Shadow: Alien Castaways 4 (Intergalactic Dating Agency)

by Cara Bristol

  His gut contracted. “H-how much time will I lose or gain?”

  “I cannot pinpoint.”

  “Estimate!”

  “I can’t speculate with any degree of accuracy.”

  “Try!” Shadow gritted his teeth.

  “Worst-case or best-case scenario?”

  “Worst case.” He held his breath.

  “My estimate would be about a century—in the future or the past.”

  “A century? You mean I could arrive before Mandy was born or after she died?” His stomach roiled. Why hadn’t he come to his senses before they’d entered jump space? Why?

  “Yes. Best case, months. Past or future.”

  “Months?” That was the best case? He couldn’t dare to think about the worst case.

  “Again, I emphasize these estimates are not precise. We won’t know what year it is until we land.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  An orb of blue-and-white swirls appeared in the view screen. According to Bob’s latest report, they’d be landing in two hours. But what time, what year would it be on Earth?

  Standing on the bridge, Shadow jittered with anxiety. The last day had been interminably long as he’d rehashed the chronology from his first encounter with Mandy until boarding the ship.

  He’d assumed his involuntary sublimation episodes had been increasing, when, in fact, they had ceased. The last involuntary one had happened outside the Whitetail, but it had been a partial, and he’d pulled himself together effortlessly, he recalled now. The protective genetic bond had already begun working on his physiology.

  With hindsight, he realized the occurrence at the farmhouse a few nights ago had been accidental but voluntary. He had brought it on by inadvertently envisioning his body dissipating. It had been so long since he’d voluntarily sublimated, he hadn’t realized what he was doing. And, again, he’d easily deposed into solid form.

  He balled his hands into fists and stomped off the bridge. Would Mandy be alive when he arrived, or would he find her grave? If still alive, would she be mated to another? Assuming he’d never return, he’d told her to live her life, to be happy, to find a man. What if he got to Earth so far in the past, she hadn’t been born yet and his’Topian brothers weren’t there? What if Mysk wasn’t there?

  The uncertainty, the waiting was agony.

  * * * *

  The hatch opened, and Shadow leaped off the gangway. He tore across the landing field onto the forestry road behind the lavender farm. As he ran, he scanned the woods for signs of change. Had that fallen log been there? Were the trees thicker or thinner? He emerged from the woods into a field of lavender, partly tilled as if in preparation for replanting. Had it been that way when he’d left? He didn’t recall—he’d been too consumed by grief.

  Beyond the field, he spotted a little white house with a new shingle roof. Kevanne and Chameleon had talked about replacing the aging, leaky roof. Had they done it? When? Did they still live here? Or had so much time passed new people now owned the farm? Or was he seeing the house as it existed a long time ago?

  Dashing through the lavender, he made a beeline for the house and pounded on the door. “Chameleon! Kevanne!” His thumping heart lodged in his throat as he waited to see who would appear—friends…or strangers.

  The door was flung open. “Shadow?” Chameleon gaped at him. “Why are you back?”

  “Chameleon!” He’d never been so glad to see his blue and tailed friend in his entire life.

  Kevanne appeared at his side. “What happened?”

  They looked the same—no older, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “What-what day is it?” he gasped, out of breath from his sprint.

  “What day? It’s Saturday.”

  “Saturday when? What year?”

  “The same year it was a couple of hours ago.”

  “I departed two hours ago?”

  Chameleon exchanged a worried glance with Kevanne. “Yes…”

  “Yes! Yes!” He could have kissed Chameleon, except the first kiss belonged to his genmate. While he’d traveled on the Star Crossed for more than two days—it had taken one day to reach jump space and go through it then another to come back—the time curvatures had put him on Earth a mere two hours after leaving.

  “What’s going on?” Chameleon said. “Did something happen?”

  “I came for Mandy. Where is she?”

  “She insisted on returning to her apartment. I tried to get her to stay, but she wanted to be alone,” Kevanne said.

  “Can I borrow your van?”

  Kevanne pressed her lips together. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Mandy is in pretty bad shape.”

