by Sue Mercury
Step Alien
(Reestrian Mates, Book 1)
by Sue Mercury
Copyright 2015 by Sue Mercury
All rights reserved
No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Sue Mercury. All names, brands, characters, and settings, etc. are purely from the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real people, real brands, and real locations is a coincidence. Contact: [email protected]
About this book:
Kira is shocked when Alex shows up on her doorstep after he’s been missing for six years. She’s thankful her stepbrother is alive, but with his arrival her entire life changes in a matter of hours. Alex confesses he isn’t exactly human, he’s part of a royal alien family, and he’s spent his missing years on his home world completing his final growth cycles and learning about his people.
At over seven feet tall and with muscles like a gladiator, Prince Alex looks like a deadly weapon. But she soon realizes he’s still the same Alex she’s always secretly loved, and when he confesses his feelings for her it seems too good to be true. Then his royal highness drops the ultimate bombshell: his Reestrian mating urge is almost upon him and it’s her he aches to claim, but they must leave for Reestria soon.
Problems arise when the American president announces the existence of Alex’s species months before schedule, and in the mass panic all Reestrians must evacuate Earth until humans calm the freak down. Alex arrives on his home world with Kira, and it’s all he can do to keep from ripping her clothes off before they reach the privacy of his chambers. But then she goes missing. With the full force of his mating urge upon him, all will be lost if he doesn’t find Kira soon and claim the feisty little human as his.
Excerpt:
He inhaled several deep breaths and rushed up the steps. Tossing the bag down, he pressed the doorbell. It reverberated faintly through the house, and seconds later footfalls sounded on the stairs. Lights flickered on in the cabin, and he sensed her fear through the door, heard her startled breaths, and smelled the lavender shampoo she must’ve used this morning.
Desire pulsed through him, and his cock instantly went rock hard. Fuck, he hadn’t set eyes on her yet and already he was prepared to take her and make her his. Would she still be afraid once she opened the door and realized it was him? Or would his size frighten her further?
Gentle. He would have to be gentle with her. He cleared his throat. “Open the door, Kira. It’s me.”
“Alex?” she asked through a strangled sob. A moment later, the door was flung wide open and she stood there with a hand covering her mouth. Her whole body broke into a tremble and disbelief reflected in the depths of her brilliant blue eyes.
“Kira, babygirl.” Emotion strained his words and his throat burned. “It’s been so long.” He opened his arms, beckoning her to come to him. It took all his self-control not to lunge at her and pick her up, but he didn’t wish to scare her.
To his dismay, she didn’t hurl herself into his arms. Instead, she slowly backed away from the door as she looked him up and down. “You’re not Alex.” Her voice shook. “You can’t be. This isn’t… this isn’t real.”
“Babygirl, I swear it’s me. Don’t be scared.”
He stepped through the doorway, the urge to envelope her in his arms all-consuming, but the instant he was inside the cabin, all the blood drained from her face and she started slipping to the floor.
Fuck.
He caught her before she hit the ground, cursing under his breath. Their first meeting wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped. His appearance had caused her to faint out of fear. What the hell would he do now? The thought of leaving her and returning to Reestria to claim another mate pained his very soul. He was having a hard time separating his biological needs from the desires of his heart.
He didn’t have long. If his mentor on Reestria was correct, he only had days before the height of his mating urge descended upon him. While he could return to his home planet and mate with one of his own kind, he didn’t want it to come to that. Reestrian females were beautiful enough, but he only had eyes for one woman.
Kira. He wanted her and none other.
Chapter One
Kira rubbed her temples in an effort to soothe her growing tension headache. After a minute she dropped her hands, feeling hopelessly lost as she looked around the old log cabin. It was in the middle of nowhere and wasn’t in the best of shape, but it had been in her family for three generations, and she sure as hell didn’t want to lose it now. She scanned the documents spread on the table before her, not quite believing she was so behind in paying property taxes. Her accountant had already been over all her finances and had given her the bad news yesterday.
Her only option was to sell the cabin and the twenty acres of forest it sat on.
She wiped away a tear and stared out the window, gazing upon the endless sea of evergreen trees. Soon the entire mountain would be covered in snow and she would need to head for her town residence, lest she become snowed in all winter. The roads usually became impassable after the first snowfall, and the weather forecast for next weekend showed a strong storm approaching.
Beyond frustrated, she pushed the papers into a pile and relocated to the couch in front of the crackling fire. She held her hands out and absorbed the waves of heat, her mind spinning over all the possibilities.
She couldn’t borrow more money from the bank. Been there and tried that. Her pride wouldn’t allow her to ask any of the few friends she had for help either, and her mother and stepfather had been gone for five years now thanks to the drunk driver. Her real dad, the king of all deadbeats, didn’t have a dime to his name and she hadn’t heard from him in over ten years. Her stepbrother, Alex, had died in Afghanistan a couple of years ago.
