by Rachel Clark
“Hopefully he loves and trusts us enough to share it with us now.”
Varn jolted at that quiet rebuff, opening guilty eyes to the man who loved them both. Rick grinned like he’d known all along that their podmate was listening.
“I’ve always loved you,” Varn said to Rick as he let Noco take Chloe from his arms. “I…I’m sorry it took so long to trust you.”
Rick gathered him in his embrace, water sloshing everywhere as Varn scrambled to get closer.
“It’s okay, baby,” Rick said, running his hands over Varn’s naked body. “After what you went through, it’s understandable, but I want your assurance now that you won’t let past experiences taint what we have together.” Rick held Varn against his chest, his raw emotions very clear on his face. “You’re a very important part of this family pod, and we love you. Your heritage, your history, your actions in the past, none of them are relevant to this family. Okay?”
“Okay,” Varn said quietly as he snuggled deeper into Rick’s embrace.
Noco could see the deep relief etched into Varn’s face. It was clear that even though he’d been brave enough to share some of his past with them earlier that he’d still been hiding details from them. It seemed that Rick’s instincts to confront their podmate were exactly on the mark. Whatever Varn had done to survive his young life had nothing to do with the person he chose to be now, but it had been clearly weighing on him since he’d spoken about his dal-shera earlier.
“Come on,” Rick finally said as he released his grip on Varn and gently helped him to his feet. “As soon as Kyle and Chloe are up to traveling we’ll head back to the house.”
“I can help,” Varn said with a smile as he leaned over and woke Chloe with his unusual touch. Tiny little sparks of light flashed where he caressed her skin, and in moments she was wide awake and smiling brightly.
“That is way better than coffee,” Chloe said as she rolled over and pressed a kiss to Noco’s lips and then climbed out of the bath to embrace Varn. “A girl could get used to something like that.”
Varn smiled shyly, perhaps a little overwhelmed by Chloe’s enthusiastic response.
“We’ve decided that the bed is bigger at our house,” Rick said, grabbing a towel to wipe Chloe dry. “So we thought we’d stay there while we sort out what needs to be done before we can go home.”
“Okay,” Chloe said, obviously running through a mental list of things she would need to do also. “I’ll have to grab some clothes and stuff, but since I’m only planning to resign on Monday it shouldn’t take much.”
“And since we all prefer you naked, it should be even faster.”
Chloe laughed softly as she pressed her head to Rick’s chest, but she jolted away a moment later.
“It sounds like a percussion orchestra. Do you have more than one heart?”
“Of course,” Rick said. “I have four hearts. It takes a good blood flow to be able to coordinate shape-shifting abilities.”
She looked surprised. “I suppose that makes sense.” She laughed softly as if she couldn’t quite believe the rapid changes in her life, and then turned to face Varn and Noco. “What about you two? Do you have more than one heart as well?”
“We don’t,” Varn said as he helped Noco step out of the bath and dry off, “but Joal has two hearts.”
“Did someone say my name?” Joal asked as he stepped into the room, his arm around Kyle beside him. He grinned when Chloe gave them all a beautiful smile.
“I’m hoping that your bathroom is bigger than mine.”
“Way bigger,” Kyle said with a wink.
“Nowhere near the size you’ll find on our home planet,” Noco said as he grinned at all of his podmates crowded into a tiny little room. “But it’ll do for now.”
“So what are we waiting for? Go find your clothes,” she said as she grinned and pushed Rick from the room.
Chapter Seven
It took longer than they’d hoped to get everything organized, so Chloe ended up working out three weeks of her contract’s four weeks’ notice. It was clear that her men weren’t happy with her choice to spend time working rather than playing with them, but she got the feeling that she would be quickly overwhelmed if they always got their way. They had three long months of travel in confined quarters ahead of them. As much as she adored them all, it seemed prudent to enjoy at least a little bit of time by herself. And she did feel a responsibility to “tie up loose ends” of her own. It was kind of sad that the only loose ends requiring her time were all work related. She didn’t even have close friends she was going to miss. Kyle had been her only true friend for a very long time, and he was, thankfully, coming with them.
“Last day?” a colleague asked as they passed in the hallway. Chloe couldn’t even remember the woman’s name.
Chloe nodded and smiled, trying to hide her relief that she would leave here one last time and never come back. “Last few minutes actually.”
“Well in that case, I wish you luck in your future endeavors.”
Just like the rest of her workmates, the woman was gone almost before the words finished leaving her mouth. It was a very busy office, but most of her coworkers were complete strangers. They were only aware of her resignation because of the speculation on who would be promoted in her place. Chloe had never had a long enough personal conversation to know anything about any of them. She’d told Kyle and Rick that her workmates didn’t know her, but the truth was she didn’t know them either. She’d never bothered with social gatherings of her workmates, so she was pretty sure there would be no farewell party. It was probably strange that she’d never really considered how empty her life was until she’d been claimed by Rick and her new family pod.
The fact that she was leaving an office she’d worked in for years without feeling anything but relief said a lot about the aloof person she’d been.
