United

by Melissa Landers

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Acknowledgments

  MELISSA LANDERS

  Copyright © 2016 by Melissa Landers

  Cover designed by Gene Mollica

  All rights reserved. By payment, you have been granted the nontransferable right to read this e-book on-screen. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including downloading, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher, Elire Publishing, LLC.

  First edition, August 2016

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Landers, Melissa.

  United: an Alienated novel/Melissa Landers. –First edition.

  Summary: Star-crossed teenagers Aelyx and Cara must unite their people against a common enemy or face extinction.

  ISBN 978-0-9970-8681-2 (EPub Edition)

  ISBN 978-0-9970-8680-5 (hardback) –ISBN 0-9970-8680-7

  [1. Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction. 2. Student exchange programs—Fiction. k12

  3. Love—Fiction. 4. Science fiction.]

  This novel is dedicated to you, reader.

  Thank you for loving my characters as much as I do.

  Chapter One

  SATURDAY, MAY 20

  L’eihr: The Final Frontier

  Greetings, earthlings!

  No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you—that’s a new blog header up there. Welcome to UNITED, your exclusive source for sneak peeks into the first integrated L’eihr-Human colony. I hope you brought your sunscreen, because we’re headed to the beach, baby! You heard me. The colony is set on a lush, tropical island located on the opposite side of the planet from the main continent.

  Jealous?

  It’s not too late to apply for passage…

  We’re looking for a few good humans to round out our first group of settlers, especially those with a background in agriculture or mechanical engineering. Your skills could help build a whole new society, and if that doesn’t get your motor running, I don’t know what will.

  Remember, among the requirements for settlers are a full-scale IQ of at least 130, general wellness, and a healthy reproductive system. (Sorry. I don’t make the rules.) You can download an application online and visit your local Earth Council office for a physical examination and mental screening.

  I hope to see you around.

  I’ll be the one sporting a goofy smile and a perpetual sunburn.

  Posted by Cara Sweeney

  Cara closed her laptop, taking care to muffle the click so she didn’t wake Aelyx, who was snoring lightly from the bunk they shared in her ship’s quarters. He slept with one muscled arm curled beneath his head, his loose honey-brown locks hiding his eyes. As if sensing her absence, he grumbled and hugged her pillow to his chest, then gave a contented sigh and murmured something in his native language before drifting off again.

  It made her smile.

  In the weeks since they’d left Earth, she’d grown accustomed to sleeping in his arms, too. No matter how quietly either of them padded about the room in the morning, the other would inevitably wake within minutes. They’d become synchronized in their movements, much like the trio of moons that orbited the planet five hundred miles below their feet.

  On silent tiptoes, Cara made her way to the porthole and gazed past the darkness of space to her new home. L’eihr was barely visible as a ring of light as it eclipsed the distant sun, but she could still picture it from her last visit—an orb of muted indigo dotted with thousands of tiny islands and two continents, one of which housed the entire population of their race.

  Of course, that was about to change.

  Once the medics were done quarantining them for Earth cooties, Cara and Aelyx would shuttle down to the colony and begin their new life together. The prospect made her heart flutter. They’d have the whole community to themselves for the first couple of weeks while she finished negotiating the colony charter. It would almost be like a vacation. And they were long overdue for some fun in the sun.

  Thwarting coups and saving alliances was hard work.

  “It’s too early to get up.” Aelyx’s voice was rough with sleep in a way that never failed to make her tummy do backflips. When he stretched both arms above his head, it drew her gaze to the contours of his tawny chest and his flat slab of a belly, even more scrumptious without a “button.” He yawned and murmured, “Come back to bed.”

  He didn’t need to ask her twice.

  Cara climbed beneath the covers and rested her cheek on the perfectly hollowed spot where his shoulder met his chest. His skin was warm, carrying with it the unique, spicy-sweet scent she’d grown to crave more than h’ali, the L’eihr equivalent of coffee. While he wrapped both arms around her and drew her close, she placed a palm over his heart to gauge the strength and rhythm of its beats.

  “How’s the ticker?” she asked, peeking at him through her lashes.

  “Strong.” He covered her hand with his and pressed down so she could feel a steady thump. “Healthy.” A wicked grin curved his mouth, and with mischief in his voice, he nuzzled her ear and added, “Ready for anything.”

  Cara let her eyelids drift shut when he gently took her earlobe between his teeth. She didn’t know if she had the strength to turn him down this time. Two weeks ago, a L’eihr weapon had stopped Aelyx’s heart. It was a miracle she’d been able to get it beating again, and since then, she’d insisted on giving him a chance to recover before they played their respective v-cards.

  Keeping those cards in their pockets hadn’t been easy—for either of them.

  But with his lips brushing a wayward trail down the side of her neck, Cara was feeling awfully ready, too. Chills broke out across her skin in delicious contrast to the heated blood rushing through her veins. Then he bit that magical place at the top of her shoulder, and her resolve folded faster than a stadium seat.

