“That wasn’t so hard was it?” She smirks.
“Loving you was never hard, Marta.” I pull her tightly against me and bring us both back up the steps of the cruiser. The door closes behind us. “Let’s go home.”
“I’m home when I’m with you,” she says as she nuzzles into my chest.
Home is Marta, now and forever.
1 Italian: Balls
CHAPTER36
?SURPRISE, I BROKE YOUR AC?
?KAMARI
Of courseshe told me to cheer up…she’s got everything I want. I stand in the crowd of cheering women and feel nothing but bitterness as the alien duke dips my new friend in his arms and kisses her passionately.
Maybe some of us don’t get alien mates…maybe I’m doomed to spend the rest of my life in outer space alone. Or worse yet, a woman-shaped placeholder until a fi’len finds their true love.
I am a human bookmark on the pages of love.
This scene in front of me? A romance. You can tell those two havefought hard for a happy ever after in their future.
My life, right now? A character study at best.
The other girls tell me I’m lucky. I woke up from cryosleep already rescued. I never had to dance in a bubble, and I’ve never had anyone here at the palace be anything but kind to me.
It feels like they’re downplaying the fact that being abducted by aliens alone could be incredibly traumatic.
I was getting my life together on Earth. My bookstore was finally in the green after a year of hustling my ass off. I was financially comfortable and was about to put a down payment on the most beautiful condo I’d ever laid my eyes on in Seattle.
These were no small feats, but they’re reduced to nothing but ancient history now. I will never go back to Earth…ever.
So I tried my best to fit in here, and I even fell for the kind Medic Hi’rey. I think we could have had something, if not for that stupid mate bond. How is that fair? How is anything fair here at all?
I look at the marauder's ship as they help the newest human refugees down the ramp.
They’re a true ragtag bunch, each member of the crew a vastly different kind of alien. Sure, their ship kind of looks like shit, but I can tell they must have so many amazing adventures.The craft looks “well loved.”
The captain, a strangely masked fi’len with dark hair, stares at the happy couple everyone else is paying attention to…and I swear he rolls his eyes.
Maybe, if I can’t write my life as a romance novel, I can write it as an adventure?
I push through the cheering women and slide my way over to the beat-up cruiser. One of the refugee liaisons motions for them with her data pad. I know that she's supposed to get all the humans’ information before they move on to the decontamination units—So, I’ve got plenty of time.
I’m sick of letting the world go by here on Sontafrul 6—it’s time for a change of scenery.
Just as the alien duke scoops up his mate and everyone goes wild, I sprint at full speed toward the loading dock of their ship.
I’m not in my prime like I was on my college track team, but I’m good enough to get past the crowd and up the steps before anyone realizes what's happening.
In fact, I’m going so fast that I have to use the wall to come to a stop. I smash into the metal panel with a loud clunk.
I don’t wait to find out if anyone else is onboard but climb up a ladder right under what looks like some space-age version of HVAC ductwork. I’m just small enough to squeeze into the tube.
I pray that it’s not some kind of incineration system as I wiggle forward. As the sides of the duct press into my shoulders, I get worried that I’ve made a mistake.
What if I get stuck, and no one finds me until my body starts to stink up the place? Then I’ll forever be the stupid human who got stuck in the UFO’s AC system.