“Ready to go?” Varn asked as she stepped into the reception area a few minutes later.
She smiled and nodded, not entirely certain she wasn’t still being shallow and selfish. Did she really deserve five wonderful husbands? Considering how little she’d apparently cared about her workmates outside of their work environment, she was seriously beginning to doubt it.
* * * *
Varn had noticed a car following him on his way to pick Chloe up from her last day at work. At first he’d written it off as a little bit of paranoia. They were so close to leaving this planet that it was almost natural that he would worry about stuff like that now.
Fortunately it had spooked him enough to call Rick and let him know. If he was being paranoid, he’d smile and apologize to his podmates for worrying them. Unfortunately the two men now leaning against his car suggested he wasn’t worrying over nothing this time.
He held tighter to Chloe’s hand and stopped her from stepping toward the glass doors. Chloe gave him a confused look, but didn’t question him. As they turned around to head back into the building, two more men stepped up to them.
“Immigration department,” the taller of the two said as his partner flashed some sort of badge. Varn had no way of knowing if they were legitimate or not. With the help of other Jernodrians and a couple of humans who didn’t remember a thing they’d set up their identities as US citizens, but he supposed that the immigration department might get involved if someone suspected their paperwork wasn’t legitimate.
“We have a few questions.”
“Of course,” Varn said, trying to stall for time. Hopefully Rick wasn’t far away. “How can we help?”
The two men looked around the area as if trying to come up with an excuse as to why answering questions here wouldn’t be a good idea. “Perhaps it would be better to discuss these things in private.”
“Just what is this all about?” Chloe asked, crossing her arms and staring the two men down. “We’re not leaving this building until you explain why the immigration department is harassing US citizens.”
The taller one grinned and leaned forward
, dropping all pretense of civility.
“You and I both know your ‘friend’ isn’t from anywhere around here.” He smirked when Chloe frowned at him. “In fact, we all know he isn’t even from this planet.”
Chloe, bless her, laughed in his face. “Seriously?” she asked loudly, glancing around the area. “Nice try, you guys. I knew you wouldn’t let me leave without a farewell party.” She gave the two men a mischievous smile. “I didn’t expect them to get me a couple of strippers, though.” She turned to Varn just as a huge German shepherd nosed its way through the heavy front door of the building. “You don’t mind do you, honey?”
“Of course not,” Varn said indulgently, very glad to have Rick here, even if Chloe didn’t recognize him in one of his shifted forms.
“Kate,” Chloe said rather loudly, turning to the receptionist now watching with interest. “Can you call everyone and let them know the party is about to start?”
Kate nodded enthusiastically and then used the PA system to notify the entire office. The two guys supposedly from immigration suddenly seemed a whole lot less sure of themselves.
“We have the authority to arrest you, if necessary,” the taller man said, trying to sound intimidating.
Chloe giggled like a silly schoolgirl. “Oh I do love how you’re staying in character. It makes the show that much more interesting. Where do you want me? Should I get a chair and sit in the middle of the room?”
Varn was almost laughing at the identical bewildered expressions both men now wore.
“I assure you, Miss Frost, that we are genuinely from the immigration department.”
“Really?” she asked, looking very surprised. “I was sure that ID badge looked fake.” She gave him a sweet smile. “But no problem. Mr. Peterson is here now so we can get this little misunderstanding sorted out. He’s the head of the department that handles immigration matters for our clients. He’ll be more than happy to verify your identities.” She signaled to an older man who’d just come into the reception area.
“That won’t be necessary,” the shorter man said quickly, very quickly. “We can do this another time when you’re not so…busy.”
“Sure,” Chloe said with a wide smile. She and Varn watched both men practically race out the door before they themselves were engulfed by more people entering the foyer. Someone had produced several bottles of sparkling wine and plastic cups so an impromptu party had already begun. It seemed that many of the people there didn’t even know who Chloe was, but apparently a Friday evening get-together wasn’t unusual.
And only a couple of people seemed to notice the huge dog follow the men into the street.
* * * *
Rick didn’t want to risk confirming to these men that they were indeed dealing with aliens, so he stayed in his German shepherd form and followed them at a distance. The two men who’d been leaning against Varn’s truck seemed startled that their friends had left the building without Chloe and Varn.
“We need to find a more secure location,” the taller man said as he approached the other two. “We can’t risk taking them in front of so many witnesses.”
“We’ll follow them back to their home,” one of the other men said. He seemed to be in charge. “Call in more agents. I didn’t want to risk trying to grab all six of them at once, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get a choice.”
The other three men nodded and turned toward their vehicles, thankfully alerting Rick to two other cars he hadn’t realized were part of their little group.
Careful to maintain the illusion of a normal, curious dog, Rick wandered around the parking lot as he used his telekinesis to disable the engines in all four vehicles. He found two other cars with men sitting inside. He wasn’t certain that they had anything to do with the four men currently planning to abduct his family, but he couldn’t risk leaving anything to chance, so he disabled those engines as well.
