I hear Aloryk before I see him, shoving past his people to get to me, others trailing along in his wake. “She ismymate,” he declares, coming to stand by my side, his tail twitching and his hands clenching and unclenching. “Mine. Give her space. Do not crowd her.” The relief I feel having him here takes me by surprise. Another surprise comes when I realize that he’s just as tall as most of these guys - if not taller than some. Somehow, these new ones feel more… I don’t know… intimidating?
I look up to Aloryk, remembering how he had rescued me, calmed me, and protected me out there in that jungle.
“We are all glad to see you well, brother,” one Trixikka says, his big hand scrubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly as his pretty pink eyes dart between Aloryk and I. “But I see no heart-stars, so…”
This is going to be a recurring theme, I see. What do they think? No heart-stars, so I’m up for grabs?
I can almost hear the growl building in Aloryk’s chest, so before he can start declaring war on anyone, I take the sweet, giant lug by the hand, lacing my fingers with his and answer for him. “It doesn’t matter,” I tell all the Trixikka gathered around us, smiling brightly. “Aloryk dreamt I was his,” I look up at him, squeezing his hand as he stares down at me with bright eyes and softly parted lips. “…so I am.” I grin at the stunned look in his face before leaning in to whisper, “finders-keepers.”
“Dreams are just dreams,” I hear one alien argue amongst the murmuring that surrounds us, but I’m too busy watching Aloryk’s face as he searches my own like there’s a riddle there and he thinks he’s solved it - but is double-checking, just to be sure.
“No they’re not,” he answers the unknown male without his gaze ever leaving my face. “Dreams areeverything.”
It’s while we’re staring at each other like we’re the only two people that exist that I hear it; someone calling his name. Awomancalling his name. She comes into view, all tall frame, and gorgeous red hair. Her porcelain skin is peppered with artful freckles in places, like the alien suns here had decided she wasn’t quite beautiful enough and needed to be kissed with a dusting of something ‘extra’. “Ricky!” she gasps, pushing and shoving her way to get to us -to get to him. “Oh, my God, Ricky! We thought you were dead!” the redhead squeals, launching herself at Aloryk with long, slender open arms.
Ricky?
The beautiful woman bounds into him so hard, Aloryk almost stumbles backward. He drops my hand to keep whoever the fuck this is from falling too, and I don’t like to admit how there’s an echo of hurt in my chest from all this.
She looks perfect in his arms.
Perfect.
“Not so tight, Chaz-Titi,” Aloryk chuckles as he puts her down, standing back to give her a smile. “It is good to see you, too.”
“Lord have mercy! Look what those creatures did to your beautiful wings!”
Guilt slices through my stomach. He hides the pain so well, I almost forget. “We should get you to a doctor or something,” I tell him, putting my hand on Aloryk’s forearm. “You must be in agony.”
The smiling redhead looks at me now for the first time, her bright blue eyes taking all of me in. When her assessment lands on my dyed lavender hair, her mouth falls open and she looks between Aloryk and I like he’d just presented her with a real-life unicorn or something. “Well, butter my ass and call me abiscuit!” she exclaims in her southern drawl, her smile beaming so wide now, displaying perfectly dazzling teeth. “It’s your dream girl, Ricky! You found her?!”
“I did,” Aloryk grins with pride as he grabs my hand again and pulls me into his frame. I don’t miss the way the redhead takes a step back from him now that he’s introducing me as ‘his’. I also don’t miss the way her pretty eyes slide down to his chest - where he remains heart-star-less. “Chaz-Titi, this is my mate, Polly. Isn’t she the most beautiful creature you have ever seen?”
I must turn raspberry-red at that. How can he say that in front of all these people? Especially to someone who looks likeher.
I feel myself turn hypervigilant for any kind of sleight headed my way, like someone snickering, or outright laughing at the mere thought. To the redhead’s credit, her smile doesn’t falter one bit and she looks legitimately happy to say, “well, of course she is! Hi,” she says, holding out her hand to me now, “welcome to Trixyville, where the double suns are hot, but the men are hotter! I’m Chastity. Let’s go get your man to the healers.”
I’ll hand it to Chastity, she seems genuine, and the little ugly monster that rose in my mind when this stunning woman bounded up to Aloryk and smothered him in a hug quietens down somewhat. She smiles at me and urges us to follow her with a jerk of her head. “Uh, ‘Trixyville’?” I ask as we weave our way through the crowd of aliens and their huts. Some of them stop us to welcome Aloryk back home, others let us go by with merely a respectful incline of their head. I can feel a lot of eyes on me as we pass by, though.
“Yeah, " Chastity slows, falling into step beside me. “Rolls off the tongue better thanTrixikka-ville.” She doesn’t miss a beat to then lean into me with a conspiratorial grin to say, “‘Trixikka’ can be a bit of a mouthful, if you know what I mean.”
I choke on the inelegant snort-laugh - a snort-laugh so unexpected, it gets lodged in my throat. Aloryk looks at me curiously and I can’t bring myself to meet his eye. Because,yeah, judging by the tented loincloth I’ve seen, I knowexactlywhat she means.
Chastity sighs happily as she links her arm through mine, guiding us toward where I assume their ‘healers’ are. “I can’t believe he found you. You’re exactly as he described you from his dreams!” She then leans past me to say to Aloryk, “can you maybe dream up some kind of fast-food joint next time? I’d murder someone for a burger and fries right about now.”
* * *
Chastity talksa lot aswe walk. I try to listen, but my brain’s a bit scrambled. Besides, Tryk had explained a lot of it pretty well the other night. He’s apparently off with another, larger rescue group, leading their head combat guy, Mavyx, to that horrible cave by the shore where the other women still lay in their pods, surrounded by those nightmare-fuel chimp-things. Chastity talks some more about Mavyx getting his heart-stars, and how they’ve recently let an outcast alien join them because he got his too, but I’m not really listening. I’m hyper-aware of how tightly Aloryk is holding my hand the closer we get to his people’s healers.
“Here we are,” Chastity smiles before standing before Aloryk and reaching forward to give his arm a squeeze. “I’m so happy you’re home now, Ricky.”
“It is good tobehome again,” Aloryk rumbles in his warm, deep voice.
Something passes between them that I’m ashamed to say I’m jealous of. It’s a familiarity I don’t quite feel with Alorykyet. Even if with them, it is purely a friendship and just last night this huge guy had spent hours eating me out. My mom’s cautions echo in my mind, bringing forth an image of my dad, a memory from the awful day I saw him with his other family. We’d locked eyes across the street. His had filled with panic - not from being caught by his teenage daughter with another woman and their children, but from the fear that I was going to make his two worlds collide together. He’d already left me and Mom by then, but no one had told me the whole truth. Seeing him getting ice cream with a whole other happy little family had sent me into a zombie-like trance. I hadn’t even realized I’d dropped my bike and started to blindly cross the road until the sound of screeching tires pierced through my stunned shock.
“C’mon, I’ll introduce you to Alana and the baby while Ricky gets seen to,” Chastity says, turning to me with a bright smile.
“I…” Her words shook me from my unhappy memory. I look up to Aloryk to see him make eye contact with someone over my head. Turning, I see an older Trixikka male emerge from his hut. His wings and hair are peppered with gray, and his tail is decorated with three, shining gold bands. The moment the older male sees Aloryk and his poor wings, he sucks in a big breath that seems to take my own away. “Maybe I should stay with-”
