Haunted Alien Honeymoon: Stargazer Alien Reality Show Brides #3

by Black, Tasha

  “That’s outrageous,” Olivia said.

  “Your hair is also blond,” Wayne pointed out. “And my brothers and I are not from this planet.”

  “Why would you try to scare us?” Margot demanded. “What was that going to prove?”

  “All I had to do is get just one of these pretty boys to quit and run scared back to Iowa to live with his mama and the jig would have been up,” Lex said. “And your stupid show would have been canceled to boot, which would have been Tuckerton’s payback. It was a brilliant plan. And I would have gotten away with it too.”

  “Yeah, yeah, if it hadn’t been for us kids and our meddling monkey,” Olivia said, rolling her eyes. “Did you get all that, Parker?”

  Parker looked down at his body camera and gave her a thumbs up.

  “Get Tuckerton out here,” Ruby said. “That idiot tried to ruin my honeymoon.”

  “Tuckerton,” Lex said lazily.

  There was a thrashing in the trees behind them, followed by a thud.

  Parker strode over with an uncharacteristically grim expression. Tag might have been trying to get away, but Wayne trusted that Parker would secure him.

  “Are you going to walk with us, Lex, or does one of these guys have to carry you?” Olivia asked.

  Wayne moved toward him.

  Lex’s hands went up and he nearly dropped the remote.

  “No, no, I’ll go with you,” he said.

  “He’s telling the truth,” Margot murmured.

  So both his brothers’ mates shared their gifts.

  Wayne put a hand on Lex’s shoulder anyway, just in case he got any big ideas.

  Parker came through the trees with a firm grip on Tag Tuckerton’s collar.

  “I hope you all know that this was never my idea,” Tag said breezily. “I only wanted to help a beleaguered member of the crew. I have always had a soft spot for our brothers backstage.”

  “Can it, Tuckerton,” Lex spat.

  Ruby giggled and then the rest of the family smiled at one another.

  The worst was over.

  And they had proven they were one heck of a team.

  There was only one more thing that Wayne could not leave undone.

  31

  Olivia

  A week later, Olivia stood just outside the clearing overlooking the pool and the jungle at the resort.

  A gentle breeze rustled her gown.

  Everything had happened so fast.

  Lex and Tag had apologized to Amalia and her daughter for harming their family business.

  The two women had decided that they would not press charges if the two men would agree to work on the resort for the next month.

  Lex was already looking more peaceful after just a week of learning to harvest the fruit trees and clean the pool.

  Wayne had taken pity on him and demonstrated his gift, so that Lex would not have to worry that the aliens were fake. Seeing his wonder when Wayne asked the monkey to dance and the little creature complied was almost worth what they had been through.

  Tag was making a nuisance of himself in the kitchens, demanding imported spices and bemoaning the style of the flatware, but Olivia was convinced that in time he would learn to work with the ingredients at hand and be a real help to Amalia’s family.

  In the meantime, he had decided to repay his debt to the aliens and their mates another way.

  When Wayne had knelt at Olivia’s feet and held up a slender silver band to ask her to be his wife, Olivia had wept like a child.

  Being mates meant more than being married, but there was something about him honoring her own Earthly tradition that made her feel happy to her toes.

  Tag Tuckerton had insisted on planning the whole thing and the group had agreed.

  And now, as Olivia looked around the flower-draped hotel, thousands of fairy lights twinkling everywhere, she was glad.

  Juan Carlos began to play the wedding march on an acoustic guitar, and she stepped into the clearing to find Wayne waiting for her, wearing a suit and looking both imposing and emotional.

  She went to him, feeling the slight distance between them diminish as if they had been joined by a physical tether and even the smallest separation stretched it taut.

  The words of the ceremony went by in a blur and he pulled her in for a gentle kiss that turned passionate, much to the delight of their friends, who cheered and catcalled.

  She pulled back, feeling a little embarrassed, and Wayne released her lips, but kept an arm around her, so that she was pressed cozily to his side.

  “Before we eat,” Wayne called out. “We wanted to thank our hosts.”

  Amalia and her daughter, Maria, beamed at the newlyweds from their spot across the pool.

  “You have done so much for us,” Olivia said. “We are grateful that we could call this magical place our home, even for a short time.”

  Wayne looked down at her, his eyes twinkling.

  She nodded up at him.

  They had planned what would happen next, and she was ready. She only hoped that it worked. If it did, it would be the greatest wedding gift ever given. And they were giving it to Amalia.

  Olivia closed her eyes and called to the animals without speaking.

  Wayne was squeezing her close, doing the same.

  Between them, they hoped they might be strong enough to call to the whole jungle, to call to the original residents of this wonderful hilltop, without speaking out loud.

  “This place is yours again,” Olivia whispered. “The people here wish to live in peace with you. It’s time to come home.”

  She heard it before she opened her eyes again.

  The air was quick with the fluttering of wings.

  She opened her eyes to see beautiful birds in a rainbow of colors swirling in the air above, landing on the young trees around the resort.

  “Oh,” Wayne said.

  She followed his gaze to see a family of coatis peeking shyly out of the jungle at them.

  The croak of a frog broke the hush and the birds began to sing.

  “Mama,” Maria murmured, clutching her mother’s hand as Amalia blinked back tears.

  It was just like her dream.

  The animals were all coming, following each other, moving as one.

  But they weren’t running away.

  They were coming home.

  Just as she was coming home, every time he wrapped his arms around her.

  “This is very good,” Wayne whispered to Olivia. “It is the right way to begin our life together.”

  ***

  Thanks for reading Haunted Alien Honeymoon!

