“It’s funny.” Cara watched the game as she led him along the sidelines. “Not ha-ha funny, but strange, how it took an intergalactic war to make everyone put aside their differences. Two months ago, none of these people would talk to each other.”
Aelyx made a noise of agreement. The threat of extinction had forced both their worlds to unite against a common enemy. In doing so, they’d also discovered a new planet populated with their kind, although the Earth Council and The Way had decided not to initiate contact. Aelyx was glad for it. A few years of stability might be nice for a change.
He was so deep in thought he didn’t notice where Cara had led him until sand shifted beneath his boots and ocean mist dusted his face. His stomach grumbled. He’d thought they were walking to the dining hall. “Where are we going?”
The breeze tossed Cara’s braid over her shoulder as she towed him past the dunes. “You made me a promise, and now it’s time to deliver.”
Aelyx pursed his lips. He didn’t recall making any promises, but he hoped it involved skinny-dipping. “Give me a hint?”
“Nope. I want you to remember it on your own.”
As it turned out, their destination was the secluded northern tip of the beach, where sand gave way to stone. Cara indicated a spot and motioned for him to sit down. He did, and after he settled on a comfortable drift of sand, she sat between his legs, facing away, and reclined with her back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and looked out at the white-capped waves. The view was pleasant, but he still didn’t know what they were doing here.
At least not until the sun slipped over the horizon and a trio of moons arose to take its place. The darkness allowed the stars to shine, and there, high in the heavens beyond the third moon, stretched the angel nebula he had described to her last year. He tipped back his head to admire the swirling clouds of pink and violet. Then he recited the words he’d said to her so many months ago.
“Every time you see it, I want you to think of me. Soon we’ll stand together and watch the L’eihr sky from our colony.” He gave her a teasing squeeze. “Though sitting is nice, too.”
She gazed dreamily upward. “You know, the whole time we were apart I kept looking for this in the sky, but I couldn’t see it from the Aegis. It’s like the nebula wanted us to see it together.”
“We have,” he reminded her. The nebula had once been visible from their apartment window.
“But not like this. Not like I imagined we would.” She pondered for a moment. “Why didn’t we take the time to really appreciate it?”
Aelyx didn’t say so, but he imagined that was because they’d spent all their free time in their bedroom during those first few weeks on the colony. Not that he was complaining. “We were distracted by other things, I guess.”
She snuggled closer and rested the back of her head on his shoulder. “Well, let’s make time from now on. I don’t want to forget how hard we fought for this or how close we came to losing it.”
He hugged her tightly and pressed a kiss to her temple. The truth was he had never taken Cara for granted, and he didn’t need a nebula to make him appreciate how fortunate he was to have her with him. But he kept that thought to himself. “I promise.”
“So beautiful,” she said to the sky.
Aelyx was watching the freckled outline of her nose. He agreed. So beautiful. Eventually he joined her in turning his gaze skyward. He didn’t look to the constellations as humans often did, seeking glimpses of his destiny or predictions of the future. Instead, he propped his chin atop Cara’s head and let the pace of their breathing fall into sync. She was his future.
He didn’t need the stars to tell him that.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my editor, Susan Barnes, for guiding me through the revision process with thoughtful, in-depth suggestions that took my story to the next level. Additional thanks to Gene Mollica for a beautiful cover and Maria McGrath for stellar copyedits. It was a pleasure working with all of you. Endless gratitude to my agent, Nicole Resciniti, for finding a loving home for this book. Speaking of which, big hugs to Mary Cummings and the entire team at EverAfter Romance for helping me deliver a seamless conclusion to this trilogy.
Much love to authors Lorie Langdon and Lea Nolan for manuscript critiques, support, and friendship. I’m so glad to have you in my life. As always, I’m grateful for my family and friends, whose support has never wavered.
Completing this trilogy is bittersweet. Part of me is delighted for my characters and all they’ve overcome, but I would be lying if I said I was happy to see the journey end. Aelyx and Cara have lived inside my head for so long they’ve become a part of me. I hope they’ve become a part of you, too. For that reason, I’m grateful to you: the readers, librarians, bloggers, booktubers, and reviewers who’ve made this series a success by talking about it. You’re the ones who’ll give life to my characters for years to come. Thank you!