No one else was left. She was the last of her family, aside from a few distant cousins she hardly knew. She supposed if she were smart, she would’ve sold the cabin ages ago and moved to a larger town where it was easier to find a job. How was she supposed to keep the cabin if she couldn’t pay the blasted taxes? Why hadn’t she gone to college instead of spending all her hard earned savings to start up a bakery that would tank with the economy two years later? Half the houses in town were boarded up. People were leaving Creekside in droves to search for jobs elsewhere.
Yet she’d stayed. She’d stayed because of the cabin and all the memories it contained.
Of course she’d trade the cabin and every last tree on the mountain to have her mother, stepfather, and Alex back. Her life had become dreadfully lonely. Her girlfriends constantly nagged her to join them for drinks and ‘man hunting’, but most of the time she turned down their invitations. No man in Creekside had ever really caught her interest anyway.
Well, if she were honest with herself, none of men from town could compare to Alex. Her older stepbrother had been kind, strong, funny, and hotter than a forest fire in July.
She sighed as the painful memories surrounding his disappearance resurfaced. His body had never been found, but after so many years gone he was presumed dead. Technically he was missing in action. The military didn’t have a clue. He disappeared shortly after gunfire broke out as he was patrolling a mountain pass with his squadron. She had waited for weeks with baited breath to see if a terrorist group would claim him as a hostage, but no news ever came.
Sometimes Kira dreamed of him, and sometimes she swore she saw his face in a crowd, only for him to disappear an instant later. He was so tall he always stood out.
He’d always been handsome with his jet black hair so neatly cropped and dark brown eyes that pierced right to her heart.
She’d almost confessed her feelings to him before he went off to war, but she’d chickened out at the last minute, instead giving him a tearful good-bye hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. He’d wrapped his arms around her in the airport and picked her up in his warm, strong embrace, making her giggle despite her sorrow. Then he had whispered something cryptic yet full of promise into her ear. “Wait for me, babygirl.” That was the last time she saw him. Almost six years to the day.
Wait for me, babygirl.
Had he secretly loved her too?
He’d been a few years older than her when their parents got married, and he’d started calling her by the same endearment her stepfather called her. Babygirl. She’d always beamed when Alex called her that, even when she was a bratty teenager pretending to hate it. Now she’d give anything to hear him call her babygirl again.
She ran a hand through her hair and cursed fate. What did it matter if he’d secretly loved her?
Three months after their good-bye in the airport, he would go missing, and a month after that her mother and stepfather would be hit by Bobby Winters, the town drunk, as they were walking home from lunch at McCabe’s Diner. A week after she graduated from high school. She’d had plans to attend college in California, but she’d been too depressed and knew she’d have a hard time paying her tuition for the following year anyway without her parents’ help. Instead of going off to college like most of her friends, she’d stayed behind and got a waitressing job, then after a few years opened Kira’s Kupcakes. At first business had boomed, but her good fortune hadn’t lasted for long, and now she had nothing but bills and unpaid loans to show for all her hard work.
Grief threatened to swallow Kira and she gave her head a harsh shake, hoping to dispel her miserable thoughts. Even though selling the cabin would break her heart, maybe it was for the best. Nothing else would tie her Creekside. Her parents had rented their house in town and shortly after their death the house next door had an electrical fire that spread, so it wasn’t like she even had that anymore. When she wasn’t at the cabin, she lived in small apartment above the barber shop, and she hardly felt sentimental about the place.
She sighed and wrapped her arms around her center, finally warm enough. Tomorrow she would call her accountant and a realtor. Tomorrow she would start the process of selling the cabin. Tomorrow she would open up a map and pick a random city in a random state as her next destination. Or maybe not. Maybe she would accept her friend, Angie’s, invitation to visit Florida for a while. Her childhood friend had offered her a free place to stay while she got back on her feet.
The sudden ringing of the phone startled Kira.
She sat still on the couch for a moment, wondering if she should just let it ring. What if the creditors had tracked her down to the cabin? What if it was her accountant again with more bad news?
She glanced toward the kitchen and finally got up, hurrying to answer after the sixth ring. “Hello?” She sat down at the table again, the dreaded tax papers taunting her.
“Kira, it’s me again,” came the nasally voice of her accountant, Steve, through the receiver. “You won’t believe this, but all your property taxes and loans have been paid off. You’re in the clear. Looks like you won’t need to sell the cabin after all.”
“Wh-what? All paid? Bu-but how? Who?” Kira stammered, confusion taking over. She didn’t know anyone with that kind of money. It had to be a mistake.
“Well, it was paid by an investment company based in New York, but the individual behind the payment wants to remain anonymous. Do you have some rich friends or family members I don’t know about?”
“I don’t have the slightest clue who it could be, Steve. Are you sure this isn’t some kind of error?”
“I’m sure. The company also cut a personal check to you for five hundred thousand dollars. Have it in my hands right now. One of their agents just left my office. Never had anything like this happen before.”
