by Rena Marks
“You want our protection, don’t ya?” The man towered over Savannah, trying to intimidate the small girl.
Everly pulled her from his space. “Go on. All of you. To Adam’s spot.”
The children left, with backward glances over their shoulders. As soon as they were out of range, she turned to face the dirty man. His sour smell washed over her, salty sweat and the tang of vinegar. There was no reason for it. Part of the area was doused with artificial clouds—a test area the provided several bathing ponds. There was no reason why someone should smell overripe unless they were just too lazy to bathe.
“I can’t let you have the children’s lunch.” Her eyes narrowed on him. He was a bully.
“How do you honestly think those children should eat lunch when they do nothing but play all day? When men like me are out working and need our strength and energy?”
“Not only are the children not simply playing all day—because who the hell did you think prepares your vegetables for the evening meals, elves? But the lunch is their own food. They saved a small portion of last night’s dinner to sit and eat today for story time. They didn’t receive extra while you were out manning the borders.”
“They ought to be grateful enough to us to hand it over,” he insisted. “Move aside.”
“No. I won’t let you take it.”
He grabbed her by the upper arm, but she was prepared for it. She jerked back and opened her mouth to scream.
“I know you didn’t just grab a lady.” The voice boomed from the top of the wall, incredulous. Both of their heads whipped up at the sound.
The man who stared down at them was green, large, and muscled. That he was one of the Xeno Sapiens was apparent from first sight, though she hadn’t seen any up close. She was usually too busy at the back of the border to have any contact with the ones who helped protect the homeless.
The man with her sneered. “A lady? What kind of lady is this? She’d keep food from the soldiers protecting her?”
The Xeno Sapien jumped, landing next to them with a thud. He’d bent his knees slightly, and now stood upright to his full height.
Everly’s jaw dropped. That had to be at least twenty feet and he didn’t even flinch. And to see him up close?
Holy moly.
He was over six feet—way over. And she was a tall woman, but still looked upward toward him. His skin was more luminescent than it appeared from further away, and his eyes were...unusual to say the least. They were larger than normal and yellow...a warm, mustard shade with large, round pupils that appeared dilated and irises that almost appeared to glow with their lighter colored rings of warm, golden browns.
His voice was almost gentle as he spoke to her. “Are you hiding food from the men patrolling the borders to keep you safe?”
She was suddenly ashamed of herself—as if she’d actually done something wrong. But then she realized the Xeno Sapien avoided calling the human a soldier, like the man had referred to himself as.
“I’m not hiding food—”
“She lies!”
“The children saved a portion of their own dinner last night to have a light lunch during story time today. He wants the leftovers they sacrificed.”
“Miss Everly.” The small voice quivered. Up ahead, behind a tall piece of fabric erected to avert sunlight, three of the children hid. And stared.
Her jaw dropped. “Savannah! Jacob. Stevie. You shouldn’t be here.”
The children ran to her, wrapping skinny arms around her waist. “We didn’t want to leave you alone.”
She hugged them back, but still spoke sternly. “It’s important to obey me. I know what’s best to keep you safe. And I couldn’t stand it if you’d have seen something that wasn’t meant for little eyes. Promise me you’ll do as I say next time? Or I’ll need to move on to avoid bringing harm to you.”
“No, Everly, we promise! We’ll listen from now on.”
“Okay.”
“The children can decide if they want to be honorable enough to share their rations,” the man said triumphantly, knowing the children had just been shamed by her into being agreeable. Dammit, what was she thinking?
“On the contrary,” the Xeno Sapien said. “Everly.” He seemed to test her name out on his lips. “Is part of your dinner saved also?”
Her cheeks pinked. She’d given hers to Penelope, who’d still been a bit hungry after saving her scraps. “N-no.”
“So you were going to eat theirs?” The human sounded gleeful.
“Miss Everly doesn’t eat.” Stevie’s voice was indignant. “She tells us the story while we eat. I sit next to her and hear her tummy rumble.”
She thought she’d die of embarrassment. Sometimes the things the kids said would make her laugh. But not in front of the oddly attractive Xeno Sapien.
“I’ll bet she doesn’t eat any,” the human sneered.
“I’ve heard enough and it is lunchtime for the children,” the Xeno Sapien said, turning to the man. “You get back to wherever you’re supposed to be and stay away from this sector from now on.”
“Are you kidding? You’re gonna to let her get away with—”
“I said leave.” Though not quite a bellow, something must have shown in his face when he stared at the human.
The man gulped and nodded, turning abruptly and stomping away.
Everly released a sigh. “Thank you. I’m sorry we interrupted your patrol.”
“I just finished my shift,” the green man said. “I’m Thane.”
“Nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m Everly McMillen. This is Savannah, and Stevie, and the little one is Jacob.”
Thane dropped to one knee to be eye-level with the children. “Do you think you’re squishing Miss McMillen by hugging her so tight?”
“She likes it,” Jacob said, sucking his thumb and staring at Thane without releasing his hold on her.
