by Juno Wells
“You will want all I have to give, Jessie. I swear it.” He stood, determination lining his masculine features. “I will leave you to your thoughts. But first, I will prepare you a turkey sandwich.”
He went to a counter at the other end of the room and pressed a few buttons on a computer screen. A moment later, a turkey sandwich popped out of an opening in the surface of the counter. Holy crap. She could get used to insta-food.
“I hope this is to your liking,” a bottle of water popped up next to the sandwich. “I’ve manufactured water for you as well. Later, I will send the medic to check on you.” He stood over her and bent to kiss her cheek. She turned away and his lips fell on her neck. A surge of electricity ran through her, igniting her lady bits. Damn him.
He stood back, his expression worried. “I will leave you now,” he said reluctantly.
“Fine. Sure. Leave me.”
He grunted before walking out the sliding door and leaving her alone in the strange room. Jessie heaved a heavy sigh and turned over on her side. It gave her a better view of the turkey sandwich sitting on the counter. Her stomach grumbled. Crap. She was hungry.
After throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she stood and walked over to the counter. She sat on the tall stool, grabbed the sandwich, and took a bite. Unable to resist, she groaned with pleasure. It was probably the best turkey sandwich ever. It had some kind of pesto sauce and sun-dried tomatoes with crispy, delicious lettuce and smoked turkey. Okay, Ameer had good insta-cooking skills. She had to give him that.
After she ate and drank her fill, she wandered around the chamber, trying to get a grasp of what was in there. Mostly, it was regular furniture, except it all seemed to be melded to the ground. There was the insta-food thing and what looked like a control panel near the big window. She sat under the long bench next to the window and watched as her planet drifted out of sight. Bye Earth. Nice knowing you. A tear slid down her face. The fact that she wasn’t scream crying right now struck her as being incredibly brave.
Ameer was super-hot. He was seriously the best looking guy she’d ever met in her life. Better looking than every sports star, rock star, and movie star combined. Even though he’d technically abducted her, she could see that it was basically an honest mistake.
She wiped the tear away and drew her knees to her chest. The door slid open and in strode two massive men. Ameer stepped in first, followed by an equally huge and equally gorgeous second one.
“This is the medic, Chazar. He will attend to your health. Please follow us to the medic bay, Jessie.”
“I told you I’m fine,” she said, shivering.
“You must be checked. You are not well.”
He scooped her up for the second time that day and carried her effortlessly down the hallway.
“You know, all this carrying isn’t doing much to change my mind about being abducted.”
“But you must be screened, setina. You must be healthy for the bonding.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. For a big gorgeous hunk, he could be pretty clueless. For one thing, she hadn’t agreed to bond with him in the first place.
“Let’s just take things one step at a time, big guy.”
“My name is Ameer, setina,” he whispered seductively in her ear.
She let out a moaning sigh. She didn’t know how much longer she could put up with this. Ameer was obviously from a highly evolved race, but he had no clue about her feelings. Plus, she wanted to stay angry at him, but the delicious scent of his skin made that almost impossible. Every time he touched her, she wanted to rip off all her clothes and straddle his big lap like a cowgirl. Yeehaw!
Defeated by her own body, she just sighed and leaned her face against his muscled chest. They came to the end of a hall, and the door glided open to the medic bay. Ameer deposited her on a raised table and held her hand as the second man came around the other side. He pulled a metal rod with flashing lights from the wall. It scanned over her body before making the return trip and hiding back inside the wall.
“She has normal physical and hormonal composition for an adult human female. Roughly twenty-four years old, five feet six inches tall, mixed race, next ovulation two days.”’
“Perfect. Just in time for the mating thrall. We should have a child growing inside her by the next rising of the full moons.”
Jessie put her hand to her forehead and moaned. Now he was talking about impregnating her. This just got better and better. She sat up on the table but the medic pushed her back down on her back.
“Hey, people. If this is a kidnapping, let’s just be honest about it and stop with all the soulmate stuff,” she snapped.
“But you are my soulmate, Jessie. Please, just relax.”
The medic grabbed her arm and shot her neck with a cold dart. “Ouch!” she wailed.
“That’s just the language implant,” Ameer said, stroking her other arm.
“Heart rate accelerating. Blood pressure rising. The human seems agitated,” Chazar stated.
“No shit Sherlock! Can I just go back to my room? If you aren’t going to take me back to Earth, could you at least give me some space? And I’d like to walk myself this time.”
She slid out of the medic’s grasp and jumped off the tall table, surprised at the fall. She landed on her feet with a thud.
“Jessie, you will harm yourself,” Ameer said, steadying her as the shock of her fall ran through her legs. She shrugged him off.
“I’m fine. Just take me back to my room.”
Chapter Five
Ameer took his little Earth mate back to her room and stood outside the door. He had failed somehow. His setina did not know him. She did not love him with undying affection as he loved her. Something was definitely wrong. Did Earthlings not know their soulmates when they found them? What an unbearably lonely world.
