She waved her hand at the cat. “I’m sure you do the best you can, but right now, Jenny needs more than a fuzzy hunter.”
With that, Mr. F spun around, flashed his backside at them, and laid back down to go to sleep.
“Such a diva,” Jenny muttered.
“So I’m learning,” she said. “Now, back to Karuk. What’s he like?”
“Very nice. And he’s a good kisser.”
“You kissed him?” Brooklyn squealed. “Oh girl, you have to spill. Tell me everything.”
Quickly, Jenny laid out all the important parts about what had happened. Even her own doubts about the whole thing, which felt good to get off her chest and hear out loud.
It didn’t sound so crazy when she laid it all out there.
Well, it kinda did, because. Alien. Dalgurian. Earth girl. The general premise was bananas.
But Brooklyn seemed to take it all in and process.
The room was silent between them for a few minutes, and Jenny grabbed her bathroom stuff to add to her case.
She carefully packed them into their little bags so they didn’t leak. It was something to do with her fingers while she waited for Brooklyn to say something.
Even though she’d only known Brooklyn a short time, it felt like she was a real friend, and now she really wanted to hear what this friend thought of this crazy scenario.
“I think you’re looking at this wrong,” Brooklyn finally said. “If anything, this is going to give you an enormous boost over anyone else here. You have a reason to stay here, as long as you want, because of Karuk. They will not expect you to be a SAHM or something because you mated with an alien. You’re a bioengineer. You’re going to literally have decades of work that you can do here. And if you’re mated to him, you’ll never have to leave. And that pretty much solves the stalker issue, just on its own.”
“But he’s a construction worker. He said when the job’s done, he’ll move on.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have to. Surely, they’ll have maintenance positions here. Let’s face it. This is a giant machine. They always need someone to work on things and fix things and make sure it’s all running right. They will not kick the two of you out of here.”
“True,” Jenny said. “But what if he wants to leave?”
She shrugged. “So you go with him. Girl, you have skills. Your skills are fire. You’ll be able to find something. I’m sure there’s plenty of use for a bioengineer out there in space. And think of all you’d be able to see and study. The plant life alone would be insane.”
Jenny grinned. “You’re selling this hard for me.”
“As if you had any doubt.”
“Well, we have a get-out-of-jail-free ticket. Part of the contract says that in thirty days, if we don’t want to be mated, we can separate with no legal hassles.”
Brooklyn put her hands on her hips. “Girl. You know you just ruined any excuse you could come up with to deny this.”
“I know.”
She looked out her window and saw Earth below.
“Guess I’m mating with an alien.”
11
The shuttle flew toward The Bridge, and turbulence rocked them around. Even with the secured seats, Karuk felt the jerking of the ship. He’d felt worse, but it was not comfortable.
Jenny, however, looked utterly terrified.
“Nasty winter storm we’re flying through,” the pilot said. “We’ll be landing in a minute.”
Jenny had a grip so tight on the chair, her hands were turning white as she stared out the small window next to her.
