Help! My Lover's an Alien - 2. Chapter 2

The building they entered was made almost entirely of what looked like mirrors, but once they were inside, Lor saw the view out was unobstructed.

They headed down a short hallway and entered a room that held a long table surrounded by chairs. Another table stood against the nearest wall, on it was vast amounts of food, all laid out on trays and platters.

The ambassador indicated the food. “Because we weren’t sure what you would like of our food, I had the kitchen prepare what we call a buffet meal. It means that they have provided a variety of foods and you can help yourselves to whatever you wish to eat. Plates and bowls are at one end with eating utensils; all you have to do is start there and make your way along.”

The minister nodded and led the way. Lor was third in line; after picking up a plate and fork, he started studying the food on offer. Someone had put signs on the plates saying what they were. There was mixed salad, rice, pasta, chicken, pork, beef, and much more.

Lor chose something called hummus, some chicken, and some salad. He chose them because they at least partially resembled food he would eat at home.

The hummus didn’t have a lot of taste, but it wasn’t bad; the chicken was nice, but dry; and the salad was very plain. As a first meal, it wasn’t bad, but he didn’t think he would be asking for any recipes for his mother just yet.

Ziel, of course, ate a bit of everything and kept enticing Mora into trying things he found to his liking. For such a small male, Ziel could really pack away the food, and as he loved to prepare food, he was always looking for new things to taste. He was asking the ambassador endless questions, but when he realized that Mrs. Marston liked to cook, he turned his attention to her. By the end of the meal, they were firm friends, and Eve Marston was promising to visit again the next afternoon to tell Ziel more.

When the food was finished, the group were shown to their rooms and given time to freshen up before they met the ambassador by the entrance.

“Eve and Vance send their apologies, but they had prior engagements they couldn’t cancel. Shall we start the tour?”

After the minister had nodded, the ambassador led the way out the door.

As they entered the main compound building, the ambassador kept up a running commentary. He told them the building was over three hundred years old and had been used as many things to do with the military. For the last hundred years, it had been used as a training and research facility. Military personnel were sent to be trained before being deployed and were also sent for regular refresher training. New techniques were always being developed, and they wanted their military people to be up to date.

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“This is our tactical research center,” the ambassador was saying as they entered a large room. “We’re developing a lot of different technologies at the moment. But the main project is a transporter. We’re working on breaking down someone’s molecular structure and then putting them back together again in a different location. Unfortunately early tests haven’t been successful so far.

“My son Vance is the head researcher here and will be pleased to give you a more detailed rundown on our research during your stay.

“We are also working on various devices to make homelife easier on people. Some of these include: a food making device, robots that are able to help with household chores, and three-D holographic transmitters which will allow people in different countries to communicate better— for example, a child would be able to perform a dance for a relative, and it would be like the relative was watching it live.”

Lor looked around the small room. He saw a few devices that he was sure had no function within a household. They looked more as though they were weapons, but Lor thought it better not to mention his observation.

The next room was full of trees at various stages of growth. “This is our arboretum; trees are endangered on Earth due to more homes being constructed— what with the growing population— and other buildings or businesses. To try and fight this problem, we are trying to perfect a serum that can be put into the water. It’s the aim to make the trees grow faster, so we can keep the ecological balance from tipping too far off. We’ve already developed air purifiers that take the carbon dioxide out of the air and replace it with oxygen, but they can only do so much. Trees do this naturally, and so we are trying to plant new forests as quickly as possible.”

Lor looked around and saw Ziel looking in wonder at the trees and listening carefully to everything the ambassador said about them. Lor smiled to himself; Ziel had always liked plants, and he could see him and the minister spending a fair bit of time in this place before they headed home.

The last room of the tour, before they were going to head outside, was some sort of training room. The floor was covered in colored mats, and humans were dotted around the room in pairs. They seemed to be doing some sort of hand-to-hand combat.

In the center of the room was a male human calling out orders.

He shouted something to a male that had just been pinned to the mat. The male stood up and faced the male in charge.

Lor watched as a fight ensued. Since the ambassador didn’t intervene, he assumed it was part of the training. The male in charge had the other pinned within four moves.

“What did he do wrong?” he called out to the other males.

He wasn’t anticipating your moves, thought Lor.

A blond put his hand in the air. “Yes, Gilbert?”

“He didn’t anticipate your moves, sir,” the male— Gilbert— said and Lor hid a smile.

“Yes that’s correct,” the male responded with a nod. “Now, you come and show them how it’s done.”

Gilbert flushed so bright Lor could see his skin change color even from his post near the door. As the two males faced off against each other, the male in charge turned, and his eyes met Lor’s. Lor could have sworn he stopped breathing. The male had very short brown hair and was shorter than Lor, but the thing that caught Lor’s attention was the male’s eyes. They shone the brightest shade of green Lor had ever seen.

Mate!

This was what his magic had been trying to tell him.

Lor was astounded. Of course, he had heard of mages finding their mates in other species, but those species usually had some magical talent. As far as they had found so far, Earth had no magically talented people at all. This was a mystery he needed to solve and quickly.

Green Eyes shook his head as though he were trying to clear something, and that moment of inattention led to the other man tripping him and nearly having him pinned. Lor had to fight the urge to go and defend his mate. His magic wanted to flare and stop Gilbert— to rip him to pieces for even touching what was his, let alone hurting him.

Green Eyes recovered quickly though, and within a few moves, he had the upper hand again. Within a few more moves, he had Gilbert pinned to the mat.

The ambassador let out a piercing whistle and Green Eyes turned to see what was happening. At a signal Lor couldn’t see, the ambassador had Green Eyes handing the trainees over to someone else and heading in their direction.

Lor stopped breathing again as the vision came nearer. The male was taller than Lor had originally thought, and lean— but you could see the muscles moving under the thin top he was wearing.

Ambassador Marston pulled the male nearer as he approached and turned to face Minister Mora. “This is our head trainer, Mr. Dillon Stewart. He is the top mixed-martial-arts teacher in the country and has been employed by the military since he was eighteen.”

Lor tuned out the rest of the ambassador’s words as he thought quickly of a way to get to know the male better. He sent a quiet message to the minister’s comm unit and was grateful when Mora glanced down and then nodded almost imperceptibly.

Mora waited for the ambassador to finish before speaking, “That was an impressive display. Would it be acceptable if Mr. Stewart accompanied us on the rest of our tour? My guards may have some questions for him.”

When the ambassador agreed, Dillon nodded but insisted he would meet them outside as soon as he had changed clothes.