  His heart stopped beating “She was hurt?”

  “Emotionally, not physically. Your leaving hit her hard. If you go see her and then leave again—”

  “I’m not leaving. Ever. I’m here to stay.” He cracked a grin so wide his face hurt. “My genmate was here on Earth all along—it’s Mandy.”

  “That’s wonderful!” Chameleon exclaimed.

  “How do you know?” Kevanne frowned. “You were so sure you didn’t have one.”

  “It’s a long story. I’ll fill you in later. The condensed version is: Bob helped me figure it out.”

  Kevanne frowned. “Who’s Bob?”

  “The AI on the Star Crossed. Please. Can I borrow the keys?”

  “Here.” She grabbed a set from a hook inside the door and dropped them into his palm. “The van’s in the garage.”

  “Thanks!” He hugged his friends and dashed for the garage.

  * * * *

  Chameleon grinned as he watched Shadow fishtail down the narrow lane. He couldn’t fathom how the good fortune had come to be, he was just overjoyed it had occurred. He didn’t doubt Mandy was his brother’s genmate if he thought she was. A man always knew—or figured it out. The bond could not be denied. And Shadow would live!

  His brother careened around a curve, narrowly missing a tree.

  Kevanne frowned. “Has he ever driven before?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? We let him take the van!”

  Chameleon shrugged, unconcerned. “He’ll be okay. Trust me.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and drew her inside. “Let’s call the others and tell them Shadow is home.”

  * * * *

  Shadow screeched up to the curb outside the Inner Journey. No cars were parked on Main Street, and none traveled the roadway. According to the dash clock, it was only 10 a.m., so businesses had just opened. But not Inner Journey. Window and door blinds had been drawn, and she’d posted the CLOSED sign.

  He leaped out of the vehicle.

  The door was locked as expected, given the shuttered state of the store. He cupped his hands against the glass and peered through the gaps in the blinds. No lights were on. He rattled the door then gingerly rapped on the glass. “Mandy! Mandy! It’s me! Shadow! Mandy!” He yanked and rattled the door.

  He raked his hands through his hair in frustration and paced. He tilted his head to peer at the bedroom window above the shop. Kevanne had said Mandy had gone home, but had she? He looked around for something to throw at the window, but the sidewalk and street were clean.

  How could he have traveled so far, made such a miraculous discovery, and not be able to talk…to her.

  Herian. He was an idiot. He pulled out his phone and punched her number. His heart throbbed with every ring…and then sank as the call went to voice mail. He shook the door again—and then noticed the thin gap between the glass and the frame where the weather stripping had crumbled. It was enough—

  He eyed the vacant street. No one was out and around yet. He faced no danger anymore, but after living under the cloud of impending death, fear didn’t vanish because the risk did.

  Anything for his genmate…

  Expelling a breath, he envisioned the molecular bonds weakening, his form expanding, growing lighter. He imagined the tingle, the effervescence…

>   When bone, muscle, skin, and blood sublimated into vapor, he harnessed his concentration, narrowed the fog to a wisp, and flowed through the crack into the shop. Once inside, he beckoned his molecules closer and tighter and rematerialized in solid form.

  He bounded up the stairs.

  Her apartment door was locked. He rapped on the wood. “Mandy! Open up! It’s Shadow!”

  No answer. Once again, he sublimated, this time slipping under the door and solidifying inside her apartment.

  “Mandy? It’s Shadow!” He peered into the main room. Vacant.

  He opened the closed bedroom door.

  A lump under the covers, Mandy sprang upright. “Shadow? Oh goddess! H-how, w-why are you still here?”

  He went weak at the knees, relief and joy spiraling through him, propelling him to the bed. Though the room was dark because of the drawn blinds, he could see the ravages of tears on her face, her eyes swollen to slits. His heart contracted at the pain he’d caused her.

  “I came back for you. I’m here to stay,” he said. As she launched herself into his arms, two halves clicked together, comprising a whole.

  But she started to cry. “You can’t. You’ll die.”

