She looked to the last of the warriors and cocked an eyebrow. “Last but not least, you are…”
“Gyard Trag,” came the deep rumble that Pam could swear came from around the man’s knees. To her way of thinking, there was bass and then there was baritone and that guy’s voice was the deepest she’d ever heard.
“Gee-yard…Gee-yard,” she mumbled, staring at the warrior and pulling on her bottom lip as she thought. “We could choose the old-fashioned French name of Gui, I guess, but American women might think of those pajama things the kung fu dudes wear.” She closed her eyes in the ensuing quiet to give her some room to think. Any woman in the world would be hard-pressed to keep her mind on her business with all the hot gorgeousness that was spread out around her.
“There are a couple of choices, I think,” she said after a time. “There’s Gere, Gareth or even Garth, but I wouldn’t go with that one unless you are seriously into country music.” The men blinked and Pam realized that their lack of response indicated a lack of knowledge. So she moved on. “You could choose Gary, Jerry or even a nickname like ‘Yard’ if that tickles your fancy. But whatever name you pick, sorting out your hair absolutely, positively has to be the next order of business, bud.”
“What is wrong with my hair?” The man looked more than a little offended as he brought the longest layer of bright blonde hair over his shoulder and began to stroke it.
Pam tried to think of a nice way of saying what truly needed to be said but finally just gave the truth to him straight. “Dude, your mullet went out of style years ago.” At the confused faces, she continued. “The whole party in the back, with business in the front? It just isn’t cool and will turn most American girls off. Which is not the goal, right? So you’re gonna have to bite the bullet and get it cut, big guy.”
More than one gasp was heard in the room and Pam realized she may have overstepped her bounds with her latest suggestion. Weren’t there religions that demanded their converts not cut their hair?
“I like the Gere name,” and Pam saw the warrior’s dark eyes turn to her when he spoke. “And I will consider…” the man swallowed both hard and deep before finishing. “…cutting my locks if it helps me secure a mate.”
Bronsyn stood and began to step his way over and around the feet and legs of the men who surrounded him, blocking Pam’s view. She sat forward and leaned in order to capture the eyes of Sean. “It’s something you might give some thought to as well. In fact, all of you might want to consider getting your hair styled. And some new threads wouldn’t go amiss either.”
And as the noise level increased due to all the various conversations which had started at her suggestions, Bronsyn paused where Rykhan and Leah sat. “I need a word,” he murmured and caught Rykhan’s nod before his warrior straightened and began to stand. “No, with both of you.”
Bronsyn saw a slight frown crease Leah’s face as her confused eyes flicked between the two men.
And while Bronsyn was loathed to upset her or cause any additional stress, the commander felt it was time he enlisted the help of the human female.
A female Tsiran in his infinite wisdom and goodness had marked as one of their own.
....*
Leah followed Bronsyn as he led them to a room tucked away and behind the kitchen which was simply furnished with a couple of club chairs and a long leather couch set on either side of a coffee table. The main feature of the room was the large window that overlooked three of the five different patios as well as the pool area.
She felt a tremble of uneasiness begin in her stomach as she lowered herself to the couch although she couldn’t have said why. All she knew was that the feeling immediately dissipated when Rykhan sat beside her and brought his leg to rest lightly against hers. And she again wondered what it was about him that made her find such peace at his touch.
She watched Bronsyn settle into one of the large chairs and prop his bare feet on the edge of the table.
“I do not know how much my men have told you about our situation,” he started, rubbing his chin as his gray eyes held her own.
“Not much,” she replied, looking at Rykhan before turning her face back to Bronsyn. “Just that you and your group are new to the States and only recently got here.”
Bronsyn nodded and Leah thought the small smile he wore looked forced. “Did they mention where we are from?”
“A country called Galaxia?” She answered, with a hope that she had pronounced it correctly.
Bronsyn’s look seemed to become more intense at her answer. “And where do you believe that is?”
