by Sue Mercury
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. If she didn’t accept him though, he’d have no choice but to return to his home world or go mad with a fever from which he’d never recover.
The Madness it was called, the name of the illness that afflicted those on Reestria who didn’t claim a mate in time. Somehow, he had to convince Kira to accept him, all seven feet plus of him, or he’d have to return to Reestria and claim a female who would never hold his heart. His kind mated for life, and if he had to claim another female, he would be bound to the woman for the rest of his days. Though his mentor said bonding with another female would erase his feelings for Kira, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing all the affection he harbored for her, couldn’t bear the thought of falling out of love with his sweet Kira.
Shaking away all thoughts of returning to Reestria, he stood with Kira ensconced in his arms, soaking up the feel of her and inhaling her enticing scent. He carried her to the living room where the embers of a fire were dying. After laying her on the couch and placing a blanket on her, he stoked the fire until a blaze once again flared in the hearth. He sat in a chair near the couch and stared at Kira, silently urging her to awake.
They had much to talk about, and he hated that she was so afraid of him.
Didn’t she realize he was still the same Alex? Didn’t she know he’d rather die than harm a hair on her luscious body? The urge to keep her close and protect her always wrapped around his heart with fierce determination. He would gladly give his life for hers, should such a scenario ever arise.
Glancing down at his body, he grimaced at his bulging muscles. No wonder she had fainted. He looked like a freakishly tall wrestler jacked up on steroids. Suddenly he felt self-conscious over his appearance. What if she didn’t find him attractive? Even worse, what if she found him repulsive?
His miserable musings were interrupted by Kira stirring on the couch. She rubbed her face and sighed softly, then started sitting up as her eyes fluttered open.
Their gazes locked and she gave a small gasp. She clutched the blanket up to her neck and froze.
“I won’t hurt you, sweet Kira. Please don’t be afraid.” Though he longed to sit next to her and stroke her hair, longed to press her head to his chest and hold her, he kept his distance and remained seated in the chair.
“Are you really Alex?” Tears shimmered in her eyes.
“Yes, babygirl. It’s really me.”
“What happened to you? You’re so… big.”
He regarded her, wondering how she would take the truth.
The truth sounded fucking crazy. What if she didn’t believe him? What if she threw him out? He took a deep breath and braced for her reaction.
“I was abducted in Afghanistan, but not by terrorists. I was taken by some beings not of this world, some beings I would later learn were my people. As outlandish as this may sound, Kira, I am not human.”
She stayed in place on the couch for minutes, staring at him with wide eyes, hardly blinking. He sensed her fear deepening, and she looked utterly lost and confused. Finally, she spoke. “Not human? As in… alien? You’re an alien?”
“Yes. I was born on a planet called Reestria. Earth and Reestria have a secret alliance, and every year human babies are swapped for Reestrian babies, as part of an ongoing experiment to test the development of our two species on the different planets. Our stepfather truly believed I was his son, though his real son has spent his life on Reestria believing he was Reestrian, at least for the first two decades.”
“Okay, I have got to be dreaming,” she said, shaking her head. “First the five hundred grand, and now aliens? Yep, definitely dreaming.” She slumped back against the pillow he’d placed under her head and gazed into the crackling fire. The flames flickered streams of yellow light across her face, highlighting her gorgeous silken golden hair.
“My family on Reestria is very wealthy, Kira. I wanted to make sure you were taken care of, and when I learned you were about to lose the cabin, I had to act quickly.”
She jolted up and the blanket slipped from her body, falling to the floor in a puddle of fabric at her feet. “You? You paid off all of my debts?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“You’re my baby sister, Kira. I’d do anything for you.” Except she wasn’t really his sister, and the things he wanted to do to her were anything but brotherly. “Look, even if you don’t accept the proposal I’m about to make you, I want to be sure you’ll be okay on Earth.”
“You make it sound like you’re leaving soon.” She straightened. “Although I’m still not sure I’m not dreaming. I was just thinking about you, actually.” She flushed. “Well, I think about you a lot. God, Alex, this better not be a fucking dream because I’ve missed you so much.” Her voice broke over the last few words.
Hope bloomed as he watched her wipe a few tears away. She’d missed him. She’d thought about him often.
“Can I sit beside you, Kira? Can I touch you?”
She hesitated to answer, but finally inhaled a shaky breath and met his gaze. Disbelief shone in her eyes, but he also noted a spark of hope, and he sensed her fear starting to fade. Though his coming back from the dead only to claim he was alien seemed improbable, she wanted to believe his story. He took comfort in that fact and hoped once they spent more time together all of her fear would dissipate. The last thing he wanted was for her to fear him.
“All right,” she finally answered. “You can sit next to me, and… touch me.” A pretty blush spread across her face, and she glanced away from him, as if embarrassed by her body’s reaction to him.
But he knew. He detected the faintest scent of her arousal and noticed her squirming a bit and clamping her thighs together. A human male wouldn’t notice such a subtle reaction, but as a Reestrian he possessed sharper scenes than the species he’d grown up believing he was. A few years on his home planet had honed his body and mind into the creature he was meant to be.
