The New Guy (Office Aliens Book 2)

by V. C. Lancaster

  She called her family, and caught up with her friends, then made sure she had everything she needed to go back to work. She logged into her work emails, just to make sure there had been no crises while she was away. They would have called her directly if there had been anything terrible, but it looked like anything that had cropped up had been dealt with by the vacation staff. She knew from experience however that almost everyone would be returning to work on either the second or third of the month, so things would be hectic for the first week.

  Nevertheless, she was looking forward to it. She would be back to seeing Ro every day, although they would be co-workers again. She wouldn’t let them fall back to where they had been though. He had said they were in a relationship. She had – accidentally – told him she loved him. Maybe it wasn’t professional, but she was having her office romance.

  Chapter 19

  Ro didn’t come in on Maggie’s first day back. She was disappointed, and confused, but she tried not to be hurt. She thought he’d said he would be, but she must have misunderstood. He must have been speaking more generally when he said he would see her at work. Then she found out he had actually called in sick and that made her worried. Maybe he’d been hung over after all, or it had only hit him after she had left. If that was the case she couldn’t help but feel marginally responsible.

  She messaged him on his Gadgit, but he didn’t reply. She chewed her lip, thinking. It was possible he was sleeping it off, or even too sick to answer, or just watching TV. She messaged him again after work, and again to say goodnight, but when she hadn’t had a reply by the following day and he was still off sick, then she got really worried. She knew he was probably fine. He’d done this before after all. But she just needed more information to stop herself imagining the worst.

  So she approached Kez, seeking him out during lunch. As expected, he was in the staff canteen, at the end of a table eating by himself while he flicked through his Gadgit. He did a double-take when he spotted her coming over, swallowing but not giving any other indication that he wanted to speak to her.

  “Kez, hi,” she said, her voice a little too tight to be as casual as she wanted to be as she slipped into the seat opposite him.

  “Hello,” he replied, almost grumbled. He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, not trying to hide his hostility.

  “How are you?”

  “Fine.”

  Small talk completed, she got to the point. “How’s Ro? I hear he’s sick,” she said.

  Kez relaxed as she made her purpose clear. He rolled his eyes. “He’s fine,” he told her, putting a strange emphasis on the word, as if he had argued this already and was tired of doing so.

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  Kez chuckled as he started eating again, stabbing another forkful of a pink fluffy blossom. “Nothing’s wrong with him.”

  “Then why has he taken time off?”

  “He just can’t be in work right now,” he said enigmatically.

  Maggie stared at him, trying to see what he was keeping from her. He was grinning as if he enjoyed keeping secrets from her. He chewed slowly as if it was delicious.

  “Why not?” she pressed.

  He sighed. “It’s just his time, woman,” he said, now sounding as if her persistence was annoying him.

  She ignored his tone. “What don’t I know? You might as well just tell me.”

  “Why don’t you ask him?” Kez asked, as if he already knew the answer.

  “He’s not replying to me,” Maggie said, not liking the insecurity she felt. Obviously Kez knew. What was it that Ro was locking her out of? And why? Weren’t they dating? Hadn’t she told him she loved him?

  Kez gestured as if to say that was her answer, and continued eating.

  Maggie sighed, and tried a different tack. “Kez, please tell me,” she pleaded, leaning forward and reaching across the table. She didn’t touch him because she didn’t want to piss him off, and he had made it pretty clear that he was not her friend. “I don’t care what it is, even if it’s bad.”

  Kez snorted. “You don’t care? As far as you know, it could be anything. He could be in the arms of another female, or building bombs in his bathroom, or selling his organs on the black market.”

  Maggie was relieved to hear that Ro having an affair was as crazy as him harvesting his own body parts. “I still want to know.”

  Kez squinted at her, as if evaluating her. “I could lie to you. I could tell you he is having his claws filed and they hurt too much to type a message to you.”

  “You could, but please don’t.” All these explanations, and she hadn’t considered any of them. She had just worried about him, worried about him suffering, and wanted to help. His absence might not be any of her business in the end, but she thought it was. She wanted it to be. She thought it should be, if they were a couple.

  Kez sighed again, and this time Maggie thought she was getting through to him, even if he only told her to get her to leave him alone. He tidied up his tray and stood up with it, making her trot after him as he put it in the racks.

  “Are you going to tell me?” she asked.

  He spun to face her as the doors to the canteen swung closed behind them. Kez looked around, checking that they wouldn’t be overheard. Then he bent down to look her in the eye.

  “He – is – in – heat.” he said, almost whispering it, drawing the word heat out as if he expected it to burn her. His eyes flicked between hers as he carefully judged her reaction.

  She floundered. “Heat?” she repeated to buy time.

  He nodded.

  “What does that- Um, does that mean what I… think it means?”

  “It means he wants to fuck, woman,” Kez spelled out for her, clearly still trying to scare her away.

  “Well, I- I mean, why does he have to take time off work for that?” And why was he keeping away from her, if that was what he wanted?

  Kez gave a harsh grunt of a laugh. “If you have to ask that, then you don’t understand,” he said.