He knew that many of the races within the Astrian federation were similar. They did not know a setina when he or she stood right in front of their face. Utharians were lucky in that their hearts sang when a mate was identified. He had assumed the Earth woman would know him as he knew her. He had been wrong.
Now he had an angry Earth woman who believed she’d been kidnapped, headed back to his planet for a massive mating ceremony. His mating thrall had already taken over him, and his setina hated his guts.
How did he let himself get in this situation? Ameer had been born prince of the twelve kingdoms and heir to the throne of Uthar. From his earliest memory, he had been schooled in the ways of leadership. He also knew that his queen would make herself known to him through his own physical and psychic reactions. He took it for granted that an Utharian’s mate would not have the same understanding. It had never happened before.
Because of the nature of Utharians’ fated relationships, Ameer had no idea how to make a woman love him. It was a completely foreign concept. He clenched his fists tightly and gritted his teeth. His father would be disappointed, and he didn’t want to even think of what his mother would say when he returned to Uthar with a bride who believed she’d been kidnapped.
Ameer realized that he had to come to understand the way that Earth humans courted. As with everything in life he would address this problem head on and find a solution in the most expedient manner possible. That meant research. He strode down the hallway to the medic bay to speak with Chazar.
Inside, he found the healer going through the data he had gleaned from Jessie’s examination. Chazar turned to him when he entered and gave Ameer the appropriate salute.
“How can I help you, Lord Commander?” Chazar asked.
“As you could probably tell, the Earth human does not realize that she is my setina. She is afraid of me. And I am not too proud to admit that this is a problem. For obvious reasons, one being that my mating thrall is upon me, I must learn human courtship practices. I was hoping that you could help me since your insight into the social aspects of other cultures is renowned aboard our ship.”
“I would be happy to help you Lord
Commander. Let us look into the Astrian databases for information about human courtship.”
Ameer sat with the healer in front of a large holographic computer screen while they went through the databases detailing human courtship practices. He was stunned at all of the convoluted and archaic ways that humans found their mates. For one thing, humans did not mate for life. They had the barbaric practice of mating, having children, and then separating.
This information disgusted Ameer. Children should have two parents. Men and women should have each other. Without the bonds of family, society would fall apart. No wonder the human world was in such disarray.
He would not let his setina go back to a world like that. He couldn’t even imagine her being stuck in a social environment where she wouldn’t know if her man loved her or if he would even stay with her after her young were born. Impossible. Deplorable. No. He must make her see.
He pored over the data logs, trying to understand the human concept of “dating.” This was a situation in which two humans, a man and a woman who did not know if they were or were not soulmates, would go on a series of activities together. This often involved eating, watching entertainment, mild forms of exercise, and intoxication. Interesting.
Ameer determined that he would create a series of dates for Jessie that involved these activities. When they had done these activities, perhaps she would finally love him.
Chapter Five
Jessie sat watching Earth grow smaller and smaller as if out the back of some giant rear window of an interstellar car. This was all so strange and unfair. Ameer seemed nice enough, but he definitely wasn’t worth losing her entire planet over. More importantly, he never asked her. He lost major points on principle alone.
Now he was talking about impregnating her with his alien baby. That didn’t set well with Jessie. She’d seen the movies. Most likely it would bore its way out of her stomach and then eat her brain. She didn’t sign up for that. As attractive as Ameer was, hot sex with a seven foot tall alien was not worth having your brain eaten by your own alien baby.
Her doors wished open and in stepped Mr. King of his planet, her abductor, and apparent soulmate, Ameer. He looked as determined as ever and was wearing a formfitting black uniform that hugged his impressively muscled body and showed off what he was working with downstairs. Holy space balls. That was one impressive package.
“My darling setina,” he started.
“Jessie.”
“My darling, Jessie. I have come to ask you to date,” he said, putting his hand on his heart, his expression earnest.
“You want to date me?” she asked. “After being abducted by aliens, I’m now being asked on the date?”
“This is the mating ritual on your planet, is it not?” he said, frowning.
“Yeah. Usually you don’t kidnap a girl first and then ask her out on a date. Sometimes a guy will ask a girl out on a date and then kidnap her. But those guys are psychopaths. I’ve never heard of a guy kidnapping a girl and then asking her out on a date. I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of person would do that.”
“Jessie, I’m asking you to extend me the slightest amount of forgiveness. I am here to offer you a bargain. I know in the deepest part of my soul that you are my one and only mate. If I do not mate with you, I cannot mate with anyone. When an Utharian finds his mate, his mating thrall begins. That means that his body becomes ready to claim his setina. It is an overwhelming, unstoppable compulsion. If the compulsion is denied, the Utharian male will wither and die. Since I am the King of Uthar, my planet will be left without a ruler. It will go to the next and succession, my cousin who is but a babe. But, I would willingly die rather than force you to do anything against your will. For you see, you are my one and only love.”
“So let me get this straight. If I don’t mate with you, then you die?”
“Yes, precisely. That is why I’m asking you to give me a chance and go out on a date with me. If after our dates, you still do not love me, I will take you back to Earth and suffer the consequences.”
