“I take it these are your brothers.” Elle’s smile fell a little and her eyes closed as the pressure increased. She seemed to struggle with holding up her head.
He saw the hint of blood on her shirt, from where she’d been shot. As soon as they reached space, he would make sure she was put into a medical booth and healed. He remembered seeing one on the ship.
“They are not wrong.” Ice held her hand tighter. “I do love you, Elle. I can’t leave you.”
“I’ll go,” Elle said, not looking at him. “Wherever you want to be, I’ll go too. I love you, Ice. When I thought I’d lost you forever, I couldn’t bear the pain of it.”
“Try to stay awake, Elle.” He could only hold her hand but it was enough. He felt her warmth, detected the beat of her heart in her wrist. “I’ll take care of you. I promise. Just hold on a little longer.”
Chapter Eighteen
One week later…
Elle sat on her parents’ porch surrounded by the beauty of Voyageurs National Park. Sunset in Northern Minnesota fascinated Ice and his brothers, and they all three stood on the lawn gazing at the sky. No one would look for her here. The Milano Foundation would be hunting for Ellen Sharp who’d grown up in Long Island and had no living relatives. The foundation didn’t know about this place. No one did. She could only hope the foundation took the lies on her application at face value and didn’t question her identity to the point they discovered the falsehoods.
That didn’t mean the threat wasn’t still there. The Milano Foundation would still want to capture the Sintazians. They would have to be vigilant. If trouble came, it was just a small hop into Canada. She knew the terrain, and they’d be able to walk across the border. It would buy them time to disappear. The envelope of cash that Ice gave her was hidden in the guest house for such a day.
She pulled the blankets tighter around her body to fight off the chilly weather. By the end of the month, snow would be falling, and it wouldn’t stop until late April or May. It wasn’t Sintazian temperatures, but she felt this was the best compromise she could manage.
They were safe. They had a home. Yes, explaining the whole alien thing to her parents had been tricky, but Elle thought they were coming around. Her parents insisted they stay, regardless of the strangeness of her guests. She knew her father would like Ice when he got to know him. How could he not? He might be an alien from outer space, but Ice was the most honorable man she’d ever known.
The blue had started coming back to their complexions. All except Frost, who could not take the medicine needed to get rid of his true coloring. Here, in the isolation of the national park, they didn’t need to hide who they were. Locals tended to keep to themselves when it came to strangers but were always ready to help out a friend. She hoped that, in time, those who came to meet her new family would be understanding and offer them the same courtesies they would any other neighbor.
“We do not have skies like this on my planet.” Ice joined her on the porch. He sat beside her on a bench and held her against him. He rubbed his hand against her arm as if to warm her. “Is there any pain today?”
“Please stop worrying. I promise I’m fine. Whatever those Galaxy Brides aliens did with their magic machine worked. It’s like I was never shot.” She tapped her side. The memory of the pain was still there, but the skin was healed. “I wish Earth would get its shit together. And maybe the aliens would share that technology with us and we could end world suffering.”
“When the time is right, the reptilians will make contact.” Ice kept rubbing her arm. “Are you very cold?”
“It’s not bad tonight,” she answered.
“You feel cold to me.”
“Stop fussing. I’m fine.” She laid her head against his shoulder.
“No. I think I should warm you.”
Elle got his meaning and laughed as she lifted her head to look at him. “Mm, maybe you’re right. I do feel a sudden chill coming on. I don’t think this blanket will be enough.”
“Elle.” Frost approached, stopping them from leaving the porch. “I have made up my mind. I do not wish to go back when Galaxy Brides comes to check on us in four months. I would like to stay here. Will you help me find a place? And a woman? I would like a woman.”
“I would like a woman too.” Snow joined them. “And a place. But mostly a woman.”
“I would love for you to stay on Earth.” Elle knew that would make Ice very happy. “The place, I can definitely help with. As for the women…” She started to deny them, but seeing the hope in their expressions, she said, “I’ll have to see what I can do.”
Ice grinned as he stood. “Stop talking. I am going to warm my woman now.”
Elle coughed in surprise at his blunt statement. She was not used to talking about sex so openly. However, between the brothers, there didn’t seem to be many secrets. In fact, when she was in the medical booth, Ice had apparently told them all about her and their experiences together. He had not left out any of the details. When she woke in the medical booth, they begin asking her strange questions about sexual positions, and if human women preferred to mate in the backs of trucks or in the cold.
“I would like to be more than your woman, Ice.” She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I do not understand, my love.”
“I want to be your wife. I want to be yours forever. Ask me to marry you.” She touched his cheek.
“But aren’t we married?” Ice frowned and looked at his brothers for confirmation.
“You have spoken words of love,” Frost said.