He was careful to only do damage that could be explained as being done by a human who’d managed to slide under the car. The last thing they needed was for these men to get confirmation of something unexplainable happening. He had no idea who they were, but he sure as hell knew they weren’t from immigration.
Satisfied that he’d at least slowed them down, Rick headed back to where he’d left his clothes—a small copse of trees out of view of security cameras—dragged them back on quickly and then started making phone calls. All four of his hearts were pounding with the Jernodrian equivalent of a human adrenaline rush.
But even as strength surged through him, fear for his family pounded in his brain.
* * * *
“We have a problem.”
“So do we,” Joal said into the cell phone. “The house has at least eight men surrounding it. Are Varn and Chloe with you?”
“Not quite,” Rick said. “They’re still at Chloe’s office party, so they’re safe for the moment. I can see them from the parking lot. The four obvious agents are sitting in their cars waiting to follow, but I count at least two others who also seem to be waiting.”
“Okay, stay put. We’re coming to you. We’ll go to the backup plan.”
“Of course,” Rick said, sounding a little bit insulted.
“Sorry, babe,” Joal said as emotion swelled through him. They’d been on this planet more than a full Earth year. They were so close to going home. Why the hell did they have to face this shit now? “We’ll sanitize the house and any belongings and then be there as soon as possible. I love you.”
“I love you, too. Stay safe,” Rick said.
He hung up the phone just as Noco and Kyle came into the room and Joal felt a surge of annoyance at the people threatening his podmates’ safety. Goddess, he hated this planet sometimes.
He walked over to the wall safe, dialed the correct unlock code, and then grabbed the two rodlike objects specifically designed for eliminating any of their DNA from the house. They’d known they would have to use them eventually—and they’d already cleaned Chloe and Kyle’s old apartment—but he hated that the house they’d lived in for over a year would now be done in a hurry. They couldn’t afford to leave evidence of their existence behind, but they also wanted to get to Chloe and Varn as quickly as possible. There was no guarantee the people watching their house were going to wait for the rest of their family to get home. If they came storming in right now they would have a really, really big problem on their hands.
He handed one of the rods to Noco, who nodded and turned toward the bedroom and bathrooms at the back of the house. Thankfully the rods were quite safe to use, so they didn’t have to worry about accidentally erasing the DNA on their own skin. At the worst, accidental exposure would feel similar to mild sunburn—annoying but not fatal.
“Kyle, stay here and monitor their movements. If they start heading toward the house, whistle.”
“Will do,” Kyle said with a happy smile. Joal was pretty certain Kyle understood the gravity of what they were facing, but his calm demeanor suggested he trusted his podmates to handle it. Somehow that made Joal’s confidence grow even as his fear of failure remained.
It took a good twenty minutes to get everything cleaned, making certain that the sanitizer’s beams reached every nook and cranny, every drain and carpet fiber.
“Will you be able to hold the illusion long enough for us to get through or should we plan to outrun them?” Noco asked as the three of them met by the front door.
“The illusion should hold,” he said confidently, trying to convince himself at the same time. With at least eight people watching them and goddess knew how many recording devices surrounding the building, he needed to make certain the illusion he created was visible and solid from all sides. It made things a hell of a lot harder.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on what he wanted the humans to see. Hopefully the illusion of the three of them going into the triple car garage and driving away in one of the cars would fool enough of them into following so that they’d be able to then do it for real.
Joal would also have to build a second illusion to hide their escape, but he wasn’t certain how well it would work. As yala-coldar he had the ability, but as a husband the fear that he might fail his family was nearly crippling.
“Breathe, babe,” Kyle said, coming closer to wrap his arms around Joal’s waist. He was a little bit embarrassed that the man had noticed his self-doubt, but could hardly be angry at him for the very reasons he’d fallen in love with the man. Kyle noticed everything about his mates, and despite being a dal-shera—supposedly the weakest member in a Jernodrian family pod in a physical sense—he was just as protective of his podmates as Joal and Rick were.
Noco grinned as the projection of the three of them walking out of the house and into the garage began. Joal tried to slow it down a little bit so that it didn’t seem like they knew they were being watched but breathed a sigh of relief when the illusions stepped into the garage area.
He took a deep breath, gathering his strength as he turned his attention to making it look like a car was leaving the garage and all three of them were in it. Thankfully, most of the men headed toward vehicles parked not far away, including a ninth man they hadn’t been aware of.
“Fucking hell,” Kyle whispered, “they must really want to talk to us.”
“My concern is what they would do after they’re finished talking,” Noco said as a shiver ran through him. Jernodrians might have a very similar outward appearance as humans, but a few easy medical tests would prove them to be otherwise—now even for Kyle and Chloe. There was no telling what would happen after that, but popular belief suggested it wouldn’t have a happy outcome.
For about the millionth time, Joal wished Rick was here. He’d always known that if he fucked up an illusion that Rick was there to freeze witnesses with his telekinesis and erase their memories with his touch. But he was also glad that Rick was with Varn and Chloe, even if it did mean he was working without a safety net.
