Chapter 10 Grogen
Grogen crossed his arms over his chest and admired his handiwork. The plow head wasn’t technically designed for his transport, but he’d made it work, creating new attachment points to match the ones on his vehicle. This would be a lot quicker than digging out by hand.
He turned to see Abby engrossed by something on her screen. By the expression on her face, the search for a new apartment wasn’t going well.
He didn’t know what had prompted him to ask her to stay with him. He knew it was a big step for humans as well as for Talleans. He could say he was only offering her a place until she got back on her feet, but that would be a lie. He had a feeling once he had her in his home, he’d never want her to leave. The sneaky beginnings of the mate bond were even now threading their way around his heart.
Mate bonds were terrifying. Once formed, they were nearly impossible to dissolve. Technically, it was possible to form a second bond many decades after losing a mate, but the majority of Talleans followed their mates into the Stars. Those who survived usually did so for the sake of their offspring.
Since humans could not form mate bonds back, instead relying solely on love, bonding with a human was extremely risky. That hadn’t stopped any of the numerous mixed couples here on Reka 5 or throughout the rest of the galaxy, though. There were some theories that humans felt a mild version of the mate bond when with a Tallean, but they hadn’t been proven yet. Although there must be some truth in it because humans were so much like Talleans that there was already a company helping Tallean and human couples conceive and bring offspring into the Galaxy.
Grogen rubbed his chest at the tightness forming there as he watched her. Did Abby feel anything for him now? If not, would she soon? Whatever it was forming between them felt so right, and he didn’t want to fight it, but he had to admit at the same time he was terrified.
Abby huffed and stuffed her comm into her pocket. She was evidently annoyed by whatever had been on the screen, but when she looked up and their eyes met, any irritation drained away.
“Care to join me?” Grogen asked, opening the garage bay doors. A wall of white reaching his chest met them. The wind had pushed the snow up against the building.
“Sure.”
She came over, and he helped her into the vehicle before climbing in himself. The front of the vehicle was large enough for three smaller Talleans or two large ones, which meant there was a harness in the center. He pulled her over to sit next to him and buckled her in, tightening the straps around her.
“A little excessive?” She raised a brow at him when he adjusted the headrest to cushion the side of her head.
“Negative. There is a wall of snow, and snow is heavy. We will need to break through.”
She bit her lower lip, and he wondered if she’d decide against joining him after all. But after a moment of eyeing the wall of snow before them dubiously, she just shrugged and said, “Okay. Let’s do this.”
That had him grinning as he strapped himself in. He rarely got to use this vehicle for the work it had been built for, preferring to use the company vehicles instead, but those were beyond the wall of snow.
“Hang on.”
He carefully backed up as far as he could, then switched gears to ram into the snow. Abby let out a squeal at the impact, and her hand landed on his thigh, gripping his pant legs. The vehicle had moved a decent volume of snow, but it wasn’t quite enough.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I barely felt that.”
“It’s the harness system. It is top of the line.”
He backed up again, and this time, the plow broke through the wall of snow piled up against the building. The amount of snow this planet could put down in a day always astonished him. The winter storm had nearly buried his cabin the other year, and he’d had to dig his way out through a window since the door wouldn’t open.
Now that they had breached the wall, they could see that the world outside was a white wonderland capped with clear blue skies that gave no indication that a ferocious storm had just passed. The sun was up, the rays shining down and cutting through the crisp winter air. It made the snow sparkle like precious gems.
He was used to seeing this scene out in his cabin, and despite the loneliness he often felt there, the sight always filled him with wonder. Just like at the cabin, snow hung off the trees around the shop so heavily that the branches looked as if they would break. But they wouldn’t. The plants had evolved to withstand the weight.
“Ooh! It’s so pretty!” Abby exclaimed.
Clearing out the rest of the snow was kind of fun. It reminded him of being a young male and controlling his sire’s transport for the first time. His sire had let him loose in an open field, and he’d zoomed around it pretending he was out in space and flying through the stars.
Abby’s hand on his thigh relaxed, and she let out a giggle when he turned the vehicle for another sweep a little faster on purpose. Soon, they were both laughing as they made quick work of the rest of the parking lot.
“That was fun!” she said, her face flushed with excitement. “Like bumper cars, but with snow. I can’t wait until they finish that amusement park at the north end of the colony. I haven’t been on a rollercoaster for years.”
This was an Earth concept he’d read about but honestly didn’t understand. What was the point of sitting strapped into a cart and moving through a series of tracks, unable to take control? But a rich Tallean merchant had backed the budding company’s idea, so perhaps there was merit in it. Abby certainly seemed excited about the prospect.
“You like these…roller coaster machines?”
“I do! All the thrill, none of the real danger. Most of the time, anyway. I heard that with Tallean composite materials and alloys, they’ll be able to build one that is way bigger and better than anything we have on Earth.” She eyed him speculatively. “Tallean-sized.”
Grogen barked out a laugh. “When this park is finally finished, we will go.”
“Yes! I can’t wait!”
Abby was beaming as they got out of the transport and picked up their shovels. They still had to remove the snow around the company vehicles and near the doors and clear the walkways that joined the front and back of the shop.
Grogen had purchased a child-sized shovel last winter when he’d found Abby struggling to use a regular one. Initially he’d told her she didn’t need to help with the physical labor at all, but he’d found her doing it again the next day, so he’d quietly added a smaller shovel to their tools.
“I’ll do the walkway,” she offered. Then she ran off to start clearing out the snow that went nearly to her thighs.
He watched her go, then turned to the work vehicles, shovel in hand, and started to dig.