  “That’s why I’m asking you!” she insisted, getting annoyed now that he continued to judge her on what she didn’t know.

  “If Ro came to work, he would want to fuck every female in the building, and fight every male. And the Balin at least would do it. The females would reject him, and the males would have to defend themselves. Not exactly how DETI wants to conduct its business. And he is… indecent.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Kez held up his hand and slowly unbent one finger until it was pointing straight, not exactly raising his eyebrow because he didn’t have any, but copying the expression very well.

  “Oh!” Now Maggie was blushing, and she suddenly couldn’t look Kez in the eye. “So he can’t, um… he can’t control that? Right now?”

  Kez laughed. “No, woman. And believe me, it is as uncomfortable as it sounds.”

  “Why would the Balin females reject him?”

  Kez scoffed and turned away, a signal she had pushed too far. “Oh, he really would be angry if I told you that.”

  Maggie followed him, not letting him go. “But can’t I see him?”

  “Not unless you’re prepared to fuck for three days straight,” Kez said matter-of-factly.

  “Well it would only be two days now, wouldn’t it?” she pointed out, bringing Kez to a sudden stop as he considered her, a shocked expression on his face.

  He laughed. “You are quite maffi, aren’t you, woman?” he said, looking her up and down.

  “I don’t know what that means,” she huffed, trying to keep her dignity as his look told her she may have just thrown it away.

  “It is a word for someone who, once you get them, turns out to be…” He circled his hand in the air, looking for the word. “Wild, in mating.” He grinned as he looked at her.

  Maggie tried to look imperious and refined. “I don’t think that really applies to me,” she objected, fiddling with her cuffs.

  Kez bent to look at her again, forcing
her to meet his eye. “If you want to mate a Balin, you would have to be, if you are human. You humans can barely mate for an hour, and then it makes you tired. We have all seen your videos. Always panting. Is that why you do it in bed?” Kez didn’t wait for a response, just shook his head in disappointment and started walking again.

  “So he’s alone? For his, his heat?” Maggie said, refusing to let Kez outpace her, and trying not to be distracted by the image he was painting of Ro.

  “Yes,” he sighed, sounding annoyed. “He is locked safely away in his apartment.”

  Maggie was relieved. “Is he okay? I mean, does it… hurt? Is he suffering?”

  “It doesn’t hurt, but you could certainly call it suffering. It’s why we find each other. No one wants to be alone in heat,” Kez explained, and there was a hollowness to his voice, an echo, that suggested to her that he was speaking from experience.

  “But he is.”

  “He is.”

  “…Because of me?” Maggie guessed.

  Kez turned to her and shrugged. The fact that he didn’t call her conceited made her think she was at least partly right.

  She didn’t like that thought, that Ro was confined to his dark flat for three days of solitude, suffering because of her. The thought of him with someone else was worse. And more than that, there was something in her that pulled her to him, to the thought of going to him and getting exactly what Kez described, Ro wrapping his arms around her for endless wild fucking. She wanted him, she knew that. She would have tried to initiate something on New Year’s Eve if they hadn’t been so drunk. She wanted to see him undressed, she wanted to feel his hands on her. She wanted to do more than just kiss.

  “Kez… Do you think you could take me to see him?” she said.

  “He does not want to see you, woman. If he did, he would invite you himself.”

  That hurt. “But I just want to check on him, make sure he’s okay.”

  “I told you, he’s fine. This is not his first heat, he knows what to do.”

  “Please.”

  “He does not want you checking on him. Can you imagine? It is hard enough to withstand it alone, but to ignore the female he wants when she’s in front of him will be impossible. Trust me, it would be worse for him if you go, and he didn’t want you to know about this at all.”

  “But what if I- I mean, it would only make him feel worse if we didn’t… Couldn’t I make him feel better? Instead?” she said quietly. “I just want to help.”

  Kez stopped and looked at her, judging her, while she blushed and fidgeted. “Maggie, I know he believes you are ‘in a relationship’, but I do not trust you. I think he is being foolish in denying himself like this to be ‘faithful’ to you.” Maggie could hear the scornful, sceptical quotation marks as he spoke. “I don’t believe you know what it means to be with one of us. He is trying to change his own nature for you and I think in the end you will leave him anyway.”

  Maggie scowled. She didn’t think she deserved this. It was only because Kez evidently thought he was sticking up for Ro that she kept quiet.

  “Because of this, I will only take you to him so you can ease him, and convince him to stop being such an idiot. Not so that you can check on him as if he is your child, not so that you can talk to him or feed him or satisfy your curiosity about what we look like when we are needing. For some reason, you are the only female he will accept, and you are the only one who will accept him, so in that I am forced to admit that you are both perfect idiots for each other. But make no mistake, if I help you, it is so you can help him, not torment him.”

  Maggie put her hands on her hips. “First of all,” she began. “What he and I do together is none of your business. Maybe I know him a bit better than you - or maybe you know him better than me, I don’t know - but I have more faith in him than you evidently do. He’s not just going to fall on me like an animal. He wouldn’t do that to me. We are going to talk. I am going to make sure he’s okay. If he needs more than that, well that’s between us. Whether we sleep together or not is not your decision, Kez. I asked you for your insight, but I can do this without you. I know where he lives.”