She tilted her head as she tried to remember her and Rykhan’s conversation over dinner on their second date. “I guess it’s one of the new countries that came out of the old U.S.S.R.” Rykhan reached out a hand and laid it lightly on her jean-clad thigh as if he almost knew how uncomfortable the questions were making her feel. Once again, a sense of tranquility stole over her at his touch as her armband began to heat.
“I think you know that isn’t the truth.” Bronsyn’s voice was a low growl within the confines of the small room.
Leah nodded and took a deep breath. “Yes, I suspected it anyway.”
The leader of the warriors dropped his feet to the floor as he leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, never dropping his gaze. Leah found herself pressing back into the cushions in order to maintain the distance between them. “In all of our planning and preparation for this mission, no one, not a member of council nor even our most respected scientists foresaw you, Leah of Phoenix. No. You are something that we, in even our wildest dreams, could not have anticipated.”
“I don’t…” her eyes swung between the two men as her heart been to hammer in her chest at the intensity in the older man’s stare. “I don’t understand.”
Rykhan moved his farthest hand to the inside of her elbow before sliding it up, underneath her sleeve to the arm band that was beating and warming at their skin-on-skin contact. As his fingers skimmed over its surface, Leah was overcome with another wave of sexual desire so powerful it stole her breath away. It was as if his fingers had stroked her directly in her secret, womanly places instead of the metal that surrounded her bicep. When his hand moved back to her arm, the feelings stopped and she was again able to breathe, even if it was only in panted breaths.
“You’re talking about the thing on my arm, aren’t you?” She couldn’t help the sharpness of her tone or the trembling of her voice. “The thing Rykhan called ‘the mark of a warrior’.” As both men nodded, Leah began to shake her head in the negative. “That can’t be true though, because God knows I’m about as far from a warrior as a person can get!”
“Yet there is no denying the gift Tsiran has bestowed on you, mica tisha,” Rykhan murmured from beside her and Leah’s hair moved at how quickly she turned to look at him.
“I don’t know any Seeran or what that name you keep calling me is!” she snapped as fiercely and as firmly as she was able, given the alarm Rykhan’s words had initiated. Even his touch didn’t reduce the panic that was beginning to sweep through her.
“Do not the people of Earth believe in the one true god?” Bronsyn’s voice sounded incredulous at just the thought.
“Some do, some don’t,” Leah mumbled through tight lips. The constant change in subjects as well as all the emotions warring inside her had her nerves jangling. “Are you saying that’s your word for God?”
“Yes. And mica tisha simply means ‘my own’ in English,” Rykhan explained serenely with another caress of her arm. The touch provided only a brief moment of respite in the storm brewing in her head.
She searched his face because there was no way he could be serious in claiming her as his. They hadn’t even known each other a full month, for hell’s sake! But he honestly seemed to believe the shit he was spouting.
And she needed to that shut those sorts of thoughts down immediately! “Listen, mister. You’re extremely hot and really sweet but just because we sport the
same arm jewelry and have amazing sexual chemistry doesn’t mean we are fated to be together or anything!”
“Oh but it does!” Bronsyn’s bellow was loud in the small room. Loud enough to cause the background noises in the kitchen to immediately cease. “That is exactly what it indicates! And the fact that you, as a human female, bear the identical mark of a Galaxi warrior only proves that you are Rykhan’s one true and legitimate mate.”
Leah’s head spun and she tried to pull out one thought in which to argue such a ridiculous statement but there were so many swirling that she floundered. That was until she latched onto two words that Bronsyn had said. Words that the other warriors also used frequently.
Two measly words that brought ice to her veins and wide, shocked eyes back to the older man.
Earth.
And human.