  “Are you sure?” she whispered. “I don’t want to send you back to the great beyond.”

  Aelyx paused long enough to lock their gazes, sharing a brief snippet of his emotions through Silent Speech. A rush of desire flooded over her, and after that, there was no more chitchat…

  Until a few moments later, when their com-spheres buzzed an alert.

  “Fasha,” Aelyx swore, raking a hand through his hair. He rolled onto his back and groaned loud enough to vibrate the pillow. “How do they always know?” He jabbed an index finger toward the unused top bunk. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a camera up there.”

  Cara took a second to steady her breathing before answering the summons. Its signature frequency told her the call came from The Way—L’eihr’s governing body, which now included her as the Chief Human Consultant. Her colleagues weren’t spying. She and Aelyx simply had rotten luck.

  “One of these days, we’ll catch a break.” She handed over his sphere, and together they spoke their passkeys while tugging the blanket high enough to conceal any exposed skin.

  An image of the head Elder flickered to life, stooped in her miniature form atop the mattr
ess. If Alona was surprised to see them together under the covers, she didn’t let it show. Her faded chrome eyes betrayed no emotion as she lifted two fingers in the usual L’eihr greeting and droned, “I have wonderful news.”

  You’d never know it from her tone, but that was normal for the Elders. They’d practically bred the life out of themselves several generations ago. That was why they needed humans to diversify the gene pool. Cara returned the greeting and waited for her leader to continue.

  “Your quarantine is complete,” Alona said. “I’ve sent a craft to shuttle you to the colony, where the head of the development panel will greet you.” She raised a brow at Cara. “I assume you remember Devinder from your former involvement on the panel?”

  Cara suppressed an eye roll. She remembered him, all right. The old guy was so uptight he practically squeaked when he walked. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “He is now our tenth member of The Way,” Alona said. “As the two of you are equals, I expect a greater level of collaboration between you.”

  Translation: no more bickering. “Understood,” Cara told her.

  “Excellent.” Alona’s lips quirked in what might have been a smile. Or indigestion. It was hard to tell with the Elders.

  “What about Jaxen and Aisly?” Cara asked. The genetically altered clones had attempted to overthrow The Way, taking several lives and nearly destroying the Earth–L’eihr alliance in the process. Afterward, they’d vanished without a trace, which led Cara to believe they had more support than she’d originally thought. Maybe enough support to take them off of Earth and back to L’eihr. “Any news?”

  “A few possible sightings, but nothing concrete enough to share.” Then Alona dismissed her by asking, “Do you require further assistance?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “Then you may depart at your leisure.” With a brief two-finger salute, Alona’s image vanished in a wisp of gray.

  Cara heaved a sigh and sat up, then glanced over her shoulder at Aelyx. “We’d better hurry.” One thing she’d learned during her portion of the student exchange was at your leisure really meant immediately. Even though her position in The Way gave her more power than most citizens, she couldn’t disobey a direct order from Alona. Not without consequences.

  Aelyx pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut. By now, Cara knew what he was doing—reciting Earth’s periodic table of elements, probably forward and backward, judging by the pained look on his face.

  As soon as he reopened his eyes, Cara latched her gaze onto his silvery irises and used Silent Speech to repeat what he’d told her weeks ago when she had needed reassurance. Soon we’ll be in our new home—no roommates, no bunk beds, no classes. Just you and me and miles and miles of beach.

  He flashed a weary smile. At this point, I’ll believe it when I see it.

  “Come on,” she said aloud, tugging on his wrist. “I’ll race you to the washroom.” She winked and added, “Winner gets anything they want.”

  With that, Aelyx maneuvered around her and bolted for the door, then smacked the keypad and ran into the hallway. Never mind that he was clad in nothing but his boxers. For all their stoicism, L’eihrs had no modesty. Cara laughed and pulled on a clean uniform, pleased with herself for putting a spring in Aelyx’s step.

  Two cups of h’ali later, they stood in the docking station with their duffel bags planted at their feet. The shuttle was late, so they linked arms and let the hiss of recycled air through the vents fill the silence. Soon the sound of boots against metal turned their attention to the doorway, where Aelyx’s best friend, Syrine, strode into view, dragging her own duffel behind her.

  Syrine offered a smile, but it didn’t touch her eyes, which were bloodshot and puffy from weeks of crying. A sympathy pain needled at Cara’s sternum. Syrine had lost her l’ihan, a young soldier named David, who’d served as her bodyguard and died protecting Aelyx during the attempted coup. They’d brought David’s body with them to bury on the colony. L’eihrs typically cremated their dead, but Cara had intervened for an exception in this case.

  It was the least she could do.

  “Shuttling to the continent?” Cara asked, because she didn’t know what else to say. She already knew the answer. Syrine was an emotional healer and more fragile than the other clones. She needed the kind of help they couldn’t provide on the colony.