  “No. No. I won’t.” He stroked her hair and kissed her, tasting salty tears. “Not for a long time, anyway. You’re my genmate.”

  She jerked. “How? How is that possible?”

  Still holding her, he leaned them both over and switched on the bedside light, the better to see her, the better to explain. “You were my match all along. My mating glands activated when we met, but they didn’t swell, so I didn’t realize it. You are my match.”

  “But you sublimated…”

  He shook his head. “After meeting you, I experienced only one partial episode. The bonding between us had already begun.” And then they had mated, and his future had been clinched.

  “So…so…everything is…all right?” A smile of hope trembled on her lips.

  “Everything is perfect. Exactly as it should be.”

  “Oh, Shadow! I love you so much.”

  “I love you.” He kissed her, and they fell upon the mattress in a tangle of arms, legs, clothing, and bed covers.

  She tugged at his shirt, and he pulled it off. She removed the sweater she wore, and they flung off the rest of their clothes, kicked away the blankets, and came together with nothing between them. No clothing, no time bomb, no worries.

  He kissed every feature of her face: her temples, her swollen eyelids, her red nose, her cheeks, her ears, her sweet lips, reacquainting himself with the only woman he ever wanted. He had to have been an idiot not to realize chemistry as strong as theirs could only happen to genmates.

  Their lips clung, and tongues explored in rediscovery then he pressed his mouth to the throbbing pulse in her neck, feeling her heart beat for him. Gratitude and love swelled. To know she would be his forever was the sweetest rapture he could imagine.

  With hands and lips, he left no part of her unloved. He kissed and suckled her breasts, brushed his face against her soft tummy, kissed her thighs, and elicited soft moans from her throat when he caressed her pussy and fluttered his tongue over her clit.

  She gripped him lovingly, avidly, smoothing her palms over his chest and abdomen then pushing him onto his back with an encouraging nudge before taking his cock in her mouth.

  Time belonged to them now, and they drew out every rapturous second, bringing each other to the brink then retreating and beginning anew. When they joined, they rocked together in passionate harmony.

  When she cried out in orgasm, her pussy contracting around his cock, his desire spiked, and his body responded. Mandy, Mandy, Mandy. Her name became a mantra as he surrendered to sensation and came in a starburst of rapture and joy, discovering the deep satisfaction of losing control.

  * * * *

  Mandy pillowed her head on Shadow’s shoulder. Her breasts pressed against his side, her arm rested on his chest, and she tucked her leg between his thighs, marveling, reveling in his solidness, a state no longer in jeopardy. She would never tire of touching him. I can’t believe he’s here. Can’t believe this is happening. “I love you so much,” she said.

  He stroked her hair and kissed her head. “I love you, genmate.”

  “I love hearing that.”

  “I love saying that.”

  Raw, fresh memories could not be forgotten. “I’m never letting you go again,” she said. “I should have gone with you aboard the spacecraft! Wherever you go from now on, I go.”

  “That is the way it will be.”

  He assumed she spoke metaphorically, and she’d never been the clinging type, but she had every intention of sticking to him like a limpet on a rock, a barnacle on a whale, white on rice.

  He’d boarded the ship and disappeared, and it had felt like her life had ended. She’d cried her eyes out. Curled up in a ball of despair, she’d thought she was hallucinating when she heard his voice call her name.

  She squeezed him in a hug. “How did you get in? I’d locked all the doors.” Misery had demanded solitude.

  “I sublimated and slipped in through the cracks.”

  She gasped and raised her head to peer at him. “Is that safe?”

  “It is now, though I admit I was a little nervous. But it was a piece of cake, as you humans would say.”

  She raised onto her elbow, so she could better look at him, but scooted closer, hugging with her leg and arm, maintaining the contact. She still needed physical reassurance he wouldn’t evaporate. “What changed? How do you know I’m your genmate? Why didn’t you realize it before?”

  He caressed her cheek and brushed her hair away from her face. She had to be a mess, her hair snarled, her eyes red and swollen from weeping, but from his adoring expression, she wouldn’t know it. “I was attracted to you immediately,” he said. “We had a strong connection from the start.”