“Holy shit,” she whispered, unable to even blink as she stared at him. Her mind was providing other items to the list, preparing an argument so wild that she caught her breath. The way all the guys in the house called women ‘females’ was one. But she couldn’t believe it, couldn’t wrap her head around the crazy idea that they were…that the warriors she’d been interacting and laughing with were…
“Aliens,” she murmured on a stricken whisper. Neither man moved a muscle or spoke a word to correct her. So she tried more in the hopes they would jump in and immediately correct her errant thoughts. “Extraterrestrials. Spacemen. Creatures from another planet.”
“I don’t know if I would call us ‘creatures’ since our species are so similar to your own, but the rest of what you spoke was correct.” Bronsyn sat back in his chair and glanced at Rykhan, giving the man seated next to her a level though unfathomable look.
Since Leah was beginning to hyperventilate though, she could pretty much figure that Bronsyn was wondering at her reaction to his calmly uttered words. Her head turned so she could look into Rykhan’s beautiful Caribbean-colored eyes. She knew most of his emotions were visible in the depths of his blue-green orbs but she couldn’t find hint of a lie there.
She was willing to pay every dime in her bank account for him to announce, ‘just kidding!’ Even a good old-fashioned, ‘psyche!’ would’ve been perfect in that moment.
But the large warrior calmly sat next to her, unmoving and without speaking.
“I gotta go!” she announced as she tried to find her feet, but Rykhan wrapped her body in his arms and brought his mouth to her ear.
“You must calm yourself, my Leah. There is much more, so very much more you need to know,” he whispered and she wasn’t sure if it was the contact between them or how very fervent he sounded that made her stop in her tracks. “We need your help.”
“My help?” She knew her question was given in a squeak but it only reflected the insane situation she found herself in.
“You are Tsiran’s choice for helping us in our quest, my Leah,” Rykhan replied firmly. “And the wahrom he has allowed you to wear is testament of it.”
It was the most ludicrous thing anyone had ever said to her but as Bronsyn began to speak, Leah soon forgot what Rykhan had said.
Mainly because the story the commander relayed was too fantastic, too mesmerizing to not give all of her attention to. Of how a comet’s trail had contained a gas which settled over two of the three closest planets to their sun, settling in the lungs of every female, killing young and old alike. And how all their medical knowledge, all their skills couldn’t save any of them.
He told of the shadow that fell over both Galaxia and Nutrol that was not only from the horrific grief of the males left behind but from the smoke of the all the funeral pyres as they released their beloved mates and female younglings into Tsiran’s ether.
And of the droids that had been sent out to explore the universe in order to discover other worlds after being turned away by their neighboring planets. Because the Aterians and Casticians had denied the decimated societies the opportunity to find suitable mates within their planet’s populaces.
It was when Bronsyn spoke of the surprise and joy when one of the long-range droids had sent back a transmission of Earth that Leah began to truly engage in his tale. His words painted such a clear picture that she could almost see the council chambers as he described it: the silence he and the other members maintained as the president allowed them to both view and hear videos plucked from Earth’s internet. Ones from an online dating websites, where female after female spoke of actively looking and seeking men to marry and create families with. And the wild euphoria and hope that raced through the room as the males realized they’d found the answers to their prayers.
Because without females, the two planets were dying. In painfully hopeless and lonely, slow measures.
“How long ago was this?” Leah asked quietly and was amazed to find wetness on her cheeks. She hadn’t known when she’d begun to cry at Bronsyn’s tale, but she couldn’t deny the horrific sorrow she felt.
“For which incident?” Bronsyn asked kindly, seemingly moved by Leah’s unspoken emotions.
“Both, I guess.” She wiped her face with her hands before scouring her palms on her jeans. Rykhan was still holding her but not quite as tightly as he’d had to before.
Bronsyn’s eyes dropped to the floor. “We lost our cherished females over twenty-five yons ago.”
He paused and Leah wondered how such a simple silence could feel both deep and yet respectful.
“And the transmission?”
“Eighteen merts. Our scientists and experts in galactic travel had the Searcher built in a little over a yon,” Rykhan supplied. “It took us six merts to travel here.”