Other Books by Melissa Landers
Alienated Series
Alienated
Two years ago, the aliens made contact. Now Cara Sweeney is going to be sharing a bathroom with one of them. Handpicked to host the first-ever L’eihr exchange student, Cara thinks her future is set. Not only does she get a free ride to her dream college, she’ll have inside information about the mysterious L’eihrs that every journalist would kill for. Cara’s blog following is about to skyrocket.
Still, Cara isn’t sure what to think when she meets Aelyx. Humans and L’eihrs have nearly identical DNA, but cold, infuriatingly brilliant Aelyx couldn’t seem more alien. She’s certain about one thing, though: no human boy is this good-looking. But when Cara’s classmates get swept up by anti-L’eihr paranoia, Midtown High School suddenly isn’t safe anymore. Threatening notes appear in Cara’s locker, and a police officer has to escort her and Aelyx to class.
Cara finds support in the last person she expected. She realizes that Aelyx isn’t just her only friend; she’s fallen hard for him. But Aelyx has been hiding the truth about the purpose of his exchange, and its potentially deadly consequences. Soon Cara will be in for the fight of her life—not just for herself and the boy she loves, but for the future of her planet.
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Until Midnight
FREE! DON’T MISS THE ROMANTIC HOLIDAY STORY THAT CONNECTS ALIENATED AND INVADED.
Cara and Aelyx only have one day to spend together before he returns to earth and she travels to Aelyx’s home planet, L’eihr. Homesick and worried about the upcoming year apart, Cara is desperate to make these final hours count. Worst of all, Cara is missing Christmas, stuck on board an alien spaceship. When Aelyx learns that Cara is forgoing her favorite holiday, he tries to recreate Christmas in space by researching traditional earth customs…but a few things get lost in translation. Includes bonus chapters from ALIENATED and a sneak peek at the sequel, INVADED.
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Invaded
The romantic sequel to Alienated takes long-distance relationships to a new level as Cara and Aelyx long for each other from opposite ends of the universe…until a threat to both their worlds reunites them.
Cara always knew life on planet L’eihr would be an adjustment. With Aelyx, her L’eihr boyfriend, back on Earth, working to mend the broken alliance between their two planets, Cara is left to fend for herself at a new school, surrounded by hostile alien clones. Even the weird dorm pet hates her.
Things look up when Cara is appointed as human representative to a panel preparing for a human colony on L’eihr. A society melding their two cultures is a place where Cara and Aelyx could one day make a life together. But with L’eihr leaders balking at granting even the most basic freedoms, Cara begins to wonder if she could ever be happy on this planet, even with Aelyx by her side.
Meanwhile, on Earth, Aelyx, finds himself thrown into a full-scale PR campaign to improve human-L’eihr relations. Humans don’t know that their very survival depends on this alliance: only Aelyx’s people have t
he technology to fix the deadly contamination in the global water supply that human governments are hiding. Yet despite their upper hand, the leaders of his world suddenly seem desperate to get humans on their side, and hardly bat an eye at extremists’ multiple attempts on Aelyx’s life.
The Way clearly needs humans’ help . . . but with what? And what will they ask for in return?
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Starflight Series
Starflight
Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She’s so desperate to reach the realm that she’s willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.
When a twist of fate lands them instead on the Banshee, a vessel of dubious repute, Doran learns he’s been framed on Earth for conspiracy. As he pursues a set of mysterious coordinates rumored to hold the key to clearing his name, he and Solara must get past their enmity to work together and evade those out for their arrest. Life on the Banshee may be tumultuous, but as Solara and Doran are forced to question everything they once believed about their world–and each other–the ship becomes home, and the eccentric crew family. But what Solara and Doran discover on the mysterious Planet X has the power to not only alter their lives, but the existence of everyone in the universe…
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Starfall
A sequel/companion novel to STARFLIGHT, featuring Cassia and Kane as the main characters.
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