  “He won’t let you in,” Kez sneered. “He’s afraid of hurting you. You need me to get you into the building.”

  Maggie faltered. He sounded so sure. “And are you going to?” she demanded.

  “Meet me after work if you still want to, but think about what I’ve said,” he told her before nodding dismissively and striding away.

  “See you then!” Maggie yelled after him, feeling petulant and stubborn. She wasn’t going to back down now. She wasn’t going to accept that Kez was somehow Ro’s keeper. She and Ro were a couple, that had to count for something. She wouldn’t be kept out like this. It would be different if Ro had asked her to give him space during this time, but she wouldn’t let Kez dictate to her whether she could or couldn’t see her boyfriend.

  As she turned to go back to the office, she did worry her lip anxiously. Kez had sounded convinced that Ro wasn’t himself, that if she went to him she would somehow regret it, but that just didn’t sound like the man she knew. Ro would give her a choice, she knew that, and he wouldn’t hold it against her if she said no. He would understand, and if it turned out that she had done more harm than good in going to see him, she would apologise and make it up to him. But she wouldn’t be scared away. Nothing about Ro scared her.

  Instead, she wanted him to let her deeper into his world. She wanted to know everything about him, see every side of him. She wanted to see him in heat, she couldn’t deny it, but it wasn’t as Kez had accused her, that she was just curious. Ro wasn’t a freakshow to her. She thought he was hot. She found him handsome, and charming, and downright sexy when he kissed her or whispered in her ear about her colours. If Ro wanted her, she wanted him. The thought of spending two days in his bed didn’t scare her at all. If anything it was even more of an incentive to go and see him. And it was even a Friday.

  She sat down at her desk, tugging her skirt straight and crossing her ankles. She couldn’t think about it too closely or she wouldn’t be able to work. She checked her Gadgit one more time; still nothing from Ro. She settled down to work. He should really know better than to think she would let him ignore her with no consequences. Not if he wanted to keep kissing her anyway.

  Chapter 20

  Maggie met Kez after work as she’d determined to do, and he seemed to read the stubborn look on her face and give up, escorting her to the dorms without argument. He pressed the buzzer for Ro’s apartment. Evidently, Kez lived in a different building as he didn’t have keys for this one.

  “I hope you’re sure,” was all he said.

  “I am,” she replied.

  They waited for Ro to respond, but there was nothing. Kez held the buzzer down, and several long moments later Ro’s voice answered, cursing a streak in Balin, though Maggie only understood the few words he had taught her.

  “It’s me, I have brought supplies,” Kez said in Balin, or that was what Maggie thought he’d said. Kez spoke quickly and not as neatly as Ro.

  “I don’t need anything, you should know better,” Ro replied. Maggie was really struggling, only catching about sixty per cent of what they were saying and only when they used simple words, guessing the rest.

  Kez argued further, and this time Maggie had no idea what he was saying, but she knew enough to keep quiet. Kez was lying about his reason for coming, so she stayed out of sight of the camera. It looked like Ro really wouldn’t want to see her, but she wouldn’t turn back until he told her that himself.

  Eventually, after some more back-and-forth between Kez and Ro where they were clearly arguing, Kez got frustrated and Ro gave up, unlocking the door remotely. Kez pulled it open and Maggie hurried inside after him before it closed. They took the elevator down. When the doors opened, Maggie realised she was getting used to the dark corridor, not that she could see anything. There was no way she was asking to hold Kez’s hand though.

/>   He surprised her by turning the white wall sconces on, then gesturing for her to follow him. As they progressed down the hall, Kez slowed outside one of the apartments, tilting his head at it.

  “Listen,” he said.

  She did, but all she could hear was a muffled bumping noise.

  “It is happening to all of us,” Kez said quietly. “This damn planet.”

  He resumed his pace and Maggie didn’t ask him what he meant. From the context, if he wanted her to listen to other Balin couples have sex, she wasn’t going to ask for an elaboration.

  They stopped outside Ro’s apartment and Kez knocked loudly. Straining her ears, she heard shuffling from inside, the click of Ro’s claws against the floor. She braced herself for his reaction to seeing her. She wanted him to be pleased, but she knew she might have to do some quick explaining. They had deceived him after all. She also didn’t know what to expect when she saw him. Kez seemed to expect her to be horrified.

  But the door didn’t open.

  “Kez?” Ro called from inside, sounding suspicious, worried, angry. His voice was rougher than usual, with more gravel in it.

  “It’s me, fila,” he answered in Balin.

  “Who is with you?”

  Maggie and Kez both stiffened, glancing at each other. How did he know?

  “What kind of question is that?” Kez replied, forcing a laugh.

  “I can see light around the door,” Ro answered.

  Kez closed his eyes in realisation, stifling a groan. Maggie stepped forward to say something, but stopped when she heard what sounded like Ro sniffing at the door, faint scratches coming through the wood from his claws.

  “You said you wouldn’t tell her!” he yelled suddenly, his voice a growl.