Leah shifted so she could see his face. “I’m guessing a yon is a year and a mert is a month in my language?”
“Yes, mica tisha, although the timing is a little different but not enough to mention.”
She didn’t take her eyes off him as she wondered how to ask her next question. But when she opened her mouth to speak, Leah felt a tenderness well within her that she knew tempered her tone. “How long has it been since you’ve seen a woman, then?”
He closed his eyes and when they opened she was struck by the deep pain she saw evidenced there. “I have no memory of one except through holographs and vids.”
“My mate was one of the first to succumb,” Bronsyn added quietly. “First my Tela and then my youngling, Sera.”
She seemed to have no control over the hand that moved to cup Rykhan’s cheek, nor the sweet thrill she received when he again closed his eyes and leaned in to kiss it. “I still don’t understand how I can help, though.”
Chapter Six
Leah was quiet on the drive back, caught up as she was in the churning of her own thoughts as she tried to process all she’d learned and experienced through the day. Even Pam seemed subdued and wasn’t driving as if she was going to win the Indianapolis 500 on nothing more than a suburban freeway. Something for which Leah was more than thankful since she didn’t think she could take anymore hair-raising surprises. She’d had enough in the last twenty-four hours, what with the appearance of her armband that was a smaller but perfect replica of Rykhan’s, the unbelievable sex they’d shared and then Bronsyn confession and admission that the warriors were actually aliens who needed her help.
Although she had to admit, some parts of what she’d gone through had been better than others.
Like when Rykhan had pulled her away from the crowd after their dinner of delivered pizza and had done nothing more than hold her closely against his chest. It had only seemed natural that her fingers had sought out the hard metal of his wahrom as she’d pressed her face into his neck, just as his hand had found hers. And if his reaction was any indication, the caresses she’d given his armband caused just as much of a response in him as she felt when he stroked hers. It had even gotten to the point that he’d pressed the hard length of himself into her hipbone, clearly indicating he was more than amenable to going back upstairs for a round two.
And perh
aps it was because of his behavior she believed him about never seeing a real, live girl until they arrived on Earth.
But she’d gotten just as aroused, had been seriously tempted when he caressed her wahrom as well. And at the memory of how their combined orgasm had almost shattered the two of them when their arm jewelry had collided, Leah turned toward the passenger window to hide both her blush and her smile.
She’d known both he and Bronsyn had been more than disappointed that she’d repeatedly denied that her destiny had already been written and that Rykhan was her ‘true and legitimate mate’. Leah had tried to explain it, had cited that while she wasn’t against marriage in any way, shape or form, there was no way in hell that she was getting legally tied to a man she’d only recently met. And she’d been glad she’d objected early on because the more she found out about their plans on how they were to meet women that might be willing to join with the warriors, she’d realized how little they actually knew about the fairer sex.
Was there a difference between the Picari females and Earth women? Because in Leah’s opinion, the answers she’d received to her questions had been sadly lacking. Especially in the areas of career opportunities and outside interests for those of the feminine persuasion on either Galaxia or Nutrol. That was, once she got over the shock that the warriors actually expected their brides to blithely climb aboard their star-cruiser and relocate to a planet nobody had ever heard of!
“Ridiculous!” she muttered, not realizing she’d spoken out loud.
“Naw, I think it’s just flat-out sad,” Pam answered with a sigh. “I mean, imagine coming all this way and trying find your other half using the stupidest of all human stupid stuff like speed-dating or find-your-soul-mate-dot-com.”
Leah’s eyes flew to her friend. “They told you?”
“Oh hell, yeah. When you were all getting all up-tight and personal with Bronsie and Ryk in the den, the boys took me out to the back garden and laid it all out.” She sighed again and didn’t speak for a time. Leah however, rode the edges of incredulity since she’d somehow believed that she was the only one privy to that knowledge. “It had to have been the most depressing thing I think I’ve ever heard.”
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