  Ready for some more hunky alien action? How about a space-pirate-in-training, a sexy, shapeshifting alien, and an adorable baby who just might be the priceless clone of a famous cultural iconKeep reading for a sample of another hot Stargazer Alien series: Tolstoy: Stargazer Alien Barbarian Brides.

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  Tolstoy (Sample)

  1

  Anna

  In a forgotten corner of the galaxy, far from the established trade routes, and even farther from where it was supposed to be, floated a long-forgotten ship, one among many.

  And at the center of that abandoned ship grew a forest.

  Anna Nilsson froze in place, wishing there were someone to share the unusual sight with her. But she was alone, the only sound the hiss of the air pump in her spacesuit.

  She stepped closer, mesmerized.

  After the endless burnished aluminum of the Stargazer, the lush greenery before her almost hurt to look at.

  Anna stood in a derelict luxury star cruiser the size of a shopping mall. She’d already made her way through winding corridors of threadbare rugs and corroded, flickering chandeliers, using her tagger to mark items of interest along the way. The passageways circled rings of rooms that extended along the sides of the ship as far as she could see. She almost felt as if she were in a Scooby Doo episode, or visiting
the sunken Titanic, until she opened the latest door.

  Maybe it was the lack of sleep since she’d found out she would be running her first salvage mission completely solo, or maybe the oxygen mix in her suit was a little high, but Anna couldn’t shake the feeling she’d stepped into a dream. She blinked to clear her head, but nothing changed.

  She stood before a huge wall of glass, or something like glass, anyway. Beyond the wall, trees - real, honest to god trees - stretched upward, their lumpy branches bristling with bright green leaves. They had to be hundreds of years old.

  As a child, Anna had visited the indoor rain forest exhibit at the Baltimore Aquarium on Earth. Clutching her big brother’s hand, she’d dashed up the wooden platforms, trying to catch a glimpse of the sloth or the toucan. The trees there had been spread out, the bustling city always looming just outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  What stood before her now was not an engineered approximation. It was a real forest, branches growing thick enough to block out the light source above. The surreal scene was made complete by a pair of ancient looking lamp posts glowing faintly at the edge of the tree line, their light barely penetrating a few steps into the wooded area.

  The ship was as good as dead, but the forest was very much alive. Tendrils of ivy burst through the crevices between the corroded metal panels that held the glass in place, refusing to bend to the will of the man-made structure.

  Hot tears sprung to her eyes and Anna had to lean over and rest her hands on her knees to steady herself in the wake of sudden emotion.

  She hadn’t seen a tree in six months.

  Well, technically it had been far, far longer. But she tried not to think about that part.

  Light from above filtered down into the woods, dappling the soil and stones beneath the trees.

  For a moment Anna was back at the cafe in Tarker’s Hollow, gazing out the window at the park as her mother scolded her to bus the lunch tables. She could smell the almond croissants baking, hear the mindless chatter of the patrons as they discussed whatever it was people with real lives discussed. It had been her entire existence, and now it was just… gone.

  A light breeze sent a shiver of motion through the leaves in front of her. It must have been manufactured weather, still operating on reserve energy. The movement highlighted what she hadn’t noticed before.

  The plant life had run riot, but there were no birds, no squirrels, not even insects on the forest floor. Besides Anna, the forest was the only living thing on the ship.

  She stepped closer, placed her gloved hand against the nearest pane in solidarity, and holstered her tagger. She couldn’t imagine needing it in here.

  A tremendous sycamore towered over her head just inside the glass.

  She gazed up into its branches. The light seemed to be brightening above.

  No. That wasn’t right.

  The tree was brightening.

  Before her eyes, the green leaves faded then burst into flaming orange.

  All around the sycamore the other trees erupted into a symphony of yellow, peach, pink and scarlet.

  Anna was watching summer turn to fall, as if someone had pressed a button on the remote that controlled the speed of the world.

  A tone sounded in her helmet.

  She looked down at her wrist.

  Her origami drone unfolded from its dock and then refolded itself into something resembling a bird, before fluttering up to her.

  “The atmosphere is breathable,” BFF19 sang out.

  Anna released her helmet and pulled it off.

  2

  Leo

  Leo watched from the shadows, his pulse racing.

  The whole ship had been sleeping.

  He had awoken hours ago, alone, with no memory of what happened.

  Now the ship was waking too.

  And he knew why.

  They had a guest.

  He crept closer, sticking to the shadows so as to avoid its notice, and watched as the strange creature placed an appendage against the glass wall of the forest.

  It was covered from head to toe in suit and helmet, but it was bipedal and it moved in much the same manner as the former residents of the ship.

  Something detached itself from the visitor’s wrist, folded itself into a bird-like shape and hovered near its head.

  A moment later, the creature unlatched its helmet and lifted it off.

  It was female.

  She shook out a curtain of flame colored hair, brighter than the blush of the changing trees in the forest between them.

  He had just enough time to take in her expression, tender, wondrous, maybe just a little lonely.

  Then something stirred in Leo’s chest and hot lust washed over him. His skin prickled, ready to change for her, to join her.

  It seemed impossible. But he knew it to his bones.

  This was the call of his blood mate.

  Stronger than the strongest will, more ancient than the stars, the grip of his blood mate held him in her thrall. He gasped for breath, his eyes trained on the hall that separated them, searching for the fastest way to get to her.

  Before he could decide, another zap of awareness electrified him.

  Darkness pulled at him this time, incinerating him from within with pulsing red anger. He struggled against it, but the world went scarlet behind his eyes and the Other took over.

  ***

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  Tasha Black lives in a big old Victorian in a tiny college town. She loves reading anything she can get her hands on, writing paranormal and sci fi romance, and sipping pumpkin spice lattes.

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  oon: Stargazer Alien Reality Show Brides #3