has spent a lot of time studying their shape. He did believe if they were shaped like Jessalynn he would have spent more time on it.

"What do you think about how she dresses?"

"Sometimes I think very little of it. Other times I have difficulties looking away." Frick admitted.

"Do you think that is a bad thing?"

"Not even remotely. Just the opposite. Until I remember she is to be my queen. Why do you ask?"

"Tell me this, do you ever get stuck looking into her eyes?"

"Not really. She is not the most beautiful. I mean, she is, but not the kind that you cannot take your eyes off. Unless she is walking away, then it can be hard."

"You do realize that is my mate you are talking about?"

"You are not mated yet. I am trying to help with that. Do you get stuck looking into her eyes?"

"Yes."

"That is good, I think. We can work with that. Dezrick, what do you have for us?"

"The humans have a ritual called courting or wooing. It involves flowers, hand holding, and kissing. You compliment them with nice words, spend time with them, and tell them repeatedly how much you care for them. You use this time to make her come to care for you. Courting usually involves calling them on the phone and talking for hours. Gifts. Promises of forever. You have to let her know you desire her and only her."

Frick frowned. "Sounds like a lot of trouble for nothing."

"The human Jessalynn does not like to be beholden to anyone. She does not like people to do nice things for her because she then feels like she must do something nice for them. Give her something she wants so that she will give you something you want. Also, if you need information about her, advice, the best person to get this from would be the human Julian. He seems to know everything about her, and he pleases her often."

Kellum did not like the sound of that. "Explain farther."

"He knows when she is feeling down and knows exactly how to make her laugh. Quite a bit actually. I am still studying the research I gathered from Frey and their reaction to each other. She hurts yet he helps her forget that."

"Do they court, Dezrick?"

"Yes. Except there are no promises of forever. They are not mating. He stayed the night with her once but so did the human Meline. She has nightmares."

"What are nightmares?" Frick asked.

Kellum was still trying to decide how he felt about hearing all the rest of it.

"Bad dreams. Pictures and feelings that the brain experiences while one is asleep. Most of these humans have them after a traumatic experience."

"What do you think about all this, Kellum?"

He looked at his friend. "I am not sure. Our whole life we knew there would be a mate for us, so we gave it little thought. Then we did not know if there would be one for us, and it is all we thought about. The hard part was supposed to be finding her, but nothing has ever seemed harder than bonding with someone I have nothing in common with. She is not just going to take my word for it that we are meant to be together."

"All of your people are going to be feeling this way. Who better to show them the way?"