Ever so slowly, he stood from the chair and walked to the couch. He sank down next to Kira, so near their thighs touched. The warmth of her body beckoned him to come closer, and so he did. He wrapped an arm around her and tangled his fingers gently through her golden locks. Her hair was as soft as he remembered.
“If you’re really an alien, Alex, why did you come back to Earth?” She peered at him, her expression one of sorrow.
“Don’t worry, babygirl. I won’t leave you. Not unless you want me to. Please don’t look so sad.”
She drew back a bit. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Read my mind. Please tell me your species isn’t telepathic, because that would be just my luck.”
He chuckled. “My sweet Kira, I can’t read your mind. But I can read your facial expressions. I know you better than anyone I think.” He wasn’t about to tell her that her unique scent was burned into his memory for all time, or that he knew she desired him in this moment despite her apprehension.
“So why then? Why did you come back to Earth? Better yet, tell me about this alliance Earth has with your planet. Why all the baby switching?”
“I’ll explain everything, babygirl, but let me hold you first. God, all I’ve wanted to do for the last six years is hold you in my arms and tell you how I really feel about you. My sweet, sweet Kira.” He gathered her closer until her head was nestled directly over his heart, right where she belonged.
“I’ve gone crazy,” she whispered into his chest. “All this stress about finding a job and saving the cabin and I’ve finally gone off the deep end. But this feels too good, I don’t want this hallucination to end. Not ever.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight.
He frowned. When she finally realized this wasn’t a dream or a hallucination, would she still want him? He had so much to tell her and very little time. The Madness would claim him if he didn’t mate soon, but he sure as hell didn’t want to return to Reestria without Kira as his wife. As his mate.
Chapter Two
All her life, Kira had felt her relationship with her stepbrother to be strange. Well, strange compared to her friends’ relationships with their brothers and stepbrothers. They had rarely argued, and when they had argued it had been because she was risking her safety—his words—by doing things like driving too fast, staying out too late, or forgetting to take her cell phone with her when she left the house. Strangest of all, the two times she’d gone on a date with the new boy in town, Alex had behaved quite irrationally, even going so far as to pull her out of the boy’s car when they started making out at the drive-in movie. If she hadn’t known better back then, she would’ve thought him to be jealous.
Sad memories resurfaced. He should’ve been here when their parents died. She stiffened in his arms, wondering if he knew about the accident. “Mom and Dad are gone,” she said. Even though her stepfather wasn’t her real dad, she’d always called him Dad. He had been more of a father to her than the sperm donor her mother had briefly dated anyway.
Alex continued stroking her hair, and his closeness sent tingles down her spine. “I know, babygirl. I know, and I’m sorry I wasn’t here when it happened. I received word of it on Reestria but I was in the middle of an important growth cycle and leaving the planet could’ve killed me. Well, actually I tried to leave, but my brothers stopped me. Locked me up for a few weeks until I calmed down. I would have given anything to be here after they died, Kira. Please believe me.”
This wasn’t real. This wasn’t happening. Alex had been missing for six years. It was ridiculous to think he’d show up after such a long absence with such a fantastic story to explain away his missing years, and Geez Louis was he huge.
Yep. It was official. She was crazy with a capital freaking C. She wondered if they made meds strong enough to combat whatever illness she had.
She blinked back tears. God, how she wanted this to be real. Though she didn’t want to wake up, she knew she should. It would be easier to move on and get the cabin ready for sale if she wasn’t going through such heartbreak. If she didn’t think about Alex for a few days and forced herself to keep busy, she could prepare to leave for Florida and stay with her friend.
But man oh man did Dream Alex smell nice. His masculine, spicy scent both tickled and enticed her senses. He’d always been tall and muscular and strong, but right now in his arms she felt like nothing in the world could harm her. Nothing but the alarm clock. She sighed into his chest, overcome with sadness even as she enjoyed her dream world.
“I can tell you’re tired, Kira. Stress will do that to you. But you don’t have to be stressed out about anything now. Not the creditors, not the cabin, not a job. Everything is going to be all right. I promise.”
“So tell me about Reestria. Tell me about your home world and why you’ve come back.” Might as well linger in her dream as long as possible, even if waking up would cause her heart to shatter into an infinite number of pieces.
He inhaled deeply and kept petting her hair, and she gradually felt herself calming. Her heart ceased racing a mile a minute, and most of her fear left her. After all, why be afraid of a dream? If he tried to hurt her, she would wake up anyway, like she did every time she dreamt of falling down or running from the boogie man, which happened more nights than not.
“I’ll start with Afghanistan. I was on patrol with my squadron when gunfire erupted. We all ducked for cover behind a rock formation, but before I realized what was happening, I wasn’t on Earth anymore. I awoke in a strange room on a massive spaceship, and I could clearly see Earth from a large window in my room. At first I thought I was dreaming, but the beings on the ship, who were very humanlike but much bigger, told me a fantastic story. They told me Earth and Reestria, my home world, have an alliance and that while all of Reestria knows about Earth and humans, the general human population on Earth knows nothing about Reestria or Reestrians.”
“What kind of an alliance? And why the baby switching?” she asked, stirring in his arms.
