Page 82 of I Married A Syllen

“No, that’s too easy. I think putting him on manure duty would be more appropriate,” my father said, before tugging on my ear.

“Ow!” I said in an overly dramatic way. “No, thank you! I try to look after your welfare, and you threaten me with boring chores! Fine! Be that way! Now I wonder if I should introduce you to my mate.”

I turned sideways to glance at Mirella while saying that last sentence. Although she had come closer to us, my woman stayed at a respectful distance not to interfere with our reunion. She held her hands clasped in front of her, her fingers twisting in an involuntary display of nervousness. My protective instincts went into overdrive. I extended a hand towards her, and she timidly approached and took it.

“Mother, Father, please meet my Mirella,” I said. “Mirella, these are my parents, Aleeka and Xolor.”

“Hello,” Mirella said, her voice slightly shaking. “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“Hello,” my father replied.

Mother tilted her head to the side as she quietly examined my mate from head to toe. There was no hostility in her gaze, only genuine curiosity. However, her silence—although brief—sufficed to further increase Mirella’s nervousness.

“So you are my son’s human,” Ma said at last. “Do you care for him?”

I groaned inwardly at my mother’s even more acute straightforwardness. Not dancing around whatever question we had or topic we wished to discuss was standard among my people. I hoped Mirella would understand it wasn’t meant to be rude.

“Yes,” my mate said without hesitation, which had a pleasant heat spreading through my chest. “I care about him a lot.”

Ma nodded with approval, her gaze still assessing.

“The Great Mothers say that you speak our tongue. I would love to hear it,” she said.

Mirella tucked a lock of her golden strands behind her ear, looking adorably embarrassed.

“I speak it like a baby,” Mirella said in our language. “They call me Vakelia.”

My parents burst out laughing, but not in a disrespectful way. I also couldn’t help laughing at the deliberately childish voice my mate used.

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” my mother said warmly. “The Goddess brought you to my son, and the land welcomed you. You may speak like a baby, but you are our baby now. And just like I taught my other children, I will teach you, too. Welcome to Drossara, Daughter.”

Mirella swallowed hard and blinked rapidly, no doubt to stem her tears. Ma drew my mate into her embrace, giving her a tight hug while her leinis intertwined with her hair. It saddened me that they couldn’t connect properly due to Mirella not having veris… yet. She would have been even more deeply moved by the depth of love Ma infused you with through that connection.

Soon you will know…

I couldn’t wait for us to bond, and even more so after last night. The question was how much time did she require before she was ready for us to take that permanent step? From our conversations, I understood that humans would court each other for sometimes nearly a decade before they got married. Would she require the same type of waiting period? For Syllens, the minute you found your soulmate, you immediately bonded. What was the point of waiting when you already knew this was the person you would love above all others?

My tongue burned with the urge to ask her the question. Under normal circumstances, I would have done it last night or this morning. However, I feared it would make her feel pressured to proceed long before she was ready for it. At the same time, how was she to know that I wanted to be permanently bound to her unless I made my desires clear?

My father speaking put an end to my wandering thoughts.

“I understand that you’re an off-world plant specialist?” Da asked Mirella, a hopeful glimmer sparkling in his forest green eyes identical to mine.

“Da!” I exclaimed, disbelievingly. “You just met her! Give her a chance to breathe before you talk her ears off about gardening and botany!”

Mother and Mirella burst out laughing while Da scrunched his face at me.

“I was just making polite conversation,” he mumbled.

“Sure you were,” I said in a teasingly dubious tone.

We ate breakfast together, which gave me a chance to update them on recent events and our current situation. Various tribemates joined us along the way. I couldn’t help noticing the huge contrast between how they interacted with my mate and how the Ungaro Tribe reacted to the UPO workers who came to help them stabilize the ground.

They didn’t express any suspicions or act in a way that could be deemed cold or distant. They accepted that she was my soulmate, and as such, that she was one of us. The fact that she diligently joined our efforts getting our village back up and running further cemented her status among us.

Naturally, everyone wanted to pet her hair. But as I had warned them not to pester her about it, they kept their hands to themselves. Mirella ended up being the one volunteering to be petted whenever she caught someone stealing glances at her hair. I could already see how relentlessly our younglings would hound her once they rose from the Long Sleep.

It took the queens three full days to awaken all of our Kalrins. Due to the state of the land, the queens then focused all their energy on laying countless eggs to get more workers feeding the soil with their blessed melia.