  The girl gave a slight nod and tugged on her ponytail in a nervous habit she’d recently picked up. “I won’t be gone long. Will you wait until I’m back before burying David? I want to be at his memor—” Her words cut off with a hitched breath.

  Aelyx jogged to meet Syrine and took her pretty, heart-shaped face between his hands. There was a time when something like that would’ve made Cara jealous, but not anymore. Syrine needed a friend, and no one knew her better than Aelyx. The two exchanged a few quiet murmurs before Cara turned away to give them some privacy.

  She chewed her bottom lip and stared at the cargo hold, where a cryogenic box held David’s remains. His was another senseless murder, just like Syrine’s first love, a young L’eihr exchange student who’d died in China.

  So many losses. It wasn’t fair.

  But despite that, Cara had hope—both for herself and Syrine—that they could put the past behind them and move forward together, stronger than before. Joining the colony was the first step to a brighter future.

  And the future began today.

  Chapter Two

  Sometimes after waking from a nightmare, a cloud of fear and sorrow followed Aelyx into the realm of consciousness, and he’d have to keep reminding himself that the negative emotions weren’t real. They were nothing more than a mental mirage—a trick of his psyche.

  He felt that way now.

  Today was the first time Syrine had spoken openly to him about David’s death, and even though they’d parted an hour ago, her grief had bled into Aelyx’s heart and lingered there like a shadow. No matter how tightly he held to Cara’s hand, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she might vanish if he took his gaze away from her. The experience had left him more than a little shaken.

  It had also put his problems into perspective.

  Had he really wasted one moment of his time with Cara brooding because of sex? What right did he have to complain about waiting a little longer when Cara was living and breathing, strapped into the seat beside him as they sped to their new home?

  To hell with the ache in his gut. He was the luckiest L’eihr alive.

  “Look at me,” he said to Cara while lifting their linked hands to his lips. When she turned her gaze away from the window, he told her, “I love you.”

  Her face broke into a smile, enlivening her electric blue eyes and dimpling one freckled cheek. Her look of pure happiness intensified the pain in his belly. At times like these, she was too beautiful to bear.

  “Love you more.” She nodded at the window and gave a little bounce of excitement, causing her safety restraints to squeak. “We’re almost there. Can you believe it now?”

  Her enthusiasm prompted him to peer past her through the glass, though there wasn’t much to see. The morning sun hadn’t yet burned away the thick layer of fog clinging to L’eihr’s ocean waters, so the view resembled roiling tendrils of smoke trapped beneath glass. Still, a thrill tickled his chest when the shuttle descended into the mist. Regardless of whether he could see the colony, it was down there, and he would stand on its sandy shores within minutes.

  “Funny how this is my home planet,” he said, “but you’re the one who’s been to the colony.” Aside from his visits to Earth, he’d never travelled beyond the continent’s third precinct. “Seems backward.”

  Cara sniffed a humorless laugh and slanted him a glance. “Since when has anything between Earth and L’eihr been normal?”

  “Point taken.”

  “But don’t worry,” she said. “I think you’ll like the setup. The panel tried to blend both cultures so it won’t feel too foreign to anyone. There’s even a
—” She stopped with a gasp and pressed her forehead to the window. “What’s that?”

  Aelyx leaned in, following the direction of her gaze. The mist had cleared enough to reveal a shadow gliding beneath the surface of the water. As it was twice the size of their shuttle, Aelyx understood why the creature had drawn Cara’s attention. He recognized the rounded form at once, even though he’d never before seen one in the flesh.

  “It’s a priva. They feed on microorganisms through slits in their skin. They’re very gentle, like a cross between a manta ray and a humpback whale.”

  Cara breathed out in awe, and then the animal was gone as the shuttle sped onward.

  Before long, something even more thrilling than an oceanic mammoth came into view: a cluster of beige islands, the largest of which showed signs of civilization in the form of tall multistory structures constructed from the same gray stone used at the capital. Aelyx pressed nearer to the glass, squashing Cara in the process.

  She groaned, but there was laughter in her voice. “Guess I should’ve given you the window seat.”

  “Is that it?”

  “Yep.” She sat straighter, beaming with pride. And for good reason. The community was charming, at least from a hundred meters above the ground.

  Dozens of paved paths wound around the buildings in a linked trail. Upon closer inspection, he realized the paths were roads with a few compact vehicles parked along the shoulder. He identified the main dormitory by its position at the center of the community, bordering an expansive park and what appeared to be a swimming pool. But that couldn’t be the case. Recreation wasn’t a priority for L’eihrs, only duty.

  “Is that what I think it is?” he asked.

  “If you think it’s a solar-heated pool, then yes.” She delivered a light elbow nudge. “I negotiated one full day a week for leisure time.”

  “Impressive.”

  Cara pointed at the barracks. “That’s called the living center. Our unit will have a bedroom and a small lounge, but no bathroom or kitchen.” She heaved a sigh. “I fought for more privacy, but the panel insisted on having communal washrooms and a dining hall because it’ll force everyone to interact.”