“Talk about pressure,” she said, slipping out of her chair. She crossed the room to stand in front of the massive alien king, placing her hand on his arm. She looked up into his dark eyes. The color shifting within seemed even more intense than usual. “I’ll do it,” she said, almost in a whisper.
Jessie wasn’t thrilled about the fact that she had been kidnapped, but she certainly didn’t want to be the reason that Ameer died. She didn’t want to be the reason that an entire planet was left without a king and had to be ruled by a baby. She wasn’t a complete bitch, although some of her ex-boyfriends may have disagreed.
Ameer let out a deep sigh and squeezed her hand, a smile lifting the corners of his lips. “Let us begin with our first date. You have recently eaten, so we will skip the eating and go directly to mild exercise. Would you join me on a walk around the ship? We may view the various windows looking out on different quadrants of space. This should be enjoyable. Afterwards I will bring you back to your cabin, and I will give you one good night kiss as is appropriate for a first date.”
“Wow, romantic,” she said sarcastically.
“Good, I’m glad you approve,” he said, his expression serious.
She began to giggle. He took her hand, leading her out of her cabin and into the main hallway. They walked at a leisurely pace around the outermost hall. The aliens who occupied the ship went about their business, occasionally giving Jessie and Ameer a curious glance.
They came to a big wide window, and Ameer stopped. “From this quadrant you can see the planet Mars. Just beyond that if you look from this direction, you can see the outer rings of Jupiter.”
The planets and stars spread out before her, and for the first, time Jessie felt a sort of thrill at the adventure she was embarking upon. It was not every day that a bank teller became an interstellar traveler.
“Why are we moving so slowly?” she asked. “Haven’t you guys mastered faster than light speed travel? And if you haven’t, why haven’t we ever found you?” She felt impressed with herself with those kind of questions.
“We must come to the edge of the galaxy to make our space jump. That should give us time to engage in our dates.”
“So tell me about your planet, Ameer. What is this place that you expect me to go live and never see my home planet again?”
“Uthar is a beautiful world, covered in vast deserts of shifting sands. The capital city of Ashara is built around an oasis of water and palm trees. The twin moons rise above the dunes and shine their silver light upon the waters. The fragrant honey flowers fill the air with their perfume. I cannot wait to show these things to you, my dearest setina.” He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, kissing the sensitive skin. Jessie let out a little whimper as the sensation coursed through her.
Jessie had to admit that Ameer definitely had an effect on her. She had no idea if he was her soulmate or not, obviously. She didn’t believe that such a thing existed, not when she thought about it rationally, but his combination of poet and scientist really got under her skin.
“I’ll be seeing it soon enough,” she said, breaking the moment of sexual tension between them.
He sighed, his hot breath running over her fingers. He lowered her hand, and they continued down the hallway. They walked all the way around the ship. He showed her different quadrants of space, and all of the planets that she had learned about as a child and the names of star systems she’d never heard of before.
By the time they made it back to her cabin door, she had to admit to herself that it had been enjoyable. When Ameer gathered her in his arms and leaned down to claim her mouth with a passionate but chaste kiss, she didn’t resist. She actually participated fully, letting out a little moan as their lips and bodies is crushed together.
“You have had a long day,” he said. “It is the hour of rest. You should sleep, and we will date again tomorrow. Now I bid you good night, my dearest beloved setina.” His words were s
trained as if leaving her was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his entire life.
Jessie bit her lip and then said goodbye, giving him a little wave as he walked out of sight down the hallway.
Chapter Six
Jessie collapsed on her bed and looked out the window at her planet slowly drifting away in the void of space. She sighed. Her date with Ameer was probably the best date she'd been on in a long time, maybe ever. The big gorgeous alien treated her so nicely that it was hard to remember that he had kidnapped her just a few hours ago. She closed her eyes and yawned, trying not to think about it.
The next thing she was aware of was the sound of her door swishing. She opened her eyes to find Ameer walking into the room. Jessie sat up in her bed with a start, anger coiling in her spine. How dare he come into her room without announcing himself? They weren’t married yet.
"What do you think you're doing?" she said angrily.
"I've come to take you on our next date," he said, his eyes wide with confusion.
"Well you shouldn't just barge into my bedroom like that. It's rude and really stalker-like. I don't appreciate it,” she said, slipping out of the bed.
"Are there any other clothes I can wear? Since I left everything I own?" Her irritation was growing by the minute.
She had some really nice clothes back on earth. As far as she could tell, her alien captors all wore black tight-fitting uniforms that would not look good on her curvy, short body.
“Of course,” he said giving her a slight bow. "You can have any kind of clothing you would like manufactured right away," he said. "Come with me to the manufacturing bay and you can give the technician all of the specs.”
"Good, I was worried I was going to have to wear this outfit for the rest of my life."
She followed him out of her room, still wearing the pantsuit she’d worn to the bank the previous morning. It wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing to sleep in nor did it stand up well to wearing for twenty-four hours straight. She followed Ameer down the hallway, past the bustling activity of the rest of the ship, until they came to the manufacturing bay were another gorgeous Utharian man sat beside a wall of holograms and a computer terminal.