Thane laughed. “She does, does she?”
“Uh, huh.”
“Go on, now,” Everly said, pushing the children. “Go set up the chairs near Adam’s tent. I’ll bring the snacks and we’ll start story time.”
The children smiled broadly and scampered away, not even hesitant this time about leaving her alone.
Huh.
“Thank you for your assistance, Thane,” she said. “But I can handle it from here.”
She reached the storage box, entering a series of codes to open the door.
“How was he going to get into it?” Thane asked, watching her enter the large sequence of numbers.
She shrugged. “He was probably going to break it. Anyway, thanks again.” It wasn’t that she was dismissing him, exactly. But her tummy was nervous as if butterflies jumped around in there and she had to process. Remember every detail of his face, his mannerisms, his speech.
And she had to think about why those flitting butterflies felt rather delicious.
He grinned at her, not noticing her inner warring with herself. “No problem, Everly. It’s okay if I call you Everly, isn’t it? I think I’d like to sit with you all and hear the story time, too.”
“Uh, okay,” she said. Yes, he’ll be around us more. We’ll have more to study than just a few words. Does he have a nice ass? I bet he has a tight little bum. Now her inner self was gleeful in her mental argument. She tamped her hussy down. “But...they’re just kid stories. Something to keep them occupied for a couple of hours until the dinner rations come and we start preparing the vegetables for the cooks.”
“The children work?”
She nodded. “They like to be productive. It gives them a purpose.”
“What about school?”
She shrugged. “They’re out for summer break in a month, anyway. I’m sure the public school system will make concessions for the homeless. We’ll be able to do a summer school or something like homeschooling to catch them up.”
“Are any of the children your own?”
“Mine? No. I just keep an eye on the group while the parents a
re assigned to various work shifts during the day. They all come and go. Adam, the one who’s feeling under the weather, just has a dad. So my little group began with him. One by one, the other parents would leave another with me, and so on and so forth.”
“They’re lucky to have you.”
Her cheeks heated a bit. “Not really. We all do what we can to help each other. For the most part. Sometimes there are assholes like the one who’d heard about us saving our lunches. If the practice attracts too much attention, I’ll have the kids stop doing it.”
He helped her carry the small paper sacks of food, each one with a child’s name written on it. As soon as they arrived at a small cluster of tents, they saw the children eagerly waiting, sitting in a circle.
Everly sat down, aware of the large man who sat next to her. They passed out the bags and the children began to dig in. She couldn’t tell if they were excited because they were hungry, or just excited to unwrap a treat. To a child—even though they packed their own food the night before, it would be a bit like unraveling a present.
“This is going to be a short story today,” Everly said. “Our drama earlier took a bit of time and now the sun’s creeping around the wall faster than expected. Adam will have to go inside the shaded tent and the rest of us will need to go to the preparation hut.”
“I’m feeling much better today, Everly,” Adam said.
“You look much better,” she agreed. “Just a couple more days of rest and you should be good as new, okay?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She grinned at her first charge. He was the sweetest.
She spoke quickly, not wanting to drag out the story as usual. She didn’t need any of the children suffering from heat exhaustion or sunburn. Not that the elements were that bad yet—thankfully it wasn’t summer—but living as homeless was quite different than many were used to. And while the tents offered shade and protection from the elements, they could also become stifling.
She told a quick tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. She’d told the story many times previously, but each time Jack climbed into the clouds, she embellished the stories a bit to tell of his discoveries in the strange new lands.
This story told of Jack finding a cave with odd contraptions in it, like a shirt with three sleeves. A hat with holes. A spoon, larger than his arm. It left the children wondering what people could possibly exist in the magical land he discovered to own such strange paraphernalia. But she would let them wonder for another day, and all during food preparation, they would discuss the possibilities of what the items could mean.
The children didn’t complain as she ushered Adam into the tent and gathered the bags for recycling, rounding them up to head to the kitchens. They would return their trash there. Thane kept to her side and as they walked along the edge of the wall, she could tell the children warmed up to him.
Then she heard a voice up above.
“Thane?” A security guard was up on top of the wall, where she’d met Thane earlier that day. This time, a human.
“Jason.”
“I thought you were off?”
“I am. I’m on personal time. But I need to get back and rest up so I can cover my shift later tonight.” He turned to Everly. “Thank you all for allowing me to listen to the story. I hope to visit again soon.”
“We’d like that, wouldn’t we, children?” Everly said. Just then her tummy rumbled and she realized Thane had to be starving, too. That’s why he was headed back to where he belonged. Access to food. Not that she blamed him, she’d certainly do the same in his position. The children cheered, drowning out the sounds of her growling stomach, and she watched as Jason gave Thane a hand up the wall.
A human would never have been able to jump high enough to clasp the hand of the human waiting on top. Even if it wasn’t for his green skin color, his abilities alone would have given him away as other.
The children waved as he scaled the other side of the fence. There was no way the human—Jason, who patrolled in his absence, would have been able to jump it. No wonder the food-thief from earlier had run off empty-handed when confronted by Thane. A Xeno Sapien was nothing to sneer at.