“My home world was faced with a drought and a famine several decades ago, around the time we made contact with Earth. In exchange for food and seeds to experiment growing Earth foods on Reestria, we gave humans some of our technology. The designs for cell phones and modern computers came from us, to name a few things. Luckily many of the Earth foods we tried growing on Reestria managed to thrive, and since the drought ended we’ve installed a controlled weather system around our entire planet, ensuring the survival of our species.”
Kira sighed against his chest. “Okay, that all makes sense. So what about the switching of babies?”
“Reestrians and humans were shocked by how similar in appearance we are to one another. Our scientists found our genetic makeup to be almost identical, suggesting we have a similar ancestor, but there are a few obvious differences. We became curious about whether or not we could develop normally off our natural planets, so the swaps began in the sixties. Reestrians managed to develop marginally well on Earth, but we believe something in our environment on Reestria influences our growth. Whatever it is makes the humans raised on Reestria quite large too, at least compared to Earth humans. Anyway, Earth-raised Reestrians are taken back to Reestria before our twenty-five birthdays, or before we get married to a human if that comes first, before our mating urge claims us so we can learn about our own kind and avoid any complications that might occur if we experienced our mating urge on Earth.”
Mating urge. Whatever he meant by that phrase, it sounded devastatingly primal, and Kira felt a delicious tingle spread through her body, and a flush swept over her face too. She took a deep breath. Alex had disappeared at the age of twenty. That meant if he hadn’t already experienced his mating urge, he probably would soon.
“Wh-what exactly happens when you get your ma-mating urge? Sounds like that’s one of the differences between humans and Reestrians.” Her mouth went dry. Was she really talking about mating with Alex? He didn’t really feel like Dream Alex anymore. This felt too real. Surely she couldn’t dream up the warmth that seemed to radiate from him or his masculine scent.
“Only the males on my planet are overcome with the mating urge. When it strikes, we have days, or in some cases only hours, to claim a mate. Once we mate with a female we are bonded as mates for life.”
Her heart sank and all her excitement over talk of mating fled. Alex was Reestrian. She was human. He might have mentioned something about a need to confess his feelings for her, but what did his feelings for her matter if they couldn’t be together because of their biological differences?
Wait for me, babygirl.
He hadn’t known he was Reestrian when he’d whispered that into her ear. She was too afraid to ask if humans and Reestrians were compatible species, so instead she asked, “Have you experienced your, um, mating urge yet?” Her heart sank even lower. He probably had a beautiful Reestrian woman awaiting his return.
“No, I have not, though I sense my mating urge will come upon me soon. That’s why I’m here, Kira.”
“I don’t understand. If you’re about to go all mating crazy, shouldn’t you be on Reestria?”
“I was advised to stay and seek out a mate on my home planet, but I couldn’t remain on Reestria. Not when the woman I want most in the universe is on Earth.”
She peered up at him as hope curled around her heart, warming her insides. “Oh?”
“It’s you I want, Kira. It’s always been you, babygirl.”
~ ~ *
“I don’t know what to say.” Kira appeared stunned and for a moment Alex worried she might pass out again.
Needing her closer, he lifted her onto his lap. His cock throbbed and enlarged beneath the softness of her bo
ttom. Her eyes widened, confirming that she felt his arousal. “Say you’ll accept me as your mate, babygirl. Say you’ll return to Reestria with me and be mine forever.”
“Leave Earth? You want me to leave Earth?”
Shit, she didn’t look happy. But there wasn’t another option. They could mate on Earth, but legally they couldn’t raise a family of half-Reestrian children on Earth. Yet. In a few months, after Earth governments announced the existence of Reestria, settlements would be erected for such families. But Alex and Kira didn’t have months. His mating urge was nearly upon him and he sensed she was fertile now. He swallowed hard and braced for her reaction.
“I can claim you as mine on Earth, Kira, but we must return to Reestria to have children. Until legal Reestrian-Human settlements are established on Earth, we must go to Reestria. Humans are likely to panic after the announcement of an alliance with aliens, and humans have a history of discriminating against those who are different from them. It wouldn’t be safe for us unless we were living within the protective walls of one such settlement.” After how hard she’d tried to save the cabin and even though he’d paid off her taxes and debt, they wouldn’t be able to live here anyway. He silently vowed to build her a house just like this one in the beautiful mountains of Reestria.
“Children? So now we’re having children?” She tried to escape his lap, but he surrounded her with his arms and held her tight. “Let me go, you big oaf!”
“Calm down, babygirl. You’re not going anywhere until we settle things between us. Listen to me, Kira. I have always felt this, this…” His words trailed off as he tried to put the strength of his feelings for Kira into words. Nothing eloquent came to mind, so he simply thought of how much he loved her. How much he’d always loved her, even though she’d been his stepsister. Even though she’d been jail bate when he’d gone off to Afghanistan. She was a woman now though, and God how he wanted her. “I care for you so much my heart aches when you’re not around. We grew up together, and I feel like I know you better than anyone else. I have sensed your feelings for me many times over the years, and I sense your desire for me now. We can find happiness together on my home planet. I believe it in my heart.”