Kira’s mind started spinning a mile a minute as she tried to figure out how this could’ve happened. Her heart pounded. Five hundred thousand plus all her debt paid off? It was surreal. She felt like she’d hit the lotto without even buying a ticket. “Steve, I don’t know what to say. How did the firm know to go to you? Why didn’t they visit me?”
“No idea, Kira, but I tell you what, this here is enough money for you to start over. Go somewhere real nice and find a new job. Or take some time to relax for a bit. Not like you need to work anytime soon with this amount of cash. I think a change would do you good.”
She smiled into the phone. Steve was a friend of her stepfather’s and had tried his best to help her over the years. He managed her money, what little she had anyway, free of charge out of the goodness of his heart. “I think I’ll come into town tomorrow. I want to see that check with my own two eyes. Gotta make sure this phone call isn’t a dream.”
He chuckled. “Sleep well. I’ll see you tomorrow then. Stop by anytime.”
“See you tomorrow, Steve, and thanks.”
She ended the call but kept the phone clutched in her hand. What was going on? She had to be dreaming. A glance out the window above the sink showed the sun slipping over the horizon in a swirl of oranges and pinks. She pinched herself but didn’t wake up.
What kind of person gave away over five hundred thousand dollars anonymously? Only her closest friends knew about her money troubles, and as far as she knew not a single one of them had a rich uncle or a sugar daddy.
She locked the front and back doors, then double checked all the locks on the windows, a sense of paranoia sweeping over her despite her sudden good fortune. She wished all the downstairs windows had curtains, because she suddenly felt like she was being watched. The stairs creaked under her feet as she ran to her bedroom, where she locked the door and hoped it was just her imagination.
~ ~ *
Alex guided his truck up the mountain, taking the familiar drive as fast as possible, hugging the curves as he pressed the gas pedal to the floor. Six years. That’s how long he’d been gone from the mountain. He couldn’t wait to see the cabin again, but most of all, he couldn’t wait to hold his little stepsister in his arms.
Sweet, beautiful Kira, who had brought out his fierce protective side, and his tender side too. God, how he ached for her with everything inside him.
He crouched over the wheel, his large frame barely able to fit inside the truck. The top of his head pressed to the roof. He hoped Kira didn’t scream and try to run away when she first saw him. He’d been tall when he left for Afghanistan, but since then he’d spent over five years on his home planet, and he’d grown another seven, maybe eight inches. He stood over seven feet tall now, and he’d gotten wider too, more muscular, and stronger than a Reestrian bull.
Exposure to his home world had amplified his growth, but he’d stopped growing after his fifth full year on Reestria. Even when he traveled to the planet again, he wouldn’t get any bigger. That came as a relief, because he’d turned heads everywhere since he’d come back to Earth.
The automatic porch lights he’d installed forever ago flickered on and spilled white light across the gravel driveway as he pulled up to the cabin. He parked and cut the engine, then grabbed his bag from the truck bed. He stood at the bottom of the porch steps, his heart thumping faster with each second.
He swallowed hard and eyed Kira’s bedroom window. All the lights in the house were off, but a light glowed in the bedroom she used to spend the summers in. He had given up much to return to the mountain, to return to her. Doubt seized him and he paused with a foot on the first step. What if she rejected him? What if he had no choice but to go back to Reestria when the full force of his mating urge claimed him?
He inhaled several deep breaths and rushed up the steps. Tossing the bag down, he pressed the doorbell. It reverberated faintly through the house, and seconds later footfalls
sounded on the stairs. Lights flickered on in the cabin, and he sensed her fear through the door, heard her startled breaths, and smelled the lavender shampoo she must’ve used this morning.
Desire pulsed through him, and his cock instantly went rock hard. Fuck, he hadn’t set eyes on her yet and already he was prepared to take her and make her his. Would she still be afraid once she opened the door and realized it was him? Or would his size frighten her further?
Gentle. He would have to be gentle with her. He cleared his throat. “Open the door, Kira. It’s me.”
“Alex?” she asked through a strangled sob. A moment later, the door was flung wide open and she stood there with a hand covering her mouth. Her whole body broke into a tremble and disbelief reflected in the depths of her brilliant blue eyes.
“Kira, babygirl.” Emotion strained his words and his throat burned. “It’s been so long.” He opened his arms, beckoning her to come to him. It took all his self-control not to lunge at her and pick her up, but he didn’t wish to scare her.
To his dismay, she didn’t hurl herself into his arms. Instead, she slowly backed away from the door as she looked him up and down. “You’re not Alex.” Her voice shook. “You can’t be. This isn’t… this isn’t real.”
“Babygirl, I swear it’s me. Don’t be scared.”
He stepped through the doorway, the urge to envelope her in his arms all-consuming, but the instant he was inside the cabin, all the blood drained from her face and she started slipping to the floor.
Fuck.
He caught her before she hit the ground, cursing under his breath. Their first meeting wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped. His appearance had caused her to faint out of fear. What the hell would he do now? The thought of leaving her and returning to Reestria to claim another mate pained his very soul. He was having a hard time separating his biological needs from the desires of his heart.