“Okay, onward to the kitchens,” she announced, waving at Jason as they headed on their way. It was both a relief and yet strangely lonely not to have Thane tagging along. Oh, well, he was back where he belonged and would probably forget about them soon enough. But later, in her tent alone, she would remember. Remember how he grinned at her story, remember how he stared at her like he’d never seen a human before.
The children were babbling about the story she’d told, but soon it morphed into what the Xeno Sapiens had on the other side of the wall. They’d spent a couple hours shelling beans and shucking corn before she rounded the children up to head back to camp, where a few of the parents should be back.
Sure enough, three of the parents were back. The kids would head back to their tents for a couple of hours before the dinner boxes were able to get collected. The people of their camp usually sat together for the dinner meal, talking about the day and their experiences. She lived for the stories they told about the various Xeno Sapiens that they met.
And the underlying rumor that there were Xeno Sapien babies on the other side of that wall. Was it true? Could Thane have a little green infant? Or would a baby be...half human? Because, of course, the children would have half their genes from the mother and half from the father. Even if the Xeno Sapiens were able to reproduce together, it would be two different alien species mixing.
She checked on Adam, who was sleeping soundly still. Good, it meant he would have the strength to head to the kitchens to claim a meal later. His father had to carry him a couple of nights earlier, because only one box per person was doled out.
“Everly McMillen! Is there an Everly McMillen here?”
The Xeno Sapien who was barking her name would wake up Adam. She hurried to the small gathering of people, where some were already pointing her out.
He was unusual looking. Red skin, the color of a ripe tomato. Like all the other Xeno Sapiens, he was tall and muscular. But she tried not to focus on his looks so much as why he was here. This was the second time she’d encountered an actual Xeno Sapien.
“This is for Everly,” he announced, pointing to the long, tube-like contraption he’d brought.
He pressed a button and a sharp stake protruded from the bottom, which he used to stab into the ground. He pressed the button a second time and the tube unfolded, arms snaking out from the top to make a giant canopy.
“Hold your finger down on the button at night to make the hologram lights activate under the canopy. You’ll have some light and protection from rain.”
The Xeno Sapien turned to leave.
“Wait. Why? Who did this? How do you know my name?”
He shrugged. “This is for Everly.” He made the announcement again, as if someone might think to claim her beautiful canopy for their own, before turning and disappearing.
She stared at it in confusion. It was amazing. It would serve as a shade from the sun during the day. She and the children wouldn’t have to rush through lunch and story time before the heat of the sun blazed down upon their heads.
But all around the camp, eyes stared curiously at her. Because who was she to get such a gift among the homeless?
* * * AUTHOR’S NOTE * * *
Thank you for reading Book 7 in the Genetically Altered Human Series. Book 8 is titled For Everly. I also have many more projects coming up this year; a delve into vampires, a few books being co-written with other authors and some sci-fi standalones different from my GAH series.
I’m even considering another romp into the Space Babies saga.
I have the list of my sci-fi books listed below, but if you’re in the mood for some contemporary romance, try my HEA collection, available on KU! They’re short, trope-filled romance stories that vary between hot and sweet! Young and old. Black and white. Well, you get the picture. Again, thanks for readin
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Craved By The Guardian
Keeping Her
Kissing Kayla
Xeno Sapiens
CATCH UP WITH THE FIRST novel in the series! The original Xeno Sapiens story.
Futuristic earth finds alien DNA and creates a new species of hybrids in hidden labs. It’s up to two small females to teach these beings they’re worthy, and beautiful, and loved...and to save them from mankind.
My name is Dr. Robyn Saraven. Earth has changed greatly in recent years, the governments of the world merging into one united front, the Global Government. Disease, starvation, and prejudice have been eradicated from our existence, and it appears our growth as spiritual beings is finally on track.
But the discovery of alien DNA pairs a prestigious research facility with our government to create new beings. Suddenly our spiritual growth is halted when mankind plays God. Like old Earth, our modern-day world has to deal with prejudice, corruption, and greed.
Or was it always there, lurking beneath the surface?
Book 1—Xeno Sapiens
Book 2—Earth-Ground
Book 3—Siren
Book 4—Beast’s Beauty
Book 5—Almost Human
Book 6—Forbidden Touches
Book 7—Coveting Ava
Book 8—For Everly
Alien Stolen
Rena Marks
OUR WORLD IS DIFFERENT from anything we’ve ever known. Years ago, aliens came to live among us. They claim to be the good guys, and yet every day, humans go missing—never to be heard from again.
Sian and her family resist the leadership of the new regime, along with dozens of other factions across the world. However, without electricity, they’re at a loss as to how to communicate with each other to band together for strength in numbers. For that reason, they fight alone. When her father and best friend are captured by the military, she pretends to be a pleasure worker to infiltrate the base. Unbeknownst to her, a pleasure worker has been summoned to service a new breed of alien—one with a known weakness. Sex drains his strength.