  “Yes.” The chemistry had been undeniable.

  “I told you before when a ’Topian meets his match, the glands in his neck swell. That’s irrefutable confirmation.”

  “Yeah.” She’d seen it with her own eyes, too. Inferno had looked like he had the mumps after meeting Geneva.

  “My glands did begin to swell when I met you, but the antioxidants of your tea stopped the swelling.”

  She dropped her jaw in horror. “You leaving was because of the tea?” She’d never forgive herself. He’d suffered under the specter of imminent death because of her! Who else had she harmed? “I did this to us? I poisoned you?”

  “Hey, hey.” He cupped her cheek. “You can’t blame yourself. You had no way of knowing the effect it would have on a Vaporian. Bob says your tea does have beneficial properties—for everyone except Vaporians. Lowering inflammation is a good thing—unless you want your mating glands to swell. What can be efficacious or harmless to one species can have a negative effect on another. But it didn’t harm me—it just suppressed the inflammation.”

  That made her feel a little better. Then she drew her brows together. “Who’s Bob?”

  “The artificial intelligence on the Star Crossed. I intended to come back to you, to spend whatever little time I had left with you—”

  “You were going to come anyway, believing you would die?” A lump formed in her throat.

  “A day lived with you is better than a lifetime without you. However, when I announced I wished to return, Bob informed me I wouldn’t die because I had met my genmate. I got a full med scan when I boarded, and he relayed to me that the combined effects of lemon balm, turmeric, and licorice root had kept my mating glands from swelling, but the bonding had occurred.”

  He twisted his mouth. “If I had listened to what he tried to tell me upon boarding, I could have saved a trip and been here two days sooner.”

  “Whoa, wait a minute—” Rob. Listen. “Rob and Bob are nicknames for Robert! He must be the Rob you were supposed to listen to. The universe did send me a message.”

  However, a little more
clarity might have enabled them to avoid the angst and heartache. However, the near-loss had ensured she would never take him for granted. She closed her eyes and sent a prayer of gratitude to the universe then crawled on top of him and kissed him.

  Then she cocked her head as a comment he’d said struck her as odd. “How could you have been here two days sooner?”

  “Well, two days for me. I was on the ship for more than two days—one day leaving, one day coming back. In going through jump space, the ship got tossed back in time by a bit.”

  She widened her eyes. “You mean, you time traveled?”

  He nodded. “I panicked, not knowing if I’d gone forward or back and how far. Even Bob couldn’t predict what year I’d get here. I didn’t know if you’d still be here. As it turned out, I landed two hours after takeoff.”

  Unbelievable, but not as amazing as their personal journey. “So many pieces had to fall in place for us to be together—if the flits on Flutter hadn’t tried to cancel me, I wouldn’t have moved to Argent. If the storefront hadn’t been available, I wouldn’t have opened the shop. If I hadn’t contacted Kevanne about stocking her lavender products, if she hadn’t sent you and Inferno to deliver them, we wouldn’t have met.” It was almost like the universe had a plan—until her damn tea nearly ruined their lives. She was seriously going to consider selling coffee.

  “I admit, when the involuntary sublimation episodes worsened, I lost hope, and that colored my attitude and impressions. I shouldn’t have lost faith because there is nothing stronger than the genmate bond. Genmates always will seek and find each other. It is meant to be. The Xenos tried to curse us, but they bestowed us with a great gift.” His eyes glowed. “The chance for an unbreakable, perfect love.”

  Once she’d believed perfection was too good to be true, but, goddess knew, getting to this point had been decidedly imperfect. She cuddled up against him. “Always and forever.”

  * * * *

  Thank you for reading Shadow: Alien Castaways 4. As you probably have guessed, Inferno and Geneva’s story will be next! Inferno (book 5) and Tigre (book 6) will be released in the summer 2021. To get notified when they’re available, sign up to receive my newsletter. You’ll receive a free copy of KRASH: Dakonian Alien Mail Order Brides (Plus some other free books in your first newsletter!). Keep scrolling for the signup link.