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Jonas heard a slight hiss as the captain put the silver tube next to his left temple. Within seconds, Jonas felt hope and joy that he would see Aaron soon. He grinned and looked up to the captain and grabbed his hands.
“Thank you. I want you to know something since you are helping me. I found my mate, and he is Being. Aaron was taken from my home and returned to your planet to be matched with a female. What you are doing, is helping reunite true mates.” The captain smiled. “And I could never hurt Beings. I love one.”
The captain patted his leg. “I envy you. You are going after the one you love. Many of my people are sacrificing their feelings to try and give our world offspring.” He shook his head and stood. “We will land in the largest city on my planet. You will be able to track down your Aaron, and I hope things work out for you both. You give me hope.” The captain nodded and left the room.
Jonas curled up in bed, sending out his love to Aaron, hoping he was safe. “Hold on, Aaron, I’m coming for you.” Then sleep claimed him.
****
Jonas looked around the city. Short, squat buildings lined the streets, lights blazing in each dome-shaped structure. Above him, lines crisscrossed from one building to another and over the road, forming what he would describe as a net. Each part of the net was lit up, giving the area the illusion of sunlight. It was hard for him to determine if it was day or night. By the number of people walking, he assumed it was daytime, but had no clue as to the time of day. He glanced up and down the street, looking for the tall orange pole the captain had described as an Index. Once he spied it, he fought the urge to jog toward it.
He stared at the tall metal tube and stepped inside. It reminded him of old-fashioned telephone booths on Earth. The strange hieroglyphic characters morphed briefly before they made perfect sense to him. He grinned looking up and saying a silent ‘thank you’ to the captain for implanting the translation disk. He cleared his throat and spoke clearly. “Search male individual Aaron.” He knew that before they had emotions and before they dealt with humans, The Beings didn’t have names. He wasn’t sure how they differentiated each other, but that wasn’t his problem. Several pictures came up. Apparently, there was more than one Aaron in the city. Some were still images, others were moving like watching from a security camera.
“Please specify which, Aaron.” The mechanical voice drew him to the images before him. He looked at each image, almost fearful that he’d not be here. Jonas wasn’t sure how he’d get to the next city to search there. Suddenly he saw him. He was walking into a dwelling and turned to shut the door. A still picture of his lover replaced the moving image. He touched the picture, letting the Index know this was the person he was searching for. “Contacting.”
****
After Aaron had answered the call the Index made, he immediately left to pick Jonas up. Jonas would never forget the look of shock then joy that he’d seen cross his lover’s features.
“Stay where you are, Jonas. I will be there in a minute. Do not move.” The contact was broken, and Jonas watched as the live image of Aaron switched on when he opened the door to his house. He felt his heart clench in his chest as Aaron took off at a jog out of the house. The camera followed his progress as he turned left at the end of his dwelling’s road. Within seconds he heard feet quickly approaching him. The transmission ended just as the door behind Jonas opened and Aaron stepped inside. The couple stared at one another for a few heartbeats before they grabbed each other and began to kiss hungrily.
“Aaron. I missed you.” Aaron pulled back and grinned, running his hands over Jonas.
“I cannot believe you are here. That you came after me.”
“I lost you once, and I can’t live without you, Aaron. Please tell me you still feel the same for me.” Jonas knew a moment of fear. If Aaron had been paired with a woman, he might have moved on with his life.
“I will do more than tell you. I will show you. The problem will be for me to wait until we are at my house.”
“Then let’s walk fast.”
Aaron chuckled at his words and nodded.
Aaron opened the door to his home and pulled him inside. Jonas was looking around the living room and turned to drop his bag on the ground. “I never thought I’d see you again, Aaron, but I couldn’t lose you again.”
“Aaron?” A female voice sounded from the bedroom doorway. Aaron stiffened and turned to a beautiful Being woman, standing in the bedroom. She had a look of confusion on her face, but soon her eyes grew
wide when she looked at Jonas.
“Peri. This, this is Jonas.” Aaron dropped his head. She blinked rapidly and turned her back to the men. Jonas heard her sniff. “Jonas. I did not…I should not have come for you without telling you. I was so happy to see you, I did not think.” Aaron turned to look at Jonas, sadness in his eyes, pain too.
“Who is that, Aaron?” Jonas knew, but he needed to hear Aaron say it. Even though it would break his heart, he had to hear him say it.
“That is Peri. My – she’s my mate, and I love her.”
Chapter Four
Peri paced the floor in the bedroom. Her heart felt like a block of ice in her chest. Aaron had told her about Jonas, but she never worried about his first love. Jonas was a human and lived on Earth. She never imagined he would show up here, on their homeworld. But, wouldn’t she go after Aaron if the situation were reversed? If he left her and went to Earth, would she follow him? She knew without a doubt that she would.
She thought back to the sight of them standing together in the living room. She could see the love they shared between them. She closed her eyes, hearing the men talking. It didn’t help that Aaron had told Jonas he loved her. She was in a terrible predicament anyway. Her eyes filled with tears for so many reasons. She did hurt from seeing the man who loved her mate. She could see the love in Jonas’s eyes as he looked at Aaron after she heard them in the living area.
She had stood there for a while before she said anything. There was so much joy on their faces. And though she was loathed to admit it, seeing them together had done something to her heart. Knowing Aaron found his first mate made her feel sad. Not necessarily because Aaron was with Jonas again, but because she could almost feel the love between them. How could she be mad at her mate when they might have to move on to other partners soon anyway. She fought the sob that threatened. Due to her warring emotions, she didn’t hear Aaron’s approach.
“Peri,” his voice was soft, full of regret and his own pain. She knew he was torn, but she couldn’t find words to say. “I am sorry to hurt you. Especially after what happened with the baby.” She felt his hand touch her shoulder and instinctively jerked away from him not because of him and Jonas, but because losing the baby was too painful to talk about. She had only just gotten pregnant, but she had so much hope to feel life bloom inside her and hold her child in her arms. Since she had gotten her emotions restored, all she wanted was to have children.
“I’m sorry. Peri, I didn’t think beyond finding Aaron.” Jonas’s voice drifted to her. She inhaled deeply, trying to calm her emotions. “Peri I won’t lie, I had been told Aaron was assigned a female, but I didn’t think, I never imagined that feelings developed between you. Especially so soon after,” his voice trailed off.
“I never thought he could develop feelings for a female. I guess I thought he’d be more like me and only be attracted to another male.” She heard a zipper and turned to see Jonas closing a bag and heading toward the door. Suddenly she knew what she had to do and letting him leave was not going to work.
